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James Potter was ready. He’d chugged four Pepper Up potions, a bottle of butterbeer, an entire flask of pumpkin juice, and to counteract the negative effects of the Pepper Up, multiple flagons of water.
He’d been waiting for fifteen minutes already, and something he’d come to know about himself was that he really, truly, hated waiting. He was the most impatient man alive. Yes, he was dramatic, yes, he was self involved, but at least he had the awareness to know his own flaws, unlike some greasy little pricks.
He sat, slowly spinning on his stool, at his desk in the second to last row on the left side of the potions classroom-the Gryffindor side, also known as the good side. He scrunched up his nose when his turning led him to facing Snivellus’s seat.
Bollocks, he thought. Snivellus happened to sit next to the loveliest creature on the planet, one Lily Evans, the apple of his eye, the light of his life, and as all signs pointed to, his future wife.
On the many occasions he’d mentioned that Sirius had slapped him round the head, Remus had groaned, and even Pete had looked a bit pitying, but their opinions were of no matter. He knew, and Lily knew, and that was all that mattered.
He ran a hand through his hair and checked the red childrens watch he wore on his right wrist. Remus had given it to him for his last birthday, and he was extremely fond of it-the red strap, the tiny blue numbers, and the little mouse in the middle. Apparently his name was Mickey. James felt he looked more like a Melvin.
Remus had exclaimed that you couldn’t simply rename Mickey Mouse, but the whole thing seemed rather out there to James. Muggles really did have such fun with their characters and their traditions and such. Just last summer he’d learned there was a renowned spy for MI6 with whom he shared a name! He had to wonder if the level of fame impeded his success with espionage. From one James to another, he felt it must.
Remus had promised to take him to the next ‘Bond’ film that came out on summer hols.
James looked at his watch again. He’d skipped any actual food at breakfast for fear of unsettling his already nervous stomach, and then decided any real Gryffindor would eat without fear, and then decided the true Gryffindor thing would be not to eat. He was regretting that choice a bit now, with his rumbling stomach. He felt rather ill-that fourth Pepper Up potion had definitely been an impulse decision.
No matter, he was a Marauder first, a Potter second, and a Gryffindor third. He would soldier on, despite these unfortunate setbacks and the toll they were taking on his physical health.
He heard noise in the hallway, and students began to file in. No one gave him much notice, until Samantha Brice caught his eye and choked, nudging Marcia Flint, who elbowed Sylvia Newt, who poked Marcus Belby, who whispered to Angus Allerton, who giggled to Marlene Mckinnon, who yelled to Mary Macdonald, who said to Alice Fortescue, who nudged Lily Evans as she walked through the door.
James barely noticed all this going on around him-he only had eyes for Lily. Her hair was in it’s usual braid, but she’d pulled two strands out which framed her face quite perfectly, and the overall effect was very pretty, but she was always very pretty.
She looked from Alice to James, then stared at him for a second. He thought that extra ten minutes attempting to tame his hair this morning must have made some difference if Lily Evans was looking at him for more than a second.
“Alright, Evans?” he asked in what he felt was a rather mature, pleasant tone. Sirius, who’d at some point appeared at the desk behind him, snickered.
She looked to be holding in a laugh, or perhaps a burp? Maybe she was one of those girls that thought boys wouldn’t like them if they burped. Once they were dating he’d make sure to assure her that he did not mind and he understood that everyone needed to burp.
“Alright, Potter?” she asked, coming to her seat next to him. They’d been assigned potions partners for the whole year. It was only October, but he felt she must have warmed up to him a little bit. Last Tuesday she’d told him to crush his kneazles with the flat side of his knife! It had been extremely effective, as were most of her rarely doled out tips and tricks. A genius, that Lily.
She placed her bags on the floor beside her and hopped up to her stool. James ran a hand through his hair seductively as Slughorn walked into the room, bottle green velvet robes swishing lushly against the dungeon floor.
“Alright, class, today we’ll be mak-” he stuttered for a second when his eyes reached James’s desk. Perhaps he’d also noticed Lilys new hairstyle? She didn’t often change it up, and Slughorn saw her almost daily, whether in Potions club or Slug club. It was sure to be quite a surprise.
“Making Confusing Concoctions,” he flipped the blackboard in front of them round to reveal his neat, loopy handwriting, “These are rather finicky potions, be sure to pay attention to their texture and thickness. All the properties and uses are up here, and as usual any ingredients you don’t have from your own stocks will be available from the storeroom cupboard,” he clapped his hands together once firmly, “Collect your ingredients and then once you’re all back at your desks I’ll give the first few instructions!” he finished rather pompously, with one last pensive look in Lilys direction.
James had never much liked Slughorn, but today he loved everyone and everything, for today was the day his wildest dreams would come true.
He turned to Lily,
“I’ll get the ones we need from the cupboard?”
She nodded, eyebrows raised in a strange expression-a mix of pity and humour. No matter, she was always beautiful.
On his way to the cupboard, Slughorn stopped him.
“Feeling alright, James, m’boy?”
James nodded with a grin,
“Fantastic, Professor.”
Slughorn didn’t look convinced.
After collecting the trout scales, bat ears, and cat whiskers, he trooped back to the table, laying them out with a toothy grin to Lily that she returned with a slightly pinched smile.
Slughorn began his instructions, and James put his plan into action. He took the note he’d carefully printed his invitation onto and slid it across the desk to her coolly.
Alright James, he thought, deep breaths.
After a moment when the note wasn’t returned to him, James looked over. She hadn’t noticed it.
Unrelatedly, his ears felt quite hot and uncomfortable. It was October and he was in rural Scotland, there was truly no reason to be sweating this much.
He pushed the note further towards Lily, but she continued diligently jotting down the instructions.
He realised more extreme measures needed to be taken.
“Psssst.” he whispered. She didn’t look at him.
“Psssst. Evans?” he whispered again.
“What?” she mumbled, not looking at him.
“Here.” He prodded the note right in front of her with the tip of his quill. She shot him a glare and went back to her notebook.
“I-you’re not even going to read it?” he asked, forgetting to keep his voice down.
“Later, Potter.” she whispered irritatedly.
He couldn’t believe it. He’d gotten all ready and psyched up to give this to her now, and she WOULDN’T EVEN READ IT?
He stared at her, mouth agape.
She groaned,
“Will you stop looking at me like I kicked your puppy? It’s distracting.”
“HOW-you haven’t looked away from your notes.”
She glared at him.
“Mr. Potter, Miss Evans, something you’d like to share?”
Lily’s face immediately twisted into a thousand watt smile, but James cut her off before she could say anything,
“Nothing going on, sorry for the interruption Professor.”
Slughorn chortled, but Lily spoke up,
“Actually Professor, James won’t stop trying to pass me this note, and it’s getting rather distracting.”
NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONON-
James’s internal panic went silent the second Slughorn plucked the note off their table. His ears were on fire.
“Alright then Mr. Potter, what do we have here?” He unfolded the parchment with a dramatic flourish.
He cleared his throat, then began to read out James’s death sentence.
“Ohoh, ‘Dear Evans, Would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me in November?’” James' head felt about to pop off his skull. “‘Yours truly, James Potter.’ Well, isn’t that a charming proposition. I applaud your courage, young Mr. Potter, but I must ask that you keep your attempts to woo this lovely lady here outside of class time.”
He attempted a cool and unruffled nod as his classmates erupted in laughter around him, Sirius louder than any of them. The pressure in his head built to an insane height, and suddenly there was a loud whistling noise and he felt tremendous pain in his nose, ears, and mouth, as steam shot out of every orifice in his head!
A Slughorn shaped blob scurried over, and after a moment said over the din,
“Alright, James, you’ll get your wish after all. Miss Evans, would you accompany Mr. Potter here to the hospital wing? It would seem he’s overdosed on our good friend Pepper Up.”
James couldn’t get out of there fast enough. His eyes were watering like mad, and though the steam had stopped coming out of his mouth, there were still curls twisting out his nose, and his ears still felt hotter than the surface of the sun.
Evans was silent on the way up to the hospital wing, and his brain wasn’t functioning well enough to be remotely cool enough to speak with her. After Mme. Pomfrey checked him out, she made him drink a potion that felt like every nerve in his body cooled to ice. It fixed him right up, and she pronounced him fit to return to class. All he felt now was a sensation similar to that when you inhale too much water up your nose.
Now James had no knowledge of this, but the overconsumption of Pepper Up potions, specifically of fire seeds(one of the main ingredients), led to an extremely red and shiny complexion, as if the drinker had been burned. James effectively looked like a tomato with a toupee right about now, and had all morning.
Halfway down the staircase to the dungeons, Lily broke the deafening silence.
“You know, if I’d known it was that, I wouldn’t have given it to him.”
He looked at her for the first time. Her face was bright red.
Ordinarily, Lily wouldn’t have given him the time of day, but she felt a little bit of sympathy for him. Plus, he wasn’t all bad. She’d begrudgingly admitted to herself that he was a pretty fantastic potions partner, with his out of the box thinking and complete willingness to admit when he was wrong or didn’t know what he was doing (only in potions was this true. He was still a bloody mess when it came to everything else).
He was speechless for a moment. Just as they were turning the corner to the potions room, he stopped,
“So?”
She turned around and crossed her arms,
“So what?”
He gave her a look like it was completely obvious, because to him she was being uncharacteristically thick.
“So, will you go out with me?”
She gave him a capital L Look up and down, then turned around and continued walking.
“Next time if you shrink your head instead of blowing it up, I’ll consider it.”
James grinned like a madman, victorious, and pumped a fist in the air.