Pride and Prejudice | James Potter

Chapter Six

Friends

Elizabeth had successfully avoided James for a whole week now. They hadn't had any potions assignments together yet, and she hoped it stayed like that for as long as possible. The thing was, she didn't know how to feel about her situation with James. Everyone at Hogwarts knew James was attractive, but being so obviously presented with her feelings had made her frustrated. She hadn't even decided how she felt about James, and she had students she didn't even know trying to talk to her about it and give her advice. The only person she didn't mind talking to about it was Lily Evans.

That's right, Lily Evans. Lily had come up to Elizabeth the day after the incident and thanked her.

"I just wanted to say thanks for showing James he didn't really like me. I knew he only really cared about the chase and had tricked himself into thinking it was about me. I'm really glad he's found someone he actually likes. Even if you guys won't talk about it." She had said. Elizabeth had been tentative to talk to Lily at first, but quickly found herself enjoying Lily's company more than she thought she would. In fact, she and Lily got along quite well, and had talked a few times about James and the whole situation. Lily had been more than understanding, and Elizabeth found she was great to talk to about problems.

Elizabeth sat down at the Gryffindor table next to Anne. Though she had fought to sit anywhere else, it was the Gryffindor table Saturday. She pointedly avoided James's gaze, opting to talk to Lily as they waited for her other siblings.

"How have you been? McGonagall's been stressing me out with all of her talk about NEWT's. I mean, they're not until the end of the year, and I'm already worried." Lily said. Elizabeth nodded, going to respond when Edmond and Henry sat down.

"So, had an eventful week, haven't we?" Henry said, sitting across from Elizabeth. She groaned.

"We're not talking about that."

"Why not? We wouldn't be the only ones." Henry pointed out, gesturing at a group of third year Gryffindor girls that were looking over at her and whispering. They weren't the only ones. Because she was sitting at the Gryffindor table, everyone had something new to talk about.

"But I would rather not." She said. Edmond sighed, glancing at James.

"You're going to have to face the music at some point, Elizabeth."

"Not today, though." Elizabeth said, filling her plate. Anne sighed.

"I really wish you would just think about it, Elizabeth. He's really nice."

"I did say I didn't want to talk about it, and he isn't the problem, anyway. It's just everything was kind of thrown on me, and I'm definitely not ready to talk about it with him. I haven't even really thought through it."

"Well, I think the real problem here is that you're avoiding it." Henry said.

"Well, thank you for your opinion. I'm going to ask that we stop discussing this now."

"Fine, fine." Edmond said, raising his hands in mock surrender. They spent the rest of breakfast ignoring the topic of James Potter, though Anne tried to bring it up a few more times. The truth was, Elizabeth didn't have a problem dating James, not really. There was, of course his hatred for the Slytherins, and that would have to change before their relationship went anywhere, but she was mainly just confused. She had been so determined to hate him, and then she had been presented with the fact that she was attracted to him so quickly, and in front of such a large audience, not giving her time to mull over it. Now, she had been putting off even thinking about her feelings until she absolutely had to.

"Well, I've got quidditch practice." Henry said. He had made it onto the Slytherin quidditch team the year before, and made it his personal goal to talk about it as much as possible. Elizabeth bid her brother goodbye, happy that she could go back to her common room and be more than ten feet away from James Potter. She stood up, grabbing her bag, and headed towards the door. She heard James calling her, but ignored him. If she wasn't in the mood to discuss her feelings with her siblings, she certainly wasn't in the mood to discuss her feelings with James Potter.

She continued walking, acting as though she hadn't heard him, and had just made it out of the hall when someone grabbed her elbow and spun her around. She was face to face with James Potter, being presented with everything she had been trying to avoid.

"Listen, Elizabeth. I know you've been avoiding me. You've made that pretty clear." He chuckled. "And I get that everything happened in possibly the most embarrassing way possible. But, I just want to talk to you about everything. Can we just talk for a minute? Without you pretending I don't exist?"

Elizabeth nodded, accepting that she couldn't escape her fate.

"Fine. We can talk. Where do you want to? Because I'm definitely not doing it in front of other people." She said. James laughed.

"I think I know a place."

He led her up to the seventh floor, stopping at a blank wall. Elizabeth looked at him.

"Are you sure this is the right place?"

James nodded, smiling, and started pacing back and forth. Elizabeth waited, her arms crossed, when a door appeared on the wall. She stared at it before turning to James.

"How did you do that?"

James winked.

"Magic."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and followed him into the room. James sat down on one of the beanbag chairs and gestured for her to do the same.

"So, we're in a bit of a predicament." He noted. Elizabeth snorted.

"You could say that."

"Well I will. So, let's start at the beginning. Why did you start avoiding me?"

Elizabeth shrugged.

"I don't know. I was embarrassed, and confused. I just felt like I needed to figure out my own emotions before we talked about it."

James nodded.

"Right. Well, let's talk about it now. I gave you a whole week. So, let's discuss this. When did you start thinking I was the most attractive and appealing man you'd ever met?"

Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"Hasn't happened. I mean, we're obviously both attracted to each other."

James nodded.

"Yeah."

"But we're not going to date."

James nodded, looking a little more confused.

"Isn't it a little early to be cancelling that out?"

Elizabeth shrugged.

"We don't exactly have the same views on a lot of things, in fact we have wildly opposing views, and I just don't think it's a great idea right now. I'm not opposed to the idea later on, but we're just too different. I think we'd drive each other crazy within a week."

James nodded slowly.

"Okay. I agree. We're not quite cut out for a relationship right not. But can you not avoid me anymore? I just want to go back to how we were. Except, I'd like to be bumped up to friend status, considering recent events."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"Deal."

They shook hands. James cocked his head.

"But a future relationship is an option, right? I don't want to lose a girl that thinks so highly of me."

Elizabeth snorted.

"Right. For right now, we're friends."

Just friends.