Sterling
James Potter was not a morning person. He'd never understood people who could get out of bed with smiles on their faces, perfectly happy to be awake and part of the world. James would get out of bed with a smile on his face when he was allowed to sleep till noon every day.
"Good morning!"
The boy who sat down across from him at the Gryffindor table had too-long hair that was so blonde it was nearly white. His eyes were nearly hidden under his mop, and the image of an over-friendly sheepdog popped into James's head.
"Isn't it a beautiful day?" the boy continued, smiling serenely as he reached for a cup of orange juice. James felt a flash of resentment toward him and sent a glare his way.
The boy's name was Sterling King - he shared a dormitory with James and Brax and the other first year Gryffindors. He had spoken briefly to James over the last few days, though all of their conversations had involved schoolwork, giving him the impression that the other boy was nothing but a rule-following, nose-in-book, homework-crazed goody two-shoes.
And he was a morning person.
Sterling King was chattering animatedly, looking completely content with his one-sided conversation. James resented everything from his strange hair to his stupid smile to the way he stared up at the crystal blue ceiling as he spoke. It was too early to deal with this.
Someone dropped into the seat next to James silently. He knew it was Brax without even looking. Brax was the only one who had figured out in the last two weeks that intelligent conversation before ten o'clock simply was not possible for James.
"Hey, Brax," Sterling greeted with a genuine smile. Brax smiled back.
"Morning, Sterling." He glanced at James. "Morning, James," he added, just for good measure. James grunted in response and Brax nodded, expecting nothing more.
"It's so nice outside," Sterling sighed, still looking up at the ceiling with a wistful expression. Brax glanced upward. There were no clouds visible on the enchanted ceiling, promising for a beautiful day.
"Good thing," he said, grinning. "We have our first flying lessons today."
Beside him, James snorted, and both boys turned to look at their slouched, half-asleep roommate.
"Flying lessons," he muttered into his cereal, not looking at either of them, giving absolutely no indication he was speaking to anyone but himself.
"What a joke," he continued, still speaking to his spoon. Sterling looked over at Brax with a raised eyebrow.
"Not a morning person," he whispered.
"Ah."
Brax grinned. They had been at Hogwarts for just over two weeks now, and in that time, he had undertaken a personal mission to learn at least one interesting thing about each and every one of his roommates.
Sterling King, for example, was insanely intelligent, but was about as far from nerdy as one could get. Brax suspected he had somewhat of a photographic memory, though he hadn't found the opportunity to ask him about it yet. Sterling spent a lot of his time not doing anything - he got his homework done as soon as it was assigned and spent the next few days lounging around doing nothing in particular while his classmates stressed out over the foot-and-a-half-long essay they'd been set for Charms that they'd decided not to do until the night before it was due.
Drayden Ackerly, who slept in the bed next to Brax's, claimed to have a pet hippogriff, though the Gryffindor first years were still in hot debate over whether or not this was true. Brax had decided he believed him, only because the stories he told seemed too fantastical to be made up. James disagreed with him, and the two had found several hours' worth of amusement arguing back and forth on the topic.
Malachi Harris was a boy with dreadlocks that stuck up every which way and a grin full of teeth so white Brax had heard a few older girls muttering enviously. His mother was Nigerian and his father was a London native, and his father's best friend - Malachi's godfather - was from Brooklyn, New York. He fascinated and entertained all of his roommates for hours on end with tales of his family's traveling experiences, which were seemingly endless.
Brax was still working on the other three. He'd learned yesterday that Thor Brenton's older brother played Keeper for the Appleby Arrows, but so far he'd learned nothing about either Rory Sutter or Sam Bresden, other than Rory was thus far proving himself to be abysmal at Potions, and Sam was Muggleborn.
"...Quidditch team?"
Brax suddenly realized Sterling had been speaking the entire time he'd been musing over his roommates. "Sorry?"
"What's your Quidditch team? My parents are both huge Falcons fans, but I've always thought Puddlemere United was better. They think I'm insane of course," Sterling said with a grin. Brax laughed.
"I hear you. My dad is a really big Tornadoes fan - they're alright, but my mum grew up in Wales and corrupted me before I even knew what Quidditch was. Caerphilly Catapults all the way," he answered.
"No way," James muttered, managing a glance up at the two of them. "Harpies."
"Just cuz your mum played for them," Brax answered, rolling his eyes.
"No. Just better." And with that he went back to his breakfast, suddenly not at all interested to hear their opinions anymore. Apparently he was in danger of going over his conversation quotient for the morning. Merlin forbid he speak a full sentence before ten o'clock.
Brax noticed Sterling staring at James oddly and repressed a chuckle. Poor bloke. It took a strong stomach to deal with James Potter in the morning.
-o-
By the time Defense Against the Dark Arts rolled around, James was considerably more friendly.
"Hey, Sterling," he said with a genuine smile, leaning against the wall next to him as he and Brax joined the queue outside Wickham's classroom. Sterling smiled at him, bad moods at breakfast already forgotten.
"Hi, James. Excited for flying lessons later?"
James scoffed. "Flying lessons. What a joke. I have a Bliksem 360 under my bed I could take flying any time I want. I don't want to fly around on those shoddy old Cleansweeps while some professor breathes down our necks like we're all going to kill ourselves."
"You brought a broom to school?" Sterling asked, an eyebrow quirked. James's eyes flashed nervously, and he silently cursed himself for his big mouth. Was Sterling going to turn him in? The two boys stared at each other a moment before Sterling grinned.
"I won't tell anyone," he promised. James breathed a sigh of relief, and he offered the blonde boy a grateful smile. "I wish I were as confident as you are," he continued with a sigh. "I'm useless with a broom."
"I'll teach you," James offered spontaneously. "I helped teach my little sister how to fly. I can help you. We could start after flying lessons this afternoon!"
Sterling grinned. "Really? You'd do that?"
"Sure! It'll be fun! And it's way better to learn on a Bliksem than on those awful school brooms anyway."
James and Sterling chattered excitedly about their plans for the afternoon while Brax watched, suddenly feeling left out. Until ten minutes ago, he'd been James's closest friend. Now he couldn't help feeling as though he'd been replaced. He leaned against the wall, separating himself from their conversation, and crossed his arms.
"Hey, you'll come too, right?" Brax blinked. James was staring at him earnestly.
"Well...sure," he answered uncertainly. James's smile was blinding. Brax heard a couple girls behind him giggle.
"Good. It wouldn't be any fun without you there."
Brax couldn't wipe the grin off his face all throughout class, even when Wickham yelled at him for not paying attention - twice. James wanted him there. They really were best mates; he hadn't just been imagining it.
-o-
"Alright, everyone stand by a broom! Let's go, kids!" Professor Tully, who also taught Transfiguration, called out. The babble of voices died out as everyone hurried to find a broom to stand next to.
James was already bored out of his skull. He stood there with a petulant look on his face as his Transfiguration teacher tried to sort out two Slytherins who were fighting over one of three Nimbuses the school owned. James and some Ravenclaw girl had gotten the other two.
Once Tully had figured everything out, she clapped her hands. "Okay, everyone! Put your hand over your broom and say, 'up' firmly. Don't be shy about it," she instructed.
James met Brax's gaze and rolled his eyes. The other boy grinned in understanding. For two wizard kids who had been able to fly practically before they'd been able to walk, this was all very mundane.
"Up," he said in a monotone. The broom snapped up into his hand immediately.
"How'd you do that?" some Hufflepuff girl asked, her eyes wide. James shrugged, running his free hand through his hair - a nervous habit. The girl looked disgruntled as she attempted to command her broom into the air, to no avail.
James finally took pity on her.
"Here," he offered, dropping the broom unceremoniously, ignoring Professor Tully's reprimand for doing so, and moving to stand on her other side. He grabbed the girl's wrist and pulled her arm out so it was perpendicular to her side, then bent her arm at the elbow.
"Hold your palm flat to the ground with your hand open," he commanded, and she splayed her fingers obediently. He noticed briefly that her fingernails were painted a bright, obnoxious purple. How interesting.
"Now try," he said, stepping back. "And don't sound uncertain about it. It's just a broom, not a dragon," he added with a slight laugh.
"Up!" the girl said, and the broom jumped into her hand. She looked at it in shock for a moment before a delighted smile spread across her face.
"Thank you!" she squealed. James shrugged and grinned.
"Sure."
-o-
Sterling watched the exchange between James and the girl - Sterling thought her name might be Olivia, but he wasn't sure - and copied the movements he taught her.
"Up," he said quietly and was relieved when the broom sailed off the ground and into his hand.
"Okay, once you have your broom, everyone swing your right leg over it, like this," Professor Tully was calling out, demonstrating. She mounted her broom effortlessly, dismounted just as quickly and went back to walking among the students, correcting their technique.
Sterling glanced over at James to see he was already astride his broom, sitting there with his arms crossed across his chest, looking bored again. He glanced down at the Hufflepuff girl suddenly, then grinned at her before leaning over and holding her broom steady while she attempted to climb onto it.
After three failed attempts, James slid easily off his broomstick to help her.
Sterling realized he was staring and went back to figuring out how to mount his own broomstick.
He ended up clambering onto the broom with absolutely no amount of grace, but in the end he was seated astride the Cleansweep, gripping the handle for dear life. He glanced back toward James to see he'd successfully helped the Hufflepuff onto her broom. She was grinning hugely at him, and he smiled back up at her, shrugged with what appeared to be an attempt at modesty, and climbed back onto the Nimbus.
"Everyone on? Good," Tully was saying, looking around to see that everyone had successfully found themselves seated on their brooms with varying degrees of comfort apparent in their expressions. "Now, I want you all to grip the handle firmly, tilt it up just a bit, fly upwards about a meter and level out. Just hover for a moment, tilt the broomstick back toward the ground and slowly return to your starting position. Go ahead."
-o-
"This is stupid," James muttered to Brax as he hovered. He sat there and watched in amusement as some Slytherin boy tried to angle back down to the ground and slid right off the front of his broom. He laughed.
"Yeah," Brax agreed, watching Sterling. Their new friend was struggling, obviously not very comfortable with his feet off the ground. He was hovering much closer to the ground than everyone else, clutching the handle of his broom with white knuckles.
"We'll fix him up," James said confidently. "I just need to run back up to the dorm to get my broom."
"We should offer to put these away for Tully," Brax suggested. "That way we can just borrow the Nimbuses and save time."
James looked over at Brax as though suddenly seeing him in a new light. "That's a good idea."
"I know."
They grinned at each other.
-o-
"I'm so, so sorry!"
"It's...fine."
"No, it's not. Merlin, I'm sorry, really."
Sterling grimaced as James and Brax hoisted him to his feet. His right arm was bent in a very unnatural way and the Nimbus he'd been riding was sticking handle-first in the ground a few meters away.
James felt awful. He should have known better than to think Sterling was ready for turning. The boy could hardly fly straight, let alone go in any other direction. He held Sterling steady while Brax collected the brooms.
"I'll put these away, you take him to the infirmary," Brax said. James nodded and started to lead Sterling away.
"James, my arm is broken, but I can still walk straight," Sterling admonished, prying James's hand off his shoulder. James's face flushed.
"Right, sorry."
Sterling managed to laugh despite his pain. "It's alright. But hey, you can't say I didn't warn you, yeah? My dad's tried to teach me to fly a hundred times. I'm simply useless."
"Yeah," James agreed, grinning. "You're pretty awful. You should've seen your face as you fell." He flailed his arms, imitating Sterling's fall.
Sterling laughed all the way back up to the castle as James did his impersonation over and over, and when Brax caught up with them halfway to the infirmary and James had to do his imitation all over again, the three of them were in stitches by the time they reached Madam Pomfrey. Sterling didn't care anymore that his arm was broken or that Madam Pomfrey was reprimanding him for being so slow about getting to her - he had just found two pretty great new friends.
A/N: Aw. Don't you love him? I do. You'll learn a lot more about Brax in a future chapter as well - especially concerning why he reacted to Sterling "stealing" James the way he thought he was going to and why he thinks the way he does. Also, if any of you were paying attention last chapter, you'll recognize Sterling as one of the students McGonagall was observing at the Sorting and trying to predict which house he'd go to. Next chapter, we'll still be hanging around with James and company I think. Though I may very well change my mind. We'll see what happens.
Review, por favor! :) Thanks for reading.
-Megan