ADDICTED | j.p x oc

24

El woke first out of the pair. It was around midday, she had her head resting on James' shoulder, with his head laying on top of hers.

She stayed for a moment, keeping her eyes closed, not wanting to move for fear of waking him. She readjusted herself under his arm, taking a deep inhale of his familiar scent.

She felt James' breathing pattern change, alerting her that he was awake. "How you feeling?" she queried.

He removed his arm from around her, sitting up straighter, as if to test everything worked properly. "Spectacular," he took off his bandages and examined his chest.

Three clear silver stripes now decorated his his torso, leading from his shoulder, across to his ribs. She smiled lightly, he wasn't bleeding anymore.

"We don't have to go to classes the rest of the day, what should we do?" James asked, eyeing the girl.

"I still have half a bottle of-" she began.

"No," he cut her off, shaking his head.

"Then what?" They pondered for a moment, looking around to room to find something they could do, "We can't leave, or Minnie will know we were lying,"

"Ahh, you underestimate me, Letter,"

***

Under James' cloak, they'd found their way to one of many hidden passages through the castle. This one led out to the grounds, and they followed a path down to a tree by the Black Lake.

"You know for the first six months i was at Hogwarts, Sirius managed to convince me this lake was named after his family," James laughed, looking out over the water.

El looked at him, her facial expression making it clear that she thought he was stupid, "And you believed him?!"

James shrugged and shook his head, "he was very convincing," he defended.

The grounds of the school were peaceful. The sun was just past the centre of the sky, everyone was in lessons so they were the only people they could see. They were sat next to each other, with their backs against the tree and their knees pulled up in front of them.

They watched the day go by, walking quietly to each other, before deciding to head back to their dorm via the kitchens.

***

The 11th of December was an important day to Eleanor. It fell on a friday that year. She sat by the window in James' room, observing what she could see of the grounds outside.

James and Sirius were at quidditch practice, Remus was studying, Marlene was with Dorcas, and god knows what Peter was doing, but this left El with nothing to distract herself.

She heard James enter the common room, coming his room a moment later. His clothes were soaked through from the rain, his hair stuck to his forehead.

"You're in my room?" he said, surprised. He closed the door behind him and messed up his hair, splattering water everywhere. "Why?"

She shrugged, "Don't like my room. Too green," her gaze followed a raindrop down the glass, watching it merge with all the others at the end.

"What've you been doing?" James took off his wet shirt and replaced it with a dry one.

"Listening to the rain," even while James got changed, she kept her eye on the glass.