"Lily? You have ink on your face."
"Wow, how observant," the budding journalist scathingly replied, regarding the lanky boy opposite her coldly – quite an impressive feat when your face is splattered in ink and your hair resembles a tangle of strings caught in a washing machine. A tangle of strings quite thoroughly saturated in ink, no less. Her poise and elegance should have won medals. It wasn't like the ink was her fault. Vigorous notetaking came with downsides.
"I try," her interviewee said, sending a grin her way with an air of carefully overdone smugness she had never quite managed to achieve. But knowing who she was interviewing, the holier-than-thou aura radiating from his every word probably wasn't intentional.
She snorted. So much for poise and elegance.
"…What are those dried overlarge grape things called?" Potter asked absently.
It seemed she still had more elegance than him at any rate. She decided to ignore the question to spare her interviewee's dignity. "Potter, I need to get this article done. Slughorn will kill me! What's your favourite potion ingredient and did you use it in the potion you made for yesterday's test? Do you think it's the reason you did so well?"
"I don't have a favourite ingredient, but Slughorn won't kill you. He likes you more than the rag masquerading as a school newsletter you write for. Also, I want an answer to my question."
"you've misjudged exactly how much he loves the newsletter, I'm afraid. Just answer me."
"after you."
She sighed. How exactly was this person more liked than she was? Maybe because James Potter wasn't perpetually irritated and covered in ink, but she was too agitated to think of that. "Prunes?"
"Yeah, what's the word that sounds like that?"
"Prude."
"Yeah, prude-y! I'm using that word to describe Remus in the eventual argument we'll have over my love of pranking. He doesn't take any risks!" Potter said, rather sadistically.
She closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath. "The word," she said, wondering how he managed to get so off-track, "is prudish." Next time she interviewed him she would come with protection. James was insane.
She mentally slapped herself for calling him James and resolved to speak with extra venom, but ten minutes later, as he left the room, she realised she was smiling.