Chapter 15
Thinking Hurts
Lily sighed as she apparated home. She still hadn't figured out why Intelligence only had a part of the prophecy. There were many possibilities, but none of them seemed likely.
Lily sighed again as she lay down on the couch and draped an arm over her eyes. 'My head hurts,' Lily realized as she started to relax. 'Too much thinking with no answers probably.' she reasoned with herself.
"Long day?" a deep voice asked from the doorway.
Lily lifted her arm and glanced in the direction of James's voice. "Ugh, that's putting it lightly," she muttered as she dropped her arm back over her eyes.
James chuckled as he walked over to the couch that Lily was sprawled on. "Care to share?" he asked as he picked up her legs, sat down, and then positioned the legs on his lap.
"You remember that prophecy that my Father had that Kayla and I found in his study after he passed away?" she mumbled, too exhausted to talk any louder.
"Mm-hm. What about it?"
"Well, apparently Intelligence had the same prophecy. Only it's missing pieces. Pieces of it that would make the whole thing make sense," she explained.
James frowned as he slipped off Lily's heels and began to rub the stiffness out of her feet. "I don't get what you mean. They only have some of the prophecy, and the pieces that it is missing are the important pieces?" he guessed, trying to work out what she said in his mind.
"No, not really. It's just missing pieces that would make the meaning clearer. And what they do have is what seemed like the summary part of the whole prophecy. The part about all of us sticking together, Halloween night, and the darkness, but that is all that it is," she explained. "Mmm. James, honey, if you keep on doing that, I'm going to end up falling asleep on you," she purred as his fingers rubbed the soreness from her feet. 'God, but his hands are magical. Even if they're not attempting to arouse – which they do very well.'
"That's okay," he said as he worked on her toes now. "You need the sleep. And plus, I could always wake you up later," he smiled jokingly.
Lily laughed and opened her eyes just enough to gaze at him. His hair was in disarray as always, his face had a shadow of stubble on it, his blue eyes behind his glasses looked tired, and his robe was crumpled. "What in the world happened to you today?" she asked.
"Ah," he groaned thinking back on his day. "I spent it running all around Britain with Moody looking over some of the villages that have been attacked recently."
"Anything interesting?"
"No. Besides the point that every village we visited had a marking above them. A snake coming out of a skull, and most of the villages were filled with muggles, or held prominent wizarding families."
"You think that it was because he was trying to get more followers?" Lily asked as she sat up, curled her feet underneath her body and looked at her husband.
"It's a major possibility, but it also might be that he just didn't like them, or wanted revenge on the families for something."
"I'm starting to think that he's the darkness that the prophecy is warning us about," Lily confessed as she stared at roaring fire that James must have lit.
James looked at his wife in confusion. What would this crazy old fool want with them? "Why do you think that?" he asked as he reached over to pick her up and deposited her in his lap.
"Because, I don't know. It's this feeling. Like whenever I hear something about him, I start seeing pictures in my mind, and I don't know. It's like a connection," she tried to explain, but failed.
"What do you mean you see pictures?" James asked with a frown.
"Like, I don't know! My mind starts forming a picture, of something. A man in a heavy, black robe with the hood over his face, and the only thing you can see out of it is red eyes, and we're here, in one of the rooms in this house, along with Kayla, Sirius, Remus, and Aria, but they're hidden. It's just you and me. And then, he points his wand at us, and opens his mouth to say something, and then, I snap out of it."
James frowned in concentration. "Is it possible that you're seeing into the future?" he asked.
Lily looked at James, and then laughed. "Me?" she gasped, stilling laughing. "See into the future? That is so funny!" she managed.
James looked at his wife and shrugged. It was a possibility that he wasn't going to forget. While Lily might have sucked at Divination with the old bat at Hogwarts, sometimes, she saw things minutes before they happened. Which was why she was un-shockable at times. 'I wonder how far she can see into the future,' he wondered as his hands stroked up and down her back absently.
"You really think that I am seeing into the future, don't you." Lily said as she looked into his eyes. When James nodded his head, Lily sighed. "To tell you the truth, I don't know. I mean, sure sometimes I can manage to see things minutes before they happen, but who knows how long away this one is. I guess that it's not impossible, but I really don't know about it," she admitted.
"We'll figure it out Lils, don't worry about it," he soothed, knowing that Lily despised not knowing something that was worth knowing.
Lily didn't reply, but she did snuggle further against James. "I love you," she smiled as she looked at the fire.
"I love you too, Lils."
"How about we go up and get some sleep," Lily suggested as she wiggled her but in James's lap.
"Mm. Why don't we?" he returned as he stood up with Lily in his arms and walked up the stairs to their room.
~*~*~
Later on that night, Lily curled into James's side and stared into the dark. He wasn't asleep yet, his breathing wasn't shallow enough for him to be. She couldn't help but thinking that she was already wanting a child. His child. But the problem was, that she didn't know if he was ready or not. Yet, she didn't know how to ask him.
"What are you thinking about?" James's voice sounded in the silent room.
Lily sighed. It was now or never. "James, you remember how we were talking about children the other night?"
James rubbed his hand over Lily's side as he said, "Yes, why do you ask?"
"How would you feel if we were to have one in the next year?"
James stopped all movement and stared at the ceiling overhead. How would he feel? 'Think, something that both you and Lily made together, out of love. A symbol of your love with her. A little girl with red hair, and blue eyes, or a little boy with messy black hair and green eyes. Wouldn't you want to see Lily holding something that you helped her create to her breast while it suckled for milk?'
"I think that I'd be overjoyed," he admitted as he looked down at his wife, trying to read her eyes in the darkness.
"Really?" she asked with a smile. "Then you wouldn't mind if I take myself off of the birth control?"
"No," James smiled. "Not one bit."
Lily sighed in content. Everything was going so right, and in just a few days, Christmas would be upon them. Since they had come four days earlier than they had originally planned, they now had four days until Christmas, and Lily couldn't be happier. She couldn't wait until she could spread her cheer to other people around her. It was going to be hard not thinking about her Father, but she knew that he'd want her to enjoy the holiday. Christmas always was his favorite holiday. He was the one who taught her that Christmas wasn't about St. Nicholas, wasn't about the toys that waited under the Christmas tree for her; he taught her that Christmas was about friends and family coming together to celebrate, it was a time to be nice to everyone, to savor what you had in life. And that was exactly what Lily would teach her children. But she still couldn't help wanting him there with them. Grieving that he wouldn't be able to show his grandchildren the meaning of Christmas, to read them stories like he had done for Petunia and her, or sometimes just Lily. He had always loved kids, no matter who's they were, he loved them.
"What's wrong?" James asked as he felt the coldness of her tears fall on his bare chest.
"Sorry," Lily sniffled, "I was thinking about my Father. I wasn't even aware that I was crying."
"Aw, Lils," James sighed as he held her closer. He knew that she missed her Father around the holidays. Truth be told, so did he. Nicholas Evans was like a Father to him too, and he always seemed to make the holidays – Christmas especially, brighter with his cheerfulness, and his goodwill.
"I'm sorry," Lily mumbled as she cried silent tears. "I just miss him so much suddenly. I just started thinking that he had always wanted to walk me down the aisle to my awaiting groom, but he couldn't, and how much Christmas meant to me with my Father. God, I miss him James," she cried.
"Shh . . . I know, mia amore." He comforted, using a language that she had always felt more connected to than any other.
"Per favore, nonlo lasci, James. Per favore," Lily sobbed.
James quickly tried to translate what she said, and came up with, 'Please, don't leave me James. Please.' "Never Lily, I'll never leave you," he promised, and hoped to high hell that he would be able to keep that promise to her.
It took a while for Lily's cries to stop, and James figured that she fell asleep. "I love you too much to leave you Lily," he sighed as he held on to Lily a little tighter and fell asleep too.
Tomorrow is going to be a long day, James thought seconds before his breathing evened out.
And he didn't know how right he was.
^*^*^*
Authors Note:
I'm sorry that this took so many days to get out, but I was trying to figure out how I wanted to bring Lily's Father into this, and I remember how close to Christmas they were too, and I didn't know what kinds of details I wanted to put in it either. So, sorry!
And for those of you who don't know, mia amore is Italian for my love.
I know that this is a really short chapter, and I apologize, but I didn't have anything else to put into this chapter.
Within the next chapter, Lily goes shopping, Christmas comes, and she gets a flash – but of what?? LoL. Wait to find out!
Review please! I might update a little faster if I get closer to that 200 mark. ::Hint, hint:::
Well, tell me what you thought, and if you liked. And if you want to see any particular thing within the next couple of chapters, tell me, okay?
Always yours,
Mistress del Mare