James listened in relative silence, not quite able to squash a stab of anger at that. His signature Scowl was creeping onto his face as she relayed her situation. Yes. He still scowled. And now that he was older, it was probably a bit more frightening that it had been when he was sixteen. The upside was of course, that it wasn't directed at her. An interview with some sport's players wife. On the front page of the Prophet. The Daily Prophet. The biggest newspaper in Magical England. No wonder she was angry. It wasn't just that it was an irritating story to cover, but it had to be the headliner? Idiocy. James furrowed his brow and sipped thoughtfully on his firewhiskey. “No, you're absolutely right. That's shit.” His animosity probably wasn't helped along by the fact that he was still very much afraid of heights and hadn't stepped within two feet of a magical broomstick since he was in his first year at Hogwarts. “But...” a playful glint shimmered in his eyes. “I'm still going to read it.” He plunged on before he could protest. “And then I'm going to send a long letter to your editors saying something about how, while well written, the feature article was the biggest waste of seven minutes of my life, and isn't there something more important going on than some jock getting hitched?” As an afterthought, he quirked an eyebrow. “If that's not going to get you fired, anyway.”
Was that a sheepish... almost embarrassed look? From Katherine Goldstein? If he wasn't staring right at it, James wouldn't have believed it. He didn't mind listening, obviously. They'd done more than their fair share of banter back in school... when she'd liked him. Had kissed him. And there it was, playing itself over in his memory and fuck, he had to look away. He did indeed, drop his gaze, finding a sudden interest in his trainers. They were blue. And white. And he needed new ones soon. He hoped his body language was coming off more as I didn't mean to embarrass you than I hope I'm not making an arse of myself. But she moved the conversation forward relatively quickly, and he almost dove at the opportunity to get his mind on other things.
“Yeah, right after lunch time. Go in to record the first single, which has to get done tomorrow so it can be released next week. I swear, I'll be pulling my hair out.” He frowned, thinking of how much work that'd end up being, especially if he wanted to get a jump start on the rest of the album. The single itself was going to be three songs as it was. Maybe he shouldn't be talking so much. His voice was going to be shot if he wasn't careful. As for the success of the album? Well, around Wales, he'd been throwing around a lot of political rhetoric. He was already fairly well known around Cardiff, and he knew there was some underground fan base already. But there were plenty of people who hated him as well. It was just like school really. He was too blunt, too honest for most people's tastes. He knew he didn't make sense to everyone, but then, he figured if he did, then he was just as bad as the rest of the modern music industry. He was either going to be a very high profile failure, or he was going to be successful. There was almost no two-ways about it any more.
But at her encouragement, he couldn't help but feel a little better. Once again, it was just like school. It was nice to have someone on his side.
James smiled and nodded, happy really just to see her previously bad mood ebbing away. He didn't think he'd always had that effect on her. Or maybe he had, and had simply been too young and stupid to notice before. “I'll write whatever you like on it.” He thought briefly about the possibilities and then went on to her next question.
“I listened to a lot of really old punk and rock while I was writing it, actually. There's a lot of guitar work that was inspired by The Clash. Most of it's actually really guitar heavy, although the drum parts are pretty cool as well.” He raised his eyebrows a bit when she asked what it was about. It wasn't that it was too personal – he didn't really write much about personal experiences. He just hadn't expected the question. But he went on anyway.