Sneakers and Seekers.
- A semi-companion piece to my fic Of Quidditch and Broomsticks, but you don't need to read that to understand this one.
by: Lovelyrubberboots
Disclaimer: if you recognize it I don't own it.
Thank you in advance for reading and reveiwing.
"James," Fred Weasley, son of George Weasley and Angelina Johnson, entered James' second floor bedroom with a flourish, causing James to jump slightly. It was August 30th. In just two days James would begin his seventh year at Hogwarts. In just one day he would take his apparition test and come of age. But today, he was scared by someone just walking into his room, apparently.
"Hi Fred," James breathed heavily. He was trying not to show that he'd been truly frightened for a moment. But Fred didn't care.
"James," Fred sat down, "I need you to do something for me at Hogwarts this year."
"Oh. Um, alright then? What?"
"It's Roxanne. At the end of last year she started sneaking off a night, to meet someone. I'm not sure who, but I'm pretty sure he's not a Gryffindor. And I'm sure it's a he. I want you to find out where she's been going, and keep me informed."
"Why don't you just ask her?" James asked, always the one for an easy solution when it came to family matters. "Or ask Louis. He tends to know these sorts of things."
"Don't you think I tried that?" Fred laughed and stood up. "Thanks. Bye. And tell Lily the brownies she made were delicious!" Fred left as quickly as he had come, leaving James to think about what had just happened. Not only was he going to by spying on a cousin this year, but Lily had made brownies and not even told him! Of all the things she could do to annoy him! Did the girl have no common decency? It was his birthday tomorrow. James got up and marched huffily towards the brownies.
The train whistle chimed loudly, as the train started moving towards the castle. James had already stashed his stuff with a few friends, before heading out of his cabin. Normally he would have spent at least the first half of the ride in there with his friends, but today he needed to speak to a number of different cousins. It was only a matter of finding them.
"Hey Lysander, Henry," James greeted the two sixth years as he passed them in the corridor. They murmured back 'Hellos', as James squeezed past a crowd of first years that seemed to have all congregated in one place.
In the next corridor James found exactly what he was looking for: Louis. Unashamed and unapologetically, James opened the door and asked to see Louis, despite the fact that the cabin was engrossed in some sort of conversation. James really didn't want to know what could get fourth and fifth year Slytherins so excited.
"Louis, where was Roxanne sneaking off to last year?" James asked.
"I dunno. Well, I know where, but I don't know with whom, which is what you're really after. You might want to check with Lucy. I think she mentioned something about knowing exactly when, who, where and why."
James thanked his cousin and headed back to the cabin with his friends. He might have had the nerve to interrupt Louis and his friends, but he drew the line at Lucy and her friends, an odd mixture of prefects, quidditch players and those quick to hex others who liked to squeeze into tight spaces together. He'd never really understood the kids in Lucy and Roxanne's year. They were all very odd.
As he passed the cabin where Lily was sitting James looked in, and was very displeased to find that she was sitting next to a boy.
The next few weeks were full of things. Teachers were stressing the importance of NEWTs, Heads of House gearing up for the Qudditch season, prefects enjoying their point taking powers. Between all the events in the first few weeks of school, James had been unable to find time to follow Roxanne. He had even found it hard to find time to eat. Therefore, James was happy to find, the week before the first Quidditch match of the year, that he had an opportunity to both eat and talk to Roxanne.
"So Roxanne," James started to say. He was rudely cut off by Lucy, who sat down in a huff.
"James." Lucy said, taking a large bite out of an apple as James took a large bite of toast, "James, you have got to do something about McLaggen. I'm sure you didn't put him up to it-"
"Put him up to what?" James asked,
"He keeps talking to me about Quidditch. He keeps trying to get me to tell him what the team's doing. Honestly James, if you don't get him to stop I'm going to hex him so badly that you'll have to find a new beater," Lucy said.
"Don't worry Luce. We'll take care of it," Roxanne said, if only to stop her cousin from continuing to talk with his mouth full. Without thanks, Lucy got up.
It didn't take Roxanne and James too much time to figure out the reason she'd left so abruptly. Colin McLaggen sat down in the spot Lucy had just been in. James had gotten used to Colin over the years, and actually found him to be fairly nice and a reasonably good friend. Nevertheless James understood perfectly well why Lucy was annoyed by Colin.
"I'm starved. What was Lucy doing here?" Colin asked, piling some food onto his plate, "Was she going to join you for lunch?" He asked, picking up an apple on the table that had a bite taken out of it.
As Colin continued to talk, James looked at Roxanne, sharing a glance with her. She just shrugged, thinking the look was a look about McLaggen, but for James it wasn't. she was up to something, sneaking out at night. He just knew it.
James had intended to talk to her after the Quidditch match. It was Ravenclaw verse Slytherin. It wasn't supposed to be one of the best matches James had ever seen at Hogwarts. In all the fuss of a long, hard and intense game, James completely forgot that he wanted to talk to Roxanne.
As James left the kitchens (carrying one of the largest loads of pies and sweets he'd ever gotten there) he was so focused on getting the pies back to the Gryffindor common room without being spotted that he almost didn't notice Roxanne walk by him. After the moment it took him to come to his senses, James spun around.
"Oi! Rox!" he said, as one of the pies flew of the pile and skidded across the floor.
"Yeah?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips, knowing exactly what he cousin was about to ask her.
"Where are you going?" James asked the obvious question, in an obvious voice.
"None of your business. Now head back to the common room James, or else," Roxanne paused, "or else I'll tell Albus that you're the one who spilled pumpkin juice on his prefect's badge this summer,"
James paused, considering this. He didn't understand what Al's issue was – the juice had come right off, hadn't it? No harm, no foul. But no. While any other person would have let it go, Albus spent a good two weeks afterwards bringing it up, wondering what foul person would spill pumpkin juice on a prefect's badge. He loved his brother, but sometimes the kid was a little odd.
"Right," said James, "Well, I'm going to take this to Colin,"
"You do that James," Roxanne said, heading off on her way again.
When James got to the common room, Lucy was standing outside, arguing with the Fat Lady.
"I don't want to break in - I just want to talk to my cousin. All I need to do it knock. I don't have to go into the common room at all, but I can't talk to her unless she knows I'm here and-"
"Lucy?" he interrupted her.
"Oh. James," she said, "I need to talk to Roxanne."
"She's not there - I passed her when I was coming back here. She said something about meeting someone. I'm decided not to pry, but I think I'll probably write to Fred about it. What's up?" he asked,
"She's meeting up with Lysander - don't tell her I told you. And I really needed to speak to her. There's not much I need from you," she started to turn away.
"Colin told me what happened." James said simply, "I went to the kitchens to get this for him. He likes to eat when he's in a contemplative mood. Why don't you come in?"
"No James, forget it. It's fine. I have some homework I need to do. Just let Roxanne know I stopped by,"
"He said that he doesn't know the answer to your question, by the way," James called after her before stepping into the common room and heading over to Colin.
About an hour later James had written a letter to Fred and Colin had gone to bed. But still, Roxanne hadn't returned. James was seriously considering waiting up all night until she got back. Luckily he wouldn't have to wait quite so long. Roxanne waltzed into the common room fifteen minutes later, and took a seat across from James.
"So, how's Colin?" she asked in an awkwardly formal manner.
"Oh, yeah, well, he's been better," James said, thinking carefully about how he wanted this conversation to continue, "Lucy stopped by, wanted to talk to you,"
"Oh, did she? About Colin?" Roxanne asked, her voice rightly suspicious.
"I'll tell you if you tell me what you were doing with Lysander," James said simply, as Roxanne's slight smiled faded instantly.
"Lucy told you, didn't she?" Roxanne said flatly.
"Yeah," there was a long pause, as Roxanne stared at James.
"I'm not dating him. All we're doing is talking," Roxanne said.
"Really?" it was a question, but James' voice was flat. He didn't entirely believe his cousin's innocent explanation. Generally he wasn't that protective of his cousins, but Fred had passed on a weird sense of duty to him. After all, Fred would do the same for him, right? Any of his male cousins would be willing to follow Lily around, if he asked. James made a mental note to talk to Hugo, just to make sure Lily wasn't sneaking off or seeing anyone.
"James, he likes Dominique. I've been trying to get him to ask her out for months. Since last April, actually. He's really close to doing it too,"
"Oh. Alright then," James said, feeling slightly foolish – of course Lysander would want to date Dominique. How could he have been so silly to think that Roxanne was doing anything other than that with Lysander? As Roxanne headed up the stairs to go to sleep, James wrote out a different letter to Fred.
"Hey Dom" Roxanne came up to her cousin who was sitting at the Ravenclaw table with a number of friends, "Luce accidently told James I was with Lysander. So I told him I was trying to convince Lysander to take you out on a date. Just in case James brings it up, ok?"
"Yeah, sure," Dominique said, turning back to her friends to gossip about Matteo Zabini and Isabella Davies.
Roxanne headed back over to the Gryffindor table, spotting quickly at Hufflepuff to tell Lysander the same thing she'd told Dom.
Feeling rather proud of herself, Roxanne sat down at breakfast ready to start the day and eager for a night of sneaking off in the evening. James could be so gullible sometimes.
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