"I need to know how your relationship even started, Elodie please tell your auntie Marls!" Elodie giggled as she felt her bed sink down when Marlene sat on it with her. She closed the textbook, putting it to the side, and looking ar Marlene.
"How about you tell me what's going on with you and Dorcas first." The blonde turned bright red at the mention of her favourite Slytherin. "Don't even try to deny it, I've seen your little exchanges in the corridors. You aren't slick."
"It's just a little messing around." Elodie looked at her knowingly. "Honest! I don't know if I'm like, ready for a relationship - and she's okay with helping me figure it out. She's good like that."
El's heart warmed at the gesture. From the small conversations she's had with Dorcas, it seems in her nature to do something so kind. She's surprised she wasn't sorted into Hufflepuff. "Now, you and James. I won't tell anyone, pleeeease!"
Elodie sighed. "Fine." Now she was going to have to come up with a story on the spot, brilliant. "It did start in potions, start of the year. Just talking and joking and stuff, occasionally flirting." Marlene listened intently.
"Then, I don't know how to explain it- it just happened." Elodie laid down, head resting on her pillow.
"Hasn't he been like, completely in love with Lily though?"
"That's the first thing I said! Apparently it was misdirected feelings or something, I don't know." Elodie was quick on her feet with the logic, and apparently it was good enough since Marlene hummed in response. "I think you two are perfect for each other."
Elodie looked up at her in shock. Because no way in hell, is Marlene, Lily Evans' best friend, is saying that her and James Potter are perfect for one another. "R-Really?" She uttered out.
"Yeah, I mean, I've seen the way he's been looking at you in potions and stuff. Besides, you let him call you Ellie. He's the only person you haven't kicked in the shin for that." The way he's been looking at her? Has Marlene McKinnon officially gone insane?
Merlin, this is madness. Her and James Potter are not compatible. Not in a million years. He's James Potter, Hogwarts' heartthrob. And she's Elodie Westwood! Disappointment of the family. Practically nothing about the two made sense. She was more like Sirius, if anything.
The creaking of the door caused the two girls to spin their heads. Lily Evans stepped in, taking a look at the two girls and dropped her books on her bed. "James is downstairs for you, Elodie - said something about a date you were going on."
How is it that every time someone bring up James, he appears. She was starting to think he had supersonic hearing or something. Elodie looked at Lily, confusion visible on her face.
"Shit, were you not supposed to- forget I said anything. James is downstairs, he wants to study." She corrected, removing her robe. Why on earth was he taking her on a date at 6:30 in the evening.
Despite the weird time, she forced herself off the bed, saying a goodbye to the girls, choosing not to hear Marlene shouting something about using protection. And James indeed was downstairs, slouching in one of the red armchairs, talking eagerly with Sirius.
"Jamie, you wanted to see me?" She called from the balcony, and his head spun to hers similarly to the way a dog does when you say the word 'walk.'
James was exactly like a dog, he had so much energy all the time. He had that little smile on his face when you call his name, he tilted his head slightly to the right whenever he was confused. James was a dog. He had so much love to give, even if you don't want it.
Don't ask Elodie how she knows all that.
"Els! Fancy a swim?" He stood up from the chair, smiling widely. Her heart dropped into her stomach, not swimming. Not. Swimming. From the look on his face, James could probably tell she wasn't too keen of the idea.
"I can't swim." She mumbled. Sirius snorted. "Okay, Regulus."
"Regulus can't swim?"
"Tried to take him once before Hogwarts, idiot nearly drowned in a 4ft pool. Been terrified ever since." He responded, not looking up from the ceiling. Elodie hummed, not really knowing what to say to that.
"Okay, no swimming. Got it. We'll go to Hogsmeade then." James said, taking her hand.
"At half six? We won't be able to get in and out of Hogwarts unnoticed, surely?" James just smirked and rushed up to his room without saying anything. "Weirdo." El whispered, standing around aimlessly in the Common Room.
A minute or two later, he returned holding a piece of parchment and a cloak of some sorts. "What in Merlin's Beard is that." She gestured to the cloak. "It's an invisibility cloak." James responded, like it was clear as day. Elodie laughed out loud.
"Yes, and I'm Godric Gryffindor. Seriously, James it looks dirty." He shrugged his shoulders, wrapping the cloak around him, and suddenly James Potter's entire body vanished. "What. The. Fuck." She said slowly, utterly gobsmacked. He laughed quietly. "Shall we go then?"
She gingerly took the cloak off of James, and wrapped it around. She was expecting an itchy material on the inside, but it was surprisingly silky. And sure enough, when she looked down, she was completely invisible. Elodie sighed. "Back before 9?"
"Meeting a boy I need to worry about, love?" He raised an eyebrow, grinning like a menace. Because he is one. She thought. "100%, it's... Severus. I have just been so in love with him since I first laid eyes on him in 1st year." She fake sniffled, making James laugh loudly.
"Okay, under the cloak, Juliet." She smiled at him, joining the boy under the magic cloth. "Later, Padfoot!" He called out. "Bye, Prongs. Don't get caught!"
*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
"Why do your friends call you Prongs?" The two were in the streets of Hogsmeade, lights glimmering against the thin layer of snow. Elodie had been picking at a chocolate frog James had bought her when the question came to mind.
"It's just a little nickname we gave each other. Sirius is Padfoot, Remus is Moony and then Pete is Wormtail." He responded half-honestly. Sure, him being an Animagus was his secret, but he didn't want to spill too much out and reveal anything to Elodie.
"Wormtail? Pete drew the short straw, then." He grinned. Yeah, poor bastard's a rat. Though, being a small rodent has more perks than a stag, he's guessing. "I'd certainly say so." El cleared some snow off of one of the benches, and sat down to finish her frog. James followed suit, lighting a cigarette instead
"Can I?" She gestured to the cigarette. Merlin, if her parents could see her now - with James Potter, offering her a cigarette. Fuck them, she thought. She's already shaming them by breathing. May as well go the extra mile.
James handed over the cigarette, and she reluctantly took a drag, almost immediately coughing it back up. He laughed slowly, getting a glare in response. "Here, imagine it's like, a straw. But inhale after you've done it." She reluctantly followed his instructions, finding it much easier, though the tingle in her throat screamed at her.
She breathed out, watching the smoke leave her lips. "Good?" He asked. She took another drag, this one feeling much easier, and exhaled. Handing him back his cigarette, she nodded. "Not too bad."
The bell chimed, earning the attention of Elodie and James. "If you want to be back by nine for your greasy boyfriend, we best be going now." James stood off the bench, offering his hand to El. "Why thank you, your highness." She spoke elegantly, taking his hand. "Of course, my fair lady."
They eventually wound up at the castle, walking closely under the cloak back to the common room, and James escorted her back to her dorm room. "Thank you for today. I know it might not have meant much to you, but.."
"But?"
"But it was nice." She backtracked. "Goodnight, James." She smiled, and stepped away from him, closing the door behind her. Both teens, despite feeling like they both hadn't said enough, walked away from one another - knowing full well they'd lose sleep over the encounter.
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!AUTHORS NOTE!
i feel like im making them catch feelings too fast but i need to move the plot