the girlfriend experience ━━ james potter ¹

xiii. first dates and compliments

The breeze wasn't too cold, and the sun wasn't yet showing signs of disappearing anytime soon, warming the air just right. Bronwyn led James down the hilly landscape of the castle's greens, basket in hand, a nearly cloudless sky blessing them overhead.

"There wouldn't be effort inside that basket, would there, Bronwyn?" James asked as he trailed along behind her down the stone steps out by the greenhouses.

"You didn't think I wasn't going to try, did you, James?" Bronwyn questioned sceptically, slowing down so that he could walk beside her. "You're my client, this is my job. I do take it seriously you know."

James lifted his chin impressed. Bronwyn noticed it out of the corner of her eye but opted not to say anything.

After a moment, Bronwyn's selected picnic spot in sight, James spoke up. "Okay then," he said, "I have a question."

"Go on."

"This is supposed to allow you to judge my dateability right?" James skipped down the final step, hopping so he landed directly next to her, their shoulders brushing.

"Hm mhm." Bronwyn placed the basket down on a large, semi-flat patch of grass, the forest standing tall and eerily beautiful before them, while the Hogwarts castle loomed gracefully, basking in the late afternoon sun.

James watched as she focused on laying out a classic red and white gingham blanket perfectly flat, her back to him. "But you hate me?"

Bronwyn let out a long breath of air as she stood to face him, happy with how the blanket lay. "What an intellectual observation, James."

James wiggled his brows quizzically as Bronwyn slipped off her robes and perched carefully down onto the blanket's surface. She waited for him to be seated in front of her, his legs sprawled out in front of him, leaning back on his elbows making sure the sun wasn't in his eyes before she carried on.

"I see where you're coming from which is why I am going to ignore any previous feelings I have towards you and approach this like any other client, like the professional I am. Hence the picnic."

James cocked his head to the side where he was blinded by a ray of sunshine from where one of the castle's turrets no longer protected him. He squinted his eyes in a struggle. "You sure you're completely okay with forgetting how much you enjoyed drowning me in the bath when we were kids?"

Even with the blaring light framing his face, she could see how his mouth tilted in a smirk. And she did the same. "Oh what good times," she sighed dreamily, soaking in the memories. "But yes, consider those fond memories forgotten."

Bronwyn then hastily added: "Temporarily, at least."

That way James was aware that what he was asking for was near impossible ─ from a young age, Bronwyn had always been aware that torturing James Potter was a wonderful hobby.

"I'm not the virgin Mary."

✧

IT'S A STRANGE THOUGHT TO THINK BUT Bronwyn Ward was on a date with James Potter ─ context is obviously needed here ─ and it wasn't going bad at all.

An hour in, the sun was beginning to sink beneath the horizon, the sky a darker shade of blue than it was earlier. But in the September spirit, it was yet to be dark, and the tea in the tin flask was still warm.