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Dinner courage
Dinner courage James ran his hand through his hair nervously, unconsciously causing locks of it to try to escape from the unruly mop. Sirius stared at him, hand and fork frozen in front of his mouth. “I mean…what if I just went and sat beside her?” James started. Sirius rolled his eyes and stuffed the fork and mash into his mouth. He stuffed several more forkfuls into his mouth and then sighed loudly. “Honestly Prongs, you’ve been saying this all day, everyday for the past month! If you don’t go now you never will! Dinner’s nearly over!” “Sirius is right, James,” Remus said, cutting his chops up into tiny pieces. “And don’t put so much food in your mouth, Padfoot. Not only is it disgusting, but you’ll end up choking.” “You agree with him?” James asked incredulously. “That barmy idiot!” He ignored the insulted, “Hey!” from his best friend, and continued. “I mean, what if she still hates me? If I sit beside her she may never talk to me ever again and I’ll end up back at square one. What’ll I do then?” “If at first you don’t succeed…” Sirius began, but stopped suddenly and looked around. “Hey, where’s Wormtail?” “Astronomy tutoring,” Rebus muttered. Sirius scoffed. “Astronomy? Who needs tutoring in that?” “Just because you were named after a star…” Remus started, but was interrupted once again, by a panicking James. “I’m sorry to interrupt your important discussion, but I have a crisis on my hands here!” “You will if you don’t shut up about Lily Evans,” Sirius muttered. “What was that Sirius?” “Just go and talk to her!” Sirius almost shouted. “Sssh!” James flapped his arms about. “She’ll hear you!” Sirius gave an exasperated sigh, took a deep breath, and counted to ten. “Listen mate,” he said in a slightly more relaxed tone. “You’re a seventh year now. You’ve been obsessed with this girl for four years. You’ve stopped playing with snitches, you’ve stopped attacking Snivellus for sport, you’ve stopped being an arrogant git, and she knows. So if she doesn’t like you now, after all you’ve done for her, then she never will and you might as well give up! So summon up that Gryffindor pride and go talk to her!” James grinned nervously, flattened his hair down, swung his legs over the bench and stood up. He moved towards the other end of the table where Lily was sitting alone, a book propped up by her plate and her fork limp at her side. “Must be a good book,” Sirius muttered, and stuffed a chicken wing in his mouth. James got about halfway to the end of the table before he panicked and froze. Turning around to the expectant Sirius and Remus, he mouthed something undecipherable and turned a rather unusual shade of beige. By now, the entire Great Hall was watching James Potter having a nervous breakdown in the middle of the Hall, except, of course, Lily herself. Even the teachers were watching him gesturing madly to his friends, one of whom was gesturing back just as madly. Remus Lupin rolled his eyes and stood up to pull the gesticulating Sirius back down onto his seat. He gave James the thumbs up, mouthed “Good luck, Prongs!” and sat back down. James nodded and let out a deep breath. He strolled over to the ever-oblivious Lily and tapped her on the shoulder. The entire Hall held its breath. Lily turned around to look at him. “Oh,” she said lightly. “Hello, Potter.” “Hi,” James said apprehensively. “Erm, do you mind if I sit here?” Lily stared at him and shrugged. “You can if you want to.” She turned back to the table. “Ooh, dessert’s here!” Taking a bite of his pudding, James doubted if it had ever tasted as good. After a few brief minutes, chatter resumed in the room, as many people exchanged knowing smiles. Sirius let out a whoop, but forgot to swallow and choked on his tart before he had time to let out a sound. Groaning, Remus thumped him hard on the back and went back to his food. “Aren’t I the master, Remus, aren’t I?” Sirius said brightly. “I ought to write a book! Women always go for the intellectual types, you know…”
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