Little did she know, James had seen Lily help him and his friends out. James, Sirius and Remus were wandering down the halls, James' hands shoved in his deep robe pockets as usual. Sirius and Remus were chatting quietly, just loud enough for James to be able to tune in and out without missing anything important.
"That Lily Evans," Sirius started to say. With the sound of her name, James' head whipped up anxiously.
"What about her?" James demanded, a little more harshly then he intended. Sirius slowed down and smiled smugly.
"Just wondering if she's easy," Sirius said. James wasn't sure if he was teasing him or serious. It was hard to tell with Sirius, he was a master at lying. James didn't have feelings for her, right? So why would someone trash-talking her affect him in the slightest?
"Oh, yeah," James said in an off hand sort of way, pretending he didn't care about her what so ever. Sirius continued his broad grinning that James could see out of the corner of his eye. James prayed his large grin wasn't going to give him away. Unfortunately, they had been friends far too long.
"James likes Lily!" Sirius screamed down the hall. "James Potter likes Lily Evans! Everyone! James loves Lily!!!" Sirius yelled as loud as he could and ran down the hall. The few witches and wizards standing in the hall just looked at Sirius in disbelief, but James was still embarrassed beyond belief. Remus was just laughing so hard his sides hurt, and he had to hold onto the wall beside him to steady himself.
"Sirius!" James screamed. "I'm gunna kill you!" James said and took off down the hall, trying to tackle his loud mouthed friend down.
James sat by the crackling fire in the Gryffindor common room. He was in his weathered arm chair, with his feet up on a mismatched foot cushion. He wasn't reading like the other students around him, but staring intently into the fire. The cat was out of the bag as far as his friends were concerned, but James hadn't seen Lily again that day. He hoped she hadn't heard about the fiasco on the fourth floor. In all honesty, he didn't feel a fifth year should fancy a fourth year. However, as his mother had always said after reading one of her romance novels, "Love has no boundaries". This was unfortunate for James. He didn't have time for a relationship. He had pranking to do, the odd homework assignment he'd actually complete by himself, and of course, ruining Slytherin's chances at winning the house cup. Those were his main ambitions for his fifth year of Hogwarts. Probably all his career there as well.
When the fat lady portrait swung open, James glanced up to see who had entered. It was his quidditch team captain, Kenneth Wood.
"Potter!" Kenneth called over to him. James pulled himself away from the mesmerizing fire, and said hello to Wood.
"Look, we've got some plans formulated and we need your opinion," Wood started saying quietly so that no one could hear. James looked around in surprise.
"Wood, they're all in Gryffindor. You don't need to whisper!" James pointed out. Wood's eyes widened and his face got quite angry.
"Lower your voice!" he hissed. "Slytherin could be spying, putting some of ours against us," Wood looked around accusingly at everyone that made eye contact with him. James sat with his mouth gaping open.
"I feel so sorry for your future kids," James said, shaking his head. "They'll live life as if someone's out to get them, honestly. Lighten up Wood!" James said. But Wood didn't take very kindly to being told how to act.
"Potter, I think you're the own who needs a personality check. You have no ambitions, no goals in life except to give you and your friends a few good laughs. How's that going to get you a job? How's it going to win us the cup?" he said in a very serious, harsh voice. James had heard what no one else was willing to tell him. That his "goals" weren't actual goals, they were just ways to have fun. Wood had just made James realize that other people knew that he had no obvious future. What was James planning to do after Hogwarts? Or even next year?
"Alright Wood, sorry I'm just on edge today. Where are the plans?" he asked. Wood nodded and they set off for a table out of the way.
"So then what happened?" Felicity Finnigen inquired as she put her thick black hair up in a high ponytail. Lily grinned and continued her story. They were in the fourth year girls dormitories, getting ready to present themselves to the common room.
"So this
Slytherin guy, Malfoy I think his name was, practically ordered me to
find James for him. Well, I decided to trick him and, you know … help James
out."
"On first name terms are we?"
Felicity teased. Lily threw a pillow at her and they giggled. "Alright alright,
keep going!" Felicity said, throwing the pillow back at her. Lily ducked and
missed the flying pillow.
"Well, I told Malfoy that James had gone down the stairs, which I knew perfectly well they hadn't!" Felicity laughed at that. "Anyway, after helping James and his friends out, I came back here and found you." Lily finished explaining. "Ready?" she asked, putting her hair brush down on the dresser. Felicity looked in the mirror once more and nodded in satisfaction. They walked down the stairs and into the common room.
As if in slow motion, James saw Lily and another fourth year walk out into the bustling common room. James looked up from the quidditch plans Wood had set out on the table. Lily's long hair was pushed off her face, and her robes were spotless. She turned her head ever so slightly and she and James made eye contact for a fleeting moment. When Lily realized who it was, she quickly jerked her head back to the front.
"He's right there," Lily said nervously to Felicity, barely moving her lips. Felicity was not so discrete however, and frantically started looking around to get a glimpse of James Potter. She had seen him many times before of course, seeing as he was the Gryffindor seeker. However she wanted to see how much more mature he looked in his fifth year.
"Oh, my …" Felicity said, looking at Kenneth and James. "He's adorable Lily!" she said.
"Keep your voice down!" Lily hissed furiously. "Do you want the whole common room to know?"
"Sorry Lily!" Felicity apologized. "But still …"
"Don't say anything!" Lily pleaded. Felicity smirked and nodded.
"Alright, alright."
"So then I thought as the seeker, you could—" Wood stopped in mid sentence. He looked at James, but James' eyes were caught by something else. Wood followed his gaze and looked over at Lily, sitting in an arm chair and reading a Transfiguration book. Wood leaned in closer to James and whispered, "A bit young isn't she Potter?" James immediately went red and stared down at the quidditch plans in front of him. Wood smiled and patted him on the back. "Ah, young love." Wood said teasingly. James just glared at the quidditch plans, not really reading them.
Please R&R!!! Sorry so short and … well crappy lol!