Lily Evans was flipping through her Transfiguration notes too fast to possibly be reading them,
Remus Lupin was finally forcing himself to look at his moon charts for Astronomy,
Peter Pettigrew was feverishly trying to get a pineapple to dance on the table "Tarantellegra! Tarantellegra!",
Sirius Black was testing out his new Spell-Check quill,
And James Potter was actually studying…
Well, studying Lily Evans.
It was just so hard to focus with her in the room. It would be entirely her fault if he failed his exams. He opened his mouth to tell her so, and promptly closed it again upon seeing the redhead's expression. Frazzled and worn out, she was close to tears as she stared unseeingly at the page. He bit his lip, unsure of what to do. Sure, he could flirt with her, but she was too… emotional at the moment. That was Moony's thing, or maybe Peter's. But they looked busy, so James decided… why not? He stood up with an exaggerated sigh.
"Ahhhh…" He walked over to where Lily was sitting and plopped himself down on the other side of the couch. Lily gave him a sideways glance, but soon returned to her notes. Gradually, he scooted closer and closer, inch by inch, until he was next to her. Lily was watching him out of the corner of her eye, and a corner of her mouth turned up. James yawned theatrically, causing Sirius to smirk at him. Lily rubbed her eyes, suppressing a smile. She let out a puff of air and sat back in the cushy armchair. She yawned, and, notes forgotten, her eyes started to flutter closed. James gave yet another theatrical yawn, lifting his arms above his head as though stretching. His arms slowly came down, one by his side… and one around Lily.
"James?" she said sleepily.
"Hmm?"
"You're a failure at life."
"Yeah…"
But she didn't pull away, and Sirius and Remus can snigger all they want, but in that moment, James knew. He knew without a doubt that as long as he had her, he would pass every test in the world.
For her.