A/N: I do not own zip. And although that is a double negative, I still don't own Harry Potter.

James twisted around the moment he heard footsteps on the girls' dorm stairs. He scanned the group of girls entering the common room before sinking back into his chair.

"It's not Lily," he said in response to his mates' questioning stares. Peter and Remus nodded understandingly, while Sirius groaned.

"Prongs, mate," Sirius said, rolling his eyes, "you've got to get over her!"

"I can't," James said. "I can't even imagine being with another girl."

"But she hates you," Sirius said. The other two sighed and pulled out essays to work on. They'd heard this discussion a thousand times before.

"Prongs," Sirius groaned, "just try. Go up to – " Sirius was interrupted by more footsteps on the stairs. James twisted around and scanned for Lily's long, silky red hair. Disappointed again, he sunk even further into his chair. Sirius continued as if nothing had happened.

"Go up to a girl and ask her to Hogsmeade," Sirius said.

"But I only want to go with Lily," James said automatically. He and Sirius argued about this often enough that neither of them really got into the argument anymore.

"You never know," Peter said suddenly. "You might make her jealous."

"Hey! Wormtail's got an idea," Sirius said.

"No!" Remus said. "This is a bad idea. Very bad."

"Aw, c'mon, Moony," Sirius said. "What can go wrong? She can hardly hate him more than she already does."

"She could," Remus said, but even he didn't really believe that.

"Please, Prongs," Sirius started pleading. "Pleeeeeeease oh pleeeeeeeeeeease oh pleeeee – "

"Fine," James sighed. He stood up and, rolling his eyes at Sirius, walked up to a group of girls he didn't recognize. They seemed about his age, and one of them even had red hair – short red hair, though. James addressed her.

"Would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me?" he asked, trying to inject a sufficient amount of enthusiasm in his voice. The girl glared at him.

"Knock it off, Potter," she snapped in Lily's voice. "It's been half a bloody hour since I said no the last time!"

"Evans?" James asked, shocked.

"Duh," said the girl. Now that James thought about it, she did look exactly like Lily, only with really short hair.

"What happened to your hair?" he asked.

"I like it," Lily said, self-consciously. James tried to look at her objectively. True, he had loved her hair, but the new hair cut did suit her. The short red locks framed her heart-shaped face perfectly. James felt himself frown.

"You don't like it?" Lily asked. Her voice grew excited. "You're going to stop asking me out?"

"Not at all," James said. "But now no one else will, either." He smirked down at Lily and turned back to his mates, all of whom were staring at him in disbelief. As Lily ran to catch up to her friends, James flopped across his chair, legs falling off the cushioned arm.

"What was that?" Sirius asked.

"I didn't realize it was Lily," James said.

"Oh, Merlin," Peter said. "You're hopeless. You know that, right?"

"I'm aware," James said. "But did you see her? We have to figure out new threats to make other blokes stay away from her."

"We'll let one ask her out and then make an example of her," Sirius said. "But that's not the point. Prongs, you were supposed to ask someone else out! Not the same exact girl you've fancied for three bloody years!"

"I thought I was," James said. "I thought she was a different girl."

"Red hair? Green eyes? How is that different?"

James shrugged. "Old habits die hard, I guess."

A/N: This was just a little one-shot I wrote randomly. Don't worry; I haven't abandoned Oh No You Didn't. ;)