the girlfriend experience, james potter
𝒔𝒆𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓, 𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟕

chapter nineteen, BRANDY AND BOARD GAMES

✧ ━━━ · ✦ · ━━━ ✧

     THIS WAS IT. THE TIME HAD COME. Her first meal at the Gryffindor table.

     Day five: B̶r̶e̶a̶k̶f̶a̶s̶t̶ and dinner at the house table of the client, followed by an evening activity of the client's choice.

     Bronwyn was fine with James feeling uncomfortable and out of place at the Slytherin table, but when it was her turn, she wasn't so keen. Usually, when this time in the itinerary came, Bronwyn was fine. She had friends in every house and was liked enough around the school so that no one told her to fuck off. The Slytherins were usually the most hostile about students being at the wrong house tables but she was a Slytherin so that solved that problem.

     But when it came to James, she wasn't exactly liked by James' friends or anyone in his social circle. They glared at her like she was some kind of disease and it made her think that James had fed them lies about her that painted her to be the monster they all seemed to think she was.

     "Why are you all staring at me?"

     Peter seemed confused by her presence, Sirius simply angered, Remus didn't care (she even thought he smiled at her at one point), and a few Gryffindors sat a little further down were a mix between unbothered and perplexed.

     Peter looked at her as if she was some kind of creature from a distant land, his knife hanging loosely from his grip, dangling over his half-eaten pie and mash. "You're James' girlfriend," he stated in a daze, his forehead crinkled.

     "Confused by that fact are we Pettigrew?"

     A little bit of time passed, James muttering a few things to his friends and then to Bronwyn. Sirius appeared to have lost his words and simply tossed his head or murmured nothing in particular in response.

     After a while, Bronwyn grew bored of Sirius staring at her with a fierce glare as if she had murdered someone he loved. He had been chewing aimlessly on his dinner for five minutes, and his long dark locks had fallen in front of his eyes.

     Bronwyn set her cutlery down with a clatter. "You know, I won't burst into flames if you keep looking at me like that."

     "Shit," Sirius replied robotically. "You caught me."

     "What did I ever do to you, Black?"

     "James," he replied in an instant. "You did James."

     "Ew," was Bronwyn's immediate reaction to this image but once she had received a sharp kick in the leg under the table from the boy sitting next to her, she shook herself out of her sickened expression and tried her best to cover up her blip. "I mean, that is . . . none of your business. Just eat your pie and leave me out of it, capiche?"

     She was most definitely not used to everyone thinking that she and James were actually dating.

     Sirius pulled a mocking face, murmuring to himself her words like a pissed-off parrot, but eventually stopped looking at her, focusing solely on his chicken and pastry.

     No one was more grateful than James when dinner was over and he could escape the tense atmosphere at the Gryffindor table where he feared it was only a matter of time before his best friend and fake girlfriend killed each other.

     He scampered off as quickly as he could, Bronwyn by his side, leaving his friends to slowly stroll out of the Great Hall a bit behind them in a mob of students.

     "Why does the idea of having sex with me gross you out?" James asked after a few minutes of the two of them walking in silence, currently with no destination in mind,

     "I'm not even going to answer that," Bronwyn said. "Your brain may be small but I think it can handle figuring out the answer to that question."

     "Do I really disgust you?"

     "Stop with the questions, you're going to get hurt."

     "What," James scoffed, "you think you can hurt my feelings?"

     "I can certainly hurt your precious ego."

     "I don't have a precious ego."

     Bronwyn stared at the boy unimpressed as he spoke like a child having a tantrum ─ hearing something he didn't like turned his face sour. "Your ego has its own orbit."

     "I like my ego just the way it is," he huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. 

     Her evaluation of his behaviour still stands evidently. "You just proved my point perfectly."

     James stalked off then, turning his back on her and walking in the opposite direction at a crossroads-type corridor. Bronwyn sighed, rolled her eyes, and hurried up to him.

     James seemed confused by her appearance at his side and slowed down a little as they walked in sync towards the moving staircases. "I know I'm gorgeous but why are you following me?"

     "Check the itinerary, shithead." She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "I know I agreed to fake date you but you're still paying me for my services."

     "I'll have you know I know the itinerary inside out thank you very much," he said, raising his chin a little higher than what was natural. "But today's evening activity will be happening later. Much later."

    "What?" She said, halting where they walked. Her brows were furrowing but her tone was tired ─ she was so very fed up with this kid.

     "Just meet me at Gryffindor Tower at midnight, capiche?" A smirk formed on his face as he echoed her earlier words to his best friend.

     This time she couldn't stop her eyes from rolling ─ it was like natural instinct at this point. But as she did, the boy she was just standing talking to had shot off, almost out of sight.

     "James!" Bronwyn called out, still lacking a satisfactory explanation. He waved his hand, his back still to her. "James!" She tried again, but to no avail; he had already rounded the corner.

     She stopped calling his name immediately. She may have agreed to be known as James' girlfriend but she will not accept being known as needy.

     Bronwyn walked away with a perturbed expression and a bone to pick with her boyfriend.

✧

     SHE WAITED HOURS. LITERALLY. AND FOR JAMES FUCKING POTTER. Bronwyn will not deny that she was a little annoyed when James had told her his planned evening activity couldn't take place until much later in the evening. She'd usually like to be done by ten at the latest and yet he told her to meet him outside the portrait hole at twelve o'clock.

     Andromeda was snoring in the shared dormitory by the time eleven fifty-five rolled around. And oh how Bronwyn wished could join her. Andromeda had questioned why Bronwyn put up with James' annoying shenanigans but a reminder of the money was enough for Andromeda to shrug her shoulders and leave her friend be.

     The castle was quiet, most students sane enough not to break curfew rules and so were all tucked away in their respective house areas. The only reason she was agreeing to James' late timing was because it was a Friday night so she could get away with being a bit of a slug the next day (even when she had practice early the next morning) and because she couldn't deny she was curious.

     "Good evening," James sing-songed. "I see you successfully stayed awake then?" He teased. Bronwyn had never been one for staying up late and her bedtime had most definitely passed.

     "Why am I here at midnight, James?" She asked, already tired of his antics.

     "So," he drawled, before muttering the password (the Fat Lady took a little bit of convincing to let Bronwyn in) and leading the girl in through the swung-open door. James then presented the room hidden behind the portrait with flare as he revealed his reasoning, "we'd have the common room all to ourselves. There were a few students milling about but my status was enough to kick them out."

     If James thought for one second that Bronwyn was going to believe that James Potter's so-called "status" was enough for other students to evacuate the common room at his command, then he was even more stupid than she had pegged him for.

     Her eyes bored into his with a disinterested expression. Cut the crap, Potter were her unsaid words.

     "Okay, fine," he sighed, before finally admitting, "I paid a couple of them. But two second years did call me sir so my reputation proceeds me."

     Bronwyn raised her brows briefly to stop herself from rolling her eyes. "Evidently," she muttered, as she then turned to the abandoned lounge before her to survey the area.

     The Gryffindor common room was a significantly different atmosphere to the Slytherin one, and Bronwyn has her bias, but even she had to admit the tranquil setting of the red velvet lounge was appetising on a cold September night such as this one.

     There wasn't a student in sight. A roaring fire crackled in its place, warming up the rest of the room. Candles were dotted around in sconces, their flames flickering, their shadows dancing on the dainty wallpaper's walls.

     In front of the fire was a coffee table, ordained with cosy decor, and holding two steaming mugs, marshmallows swimming on the surface of each. A plate of dessert goodies lay idle next to them. On either side of the table were stacks of pillows, and bunches of blankets, the sofas pushed aside so that the rug could act as their seat. On the floor underneath the glass of the table, piled high in a great stack were several boxes. On closer inspection, Bronwyn could just about read the text along the side of each in the fire's lambent light.

     "Board games?" She chuckled in disbelief, as James led her closer.

     "I found that a little friendly competition can boost the health and creativity within a relationship," James explained as he crossed his legs and sat on the side of the coffee table closest to the fire.

     "Because we don't already have any kind of competition between us do we, Potter?" Bronwyn joked as she took up the spot in front of him.

     "Hence why I said friendly," he said, as he removed the top game from the pile and placed it on the table ─ Wizards Chess. "Besides, I'm just displaying my wise and logical reasoning behind tonight's activity and thus proving I can recreate that in a real future relationship."

     "Glad to see we're making some progress."

     Lily Evans may actually end up liking this boy.

✧

     "YOU'RE SUCH A CHEAT, IT'S INSANE."

     "Am not. You just can't handle losing."

     The time was approaching two o'clock and Bronwyn had yet to yawn once. She knows for a fact that it was her annihilation of her opponent that meant she had stayed so awake, even if said opponent wouldn't admit he was losing abysmally at Snakes and Ladders, and Go Fish.

     "Slytherins are chronic cheaters, so you're just in denial," James carried on, convinced that he can't be that bad at family games that he has lost this many times. "You've gotten so used to their conniving ways that you've succumbed to the cheating lifestyle."

     Bronwyn watched on curiously as the boy tried to defend his failure, sipping her hot chocolate as he packed up the last game and opened a new one. James had topped off the sweet drink with brandy Sirius had smuggled him and it gave the beverage an alleviating feel Bronwyn couldn't get enough of. It was dangerous that he had added a refilling charm to the mugs so that they would never run out ─ she could feel the alcohol making her all giggly.

     "So," James said, indicating a new conversation topic as he dealt out Exploding Snap, "tell me about all of your past clients. I want all of the embarrassing details."

     Bronwyn winced as she placed her mug down carefully on its coaster and tucked her legs up to her chest. "Can't," she said, "that's classified."

     James looked utterly heartbroken. "What?"

     "Think of me like their therapists. I can't share personal information."

     "That's so boring," he whined. "I legally need to know who's the worst boyfriend."

     Bronwyn laughed to herself, memories of terrible dates and awful stories she was subjected to came flooding back to her. "Oh yeah," she cackled, "I've had some terrible students."

     His mouth fell open. "See! You can't just tease me like that. This is some hot gossip."

     Another wince. "Whoops. Sorry not sorry." Bronwyn may love to share some of the hilarious details with someone else but she gave her past clients her word and their information was confidential.

     James sighed, defeated. He was really looking forward to indulging in the secrets of his desperate classmates. "You are . . ."

     He trailed off, his eyes narrowed onto her, and so she finished for him, holding her arms out suggestively. "Beautiful? Hilarious? The most amazing person you know?" Bronwyn nodded, smiling self-satisfied. "I'm very much aware ─ I have been told."

     "I was going to say infuriating."

     "Nope." She gave one swing of her head. "That is a word only reserved for you."

     Bronwyn grinned from ear to ear, raising her mug for him to toast. James considered ignoring her for a moment, in protest, but he found after a while that he couldn't resist and the china clinked together in perfect harmony before they filled their stomachs with warm soothing brandy.

✧

     SHE WOKE UP WITH A CRICK IN HER NECK. Just about every muscle ached and she was most definitely sure she wasn't in a bed where she was usually supposed to be on a Saturday morning.

     Once Bronwyn's eyes had adjusted to the light pouring in from a nearby window, and her surroundings began to form physical objects, she discovered that she was most definitely not in a bed where she usually is supposed to be. She wasn't in a bed at all.

     Snapping open her eyes to their full parameter, she practically jumped up onto her feet. One glance around the vicinity revealed she was in fact still in the Gryffindor common room. Her makeshift bed was comprised of a single velvet pillow; her duvet was a red tasselled blanket; her mattress, a rug.

     How could she have let this happen? She doesn't know how long they were playing various board games for but she bet it was the brandy that put her to sleep in the end.

     Her ears then woke up allowing her to recognise the sound of obnoxious snoring, and, looking slightly to the left, she saw her sleeping companion, James, bundled into a fetus-like shape, lying on the other side of the coffee table that had separated them, on a similar blanket/pillow bed layout.

     Panic set in when she saw how high the sun had already risen outside. Students would be filing down here soon and not only should she not be here full stop, but she also didn't want to be caught sleeping alongside James. Even if everyone thought they were dating anyway.

     Spinning frantically on the spot trying to locate her things for a quick getaway, Bronwyn noticed a red head of hair swaying with the speed at which the person was running up the stairs to the dormitories. Not having the time to worry about somebody already having seen her in this state, Bronwyn ignored the common room-goer and instead kicked James in the stomach to get him awake.

     "Oi, Black!" James groaned, his eyes squeezed shut, his body rolling about on the floor so that his legs sprawled in and out of the covers.

     "I am not Sirius, you imbecile," Bronwyn spat back. James' eyes burst open at the sound of a voice he is not supposed to hear this early in the morning.

     "Bronwyn?" He yawned.

     "Yes, good morning, James," she seethed.

     James rubbed his eyes, seemingly nowhere near as distraught as Bronwyn was at the situation this fine morning, probably because he already felt at home in this particular lounge. Bronwyn, on the other hand, felt like a fish out of water.

     As James staggered to his feet, still half-asleep, the blanket he was once wrapped up in fell to the floor, revealing a very much topless James Potter.

     Bronwyn now squeezed her eyes shut, spinning on the spot to get that sight out of her eyes. "Do you have to be half-naked right now?"

     James had hardly noticed he wasn't wearing a shirt. He must have removed it when the fire got a bit too hot in the night before it burned out. "Relax, darling. Need I remind you that you've seen me naked before."

     She couldn't see his smirk, but she could most definitely hear it. "No, you do not need to remind me. I had no choice in the matter. I was two," she fumed, disgusted at the memories of all those lovely times their mothers bathed them together.

     Once James was decent, Bronwyn turned back around, now with full mobility to search for her scattered things, now that topless James wasn't a risk to her eyesight. But upon turning around, James' scruffy bedhead wasn't the most frightening thing she saw. It was the Quidditch jumper James had put back on, the one he had discarded last night.

     The red and gold jumper sparked a memory in Bronwyn's mind.

     "Shit. I have practice."

     She didn't dare look at her watch. She simply scampered around, trying her best to sort out her appearance while simultaneously gathering the possessions that were sprinkled across the rug.

     "Oh dear," James said, as he watched on amused as a frenzied Bronwyn worked her way around him, offering no help at all. "Can't miss practice. That would be a disaster."

     Picking up the final item of her collection (the watch she refused to look at out of fear she was dreadfully late for her practice where she was captain), Bronwyn straightened out and looked him dead on.

     "I hope I never see you again," she said bored, not impressed with his comments while she practically panted hectically.

     This earned her a sarcastic, yet bright, smile from James. "You have a little bit of drool," he said, signalling to the spot on his own chin, "right there."

     Groaning at his irritating smug smile, Bronwyn stormed out of the common room to the sound of his goodbyes, making sure she cleaned her face before she made it to the changing rooms.

✧

     TO ALL OF THEIR SURPRISE, LILY EVANS SAT WITH THE MARAUDERS for breakfast later that morning. This was unusual because, normally, the only member of their little clan that she could ever put up with was Remus. But today, it was James she was sitting beside ─ Sirius and Peter also in close range.

     James froze as he watched her slowly sink into the empty spot next to him. His spoon fell into his bowl making an uncomfortable clanking sound as it went.

     "So," Lily gushed, followed by a nervous chuckle. James felt his back straighten up. He had never made her nervous before (that he knew of).

     "So," James parrotted, feeling nerves pool in his own stomach. He shot a glare at his three ogling friends and they quickly looked away, focusing intently on their respective bowls of cereal, making silly conversation to make it clear to Lily and James that they were not eavesdropping. Because even Remus couldn't resist. He had heard the worst of Lily's complaints about the very boy she was sitting next to now.

     A brief awkward silence followed, the two of them gauchely avoiding eye contact. James had never thought he'd find himself so unprepared to talk to Lily Evans.

     He held his breath as Lily began to speak again. "You and Bronwyn are going strong then?"

     James' heart squeezed. So this is what she wanted to talk about. Their plan was actually working.

     He gave her a wonky smile. "Yeah," that breath he was holding in came bursting out of him, "I guess we are. Who would have guessed, ey?"

     James was praying this would end if he wasn't going to have the confidence to be proud of his fake relationship and if the entire interaction was just going to be a series of clumsy smiles and shy laughs.

     "Not me," Lily said jokily, causing James to force a laugh. Her eyes fell onto the empty plate in front of her and she began serving herself some dry toast, lathering jam on top.

     "But you're happy, yes?"

     Did Lily care about his happiness? Oh, how he wished Bronwyn was here to listen in.

     James began refocusing on his breakfast too, with hopes he was coming across as normal, casual, and not at all shitting bricks. He gulped right before he answered. "Yes, I am," he said, praying his skills from the acting camp his mum used to send him to when he was a kid was paying off.

     "I heard she's only dating you to distract you from the Quidditch cup."

     It came out of nowhere. James hadn't prepared for this. Bronwyn hadn't mentioned anything about Quidditch. But this was good. This was Lily trying to steal James from his "current girlfriend" if he didn't know any better. He just had to think on his feet.

     James puffed his chest, lifted his chin a little, and began frantically searching for Bronwyn. He spotted her, sitting with Andromeda at the Slytherin table and was grateful when their eyes finally met after only a couple of seconds. Bronwyn furrowed her brows and spared him a grossly confused look when she noticed he was staring at her, but all James did was send her a somewhat discreet thumbs-up, his head tilting in Lily's direction before he turned back to the redhead beside him.

     "Oh er, you did?" He asked cooly, resting his elbow up on the table somewhat nonchalantly.

     "I was in the library the other day," Lily began, "and I heard Rosier and his lot talking about the two of you and her plans to mislead you away from winning. And then when I spoke to Remus about it, he said that Sirius and Regulus had been discussing it and I suppose in an attempt to reassure his brother, Regulus said it was all to do with Quidditch."

     James stared straight at her, hoping he didn't come across as completely dumbfounded ─ the way he currently felt. Also while hoping his friends heard none of that.

     She had asked Remus about them? She was so interested in his supposed relationship that she had actually gone out of her way to ask his friends about it?

     James opted to think about this instead of focusing on the fact that Sirius was still annoyed with him.

     Lily noticed how James' eyes wandered off of hers in deep thought and she continued, the knife and jar of jam at hand, speaking absently as she went, "But that's just speculation. I don't mean to put you off."

     "Speculation, yeah," he said, clearly elsewhere. Finally, James looked at her again, having done his best to come to terms with the fact that their plan was in fact succeeding at making Lily jealous. "Well, thanks for letting me know."

     Lily smiled at him, her cheeks blushing lightly, dimples showing on either side of her mouth. She seemed genuinely pleased with how this interaction was going even if James was hardly awake right now.

     "Of course," she said, and out of nowhere, placed her hand gently on top of his. James didn't flinch but instead just gawked down at where their skin was brushing against each other, how her fingers were swiping soothingly across the back of his hand. His eyes flared open wide. He was convinced he was dreaming.

     Making someone else jealous may be a desired aspect of The Girlfriend Experience, but fake dating was not. Nonetheless, James was sure going to leave a good review for Bronwyn's business after this.

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