Update~! Chapter two~! Yay~! Okay, no, not really… I can honestly say that I kind of… I don't know how to put it… umm… despise this chapter? Yeah, that's it~! Haha, I'm sorry, I just don't like it at all… I'm very eager to just jump into the romance portion; it's a lot better than this rubbish I'm giving you now, in my opinion. Oh wells~! I still hope you can find some enjoyment in this~!


A Matter of Pride (Part 2 of 2)

James Potter emanates this air of self-confidence wherever he goes… it's not that he struts or anything, well, not to me, but he holds his head up high, his shoulders squared, his back straight and his chest thrust out. He's amiable enough, I suppose, he's friendly and stuff… so why does he irritate me? It's exactly that. The bloody git never seems to do anything wrong in anyone's eyes but Lily's.

Don't say it… I know what you're going to say – that I shouldn't take Lily's word on everything, right? Or something like that… well, I didn't. At first, I was absolutely dead-set on proving the girl wrong… but a certain incident in third year had proved me very wrong…

I should start off by saying that I'm not, in fact, in James Potter's year – though with the gits in their year, I could very well pull it off – I'm a year below. But what makes me so amazingly close with them is this… my elder brother is.

My elder brother… Kirill Wickerweed. Kirill is a year above me, placing him in O.W.L. year with the rest of the Marauder gang. However… he's in Ravenclaw.

And he's a shining example of everything a Ravenclaw should have, too. He's bloody gorgeous… dark waves of midnight hair and brilliant violet eyes, a strong bone structure, but not too strong… girls fawn over him as much as they fawn over the Marauders. And he's bloody brilliant, too, he's witty and creative and quick on the tongue… but that's his problem. He's a little too quick to snap back…


May of 1975…

Transfiguration had just ended and I, being myself, sat alone on the grass, twiddling my fingers, waiting, just waiting… not quite sure for what. I got my answer in the form of my elder brother.

I was never great with friends and especially those in my own year… too many of them irritated me to no ends, this is how I break it down: half of them I wish to curse, a fourth I want to push in the Great Lake, an eighth I want to hit with my satchel, a sixteenth I simply bid good morning to and another sixteenth I don't particularly care for or know of. Therefore, the only person I really cared to talk to was my elder brother.

I stood up immediately, brushing aside a Slytherin I knew from my Potions class but never really took note of, and darted over to him, waving a bit, "Kirill!" I called, but before I could reach him, a Hufflepuff collides with him halfway down the hall.

Everything seems to stop for a moment. Papers fall everywhere, books are bent at the spine by colliding with the ground, ink splatters across papers and robes, it's a big mess and my brother, short tempered as he is…

"You bloody git! Are you stupid?! Can't you see where you're going and walk at the same time?!" he shouts at the Hufflepuff. And I can't help it – I sigh. It was a perfectly Kirill-like thing to do… shout and insult him… of course.

It wasn't too brilliant because who else was there but the noble and gallant James bloody Potter? Hero to all those in need… the magnificent Potter to the rescue! Putting his nose in somewhere it most certainly doesn't belong…

And then Potter does perhaps one of the worst possible things he can… he curses my brother, the git. And it doesn't even stop there… he raises his wand again, the spell playing on his lips…

But it never gets out.

I shove the git before he can utter a single syllable. Yes… I shove James Potter and he went toppling to the ground. I know… use my wand, right? That'd be the obvious thing to do, wouldn't it? I must admit… I didn't think. I ran over and pushed James Potter…

"You're the git!" I snarled at him, "You're always going around thinking you can do these sorts of things, well, Potter, you can't! You can't just… curse people when you feel the urge or put your nose into business where it doesn't belong! Sod off!"

Potter looks shocked, sprawled out there on the floor before he smirks and mutters, "Oh? Is that it, Wickerweed? You need your little sister to help you in a fight?"

My brother's face turns red and I don't think I can handle a battle of testosterone… gathering up everything I can identify as my brothers in a hurry, I grab his hand and march…

Far away from it all… far away from Potter and the Hufflepuff in shock on the floor, far away from the crowd of people staring, muttering, "She just pushed James Potter!" and "Who was that?"…

"That git…" I mutter, staring at the ground, face red in embarrassment… I hadn't… I didn't… plan on doing that. That had… I'm not sure what it was. Basic animal instinct, I suppose?

Kirill stopped walking and mid-step, I paused as well, turning 'round I saw him, face stern, set… a seething anger in his eyes… inwardly, I cringed, my heart becoming tight, waiting…

SLAP!

Oww… my face burned from the contact of his hand against my cheek, probably red, possibly throbbing, my brother wasn't a weakling, after all…

"Why did you do that?" he commanded. There's a fire burning in his eyes and I… don't get it.

"Do what?" I demand, "Help you? Because you're my sodding brother, why else? You think I'm going to stand by and let Potter…"

"That's not what I mean…" he mutters and he sighs heavily before beginning to explain, "Do you know what 'pride' is?"

"That's a stupid question," I retort, "Of course I do… what of it?"

"Well, then, if you know what it is… why'd you help me? It's insulting to a man's pride to have a girl, their little sister help them in a fight. It's not a matter of I don't appreciate it… it's a matter of pride." He answered, staring me down with those eyes…

It was that day that I decided…

Pride was the source of all problems…


It was a good enough lesson to learn, that, apparently, I failed miserably, in a way at learning, considering what I was doing now…

"This is so stupid… come on, let's just go get breakfast," Mary pleaded, tugging on my arm uselessly, I rolled my eyes and shrugged her off.

"I know… but I can't let Potter get away with thinking I was too scared to back down from a challenge…" I murmur.

She rolls her eyes at me, "That's stupid, too. Come on, who cares what Potter thinks?"

"The vast majority of the student body," I answer with a roll of the eyes… it was true, after all.

"The vast majority of the student body is also stupid, according to you, so let's go."

"Leave it alone, Mary," Marlene sighs, she smiles at me wryly, "Kaz is too stubborn to be persuaded otherwise, you know that," she chuckles and claps my shoulder with a hearty laugh, "Beat the bloody git and make him regret he ever learned to ride a broom, all right?"

Chuckling, I nod sharply, "Of course… he'll regret ever hearing the word, 'broom'." They both smile, Mary a little weakly before they leave the pitch to get breakfast, they were under no oath to watch me… and neither were, apparently, Potter's Quidditch buddies, who seemed to evaporate… where the bloody hell had they gone?

"I sent them off," Potter calls, and he's smirking from where he stands more than a few meters away, "I don't see any reason as to why they should stick around."

"I thought you loved a crowd, Potter," I snap back, glaring at him.

His smirk wavers a little before finally turning into a sort of frown, "I don't get it, Wickerweed… you seem to hate me. And, quite frankly, I don't get it."

What… the bloody hell…? "I don't know what you're talking about, Potter…"

He shrugs his shoulders, "I mean," he sighs, "I haven't done anything… I haven't said anything… we barely know each other, Wickerweed, and still, you seem to bloody well hate me."

"You mean to tell me… you seriously don't remember last year? Bloody hell James… it was little over a few months ago!"

It's absolutely frustrating to see him shrug his shoulders a little, "Well, yeah, I remember your brother and I were almost in a fight, but… still…"

"James… I was the one that pushed you and yelled at you in the hall that day."

He blinks and seems to rack his brain for the memory before snapping his fingers, "It was you! But… that still doesn't make any sense… why would you hate me because of that…?" he looks questioning, wondering, trying to figure out something that was so very obvious… well, maybe not…

"I hate you… because you're the reason I can't look my brother in the eye anymore…"

And everything goes silent… there's nothing but the sound of breathing, although I hear the thud as a broom falls to the ground in shock…

"Bloody hell, Wickerweed… what happened?"


I don't like this chapter at all… in fact, I'm really just trying to get all this past and over with so that I can get into the romance… one more chapter. Anyways~! The last update that I won't make you wait a week for will come this upcoming Monday, but then I'm putting this story on weekly updates, every Monday. Review please~!