Study Date | James Potter

Chapter 42 - "Take These Broken Wings"

Soon March arrived, bringing the spring weather with it. Unfortunately, one of the Hufflepuff beaters had broken his shoulder a week earlier after slipping on the ice, and so the Gryffindor team was set to play Ravenclaw instead in the next Quidditch match.

Tensions were high, but Remus's birthday provided momentary relief. Among other presents (including a lot of chocolate,) the whole group presented him with a briefcase, with the label 'Professor R. J. Lupin' stamped on it.

By the day before the match, the Gryffindor team was exhausted from all the practices James had been calling, and his manic energy was making everyone a little nervous. "Three hundred and thirty points," he kept saying - the number they needed to draw with Slytherin before the final matches. "One fifty before catching the snitch." Rose was sure that at one point, she even heard him mumbling the numbers in his sleep.

Even so, the Gryffindors looked in better shape than the Ravenclaws, as the two teams stood opposite one another on the pitch. The blue and bronze team had played Slytherin only two weeks previously, and their exhaustion showed in the circles beneath their eyes and the way they clung to their brooms as support to stay upright.

After a long game, the Gryffindor team won with one hundred and eighty points to Ravenclaw's forty, but neither team seemed particularly enthused as they all flew down to the ground.

"I'm sleeping for a week," Marlene grumbled as they all walked into Lily and James's common room.

"Me too," said Sirius, as he flopped face-first onto the sofa.

"Don't you guys have N.E.W.T.s in like two months?" Tina asked innocently.

James groaned as he collapsed on the rug in front of the fire. "Shut up Newman."

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The Easter holidays arrived after the last week of term and they all decided to go home for the two weeks. Marlene and Dorcas were staying at their own houses, and Cara and Peter were spending half of the holidays with each of their families. Meanwhile, Lily and Rose were returning home properly for the first time since the summer, and James, Remus, and Sirius would be staying too, until all five went to the Potters' for the last few days.

Lily, Rose, and the three boys apparated from the station into the same group of trees James had the previous summer. The sun was hidden behind a dark cloud, and a moderate breeze swayed the treetops and whipped at their hair as they made their way towards the house. Lily knelt to take the spare key from beneath the plant pot, and her hands shook as she tried to insert it into the door. After three attempts, Rose gently pushed her aside, and the metal grated in the lock when she turned it.

Rose let Lily walk in first, then hesitantly stepped over the threshold behind her. It was cold and dark, and unnaturally still - nothing like the house they'd grown up in. Almost in a daze, Rose followed Lily through to the living room. She stayed there, as Lily walked up the stairs, and looked around at the unfamiliar setting.

Dust had gathered, ageing the room, and Rose tried to transpose the right image over it in her mind but found she couldn't quite remember the details. Was the armchair usually on the left or the right of the window? Wasn't the rug usually more central?

She felt a hand slip into her own, making it still, and realised she'd been running her fingers back and forth over the raised scars on her palm.

"It's alright, love," he entwined their fingers, and she gripped onto his hand tightly.

Suddenly there came a strumming of a guitar from the corner of the room, where Sirius had placed a record on the record player. James nodded appreciatively, but Rose stiffened as she realised the song.