AN: Thanks to my reviewers so far! I promise nothing about who the 'hidden girl' is just yet but I like the guessing! There is a bit more magic action in this story unlike my last few and have thoroughly enjoyed writing it! Please review again! thanks x (P.S. for those who missed what happened with James and Annemarie (it ended in a different story) she slept with someone else, I'm afraid my heart wasn't into her and I like this girl much better!)

Chapter 4

It had been a long and stressful week and James had not had a minute to do anything other than work and sleep; he had not seen her once since Saturday night and all he wanted to do now was relax in the bar with his friends and hopefully seek out the woman he needed to be with afterwards. The news that Beerney had given him before he left that night had turned his heart to ice and the fact that it would be starting tomorrow had made him more desperate to search out the one person who could provide him with a little bit of hope before then.

Flooing in straight from the Ministry he spotted most of his usual crowd in their regular booth near the back of the bar; waving his acknowledgement at them he approached the bar to buy a drink and noticed that she was standing there as well. He was about to whisper a sly hello when he was stopped in his tracks as a man walked over to her and put his arm around her shoulder. It was a man that he recognised; one he had seen her with before when he was still with Annemarie and he felt a sudden wild growl in his chest as his eyes turned green.

"Hi James," she said casually when she noticed him at the bar and he nodded his head in acknowledgment as the man steered her away to a quiet booth not far from where James cousins and friends were sitting. He knew he was scowling and had to quickly erase the look when he saw Salamander approaching him.

"Save me from the girls' talk," his friend pleaded clapping him on the shoulder and asking the bar man for another bottle of butterbeer. "I can't take any more! You alright?" he asked noticing the disgruntled look on his friend's face.

"What? Oh yeah, fine it's just been a long week," he finished turning to look at his mate instead of the laughing couple he had been staring at, "barely had time to wipe my arse with everything that's going on at the Ministry!"

"Well have a beer and forget about it," he chuckled handing over the bottle which Tom had just placed on the bar, "and we're staying here tonight, I am not joining that conversation again!" he said adamantly nodding over at the booth where Rose, Dominique and Victoire were sat with some of their friends. A few hours passed in relaxed conversation but they eventually joined the girls in the booth and James found himself unbearably close to the woman who was driving him crazy just by being sat with another man. He could hear their conversation and knew the man was trying to coerce her into going home with him for the night.

Around eleven o clock he watched her head into the corner where they usually found each other on the sly, shimmying past the table where James sat and swinging her hips slightly. He excused himself and went to look for her but she wasn't in the usual place and he was about to give up and walk away when a hand reached out from the cellar doorway and grabbed his arm. He allowed himself to be pulled in and put both arms against the door trapping her against it with his body. "I missed you this week," he growled hungrily. "I was hoping to-" she cut him off with a vigorous kiss which showed him that she was equally keen to spend the night with him and in response he pushed his body roughly against hers and felt his blood start pumping around it in preparation for what he wanted.

"So was I," she returned hungrily when they broke apart wishing she could undress him right there.

"What about...?" he indicated back into the bar with his head and she pulled a grimace in response.

"I'll get rid of him," she said leaning up to kiss him again while holding his head close to hers by pulling on his dark green work tie.

"Come to the flat," he said raggedly when they pulled apart, "and soon!" he added wiggling his eyebrows at her before he turned to leave. She watched him walk away moving nearer to the main part of the bar and heard him apologising a few moments later to his friends for needing to leave early. He feigned tiredness as an excuse and apparated from the bar with a sly look in her direction. She smiled briefly at him as he disappeared before saying an abrupt goodnight to the man she had dated briefly the previous summer and returning to talk to the friends she had been with before he had interrupted and insisted on catching up with her. She had initially been too polite to rebuff him but now that she knew James wanted her all politeness had gone out of the window. When he had appeared in the bar she had slightly enjoyed the envious tinge that came into his eye as he spotted her talking to another man and had not wanted to get rid of him quite so eagerly then. She had also sensed James watching her all night, secretly enjoying it still, but all the while knowing that she had no intention of spending the night with anyone but James, even though her companion had been desperately trying to change that.

"That's the fourth week in a row that James has left alone," Dominique commented to the rest of the table after he had gone, "assuming he did actually leave the week before with that brunette we saw him chatting to; if not that makes five weeks!"

"Maybe he's changing his ways," Holly suggested laughing.

"And maybe grindylows will fly!" Salamander remarked, "I just think he's got a lot going on at work!"

"Doesn't usually stop him getting a shag though," Dominique joked.

"I don't know," Rose disagreed, "he's been different ever since Annemarie; I don't care what excuses he uses, he's not as in to getting a quick lay as he used to be."

"Maybe he's looking for something more serious!" Sally, Victoire's friend, said chuckling at the very idea as she stood up to leave the table and join Victoire and Penelope who were now at the bar.

"Now don't push it, this is James we're talking about," Sal said and she shrugged her shoulders as she walked away.

"I don't know Honey," Rose went on continuing the conversation and placing a hand on top of her husband's, "he was happy with Annemarie and none of us ever expected him to settle down with anyone back then. Maybe he's not going to go back to his old ways; she might have shown him that he wants more."

"Well he went back to them when they first split up," Sal continued, "I saw that girl he was with the other week leaving the flat early one morning didn't I? And I'm sure she wasn't the only one. In fact I seem to remember someone at this very table being one of his notches," he teased glaring over at Holly who was suddenly blushing furiously, "he was pretty eager to play his old ways at our wedding!"

"Piss off!" Holly shrieked batting him from across the table. The first time she had seen Rose and Sal after their wedding she had had to endure his taunts about going home with Rose's handsome cousin and she had known then that they would come back to haunt her. She wasn't the only friend of one of his multitude of cousins to have slept with James, why wasn't there someone else around for them to pick on?

"Leave her alone," Dominique interrupted, "I'm sure sleeping with our dear James was one not of her finest moments. Another mistake chalked up to the firewhiskey?"

"And James' charms!" Salamander added laughing raucously.

"I wouldn't say his charms," Holly said standing up for herself, "more his insistence!"

"Funnily enough that's what the other girls say!" Salamander joked as he noticed another of his recent conquests walking across the bar in the direction of the floo, "including her," he whispered nodding at Penelope who had just said her goodbyes to Victoire and Sally.

"She slept with James?" Dom shrieked back, "Does Victoire know?"

"I don't know if Vic knows about it but I definitely saw her leaving the flat not long after our wedding too; looks like he has a thing about the Weasley girls' friends, we'd better warn the rest of them!" he chuckled. "Hey Sally," he called across the bar making the tall brunette turn to look at him.

"Ignore him Sally," Rose cut in before Sal could say anything more, "he's just trying to wind you up!" But she and their silvery blonde haired cousin returned to the table to sit down again.

"Stop spoiling my fun!" Salamander pouted.

"Well stop winding people up then Darling; and anyway I don't think we need to warn anyone," Rose said adamantly, "I think he's looking for something more serious even if he has been shagging around a bit again recently, it's just going to take him a while."

"Take who a while?" Sally asked them.

"James," Dominique explained.

"Are we still on him?" Sally continued.

"Yes we are Sally dear and I still say until he's found someone serious," he made airquotes around the word serious as he spoke, "if you're female and friends with a Weasley you'd better stay out of his way!" Sally looked at them all curiously when Salamander gave her a meaningful look and Dominique laughed along with her cousin's husband as she watched the prim and proper dark haired girl, who had been good friends with her sister for many years, jump into the fireplace and floo away. Penelope had always been the shy, retiring type at school who hung around in other people's shadows and barely said boo to a goose; she had also been one of a multitude of girls who had fancied their cousin James, even though he was a little younger than she was, but Dominique could never imagine she was the type of girl who would have a one night stand with anyone, never mind her womanising cousin.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"James Sirius Potter, did I detect a hint of green in your eyes earlier?" she asked when they were laid in their usual post coital position in James' huge bed.

"I don't know what you mean," he whispered stroking her arm and she turned over to look into his eyes.

"You were watching me in the bar with my friend!" she chuckled reaching up to touch his face as he tried to turn it away, "And you didn't look very happy."

"I...I..." he realised that he had no claim over her while they were still a secret but seeing her talking to another man, who was quite obviously trying to get into her knickers, had really sparked the green eyed monster within him. Not because he felt she might betray him with someone else but because he wanted her to be his. She smiled in understanding and he marvelled at her; in all this time she had never pushed him to be more open about their relationship and she still accepted their situation graciously.

"You were jealous weren't you?" she whispered remembering the girl in the bar who had been chatting to him weeks before that; she had hidden her envy from James not wanting him to know how much she was falling for him; but after tonight she had realised that maybe he was starting to feel the same way as she did.

"No...I..." he stuttered and she smiled naughtily at him. But instead of answering her question he turned her body a little towards his and propped himself up on one elbow to look down at her, "Listen," he began, "I have to go away again." The news Beerney had given him was that his two month stint guarding Azkaban had come around; to ensure that they did not go out to the prison feeling worried and depressed about the assignment they were only ever told the night before they were due to go. Living and working with dementors for two months was physically and emotionally draining which was why they had to do short shifts and then have a month off work to recover. The pay was immense as the work was so difficult; but nobody was ready for it and every auror in the department dreaded the day when it would be their turn to go.

She sighed a little at his comment but did not complain, "Hmmm."

"I'll be gone for two months and-"

"You'll be out of contact, I know," she smiled waiting for him to say the inevitable but he surprised her this time with his stuttered words.

"Will...will you...wait for me?" he asked.

"What?" she replied breathlessly lifting her head up from the pillow.

"I...I know I have no right to ask but I missed you before and...and tonight when I saw you with someone else," he looked down briefly; "I didn't like it," he admitted making her grin, "I want you to be mine...and mine only...you can say no and I'll understand," he went on sitting up in the bed as he felt nervousness settle in his stomach. In the last few weeks his feelings for this girl had developed and become stronger and stronger; he didn't want to go away again but more because he didn't want to leave her than because of where he was going. Seeing her with someone else in the bar earlier had made him realise that and he had made the decision then and there to ask her if she would wait for him; even if her answer turned out to be no. "I just-"

"Of course I'll wait for you," she cut in reaching out a hand to touch him and feeling her heart leap into her mouth; she had been expecting him to tell her to see other people again; but if he was asking her not to did that mean he wanted to be more involved with her than he already was?

He leaned down then to kiss her before whispering, "Thank you," as she laid her head back on his shoulder and began to stroke the hairs on his chest. "I'm going to Azkaban," he whispered and she sat up in shock.

"What?"

"We all have to do it at some stage," he sighed feeling lower and lower the more he thought about it, "and my time has come." She reached out to touch his cheek and stroked it gently; close contact with just one dementor was bad and she had only just encountered it herself recently when she had started her current job but that had been with one on its own. She could scarcely imagine what it would be like to be around hundreds of them for days on end and she shuddered at the thought. Her heart went out to him and she instantly worried about how he would return; would he be different? Would he have wanted her to wait for him by then?

He left the next morning after they had had slow and sensual sex for the first time; he had initiated it slowly and they had gazed at each other as James moved himself above her gently, this time intermittently caressing her face with tiny kisses. She stroked his body as they made short, quiet gasping sounds until they both reached ecstasy and then curled up holding one another for a short time. James didn't want to get up; it seemed as if it would be forever before he saw her again; and though she had said she would wait for him he still felt that he could not hold her to it when they were still living in secret. "I'll see you soon," he whispered when they had finally dressed and walked to the fireplace in the living room.

"Be careful," she replied, "and...and stay...happy?"

"I'll try," he answered pulling her close to him and leaving her with one more longing kiss; he pressed her body against his and drunk it in as their tongues locked together. They had shared many kisses before this one but he felt he had turned a strange corner the night before and it seemed to James like a sensual first kiss; one which truly told him whether there was any future for him with the woman in his arms. "Wow," he whispered when they broke apart, "I'll just remember that to keep me happy," he went on and she smiled back at him looking slightly shell shocked. She had felt the new connection too; something which had never been there before and she was now more determined than ever that she would wait for James Sirius Potter, for however long he needed her to.