give her love » james potter

37

"Happy birthday, Rem," I say, when everybody finally disperses from the tight circle we'd formed for the cake cutting. I give him a hug, then hand him the envelope I'd held onto tightly for the last hour. "I know you said no gifts, but I think it wouldn't've been right."

He smiles, it's the soft smile that I used to be in love. A part of me still loves that smile, except in a different way now. His hands fumble with opening the envelope, then when he finally does, he pulls out one of my ugly home made cards. It's a light blue that reminded me of the wrappers of his favourite chocolate, and stickers of books and chocolate cover most of the free space, but it says happy birthday in my writing. Inside is a gift certificate for Honey Dukes and a few book marks I'd found.

He holds up the bookmark I thought he'd like the most, it's Star Wars themed and it makes him laugh. "Thanks, Lina. I love it."

I shrug, nonchalantly. "Yeah, it's no big deal. I'm just kinda insane at gift giving."

"Shut up," he says, before putting his arm around my shoulder and walking me over to the rest of the boys. When we reach them, he takes out the gift certificate and show them. "Angelina's my favourite, I hope you all know."

"She can't be your favourite," Peter protests, then grabs my arm and tries to pull me away from Remus. "She's my favourite. Get your own."

They both playfully pull me, arguing about who get's to have me as their favourite. It makes me laugh and I look up at James, who matches my amusement. I know it makes him happy to see how much the boys have grown to like me. They're the most important people in his life and I'm sure he values their opinion above everyone else's.

He finally intervenes by getting in the middle of the two, and putting his arms around me. "I think," he starts, resting his head on my shoulder. "Peirce, has been my girl for a longer time then you've known her."

I turn my head towards his, "James Potter, if I remember correctly. I had to make the first move. So we could classify that as you being, my boy."

Maybe in some other dimension we kiss at this moment, then somebody says "I love you.". But in this one we just smile at each other the way people who tip toe on the line of friends and lovers without a label do. It's enough, though. With James it always enough.

Raj and I had struggled the whole class on our potion. While everybody else is starting to smell whatever they love, we're still stirring and waiting for something to happen. The liquid is still a sickly green and smells like nearly nothing, it continues to bubble though no change seems to occur. 

As class progresses and we get no where, Slughorn finally comes along and examines the hopeless potion. He scrunches his nose then starts to counter-clockwise, "You know Miss Peirce," he starts, as the liquid starts to turn the right colour and he makes a mark on our rubric signifying teacher assistance was needed. Slughorn keeps stirring and laughs. "Actually go ahead and take a smell first."

Raj leans over and coughs slightly, before he almost melts. "So much broom polish," he whispers, then takes a sniff. "Ink. The smell of dirt after it rains. Kasthuri methi," he says finally, his voice becoming heavy suddenly. "It's called fenugreek in English, I think. It's this spice my mum would use for all her food, the smell of it smells like home."

He sits down lost in the smell and I look over at Slughorn who seems to have a look of excitement on him. I give him a smile before finally talking a step towards the simmering caldron. 

The first smell hits me the most, "It's the detergent my momma used," I laugh, feeling the flowery smell surround me. "Mixed in with the smell of her garden because she always air dried in the summer. There's coffee in there and something that reminds me of the beach," I finally pause, stumped at the last smell. It's foresty and nice, but I've never been fond of forests. But it smells so familiar, yet I can't seem to place it. "There's one more, but I don't know what it is.

Slughorn laughs, then starts to finish our rubric. "My morning class yesterday grew tired of hearing about the smell of vanilla and orchids," he says. "The young man could not figure out where the smell was from, even though the entire class had seemed to realise it after the first five minutes of his complaints."

I take another sniff and shrug, "Beats me, honestly."

"Very well, Miss Peirce."

We get an E but then at the last moment he crosses it off and puts in an O. Mumbling something about pining and love, then leaves us finally.

Dear Uncle Winston,

So remember when you told me about how I could take some friends to the beach house? Well, I finally have managed to make some friends to take. I know it's quite a few but I hope you don't mind when I ask if I can bring four. Well at least ask them and see if they're up for it.

You know of Siobhan and Rachel. Then there's James who probably writes more to you then I do, and you see here's the thing with James. You can't bring him without bringing along one of his friends, I assume it'll be Sirius because that's his best friend and from what I've gained from eavesdropping, he also lives with James. 

I think they'd just stay maybe two nights and go home for Easter. I'd stay the whole break there with you guys like we already talked about before (expecting lots of candy!!). It's also James's birthday so maybe we can bake a cake or something for him as an early happy birthday. It's all up to you guys.

I'd also love to take them in town for a bit and show them a movie. James has been dying to see another one so I think it'd be a shame if we didn't seize the opportunity,

Anyways, hope you guys are well and I miss you both soooooooo much.

Love, 

Lina

"I have to ask my parents, but we'll probably be able go," James tells me in the evening, as we study for our Muggle Studies test together.

I hold up another cue card and smile, "We've got to celebrate the big eighteen in a special way."

"A device that captures memories, in the form of paper," he answers first, then gives me a playful grin. "Do I get a kiss, Peirce?"

"No until marriage," I mumble, pulling out another card.

It makes him laugh. "You think we'll get married?"

I kick him lightly, fake annoyance plastered on my face. It's all amusing but I can't let him know I feel that way, "I'd rather die, Potter."

"Soooo, what you're saying is we'll get married in the after life?"

authors note

first of all, thank youuuu for 200k reads. that's just so insane to me. there's been dedicated readers since the beginning of this book, but over the course of the last few weeks i've seen soooo many new readers too. everyday i get new comments and it's really cool to see new thoughts and opinions that are sometimes the same yet other times different. (also isn't weird some of you guys waited every week or even a month for a new chapter but now people just get the first 30ish there???)

secondly, you know that tiktok trend with the john lennon song and they show off their boyfriends. angelina definitely would've done that and gone semi viral. 

lastly, i know the last two-ish chapters haven't been eventful but i just need to give my kids a break for a little bit before we go back into, well, you know. not the happiest stuff.