If I May Be So Bold (A Harry Potter Universe Fanfiction)

42.

February 2035

JAMES

The following Monday, Logan skirted into James' classroom before anyone else, looking a little sheepish, but before he made it to his seat, he backed up and did something he had not done in an entire week: he made eye contact with James.

"I figure I should get the awkward part out of the way," he said. He took a deep breath and went on, "So just for the record, I think your daughter's really cool."

James laughed. "I'd have to agree with you there."

"And I promise I'm being nice to her."

"You don't have to defend yourself, Pickering," said James. "I trust Ella's judgment."

"Right," said Logan quickly. "Yeah. Of course."

"And I happen to know you're a good kid."

Logan smiled nervously.

James held out his hand. Logan shook it, smiling with just a hint more confidence.

"Don't get too cocky," James said. "You're pretty damn lucky." He didn't usually swear in front of the kids, but this felt like an okay exception.

Logan's eyes widened and he nodded very seriously. "Believe me," he said. "I know it."

Then a few fifth year girls showed up and they gave the two of them one look and started giggling uncontrollably. Logan turned and went to his seat with his cheeks just faintly pink.

James, though, felt even a little better about the whole situation than he had when Ella had told him.

March 2nd, 2035

James' contentment didn't last too long. It wasn't that he thought Logan was going to hurt her or anything, it was just so strange to think of his baby dating anyone.

All that week, he kept spotting them together. Several times, he saw them meet up near the door of the Great Hall after breakfast and walk out together. Once he turned into a corridor and saw the two of them talking and laughing about something. He turned around quick before either of them saw, not wanting to embarrass her.

Then he had stopped into the library after classes to grab a book Madame Page had put on hold for him to use with his third years and there they had been, sitting at a table with their friends, books spread out all around them but their eyes on each other.While he waited for Madame Page to locate the book, he'd watched Ella mouth something to Logan and Logan had grinned at her and leaned over to whisper something back.

He'd even looked out his window one day and spotted them walking together, Logan's arm around his shoulders.

But the instance that really got him was on Friday morning. The corridors were pretty boisterous during transitions as a general rule, but he heard a particularly noticeable ruckus that made him poke his head out of the room to see what was going on.

The first thing he saw was the cause of the noise — someone had spilled a deck of exploding snap cards out of their bag and they had indeed exploded everywhere — but this scene only held James' attention for all of five seconds before he looked a little further down the hall and saw Ella standing there talking to Iris and Kyrie. It wasn't an unusual scene at all until Logan appeared behind her, just emerging from around the corner, put a hand on her waist and kissed her on the cheek and then carried on walking.

Ella must have said something because he turned around and nodded. He saw both of them with these big goofy smiles on their faces and then he ducked quickly back into his classroom. Professor Westwick, who had also popped his head out to see what all the commotion was, could deal with the chaos in the hallway.

James went quickly into his office, his heart pounding. He had to compose himself quick. He had seventh years next. They would eat him alive if he seemed a little distracted.

It was just so strange to see that. A boy touching her that way. And yes, he knew perfectly well that Logan had done nothing particularly racy, that this was the sort of thing he would do himself when he came up behind Elise, but still. It made his stomach twist uncomfortably.

He was still a little distracted hours later when Juni showed up in his room.

"I'll be done with practice at six," she said. "I can come home after that if you leave your office unlocked."

"What?" James asked.

Juni frowned at him. "Mum's birthday?"

"Oh," James said. "Right. Sorry. I was thinking about something else." The girls were supposed to come home that evening for Elise's birthday dinner, but Juni had a quidditch match the following afternoon and they had one last training session that evening. He had hardly thought about it since seeing Ella at the end of the corridor.

Juni continued to frown at him.

"Six," he said. "That's perfect. We won't start dinner without you."

Usually she would have hurried back out by now, but she was still standing there staring at him like he was one of those muggle depictions of a space alien when Ella came through the door.

She looked a little breathless like she had nearly run here and maybe she had, because she had already changed clothes and classes had only been over a quarter of an hour.

"Well, I'm gonna go to practice then...." said Juni. "Just don't lock your office."

"I won't," he said.

And then Juni was gone and Ella was already heading into his office. "I'm ready to go whenever," she said.

"I don't know if mum's even home yet," he told her. "But you can go if you want. I've got to get a few things ready for Monday but I'll just be a few minutes."

This wasn't entirely true. There were definitely things he could get ready for Monday morning, but nothing that really needed to be done right then. He just needed a few minutes alone to get his head together before he went home.

"Okay," Ella said. And she grabbed a fistful of floo powder and left right away.

It was only after she was gone that James thought how normally she'd have said no, she'd just wait with him. He'd have bet anything Elise was home, had planned to be there right after classes so she could talk to Ella all about Logan. They had been writing an awful lot of letters back and forth the last few weeks, many, many more than usual. But Elise wouldn't let him read any.

He shut his eyes, but the image of Logan kissing her on the cheek kept popping up in his head.

"You're being ridiculous," James told himself out loud. "This is fine. They did nothing wrong."

He waited thirty minutes before heading home himself, hoping they'd have moved past any talk of Logan by that point.