Chapter Eleven
Tea Leaves
When lunch was over, James departed from the Ravenclaw table in search of Fred, who he found seated at the end of the Gryffindor table with Will and Holly.
"Hey, are you coming?" he asked them, pointing in the direction of the door.
"Yeah," replied Fred, standing up and putting his bag over his shoulder. "Guys?" he asked Will and Holly, who were holding hands and staring into each other's eyes and smiling as though they were the only two in the room.
"We'll catch up to you," Will replied absently, not taking his eyes away from his girlfriend's.
James made a gagging sound in the back of his throat and rolled his eyes in sync with his cousin as they started leaving. "Sorry I left you with them," he muttered. "You should have come over and sat with us."
"I was going to, but I had the whole platter of chicken sandwiches right in front of me and I really didn't want to pass up that opportunity," he replied, shrugging.
"I can understand that," James said, laughing a little. "What's up with Romeo and Juliet, then?"
"I think they fucked last night," Fred replied bluntly.
"What? But they're always going on about abstinence before marriage and shit," James replied in shock.
"I know, but I heard… noises, we'll say, coming from the direction of his bed last night. And now they're acting all gooey and gross, so it kind of adds up," Fred shrugged.
"I guess so," James replied, wrinkling his nose a little. "Anyway, how are things going with you and Ingrid?"
"Better, actually," Fred replied, nodding, "She doesn't make gagging noises and leave the room whenever I enter any more, so I suppose that's an improvement."
"I still don't get why she was so mad at you. I mean, you said you both wanted to do it so you did and then she got mad at you. It just doesn't make sense! Girls are fucking weird."
"Yeah. Super weird," Fred replied, his tone a little higher than usual.
"There's something you're not telling me," James noted, narrowing his eyes a little. "Spill."
Fred gave his cousin a guilty look. "Fine, I'm busted. Everything you just said happened, yeah, but I may have glossed over a small detail."
James raised an eyebrow. "You got her drunk first, didn't you?"
"No! I'm not a complete asshole. We were both sober, fully consenting and having a great time… and then we were just finishing up and I may have shouted out the wrong name."
James' eyes and mouth widened in shock. "You did what? You fucking idiot!" he exclaimed.
"Yes, I know I am, but that's not the worst part," Fred said, biting his lip.
"It gets worse? Merlin, Fred, how could it possibly get worse than you getting her name wrong?"
There was a small pause before Fred spoke. "I may have called her Sapphire."
James sighed and shook his head slowly. "No wonder she's mad at you, Fred. You would be too if she'd moaned Isaac's name."
"I know, okay? I've had a long time to kick myself about it, trust me."
"It could still work out, though, mate. I mean, she might be able to move past it and give you a second chance."
"Doubt it, man," Fred muttered as he entered their History of Magic classroom. "I fucked it up big time."
The pair waved in acknowledgement at Alyssa, Caroline and Maya and took their seats at the back before pulling out some parchment and ink to pretend to write notes on, consciously making a slient agreement to discontinue their conversation because Ingrid was sitting with Nikki on the table directly in front of them.
Professor Binns floated around at the front, droning on about some goblin rebellion or another, oblivious to the fact that James and Fred had started a very competitive game of noughts and crosses, and that most of the other students were trying to pass the time by not paying attention as well.
When the lesson finally came to an end, James waited with Fred outside the classroom for Alyssa to emerge with her friends.
"Hey," he said when she saw and had walked over to him, "This is going to have to be quick because I have Divination now, but I just wanted to let you know that I have a date plan ready if you're free tomorrow night?"
"I've been looking for an excuse to have a night off of studying, so tomorrow night will be great," she replied, smiling a little and not helping the blush that spread over her face at the thought of her, Alyssa Hamilton, going on an actual date.
"Brilliant," James replied as he started hurrying off towards his next lesson with Fred, calling, "I'll find you at dinner!" over his shoulder.
Divination was a waste of time, as usual. "Remind me why we picked this subject," James muttered to Fred as they were made to look at tea leaves and what they represented.
"Because it's the easiest one to pass, if you think about it. All you have to do is make stuff up, try to justify it as well as you can and they give you an all right grade at the end."
"I guess so," James replied as he turned his cup slowly clockwise, not seeing anything other than strewn tea leaves lingering around the bottom.
After a moment of silence, Fred snorted at his cup before nudging James. "Mate, look at this, it looks like a dick," he exclaimed before erupting into unmanageable laughter.
Upon taking a glance into his cousin's teacup, James couldn't contain his laughter either. There, in the bottom of Fred's cup, was very clearly the outline of a penis. "Fucking hell, it actually does!"
"Does this mean I'm going to get laid?" Fred asked through laughter.
"Even a tea leaf penis wouldn't foresee you getting laid any time soon," James replied, making both of them laugh even more.
"Boys, calm down," Professor Yolland said, walking over to their table and trying to bring order back to his classroom. "I am not going to ask you again."
Even the Slytherins, who they shared Divination with, looked relatively thankful for the disruption and had put their cups down to watch the scene before them.
Eventually, the two boys calmed down after being yelled at by Professor Yolland about manners and classroom etiquette, and they were moved to separate sides of the classroom. No distance could contain their amusement though, because no more than ten calm minutes passed before James caught Fred's eye and they both started laughing uncontrollably again.
Needless to say, they were both given a detention to be served that night and were told that if they disrupted the lesson again, they'd get letters sent home. Neither of them took the threat too harshly; they'd had many a letter sent home before and although their parents got angry with them when it happened, all was forgiven eventually.
Even with their first detention of the academic year lingering before them, James and Fred still couldn't stop laughing at the ordeal surrounding the tea leaf penis.
Walking into the Great Hall with Fred and Will after Divination, James' eyes scanned the Ravenclaw table for Alyssa.
He didn't have much time to spare before his detention, and he wanted to give her the details for their date the following evening. To say he was excited would be an understatement.
Alyssa wasn't there, but Maya Hills had seen the boys enter and was beckoning them over. Will didn't really know Maya, so he said goodbye to his friends before leaving to sit with Holly at the Gryffindor table.
When James and Fred reached her, they exchanged greetings before Maya said, "James, before I forget, Alyssa asked me to tell you that she's not going to be down for a while because she's talking to Professor Flitwick about her homework and that she'll catch up with you when she's done."
"Shoot, we have to be at our Divination detention in ten minutes. Would you mind telling her that's why I'm not here and that if I don't see her later, I'll talk to her before class tomorrow?" he asked, feeling bad that he was using her like an owl, and even worse that Alyssa was going to find out he'd already got a detention on their fourth week back. He wasn't going to lie about it though; he'd never lie to Alyssa.
"No problem. What did you go and do this time?" she asked, sounding amused.
"We saw a penis in Fred's tea leaves," James replied bluntly.
"It was hilarious," Fred added, nodding, "But we kind of disrupted the class with our laughter and got detention for it, so…"
Maya rolled her eyes, but smiled nonetheless.
"Anyway, we'd better leave or Yolland will have our heads," James said. "See you later, Maya."
Fred said goodbye to her as well, and the two departed towards the Divination room.
"I bet you two galleons that we'll be polishing those see-through ball things. What are they even called, anyway?"
"Crystal balls, he calls them," Fred replied. "I'm not taking that bet though because we both know that's exactly what we'll be doing. Don't need a crystal ball to predict that."
James shrugged. "You never know."
When they reached the classroom, Yolland was ready and waiting for them. "Just in time, gents. As you can see, I have set out the crate of crystal balls. I'd like you to thoroughly polish all of them by hand, making sure to handle them with care. Place your wands on my desk and you can reclaim them when you've finished. No talking, no laughing, no humming, nothing. I'll be at my desk when you've finished."
James and Fred gave each other a look of disdain before getting stuck into their detention.
To pass the time, James let his imagination wander to Alyssa and their impending date and wondered if she was as excited about it as he was. Either way, he was just happy that she was going to give him a chance and he was determined to not screw it up.
He'd decided for their first date to keep things casual. Caroline had once mentioned in passing to him that Alyssa enjoyed Quidditch. Caroline was the seeker on the Ravenclaw team, and a good one at that, so when she said that Alyssa wasn't bad at the sport, James had believed her. With that in mind, he'd asked Fred (who was the Gryffindor captain) to book the pitch for him for Wednesday night so he and Alyssa could play some form of one-on-one game. Besides, Alyssa deserved a night off from studying to let loose and have some nice competitive fun. She'd earned that much.
James' mind then wandered to just Quidditch. The first game, Ravenclaw versus Slytherin, was in one and a half weeks at the start of October and he knew from Caroline that both teams had been training hard, which made him nervous because with everything happening between Fred and Ingrid, Gryffindor still hadn't even had try-outs for a new chaser and keeper, let alone started training.
Fred was either dreading having to play on the same team as Ingrid, who happened to be the only female player on their team (not to mention the best chaser Gryffindor had seen in years), or he was just so miserable that he couldn't be bothered. James made a mental reminder to talk to Fred about getting that sorted soon. Their first match was against Hufflepuff in December, and there was no way he was going to lose a match to a house who'd not ranked above third place for the past five years.
Putting down the freshly polished crystal ball as carefully as he could, James went to reach for another one before realising that he'd finished, and that he'd been subconsciously serving his detention while daydreaming for two whole hours.
Looking behind him, his cousin was just finishing his last one as well. "Sir, we're done," James said when Fred had put the last one down.
Professor Yolland inspected the crystal balls. "You have done a satisfactory job," he said, which was as good as a compliment coming from him. "I hope in these past two hours you have had time to reflect on the consequences of disrupting my classroom and that you've learned that I will not tolerate such childish behaviour from sixth years. You're both free to go now."
James made sure not to catch Fred's eye, knowing that they'd both start laughing again, which they did as soon as they were out of Yolland's earshot.
A/N - I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has taken in interest in AitF so far. I hope you enjoyed this chapter - drop me a review if you did! -Ti
