James Potter had been skirting rules and inviting trouble since his earliest memory. Things like laws and danger and fear tended to lose all meaning when you were an illegal Animagus who ran around with your werewolf best friend every full moon. The man in front of him, however, gave a whole new meaning to those words. He had ushered him outside with a thinly veiled excuse that was obviously just a way of getting him alone, and now James felt like he was at the most daunting job interview he'd ever heard of.

"If I'm going to stay at your house over the holidays," Lily had said when he invited her over for the Easter break, "then you're going to have to meet my parents first."

James had been momentarily taken aback, but he'd quickly acquiesced. It felt sudden, but he had to meet her parents eventually; and, furthermore, he had wanted to.

He couldn't exactly say that anymore. It wasn't that Daniel Evans was physically imposing; he was short and thin and, while he had the muscles of a tradesman, he didn't have the advantage of magic. James knew that, should it come down to it, he could easily overcome the older man. No; what terrified the teenager was the sway the man held over his girlfriend.

The prospect of meeting a girl's parents was utterly new to him. Given the small size of wizarding Britain, James knew most pureblood and half-blood families by, at the absolute most, three degrees of separation, so he'd never had to worry about it before. If a girl was interested in dating him, it either meant her family was okay with it or she didn't care what they thought. This time, however, he was painfully aware that the Evanses were not okay with him and that Lily did care about it.

And that put all of the pressure on him to impress them. Lily could reason with them all she liked, but they still had to form their own impressions of him independently of that. And, while he didn't think Lily would leave him just because they disapproved of the relationship, he knew that they could make things extremely difficult for him moving forward from there.

"They're Aurors," he replied. After a moment's pause, he nervously added, "I'm not sure what the Muggle equivalent is, but it's a highly respected profession."

"They're the wizard cops, aren't they? Lily told me about them."

Lily. "Yeah." James fiddled with the hem of the shirt Lily had approved, telling him it was suitably smart-casual to be a sign that he was serious about making a good impression without appearing pretentious or overly formal.

The older man sighed. "I think we both know that there is something we need to address before we go back inside."

Stilling his fingers as he fought the impulse to do something with his hands, James nodded.

"What are your intentions towards my daughter?"

"I want to be with her. I'm not ready to say I love her," he admitted. "I thought I did, once, but I've realised that I had no idea what that really meant back then. So I'm holding off on saying it until I know for sure. But I do care deeply about her, and I'm serious about wanting to see where it goes."

Daniel's whole body seemed to relax at his words. His shoulders loosened and his hands unclenched, and James immediately felt that much more comfortable around him. Whatever the man thought about James' personality and compatibility with Lily, he at least believed that his feelings towards her were real. James had been worried that Daniel wouldn't be content without a flowery declaration of love, so the fact that he seemed to prefer honesty over pretty turns of phrase was relieving. "My wife and I trust our daughter's judgement. If she believes you've changed, then we do too. But know this; we have seen her hurt over you too many times already. The next time she comes home crying because you hurt her will be the last time you're ever welcome in this household. She values our opinion just as much as we value hers. I assure you that, while she might date someone we disapprove of, she would never decide to make long term plans with someone we are strongly opposed to."

"I understand."

"Good. Now that that's sorted, should we go back in? You should ask Lily to show you around the backyard."

James couldn't help the smirk that started to spread across his face. "But you already have. You just want a chance to talk to your wife about what I said, don't you?"

Daniel's gaze was assessing, and James instantly regretted his words. To his relief, however, the man merely said, "I think I might just grow to like you. Yes. Natalie did the talk with Lily's last boyfriend, so I got to do it with you, but she'll be anxious to find out what you said." A hint of challenge inched into his voice at the reference of Lily's ex, but James didn't rise to the bait. After a moment, Daniel broke into a small smile and patted him on the back. "I think we're going to be alright."

A/N: Anyone catch the AVPSeries reference?