The story's taking a turn for the dirty xD

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Here We Go Again

Chapter 5: Of Snogging and Being the Man

POV: James

"Professor — "

"So here we all are," beady, dark eyes that belonged to the one and only Minerva McGonagall, former Transfiguration teacher and current Headmistress, narrowed into tiny slits as she maneuvered them all over her classroom, stabbing them at anything they met,"again."

"Professor — "

"I had soon assumed that after so much time wasted in discussions and pleads for renewal of chances throughout the years that the message would have eventually sunk in."

"Professor — "

"But as always, it seems, you have proven that in some cases there is absolutely no hope," she continued on unemotionally, only expressing her deep-rooted anger through the reflection of her half-moon spectacles.

"Professor — "

"Mister Potter." Turning that elderly glare at me, scaring the living magic out of me by her hiss that I jumped up on my seat and let out a girly squeak. Dear Merlin, if she ever does that to me again during nightfall I'll no longer be able to sleep. The old woman had the lethal and crazed stare that you'd see in a horror film about an old creepy woman. "For the hundredth time since Mister Filch brought you in, be quiet."

Pushing away my slight fear for the woman, I looked at her disapprovingly. "I just don't understand why I'm here. I was innocently walking to my lesson when that old nutter," she threw me another frown, her cheek-bones popping out dramatically beneath her paper-thin skin, "I mean, when Mister Filch began harassing me towards here. Now, I promised my mummy that I would try harder this year, so if you excuse me, I've got Potions — "

"Sit down, Mister Potter!" Slamming a palm on the surface of a nearby desk, the Headmistress was now on her last level of patience. "You are in here because you're no saint. You apparently inherited much of your father's traits, and neither of you have seemed to master the meaning of silence when a professor asks of it."

Well, bloody hell. Here I thought that the greasy, maniac, ex Potions Master hanging on a wall inside the Headmistress' office was the one that hated Dad.

"Now," McGonagall continued, composing herself as she looked around the classroom and forgot about me for a second. "All of you are to serve two hours in here, and in that time, you're all to do your homework. Which I'm sure has been waiting to be done." She had a point. Almost a month into school and I hadn't even turned in an assignment. "At the end of those two hours, I will return and you're not allowed to leave this classroom until I see some worked completed. If you fail to do so, the consequences will be severe."

I scoffed, not being able to help the rebel in me.

She turned those beady eyes back at me. "I don't mean detention with Mister Filch in the Forbidden Forest either. Especially seeing as the forest hasn't done the trick with the lot of you. I will be handling your punishment with something that will actually improve your behavior; something you all fear."

"A troll?" I asked. "Because I hear that my dad and Uncle Ron took on a troll their First Year. I wouldn't mind taking on a pack, showing them that their offspring are just as capable."

A round of laughter echoed around the classroom.

The Headmistress' expression remained impassive. "I'll be owling your mothers," she said in a nonchalant tone, "and I will have them sit in your lessons with you throughout the entire day." My eyes grew outraged and the laughter around me stopped. The air was pregnant with terror. " On a third warning you will be removed from taking your final exams, which will prevent you from completing your education here."

"You can't do that!" Jumping up from his seat, six desks away from me, Freddie voiced his outrage. "That's barbaric! What are we, back three centuries ago? You never call a bloke's mum!"

The Headmistress made no expression. "Is that really barbaric, Mister Weasley? Because I believe it's more barbaric to attack a group of Third Year Hufflepuffs."

"They're not as gentle as they appear," Freddie informed her. He rose an arm into the air, pulling back the sleeve to his white button-up and showed the ring of teeth marking his arm. "That troll-looking one almost ripped my skin off! He was chewing on me — chewing! Where's the justice in that?"

"The two hours start now," McGonagall said, ignoring my redheaded cousin as she proceeded towards the door. "Use it wisely." And that was all the old bat said as she closed the door behind her; Filches mocking laughter echoing outside the hall.

Slumping down back onto his seat, Freddie glared at the door while rubbing his arm.

"Ease up, Freds," Louis, who was without a doubt in trouble with Freddie and I, said casually as he propped his feet up on his desk. "I'm sure all Hufflepuffs are vaccinated before they're allowed entrance to Hogwarts."

"Molly was never — "

"Molly's insane by nature," I huffed as I interrupted Freddie's interjection. Molly II is our insane cousin, who disappeared for almost two years after she graduated Hogwarts, that's been the only Hufflepuff before her brother Artie came along. She was insane as all the Weasley women, and we know that nothing can settle those witches down. "No shot can keep her down. Anyway, just ask Rose to give you something for it and it'll be good as new."

Freddie shook his head sadly. "It's no use, mate. They're going to have to chop it."

Louis laughed loudly. "Then you're doomed, Cousin. You can't get a girlfriend with your natural appearance, imagine if your missing a limb?"

"Dad's missing an ear and he got Mum," Freddie said in a mumble, looking suddenly defensive.

Knowing Louis perfectly well I knew that his teasing was not done yet. By the glint to his eyes, and the smirk on his face, there was still one more good jab. "Well, it's settled then. We'll find you someone like Aunt Angelina."

"I can get a girlfriend on my own!" Freddie's ears were as red as his hair by his anger.

Louis' laughter did not cease, it grew with more malice and mock that I almost cringed at the embarrassment that this entire situation was bringing. "Oh, that was rich, Freds. I mean, it's our Seventh Year at Hogwarts — the last, by the way — and you've yet to even snog a girl. You're getting left behind, mate. It's pathetic, really."

"I've snogged girls plenty times!"

"Who?" Louis asked, snorting.

"In Bulgaria, three years ago! I went with Dad to a business meeting there and there was this girl — "

"It already sounds like a lie," Louis cut across him.

I chuckled a little. "That's because it is," I said. If Freddie was going to defend his honor, it was going to have to be with the truth. That's the way things got done around here. We were honest with each other, whether it embarrassed or angered us. "The meeting was in Canada that year, and Freddie was stuck watching a hockey game with Uncle Ron."

"Dear Merlin, Freddie!" Louis exclaimed, looking humorously concerned. "So you've never kissed a girl? You're seventeen, mate. Now I really am worried."

I nodded my head. Fred Weasley II was going to die a virgin at this rate.

Sensing that this went on for far too long, especially since Freddie looked deeply hurt that we were making fun of something that was intimate to him — though, nothing was really kept a secret; honest truth, we knew everything, we were like gossiping girls — I decided to change the subject from him. "So, Louis, how are you and Coral these days?"

Catching my drift, Louis let go of all of his sneering and relaxed into his seat. "Brilliant actually," he said calmly. "Ever since her mum died last year we've been improving our communication. She says it'd because she doesn't want to leave things unsaid, or the like, who cares honestly. Anyway, I've just stuck around and helped her out these past few months. Cormac — that's right, I call him Cormac now," he clarified casually as he referred to Mister McLaggen, "has even gotten quite chummy with me. In fact, he even left Coral and I alone at their place. No pesky little brother to knock out while we did the do."

Arrogant git, he was.

"Just don't end up like your sister, mater," I said to him casually. And this time, as Louis' expression went from smug to immediately disgusted, Freddie was the one who burst out laughing.

"Well, what about you and Taylor, then?" The blonde shot back. "I hear you two were violating closets in my house."

"Oi, that's not true," I snapped. "That was Al! You've got a problem with the violation of your house, take it up with him and Harper. Those two have been going at it like rabbits. Did I tell you that Zabini found them mid-action on the train?"

Louis scoffed and rolled his eyes. "The point is, that I know you and Emily are getting it on too. If you're going to start lecturing about safe practice, I suggest you follow your own advice, git. You don't want to give Aunt Ginny a grandchild before the last term of school, do you?"

Now, there could have been plenty of ways to handle this situation, I know. I could have taken the polite way out and dismiss it, or I could've been rude and told him to piss off, but of course I chose neither. I went the crude way.

"I'll keep that in mind, mate, but it's hard sometimes, you know? I mean, we're going at it all the time. Sometimes in the heat of things a bloke forgets to mutter a spell, or put on those things Aunt Hermione gave us form that one muggle hospital."

Bang.

Before anything else could be said, my cousins and I turned around to the furthest corner of the classroom to gape at what had made the noise. And right there, having had gone unnoticed by all of us, sat Artie Weasley.

"Will you three shut up?" He hissed. "I've got a bloody Charms essay to finish, and you won't let me concentrate! I don't want to hear about the disgusting things you swear you've done."

Mumbling an apology, I felt instantly mortified. If Artie opened his Hufflepuff mouth, Louis, Freddie and I were screwed.

"You don't think he'll tell our mums, do you?"

Smirking from his seat, Freddie propped his feet up on the desk arrogantly as he stared at us with a leer. "That's the least of your concerns." He pointed a finger behind his back. "McGonagall's been in here the entire time."

And sure enough, as Louis and I turned to face the doors of the classroom with complete terror, there was a tabby cat sitting at the entrance;looking between petrified and infuriated.

                                                                                 X

Walking along on my merry way, I was halted from those joyful skips as I knocked into someone. Malfoy.

"You can look happier to see me, Potter," he said to me, narrowing his eyes back at me; mimicking the distaste on my face.

He bent down, gathering his schoolbag that had fallen from our collision, and I was tempted to kick it out of his hand. "Can't say that I am," I told him truthfully. And since I knew exactly where I was, I frowned at him some more. "You're too up in the towers for a Slytherin, Malfoy. Did you lose your way?"

"And because I'm a Slytherin I'm only resorted to the dungeons? Here I thought that the castle was free reign."

"Because you're a Slytherin I'd say you're unfit for the dungeons and I would cast you to where the Care of Magical teachers dumps the animal droppings, but, hey, I'm not the Headmaster of the school."

Malfoy rolled his eyes at me. "Always charming to talk to you."

Before he could leave, I gripped the strap of his schoolbag; halting him. "Why are you all the way up here? Rose is tutoring today and doesn't finish until the Astronomy class starts."

"Are you really that insecure?" That was his retaliation, shoving my hand away from the strap of his schoolbag. "If you wanted to ask if I was up here for Emily you could just be a man and ask straightforwardly."

"I am man enough, Malfoy," I hissed at him. "And I don't like you hanging about her."

"She's my best friend — "

"And I respect that," I interjected, though we both knew it was a total lie.

A frown deepened on his features; the silver in his eyes turning darker. "Look, Potter, I know the way I feel about Emily and I know the way I feel about Rose. I know things were confusing last year for you, but they've always been clear to me. I...will apologize if it comes off the wrong way, but I'm not going to stop talking to my best friend because you're scared about something that's illogical."

"I just don't want her to be overwhelmed," I confessed through gritted teeth, the same way he had previously. "Too many people might throw her off balance."

He scoffed, like what I had just said was incredulous. "Do you really feel that threatened? Are you that afraid that she can love me as much as she loves you?"

My frown turned to an almighty glare.

"She does love me as much as you," he told me arrogantly. That slimy fucking git. "But in different ways. The sooner you gather that, the sooner you'll stop freaking out every time I come to the Gryffindor Tower." He was about to leave again but he stopped, sighing a little as he turned to give me an odd expression. It wasn't an angry one, but it was an almost sympathetic one. "...You can't fix her all on your own, Potter."

I was about to comment on that but the blonde Slytherin marched away this time, no look back as I gritted my teeth. He knew more than what he wanted to say, and I had to grudgingly admit that it was...respectable of him to keep it to himself. He knew my intentions and he could've retaliated to crush down every single one of them — and yet he didn't.

Merlin. I was in debt to the fucking Malfoy heir.

I didn't continue skipping my way to my destination, but I got there as soon as it took to say 'James Sirius Potter is the hottest boy in the world'. I marched into the portrait hole, after giving the Fat Lady the password and dodging her plea to hear her sing, and spotted my target.

Tiptoeing my way closer, dropping my schoolbag silently and careful on the floor of the common room, I was given the attention of some Gryffindors around me; all of them looking at me, but trying to dissimulate it so my target wouldn't find anything suspicious. And once I counted three, I launched myself forward. "Muah!" I exclaimed dramatically as I kissed the head of my witch sitting in front of the fireplace. "Did you miss me?" I asked as the other occupants of the room laughed at my flare.

"Don't I always?" She responded, patting the place next to her on the floor. I joined her without having to be told twice, scooting myself close enough to her until she rested her head on my shoulder; allowing me access to wrap an arm around her. "If you were to stop getting detentions every other — "

"I was innocent this time!" I protested, turning to face her in an angle. "I was on my way to class, humming a tune, thinking all about how fascinating Potions was going to be when Filch grabbed me!"

Emily raised a dark eyebrow at me. "Professor Longbottom told me all about what you did with the mandrakes, James." All my gusto was taken and ripped to shreds. (There went the story I had rehearsed and come up with for Mum. Now I had nothing for the certain Howler that will be arriving tomorrow morning.) "I thought you were done causing havoc, James. You promised you were going to focus on your studies."

I wanted to snort but I contained myself. It was never a good choice when you tell your girlfriend you make promises just to get her off your case and to earn yourself a proper kiss. "And I was — I am — but it I couldn't not do anything, could I?" I tore my arm away from her shoulders as I reached for my schoolbag. "The Slytherins decided it would be just fucking hysterical to put a tentacle of Devil Snare inside my things!" I opened the latch of my schoolbag and took out a giant, dried tentacle. "I could have died!"

"You were not going to die," Emily said patiently before kicking the tentacle aside. She looked up at me, a smile shining bright. Her pale skin was shaded orange by the flames of the fireplace, but I still thought she was radiant. "I doubt the Slytherins would go that far. And besides, it's not even a tentacle. It's a thick branch from a tree. They bewitched it to move."

My jaw dropped, hesitantly turning to the rubbish I had just whipped out of my bag. "How the hell do you know that?"

She put a gentle hand on my thigh. "Al and Scorpius told me about it our last lesson," she explained. There was a pink tint to her cheeks and I was certain it was because she was trying to hold in laughter at my horrified expression. "Apparently some Seventh Year Slytherins sneaked off to the forest and cut off a piece of a tree. They just wanted to know if you would...Nevermind."

"Emily," I called through gritted teeth.

My girlfriend gave me a dim smile. "They just...erm...wanted to know if you were...erm...stupid enough to freak out about it. All their words, I swear."

"I am not stupid!" I snapped. My blood boiled into rage. Those fucking snakes were going to get it, and it was going to hurt every single one of them. I will make them regret the day they decided to pull a prank on me. (Especially for laughing like a pack of hyenas when I tossed my bag and ran from it.)

"I know you're not," she responded. She put her other hand on my other thigh and brought herself closer to me, our kneecaps resting upon each other. "You were the one who locked them in a broomstick closet with five growing mandrakes and an automatic hormone sprayer." She laughed lightly, and it triggered mine. I couldn't help the smile that plastered on my face on its own accord; when she was happy, so was I. "You're far more brilliant than any Slytherin, James."

"And don't you forget it!" I reeled her in closer, dropping myself on my back on the carpet of the common room floor with her laying perfectly on top of me. Her emerald eyes were looking directly into mine, making me lose myself in their perfection. Wait — correction, she was simply perfection.

In every way possible I felt like she completed me. Sure, I'm James Sirius Potter and life is pretty damn dandy all the time, but beside all the ego and pride that comes from being the son of Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley, there's always something more. It's like a hole that can't be filled with what others give us, with their praises and admiration. It was a void that demanded to be filled to the brim with brilliance and something overpowering that has to come purely for you. And that's what Emily Taylor was for me.

Neither of us it planned it, but it just happened. And if I'm not mistaken, that's how all the beautiful and cheesy love stories begin.

Allowing myself to put my hands on her hips, I also gave myself permission to rub the tips of my thumbs on the exposed skin there. "I love you," I whispered to her before picking up my head and closing the few inches that separated us.

The first few seconds my lips remained perfectly still, sensing her immediate reaction to take flight, and once it melted away, she relaxed completely and began to move her lips against mine. At the delicious way that she tasted, it enticed all those bubbling, passionate emotions in me as I slipped my tongue into her mouth. She gave me dominance for a few moments, but then she had taken it all back and I couldn't bring myself to care. I would let her take it whenever she wanted.

Our breathing grew tensed, our kissing more needy, and then her fingers snaked themselves into my hair and tugged. She pulled me forward until I was sitting down, her on my lap, and the closer our body was together, the more it felt bloody amazing. I moved my hands from her hips to her waist and gripping her tightly; letting out a growl that she swallowed as my blood rushed thick.

Clearing forgetting that others had been in the room previously, I was thankful to my house-mates as I took a second to open my eyes and saw that they had all left as we decided to violate the fireplace area. Emily's hands found my tie, loosing it until she could throw it off of me. Her fingers started working at the top buttons of my white oxford, and snuck her hand after the opening was enough. She rested her hand over my heart, and as she could feel it beat beneath her skin, she let out a content sigh. It was almost like if she had to make sure I was human; if I was real.

Smiling into her mouth, I gently put my hand on her abdomen, feeling the smooth skin there as her tank-top had risen up and left all that glorious skin for me to admire. Taking my left hand, I pushed a little higher, my fingertips creating a trial up, and my hand decided to rest on the area where her chest met her stomach. Another type of rush crawled through my skin, screaming at me, as my body reacted to the fact that I was so close to her perfect breasts.

But just as quickly as I had decided to reach for them, Emily pulled my hand out and I wasn't granted permission to touch heaven.

"We should call it a day, don't you think?"

I tossed myself onto my back, breathing deeply to try and calm all the hectic mess going on inside of me. (Oh, all these dirty urges were making me feel like a pervert.) "...I just got here," I mumbled.

"Yeah, well...there's classes tomorrow, James. And it's already late. Do you want McGonagall to give you another detention?"

I didn't say anything, I just looked up to the ceiling of the common room. The hormones inside my body were starting to calm down now.

Emily leaned a little closer to me, almost hovering over me as her beautiful expression turned stern. "Let's go to bed now."

I pouted at her, mimicking that look that Lily used to do to Dad whenever she wanted something to go her way. "Come on, Em. I haven't seen you all day, it's been killing me. Between lessons, revenge and detention, a bloke misses his girlfriend."

A smile cracked through her firm expression. "Maybe if you stopped getting detention we can spend some time together like a normal couple, have dinner and the like." She jumped off me, crawling her way to my side and resting there with me. She placed her head on my chest, snuggling into me.

"When have we ever been a normal couple?" I asked as I traced a fingertip around the surface of her palm; right over a light scar that she gained from her attack last year. "And dinner with me always turns into a drama scene."

She laughed, snuggling closer as she put an arm around my stomach; trying to pull me just a little closer to her. "That's what I meant by normal. Today we had dinner quietly — quietly, James."

Squinting my eyes at the skin of her arm laying on me, my response to her comment died at the tip of my tongue. There were shades of purple and green on her skin, along with rings of what looked like mending burnt skin.

"James?"

Ignoring her, I sat into a sitting position, pulling her arm along with me. I pulled it towards the fireplace, where the light hit it perfectly, and I studied her skin. Not only was it bruised, but there were thin, red lines running from the inside of her forearm. They started from her wrist and they disappeared around her shoulder and into her chest.

"James," Emily called for me again. "What is it?"

"Your arm," I said immediately. "What happened to it?"

Her eyes widened a little, a bit of surprise and regret in them, but it was quickly wiped away as she shrugged; pulling her arm back from my hold. "It's nothing," she said indifferently. "It was my turn to feed the Skrewts today, and well...they weren't in the happiest of moods, you know. Just an accident."

I frowned at her, clearly not convinced by her story. "Have you been having nightmares again, Emily?" There was no need to ignore it or sugar-code it. Straightforward and honest was always the best method, Dad always said. "Because if you are, your Healer told you that—"

"I'm fine," she snapped, the atmosphere around her suddenly tensed and thick. "And there isn't any nightmares. I know what the Healer said, your mom constantly reminds me of it, as does Scorpius and Rose, but I'm okay. All of you need to stop worrying."

A single moment passed in silence before I made another comment. "I'm just saying that you should continue with your Occlumency. It will help close your mind off, and then you won't feel so terrible when the thoughts of — "

"They're not thoughts," she interrupted me. "They're memories. And it's hard not to think of them when you're terrified of the full moon outside your window."

Deep anger wanted to start boiling in my blood at the way her words sounded so cracked and broken, so scared and not healing. I would've killed Lance Greyback, but it had been proven that I didn't have that in me. All I had was the patience and the love to try and fix the mess he left.

"...You know, I'm always going to be here, Taylor," I mumbled to her, laying back down and pulling her with me. I settled her back onto her original position, her head on my chest and my arm around her tightly. "No matter what. I'll be here to protect you. Nothing nor anyone will ever hurt you again, I promise."

She pressed a kiss to my chest. "I know," she said in all her tenderness. "And I love you."

I smiled, looking back towards the ceiling. "And if you do have nightmares again, you can always sneak into my bed. The only condition is that I have a strict policy on clothing. You mustn't wear any if you do decide to join me."

She slapped me hard on the chest, making me laugh loudly at her reaction. "Not going to happen, James Potter."

"Come on!"

"Nope."

"Damn it!" I cursed and she slapped me again.

Forget Freddie, I was going to die a virgin at this rate.