Never Cursed

ℭ𝔶𝔠𝔞𝔰 ℜ𝔢𝔳𝔬𝔩𝔲𝔱𝔞

James Potter

The Greenhouse

When James entered the green house, his hair ruffled by the chill wind, he had already decided he wouldn't stay longer than a few minutes. Who could blame him? He had the choice between following Professor Caligo's teaching on plants and fertilisers or exploring a secret passage leading (maybe) to stolen bones. Why did I choose botanic in the first place anyway? He wondered, trying to remember his reasons.

The boy walked further into the glass building, looking for a free place. Among the greenness, he spotted a striking mass of red hair, alone at the left end of the class. James smiled brightly; Lily was the reason, and it seems like a good time to annoy her. Pushing the girl in her corner was his favourite hobby (quidditch aside) since he had met her. He couldn't get enough of the bothered look she cast him every single time he came to talk to her about his prank ideas. And he loved the pout she was pulling when she understood she wouldn't get rid of him that easily.

"This day's like Hell!" James complained as he sat heavily next to her.

Lily didn't move an inch, her eyes fiercely directed on her book.

"It never ends." James slowly closed her dusty and distracting grimoire. He would not let her ignore him.

The ginger girl raised her head, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear before looking at him. James revelled at the threat he saw in her mesmerising green eyes. He let his head drop on his fist and waited for Lily to speak, admiring the light effect on her freckled skin.

"Hell is just a muggle concept, James. You don't even know what you're talking about," she eventually said, folding her arms and leaning against the back of her chair. "That being said, I'm impressed to see you listened to Burbage in Muggle Study."

"You can't even imagine the number of ideas her courses gave us. It's absolutely astounding how wizards overlook muggles' intelligence," James commented. "We used their knowledge because wizards don't think muggles can outsmart them. That's why our pranks are so effective!"

James laughed heartily but Lily's glare cut him short. Sometimes he, too, forgot that his closest friends weren't pure bloods. Even though it didn't matter to him, sometimes, he found himself talking like the Twenty-Seventh. It seemed their legacy was always trailing after him like a shadow. The boy cleared his throat, casting an embarrassed look at the witch.

But Lily only sighed before bending forward, a conspirator air on her face.

"So, what was it you wanted to tell me?" She asked, looking him right in the eye.

James smiled although Lily's sparkling eyes threw him off balance. Staring at her reminded the chaser of a phrase he had heard once: "Eyes are the mirror of the soul". In hers, he could see all of her. Her every doubt and fears, the love she could give. He could see her passion. He could see her joy. Her eyes seemed to absorb every beams of light like prisms, taking the dark green of forests to the lighter green of jade passing by the colour of the purest emerald.

He was always so grateful to Lily for knowing him so well. It was true he could be read like an open book – for better or for worse. Still, Lily had always been able to see beyond. Like Sirius, or Remus, James had his own thoughts to hide. And Lily – well, she was one of the only people, with his mother, to see more of him.

"I have a plan," James confessed on the same tone as Lily. "I'm fed-up, so you're going to help me skip this class," he said casually as their professor, Moros Caligo, entered the greenhouse, greeting his students.

The botanic professor was a tall and muscled man with slick, black hair always tied in a ponytail – which suited his sharp features well. He had changed the vision James had of botanic. Mostly because of his voice. In a strange way, the deepness of it was like a black hole sucking in the attention if the students. There was no other way but to listen to Professor Caligo. It had transformed botanic in a more mysterious discipline and James liked mysteries.