Title: Every Marriage is a Mirage (EMM)

Author: Arista Ramabra

Rating: T

Disclaimer: See chapter 1.

A/N: Enjoy!

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

Recap of Chapter 2: James and his father talk about James' marriage and James eventually accepts with a condition: he'd only live with his wife for a year unless he liked her and married life.

Chapter 3- Agreement?

Divorce. The word echoed in Aaron's head. Divorce.

Divorce. Divorce? Was James bloody insane? How could he go about exploiting some poor girl's heart? She'd probably think she was in it for her life only to find out at the end of the year that he wasn't in it for the long run. It was just so that he could appease his heart that he was indeed carrying out one of his mother's last wishes. Aaron knew that that was why James had agreed to marry in the first place. He'd always been close to his mother- even when she'd died. He'd taken all her belongings and hid them in his room 'so that they couldn't take it away.' Who 'they' was, Aaron had never found out.

But now… Now, James was being very, very, very difficult. How could he even think of letting some innocent girl get caught in the middle of James' anger towards him? The poor thing!

"Ron?" asked James softly, breaking the ice that covered Aaron's brain. He looked up, startled.

"Ron?" he asked again. This time, Aaron was ready. Oh yes. He was ready- to rant.

"James Potter! How could you even think of this… this… scheme that you've cooked up? Is it your wish to face some girl's wrath after she finds out that you only married her because you had too? That you didn't love her? That after a year her life was ruined? Because I assure you that no girl- no matter how hard you look- is going to agree to those terms." Aaron paused, taking a deep breath. But before he could continue he was stopped by his son.

"Ok. I've listened to what you've got to say. Now it's your turn," James stated firmly. "Firstly there were a couple of mistakes with what you just said. I don't have to marry; I want to." As Aaron opened his mouth to protest, James held up a hand telling Aaron that he wasn't done yet.

"I could have said, 'No, I don't want to marry, go ahead and die' if I wanted to. But you never made me accept. At least not literally. Second thing, I'm not looking for a girl. You are."

Aaron who'd opened his mouth to talk again shut it promptly and started at his son.

"Wha- what?" he finally managed to stutter.

"Since I can't find a girl I'm assuming that you can," James said, perhaps a little coldly.

"James… you must be joking. I-" Aaron protested weakly.

"Now are we on to this deal or not? Are you going to accept? For this is the only way I'll marry- and you know it," finished James, looking down at his fingernails, as if ignoring his father's weak protests.

Finally Aaron replied. "Do… Do I have a choice?" he asked.

James shook his head. "No. Not really." He turned on his heel and walked out of the kitchen- heading to his room, leaving his father to stare at his retreating back.

Sometimes James could really be unfeeling, thought Aaron before he too went to his room and tried to find solace in sleep.

-x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x-

Aaron awoke the net morning, a little late, having very little sleep due to horrible dreams of what his son was making him face. He stood up shuddering at the very thought. Then Aaron decided to submit himself to the day and decided to have a word with James before going to work. So Aaron hurriedly showered and dressed and knowing that James would be out on the pitch he apparated there. True enough in a few minutes he spotted James tossing around the quaffle with the other two chasers. Aaron sat on the stands waiting for James to notice him. Eventually James noticed and said something to his teammates and rode down to meet Aaron.

He inclined his head. "Ron."

"James," Aaron replied. He cleared his throat.

"Yes?" James asked coolly, impatience written on his face. Aaron felt like he'd been stabbed in the heart. With a very, very sharp knife.

"James… you can't be serious… Please don't make me… I don't want to ruin some girl's life… I can't find a girl to be your toy…" Aaron pleaded with James but James just looked at his father.

"You promised." He'd said it. The magic words. And Aaron immediately knew that he had no choice. After a minute's pause, he sighed.

"What kind of girl do you want?" he asked his son, resigning himself to defeat.

"It's your job to find a girl that you like. I'm marrying the girl that you choose. If I end up liking her than I'll stay with her for the rest of my life. If I don't than well… you know. It's all up to you." And then he turned around and went back to his game.

-x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x-

Aaron shuffled into his office, for once in his life feeling the age he looked. He slowly walked to his desk and sat on the chair behind it. Then after a moment's pause he pulled out his wand and conjured a bottle and a glass. He poured himself a drink and sipping it slowly he thought about what he had to do. He sighed. Where on Earth was he going to find a girl that agreed to the terms of his son? He paused and set his drink down. He had no choice. He'd told him he was ok with it. But now he was almost wishing for death. He'd heard stories of divorced women and men but not the exact details. He wasn't entirely sure what would happen to the unfortunate woman that ended up his son's wife.

He slowly picked up his drink once more, thinking of places to look for a girl. Coming up with nothing, he decided to just ask the first girl that came through his door. As if on cue the door opened and a girl with long blond hair came in with a bunch of files.

"Sorry for not knocking Mr. Potter," she said as she entered, pushing the door open with her back. "I had a bit too much on my hands to be able to knock." Aaron shook his head.

"Not a problem." The woman placed the folders on one of the chairs and said, "Here are the records of the Death-Eaters you wanted."

"Thank you, Alice," he said sighing in relief, knowing that he couldn't ask her; she was engaged to Frank Longbottom form the same department. Then successfully having delivered the files she walked back out the door, shutting the door behind him.

There was a successfully failed plan. He decided to wait for another girl to walk in- this time accessible. His wish was granted for no sooner had he taken another sip of his drink that the door had opened once more and another girl carried in a bunch of files, entering in much the same way as her predecessor.

"Here you go, Mr. Potter," she said, placing the files on the other, unoccupied chair. "All the files I could find on the 1855 Death Eater reunion."

"Tha- Thank you Lily." Aaron found his mouth dry, unable to speak properly. "Um… Lily?"

Lily, her hand on the door knob spun around. "Yes?"

"Uh…" He rose slowly walked to the door. She stepped aside allowing his to open the door. He opened it, looked around on both sides before shutting it and locking it with his wand. Lily was shocked. She turned to face him.

"Mr. Potter?" she asked, uncertainly. "Wha- D- I- Why?" she finally managed to ask.

"I want to talk to you, Lily," he said. "Drink?"

Lily shook her head. "No thanks."

Aaron pulled out his wand and banished the solders to a shelf on the other side of the room, giving Lily a place to sit. "Sit."

She sat, swinging her long, auburn braid away from her face. "Sir, what is this about?" she asked curiously.

"Well… My- Is it OK with you if I…" he gestured to the bottle and glass.

"No! No. Go ahead," she said hurriedly, a tad bit confused.

He sipped his drink again. "Well… My son… she… I mean he…said… My wife promised… I promised her… he'd marry…" he stuttered. "I broke my promise… He never married… I'm a bad person…" he whispered.

Lily then spotted the tears streaming down Aaron's cheeks, her eyes widening. This was the Aaron Potter who'd not lost control or determination when 23 of the 40 army of aurors had fallen. The Aaron Potter that didn't quit when there wasn't one single person that believed his theory of the Death-Eater's killing ritual, even when he delivered eye-witness accounts of it-until several ministry workers had accidentally come upon it, proving Aaron's theory. And the same Aaron Potter was sitting before her, crying because he'd broken a promise to his wife. Lily was really shocked.

"Sir?" she asked, cautiously. "I… What can I do, sir?" she asked, finally making up her mind to help him.

Aaron shook his head. "No… no… I can't… you're such a good person…" he was speaking almost to himself, as if trying to decide whether or not to ask Lily something.

"No sir. It's OK. Feel free to… to ask… whatever you want!" Lily cried earnestly.

Aaron looked up at her, wiping his tears hastily, his eyes expressing shock. "You mean… anything?" he whispered. "Anything?"

Lily nodded after a short pause. "Anything."

"Really?" he confirmed, one last time, one last attempt, one last emotion: desperation.

"Really." Aaron's expression changed to something that Lily couldn't identify. Was that happiness? Relief? Shock? Sadness? Pride? Lily's mind was very dizzy, unable to comprehend how exactly a person could express all those emotions at one single time. She herself was only capable of feeling only one emotion at a time- which most of the time was anger, frustration or exasperation.

Then Aaron spoke, in a small, low voice. "Anything…" he said, as if reassuring himself. "Then, will you marry my son?"

Lily had honestly been expecting a large magnitude of things but nothing as… as indescribable as this! It was beyond her wildest dreams- and she had a never-ending stack of those. No, Lily had never dreamed of her superior, someone as… as esteemed… as important as Mr. Aaron Potter proposing to her in the place of his son. And she had a few things to say about that.

"What? You… you must be kidding!" She jumped up, out of her chair, as if ready to fight. "I don't… I don't even know your son! He… He wants me to marry him? He must be-" she stopped herself, thinking that Aaron might not be too happy with her telling off her son. The words kept circling around her head, Will you marry my son? She was feeling dizzy, almost as if she was going to fall down.

Then as the magnitude of the situation grasped her she lost a lot of her vigor. "I… How can you… Why me?" she asked, sinking back into her seat.

Aaron looked at her. "I'm sorry."

Lily was shocked. "No, no… I just… it was… why?"

Aaron didn't answer the question, at least not directly. "Will you meet my son?"

Lily was taken aback. "What?" she asked.

"Will you meet my son? He's a chaser for-"

"I know your son, Mr. Potter. He just doesn't know me."

"Oh." Aaron was surprised. "From Quidditch?" he asked. Not many people followed the team James played for.

"From school," she said. "Hogwarts."

"Oh. Then you… you don't need any introductions. I'll let him know you're stopping by," Aaron said.

Lily's mind screamed in protest. No! You never said you'd meet him! But Lily ignored it and said, "OK." The two letter word that'd just determined her fate.

Aaron smiled a very genuine smile. "Thank you Lily. I owe you so much." Lily nodded. But just how much she didn't know just then.

Oh yes. He owed her. He owed her big-time.

-x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x-

Lily was angry. Actually more of, 'Lily was frustrated.' And Frustrated Lily often led to Angry Lily. And Angry Lily always lost control, meaning that she often said more than she meant to or ended up hurting people- physically. So James was in for a shock when he found someone sitting on the stands, glancing at her watch every few minutes and glaring at the sky.

Lily had gone to the Quidditch pitch at 7:00 when there had been 7 people practicing. One of them, a girl, had flown down after a while after heading to the locker rooms she'd showered and come out, calling out something to the others before walking down by the stands where Lily was sitting.

Catching sight of Lily the girl asked, "Hello there! Are you waiting for some one?"

"Yes," Lily replied. "I'm waiting for James. James Potter."

"Oh. Let me get him for you. JAMES!" she bellowed.

Lily flinched. She'd never liked loud voices, even when she'd been a small, hyper child-hyper, yes; loud, no. The girl left soon after, assuming that James would come down, followed by a guy- one that Lily knew wasn't James, followed by another (also not James) and two girls. She waited impatiently for James to come down. Just as she'd made up her mind to leave, thinking he wasn't going to come down for a bit, the two remaining players landed. She hurried forward to meet them, but they entered the locker rooms. She sped up a bit and jogged to the locker rooms. She had every intention of entering until she saw that sign that said, 'BOYS.' She silently cursed and stood around for a bit until the two boys came out.

They came out, 20 minutes later, running towels through their soaking scalps. James caught sight of Lily first and gave her an once-over. He nudged his companion and he too looked her over. They seemed to approve of her for they came over to her.

Lily, who'd been watching the two guys intently resisted rolling her eyes and held out her hand as they approached.

James grasped it first. "Lily Evans," she said.

"James… Potter." Lily nodded.

"I know," she nodded, and then extended her hand to the other guy. Expecting him to shake it, she was shocked when he took it lightly and then raised her knuckles to his lips and kissed them. "Sirius Black, mademoiselle," he said softly.

She hesitated, but just a moment. "Lily Evans," she finally said.

"So…" hurried James. Sirius and Lily looked at him, startled. "You are here?" he finished lamely.

Lily and Sirius looked at each other. Lily raised and eye brow, turning back to James.

"Yeah. I'm here." Sirius started to laugh openly.

James colored deeply. "I meant… my father said… you'd be dropping by… I just forgot kinda… sorry."

Lily shrugged. "No problem."

"You want to walk around or something?"

"Or something. Why don't we go to that café near the ministry? They just opened it a couple of days back. Jesse's Coffee and Snack Bar or something like that?" Lily asked, starting to feel a little cold. James shrugged.

"And Sirius…" Lily started to ask. James immediately cut in. "He can take care of himself."

Sirius shrugged. "Sure. I'll be in my apartment if you need me." James grunted a response. Sirius then turned to Lily, winking at her. "Have fun."

Lily rolled her eyes, already knowing how to handle Sirius.

-x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x- -x-

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" James asked. James and Lily were sitting at a table at the almost empty coffee shop, sipping coffees.

"Well… your father said to meet you and something about marrying…" Lily trailed off, still not comfortable enough with the topic to talk at length about. She just prayed that James would understand what she was talking about. It seemed that her prayers were answered for the very next thing he said was:

"Oh. Oh. Yeah I… are you ok with the… with the agreement?" he asked, a bit hesitant.

"Agreement?" Lily asked in return, placing her coffee mug on the table, sensing that it was important.

"Oh well… should I tell you?"

"Please James. If I am to be marrying you then shouldn't you kind of trust me? And really, anyone would like to know what they're getting into. I'd like to know what this marriage holds for me." James just started at her, kind of blankly. Lily sighed.

"Just tell me, James."

James took a sip of coffee, as if just to wet his lips. Then he said, "Well… I didn't really want to marry. But because of some family complications I had to… so I just told my father that… he could pick out any girl for me." James once more took a sip of his coffee. Lily hoped that it would end there but she knew there was more. "And I said that I'd live with any girl he picked out for a year unless I liked her… a lot… and also married life with her."

Lily was silent. It took a couple of minutes for her brain to understand what James was saying. He wanted to play with her life. He wanted to ruin it! And she'd not let any man treat her as a toy! James could see the anger growing in her eyes. He could sense her heating up. He'd seen her get angry in school before and that was truly not a pleasant sight. He gulped, hoping for the best, preparing for the worst.

"Lily?" he asked, cautiously. "I-"

"Don't say anything!" she hissed. "Do you think that women are toys? Things that you can just play with whenever you want? Do I look like I want to be treated the way you're proposing? ARE YOU BLOODY INSANE? How dare you… you throw this proposal at me?" She spat put the word proposal as if it were a disgusting word. Her tone and harsh words almost made James want to cower in fright. But then he told himself, "James! Be a man, be strong! What can a woman do to you?"

He put on a face that looked seemingly uncaring as he turned to face her again. But he never realized that he'd spoken aloud until Lily used his words against him.

"What can a woman do?" she asked him, shocked that he had such a low opinion of women. "I'll show you what a woman can do! I woman can hurt a man more than a man can hurt a woman. A woman will only be hurt is she lets a man hurt her. I'll show you. But for now this will do," she said, as she noticed that the few people in the café were looking at them. She grabbed her purse and started to walk out the door when she turned back. She placed the money for her coffee on the table and then walked to the other side of the table, stopping straight in front of James. She paused for a moment before swinging her arm back and slapping him full force on the cheek.