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CHAPTER FORTY THREE
the art of catching the golden snitch
THE SUN WARMED their skin as James laid, lazily, in the bed that the Room of Requirement had produced for them that time. White spun sheets contrasted the red lingerie that was falling off of the other side of the bed, yet it complimented the calm of the morning light. Betty sat up—her hair tumbling down her back, to the side, only in James's school-mandated button down as her nails traced mindless figures onto his bare back. With every flitting touch, she felt his muscles relax as daisies, hearts and stars bloomed across his back in faint white lines that disappeared just as quickly. The room was quiet. They could hear dust falling and the occasional near-silent groan from James as her nail glided across an itchy spot. The room was reminiscent of their first night there—except the vines and flowers dared to crawl further along the walls and blossoms in great plumes of color, spinning and glinting as the morning sun graced them with her ethereal presence.
"Frank's going to propose to Alice." James's voice cut through the silence.
"So soon?" Betty's was quiet and dreamy. "I guess if they're happy and they have been together for a long time."
James was quiet for a moment. "Suppose you and Forrester stayed together and he asked you to marry him at the end of next year, would you say yes?"
A bewildered smile contorted Betty's face. "Why would you ask that?" But, she was met with no response. "Probably not. Remus wouldn't have let me, even if I wanted to." She was quiet for a moment more. "Why do you ask?"
"Dunno. Frank and Alice have been together for just as long, I suppose." He groaned as he turned over, so he could face her—grabbing his glasses from the floor as he did. His breath caught in his throat at the sight—her in his button down, the sunlight glinting on the edges of her hair. But she didn't have an angelic smile—the overrated angelic smile—her face was curious, caring. Her manicured fingernails rested themselves on his shoulder as they looked at each other with the sort of look in each other's eyes that made time stop and Betty blush and duck her head. The sort of look that needed no explanation, but both of them were too afraid to say it out loud when Betty asked the fated: "why are you looking at me like that?" In a soft, quiet whisper—not needed to be louder for it was just them.
James merely shrugged one shoulder and adverted his gaze, as he always did. "Just feel like it's weird that everyone's getting married so young."
"I feel like you'd be the first one to. If Lily'd given you the time of day, I bet you ten galleons that you would've proposed to her by the end of the year."
"Yeah, but that's different."
Betty raised an eyebrow and bit her lip softly. "Different how?"
