I Fancy You: James Sirius Potter

3. First Day of Classes

My first class is potions with the fourth year Gryffindors. It's so dingy down here in the potions classroom. Quickly, I take a seat and tie up my hair so I can focus. We're supposed to be making a healing potion when suddenly I'm joined by someone at my table.
"Sorry I'm late, partner. Got in a bit of trouble earlier." James slides into the seat next to me. "What are we working on?"
"No way. You don't already have a partner?" I glare at him.
"Nope!" He gives me a silly smile. "What's this? Healing?"
"Yeah. Could you please crush some of that down for me?" I hand him some ingredients and nearly shiver when our hands touch. "What kind of trouble?" My curiosity gets the best of me.
He smirks and looks around. Bending down closer to my ear he whispers, "Promise you won't tell?" When I smile in response he gets even closer. "I might have flooded the third floor boys bathroom. Weasley products," he winks and puts the rest of the ingredients in the potion.
"So you're the trouble maker here then?" I ask as I stir the potion.
James shrugs, smiling innocently. "Trouble finds me really."
"Oh you're so typical." I shake my head as he chuckles.

After potions, James and I walk together to our next class and chat the whole way there. We talk about his relationship with his siblings, how crazy his family gatherings can get on his mom's side, and his friends. He makes me laugh a lot. I really wish I could just hate him but he's making it impossible.
"We've spent this whole time talking about me and I'm not even that interesting," James says shaking his head. "Tell me about you! Why are you here at Hogwarts?"
"I guess I'm the James of my family. I've been getting into trouble lately and this last time I took it too far so..." I trail off, not really wanting to talk about it anymore. It makes my heart hurt thinking about how I had to leave Dylan and Amelia.
James seems to catch on so when we take our seats for our next class he drops the subject and fills me in on defense against the dark arts. By the time we're out of our second class, I figure I've had James all wrong. He does love Albus but he's a big brother who loves mischief so he's not always the nicest to him. I begged him to ease up on Albus a bit. By the time lunch rolls around, James and I have become a big talking point around Hogwarts.
"So I guess we won't be sitting together?" I jester around at the tables. Everyone seems to sit with their houses.
"You should just join us. Who cares?" James shrugs.
"What about them?" I point over to Albus and Scorpius. It looks like they saved a seat for me. "Can they join?" I look up at James and realize just how tall he is.
"Uhhhh..." he trails off with an unsure face. "Yeah I don't think so," he finally says.
"Well then no thanks!" I tap his arm and leave him looking disappointed. "Hey guys!" I sit next to Albus and across from Scorpius.
"Hey!" They both greet me with sweet happy faces. My heart swells thinking of Dylan.
"How's your first day been?" Scorpius asks me, taking a huge bite of a sandwich.
"It's been pretty good actually."
"Yeah we heard," Albus says smirking.
"What does that mean?" I raise one eyebrow at him. My big sister face.
"Well it's just we've heard you've gotten pretty friendly with James," Albus quietly tells me.
"Wow so teenagers everywhere are exactly the same." I roll my eyes and take a sip of pumpkin juice which is revolting. "We were just talking. His friends team up together in every class and everyone else already has table partners." I shrug and take a bite of food.
"Listen, there's a reason James has no partner. He always leaves his table open for a girl. Last month it was Veronica Toddle. The month before that was a different girl," Albus paints a very clear picture. "And he also always gets in trouble so he's in and out class."
I sit in silence for a minute and look over at the Gryffindor table where James is palling around with his friends. How stupid was I to think he wasn't going to be like Ryan? They're all the same. I take one last bite of food and excuse myself to the library.

Halfway into studying, I feel a tap on my shoulder. Looking up I see James and his two friends. "Hi!" James smiles.
"Hello," I say unemotionally.
"This is Conor and this is Desmond," James introduces his friends. Desmond is an incredibly handsome guy with his dark skin and amazing cheekbones and Conor is the most adorable Irish kid I've ever seen. Without asking, they all take a seat at my table. "We're all going to skip divination to visit Hargrid, he's the gamekeeper here. Wanna come?" He looks so hopeful. Boyish.
"I'm not skipping class, James. Thanks for the invite though. Have fun." I look back down at my books but none of them leave. I look back up at him and raise my eyebrow.
"Look, divination is a ridiculous subject anyway," Conor pipes in.
"Total waste of time," Desmond shrugs.
"I find it interesting," I say watching their faces drop. "It was nice meeting you boys but I really need to catch up on all of this material. Ilvermorny was a bit different than Hogwarts so I have to focus." I know it's not true. I could recite this crap in my sleep.
"Ellie, you have a lot of time to study," James says signaling the guys it's time to go. "Don't forget to have some fun too." He winks at me on his way out. Stupid blue eyes.

  Now that my first day of classes is done, Scorpius and Albus take me around the castle to show me all of their favorite spots. They talk so excitedly about their memories.
"Does Ilvermorny have quidditch teams?" Albus looks up at me.
"Yeah! My friend Ryan is actually a really good keeper. Are you guys on the Slytherin team?"
"No, but James is on the Gryffindor team. I never really got the hang of quidditch." Albus shrugs.
"Me either. Our dads both played though," Scorpius chimes in. He's so quiet and polite.
"Hey, kid." James suddenly comes up from behind us and ruffles Albus's hair. "Showing your new girlfriend around?" When he says this I notice Scorpius look down at his feet.
"She's not my girlfriend!" Albus glares at James. "And by the way Ellie told me you skipped class today. You'll be lucky if I don't tell mum," he smirks at his older brother who shoots me a glare.
Shrugging, I start to tease James as well, "Guess you should've listened to me."
James rolls his eyes and his friends smirk at me. "Anyway, Ellie, I was wondering if you'd like to come up to the astronomy tower with us tonight?"
I look over at Scorpius and Albus to see if they'd mind if I left them early and the both smiled at me. "Sure why not? Gonna push me off for telling on you?"
James laughs the most boyish laugh with his head back and then lightly punches my shoulder. "I promise not to get back at you in a deadly way!" I feel myself staring at him and break my gaze. "We'll meet you outside of the Slytherin common room in an hour. Wear something warm!" He calls as the three of them trot off.
"Well don't you look pleased with yourself," Albus teases me. I roll my eyes with a big smile on my face and we head down to the Slytherin common room so I can change out of my robes.