I Fancy You: James Sirius Potter

29. Winter

Halloween has come and gone, the rumors about me came to a halt once Alli threatened violence against anyone spreading them. Dylan either never heard about it or pretended not to. Gryffindor won against Hufflepuff in the first game of the season. It's now Wednesday, the day I have to help Daniel. I've been keeping our interactions in potions to a minimum but now I actually have to talk to him since his parents have been paying me for tutoring him. I have James walk me to the library and feel relief when I don't see Daniel waiting for me. Hopefully he won't show up at all. Alli couldn't accompany us this time because she has a lot of homework to catch up on and a detention for actually hitting some boy for saying something dirty about me.
"You'll be okay?" James asks with my face cupped in his hand.
"Yeah I'll be fine. Save me some dessert," I tell him before kissing him goodbye. When I walk into the library I don't see Daniel so I take a seat at a table near the back. I get to studying my own courses before Daniel finally arrives.
"Hi," he says meekly.
"Take a seat I wanna get through this quickly," I tell him. He sits down and gets right to work, taking in every word I'm saying. "You're very focused tonight."
"I just want to get out of here. I'm tired and I have quidditch practice early tomorrow," he says with a gruff voice.
"Okay, well we can cut it short tonight. You pretty much know this lesson like the back of your hand by now. You can go," I say looking back down at my homework. When he doesn't move I look back up at him. "What?"
"You know Olivia almost got suspended all because you came up and attacked her and she just defended herself?" He folds his arms.
"I'm sorry what? Maybe if she kept her nose out of my business she wouldn't have gotten attacked by me. It all comes back to you though doesn't it? You're the one who told her about me and James didn't you?"
"Oh please Ellie, don't be stupid. It doesn't take a genius to figure it out. You're a couple coming in late to dinner with two very pleased smiles on your faces. She did the math on her own."
"Okay great thanks for pointing out how stupid I am. If I'm so stupid maybe I shouldn't be tutoring you. Tell your parents I'm done."
"Don't be so dramatic."
"Don't be a prick!"
We both sit there with our arms crossed glaring at each other. Neither of us says a word until his gaze softens and he takes a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have called you stupid, you're not at all. You know how I feel about you weather we admit it or not. Please don't quit on me, Ellie. I was just being a stupid jealous git."
I look into his eyes. He's so good at making me feel everything I don't want to feel. I shrug then nod. "Fine. Whatever. But we need to go completely back to no flirting at all ever and you need to accept that I'm with James."
He leans back in his chair, jaw clenched, arms crossed. His eyes scan the bookshelves before looking back to me. "Fine," he says finally.
On our way out of the library I can tell he wants to say something. "What are you holding back?"
"You know I want you to be happy right?" He looks down at me.
"I'm happy with James," I tell him which I can see in his eyes absolutely kills him.
"That's fine as long as you're truly happy. Goodnight, Ellie. I'll see you in class tomorrow." He gives a small wave before heading off to the Slytherin common room.

The next month goes by quickly. We have our British Thanksgiving again this year, we all prepare for OWLS, and Daniel behaves himself like a prince. James and I have managed to find some more alone time every now and then as well. As strange as it looks for my Gryffindor boys, we've all also been cheering on Slytherin during quidditch games to support Scorpius.
November comes and goes, December slowly approaching winter break. I sent an owl to my parents informing them that I plan to stay here over Christmas so that I can get extra help from the teachers who are also staying. The truth is that Daniel told me his family doesn't really care to have him home for the break because they don't celebrate Christmas anyway so I don't want him to feel so lonely.
Currently, all seven of us are held up in the library studying our individual subjects. Albus and Scorpius don't have OWLS to worry about but the do have end of term exams.
"Mind if I join? My friends aren't really taking this seriously so I need a study group," Daniel says coming up to our table.
"Sure, come on in," James says before I can say anything. Daniel sits across from me, next to James. "El, don't you have the astronomy notes?"
I hand over my notes to James without looking up from my Divination notes. Daniel taps part of my notes with his pen. "That's wrong. Here," he says taking them from me and correcting it. When he hands it back I look it over and realize it makes much more sense.
"Thanks! Guys, we found our Divination expert," I tell everyone and they immediately all hand their notes over to him for correcting. "Alli is our astronomy expert, Desmond is best at everything but divination, I'm potions, Conor does Herbology, and James is very handsome," I say with a smile.
"Hey!" James gives me a sad look.
"Oh love, okay you're pretty good at magical history," I say before giving Daniel a small shake of my head when James looks away.
Once everyone has their divination notes corrected, including the two younger boys, we can all finally focus better and actually get a lot of studying done. I've had enough so I stretch and start to pack up.
"You're off?" James asks.
"Yeah I need a rest from this. Anyone care to join me for a snack?"
"I'll come with you, I think I'll lose my eyesight if I keep at it," Daniel says.
The two of us get up and head over to the kitchen. "I didn't know you knew so much about Divination," I tell him on our way there.
"My sister has always been really into it, our family has a history of being gifted as well so I guess it just comes naturally."
When we get to the kitchen the house elves offer us a plate of fresh fruit and some kind of juice. We take our snack to the great hall where there's hardly anyone around.
"Olivia didn't want to study with you?" I ask when we sit.
"We broke up."
"Really? Why?" I look at him but he just shrugs. "Because of me?"
"Don't flatter yourself, Ellie."
"I meant because we fought! Not because of any interest in me."
"No it just wasn't fun anymore," he says disinterested.
"So you get bored of a girl then dump her?"
"Yep. So what? It wasn't serious." He shrugs then takes another fruit.
"Dating you must feel like walking on a tightrope," I say before throwing a piece of fruit at him.
"Wanna find out?"
"Daniel!" I throw another fruit at him while he laughs. "You've been behaving well, don't mess it up."
"I'll admit it's been really nice just hanging out stress free. James and I even just hang out solo sometimes. We've actually been practicing quidditch together with Conor and Scorpius every now and then," he tells me.
"Wow, James didn't tell me that. I wonder why."
"Don't know. But uh, could you scram? There's a girl I'm interested in heading over here," he says which makes my heart drop.
"Yeah. See you later." I get up, fully convinced I now know how he feels when he sees me with James.

Winter break is finally here, everyone excited to get home and have a break from school and OWLS. Dylan guilts me a bit before leaving for the train, but I promise him there's a nice present waiting at home under the tree from me. Once James kisses me goodbye, I head down to the Slytherin common room.
Daniel is there with the girl he's interested in. Now I wish more than anything I just went home. Daniel double takes when he sees me come in.
"What are you doing here? Hasn't the train left already?" He comes over to sit with me.
"Yeah well... I just thought maybe you'd want some company over the break but I see you've already found that," I say as nicely as possible.
"You seriously stayed here to keep me company?" I look up at him and his eyes are so soft, a sweet smile faintly painted on his lips.
"Yeah. I couldn't stand the idea of you being alone this whole break."
Daniel looks back at the girl who's already in conversation with another girl, then looks back to me. "Let's go to Hogsmeade," he says offering me his hand. I smile and take it, letting him lift me up.