Round 3 for OTP AU Competition
Prompt: Anonymous Love Letters
Pairing: Narcissa/James
James Potter was a very handsome young man that had all the girls lusting after him. So it wouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that James received a lot of love letters, especially around Valentine's Day. But there was one set of love letters that was continuously being sent to him, and he wanted to figure out who the culprit was. James figured that it must be Lily finally admitting her feelings to him, but she just didn't know how to say it.
"How do you know they're from her? They could be from anybody." Remus countered, during lunch one day.
"Who else could it be? The other girls might like me, but none of them are this detailed!" James pointed out, "it's the only reasonable explanation."
Remus sighed, "Why can't you accept the fact that it's somebody else?"
But James wouldn't hear of it, he truly believed that it was Lily Evans, despite the fact that the girl didn't like him. He would find them everywhere, slipped into his books, or waiting to be discovered at the bottom of his bag. They were written with a passion, the style varying from regular letters, to poetry, to even a riddle. The most recent one was cliché and cheesy:
Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
Out of a million boys
I'd choose you
Take my hand
And hold me close
Show me who
You love the most
It didn't occur to James for even a moment that Lily would never write anything like this. She had shown little interest in him and hated poetry of all sorts. But he was too excited by the prospect of the letter to acknowledge common sense. Remus and Peter had tried to stop him from making a fool out of himself, saying that it could be any girl in the school. But James was sure that it was her. Today was the day he'd make his move.
James followed Lily and Narcissa into the library with the love letters in hand. The moment that they sat down, James quickly confronted them.
"Hello Lily, Narcissa." James said, smiling at the girls.
"Hello James!" Narcissa greeted cheerfully, as Lily muttered her answer with disdain.
"What do you want?"
James placed the collection of love letters on the table and looked back at the girls expectantly. He had missed Narcissa's immediate reaction, a blush forming and a goofy smile appearing on her face, and had solely been looking at Lily.
"James, what are these?" Lily asked, looking down at the letters, her brow furrowing in confusion.
"Your love letters, of course." James said.
Narcissa's smile immediately vanished, and she abruptly got up.
"Excuse me, I have to go." Narcissa choked out hurriedly as her voice began to crack.
"These aren't mine." Lily sighed, handing back the letters.
James scowled, he was back to square one and didn't know where to start. But before he continued on with the search of his mystery crush, he went to check on Narcissa.
"Why did you leave all of a sudden?" James asked, once the two of them were alone.
"Because I was the one who wrote those letters, you arsehole!" Narcissa blurted out.
James stared at her and blinked, "What?"
Narcissa groaned in frustration, "It was me sending you all those letters! It's me that likes you, not sodding Lily! It's quite incredible that you thought it was Lily all this time!" Narcissa continued on, ranting now. "She doesn't even like you! She thinks that you're a self-centred, pig-headed, arse…and maybe she's bloody right!"
Narcissa started to storm off before turning around. "And in case you haven't heard, she's dating Severus!"
And with that final barb she was gone, leaving James feeling like a complete idiot.
