Sarah's walking quickly around the Great Lake, her Slytherin robes billowing behind her. She was supposed to meet a friend to study, but she'd lost track of time, what with arguing with those four idiotic Gryffindors.
"Oi, Ambre!" The annoying voice of Sirius Black yells.
She turns around, her long black hair flying out in an arc before landing back smoothly around her shoulders. "What?" She snaps.
Potter grins from beside his friend. His arm is thrown around Pettigrew as all four of them try to suppress laughter. "You're beautiful, you know."
"What?" She demands, her irritation not lessened by the almost seemingly sincere compliment. This is James Potter she's dealing with, after all, and what reason has he to compliment her?
"Even with your hair dyed maroon." He continues.
Remus Lupin is the first to start laughing, and the others join.
Sarah looks down at her hair, her mouth dropping open. Had they dared to go there?
Luckily for her, not only was her mother a witch, but her father just so happened to be the Greek god of the sea. (This, of course, wasn't so lucky for the boys. They couldn't count on both hands the number of times they'd been drenched).
She raises her hand and water gushes up from the lake, dropping all at once onto the self-proclaimed "Mauraders".
She swipes her hand, and the boys are swept into the lake with the water.
Could they swim? They'd find out. For now, though, they could keep the giant squid company.
"Oi! Rude!" Potter splutters from the water, clambering up onto a rock, dripping.
"Was it?" She replies. "Poor baby. Get over it."
He raises his wand, so she jerks hers from her pocket as the others clamber up onto the shore.
"Prongs, maybe--" Lupin begins, but Potter's already cast his spell, so the other three loyally follow him into battle.
Sarah is top of all her classes, yes, but she has a particular talent in Defense Against the Dark Arts. After a fierce four-against-one battle, she leaves the boys lying on the ground groaning.
She walks into the library a little weary and with maroon hair, but the thought of showing those four who was boss made up for it--slightly; maybe not for the hair.
With the aid of her study partner, they change her hair back to it's normal sleek black. After which, her friend promptly starts laughing.
"Laugh away." Sarah says, cracking a smile.
After weeks of looking up before walking to check for mistletoe, she finally decided it was safe to go freely.
Boy was she wrong.
"I'm not kissing you." She says adamantly to James Potter as Black and his cronies walk away, keeling with laughter.
"I don't want to kiss you either." Potter snarls back.
"Take it down, Potter. I know you put it up."
"Me? Never! Why should I do something like that? I don't need mistletoe to get kissed, Princess."
"Don't call me that." She snaps.
"Okay, Princess."
"Do you just want to get punched?"
"By you? Sure. Do what you wish."
"Merlin, you're asking for it."
"Just kiss me. You know you wanna."
She crosses her arms and leans against the wall. "Looks like we're gonna be here a while."
"Fine." He crosses his arms and leans against the wall beside her.
"Fine." She counters.
A few hours later, and the halls are deserted except for the pair sitting angrily up against a wall.
"Are we really going to sit here in stony silence?" Potter asks finally, after several hours of not talking.
"Unless you have a plan to get us out of here."
"Not really, no. You're gonna have to kiss me one way or another. In case you don't know, this shit's enchanted--"
"No shit."
"And I'm the one asking for a beating." He rolls his eyes.
"Yep." She agrees.
"Sirius put this one up, not me. I'm not stupid enough to put it where I end up walking beside you often."
"Oh, would you look at that. Signs of intelligence."
Peeves zooms by, singing some stupid song about them and cackling.
"Shut up!" The two students yell after him.
"I'm gonna kill Sirius." James says.
She gives an appraising look. "If one of us dies in here, is the spell broken?"
"Getting desperate?"
"Are you not? What's the quickest way to a guy's heart?" She asks.
James Potter, for once in his life, is at a loss for words. "Uh..."
"Through his chest." She gives a sweet smile.
It wasn't really meant to be a joke. It kind of was, but she'd expected him to retort with a threat of the same. Instead, he starts laughing. After a while, Sarah joins in.
The tension broken, they both relax, albeit unconsciously. He pulls his tie off and starts tying and untying it in knots. She watches in silence.
Neither of them knew it, but the sun was rising over the horizon already. Another thing that neither of them knew: This mistletoe wasn't enchanted. Sirius had put it there to see how many would kiss to get out of it without checking. If either of them cared to, they could walk away. They hadn't tried during the whole night.
"I guess it wouldn't be so bad." Sarah finally says.
"Hm?" James asks, opening his eyes as her voice jerks him back to full consciousness.
"Nothing." She says. She's tired, but she's not tired enough to kiss James Potter. "Never mind."
"You just agreed to kiss me, didn't you?" James grins a sleepy little grin. With that and his naturally messy hair, he actually looked kind of adorable. He's tired, and he's definitely tired enough to kiss Sarah Ambre--did he really have to be all that tired to do that? He told himself he did.
"No." She turns her head away.
He reaches up and puts his slender fingers on her cheek, turning her head to face him. She doesn't resist. She closes her eyes, but when nothing happens, she opens them again. Her blue-gray eyes and his brown eyes meet, probably for the first time that night.
The other three Marauders are staked out behind a statue to watch the spectacle. Remus Lupin is up keeping watch, and he nudges the others awake, pointing.
"Are you gonna kiss me?" She asks.
"The better question is 'Are you gonna kiss me?' You're the Slytherin. You're supposed to be the ambitious one." James cracks a grin.
She tilts her head forward and kisses him. His lips curve into a smile as he reciprocates.
They break away at the same time, realizing what had just happened. They hurriedly scramble up and out from beneath the mistletoe.
James clears his throat. "Yeah, well. That was... Something." He says, his glasses askew.
"Yeah. Well." She says awkwardly.
"Sorry I turned your hair red."
"Sorry I drenched you and completely kicked your arse in a duel."
"Am I ever gonna live that one down?"
"Never. Don't forget your tie." She turns on her heel and walks away.
"Hey?" He calls.
She turns around to have him lean down for one last kiss.
"Goodnight, James."
"Goodnight, Sarah."
They turn in opposite directions: her heading for the dungeons, him for the Gryffindor tower.
"Hey?" He calls again.
She turns.
"See you around?" He says, but his voice lilts at the end, making it sound like a question, and it is one.
A smile plays at her lips. "See you around." She agrees.
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@SarahVn1