"Hey, Evans. How ar-"
"Don't even try that with me, Potter." Lily Evans snapped, cutting off James as he tried to strike up a friendly conversation. She turned on her heel and continued walking down the corridor, nose in the air and long, red hair fanning out behind her. James stood there for a moment, blinking, but then quickly rushed to catch up with her. He turned around skillfully as he walked, making it so that he was standing directly in front of Lily, but walking backwards at the same pace that Lily was walking forwards.
"I didn't mean to call you a git-" But Evans wasn't listening to his feeble attempt at an apology. She stopped walking and turned around, trotting briskly in the opposite direction. James followed her, now just behind her, talking to her even though she acted as if he wasn't even there.
"I'm really sorry- and I'm sorry for hexing you last week- and before that- but I didn't mean to offend you... it's your fault, anyways, you made fun of Sirius-"
"I only said that about him because he transfigured poor Severus's pants into a horde of frogs!"
"Well, Snivellus was asking for it-"
"And how was he doing that?"
"He was acting like a total git in Potions!"
"Why, because he got the mixture right before you had a chance to wreck it?!"
"Yeah!"
"I can't believe you!" Lily huffed; her already brisk pace quickening even more. James matched it. Lily glared at him and turned around, brushing coldly past him as she went in the direction she was going in the first place. James followed. Lily let out a little noise of frustration, looking up at the sky as if wishing that somehow something was going to come down and help her get away from the boy that was stalking her. Finally she stopped dead in her tracks, whipped around and quickly pointed her wand at Potter, glaring.
"If you don't stop following me, I'll- I'll hex you!"
James smirked, not looking at all threatened by the wand that was being pointed at him. He simply pushed the wand out of the way and spoke to the girl in a tone that sounded like he was talking to someone at least three years younger then him.
"Now now, Evans. I don't think you even know how to hex someone. Even if you did, you wouldn't. It's breaking the rules- no magic in the corridors." Lily raised the wand back to its original position, looking very fierce.
"I've done it before- did Sirius get his ears back alright? And I'll do it to you- I will, Potter! I'll hex you!"
"Not if I do first." The boy said very coolly, raising his own wand and spinning it around in his fingers like a baton. He moved his wand and simply pushed Lily's down, away from where it had been pointing at his face. Now it was pointing at his feet. Lily smirked.
"Pedis Congelo!" She shouted, and small blue light shot from the tip of her wand, wrapping around James's feet. It stayed there for a moment, and then disappeared. Looking content, the girl slipped her wand from underneath James's and placed it back in the front pocket of her robes. She then turned and began walking away. James frowned, then grinned and yelled after her.
"See?! I told you that you couldn't hex me- that was a charm! And you didn't even do it right- nothing happe- oh..." He paused in his shouting, since something much more important had caught his attention. When he lifted his foot to storm after Lily, he found that his foot wouldn't move. Worried, Prongs tried the other one. There was the same result. It seemed that Lily had actually done something with her charm- it was something that made his feet stuck to the floor, as if frozen there. A small smile came across James's face, though, and he mumbled something to himself as he watched Lily's long red hair whip out of view beyond the next bend.
"Pedis Congelo... I'll have to remember that one."
"J-James!" A stuttering voice could be heard calling across the corridors, a small, short figure sprinting down it. James, who had seemed to have gotten his feet unstuck and was brooding angrily against the wall, turned his head, though found himself quickly rolling his eyes and looking up at the sky. But as the person came even closer, Potter put on a bright and friendly grin, though a more observant person could tell it wasn't sincere. Peter Pettigew, though, wasn't that observant. The smaller boy spoke with a broad smile, looking eagerly up at his friend. James looked down at him, not as enthusiastic about the visit. James looked at him expectantly, and Peter, for a moment looking confused, finally perked up into realization.
"Oh, right, what I was saying- er, well, me'n Padfoot and Moony were all looking for you and I was just wondering what happened with Lily and- are those your shoes on the floor?" The student, while talking in an incredibly fast and breathless voice without pausing to even take a breath, paused when he noticed that James was in fact in only socks, his shoes sitting neatly on the ground. A sly grin came across the taller boy's face as the shoes were pointed out.
"Lily's fault." He said simply, shrugging. Peter's eyes widened, since he was utterly confused on why Lily would have anything to do with James having his shoes off. James just continued to grin. Peter looked from his friend's smirking face to the shoes, then back again a few times. Finally, his curiosity overcame him. He wandered over to where the shoes were and attempted to pick them up from the ground, though was extremely hesitant, as if thinking that the shoes themselves might try to bite him. But when Peter pulled, they wouldn't move. So Pettigrew tried again- once again, they remained stuck. His small, watery eyes goggled and he stared up at his friend, jaw slightly agape as he gasped out the question James had been hoping he would ask.
"What happened?" This was what Potter had been hoping for. With a gigantic smirk, he launched into the entire story of what had happened with Lily and him, though tweaking a few parts so it sounded as if he had been the one in control, instead of Lily being the one triumphant in the end.
"…So when I had my back turned, she shoots this charm at me that stick my shoes to the ground. Bad form- shooting from behind- but I didn't do anything to her, since I'm such a gentleman and all. And… that was it. All I had to do was take my shoes off, anyways, but I can't pry 'em up." He gave a light shrug. "Filth," (he was referring to Argus Filch, the caretaker, to whom he had given that fitting nickname) "can try and scrape them off later."
"Wow." Peter said, clapping appreciatively at the slightly false story that James had just told him. He looked down at the stuck shoes again, prodding them with the toe of his shoe as if thinking they might scoot a little. But they remained cemented. "What if Filth finds out they're your shoes? He might try to string you up by your thumbs or something for 'damaging property'."
"He's not allowed. Those are just rumors." James laughed, thinking that Peter was only joking. The positively terrified look on Pettigrew's face told him that he was convinced otherwise. A brow rose behind James's glasses, and he peered a little closer at the now a little paler boy.
"…Did Filth threaten you with hanging you by yours thumbs?" Peter nodded. Potter discreetly rolled his eyes, placed an arm around Peter, and began steering him away from the shoes and up towards the Gryffindor Common Room without saying another word.
That boy was just way too gullible.
