𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐒, james potter

32. what are you doing here?

CHRISTMAS BREAK WAS a little more hectic than Nesrin thought it would be.

She is thankful that both James and Garrett went home for the holidays, so she had time to finally breathe. She didn't know how suffocated she really was until the oxygen reached her lungs for the first time in months.

She spent her time over the break trying to look for any kind of clues that could help defeat Voldemort while Regulus was back home trying to look there.

It was all fine and dandy until Nesrin heard about her brother getting into a fight with Gasper Avery—his supposed best friend—and landed himself on a bed in the hospital wing.

After several useless attempts of trying to get Idris to tell her what happened, she gave up trying to find out.

However, after the incident happened, Nesrin started paying more attention to Idris and has since realized that he's been acting secretive over the last couple of months. She sometimes notices him sneaking out of the common room to go somewhere in the middle of the night.

She has a creeping suspicion that this has something to do with the Dark Lord.

This scares her more than she'd like to admit.

She can play off the fight with Gasper as a simple disagreement, but Idris is not someone who gets into a physical fistfight without a good reason. Gasper must have done something to really piss him off.

Gasper is still in the hospital—weeks after the fight and after break ended—recovering from several broken ribs, both arms fractured, a crack in his right femur, and a swollen face Nesrin would have thought is the result of a severe allergy if she didn't know better.

Not only that, but Idris has his own dorm room. No one else stays in it apart from him, and Nesrin has never quite worried about what he's doing in there all alone until now.

The urge to get him to tell her all his secrets overwhelms her.

But she can't. She can't risk him finding out about what she and Regulus are doing and telling Voldemort their plan. She's not sure if she trusts her twin enough to keep this one thing to himself.

To get her mind off Idris and what kind of errands Voldemort has him running, she sneaks out of the common room to go to the restricted section of the library. At this point, it's the only place she hasn't checked for clues, and she needs all this searching to lead somewhere.

It has to lead somewhere.

She stole a key from Filch's office earlier that she's sure he has a dozen replicas of, so he won't notice it's missing. She plans on returning it after anyway.

When she reaches the library, she quietly lets herself in and begins to look through the books shelf by shelf. It's astonishing how much information the school hides from them. How beneficial all this information on protection charms and spells could be for everyone.

She's shifting through the books on her second shelf when she feels a presence behind her. She doesn't know what it is but she can feel someone there. She turns around, but she can't see anyone.

Her eyebrows furrow as she turns back around to take a book off the shelf, ignoring the feeling in her gut. But then she hears a slight rustle. Her body is immediately on guard as she freezes.

And then she realizes something.

She sighs quietly before mumbling, "You can take off your cloak. I know it's you."

Everything is silent for a moment before she hears more rustling and turns around.

James stands there, his invisibility cloak in his hands.

Pursing her lips, she says quietly, "Go ahead. Report me."

He says nothing. He just stares at her.

And perhaps, that is worse.

The tension is so thick Nesrin is sure she'll stop breathing at any second. She hates that she lets herself fall down this hole every single time James is around. She hates being so vulnerable.

"What are you doing here?" he says finally.

Nesrin rushes to come up with a lie on the spot. "I was curious about the restricted section. I've never been allowed in before, and I wanted to see what kind of books are here."

It seems believable enough. Maybe if it was anyone other than James who caught her, they would have believed it.

His eyes narrow. A muscle in his jaw jumps. He is completely silent.

And then his feet start moving before Nesrin realizes it. He stalks over to her slowly. He keeps moving even when he is within a reasonable distance of her. She frowns in confusion and starts moving back until she feels her back hit the bookshelf she was looking through just a few minutes ago.

He only stops when he is right in front of her, so close that their toes are touching. He places his hands on either side of her head against the shelf.

She holds her breath as his face dips down closer to hers, his breath ghosting over her cheeks, her nose. Her lips.

She sees him swallow hard as he stares down at her with an intense look in his eyes. She may have stopped breathing altogether. She isn't quite sure.

He sends her a leveled look.

"It is astonishing how you still think you can lie to me."

His face is so close that she can feel his lips mouth each word against her nose.

"After all this time." His voice is low, his rapt attention on her. His gaze feels too heavy. She doesn't think she can hold it for much longer. "After everything we've been through."

His voice turns to a whisper. Nesrin's breaths come in faster, her heart thumping in her chest so loud there's no way James can't hear it.

She tries to lean away from him, but his presence is overwhelming. It doesn't matter if she were on the opposite side of the whole library. It would still be too close—and not close enough.

His gaze trails down to her mouth, his eyebrows knitting together as if thinking deeply about something. His jaw clenches as a frown takes over his face.

Abruptly, he pushes himself away from her and turns to the side.

"Get back to your dorm," is all he says before he leaves.

Nesrin doesn't know what to make of the interaction. Her head leans back against the shelf. It's all she can do to get her heart to calm down.

𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿'𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲 !

queen charlotte just came out ahhhhh!!!!!!!

im so freaking excited to watch it