James Potter stood in the doorway of the room, shirt half tucked into his shorts, hair tousled, and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He squinted at Laverna and she couldn't help but stare back at him like a deer caught in wandlight.

This was...not part of the plan.

Her hand slowly crept behind her back and wrapped her fingers around her wand. Her ears strained to listen for the sounds of anyone else in the house. Getting rid of James was one thing, having his whole circus of a family chase her out was quite another.

Her wand made a near silent rustle against her pants as she slid it out and slowly began to move it around.

She just needed to stun him and then wipe his memory. Easy. As long as she could keep James focused on her face long enough to get her wand pointed.

"Well?" James asked, his eyes darting from her hand, still clutching the incriminating item to his open trunk.

Laverna's wand came slicing through the air, the spell cast silently. And James should've dropped. He should've dropped to the ground. But something in her face must've given her away, and James lunged at her before she'd even finished casting the spell silently and knocked her to the ground.

The sound of two bodies was loud enough to bring the nearest occupant out of their room, voice thick with sleep. Laverna squirmed under James and tried to throw him off but his body was heavy on top of hers, arms pinned between their chests as he clapped a hand over her mouth.

This just got worse and worse. First she got caught, now there was an extra witness. She'd be disowned by her family if this kept up.

James no longer looked half asleep.

"What's going on in there?" came a muffled voice.

"Give me one good reason to tell her we've got an intruder, and I swear I will have you locked up by the Ministry faster than you can cast your little spell," James hissed in her ear. Laverna remained silent and motionless.

"Hello?" came the sleepy voice again followed by the slow shuffle of feet.

"Go back to sleep Luce, it's just me, I'm looking for something in my trunk," James called back quietly. "I tripped over Louis's stuff."

The Luce in question replied with grumbling and then shuffled away. James and Laverna stared at each other in the silence until they heard the quiet snick of a bedroom door closing.

"Who are you?" James asked her.

"You gonna get off of me," Laverna whispered back. He seemed, if possible, to grow even heavier. He's doing this on purpose, she thought outraged. Arsehole.

"You tell me what you're doing in my house and I'll get off of you," James countered. She would never admit it but his weight was starting to cause shortness of breath in her. And it was not because he was irritatingly fit, loathe as she was to admit it, but rather because he seemed to weigh as much as an elephant.

"What I was doing in here is none of your business."

"You were elbow deep in my stuff!"

"Exactly, none of your business," Laverna hissed. She surged up and knocked James off with the momentum of her body. He lay spread eagle on the floor as Laverna leaned over him. James stared up at her wide eyed as Laverna looked back, steady and unblinking.

"Should've just given me what I wanted," Laverna whispered, and rushed past his head towards her exit. She had one leg outside of the window before James finally got to his feet.

"Wait!" he called out to her as loudly as he dared. She should've kept going, it's what she knew she had to do, but the night had already gone arse over tea kettle wrong, she didn't see the harm of lingering for an extra minute.

"Parting words?"

"Can I come with you?" James asked. Laverna blinked in surprise and swallowed the urge to burst into laughter.

"Potter, you've caught me breaking into your house and your aunt is the Minister for Magic and your dad is a cop. Need I go on?" Laverna asked. She eased her body through the window and was ready to drag her other leg through but the next words out of James's mouth stopped her.

"Reconsider," he said, the moonlight coming through the window added a glint to his eyes. Laverna looked at him and then her eyes followed the wagging movement in his hand.

Her wand.

She hadn't even felt him take it from her. Well, well, well, it seemed the little nepotism boy was quick with his fingers.

She'd come for an invisibility cloak and she was leaving with a barnacle. The idea of wrestling her wand out of James's hand passed through her mind briefly but the amount of noise it would create would make the already awful situation even worse. But if she agreed she could still salvage what remained of her plan.

"Meet me at the Bull and Blossom in Diagon Alley tomorrow. One o'clock. Don't be late. And don't look for me, I'll find you. Now give me my wand," Laverna ground out through a clenched jaw and held out her hand.

"I'm a rich boy, not a stupid boy, this is my leverage," James said smugly, tucking her wand into the waistband of his shorts. Laverna's eyes followed it before snapping back up to meet his eyes. "You'll get it tomorrow."

She didn't say goodbye, and she definitely didn't hit him in his pretty face, much as she craved to, only slid her other leg out of the window and disappeared into the night as silently as she had appeared.

Knowing the aneurysm that Grace was going to have when she found out had Laverna standing outside her house in the dead of night. She was cold and shivering but it was either this or go inside and have to explain herself. She waited another moment and then pushed open the door to the dark house, praying that she would be able to slip up to her room and get a few hours of sleep before she was found and interrogated.

"You're late," Ceilia said from the darkness. In true dramatic fashion, Ceilia had seated herself in an armchair in the darkest corner of the living room, a small lamp lit and casting off yellow light, her fashion hidden in shadow. She watched Laverna quietly slip off her shoes.

"I don't believe I gave you a time I'd be back at," Laverna replied. "What are you doing up at this hour anyway?"

"Can't I be worried about my dear cousin?" Ceilia asked sweetly. Laverna stared at her, one foot on the stairs on her way up to her bedroom. "Alright alright, maybe I wanted to witness the legendary invisibility cloak for myself. So where is it?"

"Things...didn't go quite as planned." It was hard to keep the irritation out of her voice. The whole point of teenage boys was that they slept so heavily it was impossible to wake them up. Men were useless.

"You are in so much trouble!' Ceilia crowed gleefully. She blew by Laverna as she thundered up the stairs to snitch on her to Grace no doubt. Laverna was already in bed, head buried under her duvet by the time her sister's shrieking woke up the whole house.

We should recast our muffling charms, was her last thought before Laverna drifted off to sleep to the sound of Grace barking, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE WAS CAUGHT!" loud enough to wake up the whole neighbourhood.

a/n: guys i started this when i was a teenager and now i'm an adult with a degree trying to get back in the groove and finish this thing. my writing style has evolved so i'm trying to figure out how to get this story to work, i have the heist planned out, i don't know if this will have romance in it but uhhhhh we'll see where it goes i guess. bare with me.