“Dory! Stop it! Please, you’re hurting me!” Lily elbowed Dorcas in the stomach, managing to push Dorcas away from her fiery locks.
“Lily! Listen to me!” Dorcas shouted. “You must look decent today! It’s just the start of OAF and you can’t back down already.” Dorcas looked from Lily’s hair to her emerald eyes, which were menacing. “Oh, you know what I mean. You always look nice, Lily, it’s just that today you have to look especially nice. You know, because of the plan and all.”
Lily continued to glare at Dorcas. Dorcas threw her arms up in a signal of defeat, saying, “Very well! Just trying to help. Didn’t think that James would want to date someone whose hair looked as if it had spent the night beneath a balloon, but whatever you say! You know best.” Lily sighed and looked over to Marlene. Marlene, however, was staring at the top of Lily’s head. Lily took this moment to glance into the closest mirror. It was true: her hair was practically standing up straight on its own.
“Oh, all right. Fine! Just, please, be gentle!” Lily surrendered.
Lily had spent the previous night in the Gryffindor dormitories. Dorcas had insisted that she not go near James before Dorcas had time to prepare her. This apparently included surgical work on Lily’s seemingly unmanageable mane.
After a half-hour’s work, Lily’s hair seemed almost perfect. Dorcas pulled Lily out of her vanity-mirror seat for a ‘final check’, as Dorcas called it.
Dorcas looked Lily up and down, making sure that Lily held the essence of perfection, from her small feet up to her flowing locks. “Well, well, I am good, if I do say so.” Dorcas smiled at Marlene and Lily before beginning to quiz Lily on how to act around James to win his attention.
“You know, Dory, I really don’t think that Lily will have too much trouble catching James’ eye. He has continually asked her out for ages now, and I doubt that she needs much more prepping,” Marlene had offered. Yet Marlene’s advice had gone unheard by Dorcas, who seemed obsessed with making sure of Lily’s perfection in personality.
“Now, the most important thing is that you must not be mean!” Lily rolled her eyes at Dorcas’ comment. “I’m being serious, Lily. I highly doubt that your vicious wit had attracted you to him. Well, perhaps your wit. Actually, I wouldn’t doubt that your intelligence had aided to his fancying you. I mean, Potter’s not a stupid boy he’s just-”
Lily interrupted Dorcas’ verbal-thought process with a cough. Dorcas snapped her head up and looked at Lily. “Well!” Dorcas began, “It may be a good idea to know what attracts you to him. I mean, then all we’ll have to do is make every other part of you appealing besides the traits he already likes.”
“Like the fact that Lily is witty and funny and intelligent and gorgeous,” Marlene added.
“Yes, exactly. Now, back to the problem: you’re too mean! Lily, you mustn’t call him any rude names. Please, if you’re going to call him anything, let it be James or even Sweetheart!” Lily, Dorcas, and Marlene looked at each other and then burst out in laughter at this last statement.
Dorcas sighed, a smile still strewn across her face, and said, “Well, I think you’re ready. Now, off to breakfast. Well try to find James and his friends in the Great Hall.”
The three girls walked the stairs down to the Gryffindor Common Room together. But as they reached the portrait hole, Lily remembered that she had forgotten to bring down her scarf for the Quidditch match.
Lily had attended many Quidditch games before, but usually she would merely bundle up in loads of jackets and sweaters to keep herself warm. This morning, however, Dorcas would not allow that type of clothing. Lily was to “freeze her butt off and be proud to do so”. Lily managed to persuade Dorcas into allowing her to bring down one Gryffindor scarf by assuring her that James liked school pride, though Lily had honestly just made this fact up off the top of her head.
“Ah, darn it. I forgot my scarf. You guys head down, I’ll just meet you outside the Great Hall.” Lily watched her friends walk through the portrait hole, then turned around and ran back up to her friends’ dormitory taking the steps two-at-a-time.
Lily walked over to Dorcas’ bed where the scarf laid crumpled, and quickly grabbed it. Slowing her pace down a little, she raced back down the steps, trying to fold the scarf at the same time. Yet this time, when she reached the bottom, she ran into something large and warm. Lily, caught off balance by ignorance of her surrounding, tumbled off the last step and on top of something that seemed like a human-being.
“Oh, dear,” Lily mumbled. The only thing that separated her and the floor was the Gryffindor scarf that was elegantly plastered on her face. She was tangled in a web of scarf, bag straps, and human appendages. “I’m so sorry,” she continued.
Still staring at the floor she said, “I wasn’t looking where I was going.” She pulled the scarf off of her face as she felt the other body get up off the floor. Drat, she thought as she looked down at the crumpled scarf. What a waste to fold this if I was going to fall down the stairs.
Lily’s thoughts were interrupted by a strong, masculine hand that was now extended in front of her. “Lily,” a warm voice said softly, sending shivers up her spine. She reached for the strong hand and allowed its owner to pull her up off the floor with grace. As her body straightened, she ended up only a few inches from a boy’s face. Wow, Lily thought, her eyes unfocused, “You smell really good. Like lemons and amber.” Lily’s eyes fluttered as she took a deep intake of breath to further smell this seemingly wonderful creature.
Her eyes finally focusing, she saw a pair of bright hazel eyes, behind with dark-rimmed glasses. Realizing who she was gaping at, she attempted to leap backwards. Unfortunately, the second end of her scarf was on the floor. Lily slipped sideways and began falling back to the ground. James, however, was athletic enough to swoop to Lily’s side quickly and catch her just before she landed back on the ground.
James brought Lily upright, who slowly began to sway. He steadied her by grasping her shoulders and holding her directly in front of him. “Why, thank you.” James said, flashing a brilliant smile at Lily. “How about we sit down for a second so you don’t fall over again?”
Lily tried to protest but no words came out. She willingly sat down next to James on one of the Gryffindor couches. A moment later, Lily blurted, “For what?”
James gave her a funny look. Finally steady, Lily said, “You said ‘thank you’. What did you mean? ‘Thank-you-for-falling-like-an-idiot-down-the-stairs-because-you-were-trying-to-fold-a-scarf-and-weren’t-looking-where-you-were-going’?”
James smiled at her once again, a twinkle in his eye. “No, of course not. You just said that I smelled good, and it’s nice to hear that from a girl once in a while. A man’s scent really matters to him, you know,” James said with fake pride. But his smile slowly fell as he mentioned, “Oh, and you’re not an idiot. I shouldn’t have been walking so fast anyway.”
Lily did not respond to this. Her cheeks began to glow a bright red. “Did I really say that out loud?”
“Well, yeah,” James stated. “But, again, it’s nice to hear that once in a while. Wouldn’t want to smell like rotting Bubotuber pus.” Lily, surprising even herself, began to laugh at this comment.
“Wow,” James said, “you have a really nice smile.” Lily stopped laughing abruptly at this comment and looked into James’ eyes. She realized that, once again, their faces were dangerously close. They didn’t say anything to each other for a moment, but just stared into each others’ eyes. The moment was not of romance though, but more so of confusion.
Lily did not like this confusion and jumped off the couch quickly, her face red with embarrassment. “I should probably head down to breakfast. Dory and Marlene are waiting for me.”
James stood up slowly next to Lily and replied, “Yeah, Sirius is down there with Remus too.” James’ face was flushed as well. But Lily knew that he had nothing to be embarrassed about.
Lily was about to retort with a nasty comment, something about it being surprising that James had any friends at all, but then remember about Operation April Fools. Right, she thought, this is good. I’m supposed to get him to notice me. “Walk me down to the Great Hall?” Lily asked James with a smile.
James seemed flustered from this request but immediately answered with an enthusiastic “Yes!” as if he had only that moment to respond. He gestured toward the portrait hole for Lily to leave, and she did so. They climbed through the portrait and began walking down the stairs.
“I don’t think I’ve told you how pretty you look,” James said. For some reason, he felt so comfortable around Lily today. He couldn’t tell if it was just because she was dizzy, or perhaps, he thought, she’s actually warming up to me. James shook off this notion immediately though, physically shaking his head.
“What’s wrong?” Lily asked, staring at him.
“Oh, nothing,” James replied, stopping his head-shaking immediately. “Just thinking about the game today, I’m a little nervous.” He quickly made up this story to change the subject from his mysterious head movements.
“James Potter, nervous? I couldn’t possibly imagine it.” Lily gave James a sideways glance. Neither can I, thought James. He actually never got nervous, but perhaps this might be an attribute that Lily liked. So he continued with the story.
“Well, it is the first big game of the year. And with my being captain and everything, it just feels like everyone is depending on me.” James feigned a sigh and shook his head once more.
Lily looked at James with questioning eyes, not really believing this. But he seems so sincere, she thought. “I know you’ve nothing to worry about though. You’re actually a pretty decent chaser.”
“‘Pretty decent’? Well, I’ve never been called that before, but I suppose I’ll take it. Especially if it’s coming from you,” James smiled at Lily. Lily returned the smile, and tried to flip her hair in one swift motion as to attract James’ attention. As she did this, a loose strand landed in her mouth instead of behind her shoulder. She then tried to spit it out with no luck, and ended up pulling it out of her mouth anyway; she shoved the limp, damp strand of hair behind her ear. As she did this, she recalled the goo that James had placed in her hair her first day back, and she became even more determined show him what it was like to be pranked.
“I mean, you’re a fantastic chaser,” Lily said. She knew that if OAF had any hope, she’d need to turn her neutral comments into actual compliments. Lily looked over to James who was obviously suppressing a laugh.
“I’d rather the semi-compliment than sarcasm any day though,” James said.
Lily began to laugh at this comment. “No, no. I actually meant it. You really seem like an amazing chaser.” James’ face began to turn red. Am I honestly that mean to him? Lily thought. She was not sure, but perhaps Dorcas had been right about her nasty attitude. Well, he’s going to see a side of me he’s never seen before. Lily was determined.
They continued talking about their classes and teachers, James doing a creative impression of their Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. When they finally reached the Great Hall, they were laughing extremely loudly, so caught up in their jokes that they did not notice Dorcas and Marlene standing by the entrance.
Dorcas’ eyes grew wide at the sight of James and Lily. Lily snapped her head toward her two friends as Marlene shouted, “Lily! We weren’t sure you were coming back down.”
Lily stopped laughing and mischievously nodded her head toward James, “James was just walking me down here.”
“Where’s the scarf?” Dorcas asked, surprisingly unhappy by the situation she found Lily in.
“Drat! I must have left it in the Common Room after fell down the stairs,” Lily replied. “Oh well, I’ll figure out some way to keep warm at the game.”
“James,” Dorcas began, “you go on ahead into the dining hall, I just want a quick word with Lily.” James, though slightly confused looking, waved at Lily and strolled into the Great Hall, obviously happy that he had been able to walk with Lily to breakfast.
“What in the world are you doing?” Dorcas whispered to Lily, pushing her towards the corner of the room.
“Dorcas, didn’t you see? I was with James! He’s buying it!” Lily was beaming at her friend, though her happiness was not returned. “What’s wrong?”
“You can’t just dive in like that!” Dorcas retorted.
“What do you mean?”
“You can’t just let him have you like that!” Dorcas snapped her fingers as she said ‘that’. “He’s got to have a hard time getting you to go out with him. It can’t just happen all at once. That would be too obvious.”
“But, I thought you wanted me to be nice…” Lily began.
“Yes, but you can’t be all flirty with him and everything. He’s got to feel like he’s finally won you over.”
“Oh, all right then. Well, stop confusing me!” Lily said.
“Fine, fine.” Dorcas smiled at Lily. “So, you really fell down the stairs? Did he catch you?” Lily smiled at her friend and began walking into the Great Hall, not answering.
“Oh, all right then. I’ll just hear it from you later. Now, about the Quidditch game.” Dorcas pulled her friend back out of the Great Hall and started to review their plans for the Quidditch game.
OAF: Operation April Fools by The REAL Weasley Twins
Chapter Endnotes: I hope this was worth the wait guys! This chapter was actually written right after Chapter 2 was validated, unfortunately, there were so many problems that it could not have been submitted. Chapter 4 is merely in the works.
*Conjures glasses of butterbeer for everyone* I would like to toast all the mods, again, for bending over backwards to try and fix the site. You guys are incredible!