James took a deep breath, plucking up the courage he needed, before turning the corner, through the doorway, into his potions class.
He walked down between the rows of long tables, whereupon sat student's cauldrons, and various ingredients. He kept walking, until he reached the front of the classroom, and he took his seat. Looking down at the table as he gathered his strength, he turned to the girl beside him, and mustered up a greeting.
"Hey, Evans." He said, putting on his tough façade.
"Hello, Potter." She returned his greeting, obviously annoyed, as she always was, by his presence.
Their sixth year, James Potter and Lily Evans had been seated next to each other for potions, because Professor Slughorn thought Lily could be a good influence on his one of his more difficult students.
Sadly, that wasn't quite the effect. In fact, to Slughorn's ignorance, it had had the opposite effect. James had fancied Lily for as long as he could remember, but she had made it quite clear that the feeling was not mutual. However, this did nothing to hinder James' affection for her, and she tired of him asking her out.
Eventually, he tired of her rejections, and reduced his, what he's come to accept it as, love for her, hidden. Their exchanges are now limited to school, and simple greetings. He hated being so close to her, but never talking to her, and it hurt that she hated him. But no matter how much it hurt, these lessons were the only way he could talk to her now, and he relished this.
Lily tensed as she heard his footsteps approaching. Of course she could recognize the rhythm of his easy gait, the light thuds of his shoes on the stone dungeon floor. He swept behind her quickly, and she felt her hair flutter against her back at the breeze of his passing. He took a seat next to her, leaving his messenger bag resting between the legs of their stools.
Making sure her excitement inside at their proximity was not noticeable on her steely expression, as she tried to hide how she felt about him. Since they were little, James had constantly pursued her, asking her on a date every other day. Sure he and his friends were having a laugh, she constantly refused, and at the beginning, she was relieved when he had stopped this year. As time wore on, and she realized how much she missed talking to him, and how much she wished that he had actually wanted to be with her all those times he asked. No matter how much she wanted to know if he meant any of it, she knew if she acted on her feelings, everyone would just think that she missed the attention.
"Hey, Evans." His voice brought her back from her rueful musings.
"Hello, Potter." She said, then promptly, so as not to divulge anything, turned her attention to the Professor Slughorn as he began the lesson.
The lesson that day was brewing an Elixir to Induce Euphoria. Working together with the odd idle word, James would add the ingredients, and Lily would stir them in the cauldron. After their potion turned a pleasing yellow-gold that earned a heartfelt compliment from Professor Slughorn, the pair turned to their individual work, writing about the correct and morale uses of the concoction.
As it only had to be a roll long, James figured he might as well try to finish the assignment in class, and began the paper. Once he was well into the essay, he felt something hit him in the back of the head. Inspecting the floor around him to find the mystery object, he found a balled up piece of parchment at the base of his stool. He turned to see his best friend Sirius, who at the back of the room was paired up with Frank Longbottom, and was gesturing James to open the parchment.
Smoothing out the paper, in Padfoot's haphazard scrawl, read a message for James.
'Soooo hows Evans today? You look so broken-hearted Prongs.' The note read, with a small happy face with the tongue sticking out drawn at the end.
Rolling his eyes at Sirius, shielding the note from Lily subtly with his arm, he wrote his reply.
'Bugger off, Padfoot. You know she hates me. And I look no different then I usually do' He waited a second for the ink to dry, and for Professor Slughorn to turn his back, before crumpling up the parchment and sending it back across the room, with impeccable aim.
He turned back to his work, and class ended a couple of minutes after. He left the room, joining Sirius at the door.
"Did you get my last note?" Sirius asked James, as they made their way up the stairs out of the dungeon.
"No. I didn't know you sent one back." James said, alarmed.
"Don't worry about it, I'm sure that no one'll read it, someone'll probably toss it." Sirius said, laughing at James' worry.
"You better be right Padfoot." He warned, and loosened up as they walked away. Sirius was right, it's probably already in the trash.