Authors Note: This chapter took a while to write so I hope you like it. Thank you for those who reviewed! It's a really nice feeling.

Disclaimer: I borrow stuff from J. K. Rowling.

James looked into the mirror over the sink on Wednesday morning. He tried to flatten his hair (no luck), straighten his tie and fix his robes. Why was he so nervous?

Well, obviously, the night before had been very eye opening in terms of a certain golden-haired girl he fancied. Her tale was wild, however the pieces fit in with the slivers of storyline he'd received throughout the year. It was refreshing to know she trusted him enough not to tell anyone; if need be, he would carry her secrets to the grave. Cordelia Bode was a once in a life time girl and he would not second guess anything she said.

Time-turner. It was an alluring concept to be sure. He knew people that would take the pendant without a moment's hesitation.

But now, he had to go down to the common room and face Cordelia and for some reason this thought terrified him. The way she had handled herself over the past weeks had made him start to think of her as some sort of strong, unattainable goddess.

What if he said something stupid?

What if she hated him?

What if she decided that he was too immature and went gallivanting away with her handsome auror?

Cordelia would never do any of this, he told himself. She's loyal to the last. A true Gryffindor.

The young wizard stood up tall and eyed himself through the glass.

Right, it was time.

James walked purposefully out of his deserted dormitory and down the stone steps, trying not to trip and look like a fool. He emerged from the boy's staircase and cast a quick eye over the common room. Spotting her familiar face, he walked towards Cordelia who was sitting on a couch next to a stack of books, presumably the ones for her classes; her foot was jiggling impatiently and she raised her eyebrows as he came nearer.

Cordelia gave an exaggerated gesture of looking at her watch. "He makes it," she exclaimed. "And it's only fifteen minutes past the time we set last night. New record of punctuality, James. Don't want to make a habit out of it, you'll turn into Henry."

James gulped and stepped forward. This is what he had been dreading.

"What?" said Cordelia incredulously. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Er …" said James intelligently.

Cordelia grinned, "Well come on scaredy cat, I'm hungry and you're my closest friend, so you have no other choice than to sit with me."

As Cordelia walked out of the room James shook his head, eliminating the 'what if's' and realising that Cordelia was the same person, maybe less free, but the same girl whom he had laughed with and who had kissed him so many months ago. And as this thought struck him, James remembered the way her lips had felt on his and really wanted to kiss her again.

In time, he thought.

Cordelia didn't know what to think. Last night had been crazy. She had no memory of ever being that broken, and it had hurt so much. But, at the same time, last night had been a godsend, well, James had been a godsend. It was funny to think that after all this time, Cordelia had given up her secret without hesitation to James Potter - as much as she had despised James and his carefree life before sixth year, he had really proved himself to be a great friend.

Friend.

Really, Cordelia didn't have enough emotional strength in her to elaborate any more on her relationship with James. Yes, she would admit she liked when they were close, but she didn't want to rush into something when it was so nice to stay friends.

So, as she woke up from one of the best night's sleep she had had since Christmas, she decided to push away those troublesome feelings and just enjoy having a friend, it had been so long since she had more than one.

The pair were quite silent as they took the long trek down to breakfast. Cordelia liked this, it let her think about random stuff with the connection and security that James' company brought. She wasn't a princess in the tower, she assured herself, just someone happy to accept help from another person.

The great hall was filling up fast by the time they stepped through the doors. Cordelia took a deep breath, preparing herself for the stares and whispers that her companion would bring. After all, James was a popular figure, ergo, students noted his acquaintances. Cordelia was sure that many people suspected a relationship (the fake rumour hadn't helped) so she was ready to receive bitchiness from girls as they assumed James was taken.

But that wasn't the only thing: Cordelia felt exposed. Her secret was outside of her body and now it was out of control, and control was the thing Cordelia cherished. Although she trusted James, she couldn't change the feeling she was a huge pink hippopotamus lumbering around trying to be discreet. It wasn't comforting.

James took her hand and gave it a squeeze, Cordelia shot him a grateful look and let go as they walked into the great hall.

Yes. She had definitely been right about the stares; Lily looked like she had been injected with a rainbow.

Cordelia sat down and piled anything and everything onto her plate, expecting she'd need sustenance. She looked up to see that James was watching her curiously. "What?" she said with a great swallow.

"It's just," he started, gesturing at her. "You're so … you."

Cordelia blinked. "Thank you. Although I see no other option to my actions, it's nice to have your support," she replied. James grinned and continued with his breakfast.

While they ate, Cordelia took the chance to look at the people sitting around her. Primarily the ones she used to sit with. Hazel was sitting alone, playing with her food and looking generally as miserable as Cordelia was. Ella was at the Ravenclaw table with Louis, eating her breakfast and sneaking kisses in between each mouthful; it was sickly. And Beatrice. Well, she was alone until a couple of boys came up to try and talk to her. Cordelia watched her friends face fall but was covered with a mask of politeness. With a jolt she remembered the conversation with 'Bas Fournier' and felt sick. How could she have forgotten? New priority: get her friends back.

"What are you doing for your free period?" asked James, awakening Cordelia from her thoughts.

"Er … OH! Exams! I completely forgot. I need to create a study timetable and start studying and I'm so behind in transfiguration that it's embarrassing and I can't do that until I've done my homework which is going to take me at least an hour, oh, this looks impossible-"

James put hand over her mouth but drew it away quickly, yowling in pain. "You bit me!"

"Yes I did," replied Cordelia. "You shouldn't have done that."

"What else was I supposed to do? You looked as though you were about to have a stroke," exclaimed James. He calmed down and spoke at a normal tone, ignoring the stares they had attracted, "Why do you care so much, anyway? You always come through exams with good marks."

Cordelia's forehead creased as she reached for the tea. "It might surprise you to know that I'm not naturally smart. It takes a lot of work to be at the standard I am. And anyway, I really don't understand how you can fall asleep in class when the stuff we're being taught is just … incredible." James continued to stare blankly at her so Cordelia elaborated, "I mean, before I got my letter my life was so normal. It was never expressed, but I knew that my life would be grow up, get a house, pay the bills, get married, have kids and I did not like that at all. But Hogwarts has shown me that life is magical, not just in the literal sense, but that there's so much out there to do and I'm not going to take that for granted."

James thought about this for a moment, seemingly battling with himself but finally burst out, "Do you ever have fun?"

"Yes," replied Cordelia, raising her eyebrows.

"But … do you ever do stuff just for the sake of it?"

"Er … I don't know," answered Cordelia truthfully. She knew what James' idea of fun was (it usually ended up with tears and a horrible smelling corridor) but she had never felt the need to be like him, probably because she spent so much time trying to catch the four of them 'having fun'. "Is there an example?"

"Have you ever pulled a prank on someone, or skived off class, or …" James looked as though he wanted this to be a throwaway question of little importance, "Or wanted a boyfriend?"

Cordelia bit her lip to refrain from grinning and said dramatically, "Oh James, I never really had a boyfriend because there was only ever one man for me." She leant forward very close to him, watching his eyes light up and gave an internal smile. "And his name is Ben Silverman, could you just move over so I can talk to him." The boy in question recognised his name and turned around, trying to see who had called him; Cordelia burst into raucous laughter, nearly falling off her seat. James, after recovering from her close proximity, was now smirking at the scene the witch was creating as she rolled around on the bench. "It's so easy," she gasped, wiping tears from her eyes. "I tell you what, if you're ever my boyfriend, I'll do that every day – purely for the comic relief."

"Yeah, yeah," said James, standing up and offering her a hand. "You'll have me wrapped around your little finger. But you know what," he said, putting his face close to hers, copying her actions. Cordelia had to make a conscious effort to keep a cool appearance. "I won't care one bit."

They both grinned and made their way out of the entrance hall, both extremely happy at the way their relationship was going. Cordelia was happy at the stronger bond they had, and James was delighted at the way their relationship was bound to go.

James was sitting alone during the free period after Cordelia's insistence that she didn't need a man around her all the time. The conversation went rather like this:

"You coming?"

"Where?"

"To the library, I thought you said you had to study."

"Yeah, but I thought you'd do something else."

"Well I could come with you."

"Er … I was just going to the bathroom first."

"I'll come and wait outside."

"No you will not. I'm not a damsel in distress, I doubt I'll be in danger in the bathroom."

"It's not that-"

"Shh," she had whispered. "It's okay, I'm not the kind of person to enjoy, or be enjoyable to be around if you're around me all the time. Go find Fred."

And that's why he was sitting in the common room, trying to ignore the part of his brain that was saying, 'She's obviously in trouble right now - what the hell are you doing!' because she was right, Cordelia was perfectly capable. She had beaten time, the imperious curse, and some bad guys, and she was still alive. He focused on this and waited for his cousin to show up, fashionably late as always.

James decided it had been a while since he had written to his parents; he had been avoiding it because they had liked Cordelia so much thinking she was a 'good influence'. He had no idea what they were talking about. Since being with Cordelia he had stolen school property, defaced the hospital wing, helped her steal more school property and been hurt more times than he could count – either from worry or defiance. Also, he tried to address everyone in his letters which got tiring.

Dear up-bringers,

You may be wondering about the absence of correspondence from your favourite son (we all know Lily's the favourite child) but let go of your fears for I, James Potter, am safe. Now I realise from your previous letters that Mum was having kittens about whether a certain girl broke up with me. Don't worry everything is sorted (and please note that I would be doing the dumping) and if I'm right, things will start to … Well, I'm not going to tell my parents that sort of information, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Anyway, send my love to Grandma and Grandad, I hope they fixed the gnome/chicken disagreement. Tell aunt Angelina that Fred got into detention for trying to steal fairies because they 'were so bright' and tell George the same, I want you to describe the certain way my uncles smile melted from his face as his wife found out. Mum, please don't send that picture to Uncle Charlie; it looks like we're all uncertain of why we we're there. Give him the one of all of us on new year's and tell him we hope to receive pictures of dragons.

Was Victoire on the cover of Lily's Witch Weekly the other day? If she's back with Dan tell her I preferred Herschel; he gave us free stuff from Honeydukes (Dad get on board). Mention to Dominique that I got an O on my last Defence Against the Dark Arts homework – I don't believe she ever received one. When you speak to Fleur and Bill, say that their favourite nephew is thinking of them and all the other sentimental stuff. Give uncle Percy hope that his garden will thrive because it's so funny watching it die and aunt Audrey doesn't seem too supportive (I saw her pouring firewhisky onto the Flutterblooms, cackling wildly). Can you tell Molly to send me the thing she promised? It sounded great. Tell uncle Ron his gravity powder works a treat (forgot to mention it at Christmas) just so he can have some leverage when dealing with George. Before aunt Hermione sends another letter, assure her that Hugo is fine; he's just entering the 'I'm too cool' phase and doesn't want to send letters home. I hope her promotion goes well.

Albus and Lily are alive and well (last time I checked) and I expect they will be writing to you soon. Mum, maybe you could try not to mention me in your articles. I don't need the whole school, or the ones who are literate, to know the particulars of how I grew up. Just out of curiosity, have you captured the people who are trying to hurt Cordelia? Yes, she told me and I would like to know if she's safe of if I have to stay near her. And I know that Mum will be storming about because she raised such a sexist son, but I'm not sexist I just want to protect a friend.

Lily put an acid pop in my food the other day so I would like to be the first to inform you of the project I've been working on:

Number of boys Lily has snogged: 13.

A list of names is on the next piece of paper, do what you must.

I would tell you how I got these results but then I'd have to kill you.

See you soon,

James.

James looked up to see big brown eyes just in front of his face and screamed, hurling his quill in the air. He stood up, his pride wounded and peered disdainfully upon his cousin who had taken his seat and was now reading the letter, cool as you please. James snatched it back before Fred could read the part about Cordelia.

"So, you finally were let off your leash," said Fred, checking his fingernails. "Come to talk with those below you."

James chuckled, "Very funny, I know for a fact that you weren't bothered at all by my absence. Katrina Woollna can testify."

"Ahh, you got me," said Fred, throwing his hands up in surrender. "What are we going to do this week? Slughorn changed the spells on his doors so we can't get potions ingredients. It's only taken him four years to realise."

"What do you feel like doing?" said James, choosing another chair and sitting down.

Fred put his head on his hand thoughtfully, "Well if we hadn't seen what we did last time we broke into McGonagall's office I'd suggest doing that." James nodded in agreement, it had been too horrifying for words. "Hey, it's been ages since we pulled a good one on Bode."

"What?"

"Cordelia, Cordelia Bode, you know, that girl you want to sleep with," replied Fred.

"I know who she is but I don't think we should prank her."

Fred raised his eyebrows. "You didn't contradict my last statement."

"Why deny something that's so true everyone seems to know about it," said James solemnly.

"Excuse me!" exclaimed a shocked voice behind them.

James whipped around to see Cordelia standing directly behind him, hands on her hips and eyes widened. "Er … how much did you hear."

"Take a wild guess," said Cordelia icily. "I was just here to pick up my potions book which I forgot." She stepped towards the nearby table and picked up a huge volume. "I'll be going now."

James and Fred let out sighs of relief as the angry witch started to walk away. Confrontations like this usually resulted in one of them turning pink or losing an eyebrow until they begged her to put it right. "Why didn't she shout or something," said Fred, looking nervous.

Cordelia heard this and turned around at the portrait hole, saying, "Oh and Fred, dearest," the two boys jumped at the noise. "When in better company, I'm quite the screamer."

She sashayed out of the room and James seemed a bit dazed. "Well that was uncalled for."

"I think I have a good idea of what to do," Fred said suddenly, standing up.

Before he could leave, James grabbed his arm and faced him with a worried expression. "Fred … can I talk to you about something?"

Fred's face fell dramatically and tears started to well up in his eyes. "You're breaking up with me, aren't you? Well I knew this day would come, ever since that blond-haired bimbo walked into your life you've been acting strangely."

"Fred, this is serious" said James, rolling his eyes.

"No! I want you to stay away from me," replied Fred, turning his back. James had always admired Fred's acting ability when they were little; it allowed them to win free sweets and get away with being mischievous. But when there was an adult conversation to be had, it was a struggle.

"Fine," said James huffily, placing himself on the armrest. "I'll speak and you may choose to listen. Do you think Cordelia likes me?" Fred's shoulders started to shake and James glared at his back, "I'm serious, Fred."

Fred turned around, a look of pure joy on his face, "You sound like one of those desperate chicks who go after us."

"Shut up," replied James.

"Sorry mate, but it's a bit of a ridiculous question."

"Why?"

"Because she does like you, but she, in typical Cordelia fashion, has bottled it up and saved it for later."

"How do you mean?"

"It's not her priority right now. Think of Cordelia's brain like a bookcase; she takes one book out, finishes it, and moves systematically onto the next one."

"Henry tell you that?"

"Yeah," said Fred, smirking at his own genius. "I asked the same question last night."

"Why would you be interested?"

"Because Cordelia Bode is ... great, not just in looks, which is usually how I rate girls, but she's great to be around. And you're just … I'm looking for a better word than boring; it didn't make sense."

"Ahh Fred, you wound me," sighed James.

"Sorry, but it's the truth. Do you want my honest, serious opinion?"

"Fire away."

"Win her over before the other blokes start noticing she's more than just a bookworm," said Fred firmly. An image of Cordelia with someone else flashed across James vision and he instantly felt jealous. That would not happen.

James and Fred stood up and went to find some unsuspecting third-years.

Cordelia was studying most carefully in the library. It was quite empty, unlike her free period when she was knocked over twice by overexcited twelve year olds. She had shaken James off again after dinner when he tried to accompany her. Did no women have their independence? It was tiring to deflect 'manly' protection all the time, Cordelia wasn't built for reliance on others; she would kill herself if her friendship with one of the most 'popular' boys at Hogwarts turned her into some sort of hair twirling, googly eyed, attention seeking, shallow girl that she despised. And yes, she was using a lot of air quotes but she was feeling very opinionated.

This feeling did not help when trying to solve her problem – Cordelia had half a mind to go and yell at her friends and make them be friendly again.

The book in front of her was as thick as her face, or at least she thought it was. Cordelia held the black volume up to her face … yep, the two covers fit snuggly around her cheeks. Lowering the book she spotted Madam Pince staring strangely at her and she pretended to be doing something insightful. Cordelia glared at the pages of her books, very angry. Yes. She had gotten James back, but although she didn't harbour the exact same feelings for the girls in her dormitory, they had been friends long before she had given James his first hex.

Her chest rose and fell with growing resentment as she thought of all the happy times they had shared:

Writing notes to each other on Hazel's book just because they knew it annoyed her but she couldn't resist writing scathing comments about the particular gossip they were talking about.

Trying to cheer Ella up on her birthday in fourth year because her parents had forgotten about it – one of the only topics that actually made the beautiful girl hurt.

Making fun of Beatrice for her funny beanie she was wearing. That one ended up with a huge snowball fight, the boys had joined them and lost tragically.

Everything in her head was going around fast and full of emotion, for some reason she could remember every moment, feeling, and experience in vivid detail and that made it so much harder.

Cordelia let her head drop onto the wood, trying to control her anger and desperation which was slowly taking over her impulse to stay put.

No more pushover, she thought. Cordelia gathered her things and stuffed them unceremoniously into her bag, not caring for the smudged ink or crumpled pages, then she exited the library.

Cordelia raced past tapestries and students alike, she had to do this before she chickened out. On the seventh floor she stopped, panting and gasped, "Monkshood." The portrait lady opened and she squeezed her way past, ignoring the people in the packed common room who were staring at her hurried appearance. She cast a quick glance around the room and didn't spot any of the three. Cordelia went to go upstairs but ran into a body.

"Where are you going? Are you alright?" said James, holding her arms steady.

"Yes I'm fine, I just really need to do something so could you please remove your inconveniently placed self so I can go do that thing," replied Cordelia, ignoring the closeness of their bodies; James seemed to notice and stepped away, clearing his throat.

Cordelia ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time but there was no one in the dormitory. She rushed back down, mind set on the kitchens or the great hall when she saw that Ella was curled up in a corner, easy to miss, but had risen to get another book and Hazel and Bea were entering the common room.

It was like time froze as they all realised simultaneously that the four of them were standing together, facing one another for the first time since Beatrice discovered Ella with Louis. Ella quickly headed to sit back down while Hazel and Beatrice split to do other things.

Cordelia was not having any of it.

"Stay where you are!" she shouted. The Gryffindor's all fell silent and Cordelia realised how crazy she must look; her hair was falling out of its ribbon, her robes were hanging off one shoulder and she was sure that straight-laced prefects didn't shout at other girls while looking like the returned dead.

Ella, Hazel and Beatrice stopped moving, knowing Cordelia well enough that she never backed down. "What do you want?" said Ella.

Cordelia advanced forward, taking her time to collect the right words to say, but the meticulous approach wasn't very appealing this time.

"Sit down," said Cordelia at an even tone, pointing to an empty sofa. When they simply stared at her she screeched, "SIT DOWN!" The three of them shuffled to the chair, Ella, Hazel and Beatrice, all trying to stay as far away from the others. James came up behind Cordelia and tried to grab her arm to restrain her but she shook it off. "Do you see what you've put me through this year? Are you proud of getting so close that I nearly gave up? Every single time something has happened this year you blame ME! I deserve many things but the ONE thing I don't deserve is desertion from people whom I've stood up for year after year, putting up with all of your bullshit and stuff that I couldn't care less about. Look what we ended up doing! We tore ourselves apart and for what, revenge and anger? You deserted me at a time when I really needed you and I hope you're ashamed ... are you?" Cordelia waited, staring manically at them. "ARE YOU?"

Ella looked up, tears pouring down her flawless skin. "Yes."

Beatrice was angry.

Hazel was looking at a point over Cordelia's shoulder.

"You are coming with me up to the dormitory right now and we are going to be friends like we used to be, none of the pettiness we've seen over the past year." Cordelia saw Beatrice's defiant face and rounded on her, "You can wipe that expression off now. I won't ask what you've been doing but for Merlin's sake we were trying to protect you and you are going to build a bridge. Ella," started Cordelia, turning to her left. "I don't care how much you like Louis. You knew Beatrice liked him and you still started to date him without telling her. You have been selfish and ignorant and if you don't own up to that I'm going to throw you out the window. Hazel, I didn't do anything to you. You gave a stunning overreaction which was caused by someone we both hate."

Cordelia stopped, breathing heavily like she had run a marathon. The common room was deathly quiet except for a clinking sound. Of course people were placing bets, it wouldn't be Gryffindor without stakes. The very angry witch waited until her friends walked up the stairs in front of her, they obeyed because they had never seen Cordelia fly so far off the handle. Usually she had a calm approach when addressing personal issues.

Before Cordelia followed them she stopped and turned to James. She reached up and gave him a swift kiss on the cheek, ignoring the catcalls they received. "That's for listening."

"How much do I have to do to get a real kiss," replied James slyly.

"I'll have to think about it. Starting with, do I really want to kiss you?" said Cordelia, smirking and made her way up the steps.

In the dormitory Cordelia found her three friends on their respective beds, all with varying degrees of avoidance on their faces.

"I would apologise but I'd do it again," said Cordelia, starting to cry. "I missed you guys so much."

And in the morning Cordelia woke to find all four of them in Bea's bed, having needed to catch up and stay close. She gave a brilliant smile and pulled the covers back over her, Hazel was a doona stealer.

Authors Note: So everything is fine in Cordelia's world. Well for now.