mistletoe kiss | james potter

28 | forever

WE'LL GO
THE DISTANCE

✧

Lorelei stared at the two pieces of wood that sat in the boy's palm. Her gaze shifted to the sheepish look on his face and back to the broken wand in his hand. For a moment, she forgot about the dementor on its way to steal their souls. "Um, what the bloody hell happened to your wand, James?"

"I sat on it."

"Why the fuck would you sit on your wand?!"

"Well, I didn't do it on purpose, Lorelei."

The redhead stared at the boy, a look of complete amazement on her features. "Godric, just use mine and make sure we don't fucking die, Mr. Good-at-every-subject."

"You got my business card! I was wondering when you'd finally take me up on the tutoring offers."

"Yeah, I was just waiting until a dementor came out of nowhere to kill us to mention it. Think we could start on Herbology right now?"

"I think DADA would be the most realistic because we're actually fighting the dark arts—" He stopped short as he saw Lorelei's brows scrunch in annoyance and then quickly fear. He quickly reached for her arms,  "What? What is it?"

Lorelei, stunned by fear, only pointed to the mess of black robes growing increasingly closer to the pair. "Dementor. Getting closer."

"Ok, ok. I got this. C'mon, Potter." James whispered to himself. He tapped the borrowed wand against his head to focus. "I'm gonna be totally upfront with you, I've never done this spell before."

Lorelei watched as the boy who was always calm and collected, the boy who always had it figured out began to unravel. She could count on one hand the number of times she'd witnessed James look anything other than in control.

She reached for his cheek, "Hey, hey. It's ok."

Lorelei held his face in her hands and looked into his eyes. She took a deep breath and signaled for him to do the same. With a soft smile, she whispered, "You can do this, James. Not only are you one of the smartest guys I have ever met, but you are so incredibly brave. I trust you completely."

"Really?" His voice was soft and sure.

"There is nobody else I would want to fight off a dementor with."

This brought a huge grin to the boy's face. "Ok, we got this."

As the creature grew closer, Lorelei felt the air escape her lungs. His hooded figure was angled toward her. If James didn't act soon, the creature would be on them in seconds.

A moment later, James stepped forward, the borrowed wand pointed at the heartless creature's chest and he shouted out, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

A bright, blueish light pulsated from the end of Lorelei's wand. She lifted a hand to shield herself from the light now covering the black lake.

She'd never seen anything like it.

The Patronus erased all darkness and Lorelei had to remind herself that the sun had already set, and the light was coming from the boy standing next to her.

Suddenly a beautiful stag leaped from the end of the wand and raced toward the dementor. Its head reared forward as if to slam itself into the creature. Lorelei recognized the antlers and connected that James' Patronus was the same as his Animagus form.

Lorelei couldn't help the pride swelling in her chest as she watched James do what he did best.

Protect the people he loved.