I own nothing. Except Ellie, Alice, Tanya, Jake, Cassie, Chloe, Alex, Michael, and Rory. So basically if you recognize it it's probably not mine. ;) *Also - there is some shounen ai in here so if you're not comfortable with that just skip Molly's (third paragraph)*
He supposes it starts with Victoire. Victoire and Teddy (theGoldenCouple). You could see them in the common room, or walking round the grounds in the twilight. Blonde and blue, and red, and yellow .His hair was always blue; an ode to his mother's crazy, but bubblegum pink isn't something guys (like Teddy)do. She was a Gryffindor – pure, and brave, and the perfect Weasley child.He was a Hufflepuff – kind, and loyal and sweet.After them everything was VictoireandTeddy, TeddyandVictoire, WeasleyandLupin, LupinandWeasley. They're perfect – and he (James Sirius Potter the second, prank master extraordinaire, extremely manly bloke, who does notspend time dwelling on love... or use the word dwell) wants that.
Then it's Fred. Fred and Ellie Longbottom. Cute.That's what they are – cute – everyone says it. Fred's happier than he ever was, and it's all holding hands and cards on Valentine's Day, and whispering 'iloveyou'. Sickening, says Roxi, rolling her eyes. So cute (there's that word again)says Lily, twisting her hair around her finger. Al and James tackle her, and glower at any boy who gets within a three inch radius of her for days afterwards. He wants that.
Molly's next. Red hair, glasses, oversized jumpers. She meets her onetruelovein the library, crashes into a bookshelf, and gets concussed. You know – your typical (Weasley) beginning of the 'happy ever after' ending (that he wants). Except people aren't so accepting of love sometimes, he realises, when people start avoiding Molly. You know the Weasley girl in Ravenclaw? The one who's always reading? She's going out with a girl. Tanya's all leather jackets, loose tie and short skirt, and she beats people up when they hurt her Molly.They're about trust, and solidarity, and secret smiles in the corridor. He wants that.
They're out in the grounds, stretching curfew, wandering round the lake. She's a star, and he's an angel. According to each other. (DominiqueandLysander). They're inloveand it's beautiful. He'll take Rose's word for it, he's torn between ignoring his former favourite female cousin, and making damn sure the guy treats her the way she deserves. (Lysander does, because he loves her.He tells her under the stars one night, and she kisses him, and yes alright, James wants that too.)
Next to go is Louis (who's always been sortofaplayer,but falls hardhardhard). That's when they're introduced to unrequitedlove, because she has a boyfriend, and is the only girl in Hogwarts who won't look at the beautiful blonde boy and feel her heart start racing. So Louis retreats into himself, can't stop looking at her,does anything and everything to distract himself (and that includes an incident with pills, but they all pull him through that),and he still can't stop looking at her.(And yet James still wants to feel something like that, because despite all the tears, and heartache, and days away from the sun, it's loveisn't it?)
Rose meets Jake on the Hogwarts Express one year, and he's apparently perfect.She's bright, and vivacious, and hates Scorpius Malfoy,and he's funny, and smart, and Ravenclaw. Even Ron can't fault him (and it can't be proved that he paid Hugo to keep an eye on them in school) but there's a good example of a relationship that just doesn't work out.They blow up at each other two months into dating officially.She screams that Lily saw you with Miranda coming out of the broom closet,and he yells that you're in love with Malfoy!(OK, James doesn't want the argument, or the break up, but he does want the inside jokes and the assurance that s/he's the one!)
The Hogwarts gossip mill has a field day when Albus Severus Potter announces to the world (and his parents)that he is in love with Cassandra Silver(Slytherin, mindyou)and kisses her in the Great Hall in front of everyone. 'Who else saw that coming?' Lucy asks, stealing some pancakes from her sister's plate, as JamesLilyFredRose watch in horror. One of them had to fall for a Slytherin.The family are (eventually) okay with it, and suddenly there's a new golden (silver) couple in Hogwarts history, and yes James wants that, and it's getting a bit ridiculous now – did he lose out on some all important lesson that taught you how to fall in love?
"This is Chloe. We've been dating for two months. She wanted to meet you. Don't be too crazy, I really like (love) her," Hugo says, preceding a petite blonde into the living room of the Weasley-Granger household, and making Hermione spill coffee over the nice new rug. Chloe laughs at Hugo's jokes, and he nods and smiles when she asks if her baking's alright, and they sit by the fire in the Gryffindor common room til midnight and smile and laugh and forget things when the other one enters the room,and his IQ drops by about ten points whenever she giggles, and all James can think is 'Okay, come on!'
Somewhere along the way Roxi lost the cynicism, and ended up kissing Alex in the rain one evening. Fred threatened him with death by pranking, and Ellie held him back. How did they last so long?When Roxi falls from her broom in a Quidditch practice, he hits the ground running, picks her up and carries her all the way to the Hospital Wing, and doesn't leave her bedside until she orders him out or I will break up with you!(She wouldn't have, because whenever she looks at him she can't stop smiling, and confided in Lily that his voice is kinda my favourite sound...).And he watches them be sickeningly cute('you'll put me off my food', 'I'm going to need to get a filling after spending an hour with you two') in the Great Hall, and wonders if there's something wrong with him.
Victoire and Teddy tie the knot that summer, and all the adults cry, and she looks gorgeous, and Teddy can't stop grinning, and when Magic Works plays in the warm evening, FredandEllie, MollyandTanya, DomandLysander,AlandCassie, HugoandChloe, RoxiandAlex, VictoireandTeddyall look like they've forgotten anyone else exists, and Louis tastes his first firewhisky, and Rose glowers at the stars, and he looks at Alice Longbottom sitting on his right, and they both roll their eyes, but all he's thinking is whynotme?
That autumn, Lily gets her first boyfriend. James and Al kick up one huge fuss, and Cassie rolls her eyes in the background, and smirks at Lily, who grins right back (woah, when did they become friends – he missed that memo), but Michael Thomas meets the parents and is only slightly freaked out by the grandeur and scaryof Grimmauld Place. Lily doesn't say the word love until it slips out during a sleepover in the Christmas holidays, and Molly, Lucy, Dom, Roxi, Cassie and Chloe all cheer and hug her, and at breakfast the next morning James and Al send death glares to their sister, and there's a pit of jealousy in his stomach, and he tries to ignore all of those stupidhappycouplesfor as long as he can.
New Year's Eve comes, and he is reminded that he's reached seventeen without ever falling in love when Scorpius Malfoy gatecrashes the Potter party and – taking out a very fake piece of mistletoe kisses Rose Weasley (Ron almost has a heart attack)."You're late," Rose reprimands. "Oh, I know, but I thought you might hex me if I just kissed you,"' he replies, looking at the mistletoe. "I meant with this," Rose scoffs, and kisses him again. And James sits there – squashed between FredandEllieand Alice, and decides he already hates the new year, because he wants that.
Al and Cassie break up that year, on their OneYearAnniversary ('ironic' says Lily, hugging her brother that evening as he stares into the fire, mumbling things that sound like insults to redheaded, green eyed Slytherins. 'I hate you' she screams at him, tears coming down her face. It's a proper argument, and the whole family's shaken up about it. But James is still sort of jealous of the feeling.
Then Lucy (Little Lucy) gets a crush on Rory Finnegan and he better watch his back because she's got eleven overprotective cousins (and Teddy). But seeing them dance together at Fred's seventeenth birthday party makes it almost worth it, because she looks so sweet in a yellow dress, and he obviously likes (are they allowed to say love at thirteen?) her, so they won't hex him just yet. And James must be wishing on someone else's star or something, because is there any other explanation?
Then it's his graduation, and he (Potter) is sitting directly behind Alice (Longbottom)and feeling that life sucks. (Did you know that Al and Cassie got back together yesterday after he stood on the table and announced his undying love for her to the whole Hall... And got them both a detention to boot. Yes, James is annoyed that his little brother's been in love, and he hasn't. How could you tell?) So his name's called, and he goes up to the front to collect his certificate, and Mum and Dad are waving from the back, and beaming at him. "We did it!" Alice whispers as he sits back down. It hits him then (God, he's slow!)that he's sort-of-maybe-slightly-almost been in love with one of his best friends since... Well, it probably began at about ten different moments, and it'll probably (never) end there too. So at the party the Potters hold for their son (and Fred, and Alice, and Ellie) he kisses her, and the whole family are silent for a moment (he really should have done this sooner)and then they start cheering because James Sirius Potter (the second) is in like (love) with one of his best friends and it's the best feeling in the world.
Well, it seems to me that the best relationships— the ones that last— are frequently the ones that are rooted in friendship. You know, one day you look at the person and you see something more than you did the night before. Like a switch has been flicked somewhere. And the person who was just a friend is suddenly the only person you can ever imagine yourself with.
Review? Favourite couples, moments, anything? :/