Chapter Seven: We Stand Together
Lucy it seemed had no desire to speak to her family about what had happened during the Sorting Ceremony, no doubt knowing exactly how they must have reacted to her placement in Slytherin. Just as they had agreed, everyone backed off from Lucy almost immediately, not even James so much as tried to speak with her – or perhaps more impressively in James' case, prank her.
Dominique had been informed of this plan, and though no one had spoken to Molly about it, it was apparent that Lucy's elder sister did not care in the slightest. In fact, from what little they could gather, it seemed that Molly was pleased about this turn of events. Perhaps she thought that having cousins in each of the four Houses would improve her chances of being Head Girl, which was all she ever spoke about lately.
But regardless of what the rest of them were doing, Lucy seemed to be perfectly content with what had happened, as Louis reported that he had never seen her in any of their classes without a pack of other First Year Slytherins, and they all seemed cheerful enough. It was somewhat surprising to them that Lucy could so easily assimilate into Slytherin, but it seemed as though she had truly been born for it.
Considering all of the lengths that they had gone through to make sure that they did not get on Lucy's case, it came as a great offense to James when, on just the fourth day of term, he received a letter from his parents.
To say that James was surprised to see the family owl Hedwig II flying overhead so early in the year was a gross understatement. But sure enough, the bird soared closely above the Gryffindor Table and dropped a small envelope on James' plate. As James picked it up in confusion, he noticed the bird swoop to the other side of the table, depositing another letter on Albus' lap.
James and Albus both exchanged looks of confusion, their parents had never written to them so early in the school year before, and they usually timed their owls to arrive at night while they were in the Common Room, so as to spare their sons the embarrassment and allow them to actually spend the time to read them.
As a small tawny owl flew over from the Ravenclaw Table and dropped a letter on Louis' head, followed moments later by another pair of owls by Rose and Fred, James began to put the dots together. It should have been obvious to him from the very start! But how could their parents be so distrustful of them? It was not like they were the most kindhearted of children, but surely their parents could not think that they could possibly be so cruel!
Sure enough though, when James opened the letter, the message was exactly what he had expected. Though the words were merely printed, he could practically hear the words reverberating through the air as though shouted at him by a Howler – or worse still by his mother herself!
James,
Your Uncle Percy told me today that Lucy was sorted into Slytherin during the Sorting Ceremony, and I can only hope that you are smart enough to realize that Lucy is still your cousin. Just as I told you when you started Hogwarts, no matter what House you are sorted into, it does not change the fact that we love you – and the same goes now for your cousin! If I hear that you have given her even one ounce of trouble for being in Slytherin then I promise you that you will be in more trouble than I can express on parchment! You know that Slytherins are not evil James, no matter how much you like to pretend that they are. Your friend Scorpius is a Slytherin and he's a perfectly nice boy.
James snorted derisively at this, remembering only too well how his mother had reacted to Scorpius Malfoy's presence in her home the year before. She was right, but that didn't change the fact that she was being disgustingly hypocritical! Of course, that was only one instance, and was more the exception than the rule with Ginny Potter, but it was still the principle of the thing!
I hope that you see for yourself how important it is that you make Lucy feel accepted and welcome, this is her First Year at Hogwarts and I will remind you that you were not so confident during your own First Year James Sirius Potter! She is still just as much your cousin as Rose, and Fred, and Louis and I expect you to treat her as such.
By that same token James, Molly and Dominique are your cousins too, and from what I understand if you haven't been giving them much of your time either. Nothing is more important than family James, don't forget it.
Love,
Mum and Dad
James looked at the letter with an expression of the utmost indignation on his face. For once, perhaps for the first time in his entire life, he had actually decided to do the mature thing. To act on all of those family values that his parents had spent so long trying to instill in him, and do the right thing by a member of his family. And what had happened as a result? His parents had come to him with these groundless accusations!
Of course, his parents had no way of knowing what kind of reaction James had had to all of this, and even he had to admit that it would be a hard sell to convince them that he had reacted in the way that he did.
James exchanged a look with Fred, who had just finished reading his own letter, and the two of them shook heads in silent agreement. That did it, never again would they ever attempt anything like this ever again! What good was it doing the 'right thing' if you didn't even get credit for it? At the very least, at least he would always get the credit for his mischievous ways.
"This is such a load of rubbish!" James growled angrily as Fred glared at his letter in anger. Apparently, Fred was unable to believe that his mum had actually written it, and to be honest James didn't blame him. Auntie Angelina was no Uncle George, but she was still pretty cool!
"I dunno James," said Zach, who had been reading the letter over James' shoulder and quietly explaining its contents to Jeremey and Andrew in a hush. "Maybe cause, well to put it bluntly, this is you that we're talking about here." He said, saying so with much more comfort than James would have expected to see out of either of his other Dormmates. Zach was the only one who freely criticized the rest of them without fear of retribution – he was Zach, it was his job.
"You'd think they'd trust me just a little bit!" James said, but none of the others were showing him any sympathy here. He had to admit that they had a point, this did seem like something that he would have indeed done had his parents not written him. To be fair, the same could be said for each of the boys sitting around him, but that was irrelevant.
Much to James relief, Rose and Albus came to join them the moment that they had finished, though Louis had to run off to class immediately and did not have any time to spare. Charms was all the way on the other side of the Castle, and Louis was bound to get lost two or three times along the way.
"So you got letters too did you?" James asked the pair, who sat down as the table started to clear. Students were beginning to head out across the Castle to their various classes and activities, so there was plenty of room for the lot of them to group together.
"Yup," Albus remarked with a roll of his eyes, "telling us how they're gonna drag us home if they so much as think that we're giving Lucy a hard time." He swapped letters with Fred, who almost immediately flung Albus' letter away in disgust.
"Can you believe this?" he demanded "They told him 'not to get sucked into' what me and James were gonna do! Why do they just assume that we're gonna be the ones to start something?" No one answered, they didn't need to. Even James knew the answer to that question was so obvious it was comical.
"Well, that does seem quite like the sort of thing that you lot would get up to now doesn't it?" asked a voice right behind them, causing James to practically leap into the air. However it was just Dominique, who seemed to have noticed their gathering from the Ravenclaw Table and was determined not to be left out again.
"You can't say that you're not insulted Dom!" James insisted, to which the blond haired girl just shrugged. "It's not like they don't have a point James, we're not exactly the most trustworthy of people."
James could not deny that there was some reason for pause when the most trustworthy and responsible person in a given group was Rose Weasley, who despite evidence to the contrary could be quite devious when she wanted to be. Of course, Molly was around somewhere, but their parents knew better than to expect any of them to listen to her.
"Does it really matter?" asked Andrew, much to the shock of the rest of them, who had by this time forgotten that James' three friends were still sitting there. "You won't do it, and then it'll be over with."
James had to admit that this was a good point, but it was still rather offensive that his parents had felt the need to send the letter in the first place, like even he could possibly be that needlessly cruel!
"Whatever." James said crossly, still not thinking that this was an entirely fair way of his parents to act. He was going to have to figure out a way to get his parents to trust him, else he was sure to be getting stupid letters like this every day of the week for the next four years!
Eventually though, they all had to head to class, so their conversation was cut a bit short in light of the fact that they all had to go in different directions. Albus Fred and Rose met up with Scorpius Malfoy and strode off for the dungeons where they would no doubt have to listen to Professor Slughorn incessantly telling them how well he knew their parents all lesson.
James and Albus had always found this trying in the extreme, though Rose it seemed had delighted in nothing more than hearing all about how clever she was and how much she reminded Slughorn of her mother. Though, from what their parents had said, Professor Slughorn was most certainly not any of their favorite teachers.
James waved goodbye to his cousins as Dominique rushed off to join a group of Ravenclaws that he did not recognize and head off to Charms class, which was taught by the rather quirky and often forgetful Professor Lund. None of them were particularly fond of their Charms professor, who often forgot what she had just taught them and insisted on going over it another four or five times, but she was certainly not the worst that Hogwarts had to offer.
By far everyone's favorite teacher though, was Professor Wilkins, who taught the immensely popular subject Defense Against the Dark Arts. Still, she probably could have taught History of Magic and still managed to be the most well liked teacher in the entire Castle. She was so nice that even James didn't like to cause trouble in her class, though that might have also been because the subject actually interested him just a little bit.
"I trust that everyone had a pleasant summer." Professor Wilkins said, and with her you actually felt that she was genuinely interested in how your summer had been. "Unfortunately we do not have the time to exchange stories at the moment; your Third Years mark a very important stage in your magical education, and we will need every moment together to make sure that you learn what you must."
James paled somewhat at these words, he had not expected to be hearing stuff like that so soon, wasn't that what they told you in your Fifth Year? The other Gryffindors sitting around him seemed to echo his concern, but the Ravenclaws jumped up in their seats excitedly as though determined to show their Head of House that they had what it took!
"Of course," she said, smiling warmly, "If any of you do wish to stop by my door is always open." An offer which, had it come from any other teacher, would have been met with laughter.
"Yes, Erin?" Professor Wilkins said, as the rest of them instinctively glanced towards Erin Malloy, who indeed had raised her hand. For some reason there seemed to be an instinctual requirement that everyone turn and stare at any student who dared to ask a question, as though they needed to feel even more stupid.
But Erin seemed not to notice, she was a Ravenclaw after all, as she asked "But Professor, surely our grades aren't really that important yet, I mean we are only Third Years." A query which earned her looks of the utmost shock and indignation from her fellow Ravenclaws. Even Jason looked somewhat scandalized, and that was saying something!
"Erin, your studies are always very important." Professor Wilkins explained, and it occurred to James that she was the only teacher who addressed her students on a first name basis. All of their other Professors used their surnames: Mr. Potter, Mr. Knight, Miss. Malloy, and the like. "The study habits that you form now are the ones that you are going to carry with you during your O.W.L. year, so it is important that we instill those study habits in you now so that you are not overwhelmed in your Fifth Year."
The Ravenclaws looked largely justified by this answer, as the Gryffindors – plus Erin – slumped into their seats in disappointment. Many of them had older siblings or relatives who had taken their O.W.L.s, and they all knew that they were a lot of work. If they were going to have to deal with an extra two years of that kind of work James was certain that they might just explode.
But, as Professor Wilkins had said, they had to get to work, and so the class took out their quills and began taking notes as she reviewed the curriculum for the year going forward, but James was not paying attention to what she was saying anymore.
Ordinarily this would not be saying very much, as James rarely paid attention in any of his classes, but Defense Against the Dark Arts was generally the exception to that rule. But no, today he was not interested in even the most interesting types of magic that Professor Wilkins was going to be teaching them.
No, James was instead far more interested in a far more pressing issue, and that was the fact that Erin Malloy seemed to have been kidnapped and replaced by an angel from heaven. Because no one, not even Erin Malloy, could possibly look that amazing wearing nothing but her normal school robes, and yet James could not tear himself away from her. The clenching pain in his stomach was worse than it had ever been before, and it occurred to him that keeping up his friendship with her was going to be hard work given his feelings.
Andrew seemed to notice his staring, as he punched James in the side and muttered "Hey dummy! Just a tip, but if you don't put your eyes back in your skull someone's gonna notice." Andrew seemed to find this immensely amusing, but James scowled in deep annoyance with himself and with his friend.
At least in part, James was annoyed with himself for being so obvious about what he was thinking. Sure Andrew was in on his secret, a 'secret' which was a very common thing for James to be moaning and complaining about at night in the Dormitories, but this was Andrew that they were talking about! And as much as Andrew was his friend, James knew that Andrew was not the most perceptive of people, so things were bad if even he could see it!
Zach, who was sitting on Andrew's other side glanced down the table towards James and realized in less than a second what was going on. Zach was by far the most perceptive of the group, and James supposed that it would be too much to ask that he wouldn't figure it out. Rolling his eyes, Zach whispered "For Merlin's sake James, if you like her that much just talk to her."
James gave Zach an appalled look of indignation, and the other boy snorted at him. James knew that it was unlikely that anyone could overhear them, but he did not want to take any chances. Zach shook his head, but consented to write his message to James on a scrap of parchment, which the two began passing back and forth.
Tell her! Zach had written, and James gave him a look of the utmost annoyance as he wrote back I can't! I'll be a laughing stock if she says no!
What happened to Mr. 'Every Girl in the Year Would Kill to Date Me'? came the scrawled response, along with a cocky grin from Zach, who knew that he had James exactly where he wanted him. Unfortunately though, that was not all that the note said as Zach had added a sarcastic. What, are you afraid of cooties or something?
Haha, you're hilarious! replied James, who had of course stopped believing in things like cooties a long time ago. OK, so maybe it was more like a few months ago, but whatever the point was the same!
This continued back and forth for some time until at last Zach wrote James a single line on the very last inch of space left on the parchment. If you don't soon, someone else will.it said, which of course did not make any sense to James. He was about to ask Zach what he was talking about, but with a tilt of his head, Zach directed James' attention to the person sitting who had been sitting – forgotten till now – on James' right hand side.
Upon catching his eye, James turned back to his books with a huff and committed himself to trying to get these notes right, something that he had never made a conscious effort to do eve in Defense Against the Dark Arts. He did not want to have to look at Jeremey right now.
James knew that he was being entirely unfair, after all he and Jeremey had agreed to make a fair race out of it, but he had never actually viewed Jeremey as a serious threat. After all he was a total goofball, not to mention that he was so scrawny that he would have been a fair competition for a little girl in an arm-wrestling match.
Of course, both of these things could be said for James as well, but that was not important. Zach was right, he needed to get a move on things, if only it was that easy.
When the bell sounded and the class began to pack up James paused midway through shoving his copy of Defense Against the Darkest Arts into his bag and glanced at his best friend. Jeremey looked absolutely miserable, and it was not hard to guess why. Jeremey had always felt much worse about this whole thing than James did, as though they whole thing was his fault and he should be ashamed of himself.
James tapped Jeremey on the shoulder, and the boy reluctantly looked up – it was clear that he did not want to talk to James very much at the moment, and James couldn't really blame him. Flashing a grin, James said "Dude, stop being such a baby. Field's wide open for you too."
Jeremey gave James a suspicious look but did not say anything, James knew that the other boy probably had a hard time believing that James honestly meant that, but was also immensely confused by the fact that James had even said it in the first place.
At last, Jeremey nodded and muttered "We'll talk later." a prospect which James did not find very inviting, but he nodded briefly. The classroom was entirely deserted by this time, and James was eager to get outside to enjoy some time on the grounds before their next class. If there was one thing that he had learned from two years at Hogwarts it was that winter came all too quickly in Scotland.
As they headed towards the door though, Professor Wilkins said "Just the students I wanted to see. A moment if you please boys, I won't take too much of your time." She sounded amused by something, and so the boys walked over to her desk with some confusion.
Professor Wilkins looked at each of them in turn, fixing them each with a stare of such immense disappointment that they wanted to retreat into puddles of shame as she said "I understand that your social lives are very important, but please leave your discussions about who is dating who – or wants to be – for when class is over."
The four of them looked at her in shock, how had she known what they were talking about? There was no way that she could have heard them from all the way back there, not even the people around them had heard their brief conversation before everything else was put on parchment, a scrap of parchment which James had already wiped blank just to be safe.
Professor Wilkins merely smiled at them before saying "I've been teaching here for nearly ten years boys, and to be fair you were not exactly making it difficult to figure out." James had to give her that, there were plenty of clues, but had she actually been paying that much attention to them out of the corner of her eye whilst continuing to teach the class?
They nodded weakly and mumbled their apologies, resolving to reserve their conversations to the classes of teachers whose opinion they could care less about.
As they were leaving however, Professor Wilkins had one final word to say. "And Jeremey," she added, though all four boys turned around. "I would advise you not worry too much about all that."
The other three looked between Jeremey and Professor Wilkins with varying expressions of confusion, but the Canadian boy just nodded once and gave a rather small smile before turning to go. Devoid of any other alternative of finding out what had happened, the others followed him.
James did not have the slightest idea what those final words had meant, but he was sure that he would find out soon enough. After all, Jeremey always told them everything, so why should this be any different?
But it would seem that whatever this was, Jeremey had no interest in sharing it with any of them, as he remained mute all the way out onto the grounds. No matter what they said he would not answer them, they could barely even get more than two words out of his mouth!
"Just tell us already!" Andrew demanded, by this point they were sitting underneath a tree near the Black Lake, one of their favorite places on the grounds to hang out. But Jeremey remained as silent as ever.
"It's none of your business!" Jeremey growled, "I know it's hard for you guys to believe that there's stuff that doesn't concern you but not everything involves you!" This was a rather hypocritical coming from Jeremey, but it was clear that they were pushing him.
"Glad to see you trust your best friends then." Zach grumbled, it was not like any of them had ever said that they weren't to keep secrets from each other, but it had sort of happened along the way. Of course, when you lived with your best friends anyways it was hard to keep very much secret regardless, so it may not have been honesty so much as resignation to the fact that they would figure it out eventually.
Of course, it would have been naïve to assume that none of them withheld anything from the others, as they each certainly had their own fair share of secrets. But this was different, they had undeniable proof that something was up, and Jeremey was not telling them what it was!
"It's not a matter of trust!" Jeremey snapped back, "It's just something that I don't want to talk about." His eyes flitted quickly towards James and then Andrew when he said this, and then settled back on Zach before saying "It's not like I'm the only one keeping secrets Zach! Or should I tell them about –?"
Jeremey had indicated James and Andrew with a jabbing point of his finger, but Zach apparently had already known exactly what Jeremey was talking about as he gave him a murderous look before interrupting "Fine! I get it!"
If James was intrigued before that was nothing compared to what was going through his head now. His face split into a wide grin as he turned to Zach and asked "What don't you want Jer to tell us Zach?"
Zach tried to wave their questions aside, but Andrew was on him before he could so much as breathe, "Yea Zach, after all we shouldn't keep any secrets from each other." Andrew looked just as delighted by this as James did, but that jubilation was not going to last for very long.
Zach, rather than looking nervous that they were on to him, was entirely nonplussed as he looked at James and said "James, I trust you recall 'that damned Quaffle'." before turning to Andrew and saying with equal disinterest "And I need not remind you of last Easter."
They both fell silent immediately, their grins being replaced with looks of the utmost horror that Zach may in fact share that story with the others. James' story, admittedly, was nothing too embarrassing, but it still was not something he wanted circulating around.
"Fine, you win Zach." James said, accepting that there were still plenty of secrets within their little group despite all of their insistences to the contrary just moments before. This thought was not lost on Jeremey, who promptly leaned back against the tree and said "No, I believe that I win."
He had a point at that, James had to admit that his friend had managed to worm his way out of that corner remarkably well.
It was over a week before Lucy spoke to any of them, a fact which did not surprise James – or anyone else with an ounce of sense in their heads – in the slightest. No doubt she was still uncertain if the rest of them were going to be accepting of her sorting, which only was only complicated by the fact that she had never been particularly close to any of them. By an unlucky combination of being their Uncle Percy's daughter, and being the quietest and most withdrawn of the Weasleys – even moreso than her sister – she had often been the odd man out so to speak.
But at long last she confronted the rest of them, approaching them at the Gryffindor Table one night at dinner. It was clear that she was not very happy about this, but felt as though she had no choice. James wondered how this must have felt for her, what she must have been thinking all this time.
They had not seen Scorpius Malfoy very much over the last week, as they had begged him to keep an eye on Lucy for them as much as he possibly could, and there was a bit of instinctual shock from many of them at the sight of someone standing at the Gryffindor Table clothed in green.
Lucy did not look at any of them directly, but stared down at her shoes and said "I know what all of you are thinking. But I'm not devastated about being in Slytherin … I like it here." She paused, as though half expecting one of them to shout that it couldn't be, or else interrupt her in some other way, but no one did.
"There's nothing wrong with Slytherin!" she maintained adamantly, still waiting it would seem for one of them to say something, but they just looked disinterested for the most part. To be honest, none of them were really interested in this anymore – it was old news by this point. Maybe if it had been Louis in Slytherin, but Lucy was like Molly in their eyes: somewhat of an afterthought.
"That's cool Lucy, why don't you tell us all about it over breakfast tomorrow?" Rose suggested as she and Albus got up along with Darren Shindler and Julie Knight. "We've got a Potions Exam tomorrow that we've gotta study for, but I'll be happy to hear about it in the morning."
"Yea, same here Lucy." Albus said with a wave as he left,
The four of them left the Great Hall for the library, and Lucy stared after them in shock as though not believing what Rose had just said. "Did she just …?" Lucy began before being interrupted by a rising Fred Weasley.
"Yea she did, now if you don't mind I'm going to make sure that my dear cousins don't get eaten alive by Madam Pince, I hear that's what she does on her weekends." As he got up to leave he added, "Be sure to wait for me to tell that story by the way Luce!"
Madam Pince was the Hogwarts librarian, and apparently her mother had held the very same post when James' parents were in school. If the stories were anything to go by, then the current Madam Pince had inherited every ounce of her mother's spite, even though she was still a rather young woman.
Lucy looked as though she had just been told that her cousins were all going to snap their wands in half and go and live amongst the Muggles. To be fair, it was rather surprising to hear them being so encouraging when it came to something like this. After all, they had all made it clear on many occasions that they detested Slytherins in any capacity, with Scorpius Malfoy being the one occasionally half-heated exception.
"Yea, I gotta go too Lucy," said Louis, who patted her on the shoulder before saying "Dom and I got some stuff to do tonight, but I'll be there tomorrow morning too."
James was now the only cousin left at the table, and no doubt Lucy thought that her surprises were over, but James had been talked into this as well, and there was no point in backing out now.
Rising to his feet, he flashed Lucy a grin and said "See you tomorrow Snake."
OK, so maybe James wasn't quite as willing to accept this as the others were just yet.
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Thanks again to everyone! I'm so grateful to everyone who has been reading! :)
