daydream ' james potter

00 - polish

00

His nails are red. They were painted red while he went shopping with Adam. Now, they're red from incessant rubbing. He's used to this: scrubbing off the polish before he walks into his front door. Still, it feels kind of stupid and ridiculous.

His father knows he paints his nails. His father watches him buy different colors and place them on his bathroom sink. Mickey thinks his father's rule of not wearing the nail polish in his house is stupid.

Mickey think out of all the places in the world, his house should be the place where he can be himself.

His father's girlfriend is sitting on the living room couch when he walks in. She's been around for four months, but Mickey is ready for her to run off already. It's not like his family really has anything to offer.

Her name is Monica, and she's got nail polish on (the same shade as Mickey's). It's just another thing that upsets him fully; why can girls where a color on their nails and guys can't? Why is it a big deal at all? It's not even a sexuality thing. Adam's straight and he wears nail polish.

"Mitchell, why do you look like you've smelt something funny?" Monica asks, finally taking notice of the boy.

"I was just thinking about stuff," he mumbles.

Mickey's father walks in then. Jackson Einstein's nothing short of a boring man. It shows in the way his beige pants are pulled up to his navel. It shows in his grossly over-kept mustache and greasy combover. He carries two flukes of white wine into the living room and hands one to Monica. "Oh, son, you're back."

Mickey catches the way his fathers eyes glance to his fingernails. He can't help but clasp his hands together and hide them behind his back, just in case he missed anything. "Yeah. Adam and I are all ready for tomorrow."

"What's tomorrow?"

"Dad," Mickey sighs, "Hogwarts? Sixth year? Ring a bell?"

Monica's eyes drift the the shopping bag behind Mickey's back. "Why did you buy new clothes just to wear on a train?"

Mickey wants to ask her why she looks like she's dressed for an awards show when she's only sitting on a thrift store couch and drinking boxed wine out of a plastic fluke, but he keeps silent and smiles. "Just want to look nice."

He bolts upstairs, passing by his brother's room. He's more than thankful that this is Roman's seventh year. Just imagining a year all to himself, where he can do and be whatever he wants, is enough to keep him going.

Roman's always going on about how Mickey isn't manly enough for their family. Which is dumb, because Mickey is the one who kills the spiders in the house, and that's the manliest thing one can do.

Roman is always writing home about what Mickey is doing and whether or not he's being an "embarrassment". Mickey doesn't know how Roman can come up with so many ridiculous reasons, and he absolutely doesn't know why his dad is willing to believe half the rubbish that comes out of Roman's mouth.

Mickey is most certainly one of the quietest boys in the entire castle. He has only one friend (Adam) and never does anything that would get him in trouble, save for the occasional sneak outs and unchaperoned quidditch games. Everyone does that though, even Roman, so it shouldn't matter.

Mickey turns up the rusty travel radio that sits on his nightstand and listens to the commentators recount the latest quidditch matches.

Quidditch is the only thing that matters to Mickey. It's his ticket out, away from the world he's always known. He can practically feel the wind on his face as he plays in the World Cup. There will be people cheering his name, and no one will be able to tell him he can't where nail polish. Well, they can tell him, but he finally won't have to listen.

He'll never speak to his family again, and they'll wish they had been nicer to him before he got so famous.

It's going to happen.

-

very short mini epilogue just to kind of show what mickey's home life is like.

the story doesn't start till later in the school year, when james actually knows who mickey is.

also do y'all remember the hufflepuff boy sirius kissed in the broom closet in intrigue? mickey.