Its the end of the first week back of fifth year, and Lily Evans has gathered up all the ninth year Gryffindors who want to participate in a pamper session. Sirius had agreed instantly, and thus Remus had too, grinning. Peter had laughed and pulled out the muggle camera Lily had given him for Christmas and photographed Sirius with gritty pink strawberry face mask on his cheeks and then another when Lily decided to braid his hair.
James was just sitting on one of the sofas, watching Lily smile and laugh and pull her fingers through Sirius’s hair. And he watched her giggle when Marlene conjured up little daisy flowers and waved her wand to weave them into Sirius’s braid. And he watched all the girls giggle and swoon when Sirius smile and tossed his hair around, and then when Remus nudged him and smiled softly and Sirius would smile back and squeeze his hand and James was left wondering how he had it so easy with the girls and also the little jealous prick in the back of his mind when he thought about how much closer Sirius and Remus were then he and Sirius were.
He listened to Lily when she said she loved mint and strawberry face masks. And he was really desperate for her to like him. The next day, James had written a letter to Mrs Potter, reading:
Dear Mum,
Hope you’re well. School is okay. Everything is all about OWLs now and its really boring. Minnie still loves me though.
Just wondering if you can send me some muggle things, if you can find them. Mint and strawberry face masks and a daisy flowercrown. It sounds weird, I know.
Love James
He folded the parchment, a new piece that was unwrinkled and clean, tucked it into an envelope and gave it to his owl at breakfast the next morning.
A few days later, he received the package from his mum, a smallish one that looked as if it could hardly hold his potions textbook, let alone face masks and hair bands. He didn't open it at the Gryffindor table, but Sirius tried to,
“Yo, James, whatcha got there?” Sirius said, trying to snatch it from him.
“nothin’, Padfoot, nothing.”
Remus patted Sirius’s arm. “You can look under his bed covers later.”
“You look under my bed covers?!” James screeched. Obviously he needed a better hiding place.
After breakfast, he hid the package on top of his bed, wrapped in his invisibility cloak and hoped to God that Sirius wouldn't even think to look there. Now James had to actually formulate his plan. Lily studied after dinner for about two hours, generally surrounded by her friends and a scattering of books. So that would be a good time to pull her away for five minutes.
“Hey, uh, Lily?” James said after dinner, interrupting Lily, Marlene, Alice and Mary. Lily glanced at James and then rolled her eyes at Marlene when she winked.
“What?”
“Can we talk for a sec?”
Lily rolled her eyes again at her friends but stood up accordingly. “Where?”
“Um, outside.”
“Sure.” Lily followed James to the broom cupboard just outside the common room, where they stood outside in silence for a minute.
“Seriously, Potter?” Lily said finally.
“What?”
“Was your goal to seduce me and then take me in a broom cupboard? Talk about undignified.”
“What? No! It was to give you something, just in private.”
“Making things worse, here.”
“No, wait, look,”
“What, James?”
“Can we just go in? For a minute so I can give you it?”
“Fine.”
Lily crossed her arms and James opened the door, his jaw dropping when he opened it to Remus and Sirius. Kissing. His face blushed red, as red as Lily's hair, and she started laughing. Hard.
“Um,” Remus said, blushing lightly.
“Evening, James, Lily,” Sirius said, pleasantly. “We’d appreciate you not mentioning this to anyone,” He said coolly, gripping Remus’ hand and pulling him to the common room.
Lily snorted and James thought it was really cute. “Right, anyway. The reason I wanted to give you this in private was so Sirius couldn't tease me. Or you.”
“Tease about what?”
“This.” James handed her the package, “I uh, didn't know what flowers you liked but I like the daisy's, and also you said you liked these face masks, I remembered it, and so I brought you some. Well, my mum did, but they're from me and-”
Lily cut him off by giggling. “Thanks James.”
“Oh- well, you're welcome.”
“This is really nice of you,” Lily said to him, “Thank you.” She leaned up and pecked his cheek before pushing open the portrait door and disappearing inside, leaving James grinning and flushing red.