Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns everything you recognise.
It's nearly a week after Rudy asked her to Hogsmeade and Lily is still feeling a slight thrill whenever she thinks about it.
She hasn't seen him properly since, only glimpses here and there in the corridors. Whenever she does manage to catch his eye – his incredibly blue eyes – she feels herself smile almost automatically, which is matched by his grin and head duck, as though he still can't quite believe it.
She thinks she enjoys this more: not seeing him every day has only increased her anticipation for Saturday's date. Despite promising herself at the age of 11 that she'd never be a girl who's entire life revolved around impressing a boy, Lily's found herself oddly concerned with how she'll look on Saturday. Hair up or down? Her green jumper that she loves or the chunky cream cardigan that makes her feel rather like one of her mum's fashionable friends? Would the cardigan make her look like a little girl playing dress up?
So wrapped up in her internal clothing debate that she's hardly noticing where she's going, Lily rounds a corner in something of a daze and bounces off someone coming the other way.
"Oooof," she says elegantly, collapsing to the ground like Bambi on ice.
A hand appears in her vision, which she gratefully takes while an apology half-forms on her lips. When she sees just who's hand it is though, her apology dies a violent death while a surge of anger runs through her.
"Potter!"
It's almost automatic at this point. Deep down, Lily knows Potter hasn't knocked her over deliberately, that he's just an idiot in the wrong place at the wrong time. At this point though, she's too used to their arguments to think so rationally.
"Are you just lurking there, waiting to knock people over? Is that what you do now? Do you find it funny?" she hisses, folding her arms across her chest while she waits for his retort.
Oddly, she sometimes almost enjoys the exchanges between the two. She'd never admit that to anyone, mind.
Potter looks at her rather oddly, squinting slightly as if suffering from pain.
He breathes in deeply, before a more normal look returns to his face.
"No, Evans, I don't lurk anywhere. I'm very sorry I knocked you down: I honestly had no idea you were there," he says, sounding surprisingly sincere.
Lily scoffs, opening her mouth to snap something about his idiocy and maybe insult his stupid hair, when something extremely surprising happens.
Potter moves past her and walks on down the corridor, not even stopping to look back at her.
What?
She waits a second for him to turn around and shout out a request for a date, or a ridiculous compliment on her appearance like he always does. But he doesn't: he simply keeps walking and disappears around the corner at the end of the corridor.
Lily's surprised to find that she's slightly hurt at his apparent lack of interest.
As soon as he's round the corner and out of sight of Evans, James breaks into a run, taking a shortcut through a tapestry and heading for his dormitory.
He gabbles the password to the Fat Lady, scrambles up the stairs to the Marauders' room and bursts through the door like a knife-wielding maniac.
Two rather surprised looking sets of eyes look up at him: Remus & Sirius are both lying on their respective beds, apparently having been in conversation before his noisy interruption.
Sirius is first to recover, as usual.
"Prongs? Fucking hell mate, is there a reason you look like a hippogriff just shat on your dinner plate at the Hallowe'en feast?"
He's always had a way with words, has Padfoot.
On his own bed, Moony lets out an amused snort, before indicating that James should sit down.
"I'm guessing you've talked to Lily then," he says, amber eyes focusing on James' face with an unintelligible look behind them.
James sits on his bed, nodding silently at Moony's astute observation. His heart is still pounding quite hard, something he knows has nothing to do with his mad dash here and everything to do with pretending Evans doesn't mean anything to him anymore.
He looks up, meeting both of their gazes, before opening his mouth and allowing his words to tumble out, almost falling over each other in their haste to explain his encounter with Lily Evans almost 30 minutes ago.
"…and then I almost told her to have a good day but I thought it would've seemed insincere so I just settled for a kind of look then I pushed past her and walked away and oh god it was so difficult not to turn and see how she looked and then I got round the corner and I ran up here to tell you three. Where's Peter, anyway?" he finishes, breathing in fully for the first time since he started talking.
"Detention," answers Padfoot. "Set off a dungbomb outside Sluggy's office, then fell over his own bag running away. Fucking clown." This is said not unkindly, more in the vein of a brother laughing at his infinitely more clumsy bretheren.
James nods amusedly, not altogether surprised at Peter's lack of grace – he's finally had a growth spurt recently and hasn't quite gotten used to the new length of his legs – before growing more serious.
"What do I do, guys? Do I just keep ignoring her and hope it goes away or should I just treat her as a mate and hope that eventually my heart treats her as a mate too?" he asks, wincing at just how stupid that last part sounds.
Padfoot snorts.
"Yes, yes, that was a big girl thing to say, look at me I'm a girl."
"Glad you can accept it Prongs. Now: Prongs; Moony; come and join me as we put our heads together and solve James' Big Evans Dilemma".
"Er, mate. We're friends and that, but I've seen – and heard – just who has 'joined you' there before, so that's not happening.
"Do you want the help of a fucking genius or not?"
"I do, but I can't ask Marlene. I think she'd have to take Evans' side, don't you?"
"Oy, low blow."
This last is said by Sirius, wearing a slightly rueful grin. He's fancied Marlene ever since he saw her kick Severus Snape squarely between the legs for hexing her First Year cousin a while ago.
He looks once more at James and Remus, grin sliding off his face.
"Seriously, we need a plan for this. Moony, get your overly-large brain in here."
As Padfoot and Moony bicker over this backhanded compliment, James can't help but feel better about his situation.
He might not have the girl, but he's definitely got the best mates he could wish for.
What is the Marauders' plan? Why does Lily feel weird that James ignored her? What did Peter have to do in detention? All this and more, next time on VCC.
I just want to thank everyone who looked at/reviewed/favourited this story. You are all champions.