*cries*
Ah, the Scowl. She knew it well; it had made many an appearance during Hogwarts. She wasn't sure if she was relieved to see it, taking it as some sort of validation of her anger, or guilty because it proved that she had successfully tainted the perfectly content mood that they had. But he seemed to recover quickly, and his expression changed to playful. It wasn't a look she was familiar with, and she once again felt a stab of remorse over not staying in contact with him. It hit her then just how much he had changed, and while it wasn't unexpected, she regretted missing it. She had missed him, more than she was willing to admit, and for a moment, her thoughts wandered back to the last thing she had said to him on the train and she wondered if-
No. She swiftly ended that train of thought, not wanting to think of it. It had been years, so there was no use dwelling on the past. She took a gulp from her drink, thankful for the distraction, as she listened to him with a half amused expression on her face. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” A pause. “I’m not sure they’ll really appreciate that,” she remarked, though she brightened at the thought; someone needed to tell them off, and she didn’t particularly care if they were insulted in the process. “I won’t stop you. I’d do it myself if I wouldn’t get in trouble for it,” she added, turning back to face him. Her gaze lingered on his face for a moment too long, her expression fond, pleased. She caught herself a moment later, and she smirked at him, trying to act nonchalant. “Just don’t try and be nice about it, okay? I don’t want to hear anything about sugarcoating,” she teased. She doubted that he would, but it was worth reminding him that she didn’t give a fuck about how he expressed himself.
She wasn’t entirely sure how they suddenly found themselves in some sort of awkward situation. But there they were, James looking down intently at his trainers and Katherine staring at the bar. Neither were especially awkward people, and she couldn’t recall any sort of awkward moment in their past, save for the last day of school. Which very well could have been to blame for this, she realized. They had never talked about it, but it had changed their whole dynamic and could have easily led to many an uncomfortable situation. She wasn’t sure if she should bring it up in some attempts to reassure both of them that it was over and in the past or if she should continue to act like nothing unusual had ever happened between them.
But he made the decision for her when he broke the silence, and she once again pushed those thoughts away. “You have to get it done in one day?” she asked, bewildered. “Is that usual?” She knew nothing about how any of this worked, but she had always assumed that it was some long process, where something like one song was recorded a week. It did seem to make more sense with a single, but even then, it hadn’t occurred to her that it was a one day process. She couldn’t blame him for being nervous if everything happened tomorrow, and the record would be released a week later. “Fuck,” she sighed.
Ever helpful, that Katherine.
“Good luck. I don’t think you’ll need it though.” And she always had been on his side. She had never been entirely sure what possessed her to stand up for him all the times that she had, and she had had every reason to dislike him, based solely on how he treated some of their peers. But she hadn’t been able to help herself; she had been drawn to him since the beginning for reasons she still couldn’t understand, and she had felt genuinely bad for weeks after the handful of arguments and fights they had had in the last couple of months of school.