October 5, 1977

All things considered, having a really hot girl in your class rub balding potion in your hair so that your hair falls out in thick clumps was really not all that bad. Yes, it had been embarrassing at first. James would have happily gone through the school systematically performing memory charms on everyone that had seen him in his sorry state before he had been able to remedy it. He had, in fact, considered it, but Moony had made an excellent point that James would be unable to track down everyone who had seen him, and Sirius would have fought him viciously to keep the memory. Sirius had been loudly proclaiming all day that the first chance he got, he would be putting his memory of James baby-pink scalp into a pensieve to replay over and over again. So, yes, the whole thing had been annoying.

But it had worked out alright. Luckily, Lily had chosen to attack him right before lunch, so he hadn't missed any classes – thus failing in his obligations under the bet – while he was hidden in the broom cupboard on the second floor panicking.

He had lost valuable time trying to convince Sirius to summon help. His supposed best friend had seemed quite willing to let James waste away in the broom cupboard as the situation was apparently "bloody hilarious." Eventually, after countless threats and bribery – James would be out several galleons over this incident – Sirius had agreed to find Remus.

A take-charge kind of bloke, Remus had assessed the situation and quickly went to work to fix it. Within half an hour, Peter – under orders from Remus – had turned up Romeo Cohen, a muggle-born Ravenclaw who played beater for the rival team. Apparently, male pattern baldness ran in his family, so he had bought his father some hair growth potion in Hogsmeade for his upcoming birthday. He was the answer to James prayers. Mostly.

The bastard as it turned out was a good son who wasn't willing to give away his father's present to benefit his Quidditch rival. There wouldn't be enough time to buy any more and what kind of son did James take him for?

Cohen's moral superiority kick lasted all of thirty seconds before James found himself knee-deep in an intense bargaining session.

The initial offer from Cohen was that he would fork up the hair growth potion if James agreed to throw the next match against Ravenclaw. James countered that he would rather remain bald permanently and would devote his life to making sure that Romeo joined him in hairless misery. There had been no other mention of Quidditch in their bargaining. Cohen may have been an idiot, but even he knew that a threat like that from a Marauder was never empty.

Next, the dim-witted ponce had thought it was wise to demand a date with Evans, as if that was something James could easily provide. Remus had helpfully, if a bit too cheerfully, pointed out that James had never even been able to secure a date with Lily for himself, so he wouldn't be much help in that department. James had mostly been infuriated by Cohen's audacity in even asking. It's not like he was chasing blokes away from Lily, but there was an unspoken claim there dating back to fourth year that Cohen was blithely ignoring. James made note to find some creative revenge to let the sod know just how poor a move that truly was.

When Cohen amended his request to a date with Shelia, James gave him a long and somewhat sanctimonious speech on respecting witches. Honestly, you couldn't just go around trying to buy them. This was a lesson James had learned the hard way in third year when he had, foolishly, tried to buy himself a date with Evans. His cheek smarted just remembering how poorly that had gone.

James had been ultimately successful in buying some of the potion. The small portion that Cohen had agreed to part with was not enough to grow his hair back fully. That would come naturally with time. It was only enough to grow his hair out into a buzz-cut.

At first, he had been unhappy with the results. He kept moving his hands up to his normally moppy hair reflexively, and being shocked when his fingers met nothing but coarse hair. His opinion on the matter changed drastically, however, throughout the course of the day as he discovered that the female population of Hogwarts loved his new look.

Apparently, as James learned from Celia Vance, his shorter hair made him look more masculine. His boyish good-looks had always suited him well, but there was something new and exciting about him now. Again, all according to the witches he'd talked to that day. So, all in all, he figured Evans had done him a favor.

It was about time for Sirius's interview with Marlene, so they were all sitting in front of the fireplace in the common room, waiting for the girl to emerge from upstairs. There was no chance in hell that any of them were passing up the chance to watch what was sure to be an entertaining half hour. How was an interview supposed to go when the interviewer was so star-struck by her subject that she couldn't speak? Would she mime her questions? And Sirius was guaranteed to have fun with this.

Honestly, Sirius was borderline insufferable though, gearing up to be the center of attention. You'd think the armchair he was sitting in was a throne with the way he was preening upon it and gesturing about as if to his couriers. They'd be sure to bring him back down to earth soon. James could never stand to let anyone think too highly of themselves for too long. Not even his best friend.

Maybe he'd hex him to have his toenails grow out in the middle of the party tomorrow. Were toenail growth curses too fourth year? He'd have to ask Remus. He had always been a good judge of those sorts of things.

"You know, it's really not surprising that the public is clamoring to hear more about the life of Sirius Black," Sirius was saying high-handedly. "I can't think of another bloke who's led a more interesting life than me. I'm fascinating."

"That's what the brain healers at Mungo's think too," Peter quipped.

"Don't be jealous, Pete. It's not my fault that I've so much more world-experience than you. If you want to be interviewed by pretty witches, you should do something interesting to deserve it," Sirius said.

Remus clapped a hand on a frowning Peter's shoulder and scolded, "Don't be a bully, Padfoot."

Sirius shrugged as if hurting Peter's feelings was the most irrelevant thing in the world. It might as well have been. James and Sirius were a lot alike, and they both found it difficult to care about other people's sensitivities. Silently, James even agreed with Sirius. Peter was a lot less interesting than his closest friend.

Padding down the stairs, Marlene emerged at last. She looked rather adorable, having dressed up for the occasion in some muggle clothing that looked rather severe and a pair of glasses. James thought he remembered from muggle studies that such clothes was referred to as a suit.

"I didn't know you wore glasses, Marly," Remus commented.

"I don't," Marlene stuttered out.

Sirius and James raised their eyebrows at each other before quickly looking away to hide their amusement.

"Good evening," Marlene said formally to Sirius, offering her hand to shake.

Her bizarrely ceremonial approach to this interview had James coughing over laughter. Leave it to Sirius to rise to the occasion though. He was perfectly capable of playing a part without breaking. It was his greatest strong suit in the pranks they orchestrated. A more capable liar you've never seen.

Matching Marlene's gravity, Sirius greeted with a severe, "Ms. McKinnon, how would you like to begin?"

"I read that it's best to ease your subject into the interview with easy questions to start," Marlene informed them, pushing her glasses up on her nose. "So, I thought for day one, I'd ask the easiest questions, and we can really start to peel back the layers of who is Sirius Black in later interviews."

"Wait, we're doing multiple of these?" Sirius asked.

"Didn't I tell you that?"

Sirius looked to James for help, but he just shrugged, honestly not remembering whether Marlene had mentioned they would be conducting a series of interviews or not. "I can't recall."

"Well, our readers find you fascinating, so just one interview won't be enough to satisfy their curiosity. The public wants to know! So, if you don't mind, I figured we could meet again next week," Marlene said.

Sirius agreed and the interview started in earnest.

"Now, seventy-four percent of our readership base are witches, so I'll be asking the questions that they want to have answered. Principally, our readers frequently ask what Sirius Black looks for in a girl," Marlene said.

"Tits," Sirius said without even a second's hesitation.

"I think they mean somewhat more romantically…but, yes, we can start with physical attributes, though maybe tailor your answers a little bit to your audience," Marlene said hesitantly.

"McKinnon, you're asking me to lie?" Sirius gasped dramatically.

Marlene was beet red from Sirius's teasing. You could always expect Sirius to know which buttons to push in order to put on a good show. They had barely begun and all the Marauders were wearing matching smiles of amusement. James thought that Marlene had better toughen up quick because Sirius wasn't likely to take pity on her and make things easier. His reserves of mercy were severely limited.

"You have two options. You can keep it family-friendly or you can say whatever you like now, but know that I'm going to edit it later. Oh and you can't complain about how I choose to edit it!" Marlene said.

Sirius weighed his options before finally settling. "Edit my words however you like."

While the interview began in earnest, James flipped through his Charms textbook. It was hard to focus with Sirius talking up a storm to his left, but he managed to retain some information. Flitwick was a fan of surprise quizzes, which James typically blew off. He was on a mission to boost his grades, however, so he figured a quick glance through his book was a good place to start.

Sirius spent a ludicrous amount of time waxing poetic about the wonders of the female body in the crudest ways possible. The effects were somewhat disappointing. James would have bet that Marlene was a blushing virgin who would all but topple out of her chair at some dirty talk, but she just scribbled away on her leaf of parchment the entire time. It was somewhat comical to see the quiet girl intently nodding her head as Sirius described the ideal shade of a girl's nipples, but overall Marlene did an admirable job not rising to the bait.

James remembered that Marlene had read that dirty book with Peter. Maybe she wasn't as ignorant of these things as James had expected.

When it came time to discuss the ideal personality of a girl, Sirius was a lot less forthcoming. Marlene's quill jabbed more aggressively into her parchment as she listened. She was clearly not receiving the answers she wanted.

"I'm trying to paint you in a positive light," Marlene said plaintively as Sirius continued to refuse to list a single personality trait he found appealing in a woman outside of general slaggishness.

They moved on to the safer subject of Quidditch, at which point Sirius became a lot more cooperative in describing his earliest memories of flying and his favorite teams. Remus disappeared around that point to head off Merlin-knows-where. He did always like to keep his secrets. It seemed silly since James could just look at the map and find just where he'd headed off to, but he respected his friend's privacy all the same. Moony just needed to pretend he was completely alone sometimes.

James couldn't help but notice that Sirius seemed to be having a lot of fun with this interview and not just the malicious kind that came with embarrassing a girl. There wasn't an audience anymore. Neither James nor Peter were really paying attention, but Sirius was still avidly answering all of the questions Marlene presented him. He laughed a lot, face open and bright. It wasn't a look that was unfamiliar to James, but it was something Sirius usually reserved for his closest mates alone.

Maybe James would lay off the revenge for Sirius being such an attention-loving tosser. If getting to talk about how fabulous he was made him this happy, James would have to schedule Sirius a dozen interviews a week for the rest of his life. He'd start paying for people to ask the git questions if that was what he needed to smile more.

James might have continued to sit there until bed if he hadn't suddenly remembered that he had promised to meet Rin in the Trophy Room. A look at the clock above the fireplace showed that he was running nearly half an hour late. He bolted up immediately.

"I'm late to meet Rin," he informed his friends.

Peter paled, "I completely forgot."

"I'm sorry, McKinnon, but we have to go," Sirius said, leaping to his feet.

Marlene stuttered her understanding and made some remark about remembering that they needed to schedule a second interview. James didn't bother to wait and hear what Sirius responded to that as he was already bounding out of the portrait hole. He was surprised when Sirius and Peter came jogging up behind him. A group date hadn't really been what he had in mind.

"You know, I really don't need you all to accompany me on a date," James said annoyed.

"It's not like we're going to hang out with the two of you all night. We just want to make sure that you start out okay. Besides, I've kept you entertained for the last hour, the least you can do is give me a few minutes in return," Sirius said.

"We're your alibi," Peter agreed gamely. "You already stood her up on Tuesday. She's probably going to be cross that you're late today."

James grumbled under his breath about how he hadn't stood Rin up Tuesday as they hadn't even informed him he was supposed to chat with her until he'd already made plans and that it was entirely Sirius's fault that he was late today as well. Which maybe wasn't entirely fair. He had, after all, been the one to set the time and place for meeting Rin tonight. But it was too fun to watch Sirius in his element, and he hadn't exactly been pining away over this date.

In James' opinion, showing up with his mates so that they could defend him was the definition of a bad plan. It would make it look like he cared too much whether she was annoyed with him, desperate. James tried to treat the girls he dated well and thought he did an alright job of it, but he liked to foster low expectations for himself. It was less likely they'd be disappointed and throw things if they never thought he'd make a good boyfriend in the first place. Carefully lowered expectations were how he tried to get through most things in his life.

They arrived just as it looked like Rin was leaving. She looked nice – not like she had dressed up to see him, but kind of clean and fresh looking. Like any normal bloke, James could appreciate a bit of slag in a girl, but he preferred this simple prettiness. At least for a first date.

Rin stopped short at the sight of them, her eyes darting between the three boys, "Hello, James…Pettigrew. Black."

"I told you not to follow me," James muttered darkly in his embarrassment.

"Hullo, Rin," Peter said cheerfully. "We're heading off, but we wanted to let you know that it's entirely Sirius's fault that James was late."

James nodded eagerly at that.

"Yes, James would never be late to meet you. In fact, meeting you is just about the only thing he's talked about for days now," Sirius agreed.

"Sod off," James growled before addressing Rin. "Ignore the lot of them. I always do."

Rin smiled pleased. "I think it's sweet that you brought them along. I understand how intimidating it can be to go on a first date."

"That is not…! I – you look very nice," James spluttered about.

Any other response like 'I'm not nervous since I don't really care about you either way' or 'I was late because I forgot all about you' was likely to not go over well. Safe topics.

"So do you. I like your new haircut," she said.

"So do I," Sirius joined in, ignoring the unwelcoming looks that James was throwing him. "In fact, James' new haircut was the best part of my day."

"You must have had a boring day," Rin said.

"Not really. I just finished up an interview for the Hogwarts Daily with McKinnon – Marlene McKinnon. You know her, right?" Sirius said.

Rin shrugged, "I know of her. We've never really talked."

"Oh I thought you would have, since you're both…you know."

"Both what?" Rin asked a little sharply.

"Well you're both Chinese aren't you?" Sirius powered on obliviously.

James could have socked him then and there. Honestly, how was he friends with such an enormous prat? Remus would have croaked on the spot if he'd been there to witness the fool Sirius was making of himself. They should know each other because they're both Chinese? Merlin!

"I'm Japanese and McKinnon's Korean," Rin said, sounding as if she was forcing the words out through a mouthful of gobstones.

"Are you sure? Marly really looks Chinese," Sirius argued. "And it's basically –"

Peter, wonderful, glorious Peter, stopped whatever horrors that were likely to come out of Sirius's mouth next. "He's just kidding! Sirius is making an arse of himself on purpose so that you think James looks good in comparison."

Sirius looked affronted by Peter's interruption but allowed himself to be forcibly dragged off. James could hear Sirius muttering about how he'd done nothing wrong as they disappeared around the corner. Of course, this meant Rin could hear as well and would know that Sirius was in fact an ignorant git and not just trying to prop up James by comparison.

"Well, I suppose there's nowhere for this to go but up," James said optimistically.

Rin looked like she was considering holding onto her anger for a moment before she sighed, releasing whatever tension had lingered in her shoulders. Good, best not to start things with hostilities.

"Your friend is awful," Rin informed him.

"I know. I'm stuck with him at this point, but if I had a do-over, I would never have talked to the bastard," James said agreeably.

It was an enormous lie, of course, but this was not the first time James had dated a girl who hated Sirius. He had found it was better to just let them rant about his friend and pretend to agree. As far as friends went, James was loyal as they come, but he didn't get angry hearing someone disparage Sirius. As long as they didn't trespass into certain forbidden subjects – his family, an affinity for the dark – James couldn't be bothered to care. It could hardly even be considered a betrayal as Sirius loved to hear these very same insults flung at himself. If Sirius wanted everyone to like him, he'd go to less trouble antagonizing everyone in his vicinity.

"I guess it's to be expected. No offense, but you purebloods are kind of a mess," Rin said with an apologetic smile.

James shifted uncomfortably, and Rin, catching on to his nerves, rushed to reassure him, "It's fine, truly. I get it, and I'm not saying you have a problem or anything."

"I think it's best we just stop talking about Sirius. Forget I even know him," James suggested.

Rin nodded, and they lapsed into an awkward silence. Damn, James was usually not this off-kilter on a date. He figured his problem was that he'd put literally no thought into it beforehand. He hadn't even decided to ask Rin out so much as have it forced upon him. James was smooth, but even he required a little bit of preparation.

"So, what did you have in mind?" Rin said, breaking the silence. "I'm probably not the first girl you've invited to visit the Trophy Room with you, so what's the move?"

"What makes you think you don't get a special move? Maybe I've tailored it specifically to you," James said with a grin, feeling relieved that she'd gotten things started for him.

She arched an eyebrow. "Alright, wow me."

Fate had truly smiled upon James today. He just so happened to have the newest edition of Quidditch Monthly tucked away into his robes. He'd been carrying it around all day, waiting for a chance to break it out and take a look. In this issue, the writers had ranked the top fifty greatest Quidditch players in British history. Victorious, James announced that he was going to quiz her on who she thought would have made the top ten to see how accurate her guesses were.

It wasn't the most conventional first-date activity, but it was a lot of fun.

Rin was rather good at picking out the players who belonged on the list, though James was better at predicting which order they would fall in. Since Rin hadn't moved to Britain until she was nine years old, she favored the more recent Quidditch players, often forgetting their historical counterparts. She argued it wasn't fair as he'd grown up hearing the names. James might have conceded the point if she wasn't doing quite so well regardless. The girl knew her Quidditch. It was a turn-on.

"Ashton Laramy does not belong in the top five," James argued loudly.

At some point in their game, they had taken seats on the floor. James was leaned up against the trophy case for, appropriately enough, star Quidditch players, while Rin sat cross-legged in front of him. She was perfectly laid-back even as she refused to budge an inch to his Quidditch arguments. James, on the other hand, could feel the heat rising up his neck as he became more offended by her very wrong opinions.

"If you ask me, Laramy belongs in the top three," Rin shot back.

"Then it's a good thing no one's asking you, because that's plain bollocks," James said.

Rin began to tally off the list of Laramy's strengths on her fingers, "He may not have caught the most snitches in his career, but he probably will by the time he retires. In all of the games he's played, he's caught the snitch eighty-seven percent of the time. Eighty-seven! That's unheard of. His eyes are amazing. If I didn't know better, I'd swear he puts a tracker on the snitch the way he can sense it out. And you can't possibly argue that he's not the fastest flier in the league right now."

"Quidditch is a team-sport, and I'd be shocked if Laramy can even list all the players he flies with," James argued. "Remember when he lost the World Cup against Belgium because he caught the snitch while his team was down two-hundred points? Remember that?"

"No, James, I'd completely forgotten. It's not like it wasn't all anyone could talk about for weeks or anything," Rin said drily.

James shot her a dirty look but continued, "A good player wouldn't do something like that. He only cared about his personal glory and getting to say he caught the snitch, not the good of the team. Compare that to Tuggs who has to be the greatest passer of all time. He practically invented half the moves we use today, and he lifted his team up every chance he got."

"But that only worked because his team was great – he had Davidson and Pruitt! Laramy has less to work with, and by the way, I would have caught the snitch during the World Cup match too. It was obvious we were never going to catch up with Belgium, so he ended the match before things could get too humiliating for Britain. That's what I'd call thinking of your team."

"I'm so happy you're a Ravenclaw right now because you would not work on my team with that attitude," James said to which Rin stuck her tongue out at him. "He should have had faith that his teammates just needed a little time. That they could pull through!"

"And you wouldn't work in Ravenclaw because that's just not playing smart. Better to salvage a little bit of pride by only losing by, I repeat, twenty goals as opposed to losing by thirty," Rin said.

"You're just so wrong," James said, shaking his head.

"Actually, as you can see right here on page thirty-two, the experts at the Quiddtich Monthly agree with me. Where's Tuggs? Oh, yes, at number eight," Rin said. "We'll just have to agree to disagree."

James wasn't agreeing to anything. No matter how long it would take, he was going to get this girl to see reason. Laramy was an over-hyped prat who would be lucky to make it into the top thirty ten years from now after his popularity had waned. From her body language, James could tell that Rin wasn't interested in arguing with him about it. They'd both enjoyed the conversation, but it didn't matter to her what James' opinion was. It bothered him that she could be so cavalier about defending something she believed in.

He made a noncommittal noise rather than let her know he had no intention of backing down.

"You're cute when you're grumpy," Rin giggled.

"I am not," James said, struggling not to pout. "Do you see this hair? This is the hair of a masculine bloke, nothing cute or soft about me."

Rin's eyes went a little dreamy as she watched him swipe his hand through the close-cut of his hair, but she hid it quickly. Not fast enough, however, because James noticed.

"I wouldn't be bragging about that. I heard that you tried to duel Lily Evans and she hexed your hair off in retaliation," Rin said.

"Slander! There was no duel," James protested.

"You're saying Lily just hexed your hair off unprovoked? No, I don't believe you. You must have done something to deserve it," Rin laughed.

"Evans must have you fooled. She's a terror, I tell you. This was a completely malicious attack on my person. And what do you know about Evans anyway?"

Rin raised her eyebrows at him, "Well, seeing as we've been friends for years now, I think I know a little bit about her."

That caused James to draw up short. He wracked his brain for a time he had ever seen Lily and Rin together before. It didn't particularly matter. There was no reason he couldn't date a girl who was friends with Lily. It just surprised him. After all, he had pretty much stalked Lily for a few years. He didn't think he could have missed their friendship.

"I didn't know you were friends," James said neutrally.

"I forget sometimes what a spectacle you used to make of yourself," Rin laughed. "Everyone but you is friends with Lily. She's lovely. It's not like we're best mates or anything, but we've hung out a few times."

Time for a subject change.

"You know who else is lovely? You," James purred.

"Shut up! I can't believe I thought you were cool before this. You don't like Laramy, you have terrible mates, and you may have the worst lines I've ever heard," Rin groaned, but she was blushing at his words all the same.

"Yeah, well you're just as cool as I thought you were," James said.

The space between them was quickly disappearing as they both leaned forward. Their date so far had been fun – good conversation and laughter – but you didn't bring a girl into the trophy room at night just to talk Quidditch. Laid-back as she was, Rin wasn't bothering to play coy and pretend she didn't know just where James was hoping this would head. He appreciated not having to wheedle past fake hesitations. Saved time.

Snogging Rin, as it turned out, was very nice. She smelled as clean as she looked and nestled nicely against his body. They weren't exactly tearing at each other in a frenzy of passion, but James felt the natural stirrings of arousal all the same. She had climbed neatly into his lap – his legs extended out on the floor – to gain better access to his mouth.

One part of his brain was relegated to focusing on his kissing technique, making sure to lead and avoid any awkward teeth knocking collisions, but the rest of his brain was free to catalogue the feel of her. She had nice, full lips, much fuller than James' own, that seemed to swallow his up. From where his hand was kneading just above her knee, James could feel tensed muscle. She was lightly muscled everywhere but on an almost ridiculously thin frame. He could probably wrap his hands around her waist and have his fingers meet in the middle she was so small.

"I don't want you to get any ideas, I'm not shagging you on our first date in the trophy room," Rin said, breaking their kiss.

"I would never," James said gamely, as he mouthed along the column of her neck. He really wouldn't have. He would have just hoped she suggested it.

Rin pulled his mouth back to hers, and they continued to snog almost lazily for a bit. With sure hands, Rin helped him out of his robes and removed his jumper, so that she could run her fingers across the hard planes of his chest. James studied her face as she did so, wanting to see the inevitable admiration when she saw his muscles for the first time. It was funny how often people chalked up vanity as the vice of witches because James was certainly guilty of it. When Rin's eyes went a bit wide and her mouth fell open at the sight of him, James throbbed. Assuaging his vanity got him off faster than just about anything.

Despite Rin's claims that there would be no shagging, they might have ended up doing just that if the door hadn't creaked open, interrupting them. James tore his lips away to look at the intruder and gulped when he saw that it was none other than Lily Evans. Lily Evans and, oh warlocks, Professor Slughorn.

Speedy like the chaser she was, Rin sprang out of his lap and to her feet in an instant. James was a bit more sluggish at righting himself. His hands groped around a bit as he struggled to find his jumper and cover up. He really didn't feel comfortable sitting there, tousled from a good snog and shirtless, in front of the Slug. The discomfort he felt from his professor's presence, however, was majorly offset by just how much he did want to be those things in front of Lily Evans.

"Oh my, I'm afraid we've interrupted," Slughorn chortled. James may not have been Slughorn's favorite, but he was actually pretty supportive of things like this. Of course, he then always wanted to regale you with tales of the romantic adventures of his youth, which was a nauseating experience, but he often didn't even bother to take points.

Evans, of course, was another matter.

"Ten points from Ravenclaw and fifteen from Gryffindor," she said, sounding the slightest bit breathless.

"Why fifteen from Gryffindor?" James demanded.

He'd stood up at this point and was in the process of turning his undershirt right-side-out so that he could put it on.

"Because only one of you was indecent," Lily said primly.

She could have taken a thousand points from Gryffindor and James wouldn't have cared in the slightest. It wouldn't change the fact that she was looking at him. With her stubbornness, she couldn't just outright ogle his naked chest, but she was keeping it in her peripheral vision and she was blushing madly right through her freckles. Overwhelmed by the reality that Lily Evans was checking him out, James took longer to put on his shirt than probably any bloke in the history of the world, flexing unnecessarily as he did so.

"Sorry, Lily – erm, professor," Rin apologized.

She wasn't cowering in the corner in embarrassment like some girls would. This wasn't James' first time being caught in a compromising situation, and he knew how panicked a bird could become at being caught. James had never understood why girls acted like shagging was the world's biggest secret. Everyone was either doing it or wishing they were doing it, so there was no point in being so bloody secretive about the whole thing. Rin was cool as you please though, which wasn't surprising from what James had seen of her so far. She seemed to respond to everything with the same unaffected attitude.

"I was just showing Miss Evans the Head Boy badge of one of my students, a Mr. Edward Cole. An exceptional student and quite worthy head boy as well. He's going to be attending my next little gathering," Slughorn explained. "Would you like to see as well?"

"I have homework, but thank you so much," Rin said immediately.

James agreed, and they all but ran out of the room to avoid having to hear yet another session of Slughorn bragging about someone else's accomplishments. As he left, he threw a rather appalled look at Lily as she seemed to be listening of her own free will. He hadn't realized she was that desperate. Also, he hadn't seen her since the hair thing, and he was still rather sore about it.

The mood had been rather ruined for Rin, so she headed back to the Ravenclaw dormitories with a kiss goodbye and mutual assurances that they had both had fun and would do it again sometime.

Rather than head back to Gryffindor tower, James made a beeline for the heads' office. Snogging Rin, with her tight little body and having Lily blush at the sight of him, had left James a tad too worked up to return just yet. He remembered Sirius's taunts of just a few days past about how he would be wanking constantly now that he had to spend more time with Evans and didn't want to confirm his mockery. Besides, they'd give him a hard time for coming back hard from a date. It's not like any of his friends were such Casanovas that they unfailingly got lucky on their first dates, but they were boys and they'd take the mickey regardless.

He collapsed into the chair closest to the door once he arrived at the heads' office. Straight to business, he undid his trousers and pulled out his cock, sighing loudly at the immediate release from finally having something touch his long-ignored prick. There would be no teasing tonight. He'd had enough of that with Rin. No, he licked his palm to get it wet and set off immediately, setting a pace that made clear why it was called self-abuse.

Rin's big, plush lips flashed through his mind as he imagined how they would feel on his cock instead. Soft, pretty and pink. He tried to picture what her body must look like based on what he'd felt under her jumper. She wouldn't be curvy, but her body would be tight and warm and lovely. Fuck.

She was so relaxed about everything though. James couldn't really imagine her eagerly taking his cock into her mouth and chasing his pleasure desperately, not like he could imagine Evans would. Fuck, Evans. There was no way Lily wouldn't be just about the most eager little cocksucker there ever was. All of that passion that she displayed when conquering even the most menial of tasks. She'd be a dream.

This was a familiar fantasy. There was nothing even remotely new about imagining Lily Evans sucking his cock. Her lips may not have been as full as Rin's, but they would be soft and look so sweet, wrapped wide around his prick. He remembered the second Hogsmeade trip of last year when she had worn that devilishly red lipstick. God, he'd been a mess that day watching her laugh and smirk with her friends with her mouth painted like that. James pictured her lips like that now and applied that to his fantasy.

There was something a little more visceral about this fantasy tonight. Partially, it was the setting. He was sitting in the heads' office. The space the two of them shared. If he was ever so fortunate as to convince Evans to give him a go – as unlikely as that was – it would be easy to drag her in here and make this very fantasy a reality. It's like the professors condoned the head students fucking each other senseless. Why else would you give them a private room like this?

More than anything though, James was worked up from remembering her eyes. When she took his cock into her mouth, she'd stare up at him with those luminous, green eyes. There would be no cold exterior then. Every thought would be written plainly on her face for him to read. He imagined she would be nervous, looking to him for reassurance that she was doing a good job, horny, needy.

That thought was his undoing, and he bucked up fiercely into his hand. He imagined doing the same within the confines of her mouth, knocking the back of her throat and feeling the tightness as she panicked. How her eyes would widen as she reacted to the unexpected sensation, but then warm with pride and satisfaction as she felt him spill down her throat.

Exhausted, James reclined in the chair, not bothering to clean himself. He was reconsidering his friends' concerns. Maybe he really did need to get laid.