If James had known that he would be spending so much of his time at Hogwarts in the library, perhaps he wouldn't have been quite as excited to attend school. Even worse, he was there by choice.

It was two hours before the Halloween feast and James was wandering the stacks of the Hogwarts library looking for Dominique. It had been almost two weeks since Victoire had first confronted James about talking to Dominique, a task which James had been busy avoiding.

They had lost the game to Hufflepuff, the most humiliating defeat in a long time for Gryffindor. Victoire had blamed James for this loss, saying that if he had just talked to Dominique before the game, things would have been fine. James wasn't so sure. He thought that Dominique and Leo were beyond help.

But Victoire was nothing if not persistent, and earlier that day she had cornered James in the hallway.

"If you don't talk to Minnie before the feast tonight, I will. And you know I'll only make it worse and we'll just keep losing."

James knew she was right, so he was on a mission to find Dominique before it was too late and the Gryffindors were left with a losing Quidditch team for the rest of the season.

Lost in thought, James almost didn't register the familiar voice coming from behind a shelf of thick leather bound tomes. Coming to an abrupt halt, he listened more closely and recognized Dominique's low voice muttering mutinously.

"Twelve inches! As if I didn't have anything better to do than write an essay on what the stars whisper to me at night. Absolute nonsense!"

"Dominique?" James turned round the corner and came face to face with his cousin, who was looking rather flushed and frazzled.

"What?" she snapped. Her face softened when she saw how it was. "Oh, it's you. I thought you were Teddy. He's been following me for weeks now. I think Vic asked him to watch me."

James nervously twisted his fingers together, "Then I guess you're probably not going to be too happy about what I'm going to say next."

Dominique stared furiously at James, "What is my meddling sister up to now?"

"It's not her, it's you," James explained. "Well, I guess you and Leo."

"Leo Davies?" Dominique looked at James quizzically. "Why do you care about Leo?"

"Because you two can't stop fighting and it's ruining Quidditch for the rest of us!" James blurted out.

Dominique stared with her mouth agape, before quickly regaining his composure and frowning dramatically, "You can't possibly blame me for that! Everyone knows that Leo is the one who started it. He's had it out for me since first year! And I haven't even-."

James did something he never thought he'd have the guts to do: He interrupted his terrifying cousin, "It is partly your fault. You're not even trying to get along!"

"Why should I?" Dominique asked. "He doesn't make an effort!"

"Well maybe he would if you did," James suggested. "But you've got to try. I'm sick of having a losing Quidditch team. We lost to Hufflepuff, Dominique! Hufflepuff!"

"That is not my fault!"

"It is if instead of paying attention to the game you're busy yelling at your teammate! Please, Dominique, just try to get along with Leo. Victoire said that if Gryffindor doesn't start winning she's going to talk to you herself," James pleaded with his cousin.

Dominique turned white, "She said that?"

James nodded solemnly.

There was a moment of silence before Dominique spoke. "Alright, I'll talk to Leo. But only because I'd rather talk to him than Vic. Even Leo isn't as bad as she is."

"C'mon, Victoire's not that bad," James protested.

"Are you joking?" Dominique scoffed. "She's even more of a nightmare now that she and Teddy are dating."

James' blood felt like ice in his veins, "Vic and Teddy are dating?"

Dominique's eyes widened, "No! I didn't say that. Did I?"

"They're dating?" James felt the vision around the rim of his eyes getting blurry.

Dominique grabbed James by the shoulders and shook him violently. "James? Earth to James! Anybody home?"

"How could they not tell me?" James asked.

"Probably because they knew you'd freak out," Dominique rolled her eyes. "Just calm down. This isn't so bad."

"Not so bad?" James felt his voice growing shrill. "I have to go find Teddy."

"Uh, no. No you don't," Dominique protested. But her words fell on deaf ears as James abruptly turned and bolted out of the library.

He didn't stop running until he reached the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Password?"

"Fanged Frisbee!" James gasped breathlessly. "Fanged Frisbee! Fanged Frisbee!"

James could not remember the portrait hole ever opening more slowly as he breathlessly burst through and ran right into Jerry and Alice.

"Teddy and Victoire are dating!" James said, panting heavily.

Jerry and Alice responded simultaneously.

"No way!"

"Well, duh!"

Jerry and James both turned to stare at Alice, who looked away and blushed.

"You knew?" Jerry gawked at Alice. "How did you know?"

Alice rolled her eyes, "It was kind of obvious with the way they're always drooling over each other. I thought you two would have figured it out by now." She turned to James, a look of concern crossing her face, "You really didn't know?"

James shook his head dejectedly, "No he didn't tell me. And I can't believe you didn't either!"

"Yeah!" Jerry chimed in, glaring at Alice. "How could you not tell us? We're supposed to be your friends."

James looked at Jerry, "I was more wondering why she didn't tell me considering Teddy's my brother, but thanks for having my back on this one."

Jerry nodded sharply, not quite picking up the full meaning of James' statement, "Anytime, mate."

Alice rolled her eyes and turned to address James, "I'm really sorry, but I just assumed they would tell you. What are you going to do now?"

James' shoulders slumped dejectedly, "I suppose I have to go talk to Teddy now. Neither of you know where the Hufflepuff dorms are, do you?"

As both Alice and Jerry sadly shook their heads, a bout of coughing came from behind James, a few drops of saliva landing on the back of his neck.

Attempting not to gag, James whipped around and found himself face to face with Casper. "What do you want, Casper?"

Casper looked taken aback by James' tone, but didn't have much time to dwell on it because he soon interrupted into another coughing fit.

"If you're interested," Casper began as soon as he had regained his composure, "I happen to know where the Hufflepuff common room is."

Jerry looked at Casper with great interest, "How do you know that?"

Casper sniffed rather indelicately, "I read."

"Casper," James said, "please take us to the Hufflepuff common room. I really need to talk to Teddy."

Casper studied James carefully, "I'll do it."

"Thank you."

"On one condition."

Alice stared at Casper suspiciously, "What's the condition?"

Casper turned to James, "This mainly concerns you. I want you to come to every Slug Club meeting you're invited to from now on. No excuses. No distractions. Just you, in Slughorn's office, every Friday."

James stared, "You can't be serious."

"As death."

"Why do you want James at those meetings so bad?" Jerry interrupted.

"Would you believe me if I said I simply enjoy his company?" Casper shrugged, sneezing loudly into his handkerchief.

"No, I wouldn't," Jerry answered. "No offense, James."

"None taken."

Casper rolled his eyes, "I'm not asking why you want to talk to Teddy. You've got your reasons, now let me have mine. Listen, do you want to go to the Hufflepuff common room or not?"

"Fine," James sighed, "I see you next Friday at the Slug Club."

"Excellent," Casper attempted to smile, but simultaneously cleared his throat, giving him the appearance of a man in intense pain.

So it was just a few minutes later that the four of them, Alice, Jerry, James, and Casper, found themselves staring up at a very large painting of a ripe pear.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" James asked.

Casper didn't answer, instead he simply coughed once, then began to gently stroke the pear.

"Eurgh," Alice winced. "What are you doing to that poor pear?"

Much like the portrait of the Fat Lady, the frame of the painting swung away, revealing a portrait hole which acted as a door.

Casper gestured to the hole, "Alright, go on in."

"Are you not coming in?" James asked.

"No, why would I?" Casper stared at James inquisitively. "I've got my own work to do. Don't forget, you're due at the Slug Club this Friday."

And with that Casper disappeared, wheezing loudly and blowing his nose.

"That is one weird dude," Jerry stared in fascination at Casper's departing figure.

James sighed, "Yeah, yeah, let's get this over with."

And turning to make his way into the portrait hole, James found himself face to face with his blue haired older cousin, staring down at him with an unwelcoming frown.