A/N: So this will be a kind of reincarnation series, but not in an ongoing sense. Each chapter is a new life and different universe., but both James and Lily have a lot of their qualities from the books. This is basically a series of one-shots, but with the recurring theme that they keep finding each other.
Bank Teller meets Wizzard.
Where James acts like his 5th year self, although they're both in their early 20s.
"Next."
Lily resisted rubbing her eyes as she glanced at the clock. 4:30
"Thirty minutes to go..." she murmured.
She straightened up and watched as a tall, lean man exited the line. He had dark messy hair and kind hazel eyes hidden behind bold glasses. Lily straightened up a little more and felt her cheeks flush. He gave Lily a lopsided grin as he approached her counter.
Cute.
The man stopped just before her counter, and before she could introduce herself, he pushed himself into her window.
"HULLO!" The tall man shouted. He pressed his face close to the glass, allowing Lily to see specks of gold in his hazel eyes. "I. AM. HERE. TO. DEPOSIT. A. CHEQUE." he enunciated, his breath fogging the glass.
"Sir!" Lily quickly spoke into the microphone. "You don't need to shout, I can hear you just fine." She looked around, noticing the weird and irritated looks this man was getting from other patrons.
"Oh…" he grinned sheepishly. Lily watched as he peeled himself off the glass and took a small step back. "With the glass, I wasn't sure." He said tapping the window with one hand and ruffling his hair with the other. Lily's eyebrow twitched, her previous assessments of this man quickly dwindling. Had he been living under a rock his whole life?
"You muggles do the strangest things." he muttered.
Lily ignored his private ramblings and tried to muster as much professionalism as she could. She pressed her finger into the microphone switch. "So, my name is Lily, and as you said you need to deposit a cheque?"
The man nodded, still grinning. "And my name is Potter. James Potter."
James was feeling smug. Mooney took him to the muggle cinema the week before to see James Bond, and he couldn't get over how cool Bond was. The guns. The suits. The cars. The fact Bond was named James. He thought Bond was exactly who he would be like if he were a muggle.
Lily, not missing the reference, swallowed. She hated that movie.
"Right. Well, Mr… Potter. I'm going to need your proof of identification and the chequ."
"Ah, yes. Just one moment" the man trailed off as he checked his pockets. Lily watched as he patted himself down, noticing a stick strapped to his side as he opened his jacket.
Lily raised a brow. What kind of unhinged man carries a stick around?
"Ah, here it is" he exclaimed as he pulled it out of his back pocket, breaking Lily out of her musings. "Now," he started, eyeing the glass. "Just how do I give this to you?"
Lily drew from her remaining patience. "Place it in the tray sir." she instructed, pointing to the golden tray between them. "No, don't stick your hand right through! Yes that's right, just leave it there"
James withdrew his hand and ruffled his hair. "Sorry. First time" he said sheepishly.
"I can tell."
"Now if Sirius were here, he'd say "That's what she said!" he laughed to himself, not bothered she wasn't laughing at all. Lily stared. Just who names a person Serious?
She ignored his crude joke and continued. "Our systems indicate you are not one of our regular customers. Are you interested in opening an account with us?"
"Nah, I already bank over at Gringotts. Mooney said I should come here to learn some muggle skills, with the business mainly catering to muggles and all." he said with a casual air.
Lily sweat dropped. Muggles. Gringotts.
This man talks to the moon?
"I'm not familiar with the Grin-got bank. Is that a foreign bank?"
James snickered. "You could say that...." He gave Lily a wide grin and assessed her up and down.
Lily sighed before continuing. This man was causing her an unnecessary headache. She glanced again at the clock- 4:36pm. If this man hurries, I might be able to dip out of here and walk quickly to Kings Cross, in time to catch the 5:15 train...
She straignted and turned her attention back to him. "Well sir, it's a requirement to open an account with us if you want us to deposit a cheque for you. If you aren't interested, then I am afraid I can't help you."
James frowned. He was sure Mooney left out this detail in the de-briefing. "As long as I don't get any pesky mail owls, yeah?"
"What? I don't follow?" Lily said."If you're worried about the process, it doesn't take longer than 10 minutes to set up and we send the mail with a postman, once a month. It's also free to open"
James scratched his chin. "Whattsa postmun?"
Lily was exasperated at this point. "Post MAN. You know.. he takes the mail ...to your door..." she said slowly.
"Really!?" James exclaimed,"You muggles have people that do that? What are owls for?" he laughed. "Muggles do amazing things. But at the same time are so inefficient."
Lily couldn't tell if that was an insult, but didn't like it nonetheless. "Look sir..." she started as calmly as she could. "In order to deposit a cheque, you must have an account. The account doesn't take long to open. We don't send anything more than an account update once a month. You can also come here yourself if you need to check on the account, or you can call."
James grinned widely. "Is that an invitation?" he said, wiggling his brows.
That snapped her remaining patience. She had dealt with rude customers. She had dealt with elderly customers who didn't know where to start or didn't have the right documents. She had dealt with foreigners who didn't speak her mother tongue. And on occassion, she even dealt with innapproriate customers. But here was this man, clearly English, who seemed well groomed and not much older than her. He was good looking, and someone she might have fancied getting a drink at the pub with. And here he was doing the one thing she couldn't stand more than anything.
And that was being patronised.
Lily had a lot of pride. She was an aspiring doctor, forced to take this job to pay her way through medical school and the meagre apartment she rented. She hated being spoken down to. She envied her classmates that arrived to classes hungover but could leech off their parents. She envied how care free they were at when at her age she was working herself for every penny.
Everything about this man aggravated her. Pretending he didn't know how the postage worked. His odd references and that god-awful hair ruffling he did every 2 minutes. His act that he knew something she didn't. He reminded her of the smug men in her class that would give her lewd comments or promises of a 'good time.' The same men who scraped through her classes but still made it to the next year because of the 'generous donations' made by their parents. He reminded her of so many things she despised.
It had been a long day. Hell, it had been a long week. And here stood a man that sucked all the remaining patience out of her.
"Excuse me?" she deadpanned.
James faltered, his smile dropping from his face, seeing he hit a nerve. He felt himself flush with embarassment. He wasn't used to his charm not working.
"Uhhh.. I- I just-" he stammered, not knowing what to say, having been completely caught off guard.
Lily held up her hand and gave him an icy glare. "I will help you open the account but I will NOT tolerate your rudeness. Understood?"
James nodded so quickly his hair bounced. Lily rummaged in her desk and pulled out a slip of paper and a pen. She placed them in a tray and shoved them across to James. "Take the pen. Click it. Write in your details. Don't make a mistake." she enunciated. She knew she was being very unprofessional and childish. She didn't care.
James took the pen and shook slightly as he wrote with it. He wasn't used to the writing instrument, and decided he much preferred quills. He took his time, trying to not make any mistakes and further insense the red- head. Once he was done, he examined his wobbly writing before placing the form back in the tray.
Lily remained quiet, trying to calm herself down. She took the form and began tapping away at her computer. She then picked up the cheque and continued, not skipping a beat. Once she was done, she printed out a slip and placed it inside a brochure. She contemplated adding her business card, in the end deciding against it based on her impressions. Instead, she wrote out the office number.
"Right. Thats all done." she placed the brochure in the tray and slid it across to James. "This here is your account number." she pointed to a row of digits. "And this, is your cheque book." she said as she handed James a small, black leather book. "You can pay people with cheques, just like this person paid you a cheque" she said as she waved around the previously-deposited cheque.
"In a few weeks, you can come back to collect your card." she sighed. She cringed at the thought of this man becoming a potential regular.
"That was quick!" James exclaimed. He grinned sheepishly, embarassed by his previous behaviour.
"Look, Lily is it? I'm-"
"IS there anything else I can help you with, sir?" Lily forced, cutting him off in a sugary-sweet voice.
"Well no, but listen I-"
"THEN thank you for coming.' she rushed out, standing up and starting to gather her things to head to the station. She started lowering the blind on her window when James hurriedly shouted "Merlin's Beard, don't disappear!" Surrounding patrons once again looked over, irritated by the ruckus this man was causing.
"What?" Lily stopped abruptly, looking James squarely in the eyes, confused by his exclamation. She noticed the other patrons giving them looks, and felt embarassed by the attention they were receiving. "Sir, you need to lower your voice!" she hissed.
"I- I just. I wanted to say I'm sorry. For being an ass." James stammered, shifting uncomfortably.
Lily stared. James gulped. She gave him a long , hard look before shrugging. "It's fine. Have a good weekend, sir." He acted like the asses in her class. But at least this one had the decency to apologize.
"No wait just-" he rushed out, this time in a whisper.
The blind fell. "Don't go..."
On the other side of the blind, Lily heard the urgent plea. She felt no obligation to lift the blind once again. She glanced at the clock. 4:55pm. She knew the manager wouldn't mind if she dipped out now, since she was always early for her shift.
Lily gathered her coat and belongings and signed out. She walked past her colleagues, bidding them farewell and to enjoy their weekends.
Finally!
Sirius loved everything muggle. It started off as a rebellion to piss off his blood-purist family, which slowly grew into an admiration for the non-magic folk. He always thought life just couldn't exist without magic. How could one go places? Cure an illness? Communicate across distances? The more he asked and the more he found out, the more fascinated he found himself. Just the other day, Mooney demonstrated how eelektracitee worked. This morning, he and James took the muggle toob, and they had a great time trying to figure out how to pay and swipe their tickets.
He also appreciated the fashion. Robes were so constricitng, and didn't allow individuality. Now he almost always donned a pair of muggle jeans and a leather jacket. Yes, he decided. If anyone was more backward out the two, it would be a wizzard.
Sirius stretched himself against the wall, admiring the cars and taxis whizzing by in London's rush hour. He occassionally made eye contact with a pretty muggle, sending his signature wink and earning a blushed smile in return.
"Padfoot!"
Sirius straightened up. He turned to see his best mate rushing towards him, out of breath. "Prongs mate! What took you so long?"
"The line was long. But listen, I just met-"
James stopped. He was distracted by the flash of red hair that whizzed past him, neither noticing him or Sirius.
"Oi Lily!" James bellowed.
The red-head froze in her tracks and turned, confused as to who could be calling her. When she registered the owner of the voice, she groaned.
James, relieved that she had stopped, beamed at her and tugged Sirius along as he approached her.
"If this is concerning your account Mr Potter, it will have to wait until Monday. The bank is closing now and I am unable to access your accounts." This was Lily's polite way of saying "I'm off duty, get lost."
James smiled. "It's not, and call me James." He ruffled his hair, feeling self-conscious that he was now really in front of her without a glass barrier. He could tell she was attractive behind the glass, but now he could make out how vivid green her eyes were or the splattering of freckles across her nose.
"Mr Potter." Lily continued. "If this is not concerning your account, I'll be taking my leave." Lily gave him an unforgiving look and began to turn on her heel.
"Inside, earlier, I was trying to apologize-" James started.
"Which you already did-"
"But I would like to make it up to you. Can my best mate and I take you out for a drink? This is Sirius, by the way" James beckoned over to Sirius.
Lily did a double-take. This man, gorgeous but an ass-of-a-man, was asking her out for a drink? She looked over to his friend, the one called Serious. He was equally good-looking, but in a rougish kind-of way. She gave him a polite nod which he returned with a smirk. "He's definitely more Pet's type than mine...." Lily thought as her attention drifted back to the budding headache towering over her.
"Look, Mr Potter-"
"James-."
"James." Lily said through gritted teeth. "That's not necessary. Customers such as yourself are part of the job."
Sirius guffawed, and James's jaw dropped. "Okay, I deserve that but-"
"And I have plans." she lied. She didn't, she was going straight back to her meagre apartment to watch a re-run of Doctor Who.
"Oh." James's face fell. "In that case..." he began. "How about next week?" he pleaded.
"Uh, no" Lily said instantly.
"Then when can I see you?" James begged.
Lily raised a brow. She didn't think it was possible to be more weirded out when she dealt with him in the bank, but now he had just outdone himself. "You can see me if you need to deposit a cheque!" she huffed. "Goodbye Mr Potter." With that, Lily turned and sped towards King's Cross.
"Yikes.. that's a feisty one Prongs.. better luck with the next one." Sirius said patting James on the back.
But James was not perturbed, and had a glint of determination as he stared after Lily.
"Hey Padfoot..." James started, turning to Sirius. "Do you think you could write a cheque to me?"