So here's another one-shot I decided to upload in my brief chance. L/J, after they've graduated.


"Lily?" Came the voice from behind her. She turned, and came face to face with James Potter sitting outside a little café in London.

"Potter," she replied curtly. "What are you doing here?"

His smile didn't falter as he replied, "Just grabbing lunch. Want to join me?"

"Not particularly."

"Lily – please? I won't keep you long, I promise. I just want to catch up with you a bit. Is that a crime?"

Against her better judgment, Lily sat down across from him.

"So, Potter-"

"Lily," he interrupted. "We've been out of school for a year and a half now. Could you call me James?"

She rolled her eyes before continuing, "So, James…how've you been?"

"Pretty well," he replied, munching on a cracker and trying not to look in her emerald eyes. It didn't matter how long they had gone without seeing each other – he still loved her, but he had long since accepted that she wouldn't love him back. Especially now with a diamond and ruby ring glinting on her finger. "I'm in the Auror program at the Ministry, and I live with the other Marauders. No significant other to speak of. How about you?"

"Well," she began slowly, unsure of whether or not to bring up her engagement. The fact that James had liked her in school was something that she had not been able to forget – it nagged her sometimes, and made her feel guilty about the way she had treated him. "I'm a Healer now, and I live with my fiancé Andrew."

"Oh yeah," he said, although the enthusiasm had all but disappeared from his voice. "I heard about your engagement. Congratulations."

"Thanks."

They became silent until the waitress came over to take their orders. Afterwards, Lily broke the ice by asking how the other Marauders were. James answered that they were fine, and the two of them proceeded to reminisce all through their meal. They had more memories in common than they had previously thought.

"And…remember when…you…you made that…portrait sing opera?" Lily gasped through her laughter. James nodded, wiping tears of mirth from his own eyes.

They had long since finished their meals, and the sun was beginning to set, when James finally stood and offered to walk Lily home. She agreed, feeling as though they had reached a new level of understanding.

"Tell me about your fiancé," he said suddenly. Lily looked up at him in surprise.

"Are – are you sure?" she replied hesitantly. His jaw tensed, and he was silent for a moment.

"Look," he said tightly, "I know I harassed you a lot in school, and embarrassed you, and I really am sorry for that. And I know you doubted it, but I really do love you." He stopped walking and turned to face her. She didn't miss the present tense in his sentence, but decided to let it slide. "All I wanted in school, and all I want now, is for you to be happy. This guy makes you happy, doesn't he? Then I want to know about him," he finished without letting her answer.

He started walking again, and Lily, lost in her thoughts, had to hurry to keep up.

"So, tell me about him." James said shortly.

"Well…we met eight months ago, and we work together at St Mungo's. He works in Spell Damage, and I work in the ward for people whose brains have been addled by magic. We just sort of bumped into each other, and the rest is history."

James wished he hadn't asked. As she talked about him, she got this almost-dreamy tone to her voice that he had always wanted to hear her use…about him. Every word was like a little sliver of glass slicing into his heart. Trying to ignore that feeling, James instead focused on her words.

"Wait…you said the two of you have only known each other eight months?" Lily nodded, looking up at him as they continued walking. They were nearing her neighborhood now, and had slowed their pace. "That explains it," he muttered, almost to himself. Lily halted, and he turned to look at her.

"Explains what?" she demanded, her emeralds narrowed. James sighed – he hadn't wanted to piss her off. Just once, he wanted to have an encounter with her that didn't end with her storming off and him heartbroken. Although, anytime she walked away from him he was heartbroken.

"Your ring," he said simply, and her eyes lost their angry look, instead becoming confused.

"What about my ring?" Her hands went to her hips, and he almost smiled at the familiar gesture. Instead, he thought it would be best to explain, and then leave before she could.

"It's ruby and diamond. It's wrong."

Lily's hands dropped from her hips in shock, and James reached forward and picked up her left hand, rubbing him thumb over her ring. Both of them tried to ignore the tingles that occurred where their skin made contact.

"Everyone thinks that you should have ruby, to match your hair, or emerald to match your beautiful eyes. Or perhaps just a classic diamond.

"But your favorite gem is sapphire, always has been. Your engagement ring should be a square sapphire, on a silver band, with smaller diamonds on either side. And a silver wedding band, with both diamonds and sapphires." His thumb had moved to the top of her hand and was now rubbing small circles. James was relishing the fact that she hadn't yet yelled at him, or slapped him, or shoved him away.

Lily tried to hide her shock that he knew her favorite gemstone, and had described the set of rings she had always wanted. She hadn't told anybody, because at Hogwarts, it would have seemed really insane of her - Lily Evans, Head Girl, top student – to sit around daydreaming about her engagement ring or wedding when no-one other than James Potter had ever shown interest in her.

"Lily," he murmured softly. She pulled out of her thoughts, and her eyes widened to see that he had moved closer, and was staring at her with such an intense longing it made her knees tremble. His hazel eyes searched her emeralds almost desperately for a moment, before he tugged her closer.

Why aren't you pulling away from him?

Lily honestly didn't know. All she did know was that James was standing barely an inch away from her and was looking at her so intensely it felt as though he was burning her skin, but she couldn't make herself look away from his eyes.

His face inched closer. Lily didn't move. Her eyes fluttered shut.

She felt James's lips softly brush her forehead…her nose…underneath her left eye…her jaw…

Lily heard a pop, and slowly opened her eyes to find herself alone in the middle of a street. Feeling strangely hollow, she scrubbed her hands over her face, the sunlight glinting off the rubies and diamond. She walked the rest of the way to the small house she rented with Andrew, and walked through the front door. As he came towards her and kissed her on the cheek, Lily couldn't help but wonder why she felt so unsatisfied with everything in her life that only a few hours ago delighted her.

James arrived at his flat that he shared with the Marauders and walked slowly over to the cabinet where they kept the Firewhiskey. He poured himself a glass and downed it almost completely in one gulp. Sighing, he braced his arms against the counter and dropped his head.

He couldn't help but wonder if he had made the right choice in not kissing Lily. It would have been his only chance to ever get that close to her – she hadn't done anything to resist. But his self-control was so close to snapping just being that close to her. Had he actually kissed her, he would never have let her go.

"Prongs?" He could hear the three Marauders coming inside noisily, and straightened up. Sirius appeared in the kitchen.

"Hey mate…you okay?" he asked, eyeing the bottle of Firewhiskey and almost empty glass next to James.

"Fine," he muttered, before walking to his room and flopping onto his bed, wondering when he'd ever felt less fine.

But, he thought as he rolled to his back, she hadn't pushed him away. She was going to kiss him. That was enough for him, for now.

He fell asleep, and dreamt of emeralds.

Lily fell asleep with Andrew's arm around her waist, and dreamt of sapphires.


Shitty ending, I know. But that's what it was when I originally wrote it, and I couldn't figure out a better way to end it, so there it is. Review!

And extra note - if you want me to continue it and make it a two-shot, please put ideas for the second part in reviews, because I wrote this so long ago I don't really remember what I had planned...REVIEW! THANKS!