With the anticipation of not only Ron but Neville as well, showing up in the morning for another playdate with Harry, Renata and James had to cut their evening conversation short. As much as they didn't want to leave the company of each other, Renata made it a point that the boys were going to be full of energy and ready to go, so they were going to need a good night's rest. James didn't want her to leave for several reasons as he watched her climb out of the hammock first. The first one was that he really wanted more of an explanation when it came to Renata's home life. In his mind, he was beginning to think that something terribly wrong had gone on during her childhood, something either she didn't want to come to terms with or she wasn't even aware of.
It reminded him of Sirius, very early on when they met and became friends shortly after the Sorting Hat Ceremony. For the longest time, Sirius couldn't process that the way his family was treating him was abusive, the way they belittled him for being sorted into Gryffindor and the way they treated him at home. He thought they were only saying things for "his own good" even if deep down he didn't agree with any of the pureblooded prejudice beliefs. It had taken a while, but with the help of James, Remus, and Peter, Sirius was finally able to open his eyes and just see how bad things truly were.
Maybe that's what Renata and Adelmo were facing, it sure sounded like that to James, but she continued to brush it off as if it wasn't very important.
And on top of that, James didn't want her to leave the hammock because he didn't want the night to really end. There some evenings where he could just spend the entire night, swinging back and forth in the hammock with her. Neither one of them ever had to say a word and it would remain just as perfect. Some nights he would fall asleep or Renata would fall asleep first because it was so incredibly peaceful. If nights were cold, one of them would bring out a blanket to share and it just made it even more relaxing if it were possible.
However, maybe Renata didn't feel the same way he did and he had to respect the fact that when she said "good night" that she wished to go her separate way. He muttered a good night in return before he heard the door to the kitchen area close over, leaving him alone outside for the time being.
Remus' words lingered in his head, telling him to approach Renata about the way she addressed him. It didn't seem like such a big deal but James had a tendency to overdramatise certain things, that being one of them. But he couldn't help it, there were all these new feelings he experienced for the first time that he wasn't sure what to do?
Back in school, he had no problem approaching Lily to ask her on a date over a hundred times a day. It never bothered him, he never felt scared, he was the epitome of bold and confident. Or as Lily would say at the time, he was " an arrogant toerag."
But faced with the task of asking Renata to call him James a few years later, it almost posing itself as one of the biggest challenges of his life. He didn't understand why he found it to be so difficult, especially since Remus and Sirius had taken to reassure him that he would fine. They couldn't agree on anything else at the time, but they could both come to the same conclusion that James should approach her about it if it bothered him so much.
With such a simple situation causing such an uproar in his head, it was drowning out the fact that he felt himself growing closer to Renata. He didn't register that he looked at her with such admiration in his eyes or the way that she made him smile when she wasn't even trying. He enjoyed his interactions with her, but he enjoyed her interactions with Harry as well. She was always looking to put Harry first and when she wasn't helping them, she was trying to help the world around them, from the situation between Sirius and Remus to her own brother's troubles.
James knew she had her own troubles and yet, they were never the centre of a conversation, at least not something she would bring up on her own. Everyone else was put before her and as much as James could appreciate that, he also feared that it wasn't fair to Renata. He was so conflicted when it came to the woman and left with no answers as to how he was supposed to handle it.
So as the two were tiptoeing around their feelings and internal struggles, it seemed that was how things were going to play out until everything finally surfaced.
For James, he sincerely hoped that one day soon Renata would take to calling him James or at least ask to call him such. Until then, he would take whatever was offered his way and be thankful for it.
Although nothing could stop him from dreaming, right?
After crawling into his bed later on that evening after he convinced himself to abandon the hammock for the night, James took his sleeping draught in order to sleep. Almost instantly the effects of the draught made him sleepy, otherwise, he would have found himself rather restless. He entered a dream, one that would be considered pleasant and that was something that he desperately missed. Always plagued by nightmares during and after the war, it was nice to have dreams that made him smile while he slept.
Only this dream did a lot more for him than just make him smile.
It started off with James finding himself in the kitchen, cooking away as he heard the sound of Renata and Harry playing outside. Normally, he would have taken to looking out to see what they were playing, but he was too focused on the task at hand. He wasn't just cooking a simple pasta dish, from the looks of it, he was ready for the big times. All the ingredients from spices to vegetables, raw meats and other ingredients took up the counter space, which made it quite obvious that he was finally tackling a complicated dish.
Renata had claimed that he would probably be ready to try something soon, but it seemed it was happening sooner than he anticipated.
There were several pots and pans out, all ready to hit the stove as he was throwing in ingredients left and right. Occasionally, he would stop to stir one of the pots, rotate something around in a pan, and adjust the heat using his wand. He looked like a natural at it because he was actually making it all look so easy. When in reality, James was normally glued to the cookbook in front of him, taking forever to measure something out and constantly neglecting one pan because he was too busy staring at a pot. It usually involved Renata interfering, even if he wasn't aware of it at the time.
But in his dreams, he was James Potter, chef extraordinaire.
He was putting his meal together and it all looked rather perfect, although if anyone actually asked James what he was making, he probably wouldn't be able to come up with a name for it. However, that didn't matter as he opened up the window and called for Renata and Harry to come and eat.
Apparently, Harry wasn't in the mood to eat as he remained outside for the time being while Renata made her way in.
"He asked for another few minutes to play," she told him, " couldn't resist when he made that little face at me."
James was about to scold her in a teasing manner that she didn't use her firm voice with Harry, when suddenly, through the open window came an owl trying to deliver a parcel. Unfortunately, through the window, it came crashing in and dropped the parcel right into the soupy mixture that exploded everywhere. For several moments, it was pure chaos as the soup mixture was extremely hot and all over James' clothes, while Renata was trying to shoo the owl back outside.
He had to rip off his shirt in order to avoid being burned and used the other side of it to wipe the remaining soup off of his body. Even in his dreams, it appeared something always had to go awry and this was just the perfect proof.
"Well, there goes dinner," he announced in a huff, " just when everything was perfect..."
Turning around, he went to apologise to Renata for the ruined meal, however, as he turned he caught sight of her staring at him, or rather, she was definitely staring at his body. There was no mistaking that as her eyes seemed to travel over him until they reached his face and then when she met his gaze, she quickly turned away. She definitely couldn't hide the blush on her face and that left James blushing himself. He wasn't imagining it, she was actually looking at him and if he wasn't mistaken, she actually liked what she was looking at.
"Sorry, Mr Potter," she told him as she took a step back, " I didn't mean to stare."
"You didn't mean to stare or you didn't mean to get caught?"
She didn't look sure of what to answer as she peered back up at him and in those moments, James was at a loss of what to say as well. His cheeky question had been a surge of confidence but it all drained away in the matter of a second when they were faced to face again. The blush reappearing on his face as neither one of them said anything.
There was no telling how much time had passed as they both just stood there in the dream sequence, what felt like hours, was probably only a few passing seconds as James continued to sleep.
The silence and stillness only broke when Renata seemed to be turning to head back outside, her hand reaching for the door.
"I'm really sorry, Mr Potter, I'll just be-"
Not wanting her to leave just yet, James ran over and placed his hand on the door to stop her. There was a moment where she was startled and jumped back a bit, however, it left them much closer than before.
"How long are you going to call me Mr Potter?" he asked her.
There was a grin on her face, one that James had often seen before whenever she was attempting to tease him about something. Usually, it involved when he was doing something wrong like when they were cooking together or when they were just being silly around Harry. But there was that grin, a smile that left him feeling somewhat weak as she moved her head to gaze up at him once more.
"Until you insist that I don't, James."
Nothing in the world compared to the moment where she called him James and it seemed his subconscious had a firm grip on that as James could hear her say it clearly in his dreams. It sounded just as sweet and it drove him just as wild as it did when he heard it in real time.
Everything from that point happened so fast that James couldn't figure out if he had taken the first step towards her or if she had approached him first. It didn't really matter honestly because as soon as she was in a close enough reach, he reached his arms out and pulled her into him. As soon as their bodies met with a gentle collide, he leaned in, craving that moment when they finally brought themselves to a kiss.
They were both so close but it seemed they were both so timid in their approach. He could feel it, they wanted it to happen and yet neither one of them were actually going for it. Why? Why were they only standing there, a few breaths apart and not doing anything?
In the midst of the silence, Renata went to speak first finally. "Mr Potte-"
But before she could even finish addressing him by his surname again, James finally worked up the courage again. His doubts about coming on too strong or coming off as pushy vanished within seconds as he held the sides of Renata's face and just pulled her in for a kiss.
As his lips covered hers, his hands slid back running through her soft hair, slamming all of his senses as they both became intertwine with one another. Every second where they were connected left him wanting more and when he finally pulled away so that he could breathe, he was only left disappointed by one thing.
The fact that he woke up and discovered that it wasn't real.
Outside of James' room, Renata already had Ron, Harry, and Neville in her care as James seemed to be sleeping in that morning. Not that she minded at all as she was allowing the boys to paint in the garden using their hands. Ron and Harry were practically elbow-deep in paints, swirling them all over the paper that Renata had provided for them. But Neville wasn't exactly on board with the idea of having anything on his hands.
However, Harry continued to encourage him to join as he kept bringing the paint over to Neville as an offering.
"It's alright, Harry," Renata told him, " if Neville doesn't want to do it, he doesn't have to. You can keep painting with Ron."
Harry let out a dramatic little sigh, almost sounding disappointed with Renata for not making Neville join in. But Neville was the one who let out a sigh of relief, thankful he wasn't going to be forced to be dirty right away as he was perfectly content just sitting in her lap for the time being.
Eventually, James did make his way outside after waking up, although he did look awfully confused as he made his way out to the garden. Renata assumed that he probably forgot about the boys coming over for their playdate. Not that she blamed him, she figured he was probably really tired from the day before, enough that he slept through his morning alarm. However, as he was making his way over towards where they were all sitting, he didn't look at Ron or Neville, not even Harry, he was just looking right at her.
"Good morning, Mr Potter," she greeted him, feeling her heart race slightly faster under his gaze, " did you sleep well?"
He didn't answer right away, his face turning red for a couple of seconds before he settled down beside her.
"Yeah, I slept alright, had an interesting dream," he muttered the last part to himself, " what about you? Any dreams?"
"No," she answered simply, " at least, none that I can recall. I think was too exhausted to go frolicking in dreamland last night. And thankfully, we all went to bed early because guess who decided that he was getting up at six this morning?"
Before James could answer, Harry looked up and placed his hand up with a smile. "Me!"
The two of them laughed as Neville and Ron looked over at Harry, unsure of what he was doing at the time.
"But since he was up so early, I figured the boys could come over earlier as well. Molly was extremely pleased to hear that. Apparently, Arthur offered to take the boys for the day, so he was just her and Ginny. I feel as though there are going to be plenty of naps involved for their girl's day."
"Well, since you've been up for a while, I can take over," James offered, " you can go back to sleep if you want."
"Oh no, I'm fine, but I bet the boys would love it if you joined them in painting. They've been trying to get Neville here to try it out but I don't think he's a fan of the idea as of yet."
She didn't have to say anything more as James crawled over to where Ron and Harry were painting, just like had sold the idea of sand to Harry back at the beach, James was convinced he could sell the idea of finger-painting to Neville. Although no matter what he did and no matter how enthusiastic he was about it, Neville was not impressed at all.
"I don't think I'm getting anywhere with this," James said, looking over where Neville looked slightly bored out of his mind.
"Well, maybe that's because you're painting wrong," Renata pointed out, bringing him to look oddly confused. She placed Neville in the grass and then made her way over, barefoot on the grass before she came to settle beside James. She reached to grab some red paint and then swiped her finger across James' face.
Immediately, Neville started giggling, especially at James' expression, and his laughter brought Harry and Ron to look over where they started laughing too. The only one not laughing, in the beginning, was James as he gave Renata a look.
"Is that how you want to play it?"
"Oh come on now, Mr Potter, we're selling the paint, aren't we? You did such a good job with the sand," she said, taking another colour and adding to it.
Suddenly, Harry dipped his hand in paint and then placed it against Ron's face, leaving Ron to cry out.
"Oh yes, Renata, you're setting such a wonderful example for the children," James said and while she was distracted, he grabbed his own paint, dipping his fingers into the yellow and then getting her right on the forehead.
Suddenly, it had turned into an all-out war, one that Neville found amusement in, but he was not about to get involved in as he wandered away from the paint splashing. Ron and Harry were locked in battle while Renata was trying to fight off James but was losing to his strength as he decorated her face to resemble a rainbow of sorts.
But at the sound of what sounded like a squeak, all of them turned their heads, only to see that Neville held the garden hosepipe in hand. They all quickly dropped the paints in their hands in total surrender and James decided to be the hero and try to talk Neville down from firing at them using water.
"Hey, Neville, why don't we just put that down, no need to get worked up, it's just a bit of- ARRGHH!"
Neville wasn't one to be talked down at the moment as he opened the flow of water and aimed it directly at James' chest. The water was cold which sent James running and as Neville looked at the others, they started running too. Yet as everyone ran off, Neville became distracted by the little group of flowers that definitely looked as though they could use some water. In the midst of his pursuit, he came to a stop and began to water the plants, rather than engaging in his attack.
"Did he really stop chasing us to water flowers?" James asked Renata as they hid in the hedges near the fence.
"Well, I guess someone had to, Mr Potter."
"Are you saying I neglect plants?"
"Maybe."
No longer did they have to worry about being chased with water, but Renata still had to outrun James as he took to chasing her around the garden. Harry and Ron thought it looked like good fun as they ran after the two adults, but Neville stuck to hanging around the plants for the rest of the morning, making sure each one of them was watered and happy.
He definitely preferred that over painting any day.