Disclaimer- I own none of these characters. They all belong to JK Rowling!
October the 17th. A truly terrible day to play an important Quidditch match but maybe not an awful day to realise you are in love.
However October the 14th was not that day. It was the first day that the rain, which had currently been thundering down on the roof of the Hogwarts castle for almost four weeks, had decided to take a little break for a few hours. Enough hours that the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain decided to hold a training session for the fast approaching match on the Saturday, a little over three days from then.
Now Jessica Finnigan was less than impressed with the fact that she had to spend her Wednesday night outside on the muddy and barely usable pitch, she would have much preferred to stay in her room drooling over a certain blue eyed Ravenclaw with her best friend, but she knew that her team needed practice. So as a result when the team finally arrived moaning and complaining she did not take kindly to their disapproval.
"Guys grow some balls and stop being such sissy's it's just a bit of mud! We have had no practice in over a month due to the rain and though it is not ideal conditions, this is our only opportunity to actually play so I would kindly ask that you all quit the moaning and groaning for at least two hours so we can actually get something done!"
The team grunted and huffed but deciding it would be best not to piss off Jessica for the impending two hours, they all agreed to work. And they did. For two whole hours the Gryffindor team did exactly as they were asked. The followed orders, got into the correct positions and even succeed in not injuring a single player, well not fatally. For two hours they behaved and didn't moan the only problem was that it didn't last for two hours.
At around ten at night Jessica finally called a halt to the current mess that was training after spending almost four hours on the field. She quickly gathered them into a huddle and sent them off before she could start beating any of them to death
The team was in shambles. They could barely stay on their brooms for longer than ten minutes before knocking each other off with either a rouge bludger or just lack of an ability to say on. Lily Potter, who Jess had happily added to the team as the newest Seeker, was being to get cocky after the success of the last time and had decided not to try anymore. Fred and the new beater, Thomas Kingston, weren't exactly the dream team that Fred and Roxanne had been the year previously because during the course of the training session and the last match Fred had, apparently, made out with Kingston's girlfriend in a broom closet. Dominique Weasley was the most easily distracted person Jessica had ever met and it was starting to grate on the Gryffindor Capitan's already exhausted nerves.
But what surprised the seventh year witch the most was that James Sirius Potter the most uncooperative person on the entire planet, even more so after she stole his role as Capitan, was the only one actually working for her. He listened to everything she said and did as asked first time almost always. He was the only one actually putting in any effort by the end of training. But what shocked her most was that he decided to hang back at the end and spend more of his already shorted Wednesday evening helping her tidy up all the gear.
"God they really can be a pain in the arse, cant they?" James stated picking up the last of the knee guards and adding it into his already overflowing pile while Jessica struggled to fit the last bludger back into the box. "Hey let me help you with that."
"No it's okay, just keep a hold of those guards I got suck an ass kicking from Aaron Dunnet, the Hufflepuff Capitan, after half of them went missing last time," the witch quickly asked just before she clipped the bludger in tight.
"Hey well Dunnet's an ass so maybe I should just go and misplace them anyway."
"Then I swear to god I will kick you off the team faster than you can say 'Accio' because I am not having him on my back for the next three days, the guy is a creep."
James laughed before quickly adding: "I won't but I know for certain you wouldn't do that anyway. Even if you could find a replacement in three days who is half as good as I am, I am the only player in this mismatch of a squad that is actually following plan."
The witch hated that James was right because she knew she couldn't lose him and that frustrated her to no end. She took a deep breath in before exhaling a little too loudly and then turned to her companion.
"Why are you following the plan, Mr Potter? We have been on the same team for almost five years now and I don't think I can ever remember a time when you 'followed the plan'. Well except maybe when you created the plan."
"Ah well I have learnt from my time as Capitan, Miss Finnigan, that when people don't follow your arrangement it makes it very difficult to get anything done so I have finally, after many years, realised that maybe I should do as I have been told."
"I think I should be the first person to say 'congratulations', you have finally followed the rules! How does that feel?"
"I don't like it. When I get back to the castle I think I'll blow something up to make me feel better," James joked looking downright depressed at his new law-abiding approach to his school life.
The Gryffindor Capitan laughed at the younger wizards struggles before realising that she may have actually been encouraging his behaviour.
"Don't do that, okay?"
"I am not making any promises..." Jessica stopped and swatted him, maybe a little too hard, with the twiggy end of her broomstick. "Okay, okay, stop hitting me! I won't, I swear!"
Jessica smiled brightly at him but hit the eldest Potter one more time for good measure which gained her a frown from the boy. She laughed it off and continued her walk back to the castle and the warm shower she was hoping to have as soon as she got back to her dorm.
It wasn't until Jessica was standing under the scolding shower of water that she realised that was the first time her and James Potter had actually had a proper conversation. He acted almost exactly like people said he did but strangely she felt almost perfectly comfortable with him. It had nothing to do with the fact that he was her best friend's cousin; it has everything to do with the fact that he was being genially nice, which was something supposedly unheard of from the Hogwarts prankster. And as much as she wanted to deny it, Jessica was a tiny bit flattered by the boy's kindness towards her.
...
When October the 17th finally did come along James couldn't have been less excited if he wanted to.
James loved Quidditch just as much as the next person, and though he had promised Jessica that he wouldn't complain once during one of their countless training session, but he was just unable to be interested in the prospect of going out in the pouring rain for a good couple of hours. He couldn't be bother to beat the Hufflepuff's even though he had wanted to lay one on Aaron Dunnet since the start of school. He was less than eager to parade around in the mud, ruining his brand new broom, until Lily caught the snitch which was highly unlikely as well as very uninteresting.
Nevertheless that wasn't really the truth. James wasn't uninterested in the game, he was simply distracted. He was distracted by a certain Gryffindor Quidditch Capitan that had been catching his eye since the start of term. Due to this he had next to no idea what the positions for the game actual were and at one point he even forgot the name of the new, pretty blonde chaser who had been showing a deep interest in him- her name was Genevieve though not that it really mattered to him.
So there he was, sitting in the Gryffindor tent listening to Jessica Finnigan explain the layout and strategies for the game and all he could do was stare at her while not taking in a word she was saying. He noticed how tired the witch was beginning to look, which he was putting down to the stress of not only an uncooperative Quidditch team but also the pressure of oncoming N.E.W.T.S. He noticed how every now and then she would shift her weight from one foot to another but she only leaned on her left for a minutes instead of the five on the other. He also saw that the golden brown highlights in her hair were slowly turning darker in the winter light.
"Right so has everyone so that? Now if you all just remember this and follow it we should have a slight chance of actually winning this game. Okay guys can you do that for me? I know that it is like crap outside and that none of us actually want to be here but we have to do this for our house and I have to beat Ravenclaw for the Cup or Molly is going to be taking the piss out of me for years. Right let's go."
"Fred what the hell just happened? I didn't hear any of that."
"Next time, mate, gawk over Jessica with your mouth closed 'cause you've got drool all over your chin."
...
To say that the Gryffindor's won the match against Hufflepuff would be a huge over-statement; they were just slightly the lesser of two crap teams.
The Hufflepuff's weren't shocked with their loss and the Gryffindor's weren't ecstatic about their win so Jessica didn't chalk this up in the success column. In fact if there was a column for complete lack of caring, Jess would have put it in there.
How exactly they won the game was completely beyond the Gryffindor Capitan. She vaguely recalled saving a few goals, before losing all feeling in her toes. She remembered cheering as James and Dominique scored their twenty-ninth goal before she no longer had the power to hold on to her broom properly. And she could only slightly recall Lily catching the snitch before she nearly fell unconscious from lack of heat circulating around her frozen body.
Still even though their win was nothing special, the Gryffindor's held the traditional party after in the Common Room, cheering and applauding the squad as if they were some kind of God's. The poor win was lost on the Gryffindor house mates so the whole team decided to go along with the festivities as if they were actually excited by their victory.
Gryffindor celebratory parties were always huge and, though no one below the fourth years knew, involved a lot of alcohol. They went on until the early hours of the morning and kept up almost the whole castle except those who are smart enough to put up a noise silencing charm around their dorms. No one, except the younglings of the house, was sober for longer than the first hour and most of the hangovers lasted until at least the Sunday morning.
Jessica Finnigan was no different; in fact she probably got more drunk then most of the elder pupils however she was able to hold her drink a lot better than them. The seventh year witch, though she pretended she didn't, thoroughly enjoyed the prospect of hanging up her goody-goody-two-shoes attitude for a few hours to have a little fun.
James Sirius Potter however was not the biggest fan of the excessive drinking but he would always join in anyway. Now James was the kind of person who could be completely fine for the first two full bottles of firewhiskey but as soon as he took a sip from another he would be on the floor spilling his deepest darkest secrets. And that is probably how he ended up having a conversation with the Gryffindor Capitan that a sober James would never even dream of starting.
Jessica was in no way surprised when she went up the stairs to her dorm to find the eldest Potter, a bottle of firewhiskey still clutched in his hand, lying face down on flight to his own. This was a frequent occurrence for the witch helping her housemates as, though she was probably a lot drunker, she was the only one who could actually use her common sense when it came towards large quantities of alcoholic beverages.
So she took it upon herself to help her fellow teammate make it to his bed before someone stood on him or did something even more dramatic. Hauling him up two flights of stairs would have been no struggle for Gryffindor Capitan on an average day but after drinking her body weight in alcohol it became slightly less straight forward. Though on a normal day she would pull out her wand and levitate him she wasn't exactly thinking perfectly straight.
After finally pulling and a fair amount of dropping, James up the last couple of steps she decided it would be in her best interests just to drag him along the floor toward his bed. She flopped him onto his bed and took a step back before choosing to tuck him in against her better nature.
"Jess?"
The witch jumped up in shock and stopped her tucking to look down at the inhabitant of the four poster bed. "Jesus Christ, James! You gave me a heart attack!"
James chuckled. "Sorry Finnigan I didn't mean to give you a scare."
"It's fine."
Silence hung in the air as Jessica contemplated whether or not it would be rude to leave the half awake Gryffindor. James sighed deeply uncorking the bottle in his hands and taking a huge gulp.
"Hey I really don't think that's the best idea Potter," the witch advised, taking the bottle out of his hands. He groaned in protest but didn't try and take it back. The witch pondered it for a second and then threw the fiery liquid down her throat.
"Wouldn't have put you down as a fan of firewhiskey Finnigan, what with hanging around with my most sensible cousin and all."
"Yeah well Molly ain't here to tell me off, is she?"
James shook his head and sat up to grab the half empty bottle from her outstretched hand. "I won't tell if you don't," winking and then taking a mouthful, far smaller than the witch's, of the amber liquid.
And they sat like that together, sharing the drink between them, for a few hours until it was almost empty. By that point both parties were drunker than they would have liked but they continued on until the last drop was gone. Jessica looked disappointingly at the empty bottle in her hand while James stared, quiet happily, at the witch.
"You did a great job today you know that Finnigan. I don't think even I could have got the team organised in that weather."
"Was that a complement James? I don't think I have ever heard one escape your lips before," the older witch was intending on saying but instead, probably due to the fact that she had an empty firewhiskey bottle in her hand, said: "No I didn't, we won purely because Hufflepuff were shittier than we were. And I have to say that it was one of the most boring matches I have ever seen and I had to sit through that eight and a half hour one between Ravenclaw and Slytherin in my fourth year."
"Well still a better job than me."
The silence returned once again as the Gryffindor Capitan had no reply to the Potter's claim.
"You're actually a really good player, much better than the crappy keeper on the Hufflepuff team. I mean, me and Dominique didn't even have to try to score."
"True but he is not exactly hard one to beat." Jessica laughed softly lifting up the bottle to her lips before remembering that it was actually empty. She huffed in disappointment and then threw it into a nearby bin with a dull clatter.
"You're better than Oliver Wood is." Jessica's head shot up like a rocket and she sent a confused look towards the Potter. "I saw him play in the holidays and the only thing I could think while watching him play was that he was nowhere near as good as you. Not even close."
Still shocked by both the comment and the compliments the younger wizard was giving her she said: "Potter, Wood is one of the best Keeper's in the world. He is wanted by over six professional teams outside of the UK, he has save over six hundred goals against the best chasers in the world, he..."
"Isn't as good as you," James finished. "Ever thought about going into Quidditch after finishing Hogwarts?"
Jessica was glad that James had decided to change the subject of the conversation, though still uncertain as to where it was going. "No, I want to be an Auror. My dad works with Dean Thomas in their weird company that I still don't fully understand and my mum works on the pitch so I wanna do something different. Something that no one in my family has done before."
"I want to be an Auror too. I guess I can blame that on my Dad but I think it sounds really cool. Maybe we would be on a team together again."
"Yeah I would like to avoid working with you for another couple of years yet, Potter, but sure I guess at some point that could be interesting."
"Yeah I'd like that too," James stated shifting around under his bed and pulling out yet another firewhiskey. He offered some to his Capitan but she shook her head. "I like you Jessica Finnigan."
"And I think, most of the time, I like you too James Potter."
And though as much as James wanted to admit he liked Jessica more than just that, he held his tongue. He did wish for a more that 'I-like-you' relationship with the Finnigan but he decided that he probably wasn't in the best place to be shouting out his feelings. However, little did the eldest Potter know that the Gryffindor Capitan was questioning her own feelings for the wizard too.
A/N: Okay no one asked for this but I thought it would be best if I did an introductory chapter for the eldest Finnigan as not many of you know much about her. This was meant to just be a quick one shot but it ran on for 3000 words so I hope that it wasn't too dull even though nothing of great import happens. It wasn't as all about Jessica as I would have liked it to be but I hope you can see it as laying the ground of the James and Jessica relationship. I do really like these two together for some unknown reason and I hope you like them too. Again I hope you enjoyed this and didn't find it too taxing to read.