Carve Me Open / r.l. + s.b. /

Folly of His Ways

"I will never stop worrying about you. It is not a burden; you are just too important to me."
- via distressedtragedy

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Hogwarts, December 1971 (First Year)

When James Potter had caught word of Sirius's betrayal, anger consumed him. The notorious Sirius Black—an arrogant, naughty, sophisticated aristocrat—was seated with Remus Lupin. It was no secret that the latter, a nearly invisible blip in James's day, was a spineless brown-nose that had puckered his lips up to McGonagall enough to miss weeks' worth of classes so far. It was unfair! Not that James was jealous in the slightest, because who would be jealous of a loser like Lupin?

Not James Potter. He had money, good looks, and could charm the socks off of anyone in a ten-foot vicinity, what with his rigorous Quidditch training and all. All the girls were fawning over him; just then, he caught a glimpse of Lily Evans watching him with a dutiful squint. She might have been glaring at him, but James preferred to think she just needed glasses. With a sly wink, he returned to brooding.

"Did you just wink at Lily Evans," Peter snickered, mouth full of food?

James's attention snapped back, and he realized they had a mere minutes before mealtime would be over.

"Yeah, she was staring at me," he said, picking apart an old biscuit on his plate.

Peter looked hesitant to speak, opening and closing his mouth not to chew but to articulate his following words ever so carefully. His bright, beady eyes darted from table to table, glossing over Lupin and Sirius further down with Julienne and Evans. With a hooded gaze, James observed them.

Lupin was smiling, a sight not often seen by those foreign to his company, and laughed at whatever Sirius had just said. Perhaps it had been a recycled joke that had already made its presence known to Peter and James; though it was petty and childish, it soothed the horrid feeling dropping into James's stomach. Julienne, who'd made it no secret she wasn't a friend of Sirius's, had been smiling despite herself, shaking her head with her shoulders bobbing – a sign of stifled laughter. Sirius's ego needn't be fueled any more than it already had been; his head was three sizes too big after being in Peter's company all year. Even Evans seemed to be enjoying herself amongst the group, ignoring Sirius if anything.

"You've been staring at them all morning, mate," Peter finally spoke, giving a sympathetic look. "We could go sit with them, you know?"

"I don't want to sit with them," James hissed. "I don't need them."

Peter scratched the back of his head, "But you've been staring at them all morning with this twitch in your eye."

James glowered at his friend, "My eye does not twitch!"

"Yeah, it does," Peter nodded. "Your face gets all red, and your eyes squint, but the left one more. Kind of like this."

Peter then performed an ensemble piece of the nervous convulsion in James's eye, which he'd never seen before, rocking back and forth, and breathing heavily like a bull. He contorted his face to mimic the nasty expression donned on James's face since Sirius had begun sitting elsewhere in the Great Hall. Well, maybe it did twitch a little when he was angry.

"Would you cut it out," James said, throwing down a piece of bread he'd molded into little balls. "I'm just confused as to why the hell Sirius would sit with Lupin of all people."

"I dunno," Peter shrugged. "He's always been nice to me, and everyone else seems to like him just as well. Well, maybe not the Slytherins, but they don't like anyone."