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FEMALE ATTENTION

act two ━ chapter twenty

. . . . . .

━ JAMES POTTER ━
september 1977

    "THAT'S BOLLOCKS."

     "And why is that bollocks?"

     "Because Evan Rosier wouldn't be caught dead in the library."

     James had thought it was best if Bronwyn was immediately alerted about his conversation with Lily over breakfast. It had, after all, been quite the breakthrough and James hadn't stopped thinking about it.

     And so, he waited for Lily to be done with her meal ─ and for Bronwyn to be done with her Quidditch practice session ─ because it would be awkward if the ginger girl knew that James was actually prolonging his breakfast because day six on the itinerary said he and Bronwyn had to spend the first meal of the day together. She already clearly didn't approve of James' relationship, so why add fuel to the fire?

     Slightly sweaty, and still annoyed that she had spent the whole night with James in the Gryffindor common room, Brownyn had made her way to the Great Hall and sat down at the Lions' table to sit with a very bored James who had since been abandoned by his friends.

     Only, Bronwyn didn't believe Lily's story because there was no way that she had overheard Evan Rosier say anything within five feet of the Hogwarts library.

     "Okay well, maybe he had a change of heart?" James suggested although it was clear he didn't believe what he was saying. "An academic comeback possibly?"

     Bronwyn furrowed her brows in a way that said you can't be serious. "Evan Rosier doesn't do academic comebacks," she replied, knowing full well that she knew the Slytherin boy in question better than the kid in front of her. "He hexes younger students and hasn't completed a piece of homework in six years."

     James' eyes zoned out as he stared at the table, thinking it all through. When he finally came through, his eyes snapping to hers, he said, "Okay, so, maybe it is bollocks but it's still a good sign, right? She's interested."

     Bronwyn elected to not mention that she may actually have told Evan that it was an act of keeping enemies close in response to him questioning her new relationship with James because it felt irrelevant. James would probably been very offended and sulk off.

     "I suppose, yeah, that's good," Bronwyn said as she filled her goblet with orange juice from a jug, taking it in her hands once she was satisfied. "But she lied. If we were actually in a relationship, that's a dick move."

     James didn't like it when Bronwyn was right. "Fine. Yeah, you're right," he sighed before his eyes rose to meet hers, his head no longer sagging in defeat. "But we're not in a relationship."

     "She doesn't know that," Bronwyn pointed out, taking a sip of her juice. "She's trying to break us up."

     James stared at her with a bored expression. "You should be jumping for joy right now."

     He was right. The idea that someone was against her and James' relationship, albeit a fake one, meant that maybe she wouldn't have to deal with him at all for much longer. And that is something worth celebrating.

     Bronwyn made sure her eyes lit up animatedly. "So you know you're an insufferable boyfriend?" She asked with a toothy grin. "My work here is done."

✧

     JAMES STARED AT THE CLOCK ON THE WALL IN SUCH ANTICIPATION, it was starting to show.

     "You got somewhere you need to be?" Remus asked the boy since he had noticed James' knee was jumping up and down from where he was trying his best to relax in one of the Gryffindor common room's sofas.

     James only hummed as he watched the thinnest hand slowly tick by. 

     Sirius scowled up at his distracted friend from where he sat crossed-legged on the rug by the fire. "What could possibly be more important than this?" He asked angrily.

     The this in question was the plan for the next upcoming Marauders prank. It lay in a scrambled pile of scrap parchment in front of Sirius, who had proposed the idea to his friends earlier that day after he pointed out how long it had been since they had executed a big practical joke the four of them like they used to. Sirius blamed James for the lack of pranking as of late.

     "Probably hanging out with his girlfriend," Peter mumbled from the other side of Remus. He hadn't looked up from his Herbology textbook in about fifteen minutes and Sirius was getting frustrated that nobody ─ not even Peter ─ was paying attention to his masterminding.

     The mention of James' new girlfriend caused Sirius' ears to prick up; his head zapping over to James. "Seriously, mate?"

     James, sensing his friends' hostility and feeling as though the clock wasn't moving any faster by him looking at it, finally clawed his eyes away from the ticking wall, and onto his three friends. "I have homework," he shrugged.

     Sirius should have guessed his best friend would come up with a stupid, obviously untrue excuse to cover up his frolicking about with his girlfriend. But homework? That was a new low.

     Grinding his teeth, Sirius cocked his head to the side to question James' honesty. "That you're so itching to do?"

     Feeling slightly caught ─ and rightly so; James never excuses himself from novelty pranks with his best mates for homework that he rarely does on time anyway ─ James shrugged very slowly, and very cautiously, feeling the harsh burn of Sirius' glare.

     Unsatisfied with James' non-verbal response, Sirius rolled his eyes and said, "We all have essays to drool over but that can wait."

     His eyes still trained on the book in his lap, Peter said, "I thought we agreed to go to the library later?"

     Sirius ─ who had no intention of doing anything productive in the library, nor had he even decided whether or not he was actually going to go ─ pointed at Peter, his head snapping back to James' expectantly, having grasped onto an opportunity in the point made by the Petterigrew boy, to spend some time in his best friend's company again.

     Feeling the guilt sink in his stomach, James winced. He may vaguely remember Peter and Remus discussing an evening in the library, but according to his itinerary from Bronwyn, he was supposed to be studying with her tonight, wherever they ended up deciding.

     "Can't. Sorry guys."

     Sirius abruptly let go of the blueprints and ingredients list of their big Marauders hurrah, letting the papers scatter and float to the floor. "Unbelievable."

     While Sirius huffed his annoyance, flopping into his back to stare at the ceiling and shun his friends in his own way, James' eyes returned to the clock, waiting for it to tick over signalling the time when Bronwyn had said she would be returning from Hogsmeade.

     It was then that two girls in the year below approached the group and casually sat down on the free armchair closest to James, giggling to themselves with blushed faces. James stayed focused on the clock but even his eagerness to leave his so far very boring Saturday faltered when they started winking in his direction and muttering things like "hi James" before hiding their faces in their hands, the giggling continuing.

     To be polite, James smiled, causing the two girls to gush harder and wave quickly, but other than that, he didn't quite know what to do.

     As Quidditch Captain James liked to think he received quite a lot of attention from the opposite sex. Anyone else would tell you otherwise. He was popular because of his roles and infamous reputation as a member of the notorious pranking clan, but girls didn't exactly flock to him as they did Sirius.

     Until now, apparently?

     Come to think of it, in the last couple of days, he had found himself in interactions just like these, from both sexes and hadn't thought anything of it. He just pinned it down to his gorgeous looks and amazing Quidditch skills. But that had never done him many favours in the dating scene before. Not since everyone knew he spent all his time trying to get Lily Evans' attention. So what was happening? What had changed?

     Nudging Remus, and leaning away from the two girls so that they didn't hear, James asked quietly, "Hey, have you noticed how I've received more female attention than usual?"

     Remus looked at James briefly before flapping his newspaper and reading that instead. "It's that girlfriend of yours," he said.

     James' brows furrowed. "What about her?"

     "Makes you more desirable apparently."

     "That I'm unavailable?"

     "That's what Lily said."

     James had only one word to reply to this. "Oh."

     Remus, who hadn't looked up from his newspaper for the entire conversation, finally spared James a dubious glance. "That's the least words you've ever used on the topic of Lily Evans," he said. James thought about this. He looked at himself, the way he was sitting. Not jumping for joy, not smiling from ear to ear. What was happening to him?

     Remus had an answer for him. "You must really like your girlfriend."

     A chill ran down his spine at the thought of Bronwyn and love in the same category. Was it his subconscious that had stopped him from seeming ecstatic by the news that Lily thought a taken man was more desirable? His exact goal of this entire plan of his and Bronwyn's? To make her jealous? Did his body just know he shouldn't appear enamoured by other girls in front of his friends because he had a girlfriend or did he just not react the same way he usually did about everything now that he had a fake girlfriend?

     Confused, James stole a quick look in his two admirers' directions, Remus' words floating around in his very confuddled brain. He then looked back up at the clock and realised it had been five whole minutes since the time Bronwyn estimated she would be back. And he had one guess where Bronwyn would be right now. Getting there was something he would figure out on the way.

     Still in a baffled daze, James nodded in Remus' direction and said without thinking about it. "Huh. Yeah, I do." He then slowly rose from his chair, almost on autopilot and grabbed his pre-packed bag from by his feet. "Okay, lads, I'll see you later."

     Without giving them much time to react, James was out of the portrait hole and en route in a matter of seconds.     

     Down in the Dungeons of the Hogwarts castle, Bronwyn strolled through her dorm room door, which she shut behind her with her leg, shutting out the rowdy crowds of the Slytherin common room, granting herself some much-needed peace.

     After a whole casual day out with friends, her social battery was rather low and she wanted nothing more than to disappear from the rest of the world and tuck herself into her sheets, away from the nippy September breeze outside.

     She had merely unpacked two items from her bag when it became apparent to her that James Potter had other ideas.

     The door she had only just recently walked through herself burst open with a slam and a fluttering of a dust cloud. James stood on the other side, grinning, evidently very proud of himself.

     Bronwyn dropped the bag she was holding onto the bed in front of her. "What the fuck."

     "Good afternoon," James singsonged, waltzing into the girl's dorm room, inspecting every little thing he could see by squinting his eyes and jabbing at it with his fingers. "So this is it huh?" He said, hands on hips, standing in the middle of the room now, glancing around the vicinity with a judging turn of his head.

     Bronwyn stared at him sceptically. "It is, yes. Now, care to tell me why you are here?"

     She took a step towards him and James took that as his chance to skip across the room, and discard his bag at the foot of what he assumed was her bed, before launching himself onto its surface. He ran his hands along her sheets in an inquisitive way, clearly having no problems making himself at home.

     "Thought I'd come and visit my girlfriend," he answered, lying flat on his back now as if analysing what it was like for her to sleep in this dorm. "That alright with you?"

     Still utterly baffled how he was here, sort of in a fever dream at his presence as he tested the springiness of her mattress, Bronwyn folded her arms and glared at the boy comfortably rolling around in her bed. "How did you get here?"

     James sat up on his elbows, fluffing her pillows behind him to make himself cozier. "Your housemates seemed more open to letting me inside knowing that I'm your official boyfriend now."

     She blinked at him and then again, waiting for the bullshit to stop flowing out of his mouth so naturally. "What really happened?" She asked bored.

     "It's true!" James asserted with wide eyes, incredulous at why she wasn't believing him. After a second of her boring her eyes into his with raised brows, he sighed, deflating a little. "Okay, so, I may have waited for Rosier and Co. to leave the common room first but I definitely sensed less hostility from the rest of them."

     James certainly received less dubious looks as he tried not to combust walking through the green common room before he slipped into the corridor of dorm rooms. But he reckoned that if some students in their year were somewhere close by, he wouldn't have made it in one piece.

     Still puzzled by this boy's ability to do whatever he wanted like the world was his oyster, Bronwyn said, "How did you know the password?"

     "Oh," James drawled, a smug smirk drifting onto his face; the pride oozed off of him. "That's just intel me and the guys do on the first day of school. It's only ever going to be a successful year if we have access to every common room."

     "And by "successful year", you mean . . .?" She trailed off, expecting the answer already.

     Grinning from ear to ear now, James nodded and replied, "One full of pranks, yes."

     "Got it," Bronwyn said, awkwardly smiling because she was trying to hide her judgment.

     They lapsed into an only slightly unpleasant silence until James hopped off of the bed and returned to examining Bronwyn's dorm room in great detail. He did a lap of the room first, before focusing in on the masses of floor space, and the lack of a cramped feeling all throughout the circular space.

     He swung open one door to the wardrobe beside Bronwyn's bed, analysing the way her clothes were hung according to colour. "So you have this room all to yourself?" He asked as he tilted his head to the side to get a better angle. "You and Andromeda?"

     "Barely any Slytherin girls in our year," Bronwyn shrugged.

     There is never a set number of students by gender per house and no one can predict the Sorting Hat's decisions, so it just so happened that there were only six Slytherin girls who joined the school in the year 1970. Since the rooms were arranged in fours, new friends, Bronwyn Ward and Andromeda Black, pleaded the case of four in one, and two in the other. The other four girls, who too had bonded during the journey over here, did not complain in the slightest.

     "Worked out nicely," James agreed, now coming to inspect the bathroom, which he noted was astronomically cleaner than the one in his own dorm room. Satisfied with his personal room tour, James flopped back onto Bronwyn's bed. "Not for Andromeda though. Being stuck with you?" He shivered with a wince, rolling his eyes as he reminisced the times he and Bronwyn had shared a bedroom on numerous Potter-Ward camping holidays. "Nightmare."

     Scoffing at the level of hypocrisy coming out of the boy's mouth, still astounded by his intrusive and nosy behaviour, Bronwyn launched a pillow at him, which she had retrieved from Andromeda's bed. "I feel sorry for Remus. I'm surprised you lot haven't driven him into a mental asylum."

     Gasping dramatically in mock offence, James sat up and with a quick wave of his wand, drew the white curtains around the bed, encasing him and the bed and shutting her out.

     After a couple of seconds of silence, James couldn't stay quiet any longer and so flung the curtains open with a flourish, to reveal Bronwyn standing on the other side, with her arms crossed and her hip popped.

     "So," he said cheerily, "thought we could study in here tonight. Away from everyone else, nice and quiet, you know?"

     "You have some nerve, did you know that?"

     Expecting the girl to clap her hands and smile in agreement, James fell onto the backs of his knees when she didn't even come close to doing that. "Not what I wanted you to say, but okay then."

     "Oh, I'm sorry," she said sarcastically, holding a hand to her chest, "did you want me to welcome you into my dorm room with open arms?"

     "Yes, actually," he grinned like a child, "that would be lovely."

     Bronwyn rolled her eyes and turned away from the boy, deciding to just go about her evening as she usually would if James hadn't interrupted her bliss.

     "We have to study together, you know," James huffed, as he watched the girl dart about the room, closing windows, kicking off her shoes, repacking her bag for the next week with quick glances over at her timetable as if he wasn't there. "It's on the itinerary." James pulled the paper out of his pocket and waggled it in her direction.

     She wasn't watching but heard the crinkling of the parchment as he unfolded it and stared across the room at the boy. "I'm well aware, James," she said, before marching over to him and plucking the parchment out of his hands. She then pointed to where day six was written near to the bottom of the page.

     Day six: Breakfast a̶n̶d̶ l̶u̶n̶c̶h̶ at the house table of the client. Homework/studying session in an agreed location.

     "Except, the key part with that was," she said, her eyes daggers on his as she poked at the parchment, "an agreed location. Not you ambushing me in my dorm room."

     "I thought you would feel more at home," he shrugged.

     "That's bullshit and you know it," Bronwyn said, returning to where she was tugging her scarf loose in front of the floor-length mirror by the door, and stripping off her jacket and jumper. "You were curious. Admit it."

     James tutted his tongue against the roof of his mouth and flopped flat onto the bed. "Okay, fine, I was somewhat intrigued as to what a Slytherin dorm looked like. I didn't think that was a crime. But can you blame me?" He asked, flinging his arms out to the sides so that he was spread like a starfish on her mattress. "It's like a different world down here."

     "Always one for the dramatics, aren't you, Potter?"

     "It's my speciality, Ward."

     Bronwyn watched as the boy looked closer and closer to being asleep as he lounged on her bed and she wanted nothing more than to get him out of here, even if that meant she went with him.

     "Go and sit in the common room," she said, hanging up her jacket on the hook on the open door of her wardrobe. "There are chairs and tables there. I'll meet you there in a minute."

     "Absolutely not," James said, sitting up frantically. "They'll eat me alive."

     "Even more reason for you to go," she smiled acidly sweetly. James raised his brows as if to say seriously?, causing her to groan and loll her head back defeatedly. "Fine. We'll stay here."

     James had a point ─ if he stayed in the Slytherin common room for studying purposes for longer than ten minutes, the older years wouldn't hesitate to kick him out considering there are numerous other places he could study. It would be even worse if Evan Rosier and Co. returned. James might not make it out alive.

     So, seeing as James had made himself comfortable, it seemed her very own dorm room was going to be the location of their evening study session, even if it wasn't totally agreed as the contract says.

     "You're so good to me," James hummed, before picking up his bag, plopping himself on the floor and retrieving several books quills and parchment from inside, which he laid out in front of him.

     Bronwyn joined him, putting her back up against the foot of Andromeda's bed so that they sat opposite each other, a stack of textbooks at her side now forming her armrest.

     "Oh yeah," James hummed out of nowhere, grabbing her attention. When she looked up, James had his bag on his lap and a flask in his hand, one he no doubt just pulled from inside.

     "What?" She asked. His eyes had lit up, and his dimples had made an appearance.

     "I forgot," James replied, discarding his bag to the side and unscrewing the lid of the flask to welcome a wafting of steam. "I made tea for us both."

     James didn't have any plans for his Saturday. No practice, homework he was procrastinating, sure, and no desire to hang out with a grumpy Sirius. So when he checked his contract again and saw that he and Bronwyn were supposed to be studying together in the evening, he checked with her what time would be best  ─ learning she was spending the day drinking Butterbeer without him definitely perturbed him a little ─ and then counted down the hours.

     In the preparation time, he thought to himself that a hot cup of tea would be a great way to show he really was trying to be the best boyfriend he could be. Plus, he knew Bronwyn loved a cuppa, and there really isn't anything better to study with. He showed up at her dorm and decided to stay there when he remembered there is a no-hot drinks policy in the library.

     Scoffing, Bronwyn got to her knees and shuffled over to him to sit beside him. "If you had led with that," she said, gratefully accepting the still-warm beverage he had just poured for her into the lid-turned-cup, "I would have said yes immediately."

✧

     BRONWYN DIDN'T REALISE HOW PEACEFUL THE DORM HAD BECOME until the door swung open and it was no longer just her and James.

     They must have been studying or completing various pieces of homework (the seventh-year workload was proving to be very difficult to keep up with) for about an hour, exchanging answers and proofreading essays, all while sipping on a very nice cup of tea, courtesy of James (he received brownie points for that one). And Bronwyn had almost forgotten that she had once been annoyed that he had showed up at her dorm room unannounced.

     And then someone else showed up.

     Andromeda stared down at the pair of them on the floor, baffled at what she was seeing, still hovering in the doorway. "Woah," she said in a low voice before turning to look only at Bronwyn. "There is a James Potter in our room, Bronwyn. Are you aware of this?" She lowered her volume to a whisper. "Should I fetch Slughorn?"

     Sighing at her own shameless tolerance of James in their dorm room, Bronwyn discarded her notes to the side and got to her feet; James remaining on his stomach. "Unfortunately, yes, I am aware."

     "I should hope so," James chuckled drily, unimpressed at the blatant disrespect. Unfortunately. Why did she have to say unfortunately?

     Andromeda was still evidently stunned to see the Gryffindor in her dorm room because, despite James paying for Bronwyn's services, not once had Bronwyn invited a client into their living quarters.

     Bronwyn knew she needed to provide Andromeda with an explanation. "We're studying. He let himself in."

     Satisfied with the Lion in the midst not being Bronwyn's doing, Andromeda exhaled with understanding. "Ah, yes. Day six."

     James piqued up, pushing up from the floor to sit cross-legged instead. "You know about the itinerary?"

     "Honey, I helped write it."

     James pondered this answer with his mouth shaped in an O as Andromeda headed over to her side of the dorm and began unpacking her things from her bag. "Didn't fancy the library then?" She asked curiously as she watched Bronwyn and James resume studying on the cold, wooden floor.

     Bronwyn rolled her eyes. "This child over here didn't." She jabbed her quill in James' direction who scowled at her for a moment before burying his head back where it was in his notes. "I think busy places overstimulate his tiny brain."

     Seeing as the insults apparently weren't over, James, his head still low and without looking up, said, "I should report you two for bullying."

     "Good luck with that," Bronwyn smiled sarcastically at the boy despite him not seeing it.

     "There's a big group in the library though," Andromeda told them. After spending the day in Hogsmeade too, the Black girl felt bad about herself having lost out on a whole Saturday's worth of homework and so went straight to the library as soon as they arrived back at the castle, leaving Bronwyn to wander back to their dorm room alone. "Would've thought you'd be there, Potter. Evans is."

     Bronwyn had never seen James move so fast.

     Despite his blip earlier in the day, seeing Lily was the perfect opportunity to get back on track. So he shot up from the floor, his notes tumbling down to his feet, one even floating to land on Bronwyn's head. "We're going to the library."

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