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WATERMELON SUGAR
August 14, 2021
LORCAN AND LYSANDER knew that James was being distant, but they didn't really know why. Fred barely knew — he hadn't talked about what specifically happened when Albus came out and Scorpius got mentioned, but he knew it was bad.
So, in their grand efforts to help their brother, they drove one of Rolf's vintage cars from the 50s down the motorway, headed to Bath. A beach day always brought the mood — no matter who was down and what they were down about.
However, that had been the case for James before. Because, fundamentally, James was now different and everyone took notice. But, in an effort to maintain sanity, they ignored it and felt as the wind rushed through their hair and the joyous screams of fellow beachgoers filled their ears.
They finally found a spot in the car park and unloaded the trunk, bringing out towels, umbrellas and a cooler box with ice lollies, lemonade and sandwiches. They trudged down the steps and spent some time searching for a spot — finally finding one and setting up camp.
They all took off their clothing until they were just in their trunks and they all ran towards the water. Lorcan and Lysander stared at people watching and talking to little boxes that had people in them — quite like wizard's photographs, but not as cool and Fred and James teased them for not knowing an essential part of muggle information.
After they splashed around in the water for a bit, they headed back to their set up and laid down on their towels. After about five minutes of letting his eyes search the beach, James spotted a cliff that looked suitable for jumping off of.
"Fred," he said as he shoved the boy to his side.
"What?" Fred hissed as he looked over.
"Cliff jumping," James replied as he lazily pointed towards the cliff off to the side.
"Cliff jumping," Fred repeated with a wicked grin. "Lysander, Lorcan, we're going cliff jumping."
"Surely that can't be safe — " Lorcan protested as Lysander got up and joined the other two boys. "You know what, fuck it. It's summer."
"That's the spirit!" James exclaimed as they walked over to the path that would lead them to the top of the cliff.
They joked around and feigned falling off of the edge of the path as they walked and, eventually, they made it to the top and Fred realized it was a lot higher than it had seemed from the beach. He gulped nervously and looked at James, who seemed to be undeterred by the height.
