A second unlucky owl flew towards Lily that morning. “Oh what now?”
The owl quickly ditched the letter and raced off before she could “shoot the messenger”. Sighing, she opened the letter. It read:
“Dear Miss Evans,
I must apologise for disturbing you over breakfast once again but a new situation has arisen and your assistance is required. Please meet me in my head office at nine o’clock.
Sincerely,
Headmaster
Albus Dumbledore.”
“Eurgh, now they want something from me!” Lily grumbled and got up with a huff. When she reached the office though, her angry walk slowed down when she noticed someone else standing at the entrance.
“Erm… twizzlers?” James asked, scowling at the gargoyle. The gargoyle stuck out its tongue. “Oh, come on!”
He slapped the gargoyle and howled in pain, clutching his hand. Lily laughed. James swivelled around.
“Um, hello,” he said nervously. He wasn’t too sure whether he and Frank had succeeded last night when they tried to change the girls’ minds. Nevertheless Lily seemed relatively happy. Although this could be due to the fact that he was in pain.
As if reading James’s mind, Lily quickly changed her demeanour. Haughtily, she asked, “Potter! What are you doing here?”
“I got a note from Dumbledore,” he said, showing her the evidence. She looked at his note – the handwriting was authentic; loopy and fancy beyond legible. James wondered if Dumbledore was playing matchmaker – but he was headmaster. He wasn’t supposed to do deal with affairs such as a teenager’s love life. Then again, he had wished James luck last night in his attempts to win Lily back.
Before an awkward silence could ensue the gargoyle sprang to life as Dumbledore stepped out. “Ah! You two are both here. Very good. Come in.”
The pair of them stepped into Dumbledore’s office. “I’m sorry that I’ve had to contact you two at the last minute but an emergency situation has come up.”
“What is it?” James asked. “Is it something to do with Voldemort?”
Lily gasped. “Is he attacking the school?”
“Do you need our help protecting it?” James puffed out his chest importantly. Dumbledore chuckled.
“Ah, it’s my mistake to call it an emergency, especially in these times. No, my distant nephew has come to stay at Hogwarts for a while and I need you two to make sure he’s okay.”
A blond boy they hadn’t noticed sitting at Dumbledore’s desk turned around to look at them. He was tall and skinny with hair that stuck out like hay. His eyes were as blue as sapphires. Lily gasped again. He was quite gorgeous.
“You called us in to babysit?” James said incredulously.
“We’d be happy to do it!” Lily grinned happily.
“Very good!” Dumbledore rubbed his hands together. “His name is Damien Broc and he’s in the same year as you two. Now you lot be on your merry way.”
Damien didn’t say anything as he shoved his hands into his pockets and followed Lily and James out. James didn’t like look of utter glee on Lily’s face.
“Hello, my name is Lily,” she said and put out her hand. Damien looked at it and quietly took it. “This is Potter, and we’re the Head girl and boy. Oh, Dumbledore hasn’t told us what house you would be in...”
“Gryffindor,” Damien said, looking at his shoes. He was shy. Lily thought that was kind of cute. James just thought it was rude.
“Oh, then you would be in Potions with us right now! We’ll show you the Gryffindor Common Room later.”
Lily chatted animatedly to Damien who quietly listened as she steered him to Potions. James followed sullenly behind.
“So Lily,” he said loudly, pushing his way between her and Damien. “How’s the Single Ladies’ Club going?”
“We’ve decided to disband,” Lily said in a carefree manner. “Come Damien, you can sit with me in Potions.”
She gave the class a quick introduction to Damien before plonking him in next to her. Alice looked a little lost without her usual partner, and a little miffed that after a devastating break up Lily had moved on so quickly and found such a cutie. Frank waved Alice over and reluctantly she sat next to him. James sat next to Sirius.
“I don’t know what she sees in that pretty boy. I bet he wouldn’t last ten seconds in – ”
“James,” Remus said with a warning tone.
“ – a duel.”
Sirius groaned. Not only did he have a hangover from last night but it turned out that two drunken people taking a third drunk person to the hospital wing wasn’t a bright idea. His head was still sore from hitting it on the stairs. Madam Pomfrey refused to fix it, calling it, “Karma”.
“James, we don’t care about your problems!” Remus grumbled while Peter nodded.
So James was left to scowl in silence as Lily went out of her way to help out the new kid. He was hopeless at potions – he didn’t quite have a clue what he was doing and he was lost under Lily’s flutter of words. It probably didn’t help with James jinxing him softly under the table.
“Quit tripping yourself, quit tripping yourself,” James muttered as his wand twitched under the table. No, not that wand, get your minds out of the gutter, his literal wand. Damien fell smack bang into his cauldron, which fortunately wasn’t complete or boiling. Nevertheless, the splash cascaded over Lily staining her white top significantly.
“How dare you make Lily wet!” James cried, leaping to his feet, with his wand at the ready. However, Damien also had quick reflexes.
“Expelliarmus!”
James’s wand flew out of his hand and hit Snape in the eye. “Ow!”
“Wow,” Lily said, impressed. James scowled. This was not going as planned. The entire class sat there gobsmacked. James sat down without a word.
“Looks like you weren’t the one who would last ten seconds in a duel,” Sirius commented. James fumed without a sound until the end of class.
“Mr. Potter I’m afraid you have failed miserably today,” Professor Slughorn said as he examined James’s potion. “You seemed to have made the hate potion instead. I’d better discard it before the fumes go to your head.”
“Too late,” Sirius muttered, with his face against the table.
“Ah, Mr. Snape! Excellent, top marks! Okay class dismissed!” Slughorn stated.
“I need to stop off at the girls’ bathroom first, but I’ll show you the Great Hall, okay?” Lily said as the class streamed out. Damien hung around somewhat impatiently outside the girls’ toilets. He didn’t really need a chaperone; he could find his way around. Plus Lily seemed a little too overeager to hang around him, but hopefully that was just the way she was. Nevertheless he waited outside the girl’s bathroom. However, James decided to interpret the matter differently.
“What are you doing hanging around the girls’ bathroom?” he demanded, shacking Damien to the wall. “Being a pervert?”
“Wow, you really are a jerk,” Damien said in disgust.
“James, stop being such a thug,” Remus said tiredly and tried half-heartedly to yank James away. He looked at Damien. “Sorry, my friend isn’t usually like this; he just thinks that you’re after his girl.”
Damien looked shocked. “What?! No! No, I’m not into her. That’d just be weird…”
“What? Are you saying she’s not hot?” James snapped.
“What? No...”
“So you’re saying she is hot then,” James said over-protectively. “Listen, I don’t want you ogling my girl – ”
“I’m not ogling her!”
“Why wouldn’t you be ogling her? She’s smoking hot; I don’t see why my friends don’t like her...”
“Prongs, you’re confusing the matter, do you want this guy to like your girl or not?” Remus said.
“No!” James yelled in Damien’s face. “Listen, you just stay away from her!”
He walked away, leaving his newfound self-made competition and his friends utterly bewildered.
A/N: Sorry it took me a little while to post this chapter. I’ve been editing it, trying to make sure it fits with future chapters. Not too long before this is completed :)
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