flicker.

not that he ever thought it would be easy, but balancing his head boy duties on top of quidditch and all his newt classes was proving to be more challenging than james had realized.  and given that he was too much of a social creature to give that up, sleep was the obvious sacrifice.  which is what led to him leaning against a suit of armor while he was doing his rounds.  james wasn’t sleeping on the job;  no, he was just resting his eyes.  but when he opened them again, he saw someone approaching.  “hello?”  nice one, potter.  with a quick  lumos  under his breath, his wand lit up the hallway.  “you shouldn’t be out this late, y’know.”

james’s jaw had dropped the moment corrine pendergrass walked through the doors of the great hall.  it was only the sound of lily’s voice that had stirred him enough to close it — or else something might fly in there, or . . . what was it his mother would said?  he used to have such a habit of sitting like that, and she’d get on his case for it.  but it wasn’t his fault he was just so filled of wonder, was it?  no, certainly not, his parents only had themselves to blame for that trait.  “hm?”  james blinked, trying to recall what lily had said.  right.  “no, definitely not.”  he hoped she’d been too distracted by their guest to notice his own distance.  james didn’t want her to worry.  “you know i wouldn’t have been able to keep it a secret from you for five seconds if he had.”  finally, james looked down at his plate, half-heartedly picking at his food when he wasn’t talking.  “talk about opportune timing on his part, though.”

silly james, to think that he could mind his own business for five whole minutes without some sort of interruption.  this one being a particularly sticky one, he nearly jumped off of the stump he’d been sitting on.  “oh, for fuck’s sake — hestia.”  his grumpy demeanor softened considerably when he saw her, wiping punch from his face.  “yeah, tradition for the first day of classes.  it’s the middle of the year!”  a thought dawned on him.  he got up and hurried over to her, giving her a big hug and surely getting some punch on her.  retaliation, baby.  “or all these last first’s getting to you?  always knew you were soft.”

“a perfectly normal and casual, cool, chill response to getting the shit scared out of you is what just came out of me, thank you very much.”  as much as james tried to sound indignant, he was practically shaking with laughter.  he waved off her concern about his reflexes and jitters.  but the laughing slowed down, and he barely registered the squeeze to his shoulders.  he simply shrugged.  “nah, don’t say that.”  james hated other people seeing him down, it was bad enough that the boys subjected themselves to it, he didn’t expect anyone else to.  but he was thankful she didn’t hover on the topic too long, he didn’t know if he could handle it.  “of course.  all yours for the summer,”  he agreed, leaning over to peer into her cup.  “sirius and i spent a lot of break exploring muggle london.  did you know they’ve got buses just like the knight bus all over the city?  they don’t squeeze your brains out, though.”

james heard gwenog’s laugh before he saw her and immediately rolled his eyes.  he immediately took another drink to keep himself from biting back right away.  “oh, great.  you’re here.  any chance you know who’s responsible for this?”  he used one bottle to gesture to the other, heaving a sigh when he realized it made more sense in his brain.  “tell me now and i won’t hold it against you for the next six months.”

james’s eyes lit up almost the second evan started speaking.  while there was a moment he was concerned about someone getting hurt, it was quickly overcome with excitement.  that’s what they got for hauling their broom out to the forest.  “you had me at broom, mate.  i’m in.”  he slung an arm around the other’s shoulders, pulling him in closer.  “i’ll even give ya first go on his broom.  since you’re the genius who pointed it out to me.  what would i do without ya?”

“oh, great.  thought i might go the whole night with some unsolicited criticism,”  he responded, cheeky smirk on his face despite his current situation.  in fact, it nearly matched the one on hers.  james took a drink out of one of the bottles, as though he were unfazed by her commentary.  “dunno.  i think he’s the bloke that created this prank?  it’s clever, i’ll give him credit.  but joke’s on him, it’s just encouraging me to drink more.”

“well, let’s figure it out!  there’s gotta be some way to get you shitfaced tonight, pads.”  james rubbed his hands together, eager to see the result of the experiment.  but his face fell when the beer poured out of the bottle, looking like water when it hit the cup.  “damn.”  he scratched his chin, deep in thought for a moment.  how to outsmart magic.  prank the prank.  this was their specialty, right?  “oh!  hm.  maybe . . . what if i just pour it straight into your mouth?  you think that’ll work?”

“i feel like there’s a catch.”  this seemed too good to be true, even with it being nasty — although, he didn’t hate apple flavor, not like regulus did, apparently.  “what’s the catch?”  then again, his goal for the night was simple:  get wasted. this was just speeding up the process. “fuck it,”  james said, grabbing the bottle from regulus and taking a drink, big enough to down much of the mystery green in one go.  the sugar stung his tongue.  “fuck — okay. wow.”  truth be told, his brain wasn’t moving fast enough to formulate anything for reg, but he was confident he could think of something.

“sure ya didn’t,”  james replied, although he held no ill-will towards eddie.  not now, not ever.  they’d had an interesting relationship over the years, to put it lightly.  but there was an annoying large piece of his heart reserved for the tall boy seated next to him.  “of course!  although i think it’s important to ask before you do it, next time.”