This Time, Last Time (A Harry Potter Universe Fanfiction)

6.

So when I'm ready to be bolder,

And my cuts have healed with time

Comfort will rest on my shoulder

And I'll bury my future behind

I'll always keep you with me

You'll be always on my mind.

-"Home," Gabrielle Aplin

---

June 2018

Elise's interest in him was short lived. By Tuesday morning, she had begun avoiding him again and though James continued to smile or say hello any chance he got, she rarely reciprocated and never initiated.

Unfortunately he had a little too much time to dwell on her disinterest, because now the summer camp incident was wrapped up (McGill would go to trial the next week, though he doubted she'd be sentenced to anything serious. He was hoping for some sort of probation at least, some extra eyes on her activity.) he was back to his job of tailing Anniston which mostly entailed listening on on his conversations for thirty seconds at a time and then waiting around until he came out again. Riglock and Grapfort, the goblins who stood guard by the employee entrance what seemed like twenty four hours a day and seven days a week, were onto him, too. He'd given up any attempt to peruse the shops behind the bank now, Polyjuiced or not. They were all too aware that no one frequented that area of the street, and the fact that someone - i.e. James in various disguises - arrived every morning around the same time and left shortly after Anniston entered the building didn't do much to help matters.

Instead, he'd resorted to listening in from wherever he could, out of sight. He lost the benefit of seeing what was going on, but it hardly mattered. The conversation was the same every day anyway. James would have called this a waste of time and demanded other work if he'd had any leverage in the department. As everyone already thought he was a little crazy following that Monday's ordeal, he didn't want to push it. He was only here a few months anyway.

After a very dull Thursday in which the only thing he'd found out was that the Anniston's had a family holiday coming up in August (he heard this over Anniston's lunch break which he took with his daughter at Nox down the street before she headed home. James had to be very careful not to be spotted, because she would've recognized him), he headed back to see Raigan and Piper fully expecting to spend another evening on the back porch analyzing every one of his split second interactions with Elise.

He was becoming a little obsessed with her. The proximity and her momentary lapses in her resolve to ignore him at all costs were making him crazy. He felt like a teenager again. Raigan thought it was all very funny because James had never, even when he'd first known Elise, been on to discuss his romantic endeavors. He had talked about Elise a lot, but he'd never really been looking for an opinion or advice. He just wanted someone to listen.

It was all different now.

But when James walked inside, he could tell pretty quickly that they were not going to spend the evening expostulating on the various reasons Elise could have chosen to ignore his greeting that morning, because Raigan was sitting at the kitchen table with her hands around an untouched glass of water and her eyes were on the ceiling.

She didn't say hello when he walked in.

James sunk down in his usual seat, clasped his hands on the table and said, "Where's Pipe?"