Chapter 10- Promises Again:

Dumbledore sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"Well Lily, James, I think we now know that my assumptions were correct. He is after you."

"Now here's the BIG question-," said James in a haughty tone that Lily knew all too well; she cut across him before he could finish.

"What do we do now, Dumbledore? Do we move? Do we go into hiding?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "My best suggestion to the two of you would be to keep your moves secret, and stick together."

James snorted. "We've been doing that already and we're not about to stop now."

Lily gave James a stern look; she did not like his manner of speaking at all. He obviously caught the hint, because it was with a much lighter tone that he spoke to Dumbledore next.

"But won't it be better for us to go into hiding, Professor?"

Dumbledore shook his head again. "He's not coming after you just now, he knows better than to just show up at your house. It is my belief that he is still attempting to find out safer means of attacking you. I do not think it is necessary to completely lock the two of you up for an unknown period of time, it would only show him that you feel vulnerable."

"So that's it?" James asked, incredulous. "That's all the advice you have to give us? Do nothing and wait?"

Dumbledore was unabashed. "Have I ever given you a reason not to trust me, James?"

James looked like he was willing to continue with the argument, but Lily stood up and grasped his hand. "Thank you professor, we'd better go now." And she walked briskly out of the room,dragging James with her.

"You could have at least allowed me to finish talking. I think I might have got somewhere!"

Lily snorted. "James the only place you were getting was on my nerves."

"Well that's nice to know Lil, really great. Now our visit to Dumbledore was completely useless!"

Lily and James made their way, hand in hand, down a very packed Diagon Alley, where they would meet Sirius, Remus and Peter at Florean Fortescue's to pick up Harry, and hopefully do a bit of last minute shopping before they headed back home.

"It was NOT completely useless, it's always good to keep Dumbledore informed, and you'd admit that if you weren't stubborn as a brick wall!"

James snorted "That's rich isn't it? 'Stubborn as a brick wall', honestly I can't believe I'm hearing this from you of all people!"

"Oh please, James, I'm not even half as bad as you are!"

"Yeah, sure," said James tightening his grip on her hand and directing her to the table where his friends were sitting, "it took me four years of BEGGING to get you to walk around Hogsmeade with me for an hour."

"Tell me, that promise you made to me about dropping the subject, was that an intentional lie, or was there a grain of truth in it somewhere at that moment?"

"Yeah, I like the way you just changed the subject so you wouldn't have to admit how stubborn you are!"

Before Lily could reply, Sirius had cut in. "Are you two aware that you're still bickering, or do you normally go through the ritual with intertwined hands?"

Lily and James turned to find all three of their friends staring at them. James glared at Sirius, who shrugged. "Only pointing out the obvious."

James turned his attention to Harry who's little legs were visible kicking around inside his stroller. He picked upthe baby and held him close to his shoulder.

"So are you guys going to the meeting tomorrow?" He asked no one in particular.

"Yeah," said Remus, "how are you two going to make it with Harry, Lily's parents?"

Lily shrugged, thinking that given the current situation, they might not be able to leave Harry with her Muggle parents. But James nodded "Yeah, I reckon so, I don't think we can take him."

Lily turned to stare inquiringly at James, but he clearly wasn't going to explain his reply just now.

"Alright," he said, getting up and handing Harry over to Lily. "Meet you here in twenty, then?"

Lily nodded and said good-bye to the Marauders, giving James a peck on the cheek, and made her way toward the wizard shops with Harry.

Lily arrived at the store and gathered some things she needed for the house, as well as extra dippers for Harry and a really efficient looking milk purifier for later on, when she'd stop feeding Harry herself. She was just making her way toward the counter when she felt a hand on her shoulder, she wheeled around, slightly startled, and found herself face to face with Amy Macdonald, who'd been Head Girl in Lily's fifth year, and another girl who Lily only vaguely remembered for being Amy's friend at school.

"Lily Evans!" Amy nodded, smiling.

"Hi Amy, how are you?" Lily said, feeling slightly awkward. She didn't really know Amy, but she had always found her nice.

"I'm fine. And how are you?" And without waiting for a reply, she added."You have a baby."

"Yeah, this is Harry."

"Aw, he's gorgeous Lily!" Amy peered down atHarry. "I didn't know you got married, you're so young."

"Oh, James and I got married over two years ago..."

"James?"Amy raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Not James Potter?"

Lily nodded, grinning slightly. Everyone who had been to Hogwarts in her time knew James.

"I didn't know you dated James Potter." Amy said curiously. Lily felt her cheeks go red.

"Well, that was after you left. We only dated when we were in seventh year."

The girl next to Amy nodded. "I remember he liked you."

"Well, congratulations." Said Amy, Lily thought she sounded slightly breathless. "James Potter, that's a – great catch!" There was something about her tone that made Lily scowl.

"What do you mean by 'great catch'?"

Amy smiled. "Oh don't worry, Lily I was only joking."

"Joking?"

"Well, you know, rich guy, likes you, good wizard, so he's a great catch, especially these days. Isn't he?"

"No," said Lily haughtily, "I'd say it was a great catch for me because I married someone I love."

And with that she turned on her heel and pushed Harry's stroller out of the shop, her head buzzing with things that she should have said. Why did people always assume that she had got married because there was something in it for her? The Death Eaters and blood purists she could deal with, but people like Amy? And Lily knew what the real reason for that insinuation had been; people were always shocked to find out that someone like James,who hadcome from one of the most traditional wizard families inEurope,had wound up with a Muggle-born. She halted at the ice cream store and waited impatiently for James to arrive. She spotted him coming from the Quidditch supply shop.

"Hey!" He said smiling and making his way toward her. "You're back early, are we all done?"

She nodded without looking at him and proceeded to move the trolley as fastas she could down the street.

James stared.

"Are you alright?"

"Wonderful!" she snarled "Never been better. Can we just go, please?"

He placed his hand on hers in a attempt to stop her moving. "Tell me what happened."

"Nothing, James. Nothing! Why do you always have to be notified of everything? Sometimes I don't want to tell you, just because you're beyond me doesn't mean-" She broke off, and moved her hand away from his.

James looked totally bewildered. "I'm sorry Lil, are we fighting? Because I wasn't aware of it."

"I want to get out of here!" She made as if to pull the stroller, but James once again stopped her.

"You are not handling my son in the state you're in, I'm pushing."

Lily moved away from the stroller. "Ok, that's good then James. That's better. People will probably think it's preferred that you manage the baby. I'm really just in this family for the money."

"Lily, what the hell?" His voice was slightly shaken. He pushed the stroller toward the exit of The Leaky Cauldron. "I never said anything like that. 'People will think?' Since when do you care what people think?"

Lily sighed in frustration. "It's easy for you, everyone loves you. You're perfect, you are acceptable!" She waited for him to reply, but he merely continued to look stumped. She did note, however, that there was a slight trace of anger in his eyes.

"I don't want to talk to you when you are like this." He said shortly.

"Good, because I don't want to talk to you at all!"

James merely shrugged. "If it makes you happy. It makes no difference to me."

This only served to irritate Lily further. She moved in front of the stroller.

"You can't even pretend to care, can you? Why can't you at least try and be serious?"

James took a deep calming breath. "Do you like arguing with me Lily?" He asked dryly. "Or is there another reason why I should take your bate? I. Am. Not. Going. To. Fight! And if by now you don't know how much I care, then maybe there is a problem with you."

He continued to push the stroller, looking resolutely ahead, his cheeks burning with anger. A feeling of shame mingled with fury began to rise in Lily's chest, and she felt angry tears sliding down her cheeks. James didn't notice this at first, but as they arrived at Godric's Hollow, he caught a glimpse of her teary face.

"Hey," he said, trying to be gentle, but Lily noticed a slight stiffness in his voice. "Let's talk, alright?"

"I just need some time alone!" She said, and with that she walked away toward the back of the house.

An hour later, Lily moved into the kitchen, feeling both sad and slightly ashamed of having snapped at James with such brutality. She started getting some things out of the storage for dinner. James was sitting in the kitchen table, staring motionless at the floor. Hehad not looked up when she came in.

Lily bit her lip; she had needlessly caused an argument. She wanted to fix it, but wasn't sure whether or not it would be a good idea to bring up the subject again, she therefore decided to make a stab at a conversation. "Are you hungry?" She asked tentatively. James laughed bitterly and shook his head.

"Oh no. You can't do that, Lily." He said flatly, getting up.

"Do what?" She inquired, genuinely confused.

"That! Rage at me for no good reason and then act like you didn't do it." James paused staring at her. "I don't do it to you. You could at least show me the same courtesy."

He roughly pulled out his wand, summoned himself a glass of water and stomped out of the room.

Lily stood there for a moment, torn.And then, making up her mind, she ran after him, reaching him halfway into the living room and grasping his arm.

"I'm sorry! I'm really sorry." He said nothing at first, refusing to meet her eyes.

"I don't want an apology." He snapped. "I want you to tell me why you were acting like that."

Lily bit her lip, and then proceeded to tell him about the encounter with Amy and her friend at the shop. As she had expected James frowned and looked slightly irritated with her, but whatever scolding he might have felt like giving her, he held it in.

"Amy Troster? Isn't she that girl who gave me one week of detention in Fourth Year?"

Lily couldn't help but laugh at this. "She was also Hogwarts Head Girl"

"Yeah, yeah!" James waved a hand dismissevely. "I know who she is, her mother was friends with my mum. Her family was a major failure. Which would explain why she's now trying to find problems in ours."

Lily shrugged. "There was something about hearing it from her..."

"That was not the first time you threw that comment at me Lily. You can't let people get to you like that!"

"Easy for you isn't it? You don't get any of it." Lily replied dully.

James raised an eyebrow. "Oh don't I? And that outburst from you was what? I can tell you now, things like these are always hurtful, but hearing it from you is far worse than from someone else."

Lily hung her head. "I was just irritated, everyone seems to think-"

James grabbed her chin and forced her head upward to face him. "People are always going to talk. If you marry someone rich you're after their money, if you marry someone simpler then you, then it's because you couldn't do better, if you marry someone like you, then you only did it because it's socially acceptable. Just ignore it, alright?" She nodded. "And stop saying things like that to me, its horrible coming from you."

"I'm sorry." She said again. "I just wanted to hear you say that you didn't believe any of it."

James stared at her "You know I don't, it's all a pile of dragon dung. I can't believe you need my reassurance when it comes to this."

She nodded, still feeling cheerless. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her brow. "Lily, I know we are going through a lot, but we can't start taking it out on each other, because if we do we are going to end up ruining our relationship. We can't turn whatever people say into a worthless argument."

"Alright." Lily grasped his hands and wrapped them tighter around her waist. "I'll try and keep my tone of voice at a reasonable level next time."

"Yes you will." James agreed."And you will stop letting things other people say affect you."

Lily smirked. "I think someone is having issues grasping the concept of other people interfering in his life." She said looking triumphantly up at him.

"Well I don't like it."

"No," she sniggered, "you're too stubborn to allow it."

"I am NOT too st-" James began huffily, but Lily cut him off.

"Come on," she said, freeing herself from him and pulling him toward the kitchen, "help me put the shopping away."