Metanoia | J. POTTER

23 | dreamers and realists

Rose was careful as she entered the room, watching where she was going to avoid waking the other boys. She pulled the curtain away and stepped in, closing it behind her. "James?" she asked quietly.

She was under the impression that he hadn't been sleeping very well either but under the assumption that he could have possibly managed to fall asleep, she didn't want to risk waking him up.

She turned to leave but stopped when he spoke, "Rose, is that you?"

"I didn't wake you, did I?" she asked, ringing her hands together nervously.

"No, no," he replied and she could see him sitting up in his bed. "I wasn't asleep. Is everything okay?"

"Yes," she answered quickly, "Well, no. I don't know. I just-"

"I know," he nodded, "Me too." He nodded his head toward his bed, "Come here."

She made her way to his bed and he pulled out his wand and performed a simple Silencing Charm so they could talk without worrying about being overheard.

"Can't sleep?" he asked and she nodded. He opened his arms and she moved toward him, wrapping her own arms around him as though it were the most natural thing in the world. "I'm right here, okay?" he informed her, placing a kiss on her head, "It's going to be okay."

"You're not going anywhere?" she asked.

He nodded, "I'm not going anywhere."

The two laid like this for a while, neither of them saying anything as they merely basked in the company of each other.

"I think I'm ready," Rose informed the boy and he shifted slightly to get a better look at her, "To tell everyone."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded, "I mean, I want to talk to Lily and Tonks first and I'm sure you want to talk to your fellow Marauder's, but yeah, I'm ready. Come hell or high water, we'll be fine."

"Hell or high water?" he inquired in confusion. "What does that mean?"

She rolled her eyes, "It doesn't matter. Just that whatever happens, we'll do it together."

"I think I can get on board with that," James agreed. "When do you want to tell them?"

"We can talk to our friends tomorrow," she suggested. "But before we go ahead and tell the whole Hogwarts population, I want to ask Lily if she's okay with us going public. She'll get comments too."

James nodded, "I'm fine if we only want our close friends to know. I don't really care if no one else knows."

Rose raised an eyebrow at this, "Why? Because you like all of the girls in the Hogwarts population hitting on you?"

He grimaced at the comment, "You knew about that?"

"Is there a reason I shouldn't?" she countered.

"No," he replied, "You have nothing to worry about. I promise."

"I know," she said as she snuggled closer to him. "I like seeing you squirm."

He laughed, "You're going to be the death of me, Evans."

"See, I don't like when you call me 'Evans' while we're in bed because for all I know, you're just imagining my sister and not me."

He grinned, "We'll just have to change your last name then."

Rose couldn't help but smile at this despite herself, "Thinking a little far in the future, aren't we, Potter?"

He shrugged, placing a kiss on her forehead, "What can I say? I'm an optimist."

She moved closer to the boy, her head resting comfortably under his chin, "Good. Hopefully it's enough for the both of us."

He held her tight against himself, "We're going to make it through this, Rose."

She smiled sadly, "I hope so."

The two had been keeping their relationship a secret for almost a month now and during this time, they had had this conversation multiple times. Rose was convinced that either one or even possibly both of them we're bound to die while James was convinced that the good guys always won.

That was the difference between realists and dreamers. Realists understood the severity of a situation while dreamers always leaned toward the unrealistic and hopeful outcome.

There was a theory that every realist needed a dreamer and every dreamer needed a realist.

The idea was that, without a realist, dreamers would undoubtedly take candy from a stranger and be done for. And without a dreamer, realists would be so focused on how they thought things were supposed to be that they would never get anywhere in life.

That's why - even after everything they had to go through to get there - Rose and James worked.

He kept her from falling into her abyss of dark thoughts and never returning and she kept him from floating too close to the sun, much like Icarus had.

The only hope was that they didn't lose each other in the war. That by some miracle, they both defied the odds and made it out alive.

And hope was always such a fickle thing. It was often something that people held onto even when it's clear that there's no reason too.