Subject title: free_to_imagine: Torn (James Sr/G)
Tag: james sr 100.1 (free_to_imagine)
Title: Torn
Author: lj user="free_to_imagine"
Rating: G
Prompt Set: 100.1
Prompt: # 63 – Moon
Word Count: 378
Characters: James Potter, Lily Evans
Summary: James misses a patrol while head boy, and he feels torn between doing what's right – and what Lily would like – and what will keep his friends happy and out of trouble.
Authors Note: Written for lj user="100quills".
Running swiftly through the crowed corridor, he found who he was looking for.
"Lily, don't!" he hissed urgently to her.
She turned to James, glaring. "Why should I listen to you, Potter?" she asked in a menacing voice.
He didn't know how to answer.
"That's what I thought," she continued, and persisted down the hallway.
"Lily!" he yelled after her.
She pivoted, looking back at him with a frustrated sigh. "I haven't got all day, you know!" she yelled at him.
"I can explain. There's a reason…" James started to explain.
"You can explain? I don't want a lie, Potter. You want to slack off, fine. But do not think that you will get away with it without consequences, alright?" she said sternly, sounding very much like Professor McGonagall.
He pushed his hand through his hand, trying very hard not to just take her by the shoulders and shake her and make her see that there were some things more important then patrols going on.
"Well?" she asked in an irritated voice. "Are you, or not?"
He sighed, and resined himself to going strait down the middle. "Let me make it up to you, Lily," he whispered. "I can't tell you why I wasn't there. It's not my place to say. But I'll make it up to you. I will."
She looked at him, trying to decipher the pained expression he held. One that made him look torn.
"Fine, I won't say anything to Dumbledore. But if you miss one more patrol…" she threatened, leaving the end hanging.
He nodded quickly, knowing that if he missed another one – which was very likely to happen, seeing as the moon was always full once a month – he would very much loose every bit of confidence and trust that he'd earned from all the teachers and Lily. Especially Lily.
"Goodbye Potter," Lily said pointedly. "I'll see you for patrols tonight. Hopefully you'll be able to get yourself to this one."
She turned away from him, and made her way up the steps to Gryffindor tower. He wished that friends didn't come first, but he knew he could never go against what they needed. It was more important to keep them, then the strained, almost friend's relationship that he had with Lily.