Disclaimer: I definitely do not own these characters and everything is for the sake of entertainment only. Title is a quote from Vanity Fair, so evidently I do not own that either.

Hi guys. I know it's been a while since the end of Getting Over You and the start of this so I hope I haven't lost anyone's interest - I'm gonna be really cheeky and use revising for major exams as an excuse!! Anyways, this is gonna be the start of some transitional stuff before the sequel. I finally have some vague idea of where I want to go with this now, so enjoy (hopefully!) and please review when done ;)

btw, anyone who hasn't read Getting Over You, just to warn you this might not make a lot of sense!

I Withdraw Part 1: Dé·jà Vu

"JAMES POTTER, GET YOUR CUTE BACKSIDE DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!!"

Bleary eyed and yawning copiously, the aforementioned tripped his way down the dormitory stairs in a state of utter confusion. James had been under the impression that once he started to date Lily Evans the yelling would stop. Evidently he had been sorely mistaken.

"Lily, what the hell? "James croaked, when on finishing his descent of the stairs he was accosted by a number of pointed jabs to his chest.

Frantically he tried to think back through the past twenty four hours to remember if he had done anything stupid, however in a very rare instance for James Potter, he couldn't actually pinpoint a single thing. He was, however, assailed by the brief and highly worrying thought that the events of the past few days in which the object of his desire had actually become his object were nothing more than a really vivid daydream.

The red head tossed her hair and let out a pointed "harrumph", almost as though it was a character flaw on her boyfriend's part that he was unable to read her mind.

"Lily, seriously," James yelped. "You're really lucky that I'm such an understanding boyfriend."

"Well you're lucky that Sirius Black is currently not within my hitting range," Lily spat, alarming James somewhat with the venom of her words.

He winced, not looking forward to forcing this issue but feeling that if his relationship with Lily was to progress further then it was important to bring to the fore that he was not a glorified punch bag.

"Muffin," he began. "Just a thought here, but if you're mad at Sirius then why are you hitting me?"

Lily turned a little red as James' words hit home and she sat down with a thump on a nearby armchair. He did have an excellent point – after their time spent in the Hospital Wing she had vowed to try and curb her slightly insane temper. This particular incident could possibly be used as evidence that her attempts were falling some way short.

James moved towards Lily and pulled her head softly towards his chest, stroking her hair soothingly.

"Come on, whatever Padfoot's done can't be that bad," he assured her consolingly. Inwardly however, James was severely doubting the veracity of his words.

Lily looked up at him with wide eyes. "How about kissing Raisa and then grossly fabricating some crap about a prophecy to get round the fact that he's not ready to commit to someone?"

"Oh," James abruptly turned his gaze to the floor.

Lily frowned. "Oh? What kind of a response is oh?"

James continued to stare intently at the floor, as though he might find the meaning of life by staring into its pine depths.

Lily continued to chew over in her head a thought that was now beginning to bother her before letting a sharp cry of anger:

"You knew!"

James returned his gaze to Lily slowly, trying to prolong the last remaining moments of his girlfriend not being really furious with him.

"I wouldn't put it like that," he protested futilely. "I would phrase it more like, I didn't not know..."

Lily arched her eyebrows caustically. 'James Potter - Master of Words' was proving cold comfort right now to Raisa's distress.

Fine," James eventually sighed. "Sirius will kill me for telling you this though."

Lily arched her eyebrows higher and James nodded resignedly before her eyebrows disappeared up into her forehead: "But you will kill me if I don't."

He settled back on the sofa and pulled his girlfriend closer to his chest, as if about to embark on a story time session.

"So, and the end of third year we come out of one of the mad old bat Trelawney's lessons and Sirius leaves his quill behind. Moony insists he go back for it and being the good friends that we are we wait for him on the landing. Five minutes later he runs out white as a sheet and babbling incoherently about love, death and some prophecy."

Lily looked unimpressed. "Of course, because that sounds exactly like something Sirius Black would do," she deadpanned.

James shrugged. "I probably wouldn't have believed it unless I had seen it but I promise you Lily that I'm telling the absolute truth here."

"So what you're basically saying is that Sirius messing with Rai's head is acceptable behaviour all because he believes in fairytales?" Lily retorted, still more focused on the fact that Sirius Black had hurt her friend rather than her boyfriend's attempt at honesty.

"Well muggles don't believe that we exist but we do" James pointed out rather reasonably.

Lily slumped into her boyfriend's chest, defeated by his amazing powers of logic. "Well why didn't you tell me any of this before?"

"Lily..." James hesitated, wondering how to phrase his response tactfully. "I love you very much, but until about a week ago my main focus in conversing with you was trying to make sure you didn't hit me. Spilling secrets was really not so high on my agenda."

She nodded, sheepish.

"And I guess that we've been a little too focused on ourselves lately," he continued.

"So what exactly does this prophecy say?" Lily inquired conversationally.

"Well the thing is Muffin," James began, involuntarily inching further and further down the sofa because he had a feeling that once he finished his sentence it would be a very good idea to be as far away as possible from his girlfriend's fist. "He's never actually told us the precise wording."

Lily clenched her fists, and jumped up from her perch on James' lap with a start.

"Is that right?" she questioned grimly.

"You now don't believe me, do you?" James sunk further back into the sofa as he started to realise that the actions of his friend had now dug him into a monumental hole.

The red head kept her mouth clamped shut so as not to say something she might regret, instead settling for an icy glare and storming out of the Common Room.

Several seconds later she stormed her way back and up to her dormitory in on realising that she was clad only in pyjamas and it was the middle of the night.

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