She's a Snitch | James Potter | Marauders Era

THIRTY-THREE

The facial expressions of each of the Marauders were some to behold in their last lesson of the day, Transfiguration. Sirius was smirking, leisurely leaning on two of his chair legs with an arm resting on the back of Eloise's chair; Eloise was leant forwards, her chin resting on her palm and an amused smile on her face and her amusement faltering for a few seconds whenever a strand of her raven hair got stuck in her lip gloss (she chose dark hair to match Sirius for the day); Remus was half-smiling as he rolled his eyes good-naturedly; Thalia, however, was curling her lip as her eyes narrowed at a certain pair of people; and Peter just looked bored as he hadn't noticed what everyone else was looking at: James. Specifically, James and Lily.

The bespectacled boy, having noticed that Thalia looked extremely bored and her eyes were drooping, decided to spice things up a bit. He, being an extremely intelligent boy, chose to do so by chatting to Lily Evans to make the girl jealous - something he rather enjoyed witnessing. Raising an eyebrow at her furrowed brow and pouting lip, he leaned back in his chair arrogantly,

"Alright, Evans?" he smirked. Lily tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear,

"Not bad, Potter. I would ask why you're trying to talk to me, but seeing as Transfiguration is your ego booster, I assume it's not for help, and to further confess your undying love for me." she chuckled, her smile dropping slightly when hesitation flickered across the boy's face. Ignoring this, he carried on the playful banter,

"Love? Pshh. You? Nooo!" he smirked once more, ruffling up his hair and catching sight of a pair of green eyes watching him from across the room. James saluted her, winking as she stuck out her bottom lip further. Thalia had always been quite the sulker and today was no different. As much as James wanted to talk to her, he was still in the mood for mischief.

"Whatcha looking at, Potter?" Lily playfully punched his arm, bringing him back to the conversation. 'The most beautiful girl in the world' drifted into James' mind but what he really said was,

"Oh sorry, was just staring into space."

"Am I that boring?" she giggled, and James peeked in the direction of Thalia before leaning in closer,

"Not at all."

Across the room, a piece of parchment suddenly caught fire. Everyone turned to the culprit.

"Miss Scamander, kindly leave my classroom, and only return once you learn the correct way to write an essay. Here's a hint: you do not set it on fire. Understood?"

"Yes, Professor." she said monotonously and Jams began to snicker at her hubris.

"What was that? Who thinks it's acceptable to laugh at punishment?" McGonagall pursed her lips and her eyes roamed the room, lingering on James for a few more seconds than everyone else. The class remained silent...that was until Thalia looked James dead in the eyes,

"It was James, Professor."

"Then you will also be joining Miss Scamander for detention tonight." she checked her watch, "Class dismissed."

"What a snitch. She is a snitch. Don't let Thalia see you do anything wrong because, she's a snitch!" Outrage filled his features before he met eyes with Thalia and they both burst out laughing.

****

James and Thalia were laughing hysterically as they stumbled down the corridor towards their detention with McGonagall.

"She- she was shaving it!"James bent over and placed his hands on his thighs as he wiped a tear from his eye. Thalia leant against the wall and ran a hand through her hair and taking a deep breath to calm down. Their laughter had dissipated when Thalia suddenly shouted,

"Brutta Bulstrode has a bald chin!" and the hysterics started up again.

Due to their peals of laughter, neither of them heard McGonagall open the door to the Transfiguration Office and give them a look. The teacher cleared her throat and the pair of friends looked in her direction, biting their lips to stifle their chuckles.

"Come in, you two." she gestured for them to enter the room ann they didn't see the reluctant smile that spread across her face as James and Thalia giggled to each other.

They sat down at desks and McGonagall flicked her wand so two sentences appeared on the board, one saying; 'I will not set my essays on fire in the middle of the lesson as it is unbelievably disruptive. 100x' and the other, 'I will not laugh at the punishments of my fellow students, nor will I talk to Miss Evans throughout the entirety of the lesson. 100x'

Thalia rolled her eyes at her own lines before reading James' and the smile that sat on her face was replaced with a sulky pout. James, noticing this, leant towards the girl and straightened his somehow permanently lopsided glasses,

"You jealous, Scamander?" he whispered smugly and Thalia scoffed quietly, turning to face the boy with one side of her glossed lips lifted in a smirk,

"Of you, Potter?" she batted her eyelashes and leant forward so her nose was centimetres from his, causing James' eyes to widen slightly before they flickered down to her lips, "Never." she whispered before quickly resuming her position and begin to write. James stared at her for a while and Thalia sent him a quick glance through her eyelashes, her smirk widening. James nodded his head and his tongue swept across his bottom lip. 'If that's how you want to play it, Scamander.' he thought and smiled to himself, 'Game on.'

James and Thalia were both extremely competitive so, when it came to this little Flirting Game, they weren't people to back down. James moved around in his seat so that his knees were brushing Thalia's and the girl looked up from her parchment with a raised eyebrow and turned to James who was smirking at his own lines. The boy then scratched his leg, his fingers dancing over Thalia's thigh before returning to his desk. Thalia internally scoffed and decided to up the ante and she shrugged off her cloak so she was just in her school shirt. She pushed her quill so it fell to the floor and tutted quietly, gaining James' attention, even more so when she gently pushed his leg out of the way when bending down to pick it up...James liked to think that he really tried not to look down her shirt. Thalia lifted her head and smirked at James' face and sat back in her seat, looking exceedingly proud of herself. James, wanting to win, decided to keep Thalia on her toes and waited until he had completed his lines (which didn't take long as he wrote so quickly that his handwriting was hardly decipherable). When he had completed them, James pushed back his seat and pretended to trip over, holding onto Thalia's shoulder for support. He then moved his hand to the back of her neck as he stood himself back up,

"Sorry about that, Thalia." he apologised with a smirk and he slid his hand down her back to her waist, which he squeezed lightly before strolling leisurely over to McGonagall's desk, placing his lines on it and shoving his hands in his pockets as he meandered out of the room, sending Thalia a lazy salute as he left the door. Thalia was sat at her desk, staring out of the door that James just walked out of with rosy cheeks, a tingling where the boy had squeezed her waist and her mind repeatedly cursing the annoyingly charming and handsome James Potter who had no idea what he was doing to her.