The post was just coming in as she made her way to the Gryffindor table, and the confusion - and excitement - was enough for her to slip into a seat next to Marlene McKinnon relatively unnoticed.

"About time," Marlene told her, as she began to put pancakes on her plate. "Sleeping in, were we?"

"Oh, hush," Lily replied, too tired still to come up with anything better. Lily's owl, Winifred, dropped to the table, a packet of letters clamped in her beak. Lily took and glanced through them as she liberally applied syrup to her pancakes. Letter from Mum and Dad - not surprising, it was the first week of school. Mum always sent letters the first week, to make sure Lily was settling in all right. Letter from Petunia that their mum had probably made her write. Letter from Sev - Lily froze.

She had officially stopped being friends with Severus Snape after the incident after final exams last year. His involvement with the so-called "Death Eaters" was concerning, and their attitudes had begun to rub off on him. She couldn't overlook it any longer, and had told him so. He'd begged her to reconsider. She'd walked away from her first wizarding friend and hadn't looked back.

Then she'd spent the rest of the night trying to muffle her sobs so as not to wake the dormitory.

But why was he writing her now? It was the first week of their sixth year - he could have written her over the summer, he could have…

She sighed. No use in wondering about "could haves" now, she thought, and flipped to her last letter. It wasn't even a letter, just a folded scrap of parchment, really, a bit worn on the edges, with "Lily Evans" written on the front of it in an untidy scrawl that looked vaguely familiar. Curious, she unfolded it, then nearly spit out her breakfast when she saw what it said:

Evans -

Hogsmeade? With me? October?

James Potter

She dropped the parchment as if it had burned her. Potter? Asking her out? It had to be a prank. It had to. Quickly she dropped her other letters on top of the note before anyone saw and searched for a spare bit of parchment and a quill from her bag with one hand, absently petting Winifred's feathers with the other to keep her at the table.

She wrote a hasty response. Then she folded the parchment up, wrote "James Potter" on the front and gave the note to Winifred, waving a piece of bacon as a treat and impetus to return. The grey owl took flight, heading toward the other end of the Gryffindor table.

o0o

James was about halfway through his breakfast when Lily Evans' grey owl landed on the table in front of him, a scrap of parchment clutched in its beak.

James dropped his fork and gently tugged the note out of the owl's beak. The owl promptly took off.

"Wazzat, Prongs?" asked Peter through a mouthful of food. James didn't reply, staring at his name - "James Potter" - written across the front of the note in her neat handwriting. She'd gotten his note. This was her answer. He glanced up and realized Sirius and Remus were giving him twin curious looks - well, Sirius's was a little more suspicious, but that was simply because it was Sirius.

"What is it, James?" Peter asked, insistently. Still ignoring him, James carefully unfolded the note.

Potter -

No. And stop trying to prank me. It won't work.

Evans

He dropped the note onto the table and snatched up his fork again, returning to his breakfast with a vengeance. A prank. She thought it was a prank. She'd dismissed the idea - dismissed him - immediately.

"Care to share, Prongs?" Sirius asked in an intentionally careless tone. James tossed the note at him, shoveling another forkful of scrambled eggs into his mouth. Peter leaned over, reading over Sirius's shoulder. Sirius finished the note and passed it to Remus, face blank.

"Evans…" Peter started. "Lily Evans?"

James nodded.

"You asked her out," Remus said. It wasn't a question.

James nodded again.

"Maybe we really should prank her," Peter suggested.

"No!" said James quickly. "I've just - I've just got to convince her."

Peter, Sirius, and Remus gave him matching looks of pity.

o0o

The effort began in earnest after that. Lily had been going through the motions, adjusting to Hogwarts without Sev. Sure, she had other friends, but her oldest friend at Hogwarts wasn't her friend anymore, and it felt… different.

Strangely enough, the less she saw Sev, the more she seemed to see James Potter. He'd always been there, she supposed, but perhaps she was just noticing him more now that he was trying to prank her. She began to worry that the note wasn't the end of it, and she was going to be the victim of the Marauders' latest prank - she noticed that the four of them seemed to be around more than ever. A prank. It was the only likely explanation.

Unless that note wasn't a prank, a very quiet voice in the back of her mind said.

Finally she got sick of catching the four boys hovering at the corners of her vision and confronted them after Potions one day.

"I don't know what stupid prank you have in mind, Potter," she told him, stomping up to him, "but leave me out of it, will you?"

Potter grinned down at her, blue eyes twinkling at her from behind his glasses. "Hey there, Evans," he said, conversationally. "Why do you assume we're going to prank you?"

"Because that's what you lot do, isn't it?" she snapped, gesturing to the four of them.

"Hmm," said Potter, pretending to mull it over. "I suppose so. Interesting." Then he seemed to focus back in on her. "Evans?"

"What?" Lily asked, arms folded over her chest.

"Go to Hogsmeade with me?" he asked, raising one eyebrow and smiling wickedly.

Her eyes widened. Again? Maybe he was serious - But that smile, and the fact that he was doing it in front of his friends…

Her eyes narrowed. "Like I said, stop trying to prank me, Potter. It won't work." Then she turned on her heel and stalked down the hall, trying her best to ignore the fluttery feeling in her stomach. Twice. He'd asked her twice in one week.

Behind her, Remus clapped a hand to James' shoulder in silent sympathy.

"Better luck next time?" Peter offered.

"I'll wear her down," James said, with more confidence than he felt.

"Eventually," Sirius added with a grim smile.

o0o

Lily couldn't seem to get away from James Potter after that. He was in more of her classes than she'd realised, and every time she happened to meet his eyes, he'd give her that infuriatingly charming grin and raise an expectant eyebrow. She'd turn around with a huff and reddening cheeks, trying to focus back in on her books. And every two weeks or so, there came the question - "Hogsmeade, Evans?" - at dinner, in study hall, shouted across the courtyard, passed in note in the library. She turned him down, of course, knowing he had to be up to something, but after a while it became more of 'the usual' and less of a total rejection - it was just James. A small part of her was becoming more and more curious about what would happen if she said 'Yes.' She caught herself looking in his direction on occasion, when she should have been working on homework or talking to her friends. Just out of self-preservation, mind - to make sure he wouldn't suddenly ambush her with a Hogsmeade proposition.

It was after the first Quidditch match of the season, Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, which Gryffindor had won. The common room was full of celebrating Gryffindors when James Potter (Gryffindor Quidditch Captain) got up on a table and shouted, "Go to Hogsmeade with me, Evans?" in front of the entire Gryffindor House. The common room got quiet, everyone turning to look at Lily. Lily felt her face getting red.

"In your dreams, Potter," she said. Was it her imagination, or did his face fall? But he rallied quickly, summoning up a smirk.

"Always, Evans," he called, and she felt herself go even redder as she beat a hasty retreat to the sixth-year girls' dorm.

o0o

Within two days the story had spread through the entire school: James Potter had asked Lily Evans out - and she'd turned him down.

Potter and Evans were both unavailable for comment.

Severus Snape could be seen to have a new spring in his step these days, though no one was quite sure why.

o0o

After the Quidditch party incident, Lily had to keep turning Potter down, just for the sake of appearances. And while her suspicions that his asking wouldn't result in a prank were quietly growing, part of her thought that no boy was that persistent - he had to be up to something. Whenever she saw the Marauders, she was sure they were eyeing her speculatively. She took to avoiding them in the halls.

James, for his part, was growing a little discouraged by Lily's constant rejections. People (mostly Sirius) had advised him to stop, that she didn't like him, that he'd make her hate him if he kept it up. But keep it up he did, spurred on by the red in her cheeks and the slight reluctance in her eyes every time she turned him down because they were a challenge. And if there was one thing James Potter couldn't resist when it came to a girl - especially this girl - it was a challenge.

o0o

A piece of paper hit Lily on the shoulder in Charms class, bouncing off her and landing on the floor. Frowning, she bent down to pick it up and realised it was a note with her name on it written in James Potter's familiar scrawl.

Hogsmeade again, she thought, but opened the note anyway.

Hey, Evans, it read. Think you could help me with that Potions assignment? I know you're good at them. - Potter.

PS: I'll help you with Transfiguration.

Lily blinked, taken pleasantly off guard. Maybe he had given up? And she was surprised that he'd noticed she was good at Potions and wanted her help, considering Remus was a dab hand at Potions himself. Plus - though she hated to admit it - James Potter was exceptionally good at Transfiguration, and any help she could get in that class would be appreciated. Maybe they could get past this Hogsmeade thing.

Lily pulled out a piece of parchment and carefully wrote, Potter - All right, but only because I'm rubbish at Transfiguration and you know it. Library? Then she folded it, wrote "James Potter" on the front and sent it whizzing at him with a quick flick of her wand. It hit him square in the chest, and she glanced back only long enough to make sure he'd picked it up. Then she turned back to her notes.

Another piece of parchment hit her, in the back of the head this time. Library, 7.00, it read. It's a date, Evans.

NOT a date, Potter, she scribbled furiously, and shot her reply at his face. It bounced off, and he grinned amiably at her narrowed eyes.

o0o

Lily Evans was a surprisingly good teacher, James reflected with some surprise. For all her crotchety ways and stubbornness, she was capable of explaining things well, without losing patience and trying to do the whole thing for him.

"You're not a bad tutor," he told her as they walked back to Gryffindor Tower.

"Really?" she said, turning a light shade of pink and tucking a piece of long red hair behind her ear. "I was just going over my notes…"

"Well, let me just check my Divination notes," he told her, pulling a bit of parchment out of his bag. "Yes, I see a Hogwarts professorship in your future, Evans."

"Oh, hush," she said, but her tone was good-natured.

"Not your dream job?" he inquired lightly.

"I want to be an Auror," she said, glancing up at him. "All these Dark things happening - I want to be able to do something about it."

"I know exactly how you feel," James agreed, seriously. "That's part of the reason the one class I don't mess around in is Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Just all the other ones," Lily said with a tiny smile.

He drew back, pretending to be offended. "I thought my Transfiguration skills were the reason you agreed to this little study session in the first place?"

"Of course," Lily said, rolling her eyes.

"We should do this again," he remarked, as the Fat Lady came into view.

"Yes," she replied absently. James glanced down at her. She was looking thoughtful.

"Quelle dommage," he said, when she made no move to state the password. The Fat Lady swung open with a wink. "After you, Evans," he said, gesturing toward the portrait hole. She stepped through, still with that thoughtful look on her face.

"Next week, library, 7.00?" she asked finally.

"It's a date, Evans," he said with a grin, and dashed up the stairs to the boys' dorms before she could yell at him.

o0o

Their 'study dates' continued well past the first Hogsmeade trip, but strangely, James (she'd stopped thinking of him as 'Potter' several study sessions ago) seemed to have given up asking her to Hogsmeade altogether.

She wasn't disappointed. She wasn't. James Potter, she reminded herself, was an irritating, lazy, arrogant toerag and everything was much simpler now that he wasn't asking her out every other day. Even though he'd shown himself to be tremendously clever, and witty, and thoughtful, and she was starting to think a date with him might not be so bad after all.

o0o

James took a deep breath. This was it. Phase III of his plan to get Lily Evans to go out with him happened today.

Phase I: Ask her out. A lot. Try to wear her down.

Phase II: Try to be friends with her, because asking her out wasn't working.

Phase III: Ask her out one more time, just to see if anything had changed.

It was nearly seven - she'd be in the library by now. As she helped him with a fairly easy Charms assignment that he simply couldn't focus on, all he could do was run through the line he'd come up with in his head and hope to Merlin he didn't muck it all up.

"Hey, Evans - Lily?" he asked, as she began to pull out her Transfiguration textbook. She paused, looking up at him. "Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead," she said.

"Would you go to Hogsmeade with me in December?" he asked, then held his breath. He saw the 'No' forming on her lips, saw the narrowing of her eyes, and all hope left him - but the response didn't come. Something was making her hesitate. She was considering it.

"Why not," were the words that came out of her mouth.

James stared at her, mouth falling open. A red flush started creeping up her cheeks. "I mean, you've already asked so many times, I figured I'd give you at least one chance," she explained, clearly trying to keep her tone casual.

"That's - that's a yes, then," James stammered, utterly taken aback for once. "You'll go with me to Hogsmeade?"

"It's a date, Potter," she said, bending over her books to hide the smile spreading over her face.

A/N: Just wanted to write some Jily because I've not done any Harry Potter fanfics yet and I wanted to give it a shot. Also, persistent James is adorable. In other news, I am working on an update for "School Daze", if you're following that one, so just hold on! It's got one chapter left!