It's raining outside, so he goes for the other option.
He plucks petals from a flower from his mother's vase, in the dim light of his lamp.
We'll meet, he mutters quietly, pulling a petal off. We won't meet.
We'll meet.
We won't meet.
We'll meet.
We won't meet.
We'll meet.
We won't meet.
We'll meet… He plucks off the final petal and joy bubbles up in him.
"Mum!" he calls, dashing out of his room. "Mum!"
His mother is in her room, thumbing through a magazine. She looks up as she enters. "What, dear?"
"I'm going to meet my soulmate!"
We'll meet.
We won't meet.
We'll meet.
We won't meet.
She pulls off each petal one by one, her heart racing.
We'll meet.
We won't meet.
We'll meet.
We won't meet.
We'll meet. Her stomach lurches.
Her voice is shrill as she calls to her sister, who is also plucking petals. "Tuney!" she shouts. "I'm going to meet my soulmate!"
Her excitement is reflected on Petunia's face.
It's September first, 1971, and he hasn't met his soulmate.
"Do you think I'll meet my soulmate at Hogwarts like you did, Mum?" he asks, bouncing on his toes.
She gives him a wane smile. His mother is sickly, ill, and she has hardly any energy. It saddens him, so he tries to stay as positive as possible.
"Maybe, darling," she says, her voice cracked. "Maybe."
He doesn't meet her at Hogwarts, per se. He meets her on the train.
Her words echo in his ears. "You're a prick!"
He may be, but he can win her over.
One year goes by and she still hates him, despite his best efforts to impress her. He's a wanker, and she stands by that. Once a dolt, always a dolt.
The next year, he pulls her pigtails. He doesn't know what he is thinking, but she makes he knows about it.
I'll keep trying, he thinks.
The following year, she stays as far away as possible from him. She stays closer to Sev, who she knows she can trust.
"He's just an immature adolescent," Severus tells her disdainfully. "He'll always be like that."
At the moment, it seems that way.
Fourth year comes. He grows and so does she. While he grows into a gangly, lanky teenager, she starts gaining the curves of womanhood.
"Damn," Sirius says when he sees her on the train. "You're lucky she's yours, Prongs, otherwise I'd go after her myself."
She's not quite his yet, but she will be. He vows it.
His mother dies that year. His whole world is put on pause, as if it were mourning her death.
She doesn't know, so she lashes out and says some things she regrets, and he gives her the cold shoulder for days.
She comes back and apologizes.
Fifth year passes by without much event. She loses a friend, but it's beneficial to him - Snape won't be in her ear anymore, so she'll be more open-minded.
James seizes his chance and tries to convince her, but he ends up in the hospital wing.
But that doesn't deter his hopes.
Sixth year is dull.
Seventh year is where it reaches the climax.
It's raining when she confesses to him, it's raining when they kiss. She's soaked, he's drenched, but it doesn't matter when it comes to love.
"I love you," she whispers breathlessly, and he whispers it back, and she's in heaven.
This is everything she'd hoped for, ever since that day in the garden.
585 words
Garage Sale - 13. Lamp
Romance Awareness - Instead of removing flower petals for "loves me, loves me not" the flower petals dictate whether you'll meet in this lifetime ("meet me, meet me not") and it's forever accurate.
