For the Houses Competition

House: Ravenclaw

Year: 6

Category: Standard

Prompt: Going on a picnic

Word count: 1188

If someone had asked Lily in September how she thought her seventh year was going to go, she might have said that she planned on studying hard to ensure her N.E.W.T.s went well. She would have told them about the ideas she intended to put in place as Head Girl, or that she was going to enjoy these last few peaceful months at Hogwarts before going to work with the Order, helping to deal with Voldemort and his band of Death Eaters.

She would not, under any circumstances, have even thought that she might be sitting on a blanket next to the Black Lake, sharing a picnic with James Potter. Truth be told, she probably would have laughed at the suggestion she'd be dating him at all, but here they both were.

As first dates go (and Lily had not really experienced many of those) it was…nice. Certainly not what she had expected when James had asked her to go out with him and she'd finally said yes. She didn't really know what she'd been expecting exactly, but she knew that it wasn't this. He'd even put some cloaking charms in place, so no one would be able to disturb them. Lily could count herself thoroughly impressed so far.

She watched him in amazement as he carefully set out the plates of food and goblets of pumpkin juice on the blanket. He really seemed to have thought of everything. Suddenly, he fumbled with some chocolate éclairs and they fell on the blanket, cream splattering everywhere.

"Shit," James said, grabbing at the plate and ineffectually trying to clean the mess with the sleeve of his robes. "Sorry, I- I didn't mean-"

"It doesn't matter," Lily interjected, quickly waving her wand to clean up. "See? We have wands for a reason, you know." She raised her eyebrows in mock disdain, trying desperately to hide her grin, because she had definitely not been expecting this.

James was nervous. Arrogant, confident, boisterous James Potter was nervous.

"Right, I, yeah." He ducked his head, looking at her from under his eyelashes, and grinned sheepishly. "I forgot?"

Lily rolled her eyes but huffed out a laugh, which seemed to restore James's confidence somewhat. He started whistling - badly - and continued setting out the picnic items, which were rather crowding the blanket at this point.

"How much did you bring?" she asked, amused. James looked up at her, that awkward look back on his face again, and scratched the back of his head.

"Well, I didn't know what you actually like, so…" He shrugged. "I kind of brought everything."

Lily laughed. "Alright, well, for future reference, I'll eat pretty much anything. Except," she held up a warning finger, not missing the way his eyes lit up when she said 'future reference', "liquorice. It's disgusting."

James's eyes blew wide and his mouth dropped open in exaggerated shock. "Are you insane?" he asked. "Liquorice is the food of the gods, how dare you insult it!"

Lily crossed her arms, a smile playing at her lips. "Says the guy I saw dipping his carrots into pumpkin juice the other day."

James mimicked her position. "It was a ground-breaking invention, and I stand by it wholeheartedly."

Lily made a face of disgust - sometimes, she really did question why she had agreed to go out with him - but soon broke into a peal of laughter, unable to contain herself any longer. James began laughing too, neither of them able to stop themselves for a good few minutes. Had anyone been able to hear them, Lily realised, they would have thought they'd both gone mad.

When they had finally calmed down, Lily reached out and grabbed a grape, rolling it in her fingers.

"Where did you get all this food anyway?" she asked, popping the grape in her mouth. James just shrugged and began grabbing food.

"I have my ways," he said nonchalantly, but Lily just arched an eyebrow expectantly. James sighed, relenting. "I've been stealing it from the table for a week," he muttered.

"What?" Lily exclaimed, horrified. "You mean to tell me I've just eaten a week-old grape?"

"No, I think I stole those on Wednesday. So you've just eaten a three day-old grape." James grinned at her, but even his infectious humour couldn't distract her from this latest revelation. At her still-dubious expression, James sighed and leaned forward, looking serious. "C'mon, Evans, we're wizards. There's preservation spells and stuff, do you really think I'd feed someone mouldy food?"

"Yes," Lily said, not missing a beat.

"Do you think I'd do that to you?" James amended. Lily considered for a moment, then shook her head. James had worked hard enough to get her here in the first place; she didn't think he was aiming to give her food poisoning on their first date.

James looked rather relieved at the admission. "Look, I'll prove it to you." He grinned again and then proceeded to stuff his mouth full of food. "See?" he said around what Lily thought was sausage rolls. She made a face but smiled anyway, hesitating a second longer before starting to eat too.

They sat in a comfortable silence for a while, Lily watching the lake ripple in the afternoon light. It was peaceful.

Of course, this was James Potter she was with, so that peace was disrupted not a moment after she had begun to appreciate it, namely by a small projectile hitting her square on the cheek. She whipped around just in time for another to hit her on the nose, bouncing into her lap. She blinked in surprise then grabbed the grape James had thrown, barely pausing before she grinned wickedly and threw it back, reaching to grab more as he stared at her in shock. She managed to launch five more in quick succession before James recovered his wits enough to retaliate.

Soon, it was all-out war between them, grapes bouncing back and forth. As their throws grew wilder, fewer grapes met their marks, instead disappearing into the grass or rolling down the hill. One grape rolled all the way into the Black Lake, sending ripples far across the water. Not long after, the match was suddenly interrupted, as a veritable tsunami exploded from the Lake and drenched them both.

Lily gasped and spluttered as she attempted to blink the water out of her eyes and push her hair back from where it was now plastered across her face. Her vision cleared enough just in time to see the tentacles of the Giant Squid sinking below the water, along with the fateful grape. She stared for a moment then began laughing hard, James joining her once he'd managed to stop coughing. Every time they looked at each other, dripping and soaked through, they burst into another peal of laughter, until they were red in the face and gasping for breath.

Had Lily been told at the start of the year that her first date would be a picnic with James Potter, she would have laughed in their face. Now, looking at him, she couldn't think of anywhere she'd rather be.