Love and Other Lies

Food for Thought

Louelle's POV

Louelle Potter loved many things in life. She loved waking up at the crack of dawn so she could make a fresh breakfast for her friends and family. She loved sitting down with a cup of tea and a good book on a rainy day. She loved staying up all night studying, just to feel that high when she comes out on top of all her classes. What she loved the most, though, was Lily Evans.

Yes, the same Lily Evans that was currently in a relationship with her brother.

Louelle tried to stop herself from shooting daggers with her eyes at James from across the great hall, but she couldn't help it. He was sitting so close to Lily that she was practically in his lap.

Her one-sided staring contest was interrupted by a hand waving directly in front of her face. She redirected her glare to whoever was trying to get her attention when she was clearly busy thinking about more important stuff, such as how she could get away with murdering her brother.

"Finally! I've been saying your name for the last two minutes," said Barty. He cast a glance at the couple that had been holding her attention moments before. "You know staring at them's not gonna change the fact that she's dating him instead of you, right?"

"What do you want?" she replied, ignoring his comment.

"Slytherin's hosting a party tonight, so we need your brothers cloak to get drinks."

"No. Last time he found out I stole it to get drinks, he wouldn't let me borrow it at all for three months!"Three miserable months without being able to drop off flowers in Lily's dorm. She wondered what Lily thought when the flowers stopped showing up weekly for three months.

"Please, Louie? I'll love you forever and ever?" Barty begged, batting his eyelashes and everything.

She sighed. She shouldn't be giving her brother's girlfriend flowers anyway. "Fine, but if he finds out, this will be the last time I do it."

"Thanks, Louie," he said, smacking a kiss on her cheek as he got out of chair, "Have fun with your glaring. I'll see you in Potions!"

Louie rolled her eyes. Luckily, James and Lily must of left while she was talking to Barty, since their seats were empty.

Looking around, Louelle realised she was now one of the only students still sitting in the great hall. She hadn't even touched her breakfast yet.

How long had she spent just staring at James and Lily?

-

Louelle had a love-hate relationship with parties. At first, they were always way too loud and rowdy for her liking. Then, once she'd had a good few drinks, everything bad in the world disappeared and there was only fun.

She definitely hadn't had anywhere near enough to drink when James and Lily showed up, arms around each other.

Her and Regulus shared a look, then quickly downed the rest of their drinks before going to refill.

Barty was chatting away to Evan near the keg, but paused the conversation when he saw them coming. "Louie! I forgot to thank you earlier for getting us drin- wait, what's up with you two?"

"Take one guess who just showed up," Regulus answered bitterly.

"Let's kick them out. Tell 'em we don't want any happy couples ruining the vibe!" Barty suggested, smiling as if it was his biggest dream to kick someone out of a party.

"Barty, there's literally no way they'd believe that. There're so many happy couples here right now," Evan said.

"Wait, really? Who? Tell me, tell me!"

"Em and Mary," he answered.

"Dorcas and Marlene," Regulus added.

"You and Evan," Louelle said.

"Oh." He giggled. Barty had definitely had way too much to drink.

Louelle swears that they all rolled their eyes at him in sync.

"Well, I'm going to go put him in bed before he goes and kicks James and Lily out anyway. You two go enjoy the rest of the night," Evan said, already dragging Barty away.

Louelle had a feeling that would be impossible, with a certain brunette and ginger couple here.

"Maybe I could distract James for the rest if the night? Talk his ear off about something or another?" she suggested.

"Well, it's definitely a better idea than Barty's. I'd say it's worth a shot," Regulus replied.

Louelle nodded in agreement, then went off to find her brother, praying for her sake that he wouldn't be eating Lily's face off.

Surprisingly, they weren't even with each other when she found him.

"How come you aren't sitting with Lily?" she asked.

James had a panicked look on his face for a second, but quickly schooled his expression. "Oh... she's just gone to get some drinks for us."

That's weird. Louie was just there and hadn't seen Lily since she first walked in.

"Anyways, I wanted to talk to you about something. Can we go somewhere private? I'd rather nobody overheard," she said, quickly forgetting about James's poor lie.

"Oh, okay, sure."

After sitting down down in a more secluded spot, Louelle looked up at the ceiling for a moment, hoping to think of something else to keep him distracted that wouldn't involve getting yelled at for the rest of the party.

Mind coming up blank, she sighed and looked back at James. Here goes nothing. "I may or may not of stolen your cloak to get drinks for this party."

"WHAT," James screamed, "Lulu, you know I don't want you getting involved in all that! It's alright if you have a drink every now and then, but stealing them for a party?"

Louie flinched, already regretting her decision.

It was better than having to watch James and Lily being all smitten with each other all night, though.

-

After hours of getting scolded by her brother, Louelle would call the night a success.

While it was probably the worst time she had ever had at a party, Louie had managed to decrease the amount of time James and Lily spent together. Small wins.

Even though she'd been awake until the early hours of the morning, she would never break her habit of getting up at five everyday to have a quick breakfast, some much needed caffeine, and go for a fly around the quiditch pitch.

She knew James did something similar, but he left it for a bit since he knew that she liked spending that time alone.

Louelle always felt most at peace when she was in the air. It gave her a chance to be away from everyone and just think.

Generally, she would go through everything that had happened during the previous day, and figure out what the best thing would be for her to do so she could ensure the future would be something to enjoy.

Today, while Louie was thinking about the events of yesterday, she came to the realisation that there had been a common occurrence in her day-to-day life, something that was constantly making her absolutely miserable.

James and Lily.

Every single day, she would always try and avoid seeing them together at all costs.

But what if she didn't have to avoid them?

What if they weren't even together, and she actually had a chance with Lily?

Louelle knew it made her a terrible sister to even think about it, but... how could she not? All her problems would be solved, and everything would be perfect.

And she knew just the person that would be more than happy to help her execute her plan.