Forever and a Day ~ James Potter

Rigour Mortis

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Friday 11th February 1977 ~ 14:34 ~ waning half moon

Having the entirety of Hogwarts knowing that a relationship they'd been waiting on for almost two years had finally happened wasn't nearly as dreadful as one may have once believed. James and Rosie had practically become celebrities in the first few weeks of their relationship being exposed, and they had received plenty of congratulations - some from people neither had spoken to before. Although, there were certainly drawbacks, as Rosie very much expected.

Firstly, despite the fact they'd barely had any private time together while trying to hide from their friends, the eyes on them had more than doubled anytime they were near each other, and finding space alone had become even more of a rarity. Secondly, and far worse for Rosie, there were a number of girls (even in years far too young for James) that spent a lot of time spreading nasty things about her around the school. Thankfully, most of the older students had too much sense to believe any of the preposterous rumours that some people were attempting to start.

Lily had finally had her own meeting with Professor Dumbledore and had made it her first mission to find Rosie and Alice to lecture them on signing up for something so frivolously without discussing it with other people first. Both of them pointed out that they'd seen trusted names on the list in their own meetings, shutting Lily's point down rather quickly and rejoicing in the fact that the Order was now a topic of conversation for four of the Gryffindor students. The girl had also not failed to notice that Snape hadn't been invited to sign on, despite their birthdays being so close together.

Being N.E.W.T students, their classes together had halved, so both of them managed to convince some of their friends to change seats halfway through the school year so that they could be alone and relatively undisturbed for some parts of the day. They were currently sitting in charms class, where they'd been instructed to get on with quiet reading - however, sixth years never bothered to listen to the 'quiet' part, and Professor Flitwick never bothered to discipline them for it.

James leaned over the desk to start a small drawing on the corner of Rosie's parchment page, where she'd been jotting down some notes. "Oi, I have to revise from that in a few months," she scolded him but didn't move the parchment out of his reach.

James only shrugged and continued his drawing of four tiny animals (his friends' alternate forms), "I think that'll help you remember what was on the page. It stands out from your other notes, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, I s'pose," she smiled, looking at him with a sweet expression that he gladly returned. 

Every time she caught herself in a moment like this, Rosie wanted to cling onto it as if would never come about again. She was so ecstatic about these small interactions that she'd even managed to produce a patronus, which was a marsh harrier, on her final lesson with James. But every time she thought those few seconds would last forever, somebody had to come along and ruin it.

Vomiting sounds from behind her made both Rosie and James turn around to see Remus pretending to be sick with mischevious smirk while Sirius made exaggerated kissing faces towards them, looking more smug than ever. James only rolled his eyes and thumbed his chin at them, and they laughed madly until they bumped into one another and quickly looked quite awkward, pink spreading over their faces.

Rosie turned back to her notes and began speaking to James, "Are they still not over what happened last April?" she asked seriously, picking up her quill again.

James sighed and shrugged, keeping his voice low, "I dunno... They act pretty normal around the rest of us, but you should've seen Remus those few weeks after the incident; he was distraught. I hope he'll forgive Pads for it soon, though, because it seems like he's becoming more distant from all of us."