BETTY

ten. july 2nd

[ chapter ten. july 2nd ]

James stared at the ceiling, his head propped up on a pillow and his hands crossed across his stomach. His glasses were still on his bedside table, so his vision was. . . incredibly blurry (he could still remember the first time that Sirius realized just how terrible his eyesight really was). It wasn't too early, probably around 8 or 9 in the morning, but James had woken up and hadn't been able to get back to sleep.

He was too busy thinking about Betty.

After jumping out her window with Sirius last night, James had returned to his room and sat on his bed for a very long time, thinking about why he was suddenly so reluctant to go on a date with Lily. Last year at this time, he would've been foaming at the mouth just to catch a glimpse of her. . . not in a weird way though, just in a wow I'm so in love with you Lily Evans way. But now? James didn't feel that same fluttering in his chest at the mention of her name, and he didn't feel the heat rise to his face when he thought of her.

Instead, he got those feelings when he thought of Betty Blake.

James closed his eyes and rubbed away the headache that he always got when he didn't wear his glasses. He reached over and grabbed them, sliding them onto his face and the world came back into focus. He wished it was that easy to understand his feelings - slide on his glasses and suddenly everything would make sense.

No matter how hard James tried to hide it, he knew that Sirius was starting to figure it out - that James was losing feelings for Lily and instead gaining them for Betty. He and Sirius had been best mates for nearly seven years, it was almost impossible to hide anything from him. Especially after last night, when James kept getting all flustered and shooting down the idea of going on a date with Lily. The old James would've never passed on an opportunity to go out with Lily Evans. He'd loved Lily ever since he met her, so how come this girl that he'd known for. . . a week? How come she was invading his thoughts in the way that Lily used to?

Not only had he only known Betty for a week, but she was also a Muggle. She wasn't allowed to know about the life James lived when he went back to Hogwarts. Sure, for now, it was nice to pretend that he was a normal teenage boy who wasn't actually a wizard, but he was going into his seventh year and then he'd have to get a job and he'd probably never see Betty again. He couldn't introduce her to this world she had no idea about and then expect her to stick around, it would probably scare her off! 

James couldn't imagine living 17. . . wait, was Betty 18? See! He barely even knew her! He couldn't imagine living his entire life not knowing about the Wizarding World and then suddenly having a tall, dark, and handsome boy (himself, of course) explain it on a random Saturday.

James closed his eyes behind his glasses, but all he could see was her soft sunshine blonde hair that smelled like strawberries and her pretty smile, and the way she looked at him-

He sat up abruptly. No, he wasn't supposed to think about Betty like this. He, James Potter, was going on a date with Lily Evans today and he was not going to mess it up. Maybe this was just a mistake, maybe once James saw Lily everything would come back to him - the reason he'd fallen for her in the first place. Maybe James had just forgotten about Lily's red hair that. . . also smelled like strawberries. Seriously, did all girls use the same shampoo? Why did they all smell like strawberries?

He stumbled toward his bathroom, turned the sink on, took his glasses off, and splashed his face with cold water. He looked up at his blurry reflection in the mirror - his hair was even more disheveled than usual as he'd yet to brush it. James knew that he was attractive, everyone at Hogwarts knew he was attractive, and as far as he could tell, Betty knew he was attractive. It was only Lily that refused to admit James was a total heartthrob. So maybe James didn't want to spend the rest of his life chasing after the girl with red hair, maybe he wanted an easy life with a girl who'd love all of his arrogance and charm. Maybe he didn't want to fight for Lily's love anymore.