While Renata wished that James would have slowly relayed all the newly found information to her rather than beat her over the head with it bluntly, she was thankful that he decided to be honest with her. She wasn't sure how much Adelmo would have disclosed if she had approached him first, but she knew it was just in his nature to be protective. He wouldn't tell her anything until he was aware of everything himself, just so that he wouldn't cause her any unnecessary panic. It was a kind gesture, but Renata was actually thankful that James was giving her everything without hesitation.
It definitely showed the concern on his behalf as he and Sirius had willingly looked into the matter, but Renata didn't know what to make of everything she had been presented with. First, the idea of her school only employing Aurors, Healers, teachers, and government employees, wouldn't have sounded so off if they were all specifically trained in those professions. However, Renata didn't remember her schooling being any different from what she heard others experiencing. She still had all the regular core classes and no one had steered her in the direction of becoming an Auror.
But then again, did she really just wake up one day and decide that she was going to be one? She had no distinct recollection of what point her in life she had made such a decision, but it was almost as if it has always been ingrained in her mind to become an Auror. Was it the same for Adelmo? She never recalled him every claiming that he wanted to become a Healer when they were children, he was naturally incredibly smart, but there had been no discussion of it.
However, as soon as he left school, he went right into practising healing without looking at any other job prospects.
And if that wasn't enough for her to process at one time, it felt as though James was making a hint that perhaps her blood phobia, and her want to become an Auror were somewhat correlated. She didn't see any relation between them initially, but as she thought about it, she couldn't recall a time during her childhood where the phobia had ever been a factor. No one spoke of memories where she had an episode or anything of the sort. Her first experience with it was during her Auror training, seemingly out of nowhere.
Just like her decision to become an Auror had come out of nowhere as she couldn't remember an instance where she ever claimed she wanted to be one, she just wanted to be one...naturally?
Then James decided to drop the final bomb on her head, announcing that her mother was visiting and that was enough to make Renata want to vomit right on the spot. It was nothing truly against her mother, she loved her parents dearly. However, her mother held very high expectations for her and for Adelmo.
Adelmo was well off in his career as a Healer, but Renata, she could already hear her mother questioning everything about her becoming a nanny. It didn't matter if Harry was the famed Boy-Who-Lived, in her mother's eyes, Renata could do so much better and she was afraid that it was going to be one of the first things brought up, on her visit. Renata was dreading it the most because the last thing she wanted was for her mother to offend James and she already knew that her mother was not going to approve the idea of her dating James either.
No one was really ever good enough for the Abate children in their parents' minds, they had expressed that numerous times, but if they had to be with someone, they would prefer someone from their school that they had grown up with.
Suddenly, at the realisation of how much the school played a role in their lives, Renata let out a small gasp, which caused James to be ready and alert. He had already been preparing himself to help Renata if she became sick because she looked fully ready to become sick to her stomach at any given second.
"What? What is it?" he asked her. "Do you feel like you're going to be sick?"
"No," Renata lied as her stomach was performing somersaults, " I was just thinking about something. Mr Potter, I must warn you, about my mother, she's...well...she's um..."
"She's not going to approve of you working for me, let alone you dating me?"
Well, that was one way to certainly put it, she thought to herself before slowly succumbing to nodding her head. Obviously, she had no control over her mother's actions, but she felt shameful having to admit such a thing. The way James had described his parents numerous times, they always came across as so lovely, accepting and inviting. In comparison to hers, Renata felt like her parents suddenly came across as demons.
She kept in mind that they were all raised differently and it wasn't fair to make such comparisons, after all, she knew that her parents loved her and Adelmo, they just had different ways of showing it.
"I'm so sorry," she told him, " it's wrong of her and I know that. But she has always-"
"Wanted to control every aspect of your being?"
The area grew quiet with Renata biting the inside of her cheek for a moment. She didn't know whether she was suddenly feeling upset because it sounded extremely harsh on James' behalf to be passing such judgment on her mother or did it really have to do with the fact that it sounded just a bit too true?
"My mother always thinks she knows what's best for us," she responded in a calm tone, "even if she's not correct all the time, she does things with good intentions. When she arrives, I will speak with her, I just don't want you to become offended or hurt by anything she says."
"So I'm not supposed to be offended by the idea that she thinks you can't make proper decisions for yourself?"
Renata thought that he was going to bring up that he should be allowed to be offended that her mother wouldn't see him as good enough, but James' focus seemed to be entirely on Renata at that point.
"I'm used to her behaviour-"
"That doesn't make it right, Ren."
James could see that Renata couldn't bring herself to argue, possibly accepting the idea that he was right, however, he could see the troubled expression on her face. It wasn't his goal to make her upset, he just wanted her to be aware that maybe the way of her parents wasn't as good or acceptable as she had made it be in her head over the years. For the Abate adults to have so much control over their children, even as Renata and Adelmo became adults, it was baffling to James. Perhaps because he had grown up in a household where he was free to be much more independent in his decision-making.
His parents allowed him to make mistakes over the years because that was how he learned. And while he had made many mistakes in his life, he was starting to realise that he didn't really regret any of them, or at least, he wasn't allowing them to hold him back anymore. He took each mistake as a learning experience and it was definitely helping him grow, even as an adult. It sounded like Renata and Adelmo were never allowed to make mistakes, that they were frightened to do so.
And with their mother coming into town, James didn't need to be an Empath to know that Renata was frightened. But she wasn't frightened by her mother's reaction, she was afraid of his reaction to her mother's judgement. That was something that she shouldn't have been subjected to, her mother shouldn't have put her into such a position.
"Listen," he said at one point, reaching his hand out and placing it over hers, " no matter what your mother says to me or about me, that's not going to affect how I feel about you. You understand that, right?"
She seemed unsure and he honestly couldn't blame her because it wasn't like James was a Seer, he didn't know what was coming his way. He didn't know how he was going to react, but it was his way of telling her that he didn't really care what her mother thought of him or the situation. Before there had been any involvement of Mrs Abate, he and Renata had figured things out on their own and things had been wonderful. He didn't want the woman to come in and ruin it and if he had to, he was going to fight for his relationship with Renata.
"I just want you to understand, Mr Potter, that my mother's views do not reflect my own," she whispered to him. "But I fear once you meet her, once you two properly meet, you won't see eye to eye as you two are very different people and that's going to lead to something terrible."
"Or maybe she'll love me," he said in an optimistic tone, wanting to make Renata laugh, " I mean, she hasn't seen how I wash eggs, has she? That's just one adorable aspect of myself. Or maybe I'll impress her with my dancing, that seemed to win you over..."
"With all due respect, Mr Potter, it was clearly my dancing that won you over."
He could see the smile that fought its way to her lips before she looked over at him. " I just really hope you don't think less of me-"
Her fears, were very similar to James' fears when it came to the entire visit. He feared that Renata's mother would say something and Renata would have a "realisation" that she could do better. Just the thought of it made James sick to his stomach, he didn't think Renata would change her mind so drastically, especially after all the things she had said to him since they met. But he didn't know Mrs Abate very well and from what he did know, he was about to face a very powerful force.
But he didn't want to hear any of Renata doubting herself or her doubting how he would feel about her after the visit. After all, he didn't care really what Lily's family had thought of him, it didn't affect his feelings towards her after he had met Petunia. He was sure there was nothing that Mrs Abate could throw at him that would make him think less of Renata as a person. He probably would like Mrs Abate very much but that wouldn't be anything new, from the limited information he had of her, he already didn't like her.
James just had the plan of being as polite as possible so that he didn't put Renata in a compromising position. Unfortunately, he had learned during a dinner with Lily and her sister that things could get ugly between relationships when the family was involved, but he wasn't going to make the same mistakes again.
Leaning in to cut her off before she could voice her doubts, James brought her into a kiss of reassurance. His confidence was coming back and he was damn confident that they could get through a visit from Renata's mother. She didn't pull away from him, instead, he could feel one of her hands comes to rest on his chest before he broke the kiss.
"Can we just enjoy the time we have before she shows up? I think we have some time since she only sent the letter and Adelmo said he was going to discuss it with you tomorrow. So let's just have some fun and relax?"
"I'd like that, Mr Potter, I'd like that very much."
It made James smile, not because she had addressed him as "Mr Potter" but he hoped that he successfully made it through he visit with Renata's mother that it would lead to her finally calling him James.
To take their minds off the drama storm that was coming their way, Renata and James spent the rest of the day in the company of Harry. Sirius decided that he actually wanted to speak with Adelmo and asked them to pray for him as he left. Renata felt all kinds of nervous because she knew that was going to be a complicated conversation and she didn't want Adelmo to get hurt and she didn't want Sirius to get hurt either. However, with her mother coming, she honestly didn't see how Adelmo making any sort of compromise to be with Sirius and he was always a mess when it came to how their parents viewed him and his sexual orientation.
But Harry kept her mind distracted as she and he were on the run from a dangerous dragon that was on the loose, otherwise known as James the Dragon. The two of them were hiding under the hammock, listening to the mighty beast roar and blow fire ( or in this case leaves because fire around a little one was dangerous).
"Look, Harry, " she whispered to the toddler pressed into her side as she pointed ahead to where James was stomping around. They were photographers, taking pictures of the dragon, but every so often James would "catch" sight of them and run over to wherever they were hiding. "It's a beautiful Swedish Short-Snout, we should-"
"Excuse me!" James suddenly came to a halt, the sassy dragon placing his hands on his hips as he looked over in their direction. " I am a Romanian Longhorn, thank you very much."
She was just about to make a face at him for breaking character when James gave her a wink and a cheeky grin that made her blush as he realised that he was attempting to make an innuendo.
"Daddy Dragon!" Harry decided to name the new species of bespectacled beast. "Daddy Dragon!"
James let out a mighty roar as he ran towards them, leaving them to scream and try to run but he was coming in too fast and while Renata knew it was only a game, it seemed Harry had entered a state of panic. To defend himself and Renata, he reached down, grabbing a rather large rock and threw it as soon as his father bent down to try and scoop him up.
Renata could only turn around to witness as the rock slammed James right in the nose before Harry let out a triumphant war cry while throwing his hands up in the air. As James fell over gripping his nose, mostly in shocked that he had been hit, Harry ran off, making his little victory lap around the garden.
"Mr Potter," she called to him, " are you alright? Are you-"
She seemed hesitant about there being blood, but James seemed to be aware as he kept his back turned to her as he lowered his hands to check.
"No, I'm not bleeding," he told her, "I'm fine."
When he did actually turn to her, Renata could see that his nose was extremely red, it seemed Harry had one hell of a little arm on him. She didn't mean to but she couldn't help but let out a small laugh at his red nose. And she especially couldn't stop laughing when she started to think of a son she had once heard some of the children singing back in Italy called "Rudolph La Renna dal Naso Rosso" otherwise known as "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."
"You think this is funny?" James asked her, trying to hide his own smile that was starting to form. "I'm injured here!"
"Would you like me to get my wand from inside and make it all better for you?" she questioned him in return, thinking that it wasn't as bad as he was making it out to be.
"I don't think we need to go through all that," he said, " but perhaps it could be healed with a kiss..."
She could see him raise his brows as he waited for her response, which resulted in her smiling before she leaned over and kissed his nose.
"How does it feel now?"
"It's still a bit sore," James said, " maybe one more or two...or three. However many you're willing to give, who knows, it may never heal properly-"
He was cut off as she silenced him with a kiss on the lips, both of them enjoying the kiss while Harry stopped in his tracks with the look of ultimate betrayal on his face. After all, Renata was his partner on this expedition, they were supposed to be taking pictures of the dragon and staying safe and there she was, kissing the dragon!
"Nanny Nanata!"
The two adults pulled away quickly and looked over to see where Harry had his little hands on his hips, very similar to how his father looked earlier.
"Oops," Renata chuckled, " I mean, ARRRGHHHH, DRAGON! RUN, HARRY, RUN!"
She shoved James back playfully in the grass before running off in Harry's direction, the two of them screaming as James rolled back onto his feet to start chasing them again. They ran around the garden for seemed like hours, especially to the neighbours that questioned whether people were being murdered in the gardens from the amount of screaming, but as long as they heard laughter, they could only assume that everything was alright.
By the end of the day, Harry had gotten his pictures, he had fought a dragon and escaped with his life, but it left him terribly exhausted as he actually ended up falling asleep in the grass before Renata lifted him up and carried him over to the hammock where James allowed her to climb in carefully.
"Well, it's he is certainly out for the rest of the night," James said with a chuckled lightly as he smiled at the scene of Harry sound asleep against Renata's chest.
"Oh yes, but he's accomplished so much in one day's time," Renata replied, " at least we know if he ever comes face to face with a dragon, he'll know what to do."
"We've prepared him well."