CAUGHT BY THE RIVER

James approached her cautiously; Lily was highly unpredictable with her nose pressed in a book. "Lily." He said her name as a command, causing her to look up sharply. "How long have you been studying?"

Thoughtful, she folded a dangling leg beneath her. "Hours," she said finally. "It was barely daylight when I started. I need this time, though—N.E.W.T.s are in a week, James."

"Yeah…that's what I thought. Okay," he said, his lips curling into a smile. "Come outside with me."

"What? Why?"

"Just do it." When she didn't move, he grabbed her hands and pulled her out of the chair, careful to stick a place-holding ribbon between the open pages of her book. Biting back a grin, he led her out through the portrait hole and down the corridors.

"James, where are you taking me?" she asked as they headed for a side exit (that no one really used except him and Sirius—and that was only to feel superior, not because it actually made any difference), her nervous laughter filled with uncertainty.

"You're going to turn into one of your bloody textbooks one day if you're not careful," was his answer. "You need a break."

Lily said nothing; she trusted him. If she had to name her biggest weakness, trusting James would definitely be it. There were people a thousand times more reliable that Lily knew well who she wouldn't trust with anything; somehow it was James—arrogant, dangerous, scheming, reckless James—who was the only person whose hands she would confidently place her life in. She honestly didn't know why.

She let him lead her outside, crying out in surprise of the torrential downpour coming down in sheets over the Hogwarts grounds. He took her to the edge of the lake (where, Lily noted sourly, it was even wetter) before turning to face her.

"What's special about this spot?" he asked. His expression told Lily that he was looking for a very specific answer.

She thought for a moment, breaking into a huge smile when she realized: "This is where we kissed for the first time—oh, and it was raining then, too! James, what's this all about?"

He kissed her hand, pulling something out of his back pocket. "I am an incurable romantic," he said with a wry grin, "which is something I blame entirely on you. I've wanted to ask you something for awhile now, and the rain today confirmed my suspicion that now was the right time."

He knelt down and opened the box, revealing a diamond ring set in gleaming silver. "I love you," he said firmly. "I've always loved you. I want to spend the rest of my life together with you. Marry me, Lily?"

She knelt facing him and kissed him tenderly, plucking the ring from its box. "We're so young," she said softly. She smiled at him. "But I couldn't be without you. Yes! I say yes."

She kissed him again, and the rain came down harder.

THE WAY WE GET BY

With Sirius and Remus (or, more accurately, with Sirius) came a huge bag of weed—the good stuff, all homegrown and aromatic and shit. Their weekly visits were James's favorite part of the summer (aside from the whole business of living with Lily), and had quickly become Lily's too.

James loved saying he corrupted her—the thought of defiling someone so sensible and pure gave him the warm fuzzies. It wasn't like she didn't want to be corrupted, though; she'd just never had a proper chance. And she was a bloody good victim—she swore more fluently than anyone James had ever met, held her liquor better than any of the boys, and for all the smoke she inhaled, James thought her lungs must have been made of steel. All of that only made him love her more.

The hottest afternoon of the summer, the lake house was quiet in anticipation of the boys coming, Lily dragging the beer-filled mini-fridge onto the flat roof and James setting up the grill for the night's supper. It was too hot for either of them to have changed out of their swimsuits and the heat was too oppressive for them to care who found them like that. This summer, the summer of eighteen and no more Hogwarts ever and almost-but-not-quite-yet having to face the real world, was the summer of ultimate freedom. They'd all been arrested at least three times, even Remus, and they'd never had quite as much fun. They'd never lived so hard.

Remus and Sirius arrived with their usual loud whooping and yelling that they brought up the best shit anyone would hope to lay their eyes on. Sirius immediately stripped down to his underwear and helped James out with the grill while Remus and Lily discussed Faulkner (a mutual literary passion) over beers.

That night was the clearest it had been all summer, and the heat of the day had transformed into a cool, thick breeze. The four of them sat on the roof, an enormous blanket stretched across their shoulders, and they each held a beer in one hand and a joint in the other.

"We should all, like, get married," Sirius said, exhaling. "All four of us. I mean, I love you guys. It should be like this forever."

They all nodded in agreement and took a long drag—in unison, like everything else they did.

ALL KINDS OF TIME

"I'm not sure how I feel about having a baby now," Lily said, holding her swollen stomach. "You know, with things being the way they are."

James raised an eyebrow. "It's a little late for that, love."

"I know," she sighed. "But we're going to have a baby really soon, and at this point we don't even know how much longer the world itself is going to last. Don't look at me like that, James, you know I'm right."

He let out a breath and kissed Lily's forehead, his hands meeting hers on her belly. "Even if the rest of the world doesn't make it, we have to at least make the baby believe it's all okay," he said softly. "The rest of the world is always crashing down around our ears. Our only job is to love and care for the baby."

"That's not true," Lily whispered, afraid that if she spoke any louder she would cry. "You pretend like we have all kinds of time, and we don't. And I don't want the baby to know that!"

He kissed her reassuringly. "We'll be fine, the three of us. You'll see."

HALLELUJAH

"James," Sirius called, straining his voice above the roar of his motorbike. The house had basically been destroyed, but maybe what he'd heard wasn't true. Maybe they got away. "Motherfucker. JAMES!"

Merlin, this was bad. When the Dark Lord really set his mind to something, you know? Admittedly, the damage wasn't any worse than things he'd already seen, but it still turned his stomach every time. And besides, this wasn't some faceless Muggle home. This was Lily, and Harry, and James.

He got off his motorbike and stepped over the rubble, fearing the worst. His throat ached and his eyes burned, but he refused to cry. Not until he knew for abso-fucking-lutely certain that…

"Oh God." His hand flew to his mouth and he flung himself onto James's cold body. He slammed his hands down on James's chest, trying to make breath come and getting only sore wrists from his efforts. "Oh God. No," he corrected himself numbly. "No. There is no God. Not anymore."

He kissed James's forehead, making all sorts of failing attempts at holding back the flood of tears that already came. He bit his lip and grimly, almost mechanically, he stood on shaky legs, determined to search the rest of the area for Lily and Harry. Maybe at least they made it out okay…he stopped suddenly, his foot coming into contact with something fleshy. He looked down and almost lost it: Lily. Not even two feet behind her was baby Harry, bleary-eyed and confused, a curiously shaped scar on his smooth forehead. His eyes widened and he made unintelligible sounds when he recognized Sirius, his small, shell-shocked body unable to stand.

Sirius scooped him up and cradled him to his chest. "It's just you and me now, baby," he whispered, his voice breaking with every word. Harry nestled his tiny head into the concave space where Sirius's neck met his shoulder. "Hey, little guy…at least we've still got each other."

As soon as Harry fell asleep, Sirius lay down next to James and began to cry.