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James huffed out a sigh for the third time in last ten minutes as he made his way up to his dormitory. He had ran off to the library immediately after the Potions class to work on the new essay assigned by Professor Slughorn. However, despite his best efforts, he had not managed to write anything more than his name on the parchment in the past hour he had spent working on the assignment. Normally, James waited for the last possible minute before starting on his schoolwork but because Hogsmeade weekend was coming up, he didn’t want to have to worry about the essay while attempting to unwind in the village close by. Besides, he figured that doing it early would mean that he would remember as many details from the class as possible, particularly the scents that he had observed from the Amortentia.
Although the Hogwarts professors were usually nice enough to not assign too much work leading up to Hogsmeade weekend, this was not the case for Slughorn. Much to James’s, and everyone else’s annoyance, the professor had not been satisfied with the class's bland and unsubstantial answers when asked about the scents they observed from the potion. He exclaimed that they were not trying to “internalize their observations enough” and they were “wasting the chance at self-discovery through the identification of the scents of Amortentia”. This annoyed James because he felt perfectly secure of his assessment of himself. He’d always known that the Amortentia had varying scents for each person and these were often the scents of things that a person treasures. This was why he didn’t need to consciously take a whiff of the potion to know that he would smell something from home, the marauders, quidditch, and the love of his life, Lily Evans.
However, as he started assessing the scents of his Amortentia earlier, he grew more and more puzzled which eventually led to his stream of aggravated sighs and his defeated trek back to the dormitory. While he did identify the 6th year dorm in relation to the marauders, his mother’s shepherd’s pie to symbolize home, and a freshly mowed lawn which he linked to quidditch, he couldn’t identify anything that he can confidently associate with Lily Evans. To make matters worse, he identified two other scents that he couldn’t associate with anything at all: lavender and citrus.
With another sigh, he opened the door to their dormitory bathroom and stripped his uniform off to take a quick shower. As he turned the shower on, a thought entered his mind.
What if the citrus and lavender scent WAS associated with Evans and he simply never noticed? He wouldn’t put it pass himself for small details to fly over his head like that. He was quite an oblivious prick after all, if Sirius’s words were to be trusted.
Convinced of this explanation, he felt energized for the first time that evening. He proceeded to hurriedly finish his shower and put on his pyjamas before heading to his bed to work on the essay. He hunched over his parchment and quickly completed his 10 inch essay. Yeah, this class was way too easy.
Once completed, he leant back on the head board of his bed while waiting for the ink to dry before turning his realizations over in his head. Since in his head, lavender and citrus equaled Lily Evans, perhaps that meant that she must like those two scents as well or why else would he smell those scents from the Amortentia to pertain to her? With this thought, he started packing his essay away while he thought of ways to use this new information in his newest plan to woo Evans.
The next day James woke up to the smell of lavenders. He opened his eyes and glanced towards the source of the smell. He was met with a beautiful bouquet of fresh lavenders attached to an unfamiliar brown owl. At this, James jumped out of bed and grinned widely to collect the bouquet of lavenders from Floriblunders Florist which he ordered the previous night.
While doing so, James remembered that he hasn’t told his plan to the rest of the guys so they’d probably think it odd if they were to see him strutting around happily over a bouquet of flowers this early in the morning. However, a glance around the room told him that he had no reason to worry as he was met by the sight of their empty dormitory.
James rolled his eyes, muttering, “Figures those berks wouldn’t bother waiting me. Well, that’s their loss anyway because today is the day James Potter manages to get Evans to say yes to a date.”
With that, James proceeded to get ready for the day, even putting a bit more effort in taming his wild hair. Of course, the effort was futile as he clearly inherited his father’s untamable hair.
“Well, it’s the thought that counts. At least I tried.” James thought with a helpless shrug.
He quickly grabbed the bouquet of flowers before proceeding to head to the Great Hall. As he arrived to the Great Hall, he quickly scanned the crowd for the red hair he liked so much. He found Evans seated at one end of the Gryffindor table beside Marlene and Mary before heading towards their direction. He vaguely noted that the other three marauders were seated close by, only three seats away from Evans and her group of friends.
“Evans!” James called loudly. “How would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend?”
Evans turned to face the voice currently speaking to her before her expression settled on an irritated glare. “No, Potter.”
“Why not? I got you flowers!” James replied, his confident smile still in place while handing the bouquet over.
“Are those lavenders?” Marlene asked in alarm.
James momentarily glanced at her, confused before setting his eyes back on Evans. What he hadn’t expected was for her face to turn as red as her hair before sneezing loudly.
“Get those things away from me. I’m allergic!” Evans screamed angrily.
“I…” James started, frozen in place.
“POTTER!” Evans yelled again before abruptly taking her wand out to vanish the offending bouquet.
“I’m sorry!” James, finally snapping out of his daze, blurted out.
“Just leave me alone, you insufferable git.” Evans glared before sneezing again and storming out of the Great Hall.
James was left rooted to the spot, staring after her before turning to walk towards his friends and sitting beside Sirius with a sigh.
“You alright?” Sirius asked, raising his eyebrows questioningly.
James merely shook his head dejectedly as he stares at the mahogany table. While James was entirely used to having his proposals rejected by Evans, he had genuinely been optimistic earlier because he was going by what the Amortentia was telling him. He honestly thought that Evans would appreciate the gesture because lavender HAS to be meaningful to her if it was the scent he associated with her while examining the Amortentia.
Sirius sighed as he gathers his things with one hand and grabbing James by the arm with the other before promptly dragging him out of the Great Hall. They walked in silence before stopping in an empty corridor as Sirius turned to face James.
“Alright, out with it. What was that about?” Sirius questioned with a concerned look on his face.
Despite the tense situation, James can’t help but think about how lucky he was for Sirius to find him worthy of being one of the people he concerned himself with. While Sirius generally had a perpetual haughty smirk on his face when talking to everyone else, Sirius had always been more open with James and the current situation puts this on perfect display as Sirius was fixing him with a soft concerned look that was making heat slowly climb up James’s face.
James swallowed before looking away and mumbling, “It was nothing really. I just wanted to do something nice for her, y’know? To make her realize that I sincerely want to go out with her. I didn’t know she had allergies, honest.”
“Really? Practically the whole school knows after that thing in 3rd year. I think it was when Williams asked her out and gave her lavenders?” Sirius asked, surprised.
At this, James groaned, wanting to shove his head through the ugly painting hanging across from them.
Sirius paused for a while before his expression softens, “Don’t worry yourself too much, mate. Maybe you can just get her a nicer gift that has nothing to do with lavenders to apologize or something?”
James considered this briefly. While examining the Amortentia, he identified two scents that he couldn’t associate anything with: Lavender and citrus. Maybe he got it all wrong. Perhaps he should find something with a citrus scent to give to Evans instead. He can probably pick up some perfume with that scent in their trip to Hogsmeade this weekend.
Mood restored, James looked up to Sirius with a bright smile, “Good idea! Thanks, Pads. You’re the best.”, before walking off to their next class. Unbeknownst to him, Sirius shook his head slightly with a sad smile on his face before he jogged quickly to walk beside him.
The following morning, James found himself feeling more like his optimistic self again as he walked beside his three best friends and looked through the shops at Hogsmeade. Of course, they stopped by Honeydukes to refill their stock of chocolates, Zonko’s to get inspiration for their pranks, Tomes And Scrolls to buy new quills and other supplies, and finally, The Three Broomsticks where they stayed for a while to chat over butterbeer.
It was when James found himself listening to another entertaining argument between Sirius and Remus about the Homonculous charm that Sirius wanted to add to the Marauder’s Map that a thought occurred to him.
He hasn’t bought his peace offering for Evans yet.
“Uh, I need to pick something up real quick. You guys can head up to Hogwarts first once you’re done.” He told the other three before making his way out of the establishment after hearing their acknowledgement.
James walked briskly through the streets of Hogsmeade before he spotted an obscure gift shop. He entered the shop and found himself browsing a shelf of the most popular perfumes in the store. He quickly scanned it for a citrus-flavored perfume. As he did so, he absentmindedly noted that the small shop also sold the same citrus perfume he had given Sirius in their first year which he seemed to really appreciate back then. This only encouraged him further that his latest plan to woo Evans would work this time.
With that thought in mind, he grabbed the most expensive looking citrus-scented perfume for witches and moved to the counter to make the purchase before he hurriedly walked back to Hogwarts.
As James entered the common room, he quickly located Evans who seemed to be dealing with her allergies just fine as she sat in a secluded corner, reading a muggle novel. He went up to her before calling out to her softly, so as not to startle her.
“Look Evans, I’m really sorry about yesterday.” James continued as she looked up to meet his eyes with an annoyed expression.
At this, her expression softened slightly. “It’s fine, Potter.” She replied dismissively.
“I got you something from Hogsmeade to make it up to you.” James said while handing the package to her.
Evans looked taken aback because she did not expect James to go as far as to get her a peace offering. She hesitantly accepted the package, expecting another trick because this was James Potter she was dealing with, after all. When she was certain that there was no catch, she opened the package to see the elegant bottle of perfume from Hogsmeade.
She paused for a while, staring at the expensive gift before James interrupted the silence by asking, “So do you like it? I can get you more of it if you want. Or do you want something else…?” He rambled on.
Evans sighed and interrupted, “Not that I don’t appreciate the gesture, Potter, but I’d really appreciate if you stopped doing this.”
“Stopped doing what? I thought we were finally getting along?” James asked, confused.
Again, Evans sighed before responding, “Like I said, I appreciate you coming to apologize to me but you really should stop with the flirting or the gifts. I actually started seeing someone recently so you know…”
“Oh…” James stood frozen to the spot for a minute before he slowly nodded.
Evans smiled at him apologetically and bade him goodnight before heading to the girls’ dormitory. Before doing so, however, she turned to James once more and said, “Thanks for the gift, by the way.”
“Although honestly, I do prefer floral scents myself.” She added half-jokingly before heading up the stairs.
James stood staring at where she disappeared to before he stiffly headed to the boys’ dormitories to wash up. While doing so, he pondered on what just happened. Oddly enough, he didn’t feel overly bothered by the fact that Evans started seeing someone else. Instead, his brain seemed to have parked itself at the realization that the two scents from the Amortentia that had been bothering him all weekend was not, after all, associated with Evans.
He entered the shower in a confused daze before he remembers Slughorn’s words.
Amortentia smells different to each person, according to what attracts them.
If Evans was allergic to lavender and was not into the citrus scent, then why on earth did he smell them during their Potions class? And why didn’t he associate any scent to Evans? She’s supposed to be the love of his life, isn’t she?
As he was pondering this, he reached for the body wash and his eyes fell on the bottle that he knew Sirius always used. Lavender.
At this, he pauses. Sirius?
He can’t seriously be dumb enough to fall for his best mate right? The conversation he just had with Evans flashed through his mind. He then remembered the citrus perfume that he had gifted Sirius in the past. No way. But then, there was no denying it. Sirius always wore that specific brand of perfume and used the body wash with the lavender scent that had been haunting James all weekend. In fact, he wore those two scents ALL THE TIME that it was a miracle James missed those details at all.
Oblivious prick, indeed.
Now that he established that the two scents were indeed associated with Sirius, he figured that he ought to examine why. Does this mean he fancied Sirius and not Evans?
At this, he remembered how he didn't feel the heartbreak that he should've felt at the revelation of Lily’s new object of affection at all. Additionally, although he acknowledged the fact that Evans had always been objectively pretty which was why he developed a crush on her to begin with, he couldn't think of anything that would imply that his feelings were anything more than infatuation. In fact, as he tried to think about what he really knows of her, he came up blank. He realized that he doesn’t know her at all. Besides, didn’t he just recently found out that she was badly allergic to lavenders? At this, he came to the conclusion that, all this time, he had been asking Lily out constantly out of habit. In fact, if she did say yes, he probably wouldn’t know what to do with himself or how he would act around her. He figured that it would only be awkward and tense for the both of them, especially after the five-year hostility between them (granted the hostility was one-sided but still).
He proceeded to think about what he thought of Sirius. He knew he loves the man dearly. He's his best mate after all. But are his feelings STRICTLY platonic? At this, he remembered how he occasionally fantasized about Sirius and his porcelain skin, his delicate piano hands, his luscious shiny curls, and perfectly sharp features. James always knew that Sirius was handsome but after thinking past his familiarity of those features, he realized that Sirius was more than that. He’s gorgeous.
James paused that train of thought as he feels a weird sensation in the pit of his stomach.
“No, I don’t fancy him. I’m sure it’s just physical” James thought to himself in denial.
However, this thought did not sit right with him at all because he knew deep down that it wasn’t just physical or sexual at all. After all, didn’t he usually spend less time daydreaming about shagging his best mate and more about what it would be like to hold his hand as they walk through Hogsmeade or to move into a flat together after they graduated? He then thought of the times where he went above and beyond to see Sirius smile. A smile that wasn’t the same lazy, haughty smirk he gave everyone else, but the one he only ever gives James. That soft, fond smile that lights up his face whenever they were together.
With that thought, he concluded that he IS dumb enough to fall for his best mate.
As he stepped out of the shower and dried himself up, he decided that he had to do something about his newly discovered feelings. He had spent so much time gushing about Evans, who he didn’t even like when he really should’ve been working on getting it through Sirius’s thick skull how much he meant to him because for some reason, Sirius still seemed very insecure about his place despite the arrogant façade he constantly put up for everyone else. It didn’t even matter if Sirius wasn’t interested in him in the same way. He was sure that he’ll be nice about it because he’s Sirius and he can’t be anything but nice with James.
As James continued to hype himself up, he exited the bathroom and quite literally bumped into Sirius. They both fell to the ground on their backsides with a yelp. Sirius hurried to stand and try to help James up to his feet.
However, James only stared at him from the ground, mesmerized. He was sure he looked absolutely ridiculous right now, staring at his best mate with heart eyes while he sat on the ground with only a towel around his waist, but he couldn’t help himself.
How could anyone look so perfect?
“Are you okay?” Sirius interrupted James’s thoughts.
James nodded as he flushed and tried to stand and get himself together because this was NOT how he wanted his romantic confession to go. He walked over to his bed to dress himself properly. However, Sirius was not convinced.
“Mate, what’s up? Moony told me you were acting weird in the common room earlier after your talk with Evans. What happened?” Sirius asked, concerned.
James merely shook his head and looked away. However, Sirius, unwilling to let this go, grabbed his arm and looked at him sternly, forcing James to look at him. They stood in silence for a moment until James finally broke his resolve.
“I… I love you okay.” James blurted out.
Sirius blinked at him, “James, you’ve just been gushing about Lily and your foolproof plan to charm her just hours ago. Did you freeze your brains off in the shower just now?” Sirius questioned while tilting his head to the side like a confused puppy.
“What? No, of course not! I mean it.” James defended quickly.
Sirius stared at him disbelievingly.
“Look, you don’t have to say it back or whatever. You asked, I answered. I realized how much I appreciate and love you. Romantically, that is. Yeah, I thought I liked Lily but I realized that I’ve only been asking her out constantly out of habit. I mean… I wasn’t even bothered when she told me she recently started going out with some other guy. Besides, I didn’t even smell a hint of her in the Amortentia last time but I did smell you, lots of you. I didn’t figure it out before but now I do…” James rambled on before Sirius interrupted him.
“You’re an oblivious idiot, mate.” James’s shoulders sagged at this, “An obliviously lovable idiot.” Sirius continued.
James looked up to see Sirius looking at him with that loving ‘James smile’.
“Yeah?” James said hopefully.
“I love you too, Prongs” Sirius said before wrapping his arms around James and pressing a sweet kiss to his forehead, as James was met by that sweet lavender and citrus scent that almost drove him insane in the past week.