Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters.
A light-hearted story about James' very bad week based on the song 'To Last a Lifetime' by Del Amitri which I strongly recommend you listen to. (L/J)
To Last A Lifetime
It had not been a good day for James Clarence Potter.
Make that week.
Not only had he been told that he had missed a deadline at work and they were seriously considering a new employment for him, namely 'un', but he had missed said deadline whilst on a classified Order mission in which he had been hiding in a mud filled trench for the past 15 hours waiting for the appearance of a valuable source only to find that he had been given the wrong co-ordinates, by a certain Sirius Black I hasten to add, and he was no where near the correct location. His run of bad luck or karma, he hadn't decided which yet, had continued when Lily had called saying Benjy Fenwick, one of her ex-s that James hadn't had the chance to maim yet, was back from France and they were going to lunch together. Not to mention he had been in Scotland. Need I say more?
The eighteen year old really was at his wit's end which is why he was currently speeding in a 50 zone with a scowl permanently etched onto his face. His midnight black hair was wilder than ever as he rolled down the window and felt the wind, mingled with drops of rain, whipping at his face. Now you may be wondering why, exactly, James Potter is driving a car. Before I commence, let me assure you that he does, in fact, own a license for said vehicle after passing the 'muggle camouflage' unit in order to pass his Auror exam at the beginning of the year. It was in this particular unit that James had discovered that many muggles would find it odd if he couldn't drive a car. Anyway, the reasons for travelling via car:
Driving relaxed him and prevented him from strangling his supposed best friend
He needed time to cool off
He knew Apparition freaked her sister out
From this information we can deduce Mr Potter's destination; wherever Lily Evans was. He forced the gear stick into fifth as he roared onto the motorway. The traffic, thankfully, was practically non-existent, as one would expect at 5 o'clock in the morning. The frustrated Auror half-wished that he had Apparated as he realised just how long it would take to reach his lover's arms. However, he knew that Apparating had been out of the question when he had first departed. Firstly, because her sister might have been home and he didn't want to give her an excuse to throw dirty looks at Lily. And secondly, his pent-up energy combined with not seeing a certain red-head for over a week may have made his greeting a little more…vigorous than her parents would have liked. A wistful sigh escaped the teen's lips as his imagination was flung into overdrive. He could almost hear her whispered reassurances and the soft touch of her nimble fingers in his hair whilst they lay on the couch, or better yet, in his bed.
There had always been an unspoken kind of agreement between them that they would live together after they were married, if only to keep their parents satisfied. James had already bought the house for their married life together and was living in it alone. Or, at least, he was supposed to be but Lily spent enough time round there that she had practically moved in. It was probably driving her crazy that his comfy, double bed lay empty whilst she had to settle for her childhood bed that always left her rolling around searching for a comfortable position in vain.
He drove on, blocking out everything bar his destination and what he would do once he arrived. He wondered vaguely if Lily had any honey or ice cream. He just prayed his saviour was at home. He had heard enough bad news to last the rest of his life.
Tired and relieved, James pulled into her parent's driveway at 1.27 pm and, in his excitement, failed to notice the lack of car in the drive. Climbing out of the driver's seat, his aching muscles protested and he leant against the closed door for a minute, admiring the house and garden. It was typically Lily. The garden was perfect. There was no real direction to anything; no orderly rows or straight lines, but perfect all the same. The roses grew in a circular pattern that spiralled outwards and the petunias were planted along the front wall. There were sunflowers and pansies and flowers he didn't even know the names of. Colours exploded against the green lawn. Each flower was an intricate work of art there to be appreciated and admired in its own right. Even the grass seemed to be cut to the millimetre and James could stand for hours admiring the hard work that Lily and her mother had put into the garden, hoping that their own might one day look as stunning. The path wound carefully around the mini Eden and flowed like a river up to the town house.
The house was not large, not at all like the one James had grown up in, but neither was it small. It had a comforting aura, even from the outside. It was a simple house, unpainted bricks leading to a tiled roof with one chimney. The door stood underneath an arch which had ivy growing up the trellis. The porch was fairly open and in it stood three pairs of Wellington boots and a bucket. There was no welcome mat or doorbell but James had fallen in love with the house when he had first seen it, picturing the time Lily had spent here as a child, wanting to find all the secret places she had ever hidden in and the Evans' themselves added a certain character to the house which he had rarely experienced in the rich mansions he had been forced to visit as a boy to fulfil social obligations.
Snapping himself from his reverie, and wondering if he really was tired enough to begin studying the intricacies of Lily's garden, James began marching up the path to the door, careful not to tread on any of the carefully placed flowers. Avoiding a peculiar looking vine that had started to creep onto the paved path, James had a sudden moment of genius. The weary Auror tranfisgured a dandelion to become a large daisy which he would present to his own flower. He grinned at his handiwork; although the petals did look a little lopsided he decided it was the thought that counted. He stepped up into the porch and went to knock on the door, but to his surprise it was already open. Taking a tentative step inside his gravely voice called out;
"Lily?"
There was some shuffling from inside the kitchen and then:
"Is that you Benjy?"
James gritted his teeth, just how many times had that EX been to see his Lily? His rather aggressive thoughts halted as a figure that was most definitely not Lily appeared. James recognised the short, stout hunched figure of Mrs Cribb, Lily's next door neighbour. He didn't like her very much, but that was okay because she wasn't very fond of him either. They stared at each other for a moment before she broke the silence.
"Oh. It's you."
'Yes it's me, you silly old cow, only her soon-to-be fiancée!'
James cleared his throat.
"Err..I was looking for Lily is she…?" The question died on his lips as she laughed, or rather, wheezed, vindictively. She turned to the cat that had followed her from the kitchen.
"Looks like lover boy is too late. Again." He had been forty minutes late for a family and friends BBQ and she still held it against him. Really, he felt it was a little excessive. Her chuckling ceased however when the cat hissed at her and sidled up to James, rubbing affectionately against his legs. Trying not to sound too smug he willed himself to be patient with the old bag.
"What do you mean by that Mrs Cribb? Where is she?" Suddenly, James' imagination threw up images of Benjy Fenwick coming back from France deliciously tanned, incredibly muscly and with a musical French accent. His traitorous mind then provoked him further with images of Lily flinging herself into his arms, helpless to the magnetic charm he wielded.
'I suspect the two of them eloped.' That nasty little voice of self doubt hissed viciously.
Mrs Cribb was eyeing him with distaste as he began muttering under his breath. Wondering whether the boy before her was sane, the old woman tutted and all but spat at him "Family holiday."
James beamed. So Lily hadn't eloped! Haha, take that Benjy Fenwick!
His elation was short lived however as he realised what that meant; another three weeks without Lily. He could almost feel the daisy wilting in his hands. Mrs Cribb took this moment to glance at his romantic gesture and scoffed as her eyes flew to the huge bunch of pink posies standing in the corner. The card had one large 'B' on it. James was nearly sick. Tearing his eyes away from Benjy's transparent attempt to woo Lily, James felt like a deflated balloon.
"Well…do you have an address or a fellytone number for them?" He asked hastily, his fantasies concocted in the car now flying out the window. Mrs Cribb clicked her tongue and gave him a look that indicated just how much she disliked him.
"Even if I did, which I don't, I wouldn't just give it out to strange people."
It was all he could do not to shake her or possibly beat her with the fellytone which was actually beginning to look like an attractive option to the frustrated Auror.
"If you'll excuse me, I have to lock up I only came to feed Sticky." And with that she bustled him out of the house with a surprising amount of force despite his feeble protests. She slammed the door shut and locked it with a click, not seeming to care that James' daisy of love had been jammed into the door frame and was now trapped, only the stem in his hand. He gurgled articulately as he stared disbelievingly at his ruined flower. Mrs Cribb had hobbled across the road and shut the door of her own house before James managed to speak again.
"It's Mickey, you stupid, old bat not Sticky!"
He tried to convince himself that his lack of speech was simply because he had become a little tongue tied at seeing his flower and not because he was terrified that if Mrs Cribb heard him he would not be able to reproduce. Having looked at the door, the remaining half of his flower and then his car several times, James heaved a sigh and stumbled to his car in a state of shock. 'Family holiday'. Of course it was. He had known about it for months because Lily had been saying how much she wished he could go, how she would miss him, how she would make it up to him and how she was sure that their long weekend to Blackpool would be far better than 3 weeks in Jamaica with her family, although he wasn't sure she was telling the truth on the latter point.
He opened the car door, his mind still screaming protests at his body for just accepting this Lily-less fate and sat looking defeated. Auto-pilot processed that he should put his seat belt on and start the car in order to drive home. Tuning in the radio, James felt only slightly better when the Beatles sang to him on the thirty minute journey home.
3 weeks without Lily.
Wow.
This really had been a crap week and the only person who could make it even marginally better was half way around the world. This was the worst week of his entire life and he nearly sobbed with relief as his familiar house came into view as he turned a corner. The car pulled into the driveway and the engine died on a groan as James slid from the car and dragged himself to the front door. Keys in hand, he unlocked the door and all but tumbled into the warm house. In all his eagerness to get to bed, however, his senses were not dulled, his Auror training as much a part of him as his right arm was and so, having taken no more than two steps, James knew there was something wrong. His ears strained for any sound as he stood stock still, alert suddenly, aware that something was out of place.
Someone else was here.
The sound of breathing was definitely audible after a few more steps into the house and James was on full alert with wand at the ready. His acute sense of hearing, after months of training, determined that the intruder was currently in his living room to his left. Approaching the door stealthily on silent feet, the Auror decided to employ the element of surprise and with that, the chance of stunning the intruder sufficiently to gain the upper hand. Cautiously, James wrapped a calloused hand around the handle whilst mentally preparing himself for the possibility of a violent confrontation with whoever had deemed it necessary to break into his house. Waiting a full five seconds before daring to move, James wrenched the door handle downwards and leapt into the room in full attack mode.
Wide stance.
Slanted sideways to present a smaller target.
Arms spread with wand pointed valiantly in front of him.
It was then that he noticed his intruder appeared to be asleep on his couch.
Said intruder also appeared to have glorious red hair that draped over the arm of said couch.
James was willing to bet his broomstick that said intruder also had bright jade eyes hidden currently behind closed eyelids.
It was then, and only then, that James slowly lowered his wand.
A state of euphoric bliss swept over him and he continued to observe the sleeping form of Lily Evans. His heart thudded painfully in his chest at the mere sight of her and he felt his knees begin to tremble at the absolute relief he felt upon realising that she wasn't spending three weeks in Jamaica without him. He leant on the armchair beside him for fear that he couldn't actually support his own weight. A smile slowly curved its way onto his lips as his glowing hazel eyes roamed the sleeping woman's face. The heat of his gaze traced her brow and followed the straight line of her nose to full lips that were parted slightly in sleep. Following the curve of her neck, James spotted her arm, outstretched and hanging off the sofa with a piece of parchment clutched loosely in her slender fingers, so loosely in fact, that it was in danger of escaping her grasp altogether and fluttering to the floor. Padding over to her sleeping form, James gently plucked the letter from her fingers, cringing when her fingertips flexed fearing that he had woken her. However, the red haired woman on the sofa simply exhaled a heavy breath and continued to slumber peacefully. Grinning, her raven haired companion opened the parchment and quickly read the neat, cursive hand writing.
James,
Surprise!
I haven't gone to Jamaica.
At least, not yet.
It was all kept a big secret by my parents, but they bought you a ticket too as something of a birthday present to me, I think.
Anyway, we've got a flight booked for the Tuesday after you get back from your trip.
I'll be at home so give me a call when you get back, okay?
All my love,
Lily x
He could've kissed the parchment right then and there.
Instead he settled for waking up his favourite red head with a prompt kiss on her ever so kissable mouth. Somewhat startled by her wake up call, Lily's eyes shot open as she pulled back from moist lips that were currently attached to her face. Upon spotting her bespectacled boyfriend, a smile broke out on her face and she reached her arms to him in order to properly greet him. Happily, he complied with her wishes and sunk into her welcoming embrace, feeling joy exude from his very core. He breathed in the scent of her hair, deeply inhaling and twisting his hands through her silky locks as her own arms wound around his neck and shoulders.
"So, you're not in Jamaica then?"
She laughed and he felt his heart soar at the pleasant sound.
"Apparently not." She shifted on the sofa so that he could sit next to her and he gratefully sunk into the soft cushions of his settee. He could feel all his muscles slowly unwinding and the stress gradually disappearing from his entire being.
"You would not believe the week I've had."
"That bad?"
"Worse."
"Would it get better if I told you we were going to go to Jamaica in two days time?"
He grinned at his girlfriend and her sparkling emerald eyes glittered back at him. If he was honest with himself he would gladly go back and relive the entire week again as long as he got to see Lily at the end of it. Her cheeks were attractively flushed and her eyes were bright as they stared inquisitively back at him. He really was lucky to have her. In fact, he was probably the luckiest man alive.
"Hey, you alright?" Questioned the young red head from her place beside him.
"Yeah." Was his soft reply as he wrapped an arm around his lover's shoulder so she could rest against his chest. "I am now."
Definitely the luckiest man alive.
End