I've finished my exams! Yay! Let's all celebrate because that means that frequent updates will now become a thing! :D Exciting stuff indeed. On with the story. Oh- and a s/o to Twilight Moonbeams. Don't know if they still read this story, but they gave me the idea for this bit so thanks… Bg.97 xx
"Nope. I still don't get it."
Lizzie rolled her eyes and sighed for what felt like the hundredth time. "I really don't understand what about the whole concept is so baffling to you. James and I are friends. Just friends. The same way that you and I are friends. We hang out together, talk to each other and like spending time together. That's it."
Clara dwelled on it for a moment, twirling a small teddy from Lizzie's bed in her hands. "No- still not getting it."
Lizzie laughed, turning away from her computer to glare at her friend.
"What? I'm just saying; if I was all buddy buddy with someone that hot, I wouldn't waste time being just friends, I would be going straight to the nitty gritty."
"Well I'm not you, am I?"
"No you're not, but what you are is young, beautiful and completely available!"
Lizzie shook her head, refusing to even offer a response.
"I know that you're over Danny- because you were over that within like a month. So what's stopping you?"
"It just doesn't feel right." Lizzie said bluntly, hoping that Clara would get the message to drop the topic. Of course she didn't.
"I'll tell you what doesn't feel right, Elizabeth Taylor Hartley: third-wheeling on a cinema date with you and James Sirius Potter. That doesn't feel right."
"For goodness sake Clara, you're not third-wheeling, and I've booked 3 tickets now so you have to come."
Her friend sighed, sitting up on the bed. "Fine, whatever. So what time is this movie?"
Lizzie glanced back at the computer to double check before confirming for Clara that the movie was at 4.20.
"Well, we should probably get going. You know that cars make me anxious, and I don't want to be in one for any longer than necessary."
"I am a good driver, you know?" Lizzie teased.
"I know you are but it doesn't change the fact that I don't trust muggle transport."
"I don't know about you, but I trust a car way more than I do a broomstick."
"Let's agree to disagree." Clara stated as the pair began to make their way out the house."
"Are you sure I look okay?" Clara asked again as Lizzie parked the car outside the cinema.
Lizzie quite literally snorted at her friend. "We're going to see a movie, not a play. You hardly need to dress up."
"Yes but we're seeing a movie with James Sirius Potter."
"Okay first, you really don't need to call him by his full name every time you mention him; it's weird. Second- you can see that I'm only wearing jeans and a t-shirt right?"
Clara muttered something under her breath that Lizzie didn't quite catch and the two walked into the cinema complex. Lizzie looked around, spotting James buying popcorn. She went after him, Clara with a rare nervousness following behind.
"Hey James."
He turned around, his face looking thrilled to see Lizzie.
"Hey Elizabeth. And Clara, if I remember correctly?"
"Yep, that's me." Clara said in a way that she hoped came across as charming. She tried to stop herself from staring at James. She couldn't.
"So what film are we actually watching?" James asked Lizzie.
Lizzie shrugged. "Some sci-fi film about how technology is overtaking the world or something along those lines."
"As if I'm not terrified of muggle technology enough already," Clara commented, making James laugh.
"Tell me about it."
Lizzie stood there with her arms crossed as her two friends debated just how much better magic was than muggle technology."
"Yeah, I get it- Muggles are crazy. Let's go watch the film."
James smiled affectionately. "Come on Liz- you know we're only teasing."
The use of a name that wasn't her full one caught her off guard. "Liz?"
"I'm trying it out," James shrugged.
"Well okay then."
Clara carefully observed the two, confused by their constant revolving between friendly banter and subtle flirting. She would be keeping a close eye on them tonight. She needed to evaluate whether Lizzie's report of her and James' relationship was a truthful one.
The whole way through the movie, Clara was preoccupied with watching James and Lizzie's interactions, but besides the occasional brush of hands when going for the popcorn, there wasn't really anything to be preoccupied with. The two people sat next to her, despite the fact they looked nothing alike, could be siblings for all she knew. So instead, Clara allowed herself to be preoccupied by James: his hair which in its effortlessness exuded a devil-may-care attitude, his eyes which looked like melting dark and milk chocolate in a pot together, his soft pink lips- upon which he periodically ran his tongue. I wouldn't mind if he did that to my lips, she couldn't help but think.
After the film they went to a bar for drinks, Clara nodding responses and making noises of agreement at appropriate times as James and Lizzie discussed the film that she was paying no attention to whatsoever.
Then suddenly, the conversation was turned to her.
"So Clara, what do you do for a living?"
"Oh, I work in the department of International Magical Co-operation."
"Nice. My cousin works there too."
Clara laughed, "Don't you have family members in every area of work in magical Britain?"
James tried to contradict her but ended up relenting, letting himself laugh too. He sighed, "Oh the woes of being half Weasley!"
"But you're half Potter too- that must be pretty crazy."
"Well yeah, of course it is; but after a quarter of a century, you're used to it."
"Not to mention the fact that you love the attention," Lizzie teased. James smiled at her with a little gleam in his eye before his attention turned back to Lizzie's friend.
"Girls must flock you left, right and centre."
He shrugged, but failed to keep the smug grin off his face. "It's been known to happen."
Their banter went on like this, Clara's flirting getting less and less subtle and Lizzie getting excluded more and more. At one point she even left to go to the bathroom, came back and it was if they hadn't even noticed. She found herself getting frustrated, and another weird emotion that made her stomach turn, which she refused to believe was jealousy. Eventually she'd had enough of it, so she made her excuses, and encouraged Clara to get ready to go too. Clara obediently followed but not before hugging James in an embrace which Lizzie was sure was too long for two people who'd only met twice.
"I'll owl you!" Clara called over her shoulder as they walked away.
As they got back into Lizzie's car, Lizzie noticed her friend's stare resting on her.
"What?" she asked, annoyed.
"You were telling the truth. You genuinely are just friends with him."
"See. I told you." Lizzie said, though it didn't give her the satisfaction that she hoped it would.
"He's really nice. Like I knew that he was hot and funny, every magazine says that, but I wasn't expecting him to be so nice."
Lizzie's hands gripped her steering wheel a little tighter. "He's not here anymore Clara. You can stop drooling."
Clara rolled her eyes. "I think I should hang out with you guys more often."
"Yeah, maybe you should."
You shouldn't. You really shouldn't.
The next few days were busy ones for Lizzie. On the Sunday she had agreed to take her niece shopping (turns out 12 year old girls can be quite demanding); Monday she was back to work (turns out newspaper editors can be quite demanding); and Tuesday, Rita Skeeter actually made a rare appearance in the office (I don't think it needs to be expressed how demanding that was). By the end of the day on Tuesday, Lizzie was already sure that this was looking to be a bloody awful week and was in need of some light relief. It was early September, so Quidditch training wasn't due to start again for another few weeks, meaning that James was probably up for coming round and cheering her up. She curled up on the sofa, a glass of wine already in hand when she pulled out her phone to call James.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Jamie."
"Elizabeth, hi, how are you?"
"Actually not great." She was about to expand further but was distracted by a distinctly female laughter down the other end of the line.
"Oh, are you out with Tara?" she asked.
"No actually, it's a funny story really."
She heard fumbling as the girl took the phone of James. "Hey boo."
"Clara?" Lizzie spluttered, frankly bewildered to hear her friend's voice on the other side of the phone.
"Yeeeeaaahhh!" the girly voice practically squealed, James chuckling as he took the phone back.
"You're out with Clara?" Lizzie questioned, trying to mask her annoyance.
"Yeah, well I went to go talk to Dad about something at the ministry, and on my way out I ran into Clara. She suggested going to the Leaky for a pint, and I thought why not."
"Fair enough." Lizzie was practically forcing the words out now.
"Actually Liz, I need to talk to you about something." He paused for a while after that; Lizzie assumed that he was moving out of Clara's earshot. "Clara's asked me out on Friday night. On a date."
"Oh," was all that fell from Lizzie's lips.
"And obviously, she's your friend, and I don't want things to be weird between us if I go out with her."
"No, don't be ridiculous, James. You're my friend too. I want you to go and have fun."
He hesitated again, "Are you sure Elizabeth?"
"Completely. Okay, I have to go now- bye."
She hung up immediately throwing her phone to the other end of the sofa. She downed her glass of wine and promptly went to the kitchen to pour herself another.
Yep. Bloody awful week.
"James is going on a date tonight." She blurts it out to Ginny on the Friday morning and she's not completely sure why.
Ginny looked taken aback, but continued moving around the office, getting her jobs done. "So who's that with then?" she asked nonchalantly.
"My friend Clara." Lizzie replied in a matched tone.
"Did you set it up?"
"Nope."
"Are you happy about it?"
"Not really, no."
Her boss looked at her with sympathy in her eyes, and let out a deep sigh. "By your own rules, you and Jamie are just friends."
"I know that…"
"but?"
Lizzie groaned. "But I'm still annoyed that one of my best friends asked out a guy that she knows for a fact had a thing for me."
"Lizzie honey, you never returned those feelings, so why should it matter?"
"Yeah, you're right. I guess it doesn't." Lizzie sighed, burying her head in work for the rest of the day. She tried to focus on her work, but her mind kept getting distracted by the thought of James and Clara's forthcoming date. Ginny was completely right, she didn't like James in that way so it shouldn't bother her, but for some reason it kept buzzing round her ears like an extremely annoying pygmy puff nibbling at her. It's the fact that James was the one who asked permission to say yes, rather than Clara asking to ask, she thinks. Clara was her best friend at school, and though admittedly they're not as close now as they were, they're close enough to warrant Clara asking Lizzie's permission to date James. She just means, Clara wanted Lizzie to fuck James, and now she was going to try herself? It seemed a bit weird. Oh shit, what if she did try to sleep with James? Clara would never do that, would she? Lizzie glosses back over the conversation she had with Clara after her initial interview with James, and it scares her because Lizzie knows that Clara would. Some kind of friend she was. Though Lizzie did firmly and constantly remind her of the platonic nature of her relationship with James S Potter….
Damn it, Elizabeth, why'd you do that?
The rest of her day went on like that, the good and evil angels on her shoulder chirping away at her as she worked. By the time work had finished, she was thoroughly exhausted just from thinking too much.
She said goodbye to Ginny who gave her a tight hug before leaving. That was a pity hug. She pities you. Lizzie rolled her eyes at her own subconscious, amazed at how out of character the whole situation had made her. She apparated home, not wanting the stress of walking and buses and trains. She also wanted to exterminate that extra thinking time. The pop landed her straight in her bedroom. She put on the baggiest hoodie she could find, with the hood up, and a pair of men's tracksuit bottom and a thick pair of fluffy slipper socks that dawdled down the stairs.
Her mum looked up from the sofa confused. "When did you get in?"
"A few minutes ago. Apparated in."
"Okay." her mum said, her gaze following her daughter as she headed to the kitchen.
"I'm going to order in: do you want Chinese or Pizza?" Lizzie called into the other room.
"Well you know that your dad prefers pizza."
"Got it."
Mrs Hartley was confused at her daughter's behaviour but knew that Lizzie had had a stressful week so let it slide. In the kitchen, Lizzie had already phoned the pizza place, but was still fiddling with her phone in her hand. She sighed as she clicked on James' name and began to type a message. She hesitated before clicking send, but let it go anyway.
Have a great time tonight. Text me as soon as you get home to let me know how it goes. X
The reply came through moments later.
Thanks Elizabeth. Will do :)
She stared at it; rereading the four words as many times as humanly possible before letting her phone go black and slipping it back into her pocket. She made herself a cup of tea and slumped back into the living room, grabbing her favourite fluffy blanket and curling up into her corner of the sofa.
"Can I have the tv remote?" she asked her mum, who responded with a silent nod as she passed the remote control to her daughter.
Lizzie clicked onto Netflix, scrolling through to find 'Friends.' Season 6 is good. Let's go with that.
Her mum laughed. "It amazes me after all these years, people still watch this show over and over again."
Lizzie smiled. "It's a classic. It's comforting."
The front door opened and Lizzie registered the sound of her Dad taking off his work boots as he came inside. She looked up at him with a sympathetic smile. "You really need to think about retiring, Dad."
"Well hello to you too, Elizabeth."
"I'm serious. Mum's retired; you should too."
He chuckled as he dumped his bag on the floor. "I love being a landscape gardener, whereas your mother hated her job."
"Real estate never was very exciting," her mum added.
Mr Hartley smiled lovingly at them before glancing at the tv and noticing what was playing. His eyebrows creased as his eyes flicked back to Lizzie.
"What's wrong?"
"What makes you think that something's wrong?"
He gestured to the tv. "It's series 6. That's your go to when you're upset. Yours is Friends Season 6; Luke's is Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 1, and your mother's is any film with George Clooney in it."
His wife swatted his arm playfully, but his attention never left Lizzie.
She sighed, pausing the show and turning back to her Dad.
"James is on a date tonight."
"Your James?" her mum asked incredulously.
"Well clearly he's not 'my James' if he's on a date, is he Mum?"
"Who's he on a date with?"
"Clara."
"Your Clara?"
"Yes Mum, my Clara!" Lizzie said, growing more exasperated.
"I thought you said that you two were just friends?" her dad asked as he perched himself on the sofa.
"We are." Lizzie said, her voice suddenly shrinking very small.
"In fairness, Elizabeth, you did make it very clear to him that you didn't want to be anything more."
"How do you know that?" she pushed her mum.
"Well I read your papers. I'm assuming the girl in that Rita Skeeter article about James is you?"
Lizzie blushed violently. "Rita Skeeter only ever talks a load of rubbish Mum, you can't believe her."
"So it wasn't you?"
"Yes, it was about me, but that's irrelevant."
Her parents shared a look before looking back at Lizzie together.
"You know, it's okay if you do like him as more than a friend."
"He is a very good looking lad," her mum added.
"Mum!" "Helen!" the other two protested, in equal parts embarrassed.
"I don't know."
"You don't know what?"
"I don't know how I feel, Dad. I love what we have right now- this friendship; the closeness. It's good. It's comfortable. But sometimes, I don't know, I just think that maybe I could want something more. Then I remember that I do really like the whole friends thing. It's just…. Uuuugh! It's just frustrating and confusing and I don't like it, and I certainly don't like that Clara asked him out."
The doorbell rang, interrupting the silence left in the air after Lizzie's outburst.
"That will be the pizza." Lizzie commented, getting up to answer the door and effectively ending that conversation.
After that they all sat round and ate pizza and watched Friends as a family, in comfortable and companionable silence. Her parents both noticed her checking her phone every so often, but neither of them said anything. Eventually they went up to bed, leaving Lizzie downstairs still watching tv and still waiting for a text from James.
She started to get anxious. When the clock struck midnight that anxiety doubled. He said he'd text when he got home. He hadn't text yet. Unless he didn't go home? She thought about texting him again, but knew that she couldn't. She was just going to stay up as long as she could to wait for him to reply. He said he would.
And it was in that moment, as she was sat watching reruns of an old tv show and waiting for a text because of four little words he'd said earlier, that Lizzie realised that maybe she did like him as more than just a friend. In fact, she realised that she was screwed. Well and truly.
What? What is this? Did Lizzie actually just admit that she likes James? AAAAAAAAAGGGHH! :D Believe me, this is just as exciting for me as it is for you. Well I hope you found it exciting. I can't know unless you drop a lil review in that beautiful shiny box below… ;) Stay awesome and I will try and update asap. Bg.97 xx