"Aw, come on, Prongs!" Sirius teased his friend, arm hanging around Remus's shoulders. "Just ask her out already! She's not dumb enough to turn you down."
"No, she's smart enough," Remus muttered, and Peter giggled.
"Oh, shut up, Moony. Just because you already have a boyfriend."
Remus blushed and shifted a bit closer to Sirius.
"Come on, Prongs, I can even help you with your makeup!" Sirius teased. "I know the girls usually flock around your messed up hair, but Evans is one of those stick-up-the-butt girls who like proper boys."
"My hair is fine!"
Sirius laughed and ruffled James's perpetually messed up hair. "Oh, come on, Prongs, your hair couldn't get any worse!"
James laughed along with the others but still groaned at Sirius. "Ah, stooooop."
"Okay, ickle Prongsy, but when she turns you down and you ask her why, you know it'll be because of your hair."
Remus shook his head, still smiling. "No, I think it will most probably because when you ask her out you'll turn into a jumbled mess of nerves and barf your feelings out rather than say them."
"Way to have faith in my nonchalance, Moony," James rolled his eyes.
Remus grinned. "No problem!"
"Speak of the devil," Peter said, nodding in the direction of a particularly fiery ginger. "Here she comes."
Lily was walking towards them, head lowered in a book, when she looked up and locked eyes with James. She closed her book and nodded her head towards him.
"Potter, come. We have to go stir the brew for Potions."
"Oooooooh," Sirius waggled his eyebrows at the two while they walked away, and James turned to flash him a glare just as Remus thumped Sirius's chest, signaling for him to stop. He knew the awkwardness that James was experiencing, and he would not be part of adding to it, even indirectly.
"Right. So," Lily tucked her book into her bag and began reciting the instructions that they were to complete once they got to the dungeons. James didn't listen, he was too busy examining every strand of her golden-red hair.
"Potter!" Lily snapped in his face. "Are you listening to me?"
"No."
Lily threw up her hands. "Honestly, why I agreed to be your partner in the first place it beyond me."
"It's because you looooooove me," James grinned.
Lily's face reddened. "Shut up, Potter." She crossed her arms. "Anyway, I was saying that we have to add the powdered root of asphodel and stir at a steady pace eight times counterclockwise while adding in, very slowly, mind you, the essence of comfrey. I can't just do everything for you, Potter, though I'm sure you'd be perfectly fine with that. We have OWLs coming up this year, and I can't do everything for you then!"
James nodded seriously. "I'll have to cheat off you, then."
Lily hit the back of James's head. "You can't to that either! Unless you plan on staying next to me your whole life-"
"That's exactly what I want to do."
Lily reddened even more. "-You have to learn some things yourself!"
"Not if I can avoid it."
"You can't!"
"Just watch," James winked at Lily as they walked into the Potions classroom.
James did everything Lily told him to do, and soon their potion was the expected bright violet color, bubbling joyfully.
"See, I can do things!"
"That potion would have exploded in your face eight times if I hadn't been here."
"Oh, come on," James scoffed. "Ten times. At least."
"You're right. How long should we leave this for until we stir it again?"
"Erm...."
"Thought so. Lord, I really do have to do everything for you. We leave it for twelve hours and then we have to add the blowflies, and wave a wand in a cross-like pattern over the cauldron. Then, you'll section the newt's eyes, and I'll-"
"Is it necessary to go through this right now?"
"If you want to learn anything from it, yes!"
"What if I don't?"
"Then you're an idiot."
"But I'm an attractive idiot, right?"
"You're certainly a humble idiot," Lily rolled her eyes.
"Why thank you!"
"You really are infuriating, you know that?"
James nodded. "It's a talent of mine. Seems only to work on you, though." he bopped her nose with his index finger. "I can always annoy you."
Lily's entire face was the shade of a tomato now. They were close, closer than they'd ever been before. Well, other than that time Sirius had hid a jack-in-the-box behind the Fat Lady and Lily had jumped so far back that she landed on top of James. But that didn't really count.
"You're making me annoyed right now," Lily said quietly. "Really, really annoyed."
"And why's that?"
"Because you're making me want to do this."
And then Lily Evans got onto her tiptoes (though she would never admit it, she was self-conscious about her height) and kissed James Potter. It was an unceremonious kiss, the first of many, and later both James and Lily would come to forget it, or reimagine some grand romantic gesture other than an awkward kiss in the Potions classroom.
James returned to his friends flushed and stammering. When he managed to get something other than gibberish out of his mouth, he told the other marauders all about it. Sirius was offended that Lily hadn't so much as made a comment about his hair. Remus was genuinely surprised she had the balls to kiss him in the first place. James could barely concentrate on his friend's reactions, his mind muddled with euphoria.
