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“James, sweetheart, what the fuck.”
James ignored Barty as he grabbed a bucket of large popcorn, with extra butter of course and two medium no sugar Cokes. He ignored Barty while he passed him his drink, and as they walked towards their room.
“When I said you take me to an movie of your choice without telling me what it was, I thought we were going to see that Lord of King’s movie, or that movie which features an boy who realizes he’s an wizard, y’know, based on that book series. Hippocampus Arthur and the Philosophy of Rocks.”
James nodded absently, as Barty continued.
“Why on God’s green Earth are we watching an movie called, k-k-k…”
James laughed as Barty struggled to pronounce the movie name. He gave up, muttering something about how he refused to butcher the name.
“Anyways, case in point, I can’t understand Hindi that well. I’m not going to enjoy it.”
Barty frowned slightly as he explained. James squeezed his hand assuring him there were subtitles even a 5-year-old could understand. He thereafter bombarded by pieces of buttery popcorn.
In England, there was a lack of proper representation of Indian culture.
And when 41-year-old James Potter heard they were running an movie in theaters, December 14th, called “Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham”, he knew he had to watch. And he wasn’t going to watch it alone, he had dragged his husband – well, same-sex marriage wasn’t legal so technically they were just partners, boyfriends really – and forced him to come along.
“Barty, sweetheart, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. And if it’s really bad, I promise we’ll leave immediately and go watch something else.” Barty sighed, but promised he’d try his best not to fall asleep.
This for James was enough.
They found their seats and settled down and waited for the movie to start.
-
“Oh my god James!”
The car ride home was far from quiet.
Barty couldn’t stop talking.
At first, he wasn’t really vibing with the movie. But five minutes later, he was smacking James away every time he checked up on him.
“You bored yet?”
“Shut up, there’s an really important scene happening! Aren’t you watching it?”
That was the summary of their few conversations.
Barty couldn’t stop crying after the end, and James found it very cute he could feel so much for a story that was total fiction. He thought that would be the end of it, but Barty’s mind kept working.
He kept remembering scenes, and analyzing every detail.
Right now, he was talking about a scene where the other female lead, Pooja, was being made fun of as a kid. To be frank, James didn’t remember half the scenes well.
“It’s the way he didn’t even stand up for her! She was being bullied by so many children, and he just watched as she cried!” he was rambling. “Well, she bullied him first.” That earned him a glare, as well as another analysis of the characters.
Even as they were preparing for bed, Barty wouldn’t stop talking about the movie.
James was beyond exhausted, and all he wanted was to get into bed and cuddle.
“Your awfully like Anjali, do you know that?” he spoke, thinking aloud.
Barty paused, thinking.
“Hm, I suppose. Maybe. That would make you Rahul then, no?”
And that led to whole another conversation.
Eventually, they fell asleep.
The next morning however was James being awoken up by a shriek. Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham was coming on DVD soon and Barty desperately wanted to get his hands on it.
James chucked a pillow at him, before going back to sleep.