For Melodie ~ Galaxyblackbird

【In which James is determined to ignore fate...】

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James lead a simple life that consisted mainly of three things: his mother, his best friend and chocolate caramel buttons. It did not consist of meeting his soulmate. Finding and falling in love with his soulmate was never a big desire of his. He'd seen soulmates before and all it entails; the arguments, the crying and the bitterness and honestly he'd rather not have to endure that. He'd also seen what it was like to watch a person lose a soulmate, this was the main reason why his life only revolved around his mother, and it wasn't particularly pretty. In fact it looked like it fucking sucked and that didn't even scratch the surface of what his father's death did to him; the teasing, or the sympathy, or the special treatment. So all in all, James wasn't entirely sure he wanted a soulmate.

But he had one nonetheless. He'd never met her but he had one, thanks to the rather crass words on his wrist. (His mother had told him never to repeat one of the words in particular).

Sirius thought it was amusing. He found a lot of things funny that no one else seemed to see the hilarity in. Sirius had a soulmate; he met Remus Lupin while on holiday in Wales and he left two weeks later with the sad reality of most likely never seeing him again, until his father got a job in London that sent Remus right back to their secondary school. They were fifteen, in love by sixteen and a half which was more than James could say for himself although he didn't believe in soulmates. He didn't.

And so he struggled through life with his three life virtues, never wavering from his ideology that a man can live without a soulmate, only his mother, his best friend and chocolate caramel buttons. And he did well for himself: he graduated high school with two A stars and an A in his A-Levels; he got an unconditional for Oxford University to study forensics and a place on the Uni's football team. And he still didn't meet his soulmate.

He'd grown accustomed to the little set of words on his wrist. He'd imagined what they might mean before (that didn't mean he wanted to find out– a guys allowed to ruminate), but it was hard to imagine anything but a rather confrontational meeting given the words that he'd spent a lot of his life staring at.

You've got to be fucking kidding me

It wasn't particularly the sweetest of phrases and it didn't do much to dissuade James from his theory that the whole concept was bogus.

But that was before the thirty first of August, James in his second year of University and attending an away game at Cambridge: aka Oxford's rival university since the beginning of time. It wasn't just rowing that these two establishments fought over. The Boat Race was merely the thing that got the most media attention.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! THE BLOKE TRIED TO TAKE OUT MY KNEECAPS AND YOURE NOT EVEN BOOKING HIM?! A FREE KICK DOES NOT JUSTIFY ASSAULT?!"

It was clear that a lot of people agreed with James protests and hollers because there was a fair bit of noise around the Oxford side of the stands.
The referee, however, didn't accept that whatsoever. A yellow card was flashed but it wasn't to the player that had tried to 'take out his kneecaps' but to James himself.

"WHAT?!"

James took the free kick aiming –not for the intended goal– but for Cambridge's left winger's head. (Frank, his captain, did not enjoy the stint and he received a stern glare and a 'what the fuck are doing? Are your trying to get sent off?' from him).

The left winger, who's name was Snape, smirked at James in a way that made him seriously consider whether it was worth the red card to go and set about the prick there and then.

The game finished in a victory regardless but albeit wasn't the prettiest of wins and so it left a lot of room for the Cambridge students to holler abuse towards the winning team.

Despite this James grinned, he'd lived with teasing long enough to grow a skin that could withstand some snobs calling him a dickhead.

"You know I would kill for a McDonalds right now," he said to Sirius, his best friend and therefore one of his life requirements (also quite a talented defender).

"You read my mind. I can't be arsed with the bender the team will no doubt be on. Cambridge pub crawls are full of every arsehole on the planet anyway." Sirius replied, fixing a deadly stare on the player that had fouled James earlier– Snape. They locked eyes full of enmity and the slimy haired bastard stomped over to them, clearly bitter about the loss, followed by a girl with firecracker red hair and a pitiful expression on her face. She was good looking but James didn't care: she was from Cambridge and was, no doubt, a stuck up little mare which he couldn't be arsed with.

"Don't think I missed that little stint you pulled. You cost your team trying to kill me with that free kick," Snape snarled.

"It cost your team you ducked! They'd be delighted if I got short of you, the good you do for your team!" James spat back, his eyes cold and his stare venomous.

The girl by his side took his arm and pulled, "come on Sev, you played well, some people just aren't worth it!"

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, love," he rolled his eyes and subsequently missed the moment when the redhead girl glanced down at her wrist in horror.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me?!"

James snapped back around to look at her, "no..." the words on his wrist were tingling painfully loudly for him to focus.

It's an odd moment when one meets someone they didn't think they had any intention of ever meeting in ones life. Least of all in a circumstance like this one.
Sirius was having a grand old time however, "oh my god! That's her!" He clutched his side and pointed while Sev stared them both down.

"What's the matter? Mad because your girlfriend is my soulmate? That really is a bummer coming on top of that shocking loss back there!" James smirked. This really wasn't rational James today, it might have been the adrenaline crash from the game that was making him behave like this but later on he would put it down to the shock of coming across the girl he didn't have any intention of meeting.

"No! She's not my girlfriend! You're right, Lily, let's go." The slimy looking prick gave them both one last grimace before allowing the redhead –James' soulmate– to guide him away.

Four hours and a McDonald's later Sirius still couldn't get his head round the obscenity of it all. He sat with Remus and James on the couch of their Uni halls flat and the other two watched on with mild amusement as he laughed himself to death.

"I mean... she's from Cambridge?! And she's friends with the git that tried to kill Prongs!" He howled for what must have been the fiftieth time.

"We get it, mate. It's hilarious, but I've told you before that I don't have any interest in a soulmate, especially not one from Cambridge!" James protested, doing his best to keep his expression neutral.

"Didnt look like it from where i was standing."

James almost got whiplash from the speed his neck turned to glare at his best mate, "what's that supposed to mean?"

Sirius shrugged, looking perfectly unbothered by how vexed he was making James.
"I mean when you heard her speak the words on your wrist you just about had a heart attack. Cambridge or not."

James could feel himself going hot around the ears and cheekbones but he wouldn't admit it if it killed him. Despite being morally opposed to soulmates that didn't mean he didn't believe in them. His parents had been soulmates –they still were despite his fathers death– and although it seemed like an awful lot of heartache he couldn't deny that his parents loved each other once. And the good days were better than good.
It wasn't really until something was handed to you on a silver plate that one realises how much they really want it.

"Yeah well... I don't plan on seeing her again if I'm completely honest with you."

"That's what I thought about Remus," Sirius patted his boyfriend's head affectionately, "and look at us now."

"That was different."

Remus shrugged, "was it?"

As far as James was concerned it was very different. He didn't plan on seeing his soulmate again and he would have gotten away with it too if he wasn't so damned hell bent on ruining the life (or football career– he wasn't picky) of Severus Snape.

The next time Oxford played Cambridge it was at home– James much preferred a home crowd, it was more satisfying to see the crowds largely in your favour and it was much easier to intimidate the opposing team, especially when that team was Cambridge.

"Alright Snape? Your girlfriend kicking about anywhere?" James jeered, quite enjoying the clear annoyance at the taboo buzz word 'girlfriend'.

"She's in the stands."

"Ah lovely. My soulmate," (he may think the whole thing was pointless but Severus Snape didn't need to know that).

"Shut up will you? As if she'd ever go for someone like you!"

James just shook his head casually, pretending the words didn't phase him, "I think she'd be able to speak for herself, don't you think?"

"She listens to me."

James felt his jaw drop in shock, "are you implying that she can't?"

The whistle blew before he had any time to reply. This time James made sure only to foul Snape when the referee was occupied. If he had to play on the sly that was what he would do.

The game ended, a comfortable win, and James was just about to off and gloat to Snape when his number one fan arrived on the pitch.
"What do you want?"

James grinned, "a lot of things. But top on my list right now is a clear shot to punch your boyfriend in the nose."

The bellicose redhead glared, "and why would that be?"  

James mimicked thinking, just to make Snape sweat more than anything else, "oh you wouldn't believe the power he thinks he has. Reckons he's got you an a leash, that one does!"

"Excuse me?!"

"Ask him yourself, you're a big girl." And before he seriously had to hold himself back from punching something he turned around and jogged back to the locker room.

Another thing James liked about playing at home was the availability of the pubs he frequented to celebrate their win. And that's exactly what he was doing when he saw his soulmate again. Looking rather defeated and nursing a vodka tonic.

He wasn't entirely sure why he felt the sudden urge to comfort her. Maybe the alcohol was making him delirious but he hadn't consumed nearly enough to make him this stupid.

"Do you mind?" He asked timidly (James was never timid).

"Quite a lot actually, but I'm too intoxicated to do anything about it. And the only reason I'm here is thanks to you."

James stared at her, perplexed for a short moment, trying to puzzle out to no avail why that might be. Unfortunately he had drank enough alcohol for his usually extensive vocabulary to fail him.
"How?"

"None of your business." She huffed, not looking up from her drink.

"I think we both know that's not true, love."

This time she did look up, to eye him with a look that might have murdered him.
"Why do you keep calling me that?"

"Well I thought it might be a bit early to start calling you 'babe' so—"

"—that's not what I meant and you know it."

James paused, leaving a space between them that felt like a million miles, "because I don't know your name."

The redhead had eyes as bright as stars, she smiled softly, looking up for the first time.
"Well I'm Lily. And I fell out with Severus if you must know. Although I suppose he'll be crawling back this time tomorrow."

James felt a sudden rush of sympathy for his soulmate, Lily, as she turned away, focusing once more on the rim of her glass and the journey her index finger was making along it.
"What makes you say that?"

"He always does. It's been the same since we were about fourteen. He went to school with me, you know? We were best friends," there was an air of bitter malice in her voice as she attempted to shatter her glass with the power of a smouldering gaze.

"What changed?"

"Him. He guilt trips me into being his docile little mate, following him around like a lap dog. He has this pathological need to be popular and so he stops at nothing to get it. You know I wanted to go to Oxford? Ever since I was a little girl," Lily looked past him, out the window where it was beginning to rain, big lousy dollops of acidic water because that's what Oxford was like. Pummelling and poisonous. "-and he convinced me Cambridge was a better fit and so I believed him. Pathetic isn't it?"

James was frankly startled. He hadn't expected Lily to speak so candidly after their two harsh exchanges previously, although nor had he expected to care so deeply about this woman's problems.
"Why don't you just transfer? The entry requirements are generally very similar and next term I'm sure they'd be delighted to take you on."

Lily glanced at him longingly and smiled, a little melancholy in her sparkling eyes. "Because he's all that I know."

"What do you mean?"

Lily chuckled heinously, "we've been best friends since we were kids. And you know how it goes with best friends, don't you? Either you both grow into great people or one corrupts the other and youre both doomed." (James didn't care to ponder which category himself and Sirius fell into.) "but with Severus it was different, wasn't it? We're not the same people anymore but I couldn't stand being somewhere without him because I've never had to be anywhere without him. It's a bad way."

James shook his head, taking a drink out the glass he was holding and letting whatever the liquid was slip down his throat.
"Nah it's not. It's nothing to do with you if your mate doesn't appreciate you, but other people will if you transfer. There's other people to meet, other things to see. You don't have to be a lap dog, you know?"

They held each other's gaze for a fleeting moment, and James felt like he was sinking into the floor, or soaring higher than any cloud. He wasn't quite sure.

Perhaps soulmates were worth it after all? Or was that just the alcohol?

Lily was in his thoughts for a while after that, and in his phone contacts too. They messaged back and fourth every now and again which pleased Sirius more than it should but James could easily silence the piss-taking with a well placed kick. The next time Oxford and Cambridge met James hadn't heard from Lily for weeks, he didn't see her in the crowd either.

"Your girlfriend not here then?"

Snape showed James his longest finger, "she didn't come."

"Why? Couldn't bare to watch you lose again?" (Sirius found this quite amusing and was treating the whole exchange with the upmost amusement).

"No, we had a row."

Something felt incredibly warm, it felt strangely like victory.
"Oh really? What about?"

This touched a nerve inside Snape, clearly because his ghostly pale face displayed a look of disgust, upset and anger. It was a sight for sore eyes as far as James was concerned.

"You. I insulted you and she stormed off. I don't know why she cares that much. Four months ago she'd rather have seen you dead!"

"Well," James smirked at the memory of the conversation he had with Lily not a few months ago. Once that uprooted nearly everything James believed in, "people change."

Look behind you

That was the message James received the second week back of the next term after Christmas. The stands were stoked with people screaming with anticipation and exclamations of luck for certain players.

He looked up, a packet of chocolate caramel buttons in his hand (which he had used the excuse of fuel to Frank but in reality he was just addicted) to see the Oxford students... and his soulmate.

"YOURE HERE?!" He shouted up at her, cupping his hands over his mouth to carry his voice farther.

She nodded euphorically a beaming grin that lit up brighter than the stadium lights  plastered across her adorable face. She was jumping on the spot vivaciously to keep warm but her smile never faltered.

James smiled back at her, he hadn't any clue when she had made the transfer despite their messages exchanged over Christmas– the sly minx must have been keeping it a secret purposely.

Cambridge jogged to meet them, for a friendly today but if James knew Cambridge (and himself) this wouldn't be remotely friendly.
Snape was playing today, James noticed and when he spotted Lily in the crowd cheering for the Oxford team he thought he might have exploded. (It was rather a wonderful sight for people like James– those involved in the destroying of Severus Snape and/or his football career).

He never remembers much of games, they mainly go by in blurs, fouls, goals and substitutions and so today when they lost it was almost like a punch in the gut. James didn't remember a time they'd ever lost to Cambridge. The smiles from all the team gave him the gut wrenching twist of poison that made him wish to god that it was a first and a last.

He met Lily after the game and she hugged him, catching him off guard at her touch and feeling a peculiar mix between elated, cloddish and an odd feeling of being on Valium or some sort of recreational drug.

"It's okay. It was just a friendly anyway," she said into his ear while rubbing his back fondly, seemingly not minding he needed about twelve consecutive showers.

"I know. It's a shame the first game you get to support us we lose though. You must be terrible bad luck."

Lily hit him on the arm sharply, "shut up! Let's go get something to eat, yeah?"

That was how a lot of his life operated now she had moved to Oxford, Lily comforting him when he lost, celebrating when he won, him texting her, getting her up in the morning and wishing her luck in her tests. They operated into a friendship so comfortably neither really noticed until Sirius commented on the pair sitting together in the study halls, sharing a packet of chocolate caramel buttons and giggling like children.

"For soulmates that hate each other, you two sure do look friendly." He had said with a wink.

That was the first moment he ever looked at Lily and realised that he might be in love after all.

Up until that moment James had always said he lived a simple life that mainly consisted of three things: his mother, his best friend and chocolate caramel buttons. It did not consist of meeting his soulmate.

But there she was. Sitting next to him and stealing his chocolate caramel buttons with an impish grin on her freckled face.
There she was, nicking one of his three life virtues and he was letting her without complaint. What had he become?

And so from that day on James lived his life with an extra virtue in his life motto: his mother, his best friend, chocolate caramel buttons and getting Lily Evans to love him.

And one day, not so far away, she did. But that's another story. Right now he was perfectly content with her and a packet of chocolate caramel buttons.

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