Twenty five

NO ONE HAD EVER ANTICIPATED THAT OLIVIA KINSLEY WOULD THE KIND OF LOVER WHO ALWAYS CRAVE PHYSICAL TOUCH. Perhaps it's because it's something that she lacked in her childhood or perhaps it's because she's hid in her shell for too long, but for whatever reason, James Potter is not complaining.

He adores the way her hand seems to always reach for his or how her back is always pressed against his chest and how her fingers are always buried in his hair. Even only days into their relationship, it's clear that her love language is physical touch. She shows her adoration through gentle touches and soft kisses and James is sure he's never been happier in his life.

With her, it's easy to forget everything. When they longue on his sofa, their limbs entwined and sharing soft kisses, it's easy to feel as though they're the only people in the world.

However, they were forced out from the comfort of the Potter manor to attend a muggle parenting class since they were unable to find a wizarding one considering everything is closed due to tomorrow being christmas eve. Kat was kind enough to drive them and so now the couple sat crossed legged on the floor, James clutching a hot chocolate milk while Olivia's is green tea.

"Taste it," James says, offering his drink for her to take a sip, knowing it's the kind of things she likes. He ignores the look being sent their way. While the other fathers wore khakis with their balding hair, James wore simple denim pants and shirt paired with a leather jacket to battle the cold winter air. The class had just ended, but no one had left yet, all of them waiting for the snow storm to end before venturing out. The other parents around them are perhaps twice their age but neither James nor Olivia cared.

"I like it," Olivia says before frowning. "I should have ordered the same thing."

"Here," he takes her tea and gives his chocolate milk to her. "Let's trade."

The bright smile that covered her face was enough for James to forget about the fact that he hated green tea.

She plants a kiss on his cheek. "Thank you."

He smiles at her before looking around to see if anyone can hear them. He debates whether he should do it, finally talk to her about something that had endlessly been bothering him. He knows that perhaps a room full muggles is not the best place for their talk, but he can't help but not care at the moment.

He wonders if now truly is the right time to talk about it, but it would be the only time they have together. Since the rest of their friends had arrived, the couple is always surrounded and James is not about to tell everyone a secret she had trusted him enough to share with him.

"Liv," he calls for her attention, his voice holding a tone of urgency. "What happened in the orphanage? You have to tell me."

James had tried to shake it off. He truly had tried, but his conscience refused to let him. If his understanding of the situation is correct, Olivia had murdered five people.

"Can we talk about this at home?" She asked, whatever humor in her voice now gone.

James shook his head. "No. We have to talk about it now. Just tell me what happened, baby. Walk me through it. How did it end up like that?"

Olivia hesitated for a few moments, but finally gave in. "I don't know. I never knew I could talk to snakes, but we arrived and I saw the snake there and I could understand them. T-They must have caught on to my anger. They told me how the people in that place were evil, how they would hunt down animals from the forest behind the house. Snakes, alligators, deers, anything they could get their hands on."

"What happened then?" James urges, hearing the hesitation in her voice.

"I said.." she trailed off, as if she struggled to let the words out. "I said that people like them don't deserve to live."

"Did you tell the snakes to kill them, Olivia?" He asked straight to the point, not knowing how else to word it. He needed to know, for his sanity, and he knows for hers too.

Olivia quickly shook her head. "No. No, of course not.  You called me and we left, then I saw it on the muggle news the next day."

He released a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. It felt as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulder and he can't help the smile that overtook his face. He cupped her cheek before reaching forward and planting a soft kiss on her forehead. "It's not your fault, baby."

"It feels like it," she mumbled.

However, before James can respond, the instructor walks toward them, causing Olivia to pull away. "Hi, guys! I hope you found this session helpful."

James plasters on a fake smile, knowing that they hadn't found it useful at all. The way that muggles and wizards deal with childbirth is astronomically different and so anything they learned in this class concerning labor and such did not apply to them. "Yeah. Lots useful."

The middle aged woman gives them a sickly sweet smile, making Olivia's stomach churn. "If you don't mind me asking, how old are you guys?"

"We're seventeen," James answers, knowing Olivia wouldn't.

The woman's smile drops the tiniest bit, but she manages to pull it back before it becomes too noticeable. Olivia can almost see the screws and bolts of her brain processing the information and making a judgement. "Are you guys in a relationship?"

"We are."

"Will you be giving the baby to your parents once you give birth then?"

"Babies," Olivia corrects. "They're twins, and why would we do that?"

The woman seems to be taken back from her response. "Well, you're kids. How will you raise them? How will you get a job?"

James can see that Olivia was slowly but surely losing her temper. This woman's judgment was getting the best of her, and honestly, he's starting to lose his too and so he allowed Olivia to answer the question.

"We're thinking the millions under my name and the billions under his will help, but that's just us," Olivia says without missing a beat, her face emotionless as she continues sipping on her chocolate milk.

James had to physically bite his tongue to stop himself from laughing out with the way the woman's jaw seems to have fallen to the floor. He takes Olivia's hand and intertwines their fingers before giving the woman a smirk disguised as a polite smile. "Excuse us, but we better get going."

Olivia makes sure to throw the woman a sarcastic grin before they walk out of the room.

Thankfully, the rain had mellowed down a little, giving the two an opportunity to run to the coffee shop across the building. His chest now feels lighter and so he walked with a skip on his steps.

"I smell  muffins," Olivia says, her face instantly lighting up, completely forgetting about her annoyance with the muggle woman inside. "I want muffins."

James lets out a soft laugh before nodding. At this point, he'd find a way to give her the moon if she asked for it.

⋅•⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅•⋅

OLIVIA HAD BEEN HAPPILY MUNCHING ON HER FOURTH MUFFIN WHEN THEY ENTERED THE POTTER MANOR, INSTANTLY HEARING THEIR FRIENDS' BOISTEROUS LAUGHTER.

"What has you fools cackling like hyenas?" Olivia greets, taking a seat on the couch.

Her arrival seems to make Sirius laugh harder.

"What are you guys laughing about?" James asks as he shrugs off his leather jacket.

"Come on, Moony," Sirius grins at the honey haired boy. "Tell them what you told us?"

Remus rolls his eyes, though his cheeks have considerably turned a bright red. "Shut up, Sirius."

"Where's Lucas? Did he finally choose a color for his room?" Olivia asks. "And tell us what?"

"Lucas is napping," Lily answers. "And no, but Fleamont promised to show him some samples when they get back from work."

"Tell us what?" James repeats.

"We were just playing truth or dare," Remus explains, his face still as red as a tomato.

"Remus admitted to snogging Olivia's brother," Sirius blurts out.

Olivia raises an eyebrow, taking a bite from her muffin. "Am I supposed to not know that? I'm pretty sure they've done more than snogging."

"Wait what?" James asks, shocked to hear the news. "Moony is gay? Not that I have anything against it, but what?"

Olivia tugs at his hair affectionately. "Oh, love. You oblivious little thing. Him and Samuel are practically undressing each other with their eyes every time they're in a room together."

Remus facepalms at his friend's reaction, his embarrassment gone. "Really, James? You didn't know that? Who did you think I was talking about when I ranted to you before?"

"Kat!"

It's Kat's turn to laugh out loud. "Oh no. Rem and I were never anything more than friends. He's my best friend. We're basically siblings."

"Goddamn it, James," Remus muttered, realizing that James truly had no idea, making Sirius laugh louder. "I was talking about Sirius!"

"Wait!" James jumps to his feet, his eyes darting from Remus to Sirius then back to Remus. "You liked Sirius? Padfoot? Our Sirius?"

"I'm starting to feel offended," Sirius pouts.

"Bloody hell, Prongs," Peter says in between laughter. "Even I knew that!"

For a moment, James just stood there, dumbfounded about his latest discovery. It seems as if everyone else had known apart from him, which they had. It makes him wonder if there had been other important things such as this that he had missed in his friends' lives due to his trouble with picking up the simple things.

"Well," he starts, looking at his friends. "Anything else you guys want to let me know?"

Lily raises a hand then. "I'm into girls."

This time, everyone apart from Kat had turned to the redhead in shock. 

"You are?" Peter asks in confirmation.

Lily nonchalant shrugs her shoulders as she nods. "Yeah. I found out in third year."

"Is that why you never went out with me?" James asks as he sits down beside Olivia again, his hand absentmindedly placing themselves on her knee.

"No," Lily answers with a smile. "Hate to break it to you, but I just never really liked you, Potter. You're not really my type."

Everyone burst out laughing at the faux offended look that painted his face.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

If you guys have any questions
about the book so far, comment
them here and I'll answer the
best I can!

i started a james mlm book and
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