Living With Lily
Prologue: The Ministry
As I enter the visitors entrance of the Ministry Of Magic, I wonder what fate has in store for me now. Do I get to live on my own, or will I be put with another wizarding family? All sorts of questions are running through my head as I walk, and I can feel the butterflies in my stomach. This is the day, today, my life could change for the better, or for the worse.
I'm here-two weeks in to the summer holidays- at the office for The Protection Of Vulnerable Families. Its part of the Auror Office, and my father's the one in charge. My name is James Potter, and Father has decided that until I'm of age, I should go stay somewhere other than the Potter Mansion, because he's a high profile figure in the wizarding world, and I could be in danger if the Death Eaters attacked. Of course, Sirius and I have already decided that we're staying at home if we don't like where Father is going to send us, dysfunctional family in the middle of a breakdown be damned. This is the main reason Father has been spending so much time in the office. Joy of joys.
I knock on the door, and it opens. Magic. All the wonders we have discovered to use it for, and yet here in the Ministry, it's used for opening doors. Un-believable.
I walk in, and the first thing that hits me is the size of the place. Its massive. Well, I say massive, but its just large. Large for an office. There is a double height window, with midnight blue curtains patterned with silver stars, and I cant help but relate them to a set of Professor Dumbledore's favourite robes. The desk is a dark polished mahogany, with spelled quills writing letters to various people, and in and out trays, for memos. Even though the in/out trays are overflowing with reports yearning to be either read or sent off, he still seems to keep the desk spotlessly clean, with everything in its proper place. I stand on the plush, royal purple carpet, in a square made out of patterned vines, and I watch as the man sat in the high-backed chair stood and welcomed me. He's a thin man, with a well groomed moustache, and the traditional Potter hairstyle, an untameable mess that no-one has ever managed to control, although I have to admit that instead of the (again, traditional) jet black hair, Father has escaped with nice deep brown hair. He has the most piercing silvery grey eyes, and his mouth quirks into a small smirk as he watches me take in his overly large office. After a few moments, I incline my head respectfully towards him, and I utter one word defiantly, almost spitting it out like the word has some sort of disease, at this point in time. I get on well with my father, but if he thinks that he can sit back and control every aspect of my life, I'm going to show him just how much like him I am. "Father." I raise my face to his, wondering what he will say to me, what he has planned, where I may or may not stay until I go back to Hogwarts. "Well son, you'll be glad to know I've found somewhere for you to stay" he starts, and my heart sinks deeper than I thought possible. "Until you either come of age, or the serial killer 'Lord Voldemort' is caught, you shall be staying with…" and now the butterflies, which have been strangely absent until now, are back in full force, my heart is racing, and I have a bead of sweat forming on my brow. Jeez, can he not get on with it already? The suspense could literally kill me here. And so he finished "…the Evans family. I have been informed that they have a daughter in your year and house, and they live in the Muggle world, so you should be safe there until you go back to Hogwarts for your seventh and final year in September." and now, with my heart beating again properly, and my mind doing laps of honour around the quidditch pitch, I jump up and at him, enveloping him in a bone-crushing hug. He couldn't have chosen a better person to put me with! "Thanks Father" I call back as I sprint out of his office. I see my father turn and shake his head amusedly out of the corner of my eye before the door closed again. Incredible. I was going to spend my summer with Lily Evans, the love of my life. My red haired, intellectual, happy go lucky goddess. I laugh aloud as I enter the atrium, resolving to tell Sirius all about it when I flooed home. Then I stop, sudden realisation clouding my mind. If I had to go and live with Lily, Sirius would have to come too, because Father wouldn't send me without Sirius now, would he?