Author's Note:
For some reason I get the impression that a lot of you are pronouncing Louis' name "Lewis", but Fleur is from France, and similar to the names of Victoire and Dominique, the name Louis takes the French pronunciation, which is "Louie" (you know like King Louis), so let's have no more confusion there.
James woke that morning to the sound of Louis and Fred setting off another Exploding Whizzpopper. The pair of them had become the unofficial, and unwelcome alarm clocks for their dormitory, waking them each morning with a plethora of fireworks and other contraband items they had purchased in secret at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. He left the warm embrace of his covers and found a pair of robes next to his bed, after a seconds deliberation on whether or not they were clean enough to wear (disregarding the fact that he was fairly certain he had tossed his robes into the hamper when he took them off for bed last night) he threw them on over his head and began to search for a tie.
As the last of the fireworks sputtered and died, James could make out a faint tapping sound. The other boys had heard it too and they all began to search for the source of the tapping. "It's an owl!" Fred exclaimed as he threw open the window. "Wonder why it wasn't sent at the usual time?" The owl flew into the room, circling the boys as they tried feebly to catch it. The owl was very small and pure white, making look like a ball of smoke as it fluttered through the room.
The owl landed half a second later on Louis' shoulder, and held out it left leg, so that the parchment could be removed. "Who's it from?" Marcus Finnigan, a heavily freckled sandy haired boy, asked in his thick, south western Irish accent.
But Louis did not need to say who it was from, his red tinge his cheeks were turning said all too well that the parchment was from Erin Wood.
The chant of "Read it! Read it! Read it!" Came from Fred and Marcus, while the other boys laughed loudly at the scene. The colour on Louis' cheeks quickly spread over his entire face giving him the appearance of giant blond tomato. He stowed the letter into his pajama bottoms, scowling at everyone who caught his eyes.
"Shut up!" Louis roared at them and the chant stopped at once, in its place an icy tension blew through the room, freezing the expressions of anger on Louis' face. Then James began to smile and the smile soon turned into a hearty laugh, and the warmth of laughter melted away Louis' rage.
"C'mon," James jerked his head toward the door, "we'll be late for breakfast." The other boys nodded in agreement and they all changed from their bedclothes into their school robes.
James had began to descend the stairs along with the others but stopped suddenly. "Forgot something," he explained, "you go on without me, I'll only be a minute." He turned and ran back up the stairs and into the dormitory.
Once alone inside the room he began to rifle through the large pile of dirty laundry until he found what he was looking for in Louis' pajama bottoms. He stole the parchment - unopened - and ran down the stairs where he met Fred and Louis just outside the entrance to the Great Hall. He could already hear the hum of conversations as he descended the final stairs.
"Did you see the look on Alton's face when that Whizzpopper blew up right next to his head? I thought he might'a wet the bed!" Louis smiled broadly as James rejoined them.
"Or when Erney thought he'd be able to jump over that one." Fred could hardly speak from laughing so hard. "Caught him right in the crotch, it was too funny!"
The three boys took their seats at the far end of the Gryffindor table, still bubbling with effervescent laughter. James scanned what little of the Slytherin table he could see, until he finally caught sight of his brother's bright emerald eyes. He was sitting with two identical girls, and an older, slightly disheveled looking boy who James recognized from the Slytherin Quidditch team.
On the opposite end of the Slytherin table James spotted another set of eyes, the opalescent eyes of Nautica Ingram, gleaming in the near real sunlight that shinned down from the enchanted ceiling. She had haunted his dreams everyday since he had first laid eyes on her in the train. Her hair that flowed so elegantly black on one side, and so wonderfully white on the other, but in his dreams James only ever saw the white hair floating in front of him, blowing in the breeze. James had two classes with Nautica - History of Magic and Transfiguration - but James had never so much as spoken two words to her. She did not look at all happy, but curiously she didn't seemed to be sad either, sort of like she was stuck in between. She glanced up at him for a brief second and a smile flickered across her face before she looked away.
"Whatcha starin' at mate?" Fred said as he gulped down a mouthful of food.
"Wha?" James stumbled as he realized he'd been caught again and hastened to look away, to look at anything else. "Oh a- nothing."
He brought his eyes back to the spot where she had been sitting a moment later but she was no longer there.
"No really," Fred said again. "What are you looking at?"
"Tryna find my brother." He lied quickly.
"He's down there at the other end of the table." Louis informed them pointing his hand diagonally across the hall.
"Oh yeah." James said as if he hadn't already known.
"Looks like he's found himself a girlfriend already." Fred said giving James a nudge with his elbow.
"Looks like he's got himself two girlfriends." Louis piled on.
"Maybe you should ask him for some tips." Fred said then he and Louis burst into laughter so loud it caused half the hall to look at them.
James brooded for a moment before giving a slight smile as he looked at his little brother, glad that he had finally found a place at Hogwarts, even if it was amongst the Slytherins.
"So what do you think," Fred said after he let his fork klang down onto his empty plate. "Should we skip History of Magic?"
"No!" James said too eagerly.
"What's the matter mate? Can't wait to hear all about goblin rebellions?" Louis joked.
James laughed instinctively, and said with a sharp smile, "Erin's gonna be there. I can't let you miss that." Louis looked as though he'd just been struck with something heavy and James and Fred fell again into laughter.
Fred was making his way to their History of Magic lesson with all the speed and enthusiasm of a funeral procession, James and Fred were delighted at their friends displeasure.
When they entered the History of Magic room however James nerves betrayed him, and suddenly all the excitement he was feeling about the prospect of seeing Nautica again vanished. She was sitting with her back turned to him, and to her right where her hair flowed black, sat the mountain of a boy, Arcturus Selwyn.
But before James could spend even half a second watching her, they were interrupted, "Hi Louis!" Erin Wood smiled at them all.
They all noticed it at the exact same moment, Erin looked... different. Her hair, instead of the chestnut brown James had grown used to was now a bright blonde that seemed to grow whiter the further down the eye traveled, and was nearly snow white at the tips, and her blue and brown eyes were now a shade of deep indigo, but they seemed to shine especially bright to make up for their deep colour.
"What did you do?" Fred stammered as they all drank her in. Mere day ago she had looked normal, but now she looked like one in a million.
"I told Madam Chaussette that the other kids were teasing me about my eyes being two different colours, and I asked her if she could change them."
"They were what!" Louis roared with anger.
"It's alright Louis, I lied." She smiled and touched his shoulder to calm him.
"Oh, so how did you change your eyes then?" Louis asked, calm again.
"Huh?" Erin said confused. "I just told you I had Madam Chaussette change them be-"
"But you just said that was a lie." Louis interrupted.
"Erin laughed, "No, what I said to her was a lie. No one was bullying me I just said it so that she'd change my eyes for me."
"Oh," James said embarrassed. "So who did your hair?"
"That was Elizabeth Pinkman," Erin twirled her hair with her fingers, "she's a muggle born, and the muggles have this cool potion called 'hair dye'."
"She killed your hair!" Louis exclaimed, and Erin laughed at him.
"No silly, not 'die', but 'dye', D-Y-E, it just changes the colour of your hair, neat huh?"
"Yeah," Louis gulped, "neat. You know," he went on, "you didn't have to change for me, if that's why you changed."
"I didn't change for you!" She snapped, "don't think your so amazing that I want to make you like me by doing this! Forgive me for wanting to feel pretty!" She was nearly in tears when she finished. "I never should have written you that letter! I hate you Louis Weasley!" She shouted before running out of the room.
"Way to go mate," Fred said, clapping a hand on Louis' back, "you really know how to talk to girls."
The three boys each took their seats, Fred and Louis sat together while James sat by himself in the row behind them. Half a second later the ghost of Professor Binns floated through the black board and began to lecture them about the seventh goblin rebellion of the seventeenth century, in which Gorbek, led an army of smiths and servants ,against the aristocratic goblins led by Goldtooth, the first goblin king. It did not help James' already wandering concentration that Professor Binns, constantly confused the two Goblins.
James Spent most of the lesson stealing glances at Nautica, who only once caught his eye, when she finally did James felt his heart beat twice as hard and his mouth went instantly dry.
Professor Binns dismissed the class, but to James it felt as though only five minutes had passed. He looked down at the parchment he had been taking notes on, the only thing he'd managed to write was 'Gorbe-'. He followed close behind Nautica as he left the classroom, and caught a whiff of her hair as she made a sharp left turn, it smelt like jasmine and mint, not battling each other but as though the two had always been one scent.
"James," Fred called out as he turned left to follow Nautica, "Care of Magical creatures is this way." He jerked his head to the right to show the direction he was talking about.
"Oh, right..." James stammered, "thought it was Charms next."
"Charms is this way too mate." Fred laughed, "Been going here for three years, I thought you'd have a harder time getting lost." James laughed disingenuously.
Care of Magical Creatures was normally James' favourite subject. It was taught by the half-giant Rubeus Hagrid, who was a good friend of James' father. He had always been kind to James, but in class he tried his best not to show any signs of favouritism - though he was not always successful in this.
During their very first class, Hagrid had shown them - with the help of Charlie Weasley - a newborn Norwegian Ridgeback, that he said was the child of a dragon he had raised himself. The dragon a tried to breath fire at James but only thick black smoke had come out of it's nostrils.
Today however, would not prove as interesting. They were each set a doxy and a sheet of parchment, on which they were to draw and label all the parts of the doxy. James wasn't thrilled at the idea of working individually, it would mean he would have to do the work himself instead of copying Louis. James knew he could do the work, but he always preferred not to and Louis was always more than willing to let him copy.
James was halfway through his labeling when Hagrid stomped toward him to check his progress. "Labeled the poison fang wrong, ir should be this un." He pointed a large, clumsy finger at the longest and sharpest of the doxy's teeth. "N' this is the anterior wing." He pointed to the smaller of the two sets of wings.
"Thanks." James said as he made the corrections.
James had not quite finished labeling his doxy, when Hagrid announced that the class had ended five minutes ago. James knew his next class was Transfiguration, and leaving all his supplies behind ran as fast as he could to the Transfiguration room on the ground floor.
Nautica was already flicking her wand at a match when James bustled - out of breath - into the classroom. After catching his breath, James walked the empty seat next to her. He was just about to say hello, when what felt like a full grown centaur, slammed into him.
Gasping for breath, James looked up at his attacker, but all he could make out was the jet hair and six silver earrings gleaming in the afternoon sun. Desperately, he tried to get up, but a searing pain in his abdomen kept him down.
"Didn't see you there." Arcturus Selwyn's deep voice chuckled and the other Slytherins joined in. As Arcturus took a huge lumbering step toward him, James saw several flashes of deep red, and was suddenly being helped to his feet by two of his fellow Gryffindors, while two more of them were standing guard like in front of him.
"What is going on in my classroom!" Professor Scott snapped at them. "Take your seat, all of you!" Her tangerine orange eyes flashed in outrage, children did not break rules in her class.
The two boys standing in front of James turned around, and he was shocked to see Louis and Fred. He shouldn't have been shocked, of course his friends would stand up for him, but the thought that they would take a beating for him cemented even further their lifelong friendship.
He took a seat next to Fred, and they were each set a large rat, which they were supposed to transfigure into a wine glass.
Like in History of Magic, James spent most of transfiguration stealing glances at Nautica, but every so often he caught the eye of Arcturus, and each time this happened James hatred for him returned even stronger.
"James!" Professor Scott snapped, "You don't seemed to be transfiguring your rat? Surely this must be because you have mastered the art." James gulped. "Why don't you come up to the front and show the class how it's done."
Fred laughed, but Louis - who had been sitting in front of them next to Marcus Finnigan - gave him a worried look. He could hear Arcturus muttering something to Nautica under his breath but he could not make out the words.
There was a small podium set up at the front of the class on which a rat - smaller than the one James was supposed to have practiced on - layed fast asleep. He looked out at the glass which he soon discovered was a giant mistake. The eyes of nearly thirty students watched him like vultures, waiting for him to fail.
He pressed his wand shakily against the rat's fat middle and concentrated as hard as he could into turning it into a wine glass. He squeezed his eyes shut tight and focussed even harder. After what seemed like an eternity he opened his eyes to find a plain, ordinary sleeping rat.
"Well," Professor Scott smirked, "maybe next time you'll pay more attention to the task at hand and less time staring at the girls."
James felt his entire body turn instantly red. All of the boys were laughing at him - except Louis and Fred, though Fred was suppressing a grin - and all of the girls looked disgusted, most of them refused to look at him, and those who did looked as though they were trying to kill him with their stares.
James took his seat beside Fred once more who clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Looks like we're in the same boat."
Shortly after the fiasco, the class was released, James and Louis had gone out to the courtyard to unwind before dinner, but Fred had insisted on sneaking into Hogsmeade to purchase more Whizz Poppers, and had recruited Marcus Finnigan as lookout.
"Do you think I messed things up with Erin?" Louis asked out of the blue, interrupting James' conversation about the Chudley Cannons.
"Oh uh..." James stammered. "I didn't know that there were, things between you and Erin."
"Yeah I know," he admitted, "but if i wanted to start some things, do you think it's too late?"
"I don't really know what to tell you. She did seem pretty angry."
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean... you know?"
"Not really."
"I just mean," he groaned. "Girls never say what they mean, right?"
"I guess."
"So when she said she hated me, she meant that she..."
"I don't know." James said after he was sure Louis had no intention of finishing the thought. "Maybe."
"What about you?"
"What about me?" James asked feeling the pink bloom in his cheeks.
"That girl you keep staring at."
"I do not!"
"See! You didn't use a contraction!"
"What?" The sudden change of subject through James off.
"When people are lying they tend not to use contractions. I you were innocent you would have said 'I don't'."
"That is not... That isn't true."
"Give it a rest James, everyone knows."
"Everyone?"
"Everyone."
"Bloody Hell." James sighed. "You don't think she knows do-"
"I'm sure she does. She blushes every time she catches you staring."
James turned even redder as the embarrassment melted away, and pride overtook him. "D'you think she likes me back?"
"Pretty sure," James smiled warmly, "but even so, she's with Arcturus isn't she?" The warmth of pride went away instantly, replaced with the cold chill of envy and rage. "Hey," Louis said, noticing his friends mood shift, "don't worry about him he's just a git." James gave a small chuckle, and - sounding insulted - Louis asked, "What's so funny?"
"Of all the things I could think of to call Arcturus, 'git', is not one of them."
Author's Note:
I think this is a much better chapter than the original chapter 9, I hope you've all enjoyed the rewrite as well.
Please guys let me know what you think, it takes 5 seconds to leave a review and they mean the world to me.
FYI chapter in 10, we will see what was in Erin's letter, it isn't long, but it's cute, I hope to see you all there.