It all started with a racoon || jegulus

Chapter 6

"Seems like it's going to rain soon." says Marlene panting, coming to a full stop in her steps. Peter stops near her and looks up to the sky with uncertain eyes.

He turns to look at James, with a questioning expression, and as their eyes meet a grin appears on their faces. They nod simultaneously.

"You guys want to have an earlier breakfast than usual?" says James, a smirk on his face.

He doesn't have to ask it twice before him, Marlene and Peter find themselves sitting at one of the tables of their go-to bar.

It's almost 6am now and rain starts pouring gently, tapping on the bar's windows. James and Peter start a rain drops race. Peter always ends up winning.

Saturday mornings is one of the things James loves more of his friendship with Marlene and Peter. Every week they wake up early at 5am and go for a run in their neighbourhood. After their two hour run they eat donuts. They've been doing this since their early years in highschool. It's become tradition. It's sacred.

During the day they're usually really busy and because of this they sometimes find it hard to express their feelings to each other or take time for their friendship. But this early in the morning it's only them. Their safe space.

The donuts are just a bonus.

They've been doing this for so long that they ended up being regulars. They even bonded with the bar owner, a woman named Minerva. They don't actually order anymore, she just brings them whatever sweet she's working on to see if customers would like it. They usually end up loving it. There are no donuts like Minerva McGonagall's.

"So," says Minerva, placing a plate full of strawberry glazed donuts between them, interrupting James and Peter's race (in which Peter's drop had proved itself to be the fastest yet again) "how are you kids holding up now that the exams are over?"

She looks at them with sympathetic eyes, waiting for an answer she already knows. She had opened the coffee shop with her wife after she had retired from being a teacher at highschool. Somehow, when they were struggling in their highschool years she always knew. Call it some teacher magic. Or mother magic. She did have a daughter their age after all.

They end up telling her all about their exams, which ones they think they've aced and which ones they're mostly sure they've bombed. Marlene shows her pictures of the clothes she had to design, while Peter and James tell her about the conspiracy theories they've thought of based on the psychologists they've studied.
James also tells her about the project he's started at the shelter aiming to ensure that more animals are adopted. He's still working on it, but he tells her he'll make sure to explain better once it's ready.
In exchange she tells them about how her wife Poppy has caught a cold in the most stupid way possible, and that makes them laugh as she used to be the best doctor in the hospital ward she worked.
Time passes and eventually other customers start to enter, so Minerva goes back to the counter.

The moment they're left alone, Marlene, James and Peter exchange a serious look. James is the first one to talk.

"So, who wants to start?"

Their friendship is based on honesty, sincerity and the promise to not ever hide their feelings from one another, so of course part of their early Saturday tradition is to openly say what's on their mind at the moment.

Marlene looks at them and then with a sigh she starts talking.

"You guys remember the vinyl store I like to go to? The one where my friend Sirius works? The one that has been closed for like almost a month now?" there's some seconds of silence where both James and Peter nod, before she goes back to talk "Turns out, it hadn't closed at all. It partnered with a tattoo artist and now they're in business together. They reopened some days ago. That's when I found out."