true loves poison • james potter

52

"I can't keep up with you!" Liz exclaimed as she stirred fruit into her oatmeal.

Lorelei, sitting innocently across from her, cracked a smile. "It's not so difficult."

"You were dating Sirius, but broke up with him-"

"Like a month ago-"

"Don't interrupt me." Liz warned lightheartedly. "So you and Sirius broke up, and now you are fraternizing with James?"

Melissa added from beside Liz, "Again."

Nodding, Lorelei waited to see if Liz would speak again. When she didn't speak, Lorelei elaborated. "It's different now. Last year I was fraternizing, as you so delicately phrased it, with James because of the project. But now that I know James, and have sorted everything out with him, it's like a new start. Neither of us have any obstacles this time around."

"I'd like to watch you tell Lily she's an 'obstacle' to her face." Melissa teased as she bit a piece off her toast.

"Yes, I did mean Lily, but also the project and that I didn't like James, and his pranking and other behavior-"

Liz cut Lorelei off, "Wow is there anything you actually like about the guy?"

A smile grew on Lorelei's face, "Of course there are things I like about James. If you want I can list-"

"No, I don't need to feel sad and lonely right now, thank you." Liz said with a small chuckle.

Lorelei chuckled with her, "That's not the point. My point is, this time around James and I are just going to be friends and see what happens."

"Like if you can actually tolerate him?"

"Elizabeth." Melissa started sternly, "Be kind."

"I am being kind! I just don't want Lori to get her hopes up with James just for him to be a twat to her." Liz defended, taking a bite of her oatmeal.

Lorelei smiled fondly at her friends. "I will be fine." She said firmly, hoping to nip their worries.

Neither Liz or Melissa got the chance to respond as hoots filled the room, drawing the attention of half of the students in the Great Hall. Owls swooped down across the room to deliver mail to the students.

One of Melissa's family owls swooped down above the three girls, dropping a copy of the daily prophet in front of Melissa before stopping next to Liz.

Absentmindedly, Liz and Lorelei both gave the owl portions of their food as Melissa scanned the paper.

"Anything new?" Liz finally asked, breaking the tense silence.

Melissa's lips flattened. "Unfortunately." Dropping the paper in the center of the table, she waited as Liz and Lorelei read the title.

Missing Witches And Wizards Across England

"How has the ministry not been able to do anything about Voldemort?" Liz asked, clearly shaken by the paper.

Picking the paper up, Lorelei skimmed the other articles. "Well it says here that the ministry caught a deatheater," She reported as she skimmed the rest of the article, "It looks like they will be kept in Azkaban until their trial."

"So the ministry has caught one of these psychopaths. What about the hundreds of others Voldemort is amassing?" Liz asked.

Lorelei shrugged, and got distracted from the paper by the sense that someone was standing behind her. Turning from the paper she saw James reading the paper from over her shoulder, "Good morning James." She said, trying to force herself to not sound so defeated.

James hummed, clearly only paying her half attention.

Looking back at the paper, Lorelei tried to ignore James behind her. Reading on, she read aloud for Liz and Melissa's benefit, "The Ministry is working tirelessly to take down the rampaging group led by Voldemort." Lorelei scoffed, "Clearly they aren't trying hard enough if he's kidnapping people from their homes."

"Kidnapping is a kind word for what he's probably doing to those poor people." James said, startling her.

Pretending she hadn't forgotten he was there, Lorelei replied as seriously as she could, "Ripping people from their loved ones and torturing them to insanity is too long to say."

James leaned forward and put his arm on the table beside her, leaning over her to read the paper better. "How many people has he taken?"

"He personally hasn't taken any. It's all deatheaters on missions for him." Melissa said, dispair underlying her words.

Lorelei tried to focus on the horrible subject of their conversation and not James leaning over her. "I would guess fifteen to thirty at this point."

James, unaware of the turmoil he was causing, reached over her to flip the page of the paper. "They use too many empty words trying to make the public feel better. As if fluffy words can save us from an unforgivable."

"I would hope none of us will ever encounter an unforgivable, James." Lorelei scolded as she looked up at him, her seriousness momentarily overriding her being flustered.

James looked down at her, making eye contact with her for the first time during the conversation. "At this point, with war on the horizon, I don't think any of us will escape the war completely."

"We can only hope the closest we come is being approached by death eaters to join his cause." Liz said, bringing Lorelei and James's attention to her.

"They're recruiting people?" Melissa asked, going slightly pale in the face.

Nodding Liz stirred the last bit of her, now cold, oatmeal, "I overheard a few students whispering about how they were approached by other students wearing silver masks in the bathroom about joining Voldemort. When they said no, the death eaters jinxed them and ran."

James sat down next to Lorelei, making the tense air between them lessen. "They're going to target pure blooded students first." He said, clearly revolted by the idea.

Shaking her head, Lorelei set the paper down. "I just can't understand how we got here. One moment we're being schooled like normal, the next were on the brink of a war with a maniac most of us will ever encounter."

"It's going to be our war before it's theirs." Liz said softly, looking over at a few first years laughing about one of the students spilling juice all over themselves. "Hogwarts will be a haven against the waves of war, with all the wards and with Dumbledore. But we only have a few more months here before we have to venture out of the safety of these walls."

A pit grew in Lorelei's stomach. "I don't want to have to leave Hogwarts."

James set a gentle hand on her back, "We'll look out for each other. Voldemort won't be around long enough to touch you if I have anything to say about it."