Okay, I know I said I'd get the chapter out earlier but I didn't manage it.
I hope you like the chapter. It's not much but it's something that's
important for later on. I tried to show James' emotions here but I'm not
sure if it's working...
Anyway back on with the story.
Home is where the heart is
James POV
One thing that I never felt for Sirius was what I was feeling now – hate.
Okay, hate maybe a little too strong a word, but I certainly wish to Merlin he wasn't here right now. When we got to the small cottage that we were renting, it was discovered that it only had two bedrooms. Naturally, we wouldn't be gentleman if we didn't offer Lily the room to herself. The thing is that now, if I wanted to spend some quality time with Lily, I would have to be asleep in the bedroom when Sirius went to bed and there when he awakes in the morning. There is no way I'll be able to manage that because, surprisingly enough, Sirius was an early-riser. It was getting too bloody tiring to lie to him and I was never that good at it in the first place. I swear there have been too many close calls in the past, but no matter how much I hate it, I have to keep Lily's relationship and mine from him. It's not just my secret, it's Lily's as well and although we both trust him beyond compare, there are way too many consequences of him knowing. It's way too dangerous for a start just for Lily and I, but if for some reason he was given a truth potion and revealed details of our relationship, we could be blackmailed.
Maybe we were just being idiots, but all I now is that I want as much time with Lily as possible and the more who find out, the less likely I'll get that wish.
I look over to Sirius, who is currently jumping up and down on the makeshift bed like a kid. Even if me and Lily had a future where we would have one of those beautiful houses, a handful of children and a couple of pets we would always need an extra room for Sirius to stay on weekends.
"Is this what guys call settling in?" said a voice coming from the doorway.
"Of course Lily, I mean after the playwizards were hidden under the bed," Sirius replied, with the last part in a whisper as if we were being watched.
Lily just rolled her eyes saying "men" under her breath.
"Can you class Sirius as a man?" I say as a joke, to which he automatically replied.
"Oh really, I'm not a man, please inform us of the last time you got laid and proved yourself a man?"
It took all my strength not to look at Lily as he said that, for fear that we were being obvious. "We're not supposed to form relationships, or do you not remember?" I said, trying my hardest to remain neutral.
"Can you class a quick shag as a relationship Prongs?" he replied happily.
"I don't enjoy meaningless..."
"Like hell you don't..."
I opened my mouth to retaliate but Lily beat me to it, "as much as this conversation informs me to the insight of the male mind, which basically involves the thoughts of sex," she said sarcastically. "We really should get to what we were sent here for!"
We followed her through to the living room, where a map of the surrounding area, was placed over the coffee table. We go over the destinations that need checking over by comparing the map to the list of locations we were given, and then we go over the shifts; two out in the field with one of us at the cottage, the usual procedure for this kind of mission. It's this way in case neither returns; one person would be left to report our disappearance and our findings. If there are more people, the arrangement will be slightly different but at least one would always remain behind. It was less dangerous if two people went into the field as often one could see something another missed, like for example, an approaching death eater. We agree together, that it was way too late in the day to start researching anything today, besides we were all tired from the travelling, and in this kind of work if your reactions were slow it could get you killed. Comforting thought, right? Well at least my sarcasm is still working!
We talk about meaningless things as we curl up surrounding the hot fireplace warming ourselves up. Then the conversation turns sombre as we talk about the death of our fellow comrade, Stella Wainwright. I voice the knowledge that I thought it was Alice that was supposed to take over from Lily that night.
"She was supposed to, but Stella turned up saying that she was called away to Glasgow," came Lily's reply. I turn to Sirius to ask if he could offer any explanation, but I was surprised to see a thoughtful expression on his face.
"What do you know?" I asked, my eyes narrowing.
"What?" Sirius said, jumping as though he hadn't heard what I'd said.
"What do you know?" I repeated.
"Oh... er... nothing," came the unconvincing reply.
"Sirius?" Lily said softly.
"Okay, but this is not repeated right?" Lily and I just look at each other. "I won't tell you until you promise you won't tell anyone, it's gone around enough," Sirius insisted.
"We won't say a word, will we James?"
"Not a word," I conclude.
Sirius takes a deep breath and dives into it. "Rumours are circulating that Alice is pregnant."
I was shocked, I really was. After remembering our previous discussion I glanced sharply at Sirius. Lily, once again beats me by saying, "I hope this isn't a result of a quick shag."
"Why does everybody always assume..." he trails off. "No Lily, I am not the Father," he says to her angrily, "Shocked?"
"Back off Sirius," I say warningly.
He looks at me, "You thought it to, didn't you?"
"Sirius..."
"The Father is... Frank Longbottom. Rumours are that they've been dating secretly for the past few months," he finished bitterly. "I'm going to get some sleep, probably a long day tomorrow."
After the door shut Lily said, "He's pissed isn't he?"
"Yep, but it'll blow over by tomorrow. You're lucky, you're not sharing a room with him tonight."
"You could always stay in mine," she offered. Bless her but...
"You think that wise? I mean with what's going on with Alice and Frank, if it is true, I don't think we can really risk exposure right now. They're bound to be keeping a close eye at headquarters for suspicious behaviour..."
"We're not at headquarters," she stated.
"Better not love," I say hating myself now, "with Sirius in a mood for what we just suspected of him, well we'd be kind of hypocrites."
She nods, leans over to kiss me goodnight to which I respond gently and exits to her bedroom. I leave to the room I'm sharing with Sirius soon afterwards and sleep washes over me the moment my head hits the pillow.
I feel a nudging at my side, urging me to return to reality. I open my eyes to see bright light and Sirius? "Piss off," I mumble, I'm not that much of a morning person.
"Seriously James, I'm not messing here. I think Lily's sick," he says quietly and I jump out of bed.
"Where?" I ask immediately.
"I can hear her in the bathroom, it sounds like she's throwing her guts up," he carries on leading me out of the room with a worried face.
"Lily?" I whisper as I knock on the door. When I hear a sound hitting the toilet again, I open the door with Sirius behind me. I quickly intake the scene, Lily was hunched over the toilet sobbing. I walk over and kneel behind her and pull her hair from her face. "Sirius, can you get something so she can clean her face?"
"Sure mate," he responds quickly as I stroke Lily's back in what I hope was a comforting way.
She moves backwards and leans on me. She breathes, her voice hoarse, "I was only eating a bit of toast."
"Shush, it doesn't matter," Sirius says hovering after he passes her the cloth.
"Yeah, it doesn't matter," I whisper. But inside I am worrying; Lily never gets sick, why now?
Anyway back on with the story.
Home is where the heart is
James POV
One thing that I never felt for Sirius was what I was feeling now – hate.
Okay, hate maybe a little too strong a word, but I certainly wish to Merlin he wasn't here right now. When we got to the small cottage that we were renting, it was discovered that it only had two bedrooms. Naturally, we wouldn't be gentleman if we didn't offer Lily the room to herself. The thing is that now, if I wanted to spend some quality time with Lily, I would have to be asleep in the bedroom when Sirius went to bed and there when he awakes in the morning. There is no way I'll be able to manage that because, surprisingly enough, Sirius was an early-riser. It was getting too bloody tiring to lie to him and I was never that good at it in the first place. I swear there have been too many close calls in the past, but no matter how much I hate it, I have to keep Lily's relationship and mine from him. It's not just my secret, it's Lily's as well and although we both trust him beyond compare, there are way too many consequences of him knowing. It's way too dangerous for a start just for Lily and I, but if for some reason he was given a truth potion and revealed details of our relationship, we could be blackmailed.
Maybe we were just being idiots, but all I now is that I want as much time with Lily as possible and the more who find out, the less likely I'll get that wish.
I look over to Sirius, who is currently jumping up and down on the makeshift bed like a kid. Even if me and Lily had a future where we would have one of those beautiful houses, a handful of children and a couple of pets we would always need an extra room for Sirius to stay on weekends.
"Is this what guys call settling in?" said a voice coming from the doorway.
"Of course Lily, I mean after the playwizards were hidden under the bed," Sirius replied, with the last part in a whisper as if we were being watched.
Lily just rolled her eyes saying "men" under her breath.
"Can you class Sirius as a man?" I say as a joke, to which he automatically replied.
"Oh really, I'm not a man, please inform us of the last time you got laid and proved yourself a man?"
It took all my strength not to look at Lily as he said that, for fear that we were being obvious. "We're not supposed to form relationships, or do you not remember?" I said, trying my hardest to remain neutral.
"Can you class a quick shag as a relationship Prongs?" he replied happily.
"I don't enjoy meaningless..."
"Like hell you don't..."
I opened my mouth to retaliate but Lily beat me to it, "as much as this conversation informs me to the insight of the male mind, which basically involves the thoughts of sex," she said sarcastically. "We really should get to what we were sent here for!"
We followed her through to the living room, where a map of the surrounding area, was placed over the coffee table. We go over the destinations that need checking over by comparing the map to the list of locations we were given, and then we go over the shifts; two out in the field with one of us at the cottage, the usual procedure for this kind of mission. It's this way in case neither returns; one person would be left to report our disappearance and our findings. If there are more people, the arrangement will be slightly different but at least one would always remain behind. It was less dangerous if two people went into the field as often one could see something another missed, like for example, an approaching death eater. We agree together, that it was way too late in the day to start researching anything today, besides we were all tired from the travelling, and in this kind of work if your reactions were slow it could get you killed. Comforting thought, right? Well at least my sarcasm is still working!
We talk about meaningless things as we curl up surrounding the hot fireplace warming ourselves up. Then the conversation turns sombre as we talk about the death of our fellow comrade, Stella Wainwright. I voice the knowledge that I thought it was Alice that was supposed to take over from Lily that night.
"She was supposed to, but Stella turned up saying that she was called away to Glasgow," came Lily's reply. I turn to Sirius to ask if he could offer any explanation, but I was surprised to see a thoughtful expression on his face.
"What do you know?" I asked, my eyes narrowing.
"What?" Sirius said, jumping as though he hadn't heard what I'd said.
"What do you know?" I repeated.
"Oh... er... nothing," came the unconvincing reply.
"Sirius?" Lily said softly.
"Okay, but this is not repeated right?" Lily and I just look at each other. "I won't tell you until you promise you won't tell anyone, it's gone around enough," Sirius insisted.
"We won't say a word, will we James?"
"Not a word," I conclude.
Sirius takes a deep breath and dives into it. "Rumours are circulating that Alice is pregnant."
I was shocked, I really was. After remembering our previous discussion I glanced sharply at Sirius. Lily, once again beats me by saying, "I hope this isn't a result of a quick shag."
"Why does everybody always assume..." he trails off. "No Lily, I am not the Father," he says to her angrily, "Shocked?"
"Back off Sirius," I say warningly.
He looks at me, "You thought it to, didn't you?"
"Sirius..."
"The Father is... Frank Longbottom. Rumours are that they've been dating secretly for the past few months," he finished bitterly. "I'm going to get some sleep, probably a long day tomorrow."
After the door shut Lily said, "He's pissed isn't he?"
"Yep, but it'll blow over by tomorrow. You're lucky, you're not sharing a room with him tonight."
"You could always stay in mine," she offered. Bless her but...
"You think that wise? I mean with what's going on with Alice and Frank, if it is true, I don't think we can really risk exposure right now. They're bound to be keeping a close eye at headquarters for suspicious behaviour..."
"We're not at headquarters," she stated.
"Better not love," I say hating myself now, "with Sirius in a mood for what we just suspected of him, well we'd be kind of hypocrites."
She nods, leans over to kiss me goodnight to which I respond gently and exits to her bedroom. I leave to the room I'm sharing with Sirius soon afterwards and sleep washes over me the moment my head hits the pillow.
I feel a nudging at my side, urging me to return to reality. I open my eyes to see bright light and Sirius? "Piss off," I mumble, I'm not that much of a morning person.
"Seriously James, I'm not messing here. I think Lily's sick," he says quietly and I jump out of bed.
"Where?" I ask immediately.
"I can hear her in the bathroom, it sounds like she's throwing her guts up," he carries on leading me out of the room with a worried face.
"Lily?" I whisper as I knock on the door. When I hear a sound hitting the toilet again, I open the door with Sirius behind me. I quickly intake the scene, Lily was hunched over the toilet sobbing. I walk over and kneel behind her and pull her hair from her face. "Sirius, can you get something so she can clean her face?"
"Sure mate," he responds quickly as I stroke Lily's back in what I hope was a comforting way.
She moves backwards and leans on me. She breathes, her voice hoarse, "I was only eating a bit of toast."
"Shush, it doesn't matter," Sirius says hovering after he passes her the cloth.
"Yeah, it doesn't matter," I whisper. But inside I am worrying; Lily never gets sick, why now?