Summary: Lily's mojo had always been being able to resist James Potter's charm. So what happens when she loses it?
Disclaimer: Belongs to Jo.
Under the Influence
a Siriusly Klutzy story.
You could ask Tally Sprought in Ravenclaw and I bet she'd tell you, "Lily Evans? She's the queen at avoiding the Potter charm. The only one I know who can do it. She's the master."
Or you could ask Michael Elkin in Slytherin. He'd tell you I was the master, granted he might add in a few choice words, but he'd still say that. And it's true.
Danny Lamb, a first year Hufflepuff, who's only been in school two months, knows that I was the master at avoiding the charm. "You mean the Head Girl? The one working with the boy whose charm she avoids so well?"
And you'd say, "Yes, that girl."
And he would continue with, "Yeah, she's the master."
Or something of the sort.
But now, I'm not so sure. I used to be the master. And I never planned on retiring. So what happened?
The answer is simple. Obviously I lost my mojo!
I want to know how it happened. One day I was happily writing down my Charms notes (ironic? I thought so as well.) and the next I was staring at the back of his head wondering what his hair smelled like. Momentarily stunned at the completely wrongness of the situation, I went back to my notes. But five minutes later I was doing it again! And not secretively, either. It was a full out, brain dead, mouth slightly open stare.
Needless to say, people noticed.
Alice elbowed me in the side and raised her eyebrows.
I shrugged, and quickly returned to my notes.
But only for about three bleeding seconds because I swear his hair can speak. You know how there's that saying that people have eyes on the back of their head? Yeah, well James Potter has a mouth and that mouth says, "Lily! Look over here! Look how attractive I am!" And I listen to it! I listen to the mouth on the back of James Potter's head.
Obviously there is something seriously wrong with me.
"What are you staring at?" Alice asked, leaning in towards me and trying to find my line of vision.
"Staring?" I asked astounded. I even threw in one of those loud 'you're out of your mind' laughs to prove my point. "I wasn't staring at anything. I'm just taking notes."
She looked at me skeptically and whispered, "I didn't know professor Flitwick also wrote them on the back of Potter's head."
Alice was the first to catch me.
More proof of me losing my mojo came from later that night in the Common Room. I was trying to figure out the answer to my Arithmacy homework, but got bored of it. Nothing out of the ordinary there. Arithmacy was a snooze fest.
Which is why it's not that strange that I got caught up in something else.
The fact that the something else was James Potter's forearms was what was bizarre. But it wasn't just the forearms. Those are what pulled me in. He was sitting with Remus, Sirius, and Peter and the group was doing their homework. They caught my attention because, well, have you ever seen someone with really nice arms write?
Oh. My. Merlin.
I started doing the brain dead staring thing again, but I was hoping that it could be also seen as a 'deep in thought' look rather than a 'I didn't know they made arms that perfect' look.
Though I'm starting to think that I failed that one.
Anyway, after noticing the arms (which kept me in the trance for a good five minutes at least) I noticed his smile. People with mojos do not notice the smiles of people with charm that they can resist!
But really, he'd be writing something and someone (Sirius I'm assuming) would say something and he'd look up, give Sirius this completely strange look, and then just start laughing.
Which brings me to the next reason I couldn't look away.
His laugh.
How horrible is that? I may or may not have lost my mojo because of his laugh.
This is killing the tough Head Girl image I worked so hard to achieve.
It was kind of loud and it made his dimples even more profound. And every time his glasses would slip just a little down his nose, so he would fix them. That makes sense. Anyone with glasses slipping down their nose would fix them. Unless they were professor McGonagal and going for the intense librarian to the extreme look. But every time he fixed the glasses, which was every time he laughed, he decided that since his hand was up there anyway he would run it through his hair.
FURTHER PROOF that my mojo went out the window of the astronomy tower and landed with a rather loud splat on the ground, never to be seen again, would be that THIS DIDN'T BOTHER ME! James Potter running his hand through his hair did not bother me! At all! I was perfectly fine- ecstatic really- that he was messing up his hair!
Lily Evans with a mojo would have scoffed and turned back to her work. Actually,Lily Evans with a mojo wouldn't have been staring in the first place.
Lily Evans without a mojo, however, smiled dreamily and CONTINUED STARING.
Now, are you starting to see why I think I've lost my mojo?
The staring thing was really getting out of hand. I was doing it so much that eventually Remus made eye contact with me and gave me the 'do you really know what you're staring at?' raised eyebrow look. I grinned and pointed to the ceiling- at nothing, it was just a distraction. And it worked. He looked up and I quickly looked down at my textbook, not daring to look up to see if he was still looking at me.
Remus was the second to catch me.
The next day I was going absolutely mad trying to find my mojo. Resisting the Potter Charm was something that I excelled at the most! It was the one thing that had without a doubt never failed me. But now? Nothing. No Lily mojo. I was giving in to the Potter Charm.
And I'm not sure that it was a bad thing.
"Has anyone else caught you staring?" Alice asked at breakfast.
"No, thank Merlin. This losing my mojo thing really is getting on my nerves."
Alice rolled her eyes and patted me on the shoulder. "You didn't lose your mojo. You just fancy James Potter. There's nothing wrong with that." But she was grinning like the imp she is and I just knew she found the whole Lily-in-distress thing hysterical. "How did this even happen?" she asked giving me a confused look.
It was pretty random, just doing charms and realizing that your mojo has gone away.
"I don't know," I moaned sinking down to the table.
But then James walked in and I sat up straighter and pushed a strand of hair behind my ear. I, me, Lily Evans, pushed a strand of hair behind my ear. The fact that my hair wasn't pulled back was shock number one. The fact that it was down to impress James was shock number two with a side of heart attack.
I put my hair down for James Potter. Because I thought it would get his attention.
And when he looked over at me and grinned, I certainly gained his attention. Those bloody butterflies that started in my stomach felt like they were trying to claw their way out.
Then I turned red and looked back at Alice.
"Why?" I moaned.
She just patted my head.
"I don't know, but you just need to grab some confidence and go up to him and ask him to Hogsmeade. It can't be that hard." I gave her a skeptical look. "What? I did it to Frank."
"Yeah, but you also knew Frank liked you before hand."
"James is absolutely in love with you. The fact that it's written on every single one of his assignments should be proof enough."
"You also didn't hate Frank before you talked to him. You were actually mates."
"What? You and James are mates! You've patrolled together at least five times. And not once did you have to hide his dead remains afterwards."
"But I've always been able to resist his charm!"
Alice shrugged. "We all knew you'd give in eventually, dear." She laughed. "Now eat your breakfast, gain some confidence, and walk over to James where you might just find a new mojo."
"I don't want a new mojo," I grumbled so that she wouldn't hear. She did hear something being grumbled though and she flicked me in the forehead. "Ow, sheesh."
"You've been caught staring twice now. You need to do something before you look like one of his... his fan girls."
And boy did she have a point. There were girls at school with homemade t-shirts that said Potter on the back. They used the excuse of Quidditch to make it seem less creepy so they threw his number on the back. But everyone knew that they want to jump his bones.
"Right. Very true."
So it became extremely evident at that point that I had indeed lost my mojo.
But Alice made me realize that I could get a new one. A new mojo. Something to consider. My old was avoiding Potter's charm. My new could be dating Potter? Could that even be considered a mojo? I had to work on it.
With some new found confidence (I wasn't quite sure where it came from, but I had it and it had taken over) I finished my breakfast quickly and waltzed- yes waltzed. My hair was down and I was being graceful- over to James.
"Hello Lily," he said cheerfully when he saw me come up behind Sirius who was sitting across from him. I looked him in the eye. "What brings you to our neck of the table?"
"Well," I began, confidence eating those butterflies so it wasn't like they were attacking my stomach anymore. "I seem to have lost my mojo."
"Your... mojo."
"Yes, James, my mojo. I've lost it and, well, I'm pretty sure it's thrown itself off of the Astronomy tower. So I'll never see it again."
James grinned. "That's rather unfortunate, isn't it?"
"Well, yes. I was rather distraught. But there are other mojos. Other opportunities."
"I'm glad you've learned that."
"As am I. So, I was wondering if you'd like to come with my to Hogsmade next Saturday?"
Some of the confidence had escaped me and I felt the terror of my lost mojo coming back.
What was I doing? Asking James Potter out no a date? That was not something Lily Evans with her mojo would do.
Lily Evans with her mojo would have just denied James Potter every time he even brought up the idea of doing something together. That didn't work when I was the one doing the asking though.
"To Hogsmade?" he asked. "With you?" I nodded as I tried to urge my confidence to come back and attack those butterflies. It wasn't working. "Even after you lost your mojo?"
I nodded.
"All right."
"What?" I couldn't help but splutter.
"Sounds good to me." He grinned.
"Sounds good to... what?"
Well, you would have been astounded, too. I honestly wasn't expecting him to say yes. Having an overwhelming amount of confidence was a scary thing when your friends make you do rash tasks.
"Did you, er, not mean to ask me?" He had this confused look on his face that made his eyebrows get crinkled, but there was a smirk too, so his dimples were standing out.
"Yes-er... no. I mean... I did mean to ask you out... but..." I trailed off. "Not having a mojo is hard," I said more to myself than to James.
"Right, so next Saturday? I'll meet you in here after breakfast?" he asked, an eyebrow raised.
"Right. Sure. See you Saturday."
"Well, we've got Head duties tomorrow night," he pointed out.
"Right. Right... see you tomorrow night then," I said.
I turned on my heel feeling slightly confused, but rather good. Apparently having a mojo was holding me back all these years. Not having a mojo was so much better!
"Well, what'd you do?" Alice asked the second I sat down.
"Well, I didn't find a mojo..."
"But did you get him to go with you?"
"Er... I did, actually."
"Great!"
"Yeah! Yeah it is!" I said, swelling with pride. The new, mojo-less Lily Evans asked out James Potter! Granted, she had butterflies attacking her innards at the time, but she still did it!
It was awe inspiring. I wanted to sing.
But I didn't. Singing was not one of my specialties.
Of course, without my mojo and with the fact that I now had a date with James Potter next Saturday meant that I was under the influence. And under the influence of James Potter while not having a mojo is going to be pretty interesting.
Especially if he writes a lot.
A/n: Fic number 49! You know what that means? The next one is my Golden Fic! I'm so nervous about posting the first chapter. It's different than most of mine have been so far. But I hope you'll like it.
Anyway, I did not mean for 'mojo' in this fanfic to be that of Austin Powers. Just to clarify. Lily running around without her sex drive. Face palm. No.
Oh, and I have seen a guy with REALLY nice arms writing before. I died. Just thought I'd share. :p
Anyway, thanks for reading! Reviews are appreciated and encouraged!
Edit: I tried my best to fix this stupid thing but it didn't work. I tried everything I could think of, and I'll try again in a couple of days. Sorry again for the lousy format! It's driving me crazy just looking at it.
Much love and free hats,
Siriusly Klutzy