Ghost of the Past

'Wonderful weather' thought James sarcastically as he stared out of the cracked, dust-covered window, barely making out a few lights which sourced from a few houses in the distance.

The weather suited James's mood perfectly, though; everything dark and sorrowful with occasional bursts of thunder and lightning.

'It has been over two months and still no sign of her'.

He could count to the second he had last seen her, saying goodbye which neither of them presumed could be the last one...

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"I don't understand why you want to go on this mission so badly" James stated, not for the first time, trying to distract Lily from packing her bag.

"It's just like any other mission," he continued, walking around the queen-sized bed towards Lily, who was standing by the open wardrobe. "Ridiculously dull, unbelievably unnecessary and frankly just a-"

"'Bunch of pawns, gathered together at the outskirts of Nowheresville'" completed Lily, not letting James faze her in the slightest as she took out three pairs of tight, black pants and threw them backwards, straight into her bag. She sighed slightly as she surveyed her bag, trying to block out her boyfriend's feeble attempts at persuasion.

"Come on, Lils," he tried again, leaning against a light-blue painted wall to his right. "You know that idiot Fudge won't let women go out on actual missions".

"So you keep reminding, Mr. Auror," said Lily with a tone of impatience with him for being overprotective, and bitterness at the truth in his words.

"You know as well as I do, that none of the things you hoped would happen after you got a qualification to practice Law Enforcement, will actually happen" he kept pressing, hoping to get her to snap at him and start a fight and, as a result, miss her team's portkey.

But Lily just fastened the straps of her bag and swung it over her shoulder. She sighed slightly, again, as she turned to face James with a determined expression.

"I know you're just trying to get me to miss the portkey, James, don't try to trick me. I took the same courses you did, so I know the techniques and codes". With that said, Lily walked pass him and out of their bedroom.

James wasted no time to literally jump after her and engulf her in a prisoning hug.

"Don't go," he whispered softly into her ear, not letting go or having any intention to. He bent down slightly and began trailing soft kisses from her ear-lobe to her pulse point, desperately trying to get her to stay and getting into the mood himself. He knew he won when he felt her shiver, as he pressed his lips more roughly into her skin.

"I'm going on this mission whether you like it or not"

And suddenly Lily was no longer in his arms, since she managed to somehow slip out of them, picking up her wand from the counter and putting it in her back pocket. James rolled his eyes, momentarily distracted from the task at hand, as he recalled that Lily only began putting her wand in her back pocket at the beginning of Auror training, purposely trying to get the Head-Auror, Alastor Moody, to snap.

James was snapped out of memory-lane by the sound of Lily's bag's zipper being zipped up rather roughly. He stared at her closely, trying to detect some sort of emotion in her expression to use as a means of persuasion... but other than peaceful wonder and a spark of confusion, there was nothing in her expression which could he could use.

He sighed, defeated, but with a drowning sense of dread and silently cursed Crouch for assigning him to guard St. Mungo's, while he felt he should be out fighting. His skills were being wasted...

"Okay, I'm ready" said Lily, looking quite excited, as she turned to face James again. Her expression softened at the sight of him looking so concerned and anxious.

"Hey" she said softly, walking over to him and cupping his cheek in her hand. He looked into her eyes and she almost gave in, but she knew she couldn't.

"I'll be back soon" she muttered reassuringly, caressing him with her thumb.

"But there will be another mission" he replied, just as softly, running his right over her back soothingly, while his left hand remained fixed at her waist.

"Well, actually..."

James's eyes narrowed, suddenly alert, staring into his girlfriend's eyes, trying to place that weird glint which took residence in them. He opened his mouth to question her, but she began speaking before he could utter a word.

"I'll tell you some other time".

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And without another word, only a kiss which left him wanting more, she left.

James sighed and once more looked up from his third bottle of firewhisky and out of the window, trying in vain to make out corporal shapes in the distance through the dust and the thick crack he had caused himself a few nights earlier, after finally snapping out of his vegetative state and throwing a bottle at the window...

Only then did he realize the bottle he threw was one of Lily's perfumes which were impossible to fix with magic once broken, as a side-effect from the Sealing Spell. So he spent the following hour scooping up thebewitching scent of the liquidand fixing the bottle by hand, which resulted in quite a few scratches on his hands and arms, but it was worth it.

He closed his eyes, picturing his girlfriend (as of two years before then) sitting on the sofa with her legs beneath her, unknowingly twitching her nose in irritation as she read about Northeren Korea, her sense of justice kicking in...

And he smiled.

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AN: At one point, I considered writing this fic Christmas-fashion... about three seconds later, I remembered I know nothing about Christmas, so... yeah...

This was originally supposed to be a one-shot, but I have two Quizzes tomorrow and homework and I'm not allowed to stay up past twelve, so I better get to it (it's a bit past eleven where I live).

The second (and last) part, will be posted soon... I hope...

Please, R&R...