same mistakes | Raine

[JAMES IGNOTUS POTTER]

Honestly, James hadn’t actually meant to cause such a mess. For once in his life it had been an accident. A genuine accident. But of course, he was James Potter, he had a reputation, renowned throughout the school for being prankster extraordinaire and so when Professor McGonagall had turned up at the scene she had instantly pointed the finger of blame at him. He supposed it was punishment for all of the times he had gotten away with pulling pranks that at least one time he’d get in trouble for something that he didn’t actually do. Well ok, he did do it, but it was an accident. Seriously it was.

James had been innocently walking along (yes, he did walk innocently from time to time) from transfiguration class back to the Gryffindor common room. He’d been kept behind by Professor McGonagall for messing around in the lesson and James being a good friend had pleaded Sirius’ innocence and McGonagall had let him go unscathed. James however had had to bear her wrath and had stood through several minutes of her shouting that he had to pay attention if he wanted to continue studying the subject. James was quietly confident that she would not kick him out though; he was already set for an ‘O’ NEWT grade in Transfiguration and he hadn’t even completed his first year of advanced learning yet. McGonagall may be strict but she wasn’t about to kick out her best student. Anyway, James had been walking down the corridor when his foot made contact with something slippery on the floor and before he could control himself he fell over, landing in a puddle of navy blue ink.

After grumbling about his bad luck, checking to see whether he had ink in his hair and most importantly, get up off of the floor and away from the spillage, James pulled out his wand, for once with good intentions. He had been intending to clean the mess up however he had never been particularly good at charms, especially cleaning spells and so he must have said the wrong incantation or maybe the wrong wand movements because instead of disposing of the ink, he increased the volume of it until suddenly he was standing, ankle deep in blue ink. Moments later, McGonagall turned up because she seemed to be magnetised to trouble whenever James was around it and started yelling at him once more. And so now James was on his way to detention.

He tried to argue, but seriously, you should try pleading innocence to Professor McGonagall when you’re James Potter. It’s not easy. He decided he would have to grin and bear it. He was serving detention with Professor Sage anyway (McGonagall said she couldn’t spend so much time with him as she might do something she’d regret) so he was feeling that he’d maybe get away with something easy. He knocked on her office door and entered. ”What torture are you subjecting me to then, Professor?” He asked merrily, wandering inside. "Hope we can get this over and done with quickly, you know? Places to be and all that." He grinned cheekily at her

[rainevirginiasage]

Detention with James Potter. This was going to be....interesting to say the least. She'd heard about the attempts to give him detention from all the other Professors, she learned what worked and what didn't. She decided to try something different. Cleaning wasn't needed, since she kept both her classroom and her office in a very nice state.

Watching some write lines was almost as boring was writing them herself, so that was out. She'd heard that one of the boy's bathrooms, (thanks to Peeves) had not only been flooded, but all manner of messy, horrible sewage (and Filch suspected dragon dung) coated the floors, toilets, sinks and walls. Someone would have to clean it, it would be either with magic (hopefully) or by a student.

James walked in, looking cheerful, as if he expected to have a good time. She'd show him what detention was all about. "Well those places aren't going anywhere. You know?" She shot back, "Follow me. You're going to clean the boy's bathroom without magic."

And she led him into the boy's bathroom. And right back out less than thirty seconds later. "Not that." she gasped, the smell was horrendous! The mess itself was disgusting to look at! She wouldn't be able to spend any time in there with James to make sure he didn't cheat. Besides, she wouldn't subject any student (well almost any student) to such a horrible task.

"On second thought Potter," She said, leading him straight back into her classroom. "You'll do something else entirely." she went into her office and came back out, a small frown on her face. "Well....well damn." She muttered, not really caring that she'd cursed in front of a student. She was carrying trays of nothing but crumbs, "I cooked lots of food this morning and I was going to have you test it all! It was going to so good! But it's.... it's obviously gone!" little did she know was that Peeves had sneaked in, and taken it all, tossing it out the window into the lake.

Sighing, she set down the tray and leaned back against the wall. "Hmmm...." She hummed, trying to think of something that would work. Something that would really hammer in the fact that whatever James did was wrong, and that he wasn't supposed to do it again.

"......Come with me." She finally said, "I'll make you nice fresh food!" And with a smile, she headed off toward an empty classroom. She drew her wand, setting up a kitchen in the middle of the room. It was pretty small and she point firmly at James, "Stay here Potter. In fact...." she conjured up two large buckets and filled them to the rim with water. "Put your arms up and out as far to the side as possible." And she made him hold them. "If you try to put them down, they'll scream and they won't stop. If you walk out of this room with them, they'll also scream. Trying to pour them out or moving too much will result in the water increasing in weight. I'm going to get supplies. Stay here."

And with that, she left him behind.

She returned ten minutes later with a box filled with food and different spices. She set the box down and waved her wand, vanishing the water in the buckets and smiling at James. "Alright. Sit." and she started to cook. Everything smelled wonderful, and as she worked she looked over at James "So. How are things going with school and all that?" she asked.

[JAMES IGNOTUS POTTER]

James was very accustomed to detentions. He knew how they worked. A bit of idle chat with the professor in charge wasn’t unheard of but ultimately it would be James’ job to write lines or clean something up or organise files. It would be some task or another that the professor didn’t fancy doing themselves. He was actually a very good cleaner these days because he’d learned how to get through things quickly so as to get the detentions over with as soon as possible. He’d been subjected to many a torturous things in the past but cleaning the boys’ bathroom was a new one and he wasn’t too keen on the idea. No, scratch that, he hated the idea. It looked and smelt horrendous. He opened his mouth in horror, soon realised that was a bad idea and quickly covered his mouth and nose with his robes. Thankfully, Raine took pity on him, agreeing with James’ unspoken thoughts that no one should be subjected to this.

Quickly and with pleasure he rushed back down to the professor’s office. Back inside and able to breathe fresh, clean air again, James watched casually as she wondered over what to do with him now. ”Well, there’s no point hanging around really,” He said hopefully, indicating towards the door, ”So I’ll just be-“ He wasn’t so lucky. His shoulders slumped. Apparently he was going to become a food tester. He frowned at her, following her to the classroom now mini kitchen. Surely this wasn’t a punishment? James had had to skip dinner to get to this detention, he was rather hungry and she was going to cook for him. Excellent.

But she wasn’t starting just yet, apparently ingredients were needed. James’ ears perked up interestedly. She had to leave, that meant he could flee. But no, it seemed Raine had other ideas. ”Hey, this is torture!” He called after her retreating back. But Raine was back soon enough. James had followed her instructions not to move the buckets but they were still heavy and it was with relief that he was able to lower them to the ground. He rubbed the aching muscles in his arms. ”That hurt.” He grumbled at her, ”I wasn’t going to run away.” He said it innocently but they both knew he would have fled if he had been given a chance. It was the most inventive way a professor had kept James trapped in detention ever; he was quite impressed if a bit disgruntled.

He sat down, low and stretching his legs out in front of him, rocking the chair back and forth on it’s hind legs. He gave her a shrug. ”Alright. I think McGonagall’s losing her patience with me though. Says I need to pay less attention to what’s going to happen on the Quidditch pitch and focus more in her class. But I know she doesn’t mean it because I’m her best student and she wants Gryffindor to win the cup just as much as I do.” He said confidently. He peered across to where she was preparing ingredients. ”So what are you making me then professor, I’m getting a little peckish?”

[rainevirginiasage]

"Nice try Potter. You think I was born yesterday?" Raine said with a smile, he reminded her of Lloyd sometimes, the way he hated to be punished and always tried ducking out. As she led him away, she kept a good eye on him, not wanting to give him the slightest chance of escape. She knew if he could, James would run away and totally skip detention.

"You want torture?" she asked, smiling back at him, "I could have frozen the handles of the buckets first. You're lucky." she laughed as she left, upon her return, James was of course complaining. "I know of a boy your same age who held those buckets for two hours and didn't complain once. Now, that either means you're weak, or you're a wuss." She teased lightly, "And you were too going to run. You're as predictable as the days of the week Potter."

She smiled slightly, glad that James seemed to be relaxing a bit. The detention might not have been such a hard one and he probably wouldn't learn a lesson, but oh well, she wasn't really looking forward to dealing with James' constant complaints anyway. "Really? Well, since I'm not head of my house and I'm not really into the results, I don't mind saying that I'm rooting for your team to win the house cup." she smiled, "I was always too busy during the school year and my summer vacation to spend any time playing Quidditch and since I did grow up in a muggle neighborhood, I couldn't have played if I wanted to." She didn't feel the need to mention the 'neighborhood' had been a group home.

"Ah-ah-ah! No hints!" She said, "And I also know for a fact you're not allergic to anything either, so no trying to sneak your way of trying this food. I don't see why everyone complains about my food and avoids me when I try to give them some! Just because my little squirt of a baby brother can cook meals fit for a king and desserts even the most sour people would melt over does not mean I can't cook too!" Raine ranted as she cooked, adding things to the foods.

"First course! Soup!" She said, bringing him a small bowl of it, meant as a nice sampler size. "Eat it before it stops moving." She warned and went to finish the rest of the food. Inside the soup was an enchanted squid, it reached out a tentacle and snatched in a spoon, then swung it around, dodging James' attempts at taking it back.

Smiling, Raine headed back over while her food cooked, "It's harmless and it should taste good, I just thought it'd be more fun if instead of you playing with your food, it plays with you. Pick up the other spoon and battle it. If you disarm it, you can eat it. If it disarms you....well .....you'll just have to see."

If James did end up losing to the food, the enchanted squid would spray the boy with edible ink that tasted like candy. It was all a very clever combination of magic and cooking. But it was also one of the very things Raine cooked that would actually taste good.

[JAMES IGNOTUS POTTER]

James wrinkled his nose, wondering what it was that she was making and whether or not it was going to be edible. The way she was talking about her brother being an amazing cook, well it made James uneasy. It sounded like people had been telling Raine that she could not cook and now James would be having to try what she made. He supposed that if he didn’t like what she made he could politely refuse to finish it. He wouldn’t be rude about it but he’d rather have an easy life. It’d mean he’d go hungry as well. Though later he would grab his invisibility cloak and head down to the kitchens for a midnight snack. The house elves loved to cater for him; he was a regular and they didn’t get much human interaction.

He said nothing at her words, just gave her a mischievous smile. He was an expert and bailing on detentions, not to mention he had friends who would go to all lengths to get him out of them. Unfortunately, said friends were all occupied themselves tonight and so James was stuck here. If he was lucky though, it wouldn’t be much of a punishment now that he’d survived the bucket torture. ”I don’t believe that.” He said in response to her story about a boy who held the buckets for two hours. And without complaining? No way. Though James was a bit of a moaner; he complained about everything.

James couldn’t quite believe that someone couldn’t be interested in Quidditch. To him, the magical sport was his life and to think that other people didn’t even watch it let alone think that it was important was beyond him. ”Thanks Professor.” He said, genuinely pleased that she was backing Gryffindor. Raine put her first course of food in front of him, announcing that it was soup. James inspected it carefully, trying to keep the expression on his face even. His eyes however widened when he saw that it was moving. He looked up at the professor with a scared look on his face. His expression didn’t change when she explained it. ”I don’t know if I’m comfortable eating something that’s alive.” He said slowly, tentatively prodding the squid with his spoon.

Battle commenced, but James was too cautious and honestly a little freaked out and so lost. He yelled ”Argh!” as the squid sprayed him with the candy liquid. He wiped the stuff from his eyes using his napkin. ”Interesting. But I think we’ve evolved from having to hunt for our food for a reason. So what’s next?” He added cautiously, internally hoping that he wouldn’t have to fight any more of the courses.

[rainevirginiasage]

"Ask Lloyd Irving yourself then." Raine said, "He's the one I punished like that. Oh and James? It's not good to call your Professor a liar, even if you didn't use those exact words. Others might not be as easy going as I am."

Laughing, Raine shook her head "It's not alive Potter, it's enchanted. Kind of like how the paintings aren't alive. They're just enchanted." she watched him with the soup and then giggled slightly as he lost, "You can eat it now." She said, "The enchantment wore off." and she smiled, bringing him the main course.

"Pastries stuffed with various foods." she said, "Some have meats, some have veggies, some have both and some have fruit." however, each one had ended up with a very strange combination, such as apples and beef, or carrots and strawberries. To her, mixing different flavors and textures would be a good thing, each pastry was tiny, only enough for two bites, she didn't want James getting too full before dessert! That was the very best part!

"Okay!" She said brightly as soon as he'd finished, "No no! Don't tell me your opinion just yet! I want to know afterward!" And she gave him a box of cookies, "Don't eat them yet. Just watch. I call them Battle Cookies!" And sure enough, all the cookies were fighting, they were shaped like animals and they all tore one another apart and ate the losers. "See.....once one cookie eats another, they gain the flavor of that particular cookie. See....this one's a peanut butter cookie and since it lost, it's getting eaten by the jelly filled cookie so that one will be a peanut butter and jelly cookie. And these two, chocolate chip and caramel are fighting. Sometimes the cookies end up eating more than one, so it ends up with different flavors. These cookies are the only thing I make that turns out perfect each time. But whenever I mention my food, everyone just makes excuses and leaves!" she exclaimed and then added, "And once you're done eating, I'm sorry but this isn't the end of your detention. McGonagall gave me very specific instructions to 'keep you in my clutches' for four hours. It's only been forty five minutes."

she laughed at the look on Jame's face and patted his shoulder, "It's okay. From what I understand, that ink spell had been a charm and you're not too good at charms are you? I didn't think so." She said as he confirmed it, "You're innocent, but I can't just let you go or I'll be the one in the hot seat. So, we'll have a little .....fun." and she drew her wand, cleaning up the mess with ease.

"We'll return to my office and I'll teach you how to play a muggle version of Japanese chess. It's a lot of fun and it's more challenging than regular chess." and she headed off, taking James along with her. As she entered the room she gasped, "PEEVES!" She shrieked, half with rage and half with shock, for the man was throwing things all over her classroom, and her office was a mess.

Laughing, Peeves flew in close, about to try and grab her, but that proved to be the wrong thing to do. "You bastard! Take this!" Raine snarled and then did something very un-lady-like and extremely un-Professor-like. She performed a high kick, glad she was wearing pants instead of a dress, for surely she'd have flashed someone. Her foot connected solidly with the man's face and she stumbled back, missing a shoe. It was stuck inside the poltergeist's face and he swore horribly and soared away through the wall, leaving the shoe behind.

She glanced back at James, and blinked "What?" she asked, bewildered at the look she was getting.

[JAMES IGNOTUS POTTER]

This was turning into the weirdest detention James had ever experienced. At least she wasn't making him do anything terrible and for that he was extremely grateful, especially since he didn’t feel like he deserved to even be in detention. He wasn’t surprised to find out that it was Lloyd Irving who had suffered with the buckets. James rolled his eyes. He didn’t dislike his fellow sixth year, but the guy wasn’t the brightest wand in the shop. Anyone else would have complained; Lloyd might be the only person in the world who didn’t in James’ opinion.

James looked down at the soup cautiously. He wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to eat it, enchanted or alive, whatever it was. It didn’t look appetising. Especially since it had just practically attacked him. He nodded; smiling in what he hoped was a look of anticipation to gobble down the delicious meal. He picked up his spoon again and prodded and poked the soup, stirring it around but never bringing it to his lips. When Raine went back to busying herself in the make-shift kitchen, James slyly leant over and tipped the soup in the waste paper basket. He sat quickly back up in his straight position, trying to look satisfied by a nice appetiser and excited about the next course. Secretly James was hoping for no more food that he had to battle. Something normal, please he prayed.

But apparently this professor didn’t deal in normal. James couldn’t keep the frown from his face as Raine introduced the main meal. It sounded quite ordinary but he was beginning to figure out that with this professor there was always a catch. Apprehensively he lifted the first pastry to his mouth and shoved it in whole because he was able to and he figured it was probably best to get it over with quickly. He struggled not to spit it back out again. It was a meat, he took a shot at beef but there was something sweet and fruity in there as well and the combination wasn’t good. He clamped his hand to his mouth and trying not to screw his face up in disgust swallowed the pastry down. ”Have you got a drink of water?” He asked, sounding pleasant and casual on the outside. ”All of this eating has made me thirsty."

As his teacher busied herself with his request, with huge trepidation James started on the next pastry. After two awful combinations he wanted to bin the rest but she had turned his attention back to him now and so between mouthfuls of water he forced the rest down him. James was usually pretty good with food and would eat strange combinations. He was like a garbage bin. And actually, the tomato and strawberry combination hadn’t been too bad at all, but other than that he was beginning to feel rather ill. The final course however look pretty good and James happily ate all of the winning cookies. ”Nice.” He grinned, wiping crumbs from his robes. ”There was some good stuff in their professor.” He decided it was best to be diplomatic about things.

His shoulders slumped once more as Raine announced that it would be back to her office now. He had hoped to escape early and he thought he was going to get lucky when he confirmed his uselessness at charms but he apparently was still stuck in detention. ”Fun, I can do that. I’m the master of fun.” James said optimistically. But again it seemed his luck was running out this week. Peeves had wrecked Raine’s classroom and James figured he’d now have to clean it up. But before he could even ask, the teacher had become enraged. He watched with complete shock (and honestly, rather scared) as she swore and then lashed out. The Gryffindor opened his mouth wide but didn’t quite know what to say. ”That was. . .” He raised a finger and pointed it at her, gulping audibly. ”You’re crazy.” He said weakly. ”I don’t think you’re supposed to swear in front of students, Professor.” James was quite frankly, freaked out and now slightly intimidated.

[rainevirginiasage]

He was enjoying it! Yay! Raine was overjoyed at this fact and she smiled, turning to finish making the rest of the food. She had no idea he was just tossing the food away, she was fully convinced that he was loving her food and that meant, that she was a good cook!

"Water? Sure!" She said brightly and turned to pour him some. She carried it over and handed it to him. "There you go!" The woman was nothing but smiles and sunshine and a good mood. The idea that someone, anyone enjoyed her cooking thrilled her and made her so very happy that she could hardly contain herself.

However, her happiness was quickly shattered the moment two words came out of James' mouth. She backed away quickly, the expression on her face was as if James had slapped her. She knew he meant it too, she could see it in his face and in his eyes. Shaking her head quickly she whispered "Don't call me that. Please." and she turned away from him, taking in several deep breaths. She had to keep it together, she couldn't show any tears in front of James or any other student.

Without turning to look at him she said, "Yes. I know. I'm sorry. I over reacted." did all her students think she was crazy? Were there rumors she didn't know about? Were they teasing her little brother about it? "I apologize." She said again, biting her lip and using that pain to focus on and pull her back from her slump.

"It's just that.....I don't like messes and I don't like my priceless artifacts being messed with or damaged. Luckily he didn't get his hands on it. And .....growing up as a girl....I had to protect myself an Genis from.....bullies. And Genis was just a baby so....I learned to kick like that. I didn't think. I just acted." and she sighed, finally turning to face James, no longer happy, but rather very upset looking.

"Please....don't call me....that word. I'd rather you call me anything else. I really dislike being called .....anything associated with crazy." he said, hoping James wouldn't push the issue or anything like that. She walked around the room, drawing her wand and putting things back where they belonged, cleaning messes and moving objects around again. "..........You can go now." she said softly, "I don't care if I get yelled at." she was no longer in the mood to deal with James or anyone, what she really wanted to do was finish cleaning and then forget her troubles, maybe she'd spend the rest of the day shopping at the village. That seemed like a good thing to do.

[JAMES IGNOTUS POTTER]

James felt a bit bad about lying to his professor. He had no problems being sneaky and avoiding the truth sometimes but his parents had brought him up properly and taught him from a very young age that lying was wrong. If his mother was here she’d scold him for not being honest about the professor’s cooking but what could he do? He didn’t want to hurt her feelings. What if she started crying or something? No, this marauder couldn’t be doing with emotional women. He’d had enough of that recently. His recent conversation slash argument with Lily sprang to mind. He quickly shoved the feelings of burning away from him.

Except that he didn’t need much effort to change the subject of his thoughts because Professor Sage did that for him. Apparently he had greatly offended her. James’ expression fell into one of puzzlement. He’d never seen a teacher look so horrified or back away from him as if scared. Just by his words? If was bizarre to James who had never worried about what effect his words had on people. Even though he knew the effect Lily’s scolding comments had on him. Not only was James confused and still slightly scared of her reaction, but he felt guilty, even though he wasn’t really sure why he should feel so.

He listened to her speak, his hands shoved awkwardly into his pockets, his mouth clamped shut so as to stop him saying anything else that might hurt her feelings. He wasn’t used to people older than him spilling their thoughts. As his professor wasn’t she supposed to be strong, stoic, keep all of this hidden from her students so as to give the best impression? He suddenly felt very uncomfortable hearing it, not just because it was unusual but because he had been the one to bring it out of her. ”It’s ok. You just took me by surprise that’s all.” He answered softly. ”I won’t tell anyone.” He shrugged casually. James Potter was the best secret keeper. After all, no one knew that his best friend was a werewolf and that the other three marauders were unregistered animagus who kept him company every full moon.

”Ok. I’m sorry.” He didn’t ask why, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. It was obviously dredging something up from Raine’s past that she wasn’t happy with. James didn’t do awkward and emotional he did fun and laid-back. He wanted to get things back to that atmosphere. James opened his mouth in slight shock when she told him he could go. He as much as he really did want to leave now, he felt uncomfortable leaving his professor in such a down-hearted position. ”At least let me help clean your office first?” He said kindly. ”You did cook for me after all. Don’t tell McGonagall you let me off early.” A sudden idea occurred to him and the well-worn mischievous grin broke out onto his face. ”Maybe I’ll fake an injured arm, I could get out of charms class because you worked me so, so hard.” He pulled his wand out, starting to clean up the mess on the floor.

[rainevirginiasage]

"....Thank you." Raine said softly, for she'd been starting to wish she'd never said anything at all, but it hadn't been long since she'd been traumatized by the sight of her mother so she didn't blame herself for being so touchy about the subject of insanity. She was all set to clean up by herself when James actually asked to help!

"Alright." she said, "Thanks." and then, she couldn't help but laugh "I don't think so Potter." she told him with a smile, "Specially when your charms work isn't all that good. I hear tell that you want to be an auror and an auror has to be good at pretty much every subject. You could try to get out of that class, I can't stop you but you really shouldn't." she said as she started putting things back upright with spells and then adjusted them by hand. "The more you learn, the better you'll be." she smiled slightly "I think I know your problem with Charms." She said with a sly grin, then turned her back on him and started sorting her books onto the shelves.

"She has long red hair, green eyes, is as sharp as an Ravenclaw and yet brave as a lioness and you can't keep your eyes off her." she said with a laugh, "You focus too much on this certain someone." she finished the books, but one was missing. She went around the room in search of it, "That and you're always thinking about what pranks to pull next." she added and finally found the book. She put it on the shelf with all the others and then moved onto other things.

"......I shouldn't be saying this but....." she smiled a bit, "There was a prank that I would love to see again." she said, "It was in my eleventh year." Her worst year to be honest, in fact that was the highlight of the year, the only time she'd actually laughed that whole year. She started to pick up all the artifacts she'd discovered over the years. "It was almost Halloween and were all in the Great Hall. Suddenly, fifty enchanted snowmen walked in through the doors and started throwing snowballs. It was pandemonium!" She exclaimed with a laugh, "They wouldn't melt either and each time a snowball hit a student, they snow would turn into little tiny snowmen and they'd throw food."

she smiled as she used a cleaning charm on the walls and windows. "I expect you and your friends will be your own spin on the prank. But if you're caught.....you didn't hear about it from me." She said with a laugh and a shake of her head. "There were a few other pranks worth mentioning but I don't think I should say them all." she teased and then finished up with the classroom.

She checked her desk, drawing her wand she performed several incantations and opened up a drawer, peering inside she found nothing was missing and gave a happy sigh, then closed it again and locked it up tight with more spells. "Perfect." she said, "Now we can start on the rest of the floor." and she drew her wand, and instantly it started to clean itself now that the debris was all off the floor.

She laughed at James' expression "Now you can't use the excuse that I worked you too hard." and she laughed again, having pushed her sorrow down to the depths of her heart where it belonged.

[JAMES IGNOTUS POTTER]

When he wanted to be, James could be really helpful and considerate. Actually, he was helpful and considerate most of the time; it’s just that people only remembered him for his smart remarks in class and his mischief making. But he had a good heart and would always do good by other people. He was friendly and a Gryffindor, he had a gallant nature to live up to. He never actually wanted to hurt people with his pranks; they were all in good fun. Unless of course they were aimed at a certain Slytherin, then he didn’t particularly mind damaging him slightly. So as much as James was slightly offended by other’s shocked expressions we he offered to do something for someone else, he also liked having the shock factor.

James shrugged, looking sheepish as his professor made a very obvious reference to him being head over heels for one Lily Evans. He felt the heat rise to his cheeks. It still unnerved him ever so slightly that everyone in the school knew of his crush. Though he had made several public declarations and proposals of a date to her so he shouldn’t be surprised. But still, it made him fairly uncomfortable when his professor’s mentioned it to him. ”If I skip though, I can get Lily to tutor me on what we did that lesson later. . .” He trailed off, his mind getting ahead of himself and wondering about a one on one session with Lily. He couldn’t imagine he’d be any less distracted with just her attention that in a full classroom but he wouldn’t have learning charms on his mind anyway.

This evening, Professor Sage was not failing to astonish him. The revelations about her just kept coming. ”That sounds epic!” James said, his eyes lighting up. The cogs in his brain were already taking note and whirring around, coming up with another similar plan that he would unleash. He made a mental note to gather the marauders together tonight (they’d probably all three be waiting up in the common room for him anyway) and suss out a plan. It had been a while since the four of them had concocted a plan together. ”Your secret’s safe with me.” James grinned, pulling his finger across his mouth miming the closing of a zip.

James started to help Raine clean the floor, his arm was genuinely beginning to ache now but he soldiered on and eventually got the place looking ship-shape again. He pocketed his wand, feeling satisfied with his work. He clapped his hands together. ”Well, that’s looking better. Thanks for the tips and the . . . food, professor.” He stumbled over calling it food but he figured he’d hurt her feelings enough for one day so he said nothing. ”If there’s nothing else I can help you with. . .?” He indicated hopefully towards the door.