Lions Inside¹ | James Potter

fourteen

Why do we always wake up so early on Sundays, anyways? she thought to herself. 

Then she remembered what Alice said. Her eyes went wide in alarm, jumping off her bed. "Crap! Practice. Come on guys, hurry!" she urged them. Because James had known he'd be spending the night here and they had practice every Sunday, his equipment was already here. 

In a rush they all changed, Sirius running to his dorm and getting ready, before all three of them headed to the pitch without breakfast and Remus and Peter went back to sleep in two of Andrea's spare beds.

-//-

"That practice was killer," Andrea groaned in her seat between Dorcas and Kingsley. Kingsley chuckled and slid a coffee cup in front of her. "That's what happens when you pull an all-nighter studying," he laughed. Andrea drank her coffee greedily. "Well, we were invested. Like you've never stayed up all night studying," she threw back at him.

"I have. But I usually plan it better around my Quidditch training," he responded. Andrea rolled her eyes and turned to Dorcas. "You feel sympathetic for me, don't you Dee?" she asked in a sad voice, turning the puppy dog eyes on Dorcas.

"Don't fall for it Meadowes. She's like a sea witch with those eyes," James' voice interrupted them. Andrea turned to him with a pout. "It works on you, doesn't it?" she sassed back.

"Not now, child. I have important business to discuss with Miss Dorcas here," he waved her off. Without asking her to move, James squished himself into the space between Andrea and Dorcas, making Andrea knock into Kingsley on her left. "What do you want, Potter?" Dorcas chuckled, turning to him.

"Our adventure to Hogsmeade didn't work. Well, for me anyways," he grumbled, looking over to the Gryffindor table to steal a glance at Lily. Andrea grinned to herself. James and Dorcas' date hadn't caught Lily's attention, but it had definitely caught Marlene's. Andrea had seen the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor chatting several times together this past month and Dorcas was a squealing mess over it. 

Dorcas sighed, thinking it over. "Maybe I was the wrong person to make her jealous. She doesn't know me that well. I think it would matter more if it was someone who you both knew," she suggested. James thought that one over, before turning to Andrea with a wide smile. 

Confused, Andrea furrowed her brows at him before looking around to see what he was smiling about. "What?" she asked him, moving her lollipop with her tongue so she could speak normally.

"I wonder what Lily would think if she saw me getting close to someone, someone she considered a friend and someone she hadn't considered competition for my attention," he mused, trying to make Andrea see his point. Andrea tilted her head and studied him. "Or maybe, you need to stop playing games and just talk to her like a normal human being," she fired back with a sweet smile.

"That would never work. She doesn't even look at me, let alone stops to keep a conversation with me," he huffed. "But if she saw me getting close to someone she thought was just my friend, she might rethink her constant rejections." Andrea thought for a second before she caught on. 

She let out a loud laugh and looked to the group surrounding them, seeing their amused expressions glancing between the two third years. "You guys carry on with your breakfast, I'm gonna send James off to St. Mungo's to fix his head," she said, getting out of her seat.

"Would you just think about it?" James cried out, following her out of the Great Hall. "No." "Please?"

"Nope." "For me?" he pleaded. Andrea turned to see the desperation in his expression. "Hmm, let me think. NO!"

"You're the worst best friend ever," he grumbled, following her off to Gryffindor Tower. Andrea smiled, shrugging slightly. "I'm okay with that."

-//-