To my first reviewer WhiteBlossom143 thank you for the review, here's to you toasts and I'm hoping you'll be leaving many more (favorable ones of course!) :o)
"But all the same, he was glad. She had managed to distract him long enough that he hadn't had a single thought about that school, and about whether or not he was going to be a disappointment to his parents and ostracized by the rest of the magical community. With such heavy thoughts bearing down on this young mans shoulders, he stood up, still with grass clinging to his back, and strolled off home, the smile and whistle gone as his thoughts of inadequacy tumbled through his mind."
Chapter Two The First Humiliation Often Comes with Dead Weight
James POV
"It's no use!" James yowled with frustration whilst kicking the broom he had been flying.
He had been trying to make something 'magical' happen for quite a while now and nothing had come of it.
He was starting to panic.
He desperately wished that Sirius was here to help him. But Sirius had been locked inside for the summer, for talking to him. Thinking of this, James kicked the broom again, sending it flying against the trunk of a nearby tree. Sirius was his best friend, since the day he had been forced to beat a very young James Potter up, and his large grey eyes had managed to convey what his face and manner could not – that he was sorry and somehow was different from the rest of his family. But Sirius was not here right now and, although James could seriously do with some of his humor, he would have to sort himself out.
Besides, he thought grimly, if I don't get my letter soon I wont be seeing very much – If any – of Sirius again.
Hearing a noise behind him, he whirled around so fast he tripped over a stubborn clump of grass and tumbled straight over, his glasses – newly repaired by his gran when no-one was looking whilst causing him much shame – falling off from their precarious perch on his nose. So involved was he in trying not to fall to the ground, that it took him a few minutes to turn and regard his assailant.
His breath caught in his chest and his face started turning purple. It was her! He had returned for his walks every day for the past two weeks to try and catch a glimpse of her again, but to no avail. He had – or at least he was telling himself he had – given up any hope of seeing her again (to extract revenge of course) and was getting into his plan of "Prove to Them You Are Worth Something" by making something magical occur around him. So far Plan A sucked and since there was no Plan B, James was ready to grab this sudden – but welcome – interruption with both hands and run with it.
"Hello? Helooooooo?" Sighing and stamping her foot, the girl in front of him – Red, as he decided to call her – waved her hand back and forth in front of his face.
"Are you ok? Anybody in there? HELLO???!?"
"Ok, Ok, no need to shout! I'm perfectly fine!" he snapped back at her, irritated with himself for losing his aplomb. Her face fell from – was that worry – to dead calm and the lighting he had met on their first round crackled again in the emerald depths.
Cocking her head to the side – which he was fast learning was one of her habits – he noticed a small, slight smile playing around on her lips. Just as he was about to become slightly concerned (remembering their last encounter) she had stepped forward, gripped his arm about the wrist and somehow done a strange twisty-twirly thing that resulted in him being pressed against a tree at a very awkward angle. He gritted his teeth and sighed, feeling her slim fingers working at something and deciding he rather didn't want to know.
Lily's POV
Ok, I know I promised mum that I wouldn't get into any trouble before the meeting with the private schools headmaster later today, but this, this, arrogant prat has tested my patience too far today. Hasn't he heard and been warned about redheads tempers? Sighing with frustration, Lily tried not to notice that he was turning his head to look at her, she ducked her head so that her luscious red curls tumbled round her face protectively, hiding the blush that heated her cheeks.
James' POV
Finishing what she was doing, she bent over to whisper in his ear, "I could do so much worse to you, but seeing as you caught me in a good mood, I'm willing to let you off the hook with just a slap on the wrist," and with those words, she patted him on the head twice – which set him to grinding his teeth to refrain from making a comment – and trounced off happily, singing softly under her breath. Watching her recede into the distance, it took him a few moments to remember that she had done something to his hand or arm, or some part of him that he suddenly realized he couldn't…
Feel?
He couldn't fee his arm? His hand? His fingers (not even the little one!)
Oh SHIT!
Mum was going to kill him! Father too! Not to mention he was going to be a laughingstock for the rest of the community. He stood up and glared at the offending limp arm he held – or rather that hung – at his side. Gingerly with his right hand he reach over and lifted the left; raised it an inch or two and dropped it. With a sick thud in the bottom of his stomach, he watched it flop uselessly back and forth, and he couldn't feel anything! Not from the inside, when he bit his arm (having to hold it weirdly up with his other); not from the outside when he accidentally hit it against a tree when bending down.
James Henry Potter was fuming. He was walking home – very awkwardly, given that the floppy, useless arm flailed about ridiculously. And, seeing as he had his broomstick and knapsack to carry back home, he couldn't very easily hold it still. He was going to kill her. He was going to pull her apart piece-by-piece and feed her to his pet terrier, Scotch.
When he finally arrived home the expected and frankly inevitable happened. His mother screamed and fawned over him – in a very dignified sort of manner of course; his father, the pruned-up peacock sniffed slightly and shook his head, disappointed heavily etched into his features. He sighed inwardly while seething, and promised himself – especially after being given a lecture about his parents' disapproval and how they were not entirely sure that he could be their offspring (ok they never said that but he was sure he could read it in their eyes) – he promised himself that when next he went for a 'soothing' walk, he would take something with to repay little Red for her 'kindness'
Three Weeks Later …
James walked over the grassy knoll, heading towards where he had seen the redhead coming from the last two encounters. His arm had recovered on its own – though according to his gran it was thanks to her healing aura, passed down from the long line of pure Potter blood, and he had spent the past three weeks creating a (hopefully) full proof plan for getting little Red back. Now he was back to his confident self, and as he strode jauntily up the hill, he reflected that the biggest reason for this was the fact that he had seen Sirius this morning. In an act of desperation, James had floo'd over to his place and managed to speak with his unusually grim-faced friend for a grand total of five minutes before Sirius' mom had pulled him off by the ear. With the glare that she gave James, he had thought it in his best interest to high-tail it out of there before she came back for him.
As he crested the hill, he was happy and smug to see the red head, lying on the ground, eyes closed with a blissful smile on her face. She was obviously enjoying her peace and quiet and James was glad that he would be disturbing it for a very good reason….
Author's Notes
Oh come on people! Review please! I promise that those little incentives will make my fingers move faster!
:oP
