Thursday morning breakfast was well underway by the time owls flooded the Great Hall distributing the mail to the teachers and students of Hogwarts. Sirius, who did not traditionally receive mail as his parents had long since stopped sending him letters, was surprised to find not one, but three letters addressed to him.
"Popular today, Padfoot," James said with a wry smile.
"I'm popular every day, Prongs," Sirius answered cheekily.
"I wouldn't be so sure until you open those," Peter said with a rogue grin. "You never know, they could be from the girls who you've tried to give underwear too, compared notes and all decided to send them back."
"Those would be howlers," James said with a laugh.
"And I'm sad to say that there would probably be a great deal more of them," Remus said.
"You're all three just jealous, especially Wormy because he's never had the opportunity to offer a girl a pair of panties." Sirius began to snicker but his point was almost immediately undermined by the appearance of Regal Shacklebolt, one of the Chasers on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team.
"Hi, Peter," Regal said with a shy smile. "How are you? Did you have a good summer?"
"I'm pretty good. Summer was alright, glad to be back though with all my friends. How about you?"
"Good, I stayed with my brother for a week in London. He's an auror now, you know." She said proudly. She seemed ready to say more but several of her friends were now calling to her from down the table and so she said instead, "Well, I'll see you boys later. Remus, James, Sirius," she said with a nod for each boy.
After Regal had walked away Sirius sat for a moment looking completely dumbstruck. Peter, on the other hand, seemed to be sitting up a little straighter.
"What the bloody hell was that all about," Sirius said after a moment.
"I told you we had a good time at James' New Year's Eve party." Peter answered sheepishly, a little embarrassed and yet also happy to have earned the attention of a girl who seemed to prefer him to his enormously more talented and better looking three best friends.
"Right, you need to strike while the iron is hot," Sirius said immediately. "You need to ask her to go to Hogsmede or on some sort of date right away."
"Do you think?" Peter asked, turning to James and Remus.
"That depends," James said. "Do you like Regal?"
"What do you mean does he like Regal?" Sirius said indignantly. "Look at Regal, she's more than fair looking, and they're not exactly beating down the door to go out with him."
"Padfoot, hush before we muzzle you," Remus said with a stern look. "It's up to you, mate," he said, once again addressing Peter.
"I guess I will, I mean Regal's a fun girl, and Sirius is right, she is pretty."
"Great," James said, "now allow me to give you one piece of advice, Wormtail. Whatever you do, do not take any advice from Padfoot without running it by Moony or myself first," James said with a smirk in Sirius direction.
"And I can tell you right now," Remus said, "we will most strongly advise you against offering Regal, or any other girl, panties."
"Especially, Regal," James said, "Because as she pointed out, her brother is an auror." All four boys laughed and passed several minutes plotting how and when Peter should ask Regal out, before Remus pointed out that Sirius had yet to open his letters.
"Damn, I totally forgot about them, got so carried away in Wormtail's love life." He opened the first letter which was written in the large, uneven handwriting one often associates with small children. Sirius' eyebrows knitted themselves worriedly almost immediately.
"What's up, mate?" James asked concernedly. When he received no answer after a moment he leaned over slightly, positioning his face alongside Sirius' and began to read the letter as well, leaving both Remus and Peter, who was seated on the other side of the table to exchange looks and glare at the back of the letter, as if hoping it would give them some small clues until the time when Sirius would either hand the letter over to them or tell them what it contained.
Sirius noticed none of this, however, as his senses were completely absorbed by the parchment in front of him.
Master Sirius,
Dixie is hoping you will be able to read her handwriting. Master Alphard was teaching her so long ago and Dixie is never having to use it that she is never really practicing. Dixie is writing to young Master Sirius because Dixie is knowing that Sirius is the only member of Master's family that master likes. Dixie is wishing she did not have to tell Sirius what has happened but Dixie is knowing she must. This morning (Sirius noted that as the letter was dated with yesterday's date that the time Dixie was referring to was in fact 24 hours previous) Dixie is taking master Alphard his breakfast but Dixie is not being able to wake him up. Dixie is crying because she is knowing he is gone. Master had been not feeling his best for the past few days. He is working in his garden and is being bitten by Horklump. Dixie is telling him he is needing a Healer, but young Master Sirius knows Master is not liking Healers and is not trusting them. The bite is getting bigger and bigger each day but Master is still being stubborn. The Healers is telling Dixie it was infecting Master's blood and is causing him to die. Dixie is blaming herself and wishing Master had listened when Dixie is telling him to wear gloves in the garden.
Dixie is being alone now but is knowing that young Master Sirius is caring for her beloved Master too and that Dixie should be telling him. And so Dixie is writing this letter is hoping it finds young Master well.
Sirius read the letter through several times before handing it over to Remus and Peter and saying sadly, "My uncle, Alphard, is dead." He sat for a long moment, nodding occasionally as James, Remus, and Peter murmured condolences and words of comfort, before finally grabbing the next letter in the pile of three and ripping it open, perhaps a bit more savagely than he otherwise might have done.
"Bloody hell," said Sirius, "it's from the bleeding Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Some bloke named Fudge, he's the head of the council handling wills and estates. Bloody hell!" Sirius exclaimed once more, "My Uncle has left me his entire fortune a sum totaling upwards of a million galleons." Peter let out a low whistle. "Fudge says he doesn't usually write these notifications as he's just the head of the council and has other more important jobs in the Department," Sirius added slightly annoyed, "as if I care what he does."
"Dad's mentioned him before," James said quietly. "His name's Cornelius or something like that, thinks very highly of himself."
"Seems like a bit of a dolt," Sirius said before continuing, "anyway he goes on to say that he's taking the time to write to me personally," Sirius paused again to add, "I suppose he thinks I should send him some sort of reward for the privilege, because of the highly unusual manner in which my uncle has handled the matter of his house elf."
"What does the Ministry care about Dixie for?" Peter asked.
"He's left her the house and enough gold to care for her the rest of her life," Sirius said continuing to read. "But apparently there's some stupid law against House Elves owning property of their own, Fudge seems to be a bit annoyed because Uncle Aphard's found a way around that. He's left me the house and placed my name on the separate account for Dixie's gold at Gringotts in order to make sure they don't take it away from her. Fudge is informing me that should I wish to evict her from the house he thinks I would have a pretty easy case of it," Sirius paused again lowering the parchment in order to declare Fudge a complete and utter git. "But if I have no problem with then everything seems to be in order and I need only contact some man on the committee within 90 days with my account information at Gringotts and they will see that the money gets transferred into my name." Sirius sighed for a moment, it was all quite a lot to take in over breakfast and he was not quite sure what to make of it all.
"This last letter seems to be from the Ministry as well," Remus said glancing at the formal way the last envelope was addressed.
"You open it Moony," Sirius said, his head resting in his head. "I'm not sure I can stand to read another letter at the moment."
"It's from Crouch again," Remus said after opening the letter.
"What now?" Sirius said glancing up, "I hope he's not planning on become pen pals."
"He says a complication has arisen involving your inheritance, it seems your mother is arguing that it should be hers as she's his elder sister and he has no children of his own, something about that a good deal of that money was passed down from their parents and should rightfully revert back to her."
"Bitch," Sirius said vehemently. "Of course she remembers he's her brother now that there is gold to gotten. I suppose Kreacher will want the house, after all he's Dixie's older brother." Sirius snorted disdainfully at this last comment. He sat for a moment and then noticing that the Great Hall was starting to empty said, "you lot had better run, you don't want to be late for Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"What are you going to do?" James asked concernedly. "Will you have a funeral for your Uncle? We'll come of course, be there to support you."
"That's not necessary," Sirius said. "I know you guys are there for me, Uncle Alphard he wasn't big on ceremonies though. He always said he just wanted a nice quiet burial, he didn't really have friends who'd want to pay their respects, and he wouldn't want a big to do. No, we'll just bury him in his back yard in his garden, he loved that garden, and that way Dixie will be able to visit the grave easily enough. She'll want to see that it's properly cared for." The other three boys nodded in understanding, each one again saying words of encouragement for Sirius.
"When will you leave?" James asked after a moment.
"S'pose I'll go talk to McGonagall now, I think she's got a free period. Maybe she can help me make sense of all this as well or at least recommend someone who could," he said motioning to the two ministry letters. "I'll see you all at lunch and tell you what I've figured out." And all four boys made their way out of the Great Hall together, three of them heading off to Defense Against the Dark Arts and one making his way slowly through the castle he loved hoping it would provide answers to the many questions running through his head.
Sirius left immediately following lunch and was therefore absent during Double Transfiguration that afternoon. James made a big show of asking multiple questions of Professor McGonagall during her introduction into the subject of human transfiguration, claiming to want his notes to be extra detailed so Sirius could catch up. After all, it would be highly suspicious if Sirius missed the lesson on the basic magic and theory behind human transfiguration and was yet somehow better at it then the rest of the class in the coming class periods. It might make Professor McGonagall question exactly how much Sirius and James knew about human transfiguration, which could of course lead to her discovering that they were both unregistered animagi. He knew it was a leap, what they, along with Peter, had managed to do was unheard of for wizards of their age, and even if McGonagall was suspicious of their ease at accomplishing the magic so quickly it was highly unlikely that she would ever imagine how far they had actually gone, but James had to be careful. Becoming an unregistered animagus was after all against the law, and the punishment, far worse than a detention, would be a stint in Azkaban.
James smiled in greeting as he threw The Daily Prophet he was reading to the side as Daphne entered the Head's Common Room.
"Remus and Peter told me about Sirius," Daphne said as she sat down next to James on the couch.
"I wish I could tell you more, but I'm afraid I haven't heard from him since he left at lunch time. I have no idea how he's handling it."
"I figured," Daphne said nodding. "But I really want to know is how you're handling it?"
"Me?" James asked, clearly confused. "I'm fine. I never even met his uncle."
"But you know Sirius," Daphne said. "He's your best friend and I know you worry about him."
"I should be there with him," James said. It felt good to say this thought aloud. "I should be there to help him through it, to keep him from doing anything stupid."
"You think he'll act out?" Daphne questioned uncertainly.
"Sirius doesn't do well with sadness or anger, and he most certainly doesn't do well alone. It makes him rash and unpredictable…yes," he added seeing the surprise on Daphne's face, "even more so than usual."
"James, listen to me, I know that you want to protect Sirius. He's almost more of a brother than a best friend. I remember when Remus and Sirius stopped talking to each other in fifth year for awhile, and you told me that Remus was angry because of a dangerous prank that Sirius attempted, one that could have led to someone getting killed. When I asked you what made Sirius back down and not do the prank, you told me he never did, that you had risked your own life to save the intended target. Not a lot of people would do that, and I think it was at that moment that I fell in love with you. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I know you would take a curse for Sirius, do anything to help him, but at the same time Sirius is his own person, you can't control what he does, and you are certainly not responsible for it. Now, I am sure that Sirius will be just fine and that he's not going to do anything to get himself into trouble, but if he does then you have to know that it's not your fault, Sirius is responsible for Sirius."
"I know, Daph, but Sirius has never been very good at being responsible for Sirius, and somebody has to be responsible for him. But," he said as he smiled at her again, "I'm glad that you came by to check on me and cheer me up."
"There's nowhere I would rather be," Daphne said. And she smiled as James kissed her softly on the forehead.
"Oh, sorry," Lily said as she stepped through the door into the common room, blushing furiously, her face turning almost the same color as her hair. "I didn't mean to interrupt; I just thought we had agreed to meet at 7 to work on the Prefect Schedules."
"We did," James said, standing up so quickly that he thought he was quite lucky not to get lightheaded.
"I was just leaving," Daphne said, rising and making her way over to the door with a quick nod to both Lily and James before exiting.
Daphne could not keep a smile from forming on her face as she made her way back to the Gryffindor common room; sure that James now realized that taking time apart was a mistake. He had kissed her! She realized, of course, that it had just been on the forehead, but surely that was just a precursor of things that would have come had Lily not interrupted them. She was sure that if she just made her way back to the common room all she would have to do is wait until James came to find her to tell her of his realization.
"I guess the break is over," Lily said, forcing a half smile on to her face as she made her way into the common room.
"Sorry? What break?" James asked confusedly.
"The break that you and Daphne have been taking," Lily said, and then upon seeing that James still looked confused she added, "Daphne said that you guys weren't broken up you was just taking some time apart."
"Oh," James said, realization dawning on his face. "No, we're definitely broken up, we have been since this summer."
"Oh," Lily said after a moment. "Well, you might want to make sure that Daphne knows that. Shall we get started on this?" She asked, gesturing to the blank schedule forms.
James hesitated for a moment before answering, "Are we ever going to talk about everything?"
Lily looked up, determinedly keeping her face blank. She had no desire to have that particular talk with James. How is one supposed to behave when discussing with the boy she likes how said boy broke her heart by making a stupid, selfish bet? She was not at all sure she could get through such a discussion with her grace and dignity intact. But at the same time since he brought it up, she could not exactly just dismiss the matter either. "I think we should make up these schedules," she said. James showed every sign of arguing, but she put up her hand to silence him and continued, "I'm not saying that we shouldn't talk about it. I'm just saying we should finish up these things first so that if after our talk we need some alone time we won't have to worry about the schedules."
James looked as though he was still not convinced that this was not merely a delay tactic but after a moment nodded his head in agreement and they worked quite companionably for another hour on the puzzle that was the Prefect schedules. But the riddle was solved soon enough and the talk could no longer be avoided. Each of them sat on the couch looking at each other for several long moments, neither quite sure where to begin. Lily was not sure she could bear much more of the tension and thought that quite like ripping off a Band-Aid it would be best if she got this dreaded conversation with over as quickly as possible.
"I know about the bet," she said quickly, not looking at James but instead focusing steadily on her hands in her lap. "I've known since last January and I won't pretend like I wasn't quite hurt and offended by it, but the past is the past and I'm willing to move forward. We've been assigned an important duty by Dumbledore and I'm not going to let our past issues cause any future issues in our ability to perform those duties." She took a deep breath upon finishing, unable to keep the shiver from running over her to finally have these words out in the open. She thought they sounded quite polished, considering her brain had been a chaotic disaster since the moment James suggested having this talk. She supposed that from the moment she discovered the bet a part of her had been waiting to say her peace about it.
James' eyebrows were furrowed. It was clear that Lily was quite relieved to have this load off her shoulders, and that she had wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible, but he had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.
"I thought we were talking about what happened between us last year and about how we didn't speak for months on end," James ventured nervously. "What bet are you talking about?" He recoiled at the venom in her eyes as she finally looked up into his face. Any nerves she had had were immediately replaced by burning anger, a look James was sorry to say he had seen in those gorgeous green eyes more times than he cared to recall.
"Don't fuck with me," Lily said angrily. "I've said I don't care anymore so stop lying to me. Just admit it! You and your stupid friends made some stupid bet that you could get stupid me to kiss you over the break. That's why you planted your stupid enchanted mistletoe and everything else." She was proud she had managed to keep tears out of her eyes, although replaying it in her head she thought she might have let her emotions run amuck with the multiple 'stupid' comments.
James' eyes widened in shock, he was not sure exactly what to say. He wanted to ask how she could get such a ridiculous idea, he wanted to be angry that she could think him capable of such a sleazy thing, but all of that would have to wait for him to clear his name.
"I never made any bet about you, or any other girl for that matter." Lily showed every sign of interrupting to declare her disbelief but he ignored her and continued, "I would never do anything that scummy or mean spirited. And maybe Sirius and Peter would have endorsed such a bet, but do you honestly think Remus would ever allow such a thing? He would have told you straight away. Furthermore, I'm not in the habit of making bets I don't think I can win, and given the fact that I'm batting 0-326 asking you out, I would have to be incredibly stupid and foolhardy to bet on any chance of you showing the slightest inclination of favor towards me." Personally, James thought he'd made quite a logical argument.
Lily was quiet for a moment before asking, "How do you explain the enchanted mistletoe?"
"Ah, well, that would be a question better addressed to Sirius, Remus, and Peter. If I had to guess I would say it was mainly Sirius, merely supported by the other two. They were waiting for me when I came back from," he hesitated a moment before continuing, "your flying lesson. I didn't tell them what we were doing, obviously. I mean you had sworn me to secrecy about not being able to fly, but I did tell them about the kiss." He noted that Lily looked slightly annoyed at this and so he added, "As if you didn't tell Alice" before continuing, "I also told them about our decision not to do pursue it, and I'm afraid that my best friends thought that maybe a helping prod from them might change our minds."
Lily was quiet for a very long time. A weight in her heart seemed to be lifting, but at the same time she was afraid. If James was telling the truth then maybe he did really have some feelings towards her, but even if that were the case wasn't this whole episode proof of how fraught with turmoil and heartache falling in love could be? She wasn't at all sure whether her heart could sustain her allowing herself to fall back into love with James Potter. But at the same time she wanted to believe him, and she did, because everything he had said made sense. And so before she could stop herself she nodded, a sign of acceptance of his story.
"Good, now that you believe me," James said, "can we discuss how you could ever possibly think I would do such a thing?"
"You're right," Lily said raising her eyes to look into James', "I'm sorry that I believed such a horrible thing of you. I should have just come right out and asked you about it, but given the nature of the accusation I think you can understand why it would be so embarrassing for me and why I never considered talking to you about it. I know that that doesn't really explain how I could think those things, but I can assure you that those thoughts gave me no joy."
"Where did you even get such a completely ludicrous idea?"
"Daphne told me."
"What?" James' voice was barely above a whisper, but there was more anger contained in it than Lily had ever heard.
"When Aidan told everyone why we broke up, well Daphne heard, and she came to me in the library and said that she hoped I hadn't broken up with Aidan because I wanted to be with you, because everything had been part of a bet you and Sirius had made before the holidays."
James heard Lily over the pounding of blood in his ears. "Excuse me," he said after a moment. "I need to go have a word with Daphne." Lily was quite sure she did not want to be Daphne, as the look on James' face, the anger in his eyes and in his voice, were quite enough to make Lily, who was no coward, quite intimidated. But as he made his way for the door something suddenly occurred to her.
"Wait a moment," Lily said. "You were mad at me as well, so what was it I had done that made you not talk to me for months on end?"
"Oh, well, er," James hesitated. He no longer seemed eager for this end of the conversation now that he had heard Lily's. "When we had the fight after the Quidditch match I didn't realize you were talking about the bet since I didn't know anything about the bet. I thought we were just talking about my staying with Daphne and I was mad because I thought that was what you had told me to do during our talk on New Year's Eve, but then it had seemed as if you were mad because it was just some sort of test that I had failed or something. I thought you were playing mind games with me." He waited for her to respond, and waited even longer as she seemed to replay the initial fight in her head seeing everything, making sense of everything now that she knew everything before finally speaking.
"You absolute hypocrite," Lily said halfway between genuine anger and amusement. "You mean to say you had the gall to make me feel absolutely terrible for thinking you capable of dirty tricks when all the while you thought I was guilty of the very same."
"Well when you put it that way it sounds downright awful," James said with a small smile. "I am sorry," he said looking up into her eyes.
"For which bit?" she questioned, this time with genuine amusement. "For thinking bad things about me or for making me feel awful for thinking bad things about you?"
"A little bit of both," he said with his trademark James Potter roguish grin.
They each sat in silence for a long time, waiting for the other to speak, unsure what they wanted to hear. Finally, after what seemed several eternities but in reality was no longer than a several awkward minutes, James spoke at last.
"So where does this leave us?" Lily attempted to keep a smile from forming on her face, but she was not altogether successful.
"I don't know," she answered truthfully. "It's a lot to take in. Everything that I thought I knew an hour ago no longer holds true, my perspectives are shifting and it's a bit hard to keep up."
"It does feel a bit as if the world has shifted on its axis, doesn't it?" James said.
"It certainly has made it obvious that neither of us knows the other as well as we thought we did," Lily said, sneaking a shy glance at James through her eyelashes.
"Yeah, I'd say that's a pretty fair assessment." James agreed, nodding his head. "We also clearly have no skills at communicating with each other."
"Clearly," Lily said with a small smile. "I guess we should attempt to rectify both those things before we make any decisions."
"Take things slow, actually become friends," James said, nodding his head in agreement.
"See where that leads us," Lily concluded.
They sat again, both relieved as though they had just cleared some invisible obstacle, but also quite unsure of what to do next. The unspoken hippogriff in the room was quite apparent to both of them. They both still had feelings for each other, and they had basically just acknowledged those feelings, and agreed to put said feelings on hold to get to know each other better. Implied by this agreement, which both of them were trying hard not to think of, was the fact that by holding back, getting to know each other better, they were in essence saying that they both thought they might have something in the future, and did not want to do anything that might jeopardize that.
"Well," Lily said standing, "I suppose one of us should take this schedule up to the owlery so that McGonagall will get first thing tomorrow and be able to send it to all the Prefects."
"I'll do it," James said also rising. "I need to have a word with Daphne."
Lily almost told him not to be too hard on her but stopped. If tonight had proven anything it was that the less she interfered with James and Daphne the better off they would all be.
Daphne sat at a table in the Gryffindor common room, her best friend Mary MacDonald by her side. She was clutching her lavender feathered quill that James had given her for Christmas as she attempted to finish her History of Magic essay for Professor Binns. The question she was supposed to be answering was "What do you think were the three most significant factors that led to the founding of the Ministry of Magic in 1700?" and while Daphne was quite sure of her answer that the goblin hunts, witch burnings, and finally the need to enforce the Statute of Secrecy signed in 1692 had led to the establishment of the Ministry of Magic, she was having quite a difficult time concentrating closely enough on the material to actually write an intelligible essay. She knew that she was driving Mary crazy with her constant pivoting every time someone entered the common room through the portrait hole, but she didn't care. She knew James would come for her; and finally a little after eight he made his way into the common room and over to the table where she was sitting with Mary.
"Can we go somewhere private and talk?" James asked as he reached Daphne.
"Of course," Daphne said, her face glowing with excitement. She could hardly contain her glee as she led him down the seventh floor corridor and into an empty classroom. "Will this do?"
James nodded his assent and paused for a moment, he took a deep breath, wishing to steady himself, he didn't want to yell, but he wasn't entirely sure he was going to be able to keep his cool either.
"Did you tell Lily that my kissing her over Christmas holidays last year was part of some sort of bet?"
The smile that had seemed to be permanently fixed on Daphne's face was wiped away as quickly as if she had performed a vanishing charm. The glow left her cheeks and her face paled considerably. But she continued to look him in the eye. "Yes."
"Why would you do that?" James asked, attempting still to remain calm.
"Why? WHY?" Daphne, on the other hand, was making no such attempt. "I returned from the holiday to discover that everyone and their muggle cousin knows that Lily stayed at your house, they are all speculating, accurately as it turns out, that the two of you had been fooling around. And I'd had enough. I was tired of being second place to her! I had already had to come to terms with the fact that the boy I lost my virginity with probably wished I had been Lily Evans, I'd laughed along with everyone else each and every time you asked her out, and then I realized I was in love with you. Then we started dating, and we were happy, we laughed all the time, we could barely keep our hands off each other, and I guess I was stupid enough to believe that you'd finally moved on from your little boy fantasy and had fallen for me as well. It ripped me to pieces to find out that I was wrong, that I was still second place to Lily Evans. And as mad as I was at you, I was furious with her. She was my friend, she knew how I felt about you, and she'd had five years to decide she liked you, but no she waited to make up her mind after you were already mine, and then she just reached out and took you back."
James was quiet for a moment, Daphne had certainly succeeded in reminding him that however angry he was at her at the moment, he was certainly not innocent of causing her pain. "But how could you let her think that I, or anyone else for that matter, would make a bet about her?"
"I don't take some sick pleasure in hurting Lily, if that's what you mean. I hated myself for hurting her, I could see the impact my words had on her, but at the same time, I was in pain too, and I guess I thought that she had been responsible for my heart breaking, it was only fair that I pay her back."
"But to lie to her," James began, but was immediately cut off by Daphne.
"Like you lied to me?"
"What? I never…"
"You told me you loved me!" Daphne yelled.
"Yeah, well that was before I knew all the stuff you'd done." James yelled back, finally losing his cool.
"Don't bullshit me, Potter; we both know you were still harboring some stupid left over feelings for Lily."
"So what? We both lied, then, our relationship was based on lies."
"It wasn't… what do you mean it 'was'," Daphne said her voice now barely above a whisper, her eyes narrowed.
"It's over Daph, we're over." She was completely still and completely quiet for a long moment, before the avalanche of emotion finally broke through and she ran at him. She was, magic quite forgotten, attempting to hit at him with everything she had, attempting to make him feel a tenth of the pain that was now spreading through her entire body. She only managed to make contact a couple of times before he managed to grab his wand and cast a shield charm, knocking her backwards. And there, sitting on the floor she began to sob.
"Fine then, go! I know you'll be back. You're a needy bastard and Lily Evans isn't some daft twit you can coax into giving you whatever you like. You've got another thing coming if you think for even a second that you'll get anything out of that virgin!" James made his way to the door, and only stopped casting his shield charm as he stepped out into the hallway. He heard through the door that Daphne had now completely collapsed into seemingly inconsolable sobs. He felt bad for hurting her so badly, but at the same time he knew that he could no longer go through the motions with Daphne, and any talk of breaks was just postponing the inevitable.
He turned at first to make his way back to the Heads' common room, but changed his mind a moment later and made his way back instead to the Gryffindor common room. He noted that Mary's welcoming smile faded to a frown when she realized that Daphne was not with him.
"We broke up," James said shortly. "She's in the empty classroom down the hall."
"Thanks," Mary said with as much animosity as she could garner, yet still sound slightly thankful that he had chosen to come and tell her thus enabling her to comfort her best friend, rather than making Daphne cry her heart out by herself. She rose immediately and without another word made her way to the portrait hole to find Daphne.
A/N: So as I write this it is midnight Wednesday July 12, 2011 meaning that in 48 hours it will be time for Deathly Hallows part II. I'm sure that each of you is as conflicted about this as I am, torn between excitement and also sadness that this is the last time we'll ever get to see a brand new Harry Potter movie. Now, it's like all we have left is our fan fiction, which as much I love it, let's face it is no substitute for the real thing. And so at this important moment I just wanted to stop and think about how much Harry means to me, and I know to all of you. I hope you enjoy the movie and I hope you continue to read and enjoy my story, and of course the fabulous works of literature that made all of this possible.
