The place was dingy, to say the least, but it was popular and Lily had to scrunch in between two men arguing, a pair of old ladies comparing knitting patterns, and a young mother with two obnoxious red-haired children to get to the front of the bar. She was starting to doubt her practicality in picking such a crowded spot before she recognized the black messy mop of a boy that she was looking for.

She took a deep breath and hopped up on the stool next to him. "Hi James."

"Lily!" James said, leaning in to hug her and give her a peck on the cheek. "How's your Christmas break been going? It's so good to see you! I was getting rather scared that you didn't like me anymore after I didn't get a response back from my letter, at first. But then I got a notice saying I had to go to that postal place to pick up a letter from you, which was rather odd, don't you think?"

"Oh, well, my owl, Spetrika hurt her wing and I didn't know if you would get the post office notice, but I just thought-" Lily rambled.

"Not a big deal, I had a minor run-in with the post because well, I brought my, uh, dog, but apparently dogs aren't welcome at the post for some reason." James said.

"Hm, oh yes, right, no dogs at the post." Lily replied, appearing somewhat out of it.

"Lily?" James said.

"Yeah?"

"Is everything okay? Because well, I'll just come out with it, I've sort of been thinking that you invited me here not as a date during the break, but rather to, well, break up with me?" James said, blinking at her owlishly through his circular frames.

"James!"Lily exclaimed.

"You haven't been owling me back and I don't know what kind of bullshit story you just came up with about Spetrika but basically I think something's wrong and you're not telling me." James spout.

"Well no, not exactly, but I do have something to tell you." Lily said, looking a little stressed.

James, relieved that she wasn't breaking up with him just yet, said, "Okay, well what's going on then?

"Okay, well I guess we should get down to business anyhow. I just, well, this is a little hard, um." Lily said, stumbling over her word choice. "I had it all planned out in my head, I knew I should have written it out, but then I thought it would be too formal and well, I was going to make a copy of the letter I sent to Dumbledore, but then-"

"What? What letter? Am I not being a good enough head boy? Did you tell him about the time I skipped the prefects meeting for Quidditch because you promised you wouldn't or I would have told him about the time you- " James said, raising his eyebrows at Lily.

Lily cut him off though, and said, "No, that's not it. That's the opposite, actually."

"Oh, you told him I was a good head boy then, is that it?" James said, starting to smirk.

"No! It's just, let me finish my sentences James and then I'll let you talk for as long as you want, okay?" Lily said, getting aggravated.

"Okay, go on then." James said, leaning in.

"Okay, well I wrote Dumbledore and though I did mention head positions, I did not mention anything about you missing meetings. Although, I did not like that." Lily said, staring directly at James. However, with the begin of her next phrase, she started to look down, more at the drink napkin to the right of her. "But, what I told Dumbledore and what he told me to tell you was that, um, well, there will be a replacement head girl for the last semester."

"What? Why would he want to replace you?" James looked confused.

"James Potter, what did I say about interruptions?" Lily spouted off, but still would not look at him and continued to stare at the napkin to her right. "I asked him for a replacement."

"What? Are you serious, Lily? Couldn't stand another semester with me, could ya? I thought we were good now, with the circumstances being what they may?" James said.

Lily knew what he was implying. The fact that before the winter break had started, James and Lily had started going out. It had been quite obvious for a while, but finally Lily worked up the courage to tell him that she liked him. They had been working together well on rounds and figuring out schedules and somewhere along the way it just clicked. But that was before Lily came home and well, shit hit the fan.

But Lily had to stand her ground. She couldn't verbalize what James was trying to imply so instead she just did what she does best. "James, God, for once, this is not about you! You have to make everything about you! Can you just take a minute and think about the fact that it might not be you that's the problem, but something with me?" Lily argued.

"Oh, well, I-" James stuttered.

"Exactly." Lily said.

James just stared at her until she realized that he wanted her to explain what was so wrong with her.

But she couldn't do that. She just couldn't.

"So, well, yeah, Dumbledore, he told me to tell you that Lisa Long from Ravenclaw will be taking over when Hogwarts starts back up again in January."

Then there was silence for a few minutes before James looked up and met Lily's eye.

"No, you know what? I think I deserve an explanation. I've worked with you for the past three months and I've gone out with you for the last one and I think I deserve an explanation ." James nearly shouted.

"Lisa Long is a perfectly good person. She's in the top part of our class- she's always in the library, more than I am, really." Lily said. And I'm sure she would love to be head girl!" She added as an afterthought.

"I don't care about the wonderful Lisa Long! I'm sure she's a really bloody great person and all, but what I want to know is why you don't want to be it anymore." James said, looking straight at Lily, who had moved on from looking at the drink napkin to looking around the room, basically anywhere but at James.

"I have personal reasons, James, okay?" Lily said, staring at the red-headed mother with the two boys wrestling each other.

"No, not okay! Something is wrong and you're not telling me and I want to know why!" James said heatedly.

Other people at the bar started to look over at them. They were "turning heads" as the old saying goes, and that was exactly what Lily didn't want to do.

"Fine. " Lily said, admitting defeat, something she didn't often do.

James looked a little startled, but settled down quickly, setting his hands in front of him and looking directly at her.

"I will not be Head Girl for the final semester because I will no longer be attending Hogwarts." Lily said, finally looking James straight in the eye.

James stared at her, incredulously. "What?"

"I said, I will not-"

"No, I heard you, I mean, "what" as in why the bloody hell not?"

"James."

"I mean you're the bloody top girl in our class and your friends are all there and you love Hogwarts, and, and I'm there!"

"James."

"Tell me, really, what's the real reason? Stop giving me this bullshit!"

"James."

"TELL ME."

Everyone in the pub had slowly been taking cursory glances at the couple at the bar, trying to maintain ignorant to their conversation, but at James' yell, they all stopped what they were doing and stared.

Lily, of course, turned bright red. "James, can we just-" Lily stopped, her voice threatening to crack. She got off her seat and made for a speedy escape through the door to her right.

James, however, was not one to give up immediately, followed her out and grabbed her hand, pulling her close.

"Lily." He said softly.

"My dad's dead." She said, looking right at him.

"Lil," James said, his eyes softening.

"My dad's dead, he was killed under "suspicious circumstances," aka death eaters, and Tuney's marrying a magic-hating man who thinks I'm a freak, and Se-Snape's doing all that Dark Arts crap and me, I'm just sick of it, James. I can't do it." She said, folding into his arms. "If I leave now, all this shit will stop happening. Okay, James?"

"Lil, look at me." James said, rubbing circles on her back.

She refused, instead creating a wet spot on his jacket.

"Look, I know this isn't what you want to hear, but you can't act scared, okay? I know you want to, I know you want to run away from it all, but you can't, okay?" James said, hesitating to see if she was following. She nodded, but then shook her head.

"I mean, as much as it hurts thinking about it, you must know that leaving the magical world will not make your dad undead, right? And you know that Petunia" He said, saying her name with absolute distaste, "or her monstrosity of a fiancée should not be your role models in life either. And Snape, nor any of the other death eaters will not stop murdering others if you decide to turn a blind eye." James said.

"I know, I know, I know, but how is going back to Hogwarts going to change that?" Lily said. "I still can't do anything that will change the circumstances, James."

"Look, I know of something, an organization, per se, that could change the circumstances." James said.

"What?" Lily said, finally pulling her face away from her boyfriend's chest.

"I'm not really supposed to know about it, I just heard my mum and dad talking about it. But it's called the Phoenix club or something like that, something to do with a phoenix, like Dumbledore's, you know? He's involved with it somehow. And apparently, they're supposed to start fighting Voldemort, or they already started, I don't quite know." James said, looking at her earnestly.

Lily just looked at him. "James."

"I know it doesn't sound like I know much, but you know Dumbledore! We both thought he was planning something and he's been watching us more often. I bet he's planning on asking us to help with it. Wouldn't you want to help, Lil? This could be a chance to fight back against those guys that killed your dad. A chance to fight back so they don't kill other innocent people." James's eyes blazed, the hazel specks melting into a brighter gold. "We could do it together." At that, James softened, slowly pulling Lily away from his chest.

"James." Lily repeated, not able to verbalize her thoughts.

"Don't leave, Lil. I- I know it's too soon to say this, but I can't imagine doing any of this without you by my side."

"James, a few minutes ago you were asking if I was going to break up with you. How do you know that this - us - is going to work for that long?" Lily replied, exasperated.

"I know it sounds crazy, Lil, but can't you feel it? Earlier, I know I said that thing about breaking up, but I was just joking. This- us - is real. I'm in it for the long-term, Lil. But the question is- do you want to be?" James grasped her hands and pulled them in between the two of them.

Lily looked at him, only for a second, before squeezing her eyes closed and murmuring yes.

That yes made Lily return to Hogwarts, finish the year as Head Girl with James by her side. That yes led to another yes at the end of the year when James popped another question. That yes sealed their destiny, their fate.

But in that moment, all that yes led to was a smile on James' face and a corresponding one on Lily's. And that was enough for them.

AN: Thanks for reading! This is a story I wrote a while ago and never posted. And the title is from the Grouplove song, "Let Me In."