House: Slytherin

Category: Short

Prompt: [First Line] It was days like this where he/she/they really questioned his/her/their life choices.

Word Count: 513

A/N: Thank you for the beta, Lorax! 3

oO0Oo

It was days like this where he really questioned his life choices. Clearly he had done something terribly wrong. After all, in the palm of his hand there sat a badge: the Head Boy's badge. He, James Henry Potter, was Head Boy.

This couldn't be real.

Sirius had to be pranking him somehow. Remus or Atkins or Maurice were supposed to be Head Boy, not him! They would have relished the responsibility. They would have enjoyed the late nights spent organizing Prefect schedules and going on patrol. But him? He was supposed to spend his last year at Hogwarts having fun, not chasing after snotty first years and over-amorous fifth years.

He ran a finger over the smooth, embossed metal. Maybe this was all a prank. After all, Sirius hadn't come down to breakfast yet. He wouldn't put it past his friend to spend the entire night transfiguring a dead moth into the Head Boy's badge. But the badge sure felt real. Drawing his wand, James muttered, Finite Incantatem. To his disappointment, the badge didn't bubble or fade or even revert to its original form. It just sat there in his palm, its shiny metal glinting in the sunlight.

Sirius slouched into breakfast. "Why so glum?" he asked as he slid into his seat.

In reply, James held up the badge.

Sirius's eyebrows shot up. "Damn, Prongs. Congratulations."

"Padfoot, that's not funny." After placing the badge onto the table, James reached for the bacon before Sirius took it all.

"You pig!" Sirius cried, snatching the bacon from James and dumping it all onto his own plate.

Yet instead of stealing the eggs in retaliation like their morning routine dictated, James only sighed and said, "Sirius, give me some bacon."

Sirius warily put down the bacon. "Mate, are you okay?"

"Sirius, I'm Head Boy. I have to enforce rules. I have to be a boring and have a stick up my arse around the clock."

Sirius smirked. "But you do know who's going to be Head Girl, right? You and lovely Lily-kins, living together throughout the entire year…" He waggled his eyebrows at James.

James's eyes widened. "You're right," he said, leaning back in his chair, a cocky grin stretched across his face. "Tell me more."

"Well, Evans will arrive at Hogwarts thinking you're an utter prat, but then you'll start taking responsibility, and she'll realize you're not a complete toe-rag. She'll start coming to Quidditch matches and cheering for you."

"Then?"

"Then she'll notice how dashing I look in my Beater's robes and fall in love with me. We'll elope and have twenty kids, but we'll name two of them after you."

"You tosser," James laughed.

Sirius shrugged. "What can I say? I'm devastatingly handsome."

"Maybe to a hippogriff." James grinned. "But she won't be able to resist me." He took a swig of juice, his mind already full of plans for the coming year. He was Head Boy. Head Boy! And he was Quidditch Captain. Lily would fall for him now, he just knew it.

Somehow, he must have done something right.