Hogsmeade was upon the school at last, and Lily and James had caught some of the first carriages after a big breakfast. During the ride, James had pulled out a slightly crumpled lily flower from his jacket and offered it to Lily.
"Thanks, but I don't really like lilies," Lily admitted. James threw the flower out of the carriage, completely unfazed. "I know," he said. "But friends make mistakes sometimes."

The rest of the ride was spent making small talk, with Lily telling James about Remus and Marlene, and how nervous he was. In return, James told Lily about Sirius forcing him into the broom cupboard. "He kept making jokes about me coming out of the closet," James grumbled, making Lily laugh loudly.

At Hogsmeade, as it was still quite early ("The early bird gets the worm," James had recited) they took their sweet time strolling about Hogsmeade. "There are some caves on the brink of the town, if you want to go see them," James suggested. Lily shook her head.
"Let's just window shop for now."

Together they ventured about the main streets of Hogsmeade, feeling the warmth from Honeydukes and the strange quiet from The Three Broomsticks. James paused out the front of Spintwitches to browse the sporting goods, before remembering that Lily was with him and walking away quickly. Deciding against going to the Shrieking Shack ("It's really not all its hyped up to be once you know the secret, eh?" James had smirked) the pair turned and went down the side streets. Usually unfrequented by the general student population, these stores were mainly for the residents of Hogsmeade. Clothing stores, material shops, grocers and other handy businesses were open.

James pointed to a white dress in the shop window. "I could see you in that." Lily paused to analyse the dress sceptically. "It's a wedding dress, James."
"That's the point," he grinned.
"What, like for our wedding day?" Lily guessed. She was very uncomfortable with the topic of conversation. She truly didn't think that James would bring up a wedding… let alone theirs.
"No, just yours." At Lily's confused look, James decided to elaborate. "It's like I said in the letter, Lily. Nothing I do over the next 72 hours will change how you feel towards me; either you feel something, or you don't. But, I do hope that when Hogwarts is over and we're older, I am invited to your wedding. I hope our friendship will last that long." He grinned at Lily, who was fiddling with her fingers. "Who knows, maybe I'll even be your best man!"

Lily chuckled. "Usually it's the groom who has a best man."
"Tradition is boring, Evans. At my wedding, the grooms' party will be wearing Gryffindor quidditch robes," he informed Lily. "And instead of walking down the aisle, everyone will fly on brooms."
"I never thought you'd be planning so far ahead," Lily said airily. James looked shocked.
"I'll have you know that I've been thinking about my wedding since roughly fifteen seconds ago!"

Intrigued by the idea of a wedding, James kept badgering Lily about details for her wedding. Surely, as a seventeen year old girl, she'd have thought about it at least once in her life. Refusing to say anything about a wedding that Lily may or may not have already planned, she deflected the conversation by informing James that she had walked in on Hestia actually drawing up her wedding plans, in the Great Hall of all places. Curiously, James had dropped the subject immediately after.

After walking about for so long, the pair decided to go to the Three Broomsticks for some warming up. There, they ran into Remus and Sirius, who thought it was a brilliant idea to crash James' date.
"We really shouldn't, Padfoot. You know how protective of Lily James is," Remus said anxiously. Sirius waved away his worries. "We'll only stay for a little while. I'm interested to see how their date is going anyway. He could probably use the help," Sirius snickered.
"You know that's not true. James does perfectly well without us."
"Yeah, well, whatever. I still wanna see!"
"Be on your best behaviour, Sirius," Remus warned. Sirius looked offended.
"I always am, Moony. When am I not?" At Remus' stern look, Sirius slumped. "Fine. You're no fun."

Together they crept up to the couple's table, Remus carefully listening to see if they were interrupting anything important. Sirius, however, had no such qualms and loudly announced his presence.

"Lily, my dear, how wonderful to see you!" he announced, earning a glare from James. Adding to the insult, Sirius swooped and pecked Lily on the cheek before scooting in next to James. Remus, feeling awkward at Sirius' unexpected behaviour, sat next to Lily and gave her an apologetic smile. She looked pleased to see him.
"Padfoot, what an unexpected surprise," James grumbled. "I'm a bit busy, as you can see."
Sirius nodded solemnly. "Yes. I can see." He lifted James' empty glass and took a sniff. "Butterbeer is on me!"

Flouncing away from the table, James watched Sirius' unruly hair disappear into the thickening crowd. "Remus, I don't mean to be rude, but you know what's going on today, right?" James asked Remus politely. Lily's eyes were flickering between the two men.
"I know, James," Remus assured him. "We won't be here long. Sirius is… determined to help you out."
Lily began snickering. "Relax, James. I'm interested to see how this plays out."

At Lily's amused look, James agreed. If Lily was okay with it, so was he. What was the worst that could happen, anyway? They were his mates!

Sirius reappeared, levitating the four glasses of butterbeer with his wand, just as Lily was asking where Peter was. Without spilling a drop, the glasses placed themselves on the table.
"Peter is preoccupied," Sirius said before Remus could answer. "I believe he has a date with a certain broomstick cupboard."
Lily, Remus and James groaned. "Padfoot, you didn't!" Remus scolded. Sirius frowned.
"I didn't do anything. Peter tripped into it and the cupboard locked itself." At everyone's disapproving faces, Sirius sighed. "Fine, I'll get him out later. The spell will wear off soon anyway."

Nodding, Lily smiled. "So, who's excited for Christmas?" she asked, tracing the rim of her glass with her finger. The three marauders exchanged secret smiles that Lily missed.
"Very excited indeed," Remus said. "Got a lot planned."
"Oh, I think I'm going to have a ball," Sirius hinted.
"Nothing else quite like Christmas at Hogwarts," James added before Lily could read into Sirius' comment. Sirius received a kick in the shin for that.
"So you're staying over the holidays, then?" Lily inferred. They all nodded. "Me too. I think that, just since it's our last Christmas at Hogwarts… ever… we should do something special!"

"I think it's time we left," Sirius said suddenly to Remus, who rose immediately. They said their goodbyes and walked away – Sirius limping in the most subtle manner he could. James was pleased.

James slumped on the table. "I am so, so sorry for that," he mumbled before Lily could bring up any possible Christmas plans. Lily laughed.
"It's not a problem. I figure you're kind of a package deal." She reached out and placed her hand above James'. "Really. It wasn't even that bad."
James smiled at her. "I suppose I did expect worse." Catching movement in his peripheral vision, James looked to see Marlene and Hestia entering. Lily turned to see what he was looking at.
"Should we leave now before we get stuck here?" she suggested. James grinned and nodded.
"Don't you want to see your friends?" he asked, just to be polite.
"It's not that," Lily said, but didn't elaborate. James didn't need her to; sometimes, he didn't want to be with his friends either. Lily greeted her friends as she passed but didn't pause to chat.

Outside in the cold, James and Lily walked briskly to the carriages. "I know that I asked for your company until four," James said, "But I've rearranged my plans again."
"Of course," Lily murmured.
"You said that three days is equal to thirty six hours, so –"
"James," Lily interrupted. "Stop."

James was going to argue but Lily placed a surprisingly warm hand on his cheek. "James," she whispered. "You can have all the time you need."
"Really?"
"Yes. And you don't have to take me on dates or fill my criteria or anything. I already know –" Here, Lily gulped. "The fact that you agreed to my terms and are trying to fulfil them proves to me what I already know."

James heart was beating erratically. Unable to refrain from running a hand through his hair and unable to look away from Lily, he was so sure that he was dreaming. This couldn't be real.

"Everything you've done already has shown me that I was incredibly unfair to you in the past."
"You thought I was stupid," James muttered.
"But now I think you're just a different type of intelligent," Lily smiled. "So let's forget this whole challenge. We both understand each other perfectly. I think that this would go a lot smoother if we weren't trying to convince one another of something."

James nodded. "Okay. But still, our last date will be at Christmas."
"Deal."