It was the first week in October. The leaves had officially changed color, and all of Hogwarts was awash in vibrant reds, yellows, and oranges. Saturday was the perfect day for a Quidditch match, the excitement only increased by the fact that it was Slytherin vs Gryffindor.
James sat in the stands, comfortably nestled between Jerry and Alice. The three of them were watching the Gryffindor team stretch and gossiping about the team placements, which were still somewhat of a scandal throughout the school.
Leo Davies had, very controversially, been picked up as the team's second beater. He replaced Olivia Wood, who switched over to keeper to compensate for Victoire's absence. The loss of Olivia as a beater was a serious blow to the overall morale of Gryffindor, as she had been absolutely spectacular.
On top of that, Dominique could not stand Leo, and while their position as the team's beaters required them to work together, they simply refused to cooperate. The team captain, Tommy Brown, was furious at both of them, especially because it was his last year at Hogwarts, and his last chance to finally win the Quidditch Cup.
Dominique was insistent that it was Leo who was causing all of the trouble, but Lucas said that Olivia thought that Leo was making a real effort to be nice to Dominique. '
"Olivia thinks that your cousin is too stubborn to appreciate a guy like Leo," Lucas had informed James, pleased that, for once, he was in the know and James wasn't.
James had tried to talk to Victoire, but she seemed to have suddenly lost all interest in Quidditch. Especially Gryffindor Quidditch. Everytime James approached her she was smiling with a distant expression, as if her mind were far away.
Teddy was acting in the same strange way. He was bizarrely happy. A few months prior he had been a moody teenager with gelled-down black hair, but now his hair was bright blue and almost as messy as James'.
They'd had one long conversation where James had asked him point blank why he was suddenly so cheerful.
"You're not so grouchy anymore," James said.
Teddy had grinned broadly, and ruffled James' hair, much to his disdain, "Am I not allowed to be happy?"
"It's weird," James admitted, "when I see you and you don't immediately reach out to flick me."
"There," Teddy reached over and gently flicked James' forehead, "does that make everything better?'
James rolled his eyes, "Are you going to tell me why you're acting so weird or not?"
"No. Not yet, at least. You're kind of last in the chain of command here, you know that right?"
"What about Louis?" James protested. "Or Fred and Roxanne?"
Teddy laughed, "The twins tend to find things out on their own, whether they're directly told or not. And Louis gets to know things because he's Vic's brother."
"You're my brother," James argued.
"Not like Louis is to Vic."
There was an uncomfortable silence that followed. It was always like this whenever the subject of Teddy's familial status came up. He called Harry "dad", and as far as James was concerned, Teddy was the best older brother anyone could ever have, teenage moodiness and all.
But every now and then it seemed like Teddy was pulling away from the family, feeling their true biological difference the older he got.
Teddy and the Potter's shared not one drop of blood between them, but they might as well have. And that was all that mattered to James. Yet it seemed like Teddy thought about it a lot more than he let on.
It was especially obvious at moments like that, where an awkward hush would fall over whatever conversation was being had.
James cleared his throat awkwardly, "Does this mean Louis knows something I don't?"
"Nobody knows anything. Least of all you," Teddy had told him. "So don't worry about that."
"James? James!"
James shook himself out of his thoughts and turned to see Alice looking at him with a worried expression, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I was just thinking about stuff."
"Well stop thinking," Alice said. "The game is about to start!"
On the field the two teams took their positions, with Tommy Brown and Jamie Wormworth, the Slytherin captain, shaking hands.
Jamie Wormworth was enormous and imposing. Tommy Brown himself was certainly not small, but Jamie stood well above six feet, and she leered over Tommy menacingly.
"What exactly are they feeding that girl?" Jerry whispered to James.
Before James could respond, he heard a voice above the din of the stadium shouting his name.
Turning he saw Slughorn pushing his way through a sea of young Gryffindors, hand waving above his head.
"Oh, God," James groaned, "What's he doing over here?"
Slughorn breathlessly squeezed between two second years and stumbled rather clumsily into James' row.
Alice nodded her head, "I think we're about to find out."
"James, m'boy!" Slughorn jovially clasped James on the shoulder, shaking him slightly as he did so.
"Hello, Professor," James said, forcing a smile.
"I've been meaning to catch you for a while now but you always seem to disappear right before I manage to get ahold of you. I hope you're not taking your studies too seriously? I'm sure you of all people have enough natural talent to sustain you."
James stared at Professor Slughorn blankly as the potions master burst out laughing as if he had said something very funny.
"Of course I hope you'll take a break from all that studying to come to my little get together on Friday, yes?"
Reaching into his robes, Slughorn produced a rolled piece of parchment. Thick and tied with a lavender ribbon, James' could've sworn it smelled like it had perfume sprayed on it.
"Well I'd certainly like to go," James began before Slughorn interjected.
"Wonderful! I knew you would be excited. Just come to my office on Friday instead of going to dinner," he grinned and winked at James. "I promise our food is much more extravagant than the usual offerings."
"Okay," James gingerly took the invitation as if it were a urine soaked rat and tucked it into the pocket of his coat. "I'm really looking forward to it."
Alice tried to stifle a laugh at James' obvious discomfort, but apparently Slughorn did not notice as he beamed brightly at James, shaking his hand once more for emphasis. "Wonderful! Wonderful! I shall see you then!"
Slughorn happily waddled away. James waited until he was out of earshot before letting out a long groan and burying his head in his hands. "Why me?"
"You haven't got time for self-pity," Alice pointed excitedly, "Madame Hooch is about to release the Quaffle!"
The words had not even left her mouth when Madame Hooch tossed the Quaffle in the air, blowing her whistle and officially starting off the Quidditch season. The crowd let out a deafening cheer as Martin Jordan began excitedly shouting commentary.
"And they're off! Gryffindor immediately gains control of the Quaffle, which of course comes as no surprise to anyone considering they've got the positively magnetic Tommy Brown leading them. He got a haircut over the summer which seems to have impressed everyone, including my girlfriend. Congratulations, Tommy!"
"Mr. Jordan, please keep your commentary impersonal and unbiased," Professor Finnigan looked visibly annoyed with the third year announcer.
"Right, sorry. Anyways, Gryffindor has lost possession of the Quaffle! And now Slytherin has swooped in and snatched it up! But we've got a strong set of beaters in Weasley and Davies so not to fear. They seem to be a bit out of sync, oh this will be tricky. Come on, you two, get it together for Merlin's sake!"
Martin screamed this last part as Dominique and Leo failed to co-ordinate their timing. The Slytherin chaser easily slipped past the two of them, hurling the ball directly towards the left hoop.
"And Olivia Wood saves it" Martin shouted, forgetting his requirement of impartiality. "Great job, Gryffindor!"
"Dominique and Leo do not look happy," Jerry nodded to where the pair was arguing mid-air, oblivious to the action around them.
"We're doomed," James sighed. "As long as we keep this up we'll never win."
He could not have been more correct. The game took only twenty minutes. Tommy Brown, the seeker, became entrenched in Dominique and Leo's fighting, giving the Slytherins a clear shot at the snitch, which they were more than happy to take. When the final whistle blew, the mood in the stadium had significantly deflated.
The only exception was the Slytherin section, who were cheering on their team as they flew around the field in a victory lap.
Over the excited cries of the Slytherins, James could hear Tommy yelling. "I'm telling you right now, if we ever have another game like that, you're both off the team! I don't give a flying frog about how good you are. It doesn't matter if you're too busy fighting to even play!"
"It was his fault!" Dominique protested. "I gave him the instructions."
"You are not in charge of me!" Leo said. "How many times do I have to say it?"
And the three of them began shouting over each other as a full blown argument began forming right before the eyes of the entire student body.
James looked over at Alice whose face was contorted into a grimace, "I cannot believe that just happened."
James looked away from Alice back to the field, where the entire team had joined in on the fight. For the first time in his life, he couldn't wait to get away from the Quidditch pitch.
