The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Season 5, Round 12 – Pair Them Up!
Montrose Magpies
CHASER 3: You'll be writing about two characters in a school peers relationship
- James Potter
- Remus Lupin
Optional Prompts:
3. (quote) In a world gushing blood day and night, you never stop mopping up pain. - Aberjhani
8. (dialogue) "Move away from the door and let me at him!"
12. (phrase) A man is known by the company he keeps
Wordcount: 926
Epiphany
"Fight me, you cowardly little worm!" James Potter shouted after the retreating back of Lucius Malfoy.
The older boy just threw a malicious smirk over his shoulder without disturbing a single strand of his eerily well-groomed hair. Drawing on his own experiences with wild, untamable hair, James silently concluded that the other boy definitely had to be using a few beauty spells to get that effect. Like the ones his mother used for special occasions. What a snob!
His fists were clenched tightly, ready to outright attack the other boy and force a solution to the issue by the use of some well-deserved violence. That would teach the vicious blond Slytherin to throw around words like 'blood traitors' and 'a stain upon all of Wizarding kind'. His parents were the best of the best, thank you very much!
Out of nowhere, a skinny, brown-haired boy in his year stepped in front of him, stopping him abruptly in his steps. A fellow Gryffindor. What was his name again? Ronny? Remy? It didn't really matter either way. If he wasn't mistaken, the smaller boy spent a significant amount of time in the library. He was obviously of the prim and proper, no-fun type. The kind of person James would usually stay away from at any cost, unless it was with the intent of merciless pranking.
After all, a man is known by the company he keeps, and all that. And if there was one thing James Potter did not want to be known as, it was bookish. Bookish — or, God forbid, studious — was practically synonymous with boring, as far as he was concerned.
The Slytherin boy disappeared around the corner at the end of the corridor with another few well-placed words, ones that should never be repeated in polite company.
"Move away from the door and let me at him!" James demanded with all the authority he could muster. It would take a lot more than a boring person to keep him from his goal of retribution.
"Let it go, Potter," the other boy urged, clenching fistfuls of his robes so tightly that the multiple scars littering his hands stood out clearly against the pale skin of his knuckles as he used every bit of strength he had to try to hold him back. "He's not worth it."
"Did you hear what he just said?" James questioned incredulously. Of course, it was worth it! Getting back at the slimy Slytherins was always worth it. "Just wait until I tell Sirius about this; he'll agree with me."
"I'm sure Malfoy's got something planned to ensure all the blame for starting a fight ends up on your shoulders alone," he said confidently, as if that was something everyone should know. Upon noticing James' strange, vaguely questioning look, he added, "The snakes are slippery like that."
James stopped struggling to pass the other boy and gave him a calculating look. Perhaps they — they meaning him and Sirius — shouldn't have dismissed the scrawny boy so quickly. He could sense a glimmer of potential in him. Not much, but it might be enough for a reconsideration.
"I'm not saying you should let him get away with it; just, you know, be less obvious about it," he continued as if the other boy hadn't just had a small epiphany. "I'm sure there's a ton of things you'd rather be doing with your free time than another session of cauldron scrubbing."
He did have a point. The boy was unexpectedly sneaky. Though James usually preferred people to be straightforward in both their words and actions, he had to admit that adding some sneakiness to their duo of mischief could have its advantages.
While James was too lost in coming up with plans for the possibility of converting the more innocent boy to their side to really pay any attention to it, the boy in question had kept talking.
"In a world gushing blood day and night, we never stop mopping up pain," the brown-haired boy said seriously, as if every word he spoke made perfect sense.
That was all it took to make him pay attention again. The silence stretched on for a several moments, as James was staring at the boy in confusion. He couldn't quite decide what to think of that statement, but he was starting to think that reading all those dusty tomes had shaken something loose up there. Either that, or there had to be something funky with the air in the library. The idea was already a working theory of his. All the regular library-goers seemed to start spewing long, nonsensical sentences after an extended stay in that place. In any case, the point was that the boy had clearly lost his marbles.
"What does that even mean?" James blurted out at last, when the ensuing silence got to be too much for him.
"Honestly?" he said with a grin that was wider than James had ever seen the boy produce. "I've no clue, but it sounded appropriately grown-up."
Maybe the boy wasn't a lost cause after all, James thought to himself with no small amount of approval. They might have to incorporate their classmate into their duo after all. A trio wouldn't be such a bad thing. All good things come in threes, right? He'd have to consult his partner in crime on the matter before coming to any definite conclusions.
And then they could all work on getting back at the Slytherins together.
First, though, he would have to find out the boy's name.