The Other War // James Potter & Lily Evans

quidditch, again;

The day started the same way as always, but something in his mouth tasted funny. Perhaps it was the fact that they were playing Slytherin and they'd recently gotten a new-particularly aggressive-beater on their team or maybe it was because he'd forgotten to brush his teeth that morning but either way, he found that his nerves were on edge.

James wasted no time in doing his bed, or securing his Quidditch gear on properly. He tied his cloak around his neck, grabbed his broomstick and noisily clunked his way down the stairs with as much agility as he could manage.

Without waking Lily, he made his way down to the Quidditch pitch where half of his team were already eagerly strapping on their equipment and mounting their brooms.

"Good morning," he chirped to the portion of the team that was gathered. They muttered gauge responses in reply before averting their focus to waxing their brooms. Sirius swaggered in next, hand in hand with Marlene. Both of the, carried abnormally smug smirks on their faces. James approached Sirius when Marlene went to go sit by Dorcas.

"And why are you so smug this morning, Black?" James interrogated.

"Me and Marlene has the best night last night."

"Oh really? And what did this extravagant night entail?"

"Too much firewhiskey," Sirius drawled.

"Well," James said finally. "You'd better not be drunk, I am not going to lose to Slytherin." Sirius rolled his eyes, rolling his head backwards as he did so.

"Fine."

"James!" Lily's voice smacked him in the back of his head. He spun around. "James."

"Lily!" James mocked. "What's up, dear Lily?"

"I just wanted to say, good luck." She breathed.

"Why do I need luck when I have you-"

"You two love birds make me want to hurl myself off the astronomy tower." Marlene yelled out.

"I was going to say," James continued. "Why do I need luck when I have you wearing..." He pulled a scarf out of his bag. "This!" Lily rolled her eyes but stood still as he looped the scarf around her neck and tied it up. She didn't argue. "See? How warm is that?"

"Super."

"Fantastic." He took a hold of one of the ends of the scarf and pulled it, drawing Lily in closer. She looked at him with a bland expression through her eyelashes. He leaned in to hiss her on the nose when he stopped and cocked his head.

"Huh," he paused. "I would have thought that you'd have red eyelashes because of your hair..."

"Ugh, James."