Harry had found a common line, in the few facts that he knew about James. The common line was that Snape absolutely hated the both of them. Of course, to Snape's surprise and chagrin, James was able to keep up, and excel at the third level classes. However one Saturday, they found James' weakness, or rather it was told to them.
Percy entered the dorm room early enough in the morning to make sure that everyone would be there to receive the announcement. He cleared his throat.
"If everybody could please get up, I have an important announcement!" He shouted loudly, and was greeted with several pillows aimed for his face, which narrowly missed.
"Perrrcccyyy!!!" whined Ron. "What could be so important that you'd wake us up so early on a Saturday." Ron said, a tuft of red hair appearing out of the covers.
"It's really important, and you all should be up any way." Percy said huffily. From the way he was acting, Harry never could have guessed that the mastermind that had freed him from the Dursley's had been Percy, from the way he was acting now.
"It is a beautiful morning. Although there are lots of clouds" James said, appearing out from the curtains wearing his usual dark attire.
"Someone who agrees with me." Percy said with jubilance. Everyone groaned and realized that Percy wouldn't leave until he had said what he wanted. They sat up, everyone's hair mussed and sticking out all over the place. "Thank you. Now, Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall have decided to let the Gryffindor house go on a special trip and camp out, since you've all excelled so well, considering the fact you are behind in some classes." Percy said discreetly, not mentioning the incompetence of Proffessor Lockhart. "So they will take you all out to Lochness lake for a camp out, and all the second years and up will be taking their own brooms, or ones loaned to them by the school. Firsts will be using Floo powder. All are reminded to wear Muggle clothing and not to bring their wands. We shall be going out late late tonight." Percy said chipperly. James cleared his throat nervously.
"What if you don't know how to ride a broomstick?" Came his voice, softer than normal. Everyone stared at him, including Percy, causing him to shift uncomfortably.
"You don't know how to ride?" James shook his head at Percy's
question. "Well I would teach you, but I'm so busy with this trip thing,
which was quite unexpected, umm... how about Harry? He's the star player of our
Quidditch team. The seeker you know!" Percy said, puffing up with the pride
that the star of the teams would be under his guidence. Harry groaned
internally, he didn't know if he could teach someone, let alone someone as
closed off as James. James looked as equally unnerved. Harry nodded, trying to
seem enthused about the whole thing. "Which reminds me Harry, Mrs. Hooch
wanted to talk to you, something about a new captain, since Wood's
graduated, she said it wasn't too urgent and could wait until practice
Monday." Percy said before disappearing again. Harry groaned loudly this
time.
Last year Wood had become a nightmare with early morning practices that were
often so rough it was unbelievable, and now he'd be getting up that early again.
Hopefully Wood had toned down his enthusiasm a bit more. Of course Harry had
gotten a break, as well as everyone else, after he broke his arm trying to get
the Snitch. The snitch was a little golden ball with silver wings, and was
incredibly hard to see. But if one caught it, it was immediately 150 points for
your team. Of course you also had to dodge other players and bludgers, which
were large black balls that tried to knock you off your broom as you were flying
in the air. However, hardly anyone died during a game of Quidditch, they might
break their jaw, but nothing terribly
serious.
"Come on James, I'll take you out to the Quidditch field and get you a broom from the storehouse." Harry said as he grabbed his Nimbus Two Thousand. It was one of the newer brooms on the market, except for the Nimbus Two Thousand and One, which was superior, in the right hands. Harry snorted at the thought. The Slytherins had been outfitted with Nimbus Two Thousands and Ones after they let Malfoy be their seeker, and everyone knew that the brooms were a part of the deal.
Unfortunately, Slytherin lost horribly to them, and Harry was the only one on a Nimbus. As soon as they stepped out into the halls of Hogwarts, James spoke.
"Th... thank you, Harry." He said softly, falling in step silently behind him. His voice was filled with nervous anticipation and honest thanks, both of which made Harry feel bad for not wanting to help. Obviously James was good at studying and magical practice, but he hadn't been taught much hands on.
"So, how'd your family take it when you got your letter from Hogwarts?" Harry said as they reached the main floor. An aura of tension radiated off of James.
"Uhh... well... th... they took it quite well... considering..." He stuttered. Harry stopped and turned around, and gave a small smile.
"So they were completely shocked about the magical world and that you belonged in it?" He suggested. James shook his cloaked head furiously.
"N...no... not exactly. There's a lot of songs about magic and flying on broomsticks, but no one's actually done it." He said, gaining a bit of confidence as he ended with a small laugh.
"Oh... quite the opposite with my aunt and uncle, they didn't take it too well at all. They tried to ignore it but Hagrid busted me out, and here I am today." Harry said grinning. "Hagrid's the groundskeeper here, you don't see him much."
"I... k...know who he is." James said softly. "What about your parents?" He said obviously trying to change the subject. Harry stiffened slightly. "Oh, I'm sorry, if you don't want to talk about it..." He said, quickly back tracking. Harry shook his head.
"No, it's just odd, because normally EVERYONE knows what happened to my parents, I've never had to explain it before. When I was little, a wizard named Voldemort came and killed my parents, but he couldn't kill me, so he disappeared. And I was left to my aunt and uncle and my cousin, who are the most Mugglish people you could ever see. So, what's your family like? While we're in the conversation." Harry said turning back and leading them through a dark hallway.
"They're gone... they died in an accident... along with my brother." James said slowly, his voice having a stab of pain. "But my mom and dad's... friends were kind enough to take me in." He offered meekly. But by that time they were out in the field.
"So is that who was with you at Gringotts?" Harry said turning again.
"No... they were busy with my step brothers and sisters, those were their friends." He said primly.
"Oh, well, I'm going to get you a broom okay? Why don't you get out of that heavy cloak and then you'll..." Harry said with slight concern. Some of it was because the cloak would be much to heavy for him to wear on his broom, and would hamper his movement. Most of it was because he wanted to see what his roomate looked like.
However he was cut off by James. "I can't." He said simply.
"Why?"
"Because."
"Because why?"
"Because it's the rules."
"Who's rules?"
"My family's rules. I can't take off the cloak unless I'm alone."
"Why?"
"There's reasons, good ones, but I'm not at leisure to disclose, not yet any way."
Harry sighed in frustration.
"It'd be easier with it off, but rules are I guess rules." He said before dashing off to the shed and picking out one of the brooms used for first years. He could clearly tell which was the first years, because they knicked and cracked, probably from many crashes. He came back to find James standing exactly where he'd left him. Placing the broom in front of James, he held his broom at his side.
"Okay, first thing you do is hold out your right hand, and curve it like you were holding a large pipe." Harry instructed, demonstrating with his free hand. James mimicked him using his left hand. "Good, now copy me." He place his broom on the ground and looked at it. "Up." He said simply. The broom leaped to attention and into his hand. "Now you try." James nodded.
"Up." He said. The broom jumped, weaved a bit before falling into his hand.
"Good. Now mount like this." He demonstrated and James mounted changing his hand. Harry noticed. "Okay, now on the count of three kick the ground hard and cock your broom up." James nodded. "Right, one... two.... three!" Harry said, shouting 'three'. Both shot up, only James seemed rather interested in his robe at that time, instead of where he was going. "Look up!" Harry shouted. James looked up on command, but he was crouched down over the broom, clutching it tightly. "Okay, you got it, now level off."
James began to, but the broom jerked and bucked, knocking James off. Harry
shouted, and started to go down, but knew he was too far up to catch James. He
sped down, watching with many morbid thoughts rushing through his mind, and how
he was going to explain James' death, as James plummeted towards the ground, his
back going to take the brunt of it.
However that didn't happen. James flung out his arms to the side, before twisting his upper half to the ground, his legs following. He kept them spread out, and bent. Harry screamed at him, telling him that he'd only get hurt worse landing face down. Then James hit the ground with an, 'Ooomph', and to Harry's suprise bounced back up to his feet. Harry was so agape that he wasn't paying attention as he landed his broom in a large mud puddle, showering his clothes in the dark sticky substance. Harry however didn't notice and ran over to James.
"You okay? You didn't break anything did you?" Harry gasped.
"Nope. Just fine."
"How'd you do that?" Harry asked, now intensely curious.
"We do a lot of jumping where I come from, although not from twenty feet up. That's one of the ways to land, and one of the safest." James' silver eyes looked around nervously. "So should we keep practicing, or do you want to call it a day."
"Percy'd kill me if you didn't know all you should, as would Proffessor McGonagall. You'd best call your broom to you." Harry said, pointing to the broom which was floating above the tree tops. James nodded, and called out to the broom, which obediently came to his hand.
"Now you do as I ask." James muttered. Harry tried not to snicker, since it wasn't really funny because James could have been killed, but it was just too funny. James' silver orbs, which Harry assumed were his eyes, although they were rather strange, stared at him.
"Sorry, I know it's... not... funny, but it's just funny..." Harry said between giggles. James giggled a bit also.
"I suppose so, irony I guess." He said with a chuckle. Harry was glad that James took it as he had intended it. "Okay Harry-who-can't-make-sense-when-he-speaks, shall we try again?" James said, with humor, before giving a hissy snicker. He mounted and shot up, stopping just above Harry's head.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Harry said indignantly as he mounted and came up beside him. James straightened and a more severe air surrounded him.
"Nothing. Let's go."
James continued to act coldly towards Harry, which confused him, since James was starting to warm up to him, but he made no comment. James had improved after the first flight, and soon was flying right along with Harry. They finished after it began to cloud over and rain. Harry looked up as large raindrop splatted on his scar.
"Somehow I don't think we're going to Lochness this weekend." Harry said as he started to head in. James nodded and followed, panting. "Geez you must be hot under that cloak." Harry muttered as James placed the brooms inside the door, with a bunch of the team brooms.
"I am... but, you know..." He gasped. Harry nodded and both set off. They were about half way up to their dorm, when the dreaded Mrs. Norris appeared, she took one look at the two of them before turning around and dashing off. Harry groaned.
"God, I really wish I could kick that cat!" He moaned. James gasped in horror.
"You couldn't! I won't let you!" James shouted, jumping in front of him. Harry sighed and rubbed his temples.
"You can't kick her. She'll rat you out. Which is what she's going to do now, and land us in a load of trouble with Filch."
"Oh, as long as you won't kick her." James said before turning his back on him.
"Agietha!" He shouted, making an odd spitting sound as he said it.
Harry stared at him as if he'd lost his mind, but then realized what he was
doing when Mrs. Norris appeared out of nowhere, most importantly without Filch.
James crouched down and continued to call the word and Mrs. Norris came running
to him, amazingly, purring. She sat down and let out a 'Mrrooowww'. James
chuckled and produced a dried green substance from his cloak and held it out in
front of Mrs. Norris. She sniffed it before licking the small pile out of his
hand. James stood and immediately Mrs. Norris
cuddled him before running off into the distance. Harry stared at James a
moment, and James motioned for him to stay silent.
Within a moment there was a loud crash of brooms falling, and the even louder cursing of Argus Filch, Mrs. Norris' owner. James gave a hissy snicker before grabbing Harry's hand, and running off to their dorm.
As soon as they'd gotten through the painting and into the main room they stopped. Immediately Hermoine and Ron jumped out of their chairs and surrounded them, evidently they'd been sitting there playing chess.
"How'd you get past Mrs. Norris?" Ron asked Harry anxiously. "I don't hear Filch screaming for your heads."
"James did it." Harry said. James looked to the floor and played with his feet.
"You didn't hurt her did you?" Hermoine asked. James' head snapped up and he glared at her, indignation coming off him in waves.
"Of course not! I bribed her." James said huffily. Both Ron and Hermoine gasped.
"But... but... how?"
"Mrs. Norris, as you call her, found us and ran off. I called her by... using a trick word that works on all cats, and she came back, and I talked to her a bit, gave her some catnip, and right now she's doing her best to trash the main hall in thanks." They heard Filch's loud shouts about what the hell had gotten into Mrs. Norris, the howling of a cat, and loud crash. "She's rather nice if you know how to talk to her." James said with humour.
"And where'd you learn to talk to cats?" Hermoine asked, sound suspicious.
"I... in a book." James said quickly. "I'm going to go crash, see you later." He said before walking off. Ron looked at his watch.
"It's only noon." he said, but James had disappeared.
