Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations all characters find themselves in. Please enjoy and let me know what you think.

A Deal Is Struck

It was James's decision to simply Apparate himself to Hogsmeade on Sunday night, during dinner time so he wouldn't have to deal with anyone. He wanted the walk and the chance to go over his rehearsed speeches one last time. In regards to his younger family members he was sticking with the story his father had given Nick to pass on to Albus and Lily. Maybe that made him a bit cowardly, but if he even hinted that he'd been interested in someone who turned him down Domi would be on him like Fang on a bone. She'd see it as an insult against their whole family and would want to retaliate. That would not end well.

So in the end he, Neville, his parents, Seth and two Scamanders knew the truth. Everyone else would remain in the dark until he tried again in a few years.

Hopefully he'd have better luck next time.

James was about three quarters of the way up the path leading to Hogwarts when a lone figure came into view, standing still in the middle of said path, waiting. James didn't have to have night vision to know who that someone was. He'd sorta been expecting it anyway.

Tucking his gloved hands into his winter coat James didn't rush or slow down, his eyes on the man waiting for him as he made his way along the path until he was standing within a couple feet of his teacher. His love. His reason. And the breaker of his heart, James added as a black afterthought.

His mood still wasn't the brightest.

Hands also tucked away in his pockets Neville knew on some level that he was cold, tired and hungry, but those menial things barely registered. All that registered, all the mattered, was the boy-man coming to a stop in front of him, the darkness keeping them both in the dark as to how the other was coping. He could only hope James was coping better than him, Neville thought as he opened his mouth to speak.

"Can I say something first?"

Surprised, wary, but understanding, Neville nodded. "Of course."

"Thank you." Hands balling into fists in his pockets James took a deep breath and then letting it out began to speak. "I'm sorry you were hurt and troubled by what I did. I don't think what I did was wrong and I won't apologize to you or anyone else for my feelings for you. They're my feelings and I'm entitled to feel them even if you all think those feelings are cause for concern. I think you're one of the kindest, sweetest, most lovable people I've ever met and I truly love you with everything I have and am. You don't want me to feel that way and I have to accept that. I won't burden you with it, and I give you my word I'll do everything in my power to make you comfortable being around me again. I want to still help you with the D.A. and talk to you, and help you when you need helping. I don't want you to pull away from me because you think it's best because it's not. It will only make things worse. I'm not asking for you to love me the way I want you to and…I won't make you feel badly for not being able to love me if you won't make me feel bad for loving you."

After a long silence James shrugged. "That's what I wanted to say."

Neville knew this was his cue to say something, but all his planned speeches and lectures had flown out of his head. He couldn't think of anything but what James had said about him and how passionately he'd said them.

Sensing this James stepped forward and gently taking the surprised man's arm turned them so that they were facing the school. "You walk and think. We'll freeze to death out here if we don't keep moving."

Knowing the man had a point Neville started walking, James letting go of his arm as soon as he did. But the boy walked in tandem with him, side by side on the path they were on. Staring out into the night sky where the castle's light acted as a beacon home, Neville was never so aware of another human being as he was at that moment. The still darkness of night enveloped them, making it seem like they were the only two people around.

It should have made things worse, but somehow it didn't. Because Neville understood something now that he hadn't truly comprehended before.

That James had never had any intention of telling him he was the letter writer.

He had planned, Neville realized, to go through life keeping that locked away inside him, pretending not to feel it. It would have eaten at him, and James was too bright not to have realized that. But the young man walking beside him had been willing to go through that, to wear the masks and play the roles handed to him, if that was what he had to do to make the people around him happy. Not himself happy, but everyone else. And if James was willing to do that for him…how could he not be willing to do the same?

Reaching out without breaking stride Neville set a light hand on James's shoulder. "Thank you for loving me." He said quietly.

Surprised, James looked over at the other man, wishing for some light so that he could see the man's face. "You're welcome."

And now Neville knew what to say. "I want you to stay in the D.A. and in my class. I want us to remain friends." He would not hurt or insult the boy by going into a long winded speech about what they were and weren't going to do. Were and weren't going to feel. Because they both knew, Neville realized now. They knew each other too well not to know how things had to be from now on.

As he nodded his understanding James moved his left hand up and over to place on top of the hand Neville had placed on his shoulder. "Then that's what we'll do."

The rest of the walk was in silence…but that suited them both.

They still had a lot to think about.

)

The next couple of days went by well enough, with the two acting as normal as possible around each other. They didn't seek out each other's company but they didn't avoid it either. They were pretty much acting how they'd behaved before James had ever figured out that he was in love with his Herbology teacher.

Of course it wasn't easy for both of them, but James was used to it by now and Neville did have some experience in pretending things were fine when they really, really weren't. They both thought they were playing their roles well and for the most part they were. But those who knew them well picked up on some of the tension, though no one made the connection between them except for Seth. who was already in the loop.

And so it was with some surprise that James found himself being handed a tin of cookies when he met up with Lucy for their scheduled patrol after dinner Wednesday night.

"You seemed down the last couple of days and I thought they'd cheer you up."

Confused, since he'd thought she wasn't talking to him, James lifted off the lid to stare at the delicious looking chocolate chip cookies inside. He hadn't been very hungry at dinner but he always had room for his favorite treat. "Thank you." It was really nice of her, especially given the way things had gone the last time they'd been alone. Reaching in James lifted a cookie to his mouth, biting in with a gusto.

Chewing happily James smiled at her with real warmth for once. "They're great, it was really nice of you."

Lucy just shrugged off his thanks, pointing out that they should start their patrol or they'd be really late finishing up.

Agreeing James ate and walked at the same time, finishing up his third cookie and going for his forth when they caught sight of Filch coming towards them. Instinctively closing the lid of the tin James gave the grumpy old man an innocent smile as they passed.

"Damn Weasley spawn." The caretaker muttered as they passed each other. "If only the Mistress had locked them all up and thrown away the key."

"Yeah, too bad about that." James called after him, well used to hearing such sentiments from Filch. He'd seen for himself that the man had once had a picture of his twin uncles in his office, with plenty of darts sticking out of it. Or it had until he'd swiped the picture when the man had been out one evening. No way had he been about to let that picture stay there, especially since Uncle Fred's memory deserved better than that.

"Horrid old man. Someone should really see him fired." Lucy sniffed, looking after the caretaker with distain. "He can't even do magic."

James shrugged. "He's part of the institution."

The sound Lucy made indicated she thought that was beside the point, but she didn't contradiction him as they continued on their way.

Reaching down with the intention of opening the tin again James's hand stilled as a sudden thought occurred to him. It was Filch's mentioning of his beloved Mistress that had done it. He'd heard the horror stories about Dolores Umbridge from his family and one of the stories had been about her habit of putting Veritaserum in her students' drinks in order to gain information from them. She'd tried to do it to his father but his father had remembered, just in the nick of time, that smart people didn't consume things given to them by the enemy.

Which was exactly what he'd just done.

Slowly James gaze turned towards the girl walking beside him, his gaze wary as she turned her head to look at him questioningly.

"Something wrong, James?" Moving to stand in front of him Lucy reached up to place a hand on either side of James's face, concern on hers. "Are you not feeling well?"

Should he be feeling bad? James slowly shook his head. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You aren't eating any more of your cookies and you normally wolf down as many as you can get your hands on. You really should eat them now anyway, they're best when they're fresh, don't you agree?"

Okay, maybe he was just being paranoid, but James couldn't shake the feeling that he'd be an even bigger idiot than a troll if he ate one more cookie without having them thoroughly analyzed. And a smart man listened to his instincts, especially when one's genes had long been honed to sense possible danger.

"Normally I would but I ate a lot at dinner." James lied smoothly. "I'm too stuffed to eat any more. Do you want any by the way? Sorry for not asking you earlier, on top of eating them in front of you." Holding out the tin in her direction James felt his fears confirmed when she politely declined to have one.

A woman turning down chocolate? Oh yeah, the cookies were poisoned.

Doing his best to remain cool James tucked the tin under his arm and lapsed into silence, speaking only when she or someone else spoke to them during their rounds. Covertly he checked his pulse every ten minutes or so, taking comfort from its steady beat and the fact that he wasn't feeling at all ill. Spooked and uneasy, but he didn't feel sick.

Of course there were plenty of poisons that just killed you without warning.

But it probably wasn't poison, James reminded himself sternly, refusing to panic just yet. She didn't like him, therefore why would she consider him worth going to prison for? Of course no one would probably suspect her, but she couldn't marry him if he were dead either. Unless she wanted to get him out of the way so that she could go after Albus. One Potter was probably as good as the next to her, James realized in horror.

Oh but she was getting her claws into his baby bro over his dead and rotting corpse.

"So, James, what are you up to this weekend?"

Her words breaking into his thoughts James blinked and then turned her attention back to her face. "Pardon?"

"I asked what you're up to this weekend. Not disappearing again, are you?"

"I wasn't planning on going anywhere." He answered carefully, studying her face for any tell. "You?"

"Well I thought maybe you and I could do something. Play some Wizard's Chess maybe? I know how you love the game."

And now she wrapped her fingers around his free arm, looking up at him expectantly, like she thought that unlike all the other times he'd actually be willing to spend time with her of his own, free will. Now why would she think that…oh.

A thought occurring to him James watched her closely as he spoke. "Thanks for the offer, but I was thinking of spending time with Al and Lily over the weekend. I've been so busy with my own stuff that I really haven't been spending much time with them. I promised my dad I would."

And yes, that was surprise he saw in her eyes before she hid it. Now why would she be surprised when turning down her invitations was his standard operating procedure where she was concerned? Unless she thought she'd done something to ensure her success this time.

A love potion.

It didn't fit Lucy personality, she had too much pride for something like that. But it would explain but her reaction and why he wasn't reacting to whatever she'd put in the cookies, James reasoned. He, like his father, took a potion twice yearly that acted as a temporary vaccine against love potions of any kind. His father had had to start taking them after a love potion had been slipped to him by a woman in his office who had been hoping to break up his parents and nab the Boy Who Lived. Luckily his Aunt Hermione had come by and rescued his father before anything had happened, but that hadn't stopped his mother from hitting the roof when she found out. After that his mother had made sure his dad took the counter potion biyearly and his father had in turn advised him to take it as well once he'd reached the age when the girls had begun to see him as more than a friend.

James was never so thankful for his parents' ingrained paranoia.

No more cookies for him.

)

The next morning James all but pounced on Seth when the man came down for breakfast. Grabbing the man's arm James dragged the Ravenclaw behind him as he headed for a quiet place to talk, ignoring all the people that looked at them curiously as they headed for the Great Hall. As soon as they were alone James let go of Seth's arm and pulled out the tin of cookies from his school satchel. "I need you to check these for me. I think something might have been added that shouldn't have been."

Raising an eyebrow Seth took the tin from him, opening it to peer down at the contents. "What happened to the missing cookies?"

"I ate them."

Alarming coming into Seth's eye the Ravenclaw reached out to grab James's arm, worry written all over his face. "What do you think was added to them? What are your symptoms? When did you eat the cookies and how many of them?"

"I ate three of them last night after dinner before I realized it probably wasn't a good idea to eat anything given to me by Lucy. I've got no symptoms which is one of the reasons why I'm leaning towards a love potion."

"A love potion? You think The Harpy gave you a love potion?" Brows furrowing together when James nodded Seth considered the possibility. He'd studied the Harpy extensively over the years, ever since she'd started to show an interest in James. She had a great deal of pride and confidence in herself, not the type to rely on a love potion or any potion to get her way. She had too much pride to take the easy way out. But James had been rejecting her for a long time…it was possible that she'd finally accepted that James would never want her and had decided to play dirty. Well that and he always believed the worst of The Harpy since that just saved him time and mental energy.

"I'll have the results for you by lunch time. If she's added anything to the cookies I'll let you know."

"Thanks. I appreciate it."

Seth just smiled, glad to be of use to him. "If it is just a love potion are you going to confront her?" If there was something in the cookies Seth was leaning towards it not being of the lethal sort. The Harpy wouldn't have let him walk off with the evidence of her crime otherwise. Unless she'd divided the potion between the cookies so that James would only feel the effects after eating all of them. But why risk him sharing the cookies and not consuming them all himself?

"Haven't decided yet." James answered with a shrug. "I'll come to that bridge when I get to it I guess."

By the time lunch was served the results were in and the findings undeniable.

Lucy had tried to slip him love potion laced chocolate chip cookies.

Like he hadn't had enough to worry about already.