here you are again
james
James walked into his first day of potions class in 5th year and there he was. He turned to Sirius with a quizzical look.
"Why is Crouch in our potions class? He's a 4th year." Sirius shrugged but Lily who was right behind him answered.
"He's an absolute genius, Slughorn insisted on placing him in a higher classes. Apparently he can do wandless magic to make his potions." Lily said with wide eyes, glancing slowly over at Barty.
"Yeah I remember that." James said under his breath, earning a confused look and a 'What' from Lily before the class' attention was pulled to their teacher.
Professor Slughorn, or as the Marauders affectionately called him, The Slug, was an older man with greying, thick hair, combed over the side, impeccable sideburns, a dainty voice and a large stomach. He was the Head of Slytherin and showed this by nearly always wearing green, unless on days the Chuddly Canons were playing, on which he had their colors on. That was about the only thing James liked about The Slug.
The Slug favored Slytherins, didn't completely accommodate James and his struggles in the classroom, even after being asks, and told to do so by McGonagal. He told awful jokes, had a dumb club that he always seemed to schedule during Gryffindor practices taking the students in his club who were on the team away from practice. And now The Slug had put Barty Crouch in the 5th year potions class.
"In this class each of you will sit at a table with two other people. All group projects this year will be in groups of three and your table mates will always be your partners." He started to call out the group assignments. James was praying he'd be placed with Sirius and Remus, or with Lily and Peter. "Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Dorcas Meadows." Goddamnit. James thought to himself, maybe he'd still be with Peter or Lily, he could use their help, especially in The Slugs class.
"James Potter, Lily Evans, and" Please say Peter. "Barty Crouch. Over there, please." James heart sunk as Slughorn pointed to a table in the back of class. Lily gave him an empathetic look as she grabbed his hand and guided him over to the table. The table was round so there was no way James could get out if sitting beside Barty.
"Hello Barty, I'm Lily, I believe we've met before. You're in The Slug Club, correct?" Lily let go of James's hand, which made him anxious, causing his hand to shake as he held it beside himself. She outstretched that hand to Barty, allowing him to shake it.
"Yes I am. We have met before, though I believe it was at the last Gryffindor quidditch match, before the club started up again." Lily nodded, seeming to remember the memory. She grabbed James hand again, which instantly calmed James down, his fidgeting tended to get much, much worse when he had an abnormal episode and his anxiety was worse. She gestured to James with a smile, squeezing his hand light, reassuring him that she was there for him, she was the one most aware of how he felt when he had, as he called it, a downer, or a bad episode, she knew he hating talking to new (as far as she knew) people when he was in a downer.
"This is James, James Potter, I don't know if you know him?"
"I know him, hello James, nice to see you again." He held out his hand but switched it when he noticed that James hand was occupied as Lily held it on the table. James shook the younger boys hand, a pit landed in his stomach with an odd fuzzy feeling as James carefully let go of the others hand.
The three stayed in silence for a moment, as Lily scratched out a note on a piece of paper.
"So, are you two together?" Barty asked, a smirk on his face. James head quickly snapped up from his lap.
"No, no, no, no. We're just friends." The older said rapidly.
"So you hold hands with all your friends or?"
"Yes. Got a problem with that?" Barty shook his head defensively.
"Nah, I do the same thing, just didn't vibe check thar from you at the first instance." he insisted.
James nodded and turned his attention to the note Lily passed him. The note read 'You already knew him? I thought you told Sirius you had never been friends with his brother's friends? Crouch is Regulus's friend right? Also why did you say you remembered he was super smart when I told you earlier?'
The jig is up. James thought to himself. He sighed and started writing an explanation on the parchment.
'Me and Barty were like best friends when we were younger, like he came over more than Marlene and Peter did. I went off to Hogwarts and we talked a lot less and when he got sorted into Slytherin it was the time when Sirius made his "No Slytherin friends" thing and I had to stop talking to him. I really only send him Christmas cards now. I wanted to start talking to him again but not by being forced to. I kinda wanted to go to him on my own but The fucking Slug had to pair us with him before I could talk to him.'
James passed the note back over to Lily, his mind racing as she waited for him to respond. Eventually she did with a small question.
'We have our next class together and I think his is around there. Do you want to walk with him and you guys can catch up?'
Pass it back. 'That would be great Lils.'
•
"So Barty, wanna walk to class with us?" Lily asked Barty as James kissed Sirius goodbye on the cheek and Peter and Remus on their foreheads.
"Sure. I have History of Magic, what do you guys have?"
"Well let's see, after class with The Slug we have Minnie's class." James answered and Lily translated that "Minnie" meant Professor McGonagal, and that meant transfiguration.
"The Slug?" Barty laughed at the name, "yeah it's what we call Slughorn, we don't like him and it kinda fits." Barty kept laughing as he walked with the pair.
"I might just steal that Jamie. Might be in Slytherin but I am not too fond of him either." James blushed at the nickname Barty used to call him.
They'd both changed a lot in the years they hadn't talked. James had gotten talker, more athletic. He had been diagnosed as Bipolar. He had come out of the closet, only to his friend group but that was a big step from having a secret, huge crush on his old prefect, Frank Longbottom.
Barty had changed much more than he had. He still had the same grey eyes that could catch as green, but now they were darker and had a hint of blue. His sandy brown hair had been died a dark brown, likely to create a contrast between him and his father. James remembered Barty had always complained that his hair looked weird. The under-layer had also been bleached and dyed a bright green. He was much, much taller, landing at maybe 6'1 or 2 (185 cm), James was 5'11 (180 cm), and best of all, the Slytherin now had defining abs from his days on the quidditch pitch. James thought he looked amazing. Not that he'd admit that.