Disclaimer: You know the drill!
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"Good morning." came a seductive voice to James' ear. "Ready for another round, sexy?"
"Actually, I'm pretty tired and I have to go to work in like…" He looked at his alarmer "… half an hour. And I've gotta take a shower and stuff. Why don't you just go home and I'll call you later this afternoon."
"Uhmm, okay. So you will call me later? There have been times when you've said that you would call me but then you didn't and I don't really feel like waiting by the phone for an entire night again" Courtney said.
Instead of answering James simply kissed the tip of her nose and got out of bed.
Courtney, one of James' many, many lovers was an 18 year old secretary at the Auror office at the Ministry of Magic.
She was positive that she and James were meant to be together, even if he didn't know it himself. Courtney was a girl hopelessly in love.
She blew him a kiss as she gathered her clothes and apparated out of James' apartment. The second she disapparated, the bedroom door flung open and Sirius Black appeared in the doorway.
"So, did she leave already?" He asked
"Yeah, finally" James sighed
"Merlin! I thought she'd never leave, Courtney's like a small motherless puppy. If you give her too much love and attention, she won't leave you alone." He frowned.
"It's rather annoying actually." James answered in victimely manner.
Sirius smirked at that last comment. "I told you not to work late at the office that night. And I actually remember someone telling you not to get so close to your assistant." He said nonchalantly.
"Well technically she's not my personal assistant, that's Daisy, who I have yet to seal the deal with by the way."
"Respect" Sirius said while giving James a fistbump
"But I know, I know. I just…- Hey, Remus said that, not you!" James answered.
"Oh, really? Are you sure?" Sirius asked while scratching his head.
"Yes, I am. But that's beside the point. You have to help me find a way to, you know, cut her out of my life."
That answer made Sirius think for a moment. "Well, what if… " He paused, "…what if you told her you were gay or something?"
"Sirius! Are you completely off your rocker? She knows I'm not gay, I've shown her that in more than one way…" He trailed off.
"To me that's the best idea so far. I mean, she wirks at the same place you do so you can't really cut her out of your life, it's not like you can fire her." Sirius shrugged grabbing a Quidditch magazine of the night stand and started looking through the pages.
"Sirius," He said calmly "It's the only idea so far." When Sirius didn't answer James got impatient. "Come on! There has to be a way! Think!"
"I still think you should just tell her you're a-" Sirius didn't get a chance to finish the sentence as James blew up.
"I am NOT going to pretend I'm gay. I'm serious here Padfoot!"
"Well actually. I –"
This time the alarm clock was heading his way through the air. The clock suddenly stopped in mid air.
"Don't be mean, James." Sirius said calmly while lowering his wand, still reading the quidditch article.
"I am not in the mood for your Sirius-serious jokes right now." James said and dropped his head on the pillows on the bed.
"Fine, fine. Some other time then." Sirius shrugged "Hey, weren't you supposed to meet early today for that meeting with Moody?"
"Yeah, why?" James' mumbled voice answered underneath the pillows.
"'Cause your alarmer says 8:07"
"WHAT?" James shot up from the bed "FUCK! Moody'll kill me!" He shouted as he ran around the bedroom gathering his clothes.
"Well, I'm gonna take off now. I have to go to work in…" He checked the time "…O-oh, 48 minutes ago. They're soooo gonna kill me over there. See you later mate." And he apparated out of James' apartment just like Courtney had done earlier.
"Moody's gonna kill me, Moody's gonna kill me." James sang to himself as he dressed quickly and apparated to the Ministry.
Alastor Moody sat in his comfortable chair at the Auror office with his feet on top of his desk. '11 minutes late,' He thought to himself as he saw Potter rush into the office out of the back of his neck.
"Late again are we Potter?"
"I'm sorry sir. I had an emergency. Or well, you know, my friend had one and I had to help him." James lied.
"Very well then." Moody seemed to buy that. "The reason for why I called you for this meeting is because I have a proposition for you…" He trailed off and looked at James to see if he was paying attention.
Which he was. Nearly.
"… Do you know anything about the army Dumbledore founded?"
James looked at his boss sceptically "The Order of the Phoenix ?"
Moody's face turned into something that James could only take as a smile. "Yes, indeed. The Order of the Phoenix ." His smile suddenly faded "Do you know what the Order does Potter?"
"Captures Death Eaters and sticks them into Azkaban?" James guessed.
"It's not all that easy son. But yes, that's mainly what the Order does." Moody leaned back in his chair.
After about a minute James broke the silence "Sir, may I ask why you're asking me these questions?"
"Yes, Potter you may. I got this letter-" He reached for one of the drawers on his desk, drew up a letter and handed it to James. "- a month ago from Dumbledore. It's about you, Potter. Go on read it. He nodded towards the letter.
James read and while he read more his eyes grew bigger.
After a few minutes, James looked up at Moody his eyes as big as saucers behind his glasses.
"Yes, I had that same face after I first read it." Moody agreed. "But I've been watching your work for the past month and I agree with Dumbledore that you're the wizard for the task.
And by saying that. I'm looking aside the fact that you're never on time. But you are the best Auror here. I trained you very well if I say so myself."
"Wow, I'm so flattered and honoured that Dumbledore wants me to…" He didn't get to finish as Moody interrupted him.
"Of course, you'll be receiving further training. Very intense training. You'll be saying goodbye to your social life for at least the next four months or so." He said seriously.
"I understand." James answered thoughtfully.
"This is a very serious commitment James,-" James looked up at Moody, he had never called him by his first name before. "- you could actually end up dead in this. You'd be risking your life for this. So I want you to think very thoroughly about it and give me an answer en Friday. You're dismissed Potter."
James thanked Moody, handed him back the letter and left Moody's office.
He tried to concentrate the rest of the day but left work early saying he had family coming over.
James walked from the Ministry home, when he got there after walking for quite a while sent owls to the Maurauders saying that he needed to talk to them about something important.
He watched the three owls disappear into the sky and threw himself on the sofa. He looked around his apartment. It wasn't big, but it wasn't small either. The kitchen opened into the living room, through the living room you could walk into the guest bedroom, which James used as his office since his guests never slept there unless it was in his bed.
Next to the guest bedroom/office was James' bedroom, the bathroom opened both into the living room and into the bedroom.
James liked his flat, it was very him. Very neat but at the same time messy. Complicated and yet very simple.
'Oh man, I could really do with a beer right now' James thought and released a deep breath. He stood up, went into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator door and discovered that the only thing in that fridge was a milk bottle way past its due date. It actually looked like something had starting living in the bottle.
"Man, I really have to buy some food." He said to himself, so he grabbed his keys and thought 'I might as well do it now, 'got nothing better to do'
He closed the door, locked it and ran down the stairs.
As James was walking in the autumn breeze, a leaf fell and landed right on his nose. He looked at the leaf and felt as bunch of feelings ran through his insides. He couldn't tell if they were good or bad, only that they were very familiar. The yellow leaf reminded him of the girl who had broken his heart a long time ago. To be more specific one year, three months and seventeen days.
Lily Evans. Yes, Lily Evans had indeed broken James' heart. He had been desperately trying to forget about her for the longest time. In fact he hadn't thought about her in a long time until now.
Stupid leaf. The leaf reminded him about their first date. The most wonderful night of his life…
-Flashback-
The wind was blowing the leaves of the trees on a beautiful September evening, the sun was just about to set and the sky was pink.
A couple was sitting on a blanket next to the lake at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry watching the sunset.
"Well Potter, this is shaping up to be a pretty good date." Lily Evans smiled sweetly at the boy sitting next to her.
"Duuh, I told you, you'd enjoy it. As a matter of fact you could have saved me up a lot of time, energy and not to mention gallions if you'd just agreed to go out with me the first time I asked you" James answered and got hit on the shoulder by Lily quite hard for a girl.
"You always did so romantically" She answered sarcastically.
"Yeah I know" James nodded, not quite catching the sarcasm.
"Wanker" Lily said as she pushed him so he fell on his side.
"Hey! That's not nice!" He shouted as he attacked Lily. They rolled around until James finally got the control and sat on top of her.
"Ah yes. I have you at my mercy" He cheered
"Get off of me James!" Lily shrieked
"Did you just call me James?" He asked surprised
"Well, that is your name is it not? Oh so mighty lord"
"Well, yeah. But… Yes. Yes it is" James rolled off of her smiling.
They just laid next to each other in silence for a few minutes enjoying each others company.
"Lily-" James rolled over and looked into her eyes "-I really, really like you. I have for a long time now actually, although it hasn't always seemed that way-" He said the last part blushing "-And I would really like for this to work out. I've matured a lot since the end of fifth year.
I'm not still the arrogant, selfish, spoiled brat I used to be. Honest, Lily. Will you give me the honour of going out with me again sometime?"
Lily had had a smile on her face the entire time James had been trying to get out the words.
She looked at him for a moment and nodded and as she opened her mouth to answer, a yellow leaf fell from a tree and landed right on James' nose.
Lily slowly took the leaf and handed it to James smiling. "I like you a lot to. And yes I would love to go on another date with you."
She then leaned in, James got the message and leaned in as well.
The moment they touched each others lips it felt like everything just fell into place and he knew Lily felt that way too. They lay there, one hand holding onto the little yellow leaf, James' other hand tangled up in her hair and Lily's other hand on the back of his neck.
The wonderful feeling of something he couldn't quite explain rushed through his stomach. He never wanted to let her go.
James knew at that moment that she was the one.
-End Flashback-
He missed Lily. A lot. 'I wonder what she's doing now' James thought to himself. She's probably married, pregnant with a house. He chuckled, on a second thought no. She was probably the president of some big company. 'Now that's sounds more like Lily' He smiled.
James grabbed a basket and headed towards the beverage section and grabbed a couple of beer bottles and put in the basket.
Next he went to the sweets section and started taking everything he could grab and threw it in the basket "If I'm going to be sent away to training I might as well start living a little." He said quietly to himself smiling.
"Excuse me?" He could hear a woman's voice behind his back. "Were you saying something?"
James turned and the first thing he saw a pair of very familiar eyes. The emerald green eyes he had fallen in love with.
Everything froze. He looked at the person standing in front of him. Lily Evans. The love of his life. The woman he had spent a year getting over and forgetting, was standing there in front of him looking more beautiful than ever.
Her wavy auburn hair hung down to her chest. Her curvy body looking so, so amazing. Lily had always been curvy. Around 5,7 ft tall. Large hips, average waist. Good breasts, although they looked larger than the last time James had seen her 'I wonder if she had one of those breast implants' He thought.
"Hello James." James was snapped out of his thoughts when Lily spoke up.
He opened his mouth to speak but quickly closed it again when he heard something that did definitely not come out of Lily's mouth.
"Bleergh" Came out from Lily's cart.
James' eyes grew for the second time that day about three sizes. The sound from her cart was coming from something with large green eyes and a lot of black hair with a pink bow in it.
It was a baby.
A Baby.
Lily's baby.
Everything went blurry before James' eyes and then he just saw black.
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So, that's the rewrite of the first chapter of my old fanfiction I can live without you which I started to neglect in the beginning of last year. But this story shall suffer no more neglecting, I have decided to carry on with it. So please leave a review or a cake, I'm a sucker for cakes, and tell me what you think. The next chapter will be arriving shortly, promise!