AN: Hi, I'm sorry this took so long, but this is the longest chapter I've written so far.

Also, yevans02, your review absolutely made my day! I actually haven't seen Amelie either but I'm obsessed with the soundtrack, I imagine their short dance being set to Comptine d'un autre été, l'après-midi, as well as La valse d'Amelie. Coincidentally, when I saw your review I was just finishing up an edit of what I think their short dance would more or less look like, it was partly Stepanova and Bukin's 2015-2016 short dance (bc it needed to have the pattern dance) and Turkkila and Versluis's 2018-2019 free dance. I'll see if I can find a way to share the edit with everyone.

Lily was grateful to be back home. As much as she had loved working with Marina, nothing compared to being somewhere she was familiar with, and the Alexandra Palace rink was the only rink that would ever feel like home.

Lily huddled for warmth with Yuna as they headed into the Palace. Lily usually walked with Yuna and Remus from their house to the rink, since the bus usually dropped her off close to their place.

Lily's friends had already questioned her about Marina and Canton right after she'd gotten home, but Yuna seemed to still be bursting with curiosity.

"Did you ask her to show you how to do the Goose?" Yuna asked.

The Goose was an iconic Virtue and Moir lift that in Lily's eyes seemed impossible for anyone else to do. "No, I did not, why would I want Marina to see me smack facefirst onto the ice multiple times?"

Yuna and Remus laughed.

Lily nudged Yuna lightly. "What about you guys though? Are you all ready for Ice Star?"

Ice Star was an international competition Yuna and Remus were attending the following week. Yuna looked down bashfully. "I just hope we do better than the disaster that was our last JGP."

Remus quickly cut in. "Yuna, it really wasn't that bad. We even improved on the free dance PCS."

Yuna shrugged.

Lily pulled her friend closer. "I agree with Remmy, plus I think Ice Star is going to be absolutely amazing for you."

Yuna got the slightest smile on her face, which was enough for Lily.

As they walked into the rink they saw James and Sirius already on the ice with only a couple other people. Lily was almost glad James had gotten there so early, but she knew it was probably more so he could mess around with Sirius before their training session started than for her own benefit.

"Well, it was a nice week of peace and quiet but I guess we're back," Remus said with a bit of a smile on his face.

Sirius and Melanie had had a competition in Germany the previous week, and it had been one of those rare times were things aligned and James, Sirius, and Thomas had all been gone at the same time.

Then Lily realised what James and Sirius were doing and her blood boiled. "What the hell do they think they're doing?"

Yuna put a soft hand on Lily's arm, trying to cool her down.

James and Sirius were jumping. Jumping. Lily approached the boards on a warpath. She didn't even care how loud she had to shout for them to hear her. "What do you think you're doing?"

Both miscreants turned to look at her. "Just jumping a little, Lily," James explained as they approached Lily at the boards.

Lily scowled. "Care to tell me why?"

James shrugged. "For fun."

Sirius nudged her slightly. "Come on, Evans. It was just a bit of innocent fun, or would you rather we tie Snivellus's laces together again?"

Lily would feel her rage building, as it did most of the times Sirius spoke. "You know, Black, if you weren't Melanie's partner, I would've actually murdered you a long time ago."

Sirius's eyebrows raised in amusement. "Cold, Evans." He turned to his friend. "Jamesie, why don't you deal with your dear partner?"

Lily scoffed, if Sirius hadn't left the scene then she might have smacked him. She turned to James, who had, at last, had the decency to look at least a little bashful. "What were you thinking?" She hissed.

James's shoulders tensed into a shrug again, and Lily thought she might actually kill him if he shrugged again. "Like I said, we were just messing around, for fun. I don't know what's so wrong with that."

Lily's jaw set. "What if you hurt yourself? The National Qualifier is in less than a month, we can't afford even one day off at this point."

"I'm not about to catch my death of a double Axel. And you forget I did singles up until a couple of years ago, I still know how to jump." James argued.

Lily crossed her arms over her chest. "Yeah, you haven't jumped constantly for a year, which means you're at a much higher risk of injury if you jump now."

James raised his hand, as if to put it on Lily's shoulder, but seemed to think better of it and dropped it. "I appreciate the concern, Lils, but I'll be fine."

Lily was fuming by now. "Don't flatter yourself, I care about my career." Even as she said it, Lily could tell that was a little too mean.

James didn't miss a beat though. "Yeah, well your career is also my career now, so I think you meant to say you care about our career. And our career will be fine because a measly double Axel is not going to kill it."

Lily wanted to take that perfectly messy black hair and rip it off his scalp. "You're impossible, James Potter."

Lily didn't wait for a reply before she stormed off into the locker room. She threw her locker door open, grabbed her leg warmers, slammed it shut again, and sat down to put on her skates.

As Lily started lacing up her skates, she wondered how would she get through five hours of training with James today without trying to strangle him at least a few times. And for the first time in more than a week, she wondered if she had made the right decision by partnering up with him.

"Lily, you're gonna cut off the circulation to your foot if you keep tying them that tight."

Lily looked up to see Melanie. They both went in for a hug. "I missed you lots, Mels."

"Oh come on, it was a week." Melanie let go and sat down beside Lily. Her skates were already on.

"Yeah, but a week alone with James."

Melanie looked at her friend softly. "I already told Sirius off."

Lily smiled. "Thanks, Mel. I guess since James behaved so well in Canton, I thought he would be the same way here, but I forgot how much of a bad influence Sirius can be for him."

"I warned you, Lily. By themselves, they're more or less manageable but put them together and it's a mess, especially if you throw in Remus and Thomas."

Lily chuckled. "Yeah, I guess."

Melanie brushed a lock of Lily's hair away from her face though. "Will you be okay with him for today though? We can always pretend you got food poisoning in America."

"Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll manage, at least one of us has got to be the grown-up in this partnership," Lily reassured her friend.

Melanie rubbed Lily's arm. "Take a few minutes to cool off, I'll tell Minerva and Malcolm you'll be right out."

Lily smiled and nodded. Melanie was too good a friend. After Lily thanked her, Melanie exited the locker room.

Sometimes Lily truly did not understand how it had been possible for Melanie to put up with Sirius Black as a partner for the past three years. Melanie was the sweetest, most caring and lovely human being to ever exist, and Sirius was, well, a human dumpster fire. But they seemed to work well together on the ice.

Lily still remembered when Minerva had suggested they partnered up when they were fourteen. Back then Sirius, James, and Melanie were the only ones in the group who still did singles, and James was also doing ice dance. No one had really thought Sirius and Melanie would partner up even though they were the only two without a partner at that moment in time. Sirius loved jumping too much to do ice dance, and he would never put in the work in skating skills ice dance required, he was happy with his singles-level skating skills. Melanie probably would've given up singles for ice dance, but she was just too good at jumping for their coaches to let her give it up.

But even without taking all of that into account, Melanie and Sirius seemed just too different. Sirius was loud and wild and messy, and Melanie was calm and nice and put-together. So when Minerva had suggested they pair up, Sirius's initial reaction had been a flat out refusal, but when Minerva clarified that they should do pair skating, not ice dance, they had been curious about it.

Minerva's reasoning had been that although Sirius had a lot of jumping prowess, he always struggled to be consistent with the harder jumps, and Melanie just looked a little bit too lonely out on the ice by herself. Lily remembered seeing them on the ice together and doing a double-take because it just seemed like the oddest thing ever. But when they skated together, it was really obvious they just worked.

It was a weird thing to see. When they skated together – and Melanie had explained this to Lily – Melanie felt like no one was looking at her since Sirius was always such an attention-hogger which meant that she felt more confident to perform on the ice and let herself go, it was like she became a different person, it just seemed like she was on. In return, Sirius's crackling energy became a little more subdued when he skated with Melanie, when he was alone he had always been very intense on the ice, and he was still intense with Melanie, but it just seemed a more controlled intensity. Lily thought that when they skated together, Sirius's first instinct wasn't just showing off, but also showing Melanie off. Her presence seemed to rein in his massive ego.

Lily truly enjoyed watching them together on the ice, they had a lot of presence and it felt like a moment every time, and she would never wish for them to end their partnership. But Lily had no idea how Melanie had put up with Sirius's smug ass for so long, she certainly would have cracked after the first week. For what it was worth, Sirius was always nice to Melanie in what Lily had seen, and Melanie never really complained.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Lily's eyes instantly went to her watch. Fuck, she was fifteen minutes late to practice already.

"Lily and whichever ladies might be in there, if you're naked please cover up, I am coming in."

The door opened.

"Why, thank you for giving us some time to put some clothes on," Lily commented, even though there wasn't anyone else in the locker room.

James smirked. He was holding a disposable coffee cup, which he offered to her. "Peace offering?"

The slightest hint of a smile etched onto Lily's face. She raised a brow. "Is that – ?"

"A skinny latte no cream, no whip? Of course, it is, Lilyflower."

Lily rolled her eyes slightly at the nickname. She took the cup and frowned at the lettering on the side. "You went to Costa?"

"Well, I was going to steal some coffee from the personnel lounge but then I thought you might not approve, and none of the palace cafés are open yet, so yeah, I went to Costa."

Lily was almost touched. But she was still too mad at him. "Thanks," she said shortly.

James sat beside her. "I'm sorry."

Lily sipped her coffee but didn't speak.

"You were right. I shouldn't have been jumping with Sirius, I shouldn't be risking injury right now. From now on, I promise I will only be doing throw jumps with Sirius."

Lily's eyes snapped to James, a murderous glint in them. God, she was real murderous today.

"Throw jumps where I do the throwing," James quickly clarified.

Lily hummed. "I guess I'm also a little paranoid about injuries since that time Severus tore his hamstring and we ended up having to sit that entire season out."

Lily could tell it was taking James an inhuman effort not to make a witty retort about Severus, but he held himself back. "Yeah, I totally get it, Lily. I promise I will treat my body like a temple just for you."

Lily scoffed, her neck taking a reddish tone. "Shut up."

"Would you now do me the honour of showing off our brand new Marina Zoueva choreography to these suckers?" James offered his hand to Lily, and after a second, she took it.

At 6:30 pm, Lily collapsed into a heap on the stands, she had no desire to walk all the way to the locker room.

Mary, Yuna, and Melanie sat beside her.

"Hey, we're gonna stay for the game, you in?" Mary asked.

Lily looked over at Yuna and Melanie and raised a brow.

"Xander is playing," clarified Melanie.

Lily nodded slowly. Her calves were still burning from the last four straight sets of Ravensburger Waltzes. "I'd love to, but I promised I'd do a shift at the diner tonight, and I don't want to let them down since I'm already the worst employee ever."

Mary nodded, understanding. "Okay, baby. That reminds me I need to find a new job."

Mary had had a brief stint working at Lily's dinner, but she had recently gotten fired.

"Can't Thomas's dad let you work at one of his restaurants?" Asked Melanie.

Mary shrugged. "Maybe, but Thomas knows the circumstances under which I was fired at the diner, and I think he might not let his dad make that particular business decision."

"Plus, can you imagine if Mary did what she did at the diner in one of those fancy restaurants?" Lily added.

"Oi, how was I supposed to know you can't – ?"

"Ladies." Sirius interrupted their conversation. "You staying for the game?"

He was holding a hockey stick. Lily tried to erase most of the information she learned about Sirius from her mind, so she'd almost forgotten he played in one of the recreational hockey leagues at the palace.

"We are, but Lily has work," Mary replied.

James appeared beside Sirius, he wasn't playing, but he was probably going to stay and watch. "Oh before you leave, Lily, my parents said Thursday night is good."

Lily blinked, she had almost forgotten. When her parents and James's parents had picked them up from the airport, the Potters had offered a ride home to Lily and her parents. It had probably been one of the most stressful hours of her life. Her parents and James's parents had gotten along great, they had barely remembered to ask their children about Canton because of how engrossed they'd been in their conversation. By the time Lily and her parents had been dropped off, Lily's parents had insisted the Potters come over for dinner as a thank you for paying half of Lily's plane ticket to America, and James's parents had eagerly agreed. James's mum only had to check an appointment she had, and she would let everyone know if Thursday was good for her.

Lily had tuned out most of this since she'd been so tired and had even fallen asleep in bits on the way home. She also had so much on her plate at the moment, that as soon as she started getting stressed about having James and his parents over at her house, she had said not today satan and put it in the back of her mind for as long as possible.

Lily could feel her friends' intrigued stares, and after a pause, she simply said, "okay."

She so did not want to deal with this today.

Lily was so busy the entire week that she barely had time to stress over the Potter dinner. So, by the time Thursday rolled around she felt absolutely not ready for it.

"Lily, calm down, you're not making mashed potatoes."

Lily relaxed her grip on the potato peeler. She was helping her mother finish making dinner so she wouldn't think about her nerves too much.

"Oh honey, I can finish up here, why don't you go finish getting ready?" Lily's mother suggested.

Lily frowned. "I am ready." She looked down at her outfit. She was wearing jeans and a nice blouse, she didn't think it was that bad.

"Oh. I just figured maybe you could wear your green dress, it looks so nice on you."

Lily's shoulders hunched. "It's James and his parents, and we're not even leaving the house."

Mrs Evans shrugged, not looking up from the pot she was stirring. "Well, James is your partner now and I want to make a good impression on his family."

Lily paused. What her mother meant was that she wanted to make a good impression on the Potters because they were rich. With a small sigh, Lily decided to humour her mother and got up.

The door opened, and Lily's sister came in, she had gone out with her dumb boyfriend earlier and Lily had dared hope she would not be back for dinner.

"Tuney, hurry up and get changed, the Potters are going to be here soon." Mrs Evans said.

Petunia frowned. "That's tonight?"

"Yes, so both of you go upstairs and change into something nice."

Petunia scoffed. She argued some more before Mrs Evans chased both her daughters up the stairs with her wooden spoon.

Lily was just as unhappy as Petunia was about her attending the dinner. Petunia and James hated each other, her only hope was that they would try to control their hatred since both their parents would be present.

Lily put on her green dress and brushed her hair, her mother hadn't said anything, but she knew if she showed up downstairs with her hair unbrushed she would be sent right back up. She almost wished she could go to Petunia's room and ask her to do her hair up in a braid, she had always been good at that, but Lily would rather save herself the yelling.

Lily wished her sister didn't hold such contempt toward her, especially over something she couldn't really control. The rift between Lily and Petunia had started forming when they were children, really, and it had crept upon them as they grew older.

When Lily had started skating at six-years-old, Petunia had already started a few months earlier. Lily still remembered holding her sister's hand through her first lessons, when Lily had been so scared to fall.

At first, Petunia had relished in showing her little sister all the moves she knew, but as time passed Lily became the better skater of the two, and at just eleven-years-old Lily had had a trial and been accepted into Minerva McGonagall's group at Alexandra Palace. Petunia had tried to get into Minerva's group too, but she had gotten turned away since Minerva didn't usually coach more than four or five teams at a time. Petunia had also tried to go into Horace Slughorn's group, who also trained at the palace, but gotten turned away as well. Lily was sure she would've been accepted into one of the two other coaches' groups at the palace, but Petunia had refused to even try.

So Petunia stayed at their old rink, barely holding on to a partner for more than a year, her short temper driving them away. Back then their relationship had already been fragile, but the tipping point had been 2012 Nationals. Both sisters had qualified at the junior level, Lily with Severus, and Petunia with whichever poor soul was her partner at the time. It had been Lily's first time at Junior Nationals and Petunia's third time. The previous year Petunia had gotten the bronze medal and hadn't shut up about it since, and she hoped to improve her result that year.

But much to Petunia's chagrin, Lily and Severus had won the title, and Petunia had ended up in fifth place. It had been almost impossible for Petunia to accept that her thirteen-year-old sister had just won the junior national title over her, she had thrown a tantrum and even berated their parents for letting Lily compete at the junior level even though she was still young. Long story short, it had been a shitshow.

Things had calmed down eventually, but within a few years, their relationship was in shambles. The next three years, the exact same events had taken place at Junior Nationals, Lily had won, and Petunia had ended up off the podium. Lily knew her sister was a very proud woman, and she would probably never accept that her kid sister kept beating her.

Petunia had ended up quitting skating when she started college, she now wanted to know nothing about skating and pretended she didn't care for it anymore. Lily didn't understand how could someone just up and decide they're going to quit skating just like that after dedicating over twelve years and countless hours of training to it. Lily couldn't even imagine her life without skating.

By the time Lily and Petunia came downstairs, the Potters were already arriving.

James's parents were actually quite nice, Lily had no idea how they had managed to raise such a mess of a son. Lily could tell her mother was a bit embarrassed by how cramped their diner table was with the three extra people, but luckily none of the Potters acknowledged it in the slightest.

"Rose, didn't you just want to go to the rink yourself to see this amazing new program? Fleamont had to stop me from going the other day, he didn't want me to embarrass him." Mrs Potter said. "But I know my baby would never be embarrassed by his mother."

Mrs Potter took James's chin in her hand and squished it, he looked like he wanted to die. A slight smirk played at Lily's lips.

Mrs Evans seemed amused by the woman's antics. "Oh yes, I'm so excited to see it, Lily's been talking about how amazing Marina's choreography is, but she says we can't see any of it until their first competition so we'll get the full effect once they've rehearsed thoroughly and with costumes."

Mrs Potter's eyebrows shot straight up. "Oh, of course!" She turned to her son, "James, I've changed my mind, I don't want to see it until the Qualifier."

"As you please, madre," James replied.

Mrs Potter turned back to Lily and her mum, with a grin on her face. "Oh, and costumes, we should really get a move-on with that. What costume designers do you like? Here in London, we've liked Melina Malkin and Herbert Fortescue, my favourite costumes of James's have been made by Helene Dupont in Paris but we probably don't have the time accounting for shipping and all that."

Lily and her mother exchanged a nervous glance. Lily spoke, "Um... well most of my costumes have been made by mum, only occasionally we go to this lady my aunt knows who doesn't specialise in figure skating costumes, but does a good job."

Mrs Potter gasped dramatically and turned to Mrs Evans. "No way, you make her costumes? I've seen Lily's costumes and they are absolutely gorgeous every time, I can barely hem James's trousers!"

Mrs Evans smiled. "Oh, well, it was hard the first few times but once I got the hang of it, it was quite enjoyable actually."

"That is seriously amazing, I thought we could make a parents group chat to share some ideas for costumes and other important info about the kids, but I don't know if the men would be up for that." Mrs Potter looked at the men in question.

Both Lily's and James's fathers made agreeing noises non-committally.

Lily was already scared of said group chat. Her eyes caught James's across the table, who looked at her with fear in his eyes. Then he eyed his mother's mobile on the table and discreetly shoved it into her handbag. Lily held back a giggle.

Mr Potter spoke up then. "D'you kids reckon you have a chance of making the World team?"

Oh boy, Lily really did not want to talk about that.

Lily's father looked at her cautiously out of the corner of his eye, he knew it was a stressful subject for her. She tried to remain calm and gave her father the smallest hint of a smile.

"Well, since Narcissa and Evan got us those three spots last season, I'd say they've got a pretty decent chance, especially since Lily got the bronze medal at last year's Nationals, and James was the Junior National Champion, and with Marlene and Ted's retirement, I think they're a shoo-in." Mrs Potter quickly put in.

"Penny and Nick will probably come back in full force this season though," said Mr Potter.

"Yeah, and there are three spots, after Narcissa and Evan, and Penny and Nick, who else is gonna beat them, Fleamont?"

For a second, Lily was worried James's parents were going to start arguing right there, but Mrs Potter's tone was more teasing than actually angry.

"I think it's best not to make any assumptions before we see the reception we get before the judges, both nationally and internationally," James said, and Lily was glad she didn't have to speak.

"Yes, of course, but you guys already have both the Euros and World spot in my eyes."

Lily smiled, she might actually genuinely love James's mother.

James quickly shifted the conversation to football and Lily allowed herself a moment to breathe.

Lily risked a look at her sister, who hadn't said a word all through dinner. And just as Lily had been expecting, Petunia was fuming, it was admirable, really, how she had managed not to snap yet. She'd probably stayed quiet so far because she knew she would get an earful from their parents if she was rude. She settled for stabbing her food and then excusing herself from the table as soon as she could.

Lily thought she might go do some damage control with Petunia upstairs, but she figured it was better to let her cool off a bit. Plus, she was too tired to deal with Petunia's shit at the moment.

Lily had thought Mrs Potter would lay back on the conversation once the football talk started amongst the men, but she joined in just as enthusiastically as she'd been talking about skating.

James got up several times to refill his mum's glass. Lily theorised his niceness toward his mother sucked all the polite out of him, and that was why he was never so nice to anyone else.

Mrs Potter said something to James in Spanish sharply, and he immediately straightened up in his seat from the slouch he'd been in and wiped his hands with his napkin. Lily held back a smirk. Who would've thought? James Potter, a mama's boy.

By the end of the night, Lily found that the dinner had not been half as bad as she'd been dreading. She still wasn't entirely sure if she should be scared or relieved that hers and James's parents got along so well.

After some lengthy goodbyes, the Potter finally headed to their car, but James hung back at the doorway, which Lily's parents quickly vacated. Traitors.

"Thanks for the dinner, that was great," James said.

Lily nodded. "Well, my mother made most of it, so."

"Right." James looked like he wanted to say something else but thought better of it. "So, I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Bright and early."

"I wanted to – "

James was interrupted by his mother yelling at him from their car down the street. "James Joaquín Alberto, apúrate que ya sabes que la comida inglesa me cae mal, tengo que llegar a la casa a vomitar para poder comer algo de verdad."

Lily had no idea what the string of Spanish James's mother had just yelled meant, but she seemed a little desperate.

James sighed. "Oh, my mum, she's um... I should go. I'll see you, Lily."

James ran to his car, his parents already inside, with the engine on.

Mama's boy.