calendars • marauders era

DAY 100

  "WHERE ARE WE GOING, TESS?  

If you make me do your Divination homework I swe-"

She told him to shush, and they walked. Tessa covered the intrigued Gryffindor's eyes with her own hands and they silently continued down the dead silent halls.

"It's quite late. I'm tired." James blurted out, yawning for dramatic effect.

"Just wait, sleepyhead. Don't fall asleep on me now. We're almost there."

Tessa couldn't see it, but she knew he was smiling. A warm, sleepy smile. A James Potter kind of smile.

"Whatever, weirdo."

They continued to walk, James stepping on her feet multiple times with a follow up "oops" or "sorry, love" until Tessa finally stopped.

"Are we in this magical, ethereal place that was so important you had to drag me out of bed for?"

"As a matter of fact," she replied, while opening the door and unblocking his eyesight," we are."

-

JAMES WAS IN AWE.

He hadn't seen many movies, but this was definitely something out of a movie. His beautiful, wonderful girlfriend had somehow managed to keep the comfy, toasty temperature of the castle inside the open Astronomy room, and the cold breezy winds of the outdoors far away. She probably used some kind of spell he skimmed over in class, he figured. It was all so wonderful, breathtaking...

"You can thank me later." The smirking Slytherin joked as she pulled up a blanket from a corner of the room. Unexpectedly, James hugged her. She was confused. It really wasn't hard to plan and didn't take much effort, yet here was this boy clinging onto her and mumbling a thousand million thank you-s. Was she taken by surprise? Yes. That would definitely explain the thousand million butterflies in her stomach at the moment. A weird, warm, fluttery feeling.

"You're the only person that's done something like this for me, you know. And it's pretty frickin' far out. I love you so much."

Tessa smiled and ate a biscuit as they looked at the starry sky and bickered on whether or not something was a constellation or just a cluster of stars. James spent more time admiring Tessa's face though. The way her eyes lit up when talking about something she loved, the way they reflected the color of the sky, how her freckles looked like mini stars on her face, how she spoke with such wit and humor, the way the moon cast a delicate, ethereal-like glow on her...

"What are you staring at you weirdo?"

"You."

Tessa chuckled. Of course, that was obvious, but she had wanted to know why.

"Am I just that breathtakingly gorgeous?"

"In a way, yeah."

Tessa stared back at him, smiling. If this was some kind of staring contest, she was going to win. He smelled like Drooble's Best Blowing Bubblegum and biscuits. Although maybe that was just the biscuits she had gotten from the House Elves (she was always kind to them and, in turn, they never hesitated to grant her favors). They were so close, and it was so quiet.

"I think we should kiss now."

"I think you should calm down there, buddy."

They laughed, both nervous and awkward. They had been in situations like this a thousand times yet, somehow, tonight felt different.

James lied back down and continued to admire the stars, calling out the wrong names for certain constellations, spewing random facts about his childhood, telling bad puns. And Tessa listened. He must've been real tired too, because he casually slipped in that he really wanted his mum to meet her someday soon. She regarded this apathetically. There was no soon for them, but she let him ramble.

She laid down too and correctly named all the stars he had either mispronounced or completely screwed up. The moment was so picturesque, so ideal. She looked over at James and she waited for him to realize that no one was correcting his constellation-naming-mess ups.

So close, 3 days left.

Would she miss this moment? Yeah. Any idiot would. It was magical and she would trade the whole world just to stay in this moment forever. But that would never happen unless she wrote a story, told the story to her future children or something, or captured it into one single picture.

She would do none of that though, believing in the importance of savoring a moment and not sulking around to look back at it.

Tessa wanted to kiss the sleepy, smiley boy next to her but she knew that, if she started, she'd probably never be able to stop.

Merlin, so much for breaking his heart.

She yawned before speaking," I think we should go back now. You're tired, i'm tired."

"Can we sleep here?" He whined whilst doing an attempt at puppy eyes. A successful attempt. Tessa thought that maybe that was why he always got his way.

Fuck it, why not.

The Astronomy Tower was pretty much abandoned on weekends and tomorrow was Sunday. Savor this moment, that's what they would do.