Taste of Youth

I was sprinting up stairs, my legs and lungs burned with protest as my wand did nothing but spin farther and farther up the stairs. Five flights of stairs and my wand nearly jerked out of my hand when it turned left. I blew by paintings who cursed me for mucking about so late at night. I passed a bathroom door on my way and the marble staircase that would lead up to the seventh floor.

The wand turned in a circle in my palm and pointed at my chest. I skidded and turned back around, lengthening my arm out the way I’d just come. It whizzed and jerked to a stop pointing at a painting of an empty room that looked like it had been host to a party that involved a lot of drinking. I took a couple steps forward and my wand went crazy spinning and spinning and not stopping.

I remembered a time when I was little and Leon was a teenager; he had told me not to even try to go into his room. He’d rigged the door so it would jam the lock unless you turned it just right and it turned on and off the lights in the study that he’d normally spent all his time in.

I closed my fingers around the wand and dismissed the spell staring at the painting curiously. Leon loved puzzles where the answers stared you so blatantly in the face that it made you feel stupid when you finally figured it out. I just looked at it and frowned. Leon hated parties, he also could not hold his liquor so he never drank. He’d always crack jokes about how it must have been a genetic juxtaposition between him and our mother. There was no way this was the entrance to his courters and that would have been easy. Leon also hated easy puzzles.

My wand emitted silver sparks very few taps against my leg. It was getting late, probably already late enough for Lily and Alice to come look for me. Late enough for Filch to be roaming, I had been unlucky enough to encounter him on one of my nightly runs and had no wish to do it again. More than that though, I’d rather not have Lily screaming at me again. Terrifying that girl.

I lifted my wand again and made a fiery X just under the paintings frame. The flame flickered for a moment and died leaving a small scorch mark on the wall. Satisfied I headed back to the staircase that would lead me to the seventh floor, the keys jingling in my palm.

It turned out I was right about Lily and Alice. I met them halfway up the staircase, Alice already listing out the spells she was going to use on me. She looked disturbingly disappointed when she saw me.

“Damn, I was planning on setting you on fire. Muggle style.” Alice said as we headed up.

“I’d rather not be cooked like bacon, Alice.”

“That’s why she chose it.” Lily pointed out.

“Thanks for that, Alice.” I turned to the girl shaking my head, “How did you get with a Hufflepuff, anyway.”

She widened her brown eyes playfully, “My good-heart and unrivaled kindness, obviously.”

“Obviously.” Lily and I chorused stepping into the common room.

“Evans!”

“Oh Merlin.” Lily groaned and glared at the oncoming boy who had called her name, “What do you want, Potter?”

“The boys and I were planning welcoming party for the first day, I was wondering-”

“That answer is no, Potter. I refuse to attend you drunken fest and I most definitely would not with you. Now if you’ll excuse us, it is late and we have an early morning.”

The girl pushed past the dejected looking James, Alice gave him a sympathetic look as she past and I patted his shoulder smiling gently. James shrugged weakly and slumped off toward where his friends we lounging in front of the fire. Sirius’ bark of a laugh echoed at our backs as we traveled the flights up to our dorms. Alice said goodnight when we reached her room and together Lily and I continued up the next flight.

“I had no idea we had an early morning, Lily.” I commented raising an eyebrow at the girl.

“I know that but we do, kind of.”

“And what are we going to be doing?”

She scrunched up her face a bit, “Dumbledore’s giving us tomorrow off and we’re Flooing out somewhere to have fun. I think it’s more that he wants us to think about whether we want this for a career, like we have some kind of choice.”

I snorted, “Everyone has a choice, Lily. It doesn’t make you a coward to choose a different path.”

“I does if it involves not fighting.” She argued.

“No it doesn’t. There are a lot of ways to fight a war, brute strength is only one of them.”

“Are you stopping training then?” Lily snapped folding her arms and blocking the door of our dorm room, “Aren’t you going to fight back?”

“I don’t know.” I sighed and leaned against the opposite wall, “I don’t know.”

“They killed your brother and you’re saying you don’t know?” Her screeched echoed down the stairs and the bits of noise that had been coming up from the common room ceased.

I could feel myself bristling, “Yes Lily, that is exactly what I am saying. Do you have a problem with that?”

“Yeah, Luciana. I do have a problem with that.” She jerked away from the door and started back down the stairs, “I have a problem with people who don’t have the guts to fight for the people they loved. I have a problem with cowards.”

I caught the back her shirt and jerked her sharply snarling, “I am not a coward.”

I released her shirt and slammed into the dorm room furious. I have a problem with cowards. Lily's voice echoed in my head and I picked up one of my many books and chucked it at the door. I have a problem with people who don’t have the gut’s to fight. I wiped at the tears of rage that boiled down my cheeks, slamming things around the room. A problem with cowards. I slammed the window closed as hard as I could the force and my out of control magic cracking it loudly. Coward. Coward. Coward.

“STOP IT!” I screamed out clutching at my head, “I’m not a coward. I’m not. Just stop, please. I’m not a coward. Please.”