QLFC Round 7 – Pairing Palooza
Beater One: S.S. Thorn and Buck – James/Lily.
Optional Prompts;
7. (word) Tremble
9. (dialogue) "You're crazy!" / "Were you ever under the impression that I was normal?"
AN: Thank you to Queenie and Mags for betaing for me! You're both wonderful people.
7th February 1974 – For disrupting the lesson multiple times.
"Today, we will be transfiguring objects into birds." Professor McGonagall picked up her wand from where it lay on her desk and pointed it at a small statue. "Avifors."
As McGonagall waved her wand, James saw the statue lose its bronze colour and start growing wings. He, like the rest of the class, watched the transformation with a delighted grin on his face. He wouldn't admit it to his friends, but the ease with which Professor McGonagall seemed to do transfiguration amazed him, even after two and a half years of being taught by her.
It was no secret that James wanted to become an Animagus, and he guessed that his love of the subject stemmed from that want, but there was just something so beautiful in the way the bronze of the statue faded into the light brown of the small finch that was now sitting on McGonagall's desk.
"You will get into partners for this lesson, and each of you will critique the other as they try to perform the spell." Professor McGonagall turned to face one of the Gryffindor girls. "Miss McKinnon, could you pass the statues out, please?"
James turned to Sirius, ready to partner up with him, but he was already reaching for the statues Marlene was handing him and placing them in front of himself and Peter. Remus wasn't in the lesson as it was a full moon that night, so James found himself looking around the room for someone to partner himself up with. Dreading the thought of having to be partnered up with that awful Hufflepuff girl—Maria Biddulph—who had a crush on him, again, and deciding he'd much rather work with someone he had a crush on himself, James caught Lily's eye, winked, and shouted at the top of his lungs, "I call Lily Evans as my partner!"
"Not a chance, Potter," Lily shouted back.
She had opened her mouth to say something more, but Professor McGonagall cut them off with a stern, "Mr Potter, Miss Evans, be quiet! Miss Evans is already partnered with Mr Miller, so you shall be working with Miss Biddulph today, Potter."
He groaned but made his way across the room to sit with Maria who was watching him with a look in her eyes that James could only describe as 'creepy' (although, it was actually just lust). Working with Maria wasn't so bad—she knew what she was doing—but having to put up with her stupid giggles, constant shuffling closer to him, and 'accidental' mistakes while performing the spell began to drive him insane.
James, who had performed the spell perfectly on his second attempt, found himself watching the rest of the class work so that he didn't have to look at Maria anymore. It was only then that he noticed just how close Lily was getting with her partner. Fetching a piece of parchment, a quill, and some ink from his bag, James began to hastily scribble a note, his hands beginning to tremble as he wrote. When he was done, he scrunched it up into a ball and threw it toward where Lily was working. It hit her in the back of the head, and Lily whipped around to face him, a look of pure anger on her face.
"What do you want, Potter?" Lily was speaking through her teeth, her words coming out as a hiss.
"Read the note and you'll find out," he told her, a smirk on his face and a small laugh breaking into his voice as he spoke.
"I'm not reading anything from you," she told him with a glare.
"Mr Potter, return to your own work, please," Professor McGonagall said from behind him, making James jump. He begrudgingly did so, but his brain was already working up new ideas.
He turned back to his workstation. Seeing that Maria had finally transfigured the statue perfectly, James gave her a quick "well done" before returning to his parchment and writing more notes. This time, instead of throwing them at Lily, he enchanted them to fly across the classroom and land on her textbook, in her bag, in the pockets of her robes and even on the desks of a few other students nearby. Sirius burst out laughing as he read one of the notes, but James kept going until he saw Lily turn around and glare at him. He smiled and raised his eyebrows suggestively at her, but she just scoffed and turned away.
"Mr Potter." McGonagall was standing behind James once more. "If you feel like you've performed the spell well enough to distract other students, then you should have no problem showing me." She put a statue, much larger than the ones they had been practising on, down on James' desk. "Please transfigure this statue into a bird."
"Of course, Professor." James pointed his wand at the statue. "Avifors."
The statue in front of him started to lose it's colour, becoming grey. A pair of wings sprouted from its sides, and it started to shrink. It wasn't long before a small bluebird was sat on his desk, moving its head from side to side as if wondering how on earth it had got there.
Professor McGonagall looked annoyed for a second before saying, "Very good, Mr Potter. Five points to Gryffindor," and walking away.
Since the notes clearly weren't working, James decided to take things a little further. Ten minutes before the end of the lesson, just as students were finishing writing up their findings and transfiguring the birds back into statues, James stood up and climbed on top of his desk.
"Since you've been ignoring my notes, I have no choice but to ask you publicly for everyone to hear. Will you, Lily Evans, go to Hogsmeade with me on Valentine's Day?"
"Mr Potter," McGonagall shouted from the front of the classroom. "Get off that desk immediately. Detention, Sunday morning."
He sighed, annoyed that he'd have to get up early the day after a Quidditch match, but also slightly relieved that Professor McGonagall was his Head of House, so she wouldn't give him detention while the match was on.
Almost as soon as McGonagall told them the lesson was over, James felt an arm land heavily on his shoulders.
"Mate, you're crazy!" Sirius laughed, punching James in the arm with his other hand.
"Were you ever under the impression that I was normal?"
"Definitely not."
The two of them doubled over in laughter, and as they waited for Peter to join them, James decided that it would be his mission to annoy Lily Evans as much as he could until she agreed to go out with him.
Word Count: 1,109.
This is for:
Hogwarts Summer Funfair – Tea Cups;
(pairing) James/Lily.
The Valentine-Making Station;
Calligraphy – Write about a note.
Social Media Competition;
Instagram Filter – Find and use a beta (Queen Bookworm the First and Angelo Della Magnolia).
Greek Mythology Category Competition;
Alke – Write about a Gryffindor.
Chocolate Frog Cards – Hesper Starkey;
Incorporate a lunar event into your story.
History of Magic Option One;
Choose a Founder and write a story in which a character exemplifies two or more qualities that your chosen Founder looked for.
Chosen Founder – Salazar Slytherin.
Qualities – Determination. A certain disregard for the rules.