managed m i s c h i e f

|| @finestra-starters​

Laughter left Mary’s lips as she sipped her drink, eyes roaming the festivities around her. Her thumb mindlessly playing with the ring now on her finger, the smile wide on her features. Ever since they’d decided to get married, the smile had never left Mary’s lips and she was the happiest she’d been.

She’d been watching her husband as he talked to someone, smiling fondly. It was only until she vaguely heard someone say something that she turned to see someone standing besides her. “Oh, sorry, I— yeah I have no excuse, I was too busy staring at Sirius.” She admitted with a grin.

Whoever had approached Mary and attempted to chat with her, James quickly shooed them away so he could have alone time with Mary. He hadn’t fully seen her or gotten to talk to her one-on-one since the wedding, as several others had been talking to her in congradulations. "Sister-in-law!” he shouted in greeting as he scooped up Mary in a huge hug. A smile had been on his face non-stop, his happiness clear for two of his close friends. “I am so proud to finally call you family,” he told her for the fifth time that day.

The words were sharp and cutting as he reminded her that she was the one to mess things up. She tried convincing herself that it shouldn’t bother her, that he was her ex like many others. Except that that was a lie and she knew it far too well. James was never just another name on her list of failed romances and as much as she tried to push them away, the feelings were still lingering. “That’s not true, I never said that your feelings didn’t matter, I–” She stopped herself mid-sentence, taking a deep breath. “I care about you, I never wanted to hurt you.”

“Well, you did,” James replied. A deep sigh escaped his lips, feeling a sort of exhaustion come over him from their argument. “I... I should go,” he said, not wanting to say anymore hurtful words towards her, but though the words came out, his eyes said something else — like he didn’t want to go, for her to tell him not to.

Lily swallowed hard, averting his gaze. She was coming up with excuses and even though arranged marriages didn’t mean a thing when it came to feelings and emotions, they were just as likely to happen and as much as she wanted to win that argument, the more she talked about it with James, the less rational her choices seemed. She looked up at him as he stepped closer and with a quirk of her eyebrow waited for him to answer her. “It’s not?” She questioned, not bothering to hide the disbelief in her voice. “So the fact that you and I used to be a thing has nothing to do with it?” She almost expected him to deny it, turn the subject back on Sirius and her own poor choices. A small part of her, the one that was painfully aware of how unfinished things were between them wished he would stop beating around the bush. ’“That your reaction would be the same if it was literally anyone else hooking up with your best friend’s fiancée?”

“No it’s not,” he responded at first, but the more Lily pressed him on the matter, the more it was hard to ignore. He would be lying if he denied it any further, he had been denying it to himself for far to long - that his feelings for her were still there, even after all the time that passed. “No it has nothing to do with it, and you know why? Because of you,” he answered, his anger getting the better of him as he let it out. “You have made it perfectly clear that my feelings don’t matter.” Lily had been the one to break up with him, despite his protests at the time. If he had his way back then, then maybe they weren’t be where they were now - he wasn’t even sure where they were.

“You’re a coward, Potter.” Elise hissed, getting more and more annoyed at the whole situation. And it wasn’t just because of James; how did she end up making out with him in the first place, when he clearly was eager to push her back? “Oh, so you’d rather they just take it out on me. Way to prove your worthiness.”

“Wait, hey, look I’m sorry,” he began apologizing, coming up to her and placing his hands on her shoulders. “This wasn’t exactly my most graceful moment, how can I make it up to you?” he asked, placing a charming smile on his face.

She waited for him to take the shirt off but he truly became stuck within the fabric which made her start laughing. “You are not really stuck, are you? Because I am not going to help, you have to find your own way out.” she giggled. “You say you’re gryffindor but you are slithering like a snake.”

“Oh shut up,” James told her when she began teasing him. He managed to wiggle his way out of the shirt, but he spent time shaking it out and folding it neatly before placing it down on the surface. “What? This is an expensive shirt, I don’t want to ruin it.” Now shirtless, he placed his hands on his hips. “So... now what?”

Lily exhales loudly, averting his gaze at the question. She hates that he brings up the one question-mark she has about her feelings for Rita and wants to shout at him that he has no say in who she dates, at least not anymore. “It’s an arranged marriage.” She mutters instead, as if that was an excuse for holding onto something that might not even have future. Ugh and now his words were affecting her train of thoughts. She shakes her head, furstrated at herself for letting him have that influence over her. “Yeah, like who?” You let me go, she wants to say, but figures he can read between the lines himself.

James let out a loud sigh of frustration when she brought up it was an arranged marriage. “Do you hear yourself? You are just coming up with excuses,” he told her. While it was true, and James would like nothing better than to find a way to get Sirius out of it, it was the current reality, and he couldn’t fathom why Lily was ignoring it. He had stepped closer to her so he was standing in front of her now, but he stopped himself from saying anything further at her last question. Like who? The question hung in the air as he looked down at her until eventually he raised his hand to rub his face before placing his hands on his hips. “It’s not about that,” he tried to say as he looked away, both of them knowing exactly what they were talking about without out right saying it. His voice wasn’t convincing, it wasn’t until that moment that he realized that it just wasn’t about Rita or Sirius, and he hated that she knew it. He hated that his feelings for her were still lingering, and when he looked back into her eyes, he hated the effect they had on him.

“Here I thought that was the funniest part.”

“Me being found out?” James asked her, brow raised. “Oh? You would get some enjoyment out of that?”