Just You Wait | James Sirius Potter (On Hiatus)

Chapter 4: The Story of Tonight

After the Ravenclaw prefects give us first years a clearly rehearsed speech on Ravenclaw house togetherness and all the rules we must follow, Alice and I are the first to sprint up the girls dorm stairs. We exchange a sly glance and sprint faster in an all out race to get to our dorm first. Thanks to the little bit of werewolf stamina and strength I inherited from my dad, I throw open the dorm door and trip over the carpet into the dorm ahead of Alice, the enchanted owl carrier dropping to the ground with a thud.

I lie there for a second, panting, the sound Maeve's disapproving squawk ringing in my ears. Alice jogs in a second later, laughing at my sprawled out form on the floor. I glare at her, and her laughing escalates until she is clutching her sides laughing.

I do a quick injury check and find a large bruise forming on my thigh where I first hit the ground, but other than that, I am unharmed, except for my pride.

"I could have died, you know," I say to the still laughing Alice, "and you would have just stood there and laughed at my corpse."

"No need to be morbid," she pants, trying to calm herself down, "I would have checked on you eventually."

"By eventually I would've been dead."

"You've survived worse. Remember when you fell out of a tree last year because Frank tapped you on the shoulder?"

"Ok fine but he scared me really badly! The kid's only seven, but boy is your brother going to be a terror when he gets to Hogwarts."

She shakes her head, but is simultaneously grinning and doesn't disagree.

I jump up from my position on the floor and plop onto the bed closest to the window, my body sinking into the mass of pillows.

"I'm never moving from this bed ever again," I mumble, my voice muffled by the giant pillow that's covering my face. I sit up and see that Alice has claimed the bed next to mine, and that the other three girls that were going to room with us had also chosen their beds. Gwendolyn Wood, twin sister to Evan Wood, chose the bed right in the middle, next to Alice, with Rose Granger-Weasley on her other side, followed by Brianna Thomas-Finnegan. I am 100% sure that I got the best room in all of Hogwarts.

We all begin unpacking, each of us unpacking a little differently from the others. I carefully place my books onto the bookshelves that are at the foot of every Ravenclaw bed, and place my locked box of chocolate under a loose floorboard on the right of my bed. I tucked the Marauder's Map which Teddy had given me once he'd graduated from Hogwarts into one of my drawers, and smoothed a few blankets over the top to conceal it. After that, I just begin pushing stuff around in my trunk so that I'd be able to (hopefully) find things later.

I look up from unlocking Maeve's carrier to find Alice and Rose in a heated discussion on how to best organize their possessions. I shake my head slightly as I walk over to sit with Gwendolyn and Brianna, who were talking on Gwen's bed.

"Dad was about hysterical by the time we reached the platform," Brianna laughed, her Irish accent clearly present from all the time spent in her father's home country, "Papa had to hold him back from practically running after the train."

"My dad was the same," Gwen replied, shaking her head fondly, "he made me check three times that I had my broom with me and that I had all of my quidditch gear with me, and reminded me three times to both concentrate on school and forget all about it if the quidditch cup was soon. As if I'm not the daughter of the captain of Puddlemere United."

I laugh along with them while I detailed how my parents had been relatively calm about letting me go, leaving out the little "boy hating phase" conversation I'd overheard. I still wasn't sure what they meant by that.

Finally, Rose and Alice's beds and surrounding areas were immaculate and they walked over to join us on the bed. Rose pulls five chocolate frogs from her bag and passes them around.

"To us," she says simply.

We all take a bite of the chocolate frogs and stay on Gwen's bed talking late into the night.