"What's happening in here?"

Alice had just come back from what was possibly a date with the boy she's had a crush on for years, and her mind was racing. However, she was distracted when she walked into the dormitory, seeing all of her friends surrounding Lily on her bed.

"Potter and I kissed." Lily caught Alice up, face buried in her hands.

"What?!" Alice ran over to Lily's bed, sitting by her friends.

"I have so many questions." Marlene said, giggling.

"Trust me, me too." Lily fell back on her pillow. She was still reeling from the kiss, 12 hours later. Granted, she was asleep for most of the time, but she was confused about what it meant, and if it even meant anything.

"First things first, is he a good kisser?" Dorcas asked. Marlene smacked her arm, but they both knew that everyone was wondering. Also, if he was a bad kisser, they'd have amazing teasing material.

"Ugh, yes. Literally everything melted away." Lily shook her head. She was humiliated to admit it, but it was the best kiss she'd ever had.

"Oh, Merlin. So, do you like him?" Emmeline asked.

There was no point in lying anymore. She did like him, she wanted to be with him, she wanted to kiss him.

"I do. I hate it, but I do."

"I fucking knew it!" Basically all of the girls yelled.

"Oh, shut up." Lily laughed. It did feel good to get that off her chest.

"Wait, how did it happen? He just kissed you?" Alice questioned.

"Well, I kissed him." She corrected. Everyone in the room screamed after that.

"What are you going to do about it?" Dorcas asked.

"I don't know!" Lily yelled. She had been agonizing over what comes next since they kissed.

"Well, you know we have a Hogsmeade trip this weekend. You should ask him to go with you!" Emmeline suggested excitedly.

"You know what, I will." Lily said, getting up and walking to the door of the dorm.

The girls walked out of the dorm, exactly at the same time the boys were leaving theres.

As soon as they realized the other ones are there, Lily locked eyes with James. He smiled at her, and she grinned back. They were both whipped.

The girls and boys walked two by two down the stairs, each talking about the same thing.

"Did you hear they finally kissed?" Dorcas asked Remus.

"Duh. It's all James talked about for the past hour." He laughed.

"So, did Lily tell you what happened?" Sirius asked Marlene.

"Yes. I assume James did too." Marlene nudged him.

"Of course. Did Lily actually initiate it?" James said she did, but Sirius was slightly skeptical. It was obvious she liked him, but he didn't know if she would initiate the kiss.

"She did." Both of them laughed.

James walked in complete silence. He had the perfect plan. He was going to wait until everyone sat down, then pull Lily aside and ask her to Hogsmeade. His original plan was to stand on the table and ask her extravagantly, but he knew she didn't like things like that. He even made a song, in case she needed convincing. He just hoped her kissing him wasn't the result of 2AM lapse of judgement or a mistake or something.

They all sat down in the Great Hall, Lily across and a few people down from James. Everyone ate and talked and Lily mustered up the courage to walk up to James.

Her hands were sweaty and clammy, but she wanted to get it over with. She just hoped he'd say yes.

She tapped his shoulder, and he whipped around.

"Hey, Lils. What's up?" James pretended that he wasn't thinking about her the entire meal.

"Hi, Potter. I'm just going to get this over with. I was wondering, would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend?" Lily asked.

Everyone at the table turned and faced her. James's jaw dropped open.

No, this wasn't his plan. Lily wasn't supposed to ask him, he was supposed to ask her. This was not the plan. No, it's not going the way he wanted it to.

And before he realized what everyone would think, how it would sound in conversation, and what it means, James just blurted out "No."

a/n
so this chapter is really short , but it sets up some important shit, so i hope its ok. sorry i've abandoned this book for a while, i am working on starting a new marauders book and writing a jalice book. anyway, i hope y'all like this chapter. happy new year loves!
~ brynlee

a/n
so i kinda wanted to settle something in here because i've gotten a couple comments so i'll clear this up: james's ex girlfriend is named amelia boot. i think i originally made her amelia bones, because i'm pretty sure that's an actual hp character lol, but somehow i ended up making her amelia boot, and she was nicknamed amelia shoe which kills me so there's no going back. so, in conclusion haha, amelia boot is an oc for this book, not the harry potter character. just wanted to clear that up for the comments :)