Hi, peeps, new chapter up! Sorry it's taken so long, but I had horribly horrible writer's block. Read and, hopefully, enjoy :-)
James yawned and sleepily opened his eyes as sunlight streamed in through an open window. "Mark?" he mumbled. "Ally?" Sitting up, James took in his surroundings. This wasn't his dormitory. Then the drama of the night before came rushing back to him with a horrible jolt- the gossiping eyes that had watched the Potters enter the Common Room, the argument between his parents, finding out one of his sisters was only half-related to him. Suddenly, as he felt something fall on his shoulder with a sickening plop, he realised he must have fallen asleep in the Owlery. James stood up quickly, and then felt dizziness take over as his head tried to adjust to the new level of altitude. Once his body decided to be reasonable again, he staggered out of the door and down to the Great Hall, pangs of worry streaking through his mind.
The Hall was nearly empty; only the Gryffindor Table had any occupants. His brother and sisters.
"James!" cried Lily, running towards him with outstretched arms. "You won't believe how worried we were about you!"
He shrugged, absently fending off the hugs that his middle sister was smothering him with. "I just needed to think, that's all."
"Well couldn't you have thought in the Common Room?" frowned Mark. "Hey, you
didn't even send that letter, did you? We got no amount of grief from
Hagrid this morning, saying how we'd worried him and Sirius sick."
James tried to defend himself, but was interrupted by his brother.
"Then whilst we're all going out of our minds, you swan in here as if nothing's happened, and you're the king of the world," Mark spat, standing up and walking calmly and deliberately towards him.
"I didn't!" yelled James, and found, to his dismay, that sparkling wet tears were sliding down his cheek. "It's not my fault!"
"It never is, is it?" Mark bellowed. "Not when Lily or Ruby get in trouble through your hare-brained schemes, or when you come in bruised all over because of some fight with Malfoy's son. And, I suppose, it won't be your fault if you flunk your OWLs, or NEWTs? It'll be Mum's or Dad's, or mine and Ally's for 'not being here enough.' "
Ally picked up Ruby, who had begun sobbing gently into her cold porridge, and hugged her tightly; Lily, her eyes still red from the previous evening, stepped nervously between the two boys. Before she could cry out for them to stop- that they were scaring Ruby, they were scaring her- Mark delivered his final punch.
"And, little brother, I've found out about your latest 'idea.' What were you honestly thinking? Even if our parents do run this school, you'll still get chucked out, and so will Rubes, before she's even started here."
"Mark, it won't- this one's foolproof, it can't go wrong," protested James.
"How much are you willing to bet on that?" Mark snarled, before grabbing Ruby off of Ally and striding out of the Great Hall.
Lily began to clap, slowly and mockingly. "Thank for that, James. Just what I needed."
So, what do you think? Pleeeeease review, and massive thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far!