"Fifth Year"

••••••••••

I sat beside Lily Evans and Timothèe Lafayette during our study period, as we quietly worked on our Divination homework.

I was writing down the different herbs used in Divination, when I felt a light nudge against my side. Turning to my right, I looked at Timothèe questioningly with raised eyebrows.

The French boy slid a folded up piece of parchment over to me, making me look down at the parchment and then back at him. He rolled his hazel eyes at my furrowed brow and quietly chuckled.

"Read it, dumbass."

I jokingly rolled my own eyes, trying to hide the amused smile on my lips. Picking up the piece of parchment and slowly unfolding it, so as not to tip off Professor Willowdrought that we were passing notes. My green eyes scanned the parchment, as I read what the boy beside me had written.

'Will you be my date to Hogsmeade on Saturday?'

My lips stretched into a warm smile, as I looked up at the Lafayette boy and nodded. Timothèe was a sweetheart and an altogether amazing guy, not to mention that he's definitely in no way ugly. That's why I found myself happily agreeing, whispering a quiet.

"I would love to."

•••••••••••••••••

"I'm sorry, you're what?!" I rolled my green eyes, as James asked the same question for the third time in a row.

"I'm going with Timothèe on the Hogsmeade trip tomorrow." I stated bluntly as I sat with the rest of the Marauders in the Gryffindor common room.

"So.... you're going on an actual date?" Sirius asked, sharing a look with James from his place on the floor.

"Yeah, that is what he called it when he asked me during our study period. So, I'm going to assume so."

"But... why?" James asked with a furrowed brow.

"Because he's a great guy and I like him." I admitted, throwing my hands out in a 'what the hell' motion. When I said that, James' face dropped into a frown. This only lasted for a second, because soon it was replaced with a blank expression.

"Brilliant! Have fun on your date, Lenora!" The bespectacled boy grumbled as he shot me a glare, before standing up abruptly from the couch and stalking upstairs towards the boys dormitories.

"Alright, I'm going to ask..." I spoke up after a short period of awkward silence. "What the fuck is wrong with Prongs and why is he acting psychotic?"

"It's not our place to tell." Remus sighed, pinching the bridge of the nose. "Just... give him time to cool off a little."

"Please, Kitty?" Sirius asked with pleading brown eyes. "I promise that he'll tell you when he's ready, just give him time."

"Fine, I'll give him some space for a bit." I sighed, my mind racing with questions about why James was acting like this.

"Thank you, Nora."

•••••••••••••••••

The next morning at exactly ten o'clock, I stood beside Timothèe in the group that was going to Hogsmeade. We laughed and joked around as McGonagall was collecting the last of the permission slips.

"So, where do you want to go first?" He asked me with a grin.

I hummed in thought and placed my hands on my hips, before deciding. "Honeydukes. Definitely, Honeydukes."

"Honeydukes it is!" The hazel eyed boy agreed, before holding out his arm and saying. "Shall we, my lady?"

"We shall, dear sir." I laughed, as I jokingly made my accent sound ridiculously posh. Looping my arm with his outstretched one, we followed the large group into Hogsmeade.

About an hour later, we sat inside the Three Broomsticks with our mugs of butterbeer. We'd been to Honeydukes, Zonko's, and Gladrags Wizardwear.

"I can't believe that you actually bought that sweater and the matching socks." Timothèe laughed, shaking his head at the fact that I'd bought a super ugly sweater that had a giant creepy owl head on it and the equally as creepy matching socks.

"You're one to talk! You bought the hat with goblin ears that legitimately says 'I can hear you talking shit'!" I laughed, pointing towards the ridiculously obnoxious beanie on top of his head.

"Hey, I think this hat brings out my eyes." He joked, leaning against the table and mockingly fluttering his eyes at me.

"Oh, definitely." I teased, leaning against the table as well. I teasingly bopped his nose as I chuckled. "It's very sexy."

"You really think so?" The Lafayette boy asked mockingly. Small smiles rested upon our lips as we drank each other in.

"Absolutely."

"Well, I think you look fantastic in that sweater." Timothèe told me with smirk.

"Really?" I asked with an unladylike snort.

"Hell yeah, you could wear a potato sack and you'd still look gorgeous." My brows rose at the lack of a joke in his tone.

"Thank you." I stated, becoming awkward very quickly at the compliment.

"You're welcome." He laughed, before leaning closer to me and placing a kiss on my cheek.

A wide smile grew on my face along with an excruciatingly obvious blush. I bit my lip and played with the baby hairs at the nape of my neck. "Do you want to go hang out by the Shrieking Shack?"

"Sure." He said, placing the money to pay for our drinks on the table, before grabbing my hand and leading us in the direction of the familiar shack.

James POV:

I sat with Remus, Sirius, and Peter at the Three Broomsticks. I hadn't touched my butterbeer, as I'd just been glaring at the couple that sat two tables away from us.

The couple was Lenora Scamander and Timothèe Lafayette.

I saw him kiss her on the cheek and I rolled my eyes at the scene before me, as my heart dropped in my chest.

I hated this.

"I'm sorry, mate." Sirius sighed, patting my shoulder in an attempt to comfort me or something.

"Maybe they'll have a horrible rest of the date and decide to just stay friends or something." Remus said in a pitiful attempt to cheer me up.

"You know what, Prongs? No, I'm not going to let you give up! You're going to show Lenora Scamander exactly what she's missing and she's going to know how wrong she was to even date that Ravenclaw kid!" Sirius stated sternly, actually being... well, serious for once.

"And how the fuck am I going to do that, Padfoot?" I asked, only receiving a mischievous grin in return.