****Jenna's P.O.V.****

"I - you - what?"

"I used to love you, Rose. Merlin, of course I did, you're my cousin. But you know what she is to me; she's my bird."

"I - I don't understand."

"Rose, Fenrir and Scabior are dead. They died in the war." James looked at Rose with pity among all the anger in his eyes. He sighed. "Aunt Hermione killed Greyback, remember? Spelled him out a window, and Scabior fell when Neville collapsed the Wooden Bridge."

"James, I'm your cousin. Yes, I lied, but we're still family. Your Bird is just a girl." She smirked. "Isn't she, Jamsie?"

"Uh-" Rose faked a gasp and strutted over to James, shoving him onto the bed next to me.

"Merlin, Rose, you could've hurt her!"

"James, isn't there something you want to tell Bird?" Rose grinned wickedly at us.

He looked at her with clenched teeth. "No, Rose, there isn't. And I-"

James was interrupted by a loud knock on the door. "As lovely as this reunion has been, I'm afraid you've got to start packing. We have to be back at Hogsmeade by noon, and you know how stingy Filch can get if we're late." Lily's cool voice floated through the door, and a moment later she opened it. "Rose, out. Now."

"Lily Luna Potter, you have no right -"

"NOW!" Rose glared, but it did her no good because a few moments later she was gone. "James. . ."

"I - I already packed. Please let me stay with her, Lils," his voice cracked, and I noticed out of the corner of my eye something that nearly broke my heart in two - James Potter was crying.

She looked at him with soft eyes and nodded. "Of course, I'm done packing anyway. I just wanted to get Rose to leave." She hurried out the door and grabbed my bag and violin case, already packed, to take with her.

"Jenna," he whimpered, "Jenna. I'm so sorry, Bird. I - I'm so sorry." He put his head down in his hands and I started to cry.

I let my small fingers trace the length of his jawbone until I reached his chin, and then I slowly lifted his head up. He looked at me with wet hazel eyes and tears streaming down his face. "Jenna."

Tears started streaming down my face. I collapsed into his arms and laid my head on his shoulder. He put his head on mine and we just sat there, needing each other and crying and hugging, me in his arms. Outside, I could hear bickering and sibling fights and trunks clunking down the stairs. I knew we were due to leave soon, but the bed was so soft.

Before I knew it, I could feel myself falling asleep, and I knew James was nodding off next to me. He had an arm wrapped around my shoulders that I was using as a pillow. His head was laying on my chest, my arms curled around him as we sunk into darkness.

Bang!

The door to the room slammed open, but James and I payed no mind. Neither of us even lifted our heads. I cracked an eye open - I think James was still asleep - to see a fuming Rose at the doorframe, behind her all of the adults in the house, even Ginny Weasley, who was on tour with the Holyhead Harpies.

"Look, Mum! Look at her - she's strangling him!" Rose shouted.

I closed my eyes and let myself fall back asleep - or, at the very least I could try to. Ginny spoke up. "Is this her, Harry?"

"Yeah, this is Jenna - Jenna Raine." I could hear the smirk in her voice. "You might know her father, Aunt Gin."

"R-Raine?"

Harry spoke up, "Gin, she's not her father."

"You let a Raine into your house? Harry, you know what he did to me. Lyra, you were - Hermione, you heard - Harry, please."

"Gin, she's good for him," Hermione Granger said softly. "Look - he never sleeps this easily. James Sirius is an insomniac with chronic nightmares. But here he is," I could sense the smile in her voice, "sleeping soundly with a Raine."

"I know what you're thinking, Gin, but Jenna isn't him. She's such a sweet girl, and I think you'd really love her." Lyra added.

They stood there still for a minute, just looking at us. "So . . . Who's going to wake them up?"

"Do - do we really need to?"

As much as I would've loved to hear what was to happen to us, I just couldn't hold my eyes open anymore.

****

I woke up to the gaze of two warm hazel eyes watching me. "Bird, you're awake!"

'Don't you know it's rude to watch a girl sleep?' I joked.

He rolled his eyes, "we're here."

I let out a silent squeal and tore out of James' arms. I sent him a wink and we raced to the three carriages that were to take us up to Hogwarts. He caught up with me easily, his long legs hardly putting in an effort. Grunting, I pushed myself harder against him.

"You'll never catch up, love!" He called back.

I sent him a smirk and ran even faster. He turned to look back at me, and I took my chance. James kept running and running, but soon he met his fall - quite literally - when his feet hit a large rock and he tumbled to the ground.

I let out a silent laugh and raced past him, my black flats slapping against the wet ground. The bottoms of my robes were soaked in brown and small, muddy freckles dotted up the rest of the way to the base of my tie. Behind me, I noted, James was still on the ground. I'd gotten ten feet ahead of him, easily, by now. He'd catch up soon, I'm sure, but the carriages loomed close enough ahead that I could almost touch them.

Five feet, four feet, three, two-

I was forced down to the muddy ground by a large body. He fell on top of me, leaving the entire of my front covered in disgustingly warm, gooey, mud. My notepad was soaked cover to cover with the mess, and I wanted nothing more to shove that mess-loving wizard into the mud.

So, naturally, I did.

I pushed myself up, rolled James Potter off of me, and grabbed a handful of mud. Before he could even move his hazel gold eyes up to look at me he'd already gotten a face full of mud. Somewhere in the fight, his square glasses had fallen off, leaving him scrambling around for them.

I let out a silent laugh before I laid on top of James, forcing his face into the mud. He spun over, without his glasses, so that I was on top of him. I giggled and moved to sit up before noticing the position we were in. I froze.

Behind us I could hear Lily and Albus laughing with the twins, but they sounded so far off. Everything sounded so far off - the wind, the voices, even the rain sounded a thousand miles away. I shook my head and rolled off of him, onto my side but I didn't let myself look away from his hazel eyes.

"Your eyes," he muttered, "have specks of gold in them. Did you know that, Bird?"

I shook my head and smiled. Everything he did, everything he said, it just made me want to cry. It felt like hours of just staring at each other, and both of us were quite the sight. His eyes fluttered closed and I noticed for the first time how close we were. I let my eyes fall and I felt him lean in, when—

"Mud pile!" Roxy hopped on first, then Lorcan and his brother, followed by Lily and Albus. A pair of feet came stomping past us, and I felt more weight pushing down on me.

A familiar, nasally voice filled the air and the entire pile noticeably groaned. "What are you eight doing? Mum and Dad put me in charge—of all of you!" I felt a hand move next to me and it grabbed onto her ankle, causing her to fall into the mud. Or, at least, she would've, had Scorpius Malfoy not been there for her to fall onto instead.

Being nearly face-down in the mud, I couldn't see who started it, but people began to hop off of the dog pile and a familiar set of formerly-white converse ran over to Scorpius. Roxy, at long last, climbed off of me and I nearly laughed out loud at the situation in front of me.  The Malfoy-blonde boy was squished under Rose, who was giving him relentless goo-goo eyes. Albus had hold of his hand and was trying to pull him up, but Rose wouldn't let up.

I felt a cold rush come over me and I looked down at my crisp white school shirt. 'Thank you, James.' I sent him a smile.

He grinned back, "No problem, Love."

My face turned dark red but I tried to look confident. 'Love?'

"Yep." James sent me a wink and my heart pounded through my chest so loud and erratic I was sure the whole castle could hear it.

Even in my dazed silence and through my deafening heartbeat I could hear a bloodcurdling scream from behind me. 

Roxie!