the Horcrux Thief, james potter

iv. the winning flying acrobat

He scowled, and she laughed. She then wished everyone goodnight, saying she was exhausted, and saw his parents and her go back inside leaving him and his friends out at night.

"She's bloody amazing," Sirius informed them, "If she'd been on the team at school we would've won every year."

"We still won most years," said James, "We won the years I was Captain."

But he knew he was right, there was no denying it. Amaya Santoro was a bloody amazing flyer and an artist on a broom, she could quite literally fly in the air, like an acrobat in the circus.

James looked down at the snitch in his hand and his lips twitched up when he noticed she had used magic to carve the word Loser onto it. He didn't know what the future had in store, but from the little he knew about Amaya was that if she was in it, it wouldn't be boring.

That night as he tried to sleep, James was faintly aware of the girl sleeping in the room across from his. She was a mystery in all her might. Even after having dinner, and her mom pestering Amaya with all her likes and dislikes so they could go shopping and decorate her room, he knew close to nothing about the girl.

What he did know was simple: she was stunning; her voice made him feel warm, especially with the lilt in her accent; she was brave; a bloody good flyer; she wasn't able to use a wand and yet didn't struggle at all with whatever wandless magic she'd been taught; she was cocky and assertive and yet polite and guarded; and she was kind to Ninny, treating the house elf with respect, unlike most purebloods.

Sirius had told him the Santoros were one of the oldest families in the Iberian Peninsula, but there was nothing else people knew about them, or the Peninsula in general. Apparently, it'd been quite isolated from the world in the past decades, and before that, it was looked down upon—not using wands meant they were 'barbarians'. Which James thought was utter bullshit; Amaya had carved a word into a Snitch, a magically warded object, with seemingly no effort at all—not to mention the way she could fly. She was clearly powerful and in control of her magic.

For some reason, James wanted to know everything about the girl; his curiosity had been piqued from the moment she stepped into the meeting and it wasn't going anywhere.

He didn't know why, quite frankly, but he would make it his mission to find out more about her. Though he was sure it would be harder than he'd like, because he could see it in her eyes—her eyes, which he noted in the right light were the color of whiskey—they sometimes, when somethings were said, would blank, reminding him of the look in Sirius' eyes when someone mentioned his family.

Padfoot and Moony had noticed too. He was sure of it. Especially since Sirius was quite quick to take a liking to her—and not like he did any fit bird that walked by him, he had hardly flirted with Amaya at all, but like he would a friend. Sirius didn't trust people so easily, especially now during the war, and with his brother off mingling with the wrong people, he'd become more guarded, and yet with Amaya or Maya as Ninny called her, he wasn't. It's not as if he just fully trusted her, or anything, it was just an unspoken connection James had seen between them.

And Moony, well, they had immediately bonded over their like for instigation, and aside from that Remus had told them something interesting when they sat outside after the bet for the snitch.

"My wolf respects her," he'd said quietly, throwing a glance over at the house to see if anyone was listening, "It's like she's... Familiar?"

Sirius had shrugged. "Maybe she's a werewolf."

"I don't think that's it," Remus said, shaking his head. "I think I would know."

She had secrets—and if he had to bet he would say a shit ton of them—and James was suddenly greedy for all of them. Blame it on curiosity, but he wanted her to trust him.

He fell asleep that night, faintly recognizing the fact he hadn't thought about Lily ever since he saw her at the Order meeting. And that he quite liked dimples and whiskey eyes.

✦

author's note:

First, just wanted to say there is no set face claim for Amaya, I'm just putting gifs that fit the story so if she changes faces throughout it just pretend it's the same girl (and pretend she's Spanish too). Either way, the gif doesn't matter, it's what's inside, right? yeah...

Second, by the way, James isn't 'in love at first sight' or' head over heels' for Amaya (yet). It's just like this fascination he has because she's new, you know, and a puzzle. It's going to start quite superficial, and they'll bond over time (there is attraction though, but that's a given). And Amaya is a complicated character so even if James does fall quite quickly (which I don't think it'll happen, depends on my control of the characters) it will take some time for her to come around, 'cause... issues.

Anyway, thank you for reading <3