Alone On Date Night || open

[james t. potter]

His heart went from pounding in his throat to sinking in the bottom of his stomach. She said no. He blinked a few times a swallowed. James' face then cycled through astonishment, disappointment, and quickly into anger. Fortunately for Mr. Potter, the universe found it necessary to give him even the slightest break, and before he could open his mouth to say something absolutely stupid...Delilah stepped in. Now, James very much wanted to be outraged at Lily and shout his frustrations at her, and would have been on Delilah's side.. However, she'd just insulted the girl he was madly in love with.

The blonde seemed as though she wasn't going to stop, and if James wasn't still processing most of the situation, he would have put and end to her mouthful of angry words. It wasn't until Delilah was walking away that he shook his head and took a step passed Lily and squared his chest. "That was highly uncalled for!!!!" His fists were clenched, the skin on his knuckles had gone white. In the seconds it took Delilah to lash out at Lily, James had forgotten all his irritations with Lily and moved into a wild furry at Delilah. "No one insults Lily Evans!!" He lowered his voice seeing the girl was already talking to someone else and he breathed. "Not while I'm around to have anything to say about it..."

James Potter was unmistakably feeling a rather hot and tried to relax his chest and shoulders after noticing that he had puffed himself up in a protective and defensive stance. Turning back to Lily he gathered his thoughts. "I-I'm sorry Lily. You're.... You're not a nose rag. And you're like... an eleven to me." He sighed and rolled his sleaves up andpushed his fingers through his hair before putting them in his pockets.

"Peter's date had no right to speak like that." Leaning against the wall he sighed. "Why no?? I mean... I know you think I'm this horrid excuse for a human being...But I'm sort of just... putting myself out there." He licked his lips. "You don't.... know where we are... do you?" He smiled at her. IT was a handsome smile. Of course she wouldn't remember.

He paused for a moment and smiled at her again. He did have a rather nice smile and he really couldn't help it when she was around. Glancing at the window then back at her, breathed again. "This is where you first called me a jerk." James laughed a little and shook his head. "That was the first time I realized how pretty you are." He blushed a little and sighed. What a crappy night he'd made for all of them.

Word Count: 471

[lily anne evans]

Well she had gotten what she had somewhat expected, James looked upset and even little angry and just as she expected him to lash out at her, the angry voice came from a different direction, from an entirely different person that Lily had no idea had been watching them. Clearly the girl was a friend of James', or at least one of his fan girls and Lily didn't blame her, she could see the appeal to James Potter from an outsider's point of view, but she'd seen all the mean things he'd done for what seemed like no apparent reasons, especially the hate he'd targeted towards Severus.

"I suppose I deserved it ... not necessarily all of it and certainly not from her but someone had to be mad at me I suppose." Lily was actually quite glad it wasn't James. He looked as though he'd been angry but Delilah had clearly cut him off. James was a passionate person and had taken his anger out on Delilah, yelling at her rather than Lily, Lily was sort of glad, she was sure she'd be all too happy after having two people yell at her over the same thing.

It was quite chivalrous the way James defended her, Lily had to admit it made her feel a little better. It shouldn't have but it did. Lily looked about at the spot they were standing in, it really had no significance to her but clearly did for James and when he told her what it was, she couldn't help but feel a little awkward as she stood looking at him. If she averted her gaze, it would only show how uncomfortable she felt about it and she knew he could easily take that to mean she felt something for him, which she was adamant right now that she didn't.

"Ah, I had no idea." Lily saw the light blush that had come to James' cheeks and was just now starting to realise how much of a big deal this really was for him. He was really putting himself out there to her, time after time and she just rejected him. Admittedly she thought he'd have given up by now, most boys would have, but James Potter was certainly a different breed of boy. He looked as though he was mister popular, with his sleeves rolled up, his hair a mess, a charming smile and the cutest pair of eyes but deep down somewhere it seemed as though he was more than the superficial face he put on show. She'd very much like to get to know the real James Potter but she just couldn't let herself, after all, he was still a jerk, even if it wasn't to her.

Lily sighed a little to herself and decided, just this once, she'd give in a little and maybe have a talk with James, nothing heavy, just light conversation. "I can't be bothered with prefect duties tonight, everyone's going to be sneaking about there's no point to it. Do you wanna walk back to the common room with me?"

[james t. potter]

James looked at his feet for a long time as Lily remarked on her not having any idea what this particular spot meant. He really didn't expect her to. Taking a deep breath his ran his tongue over his teeth. Then she spoke again and he looked up at her. Walk her back to the common room? James couldn't find his lips fast enough and just made a funny little noise then gave her a goofy half smile.

\"I'd... Uhh... I'd love to walk you.....Back to the common room that is!!!!" Walk her. As if she were a pet. God he sucked at talking. Blinking a few times he pushed off the wall and fiddled with his watch for a moment. Did he offer to hold her hand? Did he walk beside her quietly? No no. James had seen this before. Bending his arm at the elbow he offered it to her. "Shall we?"

He smiled at her politely, his eyes glinted a little behind his glasses. This was something he had not expected in the least. He sort of figured she was going to run off and tell him that he was a jerk and that all his friends were mad. He'd already started making plans to go back down to the ball and see if Sirius was having any luck with the pranks of the evening. James was well aware of the costume his mate had picked out and was amused by his antics. However, this was way more amazing than poking fun at 'Cupids' toga. Giving Lily another smile he licked his lips. "I won't bite."For poor Mr. Potter this alone was a dream come true.

[lily anne evans]

None of her friends would believe this, Lily was certain that none of her friends would believe that she was actually taking a little bit of pity on James Potter after all, he was most of the things she despised in a person, most, not all, but he wasn't all bad, he could be nice and who knew, if she was nice to him a little more often, perhaps she'd be a good influence and he'd stop being such a bully to people that didn't deserve it.

Lily watched with her eyebrows raised in amusement as James stumbled over his words, making her ultimately sound like a lost dog in need of a walk home but Lily didn't mind, it was amusing and for some strange reason it was nice to be able to laugh around James, she was always so harsh on him that it felt good to have an almost different side to their love/hate relationship. Who knew, the two could actually end up being friends if things kept going as smoothly as tonight, minus the crazy James fan yelling at her of course.

"Sure, let's." She said with a rather large smile across her face as she slipped her arm through his arm. This evening was actually turning out to be quite a pleasant one and she found herself hoping for more like this with James. Just friendly conversation and nothing dramatic, well that wasn't exactly how the evening had started but it would be nice to have a drama free night sometime in the future, even though they were quite rare, even without James Potter around there were still others to take his place and cause a stir in the common room, classrooms and other parts of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade.

"That's good to know." she said as the two began to walk the deserted corridors. So many would be at the dance, so many would be sneaking off into the grounds and Lily wouldn't put it past some of her fellow Prefects to be doing some sneaking of their own on such an occasion as tonight, just as long as there weren't too many rules broken and nothing serious to have to deal with, Lily was sure that all the professors of the school would be able to handle all the students by themselves, they weren't novices after all.

"Thanks for walking me back, James, it's nice to have a little bit of company." She figured James was probably more thankful to her, if he really did have half as much of a crush on her as he seemed to, then she imagined that this was some sort of fantasy of his, she'd never really shown him this much kindness, usually because he had a way of getting under her skin like no other could and she'd yell at him a fair bit but they had never been enemies, he'd just been an annoyance but they were growing up now and Lily knew deep down it was time to put any petty childishness from their past behind them because from what she had seen, James was a very loyal friend and she knew it would be good to have as many loyal people in her life as possible. She just hoped he didn't give her cause to distrust him or the slight amount of faith she was cautiously starting to place in him.

[james t. potter]

James smiled at the small amount of weight that pressed against his arm from hers. He was careful, very careful, not to smoosh her at all, and tucked the other hand into his pocket so as not to seem too close by putting it on her hand or something foolish like that. Which James would undoubtedly do simply because he was on a roll for the evening in doing foolish things. On the bright side she did seem to actually be happy to have him there. Or was it just that there was someone, anyone there to walk with her. Yeah that must have been it because James was certain she didn't like him. But he was determined to prove to her that he was a good guy.

"Well, I'm glad that its you I have to accompany." He smiled at her and walked on in silence a bit. What was he supposed to say to her? "Lily I love you. I've been vastly in love with you since the moment I met you and my life is simply not complete with out your love" Yeah.. that was gonna go over REALLY swell. Taking a deep breath he held it in for a while before letting it out. He pushed his glasses up his nose and sniffed a little. "Look... I know I'm not the best person to be around. But....ahh.. never mind. Talk about something else... Weather... Quidditch....Exams...Anything. What do you like to talk about?"

He looked at her and smiled. He was attempting to do well at hiding his feelings and was now nervously rattling a few loose coins in his pocket. James had a habit of fiddling with things when he was nervous and uncomfortable and well... everything about this moment made him felt like that. He was scared to offend her or upset her. This wasn't going how he planned. Nothing ever really did. James Potter was a fool.

[lily anne evans]

Lily was quite content to walk with her arm linked with James'. It was sort of a nice feeling to be escorted by a boy somewhere. It didn't often happen that was for sure. Usually she was telling boys to get lost. Well, by boys she meant James and Severus, no one else seemed to pay her much attention in any sort of romantic or overly annoying friendshipy sort of way. She had many friends, some were boys, most were girls but they were all friends or annoyances really. She wasn't exactly the dating type, she was the studying type and she was happy with that for now, she wanted a good career when she left Hogwarts and that meant she had to get the grades, yes she was smart, but she still had to study for her grades, learning wasn't something that just came naturally to Lily, she did have to study, she didn't have a perfect memory like some people were gifted with.

Lily didn't feel as though conversation had to be made, she wasn't the sort that always needed to be talking or talked to, sure conversation was nice but so was silence. Still she wondered if James felt awkward walking like this, if he felt uneasy in any sort of way she supposed if she was in his shoes then she might feel a little strange but she didn't want it to be weird for either of them so when he started talking she frowned a little. Why did people always find a way to put themselves down? He wasn't the best person to be around? Right now he was being more than the perfect gentleman so why would he even begin to think that?

"'Not the best person to be around'?" Lily carried on walking with James and looked to him "What in Merlin's beard makes you think that?" Lily looked ahead. She wanted to compliment him, tell him about just how lovely he was actually being and not in the least bit annoying or repulsive or arrogant but she figured she didn't want to inflate that ego of his too much, the way they were right now was quite a charming way to be. "You're being an absolute gentleman James Potter and I appreciate that."