"Don't doubt the effects of plain white knickers." – Danielle Juarez

Chapter Two

Kira's Knickers

James Potter had forgotten how to use his legs. This had only happened twice before in his life. The first time was on his eight birthday when his father got him a "grown up" broom, as he called it. He stood frozen for a few minutes, before screaming his exaltation to the sky and running outside to try his new toy out.

The second time was in his first year at Hogwarts, when Stephen Wood, Oliver Wood's son and captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, told him that he would be following in his father's footsteps as Gryffindor's Seeker. Again he was stuck in a few minutes of frozen glee and only snapped out of it when Stephan walked away embarrassed for both of them.

But this time was different, this time was because of…… her.

James met Kira Fitzsimmons on the train his first year. They had high jacked the food cart and received their first detentions together before even stepping foot in Hogwarts. They had been inseparable ever since and caused about as much havoc as they could. James had never thought of her as anything except his best friend, she was a girl that did not count as a girl. And for James' first five years at Hogwarts that had worked out fine for both of them.

James looked from the tips of his shoes to where his best friend lay toppled on the floor of the Common Room. Up his eyes went past her knee high socks, over her creamy thighs dotted with light brown freckles to the cause of his paralysis.

White, cotton knickers.

James' favorite kind. Because James Potter liked simple knickers.

He liked them when he was a kid and he sure as hell like them now.

Kira started shaking and James shook himself out of his knickers induced trance. "You all right, Kira?" he asked, kneeling next to her. She blew her blood red hair out o her face and smiled up at him. Her dark blue eyes gleamed with mirth and melted James into a puddle of goo.

How come he never noticed how pretty she was?

His head was spinning with wonderment as she placed her delicate hand on his shoulder to stand up. She straightened her skirt, covering up her plain knickers and causing James a great deal of distress. He looked up at her pretty round face, smattered with freckles and gulped. She grinned and started laughing.

"You look like someone just stole your best friend, away. I'm the one who fell on her face, if anyone gets to feel bad it's me," she said with a slight Irish accent that James just realized was adorable.

James was stunned, mostly because he could not ever remember thinking anything was adorable.

"Are you all right, Potter? I may have tripped on the rug like the klutz that I am, but you look like you might have had a stroke."

James blinked and shook his head. "Whaa… hum…ahh…" he said. Kira laughed again.

"There he is! James Potter the man we know and love, back to his old eloquent self. I was worried about you, mate."

James got to his feet, only just realizing that he was still on the floor. He could feel the heat in his cheeks and silently chastised himself for acting like a fool in front of her, even though he had acted like a fool in front of her millions of times. He wanted Kira to think highly of him, even though he knew she already did.

"Why you looking at me like that, Potter? Do I have dirt or something on my face?" she asked.

James noticed with an unnatural interested that she did indeed have some dirt on her face. There smudged on her bottom lip was a tiny smear of dirt. James had the sudden uncontrollable urge to wipe away that smudge so that he could run his fingers over her plump, pink lips. James stepped closer to her and reached out.

"Yes, actually. You do have dirt… on your face," he said, trying to sound charming.

"Oh," she said, obviously put off by the way he was acting.

"Let me." James cupped her cheek and slowly, as to savor every moment of his finger on her mouth, he wiped away the dirt.

Kira stepped out his embrace and gave him a disturbed look he was sure he deserved. This was probably the first time since they met that he treated her like……… a girl. James mental kicked himself for not realizing just that years ago.

"You're being really weird, James. Like more than usual. But I'm going to let you off the hook this time, because we're running late for Charms. And I know, I know, who cares if we're late for Charms, but we've already got three detentions this week and I'm not looking to make it four……"

She kept talking, James was almost sure of it, but she had turned away from him and he got distracted by her bum. So much so that he did not move until said bum was gone from his sight. He blinked a few times and walked out of the Common Room only to bump right into Kira, knocking them both over.

James' body covered hers and in the moments before she pushed him off, he relished in how nice it felt to have her wiggling underneath him. He lay on the floor looking up her skirt while she dusted her self off and muttered about how stupid he was.

"Come on, James! Get up!" she said, leaning down to shove him. He got a glimpse down her shirt and nearly swallowed his tongue. James Potter saw his best friends full, freckle covered, bra bound breasts and he could not wait until he got another look…… or maybe a feel.

Kira Fitzsimmons was gorgeous and he had just realized it.

"Let's ditch," he said. He needed more time alone with her.

"If you get one more detention Wood's not going to let you play on Saturday and if you don't play, Gryffindor will lose to bloody Hufflepuff. And no one wants that, so come on, we might be able to talk our ways out of this." She walked away again.

James scrambled to his feet and followed her round, pert rump all the way to Charms. Kira, being the more persuasive or annoyingly persistent of the two of them, did indeed talk Flitwick out of giving them detentions, even though they were twenty minutes late for class.

James did not have the attention span to be terribly grateful, though. He spent most of class staring in Kira's general direction. She was too smart of her own good and would have noticed if he had been staring directly at her.

She flicked at piece a rolled up piece of paper at him. James knew she had written him a note, but he was too distracted by how intimate it felt to have her passing notes with him to open it. He grinned at her and she squinted at him. Kira grabbed the note she had written and threw it directly at his face.

James blinked and finally read it.

You're being really weird. What's up with you?

James blinked again. Bugger, he thought. He could not possibly tell her he liked looking at her knickers and suddenly found out that she was beautiful. Maybe if just ignored her note, she would let it go.

Kira made a frustrated noise when she realized that he was not going to write her back and punched him in the leg. He captured her hand and pressed it against him, loving the feeling of her long slender fingers gripping his muscular leg. She pulled her hand away and punched him in the shoulder.

Merlin he just wanted to grab her and snog her, right there in the middle of class. James let his mind wander towards dirty desires, thinking avidly about what he would like to do to her knickers. With her still wearing them, of course.

Bugger, James thought. He either needed her to touch him again or he needed to go to his dorm for a wank. She was driving his crazy, by just acting the way she usually did. Slightly annoyed, yet genuinely happy to see him.

She growled and James grimaced, his trousers were getting tighter. Kira leaned closer, James looked down her shirt. "What is wrong with you?!" she demanded, in a very annoyed whisper.

"Merlin, you smell good…" he whispered back. Her eyes narrowed at him. James squeezed his eyes shut when he realized what he had said. She did smell good, but that was not something he needed to tell her. Not at the moment anyway.

"Are you drunk?" she asked.

James sucked in a breath. He really was not handling this well. In the past when he liked a girl he would just walk up to her, ask her out and then snog her in the broom closet.

James' eyes got wide, as he stared at Kira. She just kept getting more and more attractive. If she did not stop James would end up doing something stupid. Well, stupider than anything he had not already done.

"Yes," James said, lying to her for the first time in their five years as best friends. "I'm drunk."

Kira sighed and shook her head in amusement. "Well, why didn't you offer any to me?"

James gulped. She was perfect.

---

Albus Potter waited patiently for Transfiguration to be over. He had a natural flair for the class and found the experience of being stuck doing spells that were so obviously beneath him, tedious. Professor Sandra Snodgrass was droning on and on about theories, her favorite subject. Albus did not want to hear about what was possible, he just wanted to do it.

But he was the most patient of the Potter children and thus, went to all of his classes and rarely got in trouble. (And when he did it was for innocent things, like he stayed in the library studying until it closed). Unlike his older brother. Even little thirteen year old Lily seemed to have a knack for disobedience.

While Albus stuck between two trouble makers was praised by his professors for being not only a good student, but for being a good kid. Every time a professor asked James or Lily why they could not be more like Albus, the fourteen year old Potter was often on the receiving end of a hex. In fact Albus could not count the number of Howlers his parents had sent James for sending his younger brother to the Hospital Wing.

It was never anything painful, just embarrassing. Like the time James turned Albus' skin orange, because professor caught him and Kira Fitzsimmons Charming all the food at the Slytherin table to blow up whenever someone tried to eat it. Professor Arnold Alcorn, the Potion professor, asked James why he could not be a good student like Albus.

Albus used to be plenty reckless, but after his first time writing lines in detention he really was not interested in repeating the experience. Much to his parents' relief. During the summer he often acted as the mediator between his parents and James and Kira (who always spent most of summer and Christmas with the Potters).

But Albus was not in the mood to dwell on his brother or even his parents because sitting next to him was the one and only Daisy Doe. She studied with him every Saturday at exactly one P.M., for exactly four hours in the back of the library and had done so for two years. And she ended every study session since their second year the same way.

First she would compliment him on staying out of trouble or always having his homework done in advance. Her compliments were lackluster, but always heart felt. To be honest, Albus did not care much what she was complimenting him about, only that he had pleased her.

Then she would place one of her small hands on his. Slowly she would mover her plump fingers up over his arm (this was why Albus did one hundred push ups a day) to his shoulder. She would slowly and shyly lean towards him and kiss his cheek. After that the little Ravenclaw would scurry away blushing.

Albus turned to Daisy. She was bent over taking notes, her pretty, curly strawberry blonde hair obscured his view of her face. But that did not matter. Albus knew her round shaped face by heart. Hell, he knew her from the tips of her toes to her button shaped nose. She was barely five foot and even at fourteen Albus towered over her. She was curved in all the right places, if she ever bent over in front of him, well, his trousers would get tighter. In Albus' good opinion she was divine. Absolutely perfect in every way. Now, if only she would kiss him properly.

Albus fancied the idea of turning his head as she lay her bow shaped mouth on his cheek and catching her lips with his. But he did not want to startle her. She thought he was a good boy and he wanted her to keep thinking that.

Everyone thought he was a good boy, but secretly he was a very, very bad boy. He never acted on any of his naughty impulses, so he was not half as bad as his brother. But every time innocent Daisy Doe laid her pretty lips on his cheek, his every thought was on pulling her into his arms and ruining her innocent image.

Hell, he thought about it every time she was close to him. And did not stop thinking about it until he had at least twenty minutes of alone time in the shower.

She drove him crazy and he loved every minute of it.

He would spend every minute of every day in her presence if he could, but she was a Ravenclaw and he was a Gryffindor. She was half a castle away most of the time.

Albus turned his attention away from Daisy. If he spent much more time thinking about her he did not doubt that he would have to spend lunch in the shower. He pulled a quill out and started taking notes on Professor Snodgrass' favorite theory.

The door to the classroom slammed open. Professor Snodgrass stopped abruptly. And in strolled James Potter. Albus closed his eyes and prayed to Merlin that his brother was just playing another prank and would leave him alone. But no such luck, James grabbed his little brother by the front of his robes and pulled him out of his chair.

"I'm just going to barrow this for a moment," James told Professor Snodgrass. "My father, Harry Potter, wrote me an urgent letter and I need to pass on its contents to my dear, baby brother. I'll have him back in a minute…… maybe." With that, James pulled Albus out of class.

Albus looked back at Daisy. She was giving him a concerned look. Apparently, she believed James' lie, Albus, on the other hand, knew better.

As soon as the door to the classroom closed, Albus turned on his brother. "What'd you do that for?!" he demanded. "You're going to get me in trouble."

"Well, it's about time somebody did," James snapped. "You're a bloody goodie two shoes and all for some girl."

"Daisy Doe is not just some girl-"

"Daisy Doe! Her name is Daisy Doe! You have got to be kidding me, Al! You want me to take her seriously with a name like Daisy Doe?" James demanded.

Albus crossed his arms. It figured that James did not get it. His older brother old liked girls just long enough to get them into broom closets. The fact that Albus liked spending time with a girl (outside of broom closets) would fall on deaf ears.

"What do you want? And don't give me any cock and bull story about a letter from Dad, because we both know it isn't true," Albus said. James closed his mouth and scowled.

"I have a problem," James said, begrudgingly.

"Big of you to admit it," Albus said.

"Would you shut up and let me tell you what my problem is?" James asked.

"I already know that you're a big headed git, you don't need to tell me," the younger boy snapped. James rolled his eyes.

"And Mum and Dad think you're the good child."

"Compared to you and Lily, I am."

"And all for," James clasped his hands together and placed them by his cheek, "Daisy Doe!" He said her name in a high pitched, girly voice.

Albus scowled and turned back towards the classroom, intent on leaving his brother in the hall. "Aw, come on, Al!" James said. "I was only kidding, I'm sure Daisy's a great girl. You should invite to Hogsmeade sometime, if you like her so much."

"We study on Saturdays," Albus said, with his back to his brother.

"You need to live a little, bro!" James dropped his arm over Albus' shoulders. "Take to her to Hogsmeade and snog her in front of the Three Broomsticks. And then spend Sunday reveling in the gossip about how she's pregnant." Albus gave James a horrified look and James just wiggled his eyebrow suggestively.

"You are the worst role model on the face of the earth," Albus said.

"Well, now, you don't know that for sure. Besides I'm just trying to be supportive. Merlin knows I've never done that before. If you like little Daisy Doe, why not ask her out?"

"Maybe because I like talking to her and spending time with her and I don't want that to change if she doesn't like me back or if it doesn't work out, or something?" Albus suggested, shrugging James' arm off his shoulder. Instead of receiving a snappy, annoying come back from his brother, Albus' suggestion was met with silence.

Albus looked at James. The oldest Potter looked uncomfortable and mildly confused. Albus stuffed his hands in his pocket and looked James over. His brother looked more disheveled then usual.

"Are you all right, James?" Albus asked, genuinely concerned.

"I think I might fancy Kira," James said. Albus waited for him to say more. He did not and when Albus realized that James was not going to say more, he shrugged.

"And?"

"Well, this isn't easy for me all right!" James exclaimed.

"You just figured out that you fancy Kira, so you skipped your class to pull me out of mine to tell me something everyone but you and Kira knows, is that right?" Albus asked.

"Kira told Flitwick I wasn't feeling well, I'm supposed to be in the Hospital Wing and I told Snodgrass that Dad sent me an urgent letter, I can promise you that we're not being missed," James grumbled.

"Merlin, you really are the world's worst role model," Albus muttered.

"Be that as it may, I have a serious problem here."

"What do you want me to do?"

"I don't know, tell me how to stop fancying her?" James suggested.

"I can't do that," Albus said.

"Why not?"

"Mum's already got your wedding planned." James paled considerably. "Maybe you should write to Teddy. He and Victoire were great friends before they started dating. Maybe he can give you some tips about how not to act like an idiot and ruin everything."

"You're right," James said, rubbing his eyes, underneath his glasses. "Thanks, little bro. I knew I could count on you, being the smart one and all." Albus shook his head and went back to class. He slipped into his seat and Daisy turned to him.

"Is everything all right?" she whispered.

"Yeah," he said. "Everything's fine. James was just causing trouble, as usual. I put him in his place, is all." Daisy's smile warmed him to his toes.