A/N: All canon characters and settings belong to J.K. Rowling, not to me! I plan for this story to be pretty long, I haven't completely planned it out yet, I just thought I'd put the prologue out here to see how it's received and such. Comments, ratings, questions, and constructive criticism are always appreciated!
Prologue
For some unfathomable reason, James Potter found himself staring at clasped hands.
It seemed more like glaring, but he wasn't really considering the way in which he was looking at them, only that he couldn't seem to draw his eyes away.
His own hands were absentmindedly wringing around an unopened chocolate frog box. They were his favorite candy, and the bowl his mother filled with them was usually empty by now due to his inability to resist the saccharine sweetness they possessed.
Today, however, he'd found his appetite for them to be temporarily quieted.
The hands his eyes were locked on were none other than that of Teddy Lupin's, one of them clasped loosely in the grip of one Samuel McLaggen.
He wasn't sure why exactly Teddy's unexpected guest had bothered him so much. After all, Lily was constantly bringing this week's boyfriend to these family functions, purposefully showing off her ability to capture any man's heart. She liked to say it was one of many benefits to being the only redhead among her immediate siblings, but James was rather certain it wasn't her hair that was attracting them.
Regardless, despite being his sister, Lily's inordinate amount of houseguests had never bothered him the way Teddy's one seemed to be now.
Currently, he was blaming it on the fact that it was Samuel McLaggen. Of all the people Teddy could bring to the first-of-summer family gathering, James couldn't believe he'd chosen him.
Samuel McLaggen – "Call me Sammy!" he'd said when he'd introduced himself, which James had no intention of doing – had recently been promoted to a first string chaser of the Falmouth Falcons. He'd also recently been injured, which explained the lightweight wrist brace he wore on his free hand.
But the most important aspect, the one that irked James the most, was the fact that he'd most recently been voted Witch Weekly's "Most Eligible Bachelor."
James didn't wonder why; his strong, hard jawline, piercing eyes, and short, ashy blonde hair falling into his eyes in an attractive mess. The handsomeness was there; James certainly couldn't deny that.
Even more infuriating was how exceedingly nice he was. One might expect a man with such advances to his ego to be cocky as hell, but for some reason, Samuel McLaggen had chosen to be painfully polite, almost shy.
He'd heard the story of how they met several times, considering every family member, namely the female ones, had been asking a million questions of the pair. How he'd fallen off his broom, how Teddy had been the Mediwizard at the game, how he'd asked him out for drinks as a thank-you. It was a perfectly charming story, but it wasn't one James had cared to hear.
He hadn't been able to escape it, however, considering he was supposed to be happy for his almost-brother. In some ways, he was. But this summer, one he had been excited for the same way he'd always been excited about his summers at home, was suddenly not looking like it was going to be the same as always.
Because suddenly he was realizing there was going to be an addition to their large circle of family that would be around for the summer. And judging from the excited way everybody was talking to the two of them – especially the star struck look on his mother's face – he was going to be alone in his annoyance of Samuel McLaggen's presence.
He continued staring at those hands, wishing there was some way for him to split them apart without being scolded for it. James was certain that those hands didn't belong together.
That was because there were very few people in this world James deemed good enough for Teddy Lupin.
And Samuel McLaggen was not one of them.