"We have to get to the meeting, Prongs," Sirius reminded him as he leaned against the doorframe of his bedroom. "Dumbledore is expecting us."

"I'm coming down with a cold or something," he excused, coughing for effect.

This happened time from time. He would be fine one day and then the next it was like it was right after Val had left for America. He would refuse to leave his room and stay in bed all day, not eating or drinking anything.

Sirius huffed before he left the room, joining Remus in the kitchen. "It's been a year. Shouldn't he have, you know, moved on by now?"

Remus frowned, "It's not that easy. He-"

"He loved her, I know," Sirius cut him off. "But still."

"Not loved, he loves her," he corrected. "As in still does. I don't see that going away anytime soon if ever."

"I knew that girl was bad news," he groaned. "I knew she was going to hurt him."

"I hardly think now is the time for you to say I told you so," he replied. "Besides, it's not as though she wanted to hurt him."

"Yeah, yeah," he waved off, "Hurt people hurt people. I know. But she shouldn't have left him." His eyes flickered down to what was in front of Remus. "What's that?"

"An invitation."

"To?"

"Our wedding," Remus explained. "Whenever that may be." While the pair may have been engaged, same sex marriage was still illegal. Hopefully that would change soon.

He snorted, "Okay, I'll bite. Who's it for?" He hesitated, tapping the card against the table. "Remus."

"It's for Val."

"You're joking," he huffed. "You can't invite her!"

"You forget that she was a large part of our lives too," Remus reminded him. "And don't think I don't know that you've been staying in touch."

"Shh," he said, taking a seat across from him, "Prongs could hear you." He ran a hand over his face, "What are we going to do with him?"

"I don't know," he frowned. "But maybe he needs to see her. You know, closure and what not."

"Assuming we can ever get him out of bed."

Remus huffed, "I got it."

While it took time, Remus was eventually able to coax James out of bed. They managed to shove him into a pair of clean clothes and seeing as getting him to shower was out of the question, a few spells did the trick.

James hated when he got like this more than Remus and Sirius did which said a lot. He couldn't understand why it still bothered him so much after all this time. Why he could be perfectly fine one day and then all the sudden it was like someone had pulled his heart out of his chest and crushed it right in front of him.

Because whereas James had gone more than willingly down the rabbit hole, his eyes shut as he trusted the process, Val had not. Val had managed to keep her head on straight and that was something James would be forever bitter about.

While James sat at the table in the Great Hall with his two newly engaged best friends at his side, he had never felt more alone. Val was in a completely different country, as far away from him as she could get.

"We're just waiting on the diplomats from America to arrive and then we can began," Dumbledore announced. The Order meeting consisted of the usual members however in addition to that audience was the wizarding diplomats from the countries who were willing to help in the war. It wasn't all that big of a surprise that they were waiting on the Americans.

"Merlin, Isaac, I told you I knew where we were supposed to go," a girl spoke up. Everyone looked over to the closed doors. "I literally went to this school. If you had listened to me, we wouldn't be late."

"You're wrong like nine times out of ten," he pointed out as he opened the door and waited for her to enter, "How was I supposed to know this was the time you would be right?"

"You're lucky there are too many witnesses because otherwise I would kill you," she hissed under her breath but those in the room could make out what she had said.

James was openly staring at the girl. Shock and bewilderment only the tip of the emotions that were swirling around inside. Remus and Sirius seemed to realize after a moment that it was indeed who they thought it was and watched James warily.

"Thank you for joining us, Ms. Hufflepuff," Dumbledore greeted and she smiled at him. He turned to look at Isaac, "Mr. Hampton."

"Old guy with the freakishly long beard," he responded and Val whacked him on the back of the head. Dumbledore merely let out a hearty chuckle as he gestured to their seats.

"Could you be serious for all of two seconds?" Val requested as she sat down in the seat next to the boy.

"Aw, if you had missed me so much, you could have just written," Sirius informed her and her head shot up. She paused for a moment, her gaze flickering from Sirius to Remus who waved rather awkwardly and then her sight landed on James.

It had been over a year since she last saw him and he looked exactly the same only completely different. He had allowed his facial hair to grow out to a scruff and his hair was as messy as usual. He appeared worn out, however, as opposed to his usual energetic and mischievous mannerisms.

Her mind was running a mile a minute as she tried to figure out what to say to the boy. She was saved from having to come up with a greeting when Dumbledore started the meeting and she couldn't have been more grateful.

James couldn't have been more unaware as to what the Headmaster had been saying. Val tried her best to focus but her gaze instinctively flickered over to the boy across from her and they would make eye contact resulting in her quickly looking away.

"Would you focus?" Isaac requested, nudging Val in the side. "You're making it so that I actually have to pay attention."

"Sorry," she mumbled apologetically, sinking down in her seat. She had intended to listen to what he was saying but couldn't. She could feel James's gaze on her and it was as though he were trying to burn holes through her.

Val stood up abruptly, everyone at the table turning to look at her. She could see Remus and Sirius exchanging a look as she did her best to avoid James's eyes. She cleared her throat, "Sorry, I just - I have to use the restroom."

She quickly made her way from the room, ignoring the looks from around the room as the door slammed closed behind her. She made her way through the halls, not entirely sure as to where she was going until she got there. She paced back and forth a few times before the door appeared and she entered quickly.

The room remained exactly as it had when she had last seen it. The couch was the exact same and the shelves were filled floor to ceiling with books. The only thing that was different was that the plant that rested on the table had died.

The door opened and she turned to yell at whoever had interrupted her panicking but it died in her throat when she saw who it was. Standing there seemingly just as flustered was James.

Val shook her head slightly before she made her way to the far end of the room, looking out the window to distract herself. After a year, it felt as though nothing had changed. But everything had changed. She had left him and there was no coming back from that.

"I don't understand how you could do it," he admitted. She turned around in confusion to find him shaking his head, "Move on."

"What are you talking about?" she inquired before she thought it over. "Isaac? My cousin, Isaac?"

"Cousin?"

"Yes, cousin," she confirmed. "I haven't moved on. Not with him, that's for sure."

"Well did you mean any of what you said?" he asked. "Did you even love me or was that a load of lies too?"

"Of course I loved you!" she exclaimed. "I have since you took me to that stupid party in the Room of Requirement and you wrapped your arms around me and I felt safe. For the first time, it didn't matter that I was around someone that made my skin feel like it was on fire because you made it feel better. Every time, you made it better. It was always you. So yeah, I loved you. And I never stopped."

He shook his head, "Then why did you leave me?"

She sucked in a breath, "I panicked."

"You panicked?"

"Yeah, I panicked," she nodded. "Because I'm not exactly the most caring person and I don't really do feelings. You told me you were mad about me and I knew I felt the same way. But then my parents died and everything changed and it was all moving so incredibly fast. Then Dumbledore told me that I had family in America. I wasn't going to go but then I got a letter from my Aunt. I was only going to go for a few weeks, to get to know them, but then I found you and Lily together and I freaked."

"That was-"

"I know," she cut him off with a wave of her hand. "I know that now. Sirius had sent me a letter shortly after I arrived in the States and explained what had happened. By then, I thought it was too late and it wouldn't have mattered even if I did come back."

"I wrote to you," he reminded her. "I wrote to you multiple times asking for another chance or even for us to just try to be friends. You ignored them."

She frowned, "I shouldn't have and I'm sorry. I didn't know what to do and it's not an excuse. I don't have an excuse. Not a good one anyway. It didn't even cross my mind that you'd be here today but I was going to try and find you. So we could talk. And then I got here and you were right there and - and it was a lot. Like everything came flooding back all at once."

"I'm not going to ask for a second chance," she informed him after a moment. "I don't deserve a second chance. Hell, I didn't even deserve a first chance. I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. And thank you."

He grew confused at this, "Thank you?"

"For showing me what it's like to be loved," she explained. "Even when I did nothing to deserve it." She smiled sadly at him, "I have to go, my cousins probably waiting for me. He tends to be impatient."

She started to walk away but he grabbed her arm and spun her toward him. He held onto her forearms tightly before pressing his lips to hers. She was frozen in place for a moment, shock flooding her body before she reacted.

Her hands moved to the sides of his neck and she stood on the balls of her feet, deepening the kiss. Suddenly it was like they were back in seventh year, before her parents had died and before things got far too complicated. When they were both still pretending it was all a show to get him a date with Lily.

They pulled away from each other, their breathing heavy. "James, I-"

"Don't," he shook his head. "You can have all the chances you want, I don't care. I'd jump down this rabbit hole a thousand times over even if in the end I knew you would break my heart every single time."

She shook her head, "I won't. I promise, I won't."

James rested his forehead against hers, closing his eyes for a moment. He wasn't sure if this was real. He had had this dream before. She came back to him and everything was okay. But this? This felt far too real to be a dream but also too good to be true. Suddenly, he laughed, "Merlin, I must be completely mad."

She grinned, "I think it's safe to say that we're all mad here."