WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU PUMPKINS , james potter

━ sixteen. the ladies love a man in suede

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
- the ladies love a man in suede -
1977

JAMES AWOKE TO A SEARING, WHITE light.

"C'mon, Prongsy, time to wake up you lazy bum," an annoying voice whined, shaking James's arm roughly.

"Stop shining that stupid light in my face." James wacked Sirius's wand to the ground before groaning at the pounding in his head.

"Merlin, finally." Sirius made a move to grab his wand. "You've been asleep forever. I'm bored. Wormtail is in Potions right now and Moony is talking to McGonagall about his grade. I mean, the lad can't take anything less than an O, can he?"

James flinched. "You mind maybe not talking, mate. This headache is killer."

"Such a pansy," Sirius mumbled causing James to punch his arm. "Ow!"

     "Yeah, and who's the pansy now?"

     "Still you." Sirius had a teasing grin on his face before sticking his tongue out at James.

     "Well, I'd like to see you fall 50 meters from the sky! See how you feel."

     "Not my fault you were too busy showing off to see that bludger coming!"

     "Okay, but aren't you a beater?"

     "Well you can't expect me to babysit you the whole game, now can you?"

"You're annoying. How long have I been out anyways?" James suddenly gasped. "Wait, don't tell me I missed Halloween!"

     "Relax. You were only out for like a day. Today's Halloween so you know what that means."

     "Pranks? Candy!" James gasped, excitedly.

     "I was gonna say our last ever Halloween party at Hogwarts, but yeah, that too."

     "We're gonna have to work more on our plays, we seriously got lucky with Wheeler catching the snitch." James tapped his chin in thought. "What do you think of making her captain next year when we're gone? She's a little annoying, but she knows how to take charge." He snapped his fingers. "Speaking of taking charge, I should call a meeting later for the team and improvise some new strategies. Now that we've seen how the Slytherins work, we can draft—" James started to get up, only to grab his head and hiss in pain.

"Woah, calm down there, mate." Sirius steadied James, slightly pushing him back on the bed. "You still need to get checked out by Pomfrey. She just left to go get a potion for you, said something about not causing trouble, I don't know I wasn't really listening. Unrelated, but do you think she'll mind that I accidentally turned some of the beds into jelly?"

"I feel fine."

Sirius snorted. "Fine my arse. There aren't any mirrors in here for you to see how shitty you look. Apparently you have a mild concussion and something wrong with your back, I think." Upon seeing James's deflated face, Sirius sat up in his seat. "But, uh, hey, look! The whole team came to see you. Everyone left you a shit ton of presents, too."

James looked to the side, only just noticing the gifts crowded around his bed. There was a stack of colorful letters from the first year quidditch fun club— James was a proud member, some muggle chocolates, weird leafy plants and pretty flowers James was had no doubt Sirius would later steal, a few stuffed animals which rested against the boxes of sweets, and a magically enchanted picture of the quidditch team blowing him kisses. Amanda Wheeler stood in the front with a giant smirk, flashing the snitch at the camera with a wink. James grinned at the sight. What can he say, the people loved him.