i'm going through the same day, same pace (open)

[AUBREY LYNN MCNEAL]

Aubrey was quite excited for school to be in session again for it meant that she could use her magic. It’s not that she completely hated being at home for the Holidays, though she did get to spend some time at The Hovel with her best friend Rose Weasley. It was more of the fact that when she was at home with her parents there was no magic going on and this was because Aubrey was a muggleborn with parents that were an FBI agent and a dentist, so she never saw magic around them. But it was only one more month until she was seventeen and then she would be free to use magic outside of school. She honestly couldn’t wait because that meant she would be able to show her parents everything she learned finally, other than just potions she knew how to brew, or stars she had charted in Astronomy.

Another thing big happened this year as well. It was Aubrey’s sixth year, which meant the year she started on her N.E.W.T.s as well as the fact that she only took classes that she wanted. No more History of Magic or Astronomy (she really was sick of charting stars all the time). Now she could mainly focus on her Ancient Runes a lot more, or at least she was hoping to be able to as the Professors seemed to be giving them more work than ever that year. Instead out enjoying the sun reading one of her Ancient Rune books, she was now stuck in the Library working on a paper for Defense Against the Dark Arts.

She sighed softly as she dipped her quill into her bottle of ink and began writing away, she really wanted to get this done so that at least during the weekend she didn’t have to work on homework and could hopefully enjoy some time with her friends, or perhaps convince Rose to start teaching her how to fly. Aubrey had always been afraid of flying, ever since her the incident in her first flying class. However, this year she planned on overcoming her fear with her best friends help. She wanted to prove that she was a true Gryffindor, completely courageous and not afraid of anything. That meant she also planned on entering her name into the Goblet of Fire. She remembered three years ago when the last Tournament had been going on, it was her third year and thus she couldn’t enter it. But it really was amazing to watch and she really hoped that she would be able to put her skills to the test.

Aubrey’s emerald gaze lifted as she glanced around the library, there were several students there that day that were eagerly working away at their homework in hopes to get it done before the weekend as well. But it didn’t seem that anyone else was around that she hung out with. Sure, there were people she knew but it didn’t mean that she planned on trying to start a conversation with someone she didn’t know that well. She went back to her essay, perhaps someone she knew would show up soon and decide to sit with her.

[JAMES SIRIUS POTTER]

The Gryffindor tower was a little too bustling with activity at the moment, and he honestly didn't like being in the middle of the chaos when students flocked in groups. Sure, he enjoyed the attention he received sometimes, but his namesake wasn't all he was famous for, honestly. Sometimes James wished he could just disappear like some of the other students to avoid being the center of attention thanks to his dad being the famed Harry Potter. Even with rumors spreading around like wildfire how the Second Wizarding War was one of the greatest tragedies and victories to happen in the history of Hogwarts. Blah, blah, blah, that's all it was to him at this point as he got sick and tired of the stories people told of his father.

It was much better when his father told the stories, but maybe he was just being cynical. Not only that, but he usually left the room as soon as someone even mentioned the Potters or even the Weasleys as the names were just names to him. What was so important about last names anyways? He wanted to earn his own reputation not be held back by the shadow his father had cast over all of the Potters, and he honestly only picked on Albus to make him stronger. In the end, he was trying to become better than James, an outcome he wanted to happen. The better Albus became, the better James would strive to become to play out their roles later on.

Deciding to wear the usual Gryffindor vest, and pants, along with the same shirt underneath. The dress shoes that they constantly wore everywhere, even if he didn't have class, so he didn't bother putting on the casual robes for now. He didn't find a need to, since after all he was only going to the library to eventually return to the common room. Normally he wouldn't go the library at all, but he had an assignment to finish for Defense Against the Dark Arts. It was said the book he would need to research a certain spell could be found there as he huffed slightly making his way down the tower. Finally entering the moving staircases, and looked around seeing the many stair-cases switching to different corridors. James could only hope that the one he stepped on would take him to the library.

That or he could utter a spell to completely mess up the entire order of the staircases as he was lucky enough to have the staircase moving underneath his feet. Brushing back his shaggy brown hair, and letting his brown eyes scan below him to see where it was heading. Veering to the left and then down further onto the fourth floor. Finally lurching forward he jumped into the corridor as he realized the stairs weren't going to stop there...barely landing on the edge of the corridor itself. Rolling his arms forward and rocking his body forward too to propel himself to land with his hands propelling him up off the ground. A grunt could be heard being issued from his mouth as he then finally sighed.

Silently cursing the stairs as he slowly sauntered towards the library and as soon as he entered was looking left and right. Walking into the library, he noticed a fellow Gryffindor at one of the tables and to the other side there were crowds of students studying as well as working hard on their own essays. The one particular Gryffindor that caught his eye was Aubrey, the person he viewed as his little sister and was always over-protective of her just cause of her nature. It was too easy to walk up to her and scare her, he thought he'd be nice today. Moving towards the set of books he needed to pick up, he found a spellbook with the spell listed that he needed to write about.

Finally pulling it out and blowing off some dust he moved to sit beside Aubrey, while pulling out the chair speaking to her, "Hey Aubrey, you working on an essay too? Those moving stairs are a pain in the butt sometimes too, " he asked calmly in his smooth voice. Obviously he was here for work as well as he then brought out a parchment and some ink set to the side. Forgetting he had brought a pack with him as he set it on the back of the chair after sitting down.

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[AUBREY LYNN MCNEAL]

Aubrey could hear the soft scratching noise of her quill as she wrote across the parchment quite quickly. That was how Aubrey always was, writing essays and doing test as fast as possible. She had to, her brain seemed to go a million miles an hour and somehow she had to keep up with it, she could go back and revise afterwards. She probably made mistakes along the way after all. She thought back to being at home where instead of writing on parchment her parents typed on computers. Sometimes she wished she could do something like that at Hogwarts so she didn’t always have to rewrite on a new parchment whenever she messed up. Perhaps there was a spell out there that could help her out with making amendments to her essays? She’ll have to look it up when she had a chance.

She was actually lost in her thoughts when James had sat down at the same table as her. Aubrey was always one to easily be lost in her thoughts that at times she wouldn’t even notice people around her, she always had to be careful of that when walking as there had been times that she had actually ran into someone. But she realized that James was there when she heard his voice speaking out to her. She had stopped writing and looked up to see the Eldest Potter’s face and she smiled at him. She had always liked James, not in a crush type of way, but as a big brother. He always seemed to be there for him whenever she needed him and now that she thought about it, she would need him this year for a big project she planned on working on.

Aubrey had several goals for her sixth year, one of them Rose was helping her with and then there was one that she hadn’t told anyone yet, she was afraid that many people would try to stop her if she did. But perhaps James wouldn’t, though she thought that perhaps she would wait until later to ask him. “Hey James, and yeah I’m working on a Defense Against the Dark Arts essay,” she said lightly before looking down at her parchment. It really did look sloppy from where she crossed things out and added other things in, a lot messier than her essays from the previous years and Aubrey had a feeling that was how it was going to be for the rest of the year. “Did you have a good summer Holiday?” she asked lightly, not really knowing what else to ask at the moment.

[JAMES SIRIUS POTTER]

James was merely smiling when Aubrey greeted him in return, but he was tempted to give her a noogie when he first walked up. Deciding to play nice today, since he was in a rather good mood, and even then on his other days he probably would have reacted the same. The thought of her doing something drastic always crossed his mind as she was always outspoken no matter what she did, the sixth year Gryffindor had indeed always looked up to him in a respectful sort of way. It was hard not to notice that admirable trait in her, and her perseverance to deal with always having to get out a new piece of parchment.

James had to do the same sometimes, but luckily he did know the spell to erase his mistakes on command. That or he just could say it quietly enough no one knew he had and then he'd continue writing as if nothing had even hindered him. Writing essays was a pain to him and always bore him as soon as someone even mentioned them to him. A yawn was working at the edge of his lips as they slowly opened to let the wide O out before finally letting his arms go way up into the air. James's back was arching upwards a little as he let out a low groan from doing that, cause it had felt incredible at the time. "I wish essays could write themselves really, it's a pain in the butt to have to rewrite it over and over just for one little mistake," he spoke to her when she mentioned working on an essay for Defense against the dark arts.

James was actually about to work on an essay of his own as he took out a piece of parchment, and threw the book he had taken from the library onto the table in front of him. Of course he handled the book gently, it wasn't a huge slam, but it was loud enough to make enough people give him the shushing noise. "Sssh, we're in a library, so yeah, my summer holidays were alright minus the fighting with my brother as usual, but you know how that goes. I'm sure one day he'll see why I do it to him," he said to Aubrey, while most of the other people in the library gave him an incredulous look as they seemed offended he was telling them to shush for shushing too loud. In his own weird way, it was another form of brotherly love to prepare his brother for what might be coming, but he had no warning from his father.

Sure, he had taken interest in other students in the school, but so far there was nothing out of the ordinary happening yet. James definitely had a funny feeling that this year was going to be different, and the House Tournament was just part of that plot he was sure. Shaking his head of those nasty thoughts, it was just his imagination playing tricks on him since after all this was his last year, what could go wrong? "What about your holidays?" he asked calmly.

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[AUBREY LYNN MCNEAL]

Aubrey pulled out some new parchment figuring she had enough going on, on the current one she had. It really was quite messy, but she figured that from here it shouldn’t be as bad seeing as she pretty much got everything down that she needed. “My Holidays were alright, but you should know that after all I was at The Hovel quite a bit,” she smiled as she began to rewrite her essay. How could James forget that Aubrey usually spent most of her Holidays at The Hovel? The main site where all the Potters and Weasleys went when there were family gatherings, as well as the fact that it was the home of her best friend, Rose Weasley.

“But other than the times that I was at the Hovel, I did have a great trip to Italy with my parents. They also ended up buying me a new broom,” she sighed lightly at the last part before turning to her paper once more. If anyone knew Aubrey at all, they would know that a broom isn’t exactly the greatest present to get Aubrey. Especially since Aubrey didn’t know how to fly, in fact she was scared of flying ever since the incident in her first year flying class when she had ran straight into a tree. She had never touched a broomstick since, except this year she had decided it was time to try again. Thank goodness she had her best friend Rose, who also happened to be the Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, to help.

[JAMES SIRIUS POTTER]

James was considering what they had done over the holidays, but he forgot that she hung around the Weasleys as well as the Potters a lot. Since they were all cousins in the long run, but Aubrey was just a good family friend to him. Nodding his head in return towards her as he had almost forgotten until she had mentioned it, but he usually let stuff like that slip his mind sometimes. "Sorry, been thinking about the upcoming tournament, I'm really excited to see the results, what do you think the first task will be?" he asked her curiously wanting to hear her input first. James knew that deep down she had probably entered into it as well, but he really didn't want to do it for glory just to prove that he wasn't like all the other Potters within his family.

Plus, he and Albus barely got along with one another in the long run. Yet they still were able to tolerate each other's presence to the point they could at least walk off without hexing one another. James knew other brothers that were worse off and had mortal death matches to the death. He didn't want that with Albus, ever, and even if it came to starting up an army, he would probably request or beg Albus to help him with it. That was only if that ever happened, but he probably knew what the results would be in the long run. Nodding to Aubrey in return again, as he then smirked towards her at the mention of a new broom.

"If you want, I can try to help you out with that broom, and I remember how terrified you are of flying, what changed your mind if I may be so bold as to ask?" he asked in return, and was tempted to tell her not to. As he was now acting like the over-protective brother to Aubrey, smirking at her as he meant well.

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