James Potter hates quills. He hates filling them into the stupid ink well full of deathly ink, all black and well, inky. He hates when his stupid left handiness gets in the way and smudges his nearly nearly work.
Lily Potter loves pencils. She loves the practicality of not having to fill up her stupid quill. Her rubber is her best friend.
"Um, Lily. What is that?" James is eyeing Lily's wooden stick. (Sick minded children.) Lily looks up and giggles at James' lusting eyes.
"It's a stick if wood, with a piece of lead in it. You haven't heard of a pencil?" James nods silently, still staring at the beautiful instrument. " Do you want one?" James gasps. How amazing is his girlfriend?
"Yes, yes please. I'll do anything. I'll do what ever you want." James' smile is so wide you would think that he had won the lottery.
Lily sticks her hand in her bag and pulls out her pencil case. She gives him two pencils, a rubber and a pencil sharpener. For the next hoor Lily explains to James the function of the instruments, class completely forgotten.
"Lily and James. What the hell is this?" Professor Slughorn is standing over the couple, staring suspiciously at the stationary lying on the desk.
"Sir, it's amazing. It's like a quill but it lasts ten million times as long, rubs out and doesn't smudge!" James' voice is raised with excitement.
"Lily, explain." Obviously, James' explanation is not enough for him.
"Well, you know how I'm a muggle born?" Slughorn nods, " wellz muggles don't use quills anymore. They use these, pencils and pens." James looks up at the word pens. "And they are so much more practical and James wwas complaining about his quill so I showed him my pencil. I think he loves it more than me!" James looks guiltily at the stationary lying on the desk.
"Lily, you know that's not true." Lily's hand is in James' and Slughorn is looking uncomfortable.
"So, they are not illegal?" Slughorn questions once he has recovered from his shock.
"Definitely not."
"Well, then. I want fifty on my desk on Monday morning. That is all," Slughorn limps away without another word.
"OK?" James and Lily are on top of each other, uncontrollable laughter pouring from their mouths.
James places his lips gently on Lily's forehead. "I love you, even more than pencils."
Lily leans up to James, kisses his neck. "Well, I love you more than rubbers."
"Seriously? Wow, I feel special. Really special." Lily lands her lips on James' mouth, kissing him sweetly as he sighs. They kiss until Slughorn walks up behind them asking about rubbers. It is a very short conversation.
