Loverboy

Do you really have a crush on me?

Ollie stared at Pierre in disbelief. "What are you talking about?" she asked incredulously.

Pierre looked at Ollie just as confused. "You and James, you're always sitting together, and you laugh at all his jokes, and you guys are always exchanging glances during conversation and- are you guys not dating?"

With every word out of Pierre's mouth, Ollie looked more and more disgusted. "You think I would ever date James?"

"You guys act kind of like a couple! And you would be pretty cute together," Pierre replied defensively.

"James is one of my friends, Pierre. There's no reality where I like him like that," Ollie explained, still shocked, but keeping her voice level.

"Wow, Pierre, romancing a girl who you thought had a boyfriend?" Anastasia said, her eyebrows raised and a shit-eating grin on her face.

Pierre's cheeks flushed slightly. "Well, at first I didn't think she had a boyfriend," he explained.

"You're so ridiculous, Pierre," Eric said, smiling. "But that's kind of a good point. What do we think, ladies? Is our friend a scumbag or a sweetheart?"

Anastasia and Ollie both laughed a little bit. "I'm leaning a little bit toward scumbag right now," the former joked.

"I'm still going to go with sweetheart," Ollie responded. "Maybe not the brightest-"

"Hey," Pierre said, gently nudging Ollie. "I thought you thought I was just being friendly."

"He totally wasn't just being friendly," Eric jumped in.

"Yeah," Anastasia added, "he has a huge crush on you."

Pierre laughed slightly awkwardly. "Guys, shut up," he said, rolling his crystal blue eyes.

Ollie didn't say anything, but she grinned. She felt her face grow warm.

Eric looked at his watch. "Ooh, breakfast is going to be over soon," he said. "See you around!" With that, he scampered off toward the Great Hall. Anastasia rolled her eyes and followed after him.

Pierre and Ollie were now standing alone once again, the silence deafening.

"Is that true?" Ollie teased after a moment. "Do you really have a crush on me?"

Pierre paused, not sure how to respond. Because, yeah. He did have a crush on her. He had a big, fat, steaming crush on her, and he wasn't completely sure she liked him back. So he had to choose now, risk losing the perfect girl, or deny, deny, deny.

He chose to risk it. "Yeah, I guess you could say that," he said, fiddling with the collar of his shirt. "I mean, you're pretty, and sweet, and funny, and you have the cutest laugh, and you're just amazing."

Ollie's grin morphed into a soft smile hearing that out of Pierre's mouth. "I could say the same about you," she replied. "I mean, you're just... everything I could ever wish for. You're sweet, you're handsome, you're caring, and you're just wonderful."

"Well in that case, perhaps I should take you out on a proper date, then," Pierre said. "I mean, the only reason I hadn't was because I assumed you and James-"

"Which is absolutely baffling," Ollie cut in. "But, yes, we ought to go on an actual date."

"But first, breakfast?" Pierre suggested, offering his arm.

"Why, of course," Ollie replied, taking his arm as the two walked out of the dungeons and to the Great Hall.

---

Lily Evans was having a crisis. James Potter was the most insufferable git on earth, and as everyone knew, he was hopelessly devoted to Lily. She couldn't care less about him for the past five years. She tolerated him, sure, because he was Ollie's friend, but she actively avoided being alone with him.

But just a couple weeks earlier, she had shared that brief moment with him, and she could tell he was different. The summer had really changed him, and he was suddenly so sweet and kind.

Except it can't be that different, because if James was truly that much of an ass, surely Ollie wouldn't be friends with him. Of course, it would make sense that the boy would put up a front- he was star Chaser,  a great student, and every underclass man looked up to him. Obviously he wouldn't be completely himself around these strangers.

That was the thing, though. When he wasn't with his closest friends, everything seemed to be a performance for James. Which made that moment all the more frustrating, because he normally was putting on a show around Lily, hoping to win her over.

Always messing up his hair to make it look like he just got off his broom, always carrying himself so arrogantly. The smug smirk every time he called her name, the way he would always turn to whoever was next to him and declare "She wants me," when she rolled her eyes at him.

All of that pissed her off. He clearly was just doing it to mess with her, she'd assumed. But then the other day...

He had forced himself to grow up to help Sirius, and Lily knew what it was like to lose a sibling. She knew how hard it must have been for Sirius to have to abandon Regulus, and how hard it must have been for Regulus.

And it obviously changed James's perspective on things, because he was much softer around the edges. He was still Quidditch star, he was still top of his class, he was still James Potter.

But Lily had seen the side of James that he didn't show for his audience. The first Quidditch game of the season, he was still his arrogant self.

But afterward when Lily was congratulating Marlene, she went and chatted with James afterwards, and he was soft again. He smiled and thanked her, and even complimented her scarf. But no smug grins, no eye rolling, and no "Oy, Evans!"

And at Hogsmeade when they were hanging out together, they talked about everything under the sun. They talked about school, their friends, Quidditch, cooking, music, everything. And it didn't stop at the Three Broomsticks, or at Honeyduke's. They were earnestly talking all the way back to Hogwarts and even stayed up late in the common room talking.

So Lily's crisis was about James. Because she had built her entire perception of him on how he bothered, and now he wasn't James Potter, insufferable git, he was just James Potter. She'd seen him for who he really was, a genuine and caring boy who put up a front to protect himself, and who was just trying to get through school like any other.

Near the end of fifth year, she'd felt the start of a crush beginning to form, just like when she'd liked that one Ravenclaw boy with the golden eyes. She recognized the feeling, and she just wanted to get rid of it because Lily Evans could never fall in love with James Potter.

But she'd started to get to know him, and even if she could never fall in love with him, where's the harm in a little crush?

---
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