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Disclaimer: I don't own anything, and neither does anyone else on this bloody site. We all just find it amusing to make up stories about the fascinating characters JKR and others have created for our pleasure. Have a good day.
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Only Slightly Nauseating
By: Eternal Love LJ
Chapter: 3
Title: Care of Magical Creatures
POV: James
Word Count: 2160
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The walk to the Heads' common room was stretched by silence. Lily walked awkwardly behind me as I lead the way. I kept thinking of what Peter told me and I tried not to get too mad at Lily for what she said to me before we met up with Dumbledore.
'She might not like you right now, but you're a pretty cool guy. I've known you since first year and I think that you and Lily would work out of you two hooked up.'
'Yeah, but you're not my first choice of company.'
It looked like Lily had realized what she said after she said it. Maybe I was just overreacting. I mean, it's not like Lily's usually nice to me or anything. I should be used to this by now. Yeah, this is just stupid. I should turn around and apologize to her for freaking out and making her feel so bad. I should-
Wait, Prongs, what are you doing? Lily was the rude one, not you. She's the one who told you to screw off. She's the one who's done the mortal wounding here! She's the one who owes me an apology.
But . . . she did try to give me one . . . one of the first times she's been half nice to me in a while. But her niceness shouldn't be counted in this situation-
"Potter, are we almost there?" Evans asked, stopping short. "I'm really tired and we've been walking forever."
I looked around and realized that we had passed the common room about three minutes ago. Sensing that Lily didn't want to hear I had done anything wrong again, I just pushed past her and began walking in the other direction again.
"Oh, so we just walked passed it?" Lily asked. "Stay on Earth, Potter! You can't start losing it now."
"I'm not losing it," I grumbled. "I was just thinking."
"About what?" Lily asked. "Are you planning another prank with your juvenile friends?"
I rolled my eyes and replied, "No, I was thinking about maybe apologizing to you for . . . I can't even remember anymore. It doesn't matter what I was thinking about, Evans, because what I do doesn't have anything to do with you."
Lily snorted and said, "Yes it does! Especially this year. And, maybe you never noticed, but you basically stalked me, so what you did usually did effect me, because it usually was about me."
"Don't flatter yourself," I said. "You don't know what you're talking about. And you say that I'm the conceited one."
"I've never called you conceited," Lily replied.
"Right . . . that was Sirius. But the point of the matter is is that . . . we've reached the Heads' common room."
I stopped in front of a portrait of a very old man. He resembled Dumbledore a little. His white beard wasn't quite as long and his nose wasn't all that crooked, but his spectacles were half-moons and he looked wary yet surprisingly up beat at the same time. He gave us a warm smile as we reached him.
"Password?" he asked politely.
"Fibble-Jinx," I said.
He let himself swing on his hinges and opened the passage to a magnificent room. The candles were placed in just the right places, creating just enough light to read, but not enough to keep you up if you decided to take a nap. The rugs were a rich tan color and the walls were full of portraits and little decorations. There was plenty of room for both Lily and I to do our homework and just chill out. I noticed that there were three doors, two leading to each of our dorms and one leading to a bathroom. The sofas and armchairs were placed neatly in front of the roaring fire.
To sum it all up, it was absolutely worth being Head Boy just to be able to use this room.
"Wow," Lily said, tracing her fingers over one of the portraits. "This is wonderful."
"It really is," I agreed, taking my robes off and throwing them on the sofa. I quickly took my shoes off and ran onto the couch directly in front of the fire.
"Ahh," I said, leaning my head back and relaxing for the first time all day. The warm air tickled my feet, warming up my whole body.
I opened my eyes and peaked up at Lily. She was looking at my shoes in disgust. "Um, Potter, in the future, could you please keep your hideous shoes away from me? I don't like them . . . or feet all that much."
She stepped over them and sat down in one of the armchairs. We sat in silence for a moment or two before Lily said, "Potter, we should talk about this year a bit. I have to deal with you a lot more than I would like to and-"
"Oh, don't get started with that crap," I said, sitting up. "I'm not in the mood for a lecture about how I'm a stupid idiot with no potential. You heard Dumbledore back there. He has a lot of confidence in me, and he wouldn't have made me head Boy if he didn't think I'd fit the description."
"Hah! Fit the description! Potter, you don't come within ten feet of the description of the 'model student' a Head is supposed to be."
I rubbed my eyes warily and replied, "This conversation is going no where, and I don't want to fight with you tonight, either. I think I'll just go-" I began to get up, but Lily stopped me.
"Well, maybe I'm sick of you being such a procrastinator! We're going to have to have this conversation, so sit down now!"
I eyed Lily wish caution and sat back down. "Don't bite my head off, sheesh."
She shook her head and said, "Well, if we don't tell each other exactly what we are expecting out of the other, than we will bite each other's heads off. And not just tonight, but all year long. I might dislike you, Potter, but it's a damper of my day whenever I fight with you, because I hate being argumentative. I hate confrontation and I hate it when people get on my bad side. You seem to do everything I hate everyday, all day. Maybe if we just talk about it, it can stop."
I sighed and covered my face with my hands. "Evans, if it were that simple, we would have been able to get along a long time ago. I wish I could say that I express the same want to have a little feeling expression time, but I just want to get to bed. Tonight might not be the best night."
"I just think that we can't be Heads together with the relationship we have now."
"Dammit, Evans! You're so bloody confusing! One second you'll do anything to get away from me and you're telling me you'd rather live in misery than live fully with me, and then the next second, you're telling me that we should sort out our differences and learn to get along! Well, guess what, princess, I'm not the one with a problem in our little 'relationship.' I'm the one who's been trying to do this for a good three years now and at least I actually mean it! You just want to succeed being a good Head Girl. Well, you want to know the truth about all of this responsibility that's been thrown at me this year? I think that I can do it. I can do it with or without you and I can blow everyone a mile away. I think that when this year is over, it'll be the best year that I've ever had at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, regardless of whether we got along or not. You've been a little speed bump in my life, Evans, but maybe I've finally gotten over it. Just loosen up, will you? Maybe if you just loosened up and went with the flow, you would see how everything around you is actually just how it needs to be. Open your goddamn eyes and let me go to bed. I will see you in the morning after I have had a very, very hot shower, and have enjoyed a series of dreams."
Lily was sitting there, looking at the ground, and a small frown on her lips. She didn't look up at me as I walked into my dorm and slammed the door.
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Surprisingly, I woke up in a very good mood. The sun was bright and the breeze was just right. Things were rhyming and I was humming.
My shower was indeed very hot and it was indeed very nice. There was no sign of Evans and for the first time in my life of knowing her, I was glad. I was glad that Evans was not there. I was so happy, I almost wanted to say it aloud.
Putting on my school robes, I walked out of the common room and headed for the Great Hall for some delicious breakfast. As I got closer and closer, the sound of happy, jolly students awaiting a year even more of happiness and jolliness got louder and louder.
I quickly found my Marauder buddies sitting in our usual spot at the Gryffindor table. Rushing over to them I rubbed Sirius's head before sitting next to him. "Howdy, comrades!"
They each gave me an odd look before returning to their breakfast of choice. I scooped out a bunch of hash browns and got a big glass of pumpkin juice.
"Full moon is tomorrow," Remus said. "At least it wasn't today, like it was last year."
Sirius instantly perked up. "Oh! Yeah, this will make my day! We have to plan what we should do. Where were you last night, Prongs? We could have planned it then if you were there."
"Heads' common room," I replied. "I don't have to stay there if you guys don't want me to, but I might actually want to use it this year. You know, to be away from all of the craziness and stuff."
"Yeah, well, we don't want you to use it tonight, okay? And we have to take full advantage of these little rendezvous now because this is our last year here. Oh, Merlin, we're getting old. And crippled. Oh, I can't get old! I'm too sexy to get old," Sirius said, touching his face.
McGonagall started walking up and down the Gryffindor table, giving the students their schedules. Once she stopped at us she sighed, "I can't believe that you guys have actually made it to your seventh years. Now, let's start with Mr. Black."
She turned to Sirius and Sirius said, "Minerva, you look quite dashing this morning. Maybe I could escort you to the Beauxbatons Ball?"
I laughed and McGonagall turned a light shade of red. "Stop being so childish, Mr. Black. Here is your schedule and I suppose you want to switch out of Care of Magical Creatures to make room for some of the more important subjects. Like Potions. Professor Slughorn would happily let you back in his class. He was actually wondering why you wanted to stop."
"It is not a matter of stopping and starting, if you will," Sirius said. "It is more of the matter that Potions is immensely difficult and I have better things to do than Potions. Like Care of Magical Creatures, for instance. Kettleburn and me are like brothers. He's the Marsh to my Mallow, and I would adore being in his class."
McGonagall rolled her eyes and said, "Just come see me when you want Potions back.
"Now, Mr. Lupin, what about you this year? Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Potions, Transfiguration . . . well, you seem to have your priorities in order. Do you wish to change that?"
"No thanks, Professor," Remus smiled as he took his schedule.
"And, Mr. Potter, I am surprised that you're not joining Mr. Black in Care of Magical Creatures."
"Backstabber," Sirius muttered.
"You have the sane schedule as Mr. Lupin. You okay with that?"
"Just fine, Professor," I smiled. "Thanks."
"Now, Peter Pettigrew. Um, Charms, Herbology, Astronomy, Ancient Runes, oh, and Care of Magical Creatures, of course. What about Transfiguration? I would let you in, Pettigrew, and that's a compliment. No Potions, no Defense, not a good choice, Peter."
"I know, Professor. But I don't think I can handle the other classes," Peter said, a blush creeping up his neck.
"I'm sure you can," she said, changing his schedule without confirming it was his wish. "Here you go."
Peter looked down at his schedule and saw that it matched Remus's and mine. "I'm going to die this year."
"If anyone's going to die, It'll be me," I said. "You're smart, you can do it, Wormtail."
"Do you still have Magical Creatures?" Sirius asked.
Peter shook his head and Sirius looked very sad. "Curse her."
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A/N: I hope you liked the fight. If you want to call it a fight. Don't worry, there will be screaming fights later on in the fic when Lily and James get sick of each other's constant company.
And just so I don't have to mention it in the next chapter, Lily and all of her friends (El, Juniper, and Emberlynn) all have the same schedule as James and Remus, and now Peter. None of them chose to take CoMC either :)
I want to start making the fic funnier and stuff. Now that my OCD has stopped taking over, I can calm down and just have some really funny stuff happen to them.
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