𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞 - 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐏𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫

47 - 𝙗𝙧𝙤 𝙗𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜

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James wasn't daft.

Well, he was, but not to the extent people believed him to be.

Aquila was hiding something, but he didn't know how to ask without sounding too pushy. He had nearly gone over to interrogate her but Remus had calmly pulled him back and explained to him why that was a terrible idea.

Now, they were in their seventh year, and oddly enough, Lily Evans, someone who James had had little to no contact with, except for a remark here and there, had been talking to James more often than not.

James had taken to trying to avoid her with how weird she was being, but Aquila had merely told him to 'stop being weird' and 'talk to the girl like a human'.

James was stuck here in the Common Room, on his way to meet Aquila, but stopped by Lily Evans who had come towards him with a light blush on her freckled cheeks. Which was weird, because he had always seen Lily as well, not girly.

"You can't expect a girl to not be girly, Prongs," Sirius scoffed as James caught the snitch in his hand again.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Oh please. Sure you can. Remember Dorcas Meadows? Trousers, short hair, and Merlin, could that girl duel. She was amazing."

Peter laughed. "Oh yeah, Moony's senior crush," he teased.

Remus held up a finger. "I think I speak for everyone when I say we all had a crush on her."

The boys all let out hums of agreement as the snitch fluttered a bit away from James' reach and Sirius caught it.

James got up in a swift motion, snapping his fingers, which made Sirius release the snitch as it fluttered back into James' hand. "Anyway, where's the cloak? I need to go, and I need to stay out of Evans' way."

Sirius propped his chin on his hand. "Where are you going? Can I come with?" he asked, jutting his bottom lip out in a pout as he looked at James with wide eyes.

James immediately shut his eyes. "Do not pull that look on me. You cannot come with me," he groaned.

"Why not?" Sirius whined.

"I don't think you'd want to see me ki-" James began with a smirk, only to be cut off by Remus.

"Kill time," he said loudly, covering what James was about to say. "You don't wanna see James kill time, Sirius," he said with a pointed glare in James' direction, whose smirk only deepened.

Sirius pouted. "I hate you all. I'm gonna go disturb some other people," and in a swift movement, Sirius was off his bed and out the door.

Remus threw a pillow at James. "You're a complete arse, you know that?"

James grinned and ruffled Remus' hair on his way out. "You're just jealous I have a girlfriend and you don't, Moonpie."

- - -

"Hey," Aquila said excitedly as she saw James enter the room. "You'll never guess what happened at home."

James shot her an amused smile as he took in the surroundings of the Room of Requirement. It had a large window on one corner from where he could see the Whomping Willow and Hagrid's Hut. The room also had a hammock in one corner, a giant cocoon chair and a shit ton of pillows. Aquila was seated on the sole sofa in the room, a dark green thing which looked extremely comfortable, or maybe it was just Aquila who looked especially cuddly today.

Which was surprising, considering Aquila was all sharp jaws and arching cheekbones and pointy bones.

She was dressed comfortably in a maroon sweater that James was proud to call his own and had felt incredibly shy when offering it to her to wear. It was something he'd seen other boys do with their girlfriends, and he had never understood the appeal of it until he'd seen Aquila in his sweater.

From then on, he insisted on her wearing that when she came to meet him.

"What happened at home?" James asked after his assessment was done, nuzzling his face in her neck and gently tickling her sides, enough to make her lightly laugh.

She pushed his hands away. "Bellatrix's face erupted in boils because a potion went wrong," she said through barely concealed laughter. "Everyone knew she didn't deserve to be in the Slug Club, but everyone acted like it anyway. I wonder what Aunt Druella's face looks like now," she said gleefully.

James gently smiled as she ran her fingers through his hair distractedly. He should probably feel bad that his girlfriend was celebrating an eruption of boils on her cousin's face, but then he remembered that this was the same reason Aquila had a Dark Mark on her arm, why Aquila had nightmares while she was sleeping.

Aquila sighed softly, enough to let James know that she was upset about something.

"What's wrong?" James asked.

Her fingers stilled in his hair. "You'll be graduating soon."

"Hmm?" he said, prodding her to continue.

"This little bubble will burst when you're out of school."

"Don't say that. Nothing's gonna change."

"Fool's hope, James," Aquila said softly, resuming the motion of stroking his hair.

James sighed in contentment. "The outside world doesn't have houses, love."

Aquila hummed in agreement. "The outside world has a war instead." 

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i know the gif subtitles have nothing to do with the chapter, but it was so cute eeee-

also wtf why are they so cute

༻hy༺