A/N: I'm soooo sorry for the long wait, but me friend was supposed to take care of this chapter—from Lily's side, but she has been too busy…for all of these 2 months, so I'm afraid she won't be co-authoring with me anymore, as I was sick and tired of her excuses and failure to respond on her behalf.
I had to whip up the rest of this chapter at the last minute (I had already started on it a while back) in the wee hours of the morning because I felt guilty about you guys not having another chapter 8o(…so let me know if it's not good!
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Before the Boy Who Lived
CHAPTER 10
James' Summer Cont.
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James hated Floo-ing.
The sensation made him want to throw up so bad-he actually had on a few occasions come to think of it.
"Oomph." James had rolled out of the fireplace and hit Sirius covering him with ashes.
"I suppose I picked a perfect time for snack didn't I?"
"What?" asked James, who was still a little queasy from using Floo Powder.
"James, we are in the kitchen," he said, "though why you picked this fireplace is beyond me."
"What? Is there more?"
"Yea, there is at least two on every floor."
"Oh, we only have one. Period."
"That probably makes it a lot less work for your house-elf though."
"You have a house-elf?"
"Yea, and he needs to clean up these ashes too, hold on," Sirius walked to the bottom of the stairs and yelled for the house-elf. "Kreacher!"
A house-elf with a snout nose and large ears came down the stairs looking very unfriendly.
"What is you wanting?" Kreacher asked Sirius
"I 'is wanting' you to sweep up the ashes from the fireplace."
Kreacher looked from Sirius to James to the fireplace back to Sirius.
"You is not allowed to be ordering Kreacher around. You can be doing the sweeping"
"What? Why?" asked a befuddled Sirius
"Mistress says Young Master is being too young."
"But you let Regulus order you around."
"Mistress says Younger Master is being alright to order Kreacher."
"Fine. C'mon James, I'll show you my room."
James followed Sirius up the stairs and through hallways lined with pictures that were all whispering, and from what James could gather-they were all talking about Sirius.
They went up another set of stairs and passed a closed door-behind the door came a loud "BANG!", the door flew open, and a small sandy-haired boy ran from the room down the stairs clutching his hand to his chest screaming frantically.
"Regulus?" James asked
"Regulus." Sirius confirmed before turning around and leading James into his bedroom. "Oh, yea, I meant to tell you as soon as you came out of the fire, we are going…"
No sooner had they entered the threshold Sirius loved to call his own, had his mother's horrid shriek came wailing up the stairs.
"SIRIUS!"
"WHAT?" shouted Sirius right back at her
"COME DOWN HERE NOW!"
Sirius heaved a sigh and headed downstairs James followed him not quite sure if he really should or not.
"WHERE ARE YOU?" yelled Sirius when they had made it downstairs, only not to find Mrs. Black.
"No need to shout, I'm in the drawing room," came her voice from behind a slightly ajar door to their right.
They pushed open the door to a very dimly lit room, the little light there was came from a small green lamp on a very fine wooden table that sat next to a large black velvet chair Mrs. Black had situated herself on. James however stayed outside the room while Sirius walked through the door
The cigarette that dangled from her lips sending layers of smoke through the whole room making him cough violently. The smoke also had a slight affect on the walls that were covered in several discolored tapestries.
Mrs. Black removed the cigarette from her mouth, threw it on the floor, and vanished it with her wand before standing up and taking a few intimidating steps towards Sirius.
"If I understand correctly you are not permitted to use magic outside of school?" she asked looking down on Sirius from her high-heeled boots.
"Yea," answered Sirius not flinching in the slightest under her heavy glare.
"Then why in the world would use it on your helpless little brother--who knows no way to defend himself?" she asked gesturing towards Regulus who had stationed himself in a corner hugging his hand to his chest. It had actually swollen to thrice its normal size and was developing several small bluish boils on the fingers.
"What?" asked Sirius in shock, "I didn't do that!"
"Didn't do it? My poor baby just came running down the stairs and told me the whole thing!" she shrieked.
Realization dawned on Sirius in the form of a smirk from the younger of the Black brothers.
"Really?" asked Sirius coolly, "What pray-tell, did he say happen?"
Mrs. Black's demeanor changed instantaneously from infuriated to distressed.
She rose the back of her hand to her head and receded back into her chair, "It was so horrible to hear one time, Sirius, I doubt I'll have the stomach to re-tell the retched tale…Regulus, kindly remind your brother what he did to you."
The brown-haired Black advanced from the corner of the drawing room, and moved in front of the large velvet chair.
"Don't you remember Sirius? It was merely a few minutes ago…and what you did was so mean no one could easily forget." Mrs. Black sunk further into her chair as she let out a small wail and gripped the armrests of the chair. "You lured me into your room, remember Sirius? You said you had candy. You said it was in your cauldron, so I tried to get some…but there was no candy." He added solemnly shaking his head. "Instead it was some sort of potion, don't you remember Sirius? It did this to my candy-seeking hands!"
Mrs. Black gasped and covered her eyes as Regulus displayed his hands.
James, who was watching the whole thing from outside the doorway burst into the drawing room, "Sirius didn't do that! He was with me! I swear it! You can ask Kreacher, and go ahead and ask some of the portraits that saw us!"
"James," Sirius whispered from the corner of his mouth, " I got this, ok? I can handle it."
"Yeah?" James whispered back, "Just like you handled the Snivellus-in-the-suit-of-armor thing?"
"Shut it, I was young and naïve back then."
"Whatever you say Sirius, I'll stay out of it then." James put up his hands in surrender.
Sirius stood firm and looked directly into his mother's dark, black eyes preparing himself to give an iron defense on his behalf.
"I didn't do that! I was with James! I swear it! You can ask Kreacher, and go ahead and ask some of the portraits that saw us!"
James chuckled under his breath.
"Well, Sirius, you better keep it straight or I'm not taking you to see Ireland verses England."
"But Moth…" Sirius began but clamped his mouth shut and without saying another word solemnly walked from the drawing room only stopping to beckon James to follow him.
James followed Sirius silently to the kitchen, which was quite a feat, considering he was very eager to ask him about the remark his mother had just made.
When they had got into the kitchen James could sustain himself no longer.
"Ireland verses England?!"
Sirius, who had been reaching into a cupboard for some Every Flavor Beans, turned around, "Huh?"
"Sirius, you're going to witness Ireland get their arses kicked by England?!"
"Yea," he said popping some into his mouth and nodding, "achooly weah." he finished with his mouth full.
"That's wicked!" replied James, eyeballs practically bulging from their sockets.
"Oh yea, and the best part is, we have brilliant seats…not quite Top Box, but those were already reserved by the Minister…"
"…wow…" was all James could say, he was going to see England play Quidditch! "When are we going?"
"Oh, that's right, we're going tomorrow!"
James could have fainted.
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He was smiling all through supper, as if he was in some sort of blissful daze-which he was-, and kept getting odd stares from Regulus and Mrs. Black.
"Sirius," Mrs. Black began with uncertainty, "Are you sure your friend is of mental stability?"
Sirius glanced over at James, who hadn't touched any of the food on his plate and was still grinning his head off.
"Actually Mother, I'm not really sure."
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All was wonderful in James' world, he couldn't have asked for a more awesome way to celebrate his summer vacation.
He had gone to a Quidditch game before-once. The Potter family was an average family when it came to wealth, but never enough to simply blow it on an event. The Nimbus broom had certainly surprised James.
The only person of the Potter clan of any substantial worth was James grandfather, William Potter, and in James' opinion-he was rolling in it. The only problem was that he was a miserly old fool. And the one occasion he took James to a Quidditch game they were horrible seats, even behind a pillar, next to a wizard who was drunk by the time the first goal was scored and shouting words of which James was too naïve to fully appreciate.
Now he was actually going to see a decent game!
James thought about it and saw that it was good.
It was all good until the next morning…
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"SIRIUS! WE HAVE TO LEAVE IN 10 MINUTES!!" called Mrs. Black
10 minutes. That's great, if only Sirius was actually awake.
It was five in the morning, and everyone was ready to go-except Sirius-who was still lying in there refusing to wake-up, and if James thought it was a pain to wake him at school…well…that was simple compared to waking him up over summer vacation.
Sirius was already soaked, coverless, on the floor, and been yelled at several times. None of the usual tactics seemed to be working and James was getting frustrated.
Regulus walked into the room, saw Sirius' sleeping form and sighed, "No luck?" he asked James.
"No."
"Have you tried everything?"
"Everything."
"Even water?"
"Even water."
"Have you pulled his ear?"
James was confused, "Pull his ear? Why in the world would I do that?"
"Because it wakes him up," he said simply.
"Er…no, I haven't pulled his ear."
"Well, you'd better stand back then, it could be fatal."
With that James moved to the doorway as Regulus moved over to Sirius. The smaller boy bent over his brother and proceeded to tug on his ear.
-WHAM! -
Without warning Regulus was slammed up against the wardrobe with Sirius' left hand holding him there, his other hand over his ear.
"Don't. Do. That."
"MOM! HE'S UP!!"
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They traveled to the Pitch by means of the Knight Bus, because Regulus supposedly had a mortal fear of using port keys, though James had a sneaking suspicion that it was Mrs. Black who was actually afraid of them.
The four of them clambered onto the bus at quarter after four, the conductor didn't seem very happy about this, seeing as he was supposed to get sleep sometime, and if people kept getting on the bus at ungodly hours—how is he going to sleep?
He sneered at the Blacks and James as they handed him some silver pieces, and explained they were going to the Quidditch Stadium.
"Why couldn't they have used the bloody port keys?" he mumbled to himself, "That's what they are there for."
He turned to the bus driver, "To the Stadium, Harv," he said as the group marched up the stairs to the second level, "and make it real quick."
Harvey merely nodded in recognition before the bus lurched into motion, surprising the passengers upstairs.
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"Whoa. Watch where you're leaning buddy," said James to Sirius as the bus took a sharp turn.
Sirius gave him a dirty look, "Man, it's not like I can help it."
The bus took another sharp turn, however, this time it was in the other direction.
"Sirius? Would you say we were good friends?" asked James with a malicious grin as gravity forced him into Sirius' side.
"Not this good, my friend. No." Sirius shoved James off him.
They laughed and joked the rest of the way to the Quidditch Stadium.
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An hour after having got on the bus the group departed, leaving the disgruntled conductor behind them.
The whole area surrounding the Pitch was quiet, but as James and Sirius neared the Stadium everything seemed to come more alive, it was only six in the morning, and the sun was just peeking over the horizon, yet already hundreds of people were here moving stuff to their seats, buying things from the vendors, looking for family members, all clutching cups of warm coffee.
"C'mon James." Sirius was already several feet ahead of him, heading towards the entrance to the Stadium.
The four people climbed stairs, and climbed stairs, and climbed some more stairs until James felt he couldn't climb any more stairs—then they climbed some more stairs. Finally Mrs. Black deemed they had walked enough stairs and stepped out into the stands to find their seats.
Just James' luck, they were up a several more steps.
As soon as they had made it to the actual seats, James plopped down into the chair and dropped his stuff.
"James, we have an hour until the game starts, do you want to go see what the vendors have to sell?"
The prospect of climbing back down the stairs was not one James saw fit to entertain at that particular moment.
"Nah, not this second."
"Ok, well then I've got to go to the bathroom anyways, be right back."
"Alright."
Sirius left, and Mrs. Black took Regulus to the bathroom as well.
It was just James sitting there then.
He watched the people file into the stands, eager to see the game planned for the day. He just sat and stared lazily, before something red caught the corner of his eye, bringing 'round his attention.
BOOM-his bubble burst.
James looked down about three rows to see his worst nightmare; memories of pink curly hair racked his brain.
SHE IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!
She was with her friend, Vallier too, and a woman who appeared to be Mrs. Vallier.
James stormed out of the seats momentarily distressed at her unwanted appearance, not long after, he ran headlong into Sirius who was coming back from the bathroom near the top of the Stadium.
"What's the problem?" he asked, seeing the stormy look on James' face.
"It's Evans, she's here." He replied darkly.
"Hmm…James?"
"Yea?"
"I do believe we can make this work to our advantage, and have some right good fun!"
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'til next time! (which won't be so far away)
Whisper
