I know I only posted this yesterday, but then I wanted to split To Die by Your Side up, so. There wasn't a prompt for this one, I was just inspired by one of the many, many au posts floating about on tumblr. So, here's the university induction day au no one asked me for but I wrote anyway. Chapter is indeed titled after George Ezra's Listen to the Man. Formatting's fixed.
"So if you'd all just talk amongst yourselves for a minute while I get the PowerPoint working." Professor Slughorn said as he bent over the back of the computer and began fiddling with various wires.
James turned to his left and offered a bemused smile to the young woman sitting two seats away from him. She returned it and then leant over slightly so that she could speak to him quietly, tucking an errant strand of dark red hair behind her ear.
"D'you reckon he has any idea what he's doing?" James glanced at Slughorn, who was pushing the mouse around in quick, jerky movements and muttering to himself. He turned back to her with a small smile.
"Not a clue. Then again, when does anyone over forty ever know what they're doing with anything technological?" She snorted and held out her hand.
"None that I've ever met. I'm Lily Evans." She introduced herself and James reached out to shake her hand.
"James Potter." He let go of her hand and watched her rest her chin on that palm. "So, Lily Evans, what are you planning on studying?"
"Events Management, if I have anything to say about it." Lily stood up and shuffled over so she was sitting right next to James, dragging her bag across the floor by the strap. She then reached across to pull her small pad of paper, pen, and the few handouts they had been given across the desk. "You?"
"Illustration, given everything goes to plan." He scratched the back of his head and shrugged sheepishly.
"Illustration?" Lily asked, fiddling with the corner of the top piece of paper on her pad. James nodded mutely and she glanced at him. Her lips twitched when he finally met her gaze and he softly sighed through his nose. "That's really cool."
James blinked at her slowly and then tilted his head to the side. "Yeah?"
Lily nodded. She had ripped the corner off the piece of paper and begun shredding it into tiny squares. "I've never been very good at anything even remotely artistic. I was always better at the 'boring' stuff."
"Being good at it isn't what's important, though. It's how much you enjoy it." James murmured, readjusting his glasses further up his nose.
"I suppose so." Lily allowed, pursing her lips slightly. "Still, I never really enjoyed them, either."
James sniggered slightly, biting down a smile. "None of us do." He promised her. At the front of the room, Slughorn was still messing around with the computer. One of the students who had been sitting on the front row had gone to help and James watched them for a few seconds before turning back to Lily. "Anyone who tells you that they actually enjoy the creative process is lying."
Lily's mouth curled up in a tiny smile and she scooped up the pile of paper pieces and dumped them into a pocket of her bag. "That so?"
"Yeah." James gave a decisive nod and then grinned. "We're all secretly masochists."
"That would explain a lot, actually." Lily said with a snort.
"Aha!" Slughorn exclaimed loudly from the front of the room, cutting off any response James might have had. "Now, onto the boring part of the day; financial information."
.
"If anyone has any questions about anything I've talked about this morning, especially parents, I'll be in the SU in roughly twenty minutes." Slughorn finished off the presentation with what was meant to be a smile, but looked more like a grimace, and wandered off towards one of the sets of double doors at the side of the room.
James stood up and stretched, sighing in satisfaction when his shoulder popped back into place. Beside him, Lily pulled a face at the noise and gathered her things. As she got to her feet, she pulled her bag over her head to rest across her body and tucked one of her thumbs underneath the strap.
"You here on your own?" James asked before he could filter what he was saying and he grimaced. "I did not mean that to be as creepy as it sounded."
"Uh huh." Lily said sarcastically as she pulled her shoulder length hair into a loose ponytail. She smoothed her hands over the top of her head to check for any bumps and raised an eyebrow at him.
"I didn't." He defended, the corners of his eyes creasing behind his glasses in his effort not to smile.
"Well, to answer your totally-not-creepy question, yeah I am. My sister kicked up a fuss about my parents coming with me because it's her birthday tomorrow." She rolled her eyes and started edging her way towards the aisle.
Behind her, James frowned. "She made a fuss because her birthday is tomorrow?"
Lily glanced over her shoulder and half-shrugged. "I don't pretend to understand how Petunia's brain works."
"I don't think I blame you, to be honest."
"What about you? You here on your own?" The redhead asked, slipping past a small cluster of girls and heading to the front of the room.
"Yeah, my dad's in the hospital at the moment. It's nothing serious!" He was quick to assure her when she opened her mouth. "He's fine, he's just recovering from a minor surgery, so they couldn't make it. My best mate was supposed to come with me instead, but he text me last night to tell me he's been grounded. So, here I am."
"Anyone applying for any of the Events Management degrees over here, please!" A voice shouted over the noise of the crowd and Lily span around to try and find its source. Once she had, she turned back to James.
"Well, James, it was nice to meet you, but I should probably go over there now." She huffed out a laugh and ducked her head to look at the floor, covering her face with her hand.
"It was nice to meet you too, Evans. If all goes well, I'll maybe see you in September." It was James' turn to look at the floor and he scuffed at the carpet with his foot. Lily bit her lip for a second and then reached into her bag to grab a pen before motioning for James to give her his arm. It took a moment for the ink to show up on his skin but when it did, she scribbled down her name and then stepped back with a final smile.
"Add me on Facebook, okay?" She backed into the crowd and offered him one last wave before she was swallowed up.
James let out a heavy sigh and then turned to find his own group.