Just a Stupid Old House

For a lot of students, Hogsmeade weekends meant gathering up a huge group of friends and going on a shopping spree, or holding hands with a significant other and being all lovey dovey or some crap like that. Not for Alli. For Alli, it meant finding the opportune moment to slip away from her friends and go off on her own, since a moment of silence was rare at the castle. She found her moment when a bunch of the girls were gawking over a pair of bejeweled high heels in one of the shop windows. Moving swiftly and silently away from them, she started down another road that was much less crowded, then slipped down a pathway leading through a small forest, arriving at the Shrieking Shack before too long. "Quiet at last," she said to herself, sitting on a tree stump to bask in the relative silence of the heavily wooded area.

James decided that after two and a bit hours of being within the one store was quite enough for one day. Even so, it was hard to peel him from the displays of the latest broomsticks and the shop assistant was rather fond of chatting about all things Quidditch related; something that James happily divulged in.

He walked out of the shop, not having spent any money but nonetheless happy with his time spent. He walked down the busy streets of Hogsmeade, noting that every student, third year and above seemed to be here. He didn't even try and get a Butterbeer from the Three Broomsticks or chance a visit to Honeydukes, he'd be lucky if he got out of there unscathed.

A familiar figure caught his eye, and he smiled as he recognised Alli. They had decided a while ago, that they wouldn't chance a Hogsmeade meeting, for fear of being seen together. He saw her dodge a rather rowdy crowd of girls and head off in a entirely annoying girl free track. He looked at his watch, seeing that he still had plenty of time before they had to head back to the castle. James gave a quick glance left and right before following Alli along the desolate path. Just because they couldn't go to Hogsmeade together, didn't mean that they shouldn't be allowed to see each other there. Besides, they could easily go about pretending to hate each other if someone happened to come across their company.

Alli heard some noise behind her, some rustling leaves and the like, so she looked back over her shoulder but saw nothing. She went back to staring at the house until she heard the noise again. Her head whipped around and she swore she saw something move behind a tree. She would swear on every grave of anyone who was even remotely related to her family that the Shrieking Shack wasn't actually haunted, which meant that someone had followed her there.

Plucking up her most Gryffindor-esque courage (if she had any of that particular brand), she stood up and took her wand out of her jacket pocket. Stepping lightly, she crept over to the tree; it was a journey that she realized was rather stupid on her way over there, since the person in question could very well have been several years older than her and take her down easily to steal her stuff or whatever they wanted.

With her wand out and a deep breath to calm herself, she mentally counted to three and quickly stepped around the tree, pointing the wand at the person there and loudly saying, "Freeze!"

Her arm dropped to her side. "James!" The other arm smacked him in the shoulder. "You arse! You scared me half to death. I thought someone was stalking me."

James chuckled at her which earned him another smack. "I'm serious! You nearly gave me a heart attack," she insisted. Her heart rate steadily returned to normal and she was finally able to give him a little smile. "What are you doing here anyway?" she asked.

James crept along the path, seeing an opportunity to use his unannounced presence to his advantage. He walked along, quickly dashing behind thick trees whenever his feet made a loud connection with the foliage beneath them, which was to say, often.

He laughed at how nervous Alli seemed, which, after reflecting on the matter, was rather smart of her. He could have been anyone really, so James would have felt concerned if she didn't show any emotion to the fact that someone was stalking her.

"Freeze!"

James did just that, hoping that Alli would recognise him before she hexed his bits off. He was rather partial to his bits after all.

Laughing, James half shrugged. "Saw you in the distance and thought that a nice secluded place was a perfect spot to do this..." He placed his hands on the small of her back, drawing her close to him as he kissed her.

Alli rolled her eyes but wrapped her arms around James as he pulled her closer and kissed him back. "What, are we in some cheesy romance novel now?" she asked when they pulled away from each other, though she was grinning and stayed with their arms wrapped around one another. "What brought you to Hogsmeade today? Because I know it wasn't me because we agreed that it was too risky."

James laughed. "You better believe it. Right about now, I'm going to confess that I've been secretly seeing your sister, that's right, a sister you never knew about, behind your back," James said, his voice an over the top dramatization of a romance novel, not that he had read any of that stuff. He assumed things like that happened in novels with that genre.

"The new Quidditch store opened last week. I arranged to check it out with Andy, but he was busy this weekend. Something about having a date with Brianna. I don't know the details." James shrugged.

"Seeing you is a positive though," James smiled down at her.

"Oh my! Well then I suppose now is as good of a time as any to tell you that the Coopers are your real parents, I'm wanted for murder, and I'm leaving you for your evil twin," Alli laughed, then kissed him again to show that she was (obviously) 100% kidding.

"I see," she said, rolling her eyes again. It was almost ridiculous how fanatic James was about Quidditch. Alli liked the sport well enough but she didn't spend all of her free time thinking about it, not that she ever really had free time. "I'm glad to know that seeing me almost tops sports," she stuck her tongue out at him childishly.

James rolled his eyes. He looked nothing like the Coopers.

"Almost, yes, but not quite. Nearly," he replied cheekily. James loved all things Quidditch and was glad that, as Alli was a Pureblood also, she had some respect for the game. He didn't think he could handle someone who knew the game and still didn't at least a little bit like it. He understood that flying scared some people, but that shouldn't stop them from avidly watching the game.

"I saw you avoid those girls before. What? Shopping for sparkly shoes not your thing?" he asked, sarcastically.

"Yeah, well, Quidditch can't hide behind a tree with you and do this," Alli said before standing on the tips of her toes and kissing him again soundly. It should give him one very good reason that she was better than Quidditch.

"I wasn't avoiding them, I ditched them. There's a difference. I just didn't feel like looking at stuff that I already have," she shrugged. Shopping sprees were kind of her mother's "thing". About once a month, Alli received a letter pages long detailing everything that had been purchased for her that she would have when she came home for break.

"That, and I can only listen to the list of top five cutest guys in school before I want to bash my head against a wall," she said. She loved her friends, but sometimes they could be dreadfully annoying.

James looked down at Alli's shoes. They definitely weren't pink and adorned with God awful sequins or whatever they were. Come to think of it, James couldn't recall ever seeing Alli in shoes a different colour to black.

"You already own sparkly pink shoes?" he asked, grinning. That would be a sight to see. Raising an eyebrow at her last statement, James' grin grew wider. He wouldn't ask about the list, but he was sure curious about it.

James seemed far too delighted at the idea of Alli having pink shoes; she was more than happy to crush his hopes and dreams at that moment. "I said that I own them, not that I wear them," she corrected. She knew that she'd do what she always did when she got home and found them in her closet- she'd wait for her mother to go out for a day and pack it all up and take it to the thrift store in Diagon Alley. If her mother didn't give her enough time to do that, she'd just pitch it with the trash.

She smirked at his raised eyebrow, assuming that her mentioning of some sort of list had piqued his interest. "Don't get too excited. That's top secret information there and I'm pretty sure that it would be against the girl code for me to tell you about it," she said, half-serious and half-mocking the forever gossipy tone of her friends.

James rolled his eyes at her description. The way Alli described it lead James to think that a group of third year girls were harboring Governmental secrets or something confidential like that.

"Well, I wouldn't want to make you break girl code. I don't even want to contemplate the consequences of such a scandal," James' voice said, dripping in sarcasm.

"What have you been up to today, apart from ditching the friends?"

Alli laughed at James. "Ooh, that was cute. Sarcasm suits you, you should try it more often," she grinned.

She shrugged at his question. "Same old, same old. Window shopping, ignoring homework, contemplating how to kill Marlene Gibbons and get away with it, nothing interesting," she listed things off as though it were a grocery list, even though the last one wasn't quite so ordinary.

James nodded and then really heard what she said. He did somewhat of a double take as his mind repeated an echo of Alli's words. James recognised the name on Alli's apparent hit list as a Ravenclaw in the same year as them both. As far as he knew, the two of them didn't know each other. James had only spoken two words to her and that was in second year, History of Magic when he accidently bumped into her.

"Wait, what?" he asked. "What did that poor Raven do to incur the wrath of Allison Walker?"

"Oi!" Alli gave James' arm a little pinch for using her whole name. "Just because you're my boyfriend doesn't mean that you get full name privileges," she stuck her tongue out at him again.

"She just... I overheard her talking to her friend when they were leaving the Great Hall and she had the nerve to say that you were cute. Who does she think she is? Honestly, crushing on someone else's boyfriend... so rude," Alli shook her head. When she heard it, she'd contemplated the benefits kicking the Gibbons girl in the shins or beating her over the head with Hogwarts, A History.

James rolled his eyes. He half wanted to just call her Allison instead of Alli just to see how long she could stand it. Luckily, as James didn't have a death wish, he decided against it.

"That so?" he asked, genuinely confused as to why this Marlene girl would think that. She didn't know him. James had the feeling that girls often did that, think a boy was cute just on the basis that he was easy to look at. James supposed that boys did the same thing with a good looking girl. People were weird like that.

"Technically she didn't know she was... crushing.. on someone's boyfriend. Even so, I would pay good money to see you try and get away with murdering her."

"Oh really? Well I think that can be arranged," Alli smirked at him, even though she knew he was kidding. He wouldn't really pay money to see her murder someone, just like Alli wouldn't really kill her. Seriously injure, maybe, but not kill.

She'd been very irked by the girl's comment. She'd gone as far as to stealthily follow the Ravenclaw halfway back to her common room just so that she could hear the rest of the conversation. "She's been smitten with you since you said I'm sorry to her once. "Apparently, it was destiny that made you walk into her in History of Magic," she rolled her eyes.

"If she says something to you, you don't have to be gentle with her. You can be as brutal as you want. Tell her that her hair is too frizzy or that she's way too into cats for you to like her," she said. Once jealousy took over, it was hard for Alli to get it to stop.

James laughed at this. "Seriously? That's hilarious." He didn't remember why he bumped into her, but it could have been for a number of reasons. History is often the first lesson of the day, and James doesn't do well in first lessons, that could have definitely been the reason.

"If I went and shook her hand, would she be one of those that wouldn't wash her hand until it was absolutely necessary?" James would just do that for the laughs. "We could have some fun with this, you know."

James grinned. "My my, aren't we vindictive? But I agree; being too into cats equals cause for concern, definitely."

Alli's glare became more and more pronounced as James spoke. "Remember when you were little and your parents taught you to share? Well mine skipped that lesson, so I swear that if you do touch her, I will cut that hand off," she said. She wasn't being entirely serious; she wouldn't necessarily cut it off, just... stab it with a pencil or pour some undiluted Bubotuber pus on it.

She realized she was sounding like a complete psychopath but she figured that if James was allowed to be angry at his housemates for thinking she was pretty then she was allowed to be the same way about other girls.

James raised both hands in front of him, as a sign of surrender. "Okay okay! No touching. Got it!" He shuddered to think about how life would be suddenly limbless.

He titled his head to the side, smirking slightly. "I have to say, I kinda like this side of you; the jealous raving maniac side. Makes me think you care." He didn't really take Alli for the envious type, but this was definitely Alli having a minor, 'hands-off-or-i'll-cut-you, moment.'

"I meant her hand but I suppose I could do yours as well," Alli mused aloud.

She was almost hurt by his second comment. "Of course I care. Do I seem like I don't care? If I didn't care, I wouldn't be with you, let alone working so hard to keep our secret. If I didn't care, I would spend less time kissing you and more time exploiting you for my own personal gain."

James' brain didn't comprehend that he may have said the wrong thing, but judging her reaction to his statement, he did.

"I was only joking," he said, carefully. "Relax." James realised too late, for the second time in the space of thirty seconds that relax was probably not the smartest thing to say, seeing as he already pissed her off with his previous statement. He seriously needed some advice about what to say and what not to say to girls. He really was doing a dreadful job of it.

Alli was about to go off on James for telling her to relax, but a little voice in the back of her mind told her to do as he said and chill out a bit. She took a breath and counted to five in her head. "I know you weren't being serious but saying things like that makes me worry that you think I don't care when I do. I care a lot," she said in a voice so soft, it would have put a pillow to shame.

She felt like a complete and total sap. She didn't want James to get used to moments like that because she doubted she'd linger on such sentimental moods for long.

"Just a word of advice though, don't ever tell me to relax like that again," she warned, slipping easily back into her usual, more authoritative tone.

James felt as though he dodged an Avada straight to the chest. He nodded, knowing that she cared. He thanked whoever was above silently, thinking that a chat with his dad was definitely in order. He managed to scrap through this time, but next time, he probably wouldn't be so lucky. Girls were just so damn complicated!

He smiled as Alli slipped back into her old, tough as anything, attitude. "Mhmm. I'll remember that," he said, not being serious at all. He had the feeling that, whilst her attitude worked with some, he was becoming immune to it. It wasn't like it didn't still scare the Hell out of him, it's just that it's effect was somewhat diminished, due to the fact that Alli liked him and all.

"Can I assume that you're not going to kill me now?" he asked, smiling sweetly, wanting to check that he wasn't about to get hexed when he turned his back on her.

"You can assume whatever you want, just remember that assuming doesn't necessarily mean that you're correct," Alli said cheekily. He was off the hook on the death front for now, but if he kept at it he was probably going to get the slap that Tom had suggested.

"What are your plans for the rest of the day?" she asked, leaning back against the tree they were somewhat hiding behind.