Chapter One – The Royal Knight
"Prongs, I am sick of you moping around this bloody dorm," Sirius stated loudly that night as they all changed out of their robes.
Remus and Peter nodded silently in agreement with their friend.
James looked puzzled at their declaration of "moping around this bloody dorm" and stared Sirius down, daring him to go on.
"Evans ALWAYS turns you down, Prongs," Sirius said, dropping his tie on the ground. "You should be used to it by now."
James said nothing but instead glared icily at his "best friend."
"I mean," Sirius continued, "You should forget about her and move on. There are many prospects out there… many willing prospects. I could easily line up six – at the minimum – snogging sessions for you if you like." Sirius looked at his friend hopefully.
"Erm, Padfoot," Remus interjected, "I really don't think that's what Prongs wants."
"Nonsense," Sirius waved away Remus's statement. "That's exactly what he needs – I mean – er – wants."
"I'd like to have Lily, thank you very much," James hissed as he unbuttoned his shirt.
"Right; Problem is she doesn't want you, mate," Sirius said rather rudely. "And to your advantage there are many girls that do want you."
"I don't like the other girls, Padfoot," James declared, shoving his dirty clothes under the bed.
"Well… we'll see about that," Sirius murmured into the silence as his fellow Marauders slipped off into sleep. "Just wait and see, James, just wait and see."
The next day was rather awkward for James. As he walked into Transfiguration, he noticed Lily sitting in her usual seat, talking happily with Alice Prewett. James turned his head to face the floor as he slipped into his seat, which, coincidentally, was right next to Lily's.
He pulled out his parchment and quill, ready to doodle the entire lesson. When Lily did the same – but to take notes – James recoiled slightly in his seat, sinking slowly lower in his seat.
Last week had been a disaster that was for sure. Normally when Lily rejected him he was fine with it, ready to go on with life and try again later. But last week went off the charts and rendered him immobile from shock and embarrassment.
As Professor McGonagall droned on about vanishing spells, James chanced a glance at Lily. She was determinedly taking notes, mouthing them as she wrote them. James sighed to himself. How could he have been so stupid? If there had been a cauldron full of boiling potion, James would have dumped his head in it to relieve the thoughts in his head.
With another sigh James turned his attention to McGonagall, not willing to dwell on that horrific afternoon.
It had been an hour after lunch had ended. Students were given the afternoon off for the Professors to organize meetings, grade papers, and get a day off. James was sitting under the tree with his fellow Marauders, playing with his snitch, much like the day after they completed their OWLs the previous year. Lily and her friends were sitting near the lake, still, similar to their fifth year.
James, having been busy watching Lily talk and laugh with her friends, hadn't been aware of letting the snitch out of his grip. It shot around him with mighty speed, but before James could snatch it back up with his excellent reflexes, it flew off around the grounds.
James made to get up and go retrieve it, but, Peter, who was in unusually high spirits, jumped up, excitedly squealing that he wanted to go get it.
James had sighed reluctantly, allowing Peter to wet himself with joy and chase after the snitch like a dog chasing its own tail.
However, after twenty minutes of this, Peter still failed to catch the snitch. James was inches from summoning his broomstick to hop on and retrieve the snitch, like a true Seeker, when Peter was just a foot from it… consequently near the water's edge.
With another squeal of delight, Peter leapt in the air to grab the snitch. Though, brave as the move was, it was also extremely stupid.
With a splash Peter landed in the lake, twenty feet from the water's edge. How he had leapt that far, no one knew, but being the good friends they were, they jumped up to rescue him. James, being slightly aware of Lily's watching eye, made to impress her as he played the royal knight, coming to Peter's aid.
Peter was frantically splashing like a maniac, his head bobbing in the water. James waded in knee deep to help his friend, but, much to James's disgust, Peter's frantic movements were drawing him farther and farther from the edge.
"Prongs, you're gonna hafta go in after him!" Sirius called from the edge, standing happily next to Remus. "Attach him to your back if you have to!"
James glowered at his friend.
"Wormtail!" he yelled at his friend, the splashing still not subsiding. "Stop splashing, you idiot!"
And much to James's relief, he did.
Except… the relief didn't last for long. With a gasp James saw Peter go under the water's surface, faintly aware of a girl screaming behind him.
"Oh shit!" James cussed. He bounced on his feet and dove under the water, ready to save his friend from death… as heroically as possible.
Within a matter of minutes James had rescued Peter and was carrying him to the shore, listening to him cough up water all the while. James dumped him unceremoniously on the grass, wiping his sopping wet hair out his eyes. He sighed in aggravation and turned to face his friends.
"Um… thanks?" Sirius offered, as Remus tended to Peter.
James grumbled something incoherent but turned away from his friend all the same. Someone had come up beside him, and, turning to see who it was, found out it was none other than Lily Evans.
"Hey Evans," James said smoothly, greeting her.
"Potter," she replied crisply, bending down to ask Peter how he was doing. "Thank Merlin you have a friend like James," she said to Peter, shooting a scathing look at Sirius, "or you'd be dead right about now."
"You like knights in shining armor, Evans?" James asked, intrigued.
"None of the sort who're related to you, Potter."
"Care to go on a date with me and change your mind?" James asked hopefully, now aware of his appearance: wet, wet and more wet.
"I still prefer the giant squid, Potter," she said before sitting back down on the grass with her friends.
James sighed, confused, and turned to face Peter.
"You all right, mate?" he asked.
"Fine," Peter mumbled, shivering a bit now.
"Here, Prongs," Sirius said, coming towards James. "Lemme help you."
James sighed again and looked at his friend, wondering what he was going to do.
"I'll dry you off," Sirius said reassuringly.
But drying James off was certainly not what Sirius did. Hours later Sirius still claimed it an accident, but James was nearly positive it was intentional.
With a wave of Sirius's wand, James's trousers, still wet from the lake, disappeared from his legs. James blinked and glanced down, praying to himself, begging Merlin to let this be a terrible dream.
"Oh! I'm so sorry, Prongs!" Sirius exclaimed, glancing around, trying to figure out where James's pants had gone. "Hang on," he said, and with another swift flick of his wand, James's shirt was missing too.
James was stuck standing there, in the middle of the crowded group of onlookers, standing in nothing but his shoes, robe and boxers, looking extremely upset.
"What," James hissed, "in the bloody hell are you about, Padfoot?"
"I didn't mean it, Prongs, honestly I didn't!" Sirius exclaimed as Remus attempted to summon James some clothes from their dormitory.
James felt a pair of eyes (well, one pair in particular) watching him. Turning to see who it was he noticed Lily Evans, smirking at his current state. When she noticed him noticing her noticing him, she turned quickly away, blushing scarlet. This put a grin on James's face.
"Okay, James, I know what I did wrong," Sirius declared. With one more swift wave of his wand, Sirius expected to find a cheerful James, nice and clean in dry clothes. But no; no, that's not what he saw at all. Sirius ended up looking dead on at more of James than he ever thought possible.
With a scream of terror, James attempted to cover himself, yelling at Sirius, asking how the hell he'd manage to take his trousers, shirt, and boxers too.
Remus, having successfully summoned some clothes for James, hurried up to his friend with a pair of trousers, a shirt and some new boxers. James hopped over to behind the tree with great difficulty (attempting to keep himself covered the entire time) and quickly did up his clothes as discretely as possible.
When he came out from behind the tree, he was ready to throttle Sirius for his stupidity.
Normally this amount of attention flattered James – but this was not the right reason for the attention. He had been mortified – in front of Lily, to make it worse. Actually, to write on his headstone, mere seconds after a failed attempt of asking her out. Again.
James sighed in his spot as he vanished his guinea pig with little effort. Boy, was he never going to be able to face Lily again.