oh deer,

James flipped the book over to show Sirius the spine.  It was a quidditch annual talking of all the best plays.  

“Yes, they grow back, but it’s rather traumatic experience for an eleven year old, don’t you think?” Making a face back at his mimicking, it took all Lily had to not resort to stomping her foot in her frustration.

“Honestly, I did them a favour.  Did you see the size of those eyebrows?  Someone was bound to do the same sometime soon.”  James shrugged, before crossing his arms.

“You’re the reason that first year is blubbering about to Madam Pomfrey?” Lily crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow. “Honestly James, if you absolutely have to blow something up, can’t it at least be outside? Someone could have gotten seriously hurt.”

“Oh come on, it was just a singed eyebrow or two, they can cope with that!  Eyebrows grow back!”  James replied, rolling his eyes at Lily Evans, before raising an eyebrow at her crossed arms.

Andromeda rolled her eyes, but passed him the quill regardless. “If that was all you wanted, you could have reached around and got it yourself, James.” She sighed shaking her head. “Why are you so huffy?” she asked.

“Thought I’d make you move.”  He smiled sickeningly.

“I still have to give you detention,” Augustus replied coolly. It didn’t matter what was happening between them, it was clear who had set off the firework…. And if Augustus didn’t handle it, someone else would.

“Bloody hell, lighten up.”  James moaned, frowning at Augustus.  Nope, he wasn’t going easy, and that was frustrating.  But, even so, a little detention was nothing to James.  

“Course you did.”  James rolled his eyes and nudged him a little. He was glad that they fell back into an easy rhythm without much hassle for either of them.

  She wanted to protest but she was feeling too lazy to. Instead, she shuffled over as much as she could to give him room before nuzzling into his side. “Y’know what they say, sharing is caring.”

“Yeah, I remember mum tried to persuade me that was the saying, but when I took your broom, you seemed to be less than pleased.”  He gave her a teasing grin.

“Hold on… Give me two seconds. Two seconds, I promise.” Andromeda wrote faster, trying to get her thought down before she lost it, and then looked up. “Okay, my attention is all yours.”

“All I wanted was for you to pass me my quill, but now I have your attention, well I feel damn special.”  James rolled his eyes.

“I’m not really in the mood to talk now, or ever really.” Bellatrix continued her reading without looking up at the person that invaded her personal space. Realising the person hadn’t left, she slammed her book shut and looked up at the person. “What do you want? ”

“Oh my dear Bella, we all know how anti social you are, you don’t need to continuously remind us of how little anyone wants to be your friend.”  James gave his sickliest, sweetest smile.  

  “Last I checked it’s not a bloody crime to lay here. So just sod off, yeah? It hurts to move so I’m not going anywhere,” Marlene grumbled before simply rolling over.

“You’re in my space.”  James nudged her up a little, and crawled into the space with her, slinging an arm around her neck.  He cosied up to Marls and pouted at the lack of space.

The days since she had returned to Hogwarts had been a blur, with the only prominent memories being of her first evening back. She’d managed to avoid engaging in conversation with anyone, her gaze that little bit more unapproachable than usual any time she was in the vicinity of anyone else. She needed the time to right herself again, and she couldn’t let anyone get in the way of that. 

Really, James had kept himself to himself for as long a time as he could manage, and now that he and Sirius were back to speaking terms it was time for the seventeen year old to go out and cause a little havoc.  Twirling the dungbombs in his pocket, James walked along musing upon the perfect place to create a complete mess for Filch to deal with.

“I’m sorry, you lost me there–” Remus shook his head, resting it on his arms against the table. He was far too tired to be having this conversation. “I apologize, but can you repeat that whole bit please?” The deep circles under his eyes were plenty enough to show that he was not getting enough sleep, at least not the past few nights. He couldn’t quite figure out why, but it was certainly awful.

“Bloody Merlin, Moony.”  James replied.

@jamespotteringabout

Really, it was unusual for the two best friends to fight and therefore James has made a promise to keep it to himself.  Though of course people had noticed, when more than one day passed without the two joking and laughing together, others were bound to assume that there was something wrong.  

James had tried to kiss Lily? Really? Augustus had so many questions, so many jokes on the tip of his tongue, but he held them back. He had said he would only laugh if it was funny, and this… Well, it wasn’t funny. James looked pretty upset about the situation, and that made it very clear to Augustus that this was not a time for teasing, but instead, probably for support.

“Rookwood, I make it a point not to misread signals.  And I certainly can read Lily Evans, I know exactly when she’s saying no to me.” James replied, a frown crossing his face.