The Episode - The Attraction

The drink was starting to set in. The room was slowly revolving around James Potter as he tried to right himself. It would not do to be seen falling over due to alcohol; people might actually laugh at him. That wouldn't do at all, people laughed at geeks like Snape, not him. Everyone laughed with him when he took the piss of saddos, Snape and generally annoying people. James stumbled out of the cool dormitory onto the stairs, intending to make his way to the Gryffindor common room. He could vaguely hear the 'ewwws' and 'yucks' floating up to him, signifying that someone had been sick due to excessive alcohol consumption. At least I'm not in that state James thought, hoping the events would take the focus off his less-than-controllable manner. As he made his way downstairs, he spotted a girl. Venus Verticordia her name was, he recalled. She was very pretty, although she had a reputation for 'passing herself around' and cheating on various boyfriends. Still, she was nice. Very nice. As James approached, Venus looked up and smiled at him. He smiled back. Then she spoke, 'Hi, James. You enjoying the party?' It took a few seconds for the question to filter through to James' brain. 'Erm, yeah it's great thanks!' he eventually replied, extremely conscious of what a fool he was making of himself. 'What are you doing up here?' he added, wondering why she wasn't getting off with some boy somewhere. 'Well, I was waiting for you,' Venus said, adjusting her hairstyle. 'Thought you were looking lonely…'

She leaned forward, showing James quite clearly her cleavage, squashed into a overly-small top. James' head reeled - was Venus coming on to him??? This sort of behaviour he was not used to. Admittedly, although he liked to think that he was a hit with the ladies, this was not true, and, as Lily Evans had said just last year, they'd rather go out with the Giant Squid. In fact the Giant Squid excuse was becoming increasingly common, too common for coincidence in some ways. Conspiracy theories aside it was suspicious. But Lily… The thought of Lily made James' stomach lurch, or perhaps more squirm, as if butterflies were fluttering inside him. The damsel in distress he could never quite rescue. He, a knight in shining armour, there to sort out everyone's problems in the search for happily ever after endings could not conquer the damsel of his dreams. Why? Because she was unreachable. She can do better than you, he thought.

He looked back at Venus. She was looking at him in a weird sort of way, sort of seductive-like, though with his experience he was probably wrong. Venus leaned forward and whispered into James' ear, 'I really like you, James…' She leant forward further and kissed James' neck softly, a small shiver crossing his body, a shiver of anticipation, of expectancy. They found each others lips and caressed slowly, each kiss taking an eternity to unfold. Eventually they broke off, staring into each others eyes, passion alight in each. James smiled, she was a good kisser he thought and she was a beautiful goddess. But what about Lily? James felt guilty instantly. He'd betrayed her, kissed someone else. What if she found out? Would she think he wasn't interested in her any more? But, James reasoned, he wasn't going to get her anyway, and it's not like he wanted a long term relationship with Venus like he wanted with Lily - just a quick fix for a desperate hormonal teenager. Not like he wanted to admit it he was desperate…

The next morning James woke with a groan. He head was banging painfully, particularly behind his eyes. 'Good night James?' enquired a voice behind him. James turned round with another painful groan to see Sirius, eyebrow raised, looking disapprovingly at his face. 'Was alright…probably drank a little too much…'

'A little too much? You ended up rolling on the floor laughing hysterically! And according to all reports you were snogging Venus Verticordia! I mean, what possessed you to do that? She's a slut James!'

'A slut who happens to be very pretty and an extremely good kisser. I also seem to remember that you went out with her just 2 months ago. She dumped you for Janus Thickey after a week.'

'Yeah, after cheating on me. I don't want to see you get hurt like I did James.'

'I won't get hurt. I only wanted a quick snog. It's not like I want to go out with her like you did.'

A few days later, James was feeling confused. His feeling for Venus were increasingly…well, he was more attracted to her. He was starting to get the same butterflies in his stomach as he got with Lily and constantly found his mind turning to think about Venus instead of everything else he should be doing. During Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, you name it he was thinking about her. Her soft lips, her delicate touch, her beautiful eyes, with the look that makes you instantly fall under her spell. And that's what I'm under, a spell, James thought, but what kind of spell? The spell of love, desire, passion…all of those things mixed together?

James could not work out how he felt about Venus. She was definitely the Goddess of Love, as the tales of mythology said. Mind you, she wasn't exactly the Goddess of Chastity as her last name suggested. Quite the opposite, going by her reputation…But then, James reasoned, if he was to go out with her it would be different. She wouldn't cheat on him like she had with the other 3 guys she had gone out with in the last 2 months, because she would actually like him. He had seen it in her eyes when they kissed, that attraction of two lost souls. He would trust her 100, treat her like an angel, there was no way she'd cheat on him. In essence, he was way too attractive to women for that to happen. Definitely too attractive…

James plucked up his courage the next day, the end of the Easter holidays and the start of yet another term at Hogwarts. Another extremely difficult term no doubt, full of overlarge amounts of homework and unfortunate detentions. But that's life, James was not going to stir himself to do the work…and the detentions could be eaten by the Giant Squid for all he cared. He found Venus smoking outside the greenhouses, exactly where he expected. He'd tasted the tobacco in her mouth and on her breath when they'd kissed. It had tasted unusually sweet, as if it wasn't tobacco at all. Venus was a rebellious student, smoking wasn't allowed in the school grounds (except by the teachers of course, they were always the bloody exception to rules) and James doubted very much McGonagall would approve of her supposed behaviour outside of lessons.

There Venus was, her beautiful chestnut-brown, shoulder-length hair flowing over the curve of her neck. James paused, he felt like there was a large lump in his throat, preventing him from speaking. She drew a drag from her cigarette and looked up. 'Oh, hi James!' She smiled. 'Don't usually see you round here!'

'Erm, well I came to see you…' James stuttered, once again aware he was making a fool of himself…a great fool. Venus' smile faded slightly. 'Why do you want to see me?' She looked worried now as if she'd done something wrong. 'Look, if it's about the other night, I'm really sorry. You see, I've already got a boyfriend, I was drunk and I shouldn't have gone with you, I didn't know what I was doing. I'm really sorry.' She said those words in a rush, as if she'd been waiting to say them for days, but needed the right moment. James felt his heart being crushed. And his ego. And probably his entire body as well. 'James?' Venus' voice rang through James' brain vaguely. 'What's wrong?' rang the voice once more. James looked up. 'Well…' he stammered once more trying to keep calm and not blush , although he knew his efforts were fruitless. 'I was just wondering if you'd go out with me, but since you have a boyfriend it obviously wouldn't work…' his voice trailed off to silence.

Venus looked at him for a second, then smiled. 'James, I would love to go out with you. I really really love you…I'll dump Janus to be with you, you're the only guy I've ever truly loved. Honest to god, I'll never cheat on you like I did with those other worthless boyfriends.' James felt only momentary annoyance about his best friend being called 'worthless' before he embraced Venus and fell into the dark passion that enveloped them.

I've been making slight improvements to the story, changing sentences and such. Also turns out my beta(s) weren't so good whenever I first wrote this, so I'm also attempting to wheedle out typing mistakes:o Hope it will be better than it was anyway! Reading this again I find myself impressed with my own writing, albeit slightly worried about the amount of swearing present.

azi (Please read and review, or just read, I don't mind. :) )