"Come to Hogsmeade with me this Saturday?"
"Uh uh," she said with a frown that didn't reach her green eyes.
"Is that uh huh yes, or uh uh No?" He asked as he leaned back in his chair, tipping it on two legs.
"That's an uh uh no way."
"Ah well," he grinned, stretching his arms out lazily, "One of these days, Evans, you're going to change your mind."
"Yeah, yeah," she said and turned out of the room so he wouldn't see her lips twitching.
"Hey Evans!" he called.
She turned around expectantly.
"See ya later," he grinned again and pushed his hand through jet black hair. He watched her auburn curls quake as she shook her head slightly in amusement and bobbed down the stairs to the Common Room. He turned his gaze back to the potions essay she had been helping him with, and smiled quietly to himself.
"Don't get your hopes up," Sirius said in a bored tone as he flicked through a quidditch magazine from his bed.
"Hm?" James questioned, looking up in surprise.
"You know what I'm talking about," Sirius huffed and sat up in his four poster bed. "She comes up here to do homework and you get yourself all worked up, thinking she'll crack any day. Then she doesn't, and you crash and mope around til you manage to work yourself up again."
"I do not!" James protested, all four legs of his chair landing hard against the floor as he leaned forward eagerly. "I don't mope! And I'm not getting myself worked up!"
"C'mon Prongs, you're my best mate but if you think I can't see you smirking to yourself like an idiot after she leaves then you're bloody mad," Sirius said with a grin.
"Don't know what you're talking about," James denied in a curt, short voice. "You're barking," he said pulling a face, "I'm not that emotionally invested in her, I mean come on, she's just a girl," he said none too convincingly.
"Just a girl?" Sirius asked disbelievingly. "Yeah, right, as if you've ever thought that Lily Evans was just a girl."
"I did!" James cried indignantly. "I do! I'm not hung up over this!"
"Yeah, yeah, why don't you go propose already," Sirius retorted and laid back down on his bed.
"Not funny," James grumbled and fiddled with his quill. "So what if I do really like her? What's wrong with that?" he asked challengingly.
"Nothing," Sirius said as he began tossing a quaffle into the air and catching it. "Just don't want to see you hurt again, mate," he shrugged as he continued to play with the quaffle.
They heard a scuffling behind their door and both looked up in surprise. James whipped his wand toward the door and it flung open to reveal Lily standing there, hunched over and red in the face. She straightened out and gestured helplessly toward the stairs.
"I came back for my quill. . .dropped it in the stairwell. . ." she muttered embarrassedly before rushing back down the stairs.
James turned to Sirius in wide eyed fear.
"How much do you think she heard?" he asked anxiously.
"By the look on her face," Sirius said grimly, "I'd say she heard everything."
James let his book slide from his lap and his head fall back in resignation.
"Bollocks."