James was standing at his bedroom window, looking out onto the street and thinking about Lily and what she had said. Although he had hated hearing it, he couldn't help but feel relieved he knew Lily wasn't capable of being unfaithful. But she had told him and she had come straight to him and told him what had happened. She had let him hold her until she had stopped crying, he had finally been allowed to hold his wife. Lily had gotten a real fright and so had he. It had made him see how close he was to losing her for good, and he couldn't let that happen.
"James…" whispered Lily as she crept into the room.
She saw him standing by the window, she went over to him and wrapped her arms around him. She rested her chin on his shoulder, he had his back to her. He acknowledged her by patting her hands.
"Do you hate me?" she asked quietly.
"Of course I don't hate you. I could never hate you," said James softly, continuing to try to make her understand that he wasn't mad at her.
"I wouldn't blame you if you did."
"I don't hate you, but you need to stop punishing yourself for last night. I told you, you didn't do anything wrong. You aren't capable of cheating Lily, I know that, and you need to know that," said James, lifting Lily's arms off him, and leading her until she was standing in front of him. "I love you and I would never ever be able to hate you."
"It scares me though. It scares me to think that we might not be able to fix this… does it scare you?"
"It terrifies me," he admitted. "But we'll be able to fix this, we have to."
"We can, we will," said Lily strongly. "We just need to try harder, stop avoiding each other and talk to each other instead of shouting."
"Yeah we do. Maybe we should think about getting a marriage counselor to help us," said James hesitantly.
"Yeah, that's a good idea," said Lily, biting her bottom lip.
"I'll sort out the arrangements tomorrow," said James, pulling Lily into his arms again. He had missed her so much, he just wanted to hold her for as long as she could let him.
"James?"
"Hmmmm?"
"Can I stay in here tonight?"
"Here? In your own bedroom? You don't have to ask to stay in your bedroom," said James, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
"But I want to be with you tonight."
"Finally," James whispered happily. He was finally going spend the night with his wife again.
---------------------------------------
"So how are things now with Lily? Have you screwed up again yet?" Sirius asked. They were in a meeting, but had long since gotten bored of listening, just like they had at school.
"I constantly screw up where Lily is concerned, you know that," said James bitterly.
"What did you do?"
"I got us a marriage counselor," said James.
"Wow… are things that bad?" said Sirius, he knew they were having problems but he didn't think they were serious.
"She nearly left me, twice. I wouldn't have blamed her if she did, so yes, things are that bad."
"She was going to leave you?" said Sirius, his mouth hanging open. Lily and James were the happiest couple he knew and he couldn't imagine them not being together.
"Yeah," said James.
"Wow."
"Some guy gave her his number when she was out with Sadie, she told me she was tempted. She said she was tempted, but it's Lily, she would never have done anything, she isn't capable of it. But you know…" said James, not looking at Sirius but at his left shoulder.
"I know, you'll be alright."
"We will, I'm going to make sure of it."
