fundamentals of love ; james sirius potter

epilouge

this is long, this is a lot, and this is also probably the last thing you'll ever be reading by me (or maybe just for a long time). so, take your time, and thanks for everything.

Ellie turns twenty-six on the rainiest day of April.

She gets calls, texts, cards, presents, everything one could ever want on your birthday. Does an hour-long call with her dad and tells him how much she hates their busy schedules. He laughs and tells her that's the thing about getting older, life doesn't let you live like it used to. He's found cell service in the middle of nowhere for her and she's clinging onto the phone as if it's him. When he has to go, she cries because she loves him too much and all she does is wish she was little and they were back at the kitchen table blowing out a terribly decorated homemade cake.

The past seven years haven't really made her a completely new person. She still cries too much and is obsessed with romantic comedies, still gets her hopes up whenever a tall brunette smiles at her because she's convinced it might be her soulmate. She still loves every type of music to ever exist and the colour pink. Get's sentimental when looking at pictures and rereading letters and old news articles too much.

But, Ellie's grown up and matured and realised that even though she can make countless mistakes and be immature, she's a good person and she deserves the good things that come towards her.

On the kitchen sits her Thesis about some history topic that took her too long to decide on for her masters.

Sometimes, she thinks she was never meant to be a witch. She'd ended up going to a muggle university after finishing her internship in Peru. Ended up doing an honours degree in European History and Literature and then pursuing a master's in it right after. Found herself being good at it but most importantly, also enjoying it and falling in love with academia.

She'd gone to visit her nonna in February. While they were making muffins, she'd told her about the plans of maybe pursuing another degree and her nonna had smiled. "You know, my father was a history professor. He loved it a lot and I did too. Sometimes, I wish I'd gone on that path," she'd told Ellie while putting the tray in the muffin with a bittersweet path. "I always get so happy because you've done everything I never got to." Ellie had hugged her nonna for a long time after that and stayed an extra day at her grandparents' house.

There was a possibility of a Ph.D., but Ellie had started to realise summers with Victor and Rosie, wherever they currently were, wasn't enough. She wanted a job now and they'd been saving one for her, for a very long time. It was time to stop school and finally put everything she'd learned into her career. Victor and Rosie were currently in Scotland planning some year-long project about remains they'd found deep inside a river, a possibility of an ancient underwater wizarding civilization was the only thing the wizarding history community was talking about.

Her phone beeps, she glances down to see a text from her ex-boyfriend. It's Luc, the boy she met in Paris years ago who had been starting his master's in International Relations right when she was beginning her history degree. They'd both knew falling in love was inevitable so they just began dating as if nothing else really made sense. Luc's never anything less than supportive. They ended their three-year relationship a year ago, and have been more than amiable and even closer.

luc: happy birthday, have a good one e. mum just told me to get back together with you because she misses you a lot. also you're invited to all our family dinners for the rest of your life. they're never gonna let me live down the fact we didn't get married.

elle: you never proposed, it's all on you

luc: you wouldn't have said yes even i did