'This was going to be a long week,' Lily thought as she entered the great hall to see James sat watching the door. He immediately saw her and smiled. 'What did he think I'd run away overnight?'

He watched her all the way to her seat and out of the corner of her eye she saw his smile drop when she sat down at the opposite end of the Gryffindor table. Lily sat in silence to eat her breakfast, occasionally listening in on some of the conversations that went on around her.

"Why so quiet Lily?" Alice asked innocently.

"I'm not, am I?"

"She's thinking about James." Mary suggested.

"I'm NOT!" Lily said far too loudly drawing everyone in the great halls attention. She blushed and sunk lower into her seat.

"So, why are you thinking about James?" Alice asked as though she hadn't heard Lily's outburst.

Deciding it was pointless to deny it again she answered her friend honestly. "I'm not, I'm thinking about this week."

"As am I Lily dearest." Lily groaned as James sat down next to her. For some reason James annoyed her more on a morning. Maybe it was because he was always wide awake and smiling, unlike Lily. "How are we this morning girls?"

"Very well thank you James." Alice and Mary replied almost in unison. They then both looked to Lily to see what her answer would be as did James. Lily stared at her plate clearly refusing to answer.

James was distracted when a shout came across the hall. "We're going to have that cup this year Potter!" yelled the Hufflepuff team captain Joseph Finch. "We're much better than last year."

As soon as James' head turned Lily felt a sharp pain in her leg as Alice kicked her. "Be nice." She said angrily.

"What, so this year your beaters will know which end of the bat to hold?" he teased. Ripples of laughter went around the hall; Lily could have sworn that she even heard some coming from the Slytherin table. Joseph sat down quickly looking embarrassed.

James turned back to the girls. "So how are you this morning Lily?"

Lily looked to Alice who was glaring back at her before replying. "I'm fine thank you."

James smiled and was clearly happy that Lily had answered. "Great, well I'll tell you what your dare is at lunch. Bye girls." He was gone as quickly as he appeared and Lily felt a pang of disappointment that he had not stayed longer and found that her gaze followed him until he left the hall.

"Was that really so hard Lily?" Alice asked sardonically.

Lily opened her mouth to reply when she realised she didn't have a reason to argue. It wasn't that hard, so why didn't she do it more often?

oooooooooooooooooooo

Sure enough at the end of lunch James caught Lily by the arm as she headed towards double Arithmancy. "Hey Lily, all ready for your dare?" He smirked and rubbed his hands together with glee.

"Of course, just let me know what it is so I can get it over with." She sighed.

"Okay, you have to…" he leant forward, looked around and paused dramatically. "Run across the Quidditch pitch naked."

Lily closed her eyes and clenched her teeth. She knew that this week was going to be difficult but she just had to remember the rewards if she got through this week. "That is possible, right?" When Lily opened her eyes she saw that James had crouched down so that he could see into her eyes.

"Yes, I suppose. Wait hang on!" she suddenly realised. "This is just a way for you to see me naked isn't you pervert." She stepped forward prodding him firmly in the chest as he stumbled backwards under her furious gaze.

"What, no! I won't be there Lily I don't want to embarrass you! I just want you to prove your courage. I won't be there, no-one will be. I already checked no-one has booked the Quidditch pitch so it should be empty." He had been backed against the wall of the corridor by this point.

"But how will you know if I actually do it?"

James shrugged. "I trust you."

"Alright, I'll do it."

"Okay you have five hours." He saw Lily's questioning look and answered it calmly. "I need time to think of what to do for our date when you don't do it."

Lily hit James in the chest but not with any real force. She couldn't help but smile as he sniggered and held her arms to stop her hitting him again. Lily didn't realise how close they were. James still held her arms gently and was looking at her intently and biting his bottom lip.

"Potter!"

James moved away from Lily so quickly that he bashed into the wall.

'Poor James,' Lily thought, 'Professor McGonagall always seems to turn up at the worst possible moment.'

"I need to talk to you about something. You best get to class Miss Evans or you'll be late." She then turned to James. "Please come in to my office Mr Potter."

Lily mumbled a goodbye to James and headed off down the corridor.

"Have a good time in Arithmancy Lily." James called.

Lily stopped and turned, "Wait a minute how did you know I had Arithmancy?" but she found that she was talking to an empty corridor; the door to McGonagall's office had just clicked shut.

oooooooooooooooooooo

Lily made her way down to the Quidditch pitch. She had stayed behind in class to make sure that she fully understand the complex equations they had just learnt which were bound to turn up on the NEWT exam. Professor Vector had practically pushed her out of the door of the classroom when she suggested that they review Lily's perfect homework which had scored 100.

As she reached the Quidditch it was loud, far too loud. As she stepped onto the side of the pitch her profanities were drowned out by the 200 students that had gathered to watch the Gryffindor Quidditch team tryouts.

"Lily!" Alice screamed above the noise. Lily made her way over to sit next to her friend. "What are you doing here? You never usually come to watch tryouts."

Lily following many more profanities explained to her friend what she was doing there and how James had well and truly set her up.

"So that's why James was so distracted in Muggle Studies."

"What?"

"He came in late to Muggle Studies muttering about McGonagall making the Quidditch tryouts today after school. He seemed really upset about it, I guess now we know why."

Lily looked up into the sky and easily spotted James floating by the hoops overseeing the keeper tryouts. He seemed extremely disinterested which was most unlike him. He kept searching the crowd until he found her eyes staring back at him. They held their gaze until James was hit in the back of the head by the Quaffle. Apparently he had just missed a brilliant save by Lucinda Thompson who didn't seem too pleased that he had missed it.

"I can't believe I have to do this." Lily said stamping her feet angrily.

"You're not actually going to do it, are you Lily?" Alice asked with a shocked look on her face.

Lily was affronted. "Of course I am. It's not like I have a choice."

"For goodness sake Lily for a smart girl you really can be stupid. You do have a choice."

"But … I'd have to go on a date with James."

"Is that really such a bad thing?" Alice was clearly exasperated by Lily's last comment. "Lily there is a good looking guy with a heart of gold who worships the ground you walk on." Alice's head dropped as her eyes filled with tears. "Don't take it for granted Lily. Guys like that don't come along very often." With that she stood up and headed back to the common room in tears with Lily following close behind.

Alice had been like this since Frank had gone away for his first year of Auror training. She missed him terribly.

oooooooooooooooooooo

It was two hours before James returned to the common room, muddy and frustrated after hearing 1000 different excuses from his rejected applicants. He immediately sought out Lily who was sat in the corner reading as usual. He sunk to his knees in front of her with his head bowed.

"I am really really sorry Lily." Lily looked at him with her eyebrows raised. "McGonagall decided to change the first Quidditch practice because she heard some stupid rumour that the Slytherins might beat us this year. I had no idea that anyone would be there." Lily held her silence. This seemed to worry James more than if she yelled at him. "Please say something Lily."

"Go get a shower James." Lily said simply returning her eyes to the pages of her book. He seemed confused by this comment. "I refuse to go on a date with someone who has more mud in his hair than on the bottom of his shoes."

"Does that mean…" James asked with his mouth hanging open.

"Yes, you didn't break any rules and I believe you when you say you didn't know. Also I don't want to get through this week only for you to say that I didn't adhere to the rules. But hurry up, I won't wait for ever." James continued to kneel at her feet staring at her in quiet disbelief. "GO!" She shouted which made him spring into action running up the stairs knocking several first years aside.

Once he had disappeared from sight, Mary commented on what she had just seen. "One date and he's already whipped."

oooooooooooooooooooo

"More apple crumble Lily?" James asked.

"No thanks James." Lily said leaning back against the beech tree while looking out over the Black Lake. James had decided on a simple picnic by the lake, where it was very peaceful.

"Chocolate mousse? Ice cream?"

"No! I've eaten too much already. How did you know where the kitchens were?"

"Well it took a mixture of genius, luck and dashing good looks." James replied adding a wink just for good measure.

"So Remus, Peter and Sirius found them and decided to tell you. That was nice of them." James laughed heartily before standing up.

"Come on let's get back before curfew." James said as he offered his hand to pull her up from the ground, which she took. With a swift flick of his wand all of the remaining food items and the rug folded neatly into the hamper.

"James Potter obeying the rules! Now there's something that I never thought I'd see." Lily gently mocked James as she had been doing all evening.

"What can I say? You must be having a good influence on me."

"It's about time someone did." She smirked as did he when he heard her comment. They continued walking in a comfortable silence and when they reached the portrait hole he spoke the password and held it open for her as she passed through into the common room. It was becoming harder and harder to ignore how much of a gentleman he was. As they were about to part to the separate dormitory stairs, Lily remembered a question that she had been meaning to ask James for years.

"James," he stopped waiting for her to speak again. "Why did you take Muggle Studies?"

He smiled. She already knew the answer but she needed it to be confirmed for her to believe it. "To learn more about Muggles and their culture, your culture."

"But why?"

"Well, you're always saying things about televisions and cars which I don't understand so I thought-" Lily cut him off.

"No, not that. Why me?" She asked tentatively.

He sighed and said simply. "I think you're perfect."

"But I'm not."

"You are to me." Lily opened her mouth but James stopped her. "Don't argue." He smiled once more. They both stood in another perfect silence just staring at each other. "Good night Lily. I'll see you tomorrow"

"Good night James." They walked towards their respective dormitories taking several glances back at the other before going out of sight.

oooooooooooooooooooo

"So how was it?" Mary had been clearly waiting for Lily's return.

"Delicious but filling." Lily replied simply collapsing back on to her bed holding her stomach.

"No, how was James?" Mary laughed.

"A perfect gentleman." Lily seemed to be surprised by her own answer. "He said I was perfect."

"Aww, how sweet now let me go to sleep." Alice said. Lily had thought she was asleep and even as she spoke she had her eyes closed.

"Good night Lily." Mary said as she closed the curtains around her bed.

oooooooooooooooooooo

"So how was it?" Remus didn't even look up from his book as James walked into the dormitory in a daze.

"Perfect." James replied dreamily.

"So you snogged her?" Sirius asked. James shook his head. "Kissed her?" Sirius continued asking questions each time James shook his head. "Hugged her? Held her hand? Did she at least tell you she likes you?"

"No but she did imply that Moony was a genius, Wormtail was lucky and that you had dashing good looks." He grinned as did Sirius who seemed most pleased with this endorsement.

"How was this date 'perfect' then?" Sirius asked.

"Because it was with Lily." Sirius and Remus both rolled their eyes. "You know, I'm almost glad someone told that stupid rumour to McGonagall. I might not have had that date otherwise."

"Your welcome." Sirius said barely holding back his grin. At the looks on his friend's faces he explained further. "I told McGonagall that we would be lucky to win this year, that we should get practicing right away and that the Quidditch pitch was free this afternoon." James just shook his head again, this time disbelievingly as Remus chuckled.

"We best go to sleep." Remus suggested as Peter snored loudly once again.

"Yeah, we don't to wake sleeping beauty do we?" James laughed.

"Who?" Sirius was puzzled by James last statement.

"Oh, we read it in Muggle Studies. I'll explain another time."

oooooooooooooooooooo

Lily and James both laid staring at the canopies of their respective four poster beds. This time yesterday James had been regretting has decision to promise to leave Lily alone. Lily had regretted agreeing to the offer but after the first day they both realised that this week might not be as bad as they first thought.

A/N What did you think of this chapter? please review and let me know!

The next chapter is now up!