Lionheart (HP universe FF) / (Marauders era)

Chapter 11. Crush

James' eyes stared at the parchment right in front of him. His eyes read through the whole page, until he finished it, and with that, his eyebrows furrowed into a complete confusion. Finally his eyes rose up from the parchment and he looked at me.

"How in the Merlin's name am I supposed to know the answer to this?" he asked, making me groan desperately and fall backwards on my bed. I closed my eyes and let out a deep breath.

"We learned that on our second year James...that's how," I reminded.

"Your face turned all pale," Lily sighed, and I watched as she stroked his arm a little, not even noticing what that was doing to the poor boy, who was so badly trying not to make his blushing so obvious to the girl. I grinned and stood to sit up again.

James was sitting by the office table, Lily on his side. The summer was nearing its end and it wouldn't be for long, until we would return back to Hogwarts for our fifth year. And with out fifth year also came the O.W.L.'s exam. I had started studying early with Remus and Lily, but the rest of the Marauders weren't so keen on spending the whole summer by the books. But now that summer was almost done, they started to realise the seriousness of the situation. All three of us had been trying to help James, Sirius and Peter the best we could...but this is how it turns out.

"It's hopeless...I will never pass and then I'll get expelled!" James whined and buried his head into his hands.

I just grinned as Lily tried to be as sympathetic as possible. My feet met the floor as I moved over to the office table. "Don't worry James, your mind is elsewhere right now. I'm sure that when we are in the exam hall, you'll perform just fine," Lily assured.

"And if you don't, at least your parents are so rich that you won't ever have to work in your life if you don't want to," I chuckled, making him look at me annoyed, until his face softened, and he smiled at me. "They are your parents too."

My heart warmed up and I couldn't help but smile at him. "Yes, but at least I will get a profession."

He groaned again and buried his face into his hands again. Lily glared at me, making me laugh at her expression. "Don't worry James, I'm sure you'll do just fine. Believing in yourself is the main key. If you truly want something, you will get it."

And there I stood, witnessing the scene that was happening just in front of me. James' head lifted up and his eyes travelled to Lily's bright green ones. They just stared at each other, but in a way that I couldn't quite explain with words. It was like there was nothing else around them, it was just the two of them. It was as if they belonged together...those stares. It was the same way Sirius had looked at me and I him, when we were at the Platform just before summer.

"Well...I guess you'll have to stay over now, it's getting quite dark," James suddenly said, coming back to the reality with Lily. Her eyes wondered to the room windows and she saw that he was right.

"Oh I don't know...I would like to stay but my parents wouldn't know and then-"

"Don't worry Lily, you can use the phone downstairs," I smiled at her.

Her eyebrows rose up in confusion. "You have a phone?"

I nodded my head and smiled at her. "Well Fleamont thought it would be for the best, to have a phone, now that we would have muggle-born friends over," I explained.

She was quite taken aback with this, but soon her face started to beam with genuine happiness. "Alright, I will inform them...are others coming?"

"They all are!" James said excited and stood up from the chair and took the practice Snitch from his office table and smirked at me. "We'll have a Quidditch practise and then I was thinking about playing hide and seek," he explained.