RED - James Potter x OC

sixteen - healing

Atla had never seen James smile at her. Smirk, maybe. But never a grin like this.

And worst of all, she didn't hate it.

'Don't worry about it, Red.' he waved her off.

It was only then that she saw the blood on him. It dripped down his face and bled through the collar of his shirt. Atla decided, if only so she wasn't indebted to him, to fix it.

'Come with me, Potter, I'll heal your cuts.' she sighed, pulling him by the wrist.

'No, honestly, Red, I'm fine-' James argued, cut off by Atla.

'I don't care, you're coming with me.' she insisted, dragging him the short way back to the Gryffindor common room.

They settled on a sofa in front of the fire, the warm flames dimly illuminating the room. Atla waved her wand, whispering with a furrowed brow, and a small basin of water appeared, along with some bandages and paper towels.

Silently, she set about her work. She gingerly touched his cheek, where one cut lay, before dipping a paper towel into the warm water. She dabbed at his face, a small amount of red blood coming away from the cut. She didn't miss his wince.

'Sorry, this is going to hurt a bit.' she apologised with a sheepish smile on her face.

'It's fine, Red,' the boy replied, 'but what were you doing in the corridor that late anyway?'

'I could ask you the same question.'

'Getting a cup of tea,' James replied, 'and don't try to lie.'

'I was on my way back from Dumbledore's office.' Atla gave in, not having enough energy to be secretive.

'Why were you there? Was it to do with the powers? I saw you conjure red light in the corridor earlier.' James questioned her.

Atla sighed. She knew she couldn't lie now. She just hoped he didn't tell anyone.

'I was having lessons on how to use said powers.' she admitted, 'tonight was the first time I could get them to work. You can't tell anyone.'

James looked rather offended at the thought that he might tell someone. A flash of hurt crossed his eyes before he blinked and returned to normal.

'I would never tell anyone, Red.'

'How do I know that? You hate me, Potter.' Atla said simply.

'I don't hate you. I kissed you, remember?' he said.

'Let's just forget that whole thing happened. Please, James.'

It was the first time she had called him by his first name in maybe four years. To Atla, it felt wrong, but right at the same time. He locked eyes with her, scarlet clashing with hazel.

'I can't just ignore it, Atla.' he said quietly.

'I can.' Atla replied, looking down, 'now unbutton your shirt.'

'So eager to see my abs, Red?'

'Oh please, I probably have better abs than you do,' she replied with a mischievous smile, 'I just need to fix the cut on your shoulder.'

James unbuttoned his top all the way, allowing Atla to pull it off and access the cut better. Atla bit her lip; this was a worse laceration than the other one. She painfully kept her eyes focussed on his shoulder, not allowing her gaze to travel towards his chest. From what she did see, though, the Quidditch was definitely doing wonders for his muscles.

She cleaned the cut painstakingly, apologising whenever James would inhale quickly in pain. He waved it off every time, thanking her for trying. As the blood finally cleared, she grabbed a dry bandage from the table.

'Lift your arm a bit.' Atla instructed him. James slowly raised his arm, resting it on her shoulder. Atla tried not to blush at the proximity. She was only inches away from his bare chest. Focussing a little too much on the bandage in her hand, she wrapped it around his shoulder and over the cut, holding it under his arm.

Finally, she twisted the fabric and tied it off. Looking up at his face to announce she was done, Atla almost jumped to see that he was only centimetres from her face and looking directly in her eyes.

'Your eyes are still red.' James stated.

'Yeah, sometimes they take a while to turn backc' Atla said awkwardly, 'well, I'm done.'

'Thanks, love.' James said with a soft smile, taking his arm off of her.

She leaned back, away from him slightly.

'I should be thanking you, really, I suppose you did save me.' Atla replied, mirroring his smile.

'I suppose I did.' James said, 'did you have a plan, though? I mean you were talking big for someone who was utterly trapped.'

Atla blushed, 'I was hoping to distract them until the curse wore off.'

'But you were meters away from your wand.' James said in confusion.

'I have other magic, remember?'

'But you can't control it yet.'

'Well, I suppose I had no other choice but to bet on myself, even if no one else in that room did.' Atla said, looking down in embarrassment.

James carefully lifted his non-bandaged arm, and used one finger to lift her chin up so she was facing him.

'I would bet on you too, Atla. You're a beast at duelling - I saw what you did to Rosier.' he said kindly.

'The prick deserved it.' Atla said, the fierceness somewhat returning to her eyes. She was never going to forget what he and his friends had done.

'Now that might be the only thing we can agree on, Red.' James said with a quiet chuckle.

'Yes,' Atla replied, smirking, 'that and the fact that I'm a better chaser than you.'

'Now that's just a full-blown lie.'

'It is not!'

'Who's captain?'

'Only because you aren't well-behaved enough to be a prefect!'

'As if you're an angel! Who was the one out of bed at 11?'

'Both of us, if I recall....'

Slowly, the argument drifted into just swearing at eachother, then merged into both falling asleep on the sofa that night.