Mischief Managed Year Two Part One: The Poisoned Truth

Chapter Twenty-Nine- Absolutely NOT a Crush on Lily

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"That's right, class. A nice flick and Immobilus," Professor Flitwick called, watching them practice it from his perch of a chair.

"James, partner up with Peter. I want to pair with Remus," Sirius commanded, nudging his friend with his elbow.

"I'm never doing anything you say ever again," James pouted, giving Sirius a distressed look that was more bitter than it was dramatic.

"Oh come off it, James, I didn't know you'd make that much of an arse of yourself," Sirius quickly whispered since they needed to pair off now.

"You know I can't talk to her because of I...like...I don't know! I freeze up...my brain goes to mush. I think she's cursed me...or maybe a Slytherin. Really, Sirius, I think there's something wrong with me," James mumbled, now sounding worried.

If Sirius wasn't rushing James to agree to pair with Peter so he could pair with Remus guilt-free, he might have been a tad more sensitive to James' plights. Well, maybe not.

"Or here's a suggestion." James looked at Sirius hopefully, "you like her."

"Like her?" James asked slowly as if the concept was something foreign and he'd never even heard of it before.

"You know, have a crush. Like you want to hold her hand and kiss her and...," Sirius trailed off, grinning too hard to continue as James' face had gone as red as a tomato. So red that Professor Flitwick called to Sirius that he had done the wrong charm and to 'practice the freezing charm today, please'.

"I do not. Don't say that!" James groaned, sounding disgusted. Sirius felt a bit bad, but James had taken so long that Remus and Peter had already paired up so he mostly felt annoyed.

"Why not? You know it's true."

"No, it's not. SHE cursed me," James yelped.

"Cursed your heart, more or less," Sirius scoffed and James physically swayed where he stood. Again, Sirius felt a bit bad. But life was more or less filled with hard truths and James just had to face it. Sirius had to face his own hard truth as soon as he talked to Remus, which was now delayed because of the sod, so the least his friend could do was face his own.

"Stop that. Don't say that," James argued, half-arsedly waving his wand around in the pretense of focusing on class.

"Why not?" Sirius demanded, taking his wand out of his robe pocket.

"Because it's not true," James replied stubbornly. Sirius flicked his wand trying the charm, only because that's what they were supposed to be doing, not because he wanted James to shut up, no that wasn't it 'at all.'

"Do you want to hold her hand?" Sirius countered, believing himself to be quite an expert at crushes since he'd heard his cousins talk about their own many times. James went silent for a bit, and Sirius could almost see the cogs in his brain trying to come to any conclusion besides liking Lily. To be fair, Sirius could sympathize. Lily would never like James, after all, and his friend was mental for falling for her in the first place. So he just had to accept it and get over it quickly.

"Well, you hold Remus' hand all the time," James retorted proudly. Sirius blinked a few times then started laughing.

"You dimwit, that's different! We're friends," Sirius shook his head at how bonkers James was asking.

"So are Lily and I," James attempted weakly, his wand dropping to his side as Flitwick turned his attention to Jeremiah Cattermole, who was struggling badly with this spell.