Authors Note: I hope you enjoy this chapter. I also want to thank everyone who has read this story, I have reached one thousand reads!

Disclaimer: Everything you see except the original characters and plot belong to J. K. Rowling.

James looked down at his plate, his expression gloomy. Girls were painful, he thought, they made you chase them then punctured every hope you had.

Of course, James only had experience with one girl so he was bias. Why in the world did he have to choose Cordelia Bode? The most confused and craziest girl at Hogwarts. He just had to make things hard for himself.

"You all right?" asked Henry, peering at him anxiously. "You haven't been yourself."

James looked up at his friend and grimaced. "Could be better."

Henry nodded and left the issue, they had all realised that something had happened between Cordelia and James when James came into the dormitory muttering angrily about 'indecisive women' and something along the lines of 'I mean really, I'm James bloody Potter!'.

Since James had already lifted his eyes he looked around the table and suddenly felt worried. Where was Cordelia? He was just about to ask Henry when he realised that he wasn't supposed to care and shut his mouth. She was always on time for breakfast. In fact, James didn't recall seeing her after their fight last night. He sat up straighter and craned his neck to see whether she was sitting with Louis but only found Ella, who was being horridly sweet with him.

James stood up and located Rose whom he knew would not make fun of him. "Rose."

Rose gave a start and turned around. "Merlin, you scared me James," she exclaimed.

"Sorry."

"What do you want?"

James nudged Scorpius who was sitting next to her ("This isn't your table by the way," said James") and slid onto the bench. "Have you seen Bode?"

Rose's eyebrows creased at the surname. "Who- Oh! Cordelia, no not today I haven't."

"Did you see her yesterday?"

"No … I mean, yes. Yes, I did," replied Rose dryly.

James waited impatiently, "When? When did you see her and what was she doing?"

Rose fiddled with a strand of hair that had come out of her elastic as though she was avoiding the question.

"Rose …" said James in a warning tone. "What was she doing?"

His cousin shook her head and looked away.

"Okay, as much as I don't want to do this, I feel I'm going to have to." He turned to Scorpius and said grudgingly, "Did you, during whatever you were doing at night with my cousin, see a certain tall, blond prefect about."

Scorpius glanced apologetically at Rose like he was saying, 'Sorry, I have to get on his good side.'

"Yes we saw her."

"And …?"

"She was with some guy."

Automatically James' protective instincts kicked in, "What guy?"

"A man, more like, never seen him at Hogwarts, must be older but they seemed pretty close," Scorpius was sliding slowly away from James on the bench.

"How close," said James in a low voice, following Scorpius' movements. From an outsider's perspective it was quite amusing to see two teenage boys chasing each other down a bench, sliding on their behinds.

But at that moment his brother and sister arrived at the table, arguing about something and Rose grabbed Scorpius' arm and marched him out of the great hall, probably to shout at him, knowing Rose.

"Could you two have waited two more seconds before barging in? Ferret-junior was about to tell me something," said James looking irritably at his siblings.

Albus' eyes widened and Lily smiled sadly at him, "Did you find out?"

"About what?"

"About-," Lily was stopped by Albus putting a hand over her mouth but quickly withdrew it, howling in pain. "What the hell Albus!"

"You bit me!"

"Well, that teaches you for stopping me talk," said Lily happily, sitting across from James.

James turned to his sister, "If we didn't stop you talking sometimes, Little Miss Perfect, no one would be able to get a word in edgewise."

"Oh, shut up," said Lily scowling. She then brightened as something came to her. "None of the boys in my grade ever have a problem with me talking. As a matter of fact," she mimed stroking a beard, "None of the boys in your grades have a problem with that either."

James didn't really understand but Albus smirked, catching on, "Well that's because they just want to snog you."

Lily smiled.

"WHAT!"

Lily's smile widened, "You heard me, brother dear."

Albus ducked as James chucked a spoon at him. "You knew she was dating boys that are older than her?"

The silence was answer enough.

"Eurgh, who do I need to kill?" said James but then, realising he'd been used, glared angrily at his siblings, "Good one … where's Cordelia?"

Lily sighed, "James, did you have a fight last night?"

"Yes," said James slowly.

"Well," Albus butted in. "We saw her last night with some other guy."

"I've heard that."

"Right," said Lily. "I think she's moved on."

"Continue."

Albus apparently couldn't handle it anymore and blurted out, "Cordelia was against the wall with a man and they were snogging."

"You sure it was her?" said James, already deflating.

"What other girl wears her hair as messy as that?" said Lily, her interest already fading.

Even though James still felt a sense of loyalty to Cordelia, he couldn't help but agree. Most girls did their hair neatly but Cordelia only ever wore it pulled back into a quick ponytail, with strands falling out and the bow lopsided. It was actually one of the first things he had noticed about her. It seemed someone else had noticed her too.

So she had really moved on already, and, as much as he was hurting, he couldn't help thinking that it wasn't like her. She was one of the most loyal people he had ever known.

The worst part of their fight was that James didn't even know what he had done. He knew when people lied to him and she had been lying all year, using petty excuses to cover up some greater challenge. James knew how Cordelia felt about girls being princess'; overreacting about boys and always needing a man to support them, that was mainly why it was amusing to call her princess; irony. So yeah, she wouldn't care about some small fights.

Of course, there had always been other blokes who had an eye on her but James, who had always had an eye on her, made sure they were turned away. Merlin, he had done some awful things to her. Thinking back on it, he was a little shit. James wanted Cordelia so he put her in humiliating situations by controlling her voice, making her clothes see through and putting amortentia in her food. He supposed the man she was with now was nice to her and treated her like a lady. Figures.

Unfortunately, this thought process drove James' thoughts away from wondering about why she wasn't at breakfast and if he had only known where she was, well … let's just say a whole lot of problems could have been avoided.

"James?" said a voice behind him outside the potions room.

James, who heard the female tone, whirled around, forced to hold back a sigh when he saw Mia Kappoenta, a short girl with shiny brown hair pulled back in an impeccable plait. It wasn't that he didn't like Mia, he was just hoping to see someone else.

"Yeah," replied James, walking in step with her in the direction of the entrance hall.

Mia tucked her hair daintily behind her ear and said innocently, "I heard that you and that Clementine girl had a fight."

"It's Cordelia."

"Right," said Mia, but she didn't seem to care. "Well, I thought, since she's gone, you would be my boyfriend."

James stopped in his tracks and turned to face her. Now he didn't like her. She had just assumed that he would say yes to her offer, it wasn't even phrased as a question. At the back of his mind he heard a voice saying, 'I'm sorry that the great James Potter cannot admit to himself that not every girl is as weak-willed to just crumble at your feet'. Merlin, he must have been annoying, maybe the reason Cordelia left him wasn't as formulated as he had originally thought.

"Look," said a tired James. "I don't really care about stuff like that. I just want to stay out of relationships right now."

Mia raised her eyebrows and said coolly, "Are you still hung up on Bode?"

"No."

"Then why won't you say yes?"

James thought for a moment, thinking of how easy it would be to just temporarily forget about Cordelia and how much he liked her by saying yes. But he couldn't. James had not spent over five years watching one girl to completely give up on her, even if she had obviously given up on him. Cordelia and James were opposites, and from what James had already deduced of Mia, they were pretty similar. James knew which one he would prefer.

"You're right. I still like Cordelia."

Mia scoffed and stormed up the stairs, leaving James smiling contentedly against the crumbling wall. He hadn't lied exactly; he had meant everything he had said last night. James was now convinced that Cordelia had to make everything more dramatic than it needed to be: recovering the necklace at midnight, getting upset every time her friends fought, acting suspicious of everyone's movements, her one step forward two step backward approach to James. How 'in danger' could she be? Cordelia didn't need him to realise she was inventing this peril in her own head. Maybe, after she had calmed down, he would return to her.

But his question remained: How long would it take?

Another question should have occurred to him as well: Was Cordelia actually lying? Because if he answered 'no', he would have understood in the future weeks why Hazel stopped being Cordelia's friend, the reason Cordelia needed to desert him, and, of course, he would have re-joined Cordelia without hesitation because he was right, Cordelia needed love in her life, especially when she was drowning in a sea of fear.

James walked into divination at the age of thirteen, ready to spend the whole year poking fun at what they were learning. He had just finished his summer, constantly pestering his dad with questions about his time in the divination; they had had so much fun. He was particularly interested in his uncles' recollection of the day when Aunt Hermione stormed out of the class. The way Ron and his dad told it, it appeared his aunt had jinxed all the crystal balls to chase professor Trelawney around, bumping off her massive hair and exited the room shouting, 'I curse you to the end of your days!' Hermione's story was slightly less dramatic.

Anyway, all this was jumping around James' mind until he saw that Cordelia Bode, the girl he had nursed a soft spot for was sitting alone at her table. He had a split second decision to make so he mouth 'sorry' to his friends and sat next to the young witch.

"Hello," said James politely but Cordelia didn't look up, she was looking around the room sceptically as though chiding herself for choosing the class.

"Hello," James repeated. This time Cordelia heard and turned around.

She heaved a tortured sigh, "Are you here to annoy me into jinxing you again because I warn you, I've learned some good ones."

"No."

"That's always nice," she said, and turned back to the room without another word. James was left sitting next to her, thinking of things he could say to make himself look cool but came up with nothing. Looks like a life filled with toads, he thought to himself.

As the class went on they came to the part where they had to read the other person's tea leaves. James lifted up her saucer and tried to match it to something that vaguely resembled its shape.

He looked up to see that Cordelia was biting her lip to stop herself from laughing at him. "What?"

"You do know you have a guide in your text book?" said Cordelia joyfully.

"Oh," said James, turning red. "Well it's nothing to laugh at," he defended, affronted.

Cordelia lost her control, "Your face!" and promptly burst into laughter.

James was out of his depth. Never before had he seen someone laugh at him this way. Usually people only laughed with him, because they knew they would regret it if they caught him out on something. But here was a girl who really didn't care about who he was or what he could do, she just treated him as she saw him.

The wizard tried to muster as much dignity as he had left and said, "Can I borrow your book then?"

"Fine," said Cordelia, calming down. "But only if you promise me something." She leant towards him with a mischievous grin on her face. James did the same, eager to hear what she was about to say.

Cordelia took a deep breath and said in a dramatic, proclaiming voice, "Always use the word 'may' when asking a question."

James stared at her incredulously.

Cordelia's eyes twinkled like she was happy he hadn't understood her comment. He shook his head and twisted her book around to look at it. He smiled when he realised that she had drawn on every inch of the page, she must have been here early. There were little forests and people and fairies, charmed to move in their spot. They were quite good. James tore his expression from the little fairy poking her tongue out at him and started to interpret Cordelia's tea leaves.

"Okay … I think you are destined for success … maybe," said James, tilting his head to see the saucer from different angles.

"Good. I have always aspired to be maybe successful in life," said Cordelia dryly and this time James understood and laughed.

"Wow, you also seem to be heading for great chaos in your life," James checked the book to make sure he was correct. "Yep, I'm so brilliant at this. But that's a little sun so you will be happiest when you are in the chaos."

Cordelia put a hand on her chin. "So you're telling me I might be successful, my life will be in turmoil, and at the same time I will be extremely happy?"

James checked again, "Sounds about right."

"You're hopeless," she said with a dramatic eye roll.

"Thank you?"

"Alright, your turn." Cordelia took the book and spent ten minutes flicking through the pages. James noticed she had a habit of tightening her hair when she got frustrated with the answers she was getting. This had probably developed out of the fact that her ribbon kept sliding down her tangled hair; James liked it, it was more evidence that she didn't try and make herself different for people, she let them adapt to her. But at the same time, he realised she didn't like to disappoint people either, she was really trying hard to get the right result even though it was obvious she didn't care about the subject.

"Aha!" she cried, causing James to fall off his chair. "Sorry Potter but I thought you might like to know: I've found your destiny."

"Well?"

Cordelia placed the saucer on the table between them. "I believe you are going to have a big struggle in your future. You will have to make some sort of big sacrifice … sounds mysterious doesn't it?"

"Yeah," said James uncertainly. He looked closer at his tea leaves and noticed something more. "I've got a sun as well!"

"Yes," said Cordelia. "Looks like your sacrifice will make you happy. Looks like we both turn out to be lunatics, huh?"

"Huh," agreed James distractedly.

Some small part of him decided then and there, that if this intelligent, witty, beautiful girl in front of him wasn't the thing that would make him so happy in the future. He must really lose it somewhere along the line.

Three weeks later and James still hadn't said a word to Cordelia and vice versa. He saw her sometimes, walking alone down the corridors. James had also identified the person she had been with on that dreadful night. It was a young man, maybe early twenties, who was hovering around the school, trying to start up conversations with Cordelia who always (to James' satisfaction) replied with distaste and stalked off.

She looked unhappy.

James wouldn't run to her. Too many time he had done that and she still stayed away from him. Just being stubborn, he told himself, one day she'll apologise. But the days went past and he slowly got used to her absence, just in the same way Cordelia got used to his.

They were both unhappy.

So, three unhappy weeks later, James was walking into the great hall after his last class on a Thursday, when he was stopped by his cousin Lucy at the Hufflepuff table. He made a beeline for her, swerving to avoid the two boys chucking a quaffle at each other. He smirked when he saw Cordelia rise from the Gryffindor table, expression angry. Those boys would regret it.

"What's up, Miss Lucy," said James, looking down at his fourteen-year-old cousin.

Lucy stood up and walked him a short way away from her friends. When they paused in one of the corners she said, "James, do you know what the aurors are here for?"

"No," replied James. "What aurors?"

"There are these people in black cloaks all over the school, checking stuff out. I swear I saw Uncle Harry," said Lucy, sounding concerned. "Do you know about anything that might be happening?"

James peered intently at his cousin. Lucy had constantly been a worrier, but it was always, in the traditional hufflepuff way, about the safety of others. "Hey, don't worry, I'm sure it's nothing."

But, as Lucy went to sit back down, James forgot about his dinner and walked briskly towards the entrance hall. He was met with a startling arrangement.

The girl who had been occupying his mind for the past weeks was standing, completely alone in the middle of the entrance hall with tears pouring down her face and a wand pointed at her heart.

"Do it," she said with the utmost contempt. "I dare you."

Authors Note: I really had no idea where this chapter was going. Good thing it worked out!