The Marauders: Year Three | #Wattys2016

Evvvvvvaaaaans

Evvvvaaaaans

"Psssst. Evans."

Lily stared very hard down at her textbook.

James reached over and poked her knee with his quill tip. "Evvvvv-annnnns," he whispered.

"I'm reading, Potter," Lily said without looking up.

"So am I."

"No, you're poking me with your quill," she replied.

"Nawh, I'm reading," he said.

"If you were reading, then you wouldn't be poking me," Lily replied quietly.

James laughed. "I could be doing both, couldn't I?"

"You're not that talented."

James laughed again and with a flourish, he pulled his cushion closer to hers and she stiffened feeling him leaning in so his mouth was right by her ear. "Evaaaans."

"Bloody hell, you monster, what do you want?" she asked, closing the book cover and turning to look at him.

Looking at James Potter was a bit of a shocking experience at the moment. He had a great large bruise on one side of his face and his glasses were a little crooked because of it. Dora had sent the glasses by owl post to Hogwarts, along with a letter saying she wished so, so much she could come to see him while he was in the hospital wing there, but that the quarantine on the Dragon Pox expressly forbade it. James was just bloody glad he could see again was all, really. But still, it was rather hard to get used to seeing the usually slim, handsome face with that horrible purple bruise covering the right side. It was fading, though, as Pomfrey's bruising potion did it's work.

She winced at having called him a monster the moment she'd said it. She hadn't meant it because of the bruise - she'd just meant it because he was positively annoying her - but he'd bristled and looked away so only the good side of his face was turned toward her. Lily softened at the expression in his eyes. "I'm sorry," she said begrudgingly.

James shrugged, "It's fine. I'm fine." He grabbed his textbook and pulled it onto his knees.

"I said I'm sorry."

"I know you did," he answered, "And you're forgiven." But he still didn't smile at her or anything like he normally would and for some reason this annoyed her as much as the smiling would have.

"When are you going to tell me the truth about where all the marks came from anyway, Potter?" she asked, nudging him.

The touch of her skin on his elbow returned exactly the response she'd been looking for. That blasted half smile crept across his face - the one that really annoyed her the most because of the way his upperlip caught on his one sort of crooked tooth on the upper left side. His eyes twinkled. "I've told you, Evans," he said, then, in a boastful tone, "I was fighting Werewolves and Death Eaters all weekend in the Forbidden Forest. Nearly died. But in the bleakest, most horrid, darkest moment, when I was positive that I was about to be killed, I held on - and only barely. And do you know what the one thing - the ONE THING -- that kept me alive was? What ONE THOUGHT helped me pull through?"

Lily had already heard this. She shook her head and looked away. "Shut it, Potter," she groaned, but he continued on anyway.

"It was you, Evans. I lay there, a werewolf breathing in my face, about to rip out my neck and kill me dead, and I swear an unbreakable vow, Evans, that I thought to myself...." James paused here for dramatic effect. "Evans hasn't given me a proper snogging yet. I can't die 'til she's snogged me."