Always Something - Dramione

Chapter Eighteen

James sat down in the grass, after school, dressed like himself, no robes. He tugged Cassie's hand so she'd sit next to him at the foot of the rose bushes to discuss their plans to travel to London to offer Cassie herself as the donor of the magic energy needed to fix her mother's memory. Cassie had already decided it would help her parents to accept her offering if they were able to see her living well without much magic.

That's why she and James would be traveling by Muggle trains, and staying in a Muggle home in London, her Granger grandparents' house in Heathgate. They had already agreed to pick Cassie up at King's Cross in the morning, before the surgery opened, unaware that her parents wouldn't be expecting her in London for another day. James arriving with her would be a surprise for everyone, but Cassie was confident not even her Gran would be stern enough to send him away. Especially if no one told her James had a home of his own in town.

Before leaving, there was more to arrange. James produced a blank parchment and a quill, writing a message to send by owl. "Unless we want to be picked off the train by an annoyed and disappointed famous Auror before we even make it out of Scotland, we'll need to let my dad know we're going," he explained.

Cassie hummed. "What in the world are you going to say to him?"

James snorted. "I dunno. Probably not, Hey, Harry Potter, remember Draco Malfoy? I'm missing a few days of school right before my OWLs to head off uninvited to his birthday with his cute daughter by Muggle train so we can transform her into a squib..."

"...But she's rubbish at magic so it's no great loss," Cassie finished, lying back on the grass.

James set the parchment aside and lay on his side next to her. "Yes, it is -- a terrible loss."

She turned to look at him, blinking. "Don't come with me if it's going to make trouble for you. I mean it. You can stay here and study. I'm better suited to survive in the Muggle world than you might think. I'll be fine. If I'm not, then you can come find me."

He smiled, but sadly. "No, my parents aren't all that worried about marks. And I hate it here alone."

"When have you ever been alone?"

"What I mean is, the best way to find Castora Malfoy wherever she goes is to not lose sight of her in the first place." He leaned across the turf between them and kissed her cheek.

"I like when you do that," she said, smiling up at the sky. "That's all I know about kissing: just what I like. But I have questions about it, you know, and no one I can ask."

"What about Griselda? She writes those long snogging stories about Veelas. She must have some, er, expertise when it comes to..."

Cassie exaggerated a shudder. "No. I had to cancel my subscription to her note-fics after she started snogging Pollux in real life."

James twitched. "Right. Rose then? Wait -- no. Definitely don't ask Rose. She'll blab everything to my mum."

"See? It's hopeless."

"Just ask me," James volunteered. "I've -- had more practice, sorry to say."

She narrowed her eyes. "Alright then," she said, scooting closer to him, "if I put my mouth on your face, like this, but I don't make the kissing sound, have I actually kissed you? If I just keep talking against your cheek, my lips touch you over and over again but does it count?"

James turned to catch her chattering mouth with his. She was quiet for a moment as he kissed her before she was talking again, still pressed against his mouth. "That counts, obviously. Though..."

Speaking the "th" sound thrust her tongue against his lips and James sat up quickly, blowing out his breath.

"What? What is it? I'm sorry," she said, sitting up herself.