Jealously Wears A Green Mask | Jily

4: We Were Doing Rounds

"I sense a challenge in that! Challenge accepted!" Sirius threw his fist into the air. Marlene looked at the amused smile shared between Remus and Peter and knew that Sirius really should never go any place in which he might be tempted into gambling.

James groaned again, "But we did manage fine. Only yelled at one kid, made it all the way back to almost our floor in silence, which isn't ideal but... "

Marlene and Sirius shrugged. In their expertise, when it came to Lily and James, silence was always better than yelling.

"And then I decided to break the silence," James sighed heavily, "So I said her name."

Marlene leaned forward, waiting for James to add on ... anything, but he didn't. ''You just said her name?" she asked incredulously, "James, monosyllabic name-saying is only attractive in the middle of
passionate scenes in trashy romance novels."

"I know," James glared over at her, "I was going to say something witty but then, I got nervous. And you know what I do when I get nervous ... "

"Wet yourself?" Sirius put in helpfully, earning him another glare from James.

"No," James grumbled, "the hair thing."

"Oh", Marlene and Sirius exchanged a look, "the hair thing."

"Right," James nodded, pleased that they were following along, "But turns out, the hair thing doesn't bother her that much anymore. And we started ... god, we were legitimately flirting. And one thing led to another and then she's right here." He gestured harshly in the air in front of him to show how little space there had been between him and Lily.

"And her hand," James continued, his own hand unconsciously moving to touch the place where hers had been only a few hours earlier, "her hand was in my hair. And we were so close."

"Oh!" Marlene sighed, "Sounds romantic."

Sirius raised an eyebrow, "How could even you have messed that up?" he demanded, ''You have been dreaming about snogging Evans since we were shorter than Flitwick, and she was right there ... "

"She asked me why I'm taking Mary to the ball," James explained dully, swinging his legs off the side of the bed and pulling himself into a ball.

"And you, obviously, replied that you were taking Mary to make Lily jealous," Sirius assured James, "because anything else would have just backfired in your face."

James didn't reply. "James ... " Marlene spoke with trepidation, "What did you say to Lily?"

James didn't answer.

"He said," Remus spoke without emotion, he wasn't sure whether he was more amused or irate, and the two combined into an easily feigned nonchalance, "that he is taking Mary because she is pretty."

"No!" Sirius and Marlene gasped in unison as Peter slapped his hand over his eyes and slid down the wall he had been leaning against. Even though he'd heard it before, he still felt as though you couldn't just hear of this stupidity and not react.

''Yes," James barely whispered, "It's been my automatic answer since I asked Mary, it just... came out."

"You idiot!" Marlene howled, stretching over the gap between Sirius and James's beds to whack the back of the latter's head.