This is Remus watching Lily and James.
Disclaimer: You all know I don't own it but for the sake of… well.. copyrightedness, all characters, situations etc belong to the great J.K Rowling. I'm not sure who owns Kodak Moments, so yeah the people at Kodak for the little mention at the bottom.
-Oblivious-
He is not a saint; anyone would be fooling themselves if they thought that. He has his quirks and his faults, just like everyone else. She just seems to pick his out with such incredible ease. You would wonder why that is. Why she can notice the tiny things, like him scratching his left ear when he's telling a lie, or him crackling his knuckles ever so slightly when he's under a lot of pressure, when she claims to hate him so. It makes you wonder just why she pays so much attention. It also makes you wonder if he puts it all on, as a special show just for her because in all the years you've known him, you've never noticed such trivial things as how his right foot turns in slightly or how often he shuts his eyes, just to think. It makes you think that maybe your attentiveness is not as elevated by your lycanthropy as you thought it was. You promise yourself you'll watch them closely, to see how they react to each other.
You are certainly surprised at what you see. He is mellow in her presence, yet flustered when she talks. Modest in large groups, boasting with her. You wonder why he's trying so hard to impress her; you contemplate it and observe some more. When he's around her, he just can't stay still. You know he's panicked and jumpy, unable to make sense so his mouth pushes out the only thing he knows. He insults her without meaning to, and tries to impress her the only way he knows how.
You see it now. He had always claimed it to be a status thing. Her, the prettiest girl in the school, would look great on his arm. He insists that is all it is but now you know differently. You know exactly what it is.
You look to her to see if she returns it.
You feel like banging your head against the nearest wall. How could you not have noticed?! She tries to hide it but it radiates from her, seeping into the air. She steals glances at him whenever she feels she can risk it. She stares at him and watches as his face forms a frown. She sees him glance down at his knuckles and she does the same. She crackles her knuckles, as if completing his movements. When she notices herself doing this she looks surprised and her face contorts to that of a child who has been caught with her hand in the lolly jar. She is clearly horrified and you think you know why. Maybe she too has realized her motivation.
He scrunches up a piece of paper and launches it at her head. She whips round so quickly it's like she anticipated his movement. She glares at him and he shrugs slightly. She drops the paper casually into the bin without looking at it and scowls at him.
The shrill ringing of the bell pierces the air and you watch as she fusses with her books until she thinks she is the only one left in the class. She strides to the bin and quickly extracts the paper and unfolds it. You see that it says, "Evans, go out with me?" Her face is angry and you know she thinks it's a joke. She looks up and her intense green eyes see him watching through the door. "No, Potter." She mouths and you know his heart just plummeted through the rough stone floor, but he shrugs again and walks off. You are not imagining how quickly he is walking. He wants to get away, out of the castle.
She glances at the note again and you are shocked to see a crystal tear slide down her face. You expect her to throw the note away, but she doesn't. She slides it into her pocket and puts her head in her arms. You distinctively hear the words, "oh, James… I hate you! I hate you!" You knew it was coming but are still surprised when she looks up and out the window where a solitary figure is sitting in the stands of the Quidditch Pitch and she mumbles, "so why do I love you?" And you know just as she's sitting in front of you, her heart breaking because she couldn't say yes and because she believes he is insincere, he is sitting out there, his heart breaking because she had to say no.
You, Remus Lupin, know now the problem of the obliviously in love Lily Evans and James Potter. She can't see past the façade he puts on for her and he can't see past the rejections that she uses as her only protection to stop their quaint little world come crashing down around their shoulders and becoming something much, much more.
At their wedding you sit back and remember that day when
you watched and weren't sure if it would ever happen and you frown. Then you
remember the day his walls fell away and the day she accepted him as he was and
you smile. You finally stop watching and observing and just enjoy and laugh
with your friends, capturing the perfect "Kodak moments" with your camera.
And you smile.
-End-
Ok, I have no idea what possessed me to write this. I was playing around with the idea of imperfection… and somehow this … came.
Reviews, constructive criticism are completely welcome = )