Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine, but gosh I wish they were!
A/N: This is the last one-shot of this series! Thanks for reading and reviewing!
Harry stumbled into the kitchen at Grimmauld place rather late that night. He couldn't sleep well, and his stomach was constantly reminding him that he most certainly didn't eat enough for dinner. Drowsily placing his hands on the kitchen table in search for some food, Harry could hardly notice Professor Lupin sitting at the table, bent over writing.
"Professor! I didn't mean to disturb you, I…"
Harry trailed off when Lupin gave him a large smile from across the table.
"I've actually been waiting for you Harry. You didn't eat nearly as much as usual for dinner, I was hoping you'd come down here."
Harry grinned sheepishly.
"What did you want me for Professor, have I done something wrong?"
"No, Harry, not at all, I was just thinking about that moment during your fifth year when you saw that particular memory of your parents. It wasn't the most, accurate, representation of them, and I was wondering if you would like to know what really happened? To ease your mind, say?"
Harry didn't need to say anything to thank Professor Lupin, the smile on his face gave the meaning of his answer in its entirety. Of course Harry wanted to know the story, his parents getting married and having him was a flabbergasting thought, seeing as they appeared to hate each other so much.
"Well, Harry, it started in seventh year, after Sirius and I had given a bit of a worded discussion to your father…"
"Yeah, and James no matter what you do don't try showing off around her."
"Try not to fluff your hair so much, she hates that!"
James looked exasperated. After his latest 'Lily rejection', as he now referred to them, he had become absolutely stumped as to how he would manage to snag her, and Sirius and Remus were trying very hard to help. She was too perfect, and gorgeous and wonderful, but hated him with every ounce of hatred she possessed. James was completely at a loss.
"Maybe I should just give up? We all know she's never going to fancy me…"
Sirius burst into severe fits of laughter.
"James, mate, you have said that same thing about four times a year, since you started liking Lily, which means you've said it…. 28 times! Face it, you aren't ever going to give up on her."
"You're right. I don't think I can."
Remus finally interjected, "James, if it means so much to you, start treating her like you would if she was your girlfriend. Stop calling her 'Evans' all the time. You know she hates that. Start complimenting her instead of calling her a know-it-all all the time! You aren't going to get anywhere like you are now."
James sighed. He knew they were both right, he'd never give up on her, he had liked her since he met her on the train in first year. And he also knew that he would most certainly have to start behaving around her. If only she knew how much he wanted to be able to hold her, and tell her how beautiful she was. Deciding that he couldn't waste his last chance at convincing Lily he was crazy about her, James vowed to himself that he would behave from now on, regardless of the effects.
Harry was grinning just as much as Lupin was with these memories.
"My dad behaving himself for some girl? I thought it would never happen!"
Lupin laughed appreciatively, "I know, we found it equally as amusing. We never thought he'd take our advice, but he did."
"What did my dad do?"
"Well, it wasn't without humour, I assure you!"
When James, Sirius and Remus reached the common room, soon to be joined by Peter, James instantly spotted his favourite mass of red hair sitting by the fire. He gazed longingly over in her direction, only snapped out of his state when Lily's friends started laughing at him. He didn't think he could feel any worse. Pulling himself gradually together, he started deciding how exactly he was going to behave…
The conversation between the boys was growing dull, and James had taken to staring at Lily again when he noticed that she was about to stand up from her chair. Remembering he had to be behaved, he darted instantly to Lily's chair and pulled it out from underneath her.
"There you are, my lady."
Lily's friends could have cracked several ribs from laughter. Her face turned the same shade of red as her hair, and whispered furiously, "Stop it, Potter!" She turned instead to sit back down, while James neatly pushed the chair underneath her again.
"There you are, my lady."
She simply hissed at him.
"Oi!" James turned to answer the call from Sirius.
"James, I'm about to stand up, you better get over here! Pull out my chair, mate!"
As he turned to leave, Lily shouted out after him, "Leave me alone, Potter." He felt even worse again for the third time that day.
"Oh, my dad was such a prat!"
Lupin laughed again, "Yes, it was one extreme or the other for James. Except this day really hit him hard. I think this was the day that he realised…."
"He was madly in love with mum?"
"You couldn't have put it better, Harry."
Sitting alone in the dormitory had James feeling quite depressed and hurt. Staring dejectedly at the carved 'L.E' on his bedpost, James kicked his bedside cupboard and starting cursing himself. He was pushing her further and further away. It was hopeless. She would never ever like him. And he would always love her. Today had been enough to prove it clearly to him. That he was so in love with Lily he couldn't help it anymore, he felt he couldn't be without her for much longer, otherwise he would positively explode.
When Remus pulled back his hangings, James smiled a small, but helpless smile.
"James, I think you were, well, a bit too well behaved."
"Well, thanks for stating the obvious Moony."
"Perhaps next time you can just ignore her? Maybe she'll be surprised to see that you aren't being a jeering 'jerk' for a change…"
"Thanks mate."
James turned over in his bed, and tried to sleep, but the thought of having to ignore Lily was clouding his mind, and he felt so genuinely sad that it had to resort to this.
The next morning, after making his way gradually down to the great hall for breakfast, James took his usual seat and said nothing. He merely pushed his spoon around his bowl hoping for something interesting to happen. Lily, who preferred to sit as distanced from him as possible raised her eyebrows slightly, noting that he wasn't teasing, or jeering or even saying anything for a change. Even she noticed he looked sad. Almost opening her mouth to say something, she clamped it firmly shut, stopping herself before she did something she would regret. A silent James was a true blessing, she had decided, and would enjoy eating her breakfast in peace, unaware she was occasionally throwing a sideways look at James.
The day changed barely. James was still quiet and dismal looking, and Lily was still furtive and concerned about this change in the usual show-off, pompous clown she was so used to. What had happened to him? What could have possibly caused James to be so dismal? For a brief moment, it crossed Lily's mind that she could have offended him. But she dismissed it almost straight away; everyone knew that James was only being rude to her. It was only ever Sirius who shouted 'James wants you, big time, Lily!', and he was almost as unreliable as James.
"Poor dad!"
"We all felt sorry for him by this stage, Harry. Infact, so sorry, that we were betting on the outcome, the caring friends we were!"
Harry laughed.
"Well, I'm guessing it worked, didn't it?"
"Oh yes, Harry, Sirius had them together by Christmas…"
"Remus, I bet you 10 galleons they're together by Christmas."
"Sirius, you don't have 10 galleons to bet."
"I wont need them Moony! I'm going to win!"
"You're going to have Lily Evans and James Potter snogging in almost 24 hours? Impossible."
"It is not! Did you seem them today? Lily couldn't stop looking at him! She was worried, that silent treatment was the best thing he ever did, did you get him doing that?"
"Yeah, I did Padfoot, but that doesn't mean you're going to have them together in a day. I'm in."
"Oi, Wormtail! Wanna bet on Lily and James snogging in a day?"
While the boys made their bets about the elusive event, James was walking helplessly around the castle. For a whole day he had said nothing to her. He even stopped doing his favourite thing, which was shouting 'Hey Evans!' after going to the corridors near her classes, because he had her timetable memorised. What was making James so incredibly sad, though, was not missing out on his fun, but the fact that she didn't even care about why he was so quiet. She said nothing. She just carried on, hating him, he guessed.
"Potter?"
He stopped walking around the corridors instantly. He knew that voice from anywhere. That voice could make him melt, and his heart race both simultaneously. It was the most beautiful voice he had ever heard.
"Evans," he mumbled back, turning around to face her, with his head not moving from the spot on the carpet at her feet.
"I've been looking for you all night Potter. Not that I really am that concerned, but why are you so glum today? I couldn't help but thinking something bad has happened… If you don't want to talk about it, I don't mind…"
"No, no, Evans it's fine. I'm just, well, doing something for someone I love very much, and it's eating away at me, that's all."
"Oh," she mumbled back. She was convinced now. There was no way that he could love her. He had just said it himself. Trying to appear relieved, she couldn't help but feel rather odd on the inside. Had she really been enjoying the fact that James wanted her?
"Well, sorry to hear that Potter, I hope things work out," and she took off for Gryffindor tower feeling somewhat empty and confused.
"So, mum enjoyed it when dad tormented her?"
"It appears so Harry."
"Well, she did a bloody good job of hiding it Professor!"
"She did. It was Sirius who managed to get everything in motion though, him and his lust for winning, that bet was almost entirely responsible for your parents relationship…"
"That's why Sirius was so great!" Harry replied, feeling a slight pang of sadness after mentioning him, this made him miss Sirius more.
When Lily arrived back in Gryffindor tower she was so incredibly confused she didn't know what to do. Half of her wished to storm right up to Remus, whom she trusted most out of the boys, and demand that he tell her who James loved. The other half, who she wished she was listening to more, was telling her to continue hating James and go and sit with the girls. Curiosity got the better of her.
"Remus!"
"Yes, Lily?"
"Tell me what is wrong with James."
"Well, I don't really think I should do that Lily, that's his personal problem…"
"Not when he tells me that he's doing something bad for someone he loves and I have NO idea who that person is!"
All three boys shifted uncomfortably.
"Honestly, is someone breaking his heart? Because that person needs to have a stern talking to…"
"Well, you're in for a rough night!" Sirius chanted eagerly.
"What did you just say?" Lily asked curiously.
"I said, er, isn't snow a pretty sight?"
She looked at him with pure disgust.
"Anyway Lils," Sirius chose to ignore her increasingly furious face, "Why do YOU suddenly care so much about Jamesy? You're not starting to like him are you?"
"Of course not," she replied, a little too fast and high pitched.
Storming off back to the fireplace with her friends, Lily sat down in a huff, without taking her eyes away from the portrait hole, hoping he would come back inside soon. She didn't want him to be miserable on Christmas day.
James didn't arrive until late that evening, when the entire Gryffindor common room was empty. He quietly made his way up to his dormitory, and climbed inside his bed, quite sure he heard the scratching of a quill from Sirius' direction. Dismissing this entirely, James fell to sleep, hoping that he wouldn't have to spend Christmas day ignoring Lily.
The morning was cold, but the snow was sparkling outside the tower windows, and as James walked down into the common room to greet his friends, he couldn't help but wish he was outside with Lily walking around in the beautiful scenery, holding her hand, and then leaning in closer to…
"James! Where were you last night mate, you missed a nice and angry Lily, wish you'd have seen it."
"Shut up, Sirius."
"Oh, and Merry Christmas to you too mate!"
"It won't be merry if I have to ignore her again."
"I don't think you'll have to worry about that mate… she was right worried about you last night."
"Really?" James asked, far more eagerly than what he was hoping to sound.
"Yeah! She was even asking about the girl who's breaking your heart, and how she deserves to suffer. I told her she'd have a rough night, but I don't think she… hey! Here comes the little ray of sunshine now!"
James' heart leapt when he saw her walking down the steps into the common room wearing a white dressing robe and fluffy little slippers. Merlin, she was so cute. Without noticing that Sirius was fleeing from the common room, Lily approached James almost smiling, and said "Potter, what's this about?" holding up a sheet of parchment in her hand.
She was standing right infront of him, so close that he could reach out and feel her small hands, and pull her in closer so he could hold her. He couldn't draw himself away from her, she was so beautiful. Obviously noticing that James wasn't paying attention to anything she was trying to say, she pulled on his sleeve.
"James?"
He snapped out of his daze almost immediately, however, his heart choosing to skip a beat this very same time. He let the sound of her voice saying his name ring in his ears. James. She said his name.
"Yes, Lily?"
"Are you going to tell me the meaning of this?" she asked him again, showing him the piece of parchment.
It was only one sentence long, but James recognised the handwriting instantly, and wanted to both hug and murder Sirius at the same time.
'I really said "you're going to have a rough night", and you haven't entirely broken his heart, not yet.'
James looked sheepishly up at Lily, who was now most definitely smiling at him.
"Does this mean what I think it means, James?"
"Er, yeah it does."
"Will you do me one favour, please James?"
"Anything, my lady!"
"Don't give any girls the silent treatment again, or they'll all fall in love with you."
"You're, you, wait, what? You're in love with me? With… me?"
She smiled.
Without thinking a second longer, not wanting to waste a single moment, or chance that he might have with her, he pulled her right into him and gently pressed his lips against hers. They stood there kissing for what seemed to be like forever, and neither of them wanted it to end.
When they finally stopped, James beamed at her,
"I am so in love with you Lily."
And he kissed her again.
They didn't even notice Sirius, who insisted on jumping around the common room joyfully shouting,
"It's a merry 20 galleon-ish Christmas for me!"
"I didn't know my dad was so romantic!"
"To tell you the truth Harry, neither did we!"
"Did you give Sirius his 10 galleons?"
"No, he was too busy teasing Lily about hating James to notice that Peter and I didn't pay him anything."
Harry laughed again, this time trying to prevent a huge yawn.
"And on that note Harry, you should eat and go to bed."
Harry did, and wished secretly that he was more like his dad in that particular department.