Just You Wait | James Sirius Potter (On Hiatus)

Chapter 11: Satisfied

(A/N): Publishing two chapters in a week???? Dang what am I doing??? As promised, this chapter is much longer than the last one. Love you guys! ~ Kira

After a week of nervousness and letters from James signed the light of your life, the day of the Yule Ball finally arrives.

The dorm is a near hurricane of girls getting dressed, putting on makeup, and doing hair. Alice is sitting in the middle of the room stressing about Evan, and Gwen, Rose, and Brianna are sitting in a circle doing a sort of hair-doing train.

By the time we all step out of that room, the air reeks of hairspray, and we're nearly tripping over everything in a rush to not be late. We all freeze at the top of the stairwell. Rose, Gwen, and Brianna go down the stairs first because they don't have dates waiting for them, and Alice and I exchange nervous glances at the thought of walking down the stairs in front of everyone.

Alice walks down first, and as she descends, I swear Evan has literal heart eyes as he walks up to her, a blushing mess and whispers something in her ear. She flushes a deeper shade of red than Lily Luna Potter's hair and takes his arm as they walk towards the great hall.

As I step out onto the stair landing, I glance down at the group of people waiting by the stairs. Rose, Gwen, and Brianna are on their way out of the room, but turn to give me a thumbs up. I finally spot James and my heart stops in my chest for a moment before the blinding grin he sends me snaps me out of it. I carefully walk down the stairs, but my shoe catches on the back of my dress on the last step and I fall, but luckily, James catches me before I hit the ground, prompting some applause from his friends and family. Both of us are laughing until we realize the close proximity we're in and we avoid eye contact and blush.

"Graceful as usual," he whispers in my ear with a smirk as he places me back on my feet.

"Always here to save me as usual, Sir Potter," I snap back, using the nickname I've called him ever since he tried to save me while we played Damsel-in-Distress at the Potter's Christmas party when we were seven. At the time, I was more than willing to save myself, so I jumped off the top of the broom shed that we were using as a makeshift tower and knocked him over. He still never lets me forget it.

"I always have to to make sure you won't knock someone over." he says, just like how I expected.

"That was ONCE." I protest as James places my hand in his, beginning to lead me out of the Ravenclaw common room. I see a faint blush show on his ears once he reaches the door, but the darker lights of the hall render me unable to see them once he steps out of the common room.

When we reach the great hall, which has been decorated specially for the occasion, I finally get to have a good look at James. He's wearing black dress robes, with a tie of the exact shade of gray that I'd sent him. His hair is tamed as much as possible, but it's still messy enough to resemble his usual tornado of a hairstyle. As much as I hate to admit it, he looks, for lack of better word, gorgeous.

While I scan his appearance, he seems to do the same to me, his eyes slightly glazed over as he studied my face.

"You're staring at me." I tell him.

"Even in heels you're still short," he comments, a small smile forming on his face.

"Would you rather that I be Teddy's height?" I reply, thinking about Teddy's 5'11"

height next to James' 5'9". James is still getting taller, and he still hopes that someday he'll surpass Teddy in the height department. I doubt it though, our dad is a veritable giant, and Teddy inherited almost everything from dad.

"Not really," James shakes his head, "Then I'd literally have to look up to you, and I'd prefer it the other way around".

I let out a huff of disapproval and open my mouth to make a sarcastic comment before he interrupts me.

"You still look pretty though......"

I look up at him in surprise.

"-good.... Pretty good."

I breathe a small sigh of mock relief and look back down while my heart drops in my chest a little bit.

"Pretty.. Good..." I repeat, "you can do better than that." I laugh and look up at him and once again he has an expression I can't place in his eyes before he laughs.

"Then what would you have me call you? Stunning? Gorgeous? Beautiful?" he asks, poking my side once with every adjective.

And with that, everything is back to normal again. We're both laughing and James is the normal, open, untroubled James that I've known since I was little.

The rest of the ball goes smoothly, with no more signs of James acting weird. We sit and watch people dance, occasionally going up to dance ourselves, though I find that James is no good at dancing, waltzing especially, because my poor toes felt like they were being crushed every time we danced.

By the end of the ball, we're breathless and still laughing as he walks me back to my common room.

"I had an amazing time," I say, "Thank you for forcing me to come with you."

James laughs.

"I don't think I forced you, love, but if it helps, I had a great time too."

We both laugh nervously, and fall into a slightly awkward silence. I am the one to break it.

"Goodnight James."

"Goodnight Maia." He leans down towards me as if to whisper something in my ear, and my back straightens in nervousness, but then he draws back as if having second thoughts. I stand still as a statue as he takes my hand and presses a kiss to my knuckles before turning and walking away without a word.