Chapter 7

"Adria?" James whispered, tapping softly at her legs as they sprawled over him, a warm mug of tea curtsey of the house elves warmed her hands as she sat with one of Sirius' jumpers over her body, the book resting on her lap and her lips pursed in concentration. At the sound of her name, her eyes lifted from the book and to James, seeing him with a small frown on his lips.

He was particular sad that another prank on Lily and Caden hadn't worked out well, it was frustrating that the two just seemed a whole lot more amused than anything else. It was irritating, annoying, but what irked him particularly was that it was worth it, worth pranking them, because Nora was so happy that it worked, even if the two where amused by the whole ordeal and not at all angry, or ready to drift apart, Nora still had a wide smile across her lips.

And it made James smile.

And that point made him want to throw himself off of the astronomy tower.

They weren't friends, well, stubbornly, that's what they told anyone who asked, but it was so clearly obvious that amidst their planning the pranks to pull, that they enjoyed each other's company a whole lot.

"Yeah, James?" asked Adria, lifting her head to look at him, and soon did the book in her lap close, a lazy hand running through her hair. She had decided to skip classes for another day, she knew at some point it would all back fire on her, but her wonderful friends had taken it upon themselves to take notes for her.

Even Nora made sure to take notes in Herbology for her.

"You know how your camera?" he asked, his head titled ever so slightly as he thought of the camera he had saw her using countless times, "how could I buy one of them if I don't know how to use muggle money?"

"Oh, you want a camera?" asked Adria, "you could always borrow mine, James, it's no problem."

He grinned at her, patting her knee but soon did he shake his head, shyly muttering, "well, it's not for me, it's a present."

"A present?" she repeated, her eyebrow arched, "like a birthday present?"

"No, more like Christmas present," he shrugged, "for a friend."

"A friend? Who?" she laughed, "why are you thinking about Christmas presents so early?"

"You don't know them," he shrugged quickly, running his hand over the back of his neck, "friend from back home."

"I thought you didn't have any friends back home because they were all stuck up and snobby?" Adria frowned, her head titled ever so slightly.

"Fine, it's not for someone back home," he grumbled, "detective Hopkins."

"Funny," she tutted, "who then?"

"No one important."

"Must be if you're going to buy them a bloody camera," she scoffed, moving to sit cross legged in front of him, "come on James, tell your best friend?!"

"No, it's a thank you gift, maybe," he grumbled, "nothing important about it," he mumbled sheepishly, glaring at the amused looking Adria.

"Please James, this is the only excitement I've had in months," she pouted, "I need some stories!"

"You are not using your sadness to guilt me!" he exclaimed, his arms flailing around, "that's just unfair!"

"If I guess will you tell me?" she asked, wiggling her eyebrows and watching him send her a wary look.

"I don't know, Ads," he shook his head, watching her fall back, her head hitting the end of his bed, "oh come on!"

"Please, Jamesy!" she huffed, "I need this!"

"Okay, fine!" he grumbled, rolling his eyes as he watched the small - evidently forced - smile fall onto her lips.

"Is it for Nora Robinson?"

"That's unfair!" he shouted, "you knew, didn't you?!"

"Well it's rather obvious when you spend all of your time with her!" Adria exclaimed, sitting down the book, "do you like her?"

"No, of course not!" James huffed, "I like Evans, remember?"

"I know," Adria nodded, "it's just- well, when was the last time you actually went on about Lily? Most days you talk about Nora."

"I do not!"

"Yes, you do!" Adria laughed, "you met at the start of fifth year, and now in the middle of October, all you do is talk about her!"

"Didn't take you as a liar, Ads," James tutted, throwing her a glare.

"Because I'm not," she scoffed, "Don't you realise that you're with her basically every day?!"

"We are acquaintances," he grumbled, "I only wanted to know how to buy a bloody camera!"

"Does she like photography?" asked Adria, ignoring his bitterness and watching him turn to her, "I'm not going to tell anyone that you like her-"

"I don't."

"So, you can talk about her all you want," she gave him a pointed look when he cut her off, completely ignoring him to finish her sentence, "why do you want to buy her a camera?"

"because she was talking about how she has always wanted one," he mumbled, shrugging his shoulders, "but can't afford one, and seeing as I can, I thought it was an alright thing to do."

The grin fell onto Adria's lips as she stared at her best friend, "how romantic!"

"Oh, shove off," he huffed, shaking his head as he sat with her, "I don't like her."

He didn't like her, he couldn't like her, their relationship was making sure that they got with their respective halves of a couple they were trying to break up, as terrible as it sounded, that was simply what it was. It frustrated him that he couldn't tell Adria their plan, because she would instantly protest against it, and well, Nora would be anything but happy with him if he did.

"Yeah and I hate Sirius," Adria mumbled, rolling her eyes as she hugged the jumper she wore closer to her, watching James' eyes narrow to slits.

"This could be third year!" he huffed.

-

"This has to work, I'm certain it'll work," Nora whispered, gripping onto James to balance herself under her coat, it was simple, and terribly planned, but the flour she had found in the kitchen that quickly hovered above the hallway was the only thing that Nora could find in a short space of time. When James had said that he had caught Lily and Caden walking to the library not too long ago, did she rush to find anything she could.

"It's not placed right," James snapped, stealthily pushing himself from under the cloak as Nora kept hold of her wand, attempting to concentrate as she pushed the cloak off of herself, whispering furiously for James to hurry up and move out of the way.

"Nora!" and just like that, her attention wavered completely, her wand to her side when she heard Caden's voice, and not a moment later did her eyes snap to James, seeing him completely covered in the flour. She clasped a hand over her mouth as she watched him groan, puffing out smoke clouds of flour that had caught in his mouth and using his fingers to wipe the flour from his glasses.

He lifted his eyes to see the amused look on her face, her hand clasped tightly of her lips to stop the giggles from pouring out, and soon was the shock on his features replaced with a glare, "focus, Nora, merlin!"

"What where you two doing?" Caden asked suspiciously, watching Nora attempt to lean casually against the wall as he approached with a rather amused Lily under his arm.

"Uh, well," James started, moving forward to stand beside Nora, a sheepish grin on his lips as he subtly nudged her.

"James was helping me with the levitation charm," she shrugged, "revision, and all, for O.W.Ls, said it'd be good to levitate something over him for trust, looks like I failed."

"Wha-" she nudged him roughly, but he wasn't at all happy that she was making herself look bad, "actually, Nora, stop being so bloody modest, I couldn't do the levitation charm well, and seeing as she is so good at it, she was showing me how it's done, but of course, lost concentration."

She turned to stare at him, her eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly as James smiled at the two, purposely throwing his arm around Nora's shoulder so that the flour on him would dust onto her, she gritted her teeth together as she forced a smile onto her lips, "yup, that's what we were doing," she grumbled, knowing full well that the two were already suspicious as it is.

"Well make sure to clean up," Caden chuckled, patting Nora's head, "you bloody headcase," and with that, the two bid them a goodbye and walked down the hallway.

"How can you possibly like him?" asked James, rolling his eyes as he watched Caden turn the corner, "he is so completely opposite from you!"

"What is that supposed to mean?!"

"Well, if that was you walking away, well for starters, you wouldn't have, you would've probably stayed and helped clean up, you would ask if you were bloody alright!" James exclaimed.

"Why do you care?!" she asked, "you're the one that likes Lily, which is a bit bloody unexpected!"

"Oh yeah, how?!"

"Well, maybe the fact that she hates you, has that not put you off her?!" Nora huffed.

"I can't bloody help who I like, merlin, Nora!" he snapped, watching her eyes widen in disbelief and her arms flail in frustration.

"Neither can I!" she growled, "and you know, if you didn't doubt my plan, you wouldn't be the one covered in flour!"

"Oh, so it's my fault that you can't help but go running whenever Caden calls?!" he asked, his eyebrow arched as her eyes narrowed.

"You're an absolute arse, James Potter," she shrieked, shaking her head as she stomped down the hallways.

He was so frustrating, so bloody frustrating, Nora thought, turning to look at him as he kicked the cloak away from himself angrily. He had a way of making her so angry in the matter of seconds and the thought irritated her beyond belief.

But what annoyed her most was that the most part of their company was so much fun, she could laugh for hours at the humour they shared, attempting to wind each other up, and it working so well that she had rolled her eyes countlessly, but the smile would still be evident on her lips.

She was not friends with James Potter.

He was far too insufferable to be her friends.

But then, he wasn't, actually, really, he was like her, maybe just a tad bit less sarcastic than she was, but still, they had the same sense of humour, and he was incredibly kind when he wanted to be. considering that he had gave her his coat when she was too cold, or when he bought her chocoballs much to her protest.

It was little things that he done, able to make the smile fall onto her lips, and sometimes would the blood rush to her cheeks, but she couldn't become his friends, she knew well enough that whenever he talked about the two, that he would barely call her an acquaintance, she had overheard him talking to his friends when they annoyingly brought her up, and of course she had to stick around to hear.

She wasn't upset when he called her his acquaintance, because it was true, they were not, and would never be friends, not even close to it, their relationship was strictly business, something Nora had to remind herself countlessly.

She couldn't help that she was in love with her best friend, and he couldn't help that he was in love with Lily Evans.

But what neither of them realised, maybe because of the stubbornness they both possessed, or the fact that they were so dead set on not being friends, was that neither of them, in the time that they had become 'partners in crime' had really thought of the ones they were supposedly in love with.

But in fact, mostly, they thought of each other.