Eternal Sunshine - James Potter

Chapter 61

"how I am supposed to remember what happened three weeks ago?" James complained. We were on call this week and I had needed to go into headquarters to finish some potions. I dragged James with me as I knew he had been avoiding his paperwork.
"if you made notes, like I told you too, you would easily be able to remember what happened" James rolled his eyes at me
"yeah, well we can't all be perfect like you can we" choosing to ignore James and his stroppiness I turned my attention back to my potion. I was actually brewing wolfsbane for Remus, as I had been doing since it was created.

I looked up from my potion just in time to see Peter walking past the room. I kicked James to get his attention nodding in Peter direction
"Hey Wormy! Come in here a sec" James yelled after Peter. James and I worried about all our friends but in particular, Peter. When James and I first moved out Peter would often come to visit us either on his own or with the others. It was great as this wasn't something, he had been able to do before his mum got a bit better. Recently however, Peter had been quieter than usual, he wasn't coming to our house or my old house. He didn't even come to the movie nights we had on our week off.

Peter hovered in the doorway of the room James and I were in.
"did you want something?" he asked
"We wanted to see if you wanted to come round for dinner tonight? It's been a while." Peter looked at the ground instead of looking at James
"I can't tonight, but maybe some other time? Can I get back to you guys?" I frowned slightly
"of course, Pete. Is everything okay? I feel like I haven't properly spoke to you in ages. How's your mum?" He looked up at me giving me a small smile that felt kind of fake
"I am good, just a bit tired, I guess. My mum is doing well, thanks for asking Em" James and I took a quick look at each other not buying the tiered excuse.
"you are going to come celebrate new year's with us, right?" Luckily new year's was next week which meant it fell on our week off. We were all planning on having a bit of a party together at my old house.
"all being well I should be there" Peter said to a frowning James. Deciding it was best to change the subject I reached for my bag and pulled out a box of Peters favourite brownies. Sirius and I had a bit of a baking day yesterday, that was until we got called out to a muggle village. Thankfully it turned out be a false alarm. I handed the box over to Peter.
"salted caramel still your favourite right?" he nodded at me
"it is, thank you. I will definitely let you guys know when I can make it for dinner but I have to get going. I promised my mum I wouldn't be home to late" his tone had improved making both James and I feel a bit better about the situation and his smiled didn't seem as fake this time but something was still off. Once Peter had scurried off James and I looked at each other our expressions mirroring each other.
"I will ask Lucy to check in on him as well. They are friends, he might just not want to talk to us" James hummed deep in thought.

After a while James went back to complaining about paperwork and interfering with my potions, pushing his worry about Peter to the back of his mind for now. I was batting James away from my potions scolding him for messing around when Remus walked in.
"Trouble in paradise?" I glared at James
"if he touches my ingredients one more time, I am calling the wedding off"
"And if you would just let me help you, we could be at home right now" we both narrowed our eyes at each other.
"alright you two settle down" Remus said humour in his voice. I huffed snatching the murlap tentacles out of James' hand and sitting back down.
"why won't you just let me help you?" James said pouting, acting like the child that he is
"because it's very difficult to brew. It will take me longer to show you what to do than if I just do it myself. Plus, I bet if I look at your paperwork it still isn't finished" I said raising my eyebrow at him. I knew I was right when he sat back down picking up the papers, muttering under his breath. That's what I thought.

 Remus chuckled watching us
"I actually came to ask for your help, but it seems like now might not be the right time" I waved him off
"nonsense, Potter is just in a stroppy mood today" I said patting James' cheek. He rolled his eyes at me and turned to look at Remus encouraging him to ask what he wanted.
"I was wondering if you have any free time next week to help me move into my new flat" James and I both grinned at Remus
"of course, mate! that great news. Where's abouts is it?" James asked enthusiastically
"it's not too far from my dad's. Like you guys I just wanted to be able to walk over if I wanted" We were both genuinely happy for Remus as we asked questions about the flat and when he needed us.
"has Sirius seen it yet?" I said trying to act nonchalant. I have been dying for more information since finding out they were trying again. I noticed James moved a bit closer to Remus when I asked the question, he too was eager to know.
"you're not fooling anyone Em. Just ask what you want to know" it was like Christmas had come early
"have you been on anymore dates? Are things going well? Are you official again?" I reeled off
"Is he going to be moving in with you?" James added. I turned to him grinning holding out my hand for a high five. Excellent question from my future husband. Remus chucked
"you two are the nosiest people I know" James and I shrugged accepting this judgement
"but to answer your questions. Yes, he has seen the flat, yes there there has been a date or two, things are going well, no we are not official. I want to take things slow and no he isn't moving in" James and I were both buzzing with excitement.
"don't get to excited. We are taking things slow. He really hurt me with the whole Snape thing and for things to work between us I have to fully trust him which I can't just yet" I nodded understanding him, but it appears James did not
"What? How can you not trust pads? The whole thing with Snape was a mistake" I placed my hand on James knee settling him back down
"Mistake or not prongs, he broke my heart and I am still trying to recover from that. I am terrified he will do it again" He looked down twiddling his thumbs the nerves evident in his voice
"you don't have any guarantee he won't do it again. Just as he has no guarantee you won't break his heart. There are only two things certain and that's life and death. As you said to me you can't let the fear of something that might never happen stop you at the chance of finding true happiness" Damn maybe I needed to let James take the wheel with our friends problems more often if he is going to pull out gems of wisdom like that. Remus looked at my shocked face laughing slightly.
"I told him that when he was freaking out because he realised, he fancied you" I smiled thinking about the early days of me and James
"and look how that worked out for us Rem. We are getting married next year. Well providing James doesn't annoy me to much between now and then" He scoffed
"I could annoy you every single day and you will still marry me" annoyingly he was right, so I did the mature thing and hit him over the head.