Hey guys!

So here's chapter Twenty-four but, be warned, the first bit is like fluff central! (I think it's cute but I wrote it so I don't think I can be too objective. But it's cute).

Chapter Twenty-Four

'Guess who?' James said, covering Lily's eyes from behind.

Lily held back a small smile, knowing exactly who it was who had 'surprised' her in the St. Mungo's visitor's tea room. It was the last day of her healer training before Christmas and she knew that James was coming to see her today at lunch. She had made sure she was alone at the table, politely explaining to Thomas, who she usually sat with during this break, that she and James wanted to spend the time together alone as they weren't going to see each other until after Christmas, (which was a good couple weeks), all thanks to Lily's family engagements. Thomas had very kindly understood and so, Lily was all prepared to spend the time alone with James in the festively decorated tea room. She was reading a book when her eyes had been covered by 'mystery' hands. Really, even if she hadn't known he was coming, there was only one person it could be and her stomach flipped as she felt herself being encompassed by the smell of beech wood. Still, she couldn't just let him know that she was indescribably happy to see him. She had to play along.

'Hmm.' she said dreamily, 'Gerald.'

James frowned and took his hands off of her eyes, coming round to stand next to her. 'Gerald?' he asked, 'Who the fuck is Gerald?'

Lily smiled innocently. 'My secret lover.' she nodded earnestly, 'I mean, you're great and everything but, Gerald is just much better in bed.'

James' eyes stayed narrowed at her in a teasing manner. 'I highly doubt that.' he stated arrogantly, 'I'm brilliant!'

'But how do you know?' Lily said, continuing to feign innocence, standing up slowly and closing the gap between them. She placed her hand on his chest, clenching her fist and pulling at the fabric of his top as she did. She looked up at his smirking face through her eyelashes. 'I'm your only reference.' she shrugged, a slight pout to her lips as she spoke.

James' smirk grew and he suddenly wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her up and into him, feeling her silently giggle against him. He looked between her eyes as he spoke. 'Because, my love,' he whispered against her lips, 'you, are very hard to please. And I know that you're pleased.' And with that he captured her lips in a kiss, bending her backwards slightly as she draped an arm around his neck, the other hand still gripping his shirt but a little harder, her nails digging in now that he was kissing her deeply.

When they broke apart, James was still smirking at Lily in that handsome way he did. But Lily, liking when he wanted to prove a point this way, continued on with the joke, despite the fact that they were in a hospital tea room and there were people in there who, even after leaving Hogwarts, still had an odd fascination with their relationship. She smiled sweetly at him, blinking innocently and drawing circles on the fabric of his shirt. 'Mmm.' she shrugged as if his kiss hadn't taken her breath away or made her feel all funny inside as it always did, 'How do you know that I'm not easy to please and you just have a hard time getting the job done?'

James chuckled and shook his head. 'Well maybe Gerald can give me a few tips.' he said, letting her go, ending the joke and letting her sit back down at her seat, taking the one next to her. He picked up the book she had on the table, the one she had been reading when he had approached her from behind, and flicked through it. 'So what you been doing today?' he asked her, wanting to know about her day as if was the best news he could receive.

'Not much.' Lily replied, reaching forwards and taking her book back off of James, stopping him bending the spine as he flipped through the pages absentmindedly. 'We've just been consolidating our notes.'

James paused and blinked. 'That sounds incredibly dull.' he responded.

Lily hit him playfully on the arm before going into a small speech about why it was not, in fact, dull, and was instead rather interesting. She had gotten to go over things she hadn't researched in much depth yet and had found out about a few things that she didn't even realise existed. She spoke incessantly about the work she was doing, her eyes lighting up the way they always did when she found a subject she loved, one that was so interesting to her that she could probably shut herself away for a week and only read books about that one thing. She steered the conversation about her healer training programme, James listening to her intently, looking at her with nothing but adoration as she spoke. To him, seeing her this way, so enthusiastic about learning, even if he wasn't, was captivatingly beautiful. It took her a good twenty minutes to exhaust the topic she was on before wondering if anything she had learnt would be useful to the Order, at which point, James told her that it probably would be.

Whilst on the subject of the Order, now in a hushed voice, Lily went on to inform James of the meeting she had taken with Dumbledore, asking him to invite Alice and Frank into the Order. She had expected him to be shocked or to tell her she should have told him about it first or something but he didn't. He just listened to her interestedly, nodding his head at what she was saying and looking at her in a devoted way. So, undisturbed by James' adoring look, the loving one he reserved especially for her, Lily continued on, speaking to him about what she had done and trying to explain her reasons why. And her concerns. She didn't realise the topic would be dropped in a matter of minutes.

'…and I tried to talk myself out of it you know but, they had already said that they wanted to do something to help so, in a sort of 'killing two birds with one stone' kind of thing, them joining the Order would mean that, I wouldn't drift apart from Alice much more than I already have, and she and Frank can also help with-'

'Move in with me.' James said suddenly, cutting her off.

Lily stopped, her eyes wide and on James, Alice and Frank quickly disappearing from her mind in an instant. She gave a nervous laugh, a smile unintentionally tugging at the corners of her mouth. 'What?' she asked, actually having to take a second and wonder if she had heard him right.

'Move in with me.' James repeated slowly, moving his chair closer to hers and taking her hand on the table. He was still looking at her in that way. The way that could make her melt because, all you could see in his warm hazel eyes, was the love he had for her.

'James that's…really…out of the blue.' she said, her breathing becoming a bit shallower now he had moved closer to her. Her body shouldn't still be reacting like this to a simple issue of closeness. She wished she could just put it down to the fact that he had just asked her a huge question and that was what was making her heart pound, but she knew she'd be lying to herself if she put it all down to that.

'I know.' James nodded, 'Move in with me.'

'I…don't know what to say.' she said, her eyes darting to the table in shock, the smile she had forcing its way out, unable to be contained.

'Say yes.' James said simply, repeating for the fourth time, 'move in with me.' before leaning forwards, leaning into her, and catching her lips in a sweetly passionate kiss.

When he pulled away, Lily had a hard time of regulating her breathing and keeping that god-forsaken smile off of her face. It was something James noticed.

'You can't stop smiling.' he said with a grin of his own, tucking her hair behind her ear as he studied the effect one simple question had on her.

'I know.' Lily breathed, 'And I don't know why.' She almost had a note of excited panic in her voice.

'Because you want to move in with me?' James suggested, placing his hand on her cheek and forcing her to look up into his eyes as he looked into hers. He asked again, something he had always been used to with Lily. 'Move in with me.' he said.

Lily gave a breathless laugh. She was still smiling and shook her head slightly in disbelief. 'I-' she began, but could not go any further with her sentence for James had cut her off with another kiss. His lips moved with hers as if made for her. He gently bit down on her bottom lip, causing her to emit a soft moan in the back of her throat as he knew she would. She placed her hand to his chest again and gripped his shirt as she had done before, fast becoming breathless. They pulled apart for air.

'You know…' Lily breathed deeply, looking to her small hand on his top, 'You're making this really hard to say no.'

'Then don't say no.' James replied against her lips. 'Move in with me.' he kissed her again.

This time, Lily found the strength in herself to pull away from him. It was hard to do. He was intoxicating. 'Have you thought this through?' she asked, her expression not one of seriousness but one of unexplainable joy, 'I mean…I'd be living with you.'

'And I'd be living with you.' James smirked, 'That's the beauty of it see? We'd be living together.' He kissed her again. Anyone watching them would probably not approve of the public display of affection but he didn't care. He had found instant courage and had made a spur of the moment decision. All he could think about was why he hadn't asked her sooner.

When she had a moment to breathe again, Lily's abundance of questions surfaced, ones she couldn't quell or quieten down. She looked him in the eyes, eyes which were sparkling with child-like excitement and asked again, 'Are you sure you've thought this through?'

James shrugged a little, 'What's there to think about?'

'Well-' Lily began, not finishing her reply thanks to another one of James' convincing interruptions.

He kept his lips to hers, only reprieving for a slight second to say, 'Don't overthink it.' in an instructive whisper, before returning.

Lily's breath was not able to return to her for a good long moment so when she had to take a pause she also took the opportunity to state, 'This is an awfully big step.'

'I know.' James said, the little shrug appearing again to accompany his ever present smirk. He quickly closed the gap between them for a couple of sweet seconds before saying, for the last time, 'Move in with me Evans.'

Lily had a smile on her lips when his joined them again. She couldn't help it. There was something about it all mixed together that sent her spirit soaring; him asking her spontaneously; him asking her continuously, as he had when he had initially wanted her to go out with him. Kissing her at every available moment in what should have been an adult conversation and, lastly, him calling her Evans.

Lily pulled away slightly from his lips to say, 'I'll need to talk to my parents.'

'Mmmhmm.' James hummed, pressing his mouth to hers again.

'And you'd have to talk to Sirius and Remus.' she managed before she was stopped again. When she had another brief second to speak, she breathlessly added, 'And Peter.'

James tipped her head back slightly and continued kissing her, opening her mouth with his tongue and slipping it inside, savouring her taste. Lily took her hand off of his shirt and snaked it around his neck until she could tangle it into his soft messy hair. She felt herself melt to him, and so, it came as quite a shock when he stopped, causing her breath to catch in her throat.

He looked at her with an instant recognition in his eyes, as if it had only taken until now to click. 'Wait. So you will?' he asked, almost disbelieving in her answer, not willing to accept it until he had heard definite confirmation, 'You'll move in with me?'

Lily, with the smile that hadn't seemed to have been able to leave her face since the moment he had rudely interrupted her, bit her bottom lip and nodded her head, slowly at first and then with a definite action.

James wasn't completely convinced. 'Say it.' he almost demanded of her.

Lily exhaled a breathless laugh and looked down to the table and then up to James, through her eyelashes. 'Yes.' she said, 'I'll move in with you.'

On Christmas day, five people split into four groups. Peter went back home to reluctantly spend the day with his mother. The day was sure to consist of her begging him to move back home because she didn't like the idea of him living in an unsupervised environment. Although she liked Peter's friends, she was still worried that they would corrupt him. To her, Peter was still the little baby bundle she had brought home with her from the hospital. From the day he had been born, she had mollycoddled Peter, something that had only been made worse when Peter's dad left. So Peter really wasn't looking forwards to spending the holiday at home, knowing she would try every which way possible to convince him to move out of the Potter mansion and back into her house in Darwen. He had tasted the freedom that living with his friends had brought, even gaining a bit more confidence in himself whilst living there, and he was damn sure not going to go back to a state where his mother picked out his days attire. So for Christmas day, he would sit and listen to her cry about how her little boy was not yet ready for the world, and count down the minutes until he could return to his room at the Potter mansion.

Remus was spending the day with his parents too. He didn't see them often; more than Peter saw his mum because Remus didn't have to be forced to spend time with his parents, but less than Lily who was still living at home. Remus' parents were very difficult to explain. They loved their son completely but, sometimes, Remus knew it was hard for them to look at him, especially, his dad. Remus' dad was the reason he was a werewolf. He was to blame and nobody blamed him more than he blamed himself. His mother and father, at the time, had almost separated because his mother was beside herself that such a terrible thing had happened to her little boy. It had taken her ages to stop crying and almost six years for her to stop crying during the full moon when she was forced to restrain her only son and lock him in a reinforced basement. She had to listen to her boys screams and howls through the painful transition from human to wolf. It had put tremendous strain on his parents' relationship but, somehow, they had managed to stay together. And that was something that Remus was happy to help keep going. Also, unlike Peters mum, his parents couldn't have encouraged him enough to move out. Then, with the offer from James to live with him, Remus had been able to oblige. Ever since then, he saw his parents once or twice a month if that, usually speaking to them through letters instead. He kept his distance during the time of the month he knew they found unbearable. But as it was Christmas, he sort of had no choice but to visit them. However, as the full moon was still nearly two weeks away, Remus hoped it wouldn't mar their celebrations.

Lily was spending the day at home with her parents too though it wasn't something she was coerced to do, like Peter, or worried to do like Remus. She loved Christmas, the present bit especially, and, even though Petunia and Vernon were to be spending the day with them, she was sure that it would still be good. It was the first time her sister would spend Christmas with her, Heather and Richard as a married woman. The year before, the year she had gotten married, she and Vernon were away on their honeymoon when the holiday came around. That year the house had seemed a bit empty on the occasion without her there. Of course, the atmosphere that Christmas could have made up for the usual tension they had lost for Lily and her dad had been at odds with each other over James. It was at that point when Lily had just introduced him to her parents and, despite her mum instantly liking him as many people did, her dad hadn't. He had been nothing but surly and rude to James when James was trying his hardest to be polite and then, afterwards, had the gall to demand Lily stop seeing him. He had instructed her that she was not to take her relationship with James any further so, Lily having the temperament of a red head and the picked up insolence of James, had left her house with an attitude, going straight to James and staying at his for the night. Even though, when she returned the next day, she had insisted nothing had happened Richard had still been angry with her for the entire week, including Christmas. It wasn't that he didn't believe his daughter because, he knew she wouldn't lie, but it was because he didn't want to accept that his baby girl was growing up. So this Christmas, to Lily, would without a doubt be miles better than the last. All she had to do, was not mention the fact that James had asked her to move in with him for she was sure that would hinder their spirits.

The last party of the five was a pair; James and Sirius. They, unlike the others, had nowhere to go and no family to invite. James was now the last living Potter and quite alone in the world when it came to family and Sirius wouldn't be caught dead socialising with the estranged family he loathed. So both boys only really had each other to spend this day with, something they hadn't quite thought all the way through. It was something they had never done before so they weren't quite sure of what it had entailed before. They would learn through this day what they were missing. Everything they had taken for granted before would soon come seeping through the crack and hit them in the face. They weren't especially prepared for it. It was a shame really; they both loved Christmas.

It started off simply enough. They had both woken up in the bedroom they still shared, despite the fact that Sirius was now nineteen and James eighteen, both well and truly old enough to have their own room. Even Remus and Peter moving in hadn't made them realise that they had the option to their own space. It had just never occurred to them. And when they woke in that room on Christmas morning, they realised something else that hadn't occurred to them.

'What's for breakfast?' Sirius asked, knowing the answer. It was the same for each Christmas he had spent at the Potters. Now that was only, in actual fact, two Christmases' but, as the Potters liked to follow tradition on Christmas day, he knew that there would be the same breakfast surprise waiting for him down in the kitchen.

'What else?' James grinned, almost as excited as Sirius was. The beginning of the day in the Potter mansion was good, especially on Christmas day. 'Pancakes with every topping under the sun!'

The two boys, as if they were still only young teenagers and not nearing their twenties, raced each other out of the room and along the balconied hallway until they reached the Parisian staircase. When here, instead of being civilised human beings and walking down the stairs, they adopted a different approach and slid down the banisters instead. James landed effortlessly on the floor, completely used to such acts as he had grown up doing it. Sirius, who was still relatively new to having a banister you could use as a slide, stumbled a bit on the landing and ultimately ended up on the floor. James stood over him and laughed out loud at his misfortune for a good minute, Sirius glaring at him the whole time, before pulling him up with one hand. He was still laughing though. It was only when they were making their way through the entrance hall, ready to go on the journey through the many rooms before the kitchen when he stopped. But it wasn't because he no longer found it funny. It was because a funny feeling had overtaken him instead.

He paused in his tracks and frowned, turning around to scan the entrance hall. He looked at the staircase, the many doors that were on the first and second floor, not having to do the same with the third as it wasn't visible from where he was. He looked up the chandelier and scratched his chin.

Sirius finally noticed that James wasn't with him anymore and went to stand next to him, looking at what he was looking at. 'What's up?' he asked.

'Something's…missing.' he said slowly, completely at a loss as to what it was, what had caused him to stop so suddenly.

Sirius frowned as well, looking around the entrance hall again, this time with concentration, trying to find what James was on about. After a couple seconds, he began to nod his head slowly. 'Yeah.' He agreed, 'What is it?'

James shook his head, still frowning, unable to put his finger on it. 'I don't…' he began in thought before sudden realisation. 'THE TREE!' he exclaimed, his face dropping in shock.

'What?' Sirius asked, confused.

'The tree!' James said, walking further into the entrance hall and turning around as he spoke as if the Christmas tree would just magically appear behind him, as if it had in actual fact been there the whole time but was just evading him. 'The tree! We always have a tree. We have several trees actually but the tree that's usually here isn't here.' He stopped and turned to Sirius, his arms out in question, 'Where the fucks the tree?'

Sirius looked around the room again, taking a quick scan before looking back to James with an awkward expression. He shook his finger slowly at him. 'You know, Moony did say we'd have to buy the trees.'

James dropped his arms and expression. 'You're just telling me this now?' he asked. He turned his head and continued to talking but more to himself than Sirius. 'I can't believe you have to buy trees. They're usually just here. They just appear.'

Sirius didn't know what to say really. For him, the tree thing wasn't as big a deal as it was to James. Growing up at Grimmauld place, by the time he was six they didn't have trees at Christmas time because the house elf, Kreacher, would more often than not nick the baubles. And Sirius would be blamed. The Christmas trees in that house had cause him more hassle than they were worth so, from then on, Sirius really didn't have the patience for them. Besides trees were not the essence of Christmas. The food was.

'Pancakes?' Sirius suggested, interrupting James' who was deep in thought, his hand running through his hair.

'What's Christmas without a Christmas tree?' he said as a general question, beating himself up for not thinking about it. Of course he had to buy them! What was he thinking? That, as they had done all through his childhood, many lavishly decorated Christmas trees would just appear in the mansion? He should have known they wouldn't. After all, the people who had always prepared Christmas for him were dead. It made sense for everything they did to have died with them. 'How did I not think to get the trees?' he went on absentmindedly.

Sirius shrugged, just really wanting his pancakes now. He knew exactly what he was going to top them with and James' dilemma about the absence of the Christmas trees was holding up his stomachs dream of whipped cream, ice mice, chocolate drops, bertie botts pancakes dressed in a litre of syrup. 'Maybe cause you've never had to before?' he suggested half-heartedly.

James huffed a sigh, looking as though he had just been told off or told some really upsetting news. He tried to brush it off. 'Whatever.' he said, walking back over to Sirius and through the door into the next room saying, 'Let's just go have breakfast.' over his shoulder.

The two boys walked through the treeless mansion to the kitchen. James looked around sadly at each room as they went through them, missing the ten or so Christmas trees he would have passed by now, each with a different colour theme to match the room they were in, layered in ornate baubles and lit candles. The one he missed the most was the one in his mother's sitting room, the room that had been left pretty much untouched since she had died. The tree that she usually had in there, the one his parents had had put up every year in that room and had looked upon with pride, was the one that was usually solely decorated with stupid things James had made for them over the years, the ornaments he had sloppily made as a child. And it wasn't there.

Sirius couldn't grasp how James felt about the missing trees as they walked through the mansion. The clear gloomy expression on James' faces making hardly any sense to him. That was until he walked into the kitchen. When they got into that room, suddenly James' melancholy for the lack of Christmas trees was understandable to him.

They both paused just inside the doorway, looking over to the empty kitchen counter.

'There's no pancakes is there?' Sirius asked, stating an obvious fact. The kitchen was, by no means immaculate, but completely clean of the usual pancake Christmas breakfast. Usually there would have been a heavenly scent filling the kitchen, a stack of pancakes on the counter, the table lain out with the fanciest china the Potters owned, crackers next to the plates and, most importantly, a buffet of any and all pancake toppings you could ever think of. But today, there was nothing. Nothing but a couple of dirty glasses on the kitchen table from the night before, a bit of drink still in the bottom. It was depressing.

'Linda used to make them.' James said with a slow nod in remeberance. 'And Linda's not here anymore.'

Sirius sighed. 'That sucks.' he mumbled.

'Yep.' James replied.

Sirius turned to him with a wistful expression. 'Do you know how to make pancakes?'

'Nope.'

'Guess we're not having breakfast today then.'

'Nope.'

'That sucks.' Sirius said, turning to face the bare kitchen again glumly.

'Yep.' James said, popping the p.

James and Sirius stood in that spot in the kitchen, staring longingly at it, knowing nothing was going to happen, for a good couple of minutes. They didn't know what to do. Sirius was starving but there was nothing to feed him with. James was wondering what else he had forgotten about Christmas day that was going to hit him in the face at any minute. If the rest of the day was like this first part of the morning, then he really wasn't going to enjoy himself. It was when he turned to leave the kitchen that Sirius followed him.

They went back upstairs to shower and change, both of them sluggish in their movements, slow in their walks as if they were sloths. They didn't speak for the rest of that morning, taking an inordinate amount of time with the menial morning routine tasks they had been doing for years. They should have been finally honed skills but, both distracted by their suddenly missing Christmas spirit, they seemed to be having a bit of trouble with it all. James had taken an hour to shower, a very rare thing for him to do when he wasn't in there with Lily, and had taken an extra ten minutes brushing his teeth and drying his hair, messing it up with no particular care. He had taken forty minutes to actually get dressed, putting his shirt on inside out at first and then backwards at least three more times before finally figuring it out. Sirius had taken longer than James to get ready for the day, taking a good hour and a half in the shower which was less unusual than it was for James but still a rare occasion. He had spent forty minutes on his hair alone as, along with his mood, it was just hopeless. Then there was the ten minutes he spent doing his teeth and the extra twenty minutes he took to change, being faster than James in that aspect as he had actually figured out how to put a shirt on properly first time. When they were finished, they went downstairs again.

In an unusual quiet, they opened the presents that Remus, Peter and Lily had left for them in James' sitting room along with the ones they had gotten for each other. Both of them had a considerably smaller amount of gifts than they were used to and they finished in opening them all in minutes rather than the hour it usually took. It was probably selfish of them but, they were both a little disappointed to say the least. They were only half way through what had always been a joyous day for them both and were already wishing for it to be over, wishing for the evening when Remus or Peter would return with a proper Christmas story instead of the despondent day they were now living out.

At about one o'clock, still hungry from having to have missed breakfast, Sirius asked about Christmas dinner.

'Dude we couldn't make pancakes. What makes you think we can make something that even remotely resembles a Christmas dinner?' James asked. He was flicking through a joke book Peter had gotten him, staring at the wisecracks and stories without even a trace of humour on his face.

'I dunno.' Sirius shrugged, shuffling a new deck of limited edition exploding snap cards from Remus. 'Least we know like, the stuff that makes a Christmas dinner. Turkey and veg and…gravy.' he said, with a bit of a yawn. He wasn't tired. Just bored. 'That's more than we knew for pancakes. We could at least try.'

James exhaled a breath and threw the book from Peter on the floor. 'All right.' he said, swinging his legs off of the couch he had been lain across.

They made their way through to the kitchen again and set to work. But they had problems. For one, there was no turkey. James didn't realise that he had needed to buy that too as, in previous years, just like the trees, it had just been there. Then there was no vegetables either. Or gravy. Or stuffing or potatoes or pigs in blankets. Everything they were used to having on a Christmas dinner was nowhere to be found and that was due to the fact that neither of them, in their lives, had gone food shopping before. Things usually just came to them or they ate out. The only thing they were able to find was a large glass jar of cranberry sauce in the back of a cupboard. But they had no idea what they were supposed to do with that and so, thinking that as Christmas dinner was supposed to be a hot, they thought heating it up was a good idea. After they had worked out how to turn the gas on the hob on, they put the cranberry sauce, still in the jar, onto it. Then they sat and watched. They sat and watched as the glass heated up to an unbearable temperature and had eventually cracked, exploding, spraying the kitchen with boiling hot cranberry sauce.

They both blinked. No shock and no surprise, and just turned to each other.

'Maybe I should reinstate Mums rule of, you know, not blowing up the house.' James said, looking at the cranberry sauce that was now dripping down the wall.

'Yeah.' Sirius nodded slowly, 'That might be best.'

Both of them lazily whipped out their wands and with a simple flick, cleaned up the mess they had made in the kitchen. They levitated the broken cranberry jar and the glass that had shattered onto the surfaces and floor into the bin as well. When they had done this, they were still hungry, neither of them having eaten all day, any chocolate and sweets they would usually get as presents also missing as it was usually James' parents that got them those. They had rifled through the near bare cupboards and had only been able to find some trail mix and stale pastry snaps. Absolutely starving, they had put them both into bowls and had sat at the end of the kitchen table, nibbling on them with less than happy expressions. It was dawning on them; they were nothing but spoilt rich boys with no life skills. And for two boys who thought they were brilliantly independent that was hard to handle.

'Maybe we could go out and find somewhere to eat?' Sirius suggested.

'It's Christmas day.' James pointed out.

'Well maybe we could find somewhere that does like a takeaway or something.' Sirius said.

James took a bite of a square piece of stale pastry. 'It's Christmas day.' he repeated in a monotone.

Sirius sighed and shoved a load of trail mix in his mouth, crunching on them with little enthusiasm. 'Can we not just crash Evans'?' he asked, remembering stories Lily had told him of her mums cooking. It sounded delicious. 'Her parents would give us food right?'

James shrugged. 'Her mum would.' he said offhandedly, 'But her dad doesn't really like me going over there. I don't think he'd be too pleased at us just turning up.'

'Why not?' Sirius asked with a puppy dog pout.

'He still doesn't exactly like me.' James said, his eyes widening in remeberance. He had thought that, at Richard Evans' birthday meal, when he had laughed at something James had said about Vernon and had even shaken his hand when he had left that he was coming around to the idea of him being in Lily's like. After over a year it was about time, but whenever he had gone to pick Lily up from her house or drop her off after that, it seemed like his attitude towards him hadn't changed. He had always found a way to get him out of the house as quickly as possible and make him feel uncomfortable. It was rather awkward really.

'Yeah but he likes me.' Sirius said cockily, remembering the one time he had met Richard Evans. But that was when he had basically cried in front of him over Jane Potter's death so he really couldn't be sure. Still he could give it a go.

'Course he likes you.' James scoffed, picking up another stale pastry cracker, 'You're not the one doing his daughter are you?'

'Thought he didn't like you cause Lily told him how we used to bully Snape?' Sirius frowned.

James took a reluctant bite out of the pastry. 'Well that too. But I'm sure the others not getting me any brownie points either.' he commented.

But Sirius only heard one word. 'Ooh brownies.' he said dreamily.

James chuckled. They sat there in quiet for a minute.

'Does he know you're sleeping together then?' Sirius asked.

James thought for a second. 'Merlin I hope not.' he said, 'I'm pretty sure he'd kill me.'

'But you could stun him.' Sirius suggested.

'Then he'd kill me twice.' James said.

Sirius chuckled. They were quiet again.

'We're just big kids aren't we?' Sirius said out of the blue.

'Well you are.' James joked. But Sirius was serious.

'I mean it.' he said, looking rather sad in himself. 'We're spoilt rich kids. We have no idea how to take care of ourselves. I can't cook. You can't buy trees-'

'I'm pretty sure I could buy trees if I remembered.' James said.

'Pete's more of a grown up than we are!' Sirius stated bluntly, not liking the fact. 'And that's something I never thought I'd say!'

James looked confused. He threw his stale pastry on the table, not wanting it anymore, and frowned at Sirius. Sirius rarely spoke like this, always being full of humour and sarcasm and silliness instead so James knew this was something that really bugged him. 'How is Pete more grown up than us?' he asked, leaning back in his chair.

'He moved out of his mum's house.' he said, his eyes looking around the kitchen but not really seeing anything, 'I'd say that's a grown up decision. We've made no grown up decisions.' He looked back to James as if daring him to contest what he knew was true.

James shrugged and thought for a second. 'We joined the Order.' he proposed as an idea for an adult choice. Really it was. Choosing to put your life on the line, to fight for justice, what you thought was right. That was grown up. It wasn't child's play.

'Ok so we've made one grown up decision.' Sirius muttered with a glum pout, 'But Pete's still one up on us. And I don't like that. You name me another grown up decision.' he challenged.

James thought for a minute. Grown up decisions. They were hard to define really. What was a grown up decision? What made you an adult? What made you grow up? What was it that had to click in your life to make you realise that it wasn't all fun and games and make believe? James had believed that, at the end of his fifth year, he had been able to make the conscious decision to grow up, all in aid of trying to win Lily's heart. But he had come to realise that all he had done was decide to stop bullying people. It wasn't a decision that could be strictly classed as grown up. He had just done something that he should have realised was wrong years before. It didn't make him a responsible person or an adult of any sort. The decision to grow up wasn't something you could choose to do. Maybe it was something that was just a circumstance of life. Maybe grown up decisions weren't something that you planned. Maybe they were just things that happened. The Order had after all, just happened to them, if you looked at it retrospectively. One minute they had no idea about the group and the next they were fully fledged members. No bells and whistles, it had just happened. It was spontaneous. Maybe being making adult choices was spontaneous.

'I asked Lily to move in with me.' James said.

Sirius took in a surprised breath and looked at James, pausing. 'Oh…' he said, starting to nod his head slowly. 'I guess…that's…grown up.' He frowned at the table and then turned back to James. 'When'd you ask her that?' he wondered.

'The other day.' James said nodding his head. Sirius was the first person he was telling about this. He had asked her four days ago and, as she had suggested, he should have spoken to Sirius, (and Remus and Peter), about it sooner. But the day after had been the anniversary of his Dad's death so it had been driven from his mind. It was only now that they were on about being adults that it had come back to him. Asking the love of your life to live with you, to him, seemed like a very grown up thing to do.

Sirius nodded again, his tongue in his cheek, not saying a word and giving no hints as to how he felt about it all.

James raised his eyebrows, waiting for a reply. When he didn't get one, he asked, 'Are you ok?'

Again, Sirius nodded. Then he broke a smile. 'She best not cramp my style!' he laughed before dropping his face to one of complete seriousness and stating, 'And I'm keeping the room.'

James laughed back at him. 'Fair enough.'

There was a pause again, the conversation about Lily moving in to the mansion seemingly finished for now. It would probably start up again when Peter and Remus returned and James had to tell them at which point Sirius would have thought up about seventy different rules that Lily and James were to abide by when she moved in, most of which would probably be along the lines of 'don't be having sex in the kitchen' or something similar. For now though, the brief discussion was over.

'I'm hungry.' Sirius moaned.

Thanks for reading guys!

Review if you'd like! Go on! Make my day!

The next update will be on the 31st of August so, sorry but it's a weeks wait. :( gots to write it and I'm a bit stuck.

Galindaba