009. 15 february 1976.

[alotofgood]

February 15, 1976 — 22:30 hours.
Hogwarts, Scotland.
Gryffindor Common Room


James is delirious with exhaustion.

But there is an insane amount of homework to complete, and his short-lived naps throughout the day have been filled with pranks gone nightmarish, with Flourish and Evans snogging — and upon catching the look of horror on his face, with their laughter directed at him until he awoke.

Not that that seems to stop him from dozing off from time to time.

Bloody hell.

He wishes the others were here to keep him awake.

But Sirius and Remus have gone to Professor Slughorn for something, and Professor McGonagall called Peter in to see her about some rather 'urgent matter' he was too ashamed to tell them about an hour or so ago.

So.

He turns back to his book, Egyptian Tombs and Wizards: A Detailed History, and flips the page.

"Right, then. Egyptian mummies ... and the rituals of ..."

Comments

[alotofgood]

"She'll understand. When I'm on some huge Quidditch League because I didn't end up missing March's practice, she'll realize what a heroine you are," he says, taking his glasses off to rub his face. "I reckon she'll throw in some complimentary baby items for gratitude."

As he puts his glasses back on, he lets out a sigh.

"I'm not even going to bother assuming Evans hasn't told you what happened."

[lions_and_witches]

"On her date with Jeremy? Yeah, we heard."

This, James, would be Cliona not adding What were you thinking?

[alotofgood]

This would be James wanting to put his head through the floor.

He sighs again.

"You girls, always telling each other everything," he remarks, off-handedly. At least it saves him from having to explain, though.

Even if he's sure Evans' side of the story probably contains a vast amount of exaggerations and incorrect facts.

Oh. And James starring as the Big Bad Villain.

"I keep having these awful nightmares of them, you know. Laughing at me." There's a pause before he adds, "... and there's a scary amount of snogging in them, too."

[lions_and_witches]

"Well, yes, of course we do," Cliona says.

Doesn't James tell his roommates everything?

"And I have to say, 'snogging' is not a word I ever quite see applying for Jeremy Flourish. 'Kissing' is the best I think he could hope for, really.

"And I have it on very good authority, namely Lily's, that he only kissed her once, at the very end of the date and that it was, and I quote, 'sweet.' Just 'sweet.'"

[alotofgood]

That's completely different.

Really.

... somehow.

Also: not the point.


"Oh ... and — er. What exactly is that supposed to mean? 'Sweet'?" he asks, looking a bit confused.

Girl-speak is lost on him.

[lions_and_witches]

"Well, you tell me. Is that you want a girl to say after you kiss her?

"On Valentine's Day?

"'That was sweet'?" Cliona's tone takes on a just slightly insipid edge.

[alotofgood]

"No, I s'pose not," he says, thoughtful.

Then, realizing what he's saying, he shakes his head.

"'Course not, I mean. I'd want her to say it was 'brilliant'. 'Sexy.' Or 'the best kiss I've ever had', maybe."




... wait. This is encouraging, isn't it?

"That's a good thing that he only got 'sweet', isn't it?"

[lions_and_witches]

"Well, maybe not for him," Cliona says.

"Look, do not put yourself through hell over Lily and Jeremy's date.

"Maybe just ... take a lesson from it."

[alotofgood]

"It wasn't supposed to go that way at all," he reiterates, a bit grumpily. "The date, I mean. It was supposed to be a happy disaster."

Happy for him, anyway.

"But, all right. What sort of lesson am I supposed to take from it?"

[lions_and_witches]

"Well, let's see, there's 'things don't always go the way you planned.'

"And there's also 'It's really not nice to try to make someone's date turn into a disaster, happy or otherwise.'"

[alotofgood]

"Er ..."

He wrinkles his nose, momentarily resembling a spoiled eleven year old.

"I don't think I like those lessons terribly much, Cliona."

[lions_and_witches]

"Well, of course not," she says, cheerfully.

"Doesn't mean I'm wrong."

[alotofgood]

"Yeah."

Begrudgingly: "I suppose you're right. But what do I do, then? About — you know."

He resists the urge to yawn.

"And why didn't Sirius or Remus wake me?"

[lions_and_witches]

"I told your friends to let you sleep, and I'd make sure you didn't spend the whole night in the common room. To be honest, they looked a bit knackered themselves.

"As for the other ... what do you do about what, James? The fact that Lily Evans went out with someone and it wasn't you?"

[alotofgood]

"Yeah."

(The other part, the bit about his mates — well, it all makes sense to him. It'd been a really packed evening.)

"And — all right. She knows that was me, right? Because I haven't seen her yet, but I'm not sure I want to now. Or that I can."

Ugh. He feels like he's saying this all wrong. It's because it's all about feelings and they're not particularly nice ones, either.

"For one thing, I'm sure she'd try to hex me."

[lions_and_witches]

"Well, you've got classes with her tomorrow, I'm afraid, and you can't go on sleeping through them for the rest of term. So you're going to see her, want to or not. And, yeah, she knows it you. And Sirius. And Remus. And Peter. She saw them, after all.

"Sorry.

"As for hexing you, well, I don't think she will, but just in case, how's your shield charm these days?"

[alotofgood]

James groans.

Right.

Classes.

He supposes it's still a bit easier to avoid someone in class (than say, evenings in the Common Room — or mealtimes) by doing that thing where you pay attention to the professor and only the professor, and then quickly disappear when class is dismissed.

Even after you've had a full night's sleep.

But still.

The only way to describe his next action is this: he headdesks.

[lions_and_witches]

Cliona leans forward and pats him on the shoulder, reassuringly.

"James?"

[alotofgood]

"I wonder if Durmstrang is taking students," he mumbles from the table.

[lions_and_witches]

"Now you're just being melodramatic, James.

"Look, basically, one of two things is going to happen.

"Either she's going to ignore the whole thing, and carry on like it hasn't happened. In which case, you're going through all this for nothing.

"Or she's going to hex you or yell at you or whatever. And then you know she cares enough to bother."

[alotofgood]

"Yeah, but —"

He lifts his head, mournfully, from the edge of the table.

He really is the picture of patheticness.

"— what good is her caring enough to be bothered? She's still going to be with that Flourish bloke."

[lions_and_witches]

"Then you know she's not indifferent."

And that is something.

"As for 'that Flourish bloke' ... I don't think it'll last."

[alotofgood]

The first glint of hope manages to reflect itself upon James.

"Really?"

Because his nightmares had shown otherwise. He swears there was a wedding and a Baby Flourish taking over the bloody bookshop at one point.

But Cliona is wise and good, and despite his current mopey state of delirium, he's well aware that she tends to know exactly what she's talking about.

[lions_and_witches]

Cliona laughs.

"Have you been imagining some kind of rosy, book-filled future for them? James, they've had one date. At the very least, that's a bit premature."

[alotofgood]

"... no," James lies.

He clears his throat.

"Of course not. Why would I do something like that?"

[lions_and_witches]

Cliona grins.

"Because it's a logical progression from the snogging nightmares."

Which he has already confessed to.

[alotofgood]

"Right."

He sighs.

"All right. Maybe a bit, then.



"They were really vivid."

[lions_and_witches]

Cliona laughs again, shaking her head a little.

"Oh, James, what am I going to do with you?"

Cliona picks his books up and hands them to him.

"Look, go get some sleep -- some proper sleep in an actual bed -- and I suspect things will look better in the morning, when you're not quite so tired, all right?"

[alotofgood]

Obediently, and with no argument whatsoever — because, really, this is Cliona — he holds the books to his chest and more or less dazedly shuffles towards the boys' dormitory.

Proper sleep.

Yeah.

Proper sleep sounds so good right now.

Halfway up the winding staircase, he turns back and says, "Have I told you that you're brilliant, Cliona? Because you are."

And then he makes it the rest of the way up to where his bed awaits.