Wild Hearts ✮ James Potter

Chapter 27.

Happiness. It used to be a foreign concept to Mia Black. But now, she wondered how she had possibly coped without it for so long.

The next month was filled to the brim with cheesy date nights, pranking the Slytherins and James laughing as Mia stressed out immensely over NEWTS and various other insignificant things. The latter almost always ended up with James being knocked round the head by a very angry Mia.

But as they entered the month of December, anxiety fell from the sky as often as the snow in the Scottish Highlands.

People could sense the worry radiating off the girl due to her rapid mood swings, snappy behaviour and occasionally rather large meltdowns.

One evening, The Marauders, Alice, Marlene, Lily and Mia were sat in the Gryffindor common warming themselves around the fire whilst giving each other concerned looks as Mia was cuddled into James neck silently.

"You okay Mimi?" Sirius asked quietly.

Silence.

They could not possibly tell wether she was in a sarcastically angry mood or genuinely upset so they had to tread very carefully.

With the Christmas holidays fast approaching, Mia was experiencing extreme anxiety and stress. She had been receiving several letters a week demanding that she ended her relationship with James and stopped associating with 'tarnished' witches and wizards. And for the first time in a while, she was genuinely scared. She knew what was waiting for her at Grimmauld Place.

Only two others, aside from the Black siblings, knew what Walburga and Orion were truly capable of: James Potter and Evelyn Pip.

But Evelyn had seemed to be a little MIA recently which left Mia only being able to sort comfort from James.

The fact that Evelyn was being a little distant only added to Mia's mood. She put it down to exam stress but she was kidding herself and she knew it. At the moment, everyone, including teachers, were walking on eggshells around Mia. Her sensitivity had been amplified by a million and the smallest thing would set her off.

Her friends used the excuse of NEWT stress to anyone questioning her odd behaviour but it would soon wear thin as everyone else was also actually dealing with it too so it was not exactly a valid excuse.

This particular night had been horrific for Mia.

She had met up with Regulus and had a very rough time talking with him. There was definitely something going on with him but she knew not to press his buttons to much or else face an explosion of anger. This had been a new addition to her younger brothers personality. When they met in secret, he had a new tendency to become frustrated at things he used to be unbothered about, such a Mia and her association with the Gryffindors.

She also had a mock potions exam tomorrow which she had most definitely not revised for.

So she snuggled even deeper into James's chest and tried to block out the world.

After a few more hours of her friends trying to chat normally to one another all the while sparing concerned glances at their silent companion, they began collecting their stray books and parchment and headed upstairs to bed until it was just Mia and James left.

"It's a full moon tomorrow." Mia said in a croaky voice from how little she had spoken that day.

James jumped slightly, shocked at her making conversation all of a sudden.

"Yeah, but I think you have enough to worry about." He whispered sweetly. He didn't want his girlfriend to give herself any extra unnecessary stress, and helping Remus out in the full moon certainly bought a lot of that.

A few tears slid down Mia's cheeks. If she didn't know better, she would've said she was pregnant. She felt like a hormonal woman who would cry at a pretty flower. She just couldn't stop it anymore.

"I'm such a terrible friend." She sobbed dramatically.

If James didn't know the deep rooted reasons for Mia's anxiety and stress, he would've found it hilarious at how emotional she had been. He tried to be patient but it was sometimes too comical to be serious about. Just yesterday she had cried at how ripe the mango had been and said that it was the reason she was still alive: she really couldn't imagine never eating mango again. But these were the realistic consequences of suppressing your emotions and not knowing how to express or communicate your feelings. However, her friends had coped with it admirably.

Today had been a rather funny day on the emotional front.

James chuckled lovingly at her and rubbed her back.

"How are you a terrible friend my love?"

She let out a large sob and looked at him. James thought she looked absolutely adorable. He knew he shouldn't be thinking that while she was crying her eyes out, but he genuinely couldn't help it.

"Remus is probably feeling like absolute shit right now, and I'm taking all the attention because I'm a selfish dramatic git." She said in a wobbly voice.

James gripped her chin and forced her to look him in the eyes.

"Your not selfish. Do you hear me?" She nodded in response.

"And yes you may be a little tiny bit dramatic, but we all love you for it. It's just who you are darling." He said.

They cuddled for a short while and Mia had calmed down significantly.

They decided to go to bed and began standing up to collect their stuff.

Mia suddenly let out a large gasp and felt all of her tears resurface again. James whipped around and looked at her with fear painting his features.

"What? What is it? What's wrong?" He questioned.

"WE HAVE A FUCKING POTIONS EXAM TOMORROW." She began sobbing again. James was sure she had woken the entire of Gryffindor tower. He lifted her up and carried her upstairs. This was going to be a long night he thought.

Mia put down her quill and looked around at the rest of her class. James was already staring at her and giving her a subtle thumbs up to try and comfort her. She felt a lot better that afternoon than she had for a while. James and her had a long chat the night before which had cheered her up majorly. They had also gone to the kitchens that morning for a private gourmet breakfast. And Mia thought that she was the luckiest girl at Hogwarts. Of course she never said that out loud due to the utter cringiness of it but she thought it secretly. She really did have a bloody brilliant boyfriend.

However, the newfound happiness was rather short lived as the Marauders sat in their dorm with Mia waiting to venture out into the forbidden forest later that night. Remus looked absolutely terrible when he had left with Madam Pomfrey earlier, so they had began imagining that they were in for a long night.

James was particularly worried as he held Mia in his arms whilst they waited.

He felt as though he had an extra special duty to protect her now. Of course he couldn't though. He could barely protect himself on the full moons, but he supposed that this was one of those new personality traits that is found when you enter a relationship.

Sirius suddenly got up and mentioned something about needing a piss, Mia thought it odd that he was leaving the dormitory to go to the loo considering they had an en suit bathroom but shook it off as nothing.

However, time passed and Sirius did not return. It was now time to venture into the forest and they had no choice but to leave without him and hope that he would join them shortly.

It did not matter how much the three teenagers tried to reassure each other or themselves, they could not shake the bad feeling they all had.

A very bad feeling indeed.

Guys I need your honest option. It's been about three weeks and this book is not going very far! I don't know if I'm just being impatient, but is anyone actually enjoying this book? I hope you are but please let me know because I need some motivation to continue!
~M