-1Disclaimer: Obviously I don't own Harry Potter, and many of the characters who appear here will be the sole property and creation of J.K. Rowling.
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James Potter raised his head from the pillow of his four-poster bed, groaned, and let it drop back to where it had lain. He felt as though it may fall off, and for a brief moment considered the possibility preferable to the morning of hung-over misery which he knew stretched out before him. However, as vague memories of the night before began to drift back to him, he forced himself upright to sit with his back against the headboard, he looked down to see that he was lying atop the covers of the bed. He was also, he noted with a mix of regret and amusement, naked. He shivered slightly as his sluggish nervous system let him know that the October morning was crisp and cool, and turned his attention to the rest of the room, surveying the damage.
From the bed directly across from his, the torn curtains dangled from their frame by one corner, where they had been torn when Rachael Wood had stumbled and grabbed at them to prevent herself falling. Her failure on that count was illustrated by the fact that she was now asleep, topless but covered by the tattered curtains, at the foot of the bed. Eyes moving upwards to the bed itself, he could see the lump in the bed clothes formed by his cousin, and fellow Gryffindor sixth year Fred Weasley, son of his Uncle George, and named for his long-dead twin. It had been his 17th birthday celebrations which had lead to the headache currently making James wish he had never even heard of firewhisky, vodka, or mead, much less consumed copious amounts of each the night before.
Suddenly, a loud bang, followed by a shriek made him whip his head to the right to stare down towards the door of the dormitory, where a girl with shoulder length , sand-coloured hair was staring at the scattered heap of smouldering Exploding Snap cards which had been the source of the unpleasantly loud noise.
'Stupid bloody things made me jump,' she said aloud, before turning and meeting James's eye.
He hauled himself to the end of the bed and stood to look at her, saying blearily 'Morning, Tora.'
By way of a response, she merely raised an eyebrow, and a split second later, he realized that he was still completely nude. Clasping both his hands to his crotch, he cast about for something to cover himself with, but his clothes still lay where they had been discarded the night before, on the furthest of the five beds which filled the dormitory, the one by which Tora still stood, regarding him with eyebrows still raised, and a slight smile now, as she too noticed his boxers lying beside her. Without taking her eyes off of him, she reached down and picked them up, holding them out to him, and saying with deceptive innocence, 'Looking for these?'
Regaining some of his normal confidence, James simply let his hands fall to his sides, and said, 'Fuck it. You've seen it all before.' He spoke slightly louder than normal, over-compensating, he realized, for his embarrassment a moment before. He turned, blushing slightly in spite of himself, reached over to the bed-side table for his wand, and said, pointing it at his ex-girlfriend, and said 'Accio!'
The underwear zoomed from her hand and into his, where to his dismay he realized that they were damp. Realizing why he looked so perturbed, Tora laughed even harder, and, dropping onto the end of the bed she was still standing next to in order to compose herself, said, 'You weren't THAT drunk! I used them to wipe up the firewhisky that Albus knocked over on his way out,' and she indicated the half-full bottle which lay beside the still smoking cards by the door.
Relieved, James bent down and tugged his trunk out from under his bed, pulled out a fresh pair of boxers and some jeans (as it was Saturday, he wasn't required to wear his uniform robes), and seated himself on his own bed to pull them on. As he pulled on a t-shirt, his brain suddenly caught up with him, and he leapt up, ignoring the nausea which came with the sudden movement, and bellowed, 'ALBUS was here? And the little shit was spilling MY drink? I'll curse the wanker into the next century! What was he doing in here anyway? The party was for strictly N.E.W.T. students only.'
Tora had moved up to crouch beside Rachael's now stirring figure, and now looked up at him, bemused. 'Fred invited him, being as he is his cousin too. And I'm a fifth year, too! I didn't here you complaining last night, when you were slurring to me about 'the good old days' and trying to get me to go down to the bathrooms with you,' she said, matter-of-factly.'
Blinking stupidly at her, he said 'You're different. You're a girl. A hot girl, as it happens, two requirements which my little brother could never claim to meet.'
Ignoring his compliment, she handed a groaning Rachael her bra and top, which she had grabbed from the same bed where James's still lay, and replied 'I wouldn't be so sure about the second one, you know. He left here with Liv Goldstein looking mightily pleased with himself.'
Before a flabbergasted James could frame a response, Rachael spoke or the first time, moaning 'What happened,' as she pulled her hair back into a pony-tail with the tie Tora offered to her. 'Thanks,' she added.
'Strip-poker,' she explained, and the full memory of what had happened came flooding back to James, as Rachael merely groaned again, and filled the cup lying beside her with water, which she sipped miserably. Strip-poker indeed. They had been unable to find a normal deck of cards, and so had substituted a set of Exploding Snap ones instead, adding the rule that, when a player's card exploded, they had to remove an extra item of clothing. Which explained how he had ended up in such an unfortunate position. He wasn't upset about the nudity, for his body was toned from years of smashing heavy Bludgers about as one of the Gryffindor beaters, and he was more than happy with his other… assets. No, it was the losing which bothered him, and the intolerable smirk which was back on Tora's face as she looked up at him, probably guessing why he looked so annoyed. The girl knew him too well.
They had been together for the first half of the previous year, his fifth, her fourth, and had split up when he found her to be too clingy. He, James Potter, good-looking son of the famous Harry Potter, and hero of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, had wanted to expand his horizons. Most particularly the horizons which were found in assorted dormitories, and other conveniently private locations. His mission had proven successful, and he proceeded to break hearts (and, for that matter, hymens) for the rest of the year, even taking his experimentations further and moving on to the male half of the student population, his bisexuality allowing him to truly top the list of 'most wanted Hogwarts students.' All the while, he barely spared a thought for his ex.
Which is why it had been such a shock to his system when he had returned to Hogwarts for the new year, and he saw the transformation which she had undergone. Now taller by several inches, and curvier in all the right places, she had been barely recognizable as the girl whose virginity he had taken the year before, and had left when she took to bewitching love notes to fold themselves into butterflies, and flutter over to him while he tried to have conversations in the common room. Indeed, she was stunning. And her new looks were matched by an aloof coolness, which made James frantic. He knew he could get most of the students into bed with little effort, but not Tora. For her coolness had seemingly brought with it a resistance to his black hair, soft-brown eyes, and, of course, charming wit.
No. The girl was ice.
His thoughts cleared as the urge to be sick swept over him again, in turn reminding him of his pounding headache.
'Where are the others?' he asked, in his most casual tone, hoping that Tora had not, as he feared, guessed his thoughts, and he indicated the three empty beds.
'Rowan, Jesse, and Mark were going down to breakfast feeling sorry for themselves as I came up,' was the response. 'No one else slept up here. Maddie and Jen took Hannah back to their dormitories after you went to sleep, and we thought it better just to leave Rae where she was. Sorry,' She added as an after thought to the girl beside her, who merely nodded her acceptance and returned to her water.
'Mm. Breakfast? I need to settle my stomach.'
'Fine.'
'Should we wake my dear cousin?' asked James, nodding over to where Fred still lay asleep.
'Better leave him. He'll be feeling pretty grim when he wakes up, so why make him suffer sooner?'
A grin flashed across James's face at that, and raising his wand, he said, 'Aguamenti!' A jet of water arched over the girls' heads, and splashed onto Fred's head, causing him to raise his head, spluttering, and groaning.
'Bastard!' yelped Tora and Fred together, as James laughed, and looking down at Rachael asked, 'You coming?'
With a glance at Tora, she said, smirking slightly, 'I'll wait for Fred. You two go ahead.'
His smile fading a bit, James turned to his ex, who merely smiled, and said, 'Come on then, darling,' before turning and walking towards the door. Pausing only to shoot a look at Rae, who continued to look on the verge of laughter, he followed.
'Nice tits, by the way,' he called as he strode after the blonde girl, and Rachael choked on the water she was sipping again, blushing, with all trace of amusement gone.
James's self-satisfaction did not last long. The prospect of a breakfast in the company of his infuriating former lover, and with his head pounding, gave him the impression that this was going to be a long morning.
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There. This was pretty well just an introduction to some of the characters, and the plot will pick up a bit in the next chapter! Let me know what you think, this is my first Fan Fic, but I thought I'd give it a try to see what happened. R&R please!
