𝐌𝐲 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 ∗ 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐏𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐨𝐠𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬

"Good Morning," Mary said taking a seat next to the trio.
"Morning," Romeo said looking up from his book and giving Mary a warm smile.
The four sat in a comfortable silence just as they did every morning, all trying to do as much relaxing as get can before their first lessons of the year.

"Good morning students, when I call your first and last names please come and collect your time's table from me" Professor McGonagall called out pulling all of the students away from their breakfast conversations to the front of the hall.
Each student is called up one by one to receive a slip of paper with their course outline on it.

"Shit we only have two classes together" Athena whined as she looked down at Eleanor's paper.
"I'm sure it'll be fine, you have four with Romeo so that makes up for-"

Eleanor was cut off by someone taping on her shoulder, "good morning sweets" a deep voice with a soft Italian accent says from behind her.
As soon as the words rolled off the boys tongued Eleanor knew exactly who had come to ruin her perfect morning.

"Good Morning Rizzo" she gritted through her teeth as she rolled her eyes deep into the back of her skull, his hand still glued to her shoulder, her own hand swatting it away from her.

Atlas Rizzo, in Eleanor's eyes, was the scum of Hogwarts.
The boy had come to believe that he was some sort of God, sure he was conventionally attractive, but looks were as far as it went for him. He had the personality of a brick, he truly believed he was charming and lovable, but in reality, he was a massive dickhead.
Not to mention that his family was a part of a group of wealthy pureblood families that were deeply involved in the dark-magic community, and his actions reflected his loyalty to his parent's beliefs.

Eleanor knew the boy wanted to get with her for no good reason, on multiple occasions her friends had overheard conversations about how badly he wanted to shag the girl, some weird obsession he had developed after she had rejected him in the fourth year during a game of spin the bottle.
He never left the girl alone for that fact, he was always cornering her into situations that made her uncomfortable. He was bad news for Eleanor, she tried to steer clear, but there were only so many places to hide from him.

Atlas Rizzo was a royal pain in the ass.

"What's wrong, not happy to see your favourite Slytherin?"
Athena chuckled at the idea of Atlas Rizzo ever being Eleanor's favourite Slytherin.
"Trust me, a slimy git like yourself will never be my favourite anything" she smiled finally looking over at him with a face of disgust.
"You wound me, Pettigrew, I'm truly hurt"
"Oh, believe me, if I wanted you wounded you would be crying, you also probably would lose the ability to ever have children" she mused as she finished off her puzzle.

The boy sat down next to her, he took his finger and put it under her chin, directing her face to look at him.
"For the love of God will you stop touching her, she wants nothing to do with a bloke like you, get it through your thick skull" Mary warned, very loudly, causing everyone in the hall to look at the group and freeze waiting for another yearly outburst from Eleanor.
Ella grabbed Atlas' hand throwing it back at himself, "keep your dirty hands off of me" she spat.

"All I wanted to ask was if you would go to Hogsmeade with me next trip, a pretty girl like yourself deserves someone like myself," he smirks at her.
Eleanor gave a fake smile "Need I repeat myself for what seems like the tenth time, Atlas Rizzo, you ask the same question every year, and year after year I say no, I'm not interested in you!" Her tone laid on the thin line between threatening and angry, she huffed once more before getting up from the table and walking out of the Great hall.

"Oh man that was pathetic, it gets better every time" Sirius whispered to Peter as they laughed at the public humiliation that just took place, the rest of the room filled with laughter and then soon simmer down and returned back to its previous state of busyness.
"What are you two laughing at?" Atlas snapped at the two as he stood up straightening his tie and recurring his sleeves.
"Oh, you know just laughing at you getting publicly rejected by the same girl for the past seven years" Sirius doubled over laughing.

"Your face was priceless, truly" Remus added as he looked up from his timetable.

-

Eleanor made it to the entrance of the great hall, looking back to see Atlas being ridiculed at by Sirius and Remus, and just as she was about to exit she bumped into someone, spilling their fresh coffee down the front of her blouse.

"Fucking hell" she sighed as she looked down at her previously white top.
"You should really pay attention to where you're going Ella, could cause you some real danger in the future" James apologized as he looked at the girl.
"You'd like that wouldn't you?"
"Maybe" he smirked as he looked down to see the massive stain soaking into the fancy fabric of her shirt, his lips pull into a thin line knowing thatches in for it for the damage.

"It's good to see you, Eleanor."
"Likewise," she huffed looking up at the raven-haired boy, no matter how much she despised his extremely annoying personality she had to admit the boy got more attractive with each passing summer.
"Merlin you look a wreck," she said covering up for her longing stare.
"Shut it, Pettigrew, I just finished Quidditch practice, I haven't even gotten the chance to shower yet" his hand ran over the back of his neck as he watched her frown at him.
"You should take care of that problem than Potter"
"You wound me, Eleanor, you really do"

Something about the way he shamelessly teased her made her knees a slight bit weaker, and her heart flutter just a tiny bit. It was pathetic really, but she hated him, he was slutty and knew how to make her uncomfortable, it was his tactic to get under her skin.
The way Atlas attempted the exact same line was nothing in comparison to how it just flowed out of James' mouth so naturally.

"Wait Quidditch doesn't start for a few weeks why are you practicing?" she questioned looking up at the boy, a grin replacing the smirk that was once there.
"You haven't heard? I made captain, and I'm head boy, I need to stay on top of my game," he said winking at her as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Merlin you're insufferable" Eleanor groaned, her thumb and middle finger rubbing over her temples.

"Wait, how the fuck did you make head boy?" Eleanor exclaimed, the James Potter she knew and hated would never ever even be considered to be head boy, a first-year would be more likely and more trusting in his position.
"Probably just my charming looks and amazing personality"
Eleanor looked at him unamused, "what? you don't think I'm charming, well I think I'm rather cute" he said laughing, Ella rolled her eyes at his comment and crossed her arms over her chest, trying to find a snide way to come back at him.

But nothing

"Well um, I should, I should probably go and change before lessons start, thanks again for ruining my shirt and not apologizing for it" she smiled with annoyance and walked past James, trying to steer clear of another awkward conversation with him.
"Not a fan of talking about how cute I am, bet you wish you were just an ounce as good-looking as me" he yelled out to her as she continued walking.
"You wish Potter" she flipped him off not even looking back at him.

She didn't know why she despised him so much. She always just guessed it had something to do with his narcissistic self. His constant fawning over himself was annoying enough, but his consistent romancing of Lily Evans is really what pissed Ella off.
He made constant rejection everyone else problem.
Lily Evans had done everything in her power to make James Potter hate himself, well she did, but he never broke once, or at least not in public. James always came back stronger every time, his drive was admirable, but his effort grew annoying.

Maybe that's like first-year Ella talking, crushed that the curly head kid with big glasses wouldn't give her the time of day because he was too in love with his precious flower.
Or maybe it's just present-time Ella saying that James potter is an asshat with an uppercase a.

Although she hated him, there was still something about James Potter that was so captivating. He was almost bewitching to be around at, so different from the rest.
James Potter wasn't like the average foul git that got with a girl and then the would-be onto another. You could tell that when he liked some he was committed to them.

And that caught Eleanor's attention.