The Marauders: Year Four

Potter's Proposition

Potter's Proposition

James threw himself down in the chair across from Lily as she was reading her Defense Against the Dark Arts assignment. She barely looked up, then turned back to her book.

James replied, "I'm here to make you a proposition."

"No," Lily replied.

"You don't even know what I'm going to say yet," he pointed out.

"I know the general gist of it," Lily answered.

James said, "I bet you don't."

Lily said, "You're going to ask me to go to the Yule Ball with you, and I'm going to say no and you're going to ask why not and I'm going to call you a toerag and you're going to mope about for three days and finally Sirius is going to make a joke of it and you'll make a joke back and then you'll swagger about the castle like it never happened, trying to impress me with some stupid story about goblin hunting or dragon boxing over the holidays, which we both will know is a lie, and won't do you any good in getting me to change my mind but will, in fact, make me want to say no even louder." She looked up at him.

"I was going to say chimera taming."

"Bugger off Poter."

"Hear me out for real now, Lily, now that I just listened to that whole string of rubbish you've just said," he replied, doing the exact opposite of buggering off, but leaning forward and pulling her book away so she was forced to look at him and not the pages. "If you say yes, and you'll go on a date with me, if you don't like my company, and you want me to bugger off after one full evening of being with me, then I will bugger off and I'll never ask you to marry me again."

Lily stared at him.

"I cross my heart and I hope to die, stick a needle in my eyes -- well no, I don't do that stuff. Blimey, that saying's terrible morbid, inn'it? I never noticed before. But seriously, Lily. I won't bother you about it, ever again, if you give me a chance just this once." He stared at her, his face solemn.

Lily rolled her eyes. "I already told you I'd say no."

"You do realize," James said, "That if you say no that I am in no way obligated to the offer and therefore I will continue to drive you positively insane until you do say yes to me?"

"James, you're so bloody thick... Listen to me. I. Will. Never. Say. Yes. No matter how many times you ask, no matter how many propositions you come up with. I am not interested in you in any shape, way, or form whatsoever. I find you positively, absolutely, ridiculously repulsive. I truly and sincerely dislike you. Now... bugger off."

He stared at her, silent for a long pause - longer than she thought he'd ever taken... and he didn't smile. Usually when she insulted him, he smiled. Usually he did that stupid grin where his lip caught on his tooth, but that didn't come. After a hundred years of just staring, finally, he nodded. "Okay, Evans." And he stood up and walked away.

Lily watched him as he jogged up the stairs to the boys dorm, not stopping, even when Peter said something to him by the stairs.

Why in Merlin's beard did she actually feel sort of guilty for it?

Peter drifted over to the table, carrying his books, giving her a funny look.

Not wanting to talk about what happened, Lily quickly pulled her back from where James had left it on his side of the table and stared down at the pages, her face flushed, hoping Peter would just let her be.