Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling.

Chapter Two
March 15, 1979

Lily had marked March fifteenth on the calendar with a bright pink pen and a garishly large heart. She had done this one morning while James was still asleep – the woman got up obnoxiously early, how could he be expected to keep an eye on her all the time? – so of course he'd had no say in the affair, and so he was stuck with a giant, girlish heart on his calendar.

This wouldn't have been such a tragedy, except that his mates would be over that night, and he wasn't keen on giving them yet another thing to mock him about.

Unfortunately, Lily noticed that the calendar had gone missing. She was on the phone with her parents when she shouted down the hall, "James, have you seen the calendar?"

"What?" He shoved the oversized bundle of glossy paper beneath a cushion in the couch and never even once thought about feeling ridiculous and petty.

"The calendar, have you seen it?"

"Hmm, the calendar. No, I don't think I have."

There was a short silence, and then he heard the light thumps of Lily walking down the carpeted hallway. "Are you sure?"

"Sure of what?"

"That you haven't seen it."

"Oh, yes, that. The calendar. Quite, quite, quite certain. Yes, I am quite, quite certain."

Maybe it was the 'quite's, but Lily didn't seem convinced. She leaned against the door frame and crossed her arms as though she expected this standoff to draw on for a long time. "Oh? That certain, huh?"

James knew that everything was over if the next word out of his mouth was– "Quite." It escaped as more of a squeak.

It didn't take her long to find it. Her sharp eyes scanned the room, radiating out from where James stood hunched awkwardly in the center of the carpet. Without a word, she crossed the floor to the couch and reached under a cushion. "James," she said, before she pulled her hand out from beneath the pillow, "what is our calendar doing in the couch?"

James feigned surprise. He was a terrible actor around Lily, especially when her eyes seemed to pierce his soul in just the same way as Dumbledore's had. "Oh! Is that where it is? I've been looking for it all morning. You know, I really should do something about those gnomes–"

"I know you hid it," she said, without changing her expression. She crossed her arms, the crumpled calendar held loosely in one of her hands. "Tell me James, because I don't understand: why did you hide it?"

If he were back at Hogwarts, Dumbledore's eyes and McGonagall's frown aside, he would have had a whole slew of excuses at his fingertips – it's a new game he heard of where you hide household items and see how long it takes your spouse to notice (Lily won!), he was adjusting the height of the cushions, it's a family tradition. Instead, he showed Lily his soon-to-be-famous beached cod impersonation.

"What is wrong with you, James?"

He knew how to answer this one. "I am a cod."

Lily raised her eyebrows, looked a little like she feared for her safety living in the house of a cod-man.

He rubbed a hand over his face. "I mean– that wasn't exactly what I meant to say–"

"Why are you hiding the calendar?"

"I don't understand why this is such a problem."

Lily gave him a look that he was certain was supposed to have some deeper meaning, but to him it just looked like a particularly Bad Look. She shrugged, defeated, and walked back down the hall.

James followed her close behind. "Lily, wait."

She stopped, paused for a moment before turning around to give him a forced smile. "What?" The sharpness in her voice betrayed her irritation.

"Er– are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm quite fine." She turned around again and walked quickly towards the kitchen

He pursued. "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Because you don't sound–"

She slammed the calendar down on the counter, and her calm expression was at complete odds with the way she held herself. "James, it's fine. I don't care, it doesn't matter." And to prove she meant what she said to both him and herself, she wrapped her arms around his neck, leaned up, and kissed him.

All was forgiven.

James grinned down at her. At least she seemed to be in a better mood. He still wasn't quite sure why she cared so much about a calendar. "So," he said, squeezing his arms around her waist, "have you decided what you're going to make for dinner tonight?"

A small crease appeared between her eyebrows. "What do you mean? I thought we were going out to dinner. It's our one-month anniversary."

James spoke with his hands when he got nervous, but his hands remained resting lightly on her hips. "I was thinking we could do that for– well, for a more important anniversary. Sirius suggested that we all have dinner together, as a sort of reunion–"

Lily pushed away from him. "What?"

"Er."

"You never said anything about this."

"Well–" His hands fluttered near his waist. "It was sort of last minute. Sirius just sent an owl post yesterday." At Lily's expression, he said quickly, "I was going to tell you, when the time was right."

"We're spending our anniversary, our first anniversary, with your mates?"

In defense of himself, James said, "I thought you got along very well with Remus–"

"Your mates?"

"It's not as though this is our only anniversary ever–!"

"It might be!" Lily stood with her arms crossed, staring defiantly at him, her chin raised so that she was looking down her nose at James, even though she was a foot shorter than him.

James blanched. "Lily– you don't– mean that."

She looked down at her hands; they balled into fists at her sides. Something seemed to drain from her severity, because her shoulder slouched and she crossed her arms again in front of her chest. Never quiet meeting his eyes, she said, "No, I guess I don't." She looked into his eyes and looked away again, turning away from him and placing her hands flat out on the counter. Her wedding ring glinted up at him ironically.

James wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned his chin on her shoulder.

"All right," Lily said.

James didn't dare ask what was all right.

"Fine, we'll have dinner with them." She turned around and just barely met his gaze. "But only if you get me a really good present. Expensive."

He grinned and kissed her forehead. "If by good you mean thoughtful and by expensive you mean a good bargain, then of course, what do you take me for?"

"A dick."

He cupped her face between his hands and kissed her again. "Thanks," he said quietly. He walked back down to the living room, saying as he left, "They'll be here at seven; if dinner could be ready by then, that would be great."

Lily wasn't sure how she managed to cook a dinner for five in fifteen minutes, she just knew that she loved magic. The oven timer trilled at the same time their doorbell buzzed, signaling the arrival of the night's chaos. Even though she heard James running to get it – Merlin, they were all still as immature as teenage boys – she counted twenty rings before she lost count. Obviously, Sirius had arrived.

She heard a loud crash in the entryway and even louder shouts. More curious than alarmed, she peeked down the hallway, wiping off her hands on her apron.

A pile of lanky limbs, untamable hair, and wide grins seethed about on the floor, narrowly missing the side table by a few centimeters. Finally, Sirius had James pinned beneath him, and they stopped, breathing heavily.

"Ha ha," Sirius said, still breathless, "I win."

James shoved him off, and they both stood, their tall frames unfolding slowly. James pushed Sirius, Sirius pushed him back, and they gripped each other in a tight hug, with more wandering hands than when Lily and James embraced.

Lily decided that she would never understand boy rituals.

"It's been months–!"

"Hasn't, you berk, it's only been one month–"

"Felt like long enough, like ten times that–" Sirius gripped James by the shoulders. He glanced down the dark hallway. "Oh, hey, Lily." He waved at her brightly.

She didn't move, tried to convey her annoyance at his mere presence by just her expression.

It appeared to work. He faltered, raised his eyebrows at James. Lily saw James shake his head to the side once, sharply.

She noticed then for the first time that both Remus and Peter were standing on the doorstep, had been standing there watching the Greeting Ritual by the expressions on their faces. She pushed away from the door frame and walked leisurely down the hall. Purposefully looking past Sirius who stared at her with an injured expression, she said, "Remus, Peter, I'm glad you could make it – on such short notice."

"Short notice?" Peter said, and James hissed behind her, but he didn't seem to understand quickly enough. He looked to Remus. "I thought we'd been planning this for weeks?"

"Oh?" Lily said.

Remus said quietly, "It was news to me," but he wouldn't meet her eyes after saying so.

So they had been planning it.

"Dinner's ready," she said shortly.

Author's Note: Oh, I do love a good argument. Hope you enjoy this. Please keep reading and reviewing, and thanks tons to those of you who took the time! (: