Forever and a Day ~ James Potter

Love's Labour's Lost

Chapter Sixty

Monday 14th February 1977 ~ 07:23 ~waning moon

Having their first Valentine's Day on a Monday appeared to be the perfect encapsulation of James and Rosie's relationship at that moment in time. All of the sixth year Gryffindors had dragged themselves out of bed early on in the morning to help Rosie prepare for the day to come. Only a week prior, James had suggested that he show her a secret tunnel from Hogwarts to Honeyduke's, which many of the older couples in the school often used to steal a romantic evening for one day out of the year.

The girl had been more than eager to take him up on the offer, and the two of them had spent lots of time in the library leading up to the fateful day, making plans about where they could eat dinner or buy each other gifts at shops that would still be open in the evening. Despite the trickiness of actually getting to the little village without being caught by any of the Hogwarts authorities, they were thankful that it wasn't going to be a Hogsmeade weekend. Their friends would have been irritated at them going around without them if it was, and this way, everyone could be happy - especially given that Lily and Remus would be able to help them into the passage secretly.

However, over the past three days, their plans couldn't be any more different than what they had expected. Instead of sitting down for breakfast with handwritten cards and suffering teasings from the others, they were now standing together next to the unlit fireplace in all-black robes. Francois Artois' funeral was to be held at noon that day and his three grandchildren had been granted special permission by Dumbledore to leave school to attend, bringing one guest each.

Of course, James had been the only choice in Rosie's mind, despite the fact that she would be seeing her blood relatives for the first time in months, and they would most definitely be infuriated by her presence there. But he'd convinced her during one of her many silent moods over the weekend that whoever she brought with her, she would have to face the wrath of the Sacreds just for having the nerve to go and pay her respects to the person she loved most in the world.

James patted Rosie's shoulders comfortingly while Sirius's head began to droop into Remus's shoulder, unused to being out of bed so early. "All you have to do is show up for Francois' funeral, it's exactly what he would've expected from you. Just let me deal with anything else today."

She shook her head weakly, sniffling for the umpteenth time since Thursday, "You don't understand-"

"Listen," he interrupted her, determined to stop her from obsessing over the wrong things. "I do understand. All of us understand completely. You quite literally have the scars to show how bad they can be, and I swear that I won't let a single person lay a wand on you. Now come on, the fireplace will be opened to the Floo Network any minute."

Rosie nodded, taking in a deep breath and straightening her posture, "Yeah, you're right. Just promise to stop me from getting distracted," she asked and took his hand in her own. James nodded firmly, earning an appreciative sigh from Alice over on one of the armchairs.

"You'll be perfectly all right," she reassured both of them, looking around at the others to get them to agree. But Marlene, Peter and Mary were already fast asleep, and Remus was far too focused on Sirius's weight on his shoulder, making him sit rigidly with a clenched jaw.

And Lily only grimaced down at a vial she held tightly in her hand, revving herself up to drop in a long blonde hair. "This is going to be disgusting..." she muttered, letting the strand float its way down into the Polyjuice potion that Charles had somehow managed to procure from Slughorn's office. It turned a wispy lilac colour, swirling around gently.