"Merlin! We are never going to decide anything like this." lily exclaimed as she closed another book with a little more force than necessary.
She sighed, exhaling frustratedly and closed her eyes, letting her head fall back to the rack of books that stood behind her.
"Hmmm...well this one won't work." James said, putting a book with a deep wine cover down, "too much blood talk for a class presentation." he continued looking at her with a smile.
Lily sat up straight and eyed her boyfriend with a grumpy look.
They were currently locked up in their school's vast library, well past the curfew hours searching for a good enough topic among the books laden racks for their combined presentation. They were sitting on the floor with books and journals scattered everywhere and the yellow light of the lantern was illuminating the space.
From where she sat she could see him sitting in front of her, legs stretched and feet crossed at the ankles, casually flipping through the titles of the well worn books, stopping to look at the insides of a few that he deemed worthy enough of his attention, cool and composed, and now smiling at her. James Potter in all his normal James Potter's glory.
She could not say the same about herself though, because: 1) Sitting on the floor hurts and she was tired. 2) They were working for hours with none what so ever progress. 3) James needed the perfect topic and no 'The origin of Magic' or 'The difference between light and dark magic' was not unique enough for his mighty. 4) Getting all your ideas rejected was frustrating and did she mentioned she was tired?
So there she was not at all cool or composed. Painting an opposite picture of her boyfriend slash co-partner.
"Ahh..the fabled witch of the small sea. Maybe this would be worthwhile." She heard James say fully unaware of her drastically changing mood.
She got up and walked towards her blissfully unaware co-partner fully intended on telling him to just choose some damn topic for God's sake and be done with it. Because after searching and re-searching half the library she didn't have enough in her to care about.
"Just choose anything and let me go to sleep." She grumbled as she stood up, arms crossed and lips pouted.
She winced, thinking she sounded more like a petulant child rather than an authoritative adult. But currently she was past caring for all that.
"But it has to be something really good, something unique." He replied back.
"Right at this moment Potter I don't give a knut about uniqueness. Just choose one or else I will."
James was not a fool he could quite clearly hear the growing frustration in his girlfriend's voice and he had to admit that he too was tired from all the day's work. But like he said it had to be unique. He needed it to be perfect.
"Okay, how about we go back for now and look again in the morning?" He asked her, getting up from the floor.
"We can't James. We also have to find all the information, write the report and then work on the presentation. No time for this tomorrow." Lily replied back.
'Yes, tomorrow's already booked. Damn the fact that they had to write the thing too and not just do a class presentation about it. Damn that they had to write it at all.' James thought to himself.
But he was not backing out. If he was going to do it it was going to be perfect.
"Then we go through more books right now." He said sitting back down.
"Wha-No! Get back up." Lily cried, when she saw her dear_'most of the time'_but_irritating_'currently' boyfriend sitting back down.
"Look if we are doing this then let's do this to make it best. So either we are looking more or not at all." He told her with a sorry smile.
Knowing his obsession for perfectness Lily knew she was not getting out of it. So sighing she resigned herself to the sleepless night ahead and sat back down this time with her back against his.
"But I'm taking a break." She pouted.
James chuckled, "Sure."
She slid down a little so that her head was rested on his shoulder and her back was supported by his. This felt good she thought closing her eyes. They had been working for hours and although it had seemed easy choosing the topic at first, it was proving to be the most hardest part of all. And for their report to stand out and receive a good grade they really do needed some topic that was not already done a million times before. 'Fine, okay, so maybe Potter was right, we do need to look more.' She confessed to herself.
So they worked like this for some minutes, James flipping throw the book currently held in his hands and she trying to think of something, anything worth suggesting.
They needed something different so she thought of all the unconventional topics and all that she had rejected before, replaying them in her mind to find anything worth their while.
And suddenly she had an idea.
"Hey James." she whispered as if talking aloud would get this one canceled too like all the previous ones.
"Yes Lily." James replied in a whisper too.
"You are a pureblood." She stated, still whispering.
"I'm aware." He did not know where this was going.
"Didn't your parents or anyone else told you about some kind of family stories or local folks? Like the one's that are kind of is there in every families? That are passed down from generations to generations? Mine did." Lily whispered.
James stopped looking through the book he was holding and slightly turned his head towards her.
"You are brilliant, you know that?" He whispered in her ears with a small smile playing on his lips.