Bloom Again /James Potter/ ❁book 2❁

❁Chapter 12❁

[My break isn't over, I just wanted to write.]

Chapter 12

One by one her friends started coming back to her after Violet's countless apologies.

It started with Lily Evans who approached her when she was walking down the hallway with Beau beside her. He didn't know Lily...well, he didn't know her well, but he had seen her and didn't even know that she was close with Bea.

She had said apologies like the others, and Bea wasn't in the best mood that day, so she didn't want to hear it. She stood emotionless, leaning on Beau with pursed lips and eyes scanning Lily's face because she had heard those apologies countless times, but she didn't want to.

But then Lily said, "I didn't know you as well as your friends and bloody hell I know you don't care for this. This is selfish, I think, because it's just me trying to reassure myself that I wasn't a shit friend when I was - I was a really fucking shit friend to you, Bea, and regardless of not being as close as the others we were still close, and I still care about you and hearing what happened to you made me want to rip the fucking head off of that...monster."

And Bea couldn't help but throw her arms around the redhead, tears burning her eyes and her lips quivering to hold in the sob she had. She cried so much it seemed like second nature and all she wished for was her life to return to normal, but it didn't seem that it was going to happen anytime soon.

The next was Peter and she had noticed him hanging around her on one of her better days. She had just finished a painting she was particularly proud of, considering her drawing of Beau whilst still terrible wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be.

Beau always wondered why she drew him so much but that didn't stop him from hanging every painting proudly in his dormitory. He wondered why she didn't draw James, why she drew him with all of the wrong brush strokes and horrible paint choices and she finally told him.

"He is perfect to me," she said, looking down at the promise ring she had never taken off, "I want to draw him perfectly."

Beau had commented on their stalker that day too, and Bertie had joined them looking rather amused at the fact that the boy was falling her around, but she didn't find it amusing. She felt sad, actually, because he had always been one to shy away...to never work up the courage to say how he feels and show how he feels and he was there trying his hardest.

It wasn't funny.

She had let him suffer long enough when he was waiting outside of Herbology, the only class she ever attended, and Violet was chatting aimlessly about something she was hardly listening to. Beau was holding up the conversation with the girl, laughing when he needed to but both of them were worried about just how distant Bea was being.

She had far too much on her mind and she wondered why Remus hadn't said anything to her about the boy and why he felt guilty enough to follow her around for the entire day. She hated to admit that she thought Peter would be the last one to talk to her, though it wasn't surprising that it seemed that it was going to be Sirius.

"Oh, bloody hell, Peter!" she turned, and he looked like a deer caught in headlights and she knew that if she was feeling herself then that would've been the first thing to leave her lips to ease the tension, but she wasn't feeling like teasing, she wasn't happy, and he knew that and so did she.

"B-Bea!" he exclaimed, trying to casually lean against the wall whilst she watched him. Her arms folded over her chest and her eyebrows raised at him and his stance, "funny...seeing you here!"

"Peter, you have been following me about all day!" she sighed, "are you going to talk to me or are you just going to keep running after me?"

"I didn't know what to say..." he finally said, frowning. His shoulders had slumped, and he stood from the wall to face her, "you know me, I just - I wasn't...I didn't - fucking hell," he ran a hand through his hair frustratedly, "I heard about you in a letter like everyone else did and do you know how relieved I was that that happened? That I heard about you and could be there with you and I wish I didn't need to hear anything about you.