home now || j.potter

chapter 5 || promises

Days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months. Holly was getting sick of avoiding and ignoring James and the others. She still went on full moons to help with Remus, she wasn't going to let something effect him that wasn't his fault.

"Lils, I love you and all, but I'm really missing the boys. I know they don't really deserve it but-" I started but Lily cut me off.

"Holly. Go back to being friends with them. This whole thing doesn't really effect you. It's between me and Snape. And besides, I've got Dorcas and Marlene. Go make up with the boys," She said with a small smile.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! You're literally the best!" I said. Then I ran halfway to the common room at a dead sprint to get to the boys. I ran up the stairs and threw their door open scaring all of them.

"Holly? I thought you weren't talking to us?" Sirius said.

"I... was... hold on," I huffed, regretting my choice to run. I heard a light chuckle and knew right away who it was. I looked up and saw James looking at me in amusement and guilt. Once I caught my breath, I speed walked over to him and pulled him into a bone crushing hug. He hugged back just as tight.

"Holly, I am so so so sorry. If we had just listened to you about leaving Snape alone-" I cut him off.

"Yeah! You should have listened to me. If you had, you might not have ruined your chances with Lily! But she gave me the ok to forgive you guys. She knows I missed you," I said. When I said the part about him ruining his chances, his face fell.

"Did I really ruin my chances with her?" He asked softly.

"Yeah, I think so. I think the most you'll get is being friends with her," I said apologetically.

"I guess that's ok. I was kind of realizing it was a lost cause anyways. If she hasn't liked me after 5 years she probably never will," He said.

Time passed and things were back to normal. We were pranking every other week and getting detentions left and right. I still hung out with the girls and gossiped with Alice and Marlene about Lily and Dorcas.

"Hey boys. The girls and I can't find a spot to sit, mind if we sit by you?" I asked the boys one day at lunch.

"Yeah, of course," Remus said. We sat down, me in between James and Lily, Dorcas next to Lily, across from Marlene who was sitting next to Remus.

"How are you, James?" I asked. He looked at me for the first time since we sat down and had a small smile on his face.

"I'm good. A bit tired but that's alright. School is being a pain in my arse. All the homework!" He said dramatically, making me laugh.

"James. You don't do your homework," I said with amusment. We both burst out laughing, making the others look at us. We calmed down and looked at each other again, our laughter starting all over again. All of our noise caught the attention of other people sitting around us, eventually leading to some from other tables looking at us like we had gone insane.

"Holly, James, what are you doing?" Alice asked nervously, her cheeks flushing lightly. This of course caused me and James to start laughing even harder. I stood up laughing with James as we walked out of the Great Hall laughing to hard to breathe. After we left, the girls looked at the boys who looked unfazed about what happened.

"Does that happen often?" Marlene asked in shock.

"Yeah. It happens pretty often. It's best to let them calm for about an hour. Other wise, they just get set off again and it takes even longer to calm them down," Peter said nonchalantly. Sirius and Remus nodded their heads, agreeing.

"Sometimes it happens so bad to the point where we have to separate them and it still takes an hour for them to calm down. It's ridiculus," Remus said.

"There was one time, we were down at the Black Lake and Peter said something wrong and it caused those two to laugh nonstop for about 2 hours. Remember that, Pete?" Sirius asked.

"Oh yeah! I was talking about the giant squid and accidently said siant guid. It was a little funny and we were all laughing for a little while but they just kept going. It was the longest 2 hours of my life. And I get back to back History of Magic with the Ravenclaws," Peter said, shaking his head.

"Oh my. I knew she laughed really easily and it took her a while to stop but I didn't know it was that bad," Lily said.

After that, the two friend groups seemed to merge. The past being put behind them, setting them up for a long life of friendship, laughter and happiness.

Holly and James were still laughing lightly while they were having a conversation when they walked back into the common room, one and a half hours later. The sky was an inky black with stars dancing in light of the moon. The Black Lake was glistening with the light from the moon, the willow swaying in the light breeze. The fire was roaring in the fire place, Remus, Peter, Sirius, and Marlene were sitting on the couch, Marlene snuggled into Sirius' side. Lily, Alice, and Dorcas were sitting in the chairs across from the couch. The two groups casually talking and laughing with each other.

"James, did we walk into the wrong common room?" I whispered to him. We both were frozen as we watched the two groups get along.

"I don't know. We should leave so we can process what we're seeing. I feel like I'm dreaming. But I can't be since we're seeing the same thing," He whispered back with wide eyes. I nodded and we very cautiously tiptoed out of the common room, our friends laughing as they watched us. We walked out of the common room and stood in the hallway with silence. A minute later, James spoke up.

"Hey, want to go to the kitchens or something? I'm hungry. I don't think we ended up actually eating dinner," He said.

"Yeah, I'm hungry too. I don't think we ate either. Let's go. Long way or short way?" I asked, remembering the events of earlier.

"Lets go the short way. I'm starving!" James exclaimed.

We then left the common room entrance and started our journey to the kitchens.

"I'm really glad you forgave me. I didn't realize how much I'm with you and how much I like your company. I really missed you. Trust me, I was a mess when you weren't talking to me. That was when I realized I started to not like Lily like that anymore. I was more worried about messing things up with you and losing my best friend, you know? I barley left the dorm!" James said as we were walking up to the entrance to the kitchen. He tickled the pear of the fruit portrait and we walked through.

"I'm glad I forgave you too. I missed your guy's company too. I also didn't realize how much time I spent with you. I love the girls and all but it wasn't the same and you and the boys. After about a week, the girls started questioning me, asking me if I was alright. I was miserable! I mean, I barley left my dorm too," I said. James was going to respond but we had walked into the kitchens and the house elves greeted us, bringing us our favorite foods. We sat down at the table and started eating our foods.

"This chocolate cake is soooo good!" I moaned out, a bite of cake in my mouth.

"So is this ice cream," James said. He said it with his eyes closed and his head thrown back as he ate the first bite. I could feel heat rise to my cheeks as I admired how cute James looked in that moment. He looked back at me and smiled, making me turn my head away because I had dropped my fork as an excuse to not let James see my blush.

I controlled my emotions and looked back at James.

"So what do you think happened with our friends while we were gone? They have never gotten along that well. Did you see the way Marlene was cuddled up to Sirius? II mean, I knew she liked him but I didn't count on him seeming to like her back!" I said.

"I honestly have no idea. I mean, I'm glad they're getting along, but what happened when we were gone? I'm actually really confused. Well, more confused than usual," He said. We laughed for about 10 minutes while we ate our food. After we finished, we sat in silence for a little bit before James broke the comfortable silence.

"I will never do anything to make you ignore me again. I promise."