epic love - james potter

something new

"I dyed the neighbor's dog."

"Excuse me?"

"The neighbor's son is my ex. He's a cheater actually," Daisy corrected. "Most girls would pour glitter on his old hoodie or slash the tires of his car but I thought it was time for a switch-up. So I stole his dog and permanently dyed his fur a lime green."

"That explains why you are grounded for a few weeks," James said. "But how come I haven't seen you, ever? Lily's whole family drops her off when she goes back to Hogwarts and they pick her up. You're never there."

"Well, James, that is because I am what people call a problem child. I've gotten grounded left and right ever since I was 9. You'd think that parents would learn and just stop grounding me but they just never do give up," the dark-haired girl shrugged while tossing the baseball between her hands in the same way that James had a few seconds ago. "It's strange."

"Peculiar," the Hogwarts boy agreed.

"Can I ask you why you fancy my sister?"

James raised his eyebrows in surprise at the question. "How did you know? I haven't even said anything about her yet," he said.

"You don't need to know how I know because that's something for me to know and you to not," Daisy replied, confusing him even more. "I love Lily, well, not really. I prefer Petunia more, but who I love more is not important. I'm sure there are plenty of girls in your magical school and out of all of them, Lily's probably the most square-like one, isn't she?"

"Square-like?"

"Like a square. Y'know, a boring person who does nothing fun, doesn't go to parties, likes to study, that type of stuff," the dark-haired girl explained briefly. "That's how Lily acts at school, isn't it?"

"Yes," James answered slowly. "I'd hardly call that being a square though. She's just different."

"You're just defending her because you're completely and utterly in love with her. If we got the perspective of, let's say, the boy who's in love with Lily's friend- the blonde- then he would most definitely call her a square," Daisy summed up.

"Caroline's here? We're looking for her, how did you know?" the bespectacled boy asked. 

"Walls are thick but doors are thin," she replied vaguely. "There's a boy talking to her right now actually. You can hear it."

They both stayed silent for a good ten seconds before James decided to speak up again. "I can't hear anything."

"That's because you're not listening to the right conversations," Daisy huffed. Her companion looked at her with raised eyebrows and Daisy let out a dramatic sigh. "That's not important. What's important is that Lily is a square and you need to add some spice in her life. She is the most boring sister ever and I think you could make her not so square, if you know what I mean."

"I don't know what you mean."

"God, how did I end up with the short stick?" Daisy asked, falling back onto her bed. "Anyone could've unlocked that door and walked through and of all people, it had to be the rich boy." James didn't follow her lead and instead just looked down at her. "I suppose you're going to say something now like 'excuse me?' or 'short stick?'" Daisy mocked, copying his posh accent.

James found himself chuckling as he watched the beautiful Evans girl he'd never seen. "Are you mocking me?" he asked in the exact tone that Daisy had made fun of.

"At least you could pick that up," Daisy commented, causing him to laugh again. "Look at it this way. The world is made up of realists and dreamers. The realists stop the dreamers from flying too close to the sun and the dreamers lift the realists off the ground."

"What has that got to do with me and Lily?"

"People like Lily are the realists. People like us are dreamers," Daisy said, staring at the night sky through the bars of her window. "If Lily never finds a dreamer, she might always stay on the ground. Understand?"

"I don't think I do," James answered truthfully. Daisy rolled her eyes, causing the raven-haired teenager to laugh again.

"So, prisoner, how much longer are you locked up for?" James asked jokingly.

Daisy let out a huff and hopped off of the bed, walking over to her closet. She lazily swung open one of the doors and James realized that the inside had small tally marks made by scratches and indents. The dark-haired girl traced her fingers over the small lines while James got up from her bed and strode over to her.

"I'd say about 11 more days?" Daisy guessed. James stood behind her and noticed that he was much taller than her, almost a foot taller. Daisy bit her lip and her eyebrows furrowed as she counted the marks again. "No, 13. 13 more days and I'll be free."

"This is how you keep track of the days," James realized aloud. "They don't let you have a calendar in your room, Daisy?"

She turned around slightly but then quickly faced forward and blushed when she realized that James was right behind her. "I don't get calendars in prison, do you?" Daisy joked.

The wizard reached over her shoulder and traced the tally marks with his fingers, a whiff of his cologne flowing into Daisy's nostrils while doing so. It smelled incredible and indescribable, something that wasn't normal. He smelled of some sort of polish and wood, but not firewood.

"The tallies are days you've been locked in your room?" the bespectacled boy guessed. 

"Yeah," Daisy nodded. Her fingers started from the top of the closet and slowly went down until they reached the last row. "Each column is a different time. So this one is the most current one, which means this was the amount of time I've spent in my room consecutively, as a punishment for dying Dylan's dog."

James assumed that Dylan was Daisy's neighbor so he didn't need to ask about it. "17 days so far," he noted. "Why don't you just stop causing issues? I'm sure your friends miss you when you're gone all the time."

"I don't have any friends," Daisy answered quickly, "so that's not much of a problem."

"Ah," James said. "Do you like not having friends or do you just not have-"

"Nobody wants to be my friend," she said, cutting him off. The Evans girl roughly closed the door of her closet and sat back on her bed. 

James walked over to her and sat next to her. "I'll be your friend," he offered. "I won't be around much but I plan on stalking your sister around all summer so you might see me."

"You're just saying you'll be my friend so I'll put in a good word for you with Lily," Daisy sighed.

"I'm serious," James said. "Well actually, one of my other friends who's here, his name is Sirius."

"Oh, the one that was talking to Caroline? He's the one who's in love with her," Daisy said.

"They're just friends," the wizard convinced himself. "Anyway, I'll be your friend. I think I could win Lily over eventually, I can feel it, so I really don't need you putting in any good word for me. You could if you wanted to but I doubt you'll need to."

"You actually want me to be your friend?"

"Yeah," James smiled. "I mean, if that's alright with you."

"It's alright," Daisy responded. 

The door to Daisy's room swung open again and her younger sister appeared in the doorway. "Your horrible friends are taking Caroline away," the redhead grumbled. "You should go before they leave without you."

"Alright," James agreed, "just give me a second." 

Lily glanced at Daisy skeptically and her sister shrugged in response. Lily let out another groan and shut the door quickly. James turned back to the other Evans and grinned. "Well, Daisy, I'll see you next summer. Try not to get yourself grounded again or you won't be able to see me."

"Maybe I will get myself grounded and then you can use magic to permanently remove the bars," Daisy smiled. She was being completely serious but James seemed to think it was a joke and started laughing again.

"I'll owl you, alright?"

"Sure, whatever that means. Bye, stranger."

"Goodbye, Daisy."