Chapter 11

James' POV

I lie on the couch, joking with Padfoot. Remus nudges me and I lean back and see an up-side down Lily (and a good looking one too).

"L-Lily." I say, grinning.

Pull yourself together, man.

I sneakily glances her up and down, to not only see what see was wearing, but also if it was warm enough for what we were doing. Let's just say there's been a change of plan- we aren't going to Hogsmeade.

"You may want to change." I say, thinking she'll be cold.

She recoils a little bit.

I raise an eyebrow, and then I realise. "Wha- wait, no! Lily! Honestly, you look great as always, but I meant you're going to need a jacket."

"Oh…"

"Nice one, James! You sure know how to charm the ladies!" Sirius calls.

I roll my eyes "Shut up, Padfoot."

"I'll be right back." I say with a smile, and I hop up the stairs to the dormitory. I grab my trusty clean-sweep and hop back down the stairs.

I'm about to go on a date with Lily Evans… Potter.

Lily Potter.

That sounds nice. Lovely actually.

Don't get ahead of yourself!

I shake the thought from my head, and rush down the stairs before it could surface again.

I lean on the couch as I wait for her, and she plods down the stairs, her hair flowing behind her. She's looking where she's walking, but then she looks up. She looked at me for a second- with a slight smirk, might I add- and then my broom. All I could see in her eyes was 'processing… processing' before they lit up.

"Ohhhhh no, mister. There's no way that that's happening." She says, eyeing my broom.

"C'mon, Lily! It'll be fun." She still looks hesitant. "Don't make me kidnap you again." She rolls her eyes.

"Again?" Remus questions from the couch, and Sirius winks at Lily suggestively. I wack him.

"Come on, Lily. These three will only make it worse." I say, guiding her towards the door, throwing my arm over her shoulder. While she steps out, Wormtail wolf-whistles and Padfoot just goes 'Good luck, Prongs!'

But as I looked at the red-headed wonder, I knew I had all the luck I needed just by looking at her curled into my arm.

Lily's POV

"Okay, let me guess- we're not going to Hogsmeade."

He grins.

"Nope!"

"Well, wherever we're going- and by wherever I mean the Quidditch Pitch- I am most certainly not getting on one of those." I say, gesturing to his broom.

"Lily, just try it! I bet you you'll love it. Besides, even if you don't, it shows you a bit more of who I am." He pleads, pulling those big hazel eyes on me.

"Ugh, fine. I'll at least watch."

"Yes! You'll love it, I'm telling you!" He says excitedly.

We get to the Quidditch Pitch, and I was glad I brought that extra jacket.

"So," James starts "Are you going to try it?"

I grimace.

"Trust me, you'll love it!"

"I doubt that…" I mutter.

He raises an eyebrow. "What have you got against brooms?"

I blush slightly.

He cocks his head, and hesitates for a second.

"Lily Evans, are you afraid of heights?"

I put my head in my hands and grumble "Shut it, Potter. I have a... respect for them."

I feel his arms come around me, his silent chuckling still noticeable. I look up at his hazel eyes, and he smirks.

"So Evans is afraid of something."

"We're all afraid of something, James." I say quietly.

He looks intently at me, and slowly leans towards me. His eyes flicker closed, and I make a snap decision.

I escape his grasp.

I laugh. "I don't think so, Potter. This is our first date, remember!" I say, jogging towards the centre of the Quidditch Pitch. I laugh harder when he goes 'But Lilyyyyyyy…." and tries to catch up.

Well, when I say 'tries' I mean 'instantly caught up with me'. But it was still funny.

"I knew there was a reason you never took Astronomy." He says, shaking his head. "Evans, I am going to help you conquer you're fear of heights."

"No more than two metres, or I will legit kill you."

After finding a school broom rightly sized for me- James said his was too fast for me, but I think he's just protective of it- James started his mini-lesson.

"Alright Lils, I'm going to start with the essence of a first year class- do you still remember that?"

I most certainly did. I was eleven and terrified; it was burned into my memory.

"Unfortunately so." I mutter.

"Alright, put the broom on the floor." I laid it on my right.

"Whenever you're ready, put your right hand over your broom- like this" he said, sticking his hand over his own broom"- and say 'Up!'" Instantly his broom jumped up into his hand.

"Wow." I chuckled. "How many times have you done that?"

He grins. "Too many times to count."

He gestured to my broom "Whenever you're ready."

I took a deep breath. "UP!" My voice wavered slightly.

My broom rolled around on the floor a bit. I looked at James, and he smiled at me like I was doing something cute.

Damn you, Potter. I will not be defeated by a piece of wood!

I straightened my back, summoned what little Gryffindor courage I had, and commanded firmly: "UP!"

The broom jumped to my hand, and I smiled at James.

He gave a cocky half-smile "Not bad, Evans. Now you just have to get on the broom." I narrowed my eyes at him.

I mounted the broom quickly before I could think about it.

"Getting gutsy now, aren't we Evans?" He laughed. "Do you want to keep going?"

I nod ferociously.

"Okay, when you're ready kick off from the ground nice and hard, and hover. If you need to get down, lean forwards slightly. If you can't- I'll help you. Ready?" He questioned.

I close my eyes. Okay, Lily, just do it.

Three…

Two…

One!

I kick off the ground as hard as I can, expecting to come straight back down, but my feet remain in the air. I open my eyes and see my feet dangling half a metre above the ground.

I grin at James. "James! I'm doing it, I'm really doing it!" I say excitedly.

He grins back. "You're doing great Lils! Can you get back down?" He asks.

"Yeah… but I kind of like it here." I say.

He smiles. "I knew it! Wait 'til you're actually flying. Wanna go up with me?" He asks.

I consider it. "Okay, but not too high!"

He shows me how to rise without going on to steep of an angle, and we rise about ten metres up.

"You wanna trying flying properly?" James asks.

"We are flying."

"No, we're levitating. This -" He said, circling around me with a grin "is flying."

And just like that he pulled back on his broom sharply, and headed almost straight up into the air. I stood- well, sat- in awe as his form became smaller and smaller, and then he twisted downwards.

Oh, no.

He was aiming right towards me, and I was sure he was going hit me, but instead he shot straight past me.

"Gah!" I exclaimed, jumping back as much as I could on a broomstick.

He kept going down, down, down, until I was about to scream at him- but it was too late, he had already pulled back hard on his broom, using the change of angle to shift his feet into a sort of crouch. He used his position to force the back of the broom to even out.

Man, that almost gave me a heart attack!

"James- James Potter, get your butt safely back here!" I screamed at him, still having slight breathing difficulties.

Instead, he just looked up at me, and grinned.

That's not helping my breathing abilities, Potter.

He pulled up- not so sharply this time- and headed towards me. He came to float beside me.

"Alright Evans?" He said with a massive grin.

James' POV

"Alright Evans?" I say, grinning.

She death-stares me.

I laugh.

"I thought you were going to crash, you bloody toerag!" She says, pissed and hitting my shoulder.

"Alright, alright! No more feints, okay!" I exclaim, chuckling at her flushed face.

"Okay."

"I never thought I'd see the day where Lily Evans would be concerned for my life." I say, slyly smiling.

She smiles. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Potter. I was worried for our Pitch."

"Yeah, yeah, keep telling yourself that. Wanna try flying?" I said, with emphasis on 'flying'.

"No flips or anything fancy!"

"Promise!"

I spent well over a few hours teaching all the basics, and soon enough she was speeding around the Pitch like a pro while I sat and watched.

It was kinda hot.

Don't look at me like that, I'm a teenage boy who loves Quidditch as much as girls.

'Maybe less than Lily, though' I couldn't help but think as she landed with a smile, and headed over to me, her flaming her flowing behind her.

"Going to come up with me? I want to try going a bit higher- I mean, I love 'flying'-" she says, doing finger-apostrophes on 'flying', which made me smile. "- but I still am not fond of heights, but I want to go higher so I can fly easier, but I don't want to go alone-" She babbles.

"Okay! Calm fair maiden, I shall assist you." I speak heroically as I mount my broom.

"Besides, there's something which I want to show you- to cure your fear."

"Cure my fear? I doubt it."

"That's a James guarantee." I say with a wink.

"Fineeeeeeee." She grumbles, mounting her broom once more.

"Let's go."

AUTHORS NOTE: Eeeee! The date! Part one, anyway! Oh, and there is a question at the bottom I beg you to answer!

Oh, gosh guys. I'm so sorry that this took so long, but when I posted the last chapter, I was half way through this one, so I thought I'd finish it super quickly. But then I got like the worst writers block ever. So, I'm so sorry. Hoped you liked it! Anyway, reviews. I recently realized that I'd done something stupid! I only started posting and replying to reviews in chapter 8! So, any review before that and the new ones I'm going to do now, so bear with me or skip, your choice. I'm going oldest to newest, skipping the ones I've already done, btw.

Harold Lloyd chapter 1 . Sep 10, 2013

Overall not bad.

For constructive criticism I offer this: Do NOT repeat NOT trust the spell-checker to catch problems. It catches spelling, nothing else.

The two that jumped out at me were:

"... with his causal half-smile."

"... around, and sure enough, sits at the Gryffindor..."

A causal half-smile's probably one that'll cause Lily to thump James. A casual half-smile's probably what you were aiming for.

The second one has two problems. The first is the comma after "around". The second is that James is sitting at the table, not sits at the table.

Something that I read a long while back and seems to help is this: Write your stuff. Set it aside for a week. Read it.

I would add three things to that:

1) Read it *slowly*; don't just skip over sections certain that they say exactly what you intend. I've had that problem with co-workers and myself reading code; we skip over stuff because we *know* what it's supposed to say. If necessary, read it backwards word by word. It's harder, but it forces you to pay attention.

2) Remove half the commas you see. I've always loved Terry Pratchett's image of someone with a comma shaker applying it liberally like parmesan cheese. And yes, this same problem permeates my own writing.

3) If you're not DEAD sure about the apostrophe, don't use it. Better no apostrophes at all than a whole whack of 'em in the wrong places.

Lastly, a few bits that aren't in your text but I see far too often in the writing here (because writers here read others' work and learn bad habits:

Yes I'm sure, he defiantly read the document. - NO, he didn't DEFIANTLY read it, he DEFINITELY read it.

Yesterday I lead the horse to water, or I lead the people down the stairs. - NO, you LED them, you didn't shoot them.

To insure that it happens, pay someone. - NO, you want to ENSURE that it happens. INSURE is almost never correct.

The poem effected them greatly. - NO, the poem DID NOT create/produce them. It changed them. It AFFECTED them. (9 times out of 10 you can replace effect with produce and affect with change. It's a quick sanity check.)

The next morning there were less survivors. - NO, there were FEWER survivors. When you can count something then you (almost always) use FEWER. If it's something volumetric (wheat, water, molten steel) then you have LESS of it. Money's one of the special cases; you have LESS of it, not FEWER of it. Basically, if there's few enough to count then use FEWER.

Anyway, that's my diatribe on English How She Is Writ. I hope it's of some use.

Wow, okayyyyyyy...

I know about spell checkers, but actually it does catch more than spelling. What do you think the blue and green zig-zag lines are?

Okay, casual was a typo, I didn't have a beta then but I do now (Hi!).

And the comma thing-well I'm not going to say how old I am, 'cause that would be stupid, but I'm going to say guess how old I am, then take off anywhere from 1-10 years off that. So yeah, my English isn't perfect but I've been told by a few teachers that my English is better than some of the students they have taught who are years older than me.

This is a story for my own enjoyment of writing-and hopefully those reading-but mostly have fun, but also to try to expand my horizon in writing ideas and such. For my age my English is exemplary and I know that it's only going to get better, and that on that front I will always be ahead of the curve.

So, please forgive my typos and misplaced commas. I have been told I use too many, and that is usually because I want it to sound exactly like it does in my head.

This isn't an essay worth 50% of my grade, so you can't expect me to be perfect (not that the reviewer is, but I'm assuming not just Harold is reading). I usually don't have much time to write this- hell, it's holidays and I've got homework, so I literally don't have time to read it backwards, but I do read it over every few paragraphs I read and a few times on the side.

Everyone loves Terry.

He's really smart.

Anyway, I hate when people use defiantly instead of definitely. It doesn't even sound like it!

I do get tricked into led/lead sometimes if I don't think it through, and the same with effect/affect, though I do usually use ensure/insure and less/fewer right.

Okay, that was a long one. Thanks for the effort!

FireDragonAeryn chapter 2 . Sep 13, 2013

AWESOME!

YOU'RE AWESOME FOR REVIEWING! ;)

Taylah Mellark chapter 1 . Oct 5, 2013

Nicely done.

Beautifully written.

I have not constructive criticism what so ever.

Aw, hun. You flatter me.

Lady Elizabeth of New York chapter 1 . Nov 24, 2013

I'm a little confused who's pov this is because I was sure it was Lily's pov and then you switched to third person, I think. Plus I found this story a little lacking description. There's too much dialogue, I mean. Haven't you ever heard that you should show not tell.

I of course am not one to talk. Anyhow, it's a good start. A little cliche but then again, there are so few stories that aren't a little cliche.

I hope I haven't bored you. I will keep reading.

I do occasionally switch into first person without meaning to, so sorry. Old habits die hard, I suppose. Description? Yeah, not so good at that either. I am pretty good at English, but my sister is the imaginative and creative one. I'm not so good with similes and metaphors either. I am working on it though, and- I think- I'm slowly getting better.

Hey, hey! I have warned you people of this! 'Pretty damn fluffy'! It is shameless Jily fluff to calm my romantic heart :D

Of course it's cliche, I'm a girl!

Lady Elizabeth of New York chapter 4 . Nov 24, 2013

I think you should get a beta. Because while I like this story, I think you can do better.

God, is it just me or do I come off really condescending?

Anyhow, I know this is your story and you can do whatever you want with it but I really think you should consider getting a beta.

Hello again! I have a beta now! Yayyyyy! Okay, readers, I officially want to introduce my beta as of this chapter- it won't let me post her name! Well, it's Jily . Love without spaces!

Say hi!

(UPDATE: Well, after talking once and much enthusiasm Jily . Love never replied to me again so this isn't beta-ed.)

hauntedpumpkin56 chapter 5 . Nov 26, 2013

Do all chapters like that. I find them enjoyable. Great job. Look forward to the next update...keep it up

Me too, I like writing James more than Lily sometimes. He has a certain simplicity about him, while Lily over thinks everything.

But not always, Lily! I love you both!

laalaagirl99 chapter 5 . Nov 26, 2013

I think you should tell it from the person that makes it more interesting or is more relevant for that chapter. Don't bother making a pattern because it would be to hard to stick to

True. I just change when it feels right.

asphodel95 chapter 5 . Nov 27, 2013

I loved how you did last chapter. Or chapter-chapter. Not just lily or james. Cause I like reading both povs :)

And I like writing them XD

118 chapter 5 . Nov 30, 2013

i think the way you did it was great an yes all chapters should be like that

Me too. Great minds think alike, eh?

misticangel101 chapter 6 . Jan 23

Aww this was so sweet!

Love the ending of this chapter, excited for the next one x

Eh, my mind is a romantic and hormone-raged. I have to think of sweet things that boys will never do for me! XD

KatieAlexOo chapter 1 . Jan 23

Hey you, Sexy, why you sexy? like damn gurrrrl, you got a fire inside!

All jokes aside sis, I am really proud of you, not only having a the commitment to sit down and write this story but also I'm proud that you decided to make an adorable tale of love. I'm proud of you midget.

P.s. more smut is needed.

xxx

Kitty

Yep, my sister found my fanfic. Awkies. But awwww!

I love my sister :P

P.S Write your own smut, Katie XD Or read more of Garrus and Shepard. We both know it was M rated :D :D :D Wahahaha

Okay, skipping a load...

DreamHawthorn chapter 8 . Apr 21

This is great! Please update more frequently!

I do my best!

Guest chapter 8 . Apr 21

LOVED THE STORY! OMG ITS SOOO GOOD! please update as soon as you can :)

Aw, thanks Anon. You should get an account BTW ;)

Okay, skipping to most recent ones!

charissahp chapter 10 . Jun 13

This is way too cute!

Love it, hope chapter 11 will be on soon!

IT IS HEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Naw.

Thanks.

Neville's Girly chapter 10 . Jun 14

Why did you leave it right there?!

I had to make you want more, silly! Hope the waiting payed off!

overlordred chapter 10 . Jun 14

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK ! You mentioned me, ugh I'm gushing with fangirling feels! Thank you! Anyway to the chapter, oh my good golly gumdrops that was HOT. The broom cupboard scene wasn't too much and it didn't disappoint, bravo! I'm glad that you didn't make Lily instantly fall into his arms and lose her common sense just because she's accepting their soul mate status, had you done that it would've driven me banana sandwich! But as always I just adored it and I cannot wait until the next chapter! BYE!

And I'm mentioning you again! Yay for both of us! Well, I hope it was, 'cause I have no idea what I'm saying XD I don't really have much... ugh... experience... in that department. Another reference to my age :D God, no! I felt unsure about even the cupboard scene, no way would I have done that! And omg lol 'driven me a banana sandwich' hahahaha

Thanks though, keep reviewing and I'll keep answering!

Divergent Olympian chapter 10 . Jun 16

That was great! Amazing story.

Thanks! Not sure about amazing, probably more like decent or at best good. But thanks anyway, hun :*

Hufflepuff-swagger chapter 10 . Jun 17

I can't wait to see what happens! :D

I can't wait to see your reactions!

EriksAngeldeMusica chapter 10 . Jun 23

Ah crushes... There is a reason they are called "crush"es. So sorry :/. I am relieved to hear that! I was scared you were going to stop writing! Anyways LOVE the kiss scene! I can't wait for the date!

You know, I never actually even thought about why they're called crushes! Duh! Yeah, it sucks. Three and a half years :/ He is like my own James incarnated! No glasses though XD and more brown hair than black, but dark. But hazel eyes and everything!

But his personality is the thing that kills me. He's just... ugh... perfs. (UPDATE: After four years I got over the twat. Yay!)

Anyway, I won't depress you with my sad story :D

Thanks!

Oh, that's all of them! Well, thanks for reading! Please review! Okay, and I have a question for you all because I'm curious:

How old would you think I am just from:

- my writing

-my comments, clues and answers

-and all together?

I'm really curious! Review it!

Okay, thanks everyone!

-Seeker