Delicate | James Potter

1.19

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McGonagall agreed to the idea of an end of year dance. It took some convincing but she eventually said yes, after consulting with Dumbledore and the other head of houses of course. It was great news, however it now meant that on top of homework and revision and tutor sessions with one James Potter, she had a whole school dance to organise. There was always an end of year party in the common room, but this was different, this was bigger. The staff said they'd help, but suggested she start some sort of organisation committee for it and that way it would be student ran. It made sense, but for someone who didn't exactly like talking to anyone she didn't have to, it sounded rather scary. It was only January though, so they had plenty of time.

It was now Monday afternoon, which meant her focus had to be on potions. They'd already had one 'session' as such, last week, and it had gone as well as it could have but it wasn't exactly fun. Turns out James was much smarter than he let on, and honestly? She doubted he even needed her help. Alice had asked him again if he'd rather just do his own thing, but he did his weird sort of nonchalant shrug and said he had nothing better to do so may as well. She presumed this meant he'd like to continue, without having to pop a hole in his ego. In the end the girl ran out of material, so they both just left after forty five minutes to do their own thing.

This time, Alice made sure to be more prepared. She arrived right on time and set out all her books, specifically opening the pages on Moonstone and it's properties. Unfortunately for her, James wasn't right on time, and instead came bouncing in at twenty minutes past four.

"Sorry!" He was grinning eagerly, hair ruffled and tie skewed indicating that despite the fact class had only just ended, he'd been up to no good. "I got... caught up."

"That's okay." She smiled back, and shuffled her chair to the side so he had enough space. "Are you alright?"

"Great thanks. You ready?"

"Yep."

They started with the recap on Moonstones, then she tried quizzing him on some of the previous year subjects. "Okay, how about- Where would you find a Bezoar?"

"Potions cupboard." He retorted without missing a beat.

James grinned when he received her soft laugh as a reaction, pleased it had worked. She shook her head. "That's good, James, but you know what I mean."

"I don't think I do."

He ducked his head and replied with the right answer when she looked to him with a raised eyebrow. His arrogance was sometimes rather irritating, even to her, and especially in incidents such as this. "Right."

The week after that, he was late again. Alice didn't mind too much, at least he did actually pay attention and, despite denying he needed any proper help, would nod along to what she said and scribble things down. James was smart, more so than her really, he just happened to not pay attention in the classroom. She helped him write their essay on the Befuddlement Draught, and in return he ended up helping her with transfiguration. The boy was all too happy to become the teacher for a change, and she benefited from it.