DEUX

the great james sirius potter!

JAMES SIRIUS POTTER could not believe that Lily motherfucking Edwards had actually talked to him, let alone civilly. This was probably the best day of his life. 

He had surprised Lily Edwards, in a good way. She called him mature. She talked to him twice. Even though for the second time her face had been blank and she had only said "deal", she didn't frown, she didn't call him arrogant or pompous or an arse and best of all, she had willingly touched him, albeit only a few moments. He was elated. 

He practically floated back to his shared compartment with the Scamander Twins and his cousin Fred Weasley ii. They were basically the next generation marauders. Four boys, all with a love of pranking and ( perhaps most importantly ) all deeply caring about each other. 

Lorcan Scamander was a quieter Hufflepuff boy, more studious than the rest. He was the only one who was friends with James' precious Lily. Much like Remus, but without the furry little problem. He sometimes had a dreamy look in his eyes, like his mother and a love of magical creatures like his father. But Lorcan's real passion was music. He could play the cello better than anyone and often frequented the Room of Requirement where it would provide such an instrument. 

The other thing that he was known for though, and probably the most Hufflepuff bit about him, was his undying loyalty to his friends and family. He didn't have many friends, but those he kept close he would do anything for. 

His twin, Lysander, was much more outspoken with worse grades, but a bigger personality. Lysander knew how to get what he wanted. He was popular with the ladies of Hogwarts and had his own fan club, as did James and Fred. 

Lysander, a Slytherin, also felt an incessant need to constantly protect his brother although Lorcan was older by 5 minutes. The best 5 minutes of Lorcan's life, which he likes to remind him whenever Lysander annoys him. 

Fred Weasley ii, George and Angelina's son, was just like his name sake. He was quick witted, intelligent, but a gentleman when it came down to it. He was never one to back down from a dare and was a chaser with James on the Gryffindor quidditch team. When it came to his friends, he would do anything to keep them safe as he only let a few become close and when he let them in, he would protect them with his life. 

One of his greatest achievements, to date, was his particular aptitude towards Transfiguration, an aptitude that, seemingly, ran through many blood lines of his family.

 And, because every Fred needs a George and every James needs a Sirius, Fred and James had been attached at the hip since birth. They never considered themselves anything less than siblings and they told each other everything. 

Fred was the first to know that James was in love with Lily ( though it was quickly revealed to all through longing gazes and constant one-sided flirting ) and James was the first to know that Fred was pansexual and had a crush on Lorcan. They were each other's wingman, platonic soulmates if you will, and nothing would ever change that. 

"I did it boys! I finally did it! I got Lily to speak to me, she called me mature, she didn't scowl and she didn't call me an arsehole. I've won at life. My dreams of becoming a quidditch player by day, auror by night now mean nothing," James sighed as he flopped down dreamily next to Fred. 

"Easy there mate, we know you're obsessed with her, but -" Fred warned.

"Please have some common sense, I'm sure what she said to you was not as great as you think it was," Lorcan interrupted, not looking up from his book. If he had, he would've seen a small blush appear on Fred's cheeks. 

"Fine, I made a deal with her to be civil, which means I cut down on asking her out and she actually looks at me without disdain. She seemed surprised that I thought of it on my own, said I was mature and then shook my hand. I don't know about you lads, but I see this as an absolute win," James recounted, earning a high five from Fred, a snort from Lysander and a head shake from Lorcan. 

"You're totally whipped, mate and it's only going to get worse because you're going to share a dorm with her," Lysander laughed, whispering the last part as if it was a secret. 

It was not a secret. James had been looking forward to this moment for forever. How he became Head Boy was a mystery to all, but whatever gods of some kind had made him so, he's thanking them in his head. 

That god had one name, Headmistresses Minerva McGonagall, who like her predecessors, loved to play matchmaker because let's be honest, the first James Potter shouldn't have been Head Boy either. It was as if they were born to make her life hell and yet she loved them to bits anyway. 

"Please don't be a pervert mate. While you may be in love with her, she's still a human being. Just don't try and....I don't know....catch her changing or something. Your mind goes to some weird places sometimes," Lorcan responded, feeling bad for the girl as he knew that the constant rebuffs were for a reason. 

Although coming off as brash, rude and cocky, Lorcan knew that James was in fact one of the sweetest around and would do just about anything for his friends. He would rarely show that sweet side of him though, only with his family and close friends and maybe the odd stranger but only if they were alone and the stranger in question would probably be younger than him. 

All Lorcan wanted was for James to strip away the front that he put up. However, that would require him to be knocked down a few pegs and he was too shy to do it, Lysander would never, and Fred only egged him on. 

Lily Edwards was their only hope and Lorcan was praying to whatever was up there that she would. He also knew that if James was put in his place, his womanizing might decrease or he might be more respectful about it. 

Not that James wasn't respectful, he wouldn't dare sexually assault someone ( because this was 2021 for Merlin's sake! The bar wasn't that low! ) but he loved to relish in the fact that the entire student body knew that he had slept with someone. All Lorcan had was hope that Lily might be able to make at least a dent in that exterior of his. 

"A pervert? Me? I never! Lorcan, my boy, you must have more faith in me. I plan on wooing her using the cooking skills of my parents. I will tantalize her taste buds and then maybe tantalize -" James teased mischievously. 

"James, stop, that's weird. Please don't ruin a perfectly wonderful hobby for me with your weird sexual fantasies. And, we all know you can't cook for shit," Lorcan interrupted, not wanting to hear whatever was in that sick mind of his. 

Although the context was not favorable, this struck Fred. Lorcan cooks? Fred had already thought that Lorcan was perfect, but somehow, he just got better.

"You cook?" Fred asked softly, eyes widening a little bit. 

But, this question wasn't heard by anyone but James ( who was next to him ) who, while not addressing it in the moment like he normally would, filed it in his brain for future reference. In his subconscious, James Sirius was already planning to set them up ( if Lorcan turned out to like the male gender in any way possible ) and the fact that Lorcan cooked and the fact that Fred found it attractive just made his job so much easier. 

"I do suppose you're right. Well she has to be civil towards me, we shook on it. But I wonder what civil looks like with her ... all I really want is to make her smile," he softly said, proceeding to softly, sadly smile, himself.

"We know mate, that's why we're here to help you get the girl!" Fred exclaimed, placing a hand on his shoulder in comfort.

"Whether it be flowers, chocolates or a lacy thong...ow!" Lysander offered, earning a hit on the shoulder and a stern look from his brother. 

"Anyway," Lysander continued. "Whatever you need, we will provide. We're here for you." 

Just before they were about to do their group handshake ( something that they did whenever they wanted to remind themselves that they were all in it together ), the compartment door slammed open, revealing two redheads by the names of Rose and Lily Luna. 

"I just heard and I swear to Godric, James, if you upset Lily once and I mean only once I will hex you into the next century," Rose snarled. 

Lily Luna had told her when she found Rose after getting sweets from the trolley and Rose had promptly dragged the both of them to where she knew they would be sitting.

"Merlin, Rose, knock first, at this rate I'll be dead before you could even get your hands on me. And second, I wouldn't dream of it, you know who my parents are, they raised me well," James said, feigning hurt. 

"Please James, I was raised by them too and honestly, I think you were adopted," Lily chastised with a bored stare and proceeded to turn to the Lysander and wave. 

She'd always had a small crush on him. Lysander smiled and waved back and her heart jumped. 

"I'm offended, my favorite cousin and my favorite sister ganging up on me because of a girl, I never thought I'd see the day," James replied, fake fainting onto Fred, who did not catch him for obvious reasons, causing James to fall off of the seat and onto the floor. 

"Not you too!" James exclaimed. "Oh, I see. Well Fred you know you're more brother than cousin."

James then got back onto the seat and laid on Fred's lap. 

"Yeah right, bugger off, you idiot," Fred said with a roll of his eyes.

"We're being serious James. We care about her and we know that you're in love with her, but she's still human and deserves to be treated as such. She's not an angel that you can worship or a doll that you can ogle and manipulate. She's flesh and blood," Rose growled, her face getting as red as her hair in anger. 

She had often watched her cousin's pursuits of Lily Edwards and often wondered how Lily hadn't either killed him or switched schools and why she was still nice to his family. Rose counted Lily as a close friend and she knew that Lily Luna counted her basically as an older sister. All the more reason to protect her. 

"She's also flesh and blood that obviously doesn't like you back, idiot. So just lay off and try not to scare her away because I actually like spending time with her and it's kind of hard when you come and find me, which is often," Lily said, crossing her arms over her chest. 

"I come and find you because I care about you because you're my little sister and I need to protect you. And she will like me back. Eventually. See, this is exactly what happened for dad's dad and you saw how that turned out, so why should now be any different?" he inquired, glaring slightly at the girls. He'd had this planned out for years and he was not going to let his little cousin and little sister ruin it.

"Maybe because she's not Lily Evans and you're not your grandfather. Maybe because there isn't an impending war. Maybe-" Rose listed, ticking off each thing on her fingers.

"I don't need this right now, as a matter of fact, I think I have to go find her to discuss Head Boy duties. I'll see you lads later," James grumbled while standing up abruptly and going to leave the compartment, but was stopped by a hand.

"I'm sorry....just....try and maybe open up to her? Don't be the great James Sirius Potter all the time, maybe try being just James. I think she'll like that side of you better, I know I do," Rose said, smiling weakly as she grabbed Lily Luna's hand and dragged her away. 

James stood there for a minute, mulling over what she had just said. He didn't really know if she would like just James. He was only really that side of himself, in private, with the boys and at home, but never with anyone else. 

Because if he was just James, then that means that he had to truly let her in which meant that he would be allowing her to completely shatter his heart if she desired. If he let her in, he would have to trust her not to and as much as he was infatuated with her, he didn't know if he trusted her that much. 

He trusted her with the type of stuff where he knew he could get himself out of a tough spot if she put him in it. But letting her in, truly letting her in, might go completely well for him, but it also might break him. 

If only the first James Potter was still alive so he could ask him what to do. James spun on his heal, thoughts still clouding his mind, headed to Merlin knows where, just somewhere else. 

James was so lost in his head that he didn't notice that his feet had stopped in front of a compartment. When he realized that he was no longer moving, his eyes snapped up to see where his feet had taken him. 

Inside, he saw the Thomas twins laughing at something a Hufflepuff in their year, Estelle, he thought, said while a Ravenclaw in the year below him was laughing in the lap of of Charlie Oswold, a Hufflepuff beater and prefect, who was gazing at her like she was an angel sent from heaven. James noted that they were one of the cuter couples at Hogwarts that wasn't toxic or overly horny. 

Lastly, his eyes landed on her. He couldn't stop staring at the way her eyes shone as she laughed. The way her ( probably ) soft hands with nails painted a pale pink tucked her hair behind both ears in an effort to keep it from falling in her face. 

Her hair. He could just go on and on about her hair. It was brown and slightly red ( in the sunlight ) and shiny and probably really soft. It always smelled like lavender as that was the scent that she used for nearly all of her bath products, he'd come to find. Sometimes she had it down, but in more recent years he'd found that she either tied it back in a half ponytail with a ribbon or in a pony tail. He was snapped out of his dreamy state by Nyah Thomas slamming open the compartment door.

"What do you want?" she questioned, glaring at him slightly. 

She knew that he was there for Lily, so she was more hostile towards him in an effort to protect her friend. Normally, she couldn't care less about James, but due to her loyalty to Lily, she put up a front.

"I...uh...I'm here to see Edwards," he replied, offering a small smile. 

He felt caught and vulnerable. He didn't have his friends with him and he hadn't had enough time to switch his persona, so he became rather awkward and slightly shy. More his true self. This was bad. 

He looked down and saw Lily looking up at him, but not with disdain like normal, more with wonder. This was not the normal James Potter. James Potter never stuttered. Ever. Not even when Professor McGonagall caught him and Marcy Leeds snogging in a broom closet. 

"Yes?" she questioned, searching his eyes for the answer of what might be making him so ... not him. Was he high?

"I need to talk to you ... about Head Boy things ... yeah," he replied, trying his best not to get lost into her oh so beautiful blue eyes. They were bordering grey in the middle but near the pupil and the whites they were a dark turquoise. He could just stare at them for hours. 

"Oh, ok. But only for a little bit. I'll be right back ok? If I don't come back within 10 minutes, send a search party," she said jokingly to her friends, though she was half serious. 

This was not James Potter, maybe he was possessed or high or something else, but something was weird. It was kind of nice though to not have the cocky attitude, but what was the catch?

After getting up and placing her book down, she scooched out of the compartment as he was taking up a considerable amount of the doorway. He stepped back when he realized that he was making it difficult and just stared at her for a moment and her at him. 

"Well, um, maybe somewhere private?," he asked, but then immediately widening his eyes at what he thought she probably thought he was insinuating. "I don't know, we can stay here if you'd like."

"Sure, we can head down the corridor a little bit and see if there are any empty compartments left," she said with a small nod. 

She then waved to her friends and led the way down, stopping at a compartment that had two second years in it, she knew to be Meisha Gupta and Sarah Weinstock. She smiled kindly at the girls and asked if she could borrow their compartment for a couple of minutes to have a quick chat with someone. 

They obliged, stating that they were going to try and find the food cart anyway and quickly hurried off after grabbing some money. 

"There were no open ones and those two girls are quite nice," Lily explained with a shrug as she sat down, watching as James sat down across from her. 

"Everyone really likes you, huh. I mean it's hard not to. You're you!" he said with a weak chuckle at the end. He hadn't made her smile, she was just looking at him curiously. 

"Anyway," he muttered, clearing his throat. "I just wanted to say again that I actually want to help you this year. Like actually be a good Head Boy. I also wanted to apologize for making you do all of the prefects rounds by yourself. And I want to also apologize because I'm probably not your first choice in terms of Head Boys, but I do want to try ... so yeah ... you can go back to your friends, I just wanted to say that."

He sighed and hung his head. He really did want to do well. For himself. For his dad. For her. He immediately looked up when he felt a hand place itself on his knee. He was met with a small smile on Lily Edwards's face. A smile that he had caused. And it wasn't sarcastic. It was kind and gentle and it made him absolutely melt. He loved the way her eyes kind of crinkled when she did. 

"Thank you, Potter. I appreciate it. The prefects thing, it was difficult, but nothing too hard. But I do appreciate you wanting to try. I'll see you after the feast? We have our first meeting with Professor McGonagall," she said kindly, getting up as she saw the two girls coming back with their snacks. 

"Uh, yeah! I'll see you then," he replied with a small wave, standing up as well and shoving his hands into his pockets. 

"Wait!" he exclaimed, grabbing her hand as she turned to leave so she couldn't go, but immediately retracting it as he felt a small blush go over his cheeks. "Could you please tell Thomas ... um female Thomas ... Nyah, that I need to talk to her sometime today to go over quidditch stuff. We want to start as early as we can this year and I came up with new plays over the summer." 

He shoved his hands into his pockets as he rocked back a bit on his feet and smiled easily. 

"James Potter said the word please. I never thought I'd live to see the day," Lily joked. "Yeah, I'll be sure to tell her. I know she came up with some stuff over the summer because she was talking about it earlier. I'll see you around." 

She turned to ( finally ) leave, but instead of immediately leaving like she normally would, especially with James Potter, she paused for a second, taking in the boy before her. She had deduced that he wasn't inebriated nor possessed during their conversation and she kind of liked it. 

He looked nervous, but so at ease just by himself. No friends, no girls screaming, no distractions. Just him, standing there, looking at her with kind eyes and hands in his pockets. 

If she had known any better she would have felt a small flutter in her stomach from a singular butterfly, not a swarm, nothing more than one, she didn't know him that well yet. But a single butterfly, a little glimmer of hope for James Sirius Potter that he may actually win her in the end. 

But she ignored the feeling completely, disregarding it as hunger because she was Lily Edwards for Merlin's sake, she would never like James Potter in any sense, let alone that sense. 

So, she spun on her heal ( for the second time that day ) to head back to her friends ( for the second time that day ) after a ( shudder ) pleasant conversation with James bloody Potter ( for the second time that day ) leaving him all alone in a compartment staring after her ( for the second time that day ). 

But this time, she'd smiled, and James felt himself falling deeper in love with her.

"That was so cute," a small, slightly squeaky voice piped up, accompanied by a giggle from another. 

James snapped his head around to face three second year girls, who immediately swooned at the fact that the James Potter was actually paying attention to them. 

"Thanks for the compartment ladies, See you 'round," James said joyously.

He did a small twirl on his heel and headed out the door. As he exited, he sent the girls the iconic million dollar smile and chuckled to himself as he heard some muffled screams and giggles from behind him. 

He smiled to himself at his win. Everything was going according to plan.