Young Paul
by: Lovelyrubberboots
Disclaimer: if you recognize it I don't own it...
Thanks in advance for reveiws!
Avery.
Burns.
Jefferson.
Malfoy.
McLaggen.
Pucey.
Weasley.
Another Wesley.
Yet another Weasley. Damn Weasley's always cropping up where you least expect them. He blinked, looked again – it couldn't be another Weasley – there was no way. Upon another brief moment of study it was a Wood. He almost wished it was a Weasley.
Zabini.
He rechecked the list.
Neville's eyes scanned, almost twitching as he looked at the list again. With a heavy sigh he picked up his tea and took a sip, shaking his head sadly over list of his NEWT students. All but two students who'd qualified had signed up. Again, he shook his head sadly and rose, tiredly from his desk to wander down to the bar where Hannah would be cleaning up. Perhaps there he'd run into his favorite ex-student. Or, perhaps he could convince his wife to explain to him, where, exactly, he'd gone wrong.
"Did you know about this?" he asked grimly, sinking into the bar chair in front of Hannah, her graying blonde hair swept up into a messy bun.
"Not directly, but we all knew Herbology was never his subject," she said, with large sympathetic eyes, "I know you wanted Paul to continue, but he's much more suited for Charms,"
Neville fought the urge to roll his eyes and harrumph grumpily – his only son deserting the wonderful world of plants for charms. He took another long sip of tea, before there was the pitter-pattering of feet running towards him. With a satisfied stomp they came to an end, just to his left. Neville looked over and down at the top of his youngest daughter, Sara's head.
"Look! I grew this!" she said, and with a large smile and dirt covered hands thrust a small plant towards him, before running off up the stairs of the Leaky Cauldron.
"Well, I guess I have Sara," he smiled.
Hugo's favorite person, in the whole wide world had to be Paul. Paul had all the charm and confidence one would have expected from the son of a bartender and snake-killer. Hugo could hardly imagine anyone cooler than Paul.
Six years older than Hugo, Paul was a seventh year when Hugo started Hogwarts. Head Boy and a quidditch captain Hugo knew that more than any of his cousins, he wanted to be like Paul.
Hugo would spend most of his free time trying to be just like Paul. He tried to walk like Paul – but Lucy made fun of him. He wanted to good at charms like Paul – but he accidently turned Jack William's hair pink. He wanted to be a Hufflepuff like Paul – but the hat put in him Gryffindor (all in all not a bad house). He wanted to be a Beater like Paul – but Hugo didn't have the build.
Ironically, it was Paul who convinced him not to be like Paul.
It was after much copying, moping and generally annoying his cousins (particularly Lucy and Dominique) with stories of how great Paul was, the Paul took Hugo aside after dinner one night for a walk around the grounds.
"Being Hugo is much better than being someone else. Particularly me. No girl wants to date me because they either see me as 'their best guy friend Paul' or 'that guy Paul who my best friend has a huge crush on' or 'that guy Paul who flirts with everyone'. I have to go to the hospital wing all the time to get treated for beater's injuries. I can't keep plants alive and it disappoints my dad. My sisters' think I'm over protective, my mum knows anyone who would ever sell me alcohol not to mention the fact that everyone on the Hufflepuff quidditch team hates me for breaking up their parties all the time. No, I think it would be much easier in life to be a Hugo," and with that Paul was done.
Hugo told Lucy all about it on the train ride home.
"Paul is always flirting with everyone though. If he weren't my best friend, I'd be really annoyed. I think Dom has a crush on him,"
Young Paul likes to take risks. Young Paul does what he is told not to do. Young Paul explores and Young Paul messes around much too much with his mummy's wand.
Old Neville will not stand for such tomfoolery. Yes, Young Paul is young, but Young Paul is old enough to know better than to try out magic on his little Sister. Young Paul will apologize profusely to his sister; watch out for her instead of pointing wands at her in the future. Young Paul will also be grounded for a week with no desert for a month.
Young Paul is not happy with the situation. Mostly because he's ashamed. Young Paul is old enough to know better.
Paul's first kiss is with Eloise Hancock. He is twelve, she is eleven. They have snuck away into a compartment on the Hogwarts express. With some giggles on her part, and an attempt to act significantly less nervous than he really is, they kiss, their lips locking for just a moment, in a small mess of spit, teeth and tongue. It is wonderful and Paul can't wait to do it again.
And then his older sister Lizzie walks in. Lizzie Louise Longobttom scowls and runs off, now with a giant goofy grin on her face. There's only one thing that Lizzie can be doing, and it is telling Victoire. Paul sprints after her, leaving a confused Eloise Hancock standing alone in a train compartment, having just had her first kiss.
Paul finally catches up with Lizzie at, not Victoire's compartment, but Lucy's, Dominique's, Clara's, Martha's, Elizabeth's and a whole other mess of girls in his year's compartment. Just as Paul walks in, Lizzie is exclaiming – "Paul just kissed Eloise Gretchen Hancock!"
Without another word she is off to spread more mayhem and tell the whole rest of her world the news about her brother.
"Um, Paul," Martha says, her arms crossed her stomach, "can you leave? We need to talk about you." Martha never was one to mince words. He leaves.
Paul rather likes not having cousins. He also likes that he is not the oldest and can wander through Hogwarts in Lizzie's footsteps. Lizzie left great footsteps. Not terribly smart, but excessively charming, all Paul had to do to be liked was say he was Lizzie's younger brother. And, if Paul did say so himself, it rather helped his cause that he wasn't unpleasant to be around and people liked him on his own merit.
But, Paul was even more grateful to not have cousins. Nothing about them appealed to him. Too many names, too many conflicts, too many people who felt they had the right to be in your business. Between his father and Lizzie, and later Sara and Amelia, Paul was quite well suited with family at Hogwarts.
Which reminded him, he needed to steal his socks back from Lizzie. How he was going to get into the Gryffindor common room he had no idea.
Paul likes Dominique. No, like is too strong of a word. He favors Dominique, out of the pairing of Lucy and her. They are rarely together, but when they are their differences are striking. Dominique is tall, graceful, kind, smart (not that Lucy isn't, but Dom is smarter and certainly less conceited about it). Dom is also single and potentially likes him too, which when it comes to girls is generally a big plus. At least in Paul's book.
Other the other hand, Lucy is a challenge, and unfortunately that is exactly what Paul likes. Lucy is too wrapped up in herself, her friends, her nails, her friends nails, her studies (at times) and too wrapped up in her boyfriend and quidditch to pay much attention to Paul. Which is really a shame, because if she went after him, Paul wouldn't like her. And he really does not want to like her.
No, Dominique is clearly the better of the two. It's generally agreed upon by pretty much everyone except for Oliver Zabini, who is generally too wrapped up in Lucy's arms to pay much notice to Dominique.
Paul lets Dom get away with stuff. Little stuff, like wandering the hallways just past when student are supposed to be in bed. Like, getting a piece of fruit from the kitchen. Like, skipping class on the first snow day. But then again, he lets a lot of people get away with such stuff. Oliver Zabini, however, better not even think about getting fruit from the kitchens. Paul lets Lucy get away with a lot more. He's purposefully avoiding going down a hallway at 1am, after hearing her laugh, knowing he'll have to give her detention and take way points if he catches her. He's seen her with a bottle of firewhiskey in her purse. He's seen her skipping class for no reason.
Paul looks at Dominique sometimes at meals, and she catches him regularly. And he regularly catches himself looking just a little to her left, past the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor tables to where Lucy is sitting at the Slytherin table. Oliver's hand over her shoulder. Paul makes a mental note to get coffee with Dom in Hogsmeade, and to find something he can take away points from Oliver for.
Alexander Wood nudges him, "Dominque's pretty hot, isn't she? I'd tap that, but hey man – you're my best friend. She's all yours". Paul smiles, appreciative of Alexander's gesture. Never look a gift horse in the mouth.
read and reveiw = love.