October 15, 1976
Dear Diary,
Studying with Potter has not been too awful, to say the least. Today was our 6th study session. He is quite talented at defensive spells but needs to work more on hexes. Quite stereotypical for a Gryffindor to not know how to do hexes. Their persistence of "do no harm" may be their downfall in a real battle.
Anyways, it has been nice to have someone to practice spells with. I haven't heard much from Sirius since being paired with James, but I know that Kai is not very pleased with having been paired with my brother. The other day, Kai even had the brilliant idea to punch my brother. Potter was not very happy about that.
Anyways, I must go before I am late for rounds.
A.B.
-
Astrid sat on the couch, flipping through some Defense Against the Dark Arts textbooks as she waited for James. Harry could tell by the calendar on the wall that it was the pair's second study session. He watched as Astrid wrote notes and annotated different spells she wanted to practice. Harry was surprised that she wasn't sorted into Ravenclaw. But then again, all Blacks go into Slytherin (except Sirius, of course).
James walked into the Room and Requirement and greeted Astrid. "Hello Black, what are you looking at?"
"Just some defensive spells," she answered as she closed the book swiftly and set it off to the side. Astrid was always quite reserved around James. She enjoyed her privacy and didn't like it when others would get too close. "Are you ready to practice some spells today?"
"Well of course," James's cocky side began to show. "I feel pretty confident, but don't worry, I'll go easy on you." James may have thought he may have sounded charming, but even Harry couldn't help himself from face-palming at his father's words. The last time someone said that to a witch, Ron was flung across the room by Hermione during a DA meeting.
Astrid scoffed before grabbing her wand and approaching the other side of the room. "Oh, don't worry, you aren't the one who is going to have to go easy."
Harry watched as James and Astrid prepared themselves from opposite sides of the room. James prepared himself to send a hex towards the girl, but Astrid was too swift for him.
"Expelliarmus," shouted Astrid as she sent James's wand flying across the room.
A shocked expression covered James's face as he was left wandless. It was quite funny how fast James's cockiness disappeared once he became defenseless. If this were a real fight, James would have been hexed in a second.
"Well go on and get your wand," commented Astrid with a smirk on her face. "I don't get all day."
With that, Harry watched as different memories flashed before the scene. Each memory showed the two students practicing spells on each other and improving their skills. Each memory was on a different day, which Harry could tell by their clothes and how the date on the calendar changes. He watched the scenes and noticed how the pair started to improve on their strengths and weaknesses each day they practiced.
James is quite lanky while throwing hexes at Astrid. He would either do the hand movement wrong or was too slow to react fast enough before Astrid disarmed him. But James was a lot better with defensive spells. He could tell when Astrid was about to throw a hex, giving him the upper hand to disarm her. But as more days passed, Harry watched as James got better at disarming Astrid. This led to James teasing her more, of course.
Astrid was talented at spells. She was swift as she threw hexes at James and blocked off his disarming spells. Harry noticed that as she dueled, she seemed to get lost in her thoughts. She looked as if her body was moving faster than she could think as if Astrid had a lot more practice with hexes than James. Whenever James would finally manage to disarm Astrid, she seemed to have snapped out of a trance. She would often shrug it off and tease James before grabbing her wand to duel again.
The shifting between memories went on for an hour before it changed to James and Astrid wrapping up their sixth study sessions.
"You are getting quite good, Black. Not better than me of course. I had to let you win at least a few times, being the gentleman I am of course," teased James as he gathered his bag of books.
Astrid rolled her eyes and slightly pushed his shoulder. "Oh yeah, that was the reason why it took you 20 minutes to disarm me during our first study session." She knew that James was joking but decided to go along with it and tease the boy back.
Harry watched as the pair laughed and walked out of the Room of Requirement. James ran his hand through his hair and looked at the girl with welcoming eyes. He had heard so much from Sirius about how awful his family was, but James didn't think his twin wasn't all too bad. It wasn't as if she was some pureblood supremacist, right?
"Well, I'll see you next week Potter. Don't get hexed by some Slytherin on your way back to the Gryffindor common room."
"Ah don't worry," James called out to her walking figure, "you're the only Slytherin that I would let hex me."
Astrid walked away, laughing at the lion's silly comment. Harry watched as his father smiled at the girls' walking figure. While Harry couldn't read his mind, he knew that they were both thinking the same thing: how bad can this snake be?
YOU ARE READING
Keep Breathing ♢ James Potter
Fanfiction"I want you to understand something, Harry...James loved Lily. He truly did love you and your mother. But what Astrid and James had was more than just love. It was all things above love. It was a sacrifice. It was putting each other first. It was m...
