It's Gryffindor's first game this season and it's against Hufflepuff. James is early to the locker rooms with his team, just so James can give them a rousing speech about how dumb Hufflepuff is and how Gryffindor will crush them.

The team is cracking up as they get dressed because James is using insults like 'egregiously Hufflepuff' and 'elongated absurdity' and 'lacking in power to absorb ideas and impressions'. He got detention once for using curse words when badmouthing Slytherin so now he does this and it gets more ridiculous every speech.

James pulls out a 'truncated sense of self-worth that is most assuredly well earned' and Harry has to drag him down off the bench he was standing on.

"Get dressed, we have to go on in a bit to warm up," Harry says and ushers James over to his locker near Sirius'.

"I liked that last one," Sirius chuckles.

"I stole it from Remus," James admits with a grin as he shucks off his jumper and starts pulling random things out of his pockets. He opens his locker and only finds his shoes and protective pads. "Ah fuck, don't tell me I left it upstairs."

"You'll get your warm-up out of the way while you sprint up seven flights of stairs for it," Sirius says easily enough, clapping James on the back.

James groans. He shoves his stuff inside and turns away. "Harry, take over command until I get back."

Harry gives a salute as James ducks out of the locker room and jogs over the grass. Outside, James ducks past rivers of students flowing past into the stands. Most of them are coloured red and gold and cheer for him, waving enthusiastically.

They still remember the quidditch game last year, how James absolutely destroyed Ravenclaw while he was having a mental breakdown. For a couple of weeks now Hufflepuff has been side-eyeing him warily as the game built up, especially after they saw Harry training.

James wonders, with quite a bit of evil delight, if Hufflepuff will just forfeit so they don't lose by twice the amount of points. James wonders if he can make them cry.

He's pretty fit but he's still panting heavily by the time he hits the fourth floor, mainly because he can't use the moving staircase if he wants to be fast. Instead, he takes the quieter corridors so he doesn't have to shove past students moving towards the quidditch field.

He should have just grabbed a broom and gone in through the window. Why is he such a dumb deer sometimes?

As James hits the end of yet another flight of stairs, he slows to a walk, hands on his hips and panting. One more floor to go – and then he has to run up the spiral staircase all the way to the sixth year dorms.

"Fuck this castle," James wheezes. He just going to jump out of the fucking window to get back down. He really needs to make Tom teach him that flying mist spell.

A pair of Hufflepuffs grab him from behind and throw him into a nearby closet, then toss his stolen wand into another empty classroom as they sprint off.

James, unable to even do anything with how fast and unexpected that was, sits in the closet where he fell and gapes. "Was that Hufflepuff? Did I just get bullied by bloody Hufflepuffs?!"

Sirius flies over to Harry as they do practice laps with their side of the field. "I can't see him yet and he's not in the locker rooms."

Harry looks around. The stands are full and they have about ten more minutes until the game starts. They could probably stall but James has been missing for nearly half an hour. The castle is big but he should be back by now.

Harry flies over to the Gryffindor stands and offers up a half-hearted smile when they cheer for him. He waves Remus over and leans in over the railing. "Hey, do you have the map on you?"

The teachers confiscated it after the acromantula attack but it didn't take long to steal it back, leaving a fake locked copy.

"No, it's in my trunk," Remus admits. "You want me to go find him?"

"I'll give you a ride," Sirius offers and pulls his broom in sideways for Remus to hop on behind him. The fly off towards the Gryffindor tower.

"What's up?" Lily asks, having slid past her friends to get to the railing.

"James left his stuff in the dorm," Harry explains with a shrug. "He's just taking a while so we're sending in the hunting dogs."

"He'll make it back, he probably just got stuck looking at himself in the mirror," Lily jokes, trying to reassure Harry. "Good luck out there today, I'll be cheering for you."

Harry perks up. "Yes! Thank you, um. Okay." He drifts away on his broom, still grinning but feeling embarrassed. "Bye!" He launches into a dive out of sight.

Lily puts a hand to her heart because Harry is the cutest little boy she's ever seen. She's been trying not to but sometimes she just really wants to give him a hug and pet him. A great perk of James being her boyfriend is that Harry comes along with it.

James leans back against the wall for leverage and kicks out at the door again, getting a rattle and nothing else. He pants, already tired, but he's not missing Harry's first quidditch game damnit. He's sure they know he's missing, it's probably been long enough, but Sirius and Harry have to play so it'll be Remus who finds him.

The door is magically locked and while he can do wordless like a pro, he's shit at wandless magic. Luckily, the magic is only as strong as the object it's cast on so if James breaks the door completely, the magic also breaks and he can get out.

James drops into a crouch and feels around, trying to find something heavy enough to bash the door down. There's enough light coming through the gaps around the door to see enough detail, which is unfortunate because it immediately kills all of James' hope. There's random buckets and a mop but nothing weighty.

He stands back up again and pats around the walls, wondering if there's a secret passage somewhere. He's frustrated but also pretty smug because he's such a threat that the Hufflepuffs had to get rid of him. They're right to be afraid.

James is still running his fingers along the brickwork as he contemplates if turning into Prongs would break the door down, or if it would just hurt him as the small space forces him back into a human and he really can't afford a dislocated shoulder right now.

The door opens and James's whirls around, barely clocking a whisper. "Remi, have-"

A spell hits, his glasses flying off, and James flinches back with a hand coming up to his eyes that are burning. "Fuck, you-!"

A hand grabs his collar and slams him back against the wall, James stumbling when he kicks a bucket. He squints open his watering eyes and sees nothing, nothing at all but darkness.

A wand presses into James' stomach and for a moment it's quiet, only the sound of their breath echoing off the walls of the small closet. James' inhale hitches from the pain of his eyes but the other person is fast, almost gasping, nervous and panicked.

Or maybe just excited.

James smirks, hands coming to rest on the forearm gripping his collar. "Why bother blinding me? I know exactly who you are."

The hand releases his collar and instead grabs James around the throat, slamming his head back against the stone wall and James grunts in pain.

And then James just laughs, staring sightlessly out into the darkness, blinking away tears but with a arrogant grin on his face. "Do it, you fucking coward."

Remus steps out of the portrait door with the map in hand and jogs off to where James is on the sixth floor. He takes a staircase, doublechecking to make sure James hasn't run away, and turns the corner.

Remus drops the map, watching blood seep out from under the gap of a closet door.