Author’s Notes: So, I was sitting here in front of the computer absolutely bored and a little voice inside my head said “ASHLEY! Write a fluffy little one-shot.” Now, it is imperative that I listen to that little voice in my head; it is not wise to defy that little voice otherwise it will eat my up and then – well, it cannot lead to good things. So, here I am… taking a break from my real fanfiction to write a sickeningly cute and fluffy (or so I hope) one-shot. Enjoy.

Giving In

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It makes me sick to the stomach the way everyone is so bloody cheerful around the winter holidays, Lily Evans thought miserably as she pulled her thick, shoulder-length coppery-red hair into a ponytail. Having been preoccupied with her thoughts while doing this, there were stray strands of hair framing her face; she dismissed these defiant pieces of hair by tucking them behind her ear. Normally she would absolutely love the two week break from lessons due to the holidays. Of course, it was hard to enjoy herself when James Potter was infesting her silence. When he first told her that he wouldn’t be going home for the winter recess this year she nearly fell out of the chair she was occupying at the time. Lily Evans, though, managed to keep her cool (at that point in time, at the least) by merely mumbling “Oh, that’s simply lovely” with a less-than-enthusiastic tone of voice.

She ambled slowly down the corridors, making her way to the Great Hall for breakfast. It was the day before Christmas thus the Hall was decorated properly. A chorus of little singing Christmas elves was in the front of the room, singing harmoniously their own little version of “Jingle Bells”. There were twelve gigantic trees placed around the Hall, each decorated in almost the exact same way – silver and gold baubles, tinsel, little twinkling fairy lights, and silvery-gold garland adorning each and every tree. As if on cue just in time for Christmas, there was snow falling outside, and the bewitched ceiling showed the fluffy flakes as they glided gently to the ground.

Hogwarts had a much different feel around the holidays; there were only a few students who stayed at school, and so it wasn’t nearly as crowded as normal. The Great Hall had its four long tables and staff table replaced with three shorter tables. In Gryffindor, there were only three students staying behind during break – Lily Evans, James Potter, and Emily Harnett (another seventh year who Lily didn’t know that well, and who James dated for half a month during fourth year).

Lily placed herself at the vacant end of one of the three tables. Her bright green eyes scanned over the various choices of food for breakfast that morning; realizing she wasn’t all that hungry, she settled for a piece of toast with honey. She smiled inwardly, having managed to not run into James at all that morning. It was a nice feeling to be alone for once – at least, that’s what she convinced herself. Alice Brown, one of Lily’s friends, said that her constant obsessing over avoiding James Potter was the first stage of denial of her feelings for the bespectacled boy. In turn, she told Alice that she was crazy and there were no feelings whatsoever for James other than the hatred she felt toward him.

As she sat there, alone, eating her toast, she couldn’t help but realize that she was rather obsessive over avoiding James. She was constantly thinking of when would be a good time to get up from bed and do her homework as to make as little contact with the dark-haired boy as possible. This was all a part of her newest theory in trying to make James Potter leave her alone – ignoring and avoiding him. It wasn’t working, she realized while reminiscing on the first half of the year. He still persisted on pursuing her – asked her out every day, said words of a suggestive natured in her direction, gave her equally suggestive looks. Lily sighed heavily, now focusing on the singing elves in (futile) attempts to rid her mind of James Potter.

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James rolled out of bed that morning feeling rather cheerful. Christmas was a wonderful time of year for the seventeen-year-old boy. There was eggnog, presents, and – best of all – mistletoe. It was a lovely thing, mistletoe was. Of course, anything to receive a free snog was a wonderful thing in James’s eyes. He placed his wire-rimmed glasses on his face, now able to see things successfully and clearly. Habitually, he ran his fingers through his unruly black hair.

Once he was dressed, James exited the Heads’ Common Room (which he shared with Lily, to his joy, as the two of them were the Head Students) and cheerfully walked in the direction of the Great Hall, humming various Christmas tunes as he did so. He reminded himself to thank Sirius – his best friend, practically a brother, and fellow Marauder – later on, after the holidays. It was Sirius’s idea for James to stay at school this year, as Lily never went home for the holidays. That way, he could suavely charm Lily Evans into a date, at the least. At first he was quite reluctant to the idea; he, too, wanted to go to Remus’s house during the break with his friends, but after a while of thinking, he realized, smartly, that there was only half a year left to win Lily Evans’s heart, and it would be best to use every given chance.

Thinking about it, James realized Lily has been avoiding him as of late. Normally she would be in his presence, but just ignore him – if she wasn’t scolding him for doing something irresponsible or immature. This was a whole new playing field for James; girls never purposefully avoided him. Remus – who was the smart, wise one in his little group of close friends – suggested that perhaps Lily was afraid she would start to like him, or that she was already starting to like him. The thought of Lily Evans actually, maybe liking him made him smile that familiar, James Potter smile.

He soon reached the Great Hall. It didn’t even take him long to find Lily sitting at the end of the table farthest from the entrance – her coppery hair was a giveaway. It was always so smooth looking, and he once got near enough to smell her hair; it smelt wonderful – a mixture of different flowers that James wasn’t familiar with, and affectionately labeled it as ‘Lily’s scent’. Following Remus’s advice to stray from being arrogant and prick-like, he sat down across from where Lily was, offering a smile in her direction.

“Good morning, Lily!” he exclaimed cheerily.

She caught sight of his smile and it made her stomach churn; he had such a wonderful smile she realized one day – it was a lopsided sort of grin that she thought was very charming. Of course, these thoughts were the sort that she denied when conscious – however, in her sleep was a different thing. She once had a dream with James Potter in it and she was yelling at him for doing something bad, but he smiled that lopsided smile and she could feel her stomach do that odd flip-flop that she realized she despised.

“Morning,” she said, directing her attention at the table now as opposed to him. He smiled even more as she turned away from him; James managed to convince himself that she was trying not to notice how adorable he really was.

“I haven’t seen much of you lately,” he stated, not taking his eyes off of her.

“I’ve been busy.”

“With what? It’s the Holidays, Lily. You are not supposed to be busy.”

“One opinion against the other. I am not you, and have a life.”

“I have plenty of life. You are just too reluctant to be a part of it, my Lily flower.”

She sighed heavily, rolling her eyes. “I'm going back to the Common Room to … read or something like that,” Lily said while beginning to stand up from the table.

James, however, was not giving up. He, too, stood up from the table and followed Lily out of the Great Hall. “Lily!” She stopped, turned around, and gave him a glare.

“What could you possibly want now?” she asked with a small scoff.

“Why are you avoiding me?”

“I'm not avoiding you I told you I'm –”

“I'm not stupid, Lily. It’s quite obvious that you are avoiding me. Sirius sees it, Remus sees it – hell! Even Peter sees it! Why are you so goddamn persistent on avoiding me? It’s a stupid plan, Lily Evans, and it’s not going to work because I’ll do anything I can to get you to talk to me and stop avoiding me.”

She blinked, opening her mouth to speak, but realized she was unable to think of any retaliation. “That’s not true,” she finally said weakly.

“Oh, come on! You are not stupid, I'm not stupid. Both of us know perfectly well that you are trying to avoid me!”

Without saying another word she began to head back to the Common Room, walking hastily.

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Why am I avoiding him? she wondered with a frown as she lay on her stomach atop her four-poster bed. There’s no way Alice is right in her assumptions. But … Merlin. It’s true. I am avoiding him. She sighed heavily. James surprised her earlier on; he was the one becoming irked as opposed to her. That’s not right at all, she thought miserably. Lily rose to her feet, slowly making her way down the stairs into the Common Room. She wondered if James was down there; she felt she should apologize. It would be the nice thing to do.

When she was at the foot of her stairs, her eyes scanned the Common Room, looking for James. Lily sighed when realizing that there was no James to be found inside of the Common Room. She sat down in the nearest squishy, maroon chair; she tucked a lose strand of hair back behind her ear as she thought of where James could possibly be. It was a hard job for Lily, considering James Potter was one of those people who were nearly one-hundred percent unpredictable. After fifteen minutes of compiling a list of the possible whereabouts of James on a piece of parchment she found, Lily realized that it was completely useless – it would be much more logical to just wander the halls aimlessly!

And that was exactly what she did; for nearly a half an hour Lily Evans wandered the many corridors of Hogwarts in attempts to come across James Potter. It only occurred to her while passing through the doors leading to the school grounds that ‘where there was snow and students, there was a snowball fight; and where there was a snowball fight, there was James Potter’. It took her another fifteen minutes to trek back to her dormitory and dress herself in the proper clothing – her warm cloak, a scarf, and a pair of gloves. It wasn’t as though going outdoors would be a complete loss; Lily loved the winter – it was such a lovely time of year. The snow was her favorite.

Within another fifteen minutes, she was wandering the school grounds. To her deepest surprise there were no snowball fights going on at the moment. Even more to her surprise, just as she was heading back into the school, a snowball hit her back. She screamed in shock, turning around slowly, hoping that it was James so she could ‘get the apology over with’ (she convinced herself that was why she was so desperate to find him). Much to her joy it was him.

“James Potter!” she scolded as she approached him.

He grinned that adorable lopsided grin. “That’s me!”

“Yes it is. I want to talk to you, though. Well, not necessarily talk. However long it takes to – Ow! James Potter, stop throwing those bloody snowballs!” she cried out as James threw another snowball in her direction. “I'm trying to apologize but that’s a BIT HARD WHEN I'M BEING PELTED WITH SNOW!”

He smiled, and Lily felt her stomach churn again in that uncomfortable yet sensational at the same time way. “Lily Evans is apologizing? Why, call the press!” She rolled her eyes. “What are you apologizing? For resisting me for so long? For not snogging me all these –” Lily hit him with a snowball on the chest and he stopped talking, though grinned in a satisfied way.

“Stop being a prat, James Potter. It’s because of how I acted earlier. I do believe I acted completely out of line and – POTTER IF YOU THROW ANOTHER SNOWBALL I'M GOING TO THROW YOU A DETENTION! – I apologize for trying to be right all the time.”

“Why, imagine that. Lily Evans – one of the most stubborn people in this whole school – is apologizing for acting like she was right when I was right.”

“Yes, James, you were right. Now, perhaps we can handle this like adults instead of – OOF!” She found herself fallen on the ground from a surprise attack in which James basically tackled her – gently, of course – to the ground. “JAMES!” He was now sitting on her stomach, grinning goofily. “Oy!” she cried out, glaring up at him.

“Yes my sweet Lily?”

Lily screamed. “GEDDOFF!” she shouted. “James Potter if you do not get off of my stomach this instant I am going to HEX YOU!”

He didn’t move, but rather continued grinning in that goofy manner – it made Lily want to burst out in laughter.

She screamed again. “POTTER! GET OFF OF ME NOW!” Nothing. “GET. OFF. OF. ME. NO –” She found herself unable to talk any further; of course, she had a perfectly good excuse – anyone would find it hard to talk when someone else had their mouth on theirs. James leaned in toward her, kissing her innocently before she could continue her incessant shouting. He sat back up, grinning lopsidedly.

“I figured that would shut you up.”

Her heart was beating wildly and she was unable to deny the shock sent throughout her body when his lips touched hers. She was able to smell him – a mix of the outdoors and some sort of cologne – and a piece of his hair fell out of its place, brushing against her forehead and tickling her slightly. She opened her mouth to talk, but was unable to; it was as though that simple kiss which one might use to say goodnight with made her temporarily paralyzed. After a minute of contemplating what this feeling she was experiencing was exactly, Lily realized that she thoroughly enjoyed that gentle caress to her lips. She smiled softly, looking up at him.

“James Potter, get off of me right now or I may just have to continue that screaming.”

He did as told, pleased with her reaction to that method of shutting her up. James held out a hand once he was off of her, offering to help her up. To further surprise for him, she took it. Lily was still smiling; James was just shocked that she hadn’t hexed or cursed him yet – or at least yelled at him like she would have normally done.

The two of them were standing now; Lily took a step toward him, her eyes narrowed in a glare and the smile wiped from her face.

“That was perhaps one of the lamest things anyone has ever done, James,” she said calmly. Looking up at him, she noticed that same piece of hair that tickled her remaining out of place, and raised a hand – James flinched at this, thinking he was going to be slapped by a girl (a girl he was in love with, nonetheless) – to brush it out of his face. The soft touch of her fingers made him smile, and he stepped closer to her. She tensed and in turn stepped back. This didn’t dishearten James, however, and he stepped closer and swiftly put his arms around her waist lightly, pulling her into a hug. Lily gasped quietly, having not expected this, but the now familiar sensation running through her as he touched her was present; she was unable to hide a smile from her face.

“Don’t,” she said quietly, looking up at him; she never before realized how entrancing his brown-hazel eyes were. Before she could allow herself to get further wrapped up in his touch and his eyes she pulled away, shaking her head.

His mouth twitched slightly into a faint frown as he looked at her. “Why?” he asked, raising a hand and running it through his hair out of pure habit.

Lily bit her lower lip, continuing to look at him. “Because,” she said in a near-whisper. “You’ve got a reputation to get what you want with girls and then just let them go and never talk to them ever again, James.”

He shook his head. “I haven’t gone out with a single person this year, my sweet Lily. And even when I did go out with other girls, it was because I was trying desperately to get over you.”

Absentmindedly, she tucked a strand of her coppery-red hair behind her ear; James recognized this to be something she did, ninety-nine percent of the time, when nervous. “How do I know you will not hurt me?”

“I promise I’d never hurt you, Lily. But isn’t that part of the thrill of being in a relationship – the surprise and the spontaneity of it all?”

“I don’t want to fall in love and be hurt because you got what you wanted out a relationship. You will finally ‘have’ me, and there will be no more challenge. You will become bored with me and hurt me, James.”

“How do you know that?” he asked with a frown. “I wouldn’t ever hurt you purposely – and I’d do everything in my power to not hurt you. Why can’t you just understand that?”

“I just don’t want you of all people to be the one to hurt me …” she said, her voice trailing off.

“I'm not going to hurt you, Lily.” He took a step closer to her, pulling her once again into a gentle hug. She could once again smell him, and she could count the normally unnoticeable shower of freckles across his nose as she tilted her head to look up at him; her eyes met his and she was once again lost in the sea of warm hazel partially hidden behind his glasses. Without thinking she rest her head on his chest, her arms crawling around his neck in a way that completed their embrace. “I love you and I wouldn’t ever do anything to hurt you in any way, my Lily flower.”

She lifted her head, looking at him with shiny watery eyes. “Do you promise?” she asked in a quiet whisper; James nodded.

“I promise – cross my heart, hope to die.”

She smiled weakly. He looked down at Lily, smiling in return. Their eyes met again, and this time Lily felt her heart melt; as he leaned down slightly and their lips met she felt a tingling sensation run through her body, giving her a chill that she recognized as a good one. Her eyes closed almost instinctively and she returned the kiss; Alice was right in her earlier assumptions, Lily realized, and it felt good to give in once and for all to James Potter.

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Author’s Notes: I'm a sucker for fluff. I know, I know – you are all thinking about how overused this sort of scenario is, and how clichéd and everything. But, if I didn’t try it for myself it was going to eat me alive. I liked writing this, anyway. It was a break from the other fiction (which I will be getting to shortly).

So… yeah, reviews are most loved. (:

PS. I go back to school tomorrow, so my updates may become less … frequent. Unfortunately. ):