**PLEASE CORRECT ALL MY MISTAKES**

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Flagrate
Spell
1. incantation of a charm that allows one to write or draw in midair with fiery lines. There are many variations of it that allow to write on other things.

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James had missed Hogwarts. He had missed the pranks, he had missed the teachers, he had missed the students. Missed the portraits, the never-ending stairs and corridors, the Quidditch field and the hospital wing. He had missed seeing Lily Evans take accurate notes in the front of the class, he had missed the amused glances he and Sirius shared when done an interior joke, missed Remus' sarcastic comments and Peter's always there personality. Hell, he had even missed the boring history classes.

Well, that wasn't exactly true. Mr. Binns' classes were boring as always, and it hadn't cheered James up to be bored again by all the repetitive wars the magic word has faced over history. Sirius and Remus were having a very interesting ship battle game (AN: Is this a thing in the UK? And what do you call it, if it exists?) in the table in front of him, Peter was sleeping next to him and he... he was just doodling on his supposed notes.

He had this habit. Whenever a quill came to his hand, he would start writing things or symbols on the edge of the parchment. He had already drawn the Potter family shield, with all the details, the Chudley Cannons shield, all completed, and the Gryffindor shield too. The truth is, he liked drawing shields, and it was interesting how good he could draw them, when he wasn't able to draw anything else. But he hadn't been drawing shields all his life.

Two years ago, he had never drawn a shield before, instead, he just doodled Lily Evans' initials: L.E. When he realized that trying to make the girl go out with him was only doing her hate him more than she already did, and when he started to come back to reality and knew she would never like him, he decided to move on from her. Or, at least, try it.

And the first step to do it was stopping to put her initials on every parchment he had. But since it seemed impossible to him not to do it, he started to entertain himself drawing the most difficult things he could think of, and those were shields.

Suddenly, interrupting his drawing, a letter in black was magically drawn in his parchment, and took him out of his thoughts. It was an M, and in a very nice handwriting, he had to admit. But what the hell was an M doing in the middle of his notes? He didn't know.

Then, another letter came next to the M. An E. James, confused, looked at his classmates to see if somebody was looking at him or trying to say something to him, but they were all so bored as before. When he looked back at his parchment, another E and T were there.

He stared at the letters, confused. MEET, it said. Then an M came followed by another E and an A. And letters started to show, creating words. Two T, one next to the other, an H, an E, an L and an I. One B, an R, A, R, Y. Next, four numbers were drawn too. Then, it stopped.

James looked over the other students again. Nobody doing a strange movement nor a thing that could make James know it was them who had sent the letter.

Meet me at the library, 17:00, it read.

Well, there was no point in missing a study date, was it?

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Although James was curious and wanted to get to the library as soon as possible, he had other things to do first, which he wouldn't miss even if Albus Dumbledore was making a Guns N' Roses performance with the bread dyed pink and a The Little Mermaid dress on down in the great hall.

So, what was that important? Finding Evans to go see their new room, of course.

She was already waiting in front of a portrait, talking with the lady drawn in it. They looked in a very important topic, since none of them seemed to notice him when he arrived where they were. He made a noise and Lily turned to face him.

"Potter, this is Lady Windom, the portrait that keeps our common room safe." She said, "Lady, this is James Potter, the other Head Boy."

"Yes, I believe he is quite famous amongst us portraits since he and his friend Sirius Black decided to dress us portraits all with a tutu for St. Valentine's day, three years ago." Said the Lady, not quite pleased with him.

"Oh yeah, I remember." James said, ignoring the glance Lily just shot at him for his behavior in the past. "I am terribly sorry, ma'am. Can we please get inside now? I've got a mysterious meeting to assist and I'm afraid I can't be late, otherwise my anonymous promoter will think I do not want to have my business with them."

Lily rolled eyes and looked at the portait.

"Whatever" Lady Windom commented. "The password is always the name of a song, it changes once per week. This week's one is Waiting On A Friend by The Rolling Stones." And she opened, letting them in.

The room wasn't what one would call fancy, more like old-fashioned or library-like, and James was sure Lily had just fallen in love with it. It had one big window in the middle, surrounded by two big bookshelves where James identified some famous of all time books. There was a studying table in the middle, just in front of the window, with two chairs one next to another, and a red sofa also facing the views of the field that amazed James from the other side of the crystal.

"Evans?" He asked, in a 'can I speak?' tone.

"Yeah?" She said, letting him speak.

"I've been thinking–wait, don't do any sarcastic remark, let me finish." He added when he saw her mouth open, probably to say it was a rare time when he thought of something or that she didn't know that he could think. She nodded and let him continue. "Okay. I wanted to apologize to you, but I know this kind of topic is very awkward and that maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and think all this is bullshit and be an asshole again–which, knowing myself, wouldn't be so strange. So, as I was saying, I won't apologize, just let you know that maybe, since we are going to see each other everyday, we could try to, I don't know, get along. What do you say?"

Lily smiled warmly, and James' heart ached at that, even if he refused it. "Thank you." She said, "For apologizing and not apologizing at the same time."

James chuckled. "So do you think we can try to be friends?"

"I didn't say that." She elaborated, "But yeah, we can try."

"Are you sure?" Asked James with a look of incredulity but smirking at the same time.

"Not really, Potter, but yeah."

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James was not known for being early. And even in this mysterious meeting, he arrived late. Not too late, only ten minutes, but it was still not at the time.

He wondered who the person behind that could be. Of course there were a few girls–and by few he meant half the school– that would love to spend an entire evening with him, and that could have planned it to have his attention. If that was the case, James thought he'd leave. He was not in a flirty mood, after having scored one huge point in his love life.

He walked down the tables, but there was nobody who seemed to be waiting for him. Until a big, black chair came into his view. He decided to go check if it was that person he was trying to find. When he was just behind the chair, a femenine voice let him know he was in the right place.

"I was starting to wonder if you would come" The voice of a girl siad, and James smiled when he recognized the voice.

"Stop the mystery, sis." he laughed.

"I am here to talk about a very serious business, I hope you know what I am talking about, James Fleamont Potter." She said, levitating her chair and making it turn, letting none other than Marlene McKinnon facing James.

James adored Marlene. She was fun, dramatic, and way too similar to his best friend, she was nice to be around, and the time of person it was fun to argue about Quidditch. He liked her as a friend, and he could already know this was going to be a fun evening. Nonetheless, he was confused to see her there.

James had started to know Marlene well when she entered the Quidditch team as a chaser, like him, and they had been friends since they scored the first point together. And it was a funny relationship he had with her. They practiced moves together, helped each other, had fun, but only when there was Quidditch involved in it.

On normal days, each other had their lives, with their friends and problems, and ignored each other, but when there was a Quidditch practice, when there was a Quidditch final, a meal before a match they both wanted to ignore but had to face, a difficult Quidditch match, a good point to score, a Quidditch pun only they could understand, a Quidditch need, they were there to help each other. And it was weird, it really was, but they loved it, because you never know when you have this imminent need to talk about Quidditch with someone, and then, you'd have a Marlene McKinnon right there to talk with you. He liked to call it a Quidditch relationship.

But, as far as he remembered, there wasn't any important Quidditch thing or event to discuss, so he was a bit surprised to find her there.

"No, Marls, I won't accept you in the Quidditch team without the trials." He said, trying to sound funny while he took a chair and sat next to her, grinning.

"No, you prat, I'm not talking about the trials." Marlene corrected "Although, if you ask it like that..."

"Nope. Said no to Sirius, saying no to you, and I'll say no to Jones, to McKnee and to Dardon if they asked. Merlin, I'd say no even to Kelly Clarke, the best player of the Holyhead Harpies, if she wanted to ask me!"

"I'm sure she's dying to be in your team, Jamie" She said, using the nickname she had always used to him, which was, if you hadn't noticed, to mock him for what his previous girlfriends had called him, and now James only accepted the name from her. "Anyways, going back to the main problem; Lily."

Marlene smirked when James' smile changed and a surprised face took the spot. "What about her?" He asked.

"What is your super plan this year to get her this year?"

"Nonexistent." He said with a shrug. He had been thinking about it all summer, and he knew his decision was unbreakable.

Marlene shook her head. "We're not doing this right Jamie, we're not doing it right."

"Well, what do you want me to do?" Asked James, "I have already annoyed her enough, she deserves a Potter free year. And besides, she's going to take her N.E.W.T.s very seriously, I wouldn't want her to have a B for my fault!"

Marlene smirked–a mischievous smirk, if asked James, but he knew he had this same smirk on 24/7. "Oh, no Jamie... my plan is way easier, really."

"No, I won't try to impress her either, we've already seen the Potter Charm doesn't work on smart girls." He paused, thinking about the more possible plans his friend could have. "And don't even try to become the giant squid to make her date me, cause I've already done that!"

"Yeah, I know, I had to listen to a week of complaints about how you were the 'stupidest prat the word has seen in a thousand and four years!'. And no, I don't want to suffer again, so I'm really asking you to make yourself (and me) a favour... Befriend her."

If she was expecting some sort of surprise or a 'You're crazy!' reaction, she was deceived. In fact, what came into James mouth really surprised her; a smirk.

"Oh, that's easy!" James grinned proudly, "Cause I've already done half of it."

"What? How? Who? When? And why didn't you or Lily tell me?!" Was her immediate response to the news.

"Err... Ten  minutes ago? If we are going to share a room, we better make it the right way."

"Next time you make progress, you tell me, 'kay? I have to be the first to know." She said, pretending to be angry.

"Yeah, yeah... Well, what do you suggest I do, Miss Cupido, now that your plan is already done?"

"Y'know... Just don't break it. And, if you really want to be her friend..."

"Yes...?" He asked.

"Then make me pass the trials!" She declared, a little too loud, because Madam Pince had to tell her to lower her volume.

James chuckled. "We're back to this, I see...  It didn't stop you by saying I wouldn't accept Kelly Clarke, did it?"

"Oh please. Don't tell me you wouldn't be excited to have her here. We could make her be a seeker,  because you know there's no seeker better than Vance here...  what a shame she is a Ravenclaw!"

"Yeah, but imagine if we had Clarke! I reckon Vance could actually beat her."

"Nah, Clarke would win for sure...  Did you see the last catch she made in that match with the Italians? It was freaking amazing!"

James laughed. It was fun to be back to normal again, talking about Quidditch like they had always done. And he loved it. He loved all of Hogwarts with his heart.

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Second chapter! What do you think? It's shorter than the other, so idk. I really like James and Marlene as best friends, and I think I will try to portrait Marlene a bit like me at school: with girl friends, but also having guy friends, which is like being a secret spy for both XD

Anyways, I rlly enjoyed writing this one, I feel like Marlene and Sirius should be the top 1 Jily matchmakers and idk if you got it, but gods I'll have so much fun with the password being a song... Just look at what I did with Waiting On A Friend :) (Yeah, I'm a 60s, 70s, 80s music freak, deal with it lol)

Question: What other friendships would you like to see?

Thx for reading, see ya folks :)