The Marauders: Year Six #Wattys2017

You Used to Be Darling

You Used to be Darling

James asked Carly Shaw to the Yule Ball the very next morning at breakfast, with a big production and of course she said yes. So had begun the next wave of James Potter's Sixth Year Dating Saga as Sirius had come to call it, and the pair were seen snogging about the castle all over the place and had become a near permanent fixture in the chair in the corner, where James would sit with Carly straddling his lap, snogging half the evening away in the common room.

"It's like they have no decency," Lily hissed to Remus one night in the common room, at the big table with the firsties, doing homework.

Remus looked over at them in the corner and then back to Lily, "Why does this bother you so much, Lily?"

"Because. Look at it. Ugh, they're being so distasteful about it."

It's true. They really were. James was running his hands over Carly Shaw's bottom as they kissed. It was as though he didn't give a damn who saw what he was doing and she had her pink sweater encased torso smashed against his chest and she would pant, "Let's go somewhere more private!" and he would make a production of informing Sirius they were going to the Trophy Room Passageway and pulling Carly out the portrait hole.

Lily stared at the portrait hole as it closed behind them. "I hope her breasts are the size and texture of shrivel figs."

Remus choked on the pumpkin juice he'd been about to sip.

To Carly, it was a mystery why, once they were alone, James seemed less into it than he had in the common room. "I think he has a voyeuristic fetish," she whispered to Annalee one morning when they were talking about it. "He's always so much more... interested... when we're in the common room, running his hands over me and snogging with a lot more... gusto. Once we get alone, it's never the same. Like he just puts his hands on my hips, like he doesn't dare to do much else, and he never wants to go very far."

"That's so weird!" Annalee said. "Maybe James just needs a woman who'll... you know... take control of the ship, if you know what I'm saying."

"Maybe," Carly answered, and they had whispered conversations about it.

Meanwhile, Sirius made a point to say that he was taking Lily Evans to the Yule Ball at least once a day. He would greet her with a smile and put his arm about her shoulders when she joined them outside of classes and say, "And here's my little Christmas Kitten!" and press wet kisses onto her cheek and Remus would squint at them with a funny expression, as though trying to figure out just what the hell Sirius was up to, and Sirius would then turn to Remus and whisper, "I fucking love you, don't get jealous, you know I love you more than breathing air." And Remus would shake his head with confusion.

James found these moments intensely annoying and he'd sigh and lean against the door frame for the class, back-to Sirius and Lily as they planned their outfits for the Ball.

"Why the hell isn't he taking you to the Ball?" James demanded of Remus one evening when Lily and Sirius were giggling in the corner about the dress Lily was working on fixing up to be her gown.

"I hate dancing and the Yule Ball is jinxed for me. It's safer if I stay away from it," Remus replied.

"So why doesn't he stay here with you?"

"Because he likes dancing," Remus replied.

"Aren't you jealous over it? The way he's treating Evans? I mean - gods. The way he keeps... kissing her face... and... and hugging on her..." James made a face.