Forever and a Day ~ James Potter

By the Moving Stairs

Chapter Forty-Nine

Sunday 12th September 1976 ~ 11:23 ~ waning gibbous moon

The Gryffindor common room was buzzing with excited chatter as dozens of eager students were discussing whether their friends would have made it onto James's new Quidditch team or not. It was not even lunchtime on a Sunday morning, and not a single person was still lounging in their own bed, waiting desperately for the appearance of James, who still hadn't been downstairs to pin the list of the seven lucky team members onto the noticeboard.

Rosie had barely taken a break from grinning since Friday evening after she had made the revelation that she might actually be able to produce a Patronus. The other four girls were beginning to become very suspicious of her unwavering happiness, so finally, after having to cope with it for a day and a half, Lily decided to speak up.

"What on earth are you so happy about this weekend, Rosie?" she asked shortly, sitting up properly from the settee and straightening her posture to emphasise her irritation.

"Hmm?" Rosie tilted her head innocently, having only been half-listening to the basic conversation of the group up until that moment. She'd been waiting around for James to ask him about Sirius's results – which he'd outright refused to speak to anybody about before the list went up.

"Everybody else who's friends with people that tried out for the Quidditch teams are a nervous wreck," Marlene stated, also curious as to why Rosie was so unshaken. "Aren't you nervous at all for your brother?"

"Well... I suppose it helps knowing he's already got the spot on the team," she shrugged casually, making Marlene gasp in offence at the fact that she hadn't been told even though she was already secured on the team.

"What? Potter won't even let us see the list! Why you?" she asked incredulously, quieting herself when she saw that a couple of surrounding people had also heard that Rosie knew something about the Quidditch teams due to her shouting. Nevertheless, she continued to stare hard into Rosie's eyes, attempting to make herself look threatening enough for Rosie to give over the information.

"Because it's Rosie, idiot," Mary rolled her eyes with a simple chuckle while the other girls looked at her as if to say she should've known – even Rosie joined in with that. "James'd give her his right arm if it would make her happy."

Rosie rolled her eyes lightly, going slightly pink in the cheeks at the thought that Mary was most likely correct, "But I'm also pretty happy because I managed to produce a Patronus – well, some form of one, anyway."

"Really?" Alice said glumly with a tight frown. "I only managed to get mist out of mine..."

"Oh, me too, but James said that after a few more tries, we should be able to-" She stopped herself mid-sentence as she looked around at her friends, all of whom had very knowing expressions on their faces and were giving each other glances, not actually listening to what she was saying. "What? It's not my fault I'm James's partner for the Defence work."

"Well, you were the one who agreed to be his partner – and that was after he only spent about five minutes pestering you. You would never have done that a few months ago," Lily shrugged, failing to suppress a smirk as she didn't look Rosie in the eye.

"Yeah... but only because he promised to tell me the results of all the Quidditch trials early," Rosie said defensively, hoping she'd had the correct mix of casual and excited tones in her voice so as not to let lead them to believe that she was lying – which she wasn't.

"Two days early," Marlene smirked, shaking her head and folding her arms across her chest. "It's hardly worth that."

Rosie stood and held her head high, "I'm going for a walk. Let me know when he gives everyone the rest of the results."