Too Honest ~ James Potter

Chapter 46

Though Mariya and James were thrilled with their engagement, they decided that they wanted to wait a year or two before actually getting married. Mariya knew that James had agreed to this partly because she wanted Regulus to be there but he couldn't appear to be on their side until he had contributed to the war effort. As such, they had to wait if they wanted his presence - which they obviously did.

In the mean time, they had plenty to be thinking about. They spent the rest of the school holidays working at the Ministry of Magic on the remainder of their reports, which paid off as both James and Mariya were offered actual jobs in their respective departments. James was to be understudying as an Auror, with Jacinta as his teacher, whilst Mariya was working as a go between with the British ambassadors in Spain as well as the different foreign schools. They celebrated this by going out to the bowling alley one weekend with Remus and Sirius - Peter having claimed that he was too busy despite the attempted inducements of his friends. It became almost immediately clear who had done the activity before as Remus knocked down eight of his pins with his first bowl and Sirius managed to get his ball in the wrong lane and fall flat on his face in the process. Despite this less than impressive start, he seemed to be having a great time as he learned about the Muggle game.

When Mariya's turn came, she stepped up and picked up the ball without any trouble - having often come bowling as a young child - before taking her stance. She was just about to throw when she heard James and Sirius talking behind her.

"I bet you ten galleons that Remus will beat her score." Sirius offered and Mariya could practically hear the smirk in James's voice as he answered.

"I make it twenty that he won't." James replied and Mariya turned just in time to see Sirius clasp his hand.

"Deal." He grinned before returning to his place with a satisfied grin. James saw Mariya looking and shot her a wink.

"You ought to be careful, Black." Mariya shouted over at him. "If you aren't, you might soon find me throwing this ball at you."

Sirius turned to James and gave his best possessive girlfriend act. "Are you just going to sit there and let her talk to me like that?"

James was clearly trying hard not to smirk at the way Sirius's voice had gone up at least two octaves during his performance, as he answered, "Sorry, honey but she doesn't give empty threats and I would rather not be on her bad side.

Mariya turned around, grinning as she saw Sirius throw a hand over his heart and pretend to collapse to the floor, dead. Quickly throwing her shot, and smirking as she knocked down all ten, she walked back over to the group of boys and sat down once more. High-fiving James, she turned back to Sirius, who was now looking rather more unsure of his decision.

"You should never underestimate a Seratova, Black. We don't compromise, and we certainly don't pick games which we know we are bad at. If you want to do well at something next time, I would advise that you get your two pennies worth in before I make up my mind." Sirius started to pout, but this was quickly overthrown by a grin as James stepped up.

"He's never done this before either." He whispered to Mariya as James tried to pick up a ball before realising how heavy it was and dropping it again. "This is going to be hysterical."

It was indeed hilarious as - though James adjusted to the weight of the ball whilst he was walking - he made his lack of experience clear as he lost control of the ball when attempting to throw, and actually managed to toss it backwards. Thankfully, he was not used to the weight and so it did not have a lot of power behind it, but it was still enough to make Remus give a shout of pain as it crashed into his leg. This rather brought an end to their mirth, as Mariya and Sirius quickly leapt from their seats to check if the man was alright. Brushing them off, Remus gingerly climbed to his feet and found that he could put some weight on it so long as he didn't overdo it.