The Stag and The Doe

Undesired Fate

                Lily ran through the halls of the school with Alice tagging at her heels. She took a moment to check the time on her digital watch and rushed again. A sweat was forming at the top of her brow regardless of the cool air blowing within the castle. She softly cursed at her non athletic legs and kept on running. Despite all of her poking and prodding this morning, they were still running late. Marlene had pointed this out roughly a few minutes after they finished giggling and all smiles were replaced with looks of horror. Her commanding skills took over and she immediately formulated a plan in her head so they could all avoid detention.

Marlene was to take the side entrance to the Potions dungeons so she could weave through the fifth corridor and make it to her Transfiguration class on time. Mary was going to follow Marlene and take a right from the Transfiguration classes so she could go to Charms. Lily and Alice both had Care of Magical Creatures as their first class of the day and they quickly decided that running through the Quidditch field was the best chance in arriving on time. No sooner had they made their plan, did they all go sprinting in different directions while desperately clutching their books.

But unfortunately, Lily had forgotten how far the field was from the Great Hall and had to stop in between to catch her breath from excessively running.

“I swear on Morgana, you must be the most non athletic witch in the world!” Alice shouted at her.

Lily rolled her eyes, “Shut it Al. I’m no Quidditch prodigy like James bloody Potter.”

Alice groaned and pulled at her wrist. “After class, I’m making sure you join the team. Potter may be an arse, but at least he can whip you into shape for situations like these.” Alice took matters into her own hands and dragged her by the arm. They maneuvered through the dark tunnel that led to the Quidditch pitch and unfortunately stopped short at the sight of her so called Quidditch prodigy.

James was circling the posts on his broom with a piece of parchment tucked underneath his arm. For a moment, she forgot that she was currently about to be late for a class and watched him with narrow eyes. “OI POTTER!”

Despite the steady wind against his ears, he managed to hear her and lowered his broom to the ground. “Ah, Evans. Fancy seeing you this morning,” he said as the makings of a smirk touched the very corners of his lips. Lily’s gaze did not falter. “Well fancy this. Everyone’s supposed to be in class right now. What are you doing wasting time out here?”

He smirked, clearly unfazed by her anger. “I could say the same thing about you.”

Her eyes narrowed into slits. “But I asked first.”

He smiled at her as if the situation was a joke. “Well I’d love to give you an answer, but it seems to me that you’ve got a class to get to. Which, by the way, starts in two minutes right? If I were you, I’d consider running at this point.”

“What d’you think we’ve been doing, playing a game of tag? I’ve been up and down this entire castle more than Peeves has in just two minutes,” she responded heatedly.

James burst out laughing. He clutched his sides as his shoulders shook with laughter and echoed across the Quidditch Pitch. She wanted so badly to punch that smile off of his face.