Chapter Twenty Five
The Easter holidays had arrived early this year and it made James incredibly happy for many reasons. First off, well of course it was Easter which meant chocolate. Secondly, he knew Gwen was at some modelling thing in Milan so he could spend some alone time with Lily. It made him feel guilty all this sneaking around but he couldn't stop himself.
The intense feelings he had for Lily were insatiable. He knew it was wrong, so wrong, but he had a plan. He would spend the remaining year with Lily and when he was finally married to Gwen he would be completely faithful to her and spend the rest of his life with her and their daughter. Simple.
Of course, another reason as to why the Easter holidays were so great – his birthday.
James was giddy at any time he received presents but he especially loved his birthday. Christmas is shared by practically everybody that meant it wasn't as special but James knew no one who shared his birthday. It was his day. Party time!
It was the night before they left Hogwarts for the holidays and he and Lily were currently relaxing in his rather large bathtub, glass of wine in hand, the white foamy bubbles completely covering them up to their collarbones.
"Stay with me in the Easter holidays," blurted out James spontaneously. Oh crap, thought James, as he saw her perfectly groomed eyebrows raised in an arch.
She laughed. A good sign? Or not?
"James I stayed with you over the Christmas holidays," explained Lily, smiling. "I don't want to be a trouble to you or your family again. Besides, I do actually have my own place you know."
"You're not a trouble," he insisted, splashing through the water to get to her hand. "I have my own place too so it's not as though you'd be a burden to the whole family - just me." He smirked. "You only stayed last holidays on Dumbledore's orders anyways."
"What about Gwen?" sighed Lily, leaning back against her side of the tub. "I've got a feeling she wouldn't like the dirty mistress staying with you two."
"Gwen's not going to be there. She's in Milan for some modelling thing," said James exasperatedly before softening his tone. "And you're not a dirty mistress, Lily."
"Then what am I to you?" asked Lily, her voice calm yet he knew that she was doubting herself and even him. Lily always appeared confident but if you knew her the way he did she was an open book.
He smiled softly, gently pulling her towards him through the water and put his forehead close to hers, their noses brushing against each others.
"You're the woman I love," he whispered. "You should know that by now."
"I'm sorry," she smiled. "I'm being stupid."
"You're only being stupid if you don't stay at my apartment over the holidays," grinned James.
"Looks like I'm going to be a very clever girl than," smirked Lily, before closing the gap between them completely.
Both wine glasses dropping to the floor.
"Hey stop running!" called out James to several first years who went flying past him desperate to get to the train despite the fact they had another thirty minutes before the gleaming red train departed. He sighed as one of them tripped up and crashed into a suit of armour.
"Are you ok?" he asked the blonde headed girl. Her cheeks flushed rosy pink as she nodded. "Up you get then." He stretched out his hand to her and hauled her up on her feet gently.
"Thank you sir," stammered the little Hufflepuff.
"You're welcome," said James as he smiled comfortingly. "You're friends seem to be waiting for you."
She nodded and scampered off towards her giggling friends.
"Awww aren't you thoughtful," smirked Lily, leaning against the stone wall, arms crossed.
"I'm just so wonderful," grinned James playfully. "You sure you want to stay with me? You don't have to if you don't want to."
"It beats being lonely in my apartment," laughed Lily. "Will it just be me and you?"
"Not really…."
"What do you mean?" she asked suspiciously.
"Well I have my birthday bash tomorrow night so they'll definitely be more than just us then."
"You're having a party?"
"Not really," explained James. "It'll be me, you, the Marauders, Frank and Alice are coming and I've invited Aurora too."
"I didn't know you and Aurora were such good friends," said Lily bemused.
"We're not really, but I figured you'd want some female company," laughed James. "I'm friends with Alice so I might as well be friends with Aurora too."
"You're sweet," smiled Lily. "Wow, I haven't seen Alice since the summer. Sure, I write to her but it's not the same."
"You've got Aurora here though, that must help."
"Yeah Rory's become one of my best friends now," admitted Lily. "I hope her and Alice get on."
"Course they will," said James confidently. "Sirius didn't get on with Remus at first but now he's probably closer to Remus than he is to me."
"I somehow can't believe that," said Lily shocked. "For as long as I can remember all four of you have been so close knit. I used to be so jealous of that."
"Sirius is a good actor when he wants to be," laughed James. "Why were you jealous of that? You had Alice and other friends."
"You were like brothers but you're not even related," described Lily. "I had, have, friends but I didn't have that with my sister."
He rested is hands on her shoulders. "That's her fault not yours; don't blame yourself because of her jealousy."
"When are we leaving then?" asked Lily brightly, swiftly changing the subject.
"Whenever you want," smiled James, taking a mental note to bring up this subject once more.
James was glad he had written to Sirius previously to kick him out whilst him and Lily were going to be there. He was also glad he made sure Sirius tidied and cleaned before they arrived although he had his suspicions that Remus had done the cleaning and tidying as the place was spotless and Sirius and cleaning spells just didn't mix.
He was slightly nervous about the fact Lily had never been to his apartment but then again she had met his parents and going to his place is nothing compared to that. He felt stupid standing awkwardly as Lily explored his lounge, picking up various photographs from his mantelpiece and inspected each one with interest.
"You've got a nice place," commented Lily.
"You've only seen the lounge."
"Well then you've got a nice lounge."
He laughed.
"One thing though."
"What's that?"
"All the photographs and everything else are yours; where are Gwen's things?"
"She's basically moved out," admitted James, running a hand through his hair. "She doesn't ant to be alone during the pregnancy so she moved back in with her parents until we're married. Sirius and Remus are actually living here now but I kicked them out whilst we're here."
"Why are they living here?"
"Because I have a better apartment?" offered James as an explanation. "I have no idea to be honest."
Lily laughed. "Are you going to show me around then?"
He grinned and grabbed her hand.
"Well obviously this is the lounge and up those steps is the kitchen as you can see," said James excitedly.
The room was spacious but it definitely had a lived in feel despite the fact James was rarely at his apartment at all these days. The red carpet was soft and springy, the black leather sofa and armchairs were squishy and the black marble fireplace gleamed wonderfully.
The kitchen, only a step up from the lounge, had no wall separating the two rooms so it automatically looked bigger. The sparkling counter tops were black marble, matching the mantle piece. In fact, the whole kitchen was done in black. It was sophisticated and everything was top of the range. There was no dining table but there was coffee table in the lounge. In the middle of the kitchen there was a rectangular table with a black marble top with four red stools along one side of it.
"Your kitchen actually makes me want to cook and I hate cooking," laughed Lily.
"I hope you have the same reaction to my bedroom," smirked James.
"You hope your bedroom makes me want to cook?" she giggled.
"You know what I mean," grinned James, sticking out his tongue light-heartedly.
"We'll have to wait and see won't we," she teased as she started swinging their hands, indicating she wanted to move on.
"Right which hallway you want to go down first: right or left?"
She scrunched her nose up in thought. It was such a cute thing to do.
"Right," she decided.
"Ahh the guest quarters," remarked James in a posh English accent. Lily giggled softly.
"You're so immature," she said rolling her eyes.
"You know one day you're going to do that and they'll get stuck," warned James playfully.
"Well then you'll have to stop doing stupid things then," she replied sticking out her tongue.
"Now who's immature," he muttered as he led her down the hallway as she laughed.
The white walls of the hallway were bright but in a friendly way not a horrible sterilised hospital. There were three dark wooden doors; one to the left, one to the right, and one straight forward.
"The one on the left is just a bathroom," explained James, clearly not too interested in this part of his apartment. "The other two are spare bedrooms. Sirius and Remus usually crash their occasionally but they're not their rooms officially. They're unimportant rooms though."
"What about Peter?"
"What do you mean what about Peter?" asked James bemused.
"You say Sirius and Remus crash there. Peter is your friend too, what about him?" inquired Lily curiously, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
"We haven't really heard much from him since he started travelling abroad about a week before I started teaching," answered James. "He's due to arrive home for next Christmas. Lucky guy's probably having way too much fun to write to us."
"I feel happy for Peter," said Lily smiling. "He seemed to always be in the background at school. I mean you, Sirius and Remus practically ruled the school together, you were the golden boy quidditch prince, Sirius was the playboy that broke nearly every girl's heart at least once, and Remus was the clever prefect that everybody liked. Everybody used to wonder why you hung about with Peter; they all thought he was a loser compared to the three of you."
"That's because most teenagers are shallow," said James bitterly. "Just because Peter wasn't the typical popular boy it doesn't mean he's less of a person. He's a loyal friend to me, like a brother."
"I know," she smiled. "He has his own charms I suppose."
James laughed and nodded. "Come on I need to show you the rest of my oh so fabulous apartment."
They retraced their steps back to the lounge and then went through the other door. This was his part of the apartment. Of course the whole apartment was his but he spent his time here, in fact he rarely ventured into the other area. Only to show guests where they would sleep or on an occasion like this when he was giving a tour of his home.
"To the left is my study, which you will be delighted to know is filled with books," smirked James smugly.
"Wow you can read?" gasped Lily mockingly.
"Hahaha and I can count to ten," grinned James. She giggled and pushed open the door.
Her face was overflowing with excitement. Three sides of the wall were crammed from floor to ceiling with books. James smiled gently as she walked around the room, her finger tips brushing against the different books. Occasionally she'd pull it out and read the back of it then nod as though saying 'I'll be reading you later'.
On the other side James kept all his trophies and awards, each neatly placed in glass display case. The awards ranged from Quidditch to old school ones to Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award. What could he say, he was a versatile man.
Lily gazed up at all the shining and glittering trophies in awe. She turned and smiled proudly at him.
"Even when I used to hate you at Hogwarts I knew you'd be the student most likely to succeed," she admitted, smiling.
"You call this succeeding?" he asked, gesturing to all his awards and shaking his head in disagreement. "Nah that's just me showing off on a broomstick and being able to look good. That's not succeeding, at least its not succeeding in something worthwhile. You're the one who succeeded the most: you have a brilliant mind and you used it to save lives as a healer and now you're passing down your knowledge to students. You deserve all the awards in the world."
"James you underestimate yourself," she said gently, softly cupping his face. "You made people smile during these dark times. You may have been showing off on a broomstick but that showing off made people happy. Now you're passing down your knowledge as well. Dumbledore gave you head boy in seventh year for a reason James. You are one of the most intelligent people I know. You should be proud of your achievements, all of them, even your award winning smile."
He grinned briefly before swooping his head down to meet her lips in a sweet tender kiss. However their romantic euphoric moment was shortly interrupted by shouts coming from the living room.
"James? Come on out. I know you're home," came a voice that sounded awfully like Sirius. "Everybody's here we thought we'd start the party early. Don't have a clue where Lily is though but hurry up!"
"They're all going to think we were doing something we shouldn't if we go into the lounge now," whispered Lily frantically. "They'll think we came from your bedroom."
"Oh crap."