Disclaimer: Everything belongs to JK.
"I can't believe Gryffindor lost," said Peter.
"Don't bring it up," berated Remus with a sigh, "and Sirius, stop throwing things at him."
After launching his fifth ball of parchment at James' sulking head, Sirius glanced at Remus. "If he's sitting there in silence all moodily, of course I'm going to throw things at him. It all starts with parchment, but soon it's going to be Bludgers."
Narrowing his eyes for the Quidditch reference, Remus gave up and returned to his book, making use of the subdued atmosphere in the common room.
From his spot on the floor, Peter looked around for some entertainment. Finding none, he shrugged and aimed his wand up at James. Silently, he tried to vanish James' eyebrows.
Sirius muttered "Bullseye!" as yet another ball of parchment hit James between the eyes without eliciting a reaction.
A quill thrown by Sirius missed its target by a long shot as Peter let out a small yelp, causing Sirius' hand to slip.
"Merlin, that would've been a great shot! What the bloody hell are you crying about?"
"My eyebrows!" exclaimed Peter, whose hands covered his face, which had started to grow random patches of hair. He had never gotten the hang of wordless magic.
Despite half of the students in the common room being thoroughly entertained by Peter's hairy face, James continued staring into space, his mouth drawn in a line.
Dropping his newest weapon (cockroach clusters), Sirius waved his wand and restored Peter's eyebrows to their former glory. There was no point Peter making a fool of himself if James had the cheek to not be amused.
"Maybe I'll scrap that plan," said Peter as he picked up a few of the sweets and began aiming them at James. Most of the missiles fell in a heap on the empty sofa cushion to James' left.
After trying to ignore the ruckus for as long as he could stand, Remus put his book down. In a second, his wand was in his hand and all three of his friends were without eyebrows. "I did tell you to stop."
James took no notice of his sudden lack of eyebrows; the only sign he was alive was the vein pulsing in his neck and his fist slowly clenching around the captain badge he held in his palm.
Across the common room, Lily listened to the commotion with mild interest; she was too busy squinting at her Charms textbook to look across at the source of the noise.
"Sad, isn't it, how personally James took the loss?" mused Dorcas.
Marlene, still donned in her dirty kit complete with keeper's elbow pads, snorted. "He's the captain–it is personal."
"Yes, but he's been sat in the corner like a statue for the past half an hour," said Dorcas.
"Someone ought to go and say something." Marlene nudged Lily. "You're good at inspirational speeches, Lil, you go."
Lily's head snapped towards her friend. "What? Why would I go over there?"
"If anyone can kick James out of it, you can."
Lily sighed. Sirius' raucous laughter was grinding on her nerves. "Fine, but only because I can feel his depression from over here and I can't concentrate on this essay." She stood and marched over to where he sat, throwing a glare back at Marlene as she reached the circle of his friends.
Remus resurfaced from his book, watching her curiously, whilst Sirius and Peter stopped rolling on the floor laughing and looked up.
Standing in front of James with her hands on her lips, Lily fixed her eyes on a spot above his head–there was no way she'd be able to give an 'inspirational speech' if she had to look at his vacant expression. "Listen James, you played well, as did the rest of the team, so you'd better get your–" Lily stopped, having glanced down at James' face. "You have no eyebrows." She sighed and took a seat next to him after clearing the space of candy cockroaches.
Sirius and Peter shared a quizzical look, resulting in Peter shrugging and laying back to rest on his elbows. Despite a kick in the side from Remus, Sirius quickly balled up more scraps of parchment and started to fire them from each hand at his depressed best friend and the mysterious redhead.
For a while, Lily ignored the parchment as it bounced off her, showing nearly as much animation as the boy sat next to her. It was only when a tiny ball hit her in the eye that Lily let out a frustrated groan and raised her wand.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
Sirius' body went rigidly still, much to the amusement of Peter who howled at the sight, along with most of the pupils in the common room. Remus let out a short chuckle and let a smile linger on his face.
Out of the corner of her eye, Lily saw James' mouth curl upwards ever so slightly. She waved her wand again, lifting all the balls of paper thrown in the past half an hour up in the air and sent them all flying at Sirius' unmoving head.
Laughter burst out of James' mouth. He pressed a hand over his mouth–he hadn't meant to laugh–but then he gave up his aloof façade. Even Peter stopped poking Sirius to stare open mouthed at James leaning forward and whacking the arm of the sofa in-between bouts of laughter.
When Lily stood up, James stopped laughing, though the amusement in his face was obvious.
"Nice to see you've got your shit together," she said and walked back to her friends. It was obvious to everyone she passed that she was trying to hide her smile.
When she sat back in front of her homework, Marlene and Dorcas stared at her.
"Since when do you fancy James Potter?" asked Dorcas.
Lily's face went as red as her hair. "I don't." She pointed at Marlene. "I just thought I'd be a good friend to you and cheer James up on behalf of your appalling performance as keeper."
Marlene laughed. "It's not my keeping that's appalling; it's your ability to lie."
James stared after Lily as she strode away. Remus unbound Sirius, who moved into the spot Lily had just vacated. "Well, that was weird."
Fixing his captain badge back onto his robes, James furrowed his still non-existent eyebrows. "I know last time she rejected me, I said it was the last time, but... do you think I should give it another shot?"
A/N: Dedicated to Vicky, as we jointly came up with this idea over text after pondering how James would react after losing a Quidditch game. If you liked this, favourite, review or subscribe to me!