Save Your Breath: Ch 2
After many whispers within the classroom of a clueless Professor Binns, much turning of book pages and even talks with nasty looking portraits hidden away in secluded corners, James Potter had a plan.
A suitably nasty one indeed.
Lily Evans was torn. James Potter, however arrogant, however stupid and foolish and idiotic he was had said he cared about her.
James Potter. The Quidditch star. The most handsome Gryffindor after –Lily would never admit this to anyone- Sirius Black.
He cared about HER.
She had no feeling for him but just.
Girls would kill to be in her position. She thought back to all the girls' faces when James was talking to her the day before.
Pandora Elysian, her best friend and the most beautiful Gryffindor girl there ever was, with her beautiful silky blonde hair and Grecian, pale features looked like she'd start to cry. Not that she should though, Lily had seen that weird Lovegood bloke in Ravenclaw eyeing her like she was a block of solid gold. She should do just fine if she just looked around a bit.
And the others, too! Only that 7th year girl, Polly or Molly, whatever her name was, with the red hair, seemed unfazed, but she had a boyfriend, and rumor was that they would be getting married right after Hogwarts. A bit soon, people said, but Lily was sure they'd be alright. Those two were in love.
Did she realize how lucky this was! Her, out of many girls, Potter liked HER! This was powerful social currency.
And she would use it. Severus could wait a little bit.
There was a girl in their year, Ambrosia Neemroot. She was the daughter of a family of apothecaries. She would do perfectly.
James Potter approached her carefully, staring at her and smiling shyly whenever they came eye to eye. The message wouldn't take long to sink in.
Sure enough, by the end of two days, the whispers had begun. Ambrosia Neemroot and James Potter? Could it be? It seemed extremely unlikely that this little, pale dwarf of a witch could attract a guy like James Potter, but alas, love was blind. Girls threw tantrums, and boys laughed behind James' back, but he took no notice. They wouldn't understand.
James got what he wanted by the end of the week. It was quite clear, from her look and flustered behavior, that Ambrosia was head over heels for him. He then began to reel her in, with flowers and boxes of chocolate, increasing both the size of her waist and her love. They were the talk of the entire school, let alone the Gryffindor house. Not even the news that the Lovegood oddity had gotten together with Pandora "The Jewel of Gryffindor" Elsyian could mute this sudden development, no.
My time, Lily thought, will eventually come. He's only using Ambrosia for something he wants. Stupid, egoistical brat, throwing feelings around like that.
James, the genius planner had not considered that one tiny detail. The news went all the way up to Lily, who started to ignore James even more than she already did, causing him much gloom. In time, he tried to think as he held Ambrosia's hand, she'll realize how much I love her.
Ironic, wasn't it?
Anyways, while Lily assumed an almost literally stony silence near James, Severus Snape was ecstatic with happiness. Surely, now that James Potter had gone for that apothecary girl, Beetroot or whatever, Lily would see what an unreliable bastard he was, right?
Wrong.
Lily Evans stopped speaking to both boys, confiding only to her friend Pandora and that other girl, Alice. They would never, ever help him though. Who'd help Snivellus?
God, had he started to call himself that too?
Anyways, time would show what Lily would do. Until then, Severus would have to content himself with the thought of her beautiful ginger hair and her freckles.
"Ambrosia?" James whispered to the girl sitting with him under a willow near the lake as he watched the sunset.
"Yes, Jameson?" She whispered back, smiling at him, yet not seeing a quick grimace that passed his face. He hated her habit of saying his full name, made him feel like a grandfather.
"Tell me about your family a little, hmm? I wonder where a pretty creature like you came from, surely you must have vela relatives?" James said, sounding earnest in the extreme. He was getting good at this. The girl in front of him had as much resemblance to a veela as a gnome to a hippogriff.
"Oh but darling~" Ambrosia purred, sending more chills down James' spine, "You know my family already, we're the Neemroots! We've been running the apothecaries all over England. There's nothing so particular about us."
"But Ambrywobbles, that still doesn't explain your magnificent beauty… Could it be that you come from a line of excellent potioneers, who had mastered the use of the Potion of Prepossessiveness?"
"Oh that may be true, I don't know~" Ambrosia giggled. "My parents are excellent potioneers indeed; they're always experimenting with ingredients in our alchemy lab back at home."
James grinned and shrugged innocently, before going back to stroking Ambrosia's hair quietly. Phase I was complete.
