Thank you for the reviews. At the moment I'm trying to show various episodes that built the relationship between James and Narcissa. I know where I want this story to end up...I'm just not 100% sure about how to get there. Basically what I'm saying is if I start writing dribble that seems pointless, do let me know, and I will try to fix it, thanks.
An almost kiss
James was staring at the Slytherin table. Again.
"Prongs!" Sirius' exclaimed, as his voice penetrated his friend's daydreams.
James stared blankly at his fellow marauders, trying to remember what they had been planning.
"He's got that face on again," Remus joked, "the one that says he has been thinking about Lily."
Not quite
However, his friends had already turned their attention to the fire haired Gryffindor further down the table.
Smiling menacingly, Sirius levitated a chocolate eclair, "Well maybe we should get her attention then."
Prongs couldn't help but laugh at the glint in his friend's eyes, but before either of them could blink an annoyed Professor McGonnagall was at their side, glaring sternly at all of them.
"Black I do hope you intend on eating that."
"Eh...yes, of course professor...just wanted to have a good look at it first," Sirius replied, dropping the eclair onto his plate.
Frowning at them suspiciously one more time, Minerva retreated to the teachers table. But continued to glance their way.
"I don't understand why she is suddenly so suspicious of us," Sirius muttered, whilst poking at the desert.
"Well, the foodfight last week probably didn't help," James noted smiling.
"And she blamed us for that as well""
"Probably because we started it," Remus interjected, turning to face Prongs accusingly.
"Snivellus was just standing there, and the pie was in my hand- what else was I supposed to do?" James justified, as the four of them started laughing at the memory of an apple pie hurling towards Snape's astonished face.
A flash of golden hair stopped James, as he turned to watch an escalating argument an irate Angela Rosier, and a weary looking Narcissa Black. She looks upset, James noted. As if hearing his thoughts, the blonde witch looked over and met his eyes before storming out the great hall, oak doors slamming behind her. Not one of the slytherins at her table tried to follow.
James returned his focus to his friends, who were now attempting to transfigure a Hufflepuff's chair into a sheep.
"I need to do something," he declared, ignoring their surprised looks and sprinting out the hall towards Narcissa.
Even as he was doing it, James couldn't help but question why he had just left his friends for a girl he barely knew...who he was supposed to hate. It was that night by the lake he decided. Since then all thoughts about Lily Evans had disappeared, only to be replaced by fantasies to Narcissa Black.
"Narcissa!" He called, sprinting towards the retreating figure.
She turned around surprise in her eyes.
"Can I help you Potter?"
He stopped then, surveying the girl in front of him, wondering if he had made a mistake.
"I just wanted to make sure you were okay...after that night at the lake, then the fight you had today..." And why is she staring at me like I sprouted a second head, he thought.
"You were worried about me?" There was a confusion in her voice that James didn't understand. It was as if she wasn't used to people caring about her.
Clearing his voice James replied, "Well yeah...you know Gryffindor chivalry and all that." He shifted uncomfortable as he said it, hoping he didn't sound as stupid to her as he did to himself.
"Sometimes I think it would be better to be in gryffindor,"
James almost tripped over his feet then, "Really? but you always seemed to have so many friends in slytherin."
"Oh I do...or I did. Turns out when word gets around that your sister is a blood traitor, people start to worry that its catching," her voice had turned venomous, "my so called friends have stopped speaking to me, its as if everyone has been waiting for the fall of a slytherin princess."
All because of her sister? James knew some of those pure blood fanatics were...well fanatical, but this seemed ridiculous.
"Maybe you should ask for a house transfer?" James jokingly suggested.
"No, what they want is for me to do something to prove I'm not like her...by hexing some Hufflepuffs, or dating a pureblood. What they definitely don't want to see me doing is mourning after my sister." Like she has been doing, James noted.
They walked along the empty corridors in silence.
"Well if you have to choose, I'd suggest hexing the Hufflepuffs, just make sure McGonnagall isn't around. For some reason she disapproves of things like that,"
That earned him a laugh, and James couldn't help but marvel at how much it lighted up her face, "I can't imagine why that would be Mr Potter."
"No idea...and where are we going anyway?" He asked after realizing that Narcissa seemed to be guiding him towards the astronomy towers, for some unforeseen reason.
"The astronomy tower." Unsurprisingly.
"Any particular reason?"
"Its where I go to think, and get some peace...you don't have to come if you don't want to."
"No, no I want to," again Prongs found himself wondering why he had said that.
Reaching the top of the tower, James could not help but note how clear the night sky was.
"I should be name after one of those you know," said Narcissa gesturing towards the stars. "Instead my grandmother died the week before I was born, and mother insisted on naming me after her."
"And you're complaining?" James asked, "What else was left...Cassiopeia...Narcissa sounds far better if you asked me."
"You're right, I need to stop moaning about my life, I'm beginning to sound like my mother."
"I don't mind listening, although I will say you are much more beautiful when you smile,"
Suddenly Narcissa stop staring at the stars above and focused in on him. She was surveying James in a very...odd manner. Almost as if he had said something interesting.
"Here was me thinking you only had eyes for Lily Evans," Narcissa commented. Did everyone know about that, he thought. He really was going to have to be more subtle in the future.
"Lily is great, she's just not..." Not what, he wondered, not interested? not pretty enough? not smart enough? It was none of those factors. The reason was, in short, simply that she was not Narcissa. But staring into the Slytherin's pale eyes, James decided against telling her that. "She is just a friend," he finished lamely.
Narcissa fixed him with an even stare, clearly not buying a word. "Well whatever the relationship between you two, I just wanted to say thank you, for listening to me. Even if it is just because of a Gryffindorian sense of obligation." She smiled as she said it, but there was a weight to those last words.
"I'm not here because I feel obligated to, Narcissa, I really do care about you." He took her hands as he said it, "Why don't you believe that."
"Maybe...maybe I'm just not used to anyone caring, not really. People say they do, then they run off with boyfriends, or change into a different person, or even worse nothing changes and I realise that they never cared in the first place."
"Then those people are idiots."
James was slowly moving closer to Narcissa, a heat building between the two. Leaning in James suddenly caught sight of a large tabby cat staring at them. Before either student moved the cat vanished.
" Thats Filch's cat," Narcissa exclaimed, a worry entering her voice.
"I know," James replied. Grabbing her hand he ran down the tower, Narcissa in tow. Glancing around he darted towards a large painting of an unknown witch. As he tapped the picture with his wand, it swung open revealing a large passageway.
"My advice-get in," James called, jumping through the hole. Without hesitating Narcissa followed suit, closing the painting after her. The two sat in silence for a minute before bursting into laughter.
"That was-"
"fun?" James proposed.
"Exhilarating," came the reply, "and thank you for the speedy escape."
"Well, I would rather not end up in detention for another month."
"Yes I forgot you are an old hand at escaping from Filch aren't you?"
"Well, just a bit." He was staring at her again, trying to decide whether to finish what they had almost started.
As if reading his mind Narcissa decided for them, "So which way back to the Slytherin common rooms? I really can't disappear for too long."
"You should stop worrying about what they will think you know."
"Its not them...I don't want my parents to think I'm turning into Andromeda, for all their faults, they are my family and losing them would hurt even more than losing my sister."
That is definitely one messed up family James thought, but he decided against saying it alloud. Unlike Sirius, Narcissa seemed rather attached to her relatives, even if she did dissaprove of their actions.
"Well then, the Slytherin chambers are up this passageway."
As they got to the common rooms, Narcissa smiled as James "Thank you," she whispered, he eyes betraying her thoughts. However, before anything more could happen she turned away, returning to pretend friends and real enemies.
When he finally headed back to the Gryffindor common rooms, James could not help but reflect on Narcissa Black and that almost kiss.
