Disclaimer which I completely forgot about on the last chapter - the Harry Potter universe and all characters belong to JKR!
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Two and a half hours later, Lily was pacing up and down in the kitchen, wishing she'd resisted drinking coffee at that hour of the morning, since it had increased her agitation to record levels. She'd showered and dressed in record time, flung some clothes and essentials into her trunk – Merlin only knew what she'd packed, she'd probably be wandering around James Potter's house in a bloody party dress – and shrunk said trunk down to the size of a backpack with a shrinking charm. Now she could do nothing but wait. And wait for James sodding Potter of all people! James Potter, the most infuriating, unreliable person she could think of, and she had to depend on him. Not only that, she was going to have to see him repeatedly over the next week - and they'd presumably be spending it in extremely close quarters - and possibly even be grateful to him for his thoughtfulness in inviting her and his kindness towards Marly. This could be the longest week of her life.
With that, her thoughts turned to Marlene, and she immediately felt guilty; worrying over her –admittedly somewhat strained and difficult – relationship with Potter when one of her closest friends had woken up an orphan. She was berating herself out loud for this thoughtlessness when a deep, amused-sounding voice came from behind her.
'Talking to yourself Evans? I'd be worried if it was anyone else, but I've always thought you must spend a lot of time in conversation with yourself – after all, you never listen to anyone else, and when you really get going, none of us can get a word in edgeways anyway.'
She closed her eyes, muttered a silent prayer for patience to whatever gods might be listening, and then turned around to face James Potter, Marauder-in-Chief.
He stood leaning against the door frame, bright sunlight streaming in from the garden behind him, the light breeze rustling his already messy hair. Some boys, Lily knew, spent hours messing around with potions and hair products to get that 'just-rolled-out-of-bed-I-don't-care-how-my-hair-l ooks' image, but James Potter just naturally looked that way. Everything came naturally to James Potter. It was – probably – the most annoying thing about him. Although, if pressed, Lily could have written a list of things about James Potter that just wound her up for some inexplicable reason. He just always got to her somehow.
'Talking to myself is usually the easiest way to avoid having to have a conversation with you or any of your friends Potter, so I perfected it a long time ago. It's the only way I hear a sensible voice sometimes.'
James' face broke into a wide, slightly crooked grin at that. Unfortunately for Lily's already shaky frame of mind, it just enhanced the good looks that had so many of the girls at Hogwarts melting as he walked past. Thankfully she was immune. Obviously. Noticing it didn't count.
'Aww Evans, I've missed you! Sirius is nowhere near as good at insulting me as you are. And Marly...'
His voice trailed off as the name left his lips, and the smile fell from his face as quickly as it had arrived. His hand came up to run through his hair, and the sparkle that was usually present in his hazel eyes dimmed. He looked, in that moment, an incredibly different person.
'How is she?' asked Lily softly.
'About as bad as you'd think.' replied James, his voice softening as he matched her gentle tone. 'I can't imagine what it's like. I mean, losing your parents has always got to be awful, but to be so young when you do, and for it to be so sudden and violent...I don't know how she's coping to be honest.' That hand continued to run trails through his hair as he spoke. He paused and made an obvious effort to sound less miserable. 'Alice is with her, and I think they'll both be happy to see you.'
Lily hadn't taken her eyes off him as he'd spoken, her mind noting every nuance, every flicker of his features as he answered her question with an honesty and sincerity that she found oddly disarming. She didn't think she'd ever seen James Potter be so serious before, and she had to admit she was a little touched by his obvious and candid concern for Marly. She'd never have claimed to have known him well – she'd always found the majority of the Maurader's pranks irritating rather than funny, she'd been annoyed by his smart-alec mouth and Merlin knew they'd almost come to blows over his treatment of Sev – but it occurred to her now that she actually didn't know him at all. After six years of being in the same school, the same house, the same classes, she knew very little about him on a personal level.
Their relationship had become a lot more cordial over the last school year – coinciding with the final breakdown of her friendship with Sev – but it remained rather adversarial, the two of them making biting, albeit not unfriendly remarks to each other on an almost daily basis. Needling each other was a great source of amusement for them both, but she thought they were both secretly grateful that it no longer had the edge of antagonism that had marked a large part of their earlier association. He hadn't asked her out since that day by the lake, and that was a relief, but he rarely missed a chance to make a dirty comment or poke fun at her studious habits. Her role as prefect was also a sore point, and always had been; it required her to grapple with his rule-breaking nature after all, but she had come to recognise over the last school year that it was simply his nature to be mischievous and find trouble wherever he went. She had largely given up on trying to control him, and had settled for damage limitation.
The possibility that she had misjudged him occurred to her, and not for the first time, but her thought process was interrupted by his large hand being waved in front of her face.
'Earth to Evans? Anybody home?'
He was closer than she remembered, and it made her jump a step backwards. Seeing the surprise on his face, she blushed and then cursed herself, both for zoning out and for blushing uncontrollably in his presence. Again.
'Sorry' she mumbled, looking down at her hands which were twining nervously around each other. 'I was just thinking...about Marly.' Guilt settled in her stomach at the lie, but admitting the truth was unthinkable.
James was still looking at her cautiously, but now a flicker of sympathy appeared on his face.
'I know. I'm struggling with it myself. I've known the McKinnons my whole life, and suddenly they're just gone. And seeing Marly like she is at the moment – it's like she's not Marly anymore. She's barely spoken.' He paused before adding 'She'll be pleased to see you though. You're good at making people feel better about things.'
He was still looking at her, but she was having trouble meeting his gaze. There was no doubt in her mind that he was genuinely worried for their friend, but it had never occurred to her that the loss of the McKinnon's might have been a loss for him too. She'd spent all morning bitching privately about how awful it was going to be to see him over the next few days, and he'd been dealing with Marly while coming to terms with things himself. The guilt that was still in her stomach had settled into a hard knot as she considered how selfish she'd been in her attitude. Well, she could make up for it by doing everything she could for her friends now.
'Okay. Well I'm all packed and ready to go, so...' She made a vague gesture as words failed her.
'We'll apparate from outside if that's okay with you, I find it easier to do a side-along with a bit of space around me.' He noticed the shrunken trunk on the table behind her and raised an eyebrow. 'Is that all you're bringing with you? You pack lighter than any woman I've ever met.'
Lily let out the smallest of laughs, feeling a certain rush of relief as the worst of the tension surrounding them broke.
'I packed in such a rush I couldn't even tell you what's in it. I just hope I remembered important things like underwear.'
She blushed again as soon as she realised what she had said, but he just smiled, and bit his lip as he tried to hold back a laugh.
'Okay, well if you can hold onto it we'll just apparate it with us, save us sending it separately. Ready?'
'Sure.'
He grabbed her trunk over her protests and walked out. She followed him out of the back door, stopping to lock it and hide the key under a plant pot, then walked over to where he stood on the lawn. She reached out and took the trunk with her left hand and looked at him, waiting for further instruction. Again, she couldn't help feeling a little consternation at needing James Potter to instruct her in something. The faintest trace of a smirk on his face didn't help.
He looked over at her and held out his left hand, palm upwards.
'Just give me your hand, and follow me as I start to turn, I'll do the rest...what's the matter with your hand?'
She glanced down at her right hand which had been reaching out for his and saw the blackened index finger, which had only became an even nastier shade of purple in the hours since her fight with the window.
'Oh, trapped it in a window this morning. It doesn't hurt, I used a healing charm'
He took her hand in his, his larger one engulfing it, and lifted it towards his face to examine the swollen finger critically.
'Well you didn't do a very good job, look at it! Hold still a minute would you?'
She had been trying to squirm her hand out of his grip, which was ridiculous now she came to think of it, since she needed to hold his hand to apparate. She relaxed her hand in his and watched as he put his free hand over their joined ones and slowly ran his index finger down the length of hers. She let out a gasp as she watched her finger reduce in size then turn back to its normal pale skin colour.
'How did you do that?'
He looked down at her with the faintest glimmer of amusement reappearing in his eyes for the first time since he'd mentioned Marly.
'In case you hadn't noticed already, I'm quite good at magic. And from the looks of things, I'm definitely outstripping you in the healing charms department.'
'Whatever Potter, when did you learn wandless magic? I don't know wandless magic '
'It's no harder than any other kind, it's just requires different focus.'
Definite dodging of the question there. 'You're not going to answer me are you?'
'No. Give me your hand so we can get out of here.'
She huffed out a breath, then put her right hand in his left, staring resolutely forward and refusing to meet his eyes. James smiled to himself. No way in hell was he ever going to admit that the healing charm didn't actually require him to touch her at all. Grin still on his face, he turned in a circle and apparated them both away.
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Lily landed awkwardly and would have fallen if James hadn't grabbed her waist and steadied her. His quick reaction time made her suspect that he'd anticipated her clumsiness, and she had to bite back the urge to snap at him. She hadn't quite realised how close they were standing until an older version of James walked past them, and then she leapt backwards as if she'd been stung.
'Your mother and I won't be back till late tonight James, if we're back at all, so take care of the guests would you? You must be Lily Evans my dear, so very glad you're here, and so sorry we had to meet under such terrible circumstances. James' mother and I are required rather urgently in work at the moment, sure you can understand, but I hope we'll catch up very soon and meet you properly, James has often talked about you. I'm sure you'll be a great help to Marlene.'
James's father had barely drawn breath during his entire speech, and he shook her hand extremely quickly before apparating immediately. Noted her shell-shocked look, James apologised for his father's hurried greeting.
'Sorry about that, he always talks quickly at the best of times, but he's under a lot of stress at work at the moment. Much worse now since he's lost Mr McKinnon. Anyway, come on in, I'll take you to Marly.'
Up until that point Lily had paid no attention to the surroundings, and she suddenly realised how large and how well kept the garden she was standing in was, and when she turned to follow James back the way Mr Potter had come she saw the most beautiful house she'd ever laid eyes on. It was red brick, three stories high, with large windows and a balcony with wrought iron railings wrapping around the first floor, creating a shaded porch around the ground floor of the house.
Realising she wasn't following him, James turned around to where she had stopped dead in the middle of the gravelled driveway to stare. He took two steps back towards her and smiled almost apologetically. His hands were tucked in his front jeans pockets and he jerked one shoulder in an awkward half shrug. the gesture was oddly appealing.
'Family money.'
Then he reached out for her hand and pulled her forward, leading her into the house. She was too dumbfounded to even complain about being manhandled.
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