Romeo || James Potter

27 - The Past, Present, and Future

May 22nd - another long one; and this is me apologizing in advance for what is going on with aspen !! (trust that I love her) also Aspen's sickness isn't going to have a name to it; i based her illness off of Atherosclerosis, but it's not accurate to the real-life condition.

Phoenix left three days after she was saved. Aspen visited her everyday after classes and introduced her to all of her close friends. Her and Marlene got along nicely. Aspen sent a letter that day to the Andino's, and they responded instantly with open arms. Phoenix promised she would visit over the summer once she was situated again. Aspen couldn't wait, but she couldn't even think about that right now.

Today was the day. She sweat, she practiced, she cried, and she worked herself for this moment. Today was the quidditch cup. It would be Slytherin against Gryffindor, Slytherin having lost one game and Gryffindor losing none. Their match was just last week against Ravenclaw, and it was a crushing victory. Now, the quidditch cup for the end of Aspen's first year at Hogwarts was practically in her hands. If she lost, she didn't know how she could recovered.

Aspen spent the night with James and woke up at 4 in the morning. She took a deep breath as she stretched her legs. Then she realized James' arm wasn't around her. She furrowed her brows, carefully getting up and looking all around the room. Peter was loudly snoring, Remus was most likely with Sirius, and Sirius' curtains were drawn.

She knocked quietly on the bathroom door. "James." She said quietly. It was perfectly silent in the bathroom. Aspen tried to open the bathroom door, but it was locked. "Jamsie, is everything okay?" She asked a bit more urgently.

She unlocked the handle with a flick of her wrist, opened the door quickly, and stopped in the doorway. James was hunched over the toilet. Aspen swallowed hard before closing the door. She immediately ran over to him, took his glasses off, held the hair out of his eyes, rubbed his back, and attempted to comfort him.

James was incredibly still. The two stayed like this for a minute before James finally hacked. Though Aspen looked away, she sat up more and continued doing everything she was doing before. It lasted only a moment. He nodded and sat with his back against the wall. Aspen put the toilet seat down then flushed it. She got up and wet a rag, also getting a glass of water, before sitting next to James. She gave him the water, which he chugged, as she wiped off the puke around his mouth.

He exhaled heavily as he sat the glass down and Aspen took her hand away. "Sorry, darling. I know that wasn't very attractive."

She tilted her head. "James." She said sternly.

He cleared his throat. "Yeah." He rolled his shoulders. "It's just a thing that happens before the cup match. It's happened since first year. No biggie." He smiled weakly and held her hand.

"It's like those panic attacks, innit?"

"I guess. It's really just nerves. I... I'm worried I won't be perfect."

Aspen put his glasses back on his face. "Well, my Jamsie, you are perfect. And you're going to be amazing. You've done well up until this point, what's going to change?"

"Well," he smirked, "I am perfect in many ways." His expression dropped slowly. "Yeah, you're right. But my parents are going to be here today, and-"

"Your parents are going to be here?!" Aspen asked loudly. She clapped her hand over her mouth quickly, seeing James giggling in the dim light. She cleared her throat and set her hand down. "Well, okay. Think of them being here as a way to show them how truly incredible you are at this game, yeah?"

"I believe I should show you how incredible I am in this bathroom."

"Potter."

"I will." He looked deep into her eyes, a soft smile on his face. "And I'm okay. I promise."