Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the other characters that are in the Harry Potter books. J. K. Rowling does, like everyone already knows.
Author's Note: Thanks to dee, kimmy, cilverblood, PammaPotter, pasmosa, degreeofguilt, Black's Gurl, britboyzrsexy78, pale pink roses, KLLRS, TigerLily, Loveable, Laura Johnson, katrina, hi, sblomie, Mia, Babigirl2246, Desolation Lily, and Blackgirl5 for reviewing the old version of Love Affair.
Thanks to x0x-Mystique-x0x, evahyoung, drumer girl, bananaslugg, Juicilyn, On3-ShoT, Rose Angelz, Harry and Ginny 4eva, phoebe, bluejeanmistress, Fairy-GYAKUTENNO-MEGAMI, sunlitmist, blaiselover, wh00t, Liljean15690, i-LuV-cHaRmEd18, sugur-huny-bun, riotgirl72, Vanilla Sugar, oKateMateo, GryffinWings, julies07, Angel's Only Shadow, PorcelainxDoll, tigerlily141, bratski and Mia for reviewing the newest version of Love Affair! You guys are definitely the best!
He was all alone, darkness surrounded him. He couldn't hear anything but the sound of his own deep breaths. He tried to adjust his eyes, seeking to see anything at all, but couldn't.
He was searching his eyes violently around, even turning in a small circle. He didn't dare to move though. That was one of the first things he learned while training to be an auror, never move from your spot when you can't see anything. You never know what's around you, booby-traps, cliffs, anything could be there.
Then he saw it, a distant light. He strained his ears, trying to hear anything. Eventually he heard footsteps, they were getting louder as each second passed. The light was becoming clearer as well, but he still couldn't tell who the carrier of the light was.
A second later the entire place was lighted, revealing a small cave. He couldn't see the opening though, just walls of rock. It looked old and cold, bats hung from the roof.
He looked up at the man who had previously been carrying the light and a shiver went down his back. Lord Voldermort stood in front of him. He was tall and thin with dark, sleek hair. He wore a cold smile on his face, almost as if he knew something that no one else did, something dangerous and evil.
"James Potter, I've finally got you here," he said.
James didn't move from his spot, only stared at the most feared wizard of all time. His heart was beating fast and he could feel his palms becoming sweaty.
"Do you want to know why you're here?"
"What do you want?" James boldly asked.
"I want you on my side. You're a powerful wizard, you could do great things," Voldermort said.
"No, not with you, anything with you wouldn't be great," James remarked.
"You stupid boy, I'm making you an offer. No one declines my offers," Voldermort coldly stated, stressing the "no one" part of his speech.
"Well, then I'll be the first."
"I don't think so," he began, "You see, I know what means the most to you, or actually, shall I say who means the most to you."
James's heart began to race faster, what was Voldermort up to?
"Bring her out," Voldermort demanded.
From the corner of the room, a section in the rock wall began to move. It slowly turned completely around, revealing two people. He couldn't tell who they were yet, as they were both concealed by the shadows.
A second later a man appeared. James recognized him immediately. Only one man had blondish-white hair as long as that. It was Lucius Malfoy, one of Voldermort's most prized Death Eaters.
He yanked on the arm of the other person, bringing that person into the light. James gasped as Lily appeared. Her hands were bound together by rope and her mouth had been taped shut.
"Now, you see Potter, that if you don't join me, she'll be killed," Voldermort simply said.
James could hear Lily struggling to say something, but the tape prevented any actually words to be understandable.
"If you touch her, I'll kill you," James threatened.
"Kill me? Is that so? And how were you planning on doing that? You have no wand," Voldermort responded.
James instinctively reached inside his pockets, but amazingly his wand wasn't there. It was odd; he always carried his wand in case of an emergency.
"Now Potter, do we have a deal? I'll let this filthy Mudblood of yours go if you agree to join me," Voldermort casually said.
James racked his brain for something to do, anything at all. God, he wished he had his wand. If he did, all his problems would be over. He'd be able to save Lily and get away from joining the dark side.
"Having trouble deciding?" Voldermort asked James, and then to Malfoy said, "Take the tape off of her, I want him to be able to hear her scream."
Malfoy did as he was told and the moment the tape was off of her lips, Lily screamed, "James, do something."
James's heart was beating even faster. He needed to save Lily, that was all he knew he needed to do for sure. But how could he go over to the dark side?
"Bring her to me, Malfoy," Voldermort instructed.
Malfoy did as he was told. He fiercely grasped onto Lily's arm again and thrust her toward Voldermort who then in turn tightly held onto her arm.
"James, help," she begged.
"You heard her, Potter, help her. Join me, that's your only option," Voldermort said.
"James," Lily cried out again.
He couldn't stand still any longer, he ran toward her and quickly grabbed her into his own arms. Oddly enough, it was surprisingly easy to capture her away from Voldermort, but James didn't question it at all, he was just glad that Lily was in his arms once more.
"You stupid boy, I can kill her just as easily from over there as I could from here," Voldermort casually said.
His heart started beating fast once more, "Lily, I love you. I always have and I always will, never forget that…All that time, I loved you. Even after Hogwarts, I always thought about you. I love you, I love you so much."
"James, I love you too," she told him, moving her body closer to him as she spoke.
"Awe, now isn't that sweet," Voldermort sarcastically said.
Then without warning, James heard the last thing he ever would hear, "Avada…"
James bolted upright, nearly knocking Emmy off of the bed. His heart was beating like a race horse. His entire body felt hot and he could feel sweat on his forehead.
"James," Emmy groaned, "what the fuck was that for?"
It took him a moment to realize that it was all a dream. He wasn't getting murdered by Lord Voldermort, he wasn't with Lily, none of that happened. Instead he was in his bed, safe and sound.
He looked around him for a moment and saw that Emmy was practically falling off of the bed. She was hoisting herself up while trying her hardest to keep the sheets over her body.
"Sorry, I had a dream and woke up, didn't mean to startle you," he said.
"Oh, sweetie, it's okay," she said, her voice was a lot gentler now. "Was it a bad dream?"
"Um, yeah," he replied.
"What was it about?" she asked, almost sounding motherly.
"Um, um, actually I can't remember right now. All I know is that it was scary as hell," he replied. This, of course, was a downright lie. He knew exactly what he dreamt about. He knew that it was Lily in his dream, not Emmy. He knew perfectly well every single emotion felt during that nightmare. But he certainly couldn't tell Emmy about it. He couldn't tell her that his nightmare involved another woman. That would be like digging his own grave.
"Oh, okay then," she said, completely oblivious to the lie.
He sighed and glanced over at his clock. It was nearly 6:15; he had another fifteen minutes before he usually got up for work. It wasn't worth going back to sleep with so little time left.
He rested his back against the headboard on his bed and just sat there. Emmy, however, went back to sleep. She was curled up, her back towards him. He ran his fingers over her hair and smiled. She was a great person, a truly wonderful girl.
But why then, was he having dreams about Lily?
---
James checked his watch, which told him it was quarter of eight. He took a deep breath in and out as he waited in line to get cleared into the Ministry of Magic. It was a slow process these days, now with Voldermort getting stronger every second.
Today, however, James didn't mind waiting in the long line. All it meant was more time to stall going up to the office and seeing Jason. As hard as it was to work with him before, during the affair, it would be even harder now.
"Next," came the voice of the security guard.
James walked up to him and showed him both his apparition license and his official Ministry card. Back in the old days, the only I.D necessary was the Ministry card, and other people could get a visitor's pass. Now though, Ministry employee's needed to show two forms of identification. And visitors had to show one form of identification as well as be accompanied by an employee of the Ministry.
In addition to all of this, it was required that you presented your wand to the guard to check what your last spells were. Anyone found using an Unforgivable Curse was immediately sent to Azkaban Prison, and anyone else using harmful spells wasn't admitted into the building. Plus, it was required that you pass through a devise that was ironically inspired by muggles. This devise could sense any sort of Dark Magic material. Even some things from joke shops could set off the machine. Those items would then have to be cleared with the guards before you were allowed to enter the building.
James handed over his wand and then walked through the devise. As usual, everything was fine and he was allowed in.
He took as long as possible to get to his office. He went to get a cup of coffee before putting his things away, and then he went over to the Quidditch department to check the status of all the teams.
He stalled for nearly half an hour before he knew that he really had to get to the office. Even then he walked slower than usual.
It couldn't wait any longer though, especially now that he was at the door. Al he had left between him and Jason was this door. James couldn't help but think about how he really didn't want to go in there. Not only would he have to deal with his own urges to ask about Lily, but he was assuming that Jason would be pretty upset, after all, Lily probably dumped him.
But when he opened the door, James was very surprised to see Jason smiling and in a rather pleasant mood.
"Have a nice weekend?" Jason asked.
"Um, yeah," James replied.
"Must've been nice, having four days in a row off…I really can't wait until Friday. It's my turn for the long weekend, Friday through Monday off," Jason commented.
"Yeah, it's very relaxing," James said, although his weekend wasn't relaxing at all.
"I'm going to surprise Lily and take her up to a lake house for the weekend," Jason said. He sounded like a child at Christmas, as if he was dying to tell someone his plans.
"Really?" James asked, very surprised at Jason's words. Was it possible that Lily hadn't dumped him?
James couldn't believe it. She gave him 24 hours to decide his own fate, when she hadn't even broken up with Jason. He could feel the anger boiling inside of him. What if he did choose Lily? Would she be playing him again, just wanting him to have one woman to love while she had two men of her very own? He was glad that he didn't choose her then, glad that Sirius spoke up before he ruined his life.
"Yeah, I've been planning it for a while," Jason began, "I mean, with all the work I've had to do, and her taking up all sorts of new activities and visiting her sister so much, it'll be nice to have a weekend just to ourselves."
James smirked a bit. This guy had no idea at all, he had no clue that all those new activities and Lily's sister were code named for she was visiting him.
In fact, James just realized that he could change this guy's life with just one word. He could tell him everything; he could ruin it all for Lily and Jason. All he had to do was tell Jason that his beloved Lily wasn't so innocent.
He was truly ready to do it, but then saw Jason gazing at a picture of Lily and him sitting on a beach together. Could he really ruin it for his partner? Could he really be the one to tell Jason the truth and change his world forever, a world that he loved so much?
He couldn't. He wouldn't do that to Jason, he didn't do anything wrong, so why go and mess up everything for him.
"So, um, how is Lily?" James asked, trying his hardest not to sound too obvious.
"Oh, she's great. Actually she's off visiting her best friend's family. She should be back the night before I plan to take her away on vacation though," Jason replied.
"Is she really?" James said, it wasn't a question. Off visiting Carina's family, now that sounded odd.
"Actually, you went to school with Lily, so you may know her. Carina Gallagher, ring any bells?"
"Um, yes, I remember her. She and Lily were practically inseparable as far as I can recall," James replied.
"Yeah, they still are," Jason laughed.
A few moments later Jason looked up and said, "Speak of the devil, she must be back earlier than expected."
James immediately looked out of the open door and saw Carina walking straight toward their office.
"Carina, what are you doing here?" Jason asked.
Carina smiled at him and replied, "Actually I was here for a job."
"What? I thought you said your Ministry days were over," Jason said.
"That was before the best job I could get was a bartender," Carina responded.
Jason laughed, and then said, "Good point. So what job are you here for?"
"Well, actually, you're looking at the new secretary for the American Magic Ambassador," Carina answered. "The old secretary moved to New Zealand, she was so petrified with all the Dark Magic going on now that she took her kids and left the country."
"Wow, but Carina, I didn't know you were interested in being a secretary," Jason said.
"Yeah, well, it's better than bartending," she replied. "But anyway, I figured I'd tell you here in person rather than writing you that Lily's sick. She can't leave the house and I don't recommend coming over, she's really contagious. I'm lucky that I didn't catch what she's got. The nurses at St. Mungos said that since I haven't caught it already, I won't get it, but they said not to let anyone else in the house until she was better."
"Oh my God, is she going to be okay?" Jason asked, a truly concerned look on his face. James too perked up at hearing this.
"Yeah, she'll be fine, just give her a few days," Carina answered.
"Okay, tell her that I love her and can't wait to see her though," Jason said.
"Will do, but now, I'd better get going," Carina told Jason. She completely ignored James the entire time she was there, and didn't even acknowledge him as she was leaving.
"Um, Jason, I'll be right back," James said as he leapt to his feet. He ran out the door and ran into the elevator with Carina.
"What do you want?" she bitterly asked as the door closed behind them.
"Is she okay?"
"Why do you care?"
"Listen, just because I'm not seeing her doesn't mean that I don't care about her," James said.
"She's not sick," Carina honestly said, "That was just an excuse so that she could have some time to herself."
"Why wouldn't she want to see Jason?"
"Why do you think? She's a fucking mess thanks to you," Carina angrily spat out.
"What?"
"Believe it or not, but for some fucked up reason she actually really liked you," she replied, the anger wasn't leaving her voice anytime soon.
James didn't say anything.
"That's right, Potter, you broke her heart. Thanks to you she hasn't been out of bed since she came home without you Saturday afternoon. Thanks to you she's been crying her bloody eyes out," Carina furiously said, her voice was getting louder and louder at each word she said.
"I, I didn't know," he sincerely said.
Carina took her wand out and said a simple spell to make the elevator stay exactly where it was, so that no matter how many buttons were pushed, it wouldn't budge.
She then turned to face James and said, "Cut the bullshit innocent act you've got going on. You broke her heart and you bloody well know it, you did from the moment you didn't show up."
"Carina, I, I don't know what you want me to say."
"I'm warning you, Potter, you've broken her heart twice already, and if you break her heart one more time, I'll break every last bone in your body."
"Did you just threaten me?"
"Yes," she answered.
Author's Note 2: I hope you guys all liked the chapter and please remember to review! I promise, I won't keep you guys waiting too much longer for Lily and James to get back together!