@keepingupwithpotters I deleted your prompt “James and burgundy and frustration” by accident!! thanks for this lovely prompt! I’m using this prompt as a part two to the Lily & bittersweet & green prompt from a few days ago here..
Hope you enjoy this silly fluff…
James hunched his shoulders against the wind and nose-dived towards the stands. He was flying above the Quidditch field, and to say he was in a bad mood would have been an understatement. Ever since he had seen Lily and Sirius dancing at the after- Quidditch match party in the Gryffindor Common Room, he had been in a sulk. It was stupid. He needed to get over himself. He had so readily convinced himself that he was over Lily Evans, that they were destined to be just friends. This was his conclusion after spending so much time with her in sixth year hanging around together. It hadn’t been so difficult, not when he was spending all his free time with her (THEY MAY AS WELL HAVE BEEN DATING, YOU UTTER KNOB, HOW DID YOU NOT SEE THAT??!!). He needed to put that idea behind him, he had reasoned, like a fool, at the start of Seventh Year, when they had both been made Heads. Date another girl, he had thought, was the best thing he could do (what a complete, blithering idiot!).
And he thought he had made a good decision, right up until he watched his stupid best friend Sirius Black flirting with his… well, whatever she was to him, and just… argh! Fuck! It made him feel… he couldn’t even express how it made him feel! It felt so wrong! And he needed to get over himself. He couldn’t very well claim he had a soul- threatening illness that required him to remove himself from present company and continue his studies in Potter Manor. I mean, technically, he could have used his mirror, and gotten his stupid best friend to hold his matching mirror up in class and allow him participate remotely? and maybe get Moony to bring the mirror on patrols… oh fine, look, he’d have to learn how to cope and stop being a dramatic little shit about it all. But. Well, it was Evans. And too late, he had come to the blinding realisation that he was truly, madly, deeply in love with her. Fuck! He had never felt such anger and frustration and-
Sirius Black was strutting towards him, onto the Quidditch pitch, wearing an unfeasibly tight Quidditch uniform which he seemed to have borrowed from a first year, a languid, confident stride, looking like a complete poser and-
“The fuck is this?” he said, waving his arm in front of him in a heated manner.
Sirius regarded him blankly.
“This?” he said, pointing both hands at himself with a self- satisfied smirk, as though he was on the front cover of bloody Witch Weekly.
“Yes, this, you arse!” he said, shoving his glasses up his nose in frustration.
“Just making an effort, darling,” Sirius said smoothly, tossing his silky black hair off his face. “You should try it some time.”
“What did you do to your hair?”
“Nothing,” said Sirius, sounding confused as he confidently flicked his long hair off his face.
“But the… it’s raining and your…” said James, waving his hand up and down and pointing at the immaculately dry hair.
“I’ve no idea what you’re trying to say, Prongs,” Sirius said, patting his shoulder condescendingly. “Shall we? The next match is on Thursday and we can’t afford to start slacking off now!”
He looked so pleased with himself, so jittery and giddy and happy. James sighed. He was being an arse. Merlin knows he’d behaved like a much bigger prat in fifth year, trying to speak in a deep voice whenever Lily was around and generally acting like a pathetic wanker until he copped himself on.
“Look, I, um, I’m really happy for you both, you and Evans. You actually, er, you make a good couple, you look great together,” he forced himself to say.
Sirius’ smile grew exponentially.
“Awwww Prongs, you’re something else!” he beamed, kicking his foot off the ground as he flew into the air at top speed.
James rolled his eyes. What a show-off! Would his mother agree to let him go home and drown his sorrows in Extreme Mothering, or would she tell him to grow up and let that poor girl be happy? She would, yeah. Damn. Maybe he could nick a bottle of Firewhisky later and hide under the Invisibility Cloak like a sad weirdo?
With another deep sigh he shot into the air, gripping his broom, trying to focus on the training. He adored Quidditch. He just needed to forget about the current awful situation and just -
Oh fuck! Lily bloody Evans was sitting in the stands watching them. Well, likely watching Sirius, obviously. He hadn’t asked his best mate if they were officially going out or just… Merlin, fuck! What a nightmare! He tried his best to focus, but his attention kept veering off towards her, a blurry burgundy figure. He kept nearly dropping the quaffle a dozen times and ended up getting a blow to his shoulder when he was too busy stealing a glance at her instead of avoiding Padfoot’s sneaky shot.
“Focus, Prongs, you fool!” Sirius shouted, rolling his eyes and smirking at him.
He made a rude hand gesture and rubbed his throbbing shoulder. He was feeling extremely irritable. Because of all this. And because his bloody Quidditch uniform seemed to have shrunk in the wash, it was literally stuck to him, he had thought it was perfectly fine earlier on in the dorm. Now it felt like his shoulders were about to burst through the seam, and as for the trousers? He’d be lucky if they were still in one piece by the end of it. And for some stupid reason, his chest felt incredibly itchy now, he was dying to rip his top off and just -
“Come on, Prongs, let’s pack it in for the day, you’re worse than useless today,” his friend said, shoving him playfully and nearly causing him to fall of his broom. The idiot.
They flew down towards the stands at top speed, fuck Padfoot, he was a faster flyer and Evans needed to know that. He staggered sideways, just managing to stop himself from falling when he landed, right in front of Lily. He suddenly noticed he was feeling far too cold. His quidditch gear was saturated and clung to him, his hair dripping wet and falling over his eyes, his goggles useless. He tore them off.
And the itchiness had intensified to an alarming level. Maybe it was a hex? He couldn’t stand it any more. He pulled his top over his head and sighed with relief, as the itchiness disappeared immediately. Rain continued pelting down on top of him, and he closed his eyes momentarily, enjoying the relief.
“Planning on strutting off the field like that, are you, Captain?” said Sirius, folding his arms and looking at James with an irritated expression.
“What?” he barked back, dragging a hand through his sopping hair and frowning.
“Prancing around like a daft berk, any excuse to get topless!” Sirius snorted, looking at James and shaking his head.
“Oi! That’s not true, you dolt! Someone hexed me and I was-“
“Yeah, right,” said Sirius with a sarcastic eye roll. “Hexed my arse! You just want to impress Evans because-“
“I’m not fucking trying to impress Evans! I’m literally trying to bloody well avoid her, so that I won’t- so that you can both- so that I won’t be in the way of-“
“In the way of what?” Sirius said, looking like he was trying not to laugh.
The storm had picked up, large raindrops pelting him, sideways rain.
“I’m trying to just let you and Evans get on with it! Snog! Get together! Whatever the fuck you want to call it!” he shouted, crossing his arms in front of his chest defensively.
“Why would you care what Evans is up to? Don’t you have a girlfriend?”
“I, eh, no… as it happens Olivia broke it off with me yesterday after the party,” he said, feeling his cheeks burning. “She said that she’s been keen on Gordon Darlington for ages, and she…”
He couldn’t exactly tell Sirius that her exact words had been something to the effect of “I knew you still had the hots for Lily Evans even if you’re too clueless to realise it, I only agreed to date you in the hope that Gordy would get jealous when he saw me with the Gryffindor Quidditch God and Head Boy, and it worked!”
“Whatever, still doesn’t explain why you charmed your quidditch gear two sizes too small, why-“
“I DID NO SUCH THING!” he roared. “YOU’RE THE ONE WHO-“
“Admit it, Prongs, you’re mad about Lily and you want to date her yourself!” Sirius bellowed back.
“Alright! I am mad about the girl! Happy now? I’m utterly stark raving mad about her! But I’m not going to stand in your way! If you two are happy together I’m going to have to deal with it and grow up, and I don’t intend on being a prick, so fuck off, I’m doing my-“
“Oh thank Merlin! I thought we’d be here all night!” Sirius groaned, a smile spreading across his face. “I hope you heard that loud and clear, Evans?”
James turned around and found himself face to face with Lily Evans, staring at him open-mouthed.
“What?” he said, voice sounding a bit hoarse from the excessive emotion. “I… fuck, I’m sorry, Evans, I swear to you I…”
He tailed off looking agitatedly at her. She was wet, her robes sticking to her, her hair dripping onto her face, eyelashes catching drops of rain.
“You like me?” she said, moving closer to him, hand resting on his biceps.
He nodded, embarrassed and angry with himself for-
“I like you too, Potter,” she said, emerald eyes glittering, lips parted.
“Huh?” he said, eloquently. “But like, Sirius?”
She laughed, loud and clear and happy, delighted in fact.
“I love Sirius, as a brother,” she said, grinning up at time.
“Fjskljfhks?” he tried to speak, unsuccessfully.
“I’m mad about you, smitten in fact. I’ve half a mind to kiss Olivia Mc Carthy before punching her in the face for using you.”
Lily Evans had just said that. Staring up at him, both her freezing cold hands resting on his naked shoulders. He suddenly felt unfeasibly hot, hot and euphoric.
But Sirius, poor guy, he must be-
He watched as Sirius walked off with a massive grin, his quidditch gear still looked weirdly tight.
“You can thank me later, Prongs,” he said, silver eyes dancing. “Oh, and Evans, if you need a wingman again, you know where to find me. The things I do for you two…”
What the- but that meant that-
“Evans, I-“ he said, placing a hand on either side of her face, awestruck, and pulling her closer.
“Shut up and kiss me,” she smiled back, standing on her tiptoes.
Their lips crashed together and above them lightening flashed…
Sirius: Success! Merlin, help me get out of this damned quidditch gear, I charmed it to fit too tightly and I can’t undo it now…
Sirius: Peals off quidditch top
Sirius (with a smug grin): Give me a hand, would you?
