"Hey, James. You need to cool it, man. People are beginning to stare." Fred glanced around the common room, trying to ignore the glares from group of rather nervous looking first years who they had kicked out of the good seats by the fireplace.
"Calm down? You want me to calm down! After that's been dropped on me?" James had the crazy glint in his eyes. This wasn't good. The last time Fred had seen that look, they'd been called before the head master.
"I don't understand why you're freaking out. I mean, look at Roxy. She's in the same place, and you don't see me screaming, now do you?" James turned those crazy eyes towards him, and Fred suddenly felt the insatiable urge to kick something.
"What the hell was that for?" James dropped his eyes, the crazy gone, to rub his shin.
Fred shrugged. "Sorry, man. Desperate measures for desperate times. You were channeling the crazy. Look, so our sisters are in Slytherin. So what? Ambitious people go there. It's not just the dark arts, my father is better than yours, look I'm so wonderfuls that go into there. It's anybody who really wants to be known, remembered, or happen in a big way."
James growled, looking up. "My sister's a Potter. We're family. I didn't have any hope for Albus, but Lily."
Fred shrugged again, leaning back. This was good. The crazy was gone, and James was talking. The first years had even stopped staring. "And Roxanne's a Weasley. You think half the kids there are going to be thrilled about that? The way I see it; so, they're stuck with trophy children. So what?" He sighed. James eyes hadn't softened. He was going to have to explain it more clearly.
"What I'm trying to say, man, is that Lily made her choice. I figure that your dad was asked to choose, you were; little Lils probably was as well. She decided. Her loss. And Roxy and her will stick together. You know, we could always ask Louis to keep an eye-"
James didn't let Fred finish, letting out a low moan of defeat and frustration, and dropping his head into his hands. "Louis never speaks. Asking him to look out for them is like asking a brick wall to be a door."
Fred began to chuckle, making James look up. It only made him laugh harder; James' carefully sculptured cool mess had turned into a real one. "If you need protection, you don't want a door. Only a brick wall. Man! Just because a boy don't speak, don't mean he doesn't have fists of fury. She'll be fine."
Lost to utter despair, James dropped his head again. This wouldn't be his year.
