Part Seven
“Y/N!”
“Hmm?” you ask, finally snapping out of your daydream.
“You’ve been brushing your hair for the past ten minutes.” Sarah informs you with a laugh.
“Oh. Sorry.” you apologize, setting your brush down.
“Is everything okay?” Maddie asks, looking at you for only a moment before getting back to her make up.
“Yeah,” you nod, shyly looking down at your hands. “Except…I think I like James…”
“What?!” everyone exclaims, turning to look at you.
“What do you mean you think you like James?” Maddie asks with wide eyes.
“I do!” you shout, covering your face with your hands. “I like him, okay?”
“How did this end up happening? I thought it was supposed to be fake…”
“It was!” you assure them. “At least…in the beginning.”
“And then?”
“I don’t know.” you shrug helplessly. “He’s not at all what I thought he’d be like. He’s funny and kind and observant. Not to mention caring.”
“Caring?” Maddie repeats incredulously.
“Yes!” you sigh dreamily. “I know he doesn’t look it but he is! Everyone thinks of him as a class clown but he’s so much more than that. He’s actually a really great guy.”
“Aw, you really like him, don’t you?” Sarah asks, causing you to nod your head with a shy smile.
“His smile takes my breath away. And every time he kisses me I feel as if my heart’s about to burst out of my chest.” You swoon.
“So what are you gonna do?” Sarah asks with a smile.
“Oh my god, Y/N. What are you gonna do?” Maddie repeats with fearful eyes. “Doesn’t he like Lily? Isn’t she the whole reason he’s doing this?”
“Why’d you have to bring that up?” Kiara whines, throwing her hands up in exasperation.
“I’m just saying-“
“I’m gonna tell him.” you blurt out, effectively stopping Maddie and Kiara from arguing.
“You are?”
You nod your head, hesitating for only a moment before pulling something out from your nightstand and holding it out to them.
“What’s this?” Sarah asks, as she starts pulling back the tissue paper.
“Quidditch gloves?” Maddie asks, frowning in confusion.
“Is that dragon hide?!” Kiara shrieks, looking up at you with wide eyes. “That must’ve been crazy expensive!”
You snatch the gloves back and hold them to your chest, giving your friends a guilty smile.
“I saved up for it.” you mumble.
“Y/N…” Sarah sighs. “Why did you splurge on something like this? It’s our last year.”
“His gloves are looking kinda beat up.” you defend softly. “Besides, he loves the sport. He said that he still wants to play quidditch after leaving Hogwarts so…”
“So what exactly is the plan?”
“I’m gonna give him the gloves and then confess that I have feelings for him. That I think I’m…falling in love with him…” You say with a nervous smile, looking to your friends for approval.
Maddie, Kiara, and Sarah all squeal in excitement.
“Today?”
“No!” you shriek, terrified.
“What? Why not?”
“I just- I don’t know what I’m gonna say yet.” you explain, putting the gloves back in your drawer. “I don’t wanna mess it up.”
“Especially since he might turn you down.” Maddie mumbles.
“Maddie!“ Kiara scolds.
“I’m just saying! There is the possibility that he doesn’t return her feelings.”
“Which I think is highly unlikely.” Sarah chimes in. “I’ve seen you two together. There’s no way he doesn’t feel the same.”
“You really think so?” you ask with a hopeful smile.
“Y/N, you should see the way he looks at you. It’d be pathetic if it wasn’t so cute.”
︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵
“He’s staring again.” Sirius snickers, taking a sip of his tea.
Remus sighs before turning to James.
“What are you doing, Prongs?”
“Just enjoying the view.” James answers, gazing at you with a soft smile. “What do you think she’s doing?”
“Well, considering that we’re in the great hall, I’m gonna assume she’s eating breakfast. Just like everyone else.”
“Well yeah, but why is she all the way over there?” James whines. “She’s too far.”
“Snap out of it!” Sirius shouts, smacking James upside the head.
“Oi!” James groans. “What the bloody hell was that for?”
“You’re scaring me, mate! This is worse than when you were hung up on Evans. I don’t like the way you’re looking at her. It’s freaking me out!”
“How am I looking at her?” James asks, looking at his friends for an answer.
“Like you’re in love.” Peter says with a mouth full of pancakes.
“Honestly, Prongs. I think you’re taking this a little too far.” Sirius warns. “You look at her as if she’s your whole world.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. She’s not my world.” James says with a laugh. “She’s my sun.” He corrects matter-of-factly. “My whole world revolves around her.”
“Just be wary of the sun,” Remus warns. “You know what happened to Icarus.”
“I don’t even know who Icarus is.” James says with furrowed brows. “Is he in our year?”
“No!” Remus groans in exasperation. “He flew too close to the sun and got burned.”
“That won’t happen to me.” James assures him with a confident smile. “I’m brilliant on a broom.”
“That’s not what I mean and you know it.” Remus says, giving James a knowing look.
“Wait, what do you mean?” Sirius asks, looking between James and Remus in confusion. “What does he mean, Prongs? Am I missing something?”
“No!” James shakes his head, punching Remus’ leg. “But I am.”
“Y/N!” James shouts, catching your attention, as well as the attention of everyone else on the gryffindor table.
“Yes?” you ask, looking at him in surprise.
“Darling, what are you doing all the way over there?”
You hold up the parchment you were working on for him to see.
“Any way I can convince you to do your assignment over here with me?” James offers.
“Why?” you ask, though you’re already getting your belongings together.
“Because life without you by my side is unbearable?” James says, looking at you with a hopeful smile.
You throw your head back in laughter, and James watches, absolutely mesmerized. You wave goodbye to your friends and start making your way towards James.
“Moony, scoot over.” He orders, pushing Remus’s messenger bag to the floor when he sees you coming.
“Prongs,” Remus sighs in annoyance, picking his bag off the floor and dusting it off.
“Hello beautiful,” James greets with a smile, reaching out to grab your plate from you. “How many drinks have you got today?”
“Only two,” you tell him with a grin, starting to set your cups on the table. “Water, and tea.”
“Wow, that must be some sort of record for you, Ms. Four Cup Minimum.” Sirius teases with a laugh.
“Gotta keep you on your toes,” you wink at him.
“No juice this morning?” James asks with furrowed brows.
“They didn’t have orange.” you tell him with a pout, taking a seat next to him.
“You took too long to come down,” James chastises. “You know the orange juice always runs out first.”
“Yeah, I know.” you agree, continuing to pout.
“Lucky for you, I’m willing to share.” He says, handing you his cup.
“You’re perfect.” you smile up at him, pressing a kiss to his jawline before taking a sip of his juice.
“You’re…too good to be true.” James sighs, admiring you for what must have been the hundredth time this morning.
“Hm?” you ask, setting his cup back on the table.
James shakes his head at you, wrapping his arm around your waist and tugging you closer to him.
“Just saying how much I missed you.”
“I missed you too, love.”
“What are you working on so early?” James asks, peering over your shoulder to watch you work.
“My alchemy assignment. I forgot to finish it last night.”
James silently watches you work for a couple of minutes. When he sees that you’re not touching your food, he takes it upon himself to cut off a piece of your pancakes and hold the fork up to your mouth.
“Sweetheart, I can feed myself,” you tell him with a laugh, words coming out muffled thanks to the food.
“Darling, you’ve been here for ten minutes and haven’t picked up your fork once. Either put your quill down so you can eat or let me feed you.”
“I’m not a baby.”
“But you’re my baby.” James argues with a smile.
“I’m almost done,” you assure him.
“Then I’ll feed you in the meantime. More pancakes? Or do you want some eggs?”
“Mm…hashbrown?” you ask.
“You don’t have any hashbrowns on your plate, love.”
“No, but there’s some on your plate.” you tell him with a guilty smile.
James huffs in laughter before cutting off a piece of the hashbrown and holding the fork up to you.
“Thank you sweetheart.” you smile up at him.
James just presses a kiss to the side of your head before stealing a piece of bacon from your plate.
“Hey!”
“Thank you sweetheart.” James repeats, causing you to roll your eyes in amusement.
After breakfast James starts walking you to your first class of the day. The corridors were packed with students but James made sure to always be touching you in some way, either holding your hand, or having his hand on the small of your back, guiding you forward.
“I’ll be here once class is out, okay?” James asks, hands on your waist as he leans against the wall.
“You gonna start walking me to all my classes now?” you ask with a smile, toying with the necklace, your necklace hanging from his neck.
“Mm-hmm,” James nods. “I wanna spend every second that I can with you. Got a problem with that?”
You think it over before eventually shaking your head. No, you don’t have a problem with that at all, because you want the same thing. You want to spend every minute of every day in James’ presence, in James’ arms. All the time in the world wouldn’t be near enough, but it’s a start.
James presses a sweet kiss to your lips before turning around and making his way to his own class. Before, James would limit the physical affection between you two; but ever since that day he heard you arguing with Michael, ever since you stood up for him, it’s like a switch has been flipped. He can’t help but want to be touching you in some way. Holding your hand, having you sit on his lap in the common room, kissing you on the cheek, and the forehead, and those pillowy soft lips of yours that he loves so much.
It’s been days since the argument between you and Michael took place, and yet James still smiles every time he thinks of it. It’s no lie that James was…a bit behind when it came to girls. For the first five years of school he didn’t pay them any mind, choosing to cause mayhem instead. And then in sixth year, the one girl he did try to pursue turned him down and insulted him every day of his life. As if that wasn’t bad enough, because he so shamelessly chased after Lily, no other girl even looked in his direction, seeing it as a lost cause.
James wouldn't outright say he was insecure, but after being turned down and looked over for so long, he couldn’t help but wonder if there was something wrong with him. But then you came along and saw James, the real James, and you accepted him so easily. And he started to think that maybe there wasn’t anything wrong with him to begin with. Maybe the whole time he was waiting for the right girl to come along. And maybe the whole time that girl was you. He was a fool for ever thinking otherwise.
“Bloody hell!” James curses.
“Something you’d like to share with the class, Mr. Potter?” Professor Gasly asks.
James looks up at him with wide eyes, only now realizing that everyone is staring at him.
“Godric.” James groans, bringing a hand to his forehead. “I’m an idiot!”
The whole class falls into a fit of laughter at his sudden outburst.
“I have no idea what this is in reference to, but ten points to Gryffindor.” Professor Gasly says simply.
“Wait Professor! I’m an idiot too!” A ravenclaw shouts from across the room. “A god damn fool, even!”
︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵
“Alright Prongs, we’re all here. What’s going on?” Sirius asks, throwing himself onto his bed.
“I like Y/N.” James admits, getting straight to the point. “Like, really like her.”
“I knew it!” Remus shouts.
“Wait what?!” Sirius asks, immediately sitting up. “What do you mean you like Y/N? What do you mean you knew? What the fuck is going on right now?”
“It’s true. I’m absolutely mad for her.” James tells him.
“I fucking knew it.” Remus continues. “I knew you never got over her.”
“What do you mean ‘never got over her’?” Sirius asks, before turning to James. “You liked her before?”
“Uh…”
“He did! Back in third year!” Remus tells him. “Remember when he tried to get us to play spin the bottle?”
“Yeah.” Sirius nods. “And then when he managed to convince all of us, he suddenly didn’t wanna play anymore.”
“Yeah because he wanted to kiss Y/N!”
“Moony!” James whines.
“It’s true! You did and she had already kissed someone else so you didn’t wanna play anymore!”
“Wait, so you liked Y/N back in third year?” Sirius asks.
“Yeah.” James sighs in defeat.
“But you don’t like her now. You like Lily?”
“No.” James shakes his head. “I don’t like Lily.”
“But you do.” Sirius smiles.
“I don’t.” James repeats.
“Except you do.” Sirius tries again.
“Except I don’t. Padfoot, how many times are you gonna make me say it?”
“As many times as it takes for this to make sense to me! You expect me to believe that you don’t like Evans? That you never liked her to begin with?”
“It’s the truth!”
“Then why did you spend all of last year chasing her?!” Sirius asks in frustration.
“I don’t know!” James shouts. “I was scared! Going after Evans when I knew she didn’t like me was the safest course. If I asked Y/N out and she shot me down, I don’t think I’d ever recover, Pads.”
“But I can’t go on like this any longer. It’s killing me to pretend that this is all fake. She’s…the girl of my dreams. She’s beautiful, smart, funny. She laughs at my jokes and gets along great with you lot. She… she makes me happy.”
“Godric,” Sirius sighs, running a hand through his hair. “This is bad.”
“I think this is great.” Peter pipes up. “I like Y/N. She’s nice.”
You come to a stop outside the boys dorm with a nervous smile, James’ gift tucked under your arm. You nervously fix your hair and are just about to knock on the door when you hear Remus.
“You have to tell her.” Remus says, getting straight to the point. “This has gone on long enough.”
Your brows furrowed in confusion as you step closer to the door. What could they possibly be talking about?
“I know.” James sighs. “I just don’t know how. After everything we’ve been through these last couple of months, I don’t want Y/N to hate me.”
Hate him? Why would you ever hate him?
“Just don’t wait too long.” Sirius chimes in. “You don’t want her getting the wrong idea.”
You let out a surprised gasp at that, turning around and making your way back to your room as your vision starts to get blurry.
“What do you mean?” James asks.
“I mean, if you wait too long to tell Y/N how you feel about her, she’ll just end up thinking you don’t feel anything at all for her. And then, what’s to keep her from walking out on you?”
You burst into your dorm and slam the door shut behind you, startling your friends.
“Back already?” Maddie asks. “How’d it go?”
You throw the quidditch gloves across the room and cover your face with your hands, sliding down the wall as you finally let the tears fall.
“Y/N?” Sarah asks, crouching down in front of you. “Hey, what happened?”
“I’m such a fucking idiot.” you cry. “Why did I let myself think this could work? Of course he doesn’t feel the same. Why would he? He likes Lily after all. Not me.”
“Did he say that?” Sarah asks, grabbing the box of tissues from Maddie and handing one to you.
“He didn’t have to.” you sob with a shake of your head. “I overheard him talking with his friends just now.”
“Oh, sweetie.” Sarah cooes, wrapping her arms around you in a comforting hug. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not!” you wail. “How could I be so delusional?! I romanticized every hug, every kiss, every interaction and it didn’t mean anything to him! None of it was real! I’m so fucking stupid!”
“Y/N stop!” Kiara scolds. “You’re not stupid. He is.”
“Don’t talk about him like that.” you sniffle, wanting to defend him even though he’s the reason for your tears.
“Why not? It’s true. Y/N, whether the relationship was real or not, you are the best thing that’s ever happened to James. And if he can’t see that, then I’m sorry but he’s the biggest idiot to ever walk the planet.”
You sniffle once more before sighing, giving your friends a sad smile.
“My heart hurts.” you tell them with a laugh, trying to make light of the situation though your eyes start filling with tears again.
“I know.” Sarah nods, grabbing your hands and lifting you up from the floor. “But you’re gonna be okay.”
︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵
The following day you don’t attend any of your classes. James tried asking your friends if you were okay but they only gave him some lame excuse before running off. He worried about you all day, but with your friends actively avoiding him, there wasn’t anything he could do. So coming back from his rounds, James is pleasantly surprised to see you sitting in the empty common room.
“Hey,” he breathes with a relieved smile. “I didn’t see you at all today. What happened? Is everything okay?”
“Let’s break up.” you say softly as you stare at your hands.
“What?” James asks, crossing the room slowly with a confused frown. “What do you mean let’s break up?”
You look to the side and release a shaky breath.
“Darling, look at me.” James pleads. “What do you mean let’s break up?”
“I mean I don’t wanna do this anymore.” you sigh, standing from your seat on the couch.
“But-”
“James, please. Don’t make this difficult. I just can’t do this anymore, okay?”
“I just don’t understand. Why?” he asks, sadly.
“No. You don’t get to do that.” you tell him with a shake of your head. “You said that when one of us said we didn’t wanna do this anymore, that it would be over, no matter what. You said no questions. I’m telling you I don't wanna do this anymore. I’m done.”
James stares at you, taking in your features before finally nodding his head.
“Okay,” he agrees softly. “Fine. We’re broken up.”
“Okay.” you nod, before holding something out to him. “Here. It’s your jumper. I’m giving it back.”
“Keep it.” James shakes his head. “I don’t want it.”
“But it’s your favorite.” you argue, brows furrowed in confusion.
“I want you to have it.” James insists with a sad smile. “Think of it as a reminder of our time together.”
You look from James to his jumper several times before eventually nodding your head, subconsciously holding the article of clothing to your chest.
“I don’t know where your locket is right now, but as soon as I find it I’ll give it back to you.” James promises.
That confuses you, considering that when you originally gave it to him before his quidditch game he said he’d never take it off. And as far as you know, he hadn’t. James had always proudly shown you the necklace hanging around his neck before tucking it under his shirt again, like a secret meant to be kept between you two.
“It’s okay.” You assure him. “I can always buy another one.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” you nod, giving him a sad smile before making your way to the staircase. “Something to remember me by.”
James watches you walk away with a frown. Once you’re gone, he pulls out the locket and stares at the picture inside, eyes filling with unshed tears as he wonders where he went wrong.