Pride and Prejudice | James Potter

Chapter Nineteen

"Checkmate." Elizabeth yawned, moving her piece. James sighed and knocked his king over.

"How did you get so good at chess?" He complained. Elizabeth shrugged.

"My sister's really good at it. Had to get better at it so it wasn't such a miserable loss every time. She still beats me, though."

James shook his head.

"That's ridiculous. I always beat Sirius."

"Have you maybe considered the notion that both of you are bad at chess? Maybe you're just the better bad." Elizabeth commented, leaning back in her chair. James rolled his eyes.

"You don't have to rub it in."

"Well, you can't be great at everything. I rather like being able to hold something over you."

James stuck his tongue out. Sirius rolled his eyes at them.

"I thought you were trying to keep your relationship a secret for a little while."

"Yeah, we are." Elizabeth said.

"Well, you aren't being very secretive about it. If I didn't know who you were, I would assume you were dating."

"It's not my fault you don't know how to read a room." Elizabeth said. Sirius shrugged.

"Your loss. Just don't say I didn't warn you."

"Would you rather we went upstairs to my dorm?" James asked. Sirius flinched.

"I'm not saying either option is preferable, but I would rather you two weren't left unsupervised."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"It's not like we would do anything. You're the one we have to worry about being unsupervised. You're single-handedly making the class of 1995."

Sirius stuck his tongue out.

"That's not true. Besides, you're just going off of rumors you've heard."

"I'm just going off of the testimonials of a dozen different girls."

"You aren't even friends with a dozen different girls. How do you know about their sex lives?"

Elizabeth shrugged.

"The girls' bathroom is a safe space. Even the girls that kind of hate each other will gossip together."

Sirius groaned.

"So you're telling me they could all gang up on me?"

"Potentially. I mean, it's not like any of them didn't already know about you. I really think you're giving yourself too much credit here."

"All right." James cut in. "Who wants to play exploding snap?"

~~~~~~~

"James, NEWT's are only in three months. You have to study." Elizabeth said, pushing James's charms textbook back to him.

"I'd rather just spend time with you, my dear." James said, kissing her cheek. Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"We are spending time by studying, and it's productive."

James sighed and opened his textbook. Elizabeth saw Remus smile from across the room.

"Elizabeth, I don't understand this. Can you explain it?" Peter asked, showing Elizabeth his book. Elizabeth nodded and started to explain it. She stopped when she saw the shock on Peter's face.

"Sorry, am I going too fast?"

Peter shook his head.

"No, it's just that usually, people don't help me."

"Oh." Elizabeth said. It surprised her that people weren't nice to Peter, he didn't really do anything wrong. "Well, I'll help you."

"Thanks." Peter breathed. Elizabeth chuckled and turned back to the textbook.

"It's pretty simple in theory, but preforming it is a lot harder. It's like the patronus charm in that way." She explained. She heard Sirius scoff.

"Patronus's aren't hard."

Elizabeth looked up.

"You can preform the patronus cham successfully?" She asked. Remus, Sirius, and James nodded, a bit proudly, Elizabeth noticed.

"Pete's still getting the hang of it, but he can make a strong wisp at this point. The rest of us can make animals." Sirius said. Elizabeth noticed Peter blush.

"It's not embarrassing to be able to do that, I've tried a few times and I've never gotten much. Just because these guys are magic freaks doesn't mean we have to feel insecure about it." She assured Peter, who smiled.

"We are not magic freaks! We're just talented." James argued.

"Alright." Elizabeth said, winking at Peter. James sighed dramatically.

"I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree."

"I suppose." Elizabeth said, sighing. James smiled and winked at her. Sirius gagged.

"I'd prefer if you kept your cute relationship out of my face, thank you."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes at him.

"Just study. I will be saying 'I told you so' if you or James don't pass your exams."

Sirius sighed and opened his book again. Elizabeth glanced at Remus and they smiled at each other.

"Who wants to play quidditch after this?" James asked. Elizabeth rolled her eyes.