LONG STORY SHORT, james potter

𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞.

"How is he?" he asked softly.

"I don't know what you're referring to," Betty said as her eyes hardened — this was a bad move if Kellan wanted to get her to open up to him again.

"I'm not stupid," he said quietly as his eyes shifted over to Lily.

"I know," Lily said as she looked between the two of them, making Kellan look back over at Betty, who sighed in defeat.

"Not great," she mumbled in defeat as she looked down.

Concern flooded Kellan's eyes as he carefully placed a hand over Betty's making her look back up again. She pursed her lips as she looked at him, her eyes debating whether or not she should trust him again. He hadn't done anything wrong. Yet.

"Want to come visit him with me?" she asked quietly.

"Don't think he'd like that," Kellan said with a sad smile and a click of his tongue. "Hasn't been my biggest fan in a while. But you should go and ... I'll keep Lily company if that's ok with her."

He looked up at Lily with a slight smile, which she returned, awkwardly, and Betty nodded slowly, her features setting. 

"He's right," Lily coaxed as she softly placed a hand on Betty's shoulder. "You should go."

"Ok," Betty mumbled as she quickly shoved things frantically into her bag. 

"Leave them here," Kellan offered as he placed a hand gently over the opening to her school bag. "I'll wait until you come back so you don't have to waist time lugging all of this around."

She looked at him warily, but relented and slowly got up. She brushed off her school skirt and took in a deep breath as she looked at the library exit. She carefully walked the familiar route to the high ceilings and uniform white beds and, like usual, was greeted by a smiling, but slightly pitiful Madame Pomfrey.

And as much as Betty may have said that she hated pity, she didn't mind it from Madame Pomfrey because at least she did something about it and took care of her brother — unlike all of the other sad smiles that turn and leave just as soon as they've smacked you in the face and reminded you of how shitty your life was. 

She took a deep breath and entered the section of the hospital wing where she knew Pomfrey would've housed him — the very back, or, more importantly, away from prying eyes and intrusive questions. Listening to her battered yellow Chuck Taylors or heeled Mary Jane's ( she was consistent, but still had a small spark of rebellion about her ) hit the floor had become habit and a familiar sound to her. It was so peculiar how the stones in this wing of the school sounded oh so different. 

When she approached her brother's bed however, she found he wasn't alone. But, perhaps with friends such as his, that was to be expected. But it wasn't Sirius ( who she really expected to be there ) or even Peter, but rather, James Potter was sitting on the bed next to Remus as he stared at the cavernous stone ceiling and Remus stared at James — both of them lost in verbal thought.

"All I'm saying is that I don't understand how someone could hate someone for things they can't control like their gender or their skin color or who they love," James mumbled. "Surely, with the infinite capacity that humans have, we could find the capacity to see through the shit that society throws at us."