Their forced claps filled my ears happily, while I did a little dance around the alley. Sirius was making a big deal out of it and was bowing to me like I was the Queen. Queen of Bowling!
Of course, I smashed them all. When I say smashed, I mean all of them but James. That jerk lost by two points, but notice the lost part of that sentence and therefore...
"I WIN! BOW TO YOUR BOWLING QUEEN!" When they didn't, and even Sirius stopped, I guess he doesn't like to be ordered, I crossed my arms and glared. "I. Said. Bow."
Poor Peter did. Turns out he doesn't have a problem with being ordered about, it's almost like he enjoys having a master to follow. Someone could use that to their advantage, I thought.
Sirius and James just matched my glare, they looked like they were almost identical in expression; it was clear why they were best friends.
Remus just rolled his eyes with a smile; it amused him, but he wasn't going to follow through.
Boys.
"You only won by two points," James pointed out with a frown. "That's hardly anything," then he crossed his arms too. "And you know what, you've done this before, so it wasn't fair."
Why does that boy have to make so much sense? It's the glasses, right? Makes him some kind of genius. Figures.
"Well, I still won," I said back.
"What are we gonna do now?"asked Sirius.
I thought. We could go to the cinema, but then they'd likely get bored and start talking and we'd get kicked out. Plus, I use that cinema, I don't want to get banned because of these morons.
Then there's the option of eating at the burger bar, I'm always up for food, but then we'd be full for my mum's meal, so that's also a no no.
I paused. Oh, this is good.
"I have just the thing," I said, smiling at them mischievously.
They glanced at each other, uncertainly. "Why do I regret asking that question now?"
***
The roller skating ring was almost empty. I guess most people do ice skating in the winter, maybe it fits the scenery. Maybe they just don't want to risk the injuries that may come from falling onto your butt repeatedly at full speed. Which, may I add, is exactly why I'm here.
I yanked on my skates and then watched the boys doing it too. They seemed so confident, even Peter seemed to be eyeing the ring like it was his next enemy to concur.
Can I point out that they didn't even know that muggles did this for fun? Therefore, I'm hoping this will be one of those things that I have nailed and they haven't. For I used to come here with my dad every Friday when I was younger for the disco. He even taught me to go backwards.
I stood up gracefully. Not to brag, I didn't do it that gracefully, but compared to the guys I looked an angel rising through the clouds.
James and Sirius, who had just seen me stand up and must have figured that if I could do it then they could (they were totally wrong!), briskly got up of their chairs and stood up straight. Or at least they tried to. They both wobbled and grabbed on to each other in attempts to steady one another, this just caused them to wobble more and fall on top of each other, James lying face down on top of Sirius who was lying on his back.
Peter stood up at the same time as them and didn't get as far, he got onto his feet and then, in the blink of an eye, he was on his butt, blinking around in shock.
The only one who managed to stand up was Remus. He seemed to have a pretty good balance, but I suspect it was because he had taken his time to stand and pushed himself up with the chair using it as support.
So, with the other sprawled on the floor, we stared down at them as their superiors.
Sirius looked up at James, who was still lying on top off him, with a twinkle in his eyes. "I never knew you felt about me this way, Prongs," he said, his face completely serious. "But if you wanted me, you didn't have to jump on me, you only had to ask."
I rolled my eyes, helping James up off his friend/lover and held his shoulders to steady him. Once he was in place, I leant down to do then same with Sirius, who cracked at smile at me. "Oh, Evans," he said, as I began to help him up. "Get jealous because James loves me, did you?"
"Sorry, Black, I'm to busy helping your boyfriend." I decided that he didn't deserve helping, so halfway up I let go off his hand and let him drop back to the floor with a bang.
The others burst into laughter and Sirius had to struggle to get back up on his own, which he eventually did.
I turned to them, seeing that Peter had been helped up by Remus. "Okay," I informed them, back into teacher mode that I had already used once today. "Now for the difficult part: moving." I began to skate onto the rink and once I did, I stared at them. They all stared back expectantly, wanting more information. "Oh," I said, feigning surprise by placing a hand on my mouth. "You wanna know how."
They all nodded at this like it was obvious.
"Sorry," I laughed, doing a little twirl. "You're gonna have to work that out yourself. If I told you, it would be no fun for me."
They all glared and attempted to shuffle forward while I watched from the ring. Remus was the first to succeed, he then helped Peter and Sirius managed to push himself off the wall and slide into the ring. James, however, was stuck.
"Come on!" He yelled in annoyance, holding his arms out in attempt for balance. "Help me!"
I laughed and skated over to him. "What the Quiditch Captain can't balance on skates?"
He crossed his arms. "It's nothing like a broom," he protested, wobbling and putting his arms back out again. "My broom loves me, these skates clearly do not."
It was just like him to talk as if his beloved broom had feelings. However, I was beginning to feel sorry for him, so I took his shoulders and guided him to the ring. "You talk about your broom like you want to marry it."
He let out a small laugh. "Our relationship is more of a siblings sort," he muttered, focusing on his feet.
Once we made it onto the ring, I released him. The others were already half the way around: Sirius and Remus getting the hang of it and Peter pulling himself around the edge it large yanks. He was pretty red in the face and seemed to be drawing in large gulps of air, the poor guy clearly had terrible stamina.
I started to skate slowly next to James. "It should be easier here," I said, pointing at the floor. "It's flat."
He began to inch his feet forward, the move was only just edging him forward. It was kind off pathetic to watch really.
"You kind of have to push your feet behind you," I said, going a bit quicker to show him. "Like this."
When I turned back around to watch him, he had an expression of complete concentration on his face, like he really really wanted to do it: his eyebrows were knitted together, his eyes narrowed on the ground, biting his lip. Dragging my eyes away from his lips, I noticed he still wasn't really moving, so I took his hand and began to attempt to pull him around the ring. It was harder than I expected because he was heavier than me, but I could still do it.
"You have to push outwards when you want to turn," I informed him, focusing on his feet. "Once you get moving, you should be able to keep your pace and just keep rolling. If you want to stop, your supposed to put the front of your toe down, but if I were you, if I'd just stop by grabbing the wall cause you'll be less likely to fall over backwards-even though that would be funny- I recommend not doing it-" that's when I realised that I was rambling. Stupid word vomit!
I looked up from our feet, blushing slightly, to find James staring at me. His glasses were slipping down his nose and he pushed them back up. While he did this, he then moved the same hand and tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear, his hand hovering by my cheek for a few seconds. My face seemed to be literally on fire, but he didn't seem to notice, he just bit his lip and continued starring at me.
I wish he wouldn't do that, I thought, staring at his bottom lip, which he now stopped biting.
That's when I discovered how close we were. I was still clutching his hand, keeping him help up, even though we had stopped moving, and he was now facing me. He began to move closer to me and I started to panic.
Didn't I just decide that we should stay how we were. I should focus on my studies and he has Quiditch season and we both have Head Boy and Head Girl duties, so I should focus.
Right now, all I can do is focus on him.
Our faces are about a centre meter away and I closed my eyes.
Something smashed into my side and we both toppled to the ground, which was surprisingly more comfortable than it would have thought. I began to blink around in confusion, when I realised that it wasn't the ground that I had landed on, but James' chest.
"Sorry,"I mumbled, blushing again.
I pulled myself up and brushed myself down. James was being helped up by Sirius, who was clearly the one who had hurtled into us on his skates. He was pissing himself with laughter, but immediately stopped when James whispered something to him, causing him to look back and fourth between the two of us.
"You alright there, Evans?" Sirius asked.
I collected myself and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine." Glancing around, I could see Remus trying to help a struggling Peter at the other side of the ring, yanking him in my direction.
James began to walk over to me. "Are you sure," he asked, holding a hand out.
I don't know what he planned to do with it, all I could think about was what had just happened and that I wasn't in the mood to talk about it with the approaching crowd. So, before he could quite reach me, I began to skate backwards and yelled, "I'm fine." Then I did a little twirl and skated off it the other direction.
Why, I thought, does this keep happening?
***
I glanced at my watch. "We should head back," I said to Remus. "My mum will be expecting us about now."
He looked at the Sirius, who then gave him a small nod. I wondered what they were saying in their sophisticated code.
Sirius gave me a small smile. "Okay."
We headed outside to apparate, when Remus hit himself over the head. "Merlin's beard," he yelled out. "I totally forgot. Sirius, Peter, my mum said she need you to help her with something! Like, now."
I looked between them, raising an eyebrow in disbelief. "For what?"
"Oh, yeah!" Sirius cried. "Yeah, I remember."
Peter looked around in confusion, not quite knowing what was going on, when Sirius gave him a small nudge and, for some reason, he remembered. "Oooh, yeah," he called out.
I cocked a hip. "I'm sorry, but you guys have terrible acting skills, you know that don't you?"
Sirius shook his head in a way that was way over the top. "No, Lily, he's being serious," he tried to convince me.
Remus shrugged. "Uh huh, she really does need help."
With that, the three of them apparated on the spot, leaving just me.
Me and James.
I'm totally going to kill those jerks.
I was planning on ignoring him. I had it all mentally organised: I would sit at the head of the table, he would sit two seats down, neither next to or facing me; I would make conversation with Remus about something subject related and the others would not know what was going on; when we'd finished, I'd say how tired I was and make them go home.
But, now...
I was going to kill them!
James looked at me with a smile on his face. "So, are we going? I'm starving."
That idiot was enjoying this. Oh, I'm going to- well you get the idea.
"Fine," I forced out, pretty pissed off. This is so not what I was hoping would happen. I mean, I think I just nearly kissed the guy, after swearing so many times I would rather die than even go on a date with him. What's wrong with me?
I had wanted time to work out what was going on. To think and sit, sit and think, but how was I supposed to do that with him smiling at me like that and just looking damn right distracting.
I took his hand, keeping my eyes in front of me, and side along apparated us.
We stood outside my house, we couldn't apparate inside after I put up the protections, so I pulled out my key and unlocked the door. "Mum! Dad! I'm home!"
My mum came flouncing into the room with a giant smile on her face. Her hair was wrapped in a bun at the nap of her neck and she had a pink apron over her clothes. "Lily!" She exclaimed. "Finally, we were starting to wonder-" she then noticed that only James stood behind me and frowned, "but where are the others?"
"They had to go home for a family matter," I shot a glare at James who just shrugged. "But James is here." Unfortunately.
My mum smiled. "Oh, that's okay," she said, leading us through the hall. "We have an extra guest anyway."
"Who?"
My mum lead us into the kitchen. "Petunia's boyfriend has finally come to visit," she gestured to a boy, who was facing away from me. "Lily, this is Vernon. Vernon Dursley."
Oh, God.
***
What is it with Sirius and interrupting, huh? On one hand, the poor guy is trying to help them out, but then he keeps messing it up.
And poor Lily. What must be going on in her head and with the new visitor, things can only get worse.
And guys... Over 800 reads!! Thank you so much, this has made me so happy!
Thanks for reading!
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