Full House
James didn't see Ryan for the rest of the train ride to Hogwarts. After the confrontation, she slipped away to the other side of the train and hid in some compartment. James didn't dare follow her. He was too embarrassed to face her. He'd just accused her of such dire things, without knowing anything about the past four years of her life. And it frustrated him so much - not knowing.
He realized now that he didn't know Ryan as well as he thought he did. He had no idea who her friends were at Ilvermorny, what her favorite subject was, what house she was in, or what she'd been through. His parents had told him that she'd had many dangerous misadventures, but what exactly did that mean? Ollivander had told him that his sister was a legend destined for greatness, but what about her was legendary? He didn't understand any of it. His own twin sister was a stranger to him.
For the duration of the ride to Hogwarts, none of his friends referred to the confrontation either. They made light conversation about insignificant things, and they purposefully danced around the elephant in the room. Sirius talked about the motorcycle he wanted to buy, and Remus ranked all of the songs on David Bowie's last album comprehensively, while Peter listened with profound interest and made exclamations here and there. James was silent.
Eventually, the train arrived, and the four boys spilled out of their compartment. They approached the carriages, where James caught a slight glimpse of Ryan's unruly hair a couple of rows ahead. She was standing next to Frank Longbottom, who was talking to her animatedly about something, while his girlfriend, Alice Fortescue, smiled kindly. But what was so absurd about the whole thing was that Ryan seemed as conversational as ever. Any sign of tears and discomfort she'd shown before had vanished.
It was like the previous confrontation hadn't even happened. James thought for a cruel moment that maybe he'd imagined it all. Maybe it had all been a terrible hallucination. But then Ryan's eyes met his and there was such reproach in them, that he was sure he couldn't have imagined their fight. His heart shattered all over again at the look. He and Ryan used to be best friends. They shared the same dreams, ambitions and thoughts. Now, James would have given anything to know even a fraction of the thoughts in Ryan's head.
But, unfortunately, the only one able to know of Ryan's thoughts was the talking sorting hat.
When the time for the sorting came, Ryan was separated from the students in her year, and joined the first years instead. She followed McGonagall (who hadn't forgotten about the fight in the train) into the Great Hall and was ushered to the sorting hat first.
Scanning the students seated on the rows of tables before her, Ryan held her head up high and walked with confidence to the stool. She sat and wore the hat proudly, doing her very best to avoid her brother's fixed gaze. She could feel his eyes on her from across the room. She could feel him begging her to relent and to reciprocate his stare. She did not.
Well, well, well, what have we got here? She heard a voice echoing in her head. James had warned her about this. Apparently, the hat had the ability to infiltrate your mind, hear all your thoughts, and talk in your head. Ryan Potter, Ilvermorny's first Full House in five centuries, owner of not one, but two of the magical statue gemstones. I have a legend in my hands.
Ryan physically rolled her eyes. She was so tired of hearing all this. I'm not a legend.
The sorting hat chuckled. Oh, but you are. You are unprecedented, unique, one in a million.
I am fifteen years old, Ryan thought bitterly.
And yet, you are the most celebrated witch of the age - and for good reason, too. I can see it all, you know. All your memories, and thoughts and abilities. I can see your greatest fights, your troubles, your dilemmas. I can see that you've been hunted. I can see that you've fought. And I'm sorry to tell you that you have not yet fought enough, the hat informed her dully.
Well, aren't you a good ol' chatter box, Ryan retorted with as much sarcasm as she could possibly muster.
The hat laughed again. I see you're not impressed by my abilities, eh?
The only ability of yours I'm interested in is to sort me into a house, Ryan was blunt.
That's a tall order. How am I supposed to sort a Full House? The hat countered. You've so much of every house inside of you. You have cunning, resourcefulness and determination - just like any Slytherin. You have an oustanding sense of justice and loyalty, which is perhaps why your recent betrayal hurt so much.
Ryan wanted to tear that hat to shreds, but she didn't get the chance to act on the particular urge, because the bloody thing kept talking.
You have creativity and wit, and the ability to innovate, and think outside the box - a Ravenclaw through and through, the hat thought aloud. But, perhaps, your strongest qualities are those of a Gryffindor. I see courage and unyielding nerve. I see also an occasional recklessness, with a great confidence in yourself. And most of all, I see a sense of adventure, which is most likely to blame for your propensity for trouble.
The only thing to blame for my so-called propensity for trouble is the universe's propensity for dealing me a bad hand in everything I endeavor to do, Ryan thought angrily.
The hat had once again the audacity to laugh. But above all, you have a great talent for inspiring people - a natural affinity for leadership, and an inability to step away from a fight. These traits, more than anything else, are what make you a... "GRYFFINDOR!"
The Gryffindor table burst into cheers and wild applause. McGonagall lifted the hat off of Ryan's head. Ryan, completely wrapped up in all the things that the hat had told her, got up absentmindedly and sat in the first empty spot she could find, which happened to be next to Lily.
"Welcome to Gryffindor!" Lily whispered kindly in Ryan's ear.
Ryan started at the sound of Lily's voice. "Oh, thanks, Lily!"
Lily frowned at the far-off look in Ryan's face. "Are you okay, Ryan? You look a bit down."
"No, I'm fine," Ryan hurried to (poorly) reassure Lily. However, as she spoke, she was looking not at Lily, but at her brother, who was whispering something to his friends. "The hat just really laid it on thick."
"Oh, yeah. That can happen with hat stalls sometimes," Lily nodded her head.
"Hat stalls?"
"Yeah, y'know - people who sit there for like five to ten minutes. We call them hat stalls," Lily explained.
"Was I a hat stall?" Ryan asked with furrowed eyebrows. It'd felt like she'd only been sitting there for a minute - a long, excruciating minute, but a minute regardless.
"Big time," Lily answered. "You were sat there for a solid ten minutes. Everyone was at the edge of their seats the whole time."
"Eh? Why?" Ryan chuckled uneasily. What had she done to attract such attention?
"'Cause your Potter's sister, of course," Lily said with a strong hint of disdain in her voice. "Sorry - James', I mean."
Ryan had the sudden feeling that Lily didn't like her brother that much. "So?"
"So he's like famous around here. He and his stupid friends have fan clubs in their honor," Lily grumbled, sending glares at the group of boys sitting further down the table.
"Huh," Ryan said dumbly. "And I suppose you're not part of the fan clubs?"
"Of course I'm not!" Lily looked scandalized, as if even the mere insinuation of such a thing was the greatest insult known to man. "The lot of them are big trouble. They just pull pranks all the time and play it off as being funny, when, in reality, they're not funny at all. They're just mean. They're bullies, all of them."
"Woah," Ryan was very taken aback. She winced slightly. If Lily hated pranksters so much, what was she going to think when she found out about Ryan's troublemaking tendencies? "That bad?"
"Yes!" Lily exclaimed a bit louder than she'd intended. Her face turned red when a few heads turned in her direction, but she continued regardless. "And they're prejudiced, too! They pick on people just because they're Slytherins and play it off as some heroic, holier-than-thou act."
As Lily was talking, Marlene seemed to take an interest in the conversation. She looked at Lily, and then at Ryan, and cracked a knowing smile. She shook her head and, when Lily finished her accusations, she spoke, "she's on her Marauders spiel, isn't she?"
"Yup," Ryan confirmed. "Man, I didn't know my brother and his friends were that bad."
"They're not," Marlene shook her head again. "Don't listen to Lils. She's had it out for them since first year. They're not as bad as she describes them to be. They're quite fun, really. Sometimes they get mean, but that comes with the teenage boy territory. Lily just likes to demonize them because she's upset over James asking her out all the time."
Ryan looked like she'd just had the epiphany of the century. She turned to Lily with a wide smile and an enthusiastic look in her eye and she said, "wait! You're the girl James has been obsessed with all this time? Merlin's underpants! Of course you are!"
"He's told you about me?" Lily looked at Ryan with the most conflicting expression.
"Absolutely! He talks about you loads. Whenever I'd see him - which, mind you, wasn't often - he'd spend half our time together telling me about how great and beautiful and incredible you are. He never mentioned a name, weirdly enough, but he talked about hair as red as fire and eyes as green as -"
"You're kidding," Lily interrupted Ryan with a deadpan look on her face.
Ryan ignored Lily's visible embarrassment. "I can't believe this! This is the best thing that's happened to me all day!"
"Why are you so excited over this?" Lily asked with a pained expression.
"Because now I have something to tease you over, and something to lord over him!" Ryan exclaimed. "I have blackmail material."
"Oh, no," was all Lily muttered.
"What are you thinking of doing, Ry?" Marlene asked with a wicked smirk on her face.
"The possibilities are endless!" Ryan raved on.
Lily turned to Marlene. "Why is she so excited?"
"Because, Lils, Ry is an uncontrollable and incorrigible prankster - an evil genius, if you please," Marlene laughed out. "If you think James is bad, you've yet to see what his sister can do."
This, for some inexplicable reason, dampened Ryan's mood significantly. Her excitement dulled and she felt more empty than before. Pranks and mischief were something she and her brother held dear and shared like no other. She was so used to sharing her ideas with him and being his partner in crime that talking of pranks without him felt wrong. Marlene's words were a sore reminder that she couldn't talk to James the way she used to.
She wanted nothing more than to be with her brother again, to regain their old rhythm. She wanted to go and tease him about his infatuation with Lily. She wanted to talk to him about Quidditch.
But she couldn't. She couldn't face him, because she knew that she'd have to face his judgment and his accusations. She knew she'd have to explain herself and talk about it all, from start to finish. She knew she owed him an explanation, but she wasn't sure she could give him one.
And so she watched from afar. For her first days at Hogwarts, she avoided him at all costs. She'd round the corner, whenever she saw him and his friends at the end of a corridor. She'd be late to breakfast and early to dinner. She'd study in the library instead of the common room. Ryan, who usually slacked on her schoolwork and spent all of her time goofing around, was now more silent and studious than she'd ever been. All in the hope to avoid another confrontation that might destroy their relationship completely.
It hurt avoiding him so outright. After all, this was her brother and her very first best friend. He was the one she longed to talk to about her day, the one she wanted to plan pranks with and laugh, the one she sought to hug after a particularly harrowing and stressful day. And yet she could do nothing but watch.
Meanwhile, James wasn't feeling any better about this than Ryan was. He was lethargic and dull all the time. He no longer had a thirst for pranking or joking around. The Marauders even had to delay their annual back-to-school prank because of his foul mood. He refused to do anything of the sort without Ryan.
As a matter of fact, he refused to do a lot of things because of Ryan. He didn't eat as much as he used to. He certainly didn't talk as much as he used to. He didn't perform as well in classes as he used to. He didn't even rave on about Lily as much as he used to. It got to a point where Lily herself was concerned about him. He hadn't asked her out for a whole week.
And while James suffered, his friends suffered along with him. Sirius, Remus and Peter were, admittedly, not as personally affected by the entire Ryan debacle. They hadn't gotten to know her for more than a day - hell, Sirius hadn't even said a proper word to her - but seeing James so down was an unprecedented experience for all of them.
James had always been the most happy-go-lucky, optimistic one of them. He'd never been the one in need of comforting before. Instead, he'd always been the one to comfort them when they had problems. He would ease Sirius out of his fits, stand by Remus when the full moon was giving him a hard time, talk to Peter when he was feeling left out.
He'd invited Remus into the group in their first year, and provided him a safe haven of understanding and friendship after years of Remus being by his lonesome. He'd been the one to suggest that they all attempt to become Animagi when they found out about Remus' furry little problem in their second year.
He'd fended off all of Peter's bullies in first year and gave him a place to belong among their ranks. He'd helped him get through his parents' divorce in third year, and invited him to stay over at his home when the fighting got too bad.
He'd helped Sirius overcome the family blood prejudice in their first year and been his first real friend. He'd helped him again when he'd come back bruised and upset from holiday. He'd taken him into his home when his family was being too strict.
Now, his friends, concerned for James' well-being, wanted to return the favor, but they had no idea how. They tried talking him through it, but they didn't get very far with that technique. James was uncharacteristically against talking. They tried to soothe him through Quidditch. That didn't work either. James ended up even more heartbroken than before. Quidditch was one of the things he and Ryan had shared most passionately. They tried to help him through mischief - motivate him about the Marauders' Map project they'd started the previous year, or about the Animagus process that they'd been struggling with for three years. To no avail. James was inconsolable.
And Frank Longbottom was not helping.
Frank was one of the Marauders' friendlier acquaintances. He was an excellent student (now in his sixth year) with a strong desire to one day become an Auror. He was also Gryffindor's Quidditch Captain and, by extension, one of the biggest Quidditch fanatics that James had ever had the fortune of meeting.
With Quidditch tryouts fast approaching, Frank was more conversational than ever. He would spend day after day discussing Gryffindor's new tactics and prospects with James. He was so into the conversation that he didn't even notice that James was silent and very much unenthusiastic. Now, James didn't mind Frank's ranting so much until he started talking about Ryan.
On the second Tuesday of term, Frank slipped into the seat next to James at breakfast and began his usual Quidditch spiel. James would've been lying if he said he'd been paying any attention. But then, Frank said this: "Man, I still can't believe your sister is the Ryan Potter!"
"Excuse me?" James looked at Frank, startled.
"Well, I suppose that the last name should've tipped me off, but I just never ventured to think you were acquainted with the Ryan Potter," Frank raved on, unperturbed.
"Frank, mate, I have to tell you, the way you're referring to my sister with a 'the' in front of her name is really freaking me out here."
"I know, I know, but I really can't help it. You sister's a legend, you know!" Frank spoke with utter excitement and intrigue. If James didn't know any better, he'd genuinely think that Frank was in love with Ryan.
"A legend? A legend how?" James asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. This was the second or third time he'd heard someone referring to Ryan as a legend. This was getting out of hand.
"Don't you know?" Frank looked incredulous.
"Would I be asking you if I did?" James retorted sarcastically and with a strange impatience.
"Ryan Potter was only the captain of the Wampus team at Ilvermorny, and the most record-breaking Chaser in Quidditch history," Frank explained plainly, as if this information was widespread and quite obvious.
James felt like he'd just gotten punched in the gut. "Wait, what?"
"You didn't know that?" Frank looked scandalized.
"Do I look like someone who knew that?!" James exclaimed, gesturing wildly at himself.
"Yeah, well, it's true. She holds the current records for most goals scored by a single Chaser in a Quidditch game and for the shortest game ever played - did you know that she actually did the Seeker's job and caught the Snitch herself?! The opposing team tried to play it off as an invalid catch, but there was no rule that prohibited a Chaser to catch the Snitch at the time. Your sister is the reason they explicitly wrote that into the rulebook," Frank explained passionately.
James was baffled. His face had slackened in a mix of dumbfounded awe and surprise. "You're joking."
"I'm not. Pro teams all over the globe are waiting for her to finish school to recruit her," Frank elaborated further. "Can you imagine what it would be like to have her in the team? We'd be absolutely unbeatable!"
But James wasn't paying attention to Frank's speculation any more. He turned to look at his three friends, who had been listening into the conversation silently, and with a helpless look on his face, he said, "I didn't know all of that. How- how did I not know all of that?"
None of his friends answered his question. Instead, Frank continued. "Dunno, mate, but will you talk to her?"
"About what?" James asked, perplexed. He'd forgotten all about the point of this conversation.
"About the try-outs! We need her on the team."
"Sure- I'll talk to her, I guess," James promised absentmindedly. Frank looked satisfied, but James' head ached, and his stomach filled with dread at his own empty promise. He hadn't talked to his sister in a week.
"Great, thanks, mate," Frank offered his thanks and ran off to catch up to his girlfriend, Alice Fortescue.
When Frank had gone, James just muttered to himself. "... If she lets me."