Chapter 160

Owned

James was pissed.

Like, murder you with a spoon and dance over your freshly buried grave, pissed.

No one messes with his quidditch pitch.

And the worst part? He couldn't do anything about it. McGonagall would know if James hexed the tar out of Lockhart later and James would lose his badge. He couldn't recruit Sirius to do it when James had an alibi either. McGonagall would see right through that. So he was stuck, the only hope of revenge James had was to win this quidditch game so thoroughly that the Ravenclaws would beat the crap out of Lockhart themselves.

Losing wasn't an option today. He was going to score so many points on Ravenclaw they'd have to enchant the scoreboard to hold bigger numbers just to keep track of them all. And his team knew it too.

He'd only said three words to them before they'd reemerged on his damaged field, Sirius would have been proud of him and he'd left his team peeking at him in nervous anxiety as they left the locker room. His pitch was clear of the stain but he could feel the scars as he walked on its grass. Even the team opposing him looked nervous at the look on James' face and the coach talked only to James as he warned them to keep the game clean. He shouldn't have worried, James wasn't interested in cheating.

No, he was going to send the Ravenclaw team back to their dorm in tears fairly, no one would say he hadn't earned his revenge. He only hoped Anthony didn't catch the snitch too fast.

After a tense handshake, they pushed off the tainted ground. There were fifteen tense seconds before the quaffle was released and the punishment began.

James caught it, Kathy hadn't even tried, though Lissa had out of habit more than anything.

A ten-second goal had to be a new record right? He didn't have the school records memorized but he was pretty sure when the quaffle went through the post and the stands went quiet in a stadium-wide 'oh crap moment' that he'd just set some kind of record, at least.

He could hear the Ravenclaw captain's mental mantra of 'this is gonna suck.'

Keth could have gone back to the dorm early, Kathy and Lissa could have joined him if it wouldn't have gotten them disqualified, but they were too fascinated watching James' one-man wrecking crew destroy any hope Ravenclaw had of celebrating anything other than their mutual survival. Only Faye and Liam had anything to do even if the bludgers hadn't had a ghost of a chance of catching their rampaging captain, they could at least keep the rest of the team from getting brained in an attempt by the Ravenclaws to be vaguely relevant in the game. Every once in a while, Anthony got a chance to keep the Ravenclaw seeker away from the snitch. James hadn't given him any orders to avoid catching the golden ball, but at the rate the game was going he thought it best to let James give them a head start for the cup until his rage burned itself out.

It didn't burn itself out for a very, very long time.

The party in the common room celebrating the five-hour long temper tantrum of James Potter felt less like a party and more like a 'let's not make Potter mad' festival. Even Sirius eyed him nervously at times. And, though he hadn't so much as touched Lockhart, he felt better. The blight on his quidditch pitch had felt less severe when he'd touched down to the sight of several crying Ravenclaw quidditch players, as though it was healing now that it had been properly avenged. It was a strange feeling, the contentedness, bullying had never made him feel so satisfied. He hadn't hurt anyone, so why did it feel like he'd accomplished his revenge.

It was probably a fluke.

Though he wouldn't deny the hardly visible smile McGonagall gave him after a week of watching him like a hawk felt nice, he even thought there'd been a hint of pride in her eyes, but that might have just been relief.

With such a sure victory James let his quidditch team relax a little bit. Even if they hadn't done much he knew they could have if he'd given them a chance. James quickly found himself bored out of his mind. Their practice with the imperious curse was slow but couldn't be hurried and he couldn't resort to his favorite time waster: bullying.

He'd have gone crazy and actually looked for Snape to practice his aim on if Keth hadn't spared them all by using his newfound free time to bug James into teaching him healing spells. Remus had nearly cried in relief when Keth dragged him away.

"I assume you're taking the optional healing class?" James asked him, unreasonably nervous about teaching. If he could guide Peter through the animagus transformation he could teach a third year healing spells.

"Yeah. We've already covered three spells: anapneo, episkey, and ferula. As well as bezoars, and how to mix an antidote for common poisons." Keth pulled out the overused school textbook he'd been given since the classes hadn't had a book in the list of supplies they had to buy at the beginning of the term. James had just owl ordered his own, most people had. "The textbooks you gave me are a bit hard to understand, but I think I'm starting to get it."

"Yeah, I didn't even look at them."

"Did your mom teach you to heal?" Keth asked his head tilling curiously. Sirius did that sometimes, it made James smile. Keth would probably have a dog for an animagus too. A smaller one though. Something cute and affectionate, like a chihuahua or a cocker spaniel.

"Nah, we all just learned together. When you get yourself in as much trouble as we do it becomes sort of a necessity."

Keth laughed, "you could also try, y'know, not getting in trouble so much. That might be a possibility."

"That's boring," James waved him up before stepping back and pulling out his wand. "C'mon get up, I'm gonna teach you my favorite healing spell." Keth did as he was told, pushing off a bed that James assumed was his own. He'd never been in any of the other boy's dorms in the Gryffindor tower, he'd been in a girls dorm once, but never the boys. "It heals all kinds of stuff, rather than just broken bones or cuts. But I'll warn you it's challenging."

"Okay," Keth said biting his lip, James wondered if he was starting too hard, it didn't matter, the kid was smart, he could handle it. He didn't teach Peter to turn into a rat by starting easy.

"Don't worry, you've got it easy. Remus found it in an ancient textbook, the language it's written in is dead, no one alive really speaks it. We've learned how to read them, but it's impossible to know for sure how they're pronounced. It took us nearly a year just to figure out a pronunciation that works. It might not even be the original pronunciation, but it works."

Keth just looked even more nervous.

"You don't have to worry about any of that though. Just pronounce it the same way I do."

He nodded.

"I'll do it myself a few times for you to watch." James waved his wand, he'd found the motion easy to remember, it was like drawing the Nordic rune ing. Just one X on top of the other, it was complicated compared to most swish and flick spells, but an easy movement to remember "heill." The tip of his wand lit up an icy blue, but otherwise, nothing else happened as there was nothing to heal. "Maybe I should..." He pulled out a pocket knife and pricked his palm. Keth flinched away but said nothing when James did the spell again.

His hand felt as cold as ice but the cut vanished all the same.

James practiced it several more times, minus the physical injury, to show him before Keth tried it himself. He could tell that it was above Keth's skill level on the third year's first attempt, but he said nothing. It would keep them both busy for a while and if he could learn this one, it would make a lot of other spells unnecessary.

Neither of them noticed how long they worked, concentrating on their practice until the rest of the third years piled into the dorm room and their interruptions went from ego boosting to annoying.

"Make sure you practice," James said as he headed out the door. Keth hardly stopped his practice to promise he would.

He didn't realize he'd been smiling until he entered his own doom.

"Practice go well then?" Remus asked he was the only one in the dorm. He was lounging on his bed a book in his hand and a chocolate frog hanging from his mouth. It was still wigging.

"Sure," James shrugged plopping himself down beside Remus. "He's a smart kid, he'll get it."

"You're not teaching him that one, are you?" Remus lowered the book and rolled his eyes when James shrugged, "that's way above his level, Prongs."

"He's smart enough."

"He's thirteen."

"We're fifteen, so what?" James flopped back on the bed, laying over Remus' feet. He didn't understand what the big deal was.

"You can't compare yourself to normal people. It's not fair."

James chuckled. "If I can teach Wormtail one of the most complicated transfiguration spells in the world I can teach Keth how to heal somebody."

Remus sighed, James could see him trying to come up with an argument and failing. "I suppose. Just don't be too hard on the kid. Okay? He really looks up to you."

"I know, it's weird. Like, kid needs to get better role models."

Remus put the book down, focusing his attention on James. "Was that..." Remus searched for the word, "was that modesty I just heard come out of your mouth?"

James felt his cheeks heat up and he threw himself forward back into a seated position. "N-no," he looked around though he knew no one else was around. "Just logic, that's all. I know I'm a git."

Remus laughed under his breath and shook his head, "nah... well yeah, sometimes, but not all the times. You could be a good role model if you really tried, you're morals are sound. And you've been doing great with the whole, bullying thing."

"Only cuz McGonagall will take my badge away."

Remus waved it off. "Progress is progress. I think Keth picked a pretty good role model, especially since he's smart enough to call you out on your crap."

James looked at him, just a peek. "You really think so?"

"Yeah, James, I really do."

James hesitated before saying anything. "Thank you."

"Anytime, Prongs."

A/N) I'm really sorry it's late. I've been having a heak of a time fighting of post Holiday lethargy. Litterally none of my goals are getting done.