I Fancy You: James Sirius Potter

40. Dreamless Summer

Alli, It's been a week since we got home from Hogwarts and I've yet to have another dream. My mom doesn't even need to sleep in my room anymore. I think she misses it though. Dylan is bored out of his mind so Hermione and Ron agreed to let him spend some time at their house with Hugo.
I've been teaching Amelia different words to communicate better with us. I've been pretty bored too and it'll be even worse now that Dylan is leaving for a couple weeks.
I hope you're having a wonderful time in Delhi. I miss you so much. Write back when you can! Love, Ellie
I finish my letter to Alli and send it off with my owl then head downstairs to say bye to Dylan. He gives me a big hug then leaves through the floo network.
Mom and I gather in the living room to play on the floor with Amelia. She's two now, walking and saying some words. When we get a knock at the door I jump up.
"I got it!" I say. Mom hides a sly smile. When I open the door I see why. Daniel is standing there smiling at me with a duffel bag. "Daniel!" I screech before jumping into his arms and being twirled around by him. "What are you doing here?" I mumble into his neck.
"Your parents invited me as a surprise," he explains. "I'm glad to see it's a good surprise."
"It's the best surprise," I tell him. "I'm so glad to see you," I say with a huge breath of relief I didn't even realize I was holding.

Dinner that night is fun because Daniel volunteered to cook and volunteered me to help. It's so much fun to just be with him. Our dinner is so good even Amelia, the picky two year old, loves it. Daniel sits next to Amelia and helps feed her, once again making my heart go wild for him. My parents let Daniel and I go hang out in my room as long as we have the door open.
"How long do you get to stay?" I ask him.
"A couple of weeks," he tells me with a big smile. "How have you been?" I know he means with my dreams.
"I haven't had any. It's like as soon as I left anything Hogwarts related they just vanished."
"That's strange. I hope me being around won't bring them back."
"No, you keep the dreams away actually. I never told you but the only time at school I didn't have those dreams was when I was sleeping in bed with you."
Daniel looks over at me like I'm impossible to figure out. "You know you had that dream on the train after I had very carefully slid out from under you to go to the bathroom?"
"Wait really?" I sit up in my bed.
"Yeah, as soon as I got back I saw everyone freaking out over you and heard you speaking Parseltongue."
"Something about you makes those dreams stop. I don't know what it is but being around you makes them... I don't know, scared to form in my subconscious."
"You're so cute," he says smiling sweetly at me.
"It's true! I'm not trying to be cute," I say while throwing my pillow at him. He laughs then jumps on me. "I'm serious, Daniel."
"Okay okay!" He sits back, scooting to the foot of my bed. "I'm glad I can help I just don't understand why and how I help," he tells me.
"Maybe it's how much I..." I stop myself. I pull my knees up to my chest. Too quick. Again. "Maybe it's how much I trust you," I tell him instead. His eyes search my face, those eyes know every bit of me is holding something back. That I wanted to say something else. That I'm too scared to because of how quickly things happened and got destroyed for me last time.
"I can't even tell you how much it means to me that you trust me so much. I trust you just as much if not more." We lock eyes, both of us having an understanding of what we really mean.
We hear a quick knock at my already open door. "Time for bed, you two. Daniel, Dylan isn't home while you'll be here so you can have his bed," my mom tells him.
"Thank you so much. Goodnight, Ellie."
"Goodnight. Sleep well," I tell him. I look over at my mom who turns her back to us so that Daniel can give me a kiss goodnight.

Some time in the the middle of the night I wake up and I can't get back to sleep. My throat feels dry so I go downstairs for some water. Quietly, I tiptoe downstairs so as not to wake my parents of Daniel since he's sleeping downstairs in Dylan's room, but Daniel is already in the kitchen getting some water.
"Hey," I whisper. He jumps because he didn't see me. "Oh sorry."
"No it's okay, I was lost in thought. Water?" He offers me his glass which I gladly take.
"What were you thinking about?"
He shrugs then sits at one of the stools at the kitchen island. I take a seat on top of the island, legs folded in front of me.
"I was thinking about you. How at ease we feel together. You make everything fun and bright," he says smiling. "I sound so ridiculous."
"No you don't! That's how I feel. Everything is better with you around."
We stare at each other in the darkness, the only light coming from the moon through the window. I want him to kiss me so bad. Then, almost like he can read my mind, he stands and kisses me.
"You're a dream," I tell him.
"No I'm real. I'm not perfect or a dream," he says still resting his forehead on mine.
"That makes you even better than a dream," I whisper. We both smile into another kiss.
"You should get up to bed," he tells me. I groan but after another cup of water I agree to go back to bed. We give each other one more kiss then both get to our separate beds.

The next day Daniel sleeps in. Mom is out with Amelia getting food for the house and Dad is at work so I'm left to wonder around the cottage alone. I decide to go hang out by the pond.
When I get my swimsuit on and get downstairs I leave Daniel a note for when he wakes up to let him know where I went.
It's not even an hour before I see Daniel coming out of the cottage with his swim trunks on. I smile big when I see him.
"Hey sleepyhead!" I call to him.
"Hey! You could have woken me up," he says when he lays next to me in the grass.
"You looked too sweet I couldn't do it," I say smiling. I get on top of him and kiss his nose. "We'll have the house to ourselves most of the day, anything you want to do?" He peaks at me through one eye with a cocky smirk. "Yeah I thought so," I say giggling as he throws me over his shoulder and brings me to the cottage.

Daniel and I are laying skin to skin in my bed, his hands absentmindedly stroking my head. We're both catching our breath from what we just did.
"When's your birthday?" I ask him with my head on his chest.
"July thirteenth," he says.
I jump up and stare at him. "That's only four days away! Daniel Yang! Why wouldn't you tell me sooner?"
"I hate fussing about my birthday. Ellie, what are you doing?" He gets up, my eyes drop to down below then quickly back up. He's already seen me look though so he's grinning at me like he's ready for round two.
"Daniel, we have to celebrate your birthday! We can't just-" he cuts me off with a kiss that I happily return. "This is not your birthday present," I say giggling when he throws me back in bed.
"If you say so," he says in a voice that makes me weak.

When we're finished again, I decide it's safest for us to get back in our swimsuits and go back down to the pond. I jump in and he quickly follows. When we resurface I jump on his back.
"We have to celebrate your birthday, Daniel."
"Why do we have to?"
"Because I want to," I say smiling because I know he'll do anything I want.
"Why do you want to though?"
"Because you mean a lot to me. I like celebrating people who I... who mean a lot to me."
"Okay, fine." He spins me to be wrapped around his front side. "We can celebrate but no party. Just something small. Just with you and your parents. Please?"
"Okay I can respect that." I kiss his lips softly. "You're the most handsome guy in the world."
"Stop," he says blushing and throwing his head back."
"And you're even more handsome when you're embarrassed about it," I say laughing. "I can't believe you're my boyfriend."
"I can't believe you're my girlfriend. You're all I thought about last year. I hated James. You're still all I think about."
I rest my head on his shoulder. He was wrong last night. He is perfect.