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

32.

We are still kids but we're so in love,

Fighting against all odds.

I know we'll be alright this time.

Darling just hold my hand,

Be my girl, I'll be your man.

I see my future in your eyes.

-"Perfect," Ed Sheeran

August 31, 2018

The first hour they were at the party that Friday night, James could hardly sit down because he had so many students after him to find out A) what he was doing there, B) whether they'd have a lot of homework the first week back, C) if he could look over their summer assignment to which James said "absolutely not, should've written me weeks ago" and D) in the case of a few overachievers, if they could have the first weeks homework now, which he laughed off to hide the fact that he had not actually completed his lesson plans for the week.

James felt pretty popular, but he also felt pretty hungry so he pretended that Raigan was starving and managed to break himself away. They went down the buffet line loading their plates with picnic food and sat themselves down at a long table like the house tables up at Hogwarts underneath the big tent. There was a huge silver dance floor to their right, set up atop the grass, and music was blasting out of a magically amplified phonograph. A band was scheduled to started playing around eight and all their instruments were already set up on the little stage.

James spotted Elise a short ways down the same table he had sat at, but she was wrapped up in a conversation with some of the very important people working just under the minister himself and he didn't want to interrupt.

"Can't believe you're going to be a second year," said James.

"You've said that like a hundred times," said Piper. She looked so much like Raigan today it was unbelievable.

"Yeah, yeah," said James. "I'm just proud of you is all."

Piper took a bite of her hot dog and frowned at him, but James got distracted because he'd just accidentally made eye contact with Elise for the first time.

Elise smiled a little but then she looked away and went back to her conversation. He wasn't sure how to go about the evening. He wanted her to come and talk with him and Raigan. He wanted to dance with her later when the live music got going. He wanted people to know they were a couple, to know that she was not keeping it a secret.

Meanwhile, Piper had begun talking about how she didn't want to cover mandrakes in Herbology that year because when she was a kid, Raigan had walked her past the greenhouses during a lesson on a brief walk to get out Piper's wiggles, and she had passed out thanks to the sound of the seedlings, even muffled as it was through the greenhouse walls.

"You'll be fine, Pipe. I heard it too and I didn't faint. It's because you were a toddler. You were a little extra susceptible," said Raigan, cutting apart her chicken.

"I'm too sensitive to them," Piper argued. "I'm going to collapse again or something and it'll be embarrassing."

"That's what the earmuffs are for," said James, smirking at her across the table. "The school wouldn't let you deal with mandrakes if you weren't ready to and second years have been handling them just fine for years."

Piper barely refrained from scoffing at him, probably only because Raigan had seen it coming and raised her eyebrows at her in warning.

"I hate herbology," she said instead. "It's stupid."