How To Be A Heartbreaker | James Potter [COMPLETED]

Chapter Six: Photograph

James knew he was screwed the moment his name followed Evans ' cousin left Professor Slughorn's chapped lips. He knew there was only one way out of his misery, out of the hole Evans dug him in through her cousin. James was sure that Sapphire Gérard wasn't half bad in any way. He thought she was better than most of the girls in Hogwarts, except Lily, obviously.

And he felt extremely bad when he saw the discomfort on her face when Slughorn called them out. James didn't know how to play it should he play it cool, relaxed? Rudely, insulting? As if they were long lost siblings, funny, happy? But before he could settle on a solution, Sapphire had already shoved her books in her bag and strutted next to him in the chair once occupied by Sirius.

Her long hair was flowing behind as she made her way towards him, a slightly sour expression on her face. James knew she was as uncomfortable as him, but she sat down nonetheless. She took out her books, laid them carelessly on the desk, and crossed her legs. She skillfully raised an eyebrow his way, her brown eyes waiting for him to make a move.

"Hello?" Are you even on this planet, Plopper?" asked Sapphire, her voice dripping with obvious annoyance. Her arms were crossed around her chest as she tried to distance herself from Potter. Sapphire could feel Severus' eyes throwing daggers at the back of her head, waiting for her to make a move. The bloke thought it would be easy to make an already smitten boy fall in love with his said - dream girl's cousin, but Severus couldn't have been more wrong.

"What? Right, yeah, hello," James said, stuttering. He threw a hand in his messy hair, oblivious to his glasses falling from his nose and on the thick wood of his desk But Sapphire saw it.

She rolled her eyes, now seeing why Lily called him air headed and grabbed his round glasses. She pushed them softly on his face, trying not to show her blush until James regained his sight. James ' face was as red as a tomato by this gesture as he continued to mess his hair up even more.

"Alright, this is how it'll go," said Sapphire, opening up her Potions manual to the page Slughorn had written on the board. "Veritaserum. Draught of Living Death and Amortentia. Any other suggestions that will most certainly be denied?"

"I..." James gaped at her, looking like a fish, his cheeks tinted red eyes wide and glasses about to fall, yet again.

"Plopper, control your glasses, " hissed Sapphire. drawing a line on her piece of parchment and writing down what she knew about Veritaserum.

"Don't call me that,'' James said with a frown evident on his face.

"Oh, look who finally regained his vocabulary," said Sapphire, Sarcasm trailing from her tone of voice. "I'm not repeating what I said."

"I didn't ask you to."

"Start writing. "

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"DETENTION!"

---

I will not curse in class. I will not hit my fellow students with books. I will not hex my fellow students. I will not curse in class.

Sapphire's wrist was beginning to hurt badly. She'd been at it for forty minutes, writing the same damned sentence in Slughorn's office. Sapphire knew there was something disturbingly wrong with her Defense professor but she wasn't sure what exactly. Stepping into his office after classes for the first time, she knew what that gut-wrenching thing was. Professor Slughorn's was office was the second step towards hell, the first step being his classroom, obviously. It was incredibly hot down there and it smelled like a billion potions erupted. In failed efforts to make the office seem more welcoming. Slughorn had put up pictures of him and older top-notch students of his, like Arthur Weasley, a bright red head, and other students.