Valentine's Day

[snitchnicker.livejournal.com]

It was Valentine's Day. It was Valentine's Day, and Lily was in the park now. Sure, James still had to win her over so she probably wasn't going to get him anything or do anything for him, but it was a great chance to win her over.

If Lily opened her door when there was a knock, she'd find a long trail of lilies leading towards the dress shop in the castle, where a green dress in Lily's size was on a mannequin.

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[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

"What the...?" said Lily, blinking in surprise, when she saw nobody but flowers at her door. Her surprised quickly became confusion and then annoyance, though; this had to be another of James's stupid pranks. Rolling her eyes to herself, she contemplated shutting the door and not even thinking about the flowers again.

But her curiosity got the better of her, and James hadn't been quite as obnoxious as usual since she'd gotten to the park, anyway. A little reluctantly, she followed the lillies until they got the castle, letting out a surprised little gasp when she saw the dress.

[snitchnicker.livejournal.com]

James snuck up behind her, wishing now more than ever he had his cloak of invisibility with him. "Do you like it?"

[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

Lily whirled to face him. "I..." she said slowly, conflicted. She coughed and took a deep breath, and said politely, "It's nice."

[snitchnicker.livejournal.com]

James grinned. "How about you get changed? I'll take you out to lunch or something?"

[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

Lily crossed her arms over her chest. "Do you really think I'm that easy to win over, James Potter?" she demanded.

[snitchnicker.livejournal.com]

"Not at all," he said, smiling. "It's just lunch."

[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

Lily sighed. "And flowers, and a dress, and..." She was torn between wanting to tell James to bloody sod off already and wanting to accept his offer. He was being strangely sweet -- maybe he had changed. But he also still persisting in harrassing her, so he couldn't have changed that much.

"I keep telling you I'm not interested! But you never get it! Who do you think you are, doing all these... really nice things... for me?"

[snitchnicker.livejournal.com]

"I think I'm a really nice guy?" James asked, shooting her his most charming smile. "Come now, spending lunch with me in a new dress is hardly going to kill you."

[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

Lily rolled her eyes. "I think you're an egotistical prat!" she told him. Looking annoyed, apparently unaffected by the charming smile, Lily said, "Fine, I'll go. But it's not a date, and if you call it one just once, I'm leaving."

[snitchnicker.livejournal.com]

James smiled. "Great. Go get changed!"

[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

Lily shot him a glare before, hesitantly taking the dress off the mannequinn. "Where did you get this, anyway?" she muttered.

[snitchnicker.livejournal.com]

"I made it," James said, shooting her a smile. "So if it fits weirdly in any places, tell me."

[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

"You made it?" said Lily suspiciously. "Sure. So where should I change?"

[snitchnicker.livejournal.com]

James laughed a little. "You don't want to see me cook," he teased. "I suppose it is fair though." He headed inside, then began to look around at the food, frowning. "What do you want?"

[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

Lily waved off the question, "Oh, just something simple. You can pick as long as it's not too... much."

[snitchnicker.livejournal.com]

"I'm quite fond of fettuccine alfredo," James said casually. "How about we have some of that?"

It wasn't a complete lie. He did like it, it just wasn't one of his favourite foods. But it was one of Lily's favourites, and the whole point of the date was to make her fall in love with him. It wouldn't do to pick something that she didn't like a lot.

[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

Lily said, "You are?" in surprise. She'd never really expected to have something in common with James Potter, even if it WAS just food. "Sure, okay!"

[snitchnicker.livejournal.com]

"All right," he said, opening the cupboards with a flick of his wand. He really hoped they had the ingredients here.

[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

Lily peered into the cupboards, pulling out alfredo sauce. "Well, we have the sauce," she said. "Now we just need to find the pasta."

[snitchnicker.livejournal.com]

It only took James a moment before he found the pasta as well, and he put it on the cupboard. "Okay, so..." he said, pointing at a cupboard that had the pots in it and catching the one that flew at him. "We er, boil water, right?" he asked, already filling the pot with water from his wand. He had only cooked once in his life (for Lily's birthday one year), and Lily never let him cook again after he had managed to light their dinner on fire.

[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

Lily had to laugh a little. "Right," she said. Frowning, realizing that this could result in disaster if he wasn't watch carefully, Lily asked. "How do wizarding families cook, anyway?"

[snitchnicker.livejournal.com]

"I don't know," James answered hesitantly. "The house-elves always used to cook for us when I went home, and I obviously never had to cook at Hogwarts. When I snuck down to the kitchen in the middle of the night for snacks, the house-elves always got me whatever I wanted."

[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

Lily frowned a little, both because she'd never been able to get comfortable with the whole idea of house elves and because this meant James was really lost here.

"All right," she said, "then you're going to need to do exactly as I tell you. Can you do that, James?"

[snitchnicker.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I can," James said. He was tempted to throw a joking 'I do that enough at home, especially while you were pregnant,' but refrained. "What should I do now?" he asked as his wand stopped pouring water.

[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

As though she was reciting something she was reading off a card, Lily said, "First, you turn on the stove so that the water can boil. Then you add the pasta to the water. First, you read the back, to see how long it says to cook it..."