Magical Mischief: Year One

v. Curse You, O Greasy One

That night after dinner, James found himself cornered by none other than Lily Evans, whose expression resembled the face of a ferocious fire-breathing dragon.

"What is your problem?" she hissed. "Severus told me you shot gum up his nose for no reason!"

"I'm sorry, but—"

"You're an absolute toerag!"

James sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Would you stop doing that?" Lily huffed.

"What?"

"That, with your hair. It's dist— annoying," she said warily. "Look, I don't know what you've got against him, but you need to stop." She walked away, throwing her trademark icy glare over her shoulder as she went.

*\

James lay awake in his four-poster bed, his mind wandering over the events of the day. He felt rather proud of himself as he had come to realize that he was quite adept in all his classes, especially Transfiguration. He thought about Lily Evans and her fiery red hair that greatly contrasted the ice cold glares she often gave him.

Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by a loud gasp coming from Remus' bed. James was about to go see if everything was alright when he heard Sirius' footsteps crossing the room.

"Remus? Remus, wake up," came Sirius' whisper. James heard Remus startle awake. "It's okay, it's only me," he continued. "Are you alright?"

"I had a nightmare," came Remus' shaky reply. James heard the creak of the four-poster and the rustling of sheets and guessed that Sirius was climbing into the bed beside the sandy haired boy. "What are you doing?" Remus asked.

"Whenever my little brother Regulus has nightmares, me just being by his side always makes him feel better," Sirius whispered. "Is it working?"

"I — yes, it is." There was a pause.

"If you ever want to talk, I'm here for you."

"Thank you, Sirius," Remus replied softly, and James soon heard their soft snores as they both fell back into a slumber.

James smiled to himself at the sweet exchange before he too fell asleep.

*\

Their first few weeks of school went by fairly quickly, and James — quite pleased with himself — realized that he had natural talent in almost all of his classes, earning acceptable marks with minimum effort. He only did poorly in History of Magic, as he couldn't help but fall asleep to the monotonous sounds of Professor Binn's lectures.

"That was brutal," Sirius yawned as they finally emerged from a particularly boring History of Magic class.

"I know," James stretched, his back cracking from stiffness. "Evans?" he smirked at Lily who was clearly stifling a large yawn. "Do you not find ol' Professor Binns' lessons to be invigorating?"

"Oh shut it, Potter," she rolled her eyes. "I reckon if you actually paid attention, you'd—"

"Oi!" she was cut off as Sirius shouted for them to pay attention.

James snapped his head up and saw Snape with his wand out, the red flash of a curse barrelling towards them. He shoved Lily up against the wall, out of harm's way. Unfortunately, the curse was headed right towards him and it slashed his cheek, drawing blood. His vision swam, and he could barely make out Sirius who had taken off after Snape. He stared at Lily in shock as he fell to the ground. Then, everything went black.

*\

James blinked awake, his head and cheek throbbing. He was in a dimly lit room and as he looked around, he could make out the fuzzy outlines of the Hospital Wing.

"Oh good, you're awake," Madam Pomfrey, the matron handed him some tablets to chew. "You'll be feeling right as rain by tomorrow. Just don't drink too much or your face will leak. Now, get a good night's sleep." She bustled off to her office, turning out the lights.

James touched his cheek where the curse had hit. It felt numb and cold, but otherwise fine. He didn't feel tired at all seeing as he had just woken up, but he soon found himself drifting off, probably the effects of the tablets Madam Pomfrey had given him.

He woke to the sound of footsteps echoing outside the door.

"James! You're awake!" Sirius bounded in and tackled him with a hug, shortly followed by Remus and Peter. How're you feeling?"

"Like I can't see," James chuckled as Sirius handed him his glasses. "What happened after I blacked out?"

"I went after Snivellus. Put every hex I knew on him. My jelly-legs jinx only just wore off," Sirius smirked but it quickly turned into a sheepish grin. "Slughorn caught me and took 60 points from Gryffindor."

"Snape is in pretty big trouble too. From what I hear he's got a bright future filled with detentions." said Peter.

"Finally," James exhaled and leaned back in his hospital bed. "I was getting sick of taking all the blame."
"One thing is clear though," said Remus worriedly. "Snape wasn't just looking to hex you. He wanted to hurt you."

"Rotten git," Sirius mumbled. "What even was that curse?"

"I don't know," James shook his head.

"Are you angry?" asked Peter.

"I don't know," he repeated. "He came really close to hitting Lily."

As if on cue, the door to the Hospital wing burst open. Lily Evans stood there, chewing the inside of her cheek.

"We were just leaving," said Remus, and he left with Peter and Sirius, the latter throwing a wink over his shoulder at James as they left.

James made to speak to Lily but she held up her hand, silencing him. "I just came to tell you that Sev is sorry. He shouldn't have done that." She spoke as if every word was painful for her to say.

James regarded her for a moment. "Are you alright?"

Lily blinked as if those were the last words she expected to come out of his mouth. "Did you hear what I said?"

"I did. It's okay. I probably had it coming," he replied. Lily studied him carefully. "Did you hear what I said?" James asked, echoing her question. "That curse came awfully close to you."

"I know," she said shakily. "I just came to tell you he's sorry." she made a funny jerk as if to say something else but thought better of it. "Goodbye."

She left the room quickly leaving James to wonder if girls would ever get any easier to understand.