James sat up lazily in the common room. It was very unlike him to fall asleep in the middle of the day but with no Marauder to keep him upbeat, he found it extremely difficult to not doze off. He leaned over on the chair and mussed his hair trying to pass off his 'dishevelled' look that made him so devilishly handsome. The common room seemed strangely calm, and he sensed something off. It was most unlike the Gryffindors to be silent. He looked around quickly hoping to spot any other sixth years on a free period. Nobody. James was starting to panic. He quickly got up and knocked his bag off his lap in doing so. He picked it up and the light caught his watch bringing James' eyes to it. They widened as he realised the time; he was late.
He didn't bother running. To be honest, the only lesson he'd ever bother running for was Transfiguration. Not only because of his love for it, but because of how much he knew he did not want to get on Professor McGonagall's bad side. He'd been victim to that only once in his six years at Hogwarts, and he knew for sure that he did not want to be subject to her anger ever again. Hell, he wouldn't wish it upon his worst enemy. As he reached the entrance to his Potions lesson, his hands instinctively went to his hair as he tried to tame it down before stepping into the classroom.
"Yes, yes, James! Nice of you to join us!" Professor Slughorn's voice boomed. James smiled at him and the mild anger etched on Slughorn's face instantly subsided. "Would you care to tell me where you were?"
"A young Ravenclaw wanted my autograph, sir, I had to give it to her, can't disappoint the fans you see," James replied, pulling the story out of nowhere. From the back of the classroom, he could hear Sirius' guffaws and James smiled despite himself.
"Very well then, sit yourself down," Slughorn said. James started towards the back of the classroom to where the other Marauders were seated but was stopped almost as quickly as he had started. "Unfortunately, due to your late arrival, you are to sit where I tell you!" Slughorn cried, placing a heavy hand on James' shoulder. James quickly scanned the room for all the empty seats. There were three empty seats in the room: one next to Peter, one next to Severus and one next to Lily. James immediately knew there was no chance he would be able to sit next to Peter, everyone in school knew they were best friends. But Lily? Everyone in the world knew how much he was despised by her. James had definitely grown quite fond of her especially since her public display of hatred for Severus after he used a racial slur back in their fifth year. Unfortunately for him, Severus was sitting at the adjacent desk, so it was unlikely that he would even be able to talk to Lily without getting glares like daggers. "That's right, sit beside Lily! She can teach you a few things!" At this, everyone laughed, Sirius being heard loudly of all. James made a mental note to cuff him around the neck later. James walked over to Lily smiling at her, as he placed his bag on the floor.
"Alright, Evans?" he asked.
"I would've been better, had I not been partnered with you." She replied swiftly. She caught Marlene's eye and they both sniggered. James simple rolled his eyes and pulled out his textbook.
"Who can tell me what Amortentia is?" Professor Slughorn's voice boomed. Lily's arm instantly flew up, leaving James surprised that she hadn't somehow slung her arm off and hit the roof. "Lily?"
"It's the most powerful love potion to ever exist. Every person smells something different- a smell that they are attracted to."
"Excellent! Take ten points for Gryffindor," he said. Lily beamed up at him and turned to James with a curt nod. Severus was looking vehemently at James.
"Anything the matter, Snivelly?" James said in an undertone, "Your face seems to be frowning more than usual." This caused Severus to frown even more and James thought it a wonder that a face could even look that disgusted.
"Can you pass the rose thorns?" Lily asked James, thumping him on the back.
"Why?"
"For the Amortentia!" Lily cried out exasperatedly. Her tone made Severus snigger as he turned away from the two. James shrugged his shoulders and grabbed the thorns out of his Potions Kit. He placed them on the chopping board Lily had placed between them. She had attempted to cut the peppermint and seemed to be having quite some difficulty.
"Let me do it." James said, reaching across and taking the knife out of her hand.
"Five seconds ago, you didn't even know what potion we were making!" Lily said, trying to take the knife back.
"Yes, but I do n-"
"You don't even have your textbook open! How will yo-"
"Listen, Evans," James said, his voice lowering so nobody but she could hear him, "I know what I'm doing. Even Snivelly over there knows I'm great at Potions." Lily laughed her high tinkly laugh and shook her head.
"You? Good at Potions?" she laughed again, then paused and stopped smiling altogether, "Oh you know what, just cut the peppermints then." She said and she bent over the cauldron without another word. James didn't know what had made her back down. Lily was a very feisty person and it was very unlike her to turn away from an argument, especially against him. He looked around them and noticed Severus looking at the two of them through the greasy hair that curtained his face. James grinned at him then looked back down to the chopping board. He skimmed the textbook. 'Cut the peppermint into a fine powder.'
"Well, it needs a powder, doesn't matter how I do it," James mumbled to himself. He turned the knife over so that it was flat and crushed the peppermint instead. Lily gasped beside him.
"What on earth do you think you're doing?" she squealed.
"The textbook said to powder the peppermint, so I'm powdering it." He responded, doing the same to the second peppermint. Lily looked gobsmacked.
"It says to cut it into a fine powder!" she cried, "Cut!"
"It doesn't matter how you powder it as long as you powder it, right?" he asked. He'd crushed all the peppermints and placed them in front of her. She shook her head muttering about idiots and not taking things seriously.
"If this goes wrong, I will hex you," Lily muttered. James just smiled at the back of her head. He sat down and watched Lily get busy with the potion.
"Right! I think it's done!" Lily said, turning to look at James. He immediately stopped mouthing things at Sirius and jumped up to his feet, "Thanks for your input."
"I crushed the-" James quipped indignantly.
"Yes and nothing else after that. Don't think I didn't notice you talking to Sirius the whole lesson." James looked down attempting to look guilty. He couldn't bring himself to do so- who could feel guilty about talking to their best friend?
"All right, all right," James said bending over the potion, "Let me have a whiff then." He took a deep breath in and he waited. But nothing changed. The potion didn't smell of anything. "It doesn't work," James said decidedly. He felt somewhere inside him that this could hardly be true, considering that Lily was probably the best in their year at, well, everything.
"Oh move over, you're probably doing it wrong." Lily said shoving him aside. James looked at her incredulously. How could one smell something wrong? Lily went a little pink and she picked up the textbook examining it, "Oh, I'm sure I did this right!" she cried out. James smirked at her. Watching Lily fumble over getting something wrong may just be the highlight of his life so far. She bent down over the cauldron and James imitated her.
"I still can't smell anything," James said, as they both lifted their heads away from the cauldron.
"It's a wonder you can smell anything at all, over the buckets of conditioner you used this morning!" Lily shouted at him. James instinctively reached to touch his hair.
"Oh yeah? Well maybe I'd have been able to smell something had the rose perfume you insist on smothering yourself with, hadn't given me an asthma attack!" James shouted back. Lily blushed all the way to the tips of her ears. In James' eyes this made her look adorable and he couldn't help but feel some of his anger dissipate. "Let's try this again shall we?" James murmured, "Just stir it a bit more," and he began to move the ladle in a clockwise motion. He looked at Lily bracingly then the two of them, once again, put their heads over the cauldron and took a deep breath.
"Nothing!" Lily said, sighing, "Well nothing except your dumb conditioner," she folded her arms and looked at him accusingly.
"Will you stop attacking my conditioner?" James said, jabbing a finger in her direction, "It's not like I want to smell your asthma-attack-evoking perfume either, but here we are!" James paused as he noticed the people around them starting to look.
"Why don't you go and stand outside and maybe then I won't have to smell your shampoo and will get the chance to smell something I actually like." Lily said, pointing towards the door. James rolled his eyes and looked to the front of the classroom where Slughorn had returned to his desk.
"Lovely, everyone's potions seems to have turned out great considering all I can smell is coffee beans and oranges!" He clapped his hands together and motioned for everyone to leave. James picked up his stuff and walked towards the door. "Tomorrow we'll look at-" but James had already left the classroom.
Remus grabbed a hold of his shoulder. "Where are you off to in such a hurry?" he asked, smiling down at him. Sirius and Peter had caught up to the other two and they fell into a line as they made their way to their next lesson.
"Marlene wants to sneak out tonight," Sirius said with a glint in his eye, "Says she wants to go down to Hogsmeade."
"Is it to buy Lily's birthday present?" Remus questioned straightening out his robe. "I do need to get her something as well. She got me a rather nice book for my birthday-"
"Yeah," Sirius interrupted sensing James stiffen at the thought that he had yet to receive even a smile from Lily, "Something about how Lily was in tears because Mary smashed her last bottle of perfume last night." They all roared with laughter, only stopping as they reached their Transfiguration classroom. This was one of the few reasons the James and Sirius even woke up on Fridays. And they were fairly unlucky this year, as they shared Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws, not the Slytherins like last year so the boys could not torment Severus as they previously had enjoyed doing so.
As they waited for Professor McGonagall to open the door, James leaned against Sirius. "Aw mate!" Sirius cried, stepping away from James instantly, putting his hand up to his nose. "Remind me never to hog the shower ever again!"
"Why?" James said in protest lifting his robes up to smell.
"You smell disgusting," Peter commented, causing Remus to laugh heartily. "It's weird not being able to smell your shampoo." Professor McGonagall chose this moment to open the door and the class trailed in, the laughter and chatter dying out. Sirius, Peter and Remus followed the rest of the class in but Jams stood dumbfounded in the corridor. Sirius turned and noticed James standing frozen to the spot, his mouth open.
"What?" Sirius asked him, "Come on, mate, I was just kidding," But James wasn't thinking about his smell. He was piecing the information he had gotten in the last few minutes together.
Mary smashed Lily's perfume last night. James hadn't had the chance to shower this morning because Sirius was hogging the shower. He threw his head back and chuckled softly as realisation dawned upon him. Potions may just become James' new favourite lesson.