the_debt_of_time

Mia tried to get a peek at the parchment, but Lily tucked it in with her other papers
before she had a chance.
"Quidditch schedule?"
James smiled. "Something like that."
"All right. Goodnight, Potter," Lily said and then turned around, walking away.
Mia watched in affectionate amusement as her brother stared after Lily with a
hopeless little smile on his face for a good twenty seconds before he spun around and
skipped toward the first year Slytherin, who stared at him as though he had lost his mind.
"Ready?"
"I guess."
James held out his hand, and Mia smiled when the little girl hesitantly took it.
Following her brother and the girl down into the dungeons, Mia waited until the first year
was comfortably tucked away into her common room—James, knowing where he was not
wanted, waited in the corridor until the entrance closed behind her. The moment he turned
around to leave, Mia cancelled her disillusionment.
"Boo!"
"Ahh!" James shrieked, jumping a foot in the air. Scowling as Mia fell into laughter,
he darted forward and grabbed her. His reflexes were nowhere near as fast as Harry's, but
athleticism definitely ran in the Potter blood, and Mia's gracefulness and stealth ended with
her wand work. Unable to avoid him, she found herself flung over his shoulder, still
laughing.
"You're a prat."
"And you've put on a stone since I've last picked you up," James said, chuckling
even as Mia tried to kick him for the comment. "How long were you eavesdropping?"
"Enough to watch you play nice with the baby Slytherin to impress Lily."
"I was playing nice to play nice. Inter-House unity and all that rot, you know. I'm
Head Boy, if you haven't heard."
Mia smirked, cringing when James refused to put her down even as he reached the
stairs—his shoulder jutting into her ribs with every step. "Head Boy, you say? I'd just heard
that you had a big head."
He set her down after only one flight of stairs. When Mia teased him that he was
getting old and out of shape, James chased her the rest of the way up to Gryffindor Tower.