Chapter two
After an hour of letting James sulk, Euphemia came up to check on him, “You ok, love?” She asked, resting a hand on his shoulder, he nodded silently staring at the floor, “Do you want to come downstairs? We can watch something together, like old times.” She smiled fondly at the memory of little James pressed into her side on the couch while they watched cheesy movies.
“Sure mum.”
As they were watching the movie, James tried to stop thinking about the letters -with no success- he thought about how the other recipients might react to them, Frank had already graduated and he was always kind so he wasn’t too worried about him, and Jasper moved away last year, so that leaves Lily and Remus. James leapt to his feet and rushed out of the living room, shouting an apology to Euphemia, he rushed to his room and went through the window to their treehouse, he sent a text to his, Marlene and Peter’s group chat ‘3 musketeers’:
SOS
GET TO THE TREE HOUSE RN !!! ITS URGENT
Peter’s reply came a minute later: Can’t. Some of us didn’t cut class on the first day.
James frowned at his phone, didn’t Peter read his SOS? He sent another text:
Iam more important than school get over here wormtail.
He grabbed an old sketchbook someone let in there and looked through it as he waited for them to text back. It was ten minutes before someone did, it was Marlene:
you left school ??? I have never been prouder of you Jamie
🐝there in fifteen.
He spent those fifteen minutes thinking of the most horrible possible outcomes, he didn’t want anything to ruin his friendship with Remus and didn’t want to make things worse between him and Sirius. Marlene stumbled through the little window, hitting her head as she did, “Hey,” she said, looking James over, “you’re not bleeding. Why did you call an emergency meeting?”
“I wrote your girlfriend a love letter” He blurted out.
“What.”
“I wrote it years ago and it was just a stupid middle school crush and I don't know how it got sent and I wrote one or Remus and it was sent too and I don’t know what to do” He rambled.
Marlene stared at him.
“Help me,” he said meekly. She sighed and sat crisscrossed in front of him,
“Only you would write love letters like a lovesick 1800s girl.”
He frowned at her, “Don’t make fun of me.”
“Who did you write to? Other than my girlfriend and your best friend.” She asked him, leaning back on her hands, James shook his head,
“No way, I’m not telling.”
“Boring.” She complained, then continued, “Has Remus even seen the letter yet?”
“I don’t know” James groaned, “I ran home when Dorcas showed me the letter, I haven’t seen him all day.”
“Ask him about it.” She rolled her eyes at James’ incredulous stare, “You’ve been friends for ages , he’s not going to beat you up or anything.” James shrugged,
“Maybe he won’t notice it or just ignores it, then everything can stay normal.”
“You have horrible avoidance tendencies.”
He ignored her.
“Don’t tell Pete, he didn’t want to be here so he doesn’t get to know.” The corners of her mouth curved upwards.
“Very mature.”
“I am known for my maturity.” He said solemnly.
Marlene nodded, “Mhm, never known you to be immature.”
They spent the rest of the day in their treehouse talking about anything and everything, Marlene was trying to find solutions for James but he kept shooting them down,
“I don’t know how you expect this to get solved if you don’t want to do anything” Marlene lifted herself from James’s lap to grab a bag of crisps from the table, offering it to James after she opened it, “Problems don’t go away when you ignore them”
“Maybe they will this time,” At Marlene’s unimpressed look he shrugged, “What? It might.” She snorted,
“Sure, Jamie”
There was a knock at the door, “Password?” James and Marlene called out simultaneously.
“Flubberbusters”
“Wrong. That was last month’s, but I’ll let you in this time.” Marlene opened the door smiling at Fleamont, he smiled back ruling her hair,
“Thank you mija, your kindness does not go unnoticed.” He looked at James who looked like the personification of Teenage Angst, “What’s up with him?”
“He’s going through his emo phase” Marlene dodged the pillow James threw at her, “What, do you want me to tell him the truth?”
“Well if that’s not ominous,” Fleamont laughed, “You kids can keep your secrets. But you should come inside, it’s almost dinnertime”
“Will be right there, Dad,” James said, giving his dad a weak smile as he left, he laughed when Fleamont hit his head on the low ceiling.
“I wonder what we’re having, I hope it’s Pastelon” Marlene thought aloud as she picked up the trash they’d piled up throughout the day, “Let’s go JamJam” She nudged James and crawled through the window to James’ bedroom. Once inside Marlene grimaced at the mess, “Yikes”
James hummed and started picking up some of the things on the floor and threw them on his bed.
“I went a bit crazy looking for the letters,”
“No kidding,”
They went downstairs greeting Euphemia and Regulus, Marlene pinching the latter’s cheeks to annoy him,
“You’re staying for dinner, Marlene?” Regulus asked, getting out an extra plate when they nodded, he set it down on the table and sat down across from James, “So, James.” James let out a sigh at Regulus’ tone, wondering what he’d done now.“I heard you skipped school,”
"Snitch,” Marlene whispered, snickering at the deer-in-headlights look on James’ face.
Fleamont looked at James in surprise, “Why would you skip? It’s the first day, it’s not like they’re giving you a lot of work today.”
Euphemia passed out mango juice or everyone and patted James’ cheek, answering Fleamont for him, “He had a tough day, don’t give him a hard time, Monty”
Fleamont hummed but let it go, “How about you Regulus? How was your day?”
“Fine,” He muttered, taking a bite of his food to avoid having to talk anymore,
“That’s good,” Fleamont smiled at him and turned to Marlene, “How about you, was the first day horrible as always?”
“Uh, I don’t know.” He replied, taking a sip from his juice before continuing, “I left halfway through the day”
“You did?” Euphemia asked, she had thought that Marlene came over after the school day was over, and Marlene nodded.
“Can’t believe I’m the only one who attended the full day.”
“It’s because you’re a nerd, little Reggie.”
“Can you leave my house,”
“Can you stop being annoying?”
“Can you two stop disturbing my peace? I’m trying to enjoy my mum’s amazing cooking.”
After they finished dinner and Marlene went home, they sat down in the living room to call Sirius, James was worried that Remus might have told her about the letter, he really didn’t want to upset Sirius when she was so excited to be in France with Andromeda.
“Ciao!” Seeing Sirius’ face made James grin, he missed her so much and it’s only been one day, he didn’t know how he was going to survive three more months of this, and then he had to let her go again after winter break.
“James !!!” Sirius yelled when James took the phone from Regulus.
“Sirius !!!”
Regulus rolled his eyes at them, saying a quiet hi to Sirius. Fleamont and Euphemia smiled fondly at their boys and waved at Sirius.
“How’s France so far?”
“Do you like your flat?”
“How’s Andy?”
“Do you have everything you need?”
“Did you forget anything?”
“Amazing. Yes. Good. Yes. I don’t think so.” Sirius answered, smiling at his family, “How are you guys? How was the first day of school?”
“Everyone’s good! I left before the first period!”
“No way. This is a new record for us, I think”
“Why do you skip school so often?” Fleamont asked, looking very concerned.
“Don’t worry about it”
They talked for around an hour before Sirius had to go, saying goodbye was awful. James felt like his heart was being torn in half.
“Stop looking like you got stabbed. We’re talking to him this weekend.”
“I know, Reggie” He sighed.
James didn't sleep well, he spent most of the night staring at his ceiling, hoping that by morning all of his problems would solve themselves, but no such luck. He woke up feeling even worse than when he went to bed. Regulus had already gone to school, and his dad had gone to work. James trudged to the bathroom, splashing water on his face in hopes that he would feel better, it didn't help much, he sighed and went back to his room, grabbing his phone to check the time, he had already missed half of the first period.
He quickly got ready and rushed to the school, reached it right as the bell for second period rang, he stood outside of Peter's class to wait for him but quickly hid behind the wall when Remus came out of the class, he forgot they had the same first period, and he wasn't ready to face Remus yet. He wasn't sure he would ever be ready.
Peter was one of the last to exit the classroom,
"Pete"
"Jamie!" Peter greeted him "You're not skipping again, are you?"
"No." James said, bumping his shoulder, "My alarm didn't go off."
"Mk. Are you going to tell me what's going on with you?"
"No. You lost the privilege when you ignored my SOS message!"
Peter gave him a guilty look, "Sorry, mate. Mum would've killed me if I skipped."
"Whatever" James replied, he wasn't really upset with Peter.
They had gym together next so they changed into their p.e clothes. The coach made them run laps, on the second lap James heard someone call his name. It was Lily Evans. Fuck.
"Potter." She repeated, her eyes burning into his "I need to talk to you. Alone, please."
Peter looked at James, "Why is this happening again?" He gave him an unimpressed look and then ran ahead of them.
"What?" James was panicking, he did not expect her to confront him head-on so soon.
"Look, Potter. I'm flattered and all but I'm just not interested in you like that. And me and Mary just broke up." She sighed, "I'm not trying to be a bitch or anything but I just don’t like you."
"No- look, Evans..." he trailed off, "It's not- I didn't-" He didn't know how to fix this, or he could, she had already gotten the wrong idea and didn't even seem that mad about it.
"Just stop" She cut him off, "Please don't make a big deal about this, I just wanted to clear things up." She looked like she was going to say something else but decided against it, "I'm just going to go." She handed him the letter, "You can have this back, I guess." James stared at the letter, he went to walk away when Remus called his name.
"James!" He was holding his letter. there was no way both Remus and Lily decided now would be the perfect time to talk about this.
"Oh shit."
"Hm?" Lily questioned, she knew that Remus and James were best friends so she didn't know why he would be upset at Remus.
"Evans, I'm going to ask something beyond crazy." He warned. She looked confused, "Can I kiss you?"
"What??"
"It's an emergency!"
"That will only be solved if we kiss??"
"Evans?"
"Fine. Whatever, weirdo." She grabbed his shoulders and pulled him towards her, kissing him quickly, pulling back quickly.
Remus stopped dead in his tracks.
"Thanks, Evans. I owe you." James said then ran away like the coward he is. Marlene's going to tease him endlessly when she finds out.
Remus frowned at Lily, "You two are together now?"
"Uh," She shook her head, "No?" She was still reeling from the weirdness, she was used to being around James but being directly within his orbit of strangeness was bizarre.
"...Ok." Remus said, not convinced at all, "Well, I needed to talk to him about something."
"Yeah. Uh, he said he needed to do something urgent, that's why he left." Lily really did not know why she was covering for James Potter he annoyed the fuck out of her, "He didn't mean to avoid you or anything."
Remus was still looking at her suspiciously, "He didn't?"
"No, of course not, everything's fine." She said, "Everything's great."
"Okay,"
"Alright,”
"Good."
"Awesome.”
"Cool."
"Cool."
"I'll go now." Lily ran off, leaving a baffled Remus.
At the end of the school day, James found Lily waiting by his car, he sighed, said goodbye to Peter and walked towards her, "Hey, Evans."
"Hey, Potter" She replied, "Look. What was that about earlier?"
"That," He laughed nervously, "was a misunderstanding, I swear."
She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, "A misunderstanding? You said you had an emergency that can only be solved by us kissing? I have never heard of an emergency like that outside of fairy tales."
James was panicking, his eyes flitting around, searching for a believable explanation, "Uh"
"Tell me the truth, Potter."
"Okay, the truth is, uh. You know the letter?"
"The declaration of love you sent me? Yes, I know it."
"Ok, first of all, I wrote the letters years ago, so I don't feel that way anymore and I didn't send them, I don't know how they got sent." He explained, "The reason I kissed you is because Remus got one of those letters. And I didn't want to face him."
Lily was staring at him, "I'm not the only one you wrote a letter to?"
"No."
"You get a love letter so you think you're special, then you find out they wrote love letters to two people."
"Don't feel too special, I wrote five letters."
"Five? Damn Potter." Lily whistled, and he felt his face go hot, “I can’t believe you kissed me, to avoid Remus . Your best friend."
"Yea..."
"You're even more of an idiot than I thought you were."
"Thanks." He grumbled, leaning against the car.
"You're going to have to talk to him eventually,"
"I know, I just. Don't know what I'm going to say."
"Start with the truth," She suggested, "If I didn't know any better I would say you like him, Potter" He stared at her. "Oh fuck. You do?"
“I have to drop Reg off, he has work in like thirty minutes,” James mumbled, he texted Regulus to see where she was.
“Don’t change the subject. You like Remus? Your best friend’s boyfriend. That’s fucked up, Potter.”
“No shit. I know that. It’s not like I can control it.” He muttered, "Look I’ll figure it out, alright?"
"Sure you will."
James glared at her and was about to reply when Regulus showed up, he looked between Lily and James before getting into the back seat of the car, "Can you and your girlfriend get in the car so I won't be late to work?"
"She's not- whatever, get in Evans? I'll get you a sundae or something" James asked, tilting his head to the side, it was a surprisingly endearing gesture to Lily. She nodded and sat in the passenger seat.
It took eighteen minutes for them to get to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. Lily laughed when she saw where they were, she turned to look at Regulus in the backseat,
"You work here?"
"Yes? Why is that so funny?"
"No reason. Just..food service requires a lot of customer interaction, didn't think you'd enjoy that."
"It pays."
Lily smiles at that, she too has a job she doesn’t enjoy; she got it after her dad passed away to help pay the bills. "That's the best quality in a job"
James and Lily sat in a booth while Regulus got to work, they were sitting across from each other. James handed Lily a menu, "I promised you ice cream."
"You meant that?" She asked, looking at the menu.
“Yeah, you should get some proper food too while we’re here, I don't want you fainting on me" James teased with a smile on his lips, he was referring to an incident in year four where Lily had fainted in the middle of an argument they were having after a game.
"You think you're so funny, don't you?" She glared at him. She tapped her fingers on the menu, "This looks good. What are you getting?"
"Hm?" James leaned in so he could see what she was pointing at, "Apple Crumble, good choice. But too sweet for me"
"You don't like sweets?"
"Nah, I'm more of a savoury guy."
"Of course you are." She smiled at him, hanging out with James Potter was surprisingly not terrible, "So, about your problem"
James sighed, he had actually managed to stop thinking about it for a bit, but now the anxiety was back in full force. "What about it?"
"I might have a solution for you." James looked up at her,
"Yeah?"
Regulus came over to their table wearing a bright turquoise and pink apron that had FORTESCUE'S ICE CREAM on the back,
"Cute outfit." Lily said, smiling at him, "The colours really suit your complexion."
"I see James found a girlfriend that's just as annoying as him. Match made in hell." He deadpanned, ignoring James's sputter of indignance, "Are you two going to order something or do I have to kick you out?"
"One Apple crumble and one lemon&blueberry, please Reggie." James ordered for them, and waited until Regulus left to continue their conversation, "What's your idea?"
"We pretend to date."
James gaped at her, "What? What good would that do?"
Lily answered simply, "Since we're obviously not into each other, we can just use this to make Mary jealous and get Remus off your back."
"Really? That doesn't sound like a very Lily thing to say." James frowned, "And you realise that if we do that, you'd have to act like you like me? Which I know will be extremely difficult for you"
Lily leaned back into the booth, "I'm aware." She thanked Regulus when he set their desserts down, "But you have to admit, this will benefit both of us."
James thought about it, if Remus saw that he had a girlfriend he'd think that James didn't like him anymore and things could go back to normal, he didn't really understand why Lily would want to do this but he wasn't going to make her question it, "Ok, deal. We date."
"Fake date," Lily said pointedly, James smiled, his lip getting caught on a crooked left canine.
“Fake date.”
"You better not forget our anniversary"
"I would never!" James gasped, "I'm a great boyfriend who always remembers everything about his partners."
"You have never been anyone's boyfriend." Lily pointed out. James pursed his lips and gave her a weak glare.
"That doesn't matter."
Lily is quiet for a few minutes, "How come you've never dated anyone before?"
James shrugged, taking a bite from his ice cream, "I guess people just don't like me like that."
Lily laughed, "That is the biggest lie you've ever told. Amelia Bones asked you out last week."
James avoided that and deflected, "So what if I've never been in a relationship, you’re forgetting that I have a fakegirlfriend now."
"Oh yes, how could I forget my boyfriend" She mocked, taking a bite of the ice cream James ordered her.
"I am hurt." James pouted "Really."
Lily laughed at his antics, "God, I can't believe I agreed to this."
"It's too late, you're stuck with me now, babe" James winked, "I'm your boyfriend"
"Ew, never say that again"
"Got it. No calling you babe. Adding that to the rulebook." James mimed taking notes, Lily hummed,
"That's actually not a bad idea."
"What isn't?"
"Having rules for this. The whole fake dating thing."
"Yeah? What sort of rules?"
"No calling me 'babe' and no kissing me unless it's necessary."
"Ok, got it, what else?"
"We tell no one, and I mean no one, that this is fake. This is just between us." Lily told him, James nodded along, he wasn't planning on telling anyone anyway.
"I'm assuming that goes both ways, yeah?"
"Yup. I can't have Mary knowing I'm fake dating someone. That's pathetic."
"I get it, Evans. It's all for the pride."
"Exactly"
James finished his ice cream and leaned forward, "One more rule." He said in a serious tone, making Lily lean forward as well, "You're not allowed to fall in love with me."
She snorted, "Like that has to be said."
"Ouch, Evans. Ouch." He placed his hand over his heart, "Right where it hurts"
"Oh shut up, you're such a drama queen"
"I thought I was an idiot?"
"You are both."
Regulus came over to their table, rolling his eyes at the little bit of conversation that he overheard, "If you two are done flirting you can leave. Evan's dropping me home so you don't have to worry about that, James."
James raised his eyebrows, "Wow, Regulus, you are actually trying to get rid of me."
"Yes, because you and Evans are nauseating."
"Well we'll get out of your hair, don't worry, Black." Lily smiled sharply at him, she went to leave money on the table to pay for her ice cream but James stopped her,
"I got it, remember?" He grinned at her, getting up after leaving the money and a tip, he offered a hand to help her get out of her booth. Lily stared at his hand, and then at his face, she stood up on her own, ignoring his offered hand.
"Let's go, Potter."
"Sure thing, Evans."
James waved at Regulus and they left, "You want me to drop you home?" he asked her, and she nodded.
"Do you know the address?"
"Yeah. I dropped Marlene there enough times I think I can recite it in my sleep"
Lily laughed as she buckled her seatbelt, "I see you're the designated driver for your family."
"Pretty much, yeah. You can't really rely on either Sirius or Marlene to get you places, and Mum and Dad are busy most of the time."
"That's fair, I don't mind driving though. So if you ever need a ride just ask me."
"That's nice of you, Evans." They shared a smile. Lily didn't live too far from the ice cream shop so they reached her house quickly. As James watched her unlock the door, He rolled down the window to yell, "I'll pick you up tomorrow for school, don't be late!"
Lily stuck her tongue out and went inside.
James took a deep breath as he started driving home. They had a plan. Now he had to make it seem like they were actually a couple and he didn't like Remus anymore. He was screwed.