Strange Benefits (James Potter)

thirty two

note: slightly late but this one is a thousand words longer than the previous chapter. oh and THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE 32k reads you guys are awesome ❤️
also: the ending here is much awaited. i think.

Milla had several things to be grateful about over the Holidays. She was grateful for all the things James had given her, the bag of candies Peter gave her that surely added on her jean size, the gothic romance novel Remus had gotten her, Sirius penning 'From Fuck Buddies to more: A guide by Sirius Black', Maxwell's ticket for two for a music festival in summer, her parents' abundance of presents ranging from clothes to records to jewelries, to name a few. Of course, how could she forget the amazing time spent with her family and the amount of Christmas movies she forced them to watch? But despite all those wonderful things, there is one negative result.

It seems like two quiet weeks were enough for James Potter's fan-girls to decide that he's available to pursue once again.

Of course, Milla knew that many girls (almost every girl, in fact) admire the head boy's looks and charm and wit and basically everything. They even have buttons with his face printed on them during Quidditch matches; a fact Sirius was more than happy to take advantage of (although they have buttons of him too). She had been subjected to a few glares and whispers herself at the beginning of the term just by sharing a dorm with James, and knew that Lily suffered the same when the two went out. Nothing compared to the aftermath of James' public confession to her, yes, but she would have gladly taken the glares and the whispers and the occasional pushes and shoves in the hallways if it would mean she wouldn't be forced to look at... this.

When James begged her to stay in the stands while he practiced, she didn't think much of it. It was finally sinking into her that yes, he liked her the way she liked him and yes, he was willing to make an effort until she decides that she's ready to be with him officially. Besides, Remus and Peter will be hanging with her as well, so she really didn't see any down side to the idea.

At first she was actually enjoying herself. It took her a few minutes of reading a sentence from a novel she brought over and over again before she finally gave in and shut it close in favor of watching James in his natural habitat on a broom, scoring some mean points even if they were just practicing. She also did a good job ignoring Cormac who seem to always fly past where she sat really slowly. Sirius took notice and didn't shy away from pointing it out. ("Cormac, mate, my dead grandmother can fly faster than that!")

Everything was going well until she heard them.

They started as a group of maybe four girls from Gryffindor in different years, squealing and giggling every time James and Sirius do so much as move. And then a few from other houses as well joined in, making their annoying buzz louder. Soon there were maybe eleven of them, three girls of which are in their Seventh year and shared a few classes with Milla. Those three had water bottles and towels in hand (Milla was naive to assume they had boyfriends on the team) and were more put-together than the rest.