Quiet Days
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“-happy birthday dear James, happy birthday to you!” the group finished singing, and Marlene ran towards James, gathering him in her short arms.
“10! You’re 10! Double digits!” she shouted, placing kisses on James’ cheeks, which were still slightly chubby with baby fat. James pretended to squirm under her arms but still returned her hug with just as much force and didn’t forget to ruffle her shoulder-length brunette hair, earning a yelp from the girl.
Euphemia and Flemont Potter watched with smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes. Their only son, their miracle baby had just turned ten. Ten seemed so big to them at that moment. Both of them were admiring the moments that they would not get to have ever again with their son in their head. They couldn’t believe that there was a time when they last carried James never to do so after that. They were already so proud of the little gentlemen they had raised, yet he still had so much to learn. He was polite, cheerful, always understanding, and treated his friends marvelously for his age.
Oh, little James, and his group of friends. For only being 8, 9, and 10 years old’s, the friendship between James, Marlene, Peter, and Barty was stronger than most friendships Effie and Monty had ever witnessed. They were more like siblings rather than friends, especially James and Marlene. No one could separate the two and frankly, they had stopped trying at this point.
Those two had known each other since the day Marlene was born since their parents knew one another from school and they were neighbors. There hadn’t been a single peaceful day for their parents ever since, for they were always up to some sort of mischief. They had broken into the Potter’s pantry at age 3 and gotten themselves into a hefty sugar rush, spending the rest of the day running around and giggling. They even had formed a secret language that only they knew which caused them to start talking much later than most kids. While pregnant, Effie had read that this was something that tended to happen with twins but she had never expected her supposedly ‘only child’ to run into this problem. Still, she never complained once. She’d much rather bear the shenanigans than her son being alone.
Thus, she had been delighted when Peter and Barty joined into their friendship, proving to her once and for all that James would never have to endure loneliness a day in his life.
The two little boys had seen Marlene and James playing in the park one day and had immediately felt an urge to go and talk to the two troublemakers, almost as if it was in their fate to do so. Barty had run right over, dragging a much shyer Peter behind him. He had then stuck his hand out with as much poise he could muster up, like he had been taught to do so, waiting for a handshake. Marlene and James, despite also growing up in wealthy families, hadn’t been raised with as much elegance so they had just stared at the silly boy. A beat later Marlene had grinned and given Barty a high five, startling him and James had smiled at Peter, earning him a soft smile back.
And here they were, years later, at James’ tenth birthday party. They were buzzing with excitement over the fact that James was now only one year away from going off to Hogwarts. Only Barty sported a slight frown on his face. He was one year younger than the other three, so he’d have to spend one whole year by himself before joining them at Hogwarts.
James looked towards Barty and drew away from Marlene. He slung one of his arms over Barty’s shoulders and pulled him close.
“Don’t be upset,” he said. “We still have a whole year to spend together.”
“But then you’ll leave,” Barty muttered back.
“Well, yes. But it’s just one year and then you will be able to join us! Imagine the fun we will get up to at Hogwarts without our parents there to stop us. ” The last part was whispered so that said parents couldn’t hear, which of course didn’t work because James Potter could not whisper.
“Hey!” Effie playfully squinted at James. “Hogwarts isn’t cheap. We aren’t going to be spending good money for you lot to go off and plan pranks.”
Her words might have had more effect if Monty wasn’t simultaneously sending the kid's sly winks behind her back. Barty, Marlene, and James couldn’t hold in their laughter and fell into a fit of giggles which caused Effie the cock an eyebrow and spin around to catch her husband in the act.
She sighed. “Seriously? Why can’t you all be as mature as Peter? He doesn’t plan pranks and is very polite, ” she exasperatedly said, hugging Peter close. He wasn’t giggling like the rest but still had a small smile planted on his face. “That includes you too Monty. I swear, Pete is my favorite.”
“Oh, the horror,” Monty dramatically said, going over to his wife and giving her a kiss on her cheek. “Please forgive me dear,” he fake cried which sent the kids into another laughing fit.
Effie pretended to think about it. “I’ll forgive you and our marriage will be saved only if you help me put up the curtains I washed.”
Monty eagerly nodded. “Putting up curtains, my favorite hobby. Lead the way dear.”
And then they left, their hands entangled and fond smiles on their faces. Just as they were out the door, Effie turned to softly glare at the kids. “Don’t you dare get into trouble, I just cleaned the house.”
She was met with innocent nods and grins which she didn’t believe one bit but she let it go only due to the fact that it was James’ birthday.
After they left, the kids looked at each other with glints of mischief apparent in their eyes. Their little planning moment was broken up with Marlene pulling them all on the floor and into a big hug.
Barty gasped, “Marls! This shirt is new!”
“Oh come on, you’ll survive Mr. Fancy Pants.”
With furrowed brows, Barty replied, “No, my pants aren’t fancy. My shirt is. Aren’t you listening?”
Peter chuckled. “I don’t think that's what she meant mate.”
"Then what did she-”
Barty’s questioning got cut off by James rolling on top of him. “You oaf! Get off me!”
Poor Barty didn’t have much that day as his pleading only caused Marlene and Peter to pile on him as well. He narrowed his eyes and attacked back, trying to get out from under them.
After ten minutes of wrestling, all four of them fell apart with shallow breaths and tumbled into a lying position, chuckling and smiling at each other.
– - – - – - – - – - – - –
James sighed, a fond smile on his face. He couldn’t believe that his tenth birthday was twelve years away. He was turning 22 today. 22! He still felt like the little kid he used to be who was excited and nervous about going to Hogwarts and whether or not he would be able to make friends there. If only that little boy knew about the friendships he would gain in Hogwarts which were sure to last a lifetime.
He wondered what Sirius and Remus had planned for his birthday. All three of them were currently staying at Potter Manor. After Sirius had moved in at 6th year it was inevitable that Remus would eventually follow him, because that was how the couple did things. They could never be too far apart from one another, of course Remus was going to follow Sirius.
Nowadays, Remus was assistant teaching at a university after studying literature for the last three years. It had always been his dream to live between books and the literature degree had made it so he could earn money by it. James had opted out of university and had taken over his parents’ bakery the second he graduated from Hogwarts. Sirius had studied art but wasn’t working at the moment and was helping James with the bakery.
James had actually planned to go to university but then his parents announced that they would be closing their bakery due to being too old and weak for operating it and James’ world crumbled at that news. He didn’t want the place he collected so many dreams in to just close. He had learned how to bake in between those four walls and now his favourite past-time was baking. While he was still in school, he maintained close contact with the cooks so that he could convince them to let him in the kitchen for a few hours at a time so he could make treats for his friends. He adored feeding his friends delicious cookies and cakes, and his friends enjoyed it a lot as well. Besides, his parents had spent a lot of effort on the bakery and he didn’t want to watch as their dreams got abandoned like that. So he took over and he was so glad that he did. Now, he and Sirius were having the time of their lives, running ‘Sunflour Bakery’ as Effie had named it years ago.
James got out of bed and started getting ready to go to the bakery. Both his parents and his friends had tried to convince him to not open the bakery on his birthday so that he could rest for one day but he had refused. The bakery had never been closed even for a day ever since it opened and James wasn’t about to erase its legacy just because of his birthday. He had one of those every year anyways. He had at least agreed on letting Sirius open for the day so that he could sleep in for a couple of hours and get up at 8 instead of 5 like he usually did.
He went downstairs to see his mum in the kitchen with a stack of pancakes in front of her.
“Happy birthday Jamie,” she said, pulling the boy into a tight hug.
James hugged her back, taking a deep breath of her vanilla-riddled smell in. “Thank you, Mum. I love you”
“I love you too, my baby. And I am so so proud of you.”
He smiled at that. That was all he wanted, to make his parents proud.
“Now, I know you want to get to the bakery as soon as you can so that you can make sure that Sirius didn’t burn the place down so I’ve packed you some of the pancakes. Here, there is some for Sirius as well,” his mum said as she handed him a bag with pancakes and jam in it.
He hugged her again. “Thank you.”
“Anything for my baby.”
James eventually managed to let go of his mum and left the house. He walked down to the beach where the bakery was located and was pleasantly surprised that Sirius had been able to open it in time.
“Prongs!” an excited shout rang through the shop as he entered it. “Happy birthday mate!”
Before he knew it, he had a grinning Sirius in his arms. He hugged the guy back. “Thank you Pads. Guess what my mum sent?”
“Pancakes?”
“Pancakes.”
“Fuck yeah.”
Sirius immediately let James go and snatched the bag from his hands. “I’ll go warm these up,” he happily said.
James looked after him, shaking his head fondly. Sirius was a ball of energy most days and he loved it. He loved how his best friend couldn’t stay on one topic for more than 5 minutes before getting sidetracked and excited about another thing.
He put on his apron and got behind the counter, waiting for customers. He already knew that it would be a slow day since it was Tuesday and for some reason, they didn’t get many customers on Tuesdays. What he didn’t expect, though, was Lily and Mary walking through the door.
“Lils! Mary!” he exclaimed, running towards them and kissing their cheeks. Lily and Mary lived quite close, unlike his other friends, but he didn’t get to see them too often due to their jobs. Lily was a florist and had her own shop and Mary was working as a preschool teacher like she had always hoped to do so. James sometimes hated being an adult and having friends who were also busy being adults, he wanted to go back to being a kid and seeing his friends whenever he damn pleased since none of them had any responsibilities.
“Hi, Jamie. Happy birthday!” Lily said, smiling brightly. Lily and James had a connection with each other that they had with no one else. James had been the first person Lily came out as a lesbian to and even though James had a crush on her at that time he had taken it like a champ. And a year later, Lily was the first (and only) person to know about James’ crush on a specific grey-eyed guy who was off limits due to being his best friend's little brother.
“You look older already,” Mary said with a smirk. She and James had gotten closer in 6th year after James had found Mary brooding over the fact that she liked Lily. He had then helped the two girls get together and they were forever grateful for that.
“I didn’t know you two would be coming! Wait until Sirius sees you, he’ll be so thrilled!”
“Well if you knew, it wouldn’t be a surprise now, would it? Besides, he has already seen us. We came extremely early since we thought you’d open the bakery.”
“Oh,” James said, “Great surprise then. I didn’t have a single clue.”
“Yeah, that was the goal,” Mary chuckled, her smirk still firmly in place.
“Shush.”
“Never.”
“Is Marlene coming?” Lily asked, ignoring the bickering like she usually did.
“No,” James said, a little upset. “She’s still in Paris, curating her first gallery.”
He was really happy that Marlene had this huge opportunity but this was going to be the first birthday he would be spending without the blond girl in his life. So, yes, he was a little sour about that.
“Oh, James. That sucks,” Lily softly said. “I’m guessing Peter won’t be able to make it either?”
“Nope,” he sulked. Peter was touring the world with a band as their photographer and there was no way he could take time off.
This would be his second birthday without Peter in a long time and he felt as if he was slowly losing his childhood friends one at a time. He briefly thought back to his tenth birthday which he spent with the three people who he thought would be with him through every single step in his life. He could see how that was a selfish thought, as his friends had their own lives to live, but still…He had hoped their friendship would be the exception.
Two of those friends were now in a different country and the last one… James actually didn’t know where Barty was. He hadn’t talked to him since 6th year. He and Regulus had stopped talking to James after Sirius ran away to his house. Actually, the whole entirety of Regulus’ friend group had done so. He missed all of them; Evan, Pandora, Dorcas. But he especially missed Barty and Regulus. He knew that the others had stopped talking to Sirius and himself out of support for Regulus but that didn’t mean that he thought it was fair of them to do so.
16-year-old James hadn’t been able to fathom how quickly the number of friends he had dropped to half. He prided himself on having a lot of friends and loving them all so that was a shock for him. 22-year-old James was still feeling the same way.
Thankfully Lily seemed to notice the troubled expression on his face and changed the topic quickly, “Well, we’ll still manage to have a great time without those two, don’t you worry.” And Mary sent her a smirk, nudging his shoulder as she did so.
And, yeah… Maybe they would. At least James hoped so.