Jealously Wears A Green Mask | Jily

5: I'm Serious About You

"James, I'm really sorry but. .. James I would have told you but. .. James ... ack!" Sirius cursed at his reflection and threw the bowtie he was never going to manage to tie properly to the ground.

"What the bloody hell are you doing, Padfoot?" Remus asked, walking into the room with a raised eyebrow, "If I didn't know better I would think you were rehearsing an apology speech for James."

Sirius widened his eyes at his friend and threw a finger to his lips, gesturing with his other hand towards the bathroom. Remus could see, now that he was looking, that the crack beneath the door was spitting light; clearly someone was inside. It only took him a moment to put together the pieces, James must be the one in the bathroom, Sirius must be pretending to rehearse an apology so that James would later think that he had actually fallen for Lily but have been too terrified to tell him...

Remus sighed deeply, he should have just waited in the common room until breakfast. "My head hurts," he groaned, shaking his head at his friend's dramatics, "I can't wait for this ruddy dance to be over."

"I ... don't know Remus," Sirius said slowly, keeping up his charade for the boy who may or may not be listening in the bathroom, "Tonight is going to mean a lot of things to me. It could decide the future of my forever."

"That doesn't even make sense," Remus groaned.

"Does love ever?" Sirius replied with a sigh, "I just hope James can forgive me."

At that, the bedraggled eavesdropper sidled back into the room. The way he was wringing his hands and looking shiftily at Sirius made plain that he had, in fact, overheard all of Sirius's acting. Remus rolled his eyes again and pulled his pillow over his face.

"Ten hours," he moaned into the soft fabric, "Ten more hours and this will all be over."

"Right you are, Moony," James nodded, pulling a brush futilely through his hair, "But first a hearty breakfast and a nice long double Transfiguration to start the morning off right!"

"You're awfully chipper this morning," Sirius commented drily, "normally we have to drag you out of bed on a Friday morning."

Remus snorted, pulling his pillow down to his chin so that his snort would have the maximum effect. ''What is this 'we' you speak of sir?" he asked to no reply.

James shrugged at Sirius, ignoring Remus's comment, "It's my last chance to win Lily over before the dance tonight," he explained simply, "I figure if I'm super good in Transfiguration she'll have to talk to me. And if I can just get her to listen long enough for me to explain what a prat I was... "

"James," Remus interjected calmly, "The amount of time it would take you to fully explain your history of prattiness would far surpass the amount of time we have left before the dance."

"He'd be talking till graduation, more like!" Sirius snickered, tugging his tie on straight.

"Oh shove off, you," James glared, shoving his feet into his sneakers and grabbing his bag from where it hung haphazardly off the end of his four-poster bed.

Remus blinked in surprise, "Leaving already Prongs? Breakfast will still be empty."

"I'm not staying at breakfast," James replied, "I'm just grabbing a stack of toast and eating it in the classroom. I want to get their early to get the seat next to Lily's. She always sleeps through breakfast, no point in me wasting my time there. At least this way she'll have to speak to me."

"Uh ... " But before either boy could point out any of the flaws in James's plan, the black haired boy had already sauntered out of the room, the door shutting with a neat click behind him. Sirius raised an eyebrow at Remus, "He does know that Lily can sit somewhere else, right? She's not emotionally attached to her seat or anything like that."