We Have To What?

Chapter 5

Getting Closer

A/N: Yes, yes. Other fics to do…but I know you all like this one, so don't complain. :) I don't really have anything interesting to say, so read on!

Responses are at end of chapter.


Lily stepped up to the door of the house, which actually appeared to be a set of flats. It was tall, made of brick, and slightly menacing. She supposed that was because it was dark and she was in an unfamiliar place.

She knocked sharply, and then turned around. "Potter!" she said exasperatedly, "come out from the bushes. I don't want to have to drag you in."

She heard some rustling and muttering, and a tall figure emerged from the bushes next to the porch.

"Yes, yes, alright." Lily was about to reply when the door opened. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw who it was.

"M-Mr. Minister!" she said, but that was all that she could get out.

"Hello," the Minister for Magic replied warmly, eyes crinkling in a smile.

"I-I…" she started, but couldn't finish.

James stepped up hurriedly, and stuck out his hand to the Minister, who shook it. "Mr. Potter," he said. "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Minister. This is my wife, Lily. We've actually come up from Cornwall to holiday. London is a lovely place."

Lily watched James' little speech with horror and fascination. Horror because she didn't want to be known as his wife, but fascination at his diplomacy and the way he smoothed everything over. No one would doubt that they were a newly wedded couple from Cornwall.

Suddenly, she felt a pull at her naval. It was suspiciously like the feeling of taking a portkey. She felt herself being pulled along, but no one was touching her.

'Apparently,' she thought, 'the spell does work.'

The evening passed quietly, and she made small talk with the wives of the important men who had been invited for dinner by the Minister. Well, it was quiet until one particularly gossipy lady whom Lily disliked immensely, came up to her.

"Hello, darling," she drawled, drawing out the ahh in darling far too long for Lily's taste. Inwardly, she grimaced, but put on a smile.

"Hello Mrs. Park."

"Please, call me Patricia."

"Right. Patricia. Hello Patricia."

The woman laughed, a high, strident laugh, and then took Lily's hands in her slender, overly bejeweled ones.

"Darling Lily, we," and here she waved randomly about her, "the ladies and I, have noticed that you and your daaahhling husband," there was that awful word again, "have not touched each other all evening. Is it not customary that newly weds are still so much in love that the just cannot keep their hands off each other."

Lily grimaced again, but unfortunately could not think of an excuse quickly enough to please the terrible Patricia Park.

Her luck seemed to go downhill from there, because, at that moment, James came up behind her and touched her on the shoulder.

She turned around and gave him a pleading glance, but he seemed to take no notice.

"Lily darling," there was that WORD again. Even James was using it! "The men are going into dinner with their wives."

She felt Mrs. Park jab her shoulder, nudging her closer to James. She stumbled on an unruly bit of carpet and fell into him. He grabbed her by the waist to stop them both from tumbling, and they both turned scarlet.

"There's a good girl," the lady said, "just take his hand and we'll go to dinner. It's customary, you know."

At this point, both Lily's hands were clenched in fists, and she refused to open them, clenching her eyes shut, wishing that it were all a dream.

She felt a warm finger stroking her hand, and she opened her eyes again, looking into the hazel gaze of James Potter. He leant down, and Lily swallowed, wondering what he was doing.

"Just ignore them," he whispered into her ear, sending strange shivers down her back. "do as they say, and we'll get through this together." Lily felt herself melting, fists unclenching.

James' hand slid into hers, and she felt herself burning up again. Suddenly, her temper snapped, and she whirled towards him.

"We don't have to listen to them," she whispered hotly. "What if I don't want to touch you?" James looked taken aback, and inwardly, Lily felt sorry for her words. Outwardly, however, she was still furious. "Next thing you know, they're going to make us…kiss or something." She spat out the word as if it was vile to her, and turned away.

Everyone else had left for dinner, so the parlor was empty of people. She suddenly felt the familiar wind, and groaned. The letter came seconds later.

This time, neither bothered opening it. They couldn't move six feet from each other, half of the last amount. James grabbed it and stuffed it into his jacket angrily, and stuck his elbow out.

Lily was confused until she realized that he was offering his arm. She placed her had on it gingerly, and they both walked into the dining room.

They both spent dinner not saying a word to each other, but instead striking up conversations with the people on their other sides.

Lily talked to a fifty-something man who worked for the Department of Muggle Artifacts. He was slightly eccentric, but Lily enjoyed listening to his stories about things that witches and wizards had done to torture muggles.

On James' other side was a pretty blond young witch who was pregnant. During their conversations, they found out that they were related, somehow or other. James found it difficult to hide the fact that he wasn't from Cornwall.

As the end of the dessert course neared, the Minister cleared his throat at the head of the table, and everyone looked towards him.

"We will now be going to the drawing room to play some charades." There was some applause, and one by one, everyone left. Once again, James and Lily were the last ones left. Lily childishly stuck her tongue out at James, and flounced out of the room.

Unfortunately for Lily and James, it seemed that the "prize" for winning was to kiss your spouse. First on the cheek, then a peck, then a nice long kiss, then you were shut in a closet for five minutes.

The first couple to win four times, and subsequently, the first one to be shut in the closet was the couple with the pretty blond pregnant girl. She seemed shy, and a blush covered her face when they first went in the closet. When they came out, she was pleasantly flustered, and the rest of the room applauded.

For a while, no one noticed that Lily and James were trying desperately not to win. Alas, it was not to last. The annoying, pushy and gossipy Mrs. Patricia Park finally saw that they were the last couple not to have kissed at all.

"Oy, you two! Are you really that bad at this game? It's not rocket science you know." James was confused at her wording, but Lily blushed next to him. "You look like two cardboard boxes next to each other, not even touching. I thought you said you were newlyweds."

"W-we…" Lily began, but once again could not think of a suitable excuse. She vowed to spend the next three weeks coming up with suitable excuses to every possible scenario she could possibly encounter.

"We'll win once," said James. Lily started to protest, but James put his hand on her mouth. "If it will get them to shut up, be happy about it." Lily nodded, and James dropped his hand. Lily's mouth felt oddly warm from his hand, and empty without it. She felt herself wishing that he could touch her again, but before the thought could progress, Mrs. Park stood up and started a charade.

It was so obvious from the beginning that Lily wanted to shout it out, but she hoped that she could prolong her reprieve from being kissed, even if it was only on the cheek.

Mrs. Park was having none of that though, and neither were the other guests. They also knew what it was, but turned to Lily and James expectantly. James turned to Lily with a questioning glance, and Lily rolled her eyes.

"It's a tree," she said, hoping earnestly that somehow that was not the right answer. It was not to be so. Mrs. Park nodded and the other guests applauded.

Lily found her face being turned, and James kissed her cheek with unnecessary flourish, causing the other guests to laugh. Lily turned bright red and briefly touched the place where James had kissed her, a little in shock.

James noticed and took Lily by the arm, standing up. "I'm afraid my wife is not feeling well, but thank you for the lovely evening, and I hope to be seeing some of you again sometime." The other guests said their goodbyes, and soon Lily and James found themselves outside again.

Lily rounded on James as soon as they were out of earshot of the house. "Why did you go and do that Potter!" she whispered heatedly. "Couldn't you think of some excuse?"

"What's the harm in a little peck on the cheek?" he asked, brows furrowed angrily. "They would have asked questions if we'd have refused."

"Well, you should have let them ask questions!" she exclaimed, but she knew she was being totally unreasonable.

"Maybe you actually enjoyed it," James retorted, and Lily gasped, hand flying to her mouth, "and you didn't want anyone to know."

"No!"

"Maybe you actually wanted to go further. Mabye," he said, whispering now, somehow holding Lily around the waist and staring into her eyes, "you wanted to be in that closet."

Lily shook her head adamantly and squeezed her eyes shut. She knew she was being childish, but James was scaring her. She shouldn't be feeling all these things for him, but she was, and it scared her.

James was still holding her, and both their breathing was erratic. Lily slowly opened her eyes to find James still staring at her intently.

She wasn't sure afterwards if either of them had moved in to kiss the other or not, but she was sure that she was ready to kill the large lorry backing into the end of the street.

The two teenagers jumped apart like startled rabbits, and James cleared his throat. A slight breeze picked up, and another letter appeared. Lily and James groaned simultaneously, both having forgotten that they had argued.

"It's going to be three feet now," Lily whispered, not quite sure she trusted her voice yet.

"Yeah," said James. "Well, come on, we better get going home."

Home.

For some reason, Lily liked the sound of that.


When they got home, however, Lily was not quite so happy.

"You are not sleeping in my bed!" she protested adamantly.

"The bed is more than three feet high! I can't sleep on the floor next to you!"

"Yes you can!"

"Evans! You're being ridiculous!"

"No I'm not!"

James just rolled his eyes and walked over to what was to become his side of the bed. Forgetting the three foot rule, Lily was dragged behind him for several steps before she could regain her balance. She could tell that it was all that James could do not to laugh.

"I have to get dressed first!" she said.

"Well, if I stand outside the door to the loo, that doesn't give you much maneuvering room. I'll just turn around."

"You-I…" Lily protested, but then realized that he was right. "No looking," she said.

"I wouldn't dream of it," he replied arrogantly.

Lily dressed quickly, very well aware of the tall presence standing behind her. If she took one misstep, she could touch him with her bare…something.

Lily crawled into bed first, facing away from James.

"No touching," she said.


Much to her dismay, as she woke up, Lily found that she had broken her own rule. She was lying face down with her left arm across Potter's bare chest. He was still asleep, so she quickly removed her hands and jumped out of bed.

Well, she tried to jump out of bed at least. James was jerked up by the movement.

"What is it?" he said groggily, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

"Sorry," Lily said sheepishly. "I forgot about the rule."

"'s no problem," he replied, speech still slurred.

Later that morning when both completed the morning rituals which were much more difficult with a limited range of motion, the familiar wind blew. Lily frowned.

"We didn't argue!"

"Maybe it's not for that," James replied, and took the letter and opened it.

Dear Mr. Potter and Ms. Evans,

Congratulations on finishing the first task with flying colors! Your distance restrictions have been lifted. Unfortunately, it's not over yet! Your next task will be slightly different.

I have sent, along with this letter, a vial of Polyjuice Potion. Your job is to assume the guise of each other for one day. (The make up of the Potion has been altered to make it good for twenty four hours, and not just one.) Have fun and go shopping in Diagon Alley. Make sure to meet up with your friends!"

Yours truly,

Albus Dumbledore.


A/N: Wow, longest chapter yet! I'm proud of myself.

Review Replies:

Lady of Mabolle: Eew…yuck…no romantic duets. Worry not! Lily might take a shower next chapter, as she has become James. That should be interesting.

Sheyana: Never fear, I'll be using your idea soon.

Alenor: Sorry about the feet/metres thing. I'm pretty sure I also used feet over there. But as a translation, three feet is approx. a meter, six feet is the height of the average man (about 180 cm). You can probably figure out the rest from there.

Tamsididi: Yeah, the not being able to move part was fun. Unfortunately, it has to be over. Maybe I'll reinstate it sometime. I'll be glad to take a peek at your story…as soon as I find time! Lol

Coco-Pop: yeah, I liked the shopping scene, even though sometimes I find scenes like that sort of boring.

A Potter Lover: See? I'm updating soon…

Queen-Guinevere-Gwyn: Sorry I couldn't make you remember…but the problem was that there was no shower, just a toilet, and James is obsessed with his appearances, so wants a full accommodating bathroom. Lol…

Chaserchick4sirius: Thanks! Hope you liked this one too!

LaBOBuren: Lol…I wont…he's too gentlemanly for that.

Man eating plant: Thanks! I didn't think it was so original myself, but apparently, it is.

ChristinaMarie15: Thanks! And for future reference, it's spelled hilarious. Maybe that'll help :P

Kittenlover2: Yep, they will. Thanks for your review.

The-power-of-love: I'm updating!

Please review!