true loves poison • james potter

70

Leaving Hogwarts was the hardest easy thing.

It didn't end in a grand exit, she simply went to her final scheduled day just like most other students, and then the final bell rang and she was free. Forever.

Most of the seventh years didn't bother going to their last day, week, or even month of school. In fact, Lorelei knew for a fact that Marlene McKinnon didn't attend the last two weeks of school so she could do a task for the Order.

She also found out that Dumbledore held meetings for the Order almost weekly. Something he'd purposely withheld from the students he recruited until they were about to graduate. James thought it was a clever way to keep the students of Hogwarts safe, but Lorelei felt quite the opposite.

Recruiting teenagers for a war group wasn't how you kept them safe.

Nevertheless, she bit her tongue and smiled at Alice as she gushed about Marlene's special task. "She couldn't tell me exactly what she'd been assigned to do, but she did imply that it was important. That Dumbledore himself gave her the assignment. She practically glowed when she got the chance to tell me."

Alice pushed a strand of her dark hair behind her ear, the ring on her left hand catching her eye briefly as Alice continued obliviously on.

She'd announced her engagement to Frank just a week prior to graduation. Another thing in Lorelei's growing list of others oddities, she couldn't imagine why they felt the need to get married as soon as possible.

But she swallowed her judgement. Alice and Frank were clearly in love, and they were old enough to make their own decisions.

Her last day in Hogwarts was spent sitting alone in the stone corridors, restlessly. She would hop between resting spots, trying to find the area it was most comfortable to think at. She settled on sitting in a windowsill that lacked any glass. The warm breeze blew away some of the overbearing heat permeating throughout the castle.

Her first concern was starting her new job. Magic Of The Past was a decently established publishing company that had accepted her application to be an assistant, she had hopes that she could work her way up to publishing her works as a historian. If Bathilda Bagshot could do it, so could she.

Hopefully.

Despite the suffocating warmth, Lorelei soaked in the breeze as it rustled her hair. The thought of this being the last time she would be able to just sit on the windowsill made her frown. She only had a few hours left and she was opressively aware that she was doing her final acts in Hogwarts.

Her last time walking through that particular classroom, corridor, common room, bathroom, or courtyard. She wouldn't know when her last of something would be until later and it tortured her.

Everything was ending too quickly.

The heated air made breathing more difficult then the usual cool Scotland air that usually surrounded Hogwarts did.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to enjoy the sunshine as she pulled off her robe. Letting the sun soak into the bare skin on her arms.

Closing her eyes, Lorelei tried not to think. Which obviously made everything she didn't want to think about readily available in her head.

The sun prodded her eyes open, and she tried to soak in the scenery as best she could to distract from her thoughts.

"Have you always spent your time sulking around the halls, or is this a recent pass time?"

Lorelei smiled at the familiar voice without turning away from the scenery. "Hello James."

As he sat across from her in the windowsill, she kept her smile on her face as he rearranged her position so that the two of them could coexist in the small space comfortably. "Hello love." He said casually enough to make her heart flutter.

"If I spent as much time worrying about the future as you do, I would never get anything done." James teased, swinging one of his legs casually on the other side of the windowsill.

Staring at his dangling limb, she had to fight herself not to say anything about the dangers of his position. She almost forgot to respond, but a bird chirping nearby reminded her she hasn't said anything. "The future isn't what worries me. It's the things that are out of my control that happen to take place in the future that worry me."

Holding his hands up, James tried to joke by saying, "My apologies, I wasn't sure there was a difference."

When her expression didn't change, James leaned forward and grabbed her hand. "Hey, it's going to be fine. You got a job in the field you want to pursue, you found a nice apartment, and you have someone that cares about you very much at your beck and call. What more could you need?"

Smiling dryly at him, she responded softly, "I don't like change."

"Who does?" He rebuffed, "But this is good change. Just think; you're one step closer to accomplishing your goals."

"And what goals are those?" She asked as a challenge.

He shrugged, "Whatever you want them to be. Becoming a historian, becoming a mother, becoming an old cat lady-"

Lorelei cut him off by laughing, "I would very much like to be surrounded by cats for the rest of my life."

James smiled fondly at her. "As long as I'm in that picture, I'll support your dream."

Looking down at her hands, Lorelei outwardly teased him, "James Potter the Auror: Surrounded By Cats. I can see it now." Inwardly, she warmed to his declaration of commitment.

"Crazy cat family. James, Lorelei, and their crowd of former stray cats." James chanted back as if he was announcing a quidditch game.

After a short laugh, comfortable silence fell between the two.

Slowly, her smile fell. "Do you think that could ever be a possibility for us?"

James looked at her. "Owning cats? Well there's about two hundred roaming around the streets ik sure we could have a pick at whichever one follows you home."

Lorelei gave a small smile before remembering her original question. "I meant do you think we could ever have a quiet, normal life? With Voldemort running around, I find it difficult to believe anyone could have a life outside of anger and fear."

Reaching forward, James grabbed her hands, "It would be a mistake to let a pathetic psychopath rule how you live your life."

As she stared into his eyes, a smile grew on her lips.

When looking into James's eyes, it was hard not to believe every word he said.

"So we can get a cat?" She asked.

"We can get a hundred cats if it keeps you smiling like that."