Nah, She Didn't

~ Part 83 ~ I Am Very Wise ~

Brown Sugar - The Rolling Stones

-James POV-

I search the crowd on Platform 9 3/4 for my parents.

My eyebrows scrunch as I think back to last night.

Maybe it had been too soon to drop the L bomb. But... but I'm sure about my feelings. I'm sure that I love that girl, and want to spend the rest of my life with her. I'm sure she's the one.

Well, I guess she thought it was too soon, or didn't feel the same way, or something. And yes, of course I care that she didn't say it back, but... I'm not going to pressure her into saying it back. I want her to do it of her own accustoms.

I'll just... not think about the fact that there's a chance that she won't ever say it back.

"Aha!" I hear Sirius exclaim from beside me. He points dramatically towards where I see my mum, dad, Aunt Margaret, and Rachel standing. I follow after Sirius as we run towards them.

Eloise runs up from behind and races towards them with us. I grab everyone into a big group hug.

One we pull away, my mum smiles. "Good to see you three too, then," she says, laughing.

My dad ruffles my hair, then Sirius's, then Eloise's with a playful grin.

Mum narrows her eyes at me. "You had better be getting enough sleep, dear, because I don't like seeing those bags under your eyes," she says, patting my cheek.

She turns to Sirius. "Hm. Well done, sweetie, it seems you look like you got more sleep than James."

Mum grins at Eloise, who had previously been hugging her mum and Rachel. "And you, dear, how was your fourth year at Hogwarts? All three of you will have to tell us everything at home, alright?"

"Okay," Eloise answers, smiling.

~ ~ ~

With a pop, Sirius, mum, dad and Eloise, Aunt Margaret and Rachel, and I arrive at the Potter House. I mean, it's actually called the Potter Manor, but that sounds way too regal, and fancy.

"Not to pry on your little conversation with yourself, mate, but your house is pretty regal and fancy," Sirius butts in. Gah, damn me and my talking to myself.

"Well, it just sounds too..... Ah! Unwelcoming. That's the word," I reply. Sirius just rolls his eyes laughing as we trudge up the hill and to the house. We would apparate closer, but there are Protective Enchantments all around our house that permit us from doing so.

We reach the house, and Sirius and I yell to everyone that we're unpacking and run upstairs.

We stroll into our room, and I am overcome with a scent of sweaty socks, too much cologne, and fish guts. Sweaty socks because, well, we have socks and we get sweaty. Too much cologne because I used to overdo it to impress Lily, and tried an experiment that would (supposedly) make it smell even stronger. The experiment went wrong. And fish guts, well, that's sort of a long story. Mum let us have a fish to keep in a bowl in our room. And one day while I was gone, I guess Sirius decided to try some spells on the fish, which ended in it exploding and scattering fish guts all over the walls. Don't get me wrong, we cleaned it up, but now the room forever smells of fish.

I take a deep breath.

Ah, the smell of home.

I levitate my trunk into my bed, and Sirius does the same with his.

You see, we share a room with two twin beds. We have enough rooms not to, and at the beginning we didn't share, but then Sirius started getting nightmares, and I would go in there to comfort him, or he would come and sleep in my bed. Eventually, he just ended up moving into my room.

I open the trunk, and start levitating things into their places.

"Prongs," Sirius says. I look over at him. "Obviously there's something wrong. Both you and Lilyflower were being weird. So what's going on?"

"Ah, that. It's quite lovely really," I say falsely. "Um, well, last night at the ball, during like, the slow dance, I.... told her I loved her."

Sirius sucks in a breath.

"I know, I know. Big jump. And we just started dating, like, 2 months ago, but... I'm sure I love her. Well, you see, I guess she wasn't sure yet. She stared at me for a long time, except I don't think it was me she was really staring at. She was thinking. And she kept blinking and swallowing, and then... she ran off."

"Mate-" Sirius starts.

"I wasn't going to pressure her into saying it back though, if she hadn't run off!" I exclaim. "I would've told her that she didn't have to say it back! She can take her time, I'm not going to break up or anything just because she's not ready to say I love you the second month we're dating!"

"I wasn't going to say that," Sirius says calmly. "Mate, you know she's been through a whole heap of things. Lots of words being thrown at her. Freak at home, M-Word at school. And, both of those words being thrown from a person that she did once love, whether it was as a friend or as a sister. I suppose she's just afraid that sort of thing will happen again."

I open my mouth in protest.

"Both I and she know that you wouldn't ever call her a-a mudblood, but she's still probably scared. So give her time to work out her feelings," Sirius says.

I nod. "Yeah. She can take her time," I conclude. Then after a pause, I say, "Bloody hell, that was pretty wise of you, Pads."

"I am very wise," he responds with a smirk.

~ ~ ~
NOTES: X

-Amelia