another brick falls ((lien))

circa. 2017/18ish

James and detention were two good friends; he didn't get in trouble as frequently as one would expect with a name like James Sirius Potter, but it was enough for it to be of no surprise to anybody. This time, he wound up in detention as he was testing one of the new products his uncles' shop was going to sell: rainbow, glittery spiderweb spray that always left some sort of mark when cleaned up. It was invented to be particularly inconveniencing. Naturally, it appealed to James. He got the five-finger family discount. Before he was reprimanded, James managed to spray it throughout all of the bathrooms he was able to get access to.

Sure, he might've dragged an innocent student into it, but he couldn't help that his bag was right there when he had to take a piss break.

At least the punishment wasn't going to affect his quidditch playing privileges...

Instead of the more traditional desk detention, he and Chang were made to clean up the owlery and take care of the owls without the assistance of magic.

Just what he wanted to do!

@Lien Chang

Even though it was detention in the owlery, Lien was dressed fairly smartly as always. There was quite a lot one could acquire in muggle charity shops, if one knew the affluent neighbourhoods to go to. You could quite easily find a wool coat in the British Heart Foundation for five pounds, that some toff had worn once before outgrowing it. He wore the coat because he knew it would be cold up there, but that was the least of his worries.

His four-year-long squeaky-clean record had been besmirched by James Bloody Potter!

Not only could this lessen his chances of becoming a Prefect next year, but it drew the wrong sort of attention towards him. Burke had already made some sort of remark about him stealing them to sell, and pay for his poor, starving family. He just wished Alayna Nott was around again to dunk a gravy boat over his head...

Lien didn't like attention. James Potter did. He was probably loving this.

When he showed up, he glowered across the owlery at him, pulling up his dragonhide gloves.

@James Potter

At the sight of Lien, he could feel some sort of sensation in his stomach, and it left him confused. Why was his body responding like that?

"Er, ya brought gloves?"

He grew up with a house elf; the concept of cleaning was completely alien to him. He didn't know what it really entailed outside of keeping his room decently organized and fresh-smelling.

Leto flew over from his perch and began to headbutt him.

"Aye, what are ya doin' that for???"

He began trying to urge his owl off of his shoulder. There was a slight rose hue to his cheeks as his stomach still turned itself.

@Lien Chang

"Of course I did. It's going to be messy work."

He smirked in satisfaction.

"Does that mean you didn't bring yours? Oh well."

Good luck cleaning owl guano off the stone with his hands touching the soiled cloth...

Lien felt nothing but sourness towards James. If people knew what he was like, instead of just laughing at his clownish tomfoolery, they'd think less of him. So he was famous, he was popular - so what? He also threw all his bloody Wheezes into innocent people's bags!

He laughed, albeit rather forcibly, when an owl flew over to him and started harassing him. "Is this just deserts?"

@James Potter

"Bloody hell, nobody told me I gotta use gloves."

After all, the most cleaning he ever did was picking up clothes or prank supplies off the floor. If he felt as if the air needed freshening, he would use a spray like the one that made his room smell like a tropical oasis. Otherwise, Kreacher would take care of the rest.

James frowned in frustration as he went over to the treat receptacle, pulling one out for Leto to enjoy.

"Just deserts? I dunno. Do ya see any sand around here?"

As long as his eyes stayed away from Chang, the weird feeling in his body wouldn't happen.

@Lien Chang

Lien sighed loudly.

"It's an expression. There's no sand..." Urgh. Gryffindors. This was exactly why he scarcely spent any time outside of Ravenclaw tower. "It means to get your comeuppance, get what you deserve, you know?"

He was so sloppy. How could someone who looked so scruffy be so popular with everyone?! He worked so hard with his appearance, to blend in with the other boys in his dormitory, although nowadays they weren't so concerned about dressing nice...

"You start in that corner. I'll start over here. Let's just get this over with. I can't believe I'm here because of someone like you..." Shaking slightly in annoyance, he gritted his teeth and turned away from him, picking up some bottled spray and a rag.

@James Potter

"Sorry, but I never heard of it."

Victoire was the only Ravenclaw in the family, but she never said those smart sounding phrases that Chang was throwing out. If anything, she spoke in French for him to figure out.

James shrugged, not feeling that affected by it. There was a pit in his stomach, however, knowing that he shouldn't have inadvertently gotten somebody else in trouble. On the other hand, maybe Chang bloody needed it with how uptight he was sounding.

"Maybe ya shouldn't have left yer bloody bag on the loo floor! Can't bloody help that I needed somewhere to stick that can!"

Rolling his eyes, he finally managed to shoo Leto off so he could start cleaning. "Er, what do ya do with the bucket?"

@Lien Chang

"How about a bin!"

He turned at this lashing, his hair falling crookedly over his face. He pushed it back off his glasses irritably.

"And that's where you can stick all your other excuses as well. Straight in the bin, where they belong!"

Argh! Why did he make him so angry?!

His eyes turned down to the bucket.

"Fill it with water. There is a tap around here to fill the water dishes. As we're not supposed to use magic..."

Not that he could do a water spell anyway...

@James Potter

"Bloody hell, did ya fall off the wrong side of the fucking bed this morning?"

It was like his rage was as bad as MacKenna! The school was bloody lucky that Wade didn't cause any property damage to the Gryffindor changing rooms yet!

James scratched the top of his head feeling his hair poke and prod the palm of his hand; it was just getting long enough to do just a bit of styling after shaving it over the summer holiday. He learned his lesson from doing that... There was no way he'd leave the top of his head hairless ever again.

He nodded and began looking around for the water tap. Where was that tap? Was it the same one used to hydrate the owls?

"...Er, do ya know where it is?"

Merlin, James was finding himself missing the detentions where all he had to do was write lines. At least then all he had to do was re-ink his quill...

@Lien Chang

He thought he had some nerve saying that to him. It would've been worse if he'd told him to lighten up. That was a pet peeve of his.

"I thought I was having a good week until I had to do this," he grumbled, pulling at the straw with his hands and shoving it into a rubbish sack. They would lay out fresh straw afterwards.

After a while of this, he stood up again.

"It's over there," he said impatiently, gesturing towards it as though it was obvious. "You really are clueless. It's almost as if you've never cleaned anything in your life before." His dorm mates had already noticed how untidy he was, but he was forced to do certain chores at home. Now he was here, he didn't have to. Until now...

@James Potter

Once the tap was pointed out to him, James moaned and grumbled as he took the bucket toward it and stuck it underneath. He twisted on the tap for the spewer of water to hit him in the crotch instead of hitting anywhere near the bucket.

"Fuckin' bloody hell..."

And he couldn't use his wand to dry it! Couldn't they make an exception for this? With how his name was whispered on every street corner, the least the faculty could do was allow him to have his dignity...

Finally, he turned toward Lien with an irritated expression, feeling some of that stomach discomfort yet again.

"Do ya have a towel?"

Leaning against one of the walls was a mop.

@Lien Chang

"Not on my person, no."

He didn't laugh when James managed to spray his crotch area with water, but he had done something similar a few years ago and didn't like how everyone laughed at him for it. So, he wouldn't laugh, but he wouldn't help him out either.

James seemed almost pathetic when it actually came down to it. This was very satisfying to Lien to witness.

There was a very impatient, bossy-sounding whoo from beside him, and he looked up. Emma was staring unblinkingly at him, her eyelids half-closed, as though questioning why he was on his knees in the owlery. She had a letter in her beak. Reaching out, he tried tugging it gently from her grasp. She wasn't letting it up. He pulled slightly harder, and she actually started pulling back.

"Fine!" he cried in defiance. The reverse psychology didn't affect her, however. She just let out another (derisive) whoo.

@James Potter

"Fuck sake..."

Normally, he'd change trousers or take them off to let them air out for a time. He couldn't do the former, and he almost certainly wasn't going to be doing the latter in Chang's presence. James was more casual about stripping than others, but he had a particularly tough time when it came to doing it with the rest of the Quidditch team. He heavily considered changing in the bathroom part of it instead.

He let out a huge sigh as he began looking around for some soap to stick in the bucket before properly pouring in the water; at least he knew he needed more than water for cleaning...

Before he could do that, his attention was drawn to Chang's quarrel with who he presumed to be his owl. Heh. He deserved such a bloody stubborn owl for sounding like such an arse. "While ya fight with that owl, I'm gonna get some bloody cleaning done..."

James whistled as he made sure to keep his eyes away from the other boy; a part of him felt compelled to look at him, but he had to fight it.

"Soap ah da soap, where are ya?"

Then he stepped on a droplet of owl dung and gagged.

@Lien Chang

"I am cleaning!" he huffed, attaching the nozzle to a spray bottle and cleaning some of the ledges that were unoccupied by birds. 

Emma sat there, looking pleased with herself. As far as she was concerned, she'd delivered the letter to it's location. Being able to read the letter was another thing.

She flew over to James and peered at him instead now, the letter still tightly secured in her beak. 

@James Potter

"Doesn't bloody sound like it."

As he took off his shoe to eventually douse in water, he suddenly had the company of Chang's owl. Cackling, he patted the owl on the head before he finally located the soap.

"Er, owl, do ya wanna treat?"

Maybe she'd let go if there was an incentive? Nah, it'd be funnier to see how long she kept on holding it.

"I'll get ya a treat."

As James returned to the treat receptacle, he finally located the soap. There it was! "C'mon over here, and I'll give ya it."

@Lien Chang

Lien pretended not to be listening as he got on his hands and knees, and started scrubbing away debris with a rough bristle brush. Whatever the dirt was - perhaps layers upon layers of owl shit from the year 1800 it seemed - it didn't want to lift by elbow grease alone. Determined, however, he kept up the pace.

James was talking to Emma. "Ha - good luck."

But Emma was inching closer to James with the promise of a treat. She fluttered onto a perch near him, and prompted him with a whoo. What: so she just had a problem with him?! But Macmillan also had trouble with her, and Atticus when he was still around.

Reminded of Atticus's departure a month ago, he stopped scrubbing and looked over at James and Emma. He kept very quiet.

@James Potter

Throwing the soap into the bucket, James looked at the treats before pulling the lever.

"Er, is this one good or are ya picky?" Not like he knew the owl's dietary habits, but he wouldn't be surprised if it was similar to Leto's.

James Sirius Potter: ornithologist of the year. "My nose look like yer beak, don't it, owl?" It was more beak-like than most people's; it took him a while to learn to accept it. After all, he somehow inherited such a recessive gene while the rest of his family had smaller, pointier noses.

"Here ya go, here's a treat!" He unwrapped the snack somewhat carefully before attempting to hand it to the owl.

@Lien Chang

Emma was staring at James as he spoke to her, but she seemed interested in what he had to say. Perhaps she just had a preference for morons, Lien thought bitterly, sulking as he looked back down at the floorboards beneath his knees. So it wasn't only people who bloody admired him, pets did as well.

As soon as the treat was presented to her, she dropped the letter from her beak and gobbled it down, swooping off to join some of the other owls resting by the window.

"She doesn't like the ones I try to give her..." Probably because they were cheap. He got up off the floor and walked over to him, briefly looking him over before picking up the letter that had been dropped on the floor. Removing his gloves, he stuffed them inside his coat pocket and opened the letter. It was from Atticus. Lien was smiling.

But the more he read, the more his smile faded.

@James Potter

"Sounds like yer owl's picky. I got lucky with Leto 'cause he'll eat just 'bout anything..." Leto was a fairly good owl; in a way, he acted like a flying catdog. He'd play fetch like dogs, but he'd beg for affection like cats would. All on his terms.

James returned to his bucket and propped it over one of his knees as he got to actually filling it with water. Whistling a chipper Celestina Warbeck tune (thanks grandmum), he swayed his head as he waited for the bucket to fill to some appropriate amount. The water pressure changed on him and began to massively fill the bucket flooding onto the floor around him.

"This bloody tap hates me!"

@Lien Chang

As he read through the letter, he began to be aware of a cold feeling in his shoes and his eyes shot down to his feet. A pool of water was gradually seeping its way across the floor and his shoes must have another hole in the rubber that he'd overlooked. It was now soaking through to his socks, and Lien uttered a groan of displeasure.

"Potter!"

He stepped away from the puddle, stuffing the letter into his coat and removing his shoe, checking the wet patch on his sock.

"Turn it off! Argh!" Taking out his wand, he used a drying spell on his socks but was standing up as he did it, hopping about until he lost his balance and toppled onto the floor. Cursing as a pain went up his wrist, he turned to him angrily. "You really are useless! I don't understand why everyone continuously praises and admires you, when you can't even work a bloody tap! Can you get out of your own bed without assistance? Can you wash yourself without following instructions on how to bathe? Seriously!"

@James Potter

In a rush, James made an effort to turn off the tap. He tried to move so none of the water in the bucket would topple anywhere. Grimacing at the sight, he worried that it'd go down the steps, making them a hazard, and put them in further trouble.

He couldn't bear to lose quidditch! It was the one thing he had at Hogwarts he could prove himself with. If he got it taken away from him, he might as well just vanish somewhere and take on a new identity.

"You've never had the bloody tap change pressure on ya, Chang? You must be bloody untouchable and more perfect than, I dunno, Merlin!"

He already knew he was inadequate, he didn't need it spelled out for him. He was never going to be as intelligent as Albus. He was never going to be as driven as Albus. He'd never be allowed ro be himself unlike Albus. James felt as if he had no choice but to lean heavily into his given name. That's what everybody expected.

Setting the bucket on the floor, he looked over at the mop and finally grabbed it, dragging it along the floor angrily.

"And I'm not bloody stupid!"

He knew how to read and enjoyed discovering new things about the world that surrounded him. It wasn't as if he was illiterate or anything. But a good chunk of the curriculum were written in ways that fried his brain... It was the 2010s! Why couldn't textbooks have more demonstrative photos?

"Fuck..."

Was there enough sudsy bubbles in that bucket?

@Lien Chang