flowerpotts & mistletoe - james and lily

december 5

sry im so late i had a long day

song of the day: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

James hated Mondays. Well, everyone hated Mondays, but James felt he hated them most of all. Especially this Monday. The entire day felt like a time bomb ticking to patrol with Lily.

Finally, at long last, James got up from his bed on shaky legs and walked down to McGonagall's office, where lily was waiting in a surprisingly fancy outfit.

"You look nice," he commented with a small smile.

"Thank you." She smiled back.

She was wearing a light brown turtleneck with a mini-skirt. Half her wonderful copper hair was pulled up, all curled to perfection, matching her sparkling shamrock green eyes. Large silver hooped earrings were hanging from her ears. Her fingernails were painted maroon.

"We can start walking, you know," Lily said, walking ahead of him, but not so fast that James couldn't catch up in a couple of steps.

"So what did you do today that prompted this fancy outfit?" James asked, trying not to sound too eager.

Lily sighed quietly. "Matthew took me down to Hogsmeade after school."

"Where?"

"Madam Puddyfoot's," she said, distastefully.

James shook his head. "You hate that place. Everyone knows that."

"Well yeah. But something happened there. And I need your help, because I really don't know what to do."

James looked over at her, and Lily knew he was looking at her, but she didn't look back, she just kept looking straight ahead. "Of course, what is it?"

She stayed silent, her Doc Martens clacking on the floor. After a minute she told him. "He did it. He proposed."

James gasped. "What?!"

His heart stopped. His head was spiralling, and everything was losing colour. James knew this would happen sooner or later, but his hopefulness was trying to convince him it wouldn't.

A few nearby paintings opened their eyes, startled, and glared at the two. "Can't you see we're trying to sleep here? Keep it down!" One of them whisper-shouted. They apologized and continued talking, in lower voices.

"I can't help but notice the lack of a ring on your finger. Does that mean you said no?"

"No..."

"So you said yes but you lost the ring?"

Lily chuckled. "No..."

"Okay, I give, just tell me. I don't think my guessing is going to take me anywhere," James said, forcing a small laugh.

"I said I need time to think. Because I'm only seventeen, after all, and I don't know if I'm ready to be married right after we finish Hogwarts. I don't even know if I want to get married at all—" And that was where all of James's wedding plans flew out the window. "But of course if I did, it would be to someone I really cared about. Someone charming and respectful, a good sense of humour, obviously, but most importantly, I would have to love that person, and I hardly know Matthew. Marrying him would seem like more of a business transaction with balloon arches more than something that would make us happy."

Lily was saying so many things, and James had such a hard time keeping up that he thought she was sort of describing him. But that would be silly. Almost as silly as people getting married at 18.

"James? What do you think?" Lily snapped James back into reality.

"By when did you say you have to make up your mind?" He asked.

"Christmas day," Lily replied. "That's the latest."

James considered what to say. "I think you really need to think this through. You have about 20 days, so just try to think about how you truly feel, but don't rush your decision."

They talked a bit more about Lily's situation, and homework, until they were finished, which was when they headed back to Gryffindor tower.

"Well, goodnight James," Lily said, turning to walk up the stairs to the girl's dorms. "Before I go, I just wanted to tell you that I really care about you, okay?"

James flashed his charming smile at her, but not in a tacky way, in a cute way, or so he hoped. "I— I care about you too, Lily. Goodnight." They parted ways.

"He proposed to her," James announced to his friends as soon as he got upstairs. "Matthew Davies proposed to Lily Evans, but I think Lily might like me, because she said she cared about me, and she didn't say yes to Matthew, so I have no idea what's going on."

"So she said no?" Sirius asked from Remus's bed. They were painting each others' fingernails, a Bowie record playing quietly in the background.

"No, she said she needs time to think," James explained.

"And what did you tell her?" Peter asked.

James flopped down on his bed. "I told her to listen to her heart." James only hoped her heart was pointing in his direction.