a/n: it's been so long, i'm sorry. i kind of jumped into this on the hpfc (the categories challenge) on the back of a vague idea and the deadline started looming so i thought i'd better get cracking. i hope it's okay!
warnings: language, but it's not that bad. think teenage boys and you're fine.
disclaimer: it's jkr's world and i only play in it.
recently i've been hopelessly reaching out for this girl
who's out of this world, believe me
but obviously she's out of my league
and i never will be good enough for her
- obviously, mcfly
The Gryffindor Common Room is filled with the roaring chatter of friends who still have summer stories to share, new tricks to try, and already-late assignments to catch up on but a hundred and one better things to do. Lounging in the armchair to the right of the fire is a boy with messy black hair, and he grins, gesturing animatedly to the red-headed girl sitting cross-legged on the floor opposite him. Her fingers tap out a rhythm on the low table in front of her while he's talking, watching him closely with a half-smile tugging at her lips.
James Potter flops back into the armchair, ruffling his hair with a self-satisfied smile. "So, really, Evans," he says, "that's all there is to it."
He shuffles a bit and scuffs one foot across the ground. The ludicrous orange pattern - embellished with tiny broomsticks - clashes horribly with the red of the carpet. James clears his throat and gestures to the table.
"I mean, obviously it's a toss up between the rudest word and the highest score - the primary objective, so to speak, is a little muddy. Worm - Peter, I mean, is usually pretty damn good at the highest word part, so it befalls Sirius and myself to lay down the naughty words."
Lily Evans raises an eyebrow. Suppressing a giggle at James' ridiculous sock choices, she scrutinises the game board laid out on the table. It is, as has just been explained to her, a magical version of the Muggle game of Scrabble. With the help of some dubious Charm work that she decides it'd be best if she didn't know about (but makes a mental note to ask him about later), James and his friends have managed to alter the letter tiles so they arrange themselves into rather rude suggestions, jumping from square to square and fighting each other for the triple word score diamonds. In all honesty, it's nothing more than she expects from four teenage boys.
A grudging smile rises to her face. Lily pushes a stray strand of hair from her face as she asks, "And Remus?"
James snorts, shifting in his chair. "He likes to pretend he's too highbrow for juvenile games like this. I swear he's the worst of us -" at Lily's incredulous look, he grins knowingly at her. "He really is. He's just a terribly brilliant actor."
He watches her while she fiddles curiously with the letter tiles. The firelight catches in every wave of her hair, and the ginger curls glow orange like the embers in the fireplace to their left. It's the same orange as the Chudley Cannons team strip - only James'd be the relegated Cannons and she'd be the Arrows or Kestrels or one of the other top-of-the-league teams, with him falling further and further away from her. She's out of his league in almost every way, and he decides his odd obsession with her hair isn't helping matters. Shaking his head, he tears his eyes away as the L tile skips when her fingers run over it and he nods.
"W's a right bastard, I'll tell you that now."
Lily meets his gaze, deciding there and then that he's absolutely crackers. She can't help but giggle. "You're the..." she flips two tiles in her palm as she finds a suitable word. "Creators of this game, then?"
"Absolutely," James says proudly, eyes drifting to her hair again, and then he thinks of the Cannons and frowns. "It originated -" he nods across at the boy's staircase "in that dorm there. In fact, you can come and check out the founding spot if you want."
Lily smiles widely. "Hm. You're smooth, I'll give you that."
James runs a hand through his own hair again. "Blimey, a compliment? Eh, listen." He leans forward in the armchair, resting his forearms on his thighs. Lily's cheeks turn a faint pink and although she tries to focus her attention on what he's saying, his arms - exposed by his rolled-up shirt sleeves - catch her gaze more than once. "I know you probably have a million other things you wanna be doing on this marvelous October evening, but how about a game?"
Her stomach swoops and she's beginning to smile when the Hogwarts bell chimes loudly, reminding her of the time. Reluctantly she stands, brushing down her skirt, green eyes dimming a little. "Sorry, Potter. I promised Linda I'd meet her early for patrols," she says regretfully. His face falls rather spectacularly and she has to bite her lip to stop yet another giggle escaping her. "You know what?" Lily bends down to the table to scrape seven letter tiles into her palm. "It can wait a moment."
James hides a smile behind his hand, pretending to rub his jaw. He watches her again as she stares at the letters, lips moving to frame different combinations before she finally lights on one. She places down six of her tiles, blocking his view of the board with her long legs and rather lovely bottom.
"Move your arse, Evans, it's in my way."
Lily hums as she replenishes her rack of letters, and as she conjures a cover and traces her name in cursive with her wand he decides she's a sort of out-of-this-world-wonderful. James' eyes follow her deft fingers as she twirls her hair up into a bun. "I thought you'd enjoy the view."
She leans over him to reach her robes on the arm of the chair he's sprawling in, slipping the standard issue material over her uniform, and ruffles his hair on her way past. James smiles to himself and glances at the board. Right in the middle she's laid down TOERAG, and he chuckles loudly. He conjures a scrap of parchment and Summons his quill, scratching a score chart for them, the grin never leaving his face.
The game continues amicably for a few days, with the pair of them adding to the board whenever they're in the Common Room. Lily surpasses one hundred in three days, James in three and a half, and he's adamant the half makes all the difference. She laughs when he tells her this, and he smiles at the sound, teasingly flicking her hair from her face.
Four days into the game, James has just struck gold with a seven-letter word and is about to lay down the rather magnificent - if he did say so himself - offering when something jumps out at him.
He peers down at the board, noticing eleven of the tiles have a golden sheen to them. At the top of the board there's GO from gonads - James' word, with a little prod from Sirius - and about a third of the way down the board the second O from bollocks, the U from hump and the first T from tits are also glowing. Two rows below that the W, I, T and H from Lily's admittedly tame witch - she had assured him Muggles use it as an insult - are lit, and near the bottom of the board the M and E of bummer are also golden. In the bottom right corner, the last square on the board, the blank tile James had laid down to form wank now also glows, and someone had traced a question mark onto it.
As he sits there puzzling, he feels a weight resting on the back of the armchair. Remus Lupin leans over James' shoulder, arms folded and fighting back a wolfish grin. "Almost like someone's sending you a message," he comments airily.
James glances up at him, then almost immediately straight back at the golden tiles. "What?" he asks, distracted.
Remus sighs, rolling his eyes affectionately. "GO - gonads - OUT - bollocks, hump, tits - WITH - witch - ME - bummer - ?" he says, pointing to each of the letter groups in turn. "Not that I'm an expert or anything, but you know. Seems like -"
The realisation dawns on James and he leaps from the chair, rushing past his friend. He's halfway to the portrait hole before he stops and turns back to Remus, hand in midair. "And it's not one of you bell-ends making a twat out of me, right?"
Remus laughs loudly. "No offense, but I don't want to go out with you, Prongs." He slumps into the armchair himself, still chuckling, and looks at the board, jumping when James appears in his line of vision and grasps Remus' face in his hands.
"You're a bloody genius, Moony, you know that?"
Remus grins. "Yeah, but you should tell me more often."
James grins back at him and dashes out of the Common Room. He swears loudly when he realises Peter has the Map, outraging many of the austere portraits as he passes. He stops for a second, fingers tapping against his palm as he lightly clenches his fists, thinking. He narrows Peter's possible location to three places - Lily could be anywhere in the castle, although he has a pretty good idea of where she might be too, often passing time on their patrols by hiding out with a box of sugar quills in her favourite spots - and decides to find his friend first, so he spins on his heel and crashes straight into someone.
"Crap, sorry!"
She yanks him forward to stop him toppling over and lets out her breath in a rush, red trickling to her cheeks. "Alright, Potter? Sorry 'bout that. Didn't see you."
His hand jumps to his hair on seeing her and he licks his lips. "D'you need my glasses?" he asks, smiling.
Lily laughs. "Maybe I do." She twists the end of her plait around her finger, tugging on it nervously. James watches the movement, entranced. "Have you done a word yet? It was your turn, last time I looked."
James blinks while she hutches her bag up on her shoulder. "Er, not yet, no." She's twiddling her hair again and he wants to pull it loose from the tie and run his fingers through it. He shakes his head. "I'm getting a bit tired of the game, to be honest," he ends up saying, and as he gestures for them to start walking again, he misses the way Lily's smile drops from her face and her eyebrows scrunch together.
In silence they fall into step beside each other. Lily bites her lip and glances at him. "You can give up, if you want to, you know. You don't have to keep going for my sake." James looks at her. "I'll get over it," she shrugs, letting go of her plait.
James pauses, frowning slightly. "Lil, are you okay?" he asks, touching her arm briefly. She stops too, and they stand facing each other in the corridor.
She smiles at him but it doesn't quite reach his eyes. "Yeah, 'course. I'm sure you've got a million other things to be doing on this marvellous October afternoon."
He laughs at her words, the repetition taking him back to the first evening: the brightness of her smile, her curiosity, the firelight in her hair. "I could think of some things," he says, gazing at her. He takes a step closer to her, but she doesn't quite meet his eye.
Lily glances once at him and then looks away, out of the window across the Lake. She takes a breath. "Um, James? If you don't wanna play board games together, we could always - you know. Do something else. I don't really mind. You don't have to, of course -"
"Like what?" he questions, grinning at her. She finally catches his gaze and he pushes her hair back from her forehead, tucking a copper strand behind her ear. Her breath hitches and she takes a step closer to him.
"You could take me to Hogsmeade." The beginnings of a smile are forming on her lips and he wants to kiss them into a laugh of joy. He brings a hand to cup her cheek and tilts her chin up with his thumb. The small smile blossoms into a grin.
"And there I was thinking Remus had left me that message."
Lily's mouth drops open and she whacks his arm. "You arse!" He chuckles as she berates him, cheeks glowing red and hands flying wildly. "I thought - oh, bloody Merlin, James! You're so annoying, do you know that?" Her bag slips down her shoulder again and he takes it from her, leaving it on the floor by their feet.
"He turned me down, in case you wanted to know." James grins as she hits him again, catching her fist in his hands and pulling her closer. She glares half-heartedly at him, then dissolves into giggles.
"I did wonder how long it would take you to work it out," comments Lily, running a hand through his hair. His stomach jolts as her fingers scratch lightly against his scalp and he thinks that he might not be the only one with a thing about hair.
James runs his thumb across her cheek and she shivers. "We've only been playing it a week. Give a wizard a chance, Evans."
"Not the game," she says, smiling up at him. "The me-fancying-you-a-teensy-bit thing."
A slow smile spreads across James' face. "Yeah?" She nods. "I fancy you a teensy bit too, Evans."
He leans down to kiss her, and one hand rests at her waist while the other moves from her cheek to weave into her hair, and she kisses him back, one hand on his arm, the other in his hair.
Later, after they've kissed some more and made their way back to the Common Room and Lily's blushed under the amused gazes of James' friends, they're curled up in the squishy armchair together when she notices that the board has been cleared of nearly all its tiles, and only three remain: YES.
it won't be so long next time, i promise! - ohprongs