The Ardent Admirer Annoying Albus Potter
5th year (Valentine's Day)
"I'm concerned you don't know that we're dating," Emily said all of a sudden. She and Al were in the library and she was helping him with History of Magic homework. The boy was a genius at spells and potions, but give him some names and dates to memorise and he was lost. Emily, on the other hand, absorbed the fascinating stories like Scorpius Malfoy absorbed a strawberry milkshake, which was very very quickly.
Al started at the statement, and stared with wide eyes at the girl across from him. Emily held her straight face for as long as she could, then burst into suppressed laughter lest Madame Pince shush them.
"I'm kidding, it's just that Lies and Jo both decided we do a group All-Out Boy Ban, considering recent events, and I was wondering if you counted," Emily explained.
"As a boy? Well, I hope so..."
"You know what I mean," Emily said, rolling her eyes.
3rd Year
Emily had an older brother five years her senior and two younger brothers. Of the four siblings, only one was not head-over-heels in love with Quidditch...and it was the youngest, Andy. Emily, like her two other brothers, grew up mad for the sport, often driving their muggle neighbours insane with unidentified flying objects crashing into living room windows, and then whizzing back out again. In the space of three years, Emily joined the Ravenclaw Quidditch team as Chaser, and all anyone could say about it was: "What took you so long?" That's not to say Emily was especially talented at the sport, in fact, before Albus and the careful training of the Ravenclaw captain, Emily was average at best. She was just very very persistent.
As it so happened, the day Emily first began testing the patience of the famous Albus Severus Potter was the day she'd set out to practise for tryouts. Al, who loved Quidditch, but purportedly, not enough to join his house team, had succeeded at pestering a reluctant Scorpius Malfoy into playing a one-on-one game with him. Emily was just about to ask them if she could borrow half the pitch, or perhaps play with them, when Al swooped into several complicated motions, completely out-manoeuvring Scorpius, who was barely keeping up to begin with.
"Alright, alright! That was the last one!" Al called out, laughing at a dejected Scorpius who'd flown off to gather the Quaffle.
"You!", he suddenly heard from beneath his low-hovering broom. "You were amazing!"
"Wha-?", the thirteen-year-old Albus Potter had yet to work on being eloquent even with his blushing face.
"You went 'swoosh', and then 'shweew!", Emily was also usually eloquent, but when she got too excited, she sometimes forgot that words were supposed to help other people understand what you meant. Right then, she was relying on her flapping arms to communicate how amazing she thought Al's manoeuvre was.
"Oh, thanks," Al said, descending to ground level, and then getting off his broom. Behind him, Scorpius was returning the Quaffle into the chest of Quidditch things.
"Could you teach me?" Emily asked, eyes shining.
"That move?"
"And everything else you know! What else can you do?" demanded Emily, completely unaware that Al was now beet red.
"I-I don't know. I'm-I don't-"
"Oh, I'm sorry! Of course, you don't even know me. I'm Emily Villareal. I'm a third year Ravenclaw."
"We have Defense Against the Dark Arts together!" Scorpius called out from behind Al, where he was struggling with a naughty Bludger trying to get away from its bindings. Al realized he recognized Emily.
"You're the one who asks all the questions," he said coolly, having regained his composure.
"And of course, you're Albus Potter, and he's Scorpius Malfoy," for a second, Al was ready to be disappointed that Emily would be just like some of those people who saw him as That Younger Potter Son. He'd been thinking that until Emily continued: "Jo's friends."
"Jo. Yeah," Al said, nodding and barely hiding his surprise.
"Will you help me practise for tryouts?" Emily persisted.
"I'm not very good"
"No, you're not very good, you're extremely good"
"Please, I-"
"Albus, please?" Al started at the familiar way he said her name.
"There's a reason I'm not on the Hufflepuff team," he warned.
"Because you won't tryout?" Emily asked the question earnestly, but Scorpius snorted from where he was sitting on top of the rattling chest.
"No, it's because I'm not good enough," Al said. Under his breath, he mumbled: "to beat Slytherin."
"Slytherin?" asked Emily, then she put two and two together, and because Emily was a Ravenclaw, she devised a clever plan. "What's your absolute worst subject?"
"What? History of Magic? Maybe Care of Magical Creatures? I've got a feeling animals don't like me very much," replied Al, wondering where this was headed.
"Both. You're terrible at both. And maybe Divination," interjected Scorpius. He would've joined them, but he was too busy bracing himself against the chest. The Bludger was only growing stronger.
"I'll help you with whatever schoolwork you need help with," Emily said, and at the beginnings of a smirk playing on Al's lips, she added, "Whatever class. Wherever. Whenever. Just help me with Quidditch." Sensing her determination, and deciding to make use of this rare opportunity, Albus made the decision that would change the course of his life at Hogwarts forever, and perhaps the rest of his life as well. Sleeping early and waking up late were about to become a thing of Al's past.
Emily liked Al. He and Jo had the same problem, but Al's quick fix was through Quidditch, and Emily had no idea how to help Jo. All she had to do to help Al was convince him to join the Hufflepuff Quidditch team; convince him he was good enough on his own. Then, maybe, Al would stop comparing himself to his brother...and his father. Jo, on the other hand...getting a Quaffle through a hoop would not fix that problem. Emily was still working on that one. She decided she'd start on helping Al.
Just as Emily and Al shook hands to seal the deal, Scorpius was knocked of the chest as the lid flipped open. Out flew a wayward Bludger, and quick as a flash, Al got on his broom and kicked up into the air. He was fast enough to intercept the Bludger in its path, and with an "oomph", caught the offending sphere in his stomach, wrapping his arms around it securely. In record time, he flew down, strapped in the Bludger, and shut the lid.
"Better get this back to Madame Hooch soon," he said, wiping his brow. Emily swooned.
5th Year
"Anyway, so Lies is ditching Calasanz's sorry arse soon," Emily continued. Al looked up from the history paper he was writing. Emily continued without even pausing for breath: "Did you know that virgin blood, y'know for Dark magic, doesn't actually mean the blood of a virgin? It means blood that hasn't been used for rituals yet."
"The restricted section is restricted for a reason, Em," Al began. It took a while, but Al'd eventually gotten used to Emily switching topics just like that. He shook his head, "You think we could move Quidditch practise to tomorrow?" Al asked hopefully.
"But I'm way behind on dodging Bludgers..." Emily looked up at him pleadingly. He hated her puppy dog eyes; hated them with the fire of a thousand hotly burning suns.
"We were out really late just last night, and besides, you wouldn't have to dodge them so much if your Beaters did a better job," Al felt sorry for bad mouthing the two Ravenclaw Beaters. They were good people, just second-rate Beaters. Though, to be fair, being a Beater was a frightening job, Al reasoned to himself.
"Is this because of OWLs? Because you know I'll help with whatever-"
"No, I just...I've got...prioooor arrangements..." Al was a terrible liar.
"You really think you can get away that easily?" Emily narrowed her eyes at him.
"You know, friends don't tell their friends that, normally," Al slumped onto his half finished paper.
"Friends don't normally avoid friends," Emily countered.
"Friends don't normally keep their friends out until dawn just to practise the same manoeuvre over and over again"
"Friends would normally stay out until dawn just to help their friends practise a very complicated move until they've got it just right," Emily leaned back with a self-satisfied grin. "You must really like me, then." Al blushed furiously and rolled his eyes.
"You've definitely got redhead blood in you. Look at that face," Emily teased.
"Oh, shut it. I hate you," Al glared at her, but by then, his entire face had flushed scarlet. He watched, incredulously, as a grinning Emily leaned across the table to press her cool palms against his cheeks.
"Ah, so nice and warm," she sighed contentedly. "Like an open fire on Christmas eve."
"Merlin, your hands are like ice," Al said, though he didn't move away. His face really was hot from the blushing.
"I know. I really did need something to warm them with. I was experimenting on something for potions, but I must've mishandled an ingredient, because my hands and feet are freezing...but just my hands and feet?" Al laughed at her earnest wide eyes.
"What? I needed something stronger than coffee," Emily finally pulled back from Al's face.
"You were planning on drinking the stuff?!" Al exclaimed.
"Sh!" Al jumped in surprise. Madame Pince had been right behind him. She was on one of her rounds, scouring the library for wayward students using the less popular sections as trysting places. After all, it was Valentine's day.
"No, I...Okay, yes," Emily conceded, "but I made sure all the ingredients were easily digestible, and I was going to drink it outside the hospital wing."
"That does not make anything better," Al laughed again. He couldn't help it. Emily was always so earnest, even when she was being ridiculous; especially when she was being ridiculous. "Your plans are terrible."
"Hey! My plans are the most reasonable I can come up with, given the circumstances," she asserted.
"I'm sure," Al said, "I'm also sure the circumstances are never good," he grinned at her.
"And yet you go along with it anyway," she said, shrugging. She slid his history paper towards her and went over it.
"Well, Jo asked me to watch out for you, and Lies threatened my owl...so..."
"And I asked you to watch out for Jo, and yet here you are,"
"Okay, first off, this paper's due tomorrow. Second, Scorp's got that covered," Al smiled conspiratorially at Emily, but the brunette just shrugged.
"Huh, Jo can take care of herself," Emily said, reconsidering. She thought about how much worse than her Scorpius Malfoy was at Quidditch and decided Jo would do a better job watching out for the boy than the other way around. Al gave a surprised laugh that came out sounding like a bark. He immediately smothered the laugh with both hands, head whipping around to see if anyone heard.
"That's what Jo told me about you when she saw me passed out in the common room the first time," Al said once he was sure no one had heard. Emily imagined the scene and laughed carelessly.
"It's not that funny," Al said, though he smiled too.
"Well, in my head, I was imagining you passed out face first on the floor, so..." she continued to laugh. Then, she went back to his paper and began crossing things off, and writing comments, snickering occasionally.
"Not too far off, actually," Al said, kicking Emily lightly under the table.
"I swear, Albus Severus, if this turns into another kicking match, we'll get kicked out of the library again", Emily warned. She knew Al hated his full name.
" Well, Lou Emily Dionisia, if you keep teasing me, I'm going to keep using your shoulder as an armrest in front of people," Al threatened. Emily looked up at him darkly. She reached over and flicked the bridge of his glasses. Her full name, she believed, was far uglier than Albus Severus could ever be. Besides, why in the world would she ever need three given names?
"Low blow," Al grumbled, readjusting his glasses. He nudged Emily's leg again. She returned his paper.
"Your timeline's a mess," she said, ignoring his kick. She'd get back at him later; when he'd least expect it. She was getting good at aiming that Quaffle.
"I really do have something later. Can we reschedule practise?" Al saw the surprise on her face. "I do have a life beyond schoolwork and helping you, you know," Emily felt a strange sting at the comment.
"Oh, of course. I-I'll get by," Emily said, covering up her surprise with an easy smile.
"That's good. Now, about this timeline..." Al scanned Emily's thorough comments on his paper. Emily wondered what Al had planned for later, but pushed the nagging curiosity to the back of her head. It wasn't an easy task, given Emily's naturally curious nature, but for some reason, she felt she shouldn't annoy Al about this one. But it wasn't lost on Emily what day it was that day.
That's the last of the introductory chapters! If you like this so far, please leave a review :) Thank you!