A loud knocking awoke me as I grudgingly looked up towards my alarm clock.
"For goodness sakes, James! It's not even six o' clock," I shouted at the door.
"Open up Rose. I'm taking you to breakfast. I have to tell you something really important! Meet me at Hero's Café in 15 minutes," James said happily as he thundered down the hall.
I know what you are thinking. Why the hell is James acting like my best friend? Well, that's because he is. See during Hogwarts Albus got placed in Hufflepuff—shocking I know—while I got into Gryffindor. Given the circumstances I quickly became friends with the only person I knew in the same house; James. Now that we are both out of school he comes and invades my apartment for breakfast and I go drag him out from his job to go to lunch (And yes, I do make him pay the bill).
So anyways back to my life. I quickly grab jeans and a plain white tee shirt—classy I know. Snatching my keys and putting my hair up I leave my house and go towards Hero's. Now Hero's is probably is the best place in existence. I know it's a muggle café and what-not but I absolutely love it there. I quickly scan the area and see James at our regular table with my order already there.
"Pull up a chair Rosie. I already ordered your favorite," said James.
"What if I wanted something different," I joked.
James waved his away and said, "I know you too well Rose. You always order the same thing. Well at least your first order is always hot chocolate. After that you kinda are…"
I smacked his arm playfully and took a sip from my drink. "So tell me, what was so important that it couldn't wait until I was finally awake?"
James grinned sheepishly, "Yeah…sorry 'bout that. Well you see…" James scratched his chin nervously, "I'm getting married."
I sat there in shock. James. My best friend James. James the boy so full of mischief was getting married. The horror! Now don't get me wrong I have nothing against love—unless it involves me—but James isn't the type of person I would picture walking down the aisle. At least not until he matured some.
"You're joking right," I finally managed to choke out. "I'm on some 'You got PUNK' type of thing aren't I?"
"Geez Rose don't act so surprised. I'm dead serious. Why would I lie about something like this," James said while shaking his head.
"Right. Sorry," I said quickly. "It's just…"
"Unexpected," offered James and I nodded my head.
"Yeah Celia was shocked too. Took me forever to finally convince her that I wasn't drunk or I was playing a prank," James informed me happily. I snorted because it was exactly something James would do.
Okay let me explain. So James during his glory days at Hogwarts followed in his grand-father's footsteps. Fellow new maurders were Charlie (who like to be called Ace during Poker games—yeah don't ask), Willie, and of course yours truly. Shocking isn't it? A girl as a maurder? You are probably thinking. How did it work? Well seeing as girls are allowed in the boys' dormitory and their dorm-mates knew to never mess with the maurders so it was easy. Especially when James inherited the Maurder's Map and I managed to make two way mirrors. Oh, I digress…
So James in school was the type that would never settle down. Sure he went on dates but his relationships never lasted long. Now he was not some womanizer or some type of Zeus that would mess with every pretty girl that crossed his path. James truly cared for his girlfriends and never did anything with them. They usually broke up with him because they couldn't keep up with his ever changing sugar levels…oh and I guess there is the fact that he almost always was with the rest of the maurders. Now you can see why I'm shocked.
Well maybe I shouldn't be. I mean Celia has managed what no girl had before. A two year relationship with James. Probably because of the way they met. See both Celia and James met under curious circumstances…
Celia and James met during his last year of Hogwarts. James and I were trying to study for his potion test near the lake. Celia was a few feet away and was pouring over some type of journal. So anyways we were all minding our business when suddenly a big cat came out of nowhere and snatched her journal. That said cat happened to be the offspring of mom's beloved Crookshanks. So of course since that cat (who's name is Hermes. How fitting!) ran off with Celia's journal James and I both ran over to help her. I swear I never experienced the size of all Hogwarts until that day. And all I can say is 'WOW!' because who knew the school was that huge.
I wasn't there when James and Celia finally cornered Hermes near the Forbidden Forest but the way James tells it is that when he took the notebook and gave it to Celia that's when he noticed how beautiful her red hair looked when it was all wind-swept. Cheesy, I know, but James can sometimes be a romantic. Anyways I've told you enough…let's get back to the present situation.
"Celia and I discussed it and we finally decided to get married in the fall. After all that is when we met," James blabbed as I gave my approval.
I stirred my coffee as the silence became awkward. "Rose can I ask you something," James said slowly.
I frowned. "Of course you can James. I'm your best friends you can ask me anything."
"Will you be my best man?" James asked in all seriousness.
Needless to say, that was the last thing I expected to come out of his mouth. So I did what any sane person in my position would do. I spilled my hot chocolate all over his lap.
