Too Honest ~ James Potter

Chapter 33

*7th Year*

The next morning, Mariya was sitting outside when the sun came up. She was dressed in smart clothing and was well wrapped up but had clearly been up for a while as she held a nearly empty cup of coffee in her hands and her hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail in preparation for the day. She was wearing contacts rather than her usual grey glasses and her pale eyes were almost unblinking as she tried to take in the sunset, it was a tradition she had kept with her father as often as possible and so had chosen to do it at the Potter house even if he wasn't there to sit with her and provide her with a source of heat in the cold morning air.

Having believed all of the others to be asleep, Mariya was surprised when a shadow fell across the flat piece of roof she had perched on and James appeared to her left with a mug of what appeared to be tea in his hands.

"Please tell me that isn't tea." Mariya said, breaking the early morning silence.

"I could, but it would be a lie." James responded, grinning as she grimaced in disgust. "I take it you aren't a fan."

"Coffee is far superior." Mariya explained, raising her own mug of the aforementioned beverage.

"I agree that coffee is alright and that it is far better for waking one up in the morning but someone used the last of the coffee granules so I didn't really have a lot of choices."

Mariya nodded in understanding, a guilty smirk on her face, "I might have used the remaining ones but I would argue that Sirius is the main problem as he consumed at least three cups yesterday and frankly I have no idea how he managed to get to sleep."

James shrugged and the two fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes before he offered a new point of conversation. "Why are you up here so early? In fact, how did you get up here in the first place?"

"My broom made it significantly easier and I was thrilled to spot a place to sit whilst waiting for the sunrise. My father and I would always do this on Christmas Eve but seeing as he isn't here, I thought that I could do it by myself." Mariya offered by way of explanation. "What about you - how and why are you here?"

James grinned, "I always sit up here during the holidays, it was total chance that we chose the same day to be here as I usually only come up once or twice during a holiday and I never tell anyone."

"Why not?" Mariya asked, still gazing at the sunset.

James gave a short laugh, "Well the first time I came up here was when I was very young. It was one of my first signs of accidental magic because I was awake really early and had hoped to see the sunset because my dad had read me a book about a dragon who brought the sunrise with him by flying across the sky every morning. I had asked if we could fly up to see it happen but my parents had told me I was too young to be using a proper broom and so I took matters into my own hands."

Mariya turned to face him, joining in his laughter, "What, and you just apparated up here?"

James snorted slightly derisively, "Of course not, I wasn't that powerful, I just stood on the ground beneath this bit of the house and conjured vines to lift me up here."

"Like Jack and the Beanstalk?" Mariya asked, completely able to picture the image of a young James Potter pouting about not getting his way and doing anything in his power to see what he wanted.

"Yeah, exactly. The only difference is that Jack was able to get down."

Mariya's eyes widened at his statement, "You mean you were stuck up here." James nodded and Mariya collapsed into fits of laughter.

"Wh-what did your parents say?" She managed to splutter out after a while attempting to compose herself.

"They weren't thrilled" James admitted, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, "Dad thought it was hilarious once I told him the reason but Mum gave me a lecture about safety. They can't have been too mad though because for my tenth birthday, my Dad created a trapdoor in the ceiling of my bedroom that would lead up to it. Until then I used a broom and flew up here to watch the sunrise."

"That was so cool of your dad." Mariya smiled, "My dad used to take me up to sit on the room of our house with him every Christmas Eve. We would watch the sun come up drinking coffee that was so hot it burnt our tongues and wrapped in more blankets than could have been entirely healthy. Dad never cast a heating charm, he said the cold was good for us and that it kept our minds sharp whilst we waited."

"He sounds pretty awesome." James smiled at her and Mariya couldn't help but smile back.

"He is. He was always there for me and I have no doubt that he always will be. He is kind and generous and I think he would like you. He has a mischievous streak a mile wide, no matter how much he seems like a responsible citizen. He was known at his school of wizardry as жартівнек or prankster because he was always causing havoc with the teachers."

"What about your mother? She doesn't strike me as being a jokester." James had turned back to watch the sky, but a soft smile was stretched across his face as he listened.

Mariya grinned, "She isn't. In fact she met my dad when she was working as a Muggle police officer in Spain before becoming an Auror, she arrested him for altering a Muggle card trick to use actual magic when he was trying to chat up a woman. Dad says that she must have been jealous as she didn't actually press any charges." Mariya snorted slightly at the memory of when her dad had told her about these things.

"He dialled 112 the next day just to ask her out, for that he actually did get arrested but they only chucked him in a cell for a couple of days and gave him a warning before letting him go. Secretly, I think they were just a bit sick of listening to his jokes and wanted him out of there as fast as possible."

Falling back into silence for another few minutes, they watched the sunrise until James stood abruptly.

"Would you like to head back in. You can take the ladder this time instead of flying if you want to."

Mariya smiled and took the hand he had offered to help her up, "Thanks for sitting with me James. I enjoyed it."

James beamed back at her, and perhaps that was what gave Mariya the confidence to do what she did next. Standing on her tiptoes despite the heeled boots, she pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek before smiling once more and walking away.

Had she looked over her shoulder she would have seen the way James's eyes widened to comical proportions and the way his cheeks turned bright pink in a way that could not be attributed to the cold morning air, she would have seen the way he was frozen, seemingly unable to move thanks to shock and she would have seen the way that when he did move, he looked as though he were in a daze.

However, she did not look and she remained totally oblivious to the way she had affected James Potter. Admittedly Mariya felt confused by her actions and forced herself to consider why she had done such a thing. After half an hour of thinking the only thing that she could come up with was that she must like him and that was a concept that scared her very much. She determined that the best thing to do was talk to Sirius - he was James's best friend and so he should be able to help her. If he wasn't able to, who could, right?