A Change of Heart [James Potter II]

Chapter 25: Professor Teddy

Professor Teddy

BY SEPTEMBER 1st, QUINN WAS ready for Hogwarts and ecstatic about her OWL results. She had gotten OWLs in all of the subjects she took exams for, earning top scores for every subject except Divination, which she still passed. Quinn had dressed in black skinny jeans, a blue flowy high-low halter-top, Jessica Simpson Marguerite tassel booties and a pair of black sunglasses, with dark blue lenses on top of her blonde, curled hair.

Overall, Quinn felt (and looked) fresh and ready for a new year. She had made up with Dominique and Carrie and met up with Dom about a week ago, so all was well. At King's Cross, Quinn said goodbye to her parents at the platform and greeted Aaron excitedly.

"AAR!" she practically screamed and launched herself at him, hugging him as they both laughed.

"You've either grown, or you're wearing heels." Aaron teased Quinn, who pouted.

"Both." She admitted proudly, and Aaron grinned, kissing her cheek.

"I've missed you," he told Quinn, his expression turning a little sombre. "A lot, actually. Apparently, you're one of the most interesting things that go on in my life."

Quinn smiled, lightly tapping his dimpled cheek with her pointer finger. "I missed you too. Even though you beat my house in the Quidditch Cup." She added and fake glared at him. "We are going to demolish you now that your captain has graduated."

"It's on." Aaron teased and helped Quinn with her trunks. "Oh my god, Jem is so big!" he exclaimed, picking up her cat and stroking the top of its head gently. Jem purred and leant into the contact, which caused Quinn to pout.

"I swear my own kitten loves you more than me." she sighed sadly and Aaron only sent her a triumphant smirk. "Okay, I have some people to find."

"You've made up then?" Aaron asked, happy that Quinn wouldn't be sulking about her friends anymore. He wasn't jealous; Aaron had other friends that he spent most of his time with. And Quinn made him happy, so he was rapturous that she was affectionate with her friends again.

"We have," Quinn confirmed and took Jem back. "I'll see you later, yeah?" Aaron nodded and waved as Quinn walked through the train and towards the different compartments. She knew that the train would be leaving soon, so she looked for any sight of the Scamander twins because Dom and Carrie would probably be with them. But, to Quinn's surprise, Dominique and Carrie were waiting for her in a compartment of their own.

"QUINNITY!" they both exclaimed and hugged her, causing Quinn to shriek in surprise before letting out a laugh.

"You guys totally just grandma'ed me." she pouted for the second time in ten minutes. "Seriously. Full name and everything."

"I'm sorry," Carrie joked. "I plead contemporary insanity." Quinn grinned and gave her two best friends singular hugs, thankful that things were back to normal. Except that Carrie and Dominique actually got along now, which actually made things better.

Quinn was actually very upset with herself; she let herself become jealous and superficial at a crucial time in her two best friends' lives. They both got their first serious boyfriends! That was important, Quinn realised.

So, she asked them both about how they kept in touch with Lorcan and Lysander, not feeling a strange tingling feeling of jealousy or envy in her stomach when the two girls explained how they had been meeting up with the Scamander twins as often as they could, separately. And then the compartment door was slid open, and there he was. James Sirius Potter. He had Albus and Lily in tow, who were both excitedly looking at Quinn.

"Quinn!" the two greeted, and she got, even more, hugs from the two Potters.

"Hey, you two." Quinn greeted, lightly rubbing Lily's arm as she held Albus's hand. "Wow, third and fourth year, eh? You guys are going to be taller than James soon." This was, of course, a complete lie. James was sixteen years old and probably over six feet tall already.

He didn't quite take over his father, who was relatively average-sized and not particularly tall, but maybe took after his grandfather or great-grandfather. Still, James's eyes sparkled in amusement, and Quinn sighed silently as her heart began beating faster.

Stupid James Sirius. Quinn thought bitterly to herself as she tucked some wavy blonde hair behind her ear, releasing Albus's hand and Lily's arm. Why must he be so gorgeous?

"How was your summer in Paris?" Lily questioned, her eyes lighting up. "I always wanted to go, but J and Al always said it was too girly." She added and Quinn smiled. Although she was only three years younger than Quinn, she always thought Lily was totally adorable. (A/N: Not sure if this is accurate, but I wanted it to be this way!)

"J and Al?" Quinn echoed, the nicknames quite foreign to her. "I actually like that." She admitted. "And Paris was wonderful, Lily! We'll have to go together sometime. Besides, I met some really cute guys." Quinn winked at Lily, knowing it would wind up her brothers.

"No boys." Albus and James chorused, looking pointedly at Quinn as she laughed.

"I was just joking." She confessed, raising an eyebrow. "But speaking of boys, I met these guys that were brothers," Quinn recalled. "Well, I met the older brother first. It was weird." Then she launched into the story of Marcel and Louis, and how she wasn't expecting him to be a wizard and assumed he was a Muggle until he saw Louis at the apparition point. "And he might be a Muggle or a squib or something, I don't know. But isn't that strange?"

"James-wearing-a-dress strange." Carrie agreed, playing with Jem and pulling funny faces at Quinn's kitten.

The three Potter siblings decided to stay in the compartment and listened to each others' adventures, mostly about Quinn's trip to France and a little bit about Carrie going to Ireland with her sister and her sister's fiancé. When they neared Hogwarts, the girls kicked out Albus and James so they could change, and they spoke to an over-excited Lily, who couldn't wait to get seriously into Care of Magical Creates that year.

When James returned to the compartment with his younger brother, he was stunned. Mostly because of Quinn. Her uniform had changed over the summer. It was the same blouse as last year, but her pleated skirt had been replaced with a black skater skirt that fell about mid-thigh, her shoes went from her old, scuffed school shoes to black chunky heeled suede oxfords. Overall, she looked more herself and more confident with what she was wearing.

And James was in love with her.

Of course, he could tell that the relaxing summer in Paris had done more than just affect her fashion sense. Quinn was happier with herself, and it seemed that she had gotten over the whole love potion thing from last year. That day was now a blur, and James felt guilty every single time he saw Quinn because of that bloody love potion from Uncle George.

"I kind of want to know more about them." Quinn was still talking about those Louis and Marcel guys from France. "I mean, they just seem really interesting." By now, it was dark outside and they were nearly at Hogwarts.

"Weird, isn't it?" Dominique said after James, Albus and Lily left their compartment and everyone filed out of the train. "This is our second last year. We're officially NEWT students. It feels..."

"Ambivalent? Well, yes and no." Quinn joked, and Carrie rolled her eyes at the terrible joke. "But I understand what you mean. It's pretty weird. At least now we can take the more advanced classes."

"Oh yes!" Dom remembered. "How did you two do on your OWLs? I got eight. All Es except for Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology where I got Os." She recalled.

"I got nine," Carrie admitted. "Five of them were Es and the other four were Os." Quinn smiled. Both of her friends did really well.

"That's so good, guys!" Quinn promised. "Um, I got all of my OWLs, actually." Both of her friends stared her, not quite surprised but still in awe as they smiled.

"All Os?"

"No, one E," Quinn admitted, blushing. "Divination was never my strongest point."

"Everyone flunks Divination, Q!" Carrie exclaimed. Even getting a P or an A is fantastic!" Dom nodded her head in agreement and they lugged their trunks onto the carriages and made their way to school.

The Back to School Feast was not too interesting. However, their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was no more Carlisle Brunswick, but Edward Lupin. He was taking after his father, Remus Lupin, who was a fantastic member of the Order of the Phoenix. Quinn was one of the people that stood up from her chair to applaud him because she was a huge fan of his father's work.

She recalled many of his fantastic Defence Against the Dark Arts related stories as she beamed at Professor Lupin. Of course, she also spoke to him apart from that, as when she was in her first and second year, Teddy was at school with her, and she often spoke to him about books when she saw him.

The Potter and Weasley family were particularly loud because they had grown up with Teddy, and James was ecstatic to be in the same school as Teddy again. Teddy was still sporting his blue hair, and many students immediately took a liking to him for it. A Metamorphmagus as a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher? Cool. And once again, Quinn was sure/hoping it would be a good year.