the girlfriend experience, james potter
𝒔𝒆𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓, 𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟕

chapter four, SNITCHES AND DITCHES

✧ ━━━ · ✦ · ━━━ ✧

     BRONWYN WARD DIDN'T KNOW WHETHER to look at being caught spying on the Gryffindor Quidditch team — which wasn't her initial intention, by the way (just a harmless practice clash) — as embarrassing, or funny. She was leaning more towards funny when James Potter walked into the first class of the new year (Potions — ugh!) scowling at Bronwyn, and Bronwyn only.

     "Don't tell me that scowl is because you found me accidentally clashing with your early morning Quidditch practice?" The Slytherin chuckled as she slid into the seat that just so happened to be directly behind the four Marauders. "Or is it Shark Week for Miss Potter?" she teased, staring into the back of his fluffy head of hair.

     James placed his arm around the top of his chair, and twisted his body to look at her,  "That scowl is because my team has completely lost the element of surprise now that you know all of our new techniques!"

     Bronwyn fought the urge to cackle, "You mean the techniques that my team has already mastered?"

     Sirius Black, James Potter's right-hand man, was sat on the other side of the Seeker and shuffled to face her, so it was now two pairs of eyes glued to her own. Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew seemed rather preoccupied. That or they didn't care for James' pettiness. Bronwyn found no surprise in the dark-haired boy joining in the conversation. Nor did she find it odd that he was quick to defend his best friend: "Not cool, Bronwyn," Sirius said, tutting.

     "Did I ask for your opinion, Black?" Bronwyn questioned, shoving her bag under her desk. Andromeda Black, Sirius' much more sufferable cousin perched beside Bronwyn and concealed her creeping grin behind her hand, that she rested her head in, her elbows on the desk.

     Sirius shrugged, "I still wanted to give it."

     Bronwyn decided not to roll her eyes, out of running the risk that James might retaliate and do that thing he always does to gain everyone's attention so he would be the centre of the room in every possible scenario — overreact. "Anyway," she sighed. "You're just bitter that you've now come to the life-altering revelation that Gryffindor yet again don't stand a chance at the cup this year," Bronwyn smiled sarcastically.

     James pushed against the back of his chair, and the front two legs lifted off the ground, so he leaned over her desk. "Just you wait, Ward. You'll be the one scowling in the end."

     Bronwyn flashed her teeth, "Can't wait to see you proved wrong."

     The Slytherin Seeker spent the rest of Slughorn's lesson staring into James Potter's head and thinking of ways that she could kick his ass at the Quidditch Interhouse Cup.

✧

     ONE ASPECT OF BRONWYN WARD'S Girlfriend Experience was two dates ─ one of which she will spend her time planning to give her clientele a "feel", if you will, to the kind of dates they should prepare for their future partner, and the other, of which, you will have to plan. You being her client. This is so she can provide a proper evaluation at the end of the week.

     And so, her first client of the year, Danny Silvers, shall be expecting both in the upcoming week, as a part of his package deal.

     Today is Bronwyn's date. This gives Danny the rest of his time (five days) to use her advice, and experience to plan the perfect one for her, on day seven, so Bronwyn can analyse how much he has learned, so she can then send him into the life of dating like a proud parent or professor.

     Her location of choice: Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop. Simple, but sweet. Quaint, but quiet. The perfect spot for a date (although this is not quite a real one), that just so happens to be right on Hogwarts' doorstep, in the little town of Hogsmeade.

     Hogsmeade is open to all students above third year, on selective weekends, however, students in their last year, are permitted to go when they please, as long as they can provide parent's permission of course. Which both Bronwyn and Danny can, and being in their final year at Hogwarts, Bronwyn has scheduled after school to be the right time to begin their "training" as she calls it. Danny agreed immediately, and Bronwyn learned that young Mr Silvers didn't have many extracurriculars, making planning much easier than her past clients.

     "Any preference on where we sit?" she asked Danny, as she followed him into the tea shop on the corner of one of the red sprinkled pathways, that had been washed over by the upcoming autumn. Danny was practically shivering and clearly didn't cope well with the cooler temperatures.

     The cafe was more or less empty, besides the odd couple, and litter of waitresses, with merely one other Hogwarts student, adorned in blue robes (a stark difference to the blindingly bright pink that covered the rest of the shop), with a cup and saucer laid out in front of them, surrounded by various scraps of parchment and bulky textbooks. The pair's selection for seating was almost endless, hence Bronwyn's first quizzical question to start them off.

     Danny tucked his coat under his arm, and broadened his smile ─ Bronwyn could tell that he was beginning to get a little too excited that he had a "girlfriend" all of the sudden. He was taking this very literally. "None at all," he smiled. Bronwyn's expression was almost blank, and Danny's grin faltered almost to nothingness. Seeing her lack of enthusiasm, compared to his exceeding amount made him full of worry. "Why? Should I?" he hastily added.

     Bronwyn walked over to a two-person table and rested her coat over the back of her chair. She waited for Danny to walk up to the seat opposite, before replying, "Here's best for now," she said, "But next time, chose a booth. It's more secluded, more romantic that way." she gestured to the back of the cafe, where half a dozen poofy, pink booths were squashed against the wall.

     They took their seats and it took ground-breaking time, after but a few seconds of silence, for Danny to crack, "Have I failed?" he whimpered, his back slouching, and his head lolling to one side.

     "Failed what?"

     "This test."

     "This isn't a test, Danny," Bronwyn reassured, but what she really wanted to do was yawn. "Simply a way for me to see where you are at. For me to see what I need to do. How much I need to do. No need to worry. I am your girlfriend after all," a smile crept up her face, but whether that was real, Danny wasn't supposed to know ─ it was purely for his benefit. The last phrase was supposed to be a jokey statement. One Bronwyn thought that Danny would catch on to.

     He did not and took it seriously like she hoped he wouldn't.

     Even with all the pink around them, Bronwyn could still make out that his face had flushed a rosy red. "Wait, really?" His eyes followed, going puppy-like and big and bright and sparkly.

     "No, not really, Danny," Bronwyn sighed, her shoulders sagging, "We've talked about this. It's just for a week."

     A few more students had wandered into Madam Puddifoot's now, and Bronwyn was thankful because she didn't feel as awkward as before. It always started like this ─ even with her level of experience, and even when this is quite literally her job, there are still inevitably going to be hints of hesitant awkwardness to break the ice. But Danny was an awkward person, and she knew she'd be experiencing a bit more than usual.

     "But I can tell people that I'm your boyfriend right?" Danny asked hopefully.

     "If you must. But after this week, I won't permit you running around and telling your little mates that we're still dating," Bronwyn replied, as one of the women in aprons approached their table, and delicately placed two cups with saucers to rest on, and a hot pot of tea on the table in front. Bronwyn offered her thanks and waited for the waitress to be fully out of earshot before she let Danny go on asking questions.

     As she poured herself a pot of tea, Danny had picked up a biscuit and began nibbling on it with furrowed brows, "So I just tell them we broke up then?"

     "That's a good idea," Bronwyn prolonged as if he were a child, incapable of processing her relatively simple sentences.

     "But that would mean we only lasted a week?"

     She wouldn't let herself sigh again, because that would be rude, and he is paying her after all. Instead, Bronwyn stifled that sigh (and the possible rolling of her eyes) and kept her composure. "We never dated in the first place," she stated simply.

     "But I thought-"

     "Danny," Bronwyn stopped him mid-sentence because she didn't think she could take any more of his whinging regarding their short relationship span when that relationship never happened and will never happen ─ Bronwyn is under strict oath to never date anyone that pays for her experience. She swiftly guided this doomed, most likely-to-end-up-in-a-continuous-loop of a conversation away from its current location: "I think it's time we move on. Tell me about yourself."

     She used those same words every time, and Bronwyn was in no way interested in what Danny Silvers did in his free time, but it is a part of the job and again, he is paying her for it, so she thought she ought to sit and suffer.

     Danny gulped rather loudly, "Oh um okay, well I like Golf," he started, his smile regrowing, and his face regaining his normal colour. "My grandad taught me and well he died so now my dad and I play at Christmas, and we have this . . . "

    Listening to Danny talk about Golf was one thing, but to add to her suffering, her favourite band of Gryffindors had just waltzed into the tea shop, led by Bronwyn's number one fan. So as Danny went on, Bronwyn's face contorted to one of disgust, and she couldn't help but mutter: "Oh, Jesus Christ."

     "What?" Danny stopped abruptly and went white as a sheet. And just as James Potter's eyes had landed on their table, suddenly, the Gryffindor seeker's destination had changed completely.

     "Is Golf not cool anymore?" Danny pleaded, his face riddled with concern.

     James was striding over now, his party of mischief not following, but rather settling at a table of four by the door. James was striding right towards them. Bronwyn kept constantly changing her eye line from her "date" to her Quidditch nemesis, whilst simultaneously reassuring Danny that Golf was still super cool for a seventeen-year-old. "No, Danny it's not you, it's-"

     His voice was almost as bad as Professor Binns: annoying, unwanted, and unwelcome. "Bronwyn. Always a pleasure," James chimed, now standing to the side of their table, directly in between the two of them.

     Before, his gaze had been fixated on Bronwyn, not the boy sat opposite her, and the girl couldn't quite name the expression that came over Potter when he finally became away of the meek Slytherin boy's presence. Confusion, maybe. Possible disgust. Definitely surprise. "Ohhh," he sang with a smirk, "care to introduce me to your new friend, say, Ward?"

     Bronwyn swallowed and hard, just to maintain her calmness. James Potter was not welcome anywhere, let alone at one of her dates. "This is Danny," she said bluntly, finishing off her introduction with a sarcastic smile.

     Danny poked his hand out from underneath the table and sent James a short, timid wave as if he was in the vicinity of a celebrity. Bronwyn saw the look on his face: "Oh my God! That's James Potter!" and now she allowed herself to roll her eyes. It was a mix between awe and intimidation and Bronwyn's insides squirmed with repulsion.

     She rolled them too soon, though, because Danny added these words at the end: "I'm her boyfriend."

     Her mouth fell agape, and she couldn't even bring herself to look at James at this precise moment, to save herself the humiliation. "Now, now, Danny, let's not twist the-"

     "You have a boyfriend?" James interjected incredulously before Bronwyn could defend herself, and oppose Danny's claim to be her boyfriend. She could see the rush of pleasure that soared through him. The news excited him. "Oh shit," he muttered. "Your parents will love to hear about this one."

     Bronwyn fought the urge to slap the broad smirk that had taken over his face. Unfortunately, this was a respected establishment, and she didn't have such a blessing. Instead, she ground her teeth and maintained a smile for Danny's sake. After all, Niamh and Henry Ward can never find out about Bronwyn's business. Nor could they be led to think that she has a boyfriend.

     But did James not know? Knowing him, James obtaining the knowledge that Bronwyn Ward charges people for her service of providing girlfriend experience would have gone straight to her parents. Neither Niamh nor Henry had ever said anything to her about her business, and neither had James at that thought. In this current moment, did he really think that she simply had a boyfriend? Did he not know that Danny Silvers was her week one project? Did James Potter not know about her Girlfriend Experience corporation?

     Aware or not of her enterprise, James Potter could not be led to think that Bronwyn Ward has a boyfriend.

     "Snitches end up in ditches, Potter," she murmured in response, with a strained face, and widely opened eyes. "Which reminds me, why didn't you tell anyone about our little encounter earlier this morning? Surely the way that you reacted to it, you would have ran straight to Minnie and cried on her shoulder? Being the immature child that you are." Her neck started to ache from staring up at him ─ and that is not how Bronwyn wants to go about life.

     James relaxed his hands onto the table as if preparing for a full-blown conversation that neither Bronwyn nor Danny wanted. "Funny," he let out an airy laugh. "Except, I just didn't think it necessary to invite all that hassle that's all."

     "I won't question your excuses, for now, Potter," Bronwyn said. "So, if you'll just be on your way?" she suggested, desperately wanting to get from her seat, and physically push him and his band of friends out of the door.

      "I actually would really fancy a cuppa, right about now!" James exclaimed, rubbing his chin, creating a false sense of curiousity. He flashed a large grin in both Bronwyn (currently cringing and crossing her fingers with hopes he won't pull up a chair) and Danny (incredibly uncomfortable, unaware of the kind of relationship his "girlfriend" and James Potter share, and slightly angry that the Gryffindor seeker is crashing his date, and therefore wasting his money. Even if that same Gryffindor seeker is a celebrity that Danny has always wanted to be friends with), before doing exactly what Bronwyn didn't want him to do ─ James grasped onto a chair from the empty table of three next to their own and tugged it so it sat between the couple.

     "No problem if I join you, right?" he asked, almost mockingly since, whatever either one of them was going to reply with, James was going to sit down anyway. Bronwyn glanced over at Danny, and widened her eyes as if to say "tell him no, you idiot!". Danny shrugged, and after a second of waiting, James pulled the chair closer to him and plonked down into it. "Lovely!"

     The room shook when he hopped it closer to the table. James' posture was impeccable, and annoying because of it, as he sat with his hands clasped in front of him, with a polite, broad grin, that might as well be his signature.

     Bronwyn waited a moment until Danny looked as though he was distracted, before knocking her spoon to the floor and bending down to pick it up. And just like she planned, James Potter was going to try to be the gentlemen kind whilst in the presence of the boy that James was still under the impression was Bronwyn's boyfriend, and so leaned down to pick up her spoon too.

     They met in the middle, with their heads tucked just below the table. "What are you doing?" Bronwyn whisper-yelled, with her face strained, and her eyes wide with fury.

     James chewed the inside of his mouth to stop his smile from growing any wider than it already was. "Pay-back," he winked, before picking up the spoon and dropping it on the table, sitting upright.

     And Bronwyn soon learned of James' intentions, because when she sat up too, the Gryffindor was now fully engrossed in forced, awkward conversation with Bronwyn's client, and current "boyfriend", Danny.

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