pairing - james potter x reader
summary - things get a little out of hand after sirius accidentally spills the beans about your feelings for james.
trope/tags - friends to lovers-ish, light smut but not actual smut more like making out and leading up to smut idk i can’t write erotica.
word count - 2.1k
warnings - language, drinking, making out
it is a truth universally acknowledged that one must hold a party after winning a quidditch match, because if one doesn’t, that meant that they won for nothing. at least it’s what sirius always said. the same old, drunken sirius, who managed to capture everybody’s attention after stepping onto the table with the intelligent intention of giving a speech.
you laughed when he lost his balance and almost landed on remus (who was thankfully there to catch him in case he actually fell), locking your eyes with a smiley james who’s lap you were resting your feet in while on the couch. you held your gaze on him for a brief moment, before shyly looking away and pretending you saw something much more captivating than him.
sometimes you wondered if he was aware of what he does to you, just with the simple brush of his hand against yours. you were thankful to have drunk a little more than usual, there was no possible scenario in which you would have managed to keep a calm act having such close contact with him if you hadn’t had at least a sip of alcohol. you brought the glass in your hand which was filled with cheap wine to your lips, taking a rather big gulp and leaving another burgundy lipstick mark on the rim of it.
james was smiling foolishly as he watched you, and he chuckled when you made a face because of the taste of the alcohol, looking away the moment your focus was on him again - his cheeks turned crimson red in an instant. james’ eyes landed on lily who was sitting in the corner of the room with mary, and she shook her head at the boy’s antics. lily knew all too well what was going through his mind, and how much he truly liked you.
“first of all,” sirius yelled drunkenly, raising his glass up in the air, “i would like to thank myself for planning this marvellous celebration because not a single one of you sods would have had the necessary abilities to it yourselves.” his words somehow made sense, despite the lack of thought behind them. sirius had a strange talent of staying eloquent, even when he was intoxicated. a few people booed him jokingly, laughing along with the rest of you.
then he went on to make a toast to each of the team members individually, from marlene, who was only nodding along to everything that was being said (too busy swaying to billy joel playing from the gramophone), and to james himself, who was grinning proudly the entire time.
clapping and cheering sounded throughout the common room as sirius’ speech seemed to have come to an end, but he wasn’t getting off the table. instead, he turned towards you, “oh! how could i have forgotten? y/n!” he giggled, raising his now empty glass up in the air once again. nobody said anything. you weren’t on the quidditch team, you never were, and you had zero involvement in it whatsoever. your expression turned into a questioning one, and you glanced over at remus who was equally clueless. james squirmed uncomfortably in his seat, as if he could sense something was about to happen. panic arose in you.
“why don’t you make your fantasies come true and give our dearest james a kiss? i know you want it.” the sound that left your mouth after he said those words was a mix of embarrassed laughter and a broken sob. james was speechless, his mouth hanging open in shock and his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. blood rushed into your cheeks.
sirius stumbled backwards, this time losing his balance and falling into remus’ arms. not even the music was able to muffle all of the laughter that began coming from the people around you. you scrambled to get up, wanting to get away from everyone as rage bubbled up inside of you. james reached for your hand to pull you back, but it only made things worse as that wine-filled glass slipped out of it, and spilled all over your white t-shirt, colouring it maroon.
your vision became blurry with angry tears. you yanked your hand away, getting up from the couch and heading towards the girls’ dormitories without sparing anybody another glance.
“y/n, wait!” you didn’t respond when james called your name out, and only continued ascending the stairs towards your room. he was right behind you the whole time, and you failed to close the door in his face like you had intended in attempt to hide yourself away to deal with the embarrassment you felt in peace.
“y/n, please-”
“what?!” you finally turned around, and james immediately shut his mouth after seeing the fury in your eyes. he gulped, leaning back against the door to shut it and to muffle the outburst he could sense was coming. he didn’t need people eavesdropping on you, especially not after seeing how ashamed you looked after sirius’ disastrous little suggestion.
“are you gonna laugh, too? is that what you wanna do?” you asserted, expecting to see at least a hint of regret flash through his eyes, but there was none of it, and it only made you angrier.
“y/n-” james began softly, but you were asking more questions before he could utter any other word, “he promised to keep it a secret, he knew i never wanted you to know, and he still– have you planned this?” you didn’t know what to make of any of it. james almost mastered faking reactions and acting innocent because of how often he got into trouble, so pretending to have no clue that something like that was going to happen didn’t seem like a particularly difficult task for him. you were furious, with both him, and sirius, the drunk idiot he is.
“y/n, listen to-” james tried again, kind of desperate this time. you refused to let him speak, and cut him off once again, “i fucking knew it, you were in on it! you and your attention seeking arse and your stupid pranks and-”
“y/n!” james said it louder than he meant to. it did the job, though. it shut you up, and made you feel like you should at least give him a chance to explain himself. not like it would change anything, you thought. the scowl on your face didn’t seem like it was going to be making an exit anytime soon. james sighed, running his hand through his hair and meeting your challenging gaze.
“i- for merlin’s sake, where’s all this coming from? why would you think pulling a prank like that would ever cross my mind? i’d never- bloody hell, y/n.” you scoffed. you bit your tongue to prevent yourself from making a sarcastic remark. james’ was a ladies’ man, one with an ego the size of a lake. you knew that, he knew that, everybody knew that. believing anything he said seemed easier said than done by that point.
“i didn’t plan anything, i- i had no idea he was gonna do that, but-”
“but what?” you weren’t there to play around, and james was aware of it. you were angry, and he could see it very well, choosing the right words was crucial.
“but i’m kind of glad that he did. and don’t scream at me, just listen. please.” he begged. your jaw clenched, but you swallowed your pride and let him speak. it seemed pointless anyway, but part of you felt like you might regret chasing him out of your room and telling him to bugger off. james looked nervous, uncertain, as if he was holding back. he took a few steps towards you, careful and unhurried, like he was trying not to scare you away. you tried your best to avoid his eyes.
“i’m glad that he did it, and not ‘cause it was a part of a prank, or because i wanted to make a mockery of you, but 'cause- 'cause i fancy you, y/n. and i’ve been trying to figure out how to tell you for a while now, but i didn’t want to mess up what we already had either, so i just kept my mouth shut and hoped that you’d come up to me one day and tell me you feel the same way.” you said nothing. he spoke the words so geniuenly, but you couldn’t push away that little feeling of skepticism in your head. your heart was telling you to throw yourself into his arms, but you were still wary, cautious, not willing to risk getting heartbroken.
“james, i swear if this is another one of your jokes, i'll–” you were stopped before you could speak. his lips met yours in a harsh kiss, taking your breath away. he pulled away, meeting your surprised eyes.
“you didn’t ask if you could do that.” you smacked his chest.
“i needed to shut you up somehow.” he shrugged, smirking slyly. you opened your mouth to speak, backing away teasingly when james moved in another kiss.
“what, trying to snog me again?” you taunted. but you weren’t prepared for james to actually do it. you weren’t prepared for the way his hand found itself cupping one of your cheeks. you weren’t prepared for the way he leaned in and captured your lips with his. you weren’t prepared to fall back into the soft mattress of your bed. you weren’t prepared to have him on top of you, settled in-between your legs, breathless as kissed you.
when his lips met yours once more, you responded with the same intensity, tangling your fingers into his dark locks while your other hand tugged at his jumper. it was messy, yet loving, and so much better than those little scenarios from your imagination. grasping what was really happening was a bit hard, but when you realised that james had no intentions of stopping, much like yourself, you let yourself relax.
james pulled back, allowing you to catch your breath, only to take it away again when he started prepping soft kisses along your jaw. your breathing became uneven when he moved to down to your neck, and you swallowed harshly when the realisation of what you were about to do hit you. your cheeks were burning red, and his lips met yours one more time, before you could utter a single word.
you were in total bliss, completely losing yourself in him. one of his hands flew underneath your wine-stained shirt, which ended up lying somewhere on the cold floor after it was mercilessly tossed away. you separated for a moment so that he could get rid of his own, and then he attacked your neck and collarbones with open mouthed kisses. you were desperately grabbing at each other, and just when his lips touched a certain spot on your neck and you let out a particularly lewd noise, someone started banging on the door.
james cursed quietly as he stood up and got off of you, making his way over to the door to open it. “moony?” james opened it only a little bit, making sure you were hidden from the other boy’s eyes.
“hey- oh- uh- i- what-” you heard remus snort at the way he stumbled over his own words. the poor bloke had a hard time putting together a proper sentence after getting a sight as shocking as the one in front of him. a shirtless, messy haired james, with lipstick all over pretty his face. “so, i was gonna ask if you two were alright…” remus trailed off, and you could tell that he was holding back making a silly comment, as well as laughing at the pair of you by the way his voice shook as he spoke, “right, um, get back to your business then, aye?”
“yeah, yeah.” james shook his head as he closed the door, turning to look at you with a smirk.
let’s just say that sirius had a blast taking full credit for getting the two of you together at last, as well as making fun of the crimson marks on your neck and the way your legs wobbled when you walked into the common room the next morning.