We are still kids but we're so in love,

Fighting against all odds.

I know we'll be alright this time.

Darling just hold my hand,

Be my girl, I'll be your man.

I see my future in your eyes.

-"Perfect," Ed Sheeran

August 31, 2018

The first hour they were at the party that Friday night, James could hardly sit down because he had so many students after him to find out A) what he was doing there, B) whether they'd have a lot of homework the first week back, C) if he could look over their summer assignment to which James said "absolutely not, should've written me weeks ago" and D) in the case of a few overachievers, if they could have the first weeks homework now, which he laughed off to hide the fact that he had not actually completed his lesson plans for the week.

James felt pretty popular, but he also felt pretty hungry so he pretended that Raigan was starving and managed to break himself away. They went down the buffet line loading their plates with picnic food and sat themselves down at a long table like the house tables up at Hogwarts underneath the big tent. There was a huge silver dance floor to their right, set up atop the grass, and music was blasting out of a magically amplified phonograph. A band was scheduled to started playing around eight and all their instruments were already set up on the little stage.

James spotted Elise a short ways down the same table he had sat at, but she was wrapped up in a conversation with some of the very important people working just under the minister himself and he didn't want to interrupt.

"Can't believe you're going to be a second year," said James.

"You've said that like a hundred times," said Piper. She looked so much like Raigan today it was unbelievable.

"Yeah, yeah," said James. "I'm just proud of you is all."

Piper took a bite of her hot dog and frowned at him, but James got distracted because he'd just accidentally made eye contact with Elise for the first time.

Elise smiled a little but then she looked away and went back to her conversation. He wasn't sure how to go about the evening. He wanted her to come and talk with him and Raigan. He wanted to dance with her later when the live music got going. He wanted people to know they were a couple, to know that she was not keeping it a secret.

Meanwhile, Piper had begun talking about how she didn't want to cover mandrakes in Herbology that year because when she was a kid, Raigan had walked her past the greenhouses during a lesson on a brief walk to get out Piper's wiggles, and she had passed out thanks to the sound of the seedlings, even muffled as it was through the greenhouse walls.

"You'll be fine, Pipe. I heard it too and I didn't faint. It's because you were a toddler. You were a little extra susceptible," said Raigan, cutting apart her chicken.

"I'm too sensitive to them," Piper argued. "I'm going to collapse again or something and it'll be embarrassing."

"That's what the earmuffs are for," said James, smirking at her across the table. "The school wouldn't let you deal with mandrakes if you weren't ready to and second years have been handling them just fine for years."

Piper barely refrained from scoffing at him, probably only because Raigan had seen it coming and raised her eyebrows at her in warning.

"I hate herbology," she said instead. "It's stupid."

"You did well in it last year," said James.

"Yeah, but it's stupid."

He saw her eyes wandering over in Elise's direction and though he might know where her bad mood was coming from.

A short while later, Piper caught sight of her classmate Lilliana McSorley who's mother and father both worked at the Ministry and she ran off to go chat with her.

Raigan let out a long, deep sigh and said, "God, she's getting sassier every day. I don't know how to handle it."

James smiled a little and put his hand on Raigan's low back, watching Piper very enthusiastically hug Lilliana like it had been years since they'd seen each other, despite the fact that she had very clearly stated just weeks earlier that Lilliana wasn't even really her friend because she was best friends with Shannon Wilkinson. Whatever that meant.

"I think all you can do is get through it, it's a phase. All my second and third years are that way."

"I wasn't," she said. "When we were in school."

"No, but you've always been a far above average person," said James. "She'll turn out alright, don't worry."

He gave Raigan a little side squeeze and she smiled.

"So," he said, pulling his hand back. "Are you going to tell me what had you out so late the other night?"

"What other night?" asked Raigan, but James raised his eyebrows at her in a pretty solid imitation of her 'don't play dumb with me' face.

"Don't give me that look," she said. James just raised his eyebrows further.

Raigan made a noise that sounded somewhere between a laugh and an actual real life groan, which was a sound James didn't think anyone ever made outside books unless they were a seven year old boy who'd just been told no. She lowered her face into her hands to hide.

"So it was a hot date, then," James concluded.

Raigan peeked up and took a deliberate breath. "If you must know," she said, "Jonah Collins just moved back and he sent me an owl and asked if we could get dinner whenever I had a free evening. I wasn't going to but..."

"But then you had a free evening," said James, doing a very poor job of masking the grin spreading across his face. "And you went out with Jonah Collins and stayed out all night long."

"It wasn't all night," snapped Raigan, embarrassed. "And we didn't 'go out'" she said, her tone making physical air quotes totally unnecessary.

"Okay whatever," said James. "How was it?"

Raigan shrugged, picked up her crumpled napkin and started tearing bits of it off. "It was nice," she said, nonchalant. "We just talked about school and stuff. And how Hogwarts is now."

"And then he..." James prompted, hoping to get out the real confession.

"And he nothing, James," said Raigan. "We just talked. That was all."

"Alright, alright, I won't push it," James promised. "For now." Raiga scoffed under her breath and he nudged her with his elbow. "I think that's great, Rai."

Raigan just looked at him.

James went to pick up his beer and when he lowered the cup from his mouth, Elise was standing in front of them at the other side of the table. She looked nervous. "Hi," she said.

"Elise," said James in surprise. "Hey, how are you? Sit down."

But she didn't sit, instead, she and Raigan looked at each other and as if it was agreed upon by some woman-language James didn't understand, Raigan stood up and walked down to the end of the long table and back down the other side to where Elise stood and they hugged tightly.

"How are you?" asked Raigan as they let go. "It's so good to see you."

Elise kind of laughed and looked down at her feet. "I'm good," she said. "I'm good. It's good to see you, too. I... I can't believe how grown up Piper is now."

James sat on the other side of the table, stunned. Somehow it had not occurred to him once this summer that Elise and Raigan had been friends too. They had used to hang out as couples often. Elise had babysat Piper before James ever had, and the girls had even started to do things without he and Dawson there from time to time. Raigan had never asked to keep in touch with Elise, probably because James had never wanted to talk about her, and their ending had been so abrupt, Raigan likely hadn't known what to make of it. He had never stopped to wonder if Raigan missed her too.

"Wow," said Elise, taking a seat across from James. "It's been such a long time."

"It has," Raigan agreed. She looked across at James as she took her own seat and then back at Elise. "I've heard lots about you, though. Sounds like you're doing really well at work."

Elise smiled a little. "I do alright, I guess."

James laughed. "Just alright," he teased. "She's gonna be the next head of department, just wait."

Elise looked slightly more flustered than he expected by this bit of praise. Raigan gave her a gracious smile and said, "I wouldn't be surprised."

As their small-talk went on, James felt more and more jittery. Something about seeing the two of them together had made Elise's part in his life feel much more permanent. It felt so settling, going into to this new school year, one which was already shaping up to be so much different from the rest, to have sat at this table with all his girls together, or at least nearby. His best friend, and his girlfriend, and his almost daughter. He found Piper out on the dance floor with Lilliana and watched them laughing together, bopping around to the music. They'd found another boy from their class that James knew for a fact Piper didn't get along with. James could recognize from a mile away the incessant way he flirted with Lilliana because it reminded him embarrassingly of himself at twelve years old, fixated on Julianna Bryant and her wavy gold hair.

He looked back at Elise and just sort of took her in: her smooth, pale skin, and the soft color of her eyes. She was so easy to look at, not blindingly pretty the way Julianna and his other school-girlfriends had been. She didn't need to flaunt it. She didn't ask to be noticed, but when you did, you couldn't look away.

She felt so much more real now that Raigan, who was such a fixed part of his life, was sitting there next to her. She did not feel like something that could fade away if he didn't hold on tight enough.

Soon enough, other people from the department were joining in their conversation, people who remembered Dawson and by association, Raigan. Gillespie, and this old woman Gianna who'd been around forever but never seemed to really be involved in much of anything (except, James remembered, providing Dawson with home-baked desserts on a regular basis), and even Harry Potter himself. It was all very nice at first, but James found himself watching Raigan closely after a bit to make sure she wasn't feeling overwhelmed. He had been worried from the start that bringing her here might bring up too many memories.

She held it together well, but he could see her starting to get in her head so when there was a bit of a turn towards office talk, and Raigan started to drop out of the conversation, he got up, walked around the table and held out his hand to her. "Let's go find Pipe," he said.

"Okay," said Raigan, without asking why. James let go of her hand when she'd stood and brushed his fingers across Elise's arm before they walked away. He'd find her again later. He didn't think she'd mind getting caught up in business for a while - the group had just verged on Elise's ideal conversation.

"You okay?" James asked when they'd gone out of earshot.

"Fine," said Raigan and he believed her. She added a quieter, "Thank you," and he knew it had been the right moment to get her out of there.

"Course," said James. "Ah, there she is."

He turned to the right and steered Raigan along with him, towards where Piper was filling up on punch and ice cream with her classmates.

"What are we doing?" asked Raigan.

"Family dance floor moment, obviously," said James.

Raigan gave him a skeptical look. "I don't think Piper's going to go for that."

"She has to," said James easily. "She promised me exactly one year ago today that she wouldn't start acting embarrassed of me when she got to school and she promised so again just a few days ago. This is a part of her contract."

Raigan started to smile. "I'm just saying, you're probably going to get some backlash."

"Too bad," James grinned. They reached the little group of second years - it had grown now. Six or seven of them from various houses sat together finishing up their treats. They all looked surprised to see their professor there.

"You all know you're homework was supposed to be mailed to me by noon today, right?" he said sternly. Lilliana's eyes widened and her hand flew to her mouth, but Danny Myers, a Slytherin kid with dark hair whom James thought was a very good writer for his age, rolled his eyes.

"Oh wow," he deadpanned. "I'm so, so scared. I totally forgot."

James laughed. "I'm just messing with you Lilliana. It's not due till the first class." She turned bright red, but looked relieved.

"Anyway, Pipe, we'd like to borrow you a minute."

Piper looked furiously down at her empty punch glass. "I'm busy," she said.

"Come on, Piper. Just a few minutes and you can come right back," he said. He raised his eyebrows at her and said, "I need my favorite dance partner to show off all my best moves."

Next to him, Raigan sighed and shut her eyes, probably as embarrassed as Piper was. James didn't even feel bad about it. He was on a reckless sort of high from seeing Elise and Raigan interacting again. He was feeling pretty confident that he could finally get her to out her relationship to their coworkers tonight and then everything would feel certain and stable again. He only felt a little bad that Piper was reaping the benefits of his good mood.

"You suck," said Piper, pushing herself up. She did not look happy, but James trusted himself wholeheartedly to get her smiling in under a minute.

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and started to lead her towards the dance floor.

"Are you guys married or something?" called Danny.

Piper whipped around. "No, they're best friends, you idiot," she said.

"Piper Renee," snapped Raigan. "That is not a nice word."

James thought it was funny, but he swallowed his laugh.

"Come on," he said, "No excuses." And he found them a prime location for embarrassing both Piper and himself. James wasted no time whipping out his most dad-like moves and when he did what he thought was a pretty sauve spin, Piper, who'd been standing there looking miserable with her arms at her sides, cracked a tiny smile.

"There she is," James grinned, holding out one hand for her and one for Raigan, who was doing her best to participate despite her more reserved nature. Reluctantly, Piper took hold and he spun them both under his arms and relinked their hands, tugging alternately on Raigan's or Piper's to get them moving. He kept making stupid, nagging parent faces at Piper and pretty soon her little smile had grown and though she still looked like she was trying really hard to maintain a sarcastic attitude, he knew she was more entertained by his antics than she wanted to admit.

When the song ended, he pulled them both into a hug, squeezing tight, and then turned to hug Piper individually. "I'm excited for you, girly. You're gonna have such a good year."

"Thanks," she said quietly. It was the least sassy thing she'd said all night.

"And hey," James added, putting his hands on her shoulders and looking her in the eye. "You promised not to be embarrassed of me and I'm holding you to that."

Piper rolled her eyes but she smiled and said, "Alright," through an over-dramatic sigh.

"Pipe, why don't you say goodbye to your friends and then we'd better head home. I don't want you up too late going into tomorrow."

"It's not even late, Mum. It's like eight thirty."

"Piper," said Raigan.

"Fine," she said. James poked her in the side on her way off the dance floor and she shot him a very unamused look that made him laugh.

He and Raigan made their way past the rest of the dancing crowd and he wrapped his arm back around her waist, pulling her into a walking side hug. "Thanks for coming," he said.

"Happy to," said Raigan. Her smile was genuine. "I'm going to grab Pipe. So go talk to Elise. You were just ogling her before."

James' own smile faltered. "Was I?"

Now he thought about it, he had done a lot more staring than talking. She just looked especially pretty tonight in a sleeveless navy dress. Her hair was down for once. He loved when she wore it down.

Raigan just raised her eyebrows at him.

"Right," said James. "Okay, I'll go- I'll-"

"Ask her to dance with you," said Raigan.

"Yeah," said James. "I will. Thanks. See you later?"

Raigan nodded.

And then, feeling unexpectedly nervous, he went and found Elise still standing among the group of aurors. He slid into the circle beside her, brushing her lower back with the tips of his fingers.

"Hey," he said.

She turned to look at him.

"That was a pretty impressive performance," she said, the corners of her lips tugging into a smile.

"Piper brings out something strange in me," said James with a grimace, wishing he didn't care that she'd seen. He shouldn't have felt nervous around her at this point. Elise laughed through her nose, but didn't say anything.

James wanted to touch her again, but he was afraid she wouldn't let him here with all these aurors around. He finally worked up the courage to place his hand on her back and was just about to ask if she'd even consider going to dance with him when Gillespie, probably spying what James had hoped was a subtle movement to touch her, said, "So, when's the engagement happening, you two?"

James started to laugh, but Elise said, "Oh no, we're not-"

And then she looked at him and she stopped. James closed his mouth, his smile fading quickly. Did she really care that much?

Gillespie, misinterpreting all social cues within a fifty foot radius of himself, as usual, said, "I'm only joking. Just glad to see you two together again is all. Never did understand the end of that one."

Elise frowned. She opened her mouth, but didn't appear to know what she wanted to say.

"I think everyone kinda knows, E," said James, very quietly and only to her.

"No," said Elise. "They couldn't. We've never-"

And that was when Carston, standing behind the two of them in conversation with a few people from his Hogwarts class, put one hand on Elise's shoulder and the other on James' and said, "Everybody knows." He gave Elise a significant look, and turned back to his conversation. Elise looked bewildered. She ran her hand through her hair, eyes cast down and lips slightly parted.

With her hand around the back of her neck, she shook her head a little. "I don't-" she started to say.

"E," said James and they met eyes again. Her expression did not change, but something passed over her eyes and James was pretty sure it was guilt.

"Come'ere," said James, jerking his head outside the tent. He walked away without taking her head. She could follow if she wanted.

He stopped far enough away from the party that they could talk privately. Elise stopped next to him a few seconds later.

"I just don't understand why you care if they know," he said. He sounded hurt and he wasn't sorry he couldn't hide it. "You're not a secret to me, Elise."

"I'm not keeping you a secret," she said defiantly. He was surprised to hear her voice was a little tight in that lump in the back of your throat way. "You left," she said. "When we broke up. You didn't have to go to work every day and have everyone who knew you as part of this pair looking at you like you'd lost your other half." Elise wrinkled her nose at the very thought of it. She hated that phrase, "other half," hated the idea that someone couldn't be a whole person if they weren't in love.

"For months and months everyone tiptoed around me like I might start crying if they talked to loudly and I just-"

James reached for her hand. She didn't pull away, but she didn't seem particularly receptive either.

"You didn't have to work with all these people who had really never known you except as someone's girlfriend. Work and you and everything... it was all too mixed up. It made me feel so stupid, because no one could think about me without thinking about you. And it took years for that to stop, James."

James didn't really know what to say to that. "I'm sorry," he said finally.

"Don't apologize," she said, looking away. "It's not your fault."

"Well... I'm sorry anyway. I have so much respect for you, E. You know that. And I think everyone else does, too. They'd be idiots not to."

"I just don't want people to start thinking of me as half of something again," she said. "I'm in a leadership position. I need them to take me seriously."

"Well," said James. "If they don't take you seriously, I'll come and have a word with them myself."

Elise laughed through her nose, eyes flicking up. The sky was shading itself darker, a deep, deep blue with the last streaks of orange fading away as the sun set further and the clouds got swallowed up in the darkness.

"That is the last thing I want," she said.

"Alright, so... bad idea. Scratch that. Why don't you come and dance with me instead." It was a bold attempt, but James didn't know what else he could say to her. "Please," he added when she didn't answer right away. The band had just begun a new song. "Come on, it'll be really awkward and uncomfortable, and we'll laugh about it for years to come."

That actually got Elise to smile. "You really think everyone knows?" she asked.

"I mean, it's not exactly a secret we spend a lot of time together," said James. "I'm always in your office."

"Fine," she said through a sigh. James tightened his grip on her hand and started heading back towards the tent before she could change her mind. He led her to the middle of the dance floor where it was crowded and fewer people would actually be able to see them among the mob, and then he put one on her waist, and reclasped their hands. Elise put her free hand on his shoulder looking very unsure about the whole idea.

"I'm not keeping you a secret," she repeated. "This is just weird."

"I'll take weird," said James, swaying from side to side. The music was not really suited for this sort of dancing, but he was hardly listening to it. All he could focus on was Elise: the way she kept adjusting her grip on his hand, or moving the placement of her fingers on his shoulder; how her eyes darted around the space or down at their feet, but never at him.

"You really don't think this is weird?" she asked after they passed near a couple of his students.

"They'll all find out anyway," said James. Her eyes flicked up to him.

"You'd tell them?" she asked.

James laughed a little. "I don't know that I'd make an official announcement," he said. "But I don't really care if they know. Like I said, they'll all find out anyway."

"How?" asked Elise.

"You went to Hogwarts," said James. "News travels fast. Piper knows so I'd estimate everyone would have found out by breakfast the first morning. This'll just speed the process up a little. They'll all know before they get off the train tomorrow."

"And that doesn't bother you," Elise confirmed. "That your students know about your personal life."

James shook his head. "Not really, no."

Elise eyed him for several seconds, and then, she glanced around them again, shook her head like she was psyching herself up, and said, "Alright, fine," and she let go of his hand, wrapped her arms around his neck and turned her cheek against his chest. James smiled, surprised. He put his hand on the back of her head and avoided looking at any of the people around them. It was crazy to think how much time had really passed them by, how much was different, and how much was still the same.

"I'm going to miss you," she said. "At work."

"Me too," James agreed. "But I think some separation will be good for us. We never had that. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that." Elise lifted her head to frown at him and her expression was so familiar that James couldn't help himself. He cupped her cheek and kissed her.

Elise was very red when he pulled back, but she looked unexpectedly pleased. "Alright, I think everyone knows now," said James.

Elise pressed her lips together and shook her head. "Nope, I don't think Bob from maintenance saw," she said, and she kissed him again, so much like the first time she had ever kissed him all those years ago in Suffolk, that James felt dizzy with her. He pulled her in close when they broke apart, speaking against her forehead. "Who's Bob from maintenance?" he asked.

"No idea," said Elise. "But there must be one." At that, they both began to laugh. James looked over the top of her head at all these people around them laughing and dancing and talking. He looked at the musicians on stage, and the floating trays of refreshments and appetizers and bite sized desserts, at the dark, starry sky and the neatly cut grass and the big white tent under which they had all gathered and he thought how lucky he was to have found one singular person with whom he fit so well. He had not felt so overwhelmingly wonderful in a very long time.

"I really can't believe the Minister's not gotten back to me about Berlin, yet," said Elise. "It's been weeks."

James closed his eyes and laughed. Some things never changed.

"What?" she asked.

"Just warning you now," he told her. "You're never getting rid of me."

Elise brushed the tips of her fingers through the hair at the base of his scalp, the way she always did. James shivered.

"I don't want to," she said.