Bloom Again /James Potter/ ❁book 2❁

❁Chapter 25❁

Chapter 25

"You can do it, Bea," she whispered shakily, eyes on the sink below the mirror she was previously staring at. Her friends were waiting for her, she was sure of it...in the Hufflepuff common room excitedly calling for her to hurry but they were just teasing her - and Sirius made sure she knew that when he shouted at their friends for rushing her.

The laughter was heard even from her bathroom, excitedly shaking presents from the tree that had appeared because the castle always knew what was going to happen. The walls had ears, and Bea was sure of it but even as she woke up on the morning of Christmas day, she wasn't sure she even knew what she would do.

She was...so content, so peaceful and James had been spending the nights in her dorm just to keep her company, just to be alone with her. Waking up in his arms felt like bliss and she smiled as soon as her eyes opened and that hadn't happened in a long time.

Her mornings had always been different, and she didn't know how, because before she would wake up in his arms on an occasional day she would stay in his dorm and his head would be between her head and shoulder and his soft snores soothed her and he was so peaceful that she smiled just at the sight of him.

But she hadn't been doing that, until today.

And she felt it time to do something she wasn't sure she would ever do, and she wasn't scared - she was nervous, though. She was nervous about what she would feel, of what her stomach would do...and if she would hurl up her guts and she wasn't sure she wanted to find out.

But she needed to do it.

She just needed to.

So, her wand that clutched tightly in her right arm raised on a shaky arm, and her eyes closed, and she recited the spell in her mind over and over again, heart pounding and sweat forming on her hairline, and then she tapped just once at her hair, at the dark brown locks that were getting longer.

And the reciting of the spell became verbal and her eyes fluttered open and she watched, and watched, and watched herself in the mirror - watched the spell work until any light produced from her wand was gone.

Her gasp came first, and the wand hit the floor second, and her hands clasped over her mouth with tears already streaming down her cheeks at the sight...at the sight of the sandy brown hair that had finally made its return.

But her tears weren't sad, and the nerves had left, and she wasn't scared because it felt right.

She could look at herself, and she wanted to. She had her hair back, it was her colour and not something she stole from a muggle shop. It was her natural hair with the sandy brown she missed, and it fell close to her shoulder that it just looked like she had gotten too much of a trim at the hairdressers.

Like the change had hardly happened at all.

Before, when she saw herself with such hair just after what happened - it was too hard, she couldn't bear the sight of herself...she couldn't look at herself in the mirror and be happy because she knew that the girl with the sandy brown hair and the cuts and the bruises that once marked her face was the girl that stared back in that mirror above the bathroom sink.

But now, it wasn't that.

It wasn't the girl from months ago, all the way back to the very end of June.

It was Bea Lupin, with her bright eyes and sandy brown hair and a smile.

And she felt comfortable again.

"Bea, bloody hell!" it was Remus and she giggled...she fully giggled because she was happy, and it was Christmas and he was impatient.

"I'm coming!" she grumbled, grabbing her wand and making sure her room was empty when she appeared back into it. Her wand was on her bed and she changed from her pyjamas...and instead of the dungarees that sat on her chair in the corner, she wore a dress.