Lily pushed the door open, suddenly feeling a bit anxious about the situation. She brushed off her slight queasiness as a pregnancy side-effect and dropped her purse onto the small table that stood in the foyer. She took off her coat, and hung both hers and James' in the coat closet. Then she led him into the living room, catching her reflection in the mirror on the way there. She definitely didn't look pregnant yet, even when she was straining for it, but a month more and she probably would. (Her hair was looking a bit wild today, though.)

"Hi, Dad," Lily said, stepping into the room. Her father was sitting watching a football game with a soda can in one hand. Lily didn't look too much like her dad – she had resembled her mum a lot more. She had her dad's nose, but the resemblance pretty much stopped there. Petunia looked much more like their dad.

"Hello, Lils. How was your afternoon? Is your friend here?" her dad asked, but he had trouble peeling his eyes from the screen. The game was tied.

Lily smiled. "Yeah, Dad, this is James Potter."

Well, that got her father's attention. He looked up as James stepped into the room, and looked him over. Lily could practically see the assumptions that he was making in his eyes.

"Gotta be honest, Lils, when you said you were bringing a friend over, I was expecting Marlene," her dad said, standing up. He put his soda down and extended his hand to James. "Nice to meet you."

"You too, Mr. Evans," James said, shaking his hand. He ran a hand through his hair. "I'm guessing Lily hasn't brought too many boys home before then."

Lily smacked him as he glanced at her with a smirk.

But Mr. Evans just laughed. "No, only Severus. Speaking of which…"

"Dad, I told you, Sev and I aren't friends anymore. Can we talk about this later?" Lily tried not to sound too annoyed. She glanced at James to make sure the mention of Severus hadn't set him off, but he was still grinning.

Mr. Evans just chuckled.

"Well, uh, I was going to make dinner. James, do you want to come help…?" Lily offered.

"No, that's okay," Mr. Evans said quickly. "James can stay with me. Do you like football, James?"

"Well, I've never really seen it."

Mr. Evans gripped his chest. "It's practically a crime in this country. I told Lily when she first came home from Hogwarts and told me that there's no football there, I said, they should really be culturing you kids. And it's worse than I thought! Seventeen and not knowing about football."

"But have you seen a Quidditch match?" James returned.

"Oh, I remember what that is! No, no, I really don't. Come have a seat, boy, and I'll explain football, and then you can tell me about your, uh, whatever it is…" Mr. Evans said, sitting back down and gesturing to the seat next to him.

Lily looked on cautiously for a moment longer, and then with a warning look at both her dad and James that neither of them saw, she walked through another doorway to the kitchen. She could still hear a little bit of their conversation as she started shifting through the kitchen, looking for something to cook. It was probably something that she should have considered ahead of time.

She had been extremely surprised when she had arrived home two days earlier and found the kitchen practically empty. Her dad claimed that he had been eating TV dinners and ordering out, but there were barely even condiments. She had gone on a grocery shopping spree only a few hours after getting home to ensure that she had food to cook for herself and her dad while she was home.

His lack of cooking was one of the things that worried Lily most about her dad. Her mom had cooked for almost their entire marriage, and it seemed that he didn't even know how to keep a kitchen stocked.

Lily finally decided to just make some pasta, and she found ingredients for a sauce that she could make fairly easily. She whipped it up fairly quickly, keeping one ear on the conversation that was taking place in the other room. Figuring that her dad was distracted enough, she even used magic to some of the more tedious tasks, like cutting and chopping and such. It was nice to finally be legal.

While she was waiting for the pasta to finish boiling, she wandered back out to the living room to see what the boys were up to. Her dad was giving James a play-by-play explanation of what was going on in the game, what every flag meant, why this was illegal, on and on.

"That's just like in Quidditch," he remarked just after Lily walked into the room. It was then that he saw her.

"Dinner's almost ready," Lily explained.

James stood up. "I'll come help you set the table."

Lily didn't object and the pair walked into the kitchen. "Everything going okay out there?" Lily whispered as she handed him some plates.

"Yeah, your dad seems awesome."

"He totally thinks we are dating," Lily murmured, shaking her head.

"We could arrange that?" James offered with a small smile as he placed some of the plates on the table. "You know, I've only done this a few times ever," he said, raising his voice a bit.

"Really?" She handed him some glasses.

James nodded. "I have house elves at home, too. My mom decided last summer though that Sirius and I should learn how to do it ourselves, so she makes us cook dinner and all that stuff every once and a while."

"So you're not completely useless, you mean."

"Exactly."

He smirked at her and Lily was surprised to find that they were leaning over the table on opposite sides, and they were surprisingly close to each other. She was looking straight into his hazel eyes, and she was surprised to find that there were light specks in them that she had never noticed before.

Then the timer went off and she jumped backward. She silently turned it off and drained the pasta. "Go get my dad, would you?" she said softly as she poured the pasta into a bowl.

"Thanks for making food for us, Lils," Mr. Evans said as he sat down at the head of the table, pulling the white napkin that Lily had set out onto his lap. It matched the white shirt that he was wearing.

"Yeah, looks delicious," James added.

Lily put the last few bowls on the table and took a seat next to her dad, across from James. "Nice eating real food every once and a while, isn't it, Dad?"

He chuckled as he passed the pasta to her. "Sure is."

The only sound for a few moments was the sound of their forks and spoons as they began eating their meal.

"Now," Mr. Evans said finally, "Don't think I'm being upfront or intrusive or whatever here, but I have to say, I haven't met you before, James. Have you and Lily just become friends or something?" His eyes suggested that he meant much more than "friends."

"You could say that," James said.

"But you are in Gryffindor too, yes?"

"Yeah, I am."

Mr. Evans nodded. He still hadn't heard anything that explained why James was here and whether or not he was his daughter's boyfriend.

"What do your parents do, James?" Mr. Evans tried again a few moments later.

Lily watched James with cautious eyes.

"Actually, sir, my father passed about a year and a half ago, just after your wife passed. He was, um, what would it be in the Muggle world, Lily?" James turned to her. His eyes widened a bit when he found that she was staring right at him.

"Sort of like a policeman," Lily offered.

James nodded. "Right, I remember Remus was telling me about those."

Mr. Evans, who had been silent through this little intercourse as he watched the pair, said, "Well, I am very sorry to hear that."

"As sorry as I was to hear about your wife," James said softly.

Lily shifted her gaze to her father, who was nodding solemnly.

"Oh, and my mother. She's always been a bit of a housewife, but she does some volunteer work. She helps to run a few charities and, you know, stuff like that," James told him, glancing at Lily.

Lily wasn't sure exactly what James' mum did, but she was sure that whatever it was went beyond raising a bit of money. Money wasn't very helpful these days. There were much more important things. Like fighting.

James launched into a story as they finished up eating, and they moved over to the living room, as Lily murmured about cleaning the dishes later.

Somehow, James and Lily ended up squished onto the loveseat that faced her dad's chair, and the whole situation became slightly awkward when James finally finished his story, which both of the audience members had thoroughly enjoyed.

After a long moment of silence, Lily said softly, "Dad, there's actually something that James and I need to tell you."

Mr. Evans raised his eyebrows. "Lily, if you're going to tell me that you two are dating, I've already figured that out. And if you're going to ask if you can get married, the answer is no. Your sister getting married is enough for me to deal with right now."

Lily snorted. She had met Petunia's fiancé over summer holidays a few months ago, and he was a completely horrid man who had hated her since the moment that Petunia had told him Lily's secret. Then she regained her composure and said, "Actually, it's neither of those things."

"You're not dating?" Mr. Evans repeated in doubt.

"No, sir," James told him.

"Well, then what is it?"

Lily felt her stomach flip-flop again and slight tears prickle at her eyes as she looked at her dad in the dim lighting of the living room. The TV made noise behind them, but it had been forgotten completely by that point. Lily didn't want to hurt him anymore than the suffering he had gone through the past few years, but she had no choice. She had to say it now.

"Dad…" She took a deep breath. "I'm pregnant."

Mr. Evans' face paled rapidly.

His face was still pale as a sheet a moment later when he finally broke the silence that had emerged after Lily's admission. "You-you're pregnant?" he repeated incredulously.

Lily nodded slowly.

"And you're the father?" Mr. Evans asked, pointing to James.

James' hand unconsciously twitched towards his wand as he watched Mr. Evans change colors a few times. But he calmed himself back down and said, "Yes, I am. And I am here for Lily one hundred percent."

"Even though you're not dating?" Mr. Evans said, but it wasn't really a question. He wasn't even looking at the pair sitting across from him anymore; he was doubled-over in his chair, holding his head on his wrinkled hands. Lily had only seem him look more fragile like that in the most horrible of situations, namely when her mother had passed. "Goodness, Lily, what did we do wrong? Is this… because of your mum?"

Lily shook her head. "No, Dad, this isn't anything that you or mum did. It was a one-time mistake, and it wasn't… I didn't… Dad, please don't blame yourself for any of this."

"Is it because you were upset or because you were… God, I don't know. Shit."

"I, um… honestly, I haven't really gone into the psychological reasons behind my screw-up…" Lily said with a sharp laugh.

Mr. Evans didn't say anything, and the pair sitting across from here exchanged a long look, as though that would help them to figure out what thoughts were going through his head.

"Are you mad, Daddy?" Lily blurted out, softly.

Mr. Evans looked back up at her, and his dark eyes softened when they met her bright ones. He saw the concern in her eyes, but he also saw all of the brightness and optimism that had been present in them for years, and maybe that's what persuaded him to say, "No. No, I don't think I am. You seem to have realized that you screwed up, and you seem to be taking some responsibility for this… Have you been to see a doctor yet?"

"That's actually where we were this afternoon," Lily said, pushing her red hair back. "She said that everything looks good as of right now." She paused. "I'm probably due in around July."

"July," Mr. Evans repeated. "So you'll be out of school then. But you probably won't have a job."

"Not to be crass about this, but even if neither of us has a job by the fall, I do have a fairly large inheritance that we will have access to," James spoke up. "That's sounds so snobby, but we will be able to buy a small house and whatever supplies we need. And then we can worry about jobs."

Mr. Evans nodded slowly. "I wish I could offer my support there, but…" He looked around his own small house and then regretted having said anything. Mr. Evans wasn't a class snob, but he did feel self-conscious about his lack of money at some points, especially when it came to not being able to provide his daughters with things that he felt he should be able to. It wasn't even that they were poor, necessarily. Just not as well off as he had hoped to become, and he had always felt guilty about this. That was probably part of the reason why he was worried about Petunia's upcoming wedding.

"Dad, you don't have to worry about that," Lily said. "This is our responsibility. We will deal with the money and the… everything." Money actually hadn't been on Lily's radar before this conversation, so she was glad for once that James was well off. The war had occupied much more of her mind.

Mr. Evans looked between them one last time. "I hope you know what you're in for," he said with a small, fake laugh. "But I will be here to support you with everything."

Lily smiled. "That's one of the best things you have ever said to me." Lily stood up and hugged her father. "Thank you. So much."

When she stood back up, she turned to James. "This isn't any kind of hint or anything, but do you need to be getting home soon?"

James laughed. "I probably should. I have a dog that needs to be walked."

"That would be Sirius, eh?" Lily laughed.

James smiled and nodded. He stood up, and the room suddenly felt smaller, because he was tall and filled up a lot of it. "It was great getting to meet you, Mr. Evans. Thank you for supporting us. I promise that I won't leave Lily alone, ever."

Mr. Evans stood up, too, and shook his hand. "Honestly, I'm think I'm glad that it was you, James. There are some real idiot teenagers out there. But you seem better than that."

"Remind your daughter of that when she starts complaining about me," James said, and Lily had to resist the urge to swat him.

"He's kidding," she told her dad. Then she said to James, "I'll walk you out."

She led him down the small hallway, got his coat out of the closet for him, and then they went through the screen glass door, which banged lightly behind them. "Thanks for all of that," she said softly as they stood on the porch. She ignored the cold wind that slapped at her nearly bare arms.

"Hey, there's nothing you have to thank me for. I told you I'm going to be there for you. And you'll be coming over to tell my mum, too, won't you?" James asked.

"Sure, just send me an owl and tell me when the best time would be," Lily said.

"Your dad seems really great," James added. "I don't think he's as broken as you think he is. He took that news pretty well, didn't he?"

Lily shook his head. "But my mum just passed."

"But I think he's recovering, and treating him like he can't handle anything doesn't help that. Trust me – Sirius, Remus, and Pete treated me that way for two weeks after my dad passed, even though Sirius was almost as torn up as I was, and I felt like I was going to burst." James laughed and shook his head. "And I don't know what you're saying about him not being adjusted to magic, either. Honestly, Lily."

"Alright, alright, lecture me on how I treat my dad another time. It's really cold out here," Lily said. She held out her arm and showed him where her pale skin had been covered in goose-bumps already.

He nodded. "Alright, I will. I'll send you an owl tomorrow. See you, Evans." He spun and was gone.

Lily didn't return in right away, but she stared at the place where James had just vanished from. It was a cold night and the Christmas lights on the houses of her neighbors made her feel more disconnected than anything else.

When she couldn't feel her toes any longer, Lily pulled the door back open and slipped into the house. She still had dishes to deal with.