Saturday (Qualifying)
It seemed to Lily that she barely had time to blink and she was already being ushered inside of the garage with a new set of headphones on her head. She had been told that finding the F1 Academy paddock was easy and she simply must go see Marlene, who—contrary to the male part of Mercedes—was consistently bringing good results for the team ever since the season started.
The Academy’s paddock was modelled after F1’s, situated a five-minute walk around the corner, save for some barricades and a security turnstile. She searched for the Mercedes logo and found the garage very quickly. The biggest difference that came to Lily’s attention compared to Formula 1 was the fact that Marlene, already clad in the sleek all-black racing suit, had waited in the garage with the engineers, her hands on her hips as she’d spoken to them in hushed, rapid English. All of that made Lily feel more like an intruder there than back in the official F1 paddock.
Now Marlene was doing wonders out the track and Lily was watching her intently. They spoke for a mere few minutes, but Lily took an instant liking to the woman. She was self-confident, sure, but Lily was beginning to understand without some amplitude of arrogance it was impossible to make it in the sport.
And Lily felt a degree of mortification when one of the engineers tore Marlene away from work in favour of talking to Lily, but Marlene seemed to be perfectly relaxed. Happy, even, given that she spoke of watching Lily in her previous productions.
It occurred to Lily that the two of them could become good friends if only the circumstances in which they met were slightly different. Just as she was contemplating the opportunity missed as a result of some cruel twist of fate, she was jolted from her thoughts by the sound of delighted claps and cheers echoing through the garage—so different from the previous experience with the Mercedes boys. It was something they talked about as well in the brief few minutes of the chat (“No, they don’t make my car, fortunately. The engines are all equal here in F1 Academy. Actually, their main role is posting on social media and giving me their logo to wear on my car and the suit. I think when it comes down to it, Prema gives me more actual support, so I have deepest sympathy for the boys, but we are not in this together.”) and even though Lily had no clue what Prema was and she didn’t find the time to ask, she sensed a brief satisfaction on the side of Marlene. After all, steering clear of twelfth or sixteenth appeared to be a good idea.
Lily fixed her gaze on the lap times shown on the screens, where—well, she could’ve predicted that—Marlene was topping the sheets, her results seemingly unbeatable by any of the other drivers. Despite her lack of understanding of the technical aspects of racing, it was clear that Marlene's results were impressive, consistently outperforming her competitors. It soon became clear to her that Marlene had managed to secure double pole position in the morning session, and now was doing wonders in race 1. Lily dutifully clapped with the rest of the garage; suddenly overwhelmed by the urge to congratulate Marlene as a person, and not Marlene as the driver for the team that literally invited her to the paddock.
For some reason this watching and observing, cheering and clapping reminded her of James—the intensity in his eyes, the way he had looked at her with an almost magnetic smile. She couldn’t shake the image of him from her mind; he was stuck there and she was stuck watching the same scene replaying over and over again, until the way he smiled and his eyes crinkled was carved inside of her skull.
In any way, when the time came and Marlene returned to the garage, Lily had completed the unfathomable task of pushing James into a teeny tiny box in the depths of her thoughts: he was a driver who met thousands of models and actresses every race weekend. She would not allow herself to fall apart under the guise of- what exactly? A handsome man smiling at her?
So when Marlene was back, Lily clapped her hand and allowed the woman to pull her into a hug. Well, she was now a person who hugged the people she just met, but it was fine, because Marlene was smiling and she seemed familiar and absolutely lovely and Lily already thought of her as a friend.
“Congratulations. Absolutely unbeatable, you are,” Lily said in one breath when they pulled away.
Marlene didn’t have time to reply as she was already being guided towards three hundred different tasks and duties, but Lily promised to herself she would not miss the second F1 Academy race on Sunday, because James was unattainable and she would rather not think about Lockhart and Wilkes at all, but if she could cheer for one person, then surely that was Marlene.
Mary
[2:48 pm]
i think the mercedes girl is better
than any of those arseholes
hm
might that opinion be affected by your complete
and utter lack of any f1 knowledge whatsoever?
harsh.
and undeserved
hmmmmm
is it?
im completely serious. she is lovely
youd LOVE her
okay okay im sure youre right
me and
marlene mckinnon would make great friends
did you just google her?????
maryyyyyy :))
wait
where tf is frank
And well, it might’ve been completely obvious and predictable that Frank was stuck in the Red Bull garage, where celebrations were timid and stifled in favour of preparation for quali. Upon seeing him standing around, doing approximately nothing, Lily had to fight a dramatic eye roll.
“Frank!” She shouted upon entering the garage, suddenly not one to care about adding one more noise to the chaos of the place. “What are you even doing here?”
It took him a second to realise someone was calling him, but when he did he waved at her to join him. “James allowed me to sit here and… observe,” he added in a dramatic tone.
“Oh my gosh,” she let out a frustrated sigh. “You were supposed to watch the Academy race with me.”
Frank straightened up at the accusation. “I watched the race. From here. And I cheered.”
Hearing that Lily was no longer able to suppress the eye roll that took hold of her. She shook her head, half amused and half exasperated by Frank's antics. “You're impossible. You’re no better than a child that is allowed to watch his favourite cartoon character at Disneyland.”
“Except… This is real,” Frank said, clearly not understanding the correlation. “And James is very nice.”
Lily was about to retort when she felt a sudden impact against her side, causing her to stumble slightly. Startled, she turned to see a man standing there, looking equally surprised.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" the man exclaimed, his voice tinged with concern. "I didn't see you there."
Lily blinked, trying to regain her composure. He was much taller than her and had the most familiar accent. “It's alright,” she replied, offering a small smile. “No harm done.”
When her brain came to the conclusion that all four of her limbs were at their correct places, she looked the man up and down closely, and upon more careful inspection realised she did recognise his face features, the way his lips curved when he spoke and his mess of brown-ish hair.
“Remus?” she said, the name slipping out before she could stop herself. For the few seconds he left her hanging, she suddenly felt embarrassment creep up her face at the thought that she was misremembering and she mistook him for someone, but surely not-
“Lily Evans?” he exclaimed, recognition dawning on his face as he looked down at her, his surprise evident. “Oh- Wow, I can't believe it's you!”
“Yeah, I was not sure, because you’ve changed so much, but oh gosh is it nice to see you again… I thought- I was sure you’d do something with science, but I didn’t expect for you to end up in Formula 1 out of all things.”
"It's funny, really," he began, his tone tinged with a hint of disbelief. “After school, I did a degree in engineering, and I ended up specialising in mechanical engineering, focusing on dynamics and aerodynamics… Which was obviously great in itself. I worked a lot under, uhm, Kier Rossi and he helped me a lot… He was also the reason why, when he retired, I got a call from Red Bull, completely out of the blue,” Remus laughed, his eyes sparkling.
Lily looked down on the iPad in his hands. “And you work as a…?”
“Oh, yeah. Well, somehow I got along with Sirius so well that I became his race engineer? Which, don’t ask me to explain, I still don’t understand myself. But he was young and he wanted someone young, and I was there and Red Bull liked me, so… Here I am. But enough about me, bollocks, Lily, what are you doing here?” He looked at her as if he couldn’t actually believe she was standing before him.
They went separate ways after high school, for reasons she couldn’t quite recall (but which were possibly connected to him being swept into all the fancy schools for extremely smart people and her taking a gap year to help her family). But they were good friends when they were teenagers, and Remus was fully aware of her dream to become an actress—though at that moment it had certainly seemed to be an unattainable one.
“Me and Frank are here to promote the new movie,” she explained, turning around to point at her co-star who had an utterly bewildered expression on his face, as if he was watching a sped up movie and expected to understand the plot.
“Don’t tell me you’re doing the Bond-”
“I am doing the Bond!” Lily said, laughing loudly. She was doing the Bond. She auditioned and she got the role and now she was in freaking Florida filming the Bond.
“That’s incredible. So bloody incredible,” Remus said with soft amazement in his eyes, as if he wasn’t just seconds ago telling her about his completely unbelievable career in motorsport. “I’d love to talk to you more, but I really promised Sirius I’d get him these data and he’s dying to see what’s going wrong- Well, anyway, it was incredible to see you, Lily. Will you be here for the race tomorrow?” Remus asked, narrowing his eyes.
“I will be, yeah,” Lily assured him, skipping the part where she admitted that it was actually Mercedes that invited them, and not Red Bull. But he looked at her with hope and she suddenly felt seventeen again and she was not going to pass up on this opportunity to see her friend again.
“Good! Good. I’ll see you, then.”
“Yes, I’ll be-”
But she didn’t finish, because he was already gone, running towards where undoubtedly Sirius was waiting for him, excitement visible in every step that he took. She smiled to herself.
Crypto.Com Miami Grand Prix Qualifying Results
FIA Official Report
- James Potter (RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT) 1:27.241
- Amos Diggory (FERRARI) 1:27.382
- Bertram Aubrey (FERRARI) 1:27.455
- Sirius Black (RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT) 1:27.460
- Fabian Prewett (MCLAREN MERCEDES) 1:27.594
- Gideon Prewett (MCLAREN MERCEDES) 1:27.675
- Rupert Wilkes (MERCEDES) 1:28.067
- Gilderoy Lockhart (MERCEDES) 1:28.107
- Regulus Black (RB HONDA RBPT) 1:28.192
- Rabastan Lestrange (HAAS FERRARI) 1:28.146
By the time James could finally return to his own garage, he was feeling decidedly perturbed by the press conference. Two conferences in one day was criminal! There was already Thursday that was overflowing with media activities, and now the insatiable vultures were taking over his Saturday as well? How many times could he possibly give practically the same answer to questions about the new updates without running out of all the available synonyms?
The updates were good. Obviously he’s glad he got pole position. It was hard to make sure that sector one felt good and sector three at the end of the lap. But securing pole’s the most important. The upgrades were good. Yes, Ferrari were strong in qualifying. No, he’s sure both he and Sirius will do good in the race. Yes, Amos is known for strong starts. No, James is not really afraid. Horseshit after horseshit on top of even bigger horseshit.
And this time Sirius was not even there. How could he possibly endure all the prodding and digging with the knowledge that for all he knew Sirius could be happily enjoying himself at the same moment?
When he returned to the garage, Peter was already waiting for him.
“You did well. Debrief at 5:30.”
James nodded absent-mindedly. “Where’s Sirius?”
“He’s back in his motorhome. He doesn’t want to be disturbed,” Peter said, avoiding meeting James’ eye.
“What do you mean ‘not disturbed’?” James frowned. “What could he possibly be doing there?”
“Remus should know… But I’ve no idea where Remus is, actually,” Peter smiled apologetically. “Sorry, James. Relax and, erm, just join us for the debrief.”
But James could not relax and wait until 5:30.
He felt as if Sirius was genuinely, deliberately avoiding him. And it was… a bad feeling. They grew up together in the Red Bull Academy and have been best friends for years before signing as teammates for the team. They had been through so much together, both on and off the track. And they were going strong. What could possibly come in between them, surely it couldn’t have been the-
“Oh, hi!” He heard somewhere off to the side and glanced to see Lily Evans out of all people, her hands supporting two tall drinks she was carrying towards the inside of the garage.
“Want a drink?” She asked.
“No, can’t drink alcohol before a race Sunday-” James replied quietly, before realising she was joking. When he heard her laugh it occurred to him he walked right into this one, and the crease between his eyebrows smoothed out.
“I know, obviously,” Lily smiled. “I was just making conversation. You look a bit down. Not exactly how I imagine a pole sitter should look.”
James chuckled softly, appreciating the attempt at levity. "Yeah, I guess I'm just preoccupied with a few things. But I'll get into the right mindset before the race tomorrow," he assured her, flashing a small smile. “Can’t let my guests down, obviously. You’re here for a reason.”
She cleared her throat. “Uhm, actually, it was Mercedes that formally invited me and Frank. We’re here… I don’t know how and why. I don’t know who let us in, but Frank can be very… persuasive, when he wants to be.”
“Oh, yes of course, you told me that,” James nodded. “Sorry, I just got so used to the idea- Of course, you mentioned meeting Lockhard and Wilkes.”
“Yeah,” she smiled, softly and tentatively. “Well, they didn’t do great, but if me and Frank were after team performance, we’d have to hunt down the Ferraris and beg them to take us in.”
“Ferrari? No, it can’t possibly- Oh, did Sirius qualify P4? He did, didn’t he?” James looked slightly lost as he tried to recount what Peter told him on the radio. “Well, P4 is still a very good position to start from…”
“P4 is not pole,” Lily said quietly, hesitant to disturb his thought process.
James finally glanced at her. “Yes. You’re right.”
And for some inexplicable reason that he couldn’t elaborate on even if he wanted to, looking at her bright eyes and careful smile made him feel the same way his pre-race routine did: the thoughts calmed down and quieted, and he could finally and actually understand what his mind was trying to convey. Like taking a deep breath.
“You’re right,” he repeated for good measure. “I guess I just don’t understand why Sirius is behaving the way he is…”
Lily tilted her head to the side and in the millisecond he found that if she let him, he’d tell her everything about himself; he could speak for hours upon hours if only she was listening to him with the same gentle expression.
“What’s wrong with Sirius?”
“Shit, what’s wrong with Sirius,” James echoed hopelessly. “I’d like to know myself.”
“Well, you’re friends, aren’t you? I’m sure if only you wanted you could go and ask him,” she offered. “That’s what I like to do with people I care about.”
His mouth tightened into a thin line. “The issue is, I’m pretty certain that he’s avoiding me.”
“Why?”
Why, why, why… It was as much of a mystery to James himself. Had he missed something? A subtle shift in Sirius's demeanour, perhaps? Or was it something deeper, something left unsaid between them? James wracked his brain, trying to pinpoint the moment when things had started to feel different. Was it Miami? Or China, or Japan, or Australia?
“I don’t think confronting will work for Sirius. He’s been through a tough childhood and I don’t think he responds well to being cornered. He sort of has this fight-or-flight response.”
“Maybe Regulus then? Frank told me they’re brothers. Maybe he could-”
She didn’t finish her sentence because James let out a dry laugh, devoid of any humour.
“I think that’d end awfully. They’re not exactly close, the two of them,” he mused quietly, thinking back to all the times Sirius would cry and shout and destroy half the appliances in the room they shared at the Potters’ home. The way the brothers would not shake hands in the paddock unless absolutely forced to, but when faced with the media they still kept up the great act of pretending. At this point it was an entire play, written and orchestrated with the collective effort.
“Oh,” Lily sighed quietly.
“Yeah,” James looked at her. “I’m sorry, I’m keeping you here talking about my personal problems as if you’ve nothing better to do.”
“Don’t worry about it. I actually don’t have anything better to do. Me and Frank are just hanging around because he’s still taking it all in, but we’ll be out of here very soon. We’re probably overstaying our welcome anyway, considering the fact that we were never actually invited.”
“Come on now, everyone wants to host the stars of the new smash hit movie. It’s iconic.”
“ Frank is a star,” Lily corrected him. “I’m only on my way to become one.”
James raised an eyebrow, his eyes narrowing in amused disagreement as if he was carefully considering the idea. “Eh, I think you’re as much of a star as him already. And you need to listen to me and admit I’m right, because I am the pole-sitter and you’re not.”
She laughed, shaking her head. “Has that line ever worked for you?”
“With my parents, maybe.”
Peter
[5:38 pm]
debrief!!
james!!!!!!
debrief, mate!!
were waiting for you
come on now, half an hour ago
you were eager to get this over with
jaaaaaaameeeeeeeeess
sirius is here!!
james??? are you dead???