The Marauders: Year Five #Wattys2017

The Match Against Hufflepuff

The Match Against Hufflepuff

Jasper Odair came up behind Lily Evans and slid his palm over her eyes with one hand, "Guess who?" he whispered in her ear.

"Jasper," she laughed.

"You've got it right," he said, bringing the other hand about to the front of her with a small package wrapped in pretty paper and a bow. "Happy BIrthday, love." He kissed her cheek and she laughed and opened her eyes and gasped when she saw the present.

Lily looked up at him, taking the pretty little gift from his palm. "Ohh, you didn't have to get me anything," she said, lifting it up.

"You're my girlfriend, I wanted to get you something! You deserve lots of pretty things. And besides, I made it... so, I didn't really get it..." He smiled as she tore open the paper and found a bracelet, braided from strips of leather with long tails to tie together. He'd burned words onto the leather strips and she moved it to read it - they were words in different languages. Seeing her reading it, Jasper explained, "One strand is the word Beauty in English, French, Latin, Chinese, Arabic, Garblegook, and Mermish.... The next strand is Bravery... Then Hope... This one is Knowledge... this one's Kindness... this one's Laughter... and this last one is Love. It's all the words I hope for you to have all your life."

"You're incredible. Thank you, Jasper." Lily smiled and wrapped the bracelet around her arm, tying it there and then turned around on her bench and wrapped her arms around Jasper's neck and kissed him.
James came in the room then, already wearing his quidditch uniform, and he spotted them kissing and he stopped dead in his tracks. "C'mon," Peter said, trying to pull James forward. But James didn't budge, he just stood there, staring with disappointed eyes for a long moment -- until he started coughing and then he allowed Peter to drag him off down the table to the place they'd been sitting since the rift between James and Sirius had occurred.

"Meg threw a handkerchief at James as he sat down. "Are you going to make it, Potter?" she asked, half-concerned, half-laughing.

James nodded and covered his mouth with the handkerchief, still looking down the table, where Lily was excitedly showing Ali Prewitt her bracelet. Frank Longbottom was leaning across the table to see, too, and Remus and Sirius, who were just arriving, too, were both looking with interest as well. "I'm fine," James choked out the words as he finally stopped coughing.

"Oh no," Meg said, "You sound sick. Are you sick?"

"I'm not sick," James said through a raw throat.

Meg looked at him warily. "Actually, you know, I'm going to go sit with Carly and them today..." she grabbed her plate and moved down the table, leaving Peter and James where they were.

Peter looked at James, "I told you that you sounded sick, you don't listen. You look sick, too. Here c'mere, let me feel your forehead." Peter knelt up on the bench and brought his hands up toward James, but James ducked away. "Sit still, will you? I'm trying to feel if you have a fever!"

"I haven't got a fever!" James said in as stern a voice as he could muster, given that he could barely talk for the burn in his throat. "Blimey, get your paws off me, Wormtail."

But Peter could tell even without touching him that James was probably burning up - he was flushed in a weird way, the rose of his cheeks bright and the T of his forehead, too, but the rest of him looked pale and his eyes were sort of watery and he had a slight sheen of whatever along the bottom of his nose by his nostrils. Plus, he'd bundled up in two jumpers and the only person that ever did that without being ill was Remus, but that was mostly because Remus was basically always ill anyway.