* * * *
September 1, 1976
James and Evanna spent a long time just talking about their lives and trying to make sense of it all. But, as any human being knows, it's hard to figure out your life within the timespan of an hour.
"We should probably head back, yeah?" Evanna suggested after a moment of comfortable silence. "It seems to be getting dark."
"Yeah," James sighed as he heaved himself off the rock they were sitting on and then offered a hand to Evanna.
"A real gentleman," She said as she giggled.
He smiled. But Evanna noticed that it wasn't his usually cocky and arrogant smile. It was genuine.
"What can I say?" He said as she jumped not-so-gracefully off of the rock landing right in front of James and wobbling so he had to catch her to stabilize her, his hands landing on her waist. They found themselves quite close to each other. Evie could feel the echo of his heartbeat and the warmness of his breath, which surprisingly smelled like mint tea. "I can be a gentleman every once in a while."
"I bet you can," Evanna smiled and she suddenly started to feel her palms getting sweaty and her stomach flip over.
"C'mon, Chase," said James leading her back to the castle, not letting go of her hand.
Evanna noticed this but she didn't mind. He held her hand firmly but also in a way that implied that she was made of glass.
On the way back to the castle, James entertained her with some stories of the pranks the Marauders had excelled at completing and even some that failed epically.
"I swear to you!" he was saying as Evanna was laughing hysterically "It totally back-fired and the bucket landed on Sirius's head! Totally soaked him! Mind you Sirius was stupidly standing under the bucket as bait but- it- it still happened!"
He started laughing now and if anyone looked down at them from the clock tower they would see two sixth-year students laughing and guffawing at something totally unknown to the viewer.
The pair were wiping their eyes of tears of laughter as they were walking up the moving staircase and weren't even bothered when they moved totally off track and they had to turn back around again.
When they were outside of the Gryffindor common room James sighed and said, "Thank you for chattin' with me," Evanna smiled at him. "It really helped take my mind off of... well, ya know."
"Sure," Evanna agreed as James returned the smile. "It was fun."
James then turned around to open the Gryffindor common room door but Evanna stopped him and said, "Wait, James," he turned around with a bit of a puzzled look on his face. "Yes?"
"Well, I just wanted to know if we could ever talk like this again."
"Oh," he said softly, walking back toward her. "Of course, we can talk like this again. We bonded tonight. Let me ask you this, does this make us friends now?"
Evanna noticed an edge of a smirk playing at the corners of his perfectly shaped lips.
"Okay," She responded. "Yeah, we are."
After that, she did something that neither of them expected. She wrapped her arms around James in a secure but gentle hug. "Thanks," she whispered next to his ear. James noticeably tensed a bit at first, obviously not used to hugs from women who weren't his mother. But he slowly but surely relaxed in her arms and responded, "You're welcome."
After another second, they both released each other and smiled, "C'mon," he said, leading her into the common room after saying the password- Codswallop- to the hanging portrait of The Fat Lady.
When they walked in, they immediately noticed the tense atmosphere around two groups of people who were least likely to talk to each other. Evanna's friends and The rest of The Marauders were talking to each other in muttered tones until the portrait hole door creaked closed.
It went quiet as the peers and close companions of James and Evanna stared at them with mixed emotions of confusion from Jack and Peter, frustration from Avery, and sly smiles from Summer and Sirius.
"Summer...Jack," Evanna started. "how did you get in here?"
"Well," Summer answered, a bit wary, but still smirking a bit. "That doesn't really matter now does it."
Then Avery stood up from the sofa and closed the distance between them in three long strides.
"Where have you been, Evanna? I've been worried sick."
Everyone knows that when Avery uses his friends' full first names, he's either upset with them, himself, or the world. Evanna guessed that he was upset with her this time.
"Aves," she started calmly while he was glaring so intensely at James, that she was surprised he didn't drop dead right then and there. "I just went for a walk by the lake after you fell asleep and I ran into James. We talked. That's it." Avery then focused his glare- somewhat reluctantly I might add- on Evanna, who surprisingly matched his glare with ease.
The room was very quiet and buzzing with electricity which is described as nothing more than a strong amount of tension. The room was very quiet for now they had attracted the attention of the scarce amount of people that were having their own conversations. Evanna kept the glare in place. If she was going out, she was going out fighting.
"What are you doing?" Avery asked breaking the silence and it seemed like he was trying to hold back a reluctant smirk.
"Whatever do you mean, Avery."
"I mean what do you think you're playin' at?"
Evanna was a little worried that Avery was mad at her. But even as the seconds ticked by, with only the sounds in the room being heaving breathing and the ticking sound made by the grandfather clock in the corner of the room, his glare receded and Evanna answered, "Listen, Avery," she took a deep breath. "you've been a real prick to James and his friends ever since he set foot in this castle. I don't understand why and I think you need to apologize."
Avery looked as if someone told him he was descended from Salazar Slytherin himself. He even chuckled a little out of disbelief.
"What?" he asked, his glare now totally gone but replaced by a look of strong confusion. "You can't be serious right now, Evie."
"I am."
At that, Avery looked over at James who was awkwardly scratching the back of his neck and looking anywhere but at the other Gryffindor boy in front of him. Avery then looked his shoulder at his friends to see if he heard her right.
Everyone shrugged except for Remus, who was unsurprisingly unperturbed by the state of his friends and close peers because he was too busy reading the book about dragons that Evanna had left on the side table next to the brick-red Gryffindor couch a few hours prior.
"If you think," Avery started. "for any second, that you are going to get me to apologize to him, you're very wrong and you need to stop kidding yourself, darling."
Evanna sighed very deeply and scratched her nose. A tell-tale sign that she was irritated. Avery Thomas was as stubborn as the world's most stubborn mule.
"Fine."
And she grabbed the sweater that James was holding for her, said goodnight, and marched up the stairs to the girl's dormitories.
Avery sighed and his shoulders slumped.
"Good job, Aves," Jack said then he got an elbow to the ribs by Summer. "Ouch, sorry."
"Oh, shut up, Jack," said Avery noticeably pissed off again. He then followed suit of Evanna and climbed his way to the boy's dormitories.
Once the sound of Avery's heavy footsteps stopped echoing off of the stairwell, Summer and Jack said that they should be heading back to the Hufflepuff tower for bed, so they excused themselves. The bystanders that were watching, went back to whatever they were doing before.
James, still stunned, went to sit by Peter on the sofa matching the one that Remus was sitting on, still reading the borrowed book. Sirius was awkwardly picking at the rug that was on the floor while sitting in between Remus's legs, and pulling out little bits of the knitting as he did so.
Peter started to pick through the package his mother sent him which consisted of his favorite crisps and sweets, and some of the things he left at home.
"Wormy, you already have a package?" James asked while still in a small state of confusion but overall okay now. "We haven't even started our lessons yet."
"Yes, well," he answered still digging through the box, shrugging his shoulders. "I guess Mum wanted to send it early this year."
James sighed deeply slumping his shoulders against the blanket that was slung over the back cushions of the sofa. "Whatever."
"So...what did happen between you and Chase?" asked Sirius quietly.
"Nothing!" James quickly said. "She was sitting by the lake alone so I asked her if I could sit by her and we-"
"Snogged!" Sirius yelled, interrupting.
"No!" James looked quite exasperated now. "No, Padfoot. We just talked. That's it. Period."
"Oh," Sirius said, excitement draining from his face. "Oh, alright, then."
"Why are you so disappointed?" asked Remus, finally looking up from page 50 of his book. "It's like like you want him to get shagged." he finished chuckling a little bit.
"I just wanna know the drama," Sirius responded emphasizing his voice on the last word, rolling on his back dramatically.
"Oh, Padfoot," Remus said playfully rolling his eyes and smirking. "what am I going to do with you?"
Sirius looked and smiled at Remus with so much warmth that everyone within their near vicinity felt the warmness spread through their bodies, and it felt so much like the crackling fireplace that it was almost comfortable. It was quiet for a moment, the other people in the common room had all gone up to bed by now, and they started at each other until James broke the silence with the clearing of his throat. Sirius and Remus looked away from each other, now blushing.
"So," James started. "Thomas still hates me, right?"
"Oh yeah," Sirius said recovering quickly.
"For sure," said Remus going back to his book, but unlike Sirius, the pink was still tainting his cheeks and the tips of his ears.
"Yeah, he totally loathes you," said Peter now opening a pack of cherry lollipops.
James groaned.
It was awkwardly quiet after that, with no one knowing what to say.
"Cherry lollipop?" Peter offered.
James stared at the small boy for a moment, then sighed and took the candy.
"Thanks, Pete."
"Anytime."
a/n: Cue overprotective Avery:
I mostly wrote his character like that to project the fact I don't have an older brother who's protective over me. (I'm the oldest)
QOTD: Do you have any siblings? If so how many, I have 2.
:)
-S