Written in the Stars
A/N: I actually wrote this like so long ago. I just didn't know how to end it but today I was like- fuck procrastination. Let me finish it already. And I did. Took me so long tho. Lmao. Sorry.
REQUEST @lilypraimheda : Hello there queen of angst! I don't know if you take request, but I had this in my head for a while and I absolutely LOVE your writing so I figured I could ask ! I was thinking about a James Potter x Slytherin reader where they are nemesis but with a crush on each other and they end up hooking up in secret but the marauders and Lily confronts him about it and he gets annoyed and tries to prove them wrong by pranking the reader but goes too far and hurts her! Sorry for the bad English I'm French!
SONG INSPO: Zac Efron, Zendaya - Rewrite The Stars
XX
The best seat in class was always the second row from the back, next to the windows. It was perfect for somebody like James Potter. He wouldn't be on professor's eye but he also wouldn't be missed by it as well. Because if James Potter needed something to live by, was attention.
Since the First year, he wanted nothing more but catch your attention. The pretty girl who sat in the middle row, a desk in front of him but enough for him to keep his eye on you. The First year you haven't even noticed him until he started to throw tiny pieces of eraser into you. You started to get frustrated with him but you never switched seats because of it. What you did was snitch on him instead and he could never forget the pleased, evil look in your eyes when you did. God, his eleven year old body could have never been filled with more rage than that day.
Since then, he would constantly tease you, pull your pony tail whenever you put your hair up and even embarrass you in front of the whole class. The good thing about you was that you were enough intimidating to everybody that nobody dared to make fun of you, unless it was the Gryffindor asshole.
It wasn't up until the Fourth year when you started to get more sassy back at him. Before, it were always your eyes that cut knives into him but from Fourth year on, it were your words that started to cut deeper than your eyes ever could.
You were better than him, he was better than you. A competition between two people, two houses, two teams... all because he threw chunks of erasers in you in that First year. Neither of you wanted to let each other have anything by themselves. You took Quidditch from James, becoming Chaser yourself on the Ravenclaw team and he took Care of Magical Creatures way too serious.
You wouldn't even let him be the Head Boy alone. You had to become the Head Girl yourself and you had to admit to yourself, if it wasn't for James, you wouldn't have had pushed yourself so hard in achieving things as you did. And the same went for James. He remembers spending a whole four days, cramming for Herbology exam that was your academic strength and his academic weakness.
When the class was over, he ran from his group of friends, to stop in front of you. "An E, (y/l/n)? Only an E?" he quirked his eyebrow at you, fanning himself with his own paper. "Got a bit distracted during the exam by my handsome good looks?" he wiggled his eyebrows, meanwhile you only narrowed your eyes a little and smiled.
"Actually it was your awful odour of socks and sweat." you brushed past him and his O paper. "Reckon your mum never thought you how to shower after practice." you turned around and sent him a wink, walking forwards and leaving him smiling defeated there for a bit.
And before you knew it, he was waiting for you around the corner. His secret apparating skills, of course. How could you ever not be annoyed by that? The corridor was empty and he was standing closely to you.
"We're bringing mothers into this, are we, (y/l/n)?"
"Into what?" you asked innocently, causing him to close the little space between the two of you. "What are you doing, Potter?" you asked as he continued to come closer to you.
"Uncomfortable, (y/l/n)?"
"Since the First year." you quirked an eyebrow and tried to leave out of his little trap. "Now, let me go. You're wasting my free period." you growled a little, causing him to smirk from pleasure.
"Oh, somebody is really not in a good mood today?"
"In a good mood? Who? Me?" you scoffed. "I'm cherry as always, and clean unlike you." you dusted off his shoulders and tried to walk away.
"I think you're mad because I got and O and you only got a poor E."
"I didn't think you would care about my feelings, Potter, at all." you continued to say as you walked away.
"I don't but when it comes in besting you, then maybe I do care in the feeling better than you." he continued to walk along side you. "Being better than you... in everything." he started to boast, causing you to roll your eyes.
"Don't you have a Quidditch practice or something right now?" you started to get annoyed.
"I do have a Quidditch practice, actually. Glad you care enough to remember." he let out a laugh- that annoying laugh of his that only let your blood boil.
You really didn't like to get a lower grade than him and him shoving it into your face didn't help your temper.
He noticed. He definitely noticed when your jaw clenched and your forehead tensed a bit. You tried so hard to hide it but he lived 7 years off your jealousy and anger. He had to consume every moment of triumph right now.
"I only remember because the locker room smells like shit when we come and the shitties smelling Quidditc team from all four are you." you turned around sharply at him, amusing him even more. "Maybe as a Captain of my team, I should tell Flitwick if we could switch with the Hufflepuffs. The two of you are quite identical. Both lazy to clean after yourself. Slytherins for surely wouldn't be that uncivilised to leave the locker room like a pigs' den."
There it was. The little vein that popped out in the shadow of his head. You always knew that mentioning Slytherin house as the better house would pull some of his temper nerves. It plastered a winning smile on your lips.
"That O doesn't help you and your ugly habits, Potter. Just look at your hair." you continued. "Have you heard of a comb?" you tried to comb his hair with your fingers but he roughly grabbed your wrist and pushed it away.
"You really piss me off, you know that?" he spoke through his gritted teeth.
"It's a pleasure. Always." you said cooly.
"Cold ass Ravenclaws." he growled, still holding onto your wrist and pulling you closer against his hot-radiating body.
"Nasty ass Gryffindors." you spoke in a taunting voice, emphasising on the word nasty.
"You really..." he growled lower, pressing his body against yours until you were backed against a wall and looking up at him with the most wicked twirl in your lips. "...piss me off." and he kissed you harshly on the lips, hands roaming your hips and pressing you onto him.
---
His finger traced up and down on your back; shoulders, neck until his lips touched them, kissed your shoulders, nibbled on them and causing you to smile in from your nap. You opened your eyes slowly, feeling everything inside of you pulse from his rough yet slow kisses.
"Gorgeous..." he whispered as he continued to kiss the nip of your neck and leading up to your lips, kissing your passionately.
You turned around and wrapped your arms around him and your legs around his waist. He was pinning down your wrists with only one hand, looking down on your body with a smirk on his lips. You could feel his bulk on your thighs and that only aroused you more.
It took him off guard when your arms tightened around his waist and your hands broke free before you pinned him down, kissing him deeply. "You take too long." you pulled away slowly, your hands brushing up and down his chest. You brought yourself up to see him grinning up at you with his gorgeous plush lips. His hands rested on your hips, tracing up to your breasts and trying to pull you down but you only took one of his hands and kissed it gently. "You had your turn, Potter." you tilted your head to the side, smiling maliciously. "It's my turn."
---
Both of you were laying in the bed covered in sweat, both sticky but both pleased with yourselves. He kept grinning so coyly, resting on the bed with his arms under his head and his elbows pointing out. You knew he was also showing you off his triceps and biceps, which you took a nice bite on before.
You got off the bed and started to stretch your arms over your head, knowing darn well, he was watching you from behind. You picked up your clothes and started to dress.
"You already leaving?" he asked, pulling himself up on the elbow.
"Yes. I have a Quidditch practice." you smiled, pulling up your skirt. "Unlike you, I show up as a captain."
"And unlike you I'm not that stiff to show up on every practice and every class just to prove I'm better." he winked and you rolled your eyes.
"Haven't you thought ever that maybe if both of us wouldn't show up at a Quidditch practice people would start to suspect?" you quirked an eyebrow and could see his smile fading. "And you wouldn't want Evans to know you're hooking up with someone who is not her?" you put your socks on and started to crawl to him. You placed your fingers under his chin and pulled him into a kiss, his arms quickly wrapping around your waist.
"You made me miss out on my practice. What if I make you miss out on yours?" he smiled against your lips, causing your stomach to flutter inside of you.
God, sometimes you wanted to stay with him here forever.
But reality was calling.
"It's not written in the stars for us, Potter." you pulled away and crawled away, losing his touch.
Though you didn't mean what you said just in one way. Sometimes you really wished that it was written different for the two of you. You'd look back into his lustful gorgeous eyes and think that if it wasn't for his girlfriend, for your social differences, for your little masks you wear in school, the two of you would actually work great together.
But maybe not in this world.
"I wouldn't go to the Quidditch practice, if I were you." he let out a chuckle, watching you walk away from him. You tried so hard to walk as normally and elegantly as possible but when the two of you hooked up, the two of you let out every piece of rage, passion, stress, emotions out in sex. He knew every inch of your body already. Every mole, every scar, every skin cell... He was pretty much sure, you knew his body just as well. You're a Ravenclaw and Ravenclaws study well to do well, whether that is academic or sexual.
He shoved his head into the pillow, the pillow you laid on, consuming your scent into his lungs. Space... space where nothing but the two of you existed. He hoped starting to date Lily would make him get more serious about the two of you. Two people meant on two very different paths but the more time he spent with Lily, the more he started to realise that Lily isn't you and will never be you. There are no challenges with Lily. No passion... he had wanted her so much, thinking that if he finally gets her, he'll forget all about you and now where did that lead him? Into a bed with you.
Thank God the Room of Requirements exists or else he wouldn't know how he would handle this situation without being seen.
---
When James came to the dinner, he was wearing his usual pleased smile. He tried really hard to avoid the Ravenclaw table but where his friends sat, you sat a few tables down.
How could he ever avoid you when you were always there?
Lily was glaring at him, joking with Sirius and laughing out loud. His eyes always drifted somewhere away... somewhere away from her. If he was really her boyfriend, why can't he notice her? Why can't he notice that she is furious with him?
"What's wrong with you?" he smiled, trying to wrap his arm around her. "Haven't gotten neither my kiss nor a hello. You keep looking at me like I've done something." he nudged her a bit.
"Oh, so you have noticed?" she spoke harshly, pushing his arm off her. "Where have you been?"
He rolled his eyes but kept his cool. "Library. Getting the best grade in class today motivated me to study for Herbology next week."
"Oh, cut the crap, James." Lily snapped. "We both know you don't need a week to learn for Herbology exam and that you weren't in Quidditch practice today."
"Stalking me, Evans?" he raised his eyebrow.
"No. I was waiting for you like a fool after your practice, so maybe we could spend some time together but to my surprise, Marlene told me you didn't even show."
"I was exhausted. That O didn't come out of thin air. I've been practicing all year for Quidditch, studying my arse off and so sorry Lily if I wanted to take some bloody rest." he started to get irritated. He didn't need to feel suffocated.
He moved away from her a bit and leaned forward, his eyes catching yours from the other side of the table. They weren't happy nor malicious, nor enjoying the view of him being miserable at the moment as they usually did. You were just as miserable as he was, seeing Lily nagging him a bit. Though what you and James did was wrong... not you. You didn't do anything wrong. You slept with James. He's the one that's cheating, not you.
But that didn't push the horrible feeling inside of you away. You wanted James. It was that simple. You wanted to hold his hand and kiss him whenever you wanted. You dreamed of that sometimes, to believe that world could exist where the two of you weren't enemies with benefits.
He didn't feel the same way. - You told yourself. He's using you and you're using him... right?
"And why do you keep looking at her?" Lily blurted out as she had seen the two of you looking at each other.
"Looking at who?" James looked tiredly at Lily.
"(Y/N), James. The girl you've constantly bugged since the First year. It makes me believe that you secretly fancy her!"
"Bloody hell, Lily!" He started to get even more frustrated. "I don't like her. She constantly pisses me off, why would I fancy her."
"Then why do you keep looking at her?"
James felt himself stuck a bit, so he blurted the first thing that came to his mind. "Because I want to prank her but I don't know how yet."
"Oh, goody!" Sirius finally spoke after feeling a bit uncomfortable by his best friend's argument with his girlfriend. He started to get a bit giddy at the idea. "Why didn't you say anything?! I have plenty of ideas and Remus can totally plan the whole thing with his brainy brains." he tapped Remus' shoulder.
"I wouldn't mind." Remus said. "Though you know the deal."
"Yeah, nobody knows you're involved." said James, looking at you and smiling at the idea.
You were worried if anybody would suspect the two of you. After he pulls a prank on you, nobody would suspect a single thing. It was a great idea!
---
You had just finished painting your nails, which meant... you had to do absolutely nothing with your hands for at least an hour. Of course, it all depended on the nail polish but this was his favorite colour on your nails. Purple. Odd for him to choose purple but it didn't take a witty Ravenclaw to find out why he chose purple. He said it was because it looks beautiful on you but you knew it was a mixture of red and blue. Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.
You thought... really thought that if what you saw today between Lily and James- "No." you told yourself smiling and shaking your head. He wouldn't break up with her for you. He wouldn't. The two of you were complete opposites. It just wasn't written in the stars for the two of you thought every time you were with him felt as if the two of you were dancing among the stars.
You walked into the broom closet with the rest of the Quidditch team, all of you in such high spirits to finish this last practice before the match with the Gryffindors. This practice and then the House Cup. All you had to do was get the Snitch before James. That was your main goal, though he did love Quidditch more than you ever could. You shouldn't have just taken the House Cup from his fingertips, could you?
You opened the door and as you turn on the light to get your brooms, fireworks started to go off. You felt somebody grab your hand and pull you out of the shack, one of your teammates possibly. There was so much ringing in your ears, some of your teammates cursing, other people from the background laughing.
Everything seemed so muffled at first but you could know that laugh anywhere. Before your sight got back and you finally started to find yourself in the surroundings you were in, a liquid poured onto you and half of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. The laughter rose up from a far but whatever liquid was on you, got into your eyes as well.
You lost your sight, your hearing and your sense of orientation. The person who held you by the hand slipped and pulled you down with him. The laughter continued to get louder and louder, meanwhile you could feel the embarrassment get the better of you. God, all you wanted was to see what was happening. You were so confused, so lost...
One of your teammates, the one that held your hand cupped your face and washed off what seemed to be red pain. He kept looking at you, asking if you were okay.
Ashamed, you nodded. He helped you get up.
"What the hell is wrong with you!?" one of your teammates shouted.
"Calm down, will you?" Sirius laughed.
"It's just a harmless prank before the House Cup." said James, beaming and trying to catch your eye but you didn't look. You didn't want to look at all. Actually, for the first time in forever, you didn't have the strength to look, to stand, to live.
"Gotta show not to mess with the Gryffindor house!" Lily laughed spitefully, pleased in your reaction.
"Exactly! We beat you here! We're going to beat you on the field!"
"Harmless joke?" the teammate who held you left your side and stormed to the laughing crowd. "YOU ALMOST BLINDED HER, YOU FUCKERS!"
"If it wasn't for Matias to pull her out last minute, she would have gotten hurt!" a girl from your team pointed to you but saw the confused look in your face and started to get a bit worried. She rushed to your side and took a hold of you.
The point was. They did blind you because all you saw was blurry grass that kept fading into blackness.
"Poppy. Are my eyes closed?" you asked her, feeling the tears well up in my eyes. Before she could answer, you started to panic. "Poppy, I can't see."
"Your eyes are not closed- what do you mean you can't see?!"
"I CAN'T SEE! I CAN'T SEE, POPPY!" you started to get a bit hysterical at the loss of your sight.
You felt some strong arms take a hold of you and you jumped away.
"It's me. It's John." said one of your teammates.
"Don't joke, (y/l/n). Tis' isn't funny." said a voice you could recognise from a mile away.
Angry, frustrated, embarrassed, ashamed, you turned to wherever that voice came from and pointed it at him. Though you were pointing and looking somewhere at the bleachers behind him. "Joke?! The fuck, Potter?! Gryffindor my fucking arse, you bloody cunt! You couldn't have waited for a fair play on the field so the best thing to do was to blind the Seeker of the opposite team!" you screamed at him, not seeing his reaction, not knowing whether he was smiling or shamefully frowning. "One bloody week before the match! One week!" you continued to shout, seeing red, not black. "YOU MIGHT HAVE DONE PERMANENT DAMAGE TO MY EYES, YOU BASTARD!" the tears in your eyes started to fall down your cheeks and your voice started to shake. "AND YOU COULD BET MY ARSE, WHETHER I'M BLIND OR NOT, I WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE A LIVING HELL ON EARTH! I WILL GO TO DUMBLEDORE AND TO THE PROFESSORS AND I WILL SNITCH THE HELL OUT OF YOU AND I WILL PULL CONNECTIONS FROM ALL OF MY FAMILY AND MY FAMILY'S FRIENDS AND THEIR FRIENDS AND THEIR FRIENDS FAMILY TO EXPELL YOU BEFORE YOU EVEN START TAKE A SEAT FOR ANOTHER EXAM!"
You felt another arms take a hold of you. "Be careful, (Y/N)."
"How the fuck am I supposed to be careful when I cannot see!" you snapped.
"I'm sorry, (y/n)." you heard him say but you were quite literally blind to see whether he's sincere or mocking you. Though he never called you by your first name but you were too angry to think that this boy could have any bit of kindness and decency in him.
"Let us just take you to the Hospital Wing." you heard Poppy from your left.
"Please..." you said and walked along side her.
---
You sat in the hospital wing, not being able to do anything. Madam Pomfrey made your teammates leave and you really couldn't do much than see black. Your eyes were bandaged and Madam Pomfrey said that you will get your sight back quite soon. By good luck, there will be no consequences to your temporary blindness.
You missed seeing the world though. Having a bandage over your eyes made you feel anxious and not seeing always tricked you into thinking that you had to sleep. If you could just open your eyes and see. That's all you wanted. To see colours and shapes and people.
Your eyes were shut and you took a deep breath in. 'I could use my imagination.' - you thought.
You tried to get as comfortable as possible. You took another deep breath and thought of the lake first. First time you had seen the lake. What was the lake at Hogwarts like? - Pretty ugly, if you were honest with yourself. It didn't differ from any other lake you had seen in your life, though most of other lakes were quite beautiful compared to this one. Though if you really tried to look the beauty in it, you could say that in the winter, when it was all frozen and covered with ice, it really put a charm to the whole area around Hogwarts. Everything was covered with snow and there in the middle of everything was this enormous chunk of ice. The lightest shade of blue you had ever seen. Then in the spring it would start to unfreeze and you could see the grass poking out of the snow, the lake starting to get turquoise colour in the beginning of spring but late in the season it would start to get dark shade of blue.
A creak near you woke you up from your thoughts and you quickly snapped back to reality. You pulled yourself up and started to look around- though there wasn't anything to look for, was it?
"Who's there?" you demanded, rather than asked. No fear in your tone, only anger.
The floor creaked again and you could feel feet shuffle near you.
"I swear to God, I may have lost my sight but not my mind. I can hex you." you grabbed the wand in your hand and gripped it tight.
"Calm down, (Y/l/n). Sheesh." you heard him say.
If you could roll your eyes, you would. I think you even did roll your eyes behind that bandage. "I swear, Potter. You are the last person I want to see right now."
"Well, you can't really see, can you?" he said then at the sight of your pursed lips shut his eyes from the choice of his words. "I'm sorry. Shouldn't have said that."
"You really are a dick, you know that?" you turned away from him, making him to roll his eyes at you.
He sat on the edge of your bed, shuffled his body for a few moments and looked at you in silence. He reached his hand in front of you and waved it a little.
"Why the hell are you waving your hand at me?" you snapped your head at him. "Just because I lost my sight, doesn't mean I lost my other senses."
"I'm sorry, okay." he lifted his hands in defeat.
"Too late for sorry now, Potter." you turned your head away again. There was silence again - silence filled with so much tension. "Why did you do it?" you turned back to him, not upset nor angry. You just wanted to know. "What was the point of it all? And please be honest with me."
"Honest?" he asked himself, laughing in misery. "My friends were on to us and I didn't want them to find out. So to get them off the track, I pulled a prank on you."
"To show that you do not care."
"To show that I do not care." he repeated after you.
"And you do not care about your secret hookup?" you asked casually though your heart was throbbing inside.
He shut his eyes at the last two words. "No." he shook his head. "I do not care." he lied; to you and himself.
Your heart fell apart. "Oh... okay. Glad to make things clear about that. I do not care too." you lied as well but you only lied to him, not yourself.
He felt something swallow his heart. "Oh... So that means we don't hook up anymore."
"That means exactly that." you spoke coldly. "You go back to Lily, I go back to my books. We go back to our rivalry, just like we did before. Nothing changes. You got your prank. Nobody will suspect a thing. It's as if it never happened."
He couldn't believe what he was hearing. And everything he heard, he hated it.
"Can't we still hook up?"
"No."
"Why not? They don't suspect anything." he started to get a bit furious.
"I don't want to anymore, James."
"Why not? I thought we-" he stopped himself and you furrowed one of your eyebrows at him.
"We what?"
"I-" he choked on his words. "I thought we..." he calmed himself down, looked at you with soft, kind eyes, then at your hands, your fingers... your nails... your purple nails? He didn't know whether to smile or frown at the sight. He looked up at you, still waiting for an answer. "I'm sorry." he started over. "I thought I was doing the right thing when I pulled the prank on all of you but when I saw that I hurt you.... I didn't want that. I didn't want to hurt you." he continued and saw your shoulders relax. He was so afraid to take your hands, to the point he didn't want to risk it but he still reached out to hold them.
When you felt his hands touch yours, you thought your whole body was sweating, inside and out. You wanted to pull away, to show him that you're stronger than him but his hands were always so perfect to you. His touch, soft and tender. God, you didn't want to let him know he had such power over you.
He caressed the back of your hand with his thumb and scooted over to you. He was close to you, pressing your hand to his cheek and whispering: "I didn't want to hurt you... I made love to you so many times that hurting you the way I did was so foreign to me. It broke me in half. It broke me into pieces. It crushed me into dust. God, I just want to make things right between us. I'm so tired of loving you in secret."
He lied. He lied before. He does care! He cares! - Your heart fluttered into the clouds.
"Loving me?"
"I loved you from the moment you snitched on me in First year, when I threw the eraser on you. You were just too stubborn and too oblivious to see it."
"Are you saying that so that I don't go through with the threat of expelling you?"
"I couldn't care less about being expelled. I can live with expulsion, I couldn't live without you in my arms..." he smiled and kissed the top of your hand. "I think we can rewrite the stars. I think it is possible for us, no matter how different we are."
You smiled and for the first time you wished he could see the tears in your eyes. How happy he had made you by saying those simple words. You didn't need to see to know he was sincere. You just knew. "Okay..."
He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Okay what?"
"I'm in for the long run, Potter." you smiled and he let out a relieved laugh.
"Long run, huh?" he pressed your hand to his cheek again. "Alright then. Let's see what the stars had written for us."
"Let's see then."
