This was written for the Moonlight Forgotten Year 7 THC/ The House Competition 2021
Round 7
House: Gryffindor
Class: Muggle Studies
Category: Drabble
Prompt(s) chosen: [Emotion] Embarrassment
Word Count: 998
Sixteen year old James Potter was walking back to his common room when he heard voices at the end of the corridor. He recognized one of the voices as Severus Snape's. This immediately perked him up and he hid by the wall to eavesdrop on them, suspecting Snape and his Death Eater friends were up to something,
"You fancy that Mudblood don't you, Severus?" asked Mulciber as James clenched his fist but controlled himself from hexing the Slytherin.
"No, I don't," Snape insisted.
"Yeah, right," James thought to himself.
"I was only friends with her out of habit and because her talents and popularity could come in useful in future. Even our Head of our House sees potential in her despite her Mudblood status," said Snape.
"Bastard," James thought to himself as he found it harder to control himself from reacting.
"Besides, it's that good-for-nothing Potter that fancies her," Snape sneered.
"That's right. You wouldn't think that blood traitor Potter was pureblood the way he behaved. But he did you a favour by indirectly causing that Mudblood to cut off from you," said Yaxley as Snape looked down in discomfort.
James congratulated himself for the amount of restraint maintained.
"Potter often does stupid things to get her attention, but he's too dense to realize that the one thing Lily Evans would be impressed by is a boy standing naked on the Astronomy Tower and declaring his devotion to her," said Snape.
James's eyes widened with shock as his mouth formed an O shape. 'Snape's lying,' he told himself, 'This can't be true.'
"How do you know that?" asked Mulciber.
"She told me when we were still friends that she thought it would be most remarkable if a boy bravely stood naked on the Astronomy Tower and declared his devotion to her," Snape said again.
"Weird. But not surprising for a Mudblood," said Avery as the gang of aspiring Death Eaters walked off, leaving James to his thoughts.
Could Snape be telling the truth? James couldn't think of a reason as to why Snape would lie about this to his friends. He conceded it must be true. It was weird, but he wasn't Mr. Perfect himself, so who was he to judge? He would do this thing to impress Lily.
"James, don't do it. That's ridiculous. There are plenty of other girls. Why are you fixed on Evans? What's so great about her?" asked Sirius, but he immediately regretted the question as his best friend fell into a trance explaining why Lily was wonderful.
"James, you'll make a fool of yourself," said Remus.
"I'll make a fool of myself a hundred times for Evans," said a determined James.
"I'll cheer you on, James," said Peter, the ever enthusiastic cheerleader of James.
"Thanks Pete," said James.
"James, think real carefully about the embarrassment this would cause you," Sirius warned.
"Really, really, carefully," Remus added.
"Mates, I'll be fine. I'm sure I want to do this," James was stubborn in his stance.
Sirius and Remus shook their heads as they exchanged apprehensive looks. They knew they had the lost the argument and there was no way to change their best friend's mind when he was stubbornly set.
Despite his earlier confidence about not caring that he embarrassed himself, James wasn't too sure when he actually got to the Astronomy Tower. It had sunk in that the whole school would see him without his clothes. But he reluctantly went on with it as he stripped and stood on the Astronomy Tower without a single piece of clothing on him. He looked down at the many students looking up at him, feeling violated. They had varying reactions from shocked to apprehensive to amused. His three best friends were among the crowd. Sirius and Remus were apprehensive while Peter was leading a subset of the crowd in cheering him on. Snape and his friends looked like Christmas had come early. Just then, Lily and his friends showed up. Finally, the person he was waiting for.
"Evans, I wanted to declare my devotion to you," he said as part of the crowd including Peter cheered while Sirius and Remus facepalmed.
Lily was blushing a dark shade of pink as she covered her face. She did not look impressed as she walked away from the crowd.
"JAMES POTTER," came the familiar voice of his Head of House.
James immediately reached to cover up.
"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS? YOU PUT YOUR CLOTHES ON AND MEET ME IN MY OFFICE THIS MINUTE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE EXPELLED!" Shouted McGonagall, looking sideways to avoid looking at him.
After he left McGonagall office with a string of detentions and a stern lecture about how inappropriate his behavior was, he ran into Lily.
"Evans," he said as he looked down. "I …"
Lily smacked him across his face before he finished.
"You arrogant toerag," she said.
"But I heard Snape say that you said it would impress you" he protested.
"Nonsense. I never said any such thing," she said before walking away.
James had never been more embarrassed in his life. Granted he signed up for it and knew his action would cause some embarrassment. But not to this extent. He at least expected some reward to come with it in the form of impressing Lily but even she was more disgusted with him than ever. He had often embarrassed himself doing stupid things to impress her but this took the cake. Perhaps he should stop trying to push it. Things would happen naturally if they were meant to be. He now realized that Snape had purposely tricked him out of revenge. He thought of the embarrassment he had caused Snape in the past and couldn't help but wonder if this was his karma. Snape may be no saint, but perhaps he didn't deserve to feel the embarrassment James had made him feel. James now knew what it felt like even if not exactly the same situation.