When Lily first brought James home with her during the easter break of their final year he was fascinated by the muggleness of her house and she loved playing tour guide, showing him how the light switches work and watching Open all Hours with her parents while his knee grazed against hers. He was her captive audience and she found it almost impossibly adorable.
After a few months though, the cracks started to show and class differences reared their ugly head. It wasn't magic vs muggle, they had both been prepared for that and Lily could not blame him for finding the muggle world as fascinating as she did the wizarding one seven years ago. The problem was money. Lily's family were stoically working class. Her parents ran the local pub, frequented by the labourers that populated Cokeworth and lived in a cramped terraced house on a run down street. To Lily it was home and during her school holidays the redhead would always be willing to babysit the neighbours children or help her parents. Her sister had run from this upbringing as soon as possible, seeing Vernon Dursley, his secure job and above average wage as a ticket out of Cokeworth and it's way of life. Lily though, had never thought of escaping, of marrying up like her sister had but, without noticing, she had found herself in the exact same position.
James came from what felt at times to be the other side of the world. His parents had retired by the time he was born and he had been whisked around every continent by the time he was 11, staying in the finest hotels and eating the most preposterously fancy food. He had the full and undivided attention of his elderly parents and never once worried about money.
One day, a few weeks after they had left Hogwarts James came to her house, excited to show her something. She had been expecting him to drag her to Sirius's and demonstrate how they had finally made his motorbike fly or show her a some muggle thing they had 'discovered' which Lily had been familiar with since infancy but instead they apparated into a large four bedroom house in the middle of Godric's Hollow. The reality of the situation hit Lily like a tonne of bricks, who buys a fucking house when they're still a goddamn teenager? It seems ridiculous but to James, who sauntered through the living room with his hands in his pockets and sleeves rolled up to his elbows it was nothing more than a lark.
"What do ya think, Lily?" He asked, spreading his arms out and showing her the empty room.
"You brought it?" She asks weakly, at a loss of what to say.
"Yup." He said, proudly. "You'll live with me, yea?" He asked, still smiling like a mad man.
"I...what?" They had only left school a week ago and while they had planned on moving in together she had always imagined a tiny flat in London or Leeds. Not a house in Godric's Hollow, the priciest of Britain's wizarding towns.
His face fell, "I thought you wanted to live with me, we talked about it, remember?"
Watching his shoulders sag and the grin fall off his face was too much for Lily to bear, she closed the distance between the two of them and wound her arms around his waist.
"Course I'll live with you, you dolt." Lily said, looking up at James. She wanted to explain that she'd spent the past week looking in the papers, muggle and magical, for flats to let and meticulously worked out which ones she could afford but the words wouldn't come out. Instead she smiled and watched the excitement reappear on James's face.
"Excellent," He said as he tipped her chin up and placed a kiss on her mouth. "It's going to be brilliant, Lily I promise. We can get a record player for your mad muggle music and a brand new bed and a couch and hopefully I can convince Padfoot not to show up every night of the week but you know how bad he is at cooking so that one might be a bit of a long shot."
Lily felt a sliver of guilt shoot through her. She shouldn't complain, what he did was so painfully sweet. He wanted to create a home for the two of them, a life. It wasn't his fault his parents had a vault filled with galleons which he had inherited and she should really just get over this awkwardness she was feeling.
"Should we go to Diagon Alley?" He asked, shaking Lily from her thoughts.
"Why?" She replied, knowing full well what the answer was.
"For house things, Lil. Keep up!"
He was so excited Lily couldn't do anything but plaster on a smile, take the hand he offered and apparate away with him.
They arrived at the back of The Leaky Cauldron with a crack, landing next to the overflowing dustbins. James pulled out his wand, tapped the bricks and led the way through the opening. It was filled with shoppers enjoying the summer sun, lazily licking ice creams or gossiping with their friends on the sidewalk. They strolled down to the street, stopping to say hi to former classmates while making their way to Fitzgerald's Furniture.
The shop was huge, the small store front obviously hiding an extension charm and was filled with every furnishing imaginable, from ovens capable of coaching the most inexperienced cooks to levitating arm chairs and self organizing wardrobes. Lily was speechless, modern magical appliances were still foreign to her, having spent little time in the magical world outside Hogwarts and he was terrified to glance at the price tags knowing she would never be able to contribute much more than a few galleons.
"How do you wanna start, Lily?" He asked, turning around to face her. "By room, maybe?"
"I...how about we just pick up a few essentials first," she said, hoping to talk him out of buying a whole house worth of objects.
"Yea, maybe. See what we need most and come back later for the rest? Lets go look at the beds first, if you ask me I reckon that'll be most important." He winked at Lily as he said this, a move which usually caused her mind drift off to incredibly inappropriate places but today she was too uncomfortable to even notice. Instead, she let herself be led over to the gigantic four poster beds and watch as James lay on one after another, deciding which was the best.
"Come on, Lily. Give them a go," he said, tapping the other side. "This one's brilliant, it's like a bloody cloud!"
"She sat down and tentatively lay back. It was incredibly soft.
"Do you like it?" He asked, rolling over to face her.
"Yea, it's really nice, but um, how much is it?"
He flicked over a tag, "300 Galleons, but I reckon it's worth it. "Excuse me," he said, waving his hand at the shop assistant. Can we get this?"
The shop assistant looked delighted, obviously imagining the sizeable commission he was about to receive, and immediately began point out other things required for the bedroom. Ridiculous tables and pillows which were more than Lily could make in a year. The whole scene made her head spin and without really realizing it, she yelled, "STOP" loud enough to make the assistant jump and James to drop the sheet set he was holding.
"I...I need some air." She mumbled, rushing out onto the street.
Lily half jogged down Diagon Alley until she found a stoop of an abandoned shop and sank down onto the ground, pulling out her beaten pack of players, lighting one and taking a long drag. It was only a few moments until James found her.
"What was that, Lily?" He asked, slightly accusingly.
"I...fuck James, you can't do this to me."
"Do what? What the fuck is wrong with you today?"
"You can't just go out and buy a goddamn house! It's ridiculous, do you know how long anyone I know would have to save to buy a house?!"
"So?" He said, sounding defensive. "What's that got to do with us?"
"Everything, James. Do you know what I've been doing all week? I've been scouring the newspapers for a flat I can afford to pay half of. I've begged shifts off Mum so we'll have money for food and I've been minding Mrs. Hinton's kids everyday until she comes home so we can pay the utilities. Then you come here and render my hard work useless cos my money won't buy a goddamn tea cup in that store, let alone make even a dent in what you paid for that house!"
James ran a hand through his hair and sat down next to Lily. "I just wanted us to have a good start, you know? I didn't know you'd been looking for a flat."
"I guess we didn't talk about it properly." She passed the cigarette to James out of habit and watched as he took a drag.
"It's just money, Lil." He said, handing the cigarette back to her.
"To you, maybe. You've always had some. It's different when you grow up without it."
"But your parents aren't poor." He said, clearly picturing the Evans' small but warm, comfortable house.
"Nah, but they've always had to be careful with money." Lily stubbed out the cigarette and flicked it onto the street.
"You know everything I have is yours too, right?" James said, turning to look Lily in the eyes.
Lily shifted in her seat, "Yea, but that's a bit one sided, isn't it? You've a mountain of galleons and all I have is a fiver and half a pack of ciggs."
"Yea, well Sirius stole my pack today and I love you."
"I love you, too." She said, beginning to feel less overwhelmed.
"And I just wanted to surprise you, I thought it'd make you happy."
Lily smiled, the anger quickly fading from her body. "I know, I know you were just being sweet and I love you so much it's just, all this stuff makes me really uncomfortable and I know that's stupid but it does."
James wrapped an arm around her and placed a soft kiss on her forehead.
"If you feel like that it's not stupid. I'm an idiot, I should've talked to you first."
"S'all right, Lily said, her head now buried in James's shoulder.
"Mum's put some stuff aside for me, for when I move out I mean. Can we look at that before we get anything else? It's just blankets and old plates and stuff but it's free"
"Yea, course we can," James said, pulling her even closer.
"And I already talked Jimmy into selling us a bed for half off and he'll kill me if I go back on my deal."
James smiled, "I love how you can convince anyone to do anything for you."
"I love how you're so sweet you brought a whole house just for us and you'll let me fill it with tat from Cokeworth." She lifted her head up and kissed him softly, letting her hands wind around his neck.
James eventually pulled away, resting his forehead against hers, "You wanna go back to your place?"
"Nah, I told my parents I'd be with you tonight already plus have I ever told you what muggle couples do when they buy a new house?"
James's mouth curved into a suggestive smile and Lily felt his fingertips graze the bottom of her t-shirt. "No, you haven't," he said, softly.
"Well, the idea is you christen every room," she said, leaning closer.
"Interesting, and I assume this isn't done with holy water?"
"Nope, no water involved."
"Right then, Miss Evans. I think I'll be needing a hands on demonstration of this muggle custom." He pulled himself up and stuck out a hand to pull her up. She took it, feeling her grin growing wider by the second.
Lily giggled, "I would have to agree."
"Should we go grab that bed then?" James asked
"Nah, it's half 5, Jimmy'll be drunk by now plus you're a wizard, Potter. Get creative."
James smiled as Lily tightened the grip on his hands and apparated them back to Godric's Hollow and onto the doorstep. It was, of course still empty and a little chilly but they transfigured blankets out of the pens in Lily's purse and slept curled up on the sitting room floor.
The next morning before dawn the young couple woke before dawn, shoulders stiff and their skin covered with indents from the carpet. Lily knew James thought she was daft but she appreciated the fact he didn't mention it and, as she snuggled into James's chest and thought about waking up next to him single every day the house became less overwhelming in her mind and turned instead into a place she wanted to call home.