CHAPTER 1 (JAMES)
As the cold rain slid gently down the window, I rolled my eyes and groaned in frustration. As if I wasn’t already having the absolute worst two weeks in my entire life, now it had to rain. Bloody wonderful. I stared resentfully out the window, wondering why this had to happen to me. No one in the compartment seemed to notice my sulky mood today; I supposed I wasn’t any different than I had been for a while. I especially surprised that the gorgeous blonde next to me wasn’t making a big fuss over me right now. My eyes automatically narrowed as I glanced over at her. She was busy chatting animatedly in her thick French accent with my best mate Sirius Black, who was watching her with more than a friendly gleam in his eyes as she tossed her long glossy hair behind her shoulders.
Fiancée. I shuddered at the word. And it wasn’t as if the prospect of marriage scared me; on the contrary, I had always known that I would be married one day. But I never thought that it would be in less than a year, to the beautiful girl next to me. Her name was Arabelle de Champagne, soon to be Arabelle Potter, I supposed. Her mother, Emeline de Champagne was the Minister of Magic in France, just as my father was the Minister for England. Apparently this was the reason for the arranged marriage, because it would create strong political ties between the two countries if anything serious ever happened. I wasn’t sure if I believed that. There were many other ways of forming political ties without making your children marry each other. It seemed a bit ridiculous.
We had always known the Champagnes. When we were younger, and Emeline was over at our house for a meeting with my father, she would always be sure to bring Arabelle, as well as the twins, Arabelle’s younger brother and sister. I hadn’t liked Arabelle much when I was younger either; at first I had a bit of a crush on her, being as pretty as she was, but I quickly got over it. She was, without a doubt, the most conceited girl I had ever met. Every time she and her siblings would come over, Arabelle and her little sister would follow me around, being irritating, and her brother would sit down somewhere and sulk. He hated coming to my house, I guessed, because he really seemed to hate me.
And now he was going to be my brother. Well, in-law at least.
I had argued every possible reason there was not to be married to Arabelle, especially not when I was seventeen: it could interfere with my career; it would be annoying if I wanted to travel after graduation; I didn’t want to; I would refuse to marry her; I would kill myself first; I already liked Evans, and didn’t my feelings mean anything to them?
My parents had somehow managed to shoot down every one of my reasons. The one about Evans had hurt the most, of course. They told me that if she had turned me down five years in a row, maybe I should give up and move on. Maybe this would be healthy for me, having another girl in my head besides one who continued to reject me. I disagreed; it would be especially unhealthy to have any other girl in my head but her.
And no one understood why I didn’t want to marry Arabelle, of course. I knew for a fact any other guy at Hogwarts would gladly trade both of his arms to be in the situation I was in right now. I supposed I could see where they were coming from, up to a point. Arabelle was the living incarnation of beauty. She had flawless features and an hourglass figure; almost translucent porcelain skin, that was of course, perfect; wide icy blue eyes; and, her pride and joy, extremely long, silky, silvery blonde hair.
But all of that didn’t mean much to me. The only thing that could catch my attention right now had long red hair and green eyes. The only problem was, my redhead didn’t want me, and the blonde did.
And now Arabelle was coming with me to Hogwarts for our 7th Year, along with her younger brother and sister, Pierre and Arienne. When Arabelle had announced that as my fiancée, she would be following me to “‘Ogwarts”, Arienne had insisted on coming with her, because she, “Could not bear to be away from ‘er beeg seester.” I thought she had other motives as well, as she had been openly staring at me during the entire train ride.
Pierre was another story. He had always been insanely overprotective of both of his sisters, and would not allow either one of them to be out of the country without him, especially not Arienne. So the twins would be starting their 6th Year at Hogwarts this year as well. This was just great, because now I would have two more girls trailing me everywhere I went, as well as their moody brother to glare at me constantly.
But Arabelle was definitely not the only one who had inherited the veela genes. Pierre and Arienne were also ridiculously good-looking. They both had the same wide blue eyes as their older sister, though theirs were not nearly as icy. The only difference between them seemed to be their hair was a dark, silky chestnut-brown instead of blonde. The two of them were as identical as a pair of fraternal twins could be, the only difference seeming to be that Arienne adored me while Pierre loathed me. He was glaring at me at that moment as well, with his gorgeous sisters on either side of me.
It was Arabelle who snapped me out of my thoughts. “James, you ‘ave a Prefect meeting to go to, no?” she reminded me with a frown, glancing at her slim silver watch. “I theenk you are late.”
Damn, I cursed inwardly. I had been so lost in my thoughts that I hadn’t even noticed the sun slowly sinking into the horizon. I quickly got up, and did my best to maneuver my way out of the compartment without taking someone out in the process. Arabelle smiled brightly at me as I walked out, her pearly white teeth shining in the dimming light. I just gave a little wave and began down the aisle of compartments.
XXX
It took me quite a few tries to find the right compartment; I accidentally walked in on a group of First Years, three nasty Slytherins, some Gryffindor girls who giggled just like the First Years when they saw me, and most memorably, a couple who very rudely spat at me to ‘get the bloody hell out’ before leaping back into each other’s arms as soon as they thought I was gone.
But I knew the right compartment as soon as I neared it. I could hear her compelling voice from a few feet away, and I slid the door open eagerly.
And there she was, the core of my existence. Her long dark red hair was swept back into a perfect ponytail, and she was focused on reading something to the Prefects around her, who mostly looked like they were about a second from falling asleep where they sat. Her bright green eyes quickly looked up to meet mine as she heard the door open, and she narrowed them into what I assumed to be annoyance.
“What do you want, Potter?” she asked icily. “We’re in the middle of a meeting, here.”
“It seems to be very interesting, too,” I commented pleasantly, watching Ben Smith snore on Katie Jones’ shoulder. “But I’m here for the meeting too, so be nice, Evans.”
“What do you…?” she trailed off, looking confused. I could tell what was running through her head as I watched her face. Why would Potter be here for the meeting?
As comprehension dawned on her, her eyes widened in horror. She searched desperately for some sign that what I was saying wasn’t true, but she found my evidence pinned to the front of my robes.
“You… you’re Head Boy?” she asked, clearly shocked.
“Obviously,” I replied cheekily, tapping the shiny badge on my chest. At this point, sensing something interesting was going on, most of the Prefects were wide awake, probably trying to figure out if Evans was going to snap and jinx me. “Now where were we?”
Her mouth gaped as she tried to regain her composure. “Right…um…”
“I think we were going over patrol duties,” Remus prompted helpfully from the corner.
“Of course,” Lily said, gathering her papers in a flustered sort of way. “So as I was saying before, the Ravenclaws will patrol the northern corridor on Tuesday nights, and…”
I crossed the room and sat down in the seat next to her, most of the Prefects staring at me in just as much awe as Evans had. Was it really so hard to believe that Dumbledore had made me Head Boy?
My attention began to drift almost as soon as she started talking again. She prattled on about upcoming events and things like that, and I watched her in sadness every time her eyes lit up in excitement, every time she adjusted her ponytail, every time she sent an ‘I-can’t-believe-this’ look my way. No matter what I had always said, Lily Marie Evans would never be mine.
Trying to snap myself out of my sudden depression, I looked over at Remus, who seemed to be the only other person still awake and listening to the Head Girl. He was attentively taking notes as Lily went over rules and Prefect Bathroom passwords, but I caught his eyes when he looked up. He grinned at me, and I was glad that he wasn’t mad that I had taken what obviously should have been his job.
As Lily continued to drone on, my attention slipped back to the rain that was now pelting the train. In Evans’ defense, the rain probably had something to do with the nearly unconscious prefects as well; it had always put me to sleep.
I tried very hard to keep my mind away from my blonde devil, but my impending doom with her seemed to be most of what I thought about these days. I wondered vaguely why I wasn’t as infatuated with her as every other breathing male in the world was. I knew for a fact that she and her siblings had a fair share of veela blood in them on their mother’s side, and yet Arabelle didn’t hold my interest as she had when I first met her. And when our parents announced our marriage, I had passed out cold. Once they finally got me up again, I had gotten into a very explosive argument with them, listing every single reason in existence that I was absolutely not marrying Arabelle de Champagne. They, of course, had a comeback for every one. When I threatened to kill myself first, they told me that if I ever said that again, they would have a team of Aurors watching me at all times.
But I hadn’t given up hope.
I didn’t know how I was going to stop it, but there was no way I was marrying Arabelle in June.
XXX
“Potter.”
I felt something poke my arm.
“Potter?”
The thing poked my arm again, and still half-asleep, I tried to slap it away.
“James Potter, open your bloody eyes before I cheerfully beat you to death.”
Warily, I opened one hazel eye and peered around. And there was Lily, arms folded across her chest, tapping one foot.
“Not only are you going to beat me to death, but you’re going to do it cheerfully?” I asked her in a mocking voice. “I think that may be taking it a bit far, Evans.”
“I really don’t have time for this, Potter,” she told me, the usual irritated look on her face. “The meeting’s over, everyone’s gone and I have people to see.”
Surprised, I sat up and blinked around the large compartment. Sure enough, all of the prefects were gone. And I had one annoyed Head Girl in front of me.
“Right,” I said, sitting up and stretching. “I have people to see, too. See you around, Evans.”
Even I noticed how bitter the words in my mouth sounded as I walked out of the compartment.
XXX
When I got back to our compartment, Remus was already sitting down, trying unsuccessfully to break Sirius’ attention on Arabelle. Peter was eating a chocolate frog out of a large bucket of candy, and Arienne was watching him with a look of utmost disgust on her face. I was sure she hadn’t eaten that much candy in her entire life, judging from the size of her diminutive waist. The only person missing, I realized, was Pierre. I was surprised that he had actually decided to walk around; I thought the only thing he knew how to do was mope.
I got lost in my thoughts again, as no one was talking to me. My eyes drifted over to where Sirius and Arabelle were still involved in deep conversation, and I vaguely hoped that maybe she and he would run away together, and get me out of this mess. That would definitely work for everyone “ I would be free to keep chasing after Evans, Sirius would have the girl of his dreams, and I was sure Arabelle wouldn’t mind being with the second-best-looking bloke at Hogwarts.
Trying to find something to distract myself with, I pulled out my Quidditch plans for this year. I had pretty much confirmed who I wanted on the lineup, but I couldn’t make it official until I held tryouts in a few weeks. I fiddled with that for a while, planning what new moves I was going to teach them this year that I had seen at matches this summer, and trying to come up with ideas for feints on my own.
When I looked up again, the stars had completely come out for the night, twinkling brightly against the inky sky. Arabelle was studying me keenly, as Sirius was now snoring next to her. I automatically gave her a small smile, which she apparently took as a sign to come over and distract me. Picking up my parchment and quill, she serenely placed herself on my lap and studied my plans closely.
“Thees eez what you ‘ave been doing all thees time?” she asked, eyeing my diagrams critically. “Drawing these steeck people?” She gave me a cheeky smile. “If I ‘ad known you were bored, I could ‘ave found a way to distract you…”
My eyes widened as she set the parchment down next to me and ran her finger down my face. “Arabelle,” I whispered urgently, “We’re in a full compartment!”
She smiled again, and her blue eyes held a mischievous sparkle. “But zey are all sleeping, no?” she asked, placing a soft kiss on my cheek.
She was lowering her face to mine, my hands locked around her arms trying to restrain her, when the door suddenly slid open. We both looked up in surprise; as soon as I saw who it was, I really wished that I was underneath the train. Lily Evans and Pierre de Champagne were standing in the doorway.
Of any two people on the earth, these are the last two that I would ever want to walk in on this situation: the girl I was in love with, and my fiancée’s brother.
Lily and Pierre had been laughing at something while they were sliding the door open, but once they saw us their expressions were immediately wiped clean. We were in a rather awkward position, really, with Arabelle in my lap, leaning towards me while I held her hands in mine. What they didn’t realize was that I was trying to push her away, not pull her closer.
Lily’s mouth was gaping open again, but Pierre made a quick recovery. I couldn’t really understand it, but I realized quite quickly that he was cursing brilliantly in French, probably damning me to hell.
“Oh mon dieu!” Arabelle screeched as Pierre yanked her off of me. “Je ne suis pas enfant!”
“You are not an adult, either,” Pierre retorted.
“Il est le mien! Je peux faire comme je s'il vous plait, Pierre!” Arabelle cried dramatically, stamping her foot.
“In English, please,” Sirius complained sleepily from the corner.
It was Lily who answered. “She said, ‘He’s mine. I can do as I please, Pierre.’” Her voice was very quiet, and her face had turned beet red, which I knew only happened when she was upset, angry, or embarrassed. I wasn’t quite sure which emotion she was currently feeling.
Everyone was silent for a moment. Finally, Lily spoke again. “Potter, I came to get you because we have to go help the Prefects with the First Years. We’re almost to school.”
I nodded and we walked out, Pierre glaring at me the entire way. Before we walked away, however, Arabelle made a point to give me a kiss on the cheek and whisper loudly in my ear, “Vous voir bientôt, mon amour.”
I just nodded dumbly, not understanding a word she said; I hated when she did that French thing to me.
The walk with Lily to the front of the train was awkward, and neither one of us spoke. I counted the number of compartments we passed to try to give myself something to focus on.
Finally, when I couldn’t stand the silence any longer, I said teasingly to Lily, “So, Miss Translator, what did Arabelle say? I don’t speak much French.”
She turned, looking annoyed, and said in a low voice, “Arabelle said, ‘See you soon, my love.’”
XXX
Fighting by Marauder_Princess
Chapter Notes: Hey everybody, this is my somewhat-new story! I've had the first two chapters written for awhile, but I never had time to actually put them up until now.. so enjoy, and review please!
Chapter Endnotes: Reviews would be very appreciated. Thank you!