Chapter 28

After greeting her grandmother, Lily walked into her room, magically shrunken bags still in her pocket, and flopped down on her bed.

She thought about what she and James had planned. They were going to wait about a year to get married. That would give them both time to get started in their new life away from Hogwarts and to get settled in their new jobs whatever they might be.

Lily sighed. What might come next in her life? Her life had been so full at Hogwarts; how would it be now?

"Dearie!" her Grandma Janet called as she walked slowly into Lily's room, "There's a letter here for you."

Lily took the letter that her grandmother held, and with a peck on her cheek, Lily opened the letter, expecting it to be from James.

Grandma Janet left her to her letter.

"Dear Lily." Said the letter, "I know we aren't the best of friends, and that I haven't even talked to you since mum and dad died." Lily sighed. "But anyway, I'm getting married, and you are invited. I didn't really want to invite you, but you are the last of my immediate family. I suppose you can bring you're boyfriend, (if you even have one), and... yea. It's on the 1st of July at the Real Reel Resort. You know where it is, right near our used-to-be home. The wedding starts at 6:00. Please DO NOT do any… magic there if you come.
Petunia Evans (Soon to be Dursley)"

"Wow," Thought Lily, "I never would have thought."

She looked at the calendar hanging up in her room, (dogs), and saw that it was already the 28th of June.

"Oh my." She thought to herself, "Of course I will go, but it's so soon! She should have written me sooner."

Lily then walked out into the living room where her grandma was watching her TV and asked her, "Did you just get this letter today?"

"Oh no." replied Janet, (We're just going to call her grandmother: Janet from now on), "It's been here waiting for you here for about a month now."

Lily opened her mouth in surprise. "Why didn't Petunia send it to Hogwarts?" she thought, "Maybe because she didn't know how to send it there!" said the smarter, more practical part of her brain.

She went back into her room and took out a paper and a quill.

"Dear James" she wrote, "Love you just as much now as ever before, if not more. It's only been a couple hours, but I miss you so much! I got a letter from my Muggle sister. You've never met her by the way, but she's getting married in four days and invited you and me. You'll come right? RIGHT? Okay, I haven't even unpacked yet so I guess I'm going to do that right now. Give your parents my just recently earned love. I love you SSSOOOOO MUCH!
Lily

P.S. XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO"

Lily put the letter in an envelope and wrote "James Potter" on it and gave it to her owl to take to him.

She then took her shrunken bags out of her pocket, restored them to their regular size, and started unpacking her clothes. Each thing that she took out, she looked at and remembered the times when she wore them and reminisced about Hogwarts.

Then she unpacked her other stuff and put them away in her drawers.

By that time, Janet had called her for dinner.

James and his parents waited and talked with Lily until it was time for her to get on her bus, and then James longingly watched her leave.

"Time for us to go dear." Said his mother.

"Yea yea." Replied James as he turned to the car, "I'm coming."

"She seems like a very nice girl." Said James's dad, watching James unpack.

"She is." Replied James, wishing that he was with Lily right then.

"I bet you just can't wait for the year to pass huh?" said James's dad. (Kevin.)

"Yeah." said James, "It'll be so lonely without her. You know I've seen her practically every day for, like, 3 years."

"Ah." Kevin Potter nodded in agreement. "I remember when I was your age. It was almost the same thing with your mother, but just a little different."

James cocked his head as if saying, "Tell me more."

"Well," Kevin continued, "you're mother and I were like sworn enemies in our 1st through 4th year. She was in a group called the Stars, and I was a loner and a prefect. She and her gang liked to gang up on me and play practical jokes on me, and prank me. When we came back for our 5th year though, we both found out that we had changed a lot over the summer. Well... we kind of got together, and by Christmas, were completely in love. And on Christmas of our 7th year, we both went home for the holidays, and we secretly got married."

James smirked.

"You're parents didn't even know?" he asked.

"Oh no." said Kevin, "They would never let us get married. Let alone at the young age that we were. You see, the Potters and the Hubbards, (James's mom's maiden name), did not get along at all. So, after we got out of school, we saw each other in secret for a while, and then we broke the news to our parents. You can imagine just how mad they were."

"I think I can." Said James.

"Well, both our families were so mad that they disowned us both. That's why you have never seen your grandparents."

James was shocked. "I never had any idea! How come you never told me all this before?"

"Well," said Kevin slowly, "I never really thought about it, and I was kind of waiting until you were going to get married yourself so you would know just how it was for us. You know, love is a powerful thing."

"Wow," Said James. "It really is."

Just then, James heard a tap on his window, and saw an owl trying to get in, so he hopped up and opened the window, recognizing the owl.

He then opened it, and read the letter that Lily had just written him.

"May I ask who from?" asked Kevin politely.

"I think you just did." Said James. "But it's from Lily. She says that her sister is getting married on the 1st of July and she has invited Lily and I."

"Have you met her?" asked Kevin.

"No, but she is Lily's sister, so I guess we should go for her."

"I suppose so." Said Kevin. "I'll leave now so you can write back." He turned to go. "By the way James," he said, turning back, "You still want to try to be an Auror right?"

"Yep." Answered James, getting a paper and a quill.

"Well then you better send a letter to the Auror department saying that you want to attend their school, because you should try to get in this year. If you miss this year's intuition you might have to wait another year, and that wouldn't be good. Besides, I bet they need all the Aurors they can get because of Voldemort. I heard that he's gathering followers and wants to become the next Dark Lord. Don't ask me how I know this." He left the room leaving James wondering.

"Well coming back to reality." Thought James, "Your girlfriend just wrote you and she would very much like to be answered as would I like to write."


"Dear Lily," her wrote, "Ditto to all you said. Love you so much; I miss you! Of course I will come to your sister's wedding as long as you go with me! I'll apparate to your place on the 1st at what time? Do you think we should stay at the hotel there that night? It's a Muggle place right? We can afford it. My dad is, after all, the Minister of magic. Did Dumbledore write and tell you about the teacher position yet? I still want to be an Auror, so I have to write and tell the Auror department about my desire. I'll wait a bit to write and tell them so I can see what you say about it. You know, if that teacher position doesn't work out you could join me in Auror School. Maybe... Okay, I'm sending my owl with this because I want an answer to my questions and so your owl doesn't have to get so very tired coming back and forth. I LOVE YOU! James"

He sent his owl off, after saying thank you to Lily's owl and telling it that it could just go home.

Lily was washing the dishes, excited because she put an automatic washing spell on the dishes with her wand for the first time.

"And who says that the dishes won't clean themselves?" said Lily laughing.

Three owls flew in the room. One, Lily's, flew down the hall to Lily's room, and the other two stopped and stretched out their feet, showing their letters.

Lily took both of them, and recognized the handwriting as both James' and Dumbledore's.

As much as she wanted to read James' letter, Lily put it down and ripped open the letter from Dumbledore, hoping that in contained information about the teacher job.

"Dear Ms. Evans." It said, "I have thought about your offer for a teacher position very thoroughly, but I have decided to reject your offer." Here Lily sighed. "Please do not take it personal, but I have had quite a few letters auditioning for a job here, and you do seem a bit too young. I am terribly sorry. I'm sure it will not be hard for a girl like you to get a job. Perhaps in a few years if you are not satisfied with the job you will have, you could apply here again, but until then I encourage you to do something that you will enjoy. Please do keep in touch; I would very much like to keep in contact with you. By the way, I hear you're getting married. Mr. Potter, correct? Congratulations! You must tell me when.
Always your friend and adviser, Albus Dumbledore"

Lily sighed again. "Oh well. I guess I am kind of young to be a professor. Maybe James' letter will cheer me up." She picked up James' letter and opened it.

"Maybe I should be an Auror," Lily said after she read the letter. It would be dangerous, but at least they could use me for something useful, and I could be near James too! That's a definite plus."

The more Lily thought about it, the more she liked the idea of learning how to be an Auror. She turned James' letter over and wrote,

"Dumbledore just wrote me and said that I was too young to be a teacher. By the way, how did you know I asked him about it? I think that I will try to go to Auror School with you. At least my powers would be used there and not just be wasted working at some Muggle fast food joint. Ha! Come over at 5:30. The wedding starts at 6pm. So since we can both apparate, we can get there fast. Alright, we might as well stay at the resort. It's really nice, and amazingly, not too expensive. Okay, I love you, and as much as I love hearing from you, we should probably stop writing to each other for at least today because the owls are probably getting tired. Love you!
Lily"