Family Planning

Chapter Thirty-Four

Christmas holidays were approaching quickly, and the students soon found themselves boarding the Hogwarts Express. Hermione and Draco, along with Harry and Pansy, sat in one of the compartments. The twins, along with their group of friends sat in another compartment.

Lea and James were barely speaking to each other. Whenever they did, James tried to steer her away from her friends to talk to her, and Lea wouldn’t budge. Everyone was noticing the tension between the two friends that had known each other since infancy.

Inside the teenager’s compartment, Jake and Damien were playing a game of wizard’s chess, which Jake was failing miserably at, much to Damien’s delight. Becca and Alicia were discussing what they wanted for Christmas, and James was looking blankly at his quidditch book. Lea had left a few minutes before to go to the washroom.

James closed his book abruptly, “I’m going to talk to Jonathan Banks for a second, he wanted to show me something.”

“That was...weird.” Alicia said after James had walked out.

“I know.” Damien replied.

Jake had a thoughtful expression on his face, then leaned over and whispered something into Damien’s ear; Damien smiled, and shook his hand.

Meanwhile, James was walking down the hall, and saw Lea walking directly towards him, without thinking, he grabbed her, and pulled her into an empty compartment.

Lea ripped his hand off her arm, “What the hell?”

“Sorry, I just need to talk to you,” James replied, sitting down.

“Well I don’t want to.” Lea said, and went to open the door.

James lazily cast a charm on the door, “You’ve been avoiding me.”

“What the hell did you do?” Lea asked when the door wouldn’t budge.

“A charm my Dad taught me. Now tell me, why are you avoiding me?”

Lea angrily huffed, and sat down angrily; a silent refusal to talk.

“I heard you,” James said quietly, when she didn’t answer.

 “What?” Lea whipped her head towards him, “What did you hear?”

“When you and Jake were in the tower.” He stated, looking at her with his emerald eyes.

“What did you hear there?” Lea asked, wringing her hands.

“You basically said that you liked me.” He stared at her.

Lea couldn’t tear her eyes away from his. His eyes really were mesmerizing, if you looked really closely, you could see tiny specks of brown around his irises. James was looking intently into Lea’s eyes as well. Her eyes grey, with silver flecks throughout them. They unconsciously found themselves leaning closer and closer, until Lea snapped herself out of her daze, and pulled back.

“Can I go now?”

James nodded slowly, and flicked his wand quickly. A clear click was heard, and Lea stood hurriedly. As she walked out of the room she heard a voice murmur. It was so quiet, she wasn’t even sure if she heard it.

“I feel the same way.”

She whipped around. “What did you say?”

James raised his head slowly, “I feel the same way.”

Lea launched herself into his arms, and wrapped her slender arms around him, and buried her face in his neck. At thirteen, James was tall, already 5”7, while Lea was 5”4.  James was shocked, but wrapped his arms around her two. He breathed her scent in. She smelt of lilacs, and if he breathed deeply enough, he could smell the faint hint of strawberries.