"You have one advantage." James explained, his finger lingering over his knight as he stared at the chess board. He tapped the piece a few times, picking it up and putting it back before finally rashly grabbing his rook and moving it across the board.
"Just the one?" Harry asked teasingly, raising an eyebrow. He smoothly reached out and advanced a bishop with no hesitation.
"What did I say about the eyebrows!"
The late afternoon light came in through the window creating a pleasant glow in the room as they sat in the school building after class.
"Sorry." Harry didn't sound sorry in the least.
"Sorry sir." James corrected, pressing his new found advantage as the wingman in Andrew's quest for Ginny.
"Oh good, I'm happy you're finally realizing the real order of things," Harry smiled back.
"Smart mouth won't get you anywhere." James shot back.
"You would know, wouldn't you?"
James ignored that. "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, you have one advantage. You live with Mum, Kennedy on the other hand has to make excuses to see her. Granted he's pretty good at doing that but still...you sort of have an advantage—y'know somewhat."
"Wow. Thank you so much for you faith in me. Don't I just feel so confident after that pep talk."
"Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit."
"Stating cliches is the most mindless form of a comeback."
James raised an eyebrow, opening his mouth to speak but finding no words.
"Speechless at last! Someone give me a medal, I feel like I deserve one." Harry opened his arms out to the sky, looking at the ceiling expectantly as if waiting for vindication.
"Yeah, yeah...whatever. Just make your move already." James replied, rolling his eyes.
"Checkmate."
"What! No! Only Uncle Ron ever beats me!" James whined, his voice incredulous.
He coughed to clear his throat, embarrassed by the pitch it had reached. "You cheated."
Harry winked, "Nope, just older and wiser." He made a show of smoothing his hair while he exaggeratedly leaned back in his chair.
"Well older yeah, definitely can see the older." James replied cheekily.
"I'm like wine, I just get better with age."
"Seem more like milk to me."
"Proud of yourself for that one?"
"...yeah." James admitted.
Harry laughed and James cleared the chess board.
"Plus Kennedy is a swarmy git, and you...well actually you're a swarmy git too."
Harry rolled his eyes, "Do you actually have any real advice or are you just going to mock me?"
"Can't I do both?" James replied winningly. Harry gave him his best unimpressed face.
"Mum likes to fly." James admitted sincerely. "You should see if she wants to go for a flight over the lake or something. That's romantic, right?"
"Okay, I could do that one." Harry replied, grinning to himself as he thought that little did everyone else know that he had already done that one, it had just been fifteen years ago and a different lake.
"Oh and don't talk try to help her through doors or anything like that, she hates that. Finds it condescending."
"Noted." He had already known that.
"You do live with us so honestly if you don't beat Kennedy, I'm holding you entirely responsible. So don't be a pain in the arse to live with."
"I'll try, if I don't die of food poisoning I think I'll consider it a success."
"What happened to 'Oh Ginny, your cooking is so delicious, it's been so long since-" Harry three a pawn at James hitting him in the forehead.
"I don't talk like that, or that high pitched. I've been through puberty. You—you're the one that does that."
"Oi! I'm fifteen, my voice does not-" It cracked on him then and there causing James to stop, blush and clear his throat.
"I was trying to be nice." Harry continued, ignoring the protest.
"Yeah but all you did was encourage her to cook. It's just a punishment for everyone, she doesn't even like cooking! How was that nice?"
"It's the thought that counts." Harry defended weakly.
"Not when the choices are food poisoning or starvation! It's the food that counts!" James protested, eyebrows raised and arms waving about as he gestured to get his point across.
"You're raising your eyebrows."
"So?"
"You criticize me for it." Harry reached across the table where James handed him the pawn he had thrown at him earlier. He placed it in the case with the other pieces.
"Yeah but it looks good when I do it...on you, eh not so much."
"Your modesty astounds me." Harry said flatly.
"I know, they just need to start on the statue already. I was thinking life size but I don't know if that's enough to capture all this," James replied, making a show of looking off into the distance has he made a sweeping gesture to all of his body.
"Will they have enough material for the head though? I mean we could be talking about a world wide shortage to capture that thing, inflated as it is." Harry framed James's head with his hands, looking through them like a photographer.
"Well I don't think they'll go through with it. I mean can you imagine how unproductive all the women would become?"
"The women?" Harry asked, grinning as he wondered where James was going with this now.
"They would all be so entranced, it would be like that greek guy...Narticuss."
"Narcissus?"
"Yeah him, they would waste their lives away staring at my image."
"You sure that wouldn't be just you?"
James rolled his eyes and the two gathered the rest of their things as they left the building.
"You know Ryan, you're actually not entirely, completely all bad," James replied as they began walking down the road, he didn't notice the way Harry, or Andrew as he knew him, paused behind him a moment, a small smile on his face.
OoOoO
When they reached the cottage and walked in Ginny smiled at them from where she was standing in the kitchen, she had just started working on cooking a meal.
James glared at Harry.
Harry cleared his throat, "Ginny you've been cooking for us so much lately, what if I made dinner tonight?"
"You want to?" Ginny asked, secretly relieved. She hated cooking.
"Yeah."
With that Ginny showed him what she had out for dinner and had been planning to make before pouring herself a glass of wine and sitting at one of the stools beside the work table in the kitchen across from James.
"How was school today?"
"Eh, you know me Mum. Got every spell on first try, brewed the potions perfectly and had all the girls falling at my feet."
Ginny rolled her eyes, "The only girl you go to class with is Alice, who I don't think fits that description."
"Yeah but Susie asked me to marry her the other day."
"Susie is eight."
"That's what I told her, she was heartbroken but understood. I'm like a silver fox to them."
Ginny placed her forehead in her palm with exasperation and amusement.
Harry smiled from where he was chopping vegetables. "Actually he is doing pretty well with his potions, now that he finally accepted that he will have to learn theory. I think both he and Alice can start trying their hand at some simple original brews by the end of this year."
"I still hate it though, a lot. Just so we're clear on that," James added. Ginny smacked him on the arm.
"Potions are important. Cheer up, you could've had my potions master when I was in school. You never would have gotten through a single class without detention, I think he would've hated you more than Fred and George."
"He definitely would have, you would have reminded him too much of James." Harry replied absentmindedly.
Ginny and James looked at him in confusion.
"I am James."
Harry realizing his mistake bit his lip to keep a mumbled curse in, he'd gotten lost in the moment and meant James his father. Of course he wasn't Harry, he was Andrew, who wouldn't know that or even have known what Snape was like as professor.
"Right, long day."
Ginny didn't look entirely convinced but decided not to press the matter either. She tucked the incident away as strange, not completely sure why it sent off a warning flag in her mind.
"I'm sure teaching this one is pretty draining." Ginny replied sympathetically.
"You mean enlightening." James corrected.
"Well oh enlightened one, your room is a mess. And you have a room mate now. Go clean it up before dinner is ready."
James gave a dramatic sigh but nodded to his mother and trotted upstairs.
"He is keeping his things on his side of the room though," Harry defended him. Though he was grateful Ginny was making him clean it, he was hardly a neat freak himself but James was as messy has he had been when he was fifteen.
"I saw the line he drew down the middle," Ginny commented with a raised eyebrow.
Harry smiled but didn't reply.
"You two seem like you've been getting on better in the last couple of weeks."
He stayed focused on the vegetables for another moment before commenting to her, "I think he's starting to warm up to me." His tone was hopeful.
"Jamie means well, he just…he's seen a lot of people never come back to this village with the war. He tends to be a little overprotective of his family and thinks he's funnier than he is most of the time, but I think that's a Weasley trait judging by my brothers."
Harry nodded smiling.
James came back into the room. Ginny scowled at him, "How could you be finished already? I saw that pig stye?"
"Magic," he replied, adding jazz hands to the word.
Ginny crossed her arms, "Lucky. When I was a kid my Mum made us do everything the muggle way until we were seventeen. Remember that next time you're feeling upset with me."
"I'm never upset with you," James said dramatically, a hand across his heart.
Ginny rolled her eyes and caught Harry's eye as if to say, 'See what I mean?'
Harry let himself pretend for the rest of the meal that they knew who he was, Voldemort was gone and they were having just a typical dinner that they had had together for years.