(05 : LEST FAITH . . .
TURN TO DESPAIR)

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     JAMES POTTER WAS STRETCHED OUT on his bed, eyes bleary and his normally smug features stretched into a frown. He refused to believe that was it — that two lovers who defied the war outside of their teenage bubble could die due to their own incompetence. A message arrived too late and it killed them both. What a load of dragon shit!

"Lumos," a familiar voice whispered, lighting up the shared dorm room. "James, what are you doing?"

Startled, James looked up to see an exhausted Remus staring at him expectantly. "Um, reading."

"I didn't know you could read," snorted Remus. "Now really, what are you doing? I can hear you cursing under your breath from here and I would like to sleep sometime tonight." With the full moon approaching, Remus' senses were starting to heighten. It was why he was always so defeated near that time of the month — every little sound kept him awake and made him more irritated than usual.

"No, really, I'm reading," the messy-haired boy whispered, careful not to wake the sleeping Peter and Sirius. "It's this muggle book called Romeo and Juliet. I, um, found it when I bumped into someone before and it's infuriating! Do you know these kids just . . . got married after knowing each a few days?"

Remus' resignation promptly turned to amusement. "Yes, I'm familiar. Shakespeare."

"Didn't you propose marriage to Lily in the second week of first year?" butted in Sirius.

"You were awake this entire time?"

"Honestly, you could hear Prongs' weeping from Beauxbatons." He rolled his eyes. "But now I'm invested, so what happens next?"

With a huff, James threw the tattered copy down onto his bed. "Well, they died! This Shakespear fellow —"

Remus soon corrected, "Shakespeare."

"Yeah, him, he just bloody killed off the main characters. I thought muggles liked all those 'happily ever after' types?" James ranted, his glasses askew on his face. "And it's stupid because they didn't need to die. If they just communicated better, it would've been fine."

"Go to sleep, James," insisted Remus, adding a quiet 'nox' under his breath.

In the darkness, James lay with the book flat on his chest. As an only child and a Potter, the wizard was always coddled — he had a vault stacked with enough gold to last his family generations and parents that loved him enough to keep him safe in a warded mansion. It had never crossed his mind that not everybody gets a happy ending, but maybe it should have. Like Juliet had told him, there was a war brewing.

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The following morning, James couldn't help but think of the Lady in Red. He didn't mean to steal her book, but he didn't know how to find her either. It had been three days since the incident and he didn't know how to go about finding the owner without making himself look guilty. Thus, he shoved it into the bottom of his satchel with a newfound hope. He had a lot to do that day — starting with talking to Fawley and ending with wooing Lily Evans.

     "You've got a spring in your step this morning," commented Sirius as he brushed his teeth.

    "No, I've got a plan," James amended as he dug through his belongings in search of the Marauders' Map. Juliet Fawley was seemingly avoiding him — he didn't want her to be embarrassed about her drunken confession though. Sure, Slytherins were slimy gits, but she must've had some redeeming qualities if Dumbeldore made her a prefect. Plus, he didn't hate her as much as he thought after actually having a conversation with her.

"And that plan is . . ." Peter prompted with that confused look he always seemed to wear.

Grinning, James wrapped an arm around the boy. "I'm glad you asked, Wormtail. Last night, I came to the groundbreaking revelation that I've been going about wooing my Lily-Pad all wrong." He paused for suspense. "I've built our relationship on pranks when I should've been romancing her. Like my dear old Romeo."

"Who?" squeaked Peter.

Sirius released a bark of laughter. "You said they both died."

"We live and we learn from history's mistakes, my dear Sirius."

"It's fiction," Remus deadpanned before brushing past the boys to go down for breakfast. He didn't have the energy for their antics that day.

Unbothered, James continued, "Now I'm going have to put a line through some of Romeo's methods because I can't owl in a balcony on such short notice and I don't know if McGonagall would let a sword fight with Snivellus slide, but I can shower her with love notes and gifts before planning TBD."

"TBD?" Peter asked.

"The best date, which is also to be decided," James admitted sheepishly. "But, in my defence, I came up with everything at three a.m., so you can't expect perfection yet. The point is, this is the year I'm going to get a date with Lily Evans."

Sirius spat out his toothpaste in the sink before clearing his throat for his best James Potter impression. "Great, but out of curiosity, what happened to 'I am done with Lily Evans!' and the ensuing depressive episode you entered for the past week and half?"

     Whilst Sirius quirked his eyebrow in entertainment, he was apprehensive of letting James continue with his infatuation for the redhead. The Halloween party had lifted his friend's spirits considerably, but that didn't mean he'd forgotten how uncharacteristically sad James had been lately. No matter how much they pushed, James wouldn't tell them more than he had an argument with Lily — something that was normal for the pair, but Sirius knew better than anyone that even James had his limits. Lily had hexed James black and blue over the years, berated him for being a toe-rag a countless number of times, so Sirius couldn't help but wonder what she had done to cause such a drastic change in James. Either way, he didn't like it.

    Letting the remark slide off him, James shrugged. "I plead temporary insanity!" The boy snatched up his bag and began walking alongside his friends. "You know, I even considered getting off with Fawley at that party?"

     Peter and Sirius exploded into laughter. "Maybe we should take you to Madam Pomfrey," one of them mused, but James didn't know which because something akin to shame twisted in his gut and muted everything around him. Fawley wasn't all bad, but at least making her a punchline helped change the subject.

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     "Pssst, Wormtail," hissed James from across the classroom. They were currently in Slughorn's potions class and James was ready to 'woo' Lily with a clever note of his creation. However, Slughorn had long since learnt to separate the Marauders. Whilst the rest of his classmates were in alphabetical order, 'Potter' was far too close to 'Pettigrew' on the register, meaning James was stuck near Zabini.

    Wide-eyed, Peter jumped in the air and almost knocked some his potion over in the process. Had it not been for McGonagall, the boy probably wouldn't have been admitted into the N.E.W.T level class at all. Peter had an aptitude for Transfiguration — as evidenced by his animagi abilities — but was lacklustre in every other area academic area. Clearly caught off guard, Peter searched for the voice and met the eager brown eyes of James Potter uncertainly. 'Me?' he mouthed.

     Nodding, James pointed to a screwed up ball of paper near his friend's feet. 'To Evans,' he gestured towards the girl in question as Slughorn lectured about something or the other. Despite being an excellent Chaser, he couldn't risk throwing or levitating the note across the classroom — it would go right over Slughorn's not-yet-senile head and land the boy in detention. Normally, he wouldn't care, but he doubted that detention would do much in supporting showing Lily how much he had changed.

     Discreetly, Peter picked up the note as sweat gathered on his forehead. He was being entrusted by James to help with a plan — the plan — that would help him get a date with Lily. It was an important job and one he greatly fumbled upon seeing two redheads were directly in front of him, both with their backs turned. 

     Left or right? Peter wasn't sure and James had already feigned interest in his potion again. Deciding that right was always . . . right, Peter catapulted the paper ball at the redhead to his right, but didn't even get to see who spun round because the bell rang and he immediately fled.

    How was Peter going to tell James he messed up his grand plan? Well, he simply wouldn't.

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A.N: It's been too long since I updated this! My FYP has turned into Harry Potter content, so I really can't complain. This chapter was a little rushed, but it means we can finally get into all plot after this and romantic development. And yes, we will eventually find out what Lily said to James, but not until later. I also hope you caught a lot of the parallels between R&J and Jily. As a side note, James doesn't known she doesn't know it was him in the costume — that's why he thinks she's avoiding him. And Peter's characterisation is based on how McGonagall described him, but if he had half a brain cell, he would have known which direction to throw the note.