#meanwhile lily is just casually flexing her brewing skills

[elliemarchetti]

Desperate Times, Desperate Measures (Part VII)

I don’t know if I should tag @jilymicrofics or @jilymicro-oops. In doubt, I’ll submit this part of Desperate Times, Desperate Measures to both.

Prompt: Grating (prompt 20)

Words: 529

Something clashed in the scene before him, as if it were hiding a small mistake, but important enough to make it completely wrong. Maybe it was the fact Sirius was kissing the girl he’d been in love with since the first day of school, or maybe it was the fact she was kissing him back. The image made him vaguely sick to his stomach and left a bitter taste in his mouth, like an out-of-tune guitar or someone mangling the lyrics of your favourite song. He never believed him to be a hypocrite, but there was a certain dissonance between what he had told him in the past and what he was evidently doing at the moment threatening to change his mind.

“They’re cute together, don’t you think? Maybe a little gross sometimes, but cute nonetheless,” a familiar female voice commented to his right, but James didn’t bother to answer, certain he couldn’t say anything nice when he agreed so little. Usually, whatever his best friend did, even the most grating shit, never made him want to use violence, but in this case he was certain no one would blame him if he made an exception.

“Do you want this Butterbeer or should I track down Remus?” the Gryffindor next to him asked, touching his shoulder with the cool neck of the freshly uncorked bottle, instinctively pushing him to turn. Maybe it was for the best, even if he feared he had the image of the one he considered like a brother stealing the girl of his dreams under his nose forever imprinted into his brain.

“Yes, I think…” James began, until he met a pair of eyes as green as a meadow on a dewy spring morning and as innocent as a fawn’s. In disbelief, he turned back to Sirius and the one he had thought was Lily, who had now moved to straddle him and buried her hands in his loose hair. He would have recognized those hips, that waist, and her flaming red mane anywhere, and yet the same person was also standing in front of him, with a hopeful smile and two Butterbeers ready to be downed.

“What..?” James stammered, rubbing his temples.

“Oh, that’s Marlene!” Lily, the real one, according to her, exclaimed. “A few weeks ago, she said she was afraid Sirius only wanted her for her looks, and since I’m pretty sure I’m the only girl in this school who truly horrifies him, I offered to make some Polyjuice potion for her to take my appearance. Judging by the way they are wrapped around each other, I’d say he passed the test.”

“What if he kissed you?” James asked, trying not to sound too shocked by a plan he wasn’t exactly sure was as brilliant as the two girls had imagined it to be.

“Oh, if he had made a mistake he would’ve had to start running really fast,” she replied, before turning back to their friends and yell them to find a room.

“Not ours, please!” James added, even though he was sure he would have to sleep again on the sofa in the Common Room crammed between Moony and Wormtail.