Summary: James, a doctor at St. Mungo's, saw it as a way to get his long-awaited raise. Lily, the work-preoccupied and somewhat bitchy "rising-star" reporter at the Daily Prophet, saw it as a step to a front-page article. What they both didn't know was what seemed like a simple news story would change both their lives forever.

Disclaimer: Guueess whose this all is? Not mine!

Author's Note: Sorry for the lack of updates. I was in Maine for two weeks in the wilderness without my computer. In this chappie, I gave James a tad more backbone and changed the rating forr...language! Yep.

The story eats reviews. Feeding the story is allowed and appreciated.

The Quill

Chapter Three

By Lady Wildcat

"Well, that's about it." James and Lily were standing once again in the hospital foyer. The tour was over, and it had taken nearly two hours. Lily hadn't said a word except for talking into her pad. By now, James was itching to rip the thing up—although Lily would probably kill him if he did. Literally.

"I need the bathroom." She stalked off in the direction of the public restrooms.

"Hey, James." Marlene, the receptionist, waved him over to her desk.

"Hi Marlene." He leaned on the wood desk, rubbing his forehead.

"Who's the girl? She looks...nice."

"Ha," James said wearily. Marlene, a slightly overweight forty-five year old with dimples, was always trying to set James up with a different girl every week—and if James said no, which he almost always did, Marlene would resort to her niece Jennifer. James supposed that a pretty female companion had thrown Marlene off track. He continued. "Her name's Lily Evans, and she's from the Prophet."

"Oh, the reporter? D'you think I could be in a picture?"

"Possibly...Sirius has abducted the photographer, though."

"Well, Miss Evans looks nice...why don't you ask her out?" Marlene winked. "She's very pretty."

"But not exactly nice," James countered. "I know her from Hogwarts."

"Old flame, eh?"

"No, not really...old Head Girl. Old boss. She's...harsh."

"Oh, playing hard-to-get."

"More like playing I-hate-you-unless-I'm-interested. And believe me, she's not interested."

***

The soap in the women's room was purple. To match the bathroom, Lily supposed. The soap was only a couple shades lighter than her nails, and it soon dissolved into baseball-sized bubbles that floated lightly about the room, drifting into the open doors of the lavender stalls.

That was annoying. Lily sighed, dried her hands on the fluffy purple disposable towel, and took out her wand. She zapped the bubbles, and they all popped simultaneously. There. That was better.

Lily looked in the mirror and fiddled with her hair, not really thinking about the task. That James Potter...she remembered him as being considered a prankster and a goofoff. His friend Black too. He'd gotten a bit more serious with adulthood, but if he goofed off on her article then he'd pay.

Lily grinned slightly as she exited the bathroom. If her memory served her, James had been a little scared of Lily Evans. And if the fear had worn off—well, he'd relearn how to be scared of her.

James was leaning on the front desk, talking to an overweight woman. By the way they shut up when she came into view, she knew they'd been talking about her. She chose to ignore that fact.

"Potter," she said as she approached them. "Start the interview. Where d'you live?"

"In the on-site dorms..."

"Oh, Miss Evans?" The woman—Lily supposed she was a secretary—leaned forward eagerly.

"Ms. Evans."

"Ms. Evans, welcome to St. Mungo's! My name is Marlene." She beamed at Lily.

A fame-seeker. Like always. Lily allowed the woman a sour smile before turning to James. "Let's go, we don't exactly have all day."

"Fine, fine." James set off for the doors.

As Lily followed, she could hear Marlene muttering. "Frigid bitch." But Lily was all too used to that comment by now to react.

***

"This is it?"

Behind her, James shifted uncomfortably. "I tried to straighten it up before you came."

"Well." Lily surveyed the area. Papers and coffee cups were strewn all over the tiny living room, and the scratched, graying table looked like it had been cleaned about a year ago. Some sort of brown and tan hair littered the sofa.

James swept ahead of her, gathering the coffee cups and blowing on the table to raise a cloud of dust. "Sit down, make yourself comfortable." He poured the rest of a glass of water into a wilting plant on top of the bookshelf.

Lily chose the armchair—whatever thing Potter kept that shedded like hell, it seemed to like the sofa better—and sat down tentatively on the faded brown corduroy. She peeked into the kitchenette, where her host was busy stacking cups in the overloaded sink. She took out her pad. "Twelve-oh-seven P.M. In Potter's apartment. Extreme disarray, looks like a tornado hit it. Bad furniture, dying plant."

"It's not dying," James protested from the kitchenette. "It's struggling."

Lily ignored this comment. God, what a filthy place. She flicked a speck of dust off of her robes.

"Hungry?" James was looking in the fridge. "I've got some sandwich stuff here, the dining hall food is horrible—"

A very large brown thing suddenly burst out of the door opposite Lily. It came charging towards her, jumped onto her lap, and started licking her enthusiastically. "God, Hairy, off!" James pulled the thing down, where it sat panting happily up at Lily.

"Fucking dog..." She glared at it. All she could see was that it was big, brown, shaggy, and far too cheerful for her. "What did you call it?"

"Hairy. His name's Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, from the Muggle poet, but Sirius calls him Hairy Henry. Hairy stuck."

Wonderful. Her subject owned a monster named after a poet. Just what she needed. Lily rubbed her forehead. "Listen, Potter, put your dog out of the way and let's get started."

"He'll behave now." He collapsed onto the couch with a creaking of springs, and Hairy laid his enormous front paws into Potter's lap.

"Fine." Lily tapped her pad, muttered "Record," and set it on the creaky table. She dug around in her bag for a cigarette, and finding one, lit up with her wand, taking a deep breath in.

She was about to conjure an ashtray when she felt two fingers pull the cigarette out of her mouth. "Uh-uh." Potter crushed her cigarette under his shoe.

"What the hell—what was that for?"

"No smoking in here," James stated firmly. "Not in the dorm, not in the hospital."

"Dammit, why not?"

"Horrible for your health, plus the smoke can harm types of life support systems in the hospital. I've seen pictures of blackened lungs, and it's not pretty."

Lily glared at him. Slowly, deliberately, she took another cigarette out of her bag and lit up.

"Hey! Did you hear me?" He grabbed the cigarette and crushed it. Then he leaned over, took her bag, and began to sort through it.

"WHAT THE—" Lily cursed, rather loudly, and grabbed the black leather handles. "POTTER, YOU—"

Too late to call him the several nasty names she'd had in store. He'd gotten all of her cigarettes and rose to throw them away. "You'll thank me someday," he said as he rounded a corner to the back of the apartment. A moment later, a toilet flushed, and Potter came back, brushing his hands. He sat down and patted Hairy, a slightly smug smile on his face.

"Fuck you," Lily said icily.

"Thank you. Now, I believe you wanted to do this interview?"

Lily made a low sound of annoyance and got out her list of questions. She looked sulkily at her host. "How long have you been on the MES?"

***

An hour later, Lily had gotten to the end of her list. "Okay, end this," she mumbled as she tapped the pad. Potter got up and stretched as she looked through the notes. The interview had been fairly normal, routine, ho hum. Not much to work with for her whole "doing a service for the public" approach, but she was confident that she'd get more later.

"I'm really hungry." James strolled over to the kitchenette.

Lily dug in her bag for her sunglasses and flipped them open. She put them on and stood, straightening her immaculate gray robes. "I'm going out for lunch."

"Wait." James poked his head out of the doorframe, a sandwich in one hand. "Aren't I supposed to follow you?"

"You don't have to follow me everywhere," she protested. Maybe she could get a smoke while she was out. She got out her wand and started the Apparation spell.

"Wait!" Just as Lily Apparated, James grabbed onto her wrist. They both Apparated into the coffeehouse Lily had chosen.

She shot him a glare. Coming along with her had been a stupid idea. Very stupid. Because now she was annoyed. And when Lily Evans was annoyed, everyone had better watch out.

***

Author's Note: Yay, chappie 3!! Reviiieeeww!!

Best,

Lady Wildcat