the Horcrux Thief, james potter

xvii. downfalls all around

James chuckled. "Darling, there's no way that's true. Moony couldn't handle you."

Amaya gaped at him through the mirror and then turned around to face him. "Excuse me?"

Raising his hands in surrender, James pushed off the doorway and walked closer to her. "You're a menace, Maya, that's a fact."

"A fact?"

James bit the inside of his cheek, trying not to smile as he nodded, teasing her.

"Ninny will withhold your breakfast if she hears how you're slandering my image," she said, her nose high, a teasing glint in her eyes and James grinned.

"Slandering?" He clicked his tongue with a shake of his head, tugging her to him by her hips and making Amaya bite down a smile as she looked up at him. "No slander in sight, Amaya. I like menaces."

She raised a brow at him, settling her hands on his chest. "Go find Sirius then."

He let out a laugh, pulling her closer. "I would, but Marlene has a hold on him."

"Oh, so, I guess I'm your backup then?"

"Guess so," he said, his heart racing for the girl who was smiling up at him fondly, mirth in her eyes.

Not being able to resist, James had swept down and kissed her; otherwise, he was sure the words I love you would've just come tumbling out of his mouth.

The Order Meeting that week was shorter, mostly an update and keeping people around to know the details of their missions—Amaya had gone, and sat down and glared at Moody for the majority of the time whilst James and everyone else watched in amusement.

And that Sunday, despite it being Marauder Day, Sirius and James dragged Amaya to the Quidditch pitch with them so they could have enough people for two teams plus a keeper, to play the mix-and-match game they liked to call Quidditch Mania. This consisted of everyone having every role of the team except for the keeper, being able to steal bats as well as quaffles, and no rules besides scoring.

Peter had come around specifically for them to play before they'd go out to a nearby muggle town to get pissed (like they usually did)—Amaya had promptly said she'd stay out of it, instead planning on meeting the girls at Marlene's house.

That afternoon, when Peter arrived at the house in the afternoon James saw Amaya's shoulders stiffen and her face turned slightly pale. And though he stood by the fact Peter wasn't a spy—he was their friend after all and he hadn't seemed off—he tugged Amaya closer to him, his protectiveness coming out as she looked sick. Peter didn't seem too keen on spending his day with Amaya either.

James tried to feel this magic Amaya talked about but he could never concentrate long enough to do it, especially when they started playing a game of Quidditch.

The game was downright a bloodbath, in the best way possible. Not only were they all competing for the snitch but Sirius and Amaya had taken to, as a team, making sure they used the bat they were always stealing and not only throw bludgers at Remus and James but also use it to score every time the quaffle was thrown in the air.

Not that they were winning, Remus and James weren't far behind, instead making sure James could grab a hold of a quaffle whilst Remus distracted Peter so he could score.

James was in the middle of scoring when he saw the bludger going astray, flipping from its trajectory through the hoops back, at high speed. He let the quaffle drop and swerved on the broom just as Amaya, who was standing on her broom trying to get Remus from catching the snitch, was hit square in her chest.