The Art of Awkwardness

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. They are all property of J.K. Rowling, and I am in no way trying to steal them.

No matter how hard one tried, there were always certain things that were unattainable. You could fight for them all your life, and sometimes, you still wouldn't get them. Some people keep fighting and persevering, hoping that they'll achieve their goal, and others give up completely. Finally, there are those who simply put their goals on hold, so to speak.

James Potter was one of those people. It wasn't he had given up on his love interest, Ms. Lily Evans, really. It was more that she had deflated his ego far too much with all of her berating, and he needed a little boost before he went back after her. It was near the end of his sixth year at school when he went up to a fellow Gryffindor of his age and asked her quite politely if he could accompany her to Hogsmeade. He didn't really know her, but that wasn't really a problem. Of course, she stared at him rather oddly, and even cocked her head to the side slightly in question.

"You don't still like Lily?" the girl, Chartreuse, had asked him in pure and utter confusion.

In response, he had merely said, "Not today…" in a quiet tone, smiling to her. This was enough of an answer for her, and she accepted graciously.

The date had gone splendidly, and James actually found himself enjoying himself, save for the thoughts of Lily that kept invading his mind. They went to Honeydukes first, a tradition of his, and they got themselves some candy. They both agreed to get some odd kind like crystallized pixie wings and gummy giant's teeth and laughed together as they ate them in disgust. They went to Zonko's, and at one point, James thought about how Lily would never be up for such a thing, though told himself that Lily wasn't there to care. They passed a bookstore at one point, and James turned to it automatically, asking if she wanted to go in. In response, she merely shook her head and laughed a bit, though he could only bring himself to force a small chuckle out of his mouth. Lily would have liked the bookstore…

As they reached the Three Broomsticks, packed to the brim with wizards and witches of all kinds, he realized that he had been thinking about Lily all day on his date with another girl. Guilt settled in, and he immediately offered to buy them a few butterbeers as they seated themselves at a booth. She didn't seem to notice that he was out of sorts, though, which relieved him beyond anything. Although he may like Lily far more than this Chartreuse girl, he didn't want to upset her… He pushed Lily out of his mind as the butterbeers arrived, and simply talked to her. That was simple enough, right?

Not too far away, Lily was walking down the cobblestone streets, several books in her hands. Next to her was a very well known person to not only her, but the boy in the Three Broomsticks enjoying his drink: Remus Lupin. The two weren't on a date, really, but instead, they simply decided to go out to Hogsmeade together. They were Prefects together, afterall, and had become quite close since fifth year. Both of them rarely went to Hogsmeade because of school related activities, like studying, but they both decided to go, mainly for the books they were sure to acquire.

After a long visit to the bookstore and after spending far too much money on tattered books, they found themselves quite parched and just a bit hungry. Of course, they immediately made their way to the Three Broomsticks, where it wasn't hard to spot Remus' best friend. Naturally, he pulled Lily over to James, a large smile on his face (he had always been rooting for the two of them, afterall.) Once he saw the back of another girl's head and two butterbeers in front of them, his smile dropped slightly. He began to lead Lily in the opposite direction, but she had already seen him.

"Is that James?" she asked slowly, arching her neck in an attempt to confirm her question.

Without looking, Remus chuckled hopelessly, turning them right back around. "Right you are," he said simply. The damage was done. He knew he had better make the best of things.

As they reached the booth, Remus gently put a hand on Lily's back, pushing her into the booth next to Chartreuse before seating himself next to her. "Hope you don't mind if we join you," he said, a forced smile suddenly coming to his face.

The exchange of glances was quite awkward to say the least…James was focused on how close Remus and Lily were, though kept reminding himself that he wasn't there to think about Lily. Chartreuse's eyes were glancing between Lily and James rapidly, waiting to see what the other would do as each second passed. Remus, of course, was playing dumb, acting as if the tension in the air was simply nonexistent, while Lily stared down at the veins in the table.

James truly felt as if he should be angry that Remus was interfering in his date, but for some reason, he was relieved that his friend had showed up. Walking around and going into stores hadn't been that bad with her because they weren't required to talk, but the moment the two sat in that booth and got butterbeers, he began comparing everything Chartreuse said with what Lily would say if she was there. No matter how many times he told himself that he couldn't think about Lily, he just couldn't get her out of his mind.

After several seconds of awkwardness, Lily looked up, a smile coming to her face. "So, are you two here together?" Of course, there were hidden connotations in the words she said. She didn't mean to ask if they were simply there together, because she could see that very clearly. Instead, she meant to ask if they were on a date, and if they said yes, she knew that it was time for her to get out of there.

Chartreuse was first to answer.

"Yes," she said immediately, almost defensively, searching Lily's face for disappointment. None came, though, and Lily just kept smiling in her direction with a small nod.

"That's nice," she replied, glancing over at James for only a split second, only to see that he was staring at her intently.

As soon as she turned away from him, she stood back up, looking at Remus. "Sorry, I need to use the restroom," she said politely, waiting for him to move. Instead of getting up like any gentleman would, he slouched down in his seat, smiling a bit.

"I don't want to get up Lily… I'm tired…" James shot a look at him, clenching his jaw slightly. He knew what Remus was up to…

"But there are two people on that side and… It'd be so much easier…" she began, furrowing her brow as she looked at him with confusion and frustration. Prick…

When she received no further answer, she glared slightly in Remus' direction, before she scooted her way past Chartreuse and James, all too aware of how close they were. As soon as she was out, she scurried right past the booth to find the nearest bathroom, or any room for that matter. She just couldn't handle being there…

Once she was out of sight, James looked over at Remus with a scowl, having forgotten about Chartreuse at this point. "What are you doing here, Moony?" he demanded, one hand balled into a fist on the table.

"Getting a butterbeer?" Remus asked, raising his eyebrows a bit. "Oh come on. I didn't know you'd be here, and she spotted you. Besides, I wasn't about to ignore you or something," he told him with a shrug.

"Remus, I can't have her here right now," James said slowly, shaking his head a bit.

"Why? You're here with your date—nice to meet you by the way—and you decided to go on a date to forget about her for a day. You're not doing a very good job if you can't handle her being in the same room as you."

"It's not the fact that she's in the same room…It's the fact that she's at the same table. She hates me, Moony!" James exclaimed.

"Oh, please. If she was over there on the opposite side of the room, you'd be staring at her anyways, and you'd yell at me just the same," Remus said with a roll of his eyes.

Chartreuse looked positively livid, by this point, not all that happy with the fact that these two boys were talking in front of her as if she wasn't there. Thoughts zipped through her mind as she frantically tried to come up with something to something to get his mind off of Lily. She and Lily had never liked each other, afterall. They were never even close to friends. Over the past few hours, she couldn't help but grow just a bit fond of James, and she wasn't about to let a priss like Lily Evans keep his attention like this…

Speak of the devil!

Back came Lily, looking quite refreshed, having sat in the washroom talking to herself, telling herself to calm down over and over for about fives minutes. She kicked her way past Remus, sitting back down quickly. "Did I miss anything?" she asked politely, directing the answer clearly at Remus.

"Nothing," James said quickly, and Lily glanced over at him for just a moment, before looking to Chartreuse. "So. Chartreuse. What classes are you taking next year?" she asked, again, in the most civil voice she could manage.

"I'm dropping Potions and Charms and switching to some easier classes. Y'know, last year, might as well make it fun, right?" she said with a laugh, looking around only to find that no one else was laughing. "What are you taking, James?" she asked quickly, smiling over to him.

"I'm actually taking a few extra so that I can get into Auror training," he said, his eyes trained on Lily who seemed content on avoiding his gaze. As Chartreuse continued to speak, he brought his eyes back to her with a forced smile.

"That's interesting. I want to be a nurse at Mungo's. They get to wear those cool white outfits and all," she said with a wide smile.

At this, Lily looked up, looking up at James condescendingly. She raised an eyebrow momentarily, as if to say, Is this the best you can do? Or You're absolutely hopeless.

"What do you want to do, Lily?" Chartreuse said with a sickly sweet smile, cocking her head slightly. As she said this, she took James' hand in hers, setting them both on the table for the world to see.

Lily seemed quite unfazed, though. She didn't even glance at their hands as she looked back to Chartreuse, an equally sweet smile on her face. "I'm working to be an Auror. I hear their uniforms are pretty wicked, but I'm thinking I'll go into it for the whole saving lives part." Her words were mocking, though her voice was nothing but cordial.

"Do you know how many people are killed doing that?" Chartreuse, on the other hand, had no skill in masking her meaning in any way.

"Indeed," the redhead said simply, her smile widening just a bit. "But you see, I'm trying this new thing where I'm going to be selfless." She paused for a moment, and then caught herself. "That means I'm going to care for other people over myself," she told her sweetly.

Chartreuse was silent. Remus was silent. Lily was silent. James was awestruck. His eyes were whizzing between the two of them, nearly laughing out loud at a few of Lily's remarks. He had known that Chartreuse wasn't the brightest student at Hogwarts, but he didn't bring her out for her brains either. Still, he couldn't help but feel absolute excitement every time Lily threw back a sweet comment utterly dripping in sarcasm.

Remus suddenly cut in before they tore out each other's eyes, and stood up. "Uh, Lily? I told Sirius I'd be back by three. Want to come back with me?" he asked, though had no intention of letting her stay.

"Oh, I'd love to stay but I should probably be getting back too. It was just lovely to speak to you," she said, batting her eyelashes at Chartreuse before scooting out after Remus. She began to walk out of the pub, and as she did, Remus turned to stare wide-eyed at James, before following her out.

"What a tart," Chartreuse said bitterly, narrowing her eyes.

James looked over at her, unable to say anything for several seconds. Finally, he spoke up, but not before he had gotten out of their booth, standing up. "Look, I'm really sorry. This has been great, but…I…I need to get going. Sirius… I… Bye."

With that, he fled. He hadn't made it ten paces out of the restaurant, though, before Remus stopped him.

"Where's Lily?" James asked in confusion.

"Honeydukes. She said she needed to get some chocolates for her roommate. I think she's getting some cockroach clusters to hide in Chartreuses sheets, though. You know why she acted like that, right?" Remus asked, raising his eyebrows to his friend.

"No?" James said in confusion, shaking his head.

"She didn't like who you brought out, so she gracefully pointed out how stupid she was so you wouldn't go on a second date."

"Why would she do that?" he asked once more, hoping that the answer had something to do with Lily liking him.

"Jealous? I don't know the inner workings on a girl's mind, mate, but that's what I'd say."

He didn't even say goodbye to Remus before he bolted to Honeydukes. He threw open the door and found Lily there in line for the counter, cockroach clusters in hand. Walking over casually, he "accidentally" bumped into her, immediately apologizing. They both kneeled down to pick up her candy when their hands touched for just a moment.

"You're not going to eat those, are you?" James asked with a smirk as she pulled away her hand. He picked up the package and stood back up, handing them to her.

"I have no idea as to what you're talking about," she said simply. He was incredibly surprised when she didn't object to him standing there, and so he merely stayed beside her until she had bought her candy. They walked out together and he looked down at the bag and then back at her.

"You're going to do something to Chartreuse, aren't you?" James said, not that it was a question—more of a statement.

"What a tart," Lily said simply, suddenly laughing.

Laughing…When was the last time he had heard her laugh in his presence? It had been a while to say the least.

"I don't think I could have said it better myself."


I wrote this a very long time ago, right when I started the first part of this fic, but I didn't like it and I trashed it. I rewrote it, and I don't adore it, but I decided to put it up anyways. I appreciate reviews, as always, and stay tuned for more installments! Oh, and if you want to know a secret, I may be starting a new piece much like this, though on a different subject rather than on awkwardness. Look for it soon. Until then!

-Christine