Chapter 40

"Packing on the last day," Bea grumbled angrily as though this wasn't her regular routine and shoved jumper after jumper into her trunk, "leaving in bloody half an hour and nothing is done! Every year, Bea! Every single year you do this and look where it leaves you!"

She was muttering angrily to herself, door open to the Hufflepuff common room that was almost empty except the sound of laughter from the likes of her boyfriend who was waiting for her near the fire. He could hear her shouting at herself even from his seat on the very comfortable couch and annoyingly enough the same restrictions as the Gryffindor tower applied to the Hufflepuff basement.

"I can hear you laughing at me and I'm pissed you arse!" Bea screeched, grabbing her want and attempting a spell that was most likely to backfire. Though she was pleasantly shocked when the clothes sprawled all over the floor floated and folded in the air and nestled into her case with her other belongings like her many books, shoes, accessories and plants that turned the dormitory upside down.

She wondered why her roommates put up with her, she was rather terrible for leaving things where they didn't belong and she really had to bring herself to b more organised though she always forgot to.

"I would help you if I could, babe, you know this!" James called, his hands clasped together in front of him whilst Bea grumbled some very colourful words under her breath, something along the lines of, "help my ass...bloody twat."

"I figured out a spell," she shouted back to him, pulling on the boots she had left out to wear for the train ride, knowing fine well that she would take them off as soon as the train started moving.

"See, I knew you could do it, baby!" James said enthusiastically, and when she didn't reply he shouted a faint, "love you!" which was able to send the smile to her lips.

She charmed her trunk to float behind her, making sure she had absolutely everything she was taking home and looking at the pictures one last time that was taped to her wall and her bedframe, she closed the door behind her with a small smile.

"You know I'm really unhappy that I won't see you for a full month!" she exclaimed, tucking her wand away and pushing herself between the boy's legs, "do you realise how hard that's going to be?"

"Yes, but I'll be counting down the days," he smiled. He pulled on the dress she was wearing so that she was closer to him, his arms resting on the bottom of her back whilst she wrapped her own around his neck, "I'm open to goodbye kisses until we really have to leave each other."

"Well that's really good to know," she smirked, pulling on the back of his neck in order to connect their lips, "you better expect kisses all day."

"I would be really, really sad if I wasn't getting kisses all day," he tutted, pulling her back into him and reconnecting their lips. She hummed when he slipped his tongue into her mouth, one hand leaving his neck to cup his cheek whilst his hand lowered from her bottom back.

"Keep your hands to yourself," she teased as she pulled away, winking at the smirk on his lips and pulling on his hand, "you know it would be great to be able to go to Honeydukes before leaving but we'd spend so much time in there and miss the train."

"I already got you stuff anyway," James shrugged casually, stopping when Bea did just as they exited the common room.

"When?"

"When you were seeing Sprout, the boys and I went to Honeydukes. I got you jelly slugs, of course, chocolate, cauldron cakes and fudge flies for the train, I thought I told you!" he laughed, pulling on her hand so they would continue walking.

"Oh, Merlin I love you so much," she whispered, stopping him one last time to press her lips to his for just a moment, "you really need to stop buying me things though, James."

"I like buying things for you," he mumbled, though his cheeks had heated red and the sight was more than adorable, "I like seeing the smile on your face."

"The smile isn't for the things you buy me, James, the smile is for seeing you," she kissed him once more, pressing soft kisses to his cheek too and one more on his lips whilst his smile soon widened.

"I'm never going to cope without seeing you for a month," he shook his head, "maybe Sirius and I need a road trip. Or you could always come and see me, my parents absolutely adore you and you know it. My mother loves your company, she thinks you're amazing and bloody hell dad does too! you need to come and visit, babe, just for a day, or longer, I'd much prefer longer and Remus is obviously welcome.

It means you don't need to cope with your dad either, and then it won't be as long as a month until I next see you!" he sighed, snaking his arm around her waist and pulling her into him.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, just hugging him tightly whilst he regained his breath, "of course I want to see you and of course I love your house and your parents but I don't want to be a pain. Your mum and dad have you and Sirius to look after I don't want to add to that!"

"You're not, baby, I promise, they really do love you!" he held her shoulders so that he was staring right at her, "they love you so much, of course, not as much as I do but that's quite impossible anyway."

She laughed softly, her head falling onto his chest whilst she nodded, "alright, but make sure you write for the times we're not together, I'm warning you!"

"The only way I wouldn't write to you is if Sirius chopped off both of my hands," he mumbled, lifting up her chin to kiss her.

They really were taking the, "I'm going to give you multiple goodbye kisses all day long" game seriously.

-

"Are you excited for summer, Bea?" asked Peter as he leaned against the window of the train. She had just thrown him one of the cauldron cakes that James had gotten her from where she sat on the boy's lap, and Peter was happy that she was willing to share her sweets with him.

Her legs were sprawled over Sirius who was only sitting beside James, though he was really only sitting there to piss the boy off. Winding James up was one of the funniest things he did and when Bea was involved - the someone he was most protective of - it was even funnier to see his reaction.

"Really excited!" Bea nodded excitedly. She was running the tips of her fingers over the back of James' neck absentmindedly, unaware of the goosebumps on his skin but she was very aware of his hands on her thighs, "I mean I hate the thought of not seeing the three of you every day, Bertie and Violet too, of course, and even Lily but It'll be nice not having to think about school work for a while, which is good."

"Well, we'll be visiting soon, right Jamesy?" Sirius grinned, patting Bea's knee in the process, "we have to see our girlfriend at some point."

"Excuse me?!" both James and Remus spoke at the same time whilst Bea and Peter laughed loudly.

Sirius smirked, "Bea is obviously mine too, we share her."

James pulled Bea closer to her, glaring at a very amused Sirius who was oblivious to Remus' hard glare, "we absolutely do not!"

Bea moved to kiss James, giggling as he tried to keep hold of her and when she pulled away she not so subtly winked at Sirius who found himself grinning until he was nudged by the other - angry - Lupin who, in Sirius' eyes looked like a pissed off puppy.

He pushed himself up from his seat, falling onto the empty space beside Remus and when he did so, Bea stole his space, her legs now over James and her hand in his too whilst Peter groaned about too much PDA when Sirius guided Remus' to look at him and smashed his lips onto the boys.

"Sorry, Pete," Bea laughed, "but they're rather adorable let them have their moment."

"Oh, they have plenty of moments," the boy grumbled, "everywhere I look there is another couple! I swear, it's my goal next year to find a girlfriend!"

"Yes, Peter!" Bea grinned, "and I will personally throw you off the astronomy tower if you don't look for someone. What you need is confidence, you're handsome and yet you don't believe it yourself for some reason. Any girl would be lucky to have you, Pete, all you have to do is talk to someone!"

"I talk to you!"

"I'm your best friend, it doesn't count!" she exclaimed, though she soon winked at the boy as she spoke, "I'm also taken but that's a different worry."

"Hey!" James exclaimed, frowning at her and ultimately moving closer, "I'm not very fond of these jokes, Bea."

"Oh, I'm only teasing, babe," she chuckled, pulling him down to lie on her, though it was rather cramped on the train seat, "you know you're the only boy for me, I love you far too much to let you go."

"Good," he mumbled, "because from now on I'm never letting you go."

She laughed softly, moving so that he could get more comfortable with his head on her chest and soon was she softly running her fingers through his messy hair. Peter had grumbled something about going to sleep, to which James lazily transfigured him a blanket as though it was second nature, and draped it over the boy with his wand.

"You are so bloody good at that," Bea whispered, pressing her lips to his forehead, "you did that as though it was nothing!"

"Oh, it was just a simple spell," he shrugged, lifting his eyes to look at the glare in her eyes, "what?!"

"That wasn't just a simple spell, James. I know I'm improving in transfigurations but I would never be able to do that unless I had all of the instructions like most people - and not to mention that the reason I'm improving is that you're helping me! Why don't you realise how intelligent you are?!" she was frowning, and serious, and James' heart had swelled at how strongly she felt about it, and although he was arrogant and very, very confident, Bea had managed to see right through that, knowing his insecurities and the fact that he didn't seem to praise himself as much as he should.

"Because I'm hardly intelligent," he shrugged, his eyes still lifting to stare at her and his words just made her frown deepen, "I may like Transfigurations but I'm completely average at everything else!"

"Do you think I'm smart, James?"

"Wha- Bea, of course, I do! I think you are so incredibly intelligent that it's actually so bloody hot," she saw the hint of a smirk and leaned down to kiss him for just a second.

"Then why don't you see yourself as intelligent when we are the same, just different subjects! I am so completely average in everything else, the only reason I do homework in Potions is that I have Lily, the only reason I haven't failed charms is that of Remus. Care of Magical Creatures is only easy because Kettleburn has us feeding Flobberworms every other day, history of magic is the biggest drone and yet I'm still terrible at it no matter how slow he teaches and no matter how easy it is to pick up, I'm terrible, and don't even get me started on Divination.

The only thing I'm good at is Herbology, and I love it with all my heart and that is enough for you to see me as intelligent so why don't you see yourself the same with Transfigurations? I have caught you reading textbooks in your free time, okay?!

I love you so much and I hate the thought of you not realising how good you are!" she exclaimed.

"Oh Merlin, I love you so much," he whispered. He lifted up his hand, guiding her head down in order to kiss her, and feeling the smile on her lips, he lifted his head in order to get closer to her.

"Sprout asked me if I was willing to start a study group next year, and she even asked if you would like to do it too, and you have helped me improve with transfigurations a whole lot, and I know you have improved amazingly in Herbology, imagine how incredible that would be to help other kids who need help," she whispered, humming when his fingers brushed her skin.

"I think that is a wonderful idea," he nodded, lifting his head to kiss her one last time, "I also think you are wonderful."

"This is a nightmare," grumbled Peter, "I go to sleep having the image of those two snogging in my head, I wake up to you two being all cute or whatever!"

"Peter, I will tell you this one last time, if you're going to complain so much, get yourself a bloody girlfriend!" Bea exclaimed.

[A/N Thank you so much for 50k, it means the world💛]