As Is
Chapter Three
Subtitled: I've Got No Illusions About You
Quotation: "Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory." – Abraham Lincoln
"This is heavy." Ann breathed, sitting on the bed opposite Lily.
Lily's hands were shaking badly. The room was clean and bright and the tropical bedspreads seemed garish in light of the current situation. The boys had left a few minutes earlier, with a promise from Remus that they would talk later.
"What am I going to do?" Lily whispered, staring at the glittering ring on her finger. "I can't afford a divorce. I'm broke and lawyers cost money."
Ann was drumming her fingers lazily on the bedside table. Her eye caught Lily's ring. She stared at it for a moment before her eyes suddenly lit up.
"What?" Lily cried seeing the look on Ann's face.
"Let me see that ring?" Ann said holding her hand out.
"What? Why?" Lily asked.
"Just give it to me!"
Lily looked at her oddly but pulled the ring off her finger and placed it into Ann's outstretched palm. The large diamond sparkled in the sun. Ann held it between in her forefinger and thumb, gazing at it in the sun. She gasped.
"What?" Lily asked.
"Lily…" Ann whispered. "This thing is real!"
"What?" Lily cried jumping up.
"This ring is real. It must have cost thousands of galleons!"
Lily took it from her, inspecting it closely itself. "Are you sure?" she asked.
Ann snorted scornfully. "This is me, Lily. You think I don't know a real diamond when I see it?"
"Whoa." Lily said, sitting back down heavily.
"Do you know what this means?" Ann asked, beginning to pace, excitement building.
"That I'm now several thousand galleons in debt?" Lily said, feeling worse all the time.
"Don't be ridiculous. Lily, you could have bought that ring. You disabled the charge function on your wand a month ago!" Ann said. "James must have bought it." Ann added to herself. Her mind was working furiously. "Potter…Potter…James Potter…" muttered. "Why is that name familiar?"
"Oh my god!" Ann and Lily cried simultaneously.
"Baldwin Potter." Ann said. "The landowner…he owns half of Britain… you don't think?"
"I...I don't know. I never wrote for the society pages at the Prophet. I know he has a son who works in the ministry but that's all I know. I never really paid that much attention when Laura was talking about her columns at the staff meetings. Who's wearing the latest Archne Weaver design never interested me much." Lily said, her heart fluttering painfully.
"Oh honestly Lily! You manage to stay awake through seven years of Professor Binns but not a simple staff meeting? Merlin's beard! Have you no sense of self-preservation?" Ann cried, exasperated.
Lily narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "What are you suggesting, Anwen? That I divorce him for his money? What kind of girl do you think I am anyway?"
"Ok after last night's escapades do you really want to go there?" Ann asked, eyebrows raised.
Lily blushed. "That was different! I'm not a gold digger!" she cried, leaping to her feet, indignant.
"Oh calm down," Ann said dismissively. "I'm not suggesting that you divorce him for his money. I'm suggesting that you marry him for his blood!"
Lily stared at her in confusion. "I'm sorry, what now?"
Ann threw up her hands in exasperation. "Look, the Potter's have purer blood then anyone alive. They could protect you. You're married to James Potter, which makes you a Potter, which means –"
"They could get me my job back." Lily whispered, breathless.
Ann rolled her eyes. "You really have no imagination, do you? Yes, Lily they could get your job back! They could make you the bloody editor-in-chief!"
For a moment Lily felt warm with hope but suddenly reality came crashing back. "I don't know Ann. I can't marry someone just for his blood status. That's just as bad as the Prophet firing me for mine."
Ann sat down next to Lily and took her hands in her own. "Yeah but here's the thing. Under normal circumstances I would agree. But," she said, placing particular emphasis on the last word. "You're already married and getting unmarried would be far more trouble then simply going along. I mean think about it. You consummated the marriage so you can't get an annulment. You don't have enough money for a divorce attorney. So the way I see it is this: Option A you get divorced. You are then not only unemployed but also several galleons in debt to the attorney AND a divorcee before your twentieth birthday. Or Option B you get your job back and live quite comfortably with an heir to a very large fortune."
"We don't even know if he is Baldwin Potter's son." Lily pointed out, though Ann could see her resistance waning.
Ann grabbed Lily's ring and held it up, allowing the sun to bounce off, making rainbows around the room.
Ann raised her eyebrows. "Does it matter? He's clearly very rich. We know he's a wizard. Our wizarding world isn't that big, Lils. How many rich Potters do you think there are in Britain?"
"But you're from an old family, how come you never met the Potters' son as a child?" Lily asked, desperate to find some whole in this scheme, afraid she'd give up and go along with it after all.
Ann sighed. "I forget sometimes that you're a muggleborn."
"You're the only one." Lily muttered.
Ann glared at her but ignored it. "Before Hogwarts wizarding kids are home-schooled, remember? Besides, I grew up in Wales. All my grandparents' friends are Welsh. It's not like I used to pop over to Brighton, or wherever he's from, for Sunday dinner! Besides it's not like there is some pureblood children's clubhouse! At least not amongst decent people." Ann added darkly.
"Did they even go to Hogwarts?" Lily asked. "I don't remember them."
"I think I remember Sirius, though not the others. I think they were a couple years ahead of us and in Gryffindor." Ann said, trying to remember. She and Lily had mostly kept to themselves in school. As Ravenclaws they spent the majority of their time in the library and neither had any interest in Quidditch.
Lily sighed, her heart beginning to beat painfully. "How on earth am I going to convince him?" Lily asked, looking at Ann in panic.
Ann pursed her lips. "That might be a little more difficult but not impossible. Just…let me think."
"God I have really don't it this time!" James cried, throwing a quaffle across the room narrowly missing Peter's head who was staring at a chessboard opposite Remus.
"Hey!" Peter cried. "Watch it!" he tossed it back.
"Sorry, Pete." James muttered, though he didn't sound it.
"Can we keep the yelling to a bare minimum please?" Sirius moaned from the other bed, clutching his head. "I'm never going on another bender again."
Everyone snorted.
"I've heard that before." Remus said grinning and took Peter's rook with little ceremony.
"Christmas, fifth year." James said, finally cracking a smile.
"Halloween sixth year." Remus added, studying the board.
"Every New Years since puberty." Peter said, gigging and moved a pawn.
"Har..Har…Har… you lot are hilarious." Said Sirius, still huddled up on the bed. "Just because a bloke likes to have a little fun…"
James and Remus locked eyes and started laughing, though Remus' laughter stopped short as Peter triumphantly took his bishop.
"Yes, my pain is hilarious." Sirius muttered bitterly. "At least I'm not married!"
James groaned as any vestige of amusement left him. "What am I going to do?" he said desperately.
Sirius sat up in surprise and looked at him, still holding a cool washcloth to his head. "I don't follow. What do you mean what are you going to do? Yesterday you had a problem and today you don't. If anything I'd think you'd be celebrating right now." He said sullenly, his head still pounding painfully.
James blinked twice at him in confusion. "Are you completely mad? Are you sure you didn't follow those firewhiskeys with some drugs? Why in Merlin's name would I be celebrating? I just married a complete and total stranger!"
"Who is not Eleanor Parks." Peter pointed out.
"Man has a point." Sirius said, sitting back, satisfied.
"Who is not a lot of people!" James cried. "I don't know the first thing about this girl! She could be a complete lunatic! She could be a galleon digger!"
"Unlikely since she didn't even know your last name until this morning." Remus said calmly.
"Although I'm willing to stand by the lunatic theory. I mean who marries a complete stranger, anyway?" Sirius asked, grinning wickedly.
James chucked a pillow at his head though Sirius managed to catch it despite his dulled reflexes.
"Oh come off it James. It's like a gift! You would never have married some girl you didn't love if you were sober. You have to marry someone so you probably would have married Eleanor which, let's face it, would have been a death sentence for everyone involved – including us. So I say, why go through all the trouble of a divorce from a perfectly attractive girl just so you can turn around and marry Eleanor!" Sirius said, looking completely unperturbed.
James raised his eyebrows in shock.
"I'm with Sirius. Why waste the money. Besides it's just till she pops out a kid and THEN you can have your divorce." Peter said, not even looking up from the chessboard. "You'll be done with this thing by twenty-one, twenty-two tops leaving you sixty odd years to fall in love."
"Unless you have lazy swimmers like you dad," Sirius added thoughtfully. "Then it might just be fifty odd years."
James glared at him. "Remus!" he implored. "Surely you think this is insane!" he looked to his friend hopefully.
Remus sat for a moment, chewing his lip, deep in thought. "I don't know…" he said slowly. "I know this whole thing is insane, Prongs, but even a total lunatic would be better then Eleanor. At least then you have a 50/50 chance for a marriage that isn't totally miserable. I mean you know you hate Eleanor. And you don't know yet about Lily. Besides," he grinned before he could help himself. "At least we know she's not boring!"
James' mind worked furiously as he tried to work it all through.
On one hand, if Remus saw the merits, then the situation couldn't be all bad.
On the other hand, it had been Sirius' idea in the first place which was never a great argument for reasonable decision making.
On the other hand he really, really hated Eleanor, and Lily was pretty in an unusual sort of way.
On the other hand he didn't want to get married at all.
But on the other hand he HAD to get married and he was, quite conveniently already married without any of that church fuss.
After a rather ridiculous struggle, the realist in him prevailed. The bottom line was that he did have to get married and he already was married so the whole thing was sort of a moot point. James hedged for a moment more before throwing up his hands in surrender. He couldn't believe he was about it to say this. "Let's just say, for the sake of argument that I was willing to go along with this. How would you all suggest that I convince my lovely wife to go along with it?"
"Charm the pants off her," Sirius said boredly, his attention waning. "It's not like it didn't work before."
"Padfoot!" Remus admonished. "James, it would be totally unfair to deceive her. Simply tell her the truth. If it doesn't work out, fine, at least you tried to make the situation work."
James nodded, seeing the reason. "Yeah, that certainly sounds like the better of the two plans. "
"And if that doesn't work, just tell her you're rich." Pete added.
James chuckled and shook his head.
"Actually," said Remus completely serious. "Scratch my plan, Peter's is way better."
James rolled his eyes. "Forget it, mates. I'll wing it"
James sat nervously in the lobby watching the seconds tick by slowly on his watch. He had told Lily he would meet her at six for dinner and it was almost five past. For a horrible moment he panicked, thinking she might not show but then he saw a flash of red across the lobby. She was walking towards him. She looked pretty in a cream blouse and purple skirt and he tried to ease his twisting stomach. He still had no clue what he was going to say to her, but that sort of reassured him that he was normal. It wasn't exactly common knowledge what to say to a complete stranger when you were trying to convince her to stay your wife.
When she was steps from him he stood up and he smiled. "Hello." He said as confidently as he could.
"Lo'." She muttered, smiling bravely. "Sorry I'm late. I…I got help up." She finished lamely, images of Ann running around the hotel room with last minute advice flashing in her brain. She suppressed a smile.
"Shall we?" he asked, offering her an arm and his most charming smile.
She hesitated for a moment for accepting it. She wasn't exactly used to men offering her their arms. If he noticed her hesitation he didn't show it and he lead her the twenty feet to the restaurant.
"Reservation for two." James said. "Potter."
The maitre d' glanced to the parchment in front of him and nodded smartly. "This way." He said and showed them to a table in the corner. Moments later a waitress appeared. James was impressed, the service was good.
"Can I get you anything to drink?" she asked, eyeing James appreciatively until she saw the rings on their hands, when her look soured considerably.
"A glass of the '76 Bordeaux, will do." James said smoothly, not even bothering to look at the wine list.
"And for your wife?" she asked coolly.
"Waters fine for me, thank you." Lily said politely, though she was seething with embarrassment. She'd just been called his wife. James' heart sank a little at her order. He was hoping to liquor her up a bit before his proposal. After all, it had worked the first time around. They sat in awkward silence for a moment while Lily's fingers twisted in her lap. She took a deep breath, mustering her courage. It was now or never.
"So I can't really afford a divorce. I've just been fired from my job at the Daily Prophet. I'm a muggleborn, see," she babbled so fast James could hardly follow. But she plunged ahead recklessly. "and I was a staff-writer but they fired all the muggleborns and so now I'm broke. And I know that isn't really your problem –"
James held a hand to stop her. This was incredible. He could hardly believe his luck. She had just handed him his argument for staying married. His fixed his features into a look of compassionate concern.
"I've heard about all those firings. It's really horrible." He said, and for the most part he meant it. It was disgusting that people were being fired because of their last name or blood. Unless you were Malfoy or a Black of course, in which case he thought the practice ought to be promoted.
"Look," he said taking a deep breath. "I can help you. My family is…." He searched for the right word. "Well-known, I can get you your job back. We'd have to stay married of course but…" he let himself trail off casually.
For a moment the knots in Lily's stomach loosened and hope began to fill her but then it stopped. She started at him for a moment, eyes hard. That had been easy, far too easy. She knew she shouldn't say anything. After all, who cared about his motives? She would be safe wouldn't she? But she couldn't stop herself.
"Why would you want to stay married to me?" she asked suspiciously. "Don't take this the wrong way, but what's in it for you?"
James' eyes widen slightly in surprise. She was smart. He hadn't counted on that. Though they'd spent several hours together the night before he hadn't exactly been plumbing the depths of her intellect. He smiled as the waitress brought him his wine. A little liquid courage never hurt. He took a sip. He chose his next words very carefully. And sighed a sigh that he hoped sounded pained.
"My parents are pressuring me to get married. Family's image and all that," he waved his hand about loftily. Lily stared at him skeptically for a moment until a memory flashed in her head.
The room was spinning. There was music everywhere. People were laughing.
"So what are you doing here?" Lily cried over the music.
"I have to… uh marry to somebody!" James cried back, more jumping to the music that dancing.
"Get married?" Lily supplied.
James nodded a little too vigorously, threatening to land them both on the floor.
Lily shook her head. She couldn't remember getting married but that she remembered. She turned her focus back to James.
"And the woman they have in mind" he continued, "…well let's just say I'd rather be dead."
"You'd rather be married to a total stranger then this girl?" Lily asked blankly, her eye brows raised.
"Well you haven't met this girl, believe me, she's a nightmare." He said and despite herself, Lily giggled. Lily paused for a moment, thinking. Finally she nodded her head.
"Ok." She said.
James took a deep sip of wine and laughed nervously. "Okay then, we're…uh…we're married."
"So how is this going to work?" Lily asked after another rather awkward moment.
"How is what going to work?" James asked staring at her in confusion.
"Where are we going to live, what are we going to tell people, who are you? You know, stuff married people know." Lily said, in exasperation.
"Oh right," James said, blushing for the first time. "Well where we're going to live won't be a problem. We can stay at my flat until my parents meet you, at which point there's house in London I was promised once I got married."
Lily smiled. "How nice for you." She said wryly.
"Actually," James said, holding up his ring finger. "how nice for us." He said and Lily nodded in agreement. "As for what we're going to tell people, well," he paused for a moment as his old marauder skills came roaring back to life. It had been a few years since he had had to think of a convincing lie on the fly. "You used to work for the Daily Prophet, and I work in International Affairs so…we met last year at the Foreign Correspondents Dinner and have been seeing each other quietly last spring. You aren't a fan of big weddings so we eloped to Luxus with only our closest friends. "
She nodded her head in appreciation. "I must say, I'm impressed." She held up her glass to toast him.
"Well what do you say we finally order and have some dinner?" he asked, suddenly exhausted from all the intrigue, what was exhilarating at twelve was exhausting at nineteen.
"Fine by me." Lily agreed. "We can iron out the details later. The most important thing is that it look real."
James nodded. "I agree."
Lily sat back and sighed with relief, for the first time in twenty-four hours Lily felt herself relax. She sneaked a glance at her partner-in-crime and smiled. This wasn't so bad, and besides, didn't her mother always say that marriage was a partnership?
A/N – Voila! I hope that wasn't too boring for everyone but I didn't want to rush it too much since it would be beyond ridiculous if the whole stay married question had been resolved in three sentences! Next chapter James and Lily attempt to get to know each other, we meet the Potters, and we find that sometimes, opposites don't always attract.
Thanks so much to PottersLittleSister, Mai, and Walking-on-a-dream for reviewing!
PottersLittleSister – you get loads of extra points for not only really long reviews but also TWO of them! ::cheers:: Now onto responses – Sirius did indeed get wet. He jumped in the pool as a dare, though now no one remembers it very clearly. We will definitely get a meet the potters scene though it's not going to be very truthful on any level ;)
Walking-on-a-dream – your review made me smile!