Chapter Twenty-One: The Favor

Mya stood outside the classroom playing with her school bag's strap. She still wasn't one hundred percent sure about this. There was a small part of her that was screaming in the back of her mind to back away from the door and run away from it. Mya quickly silenced that small sliver in her mind and shook her head; she was not a coward and besides she was a little curious to see what was on the other side of the door.

She received a note from a strange little brown owl that morning at breakfast. Although it had taken her by surprise when it dropped her note in her oatmeal, she knew exactly what it was and who it was from; James had given her a warning after all. Lily questioned who the note was from, so Mya knew that it wasn't James' owl. Then again she should have known he wouldn't risk sending his own owl. Lily and Albus would have quickly recognized it and they didn't want people to know that there could possibly be something going on between the two of them.

Mya had followed the note to a tee. He told her to come to this room after her last class, alone. The alone part was what mad her stomach turn. James knew she didn't fully trust him and they couldn't exactly have a date with Albus or Lily or even Eli around them. She had no idea why he wanted her to come after class, she thought she should at least drop her school bag off after Transfiguration, but then again he would know she didn't come right after class if she did that. Eli had been thrown off when she didn't follow him out of the classroom. She told him that she had some things she had to take care of and if he even thought about following her, she would hex him into next week. She did tell him that if she wasn't at the Gryffindor table for dinner to send a search party out after her though.

Oh god, Mya thought to herself as she raised her first to know on the door, this is a date. Most people go to Honeydukes or the Three Broomsticks or even Madame Puddifoot's Tea Shop, if they're saps, for their first date. Mine is in a broom closet.

Mya wasn't quite sure what this room was. She didn't honestly think it was a broom closet, but it was a bit small for a classroom. She couldn't ever remember using it for any of her classes in the seven years she had been there. There were so many rooms in his castle and somehow James had found one that wasn't in use.

Mya swallowed her fear, told herself that she was not a coward and knocked on the door. She heard shuffling on the other side, something falling over, curse words and some more shuffling. She pressed her ear against the door, hoping she could figure out what was going on on the other side of the door, but she could only hear footsteps approaching the door. She pushed herself away from the door, not wanting James to know she was trying to eavesdrop on him.

"Who is it?" Came James' voice from the other side of the door.

"It's me, Mya." She responded, a bit confused. "Were you expecting someone else?"

James ignored her question and instead asked her a question of his own. "What's the password?"

"Password?" Mya questioned, her annoyance was starting to become clear. "What do you mean password? There wasn't a password."

"It was on the note you got." He called back.

Mya muttered a choice swear word and went digging through her bag to find the note. She knew it was in there since she had used it to find the room after class. She finally grabbed the note and scanned the half sheet of paper.

"There's no password on this paper Potter." Mya snapped. "If you don't let me in I'm going to walk away and put an end to this stupid date."

She heard James sigh. "Do you have the note on you Longbottom?"

"Yes, and I don't see anything about a stupid password." She snapped.

"Turn it over."

"Turn it over. This is just a stupid-"

Mya didn't get a chance to say word game because the back of the paper was another note to her in James' messy handwriting. To get in Longbottom make sure you say the word peppermint. It's the password.

"Seriously? Peppermint Potter? Peppermint?"

The door opened and James stood in the doorway with a smirk on his face. Mya tried to look past him into the dark room, but couldn't see anything past him. When she turned her attention to him she noticed James had his normally shaggy and unkempt hair brushed and was wearing a black long sleeve dress shirt with tan dress pants. He had his house tie on, but then again Mya didn't think James owned another tie. She felt incredibly underdressed in her shorts and red sweater. In James' hand was a single white lily that he handed to her.

"Sorry Longbottom," James said scratching the back of his neck, clearly nervous. "I just had to make sure it was really you."

Mya smelled the flower, Potters and their lilies, she thought to herself. She then looked up at James' face, he had Lily's eyes and she had never noticed that he had the same gentleness Lily did with the hints of mischief in them.

"You look really nice James." She blushed.

She waited for a smart ass response, like you can thank my mother and father. James only seemed to turn a little red. "I put in effort to try and prove to you how serious I am."

"I'm starting to believe you."

James stepped forward, startling Mya causing her to step backwards. "Right sorry. I'm going to cover your eyes, so I can surprise you with what I did with this room. I skipped class for this."

Mya sucked her breath in and let James step behind her and cover her eyes. He guided her through the door and then shut it behind them. He instructed her to keep her eyes shut and even though she wanted to know what was going on she fought her curiosity and kept her eyes closed like James had asked.

"Alright now you can open your eyes." James instructed.

Mya's eye lids fluttered open and the first thing she saw was a few floating candles. On the floor was a red and white checkered picnic blanket with what looked like a picnic basket. In the corner Mya could make out small furniture shrunk so he could use the room. James was behind her looking quite nervous and Mya felt her guard coming down; she couldn't believe that he put in this much effort for her, no one had ever done that before. Although she still felt incredibly underdressed.

"You did all of this for me?" She asked touched by the gesture.

"Of course; I've never done anything like this before. I really like you Longbottom, I mean Mya."

She blushed. "I guess you can call me what you like. I really don't mind Longbottom; it is technically part of my name."

"I really do like the name Mya. I just feel like you'll think I'm being sarcastic if I say your actual name, but it really is a pretty name. You're the only Mya I know."

Mya felt a lump raising in her throat. Her name made her think of her mother and couldn't help but get a little emotional. "I'm the only Mya I know too. My mom heard it one day and fell in love with the name. Dad named Alice and Frank; my mom took me as the opportunity to really name one of her kids. I'm not saying mom didn't want to name Alice and Frank after my grandparents it's just-"

"I get it." James cut her off gently. "My dad named me and all of my siblings. I'm pretty sure Al was mom's idea though and so was Luna."

Mya played with the strap of her bag again. "So what do we do now?"

James shifted uncomfortably. He had no idea why he was so nervous around this girl; it was just Longbottom. "Well I got the house elves to give me some food. I know dinner is in a little bit, but I figured we could have a snack type picnic."

"I'd like that." Mya smiled and James let out a sigh of relief.

The two of them slowly moved towards the blanket. Neither one of them sat down at first, both waiting for the other to make the first move. Finally Mya took her bag off and sank to the ground. Once she was seated James plopped down next to her.

"What should we talk about? Your big game is tomorrow, are you nervous?" Mya asked him.

"No, I can take Belby. I don't think I want to talk about the game." James said reaching for something in the picnic basket at the same time Mya did. Their hands brushed against each other and sent a spark through both of them. Mya blushed and went to move her hand, but James grabbed a hold of it. "I want to talk about you."

She blushed even harder. "Why me? I'm not that interesting."

"I think you are; I've known you for a long time and yet I know nothing about you." James told her looking into her eyes. "You have really pretty eyes."

"What do you want to know about me?" Mya asked. She looked down and realized that she and James were still holding hands.

"Let's start with the basics. What is your favorite color? What's your favorite food?"

"Blue and cinnamon rolls. Anything else, you can ask me anything; I don't mind."

"Do you know what you want to do when we're done with school? I've only just started to put my life and future in order."

"I plan on becoming a healer; I've always wanted to help people." Mya answered. "I have an internship over Christmas break, if I do well I'll get the job after I graduate."

"I think you would be a great healer." James told her. The candles were capturing Mya's face and James was feeling something in him that he had never felt before. He felt attracted to her, but knew that wasn't it, he had been attracted to other girls before. This feeling was entirely new and it was scaring him how strong it was.

"Stop staring at me like that." Mya blushed again letting go of James' hand and pushing strands of hair out from in front of her eyes.

"Like what?" He asked cocking his head sideways.

"Like the way you just did. Like the way you do when you're in love with someone." Mya's voice died as she looked James in the eyes. She felt it too and she was terrified, so she quickly tried to change the subject. "You don't have a plan?"
James had heard what she said though and was stunned. He heard her change the subject, but went with it. He didn't feel like confronting his feelings right now. He knew he liked Mya, but he was nowhere ready to tell her that he loved her; he didn't even know what love was, he had never felt it before.

He cleared his throat before answering her. "I guess I never thought about it before. I thought my time at Hogwarts would never end, so I never really thought about what I would be doing after Hogwarts. I had seven years to figure it out and everyone thought it would be longer, because no one thought I was going to finish school."

"Well didn't you ever have a dream of what you wanted to be when you grew up?" Mya asked him.

"I'm only seventeen and did you dream of being a healer when you got older?" James shot back trying to make a point.

"Well no, but I'm not a first year anymore."

"Why, what did you think you wanted to be when you were younger?" James was curious to learn more about Mya.

"I wanted to be a writer; Alice told me it wasn't practical though." Mya sighed. "Then I discovered I was gifted at potions and I found one of my mom's old medical books and I was hooked; I found my calling."

"Writing can be practical; my mom's a journalist." James argued, finding it odd that he was so offended by Mya's sister's comment.

"She's also the Ginny Potter." Mya pointed out.

"Well what does the great Alice Longbottom do that is so practical? Besides being a dream smasher." James scoffed.

"James." Mya snapped, trying not to giggle. "If you must know my sister is a historian."

"A historian? That sounds boring as hell." He commented.

"She loves it, but I do find it incredibly boring. History was never my thing; I think have a ghost as a professor that just drones on and on ruined it for me."

James bit into an apples he had pulled out of the basket. "I think you should write if you want to write Longbottom."

"You never told me what you wanted to do." Mya said taking James lead and plunging her hand into the basket and pulled out a bowl of strawberries. "Is fruit the only thing they gave you?"

"No there should be cheese and bread in there too." James started digging around in the picnic basket again and this time pulled out half of a baguette.

Mya was silent waiting to see if James was going to answer her first question. Once she realized he wasn't going to answer, she asked him again. "What do you want to do when we're done here?"

James sighed. "I don't know why you want to know so badly. I can't do anything special; I'm just Harry Potter's son."

Mya's heart ached for James. She took his hand. "You are so much more than just Harry Potter's son."

"Of course that's all I am. That's all people look at me for; why all the girls went after me. All I have is because of my father defeating Voldemort years before I was born."

"Then those girls aren't for you. You shouldn't want girls to be with you because of your money or your father's fame. Those girls are artificial and only stuck on materialistic things." Mya explained to James.

James stared at her and felt those butterflies again. He looked down at their hands, realizing they were still intertwined. He thought about Mya's question about the future. The future was something that terrified him, because it was the unknown. He felt like he would be in his parents' or even his family in general shadows for the rest of his life no matter what he did. What could he possibly do that would come anywhere close to defeating and killing Lord Voldemort like his father, or being a famous Quidditch player like his mother.

Mya saw James' face had concentration written all over it. She squeezed his hand, trying to bring his attention back to her. He blinked and turned his head, his attention solely on her. "You okay? If I offended you I'm really sorry."

"No you're right. I grew up with all of these great love stories and I've never felt like I've loved anyone or like anyone has loved me for me. I want to feel love like my parents feel for each other." James told her.

"Is that what you were thinking about?" She questioned.

"No," He shook his head. "I was thinking about your question, the one about the future."

"And what about it?" Mya raised her eyebrows.

"The only thing I ever thought about was being an Auror, but I always worried that people would think that I only got the job because my dad is the head of the Auror office." James finally told Mya his fear of being in his father's shadow.

She squeezed his hand again. "I think you would be a great Auror James."

Mya thought he looked innocent when he looked her in the eyes. "You think so?"

"I know so." Mya nodded. She then gave an innocent giggle. "Besides I thought you were going to say a professional Quidditch player."

"Then I would be copying my mother." James joked, then he became serious. "I don't want to be anyone's copy."

"And you don't have to be anyone's copy; you be the best James Potter there ever was and ever will be, well James Sirius Potter."

James was touched by what she had to say. Somehow this girl who he tormented for their whole time at Hogwarts just because she was in a different house than Blaine and him, she understood him. He had no idea why she was giving him a chance. The way it was sitting here with Mya, this was the way he wanted things to be. He wanted people to see this side of him, but at the same time he didn't. Blaine told him that love is weakness. If this was love, what he felt for Mya, he didn't mind this weakness.

"I have to ask you to do me a favor." James spoke up looking into Mya's eyes.

She shifted, slightly uncomfortable with where this was going. "Sure, what do you need me to do?"

"God Longbottom don't look like I asked you to off someone." James teased. "Anyways you know how we learned years ago in history class how the ladies would give knights favors before their jousting competitions?"

"Yes they thought they were magical and had lucky qualities." Mya answered still confused. "But what does that have to do with us?"

James took his tie of surprising Mya. He handed it over to her and she took it from him, but gave him a look that meant she wanted an explanation.

"I want you to hold onto this while I'm on the Quidditch field. I want it to be my lucky charm if it's in your possession."

"I think that it's supposed to be the other way around." Mya teased.

"Just promise to hold onto it for me and be my lucky charm Longbottom."

"Okay I promise to hold onto it but you can't blame me if you lose." Mya said.

James looked Mya in the eyes and cupped the side of her face. Instead of backing away from his touch like he was expecting, she seemed more comfortable.

"You're really, really pretty Longbottom."

"I think you already said that." Mya's breathing and heart rate started to quicken.

"I'll tell you something I haven't said before, I'm going to kiss you Mya Longbottom."

Mya sucked in her breath and James leaned forward. She closed her eyes and could feel James' breath near her. Just as their lips were about to touch a loud siren went off causing the two of them to jump apart from each other; Mya looking terrified.

"What the hell was that? Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" Mya demanded standing up.

"No Mya," James stood up as well, grabbing Mya's wrist. "I set a timer, so we would know when we had to go back to the Great Hall so people wouldn't get suspicious."

"It scared the crap out of me." Mya said, her eyes softening.

"I'm so sorry Mya." He smiled slyly. "Would you like to go back to where we left off?"

"I believe the timer said out time was up." Mya said picking up her school bag. "You know if you win you'll get that kiss, so I would win if I were you."

She smiled and threw her bag over her shoulder. Mya held the tie in her hand and kissed James on the cheek before walking out of the room.

James waved his wand and the picnic was picked up and the room went back to the way it was before the date. He picked up the picnic basket and sighed. "Stupid timer."

So here is chapter 21. I'm trying my hardest to get these chapters up as soon as possible. I've been really busy with school, but I actually think I did decent job with timing. So I absolutely love writing scenes with these two. I got three comments on my last chapter and I would really like some more feedback. I had one person ask me to do something for Albus. I do have a plan for him, but all in good time. This story is about Mya and James and their love story. I hope you guys find this chapter good. I did work hard on it and there are a lot of cute moments in here between the two of them. Let me know what you guys think. I have big plans for the next few chapters. I'm really excited for the way this story is going. I was thinking about putting a dark element into it, but I really don't know anymore. I got several new followers so I want to thank all of them. Please COMMENT and SUSCRIBE.

-Chelsea