Reactance | James Potter

Chapter 3

"DID YOU PACK my hair potion in your trunk?"

The Hogwarts corridors were bustling with life. The sound of shoes slapping against the stone floor echoed through the air, mixed with the noise of conversation and laughter. Well, that and the excessively loud:

"OUCH! EXCUSE ME! PLEASE MOVE!"

   Casper Randaloff was the source of that out of place disruption. He used his elbows to move others out of his path as he chased his sister down the busy corridor, following just the small glimpses of the back of her head that he could see over everyone in front of him. Finally, unable to slow his pace, he was sent barreling through the group of her and her friends as he knocked their shoulders together roughly.

   He had forced them all to a halt now, earning grumbles from their peers as people were forced to maneuver around the six of them. He wheezed and panted desperately for breath, his hands on his knees and a line of sweat dripping down the back of his neck. This is when he asked his question again, only now she was finally able to hear him.

"Did you pack —" he paused for another heavy inhale of air, gulping down so fiercely that his jaw tensed. "Did you happen to pack my hair potion in your trunk?"

Olivia narrowed her eyes in annoyance at his presence, wiping off the right arm of her robes with her palm. She didn't spare him a glance and instead cast an apologetic look at Alice, who had just been shoved into Marlene in Casper's haste. The girls were helping steady one another; Marlene with a miffed expression on her face, and Alice with a small smile. "Hello to you, as well, brother."

"Olivia, look at my hair," said Casper firmly, ducking his head into her line of vision with a finger pointed toward the top of his head.

The sight made Olivia gasp, audibly. His hair was in shambles; the locks, pin straight and the same light brown colour as his eyes, appeared to be longer than he usually kept them. It all stood toward the ceiling in a great blob, as though he had stuck a metal fork into an electrical socket. He stared at her with a fiery, impatient glare: almost daring her to laugh at him.

   Looks-wise, Casper was an exact copy of their father. Personality-wise, Casper was — at least in Olivia's opinion — a complete wreck at all times.

   But perhaps their lifelong sibling rivalry made her a little biased.

"It doesn't look much worse than the rest of you," said Olivia as she took his yellow and black tie, which had previously hung undone around his shirt collar, between her thumbs and folded it over quickly. He only swatted her touch away, tugging the tie further from his skin until it sat loose over the front of his white dress shirt: the buttons of which were done improperly, the base untucked from his belt. "And where are your robes?"

"Forget that! Have you packed my potion with your things or not?" he said in exasperation. Students had begun to push past the two of them now as it grew closer to the start of class, and Olivia's friends (Dorcas, Mary, Alice, and Marlene) had long since disappeared into the crowd.

"No," she said, her arms crossed over her chest and her hip jutted dramatically. "I unpacked my trunk last night, as I hope you have done with yours, and I didn't see it."

Casper threw his forehead into his palms, a sigh heaving his whole torso. "Wonderful, I've left it at home. Absolutely wonderful."

"Send for it with one of the school's owls," said Olivia, grasping onto Casper's upper arm to begin leading him down the corridor in midst with the rest of the school. She couldn't refrain from brushing at the wrinkles on his sleeve, as though that would help anything. "If Mum can find it in that mess you've left in our loo."