𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗷𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗲𝗿, james potter

˗ˋ 03

CHAPTER THREE
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-: sixth year :-

── IN WHICH AN OFFER
IS MADE

. . .

"Where are they going?" James had pushed himself up, eyes blinking through the blurriness. "Shit.. my glasses are all smudged."

"Here, let me do it." Rosie reached out and gently pulled the wire frames from his nose, hitting a snag and having to untangle a knot of brown hair from the temples. James mumbled his gratitude, head leaning back against the wall as she cleaned them with her sleeve. "All better." The girl sat up and carefully placed them back over his nose. 

James looked around, vision so much clearer. "Sirius, Remus and Peter - where did they go?"

"To go and get some water." Rosie replied. "I sort of assumed that you weren't planning on going anywhere though, were you Mr Potter?"

"Hey - how do you know m' name?" James turned towards her, eyes full of question. A quick look over his appearance deemed him not as drunk as she expected him to be - either he could hold his alcohol very well, or it wasn't him drinking that much.

"My aunt's an awful gossip." Rosie sat back in her seat, her smile meeting her eyes. "I've only been here for three weeks at most and already I know every single interesting thing I have to know about the inhabitants of Hogsmeade."

"Oh yeah? What've you got on... Madam Puddifoot's?" James asked, plucking the name out of his head. Although he didn't think about it at the time, he subconciously chose it due to Lily's preference for the tea they sold there - he had joined her in there on several occasions despite hating every inch of the teashop with every fibre of his being. 

"It's all one big fraud. Her hair is fake, the little cherubs she has flying around on Valentine's Day are a special breed of Cornish Pixies in dress-up. And although she claims to use sugar shrub. mellowsweet and moondew in her tea and cakes and whatever else they sell in that pink hell, she just uses ordinary sugar." Rosie listed it off on her fingers, bending them back slightly as she did so.

"You would never have thought it." Tipsy James was far more surprised by it than he should be. He couldn't wait to tell Lily this - but only when he felt like he could actually talk to her. 

"And my auntie thinks that they have secret gambling-on-gobstone games. You know, the illegal kind." Rosie let out a laugh at the absurdity. "I don't really believe her - but I suppose you would know her better so I'll let you judge on that."

"I've heard her say some outrageous things." James nodded slowly. "So I wouldn't exactly be surprised either way."

They fell into a lapse of silence that was quickly interrupted but shouts from Remus, Sirius and Peter, who weren't exactly having an easy time with the water.

"So, Potter." Rosie sat forward and grasping one of the shot glasses, holding it up as she tapped her nails against it. "I've heard all about your little situation from Sirius. Is the alcohol supposed to make you feel better, help you forget or a mixture of both?"

"Last option." James quickly replied. "I haven't seen you before today, you new?"

"I served you here last weekend. But yeah, I'm new." Rosie nodded, enjoying the change in pace of the conversation. "Moved from London a couple weeks ago. And I definitely wouldn't ask this if you weren't.. already getting rid of any politeness, but how did you end up losing the love of your life?"

"I wouldn't call her that. Sirius tends to over-exaggerate." James said. "I've had a crush on her for a few years, made my move, eight months later she breaks up with me. Said she wanted to give me a chance, but turns out I'm just what she expected."

"Ouch." The Rosmerta girl's nose wrinkled. "So you're drinking to forget? I wouldn't say that you would drink like this to make you feel better."

"I've barely had anything but butterbeer. and.. a few shots of firewhiskey." James shook his head and rose his shoulders upwards in a shrug. "It makes you feel a bit better though, right? All warm and a bit fuzzy and then you get pretty ladies to feel sorry for you."

"You think I feel sorry for you?" Rosie was quick to pick up on the implications.

"I think you clearly don't want to work here, or be here. And I think you want to forget that." He was turning her own logic against her.

"I can't drink on the job, Potter. Well.. more than I have been doing already. I have been drinking - I just can't get drunk enough to forget."

"It's just James. But I wasn't just meaning firewhiskey. Other things can help your forgetting." The Potter boy winked, words filled with even more implications.

Rosie ran her tongue over her teeth, poking her cheek as she put the glass down, leaning forward and meeting his eyes. "Are you suggesting we hook up? I've heard of quick rebounds, but you're moving a little too fast there - you got broken up with this morning."

"And now I'm drunk and I have to act like myself. James Potter isn't one to mope around over something." He shook his head. "Never has been and never will be."

"Did you just refer to yourself in third person?" Rosie scoffed. "Cause that's a real turn on." James smirked slightly, eyes running over the girl's pretty features, watching as she watched Sirius, Remus and Peter walking back now having successfully got their water. 

The Rosmerta girl was considering it, in all honesty. Was it a good idea - probably not - but she was queen of bad ideas and that was why she had been sent there.. and she had had a couple drinks herself.

"I'll see if my aunt will let me get off my shift in five minutes." Rosie leaned a little closer to him. "And then I walk out - I'll go around to the backdoor and wait for.. three minutes. If you're not there, it's not happening, got it?"

"Got it." James's smirk had only grown bigger, sitting back in his seat and practically oozing confidence as he watched Rosie leave, disappear behind the bar and reach for a bottle of Firewisket for himself, and his friends joined him again. 

"What happened with you? Why don't you look so sad anymore." Remus looked concerned, all three of them did. James shrugged, eyes trained onto the blonde server who was currently speaking to her aunt. His friends followed his gaze, wondering exactly what this girl had said to him.

"You're going to have to go back to the castle alone. I'll find my own way back. Cover for me if Minnie asks." James didn't answer any of their questions, leaving them confused as he slid out of the booth and through the front door. 

Then, seconds later, the three remaining watched as Rosie moved out of the back door, buzzed from her own couple of hidden drinks that she had snook over the course of the evening when her aunt wasn't looking.

"It looks like Prongs didn't need our help to get over it after all." Sirius slumped back in his seat, before scanning the bar and calling for Rosmerta, a typical grin on his face.

Despite his lack of enthusiasm at the start of the evening, it did seem that James Potter was comletely capable of rebounding. And he found that he wouldn't regret it either.

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