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

28.

You've got a face that softens every muscle in my body,

I've never needed all these things to feel whole,

Something familiar in the love that you provide.

-"Hideout," Natalie Holmes

August 2018

The situation didn't end up being that big of a catastrophe after all. They had pieced together enough to know that a bunch of officials from the Spanish Ministry of Magic had swarmed the beach minutes after James and Elise disapparated. Anniston had disapparated on the spot, but by that time, Elise had already warned the Department of Magical Transportation that he might be returning and he was detained at once upon his return. They had been watching for him.

Anniston had already been transported to a temporary holding cell until he could be taken to trial for his actions. There were so many witnesses available that James didn't anticipate it being much of a struggle at all to get him thrown in Azkaban for a good long while - especially if Elise's appeal to the Minister for Berlin's removal went through. Even Anniston's wife seemed ready to denounce him, from what James heard. Apparently she was so angry he had endangered their daughter that she was ready to turn him in herself had they not caught up with him so soon.

As soon as they had received news that, although there were a few victims who were hospitalized, no one had been seriously injured, James decided it was about time he exited the rather tense position he and Elise had found themselves in, and he went home.

Elise gave him a curt and rather awkward thank you on his way out, which he returned with a rather stilted kiss on the cheek. How was it possible that things could sometimes be so good and other times be so strange?

He wasn't even sure what she had thanked him for.

---

Raigan's house felt particularly inviting that evening. She'd hung two large baskets of purple petunias on either side of the front porch and he could smell freshly baked cookies. He knocked twice before he opened the door and called, "Rai?"

But it was Piper who came running out of the kitchen first, her eyes all lit up. She seemed to realize all of the sudden that she had let on to her excitement a little too much and quickly adjusted her face to be more placid. James smirked and pulled her into a tight hug. "Hey girly," he said. "Missed you."

All Piper said was, "Hi," and then she wiggled out of his arms and went back into the kitchen. James followed her in and headed to the oven where Raigan had just flicked her wand and sent two dozen cookies to settle themselves on the cooling rack by the kitchen sink. James snatched one out of the air before it could reach its destination.

"Careful, they're still hot," she said.

James shrugged, took a bite out of it, and then pulled Raigan into a hug too so she wouldn't see his eyes watering. It had burned the roof of his mouth.

"Glad you're back," she smiled, going to the fridge to get out the milk. "How was Spain?"

"Well," said James. "It was... interesting." And he took his usual seat at the table and explained what all had gone down with Anniston and the events of that morning, brushing over Elise's pinballing moods. He would get to that later when Piper wasn't present.

"Why'd he get so mad?" asked Piper, pulling her knees up to her chest on her chair. "It was his fault kind of for putting it in her purse and not telling her."