Serendipity (S. Black)

THIRTY-FIVE

"no friendship is an accident"

*

Predictably, the first of the boys to rise the morning of the Quidditch World Cup was Remus. He yawned and stretched out, glancing around at the other three camped out in James' bedroom.

After losing a game of Exploding Snap, Sirius ended up on the floor with some cushions for the night, a deal he was less than pleased with. His dark hair fell messily into his face as he slept like a rock, a fact Remus was thankful for. Halfway through the night, Remus caught him twitching in his sleep at nightmares that never seemed to go away.

James didn't actually mean to fall asleep at all, but instead talked past midnight about the odds of the match until he passed out leaning against the wall. He snored quietly, his glasses sitting on the table beside him.

Peter, the group's resident Exploding Snap expert, won the game and therefore the twin-sized bed. He lay curled up under the blankets as still as a corpse.

For once, all was quiet in the world of the Marauders.

Satisfied with this, Remus shut his eyes and quickly fell back asleep on a cushioned chair he dragged up from the living room the night before.

A few minutes later, Lily poked her head in to wake them up and smirked at the four sleeping boys, but her amusement faded when she looked at the room.

It wasn't what she expected a room owned by James Potter to look like at all. Small, and messy, yet cozy. Dark curtains hid a window overlooking the family's extensive property where the boys spent so many days playing two-on-two Quidditch. He had completely covered one of the red walls with photographs of his friends and family. One newer photo in particular caught her attention, and she stepped over Sirius' sleeping form to examine it more closely.

All eight of them stood in a line, their arms around each others' shoulders. Signature of a wizarding camera, everyone moved, laughing as they smiled at the camera.

All except one.

James Potter didn't face the camera. Turned towards her, he was the only one without a smile. Instead, a look of admiration had crossed his face, captured perfectly in the moment.

Maybe he really did love her. Not just with puppy love, not just with a schoolboy crush. Maybe as something more.

"You supposed to be waking us up, Evans?" She whipped around to find a grinning James on the ground. He found the whole situation rather funny. This wasn't how his adolescent self imagined the first time she would see his room, with his friends snoring around him and he himself wearing pajamas. Secretly, he liked this way better. Some of his stupidity had disappeared over the years. "That's only one out of four. I hate to be the messenger, but you aren't too good at this."