“Can’t catch me! Can’t catch me!” James shrieks as he rockets across the grass, Marlene close behind him.
“I’m gonna get you! I’m gonna get you!” Marlene shouts, hurtling after him, waving a stick wildly about. James’ stick lay hidden somewhere in the grass, split in two.
“Nuh uh! It’s not fair, not fair!” James calls. “You cheated! You’re not allowed to break my sword!”
“Didn’t mean to!” Marlene replies, and, with a great leap, tackles James to the ground, opting to throw her stick to the side to better pin James down, and digs her fingers into his side to tickle him.
James shrieks before fighting back, and they become a squirming mess on the ground, elbowing and kicking until they break apart, both, inexplicably, grinning.
They roll apart and Marlene nudges James with her toe. “I got you,” she gloats in a sing-song voice, and he pouts.
“Cheater,” he muttered, and her only response was to grin wider, and to flop backwards onto the grass. James lies down beside her, and they stare up at the clouds together.
“Jamie? We’ll still be friends when we go to Hogwarts, right?” Marlene asked, a little hesitant.
“Of course!” James immediately insists, faking offense, but turning serious. “Even if you get sorted into Slytherin, you’ll still be my sister, Marls.”
“I don’t want to go into Slytherin!” she protests. “I want Gryffindor, plus that way we’ll be in the same house. We could join the Quidditch team!”
“We’d be unstoppable! We will be! You’ll go into Gryffindor, and so will I, just like Dad, and it’s gonna be the best seven years of our lives!” James declares, excited.
Marlene, reassured, smiles again at him. “Good. I’ll be the star player, though,” she teases, and James only rolls his eyes.
“You wish,” he grumbles.
For a while, they just lay there, occasionally pointing out interestingly shaped clouds, and chatting about what Hogwarts would be like for them. They avoided the topic of Houses, each secretly too anxious about whether they would get into Gryffindor or not, but talked about the people they would meet, the professors, the classes, and, mostly, the magic they would learn. Spells they’d seen their parents use, things they wanted to be able to do.
“Wouldn’t it be so cool to be an Animagus?” James asks, eyes shining with excitement.
Marlene hesitates. “Yeah, but. It seems a little scary, there’s so many things that could go wrong,” despite being occasionally reckless, and sometimes downright careless with her life, just the same as James, messing with Animagus magic was on a different level. Marlene had heard of a story where a woman who was trying to become an Animagus became stuck, halfway between human and frog. She did not want that. She recounts the story to James, who, in typical James fashion, brushes it off, though she watches him tuck it away into his memory.
“Don’t worry, Marls, that won’t happen to me, trust me,” he swears. “I’ll live a long life, just watch. I’ll even outlive you.”
“Nuh uh you won’t! You’re gonna die first, like a loser!” Marlene protests.
“You’re the loser,” James counters, poking her in the shoulder, and starting a poking war.
“Marlene, Jamie!” Euphemia called from the house. “Dinner!”
James scrambles up and offers his hand to Marlene to help her up, but instead, she pulls him back down and rockets to her feet, running back full speed. “I’m gonna get there first!” she calls over her shoulder, and he scrambles to catch up, arriving at the door mere seconds after her.
“If you two keep racing like that, you’re gonna get yourselves injured,” Effie fake-reprimands from the kitchen. “Shoes off and go wash your hands,” she reminds them, grabbing James’ arm as he went to grab a dinner roll, and pushing him gently in the direction of the washroom.
They wash their hands together, splashing water and fighting over the soap before hurrying to the table.
“Hey, Mamá?” James asked innocently once they were done with dinner. “Can Marls and I fly our brooms?” Marlene perks up excitedly.
Effie and Fleamont exchange a look. This time of the summer, it would be light out for a bit longer. “Only till dark, and only if you don’t go past the property boundary,” Monty agreed, and Effie nodded with him.
Immediately, the kids were running for their brooms, and it was a matter of minutes before they were up in the air, pulling the tricks they knew and even making attempts at more challenging ones. It was too late to throw the Quaffle around, as the light was already dim, and it might get lost. Instead, they opt to race, and don’t hesitate to play dirty, Marlene even going so far as to grab the tail of James’ broom, even though Effie had yelled at them before for doing that before. They each take a couple wins before Monty comes out to call them in, the sun officially sunk.
They transition smoothly to playing Exploding Snap, the way only kids can do, and when it’s bedtime, they squabble over who was hogging the blankets before falling asleep, hard and fast, cuddling.