"Heck Yeah I Will."

QUINN GROANED, KNOCKING ON THE door of James's room impatiently for the fifth time."Oh for the love of Merlin." She muttered, opening the door and storming inside. Quinn looked around the room and instantly spotted James. The mop of messy brown hair was uncanny. With a roll of her eyes, she pulled out her wand from her boot and waved it towards James's head. "Aguamenti." She recited and water came out of Quinn's wand, making its way onto James.

He yelped and sat up in his bed, the sheets falling off of his body, revealing a bare upper body. Quinn tried not to look, but it was hard not to stare at the way you could see his muscles contract as he sat up.

"What the hell?!" James exclaimed, before looking around. His blue-green eyes were glazed over and tired, his face pulled into a confused expression as he spotted Quinn. "Quinn?"

"James." She replied. "This is a fun game!" Quinn added sarcastically. James wanted to sing he was so happy. Quinn Meredith was willingly standing in his dorm room. "Get up, hot shot. We have studying to do."

"I thought you weren't doing that anymore." James mused, the corners of his lips turned up slightly. It was true. Quinn was going to go to Professor Brunswick and tell him that she was done, but she decided against it. Quinn wasn't interested in petty drama. She was going to get the extra credit for DADA she deserved.

"There was a time I thought I might like you," Quinn retorted. "but that turned out to be the opium haze." With a small smile, Quinn left the room for James to get ready privately, and he had a stupid grin on his face as usual. James had never changed so quickly in his life. Not even bothering to pay attention to what he was choosing, he pulled on a white t-shirt and a pair of dark grey jeans.

James thought of the way Quinn looked today and instantly smiled. He loved when she left her hair down in her natural blonde curls. James wondered why Quinn was even talking to him after the way that he acted. Shrugging it off and hoping it was Merlin that put some kind of spell on her, he left his dorm with all of his books in his hand.

Quinn had been waiting patiently outside the Gryffindor common room as James changed. She had realised that if she held this overdramatic argument over James's head, she'd be no better than him. Because she didn't know the whole story about why he was so angry. Although she thought James Sirius Potter was monumentally idiotic, she thought that he could use all the help he could get.

"You really don't have to do this," James told Quinn after 15 minutes of silent studying in the library. James always thought that a silence between the two was beautiful, and calming. However, Quinn was under the impression that it was plain awkward.

"I know," Quinn told James, raising an eyebrow. "I'm not doing this because I have to."

"I don't get it," James stated. "I embarrassed you and my best friend in front of most of our year. And you don't hate me?"

"Hate is a strong word." Quinn shrugged, before looking back at her textbook. "So, tell me," she paused, looking back up at James. "What's your Patronus?"

"Um, it's a stag." James smiled at the thought, beaming. "Like my dad and granddad."

"That's odd," Quinn mused, chuckling a little. "Mine's a doe." The two were silent for a short moment. It was so short, that they hardly even noticed that they had both paused to think it over shortly. "Must be a coincidence." Quinn waved it off immediately.

"Must be." James agreed. But he knew otherwise. He knew all about complementary Patronus charms, where two people who love each other very much have male and female forms of the same animal. Instead of telling Quinn this, he just shook his head and smiled. "Must be." He repeated.

***

"Potter?" Lorcan questioned, raising is eyebrow as James dragged him away from a couple of his friends. "What're you doing?"

"I wanted to apologise," James stated. "And I know it sounds like I'm a girl in the fourth grade so shut up and listen, okay?" Lorcan laughed loudly at this, making James crack a small smile.

"You don't need to apologise," Lorcan stated. "I need to tell you something."

"And what would that be?" James immediately asked because he knew how generally horrible he was at apologies.

"That night you thought I was flirting with Quinn or whatever," Lorcan started. "I was talking to Quinn, yes. And I was talking her up, yes." The sound of that made James's blood boil, but he kept quiet. "To you, that is."

"What?" James exclaimed.

"I was talking her up to you," Lorcan repeated. "And Merlin, I was doing good. I covered the whole 'loves long walks on the beach' thing and everything."

"But I hate the beach," James whined. This was 100% true. The thought of sand sticking to his body made him shiver, and he hated the sea. Salt water is 'extremely gross' and seagulls are 'poo bombs waiting to drop'.

"Well, Quinn doesn't, so suck it up." Lorcan teased. They both shared a laugh and Lorcan smiled a little. "Does this mean we're friends again?"

"Who's the girl in the fourth grade now?" James joked, making Lorcan gasp dramatically and hit his shoulder.

"Rude."

For the next hour, James proceeded to tell Lorcan all about his Quinn dilemma. Usually, Lorcan would say something rude/funny/offensive/that commented on how whipped James was. But this time, he listened throughout the whole thing.

"I think you need to stop trying to get her to fall in love with you and get her to be your friend," Lorcan suggested, and James raised his eyebrows at the Scamander.

"Pardon?" James spoke. "I don't know if you've noticed or not, but I don't want to be her friend. I've never wanted to be her friend." He was incredulous. Lorcan knew how much Quinn meant to him, and he thought they should just be friends?! Ridiculous.

"Potter," Lorcan sighed. "it didn't take a day to build Big Ben, right?" James's thoughts momentarily got off topic as he recalled a trip he took with his cousins and Quinn around London, where they spent a lot of time taking pictures near the clock named Big Ben.

"I suppose not." James agreed. "Why are you telling me this?"

"I'm trying to say that things take time." Lorcan insisted. "You need to build up your friendship with Quinn. You can't make her love you. If it happens, it happens."

"I hate it when you're right." James stated, shaking his head. "Especially now." Lorcan chuckled, shaking his head a little as he did so.

"Let's go find Lysander and tell him that you've got your head out of your-" Lorcan cut himself off as he saw Headmistress McGonagall pass by. "Good afternoon!" he exclaimed happily instead. Headmistress McGonagall stared suspiciously at him momentarily, before muttering to herself about how there were 'too many James Potters' around. This made James's insides swell with pride.

***

"Your cousin is literally so embarrassing," Quinn stated, entering her dorm and speaking directly to both Rose Weasley and Dominique.

"I know right." Dom grinned. "What has he done this time?"

"He proclaimed his love to me in Latin," Quinn stated.

"I didn't know James Sirius Potter could speak Latin." Rose mused, sounding impressed.

"He can't," Quinn retorted with a blank expression. "That was the embarrassing part."

"Well, you'll be without that soon enough," Dom spoke up, her grin turning into a proper smile. "Lorcan Scamander told me that James is planning on just trying to befriend you."

"James Potter II, giving up?" Quinn asked for confirmation, to which Dominique nodded. "I don't buy it. And since when do you talk to Lorcan Scamander?"

"Since when do you talk to Lorcan Scamander?" Dom retorted, though it was fast and she seemed nervous. After making a mental note to talk to her best friend about that, Quinn shrugged.

"Touché my friend." Carrie came out of the bathroom, her hair damp from the shower Quinn assumed she took, and squealed when she spotted her dorm captain.

"Did you hear the news?" Carrie demanded.

"Do I want to know the news?" Quinn asked weakly, which Carrie purposely ignored.

"There's supposed to be some kind of Halloween party next week," Carrie spoke instead, her eyes blazing with excitement. Carrie Emmett was much like the excitable Hufflepuff girls: chatty, happy, flirty & dancy. The last one, Quinn knew wasn't a word, but all Carrie seemed to do at parties was dance.

"That's cool." Quinn smiled, though she didn't really think so. She didn't enjoy Halloween that much. Sure – you got to dress up as something crazy, eat a lot of candy and not get judged for it, but it wasn't quite Quinn's forte.

"You should definitely come." Carrie continued, slipping some fuzzy purple socks onto her feet after throwing her used clothes into her hamper for the (very much free and very much paid for their services thanks to Hermione Jean Weasley) Hogwarts house elves to wash.

"I don't have an invitation." Quinn came up with an alibi easily and was quite relieved for it.

"Oh, right!" Carrie face-palmed herself before reaching into her book bag and pulling out an envelope with the name Quinnity Meredith printed on it in a messy scrawl. "Here. A Ravenclaw sixth year told me to give it to you. Their house is the one hosting the Halloween party this year."

Because of the expenses, houses tended to take turns in hosting different parties for different events. All of them took place in the Room of Requirements, therefore making the parties very secretive and strictly invite-only. Unless it was a Gryffindor Quidditch party. Those were always in the Gryffindor common room, and for Gryffindors only.

"Yay." Quinn murmured gloomily, opening the letter.

Quinn Meredith,

You're invited to this year's annual Hogwarts Halloween party. Food, drinks, live music and a dance floor will be provided as usual. All you need to do is make your way to the ROR by 8:00PM sharp on the 31st of October and present your invitation to the Ravenclaw at the doors.
Bring a date if you wish to and we hope you come in a costume.

Yours truly,
Ravenclaw house – Halloween Bash Hosts 2019

"So, are you coming?" Carrie asks Quinn, smiling hopefully at her. Quinn didn't know if it was that, or the fact that she was actually looking forward to possibly seeing new friends like Lorcan, Lysander and even James being there, but she agreed.

"I think I will."