Bewitched | wolfstar au

Fifty-two

Leaning against the entrance, James Potter watches Remus until he disappears from sight. His face feels sticky and plastic. So, retreating into the safe solitude of his shop, he drops his smile. He walks over to the counter and puts Remus' cup away. Having finished with washing it, he comes out of the back room and slumps on to his stool behind the counter.

James spends a good minute wondering just how bad of an idea it was to keep this a secret from Lily.

And then he grabs his phone from his pocket and makes a call.

"Potter," a deep voice sounds from the other end. James rolls his eyes.

"Bellerose," he almost scoffs, "Where's Sirius?"

There's a small silence.

"I don't know?" Auguste replies.

Frowning James, shifts on his stool. "Don't lie to me. Where is he?"

"I'm not lying to you," comes the reply, and for some reason, James can't help but feel like it's true. "Did you ask Remus?"

"No, why didn't I ever think of that," James rolls his eyes again, "Of course I wouldn't think to ask the guy who lives with Sirius,"

"I'm sorry for trying to help," Auguste retorts, "Where are you?"

"In my shop," James replies, already putting his coat on. Well, trying to, with one hand.

"Alright, I'll meet you at the Leaky Cauldron." Auguste doesn't wait for a reply, just cuts the call. Which isn't surprising, because they've never been good friends. They've never been friends, period. And James has no wish to change that.

Which is saying a lot, because making friends and being agreeable and fulfilling the unbare maximum of fun-to-hang-out-with-ness is James' whole shtick.

He closes the shop up and walks to the back of the Leaky Cauldron, wishing he had a scarf with him. Once he gets there, he goes in through the back door. Auguste is already there, waiting for him by the entrance. He must've Flooed from home.

"Have you had your lunch?" Auguste asks, sweeping the pub with a look of distaste.

"Not yet," James shrugs, "But it can wait."

"I have a feeling it'll have to wait for a very long time," Auguste sighs. "Get something to eat in the car. I'll wait outside."

He practically throws himself out of the building, making James roll his eyes, yet again. What a stuck-up princess. He grabs Auguste by the arm, stopping him with one foot out the door and the other inside.

"Why don't we just eat here first? Do you even know where to go?"

Auguste gives him a pained look. "Get in the car," he sighs. "If you're going to eat, it's not happening here."

***

"If you spill a single crumb in my car, your girlfriend will have to fish your body out of the sea," Auguste narrows his eyes at him. They're in the parking lot, having realised that neither of them really knew where to go only after ordering food from the drive through. McDonald's is the only place James knows around here, and even if the food was bound to give him some sort of health issue, Auguste's offended look when he suggested it was so worth it.

"I wouldn't dare," James mumbles, "Why didn't you get anything?"

"Multiple reasons, none of which I desire to tell you," Auguste shrugs.  "Did you try calling Sirius?"