You turned out to be more than I bargained for
And I can see that you want to get away
Forgive me if I had known
That I'd love to love you
-Hotel Paper, Michelle Branch
Deer to Me
Chapter Two
"Prongs, you know you're my best mate, but never, ever interrupt me on a date," Sirius gave him a menacing look as he piled eggs and ham onto his place.
"I was not aware that was a date, Padfoot," James crammed a giant piece of bacon into his mouth and chewed on it, eyebrow raised at Sirius. "I thought it was commonly known as a 'one night stand'."
"Well what does your definition of a date imply?"
"Well, you know. Going out somewhere first and then taking her back to my room," James shrugged.
"I'm broke, sorry," Sirius stuffed more egg into his mouth. "Not a shilling to the traitor until he switches to Slytherin." Just then, Remus and Peter joined them at the table and began filling their plates.
"So, James, I know that you've already made up your mind, but are you going to take my advice?" Remus asked.
"No," James said. "You're wrong. Lily won't be hurt. She'll never find out. How could she?"
"Let me count the ways," Remus muttered. "What if she does? What then?"
"What're you talking about?" Sirius asked.
"Remus here is opposed to my method of learning a little bit more about Lily," James explained. Sirius nodded and then looked back at James.
"What method?"
"What I told you about last night," James told him. "You know, using Prongs."
"Ah. And why are you opposed to this method, Moony?"
"How would you like someone coming up to you and learning all of your deepest secrets?" Remus asked.
Sirius shrugged. "I wouldn't care. I don't have anything to hide. Besides, it's her fault for opening her mouth in the first place."
"But she thinks that he's a harmless animal." Remus was getting exasperated. "That's not fair."
"Can I help it if Prongs looks so trusting?" A halo popped above James's head.
"Just don't come crying to me when you've hurt Lily and she refuses to ever look at you ever again," Remus shrugged.
"Look, Moony. I'll make you a deal, ok?" James didn't like to see Remus pout, he wouldn't be around for moral advise later on. Seeing Remus, giving him a mildly interested look, he continued. "If Lily comes out on the short end of the stick, I'll publicly humiliate myself."
"How is that going to make her feel better?" Remus asked.
"...." James looked to Sirius and he shrugged.
Classes dragged on unusually slow, because James was very excited about tonight. He was going to return and hope that Lily would as well. He was pretty sure she'd be there because she often disappeared during the afternoons and evenings; he'd always thought that she was in the library.
After Charms, James quickly crossed the castle to get to the entrance and walked out of it. He looked around to see if anyone was watching him (pausing to wink at some girls) and then made his way across the grounds.
"Where do you think you're going, Potter?" James stopped and rolled his eyes, turning to see Serverus Snape come out from behind the beech tree by the lake.
"None of your business, Snivelly," James spat back.
"Not going to the Forbidden Forest, are we?" Snape sneered. "After Filch has been so kind to remind you time and time again-"
"How about I give you a new nose, Snivellus," James growled, pulling out his wand. "So you can keep it out of my damn business."
"Watch yourself Potter," Snape grinned. "I am a prefect."
"Simply because you're the only obsequious bastard among that whole lot." James was up in his face now. "You're just trash."
"James!" He heard a voice behind him, which was unfortunate (or fortunate for Snape) because James was about to blow his head off.
The voice was much more timid now. "Um, Captain? It's time for practice."
James inwardly cursed. He'd forgotten all about the Quidditch practice he'd scheduled for this afternoon. He backed away from Snape and put his wand away.
"I'm watching you, Potter."
"Get a life, Snivellus." James ran to join his terrified Chaser and go to the pitch. He looked over to the Forbidden Forest and wondered if Lily was sitting down to do some homework. But his thoughts soon turned to Quidditch once he set foot inside the locker room. He had a large grin on his face and counted off his teammates.
To say James was a bit obsessive was being nice. When it was Quidditch time, he was a maniac, rain, sleet, snow, shine, he had his team out on the pitch working like dogs so that every play was flawless, every pass was perfectly timed, every everything was absolutely precise.
James had never once, in his entire two years of captaincy, let his team off early, in fact, they usually had to walk off the field to get him to stop.
However, five minutes into practice, something caught his eye. He turned to see a little red head running towards the forest. His stomach gave a funny leap and he zoomed towards his other teammates with a very big smile on his face.
"Practice is over!" he cried, catching them all by such surprise that one of the Chasers fell off his broom.
"What?!"
"Is he a Slytherin under Polyjuice Potion?"
"No, no, guys," James said. "You...uh...you look great! And I thought it'd be a nice..."what holiday was coming up? He wondered "...Halloween present to let you off early."
His team was staring at him as if he had three heads.
"But we have a match against Slytherin this weekend!"
"And we're just going to flatten them aren't we?" He gave a nervous laugh and shooed them off the pitch. He was etchy to get to the Forbidden Forest and see Lily and found that they were going very slow and incredulously.
"Come on, come on!" James cooed, practically shoving them into the locker room once they were all on the ground.
"But Captain, did you not see Melany drop the Quaffle-"
"No, no. Honest mistake," James patted her on the back. Melany's jaw dropped. She was easily the clumsiest on the team and being around James increased her clumsiness because he was prone to giving her a hard time about it. Hard time meaning yelling and jumping up and down and cursing.
"Now, I'm off!" James got out of his robes quicker than any of them and haphazardly threw his broom inside his locker. The team was now sure that James was crazy because he usually spent the most time out of all of them neatly hanging up his Quidditch robes and using his broom servicing kit to snip any stray twigs off of it and waxing it until it shone brilliantly.
James zoomed across the grounds and ran into the Forbidden Forest, changing into Prongs as soon as he was out of sight of the pitch. He ran through the thick underbrush and breathed a sigh of relief when Lily was exactly where she had been before.
She looked up and smiled at him.
"It's you again."
Did you think I wouldn't come back? He padded over to her and stuck his head within arms' reach of her.
She laughed and petted him.
"You are so demanding. Next thing I know you'll be asking me to wax your antlers," she smiled. James felt warmth in his heart; she was in a good mood.
"I've got to finish my Charms homework." She pushed him away slightly. James would have grinned. It was common knowledge that Lily was the best in their class at Charms and was happiest when she was there.
She turned her head to the bright lights of the Quidditch pitch where he could see the light still on and some people zooming around. James snuffed as he replayed his actions with the team in his mind. He wasn't surprised to see that his team was back practicing and he was sure he was going to get some questions tomorrow.
"I take it you don't like Quidditch either." Lily cocked her head and wrote a few words down on her parchment. "Personally I think all sports are dumb."
James gawked at her. You are shitting me.
"People chasing a ball around and getting hit with other harder balls until some guy finds a ball the size of a peanut."
James was still stuck on her first statement of 'sports are dumb.'
"What?" Lily could see the utter shock on his face. It surprised her, but maybe this animal was actually comprehending her. What the hell, it was a magical forest; anything was possible. She went back to her Charms homework and saw that James was staring at her still. She laughed and shook her head.
"This is not going to work!" James burst into the room. Sirius' curtains were drawn again. "Padfoot, you in there with a girl?"
There was a sigh from inside. "No, Padfoot. I'm in here by myself for the first time since fourth year."
"Oh good," James nodded and went to move the curtain. Sirius let out a strangled cry.
"I was kidding, you blighter! What the hell do you want?"
"Padfoot, it's not going to work. She hates sports."
"I'm going to give you three seconds to get away from my bed before I come out there and Avada Kedavra you."
"But-"
"One."
"Padfoot-"
"Two."
"Fine," James sulked away towards his own bed and laid down in it. He was mulling over his latest discovery. She hated sports; she hated sports. How could anyone hate sports? They were so exciting! They had danger! They had hot girls!
James suddenly had a thought. What if she didn't understand sports? He'd seen her once or twice at a Quidditch game, but she looked as if she was dragged there. He nodded to himself, deciding what his next plan of action would be and walked back over to Sirius.
"Padfoot, I'm going to-"
"PRONGS! I'm in the MIDDLE OF SOMETHING!"
"Geez, sorry," James threw a smirk back to Sirius' bed. All four of the boys put silencing charms around their beds during their 5th year because Remus was complaining that he couldn't sleep between Peter's snoring and Sirius's nightly guests.
"Good morning, Lily!" James said, chipperly, plopping down next to Lily who was reading the newspaper.
"Yes, Potter? How may I help you?"
"You can date me for one-"
"Not likely," Lily snapped back without lifting her eyes. She realized right after she'd spoken that she had set herself up, but it was a usual banter they shared.
"And for another, you can tell me whether or not you're coming to my game this weekend." James prided himself in his deviousness. He had spent half the night mulling on how he was going to explain Quidditch to her without letting his secret out and when he realized they had a game against Slytherin that weekend, he could just 'bring up the subject.'
"No, Potter I am not."
"And may I ask why you are not coming to support our house?" James face was of mock upsetness.
"I support our house just fine." Lily turned the page and took a sip of her tea. "I'm the one gaining our house points back after you and Black loose them all the time, aren't I?"
"Er...yes, but I would play so much better if you were there." James turned on his charming smile.
"I'm sure you'll find the snatch or whatever it's called just fine without me."
James bit his lip to keep from crying. Snatch?
"Snitch, Lily," he chocked out. "Snitch."
"Whatever," she turned to the sports section and kept turning. James made a noise.
"Lily, do you not know what Quidditch is about?
"Yes, people go get a ball and try to put it through a hoop." Lily pulled the Prophet closer to her and made a noise, shaking her head.
"Lily, you have no idea," James shook his head and ran his hands through his hair in aggravation. Lily gave him a glare that went unnoticed by him. She despised it when he ruffled his hair.
"Pardon me if I am not a sports fan, Potter."
"But..," he made a few whining sounds. "Lily...you..."
"Get over it Potter," Lily rolled her eyes. "I'm not coming to your game."
"Not even for me?" James asked, batting his eyes at her.
"Especially not for you," Lily shook her head.
Even though she had given him such a blatant response, James had his hopes up when he mounted his broom that Saturday. He spent a few minutes circling the Gryffindor side (and when he didn't see her there, he swooped around the Slytherin side). He was so dejected that she wasn't there that Slytherin caught the Snitch and won by ten.
"I think she's working for the Slytherins," Sirius called to him. He was trying to drown himself in their showers.
"Don't worry about it Prongs," Remus placated. "Maybe it just isn't meant to be."
"You also know what they say, Prongs," Sirius opened up a chocolate frog. "Opposites attract."
"Like you care," James pouted, soaking wet and coming out from the shower.
"Don't be a pussy Prongs," Sirius barked. "I was with a girl and you just barge in asking my advice."
James sighed. "I can't believe she didn't come..."
"I've got an idea," Remus said, thoughtfully. "How about instead of asking her to do what you want to do, you do what she likes to do."
"But...what if I don't want to do what she wants to do," James asked.
Sirius and Remus sighed. "Then you're destined to be alone for the rest of your life, mate," Sirius shook his head.