Losing Game/// James Potter

Chapter 51

A few days had passed, and the two best friends had yet to speak a word to each other. While James couldn't remember anything from the night of his birthday, Elsie was quite the opposite. She couldn't get the words James had admitted to her out of her head. It was as if he engraved them into her brain, never to leave no matter how hard she tried to push them out. So, the two stopped talking; one because of embarrassment and the other because they were trying to keep their feelings at bay.

After classes had finished for the day, Elsie found herself chatting in her room with her girl friends since she didn't have Quidditch practice on this Tuesday night. Elsie was laying stomach-down on her bed, her hands holding up her head while her feet swung in the air. Alice was sitting with one leg crossed over the other on her own bed, as Marlene was sharing hers with Lily.

"He punched him?!" Marlene exclaimed with a chuckle, a shocked smile lingering on her face, "What in Merlin's name for?"

Elsie groaned as her cheek slumped in the palm of her hand, "I don't bloody know, he wouldn't tell me! All he said is that Benjy is bad for me."

"Was it at least a good punch?" The blonde excitedly asked as a pensive smirk took over her lips.

"Marlene!" Alice laughed out while playfully reprimanding her friend, "That's not what is important here."

Marlene raised her hands defensively as Lily spoke next, raising her eyebrow curiously while pointing out, "Well, Els. There were two people there who knew what happened. Why don't you just owl Benjy and ask him?"

"Benjy would be sure to tell you," Alice nodded her head in agreement while adding onto Lily's thought, wiggling her eyebrows teasingly at Elsie, "Especially since he's so smitten over you."

A small blush crept onto Elsie's face thinking about the messy haired, olive-skinned boy. Of course the words James had said to her were imprinted in her head, but she still had very strong feelings for Benjy. He's all she has ever asked for with love; someone loyal, someone sweet, someone funny, someone who treated her the way she wanted to be treated. Benjy meant a lot to her, and she wasn't just going to drop him now that James decided to declare his love for her. That didn't make up for all the times he unknowingly hurt her.

"You really like him, don't you?" Lily asked with a torn expression on her face, one fighting between being happy and being sad. One that expressed how happy she was for Elsie and how sad she was for James.

"A lot," her blush deepened as she stood up and walked over to her desk to write a letter addressed to Benjy, "I'll take your advice, Lils. It's better that I know both sides of the argument anyways."

James had just walked into the Gryffindor common room to find that it was fairly empty, but not finding it in him to care. That's how he's been feeling about most things since the fight with Elsie: careless and unfocused. In a moment of distraction, two hands pulled him all the way up the boy's dormitory stairs and right into the Marauders' room. After looking up to see Sirius Black shutting the door behind him, he decided to joke around with him hoping to ignore what he knew the boys wanted to talk to him about.

"Godric, Padfoot," James smirked while winking at his friend, "If you wanted to get me alone in a room, you could've just asked."

"Unfortunately, that's not what I've dragged you up here for," Sirius snickered at his comment before playfully teasing him back, returning his wink, "Another time, though."

"If you two are done flirting, we did need Prongs up here for a reason," Peter laughed out from his bed, Remus doing the same.

"Alright, lads?" James nervously asked, scratching the back of his neck and walking over to his old bed.