If I May Be So Bold (A Harry Potter Universe Fanfiction)

15.

October 2034

JAMES

James perched himself on the edge of his desk while the Ravenclaw and Slytherin fifth years filed into his room for defense against the dark arts. It was a practical lesson that day, so he'd moved the desks all around the edges of the room, leaving the middle open for practice. Ella had come by at lunch and helped him, using the banishing charm to push each desk away one by one. He'd been impressed by her wandwork. She was very precise.

Henry Parker, as usual, was one of the last to stroll in. He took a look around the room, then looked at his friend with a smirk and an eye roll. James chose to ignore this even though it irked him when students complained about what they were going to do that day, as if they didn't realize they were going to be made to do something when they came to class.

"Alright," said James when everyone was assembled. "As you should know if you've been paying any amount of attention the last few lessons, we are learning the impediment jinx. The incantation for which is..." he trailed off here.

A smattering of kids said, "Impedimenta," but it wasn't a particularly enthusiastic response.

James gave them all a look of exasperation and repeated, "The incantation for which is..."

This time, almost all the class answered him, but he couldn't help but notice that Henry, did not. He still had that irritating smirk on his face, same as when he'd walked in. James was beginning to hope he'd do poorly at the spell so he could assign him extra homework, just to spite his bad attitude, but again, he chose not to worry about this for now.

"Right," he said. "Now your wand movement is a bit more complex, and remember for those of you who are left handed, the direction of the curves does matter. Your tendency will be to form a mirror image, but it won't work that way. He waved his wand at a bit of chalk along the bottom of the blackboard and it sketched the pathway of the motion they had practiced sans-wands last lesson.

"Now how we're going to go about this is pretty simple. Should be fun, if you don't mind breaking a bit of a sweat. The goal of this jinx, of course, is to slow your opponent down, so you'll partner up, one of you will start running towards the other and they'll try to slow you down before you reach them using the impediment jinx. Make sense?"

A few minutes later, everyone was partnered up and working, James doing his best to weave in out of the runners and stay out of the crossfire of the spellcasters. Most of the kids were laughing and having a good time, especially when their friend suddenly got blasted back a few feet and had to move in slow-motion for a bit until the jinx wore off.

Logan Pickering had crashed to the ground thanks to the strength of his partner's jinx and had his friends in hysterics as he tried to get off the ground, looking like he was moving through molasses.

James held out a hand to high five the kid who'd done it. "Nice one," he said.

And then he got to where Henry Parker was working, or rather, where he was standing, because he wasn't doing much of anything but looking smug.

"Let's see then Mr. Parker," said James.

Unfortunately, his impediment jinx worked.

James tried not to be too disappointed in this. It meant he was doing his job well, after all. But the way the kid kept looking at him was really starting to irk him.

He had this expression on his face like I know something you don't know and James couldn't figure out why it was bothering him so much.

—-

He went to the hospital wing after classes to pick Raigan's brain.

"You know that Henry Parker kid?" he said in lieu of a greeting.

Raigan gave a little laugh at this abrupt entrance.

"Yeah," she said.

"One of the ones on Juni's quidditch team. He was in here when she got hurt."

Raigan nodded patiently, this little smile on her face. "I know who you're talking about," she said.

"He was being so... I don't know. He was just really full of himself in class today." He tried his best to explain Henry's attitude, but wasn't sure if he was getting it across quite right.

"Don't hate me for saying this," Raigan said, "but it sounds a little like you at fifteen. And maybe that's why it's annoying you."

"No, it's not that. He's always reminded me of myself as a kid. That's not new. This was different. He was doing it when he was in here, too, but not to me. He was looking at Ella like that. All smug. That's why she left, I think. She sort of ran out when all the kids came in. He was goading her or something."

Raigan sat down in her desk chair, twisted back and forth in it a few times, her eyes down on her knees as she thought this through.

"And what do you think he's trying to accomplish?" she asked.

James frowned. "How am I supposed to know? He just keeps looking at me like he's got some devious little secret."

"I don't think it's much of a secret," said Raigan, which really threw James for a loop. "Oh, James," she said. "Don't you think he probably likes Ella?"

If James had been thrown before, it was nothing like what he felt at hearing those words.

"No," he blustered. "How- why would he? He doesn't— they don't—"

"I think the question is actually why wouldn't he," said Raigan quietly. "She's fifteen. She's smart. Sweet. Pretty. I don't think it's a shock if a boy noticed her."

"But he's such a little asshole," said James, so stirred up at this new potential development that he couldn't hold it in. It was lucky the hospital wing was empty but for themselves.

Raigan just laughed. "Yeah, well, so were you, and you turned out alright. There was enough good in you back then I could tolerate the rest. Ella will know if he's worth putting up with or not. She's a smart girl."

James didn't know how she could be so nonchalant about this. It was a time of crisis.