Illicit Love
Chapter Nine
Diagon Alley
Dinner at the Evans' home was a wonderful event. Not only was the food gloriously prepared, as Lily always bragged about, but Mr. and Mrs. Evans proved to be very charming. It was the polar opposite of what the evening at the Potter mansion in the Bahamas was like. Despite the fact that it was obvious that the Evans would rather see their daughter with someone more like them, they accepted the fact that Lily was happy. That was good enough for them.
"So, are you excited to start your final year?" Mrs. Evans asked.
"Absolutely!" James exclaimed. "I can't wait to get the heck out of there."
"I'm a bit nervous," Lily replied. "I don't know what I want to do after graduation. I suppose I could marry James and never work a day in my life." James smiled and blushed. "Actually, I think I want to teach."
"Teach? What subject?"
"Charms," Lily said, taking a bite of her lemon-roasted chicken. "It's not my favorite, but I'm best at it. Well, actually, it's one of my favorites. All this magic stuff is thrilling – Charms and Transfiguration are the best."
"What do you plan on doing after graduation, James?" Mr. Evans asked.
"That depends," James answered, sipping his elderflower wine. "I'd like to be in the Department of Magical Games and Sports. I could play Quidditch for a few years, then become an agent. Or I might want to go off on a completely different tangent and work with the Department of Mysteries. I don't really think I will, but it would be an adventure."
"You could become Minister of Magic," Lily said.
"Well, that's what me dad wants me to be."
"Oh," Lily said, understanding. She guessed that that was the sole purpose of why he would play Quidditch, go into business, and marry the Minister's daughter was so he could get a name for himself and become the Minister of Magic. It all seemed brilliant. Knowing Charles Damian Potter, this was all probably fixed since the day he was born. Bribes, deals, death threats – nothing was too low for Mr. Potter.
"Oh, how precious," Mrs. Evans cooed. "All parents hope that their child will be someone great and important."
James glanced at Lily. Either he was wearing his emotions on his sleeve, or Lily was reading his mind, but the look he gave her clearly stated the message that his parents didn't just hope, but they had had it in the bag for him for years.
"Yes, it's true," Mr. Evans said. "For the longest time we didn't know what Lily was going to do with her life. Then, at eleven years of age, she received her Hogwarts letter. We were so proud that she had finally got a calling in her life. So proud that she was going to go off and brave adventures and be something."
Petunia, who hadn't spoken a word all night, rolled her yes and downed her third glass of wine.
"Petunia, on the other hand," Mrs. Evans continued, "we still don't know what she wants to do and she's been graduated since June. Petty, dear, can't you just find a nice husband to marry?"
"Like Lily?" Petunia said. "Yeah, let me just go get a bloody letter off to the freak school, learn a few magic tricks, and bring home five hundred rich, magical guys. That'll work, I tell you."
Mrs. Evans glared at her eldest daughter. "Behave yourself, Petunia."
"I'm going to bed."
Petunia got up from the table and went up to her room.
"Terribly sorry about that, dear," Mrs. Evans said. "Would you like anything more?"
"No thank you, Mrs. Evans, you've done enough and then some. I'm thinking I'm going to have to Floo over here every night to get a nice home-cooked meal." Mrs. Evans blushed. "Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go wash my self up. I suppose I'll meet you up in your room, Lily?"
"Yeah, I'll be there in a minute."
"Great."
James got up from the table also and bowed to Mr. and Mrs. Potter before exiting the room. He walked up the stairs and into the bathroom. He washed his hands and his splashed some refreshing water on his face. Lily met him up in the bathroom and also washed her hands before wrapping her arms around James' neck and thanking him for being such a good sport.
"Lily, your sister was nothing compared to my family. Don't even apologize. Take your apology back right now. Do it. Right now."
"Do what? This?" She kissed his afternoon-stubble covered chin.
"Exactly."
"Well, if you want me to do it again, you'll have to catch me..." She took off running down the hall and into her room, giggling like mad, James following closely behind her. Once they got into the darkened room, Lily threw her arms around James again, kissing him on the lips. She pulled away and walked over to the light switch on the wall. "And God said, 'Let there be light!'" she cried, and flipped the switch.
James looked around at the ceiling, wondering how she did that. He looked at her and grinned. "Come here, Circe," he said, and Lily jumped back into his arms.
"Wait," he whispered. "Something's not right..."
James let go of Lily and walked over to the closet, which, Lily now figured out, had noises coming from it. James grabbed the handle nervously and yanked it open.
"Ahh!" Not one, but two dark-haired people cried at the same time.
"Sirius?" James asked slowly. He looked at the other figure. "Jessica?"
"Uhh...we can explain," Sirius started.
"No, no, don't," James said, putting his hand up and looking away. He shuddered. "You were snogging my sister in my girlfriend's closet?" He shuddered again. "You were snogging my sister? Ewww." Lily giggled. She'd be grossed out too if she found Nick VonBurryn snogging Petunia. "What the hell are you guys doing here anyway?"
Sirius picked himself up off the floor and then helped Jessica to her feet.
"Well, I wanted to come burst in on you guys, but I forgot about the time change, and it was dinnertime here."
"And I had to get here to get your arse back home, dad's been looking everywhere for you. I told him you were unreachable at the Lupin house, so he's really hacked off. I Apparated here to warn you."
"And we sort of bumped into each other."
"Literally?" James asked sarcastically. "You bumped into each other in the closet with your lips pressed together, correct?"
"Oh, get over it, James," Lily said.
"She's my older sister!"
"Yeah, I'm older than you. You don't have to protect me, you know."
"I'm not trying to protect you, I'm worried about Sirius here. You're three years older than him. And you're my sister. How could you, Siri?"
"It's the exact same question as how could Lily snog you?" Jessica retorted, straightening her lavender robes. "That's even worse to think about."
James glared, but Lily and Sirius giggled. The siblings started arguing and Lily stepped around them to hug Sirius.
"How are you?"
"Great, thanks. You?"
"Couldn't be better." He kissed Lily's cheek, then linked his arm through hers. "Let's watch them at work."
Ten minutes later, a very confused Mr. and Mrs. Evans sat down at a full dining room table. They had heard James and Jessica arguing, and figuring it was James and Lily, they had gone up to the room to see if everything was all right. To their surprise, they saw Sirius and Jessica along with the two original occupants.
"Horribly sorry to burst in on you like this, Mrs. Evans," Sirius said. "I was hoping to come and see Lily, but things didn't go exactly as planned."
"Which reminds me," Jessica said. "James, we've got to get out of here. Dad will have our heads if we're not back soon."
James whimpered. "But I don't want to go yet."
"Sorry mate," his sister said. "But we've got to get on the flames."
"All right, all right." James stood and thanked Mr. and Mrs. Potter for the wonderful evening, then the four left the dining room and traveled into the sitting room where Jessica extracted a pouch of Floo power from her pocket. She threw a pinch into the fire and instantly the flames turned emerald green.
"You have three minutes to get your arse into our fireplace, you hear me?" she asked James. He nodded. "You get your arse home too, Sirius." He, too, nodded. Jessica stepped into the fire and called out her destination, then swirled off. Sirius said goodbye to James and Lily, then he too stepped into the flames and called out his destination and zoomed away.
"Thank you for spending the day with me," Lily said.
"I'm sorry I caused mass chaos to be in you house."
"No, you didn't."
"Right, and I'm Santa Claus." Lily rolled her eyes. "Next week we're all going to Diagon Alley. Do you want to meet us up there?"
"I'd love to," Lily said. "Owl me the details."
James hugged Lily and kissed her softly, then stepped into the flames. "I love you," he whispered. Then he called out his destination and was swept away.
Lily's heart beat wildly. He loves me! she
thought excitedly. He loves me!
Lily went back up to her room to get ready for bed. Once she crawled between the sheets, she couldn't sleep, for the 'butterflies' in her stomach were beating their wings a million miles a minute.
* * *
Five days later, Lily found herself walking through the candlelit Leaky Cauldron. She saw many people she knew, sitting down sipping drinks and chatting with their families and friends. Many of them congratulated her on her Headship. She reached the alley behind the pub and tapped the correct brick with her wand, and watched the bricks shift and move to create an archway into the magical Diagon Alley.
Lily looked up and down the street, trying to decide where to go first before she met up with her friends. She decided that she'd like to get some new robes to go with her shining Head Girl badge. So, she went into Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occasions and ordered herself some new black Hogwarts robes and a pair of crimson robes to wear on Gryffindor Quidditch matches, a blue set of robes, and, not being able to help herself, pale green dress robes. The dress robes were very pretty, flowing long to the floor, simple yet flashy.
She checked her watch and noted that she had ten minutes until she had to meet James and the rest of the gang, so she walked out of the shop with her packages and headed down the crowded street to a small restaurant. Upon reaching the little side shop, Lily saw her friends sitting at a table chatting excitedly about Quidditch matches they had seen over the summer and how Hogwarts compared to the professionals.
"Did you see when Pavloc did that dive? Brilliant, that was, I tell you."
Lily decided to interrupt.
"Fascinating though your little minds full of Quidditch, food, and sex may seem, but a woman has entered your presence."
"Where?" Sirius asked teasingly, looking around. "I don't see any woman."
Lily arched an eyebrow.
"Well, now that a woman's here, I suppose we'll have to dumb it down, now won't we?" Peter asked.
"That's fine, Pete – fine, fine, fine. Go ahead and crack your childish jokes, but I'll get my revenge. Payback from Lily Evans is a bitch."
"Thank god I haven't seen that side of you."
"Oh, I'm sure you will. You haven't known me very long, so you haven't seen that side come out."
A tall witch came out to take their orders. The four boys ordered a massive amount of food, and Lily simply ordered cheesecake and an Italian soda.
"I don't know how you guys can eat that much," Lily said. "And that's just disgusting." The boys had taken a little of everything and had mixed it all together, then drenched it in hot sauce.
"It's really good," James said. "Want to try?"
"No thank you. I don't think I'll be able to kiss you for a week."
James grinned, taking a bit of his gross concoction. "That's okay," he said, his mouth full of white, red, green, yellow, brown, and black. "I'll just go kiss my other girlfriends."
"Oh good," Lily said. "I was really starting to worry that you'd make me kiss you."
"It makes no difference," Sirius said, pouring salad dressing on his food now. "He eats like this all the time."
"That's really gross." James shrugged and continued to shovel his food into his mouth. "Why don't you eat the plate while you're at it?"
James looked hurt. "Because if I ate the plate, where would all the other little plates come from? You're totally barbaric, Lily! I'm shocked!"
Lily rolled her eyes, trying to imagine a plate giving birth to another plate. There were bits of turkey and steak in his mixture and he was complaining about eating a plate to save another plate's life. That really made sense.
"Well, when the four of you have decided that you've been gross enough for one day, I'll meet you in Flourish and Blotts. I can't stand to watch you any more."
"We'll be there in an hour," Remus called at her retreating back. "We've got a lot more to go."
Lily wrinkled her nose again as she heard Peter ask for James to pass the steak sauce so he could add it atop of his mountain of muck.
* * *
True to their word, the boys were finished an hour later and met her in the bookstore.
"Where the hell have you been?" she asked.
"We told you we'd be here in an hour, and here we are, an hour later," Remus replied.
"I thought you were joking!"
"Lily, would we do something like that?" Sirius asked. "Play a prank on you like that?"
Lily crossed her arms over her chest. "Yes, I imagine you would."
"Oh, please! We were hungry," Peter said.
"Like your families don't feed you," Lily said acidly.
"We're growing young men and we need the nutrition."
"You need nutrition, not heartburn. Let's get out of here."
The five teenagers walked down the street stopping every once in a while to look in the store windows and to say hello to friends. An hour later, James announced that he had to get back to his home. The other four whined, but walked him to the Floo station, where he would be able to get back to his mansion. "Besides," he whispered to his friends. "That person in the green cloak over there has been following us since we left the restaurant."
Lily glanced out the corner of her eye and saw the person that he was talking about. It was a man in his late twenties to early thirties. He looked very fit and handsome, but his nose was slightly crooked. He was subtly walking a few yards behind them.
"Don't be silly, James," Lily whispered back. "You don't know that."
"Oh, yes I do," James said. "Many people have followed me before, I know I'm not mistaken."
"All right, all right. My parents are picking me up in the Leaky Cauldron in a half hour anyway."
So they walked to the Floo station and James arranged for himself to Floo to his home. As he was saying his goodbyes and getting ready to step into the fire, a voice called out, "James Potter!"
The five turned towards the voice, and saw the man in the green cloak, striding over towards them.
* * *
A/N: Ooohh...a cliffie! How exciting.
Thanks for being patient while waiting for this chapter to come out.
Er…I don't know what else to say, so I suppose I'll move ahead to the thank-yous. Sound good? You don't want to listen to me blab anyway, right?
* * *
Majestyic – You're reading Gilgamesh? I'm probably doomed to read it too. British Literature, you know. All your classes sound challenging. I took Chemistry last year. I loved it! And I love Algebra too! Well, I don't know where a revenge plot is going, but I can try to create one. It would be fun!
Artistic Muse – I'm honored that you have added me to your fave author and story list! Thank you!!!
Uknowwhoslittleprincess
Marzoog – Okay, I have to ask, you're from Minnesota? And you're in England? Are you going to school there? I want to go to England! And, yes, you get a Marauders Map and Channeling Locket.
Jess the Great
Britz –You want to sue to get my purple toe shoes? I enjoy them very much! Since they are dyed that way, they turn my feet purple if I don't wear tights. But I don't wear them that often. They're old, and dyed, obviously. Go ahead and call me Lav; it is much easier, isn't it. You know, if I had known that I would be writing as much as I am, I would have named myself something really original. Now here I am, Lavender, and I can't change it because it's the only name everyone knows me by. Oh well. *shrugs* Let's see...Mr. Potter was drunk during the dinner scene, but didn't show it. The line that Lily said at the end of the chapter was kind of a breakup line and kind of a line hoping that things went well. I'm glad you caught that! It was my intention! It was kind of leaving it out in the wind that if James wanted to stop the relationship, he could. Does that make sense? And I am so honored that you've placed me on your favorites lists. *wipes a tear away* Thank you! One more thing...James' father doesn't work with Muggles, he only buys and sells Muggle and wizarding companies. That's how he made his money, mostly.
Phew! That was really long!
Okay, continuing, for those of you who are still awake:
Gooey Gooey Coca Beans
Olvierwoodschic
Lexie
Anonymous – Don't fail your classes because of me! You get your homework done!
The Lady Lillian
Martini Addict – School sucks! It takes all of your free time! Well, you get your Locket and Map! Have fun and be good.
Calypzo
Meghan
TiniRini - *hands TR a tissue* Ch. 6 made me cry too!
Cjazz – I'm glad you like my quotes. Those are two of my favorites too!
Clavel
Pumpkin Juice
Pickle Princess
Argentum_Lupus – I'm glad you like my wizard inventions. I try. : ) I really like the Channeling Locket and the Labelador (if you've read Harry Potter and the Wonders of the Labelador). Sorry to disappoint you with this story. I just decided that this would be my easy story, and I'd worry about lots of side plots with Falling into Grace. So, there aren't really any side plots here. You're right, it seems sad that it's lacking. I'm going to attempt to work on FG, but that damned writer's block is still there! *sobs* Make it go away!!!! Thanks for reviewing!
Nasha LTM Potter – Get your homework done! I don't want you failing because of me either! Um...nobody's ever asked for an email when the chapters are posted, but I'd be happy to do it if I have the time! Sometimes I write these so fast and I'm eager to post so I'll post it at nine o'clock on a school night when my homework isn't done, so I don't usually have lots of time, but I'll do what I can!
sTaRgIrLeLLiE – I'm sorry to confuse you! Carlos was speaking in English when he was talking about pizza. He wasn't sure about the English name. Both he and Sirius know what pizza is. How could they not? Pizza is wonderful!!! You live in Venezuela? How fun! I bet it's pretty there! Again, sorry to confuse you!
Ma'hi – I try to make Petunia as realistic as I can. Usually everyone portrays her the same. Diversity never hurt anyone. Yes, she's bitter and mean, but she's a human being. You're swamped with homework too? Man! When I become a teacher, I'll not give lots of homework, that way everyone can read and write and take time to do the things they love!
KirjavaLyra – Thank you so much for the compliments! They mean so much to me!
* * *
THANK YOU!!!
* * *
All righty, time for the Souvenir Shop Stop giveaway.
All reviewers will receive a gift certificate to the Marauder's Muck Mix – a restaurant where the four Marauders chef and is managed by a grossed-out Lily. Come on in and receive a hot plate full of horrifically disgusting dishes mixed together. Yum!
Happy reading!
Loves from Lavender