Chapter Ten: Great Expectations

In light of the frenzy that had engulfed Hogwarts during the early weeks of October, the rest of the month grew to be downright dreary by comparison. Quidditch practices had started in earnest, and as much fun as it was to have Albus and Andrew amongst their number James still could not help but join in Andrew's disappointment that they had to deal with Julie as well.

James could not have said for sure what it was about Julie that made her presence so unacceptable, though he would have made up plenty of reasons had he been asked. The fact of the matter was that he was only annoyed by her because his friend – Andrew – was, though to him that was reason enough.

Jeremey and Albus though seemed determined to ruin their attempts to make Julie feel as awkward as possible, an effort which was severely hampered by Mitchel's vehement declaration after their third practice that he would remove from the team any players who did not make their new recruits feel welcome.

Needless to say, James and Andrew were much more subtle in their attempts to annoy Julie after that.

James went out of his way to make every shot he took against Julie as difficult to handle as possible, so that even if she did make the save she would still bobble the Quaffle several times. Sure it made his shot quite a bit less accurate, it was still funny to see her struggle with every shot he took.

Andrew couldn't really help all that much as hitting a Bludger at his sister would have been altogether too obvious considering Beaters were not permitted to attack the Keeper under most circumstances, but he did his best to help in smaller ways – this aid coming in the form of swerving within an inch of his sister whenever he was on her side of the Pitch.

It was after Julie had nearly fallen off her broomstick for the third time that morning that Jeremey finally flew up to Andrew – who was high-fiving James in the flush of victory on the far side of the Pitch – to voice his displeasure.

"You guys are acting like a bunch of downright prats, you know that don't you?" Jeremey demanded, pulling up just a few yards away from the pair of them with a look of annoyance on his face. "You want to drive Julie off just because you can't stand the thought of having your little sister as an equal?"

Jeremey seemed to be genuinely ticked off about something, but James had a feeling that this wasn't just about something that simple. James and Jeremey knew each other well enough by this point to be able to tell when the other one was holding something back – and this was definitely one of those times.

"And you, James? Really? I thought that you wanted what was best for Gryffindor? I thought you wanted to win the Cup this year? Tell me, how are we going to do that if the best Keeper in Gryffindor House won't play, eh? Tell me!"

Still James had his doubts, Jeremey most certainly wanted to win the Quidditch Cup just as much as any of them – perhaps more than some – but there was something else going on here. He knew Jeremey was an only child so it wasn't like he was empathizing or something, but there was definitely something else going on.

Before James had enough time to properly explore the subject, however, their meeting was interrupted by someone who most certainly did have a bit of empathy for their latest target. James groaned, knowing that he was in for another stupid lecture, as Albus flew up to them looking even more angry than Jeremey was.

"I swear James, if you pull any of that crap one more time I'm gonna knock you off my broom myself!" Noticing that Andrew was snickering at him, Albus snapped "You too! I'd have less qualms about hurting you than I would James. You're supposed to be her older brother, start acting like it!" Albus said before flying off towards Julie, who was now facing shots from Mitchel Gate.

As Jeremey flew off in disgust after the practice Snitch which he had probably been following for the duration of their conversation, James noticed a flurry of movement across the way and realized that Zach had been listening to everything that they had said. He wasn't bothered by this fact, as Zach knew all about what was going on, but it struck him as odd that Zach hadn't joined them.

Then again, Zach had done his best to stay neutral throughout this affair, so perhaps it was not all that surprising.

"It's a strange day indeed when you and Jeremey disagree about anything." Andrew muttered as they both watched Zach rejoin the developing action across the Pitch. The two Bludgers – left to their own devices until now, were following Albus and Mitchel around the Pitch with remarkable speed whilst Jeremey lazily chased after the practice Snitch. Jeremey had often remarked that the thing was so slow that it didn't even offer him any decent practice. James wasn't sure if this was just Jeremey showing off, but he had heard that his dad had often needed to give the things head-starts to avoid overshooting them, so perhaps there was some validity to that statement.

Still though, you'd have thought that they would have designed some better practice equipment for Seekers considering how important the position was. They were not as important as the Chasers of course, but a pretty close second all things considered.

"We don't agree on everything." James said, a tired remark by this time considering how often Andrew and Zach argued that the two of them should only get a half-vote each whenever they were deciding what to do considering how often they agreed with each other.

Andrew just gave James a skeptical look and said the same sort of thing that he always did when this subject was broached. "James, if it weren't for the fact that you and Albus make me question the existence of clones, I'd say that Jer was your real brother."

"What're clones?" James asked with some interest as Andrew just shook his head and flew away.

"Hey sis, look out! There's a Thestral behind you!" Andrew shouted in a loud panicked voice as Julie nearly fell off of her broom in an attempt to get out of the way of a nonexistent threat.

James laughed at the genius of Andrew's idea, neither Mitchel nor Julie could accuse him of having made it up as neither of them could see Thestrals!

"Oh come off it Andrew, there's nothing there!" Albus shouted in annoyance as Jeremey shot his brother a look of the utmost venom.

Then again, perhaps his plan had not been that well thought out.

"Can it Albus, she was about to fall off her broom – the little baby." Andrew said with a look of the utmost delight on his face. It was clear that he thought that his joke had been immensely funny, and that what Albus had done by revealing the truth to his sister had completely ruined the fun that he might have had.

"Andrew, I told you not to …" Mitchel began, trying to get his team back together in time to salvage something from this practice; but it was too late, and no one was even pretending to be listening to him anymore.

"ANDREW CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT!" Julie exclaimed, sounding so scarily like a parent that each and every student on the Pitch – Mitchel included – could not help but jump slightly in shock. Seeing as they were all on broomsticks, more than a few people nearly lost their grip as a result.

"I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!" Julie concluded, flying directly at her older brother with a look of murder on her face.

"I'd bolt mate." James said to Andrew, with whom he had caught up by now. Andrew did not respond however, but simply paled until his face was absolutely white before whipping his broom around and flying as fast as he possibly could in the opposite direction.

"Got what he had coming to him." Albus said with a grim smile on his face, high-fiving Jeremey with what had to be at least a little bit of satisfaction. James, for his part, just looked at Zach – who seemed to be giving James an 'I told you so' look – and muttering "I'm just glad it's not me."

And so he was.

It took nearly fifteen minutes to finally calm Julie down and persuade her that killing Andrew was not the best course of action available to her, though it took a further twenty to convince Andrew that Julie was not going to kill him the moment that he returned to the Quidditch Pitch.

By this time though, Mitchel had long since returned to the Castle in disgust, declaring that the next practice would be the worst experience of their lives after the disaster that had just occurred. And as much as he was dreading the thought of what they would be put through, James really could not blame him.

If they wanted to win the Quidditch Cup they were going to have to be a well-oiled machine, not a group of kids who tried to kill each other after every practice. And with two sets of siblings playing for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team it was an unlikely prospect at best that murder could be avoided.

When at last the six remaining players were back on the Pitch – leader and calming influence departed from their midst – there was a definite sense of tension between them. What with all of them in their Second and Third Years there was little doubt that the lot of them would be playing Quidditch together on the House Team for quite some time, and if this was the way that things were going to go then they were never going to win anything.

No words were spoken, they all just stood there looking at each other with mixed emotions on their faces before at last Zach stormed off the Pitch. It was clear to James that Zach was not doing well with the insanity and drama that had taken over the team, but this was the first time that Zach had actually done anything to show it.

The rest of them departed over time, Julie being the last one remaining outside as James, Jeremey, and Andrew left together – but in the entire time that they stood there not so much as a single word was spoken.

That night though, James and Andrew found Julie sitting in the back of the Gryffindor Common Room doing her Charms homework and – without having discussing the matter for so much as a minute previously – decided together what they were going to do.

The four of them were like that at times – though James and Jeremey certainly did it the most frequently. From time to time they would just come to the same conclusion and act on it without ever having needed to address the matter out loud. Perhaps it came from having lived together so closely for two – going on three – years, but at times they just seemed to read each others' minds.

"Alright Julie, you're in." Andrew said without any prompt, a greeting to which Julie gave them only a look of annoyance and impatience before returning to her work.

"What do you want Andrew, in case it has escaped your notice I have work to do." Julie replied, though whether she was in fact so dreadfully busy that she could not spare a moment to talk or she just did not want to talk to them James was not sure.

"That's it, you're in now." James said, as though this explained everything. "No more messing with you or trying to knock you off your broom …" he continued before Andrew interrupted him "More than we do to anyone else of course."

"Too right, more than we do to anyone else." James admitted with a grin "But yea, you've earned your spot now." He said, thinking that this would of course make perfect sense to Julie.

It of course, did not, and Julie was now looking at the pair of them as though concerned for their mental well being. Glancing between the two of them in utter confusion, Julie said "Is this some kind of joke?"

James and Andrew exchanged looks, wondering whether they would be better off just dropping this attempted maturity now and continuing their efforts to drive Julie off the team. But the moment passed in an instant and the two returned to their efforts to persuade her that they were done messing with her.

"Look, we're done alright." Andrew said, "You're clearly not going to let us drive you off the team, so why would we just drive a wedge between the team when we need to work together perfectly in order to win the Quidditch Cup?" It was a sensible enough point, and indeed that was their reason for being there, but it was clear Julie had her doubts.

"I'll believe it when you go a full practice without trying to kill me." Julie said as she returned to her work – which given the circumstances was the best that they ever could have asked for.

"Finally come to our senses have we?" asked Albus, who stepped in front of the two as they walked away.

"Merlin's pants! Is there such a thing as a private conversation in this Castle?" Andrew exclaimed in disgust.

"Nope." Remarked Zach, who was staring at them from over the back of the couch in front of the fire, looking quite amused by what was going on before him.

"Nuh uh." Added Fred who was locked in the middle of a game of Wizard's Chess with Rose – who was winning quite handedly.

"Not really." Jeremey contributed, punching James on the shoulder before continuing up to the Boy's Dormitories followed closely by another student with a large stack of books and parchment carried in front of her.

"You're kidding right?" Julie asked with a smirk as she followed Jeremey across the Common Room before making the left turn towards the Girl's Dormitories.

Left staring dumbfounded at the number of eavesdroppers on what they had thought had been a private conversation, James said defensively "Well, we figured that there's no way we're going to win the Quidditch Cup if we're not all on the same page and …" but he never got the chance to finish.

"You were impressed James." Rose commented dryly as she played around with her bishop.

"Come again?" James asked with a tinge of annoyance in his voice.

"She chased down Andrew and made him wet his pants, which impressed you enough to leave her alone." Rose said as she put down her bishop and knocked over Fred's King. "Though in all honesty I'm surprised you didn't lay off when she dyed your hair."

"THAT WAS HER!" exclaimed James, Zach, and Andrew all at once, their hands flying up to the back of their heads in alarm.

"Oops." Rose said with a small grin, seemingly quite surprised that none of them had figured this out by now.

"That was what she meant." James breathed, remembering Julie's comment the day after tryouts about how she would have to help Albus make a few 'improvements' to his hair if he didn't leave her alone. But the question still remained as to how she had helped Albus pull it off, if anything she was even worse with magic than James' little brother.

The three of them stood there in varying states of shock at the revelation that James was not the only one amongst them with dangerous younger siblings as Rose sent her bishop across the board with a smirk.

"Well, I think I'll head up to bed now, these three probably aren't going to be able to move for another hour or to." She commented, laughing at the frozen expressions on James, Zach, and Andrew as Fred's King tossed its tiny crown at the feet of her bishop. "Fred you lost, so you've gotta clean up." She added, sticking her tongue out at her cousin before fleeing up the stairs to the Girl's Dormitories before he had time to protest.

Fred went about clearing off the board with a noncommittal shrug as he said "You know, if you're still like that in about thirty seconds I reckon people might start to mistake you for statues."

At last, James was able to overcome his shock long enough to say "I swear Fredy, if you knew about this and didn't tell me about it I am going to have to kill you!" James could not very well have expected Rose to rat out her friend any more than Albus would have his accomplice, but Fred should most certainly have been on his side in this!

"Dude, I didn't even know about the whole hair thing until two weeks ago, I'm clean." Fred said with a roll of his eyes, though James was not entirely sure if he believed him. Of course, that had more to do with Fred being Fred than anything else. If you knew what was good for you, you were somewhat skeptical of anything that came out of Fred Weasley's mouth.

"Between the two of you I seem to have gotten myself caught up in far more sibling rivalries than I can deal with." Zach said, rubbing the back of his neck in annoyance. "Honestly, is it that hard to get along with your siblings? Me and Caroline never fight!"

Zach had been bringing this up more and more lately. It wasn't like James could really blame him. It was one thing to watch your friends fight with their siblings, but it probably got a little hard to swallow when you ended up on the receiving end on some of their fueds.

"We've told you a million times Zach," Andrew began with a rather bored expression, "It's a …" but Zach didn't let him finish.

"Don't give me your bullshit about how it's a 'real sibling' thing or a 'biological sibling' thing! That's just a copout!" Zach complained. "I wouldn't mind it that much, but if Al and Julie keep targeting me along with you two then there are going to be problems." He promised grimly.

"We'll make sure they keep you out of it." James said, knowing full well that they would not be able to do anything of the sort. "Now will you stop harping on it like you're our mother or something?" he asked dismissively, he was not in the mood for one of Zach's self-righteous rants. Zach was his friend, but the guy just thought that everything that he said was gospel or something.

Zach shot James a dirty look, but mumbled "Fine, let's head to bed before you two manage to do something else that gets us mixed up in something worse."

"You say that like it's a bad thing!" James accused jokingly as he and Andrew chased Zach up the stairs.

"It's worse than your Herbology Grade!" Zach retorted, ducking as James swung a bookbag at his head.

Classes by this time had gotten back into full swing, and one thing above all was becoming readily apparent to James – Muggle Studies was not going to be that easy 'O' that he had thought that it was going to be. In fact, it was probably not even going to be an easy 'A'! Professor Carpenter had shattered James' visions of cruising to an 'O' on the very first day of classes, spending the entire class talking about how 'electricity' – as it was apparently called – was not even remotely like what James had thought it was.

James had been under the impression that 'electricity' was the Muggle equivalent of magic. They used it to take care of anything that needed to get done, but the fact was that apparently 'electricity' had very limited applications. All it really did was power these little glass spheres that took the place of candles and fireplaces, but didn't provide any warmth whatsoever and had to be replaced all the time, and let Muggles use these strange box-like contraptions that let them talk to other Muggles.

James got that Muggles didn't have access to magic or anything, and that they were pretty stupid to cap it off, but were they really so daft that they thought this was an efficient system? For Merlin's sake, there were millions of owls out there just waiting to carry your mail, and they were wasting their time with these expensive little boxes! According to Professor Carpenter they could cost more than 500 Galleons in Muggle Money and had to be replaced every three years or so because they kept making new ones.

FIVE HUNDRED GALLEONS!

Even more ridiculous though was those big cubes which Muggles drove around with, that were not only the most ridiculously slow contraptions that he had ever heard of, they cost tens of thousands of Galleons, and Muggles had to 'refuel' them multiple times a week for anywhere from three to five Galleons!

It was official, Muggles were even stupider than James gave them credit for – and that was pretty damn stupid!

Needless to say, in addition to not having the slightest idea what was going on in Muggle Studies, James' attitude about Muggle 'technology' was not what Professor Carpenter wanted to hear. When James had voices his confusion at why Muggles did such stupid things he – and the rest of the class – had been given a long lecture about how grateful they should be for the benefits that they had and Muggles didn't, and how they should be sympathetic and not judgmental.

Besides, he insisted, Muggles were getting along just fine without magic.

Never in his life had James wanted so dearly to tell a teacher where they could shove their lecture.

And so he did.

And that was why he was stuck in Detention for the next week.

Mercifully Care of Magical Creatures was going much better, Hagrid was a great teacher and every creature that he had brought to class was more interesting than the last. He had not been willing to tell James much about the Thestrals, insisting that he did not want to ruin what was going to be a very good lesson down the road, but he was still willing to explain a thing or two to James – most importantly that he was neither insane nor weak.

"Takes a real special mind to be able to see em' clearly James." He explained when James had voiced his concern about the fact that he could only see them as though through a mist. "You're just a kid still, I reckon that it'll clear up as you get older. Took years before I could see em' right myself."

"Albus can see them perfectly." James muttered darkly over the tea Hagrid had given him. Usually the two brothers liked to visit the gamekeeper together, but James had not wanted Albus to be around when he was asking these kinds of questions.

Hagrid just chuckled at this and said "Well, I reckon your little brother's just a tad more mature than you." Laughing again he added "More mature than I was at your age too for that matter." Hagrid seemed to find this immensely funny, though James was not entirely sure why. Most adults tended to view immaturity as a bad thing, and even Hagrid had told him off once or twice for not acting his age.

"What about Zach?" James asked, starting to feel just a little bit better.

Hagrid's grin slipped somewhat as he said "Well, I reckon your friend's been through a lot James. Best not be comparin' yourself to him on something like this."

James gave Hagrid a very odd look as he tried to decipher what the Half-Giant had just said to him. He knew that Hagrid did not always think before he spoke, but it seemed like he had chosen his words very carefully this time. There was definitely something to look into there, but he knew that he had to feign disinterest if he was to have any hope of getting it out of Hagrid later.

And so, doing his very best to hide the curiosity that was bubbling to the surface, James just nodded and said "Alright." though he noticed that Hagrid seemed quite relieved that he had not questioned him further.

There was no doubt in James' mind, he was going to have to dig deeper into this later and find out what Hagrid had meant. Perhaps it was because of what had happened in the Forbidden Forest last June, but James had not been able to shake the feeling that there was something more about Zach that not even he knew. After all, secrets didn't come alone – there were always more to discover.

Of course, he had figured that he was just being paranoid, but what Hagrid had said had only renewed the suspicions that there was something else at work here. The Ministry of Magic had taken a large number of documents and instruments left behind by the Magical History Movement into their investigative offices, and it was likely that there were plenty of files in there about Zach. Who knew what other information about him they could have unearthed?

James had been in Detention many a time before, it was an occupational hazard of being Hogwarts' most devious troublemaker, but he had almost always had someone else to occupy the hours with. The Professors in charge of running the Detentions very rarely paid much attention to whether or not you were goofing off with your fellow 'inmates' – as they liked to refer to themselves – so long as you were doing what you were supposed to.

But not today, today James was scrubbing suits of armor in the Great Hall all by his lonesome. It wasn't like he could complain, none of his friends had told Professor Carpenter to take his boring lecture and shove it up his arse, he had. And as much as they had laughed rancorously at his remark there was no reason for any of them to have to suffer through this with him.

Besides, even if they had done something, James would not have expected them to accompany him. If you were able to evade capture then it was expected that your less fortunate friends would never rat you out.

It seemed as though the suits of armor themselves were angry with James for his crude remark, as even those suits that were usually rather chatty with passing students were silent as the grave. James would have enjoyed any kind of conversation – even if it was with a hunk of metal – but unless he decided to start talking to himself he was not going to have any conversation tonight.

Of course, there were the portraits that lined the walls, but they were all well over his head, and he very well was not going to strain his neck to talk to a bunch of portraits that probably couldn't even see him from this angle.

He was about two or three statues away from the end of the corridor, at which point he could drop the cleaning supplies off with Professor Lund – whose turn it was to run Detention Duty – retrieve his wand and return to Gryffindor Tower for some much needed rest, but just as he was moving to the penultimate statue he heard a pair of hushed voices coming from around the corner.

Of course, any self-respecting troublemaker like James knew that hushed voices always carried with them the best stories, and so he pressed himself against the wall between two mercifully silent suits of armor to listen in.

"It's happening Minerva." The first voice – which James believed belonged to the Transfiguration teacher Professor Decandio – said before immediately being answered by Professor Wilkins "There is no way they could have moved this quickly, it must be a coincidence."

"It is not a coincidence Kira," came the ever-aging voice of Professor McGonagall, "We knew that they would be mobilizing rapidly, and it would seem that they have a few more tricks up their sleeves than we thought."

"It's impossible!" insisted Professor Wilkins, "The resources that this would have taken is more than five times what the Ministry …"

"It would seem that our sources have been disastrously mislead. They knew that we had infiltrated them, I said from the outset that we were gambling too much on information that we knew was probably fabricated."

"So all the reports …?" Professor Decandio breathed in genuine alarm.

"Completely inaccurate, we have been operating under a number of dangerous misperceptions." Professor McGonagall said.

"Everyone will know by morning." Professor Wilkins said, clearly shaken by whatever they had just found out, though to James' frustration he still knew nothing.

"Yes," Professor McGonagall sighed, "The Prophet has gotten wind of the news, though they know nothing of what it really means thank heavens."

"We should be thankful for that at least." Professor Decandio muttered bitterly, "Can you imagine the scandal at the Ministry if the tabloids had even the faintest idea of what was going on here?"

"And they cannot know!" Professor McGonagall said sternly, sounding once again like the powerful witch that James knew she was. "This kind of information could dangerously undermine public confidence in the Ministry of Magic, and right now we need them to invest their faith in the administration more than ever. If people begin to second guess us then it will bring a lot of support to the other side if they look more secure."

"Surely no one could actually be so foolish?" Professor Wilkins asked.

"Sadly it would seem that they are." Professor Decandio replied, "Many people already wonder whether the Ministry is capable of fulfilling its duty."

"No matter, we must wait to see what the Prophet says, we'll know what the next move is then." Professor McGonagall said firmly, before adding "I'll have to get in touch with Potter and Shacklebolt, it is imperative that we act together on this. Any discrepancies could be catastrophic.

The group by now was directly in front of where James was hiding, if they turned around James would have been squarely in their sight – but thankfully they had more important things to do than look around in the shadows for students. Nodding curtly, the two teachers went off in opposite directions as Professor McGonagall continued onwards before disappearing into the gloom.

When James returned to the Gryffindor Common Room less than an hour later, his head was exploding with questions. He was sorely tempted to wake his dormmates, who had long since called it a night and gone to sleep, so that he could have someone to talk to about what he had just heard.

Still, if what he had heard from the three teachers was true, they would all know exactly what was going on in the morning. Then again, perhaps they would not, as it was likely to be something very unobtrusive if they thought that people would not think too much of it.

One way or another, James was going to get to the bottom of this!

Thanks to everyone who has been following, and please don't forget to REVIEW!

As I said when I started the Monday & Friday system, now that September has rolled around I will be discontinuing that system. Updates will be as frequent as I can manage them, so follow the Twitter (TheJamesSPotter) for updates on what is going on!

Thanks again to everyone!