Stoking the Fire

Stoking the Fire

The Apparition instructor smiled encouragingly to the hall of anxious students.

"Now, you try," he said.

James heard Sirius snort beside him. Obviously, the overconfident Padfoot would have no problems getting his Apparition license. James made a note to laugh in his face and pour a glass of something sticky over his best friend's head if he failed.

He looked around before he began, trying to keep his mind off splinching. It was probably true what they said: if you worried about splinching while you were Apparating, it was five times more likely that it would happen. There was no desire in him to be separated from any of his body parts. He wondered if you could splinch your head.

He spotted Lily a few rows ahead of him, obviously frustrated that she wasn't magically appearing in her hoop. Her eyelids scrunched together and she bit her bottom lip, trying unsuccessfully to pop away.

James looked down at his own hoop on the ground in front of him.

"Screw that," he said, closing his eyes.

The three D's: deliberation, determination, destination.

That must have been the stupidest line the Ministry could possibly have come up with. He bet they'd paid some bored old wizard two knuts to think it up for them. They'd probably used it since the seventeenth century and James determined they would continue using it on his great-great-grandchildren. The dullness of the phrase was probably deliberate. Those Ministry employees' minds really had no destination when it came to things outside the office.

He cracked an eye open. Obviously, he hadn't been correctly directing his focus. Sirius, who had a bored look on his face, was inside his hoop. Whether he'd stepped in when everyone's eyes had closed or had actually...no, he'd stepped in. He knew because of the scolding look Remus was giving him. Peter was hunched over in concentration, muttering the silly catchphrase the Apparition instructor had taught them.

A glance toward Lily made him realize it wouldn't be a good idea to tap her on the shoulder just then. Her eyes were blazing. Continually fixing all of her attention to the hoop had yielded no results so far.

James shut his eyes and thought about those emerald green eyes, that fiery red hair, those faded pink lips. All of a sudden he was being lifted from the floor and all the sides of his body were pushing out and pulling in. They twisted uncomfortably, and he clutched his stomach to keep himself from vomiting it up until he felt his feet slam against the floor. He staggered, suddenly aware that gravity was once again a factor.

He was standing roughly in the middle of the hall inside a hoop, but when he turned around he was staring into the flaming green eyes that he had been envisioning only seconds before.

"Well, hey, look at that," said James in an oh-so-innocent way.

Lily opened her mouth wide enough to begin yelling, but the Apparition instructor had promptly strolled over to the scene. Thank Merlin for that. James only just realized that every sixth year in the hall was staring at him, not just Lily.

"Mr.--"

"James."

"Mr. James--"

"It's Potter," corrected Lily irritably with a glare to James and a polite smile to the instructor.

"Oh. Mr. Potter, you've done an excellent job at Apparition, however, you are supposed to locate yourself into your own hoop."

"But I liked this one better." His smile was mischievous, but the instructor apparently chose to ignore that.

"Next time, Mr. Potter, please use the individual hoop you've been assigned to."

The instructor walked away briskly to help a student across the hall who seemed to be constipated with deliberation. James later found out it was Peter.

"James Potter, why do you always have to be the best at everything?"

Lily seethed through clenched teeth. James loved when she was angry. Her cheeks flushed and brought out the color in her hair. Her eyes burned holes into your confidence. Sometimes her lips even pursed slightly, making them whiten.

"It's in my nature, I presume, Lily Evans," he stated in an aristocratic voice to make fun of her.

He stepped out of the circle, tipping an imaginary hat towards her and the girls surrounding her. A few smiled and waved girlishly at the gesture. Seeing this, Lily made a miffed "ugh" sound.

James walked away with one last glance at how beautifully pissed off she was, smiling the smile of the accomplished.