So, practise began.

The next day, it was officially two weeks until the first task, and because of that, Azalea and James spent the majority of the day in the library.

The idea was they researched good spells to use and what they were used against, and then practised them until they had them down. That way, they were best prepared for pretty much anything the task threw at them.

Or they maybe were. But doing all this made Azalea feel more prepared. And James wasn't complaining. Every moment she spent with him was a moment she was getting to know him better, and she was away from Lauri.

Take today, they'd had a conversation about the last Triwizard Tournament, which Azalea knew nothing about, but James was an expert at.

"You know, their first task was fighting dragons," he mentioned casually that night, as the candle wicks were burning low and the two were facing each other, heads turned to the side lying on open books.

"Seriously?" Azalea asked with interest. "How did your dad manage that?"

"Summoned his broom and flew to get his golden egg - that's what they had to get," he explained.

"God, you must have so many stories," Azalea said in a low voice.

"Yeah," shrugged James. "Most of them are just dad duelling people and fighting them with Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione. Some are better, but not all."

"Tell me one of the better ones, then," Azalea asked him with a smile.

She wasn't really processing what was happening. Wasn't really thinking about the fact that she was actually having fun with James Sirius Potter, and enjoying herself. She hadn't even realised yet.

James, on the other hand, was absolutely freaking out inside. He was actually talking with her. Like, she wasn't going crazy, she wasn't being cold, and she wasn't annoyed. She was smiling.

So he began his story with a chuckle. "Well, in fifth year my dad and Ron and Hermione made an illegal defence against the dark arts group because their actual teacher was a bitch who made them carve their own hands."

Azalea scoffed. "What?!"

"I know," James laughed with her, diving into his story explaining the bitch teacher, Professor Umbridge, who was so terrible that she drove them to create this group where Harry taught other people DADA.

"That's so cool," Azalea giggled. "I can't believe they did that."

"I know," James grinned. "Also, did you know he started dating my mum in sixth year? It's crazy to imagine we're older than they were when they found each other."

"Yeah," Azalea nodded. "Crazy."

They sat on chairs, staring at each other for a couple more seconds, caught in a moment. Azalea had no idea what was happening to her, or why she was feeling so happy, but-

"Azalea, could I speak to you?"

Azalea and James both jumped up, cheeks flushing, embarrassed at having been caught in such a moment only a day after an article claiming they were in a relationship was released.

The situation was only made worse by the fact that it was Lauri who had caught them.

"Er- Lauri, hey!" Azalea said, smiling slightly. "Erm- yeah, of course."

She got up and walked round to the next shelf with him, ensuring James would not overhear anything they said.

"So, um..." she said, once they came to a stop, stood facing each other. "What's going on?"

"I was just wondering how you were doing," Lauri smiled slightly. "I'm guessing you're doing work for the task, right?"

"Yeah, there's no other way I'd be hanging round with James Potter," Lea shrugged.

Lauri laughed, and it was seriously like the sun came out. Azalea was amazed at how much brighter the world became when he laughed.

"So how far along are you?" Lauri raised his eyebrows.

"Can't tell you that, you're my competition," Azalea teased.

"Okay, tasks aside, I just wanted to tell you that I really enjoyed our walk the other day," Lauri said to her. "You're... you're amazing, Azalea, honestly. And I want to go on more walks with you, find out more about you."

Azalea couldn't breathe.

"I-I think you're amazing as well," she said, smiling slightly.

Lauri grinned back at her. "Thank you."

"So- so do you want to go on another walk?" Azalea asked quickly. "There's a Hogsmeade trip next weekend, the one before the task, we could go into the village..."

"Yeah," Lauri smiled. "I'd like that."

"Well, I've got to go and secure a victory on the first task right now, but I'll see you later," Azalea grinned at him.

"Ridiculous, you can't beat me," Lauri grinned back. "But you can try."

Azalea chuckled as she walked away from him, winking. "Oh, I will."

✾✾✾

Telling Alice was always going to be humiliating, but Azalea liked to think it would have been less humiliating than this.

Her best friend let out a squeal when she heard, so much so that Azalea had winced heavily upon hearing it, very embarrassed.

"You're going on a date!" Alice then said, grinning. "Oh my god, I've been waiting for this day for years!"

It was true. In fifth year, Alice had gone on her first date with a boy called Aiden Zabini, and it had been an absolute disaster. He'd only asked her out as a joke, and had ended up embarrassing her in front of all his friends. He'd thought it had been funny.

Well, until Azalea's fist connected with his nose.

The girl still remembered that day like it was yesterday. Adrian had yelled at her, of course, but she'd been too enraged to listen.

"Don't you ever fucking use my best friend like that again!" She'd yelled at him, as he'd held his bleeding, probably broken, nose.

"You bitch!" He'd shouted, his words muffled.

"You dick," Azalea had countered, before flipping all his friends off.

Alice had been so thankful for her that day, saying rather bashfully. "Thanks, Lea."

"Don't mention it," Azalea hugged her. "One day you'll find a guy that actually wants to date you, and that isn't just wanting to make a fool of you. You're too beautiful not to."

Alice had chuckled gently, and the redhead holding her had smiled.

"And hey," Azalea said jokinly, pulling back to look at her. "When I go on my first date, sometime in the far off future, I'll expect the same treatment if the guy's an asshole."

Alice remembered that moment the same way she did in that moment, as they spoke to each other in the common room.

"But I have every faith he won't be an asshole," Alice said with a small smile. "You know he's not an asshole, cause you have a big fat crush on him."

Azalea sighed, smiling slightly as her cheeks lit up with a blush and she looked down.

"Maybe," she said shyly.

Alice giggled, poking her in the side and correcting her. "Definitely.'

✾✾✾

"Reducto!"

Azalea watched with pride as her reductor curse blew a chair in an empty classroom apart. She and James had been in there almost all day, practicing spells and curses they'd learned from the books. The others had been popping in and out, even bringing them some lunch and some dinner.

It was nine by now, and the candles were burning low. Pretty much everyone was in the room by now, chatting and observing. Fred and Louis were helping the two champions, Rose was watching Albus and Scorpius play chess and Lily and Alice were watching Azalea and James.

"That was alright," Fred told Azalea as he kicked the pieces of the broken chair out the firing zone.

"Alright?" Azalea raised her eyebrows. "It was fucking awesome."

Fred rolled his eyes and James resisted a chuckle as another chair was put up for him to try.

"Reducto!"

Again, the curse hit the chair, splintering it into pieces.

"Alright, I think we can give that one a rest," Louis said Fred shoved the broken pieces of the chair to the side again. "Have you got any others?"

"Yeah, the ridikkulus charm, but you need a boggart for that," Azalea shrugged.

They'd learned the ridikkulus charm way back in third year. It was used to repel a boggart, which was a shapeshifter that turned into your darkest fear. Saying ridikkulus made the fear funny, and what really destroyed a bogart was laughter, so it created that.

"Wait a sec," James said, going over to check the list of spells they'd created. "There's one more."

Just from the way he was smirking at her, Azalea knew what she meant, and rolled her eyes. "No."

"Wait, what spell are we talking about?" Lily asked, confused.

"The patronus charm," Azalea said, with a very annoyed look at James.

"It'll be useful," he shrugged, still smirking.

"Stop looking at me like that, Potter."

"Okay, okay," James held his hands up. "Let's not practise it and see where we get to."

Lea sighed heavily, gritting her teeth.

"Fine."

It wasn't that she didn't want to practice it. The expecto patronum charm was a very useful spell, in fact. It was used to repel a dementor, which was a dark creature who's kiss could suck out your soul.

The charm created a patronus, which was a spell that often took the form of an animal, built on a happy memory to repel a dementor. They'd learned about them from Teddy in fifth year, but not everybody had been able to manage them.

Naturally, Azalea had managed almost straight away. She'd been able to create a non-corporeal patronus from the very first lesson, which was a patronus that didn't resemble an animal. She'd built it upon memories of her family and her childhood, and it had worked.

She'd managed to create a corporeal one a couple of weeks later, and James, Alice, Fred and Louis weren't far behind.

But the reason she was so annoyed about it, was because whilst Alice's was a swan, Azalea's was a vixen.

And James Sirius Potter's was a fox.

Alice, Fred and Louis still laughed about the look on Azalea's face when she found this out. Teddy, as well, but less often because he was a teacher.

James was just highly amused about the whole thing, very excited about the fact that they had matching patronuses.

"Fine," Azalea repeated, raising her wand. She thought about her and Alice, and their journey together, and how much they loved each other- "Expecto Patronum!"

The bright white vixen burst from her wand, galloping around the classroom. It was bright white, and it was beautiful. Azalea looked on it with a smirk, proud of herself for being able to produce it despite the undertones of what it meant about her and Potter.

"That's the best you can do?" James raised his eyebrows and his own wand. "Expecto Patronum!"

Now, Azalea didn't know what he was imagining, but it worked, because the fox that formed from his wand bounded straight over to her vixen. Azalea rolled her eyes as she watched them bounce about together, feeling James's eyes on her.

"Alright, I think it's pretty obvious we can do that spell," the redhead girl said after a second. "As for ridikkulus, we've been doing that shit since third year, so I think we're good with that."

"Brilliant," Louis grinned. "Is that all your spells, then?"

"Yup," Azalea nodded, tucking her wand into her back pocket. "We just need to know what the task is gonna be now."

"What do you reckon it is?" Scorpius asked with interest, looking up from his chess game.

"No idea, but dad told us to practice spells," James shrugged.

"And we were told it'd test our 'daring'," Azalea nodded.

"Well, you've both got plenty of that," Rose said slightly jokingly. Lily and Alice burst into giggles at this as well, and Azalea rolled her eyes again.

"Anyway, we'd better call it a night at some point because Lea's got a date tomorrow," Alice said with a smirk.

Azalea's cheeks burned and she snapped. "Shut up."

"You've got a date?" Fred asked with a mocking gasp. "Is it with that Durmstrang boy?"

"If you mean Lauri, then yeah," Alice said with a proud little smile.

"I said shut up," Azalea said, looking down with flushed cheeks again.

And she heard Fred and Louis jokes, and Alice and Lily's laughter, and she felt her cheeks burning even redder.

But she didn't see something important.

Which was James, stood behind her, his mouth half open, his face resembling that of a kicked puppy.

In other words, an expression of pure and raw jealousy.