Disclaimer:All I own is Raisa
I have to thank the wonderful Wicked7193 for coming up with the second point on Sirius' ranting list. I do have'Ways to Get over Lily Evans, Love of my Life No More' as a full list of something like ten points so if you are interested in seeing it then drop it in a review and I'll post it as the next chapter if enough people ask.
Enjoy!
Chapter 6
That same morning as Lily awoke to two snoring roommates and a solitary breakfast James awoke to a whole lot of noise. This being made in the main by an irate Sirius brandishing a large piece of parchment, a placatory Remus attempting to tone down the volume of the former, and a very confused Peter wondering what exactly he had missed this time…
"Moony what the hell do you mean 'don't wake James up'? Someone needs to tell him what an idiot he's being."
"…Wake up you stupid sod."
At this James felt someone give his bedcovers an almighty tug. He clung onto them protectively – granted he was being mature about giving up on Lily Evans, but that didn't mean it had to extent to anything else.
Besides, he didn't want to get up -
He wanted to stay in bed and shut the whole world out and indulge in some good old-fashioned wallowing.
"Well? What are you waiting for? Get up off your lazy arse and get out of bed."
James feared another impeding duvet tug and so this time he jerked himself upright and awake before Sirius had the chance to expose his half naked form to the dormitory at large. He now pouted at the angry, grey eyed teen hovering at the foot of his bed:
"Padfoot - that was a horrible wake up call."
Remus stepped forward here to interject. "I told him so too."
"Well I'm sorry, would you have preferred breakfast in bed?" Sirius spat in a tone suggesting that the only breakfast that he would be serving today would be poured all over James' head.
The latter gaped, wondering just what it was he had done to piss Sirius off. He then noticed the crumpled piece of parchment in his tormentor's hands and realised that if he was in the rather girly habit of making lists then the least he could do was hide them better.
Peter was also confused. "Will someone tell me what's going on?" he pleaded.
Then, looking stern, he turned to James: "Prongs, what did you do to make Padfoot mad?"
James pouted. "You always take Sirius' side, Wormtail."
James then remembered that he hadn't actually done anything wrong…for once, so he changed tack:
"What makes you think that I've done something wrong?" he asked Peter conversationally, scooting up to the end of the bed in the manner of a girl at a sleepover greedily waiting for a piece of juicy gossip.
(James now had a hunch which list Sirius had found and wanted to stave off confronting the issue for as long as possible.)
Plus, it was always really entertaining getting Peter started on one of his circular and painfully logical trains of thought.
"Well," Peter placed a podgy finger on his chin in an (unsuccessful) bid to look intelligent. "Whenever Padfoot or Moony get angry it's usually because either you or I have done something stupid. I don't think I've done anything stupid recently, so it must be you who has," he concluded, looking satisfied with his somewhat torturous reasoning.
Sirius, however, listening to the exchange with a hand on his hip and a thunderous expression on his face, looked as though he wanted to throw Peter out a window.
Remus gave him a pointed look suggesting that this might not be wise and Sirius let out an explosive snort of derision.
"I'll tell you what's going on Pete," Sirius said through gritted teeth as he ran through a list of reasons why the Worm-tailed one was useful to have around and why he shouldn't throw Remus out of a window instead.
Instead he lifted up the messy piece of parchment and began to read from it in an affectedly grand and mocking voice:
"…Ways to Get Over Lily Evans, Love of My Life No More…"
Even though he had indeed written the list the previous evening at Remus' behest the words still hit James like a punch in the stomach with a lead boxing glove.
Sirius continued regardless, too livid to notice his friend's discomfort and angrily scanning his way through the rest of the list –
"Stop staring at her; stop acknowledging her; stop calling her Lily; stop moaning about her; study…?"
Peter giggled at this last one.
"Come on James, what are you playing at?" Sirius finally finished, his arms outstretched in question but his rage slightly abating at the though of James actually studying.
James scowled. "It's not very nice to read other people's things."
"I gave it to him, James," Remus admitted sheepishly.
"Moony!" James exclaimed, appalled.
"Sirius wouldn't believe me when I told him what you wanted to do – he thought I was joking."
Remus rubbed his head tiredly, trying to alleviate the inevitable headache that seemed to spring into existence all too frequently these days.
James did not take kindly to this piece of news and jumped out of bed. "Well do you think I'm kidding now? Do you? Do you? DO YOU?" Sirius backed away, slightly disturbed at having a half naked Prongs getting in his face.
James cringed and decided to put some trousers on.
"Me and Peter are going for breakfast," Remus announced loudly and clearly to the silent staring match that was now going on between Sirius and James, in the manner that someone might if they were a tourist in a foreign country and were doggedly trying to communicate in English to the locals.
Personally Remus was of the opinion that coming to an important decision all by himself was a very big step for James and he for one was prepared to support it. It didn't make Lily a bad person; it meant that she just wasn't compatible with Prongs. Remus ad always vaguely thought they would make a nice couple, but you couldn't force two people together – that wasn't how love worked –
Remus dragged a rapt Peter down the dormitory stairs for breakfast, idly hoping that James and Sirius would be down in time for first lesson.
He dreaded to think how Raisa would take the news though…
James had never been one for quiet and capitulated, breaking the silence…"What the hell else am I meant to do?"
The question hung in the air and Sirius' rock-like stare was beginning to weird James out. He knew that this was a favourite trick of Padfoot's – don't say a single word and hope that whoever was on the other end of the conversation would eventually become bored and sing like a canary.
James' boredom threshold had run down a while ago…
"Besides, you don't even like Lil- Li- Eva- Ev-…" James struggled valiantly with various tongue contortions before settling on an emphatic "…her…"
"When have I ever said that?" Sirius replied a little too quickly.
James tilted his head at Sirius, as if to say 'get real': "You think she's crazy."
"I think you're crazy but I still like you."
Carried away by a moment of sentimentality rare among boys James stood up and made to envelope Sirius in a hug. The sentimental moment vanished when Sirius side-stepped neatly out the way and James tripped over a Wizard's Chess board that someone had left upturned on the floor.
"Remus doesn't have a problem with this," James sulked from his position on the floor.
"Oh really? Well that makes a change." Sirius fired back.
James frowned. "What's up with you and Remus at the moment anyway?"
Sirius fell silent. This was not something he wanted to go.
"Ah, Rai," James nodded sagely. "Yeah, you don't want to go there." He winked conspiratorially at Sirius and made a rather crude gesture with his hands to suggest just what he might have meant by there.
Sirius smacked James upside on the head.
"I thought you'd sworn off girls anyway," James rubbed the back of his head, before now dodging to avoid yet another bullet of pain from the demon hands of Padfoot.
"Look Padfoot," James sighed, staring out the window or anywhere other than directly at his friend. "I really need your support on this because I keep changing my mind every five seconds and so I need people around to keep me steady."
Sirius ran a hand through his hair. He now felt mildly guilty at screaming at James and could almost swear that he saw a small tear escaping from James' eye. Raisa would kill him for this, but then again
"Sure mate." Sirius proffered his now not demonic hand to James and helped him up from the floor. "You have my support 100."
James smiled "What do you say? Let's go down and grab some food."
"Food? Sounds great but I just have to go do something first…"
James watched as Sirius sprinted down the dormitory stairs. He took a deep, shaky breath and followed his friend at a more sedate pace.
Today would be a good day – he could just feel it.
The first chapter of the rest of his life…
She was quite possibly the most gorgeous girl he had ever seen in his life.
Of course James was only eleven years old and he patently hadn't seen enough girls on the planet to be able to make a certified judgement on this subject. Regardless of this, he could not take his eyes off the pretty red head – she seemed so small and alone…
"Go and talk to her," Sirius nudged his friend in the stomach encouragingly when he had clocked who James was grinning goofily at. "If you don't then I will."
For James, this sealed it. He had only known the smirking, charismatic boy with the devastatingly handsome smile for the duration of a train ride, but already he could sense that Sirius Black always got what he wanted. Well, there was no way he was going to get this girl.
"Sirius Black don't you move another muscle." James demanded of his new friend, rolling up his sleeves theatrically. "Just sit back and watch how a smoothoperator does it."
In his haste to reach his future wife the extraordinary smooth operator tripped over his own shoelaces and fell right into the red headed Lily Evans, causing her to overbalance screaming into the Great Lake.
And that was that.
… After Remus and another girl had pulled her out of the Lake, he offered Lily copious apologies that she refused to listen to.
Then she kneed him in the nether regions…
From then on Lily Evans continued to take pleasure in James Potter's pain.
James Potter continued to love her more and more every single day whilst searching in vain for a way to make up for one moment of stupid clumsiness so it wouldn't cost him his life's happiness…
Please review after you've read :)
