Lily sat with James in the Head’s compartment on the way to Hogwarts for their seventh and final year. They weren’t exactly friends but neither were they enemies. James still wanted more; she still caught him staring, longingly at her when he thought she hadn’t seen. They were happily talking about their respective summers when James spoke again in a much more serious tone. “Lily, can I talk to you about something?” He was fidgeting around in his seat. “Sure James,” she replied hesitantly. She was clearly not going to enjoy this conversation. James didn’t say anything for a while so Lily decided to prompt him. “What do you want to talk about?” “Erm… us actually.” Lily stomach dropped, her first instinct was correct. “You know that I held back from asking you out all last year, right?” Lily nodded. It was the reason Lily had warmed to James. He wasn’t as annoying when he wasn’t bugging her every ten minutes to go out with him. Dare she say that he was even enjoyable to be around? Lily was snapped out of her train of thought when James continued. “Well I don’t want to go back to fifth year and ask you out all the time.” Lily inwardly sighed with relief. “But, I feel that I have to make one final effort with you. I’m not ready to give up on you yet.” “I know that you won’t go on a date with me so I have a proposition for you.” He paused before continuing. “If you can prove how much you don’t want to go out with me then I won’t ask you again. For the next five days I will ask you to complete a dare. If you don’t complete the dare then you will have to go on a date with me. At the end of the week if you still don’t want to go out with me then…” James trailed off and mumbled down at the floor. More silence followed which Lily broke once again. “So what do I get if I agree to this?” She asked warily. James sighed, “I promise that I will never ask you out again, or bring up the subject of us again, or bother you unless I have a good reason, unless you want me to.” He forced a smile with his final statement. Lily thought seriously about this. As Head Boy and Girl they would be spending a lot of time together and it would be much easier if James wasn’t asking her out all the time. They couldn’t be arguing all the time, especially in front of the younger students. The dares would be hard but anything was better than the hell that was fifth year. If she agreed she knew that James would keep his word, he had kept Remus’ secret for more than five years. If she agreed to this James would be off her back for good. “Alright, I’ll do it. We can’t be arguing all the time if we’re Head students. So long as all of these dares are possible, nothing completely ridiculous.” James looked relieved probably because he was expecting an argument. “They will be possible I promise. Right, excellent the first date, I mean dare, will be tomorrow.” James quickly corrected himself. He tried not to blush and Lily tried not to smile, with neither having much success. “I’ll give it to you in plenty of time to do it. Okay?” “Fine and if I survive this week you will leave me alone.” Lily said harshly. James’ face fell and Lily felt a pang of guilt at the sight of this. He looked into Lily’s eyes for the first time since the conversation began. His voice cracked as he replied in a clearly saddened voice, “If you really want me to, yes.” At that moment several Hufflepuff prefects burst into the carriage chatting to each other noisily. They all ran to congratulate the two new Head students and soon the carriage was full of Prefect’s. During the introductory speech Lily couldn’t help but notice that James was unusually subdued. He wasn’t cracking as many jokes as he normally did and Lily wasn’t the only one that had noticed. Remus had also being watching James closely and he then looked to Lily as if to ask; “What did you do to him?” Lily ended the meeting and Remus walked straight up to James to talk to him. “James, what’s wrong?” James took a sideways glance at Lily. “I’ll tell you when we get back to the carriage.” He turned towards Lily, “I’ll see you later then Lily?” She nodded as James and Remus headed towards the back of the train and Lily went to the front where her friends were waiting. -- “You did what?!” Remus asked. “I asked her to prove how much doesn’t want to date me and if she does I’ll leave her alone.” James repeated his previous statement. Sirius upon seeing the look on James’ face made to reassure his best friend. “Don’t worry about it mate, you’re a Marauder any girl would be overjoyed to date a Marauder!” At this moment Peter let out a tremendous snore from the corner of the compartment, drawing everyone’s attention. “Well most of us anyway!” He chuckled. “What if this doesn’t work James? Do you really think you can get over her?” Remus reasoned. “I have to; I promised that I would leave her alone.” James looked down at the floor, he honestly didn’t know what he would do if he had to give up on Lily. “Cheer up James, it will work. First we’ve got to make these dares difficult, so that she might actually go on a date with you.” Sirius said while rubbing his hands together with glee. “We also have to make sure that the dates are well prepared and enjoyable for Lily. You will win her over James if she just gets to know you.” Remus added smiling positively. James smiled genuinely for the first time since he had asked Lily about the proposal. He could always count on his friends to support him. He also laughed for the first time when Sirius confunded Peter and made him walk into the compartment door repeatedly, scaring several first years who were stood outside. -- “You did what?!” Mary asked with an astonished look upon her face “I agreed.” Lily said simply. “I’m so glad you’ve finally decided to give James a chance!” Alice squealed excitedly. “What!” Lily turned on her best friend. “I haven’t given him a chance; I’m just trying to get rid of him for good.” “What make you think he’ll leave you alone?” Mary asked. “He promised. James always keeps his promises.” Lily reassured herself “Did you just say something positive about James?!” Alice said feigning horror. “So when’s your first date then?” Mary giggled girlishly. “My first dare is tomorrow.” Lily stressed the word to get her point across. Alice and Mary had been trying to get Lily to go out with James for years. “I wonder what kind of dare he will set me.” “Oh never mind that!” Mary grinned. “Let’s imagine what he will do for your dates. We know he can be really romantic when he wants to be.” Alice also smiled and the two friends immediately began speaking too quickly for Lily to understand. Mary was right about James being romantic; he had once bought her a beautiful pendant of a doe and written her a romantic poem for Christmas. If he hadn’t stood on the table during Christmas lunch and asked her out in front of everyone her opinion of him might have changed that day. -- Lily and James both sat on the train heading to Hogwarts. They thought about how their relationship had changed over the years and how the next week would be make or break for James. They didn’t get another chance to talk that day, about the proposition that James had just made and Lily had just accepted. A/N If you would like to read the rest of this story please go to: http://www.fanfiction.net/~gingerwhinger I have several other J/L fics posted there too. Thanks for reading!