A/N: I hope you're enjoying this story so far, I originally posted this over at HPFF under the penname alicia and anne, so I thought it might be time to post this over here as well :-D.
Amelia walked into her flat feeling glad that she was finally home, the day had been dragging on and she was looking forward to the few minutes' peace she might get before she would have James turned up at her home. She closed the door behind her and walked further into her flat, threw her keys down on the coffee table, and threw her bag onto the sofa. Kicking her shoes under the coffee table she walked into her kitchen as she stretched her arms above her head, deciding to make herself a cup of coffee.
She jumped and let out a scream, her arms falling down and clutching above her heart as she saw James sitting on her counter drinking a cup of coffee. He smiled at her cheerfully.
"How was your day?" he asked her
Amelia glared darkly as she recovered from being scared by him. "I told you to meet me here, not come into my flat. Breaking and entering is no way to win me over!" she snapped heatedly as she walked across the room and pushed James's feet off of her side angrily, he straightened himself out as he nearly fell off of the counter. She brushed the side down with her hand to move off any pieces of dirt he left behind.
"I didn't break in, I used my key," he showed her the key in his hand.
"I took that back," she told him angrily.
"My parents had a spare," he said simply.
"I want my key back," she demanded holding her hand out, James gave it back to her almost unwillingly.
"How long have you been here?" she asked as she put the key into one of the kitchen drawers, then turned around to face him.
"I don't know about three hours?" James said truthfully with a shrug.
Amelia stared at him, fuming slightly. "since you left St Mungos? You just came straight here and made yourself at home?"
"Well it was my home," James stated as he put the cup down on the side and jumped off of the counter. Standing up straight he rubbed his hands on his legs, dusting them down.
"So what have you been doing for the past three hours? When you should have been at your own house," Amelia asked haughtily, folding her arms across her and backing slightly away from James.
"Going through your stuff, eating your food, using the facilities. Just the usual," he shrugged, Amelia frowned at him, before it hit her what he had said.
"You better not have touched my stuff," she warned him, thinking quickly about anything that he might take from her house and claim was his. She quickly walked from the kitchen and back into the front room, her eyes searching for anything that might be missing; she couldn't say that she noticed anything.
"I will have you know that I brought some of that stuff so technically half of everything is mine," he stated as he followed Amelia out of the kitchen and into the front room. He threw himself down onto the sofa and picked up a figurine from the table of a dragon standing on its hind legs. "Like this, I brought this."
"Well if you want you can have it back, if you're going to be that petty," Amelia growled wondering when he was going to leave her flat.
"No that's ok, I'll let you keep it as it was a gift for you," he said smirking up at her, she felt the urge to punch him again as he placed the figurine back where it had been. He looked around the room again and spotted a picture on her side of the both of them standing in front of a Las Vegas sign. He stood up quickly, striding over to it and picking it up.
"Oh wow now that brings back some memories," he said showing it to Amelia who winced, she had completely forgotten about that photo being there and wished that she had just thrown it out with the rest of James's junk.
"Don't remind me," Amelia muttered taking her eyes off of the photo and looking at anything apart from the photo and him.
"Now come on don't be like that! It was the best holiday we would ever have, you can't forget that," James said watching her carefully for any sign of happiness; she refused to let him see any.
"Are you done?" she asked shortly finally looking up at him, trying hard to not let him see how much this was hurting her.
"I can't believe you still have this up," James admitted to himself looking back at the photo and Amelia could tell that he was thinking about their holiday, the happy times that they had had.
"Yeah well I forgot all about it until you just pointed it out," she snatched it out of his hands and threw it into the bin, not wanting to talk about that holiday with anyone, especially not him. Amelia could tell how much this hurt James but she tried not to let herself feel sorry for him.
"I want you to know that I'm not going to this party," she told him shaking her head as she turned to face him again, keeping her distance from him. "I don't care how much you beg me. It will only be awkward for everyone. Plus I don't see why they would want me there especially because we broke up."
James looked a little sheepish, Amelia felt herself getting slightly angry as she realised why James looked like that.
"They do know that we're separated don't they James?" she asked, James looked away from her and shuffled slightly on the spot. Amelia let out a frustrated yell and rushed forwards to smack him in the arm. James backed away slightly and grabbed her arms to stop her from hitting him.
"How could they not know!" she cried in outrage, struggling against him.
"it just never came up!" he told her, as Amelia ripped her arms away from him and went to hit him again, James held his hands up defensively.
"How has it not come up James? We have been broken up for three months! You live with them for Merlin's sake, surely they've been suspicious."
"Well that's the thing. I don't actually live there," James admitted, Amelia stood staring at him, forgetting to hit him again.
"Where do you live? Albus's?"
"No I kind of rent a room at the leaky cauldron and no one knows that I live there," James told her dropping his hands back down to his side. Amelia stared at him for a moment before she ran a hand over her face in frustration.
"What about Albus then? Surely you've told him?" she asked, knowing the answer straight away by the look on his face. "So no one knows? Where do they think I've been?" she knew that James liked to see his parents as much as he could if he could get the time off of work.
"Well I kind of told them that you work all the time and haven't able to book the time off of work."
Amelia was too stunned to hit him again. "James you are an idiot! Is this why you want me to go to the party? So I can pretend to still be married to you? You are such a dungbomb! There is no way I am going into your house and lying to your family."
"Please! I wouldn't be begging you but I need you there. If they found out that we've broken up then they would be crushed," he pleaded taking a few steps towards her. Amelia wished in her head that he wouldn't get on his knees.
"Not as crushed as they'll be when they find out that you lied to them," she yelled at him. "And what exactly were you going to tell them after the party huh? Or were you going to wait until the birth of our imaginary first child."
"I'll tell them after the party I promise. But please!" he dropped down to his knees and grabbed hold of Amelia around the waist hugging onto her, Amelia tried to get off of her but he refused to budge, causing her to stumble slightly. "Please I can't ruin Uncle Ron's birthday this way, please, please, please, For the sake of Uncle Ron having a good birthday. I promise that I will tell them as soon as everything is over."
"James..." Amelia said still trying to get him off of her, even resorting to pushing him by the face, but to no avail.
"I am begging you. I will buy you anything you want; I will do anything you want. I will humiliate myself in the most embarrassing way. Just please say you'll be there."
Amelia sighed loudly knowing that she was going to regret her decision. But if it was the only way to get James to leave it was the only option.
"I can't just go; I have work to go to. How am I supposed to get the time off for this party?" Amelia asked him seriously.
James took a moment before he answered her, "well you see, when I left I kind of had a quiet word with the receptionist and told them that you had a dire family emergency and needed to have a few days off."
"You done what!" she demanded angrily, looking down at him but he refused to look at her, burying his face into her leg. "I could kill you for this! You had no right to do that!...oh Merlin no wonder they were looking at me weirdly and asking me if I was ok all the time."
She sighed again as she shook her head at James, "Wait...why do I need a few days off? The party is one day."
"Yeah well we need to stay over at Mum and Dad's for the weekend to go to the party. They're expecting us"
"Please tell me that you are joking" she begged, feeling annoyance flood through her again.
"I will make it up to you I promise, just please come, don't make me face my entire family alone, don't make me face the Weasleys disappointed glares because you are not there," She knew that she would give in, James could be quite annoying when he wanted to be and she just couldn't face having him annoy her for the rest of the day. It would only be two days at the most and then she wouldn't have to have him in her life until they began divorce proceedings.
"Fine," she sighed wearily, "fine I'll go but as soon as we're done celebrating Ron's birthday you have to tell them that we are over."
James jumped to his feet and hugged her before she could stop him. "Thank you so much! And I will tell them as soon as we are all done celebrating his birthday, I promise."
Amelia shoved him away from her and he stumbled backwards, "I have a few rules, you will not touch me – "
"Well we have to make our marriage seem realistic," James muttered as he bounced around slightly happy at the fact that she was coming to the party.
"Fine touching is at the minimum. You will definitely not kiss me –"
"Well we need to it's a marriage..."
"NO kissing!" she snapped.
"Fine, fine! No kissing!" he repeated.
"And stop bouncing around you are starting to annoy me!" Amelia snapped, James quickly stopped bouncing around and stayed still.
"Is that all?" he asked sweetly,
"At the moment, until I can think of some more."
"Thank you so much Amelia, you have made me so happy. Now I will come and get you tomorrow at around ten in the morning. Mum and Dad are expecting us at around noon for lunch."
Amelia sighed as she nodded. "I'll make sure I'm ready" she was already regretting her decision.
James beamed at her as he walked towards the front door, Amelia followed him. James opened the door and walked out of it, he turned back around to face Amelia who was holding the door.
"I'll see you tomorrow Mrs Potter," he beamed before walking down the corridor. Amelia let out a growl before slamming the door shut. She stormed over to her handbag on the sofa and pulled out the novel called 'Peachy' which she was reading earlier and walked over to the bathroom. She needed a nice relaxing bath before she began getting ready for tomorrow. She knew that she would need it.
