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J A M E S
Strumming his fingers over the guitar strings, James noticed that one of them needed tuning. He quickly got to work, humming to himself. He was excited to be performing again. It reminded him of the old days in university when he and the boys would sit on his parents' garage, playing their instruments and writing songs with grandiose dreams of the future.
Of course, he never expected that nearly two years later, he'd be here, in Florida of all places, working as a lifeguard at his best friend's dad's resort. For the past year, he'd been anxious about the future and what it held. In just a year, he'd lost both his parents, his fiancée had broken up with him, he'd dropped out of school and moved in with Sirius.
Just when James thought his life couldn't get any worse, Peter had reached out to him with this job offering. He was hesitant to accept it at first, not expecting much to change about his already miserable life. Even as he said yes or as he halfheartedly agreed to let Peter's dad pay for his lifeguard training, James was only hoping for a mere change of environment to temporarily get him out of his loop of melancholy.
But these past months had changed him in a way he'd never expected. James enjoyed his job, being around people and laughter, getting to sing and play again during the live music nights and spending time with his friends like he once used to. Hogwarts was slowly starting to feel like a home to him, and now that he'd met Lily, it seemed like his life was finally beginning to look up once again.
"Prongs," came Sirius voice. James snapped back to reality, looking up to Sirius who'd just taken a seat next to him on one of the lobby armchairs. "Ready for tonight?"
James nodded, strumming a hand over the now tuned guitar strings. A smile rose to his lips.
"Feels nice, doesn't it, Padfoot?" he said. "Being on stage. It's almost like we're a real band whenever the crowd cheers."
Sirius raised his hand to his chin in contemplation, his grey eyes glittering.
"I've actually been thinking about that," he said. "We could make it work, you know."
He shifted his eyes to James, giving him a pointed look. James' heart dropped.
"W-What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean, Prongs. The whole music thing. Starting an actual band. Making songs again. Our lives have changed, but that doesn't mean our dream must too."
James looked down, not knowing how to process Sirius' words. Of course, he enjoyed all the live music nights when he got to perform, and his passion for songwriting was still just as strong, but he'd never given much thought to it after his parents' death. After that event, he'd never given much thought to anything.
