Flirting In Potions Class, February 1977

[lilium_evansiae]

"If there are no more questions, you may find a partner, turn to page 357, and begin. One of you should record your observations at each stage of the preparation," Slughorn says. He pauses (and they all know it's a pause, for dramatic effect, and more is coming.) "Oh, and twenty points to the team that produces the best Epione Potion."

Lily likes the days Slughorn has them work in pairs.

Because (and she knows this is petty and childish, but she can't quite help it) it means that the one person in their year who might be as good at Potions as she is (and her former best friend) is going to be stuck working with the dead weight that is one of his fellow Slytherins.

And Lily?

Well, Lily gets to work with James.

Comments

[alotofgood]

Sometimes, James thinks Potions just may be his very favourite class.

For one thing, it's the only class where he can sit next to Lily and not feel like he ought to 'be cool' and 'keep his distance' a bit — you know, not be clingy, or whatever.

Secondly, there are no dirty looks or looks of any sort from his best friend in Potions class. Sure, he gets dirty looks from Snivellus every once in a while, but that's nothing new. With or without Lily, he would've been on the receiving end of one of Snape's foul expressions anyway.

Thirdly ... well, thirdly, he can sit right next to Lily while Slughorn is thoroughly involved in his lecture, and sneakily clasp at her fingers to hold her hand. Sometimes, he likes to trace patterns across her palm too.

And they work well together, when it comes down to it. He's learned the rhythm of her movements when she's poring over her textbook, reaching for this ingredient or that. He likes to watch her sometimes, trying his best not to look glassy-eyed and stupid (and instead: very, very cool and admiring) until she catches him with a glance of those very green eyes.

(Then he'll grin and pass her the vial of minced rat-tail powder she needs for the next part of their potion, as though he's been paying attention all along.

And he has. Sort of.)

Potions is not exactly an ideal place to daydream about the future, but James sometimes finds himself thinking about it anyway: what it might be like when they graduate, what the two of them might do, and the sorts of happy endings he and Lily could have.

[lilium_evansiae]

It's one of the many, many little things Lily likes about James; that despite everything that has changed since last year, he's the reason her best class can still be her favorite class, if for wholly different reasons.

Another is that he knows exactly how distracting it's all right for him to be, before he has to let go of her hand and let her get to work.

"Why do I suspect our cauldron does not have your undivided attention, James?" Lily asks, teasing note laced through her tone, and with only a brief glance up from the beetles' eyes she's counting out.

[alotofgood]

"I couldn't even begin to guess," James says easily, with a shrug to match said easy tone.

He reaches for his quill for good measure, to write down their step-by-step observations as per Slughorn's instructions.

Then he smiles — because he couldn't really lie about that, even if he wanted to.

She knows him far too well for that.

"That's thirteen beetle's eyes, yeah?"

[lilium_evansiae]

"Hmmm, I think I want to try using fourteen," Lily says.

She looks up and smiles at him.

"If you have no objection."

[alotofgood]

"Of course," James says, grinning. "No objections whatsoever."

She's the cleverest at Potions, after all.

And if it were him, he'd probably try to go off the books, too.

(Though for slightly more ... 'explosive' reasons.)

He scrawls fourteen down in their notes.

[lilium_evansiae]

"Out of idle curiosity," Lily says, adding fourteen beetles' eyes to their cauldron, one at a time, "is there anything I could suggest that you would object to?"

[alotofgood]

"Yeah, I could think of one," says James, looking up from his writing to peer at her from over the rims of his glasses (which have slightly slipped down his nose).

"Following the textbook, exactly to a 'T'. I'd have to object to that.

"Because then I'd have to wonder whether you were you at all. Or if someone had somehow managed to brew a very potent Polyjuice potion and impersonate you instead."

[lilium_evansiae]

Lily laughs, drawing ever-so-slightly annoyed looks from the Ravenclaw table.

"Fair enough," Lily says.

"Well, I solemnly swear that I am I not impersonating me."

[alotofgood]

James readjusts his glasses with a very satisfied grin.

He absolutely loves it when Lily laughs.

"Good to know," he says — also satisfied.

(And he purposefully does not look over to the Slytherin table, and to where Snivellus is sitting.

He's getting awfully good at self-control, if he must say so himself.)

He reaches over for Lily's textbook for the next set of instructions instead.

(Awfully good.)

[lilium_evansiae]

And Lily, who has already read all the instructions (multiple times), is too busy measuring out armadillo bile to notice that James has reached for her textbook.

[alotofgood]

After reading the next line of instructions, James flips idly through the rest of the pages (out of boredom, really) before placing the textbook down on the table once more.

But not before he catches sight of the inside of the textbook's back-cover.

He's never known Lily to be much of a doodler, but that was unmistakably a set of doodly scrawl-marks.

[lilium_evansiae]

And that would be Lily noticing that James has commandered her textbook and is flipping through it and reaching across the table -- really very quickly -- to pull it back over to her side.

Doodles?

What doodles?

Lily knows nothing of any doodles?

And certainly not any doodly scrawl-marks that are totally not variations on a theme of writing her boyfriend's name in the back of any of her textbooks.






Right.

Armadillo bile.

[alotofgood]

"— Lily!"

James laughs.

"What was that?"

[lilium_evansiae]

"Nothing," Lily says.

"Nothing at all.

"Absolutely nothing.

"Pass me the essence of verbena.

"Please."

Point of interest: this potion does not call for essence of verbena.

Further point of interest: there's absolutely no reason to add essence of verbena to this potion.

Final point of interest: in fact, adding essence of verbena would probably cause this potion to start giving off great clouds of bright pink smoke.

[alotofgood]

James raises an eyebrow.

Luckily for them, he's been paying attention to the ingredients of this potion, knowing that essence of verbena would, indeed, cause bright pink smoke to emit from their cauldron.

He doesn't pass her the ingredient.

Instead, he starts to smile.

Widely.

(And then he hands her the right ingredient, after armadillo bile.

Paying attention is awesome.)

"I didn't know you were an artist," is what he says, nonchalant.

[lilium_evansiae]

Lily has gone faintly pink.

(She may or may not be on her way to being roughly the same color as the great clouds of smoke their potion is not emitting.)

She is very focused on measuring out essence of violet.

She just misspoke.

That's all.

She knew it was violet.

[alotofgood]

Of course she did.

Of course.


James reaches for his bag then, pulling out their next class' textbook and grabbing the small loose-leaf from it.

He passes it to her without a word.

On it is a rather fancy but well-crafted doodle. (He's had practice.) And in the middle of all the swirls and curves and lines is Lily's name.

"We could almost hold one of those art-shows Remus talks about, with these two," he says.

[lilium_evansiae]

Lily studies the paper he's passed her for a moment.

A rather long moment.

And then looks over at him, and smiles.

"Only if we wanted Black and Perdita to mock us for the rest of the year."

[alotofgood]

James snorts.

"Well, that's not likely to happen," he says. "Especially since I get such a brilliant reaction from 'Sirikins'.

"Yeah, even still."

[lilium_evansiae]

"Yeah, I suspect that will never stop getting a reaction, will it?"

Lily shrugs a little.

"You've just got a really good name, you know?"

[alotofgood]

"So do you," James says, beaming only slightly.

Okay, maybe a little more than slightly.

[lilium_evansiae]

"Right.

"So, if we've settled that, we probably ought to get back to our potion, yeah?"

She can't kiss you in the middle of Potions Class, James.

Much as she might want to.

[alotofgood]

"All right," says James.

Who is completely not reluctant, no.

At least there's always after class, which — by his count — isn't too long from now.

(Because, no. It's not exactly favourable to snog in the midst of Potions, right before their professor and classmates, no matter the circumstances.)

"So ... I don't suppose I might find another bit of artwork in your Charms textbook, would I?" he asks conversationally, and wholly innocent.

[lilium_evansiae]

"You'd be better served to look in my Transfiguration book, really," Lily says, starting to slowly stir their potion anticlockwise.

That is, after all, James' subject.

"If you think you can get it away from me ... "

[alotofgood]

James laughs, admittedly touched.

"Really, now?

"I may have to be a bit 'Bond' about it, but I think I can manage to steal it away from you.

"Even if only briefly."

[lilium_evansiae]

"Guess we'll see ... "

Please, he can totally steal the book.

Never mind Bond.

He's a Marauder.

And he's James.

(And if he need confirmation of that last fact, he check inside the back cover of most of her textbooks.)

[alotofgood]

"Right. We'll see."

He grins.

(And yeah. He's just going for a little modesty — but.

He's James Potter. Prongs.

He can totally do it.)


"Ah," says Slughorn, who has made his rounds to come by Lily and James' table. "Brilliant work, you two. Now, that is quite the lovely shade of indigo."

[lilium_evansiae]

"Thank you, Professor," Lily says, grinning at James across their cauldron as Slughorn continues to the Ravenclaws' table.

So many reasons this is her very favorite class.