For The Last Time | Jily

CHAPTER 3

~ Seating Arrangements ~
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The first lesson of the year was Potions with Slughorn. Sirius had dropped potions because, in his own words, that bastard's trying to collect me! Of course he was right, that was what this Professor did. He'd never pushed Sirius to take his offer however most of his classes involved Slughorn being overly enthusiastic about anything Sirius did.

Which is practically what the vain sod lives for, thought James. But nonetheless the pressure to live up to the rest of his callous family made him not be able to stand potions anymore, meaning James was alone.

Well not alone, he still had Remus and Peter, but they both actually focused on their studies. So what he really meant was, he was alone... to prat around in class.

Which is why he came up with the utterly brilliant idea to snag a seat next to the future love of his life, Lily Evans. He wasn't quite sure how yet, but he would, and that was all that mattered.

The group of Gryffindor boys swaggered into potions, on time for once but only because of Remus.

"C'mon Moony, why do we need to be 5 minutes early, it's not like we're gonna miss anything!" James complained.

"It's always good to be on time, I like getting the seats near the front," Remus retorted, unabashed by James comment.

"Wormtail, you can't seriously want to be early to lessons?"

Peter shrugged, "I don't really mind, as long as I don't have to sit at the front I'm fine with it."

The room was arranged into desks that sat two people. Peter sat on the second row, and Remus plopped down next to him. James and Remus were best friends, which is why people found it so odd that they never sat together. However, to the Marauders, this wasn't in the least bit strange. The only time they ever sat next to each other was their 1st year; James repeatedly pestered Remus so he could gossip, whilst Remus stuck his head in a book. Needless to say it was a lose-lose situation.

"I'm sorry mate, this doesn't work for me," James turned around and headed for the door, "being early to a class? I don't wanna ruin my bad boy reputation."

Remus snorted and shook his head as James walked back through the door and out into the corridor where he walked into Lily Evans again.

"Potter you really need to look where your going, that's the second time in two days that you've walked into me!" Lily glared at him with a serious frown on her face. She carried on into the classroom, and James followed behind.

"Sorry Evans, I'll keep that in mind for next time," he replied earnestly.

"Wait why have you come into the classroom, weren't you just leaving?"

"Oh uhh," he tried to come up with an excuse quickly, "I went out to- to get a book... but I... I realised I didn't need it so..." he trailed off awkwardly but Lily didn't really care so just ignored it.

She sat down in the front row, opposite the chalkboard, and James sat right next to her.

"Uh what are you doing?"

"Why sitting down of course," James replied happily, not reading her tone well at all.

"That seats for Alice, I said I'd save it for her," Lily replied already annoyed, "and I have never once seen you sit anywhere near the front of a class."