James could not remember the last time he felt this nervous. Not during his first Quidditch match when he went to score his very first goal, or when he, Sirius, and Peter were sneaking about learning highly illegal magic that could have landed them in Azkaban. Not even when he was running across the school grounds faster than ever, dodging the branches of the Whomping Willow to pull Snape from the tunnel before he could reach Remus.
His hands had never been this sweaty, he kept wiping them on his jeans. He had never had so much self-doubt and he kept mumbling quietly to himself, giving himself pep talks like the ones he gave the Gryffindor Team before a big match or to Sirius when he was starting to lose control of his anger.
"It's no big deal," he muttered under his breath. "Just a normal trip to Hogsmeade. Just like any other trip with Sirius, Pete, and Remus. Totally average. Nothing different… except you're not with the lads, you're with a girl… and not just any girl, it's Lily Evans. And you going to screw it all up the moment you even open your bloody mouth." He shakily reached up to run a hand through his hair but stopped himself as he remembered Sirius attacking his head with a comb and two bottles of Sleek-ezy to tame his normally wild hair.
He was so lost inside his head that he was actually surprised when he arrived at the courtyard where he and Lily planned to meet because he couldn't remember actually walking there at all. For a split second, he thought of maybe turning back. He could go back to the dorm and save himself the inevitable humiliation that this date was sure to bring. Sure, he'd probably never be able to face his friends or Lily or anyone else ever again, and Sirius would hex the word "Coward' on his forehead for the rest of his life, but it would still be better than the disaster that this date had the potential to be, wasn't it?
His eyes darted around the courtyard. There was no sign of Lily. He could run off now and no one would see him do it. Maybe it was a prank! Maybe Lily never actually intended to go with him on a date. Maybe she was trying to pull one over on him to make up for all the things he had done over the years. He was an absolute fool.
No one makes a fool of James Potter, he thought bitterly, feeling just a little embarrassed in the back of his mind, and he spun back around to retreat to the dorm, ready for the mocking and teasing he was sure to receive from his friends.
But there she was. Lily stood before him wearing an emerald green winter cloak and a black knitted cap on her head, her deep red waves of hair spilling loosely over her shoulders. It was such a striking contrast to the fluffy white snow that blanketed the castle grounds. She was smiling at him.
"Alright, Potter?" She asked, one sleek eyebrow quirking upwards as she studied the look on his face. "You look like a deer caught in headlights."
James felt his cheeks heat up and he blinked rapidly, closing his mouth which he hadn't realized had been hanging open. "Er, yeah! I'm great." He forced a grin, throwing back his shoulders with confidence. "I was just waiting for you. Thought maybe you had chickened out on me. I wouldn't have been too upset. I know you're probably overwhelmed with the prospect of dating the one and only James Potter, eh?" Mentally he groaned. Shut up you prick, before she hexes you and it's over before it's begun!
But Lily didn't hex him. She laughed, rolling her eyes. "Oh, I'm overwhelmed, alright. But it takes more than that to scare me off, brave Gryffindor that I am."
James laughed shakily. Well, that makes one of us, he thought.
After a brief awkward silence where they both avoided eye contact, Lily took a breath. "Shall we, then?"
Swallowing past the lump in his throat, James nodded. "We shall." He smiled and cocked his head towards the snowy path that led to the village. "Let's go." He made to start walking only to have Lily grab onto his sleeve abruptly.
"Wait!"
James frowned, looking at her with confusion as her bright green eyes looked him up and down critically. She raised her hand and he flinched, bracing himself for a hex that never came. With a soft snort of laughter, Lily reached up and ruffled his hair.
"What on earth did you do to yourself?" She chuckled lightly, pulling as gently as she could at the slicked-back strands of hair to separate them.
James groaned. "Sirius did it."
Lily shook her head, still smiling with amusement. "Of course he did. Merlin, how much Sleek-ezy did he dump on you?" She finally pulled away, taking a step back to observe her work. Her smile widened. "There you are. That's better." She held her hand out to him and he felt as though he had swallowed twenty fissing wizzbees at once as he took it in his own, thankful that she was wearing soft wool gloves and couldn't feel how sweaty his palms were.
"So," Lily started briskly as they began to walk together, snow crunching under their feet. "Where are you taking me on our date, Potter?"
"Woah, hold on there, Evans," James teased, flashing a grin at her. "I believe you were the one who asked me on this date. I expected to be properly courted. Where are you taking me?"
Lily let out a mock incredulous gasp at the accusation. "And here I was, thinking that the boy who has been writing my initials all over his assignments since third year had maybe been keeping an entire journal of fantasy first dates labeled 'THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THE MOST EPIC FIRST DATE WITH LILY EVANS - Written by James Potter and Edited by Sirius Black'."
James' face fell, burning red once again and his mouth set into a hard line. "I'm going to murder Remus."
Lily's eyes widened in mirth and she stopped walking as she nearly howled with laughter. "Godric, are you serious? I made that up, Potter!" She let go of his hand to wipe tears from the corners of her eyes and James pursed his lips, crossing his arms.
"Laugh all you want, Evans. There are some brilliantly romantic ideas in the bloody journal."
Lily's expression softened and she took James' hand again. "Well then prove it." She said, just the slightest hint of a challenge in her voice and her eyes shining daringly. "Romance me, Potter."
It was highly unlike James Potter to back away from a good challenge.
—-
Remus shivered slightly, pulling his patched-up old winter coat tighter around him, and wondered exactly why he let himself be dragged along on Sirius' hair-brained mission. He was lagging behind both Sirius and Peter as they made their way through the drafty secret tunnel into the village to spy on James' first date, very much against Remus' better judgment. For a brief moment, his eyes took a break from glaring at the back of Sirius' head and instead came to rest – as they often did – on his boyfriend's perfectly arse in those tight, black jeans… Ah, yes. That's why he always went along with these things…
"I still don't know why we're taking the tunnel," he grumbled for the third time. "It's a scheduled Hogsmeade visit. We didn't have to sneak out."
"Moony!" Sirius whined, looking over his shoulder at him with a pout. "What's the fun of a secret mission if we aren't going to take the secret tunnels?"
Remus huffed and rolled his eyes. "We could possibly not spy on our friend's first date, that's always an idea."
Sirius shook his head. "No way. You know Prongs is bound to mess this whole thing up. We need to be there to save his arse, right Wormtail?" He nudged Peter with his elbow, causing the smaller boy to jump slightly, looking uneasily between Sirius and Remus and carefully calculating his response.
"Um…"
"I seem to remember a certain someone making James use his invisibility cloak to follow him and a certain Emmeline Vance on their first date in case all hell broke loose," Sirius hummed, giving Peter a sly, side-eyed look.
Peter sighed. "Yeah, you've got a point." He gave Remus an apologetic smile and shrugged. "Sorry, Moony."
Remus snorted. "Yeah, alright. But the difference is that Peter asked James to tag along… and need I remind you, the cloak isn't big enough for all three of us anymore, Padfoot."
"I haven't brought the cloak. Pete and I are going full stealth mode." He flashed a grin over his shoulder. "One of the many perks of being an animagus, along with helping you of course."
Remus felt a holt of jealousy and he bristled with annoyance. It wasn't often that he felt envious of his friend's ability to transform into animals at their own will and free of any pain or discomfort. He spent quite enough time as an animal for his own liking, but there were times it did leave him feeling just a little left out.
"And what, I should just hide in the bushes, then?" He couldn't stop the quiet growl in the back of his throat. "If you two were going to do this in animal form, I see no reason to be dragged along. Can't really keep up walking on two legs, can I?"
Sirius and Peter both stopped walking and turned to look at him, both of their faces etched with guilt and shame. Remus instantly regretted snapping at them as they both began to utter apologies. He sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. "Sorry… I didn't mean to… sorry."
Sirius chewed his lip nervously. "If you don't want to come with us… I didn't mean to make you feel like you had to… you can go back to the dorm if you want, Moony."
Peter nodded earnestly. "Yeah. We didn't realize you…uh… well, I suppose it never crossed our minds that… that you aren't… that maybe you'd feel left out because we-"
Remus shook his head quickly, forcing a smile. "No! No, it's fine. I do. I want to go," he insisted. "Besides, someone's got to make sure no one calls the dog catcher on Padfoot thinking he's some stray, right?"
His response seemed to satisfy Peter, who smiled brightly and continued to walk ahead, but Remus could feel Sirius' eyes on him and could sense his concern as strongly as Sirius could clearly sense his own internal thoughts.
I've really got to do some more research on how this 'bonding' shit works or I'll never have any bloody privacy, Remus thought.
He was relieved, however, that Sirius did not push the subject and instead offered his hand which Remus took with a grateful and apologetic smile. Clearing his throat to break the silence, he began walking again. "Do we even know where they're going on their date? The map doesn't show Hogsmeade."
Sirius snickered and reached into his pocket to retrieve something so small that Remus couldn't tell what it was until the other boy tapped it with his wand and enlarged it. It was a leather-bound journal.
Sirius read aloud the handwritten title which was scribbled on a piece of parchment and spell-o-taped to the cover. "James Potter's Guide to the Most Romantic Rondavou with Lily Evans."
Remus frowned as he glanced at the front of the journal. "He spelled 'rendezvous' wrong."
Sirius cackled delightfully. "I know." He flipped through a few pages, obviously well acquainted enough with the book's content to know what he was looking for, which made Remus quirk a suspicious brow at him. Siris smirked. "I helped him with the revisions."
"Shocking."
"James Potter had many talents, Moony. Romance is not one of them. I, as you know, am well versed in wooing the person of my desires – You, of course."
Remus laughed dryly, one corner of his lip twitching upward. "Right. You're a regular Casanova. I'm in a constant state of weakened knees, pining for you, my love. Catch me, I may faint!" He teased, holding the back of his hand to his forehead dramatically.
Sirius frowned. "What's a Casanova?"
Remus chuckled and shook his head, pulling the shorter boy closer and kissing his cheek. "Nevermind. You're very romantic, love."
Ahead of them, Peter waited impatiently by the trap door into Honeyduke's cellar with his arms crossed. "If you two are done being all sappy, I can't reach the latch you know!"
"Sorry, Pete!" Remus called to him before jogging ahead to where he stood and reached up with no difficulty to hold the door open for Peter and Sirius to climb up and then followed behind them.
—-
Hogsmeade village was an entirely different type of magical this time of year. There were colorful, glowing fairy lights around the lamp posts and candles in the window; shops were bustling with students and local witches and wizards; and a thick blanket of snow covered the ground and rooftops making everything seem quiet and peaceful.
The inside of James Potter's head, however, was not quiet and peaceful.
She's having a miserable time.
Say something to her!
No, don't say anything to her, you'll probably say something stupid.
You can't just go through the night entirely mute, you moron!
Compliment her. Say something nice.
You've been waxing poetry about her for six bloody years.
The voices in his head sounded suspiciously like Sirius, Remus, and Peter. He risked a sideways glance at Lily, who was smiling contently and looking ahead as they walked along the busy streets. He licked his slightly chapped lips and cleared his throat. "Er… you look really nice today, Evans."
Nice. See? You've got this!
Lily looked up, her smile widening the tiniest bit, flashing her perfect white teeth. "Thanks, Potter. You clean up well yourself."
His hand flew up through his hair. "Heh. Thanks." He carefully looked her up and down, searching for something else to say. There was so much he wanted to say. Six years' worth of things he wanted to say. "That cloak looks lovely on you." He tired. "I mean. I never thought I'd like looking at something that color without thinking of Slytherin and wanting to vomit but-"
Lily's head snapped to the side to look at him, affronted with her brows knitted together and her mouth just slightly agape.
Buggering banshees, Potter… Maybe being mute wasn't such an awful plan.
"Shit! That's not what I meant!" James hurried to apologize. "I meant… it's just a really pretty color on you. It brings out your eyes and your hair… and well, your eyes are a pretty green as well-"
Lily's nostrils flared and she raised an eyebrow at him skeptically. "They don't make you want to puke from generations of rival house hostility?"
James groaned, rubbing his temples with his thumb and forefinger. "Sorry. That was a really bloody stupid thing to say. I don't know why I said that."
Well, it was a good attempt but this date is definitely over before it even started. She's going to hex you into next week and that's that. The end.
Much to his surprise, Lily did not hex him. Nor did she yell at him, strike him, or storm off. She laughed. Not a mocking, haughty, I-can't-believe-I-even-gave-you-the-time-of-day laugh either. A twinkling, melodic sort of giggle that made her eyes sparkle even more than usual and gave James that fluttery feeling in his stomach. Lily squeezed his hand. "You know, I don't think I've ever seen you quite so flustered, Potter."
James shrugged, his lips twitching up into a slanted smile. "You never really gave me the chance to get so flustered."
Lily's cheeks, already slightly pink from the cold, burned a little deeper red and she looked away quickly.
"Hey," James said softly, giving her arm a gentle tug. "The past is in the past, eah? Come on. We're wasting time. Let's go start this date."
With a relieved smile, Lily nodded. "Right. Lead the way, Potter."
Let the date begin! Jily has officially entered the building. You guys are NOT ready for the next two chapters :D
Anyways, check me out on Instagram and Gmail at Via889Fanfiction as well as AO3 at Via889. You can also check out my podcast The Marauders (Olivias' Version) on Spotify or on Instagram at themaraudersoliviasversion. Enjoy!
