I don't own Harry Potter!
It's easy to love someone who's perfect. I guess that's why I've always been aware of him, his perfection. I mean, it basically comes with the territory of being the first-born son of Harry and Ginny Potter, the Golden Couple Who Saved The World. Or, at least, one of them.
I, meanwhile, fade into the background whenever possible. I bet you don't even know who I am, do you?
He doesn't. Why would James Potter notice Shadow Girl when he has dozens of adoring fans who pine after him day after day, jealous of one another, desperate for attention, and yet cowardly by nature.
It's easy to fawn over someone who's perfect, too, I quickly learned. After all, everyone else is doing it.
What's not so easy is loving the Golden Boy when he slips up. Lets his mask fall. Makes a mistake.
It wasn't his fault that Gryffindor lost to Hufflepuff by two-hundred points the very first game of the season. If Neal McLaggen had been a little bit better at Keeper (and didn't have so many anger problems), we wouldn't have been behind so much when Albus finally caught the Snitch. Not to win the game, but to put us out of our misery.
It wasn't his fault that the Slytherins took it upon themselves to taunt every Gryffindor they saw in the days, weeks, months following.
It wasn't his fault that he was dating a complete slag.
And it certainly wasn't his fault that she broke up with (humiliated) him in front of the entire student body.
Even though none of this was his fault, my perfect Golden Boy was broken. And nobody really cared enough to pick up his pieces.
Oh, his cousins and siblings tried. There were so many of them that it was sometimes overwhelming. That's what they did: overwhelm him. So much red hair, so many freckles. Eventually, they realized they should back off.
Everyone did then. The Quidditch team won against Slytherin, but not by enough to win the Cup. His fan club had moved on to Neal McLaggen, who was angling to become the Quidditch Captain "next year...don't worry, I'll get us back in shape".
It's easy to love someone who's perfect, but it's also easy to love them when they're not. When they have no one.
Because then, when the gloriously perfect shell has been cracked, you can see the real person within. With all his insecurities in the wide open, wiggling like worms on a sidewalk after a downpour.
That's when they need you the most.
And, if you're willing, that's when you're there to carry them through.