muggle summer // james potter

chapter three

DESPITE JAMES' INTENSE LONGING to see the pretty blonde stranger again, he just couldn't seem to summon her back into his life. It definitely didn't help him at all that he only left the house for his few gym sessions each week. No matter how many times Sirius had tried to drag him out of the house, James remained incredibly determined to do absolutely nothing. James' heart was pulling him towards this magnetic beauty, but in his mind, he still felt loyalty to the fiery red-head who had been rejecting him for the past four years. He felt too guilty to send Lily the piles of letters he would have sent last year. He felt too guilty to return to the pool and hope to laugh with the enchanting beauty he had met last week. So he spent his days laying in bed.

Sirius understood what it was like to feel that your heart was pulling you in the wrong direction. But at this moment, it was his stomach that he allowed to pull him out of the house early on a Monday morning before the sun had woken the small town. Although he had spent as much of the past four summers in this town as possible, there were always new restaurants to visit. According to the neon lights that drew his attention, a new 24-hour diner had opened recently. As he got closer the neon lights formed into a single word. Mel's. Through the glowing windows, he could see it was completely abandoned, except for a single head of long blond hair.

The bell above the door chimed as he walked in and another head poked out from the kitchen. Sirius approached the counter, placed an order for a chocolate milkshake with a side of fries, and then invited himself to sit across from the young lady in a booth by herself. Adelaide let her eyes meet Sirius' from behind the curtain of her hair, and then returned to reading her book in silence.

Sirius sat for a moment and then removed a single black hair tie from his wrist and slid it across the table as a peace offering. Adelaide forcibly pulled her head out of the book and considered the young man sitting across from her. Then, without breaking the silence, she bookmarked her place and set the book upon the table as if it were likely to crumble to dust at any moment. It certainly looked the part. She grabbed Sirius' hair tie and began to braid her hair out of her face, with the practice of a girl who had never had a mother braid her hair. The shaggy-haired Sirius stretched a hand toward the book, almost making contact before looking up at Adelaide. His stormy grey eyes meet her ocean green as he searches for permission. He nearly misses the hint of a smile answering his question until she pushes the book to meet his hand.

It was the beginning of a great tradition (and a great friendship), though neither of the teens knew that as Adelaide finished her neat braid and slid around the booth to sit next to Sirius as he opened her book and began to read. He didn't know what he expected to find written on the pages of the old tome but it was something magical and wild and completely foreign to him. Sirius was enraptured in this strange magic as the two of them sat together for hours, reading side by side and sharing a basket of fries until the rays of the rising sun lit the private world of Mel's.

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stay safe and healthy y'all! hope this can bring you a little bit of joy in this not-so-fun time.