Chapter 2: the hardest thing to say is goodbye.

Laura and James were both sat on the window ledge in the astronomy tower. Looking out at the stars.

"James, what time is it?" Laura asked.

"Almost seven why?" he replied in a tired tone.

"Weren't we meant to be at The DA meeting?" James looked at her in confusion for a moment before realising the decoy.

"Oh, bugger, yeah! Come on, lets get going," he said standing up and holding his hand out to her.

Laura giggled and took it before jumping down herself. They walked hand in hand down the stairs and down to the seventh floor corridor. James stopped outside the tapestry of what's his name that tries to teach trolls how to dance. After pacing three times he gestures to the door that appeared.

Laura smiled and opened it. As soon as she stepped in she was almost knocked over due to all the people welcoming her and trying to pass her a drink. She looked around the room and saw people from every house that wanted to wish her good luck in her new school (that's what the banner said anyway). There was loud music booming out from the speakers and a dance floor in the middle of the room.

"Do you like it? I thought you deserved to go out with a bang," someone whispered in her ear.

"I think you have a brilliant mind, James. I certainly will go out with a bang." She giggled.

"That's what you get for being friends with a Potter, nothing is quiet. Drink up and have fun," he said handing her a bottle of firewhisky.

Laura did just that. She found Holly on the dance floor and went to join her. James walked over to Fred and Scott.

"So, how did it go?" Fred asked with a smile on his face.

"Awful," James replied honestly.

"Aww, mate, she didn't reject you did she?" Scott asked sympathetically.

"What? No! Actually, quite the opposite, I just made a fool out of myself telling her. Somehow I don't think screaming at her was the best thing to do. I actually think I scared her!" Fred and Scott burst out laughing hysterically. "Guys, it's not funny!"

"Sorry… James… its just… that is totally what I would… imagine you… doing," Fred managed to say between laughs.

James shot them a dark look before grabbing a bottle of firewhisky from the refreshments table and going to join Holly and Laura on the dance floor.

Several drinks and many dances later led them to around midnight. Most of the students were now going back to their common rooms too sleep off the alcohol. Now the only people that were left were very drunken Scott, Fred, Holly, Charlie, Leah (Scott's latest one night pick-up), James and Laura.

"guys, I really think that you should all go to the common room and to bed," James said concerned for his drunken cousins. "Scott, if you're going to go at it at least have the decency to cast a silencing charm first this time," he added in a whisper to Scott. Fred heard too and started giggling uncontrollably. "Charlie, Leah and Holly, help these back to the dorms will you?"

"Sure, I could use some sleep," Charlie said grabbing Fred's arm and putting it around his shoulders while Holly and Leah took hold of Scott. They made their way out of the room.

"That just leaves us then," James said brightly. Laura, however, was not so keen to leave and it showed. "What's wrong?"

"James, I just don't want this to end. I have had the best thing in the world for the shortest time I could have imagined. Now I have to leave it all behind and go to America." Laura sighed. "Do you think you could keep me company for a while? I don't fancy going back to the dorms."

"Sure, lets just change the room into something a little more… comfortable," he said looking around at the hard floors and bottles strewn everywhere.

Laura nodded and led James out the room. After pacing three times she opened the door again to reveal a beautiful and much cosier room. It had a large, soft sofa on one side with a fire in front of it and a big king size bed on the other side as well as a door that led to a bathroom.

James eyed the bed suspiciously. "Not planning on going back to the dorm?"

"Nope, I just want to sleep somewhere that I can relax instead of worry about never seeing my bed again." Laura walked over to the sofa and sat down on it. she motioned for James to join her. James cast one more look around the room before sitting on the sofa with Laura next to the nice warm fire.

"James?"

"Umm?"

"why did you tell me you loved me? I mean why now? What changed?" she asked quietly.

"nothing changed, Laura. I have loved you for a while now. I guess I was just scared to ruin our friendship if I did anything stupid. Also, I think that I just needed a big shock to get myself into gear," James replied thoughtfully while absent mindedly playing with her hair.

"Like the fact that you may never see me again?" Laura asked bitterly. Something James didn't fail to catch.

"Yeah, I guess."

They sat in silence for another few minutes. Laura stared into the fire whishing with all her might that time would just stop and tomorrow morning would never have to come.

"Laura?" James whispered in her ear. The closeness of their faces startled her for a moment.

She turned around and began to kiss him on the lips. Automatically her arms went around his neck as they deepened the kiss. One of his hands found its way up her t-shirt and was slowly inching up higher. Laura stood up and led him over to the bed, where they fell onto it still not breaking their kiss. When he seemed to realise where he was James abruptly stopped. Laura looked at him slightly confused.

"Laura, is this really what you want? I mean I know that you have beliefs about this," he asked gently. He didn't want her to do something she would regret in the morning.

"Yes, to wait for the right guy. You are that guy James… please, I want this."

No other words were necessary.

The next morning Laura woke to sun streaming through the made windows onto her face. For some reason she felt colder than usual. Then she realised why… she was not wearing anything. She looked around the room and realised that she wasn't in her own dorm. In fact she had no idea where she was. She looked to her left to see her best friend (or boyfriend? She wasn't sure) lying next to her in the same state she was.

After a few moments of gazing at him all the memories from the night before came flooding back to her. The party, the drinking, the kissing, and the sex.

Oh bugger! She thought. It took her a few seconds to realise that she didn't regret it at all. Actually, she was quite happy.

Just then James started to stir. He rolled over and draped his arm around her in semi-consciousness. Once his arm made contact with her waist his eyes snapped open. He sat up abruptly and looked round at Laura. He then looked back at himself and back at her. He repeated this several times before swallowing loudly.

"Did we, er… I mean…" he stuttered. Laura almost laughed.

"Yes, we did. Or at least that would be my guess as we are both naked and in the same bed." She giggled. "Don't you remember?"

"Yeah, I remember alright. I just thought that it was a dream," he said looking around the room.

Laura gave him a curious look before taking one of the sheets off the bed and wrapping it around her. She then went clothes hunting. Thankfully, they weren't too hard to find. She then walked into the bathroom that joined onto the room.

When she emerged again, fully dressed this time, she saw that James had also gotten dressed and was now sat on the sofa staring into the empty fire grate.

"You know you could just light it with your wand instead of trying to will it to light itself," she said walking up behind him.

James looked around before staring back at the fire grate. "I was just thinking."

"About what?"

"Last night," he replied absent mindedly.

"You don't, regret it do you?" Laura asked beginning to feel uneasy.

"What? No, nothing like that. Its just… strange I guess," James answered.

"How so?" Laura asked. She was beginning to worry about him.

"We have been friends since we were six when our parents met in diagon ally. Ten years on we have become close and I realised my feelings for you and we did… that. Now it's strange to think about how much we have been through together just to have it all…" James trailed off not wanting to think about it.

"Die," Laura finished. "Look, James, can we not talk about this right now? I have a little over four hours left with you and I don't want to spend them thinking about this. Can we just make the most of it?"

"Sure, did you pack?" James asked.

"Yeah, right after we got back from Hogsmede." Laura remembered that glorious afternoon spent without a care in the world for a few hours.

"Right before I screamed 'I love you' down by the lake," James said laughing. Laura laughed too but it was only a half hearted laugh. She wasn't in the mood to laugh. No matter how much she tried not to think about it she couldn't stop the sinking feeling in her stomach as she knew how much she would miss him.

She laid one hand on his chest and lowered her head to lie next to it.

"James, what time is it?"

"Er, half past ten, why?" he replied.

"Shit! The train leave in half an hour!" she said jumping up and running over to the door.

"So?"

"So, we need to grab out bags and get to the station. I also don't want to draw attention to ourselves by wearing the same clothes as last night so I need to get changed. You coming?" she asked opening the door. James just nodded and followed her out the door and to Gryffindor tower.

As soon as they were through the portrait hole they were jumped by their friends.

"There you are, we ere getting worried!"

"Where have you been?"

"What have you been doing?"

"Why didn't you come back last night?"

"We thought you had gone or something!"

Laura was beginning to get an awful headache from her friends.

"Guys, shut up!" she shouted over them. Immediately they all fell silent sensing Laura's growing annoyance. "Yes, James and I are back. I can't believe you thought we were gone, gone where exactly? The thought of running away never even occurred to me! As for what we have been doing I rather think that is none of your business but if you are smart you may work it out!" with that she stalked upstairs leaving James and the others to stare at her open mouthed.

They just had to do it! Why did they have to make the worst day of my life worse! She thought. However, she couldn't stay angry at them because she knew that she would probably never see them again.

She blinked a few times to stop the tears in her eyes rolling down her cheeks and checked that she had everything. She checked under her bed, in her draws, even in her bed. She then saw something sticking out from under her pillow. It was a picture of her and James when they were eleven years old. That was the day they had started Hogwarts together. The picture showed them in their Gryffindor robes laughing together and James taking the clip out of her hair then herself getting mad at him and punching him in the arm. He then gave her back the clip and they started laughing again.

Laura sat on the bed looking at the picture for several minutes before putting it in her pocket, grabbing her trunk and running down the stairs. She saw all of her friends there waiting for her. She walked over to them putting on a brave face as she went. Without saying anything they all walked out of the portrait hole and down to the grounds where they hopped onto one of the carriages to take them to the train station.

When they got to the carriages Laura noticed someone missing.

"Where is James?"

"He went ahead… He said that he had something to do," Fred replied. Laura noticed he looked a bit edgy. "Listen, Laura, we're sorry about earlier-"

"Don't worry about it, Fred. I know I have been a bit… emotionally unstable the past couple of days and I don't blame you for being worried. Can we just call a truce and not think about this now?" Laura said. Everyone nodded and jumped off the carriage as they came to a stop.

Scott looked around for a compartment and spotted James in the one next to the end. They all made their way to it and got in. they put their luggage on the shelf above their heads and sat down.

James cast a meaningful look at Laura as if to say 'are you okay?' Laura nodded in response.

The train ride home was uneventful. The boys talked about quidditch while playing exploding snap while Holly and Laura watched. After a while the compartment door opened.

"Ahh, if it isn't Potter and his little weasels. So, Laura, looking forward to going to the states? I would think it would be a relief to get away from these idiots."

James stood up and walked over to the boy who had spoken.

"Malfoy, why don't you just crawl back under your rock?"

The boy just smirked. "What, no curses?"

James's hand twitched towards the pocket his wand was in but didn't take it out.

"Malfoy, you know that I made a promise to Rose not to curse you. But I do hope you realise that you just insulted a whole room of her cousins, I wonder how long it will be before she breaks up with you after I tell her. Family comes before everything with her." James gave a satisfied smirk to Malfoy

"James, leave it he isn't worth it!" Scott said giving him a glare.

James just smiled at Scott before taking out his wand and shouting the curse his mother was famous for. Scorpius ran back down the corridor trying to swat off bat bogeys.

Fred and Scott started laughing and gave James hi-fives just as the train came to a stop.

Everyone stood up and got their luggage from the rack before giving Laura hugs.

"We will all miss you, honey," Holly said.

"Too true," Fred and Scott said at the same time giving her a hug together.

"Good luck, Laura," Charlie said.

"Thanks guys. Promise me you will write," Laura returned.

"Promise," they said in unison causing them all to burst out laughing. They then all made their way out of the compartment. Laura was about to follow when James called her.

"Laura, wait, I want to give you something."

Laura turned around curiously. James closed the door and faced her nervously.

"I, er… I thought that you might like something, like a leaving present-"

"James you didn't have to," Laura said.

"No, I wanted to. Just something to remember all the good times I guess. I just want you to promise me something."

"Anything."

James smiled. "Don't open it until you are in America." Laura nodded curiously. James gave her a square shaped package.

"I guess this is goodbye then," she said.

"No, don't make me say goodbye. Goodbye means that you are gone for good and I don't want that. I think that this is see you later." Laura smiled and gave him a kiss. James wrapped his arms around her and gave her a hug. He never wanted to let her go. Ever.

Laura broke away and ran out the compartment before James could see her crying. James ran after her and caught her just as she made it onto the platform.

"Laura, write to me, please?" Laura just nodded and tried to get away again. James was having none of it and pulled her into his arms again. Laura reached up and kissed him again. After a moment that seemed to last forever she pulled away and ran away into the crowd.

James stared after her letting a tear slip down his cheek. He felt someone's hand on his shoulder and looked around to see his father.

"You really care about her, huh?" he said with a solemn look on his face. James just nodded and stared after her again. "C'mon, James lets go home."

James stood there for a few more moments before following his dad to the car.

Laura turned around after walking a few paces to see James still staring after her. She put her hands in her pockets and felt something in her right pocket. She pulled it out to see the picture of her and James. She looked back at James to see that his father had now joined him.

Screw this! I have to say goodbye properly.

Laura left her trunk with her mother who had now joined her. She ran through the crowd and saw that James was now following his father towards the barrier. She ran faster and once she was within a few feet shouted to him.

"James! James, wait!"

James turned around to see Laura running towards him. Once she reached him she threw her arms around him and kissed him passionately. She didn't care that both their families were watching, she couldn't leave like that. Once she broke away she reached into her pocket and took out the photo of them.

"Just a little reminder, I will write as soon as I get there. See you soon, James," she said softly.

"See you soon, Laura," he replied stunned. Laura smiled and walked back to her shocked parents. James turned back to his parents to see very amused looks on their faces. "What?"

"We knew that there must have been something between you from how upset you were, but that was… wow," Ginny replied. James nodded and looked down at the photo of them in first year. He smiled to himself before walking through the barrier.

hey, another long chapter :) but i actually split it up because originally these two chapters were one but it was too long : hope you are enjoying the story but this is where it actually starts now that she has gone :(

in the mean time REVIEW!!!!