Harry Potter One Shots (Vol. I)

Off Limits (James Sirius Potter)

"Come here." His voice was quiet as he slipped his arms around my shoulders and pulled me into his embrace. His hands rubbed up and down my back soothingly as I fought to keep down my sobs. How was this even possible? He was the one that had just had such a deadly fall and yet he was the one that was comforting me. "I had no idea that you actually cared this much about me."

"Of course I care you idiot!" I shoved at his chest to get him to release me. He pulled away from me, his eyes softening slightly once he'd caught sight of the unshed tears in my eyes. "You're my best friend."

Our moment was broken apart by the sound of commotion. Looking up I watched as the nurse approached us, flanked by the majority of the Gryffindor quidditch team.

**********

Once the nurse had assessed him, James had been ordered on bed rest in the hospital wing for a week. A week within which he spent every single day moaning and groaning about the fact that he wasn't even allowed to move and was bored out of his mind. Not that he allowed himself to get bored too often. James had been caught attempting to sneak out of the hospital wing numerous times and had been threatened countless times that he would be magically stuck to the bed if he attempted to even sit up again without permission.

Somehow Fred had a knack for knowing whenever James was feeling bored because those would be the moments when he chose to visit James in the hospital wing and sometimes he would drag me along with him. But today he was being discharged from the hospital wing. Something that for James couldn't have happened sooner enough.

I'd gone to pick him up from the hospital wing and was under strict instructions to make sure that he behaved himself and that he didn't overstrain himself by getting up to any mischief. But knowing James that would be a lot easier said than done.

It was odd; James stated that he was perfectly fine but, at the same time, he was also milking the injury as much as he could.

Right now was an example. He stated that he was well enough to leave the hospital wing and return to the common room, but he insisted that he wasn't strong enough to support himself as he walked. He continued to lean against me as he went, an arm wrapped around my shoulder as he pressed the side of his lean frame against my smaller one. I eyed him closer – he seemed perfectly able to support himself. The arm around my shoulder was doing nothing to support him.

"So," he said using the arm around my shoulder to pull me closer to him when the space between the two of us grew. "Now that I'm out of the hospital wing, what did I miss during my stay in captivity?"

"Not much," I answered truthfully, letting myself lean into his familiar embrace as I wrapped an arm around his waist to provide some extra support.

We continued to walk in the direction of the common room and James continued to grill me about what he could have missed. He wanted to catch up on the pranks he'd missed, the gossip but unsurprisingly enough he made no mention of the homework or the lessons that he'd missed.

"Hey Thornton!" A voice called from further down the corridor and we both stopped at the sound of my surname.

I glanced over my shoulder to see who had called my name but was stuck on the unfamiliar face, not able to link a name to his face. I turned around to look at the boy that continued to walk towards me and James turned as well, switching the arm that was around my shoulder. When he caught sight of the boy he took my arm that had fallen back down to my side and wrapped it around his waist again. I glanced up at him curiously.

"Hey Thornton," The boy said again when he came to a stop in front of the two of us. He glanced over to the boy by my side. "Potter."

"Did you want something?" I asked.