Forever and a Day ~ James Potter

Rose Lemonade

Chapter Twelve

23:38

James let a heavy sigh escape his puffed-out lips and turned slowly away from the view of Rosie simpering over another boy. He walked with his spine slumped over to the food and drinks table, placing down the raspberry lemonade he had gone down to the kitchens to find and finishing off his butterbeer.

He had missed out on a whole half an hour of celebrating with Sirius for his birthday because he was trying to convince one of the Hogwarts House Elves to conjure him a large bottle of Rosie's favourite drink. James wanted to kick himself for messing with her again earlier on – of course, she had gone and kissed that Ravenclaw after that. In September, Remus had told him to stay away and stop flirting, but even when James had done that, she had gotten closer to Prescott as well. What did he have to do to make her leave that prat alone?

He was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't even notice Sirius walking up to him until he clapped him on the shoulder. Normally, his lightning-quick reactions would have led him to avoid the attack, so Sirius must have known that something was wrong.

Nevertheless, James whipped his head around, slapping a grin on his face as he looked at his friend. "What?"

"You need to stop beating yourself up about her going off with that Prescott boy," Sirius told him earnestly,  shaking his head. He gently leaned against the wooden table that James had stood himself in front of and looked out over the crowd of people, stroking his chin wisely.

"Who says I'm doing that?" James retorted with a nervous laugh, discreetly grabbing the big bottle of lemonade and pushing it behind his back, not wanting to prove his friend right at the moment.

"Your face. You never look like that unless Rosie's said or done something to disappoint you. If it were anything else, you would be able to hide it and cry in the toilets later or something," Sirius shrugged, raising a knowing eyebrow at James.

"Alight. Yes, I'm jealous of him. Happy?" he looked away with a shake of his head.

"No! The brilliant James Potter should not be lowering himself to becoming jealous over some prat like that! If Artois can't see how much better you are than him, then... then she's blind!" Sirius exclaimed, his eyes widening in genuineness. James couldn't help but to laugh.

"Yeah, yeah. All right. Come on," he stood up straight and stretched his arms, gripping Sirius on the shoulder, "It's your birthday party too. Let's dance!" James walked over to the dancefloor with Sirius by his side and met up with Peter and Remus.

*

00:54

Rosie had just managed to balance Lily into an armchair that looked very similar to her favourite one in the common room. One of Lily's legs was drooping at an angle over the arm while the other was tucked somewhere into the pillow, but she didn't seem to be making any complaints. Rosie waved Mary over, seeing as she'd finally stopped snogging someone for five minutes.

"Where's Alice?" Rosie asked, feeling utterly exhausted as she slumped onto the floor in front of Lily. Mary smiled weakly, perching on a little cushioned stool with her legs crossed classily. "It's my party; she's meant to spend at least some time with me." She pouted slightly.

"I saw her dancing about with Frank a while ago," Mary answered with a shrug. She gave up on the stool, so she sat down on the floor and hugged her knees. "But I hope she's gonna be sober in the morning - I'm starting to get a headache already."

Rosie sighed and nodded her head in agreement. She wasn't sure whether she said it out loud, but she decided to go and search for something other than alcohol for the three of them. She heaved herself up and turned to walk over to the drinks table, but as she was rushing over to it, she stopped in her tracks as something caught her eye, and she did a double-take.