"You're going to die alone."
The venom with which she spat the words made him stumble. What he said hadn't warranted the response that he'd got. Sure, he teased her, but it was good-natured. It was his way of letting her know that he liked her. At least, it was one of the ways he let her know he liked her. There were the presents from Hogsmeade, the bad poetry, and of course, the fact that he kept asking her out. He knew it annoyed her, but he figured that one day he would wear her down. But to be told he was going to die alone… That was one thing that he actually feared. It was as though she'd looked inside his head, found the one thing that would hurt him and then flung at him in front of the entire common room.
It felt like the moment after it had left her lips lasted for eternity, but it couldn't have done because his best friend was talking. "C'mon Evans." Sirius smiled easily. "You know he's infatuated with you. You don't need to play hard to get."
As the red head turned to Sirius, giving him a tongue lashing, James slipped out of the common room. He wouldn't die alone. He wouldn't. As he rounded a corner, he bumped into someone, who dropped the books they were carrying.
"Sorry." For some reason, the girl apologised to him, then met his eyes and blushed. He grinned. He wouldn't die alone. Not while every other girl in the castle loved him. If Evans kept her hard exterior, it'd be her dying alone, not him. Because he wasn't going to die alone. He wasn't.