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“Oh, come off it — this one’s not even a real prank!”
“You’re messing about in a professor’s supply cabinet – it most certainly is! I’ll have Horace notified immediately.”
“HORACE?” James scream-laughed, cork popping from a fresh bottle. He’d spent the last thirty minutes swapping dried lacewings for freshly wriggling ones. Figured he’d get at least one shriek out during class… “Horace – is that what you call him?! Oh, Evans. Of all the blokes you could fancy in the castle, Horace? You’re breaking my heart…”
“Professor Horace Slughorn is a perfectly respectable instructor. Can’t imagine he’d consider you for banquet anyway, had you any decency…” Lily sniffed. She stomped into the potions cabinet behind him and made swift work of plucking James’s tampered bottles from the wall. “Honestly, don’t you ever consider the possibility of growing up?”
James feigned repulsion, a choking gasp that cracked through the dungeon. He stumbled back and clutched his chest, heart beating wildly. “Lily Evans, you scandalize me. A Marauder – grow up ? It’s like you don’t know me at all… What’s Horace got that I don’t, anyway?” He returned to his little bottle and wrestled glowing lacewings inside, corking it haphazardly before reaching over to snag a confiscated one back from Lily’s fingers. “Suppose bits of him are properly grown up, is that it?”
She stomped angrily, temper flaring as she spun on her heel to face him. Do it again, James thought, watching her ruby hair fan behind her. He returned her death glare with a lazy grin, stepping closer to slip both bottles on the shelf.
“Sev was right about you,” she said, cuttingly. The strategy always worked, she knew this was a full-proof way of shutting James up for at least a precious moment. They stood there, a stinging silence flashing between them, and James blinked confoundedly. A glowing lacewing escaped his pocket to flutter about, landing annoyingly on his nose to cause quite the unflattering flail.
“Yeah, and how’s that, Evans?” he finally challenged, bitterly. Eyes squinted down at her as he fought to assess her angle. “Admitted I’m quite the catch, then? Undeniable beyond all reproach?”
Lily smiled a cool little grin and refused to reveal any pleasurable retort. She turned back to the shelf again and quietly resumed her confiscations, bottles clinking merrily as she made swift work of remedying James’s impulsive attempt at mischief. “Well ?” James, pressed, arms crossed now as he leaned against the cabinet. “Yap himself silly over me at the Slug Club dinners, does he?”
“Course not,” Lily chimed. “Slug Club’s upon invitation only, reputations included.”
James scoffed, eyes rolling as he bit his tongue. “So he just mucks about the castle then, whispering my name in your ear around every corner?” A flash of mirth possessed him then, hoisting him up from the cabinet to stand behind her now. “James Potter,” he whispered playfully over her shoulder. “That handsome prat.”
“I know you fancy yourself quite the little celebrity,” Lily sighed, slamming the last rectified bottle back on the shelf, “but the truth is, you’re hardly relevant.” She turned now and looked dazzlingly up at him, flicking her wand to unleash the remainder of his pocketed lacewings.
At this, James figured now was as good as any to drop dead of a completely exploded heart. The potions cabinet glimmered momentarily with dancing lightening bugs that illuminated rows of colorful elixirs. Lily, bright enough to be potions master herself, stood more stunning than he’d ever been allowed to witness her. A pang struck his chest that caused him to clutch dyingly at his weeping heart, a gesture that elicited a rather tired response from Lily herself. She rolled her eyes and flicked her wand, capturing all the fluttering light into a large jar sat atop the counter. “Behave, if you could, Potter,” she said, before turning back into the classroom.
James almost saw her smile.