A/N: Holy crap, this chapter is longer than my usual length. I was thinking about making the first part a separate chapter but as you can see I didn't. I have the major notes at the end of the chapter so enjoy!

Disclaimer: Since it's been forever since I have disclaimed to being J.K. I think it should remind everyone (not like you haven't figured it out by now) that I'm not her and I own nothing.

The fact that James had a date on Friday with Charlotte didn't actually occur to him until the next morning. But by then it was too late to go back on his decision even if he wanted to. Truthfully he didn't know what to think. He hadn't thought of Charlotte in years, he had basically accepted the fact that she was a dream that was never going to come true and that it would be a waste to keep pining over her. Then she had shown up at the Quidditch cup, unmarried and with two kids and now she wanted a date with him. What was that about?

James couldn't see the point in her asking him on a date when she had rejected him for so long. Maybe accepting the invitation hadn't been the best action. Or maybe he was just reading too much into this. They were both adults now; they could have a dinner with out bringing their past feelings for each other into it, couldn't they? So James would go on this date because he had already said he would and let what ever happened happen. He wouldn't go expecting anything other than a meal.

After coming to this conclusion James was faced with another problem. Again, there was nothing to do! The house seemed eerily empty without Amber running around.

James tried to get his mind off of the empty house by staying productive. Although, he got halfway through demolishing the dust bunnies colony under his couch before the silence in the house got too much for him and he ended up turning on the stereo loud enough to block out the quiet.

It was no wonder with the music blasting that he didn't hear Freddie, Adam, and Sarah coming into his house. He didn't even realize there was anyone in the house until the stereo was turned off and the deafening silence rang in his ears.

"Why are you trying to bust your eardrums?" Sarah asked sternly, like she was talking to a rebellious teenager.

James shrugged, "It was quiet."

Adam immediately made himself comfortable in the living room while Freddie went into the kitchen to eat James out of house and home and Sarah stared down James. "What did you do yesterday?" she asked. "We were expecting you to come over."

James sat on a chair opposite the couch that Adam was sitting on. "No one told me that you were expecting me there," he explained. "Otherwise I would have come, but I went to Diagon Alley instead."

"That's good," Adam said. "Sarah was worried that you would just sit at home and sulk the whole day-that's what she did, we're out of ice cream."

James laughed at the image of the ever productive Sarah lying around eating buckets of ice cream. Freddie came into the living room with a bag of potato chips and a can of soda. "What did you do in Diagon Alley?" he asked as he started to eat hand fulls of chips.

"Nothing really," James shrugged nonchalantly. "I ran into Charlotte."

Freddie snorted, "She seems to be popping up a lot lately doesn't she?" Adam began digging into the bag of chips too.

"She's such a nice woman," Sarah said, ignoring when another snort came from Freddie's direction. "How is she?"

James shrugged, "Fine I guess. We talked for a while over coffee."

"I'm surprised she would even be seen in public with you, James," Freddie said. "Merlin knows she wouldn't even give you the time of day back in Hogwarts."

James rolled his eyes. "Give her a break Freddie," he commanded. "That was a long time ago."

There was a lot of dark muttering from Freddie, who obviously didn't feel like Charlotte deserved a break. "What did the two of you talk about?" Sarah asked.

"Mostly Amber," James admitted.

"Aww," Sarah cooed, much to James' mortification. "She must feel bad for you now that Amber is gone to Hogwarts. Won't one of her kids be going in a few years?"

"Yeah," James nodded. "Isaac."

"There is more," Freddie said accusingly.

"What do you mean?" James asked, while Sarah and Adam looked on, confused.

"James," Freddie said. "I've known you all your life and I know when you're withholding information. It's why we've worked so well as a team for so many years. What aren't you telling us?"

James wasn't actually going to tell anyone about his date with Charlotte but now that he had been called out by Freddie he knew that he had no choice. Freddie would use any means necessary to get the information he wanted.

James shrugged nonchalantly, like it was no big deal. "It's nothing really," he said, while Freddie took a victory sip of his soda, knowing that James was going to tell the rest of the story. "Charlotte just asked me to have dinner with her this Friday."

This comment earned a fair amount of soda to be spat out of Freddie's nose and mouth. There were cries of disgust from James, Adam, and Sarah as soda and spit was sprayed all over them. "You're joking right?" Freddie yelled, wiping the remains of soda off with the back of his hand.

"You know I'm not!" James yelled, aggravatingly wiping the sticky soda from his face also.

There was silence as this information sunk in. "You didn't say yes did you?" Freddie asked.

"I said I would go with her," James told him.

"Yay!" Sarah squealed at the same time that Freddie yelled, "No!"

"James," Freddie said, standing up to yell at James better "You had the perfect opportunity to say no and give her a taste of the rejection you felt for years! And you didn't take it!"

"I don't want revenge, Freddie," James said. "I'm not angry at her."

"But you should be," Freddie said, sitting back down. James couldn't argue with that, a normal person would be furious at Charlotte.

"Freddie, leave James alone," Sarah berated him. "It's his life, he can date who he wants to."

Freddie shook his head at her. "You just want him to date her so that the two of you can become chums. You weren't there, Sarah," he accused. "You don't know what she put him through. It was pathetic."

"Hey!" James yelled.

"Be that as it may," Sarah said, ignoring James. "If I had been there I would still respect James' wishes."

Freddie sighed, knowing that he was outnumbered. "I guess your right. Congratulations James," Freddie stood and patted him on the back. "You finally have a date with Charlotte. It only took you sixteen years."

The rest of the week was uneventful and when Friday came around James was ready to get this date over with, he was tired of Sarah's giddiness and Freddie's brooding. Adam was the only one who was indifferent to the date but he was always with one of the other two so his company wasn't worth seeking.

Charlotte came at the exact time that she said she would. She was never one to be late, not even fashionably so.

James grabbed his coat when the bell rung. He was nervous and he didn't like the feeling. He had been on plenty of dates before; there was no need to be nervous for this one. It was just because it was Charlotte, or maybe it was because he wasn't the one doing the picking up.

"Hey Charlotte," he said when he opened the door.

She smiled up at James. "Hello James." Her long red hair was fixed so that the ends were wavy and she was wearing a blue dress.

She took him to a small but nice restaurant, it wasn't overly crowded and they were served fast but there was something wrong.

Maybe it was because they had such an odd history together but now that they were on a date James didn't know what to say to her. There were just too many unanswered questions for him to know which topics would be safe to discuss and which ones wouldn't. She seemed to be in the same predicament as he was and nothing was said other than genetic small talk. This was ridiculous!

"OK," James sighed. "We both know that there are things that we want to ask the other, so how about we just get everything out on the table."

"How do you purpose we do that?" Charlotte asked, suspiciously.

James thought for a moment, "Let's play twenty questions," he suggested, "ladies first."

"Alright," Charlotte said, warming up to the idea. "I suppose I'll ask the most obvious question first. Who is Amber's mum?"

James smirked. "Pass," he said. "Ask me a different question."

"What? That's no fair!" Charlotte said. "You can't brush off my first question."

"No it's not fair," he said, thinking, "How about we'll each get one chance to pass a question but we will answer it later tonight."

"Fine, "Charlotte huffed, "Where you married to her?"

There was no harm in this question so James answered honestly. "No, I've never been married. What are Isaac and Sophie's middle names?" He strategy was to start with questions about their kids and then work his way up to the questions he really wanted to know, that way she'd be loosened up enough to answer what ever question was thrown at her.

"Sophie's is Alexandria, after my mum," Charlotte answered simply, "and Isaac is mummes," she mumbled Isaac's middle name so that was totally inaudible.

"Pardon?"

Charlotte sighed heavily, "His middle name is James. What's Amber's favorite color?"

James was taken aback by the answer and the sudden change of direction, "Red and gold," He answered her question without hesitation, "my true Gryffindor. Why did you name Isaac after me?" That seemed to be the question that was bugging him the most at the moment.

"Pass." Charlotte said quickly.

As much as James wanted to argue with her he knew that he couldn't and that if he was just patient then they would get back to that question. "OK," he moved on to his next question. "Why did you get married so soon after you left Hogwarts? I thought you wanted to travel the world."

Charlotte groaned, "Now I wish I hadn't used my pass so quickly," she muttered, "but even if I did have a pass left you would just come up with an even worse question for me to answer, wouldn't you?"

James nodded.

She sighed, "I was going to travel, but I only got to France when I received a farewell gift from a certain annoyingly persistent boy I knew back home." At the end of this statement she gave James a look that was half annoyed and half endearing. "It was a midnight blue traveling cloak with silver stars embroidered on it. And when I said "play" my favorite songs would play in the hood and someone could only hear them if their head was in the hood."

James laughed, "I had forgotten that I had given you that. But how did that make you get married?"

"Well," Charlotte explained. "I was sitting in this pub admiring your gift and I couldn't decide whether I was infuriated at you for giving me a gift or flattered because I loved it or angry because I loved it."

James smiled, He had never thought he would hear her say that she liked something that he had given her but he was glad that she had liked it.

"Then this man came and asked me why I looked so pissed and we started talking. He was everything that I thought I wanted and I decided to postpone the rest of the trip and go on a date with him. And then we were married and my dream to travel the world became just a dream again."

"I still don't understand why you married him. Just because he was what you thought you wanted?" James asked.

"I do believe it's my turn to ask the question Mr. Potter," she smirked playfully.

"Fine," he growled, completely annoyed that she was avoiding the previous subject.

"How did you know what my favorite songs were?" she asked, much to James' surprise.

"Believe it or not, but I didn't just wake up one morning and decide I was going to be in love with you. When I realized I liked you I made an effort to learn more about you," James explained.

"Was that the week you and Freddie spent asking me random question?" she asked.

"Yes," James said. "Now can you answer my question?"

Charlotte smiled sadly at him. "I married him because I was young and I thought I was in love. The feelings I had for him were the closest I've ever gotten to being in love."

James didn't know what made him say it but then again he had never known when to keep his mouth shut, "You were the only person I was ever in love with," he said.

Charlotte looked as thought his words pained her. "But what about Amber's mum," she asked, looking for a way to bring normalcy back into the conversation. "You loved her, right?"

James smiled sadly, "You want to know about Amber's mum so badly?" he asked. "Well, here's the truth! I wasn't in love with her. Hell, I can't even remember her name! Amber was conceived the night I won my first world cup, the night I found out you were engaged and after a lot of Firewhiskey the woman who gave me Amber started to look like you."

Charlotte looked like she was about to cry when he said this but James went on, knowing that now that it was out he couldn't stop. "It was a one night stand, Charlotte, but I don't regret it because Amber is the best thing that's ever happened to me."

There was a silence after he had said this and James was scared that he had said too much too soon, but Charlotte didn't ask how he could be so stupid as to sleep with an anonymous look-a-like like he had thought she would. Instead she asked something completely different.

"Does Amber know about this?"

James looked at her, surprised by her question, "I didn't draw her a map but she knows that her mum and I were young when she was born and that I didn't knew her very well."

Charlotte seemed to think of this for a moment. "I'm guessing that getting custody of Amber wasn't much of a fight."

James laughed at her accuracy. "What fight?" he asked. "That woman sent Amber to me through the owl post."

Charlotte gasped at this, "That's horrible! What the hell is wrong with her?"

James had to laugh again at Charlotte's concern for Amber's well being; she had only met the girl once after all. "I believe we've lost track of whose turn it is to ask a question," he reminded her.

"Since you were the last one to share an answer then you can ask the next question," Charlotte offered.

"Alright then," James took a moment to think of what he already knew and form his next question, which gave them both time to take bites of their food.

"Why did you divorce your ex-husband?" he finally asked.

"To be honest," Charlotte started. "I don't actually have a definite reason. It was a decision that was formed over time."

"Explain if you can."

Charlotte sighed, "We weren't right for each other from the very beginning and things just fizzled until our whole relationship was just going through the motions. When Isaac was born I started to notice how bad everything was between us. I thought that if we had another child then that would fix things, but that never works. He was never around and I was always at home with the kids and even when I was craving attention from him-any kind of recognition that would let me have the tiniest hope that he still loved me-it didn't matter because he never noticed anything that I did to let him know how I felt. Eventually it was like I didn't even have a husband."

She paused for a moment to analyze his reaction to what she had said. "You must love the irony in this," she said, shaking her head slowly, "I ignored and rejected you for so long I guess I had some bad karma coming my way."

James actually laughed, "I wasn't thinking that, actually, I was wondering how anyone could ignore you when wanted attention. I remember when you practically threw your quill at a teacher because he looked over you when your hand was raised."

Charlotte blushed at the memory. "I thought of you…a lot," she admitted. James didn't interrupt her, knowing how hard this must be for her to say. "I wondered how you were doing, if you thought about me as much as I seemed to think of you, how different my life would have been if I had given you a chance…and then I would feel bad about thinking of you at all. I have no right to."

James smiled at her when she looked shyly up at him. "I did that too," he confided.

"I regret that," she said suddenly, looking into his eyes as she spoke so James could see the sincerity there. "I love my kids but I still think that I could have been so much happier if I'd just went on one date with you. I wouldn't have had to go through years invisible to a man who I spent everyday trying to please. That's why I named Isaac after you."

"How old were Isaac and Sophie when you went through your divorce?" James asked.

"Isaac was three years old and Sophie was two," Charlotte said, taking a sip of her drink. "They don't have the best relationship with their father. But it's as much his fault as it is mine," she said defensively.

"What do you mean?" James asked.

"At first the kids went to stay with him every other weekend, then he met another woman and it became just holidays. They got married and it was birthdays and letters, they had some kids of their own and Isaac and Sophie were lucky to get a letter at all. They were so young during the divorce and with his neglectful behavior, they barely know their dad, they call him by his first name, even to his face and they call his other kids "the others." Isaac and Sophie don't care if they get to see him or not, it's like he's just another man to them, I don't know which is worse, their relationship with their father or their fathers relationship with them."

James had never liked the man that Charlotte had married but as she talked about him and his attitude toward his children James hated him even more with everything said about the man.

Now that things were out in the open the date progressed normally. Charlotte had insisted that since she was the one to pick him up then she would also be the one to drop him off at his home at the end of their date.

"Merlin your house is huge," she said before she could stop herself. They were now walking up the walk to James front porch

"It's not that big," James laughed, "its only two stories."

"For two people? What do you each have a floor to yourself?" she asked sarcastically.

James shrugged, "A perk of playing Quidditch for ten years," he said simply.

"I noticed that you live two houses away from your mum and dad," she pointed out playfully.

"A draw back of having a kid before you knew how to take care of kids," James shrugged simply.

They were now in at James' front door and James didn't know what the hell to do. This had never been a problem when he was the one dropping off his date!

Fortunately, Charlotte took control. "I had wonderful time James."

"Yeah, me too Charlotte."

"I'd like to do this again," she hinted and James grinned.

"What did you have in mind?"

"Well," she began. "It might not be what you'd have in mind for a date but I promised Isaac and Sophie that I would take them to an amusement park tomorrow. I'd like you to come with us if you want."

James was surprised at this offer. Of course he had met her kids before but to go on date with her while her kids were there was a completely different thing. It was serious. "Sure," James agreed. "That sounds great." He knew that Freddie would shit a brick when he found out but he'd deal with that later.

Charlotte beamed up at him when he agreed to go on another date with her and he was about to say good night when she stood on her tiptoes and caught him in a surprise kiss. It was short and quick but sweet.

When she pulled away she looked up at him shyly, waiting for his reaction.

"You do realize that you're going to be the death of my male ego, don't you?" he asked her playfully.

"I do apologize," she said mockingly. "If that's the case you can pick me up tomorrow around noon. How is that for your male ego?"

"Better," he admitted. "But I'm still going to have to do this to make up for the blow to my ego."

"Do what?" she asked. But then James answered her question by bending down to kiss her.

"Mmm," she moaned when he pulled away, "I guess I deserved that."

James couldn't help but laugh at that.

"Goodnight James," Charlotte smiled at the sound of his laugh. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Goodnight Charlotte."

When Charlotte apperated away James went inside and collapsed on his couch. He couldn't help but think that tonight had went very well. Although, he had learned from his seventh year at Hogwarts not to assume that a situation would go one way, but he couldn't help but feel that something would changed because of the success of tonight's events.

A/N: First off I know some of you think they should have slept together at the end of this chapter but I'm not going to have Charlotte give it up on the first date so get over it.

Secondly I believe that Freddie might have some issues with Charlotte after Hogwarts which is why I had him so against James going out with her.

Thirdly, I know that James and Charlotte would not know where each other lived but writing directions is as boring as listening to them so assume that they have wizard address books or something like that.

Lastly, I need some ideas and reviews give me ideas so I think you all know what you should do. Please, think of the author and review.