It had been misery. There was no other way to put it.
As upset as her mother had been before-- upset enough to send howlers, that was-- there had been no way to tell what things would be like when she'd get home after ignoring all eight of them.
It had taken her a month of writing James and going crazy without any outside social contact for her mother to finally agree to let her head to London to see her aunt, Astoria.
Her mother had insisted she go via floo (more than likely to keep her from apparating anywhere she ought not to), and it had taken all of Daphne's stealth skills to escape the house before she was noticed.
It hadn't been easy.
Apparating to James' family's house as soon as she was out of sight was still risky, but it was worth it. They'd been out of school for damn long enough, and Cambrey had been dying to see him as it was. She knew he had to feel the same, if his letters had been any indication, but it wasn't comparable to being with him in person.
Bracing herself for a door answered by one of his siblings or his parents, Cam worried her bottom lip, rocking back and forth on her feet.
But James opened the door.
As soon as he pulled her inside, she flew into his arms, not wanting to step away at all as she let go of a breath that she hadn't been aware she'd been holding. "I missed you," she whispered into his shirt, tugging him closer.