true loves poison • james potter

25

Her jaw dropped, "You have an invisibility cloak?"

Smirking, as if he knew she'd be shocked, James nodded, "Now come on quickly."

Rushing forward, Lorelei got under the cloak with James. Unwillingly, she was assaulted with his scent while under the cloak. Two distinct smells battled both coming from the boy, a stupidly strong cologne and the smell after it rains. Reluctantly, she admitted it was a fine combination. Oddly familiar, but she had always enjoyed the smell of rain.

"Where are we going?" She asked, trying to get a peak of the front where he was directing them, but he kept his back turned to her.

Slightly annoyed, Lorelei tried to focus on something else. Like how pleasantly cool the corridors were, or how warm James was, or how that smell-

James led them up to the astronomy tower. Not questioning his decision, Lorelei braced her calves for the workout she was now used to after months worth of astronomy classes.

After a silent quarter of an hour, they finally made it to the top of the tower and James took the cloak off. "Welcome to the best place to sneak out to."

Walking to the railing that looked out over the grounds of Hogwarts, Lorelei asked, "And why is this the best place?"

"Because." James said, "No one ever checks up here."

"And say they do decide to check. What's your plan then?" She asked.

He shrugged and tossed the cloak on the ground. Lorelei noticed a parchment in his hand but restrained and didn't ask.

"I haven't met a single person who could sneak up on me." He said confidently, tapping the parchment onto his palm.

Lorelei raised her eyebrows as James joined her on the railing, leaning his arms next to hers, "Is that a bet, Potter?"

He chuckled softly, staring into the darkness in front of them. "I would never make a bet I might lose, Lorelei."

Lorelei felt something twinge in her chest. Staring out at the dark Hogwarts grounds, she studied the snowy landscape as she tried to figure out what twinged.

"Do you have anything planned for the summer holiday?" James asked after a while.

"That's months away." She said softly.

He shrugged. "Well what else would you want to talk about."

"Wasn't it you who asked me here? You're supposed to be the one with questions." She said purposefully goading him.

"Yeah I did the hard part and got you here. So you have to come up with questions."

She hummed. "Well in that case." She looked up dramatically, "Dream job?"

"Auror."

"Really?"

He nodded. "You?"

She smiled. "I just want to do something important. Something that will make a difference."

He hummed in response.

"Favorite color."

"Red."

"Of course it is." She smiled to herself.

"And is yours blue then?" He asked.

Shaking her head she answered, "Nope. I actually have a personality outside my house. It's green."

He scoffed, "I have a personality out of Gryffindor."

"Oh really?" She challenged. "Because I would've thought you to be the image of the perfect Gryffindor. I would bet in the future they show your photograph to young Gryffindors to show them who they should strive to be."

James chuckled, "I'd like to see that. I think Minnie would have a heart attack."

"McGonagall would love it. She adores you." Lorelei said, rolling her eyes at him. "Luckily by the time they would be showing your image I would be far away from Hogwarts, safe from any little James Potter replicas."

James turned around, leaning back on the railing instead of leaning over it. "I can see it now: Hogwarts except every Gryffindor is modeling themselves after me."

Lorelei laughed and turned to face him, "What would be your advice to one such young Gryffindor?"

"Learn the rules like the back of your hand." He glanced over at Lorelei, "It makes them easier to bend or break."

Lorelei scoffed but couldn't help the smile that planted on her face. The two stood in silence while the wind picked up, blowing fresh cold air on the pair.

Rubbing her arm, Lorelei backed away from the balcony. James immediately joined her, "Are you getting cold? We can go back now if you'd like. I just wanted to make sure we were okay again."

Lorelei turned to him with ruffled brows, "Why would we not be?"

James rubbed his neck and looked down. "Because of the other day when I stood you up."

Letting her smile bloom back over her face, Lorelei answered, "It was a misunderstanding, James. As long as you learn now from your mistakes there are no more hard feelings."

Looking significantly happier, James let out a relieved sounding chuckle, "Thank Godric."

Turning, Lorelei picked James's cloak off the ground and turned to him, chucking the garment at him. "I have early morning classes so it's probably best we go back."

Pouting dramatically, James wrapped the cloak around himself, "I suppose I can take you back then. Wouldn't want you to be tired tomorrow."

She fought her smile from growing, "James Potter? Caring about how his actions affect others?" She teased as she joined him under the cloak.

"Oh ha ha Lorelei." He said dryly, beginning the walk down the stairs.

<>

Sleep felt impossibly distant as Lorelei lay in bed later that night.

As she tossed and turned, her mind swirled with every thought under the sun, mostly circling back to: it must be around midnight now, it must be one now and so on.

Huffing and looking at her watch (tilting it so the sliver of moonlight poking through the window illuminated the surface) she confirmed the time to be two in the morning.

Frustration swirled around her, tangled in with her bedsheets.

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Lorelei tried the technique her divination teacher taught her third year.

"Breathe in and out thirteen times, and the first thought that comes to mind you must resolve." The professor had said.

Granted the technique was taught as a way to focus on opening your third eye, or meditating, or something equally as absurd.

Doing as she had been told, Lorelei counted her breaths to thirteen and then let her thoughts flow back in.

The first being: What am I going to do after I leave Hogwarts? And then rapidly thoughts shot themselves in continuously. What's going to happen with the Voldemort person they're talking about in the papers? Will the ministry be able to catch him? How many people will he kill before they do? We're they safe at Hogwarts? What about when they were not at Hogwarts during summer?

After those unsettling thoughts, a lighter but somehow more anxiety inducing one followed, What if James finds out about the project?

And with those thoughts plaguing her, it took quite a while to fall into a restless sleep.