A/N: Sorry for the really long wait, I had finals so I couldn't write a lot, and then for the last week or so wouldn't let me update. It was pretty much the most annoying thing ever, it kept comming up with an error message every single time I tried. Anyway, now that all of that is over I should be back to my once a week updating... Enjoy :)

The shifts of fortune test the reliability of friends. – Cicero

In the darkest hour the soul is replenished and given strength to continue and endure. – Unknown.

Chapter Eleven

Lily was lying face up on the grass in her backyard, staring up at the clouds. "Lily, what are you doing?" Mrs. Evans asked.

"Finding shapes in the clouds." Lily answered absently.

Mrs. Evans laughed and sat next to her daughter. "You used to do this all the time when you were a little girl."

Lily propped herself up on her elbows, "Yeah."

"Is there anything wrong?"

Lily thought of the paper she had seen that morning; there had been another attack, twelve people had been killed, four of them children. "No." She lied.

"Lily, I'm your mother, I can tell that something's bothering you. Did you have a fight with James?"

"No, I just sent a letter to James, we're good. I'm just bored I guess. I'm done with all my homework for the summer and now I don't have anything to do."

Mrs. Evans looked at her daughter skeptically, "You've always needed to be on the go, you were never satisfied just sitting around." She said, "Why don't you invite a couple of your friends over for a week."

Lily looked at her mother, "Really?"

Mrs. Evans smiled, "Yes, let me talk to your father about it, and we'll figure out what the best week to have them over will be."

Lily smiled and hugged her mother, "Thanks mum. It's been ages since I've had them here."

"Yes, I remember. I'm not entirely sure that your father has gotten over it yet. Five twelve and thirteen year old girls was a little much for him, he's not used to being around so many teenaged girls."

Lily laughed, "Yeah, I remember that, poor daddy. He should have known better than to take us all to see The Exorcist. I don't think any of us slept for months after that."

Mrs. Evans shook her head, "I told him not to take you girls to see that; especially not after I saw the news reports of people passing out and throwing up in the theaters."

"That still remains the scariest movie I've ever seen in my life." Lily said. "I think I had nightmares about it for six months after I saw it."

Mrs. Evans sighed, "I told him not to take you all to see that movie, that it was too scary for you all, but he insisted that you'd all be okay. Daddy still wasn't used to teenaged girls yet, even though Petunia was sixteen. She never really liked to spend time with him, especially not going out to movies."

"Her loss." Lily murmured.

Mrs. Evans leaned over to kiss Lily's temple, "You're a good girl, Lily." Then she too leaned back on her elbows. "That one there looks like an elephant." She said pointing.

Lily looked, considered, "I think it looks like a horse."

Mrs. Evans squinted, "I suppose." She agreed, "What's that dark spot?"

"What dark spot?" Lily asked.

"That one there, it's right where the eye would be." Mrs. Evans replied pointing.

"I don't know, but it's moving." Lily said slowly.

"Is that Hamlet?"

Lily squinted, "It can't be, I just sent him off to James this morning, there's no way that he could have gotten to Newcastle and back already."

Mrs. Evans shielded her eyes from the sun and squinted her eyes again, "It's definitely an owl. Could it be from one of your other friends?"

"Emily would have called, but it could be from one of my other friends." Lily answered.

Both Lily and her mother stood up and waited for the owl to come to them. "It's from school." Lily said looking at the seal on the letter.

"School? What does it say?"

Lily opened the letter, "Oh, my god!" She squealed.

"What is it?"

"I'm Head Girl, mum!" Lily said showing her mother the gold and scarlet badge that had come with the letter.

"Oh, darling, congratulations." Mrs. Evans said hugging Lily, "I'm so proud of you. This calls for a celebration, we're going to go out for dinner tonight."

"Okay, I can't believe it, this is amazing!" Lily grinned, "I'm gonna go call Emily." Lily hugged her mother again and dashed towards the house.

Lily ran into the kitchen and picked up the phone, "Come on, come on." She muttered as the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Mrs. St. James, this is Lily Evans, a friend of Emily's from school."

"Oh, yes, Lily, hold on a moment, I'll get Emily."

"Thank you."

"Lily?"

"EM, I'M HEAD GIRL!" Lily squealed into the phone.

"Congratulations, I knew you'd make it'd be you." Emily replied. "When did you find out?"

"I just got the letter now. I was really disappointed when we got our letters last week, so I wasn't expecting it. Then mum and I were hanging out in the backyard and there it was."

"I'm so glad it's you, Lily, I would have protested if it turned out to be Ella Fairchild or Morgana Gamp."

Lily laughed and leaned against the wall, "I get why you didn't want Morgana Gamp, 'cause, hey, Slytherin. But what do you have against Ella Fairchild?"

"Ella Fairchild is a dirty whore… Sorry mum." Emily said as Lily laughed. "You know it's true, Lily." She mumbled into the phone.

Lily smiled, "Yeah." Both girls giggled.

"Do you know who the Head Boy is?"

Lily glanced at the letter she was still holding, "No, it doesn't say."

"Let's see, who were the prefects; Remus, Snape, Michael Richardson for Ravenclaw, and Jacob Stevens for Hufflepuff."

"The Head Students don't have to have been prefects." Lily interrupted.

"Really?" Emily asked. "Huh, who knew? Let's go with that list then, since I don't think that any of the Head Boys weren't prefects, at least while we've been in school. So out of my list my choice is Remus."

Lily smiled, "I hope so. I don't think I could stand it if it were Snape. I might have to risk Azkaban and kill him."

Emily chuckled, "Besides aren't the Head Students supposed to be fair and all, there's no way that Snape would be. He'd favor the Slytherins so much it would be disgusting. Stupid bastard." Emily muttered into the phone.

Lily laughed again, "I know, god I really can't stand him. I really want to know what crawled up his as… er, butt." Lily said glancing at her mother. "Oh, my mum said that I could have you all here for a week, I'm not sure when though, she still has to talk to my dad about it."

"Excellent." Emily replied. "Just as long as your dad doesn't take us to see any more movies. I think one trauma in a lifetime is enough."

Lily grinned, "Deal. Listen, my mum wants me to get off the phone," Lily said looking at her mother, who was motioning to Lily, "I'll call you when everything's all set up."

"Okay, I'll talk to you soon, Lil. And congratulations again."

"Thanks. Bye."

"Bye."

"Mum, this is amazing; I've wanted to be Head Girl forever."

Mrs. Evans hugged her daughter, "I know you have, honey. I'm so proud of you."

Lily walked into her family room, where her father was watching T.V., "Daddy, you're sure you're going to be okay with my friends here for the next week?"

Mr. Evans glanced around, "Lily, I'm sure that I can handle having five teenagers in the house."

Lily grinned, "That's what you thought last time."

He grinned back, "So I did. But I've learned my lesson for this time."

Lily laughed, "Okay, good, because they should be here any minute." Just then there was a knock on the door, "See, I told you." Lily bounded over to the door, "Hey!" She said hugging Dorcas.

"Hey Lily, it's great to see you." Dorcas said hugging Lily hard. "Is anyone else here yet?"

"No, you're the first." Lily replied. "Come on in. You can go throw your stuff up in my room."

"'K, I'll be right down."

Within the hour all five girls where sitting in Lily's bedroom giggling. "It's nice to get out of the house for a while." Marlie said. "Mum has barely let me out of the house since summer started."

"Tell me about it." Dorcas muttered.

"It's times like these that make me happy to be muggle born, how about you, Lil?"

"Yeah, mum and dad don't know anything about what's going on, so they don't have a problem letting me go out and everything, but I just don't really feel like it most times. I'd rather stay here than put myself out there, you know?"

The other girls nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it's dangerous wondering around. It sort of pains me to say this, but I'm looking forward to school starting again. I don't know what I'm going to do next year, when we won't have Hogwarts to go back to." Alice said.

"I know. It's going to be so strange to be out on our own." Emily added.

"The auror academy is probably the second safest place in the world. I mean it doesn't have Dumbledore, but it does have just about all the most powerful witches and wizards there."

"That makes it a target too though, doesn't it? If all of the most powerful people are centered there." Marlie muttered.

Alice shook her head, "Come on guys, let's stop talking about this, it's going to be there either way, but sometimes we need to relax and stop worrying about it for a while."

"You're right. Come on, let's go swimming for a while, that should take our minds off this." Lily agreed.

The last night before the girls were supposed to leave had them all up late. "And you still don't know who the Head Boy is?" Dorcas asked.

"No, I can't figure it out." Lily answered.

"That must be killing you." Alice laughed. "Not being able to figure it out."

Lily nodded her head in agreement. "At this point I don't really care who it is as long as it's not Snape. I think that I'd have to resign if it was Snape."

"I don't think anyone would blame you if you resigned if you had to work with Snape." Emily agreed.

"It's not Snape." Marlie said.

"How do you know?" Lily asked.

"Ryan's parents know Snape's mum. They met at some party or something a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, she was going on about how disappointed that her little Severus wasn't going to be Head Boy."

Lily shuddered and curled her lip, "The thought of anyone calling Snape their little Severus is more than a little disgusting; I think finding out that Snape isn't the Head Boy is enough to make my night. No, I think it might have just made my year." They all giggled.

"So, Lily, how is James?" Emily asked, more than a little deviously.

Lily raised her eyebrow, "He's doing well, as far as I know."

Alice raised her own eyebrows, "As far as you know? I thought that the two of you were attached at the hip."

"I don't think that's what their attached at." Dorcas muttered, "At least not from the side."

All the girls laughed and Lily turned bright red. "Oh, shove off." Lily said throwing her pillow at Dorcas.

"Notice who she doesn't deny that she and James are having…"

Lily grabbed another pillow and tried to smack Dorcas, unfortunately for Emily, Dorcas ducked and Lily hit Emily in the face. "Hey!" Emily yelled picking up her own pillow. Giggling all the girls got into an enormous pillow fight.

Out of breath they flopped down where they were. "So, Lily, have you and James had sex yet?"

Lily raised her eyebrow, "Why are you guys so interested in my sex life?"

Marlie giggled, "So you do have a sex life, huh?"

Lily rolled her eyes, "Alright, fine, yes, James and I've had sex."

"I knew it!" Dorcas said.

Emily raised her eyebrows, "Why are you so excited about the fact that James and Lily've had sex? It's a little weird."

Dorcas shrugged, "Well, I'm not getting any, so I have to live vicariously through someone."

Lily narrowed her eyes, "Marlie and Alice have sex too."

"Yeah, but we've known about that for ages. This is still new enough to be interesting."

"So, Lily," Alice interrupted, "How is it?"

Lily smiled slowly with a devious glint in her eyes, "Amazing."

The girls all smiled, "How about on a scale of one to ten?" Marlie asked.

Lily grinned widely, "About a hundred."

"Wow." Marlie sighed.

"Tell me about it." Lily murmured.

Dorcas got up off the floor and joined Lily up on her bed, "So, this goes to the three of you," she said looking a Lily, Marlie, and Alice, "what was the hottest time and place you've had sex?"

The three girls looked at one another, "I have an idea," Emily said when none of them answered, "why don't we go in alphabetical order."

"Yeah, I think that's a great idea." Marlie said.

"That's only because your name comes after mine and Lily's."

"Damn right." Marlie agreed.

"Okay then, Alice, your top spot." Dorcas said.

"Oh, alright," Alice murmured, "Frank took me to this great restaurant for our anniversary, afterwards he took me to his apartment, he had candles and flowers all over," she sighed dreamily, "it was amazing."

"Wow, that's so romantic." Emily sighed; all the girls nodded their agreement. "So, you're next, Lily."

"Okay." Lily said resigned. "You remember the day that we made up from our fight?" She asked looking at Marlie.

"Yeah."

"Well, after you all went to bed I met James in the common room. We snuck out and were going to go for a walk, but we only made it down to the fifth floor before we were pulling each other into that empty classroom."

"Bloody hell, you had sex on a desk? Lily Evans?" Alice asked wide eyed.

"Not that time." Lily muttered.

"What do you mean not that time?" Emily asked.

"It was against the wall." Lily replied.

"Holy shit! Who would have thought?" Dorcas replied. "I didn't think that you had it you."

"Wait… Have you had sex on a desk?" Marlie asked.

Lily blushed a darker red than she already was, "Once."

"Which one?" Emily asked.

At the same time Lily mumbled, "Or twice." They all stared at her with huge eyes.

"On Professor Templeton's in Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom."

Marlie shook her head at Lily, "I don't think that I can beat that. I was going to say that my first time with Ryan, we had sex in the bath in the Prefect's bathroom." She caught the glint in Lily's eyes, "Merlin's beard."

The other girls looked over at Lily, "Bloody hell, Lily. What are you a nympho?"

Lily giggled, "Of course not."

"Is there anywhere that you and James haven't had sex?" Emily asked in amazement.

"Of course there is." Lily replied.

The other girls raised her eyebrows at her, "Name one place. So far we've found out that you and James've had sex in the Prefect's bathroom, in empty and used classrooms, so where haven't you two done it?"

"Er," Lily thought for a second and sent her friends into hysterical laughter, "our room."

Alice laughed slightly harder, "That's because he can't get into our room." Lily only shrugged.

A week later Lily was sitting in the family room watching T.V. with her father. "Lily, did you get everything you needed for school?"

"Yeah, we didn't really need that much, just a couple of books for Defense Against the Dark Arts, and some new quills, ink, and parchment."

"That's good. Your mother and I are so proud of you darling."

Lily smiled, "Thanks, daddy." Mr. Evans ran a hand affectionately over Lily's hair. "I can't believe that you're almost grown up."

Lily looked at her father strangely, "Er, okay."

Mr. Evans laughed, "You can't understand now, you'll have to wait until your children are your age."

Lily laughed, "Okay. What's gotten into you, daddy?"

Mr. Evans shook his head, "Nothing, sweetheart. I've just been in a strange mood since Petunia got married. It just got me thinking that my little girls are young women now. Next thing I know I'm going to be walking you down the isle."

Lily blushed, "That's not going to be for a little while yet, daddy."

"Thank god, because I need a little bit of a break." Both Lily and her father chuckled slightly.

They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Lily yawned and leaned over to kiss her father's cheek, "I'm going to go to bed; I'm pretty tired. I'll see you in the morning daddy."

"Alright, sweetheart. Goodnight." Mr. Evans said. "Oh, before you go to bed."

Lily stopped and turned around, "What?"

"Has Hamlet come back yet?"

Lily's brow furrowed and she shrugged, "No, but he's only been gone a little over a week. Sometimes he takes a while to get back. Why?"

"I was just wondering." Mr. Evans replied.

Lily stared at her father for a minute, "About what?"

He shrugged, "Mum wanted you to invite the Potters over for dinner in your next letter to James, so I was wondering if Hamlet had come back yet."

Lily blinked, "Oh, okay. When he gets back I write James and tell him."

"Goodnight, Lily."

"Night, daddy."

Lily climbed the stairs to her bedroom, that was weird. She thought. She tried to shrug it off, but something kept bothering her. Lily took her wand out of her back pocket, where she had recently taken to keeping it, and placed it on her night table. She quickly changed into her pajamas, got into bed, and turned out the light.

Lily stared into the dark for a long time; she glanced at the luminescent numbers on her clock, "Five after one, bloody hell." She said, taking a sip of the water she habitually kept on her night table, then rolled to her stomach and willed herself to sleep.

The loud crack had her shooting up in bed and her hand grasping for her wand, and thoughts of deatheaters running through her head before she was awake enough to register the sound of weeping. "Lumos." She mumbled.

She immediately recognized the dark head and dropped her wand, "James?" She crawled to the edge of her bed, where James was sitting. "James what's going on?" She saw his shoulders, "What's happened?"

She sat next to him on the bed, grabbed his face in her hands, her stomach dropped at the sight of tears on his face. "What's happened? Are you alright?"

James looked at her and the blank look on his face broke her heart. "Please tell me what's happened."

"My… my… my dad." James sputtered. Then surprised Lily by gabbing on to her and burying his face in her neck.

Lily grabbed her wand, waved it. That should keep anyone from hearing anything. She didn't know what to do for James, she could feel his tears on her shoulder and she still didn't know what had happened. So Lily did the first thing that came to mind, she rubbed his back, rocked and murmured to him.

It was almost an hour later when his shudders had stopped. Lily kissed his forehead and tried again. "James, what happened?"

James sat up, looked at Lily and his eyes were devastated, "He was sick. You remember when he was here?" Lily nodded. "It was more than a cold, and he, Merlin, Lily, he died." James answered in a hollow voice.

Lily's eyes went wide, "Oh, god, James, I'm so sorry." She would have pulled him into her arms again, but he'd jumped off her bed and was pacing her room.

"And the worst part was they knew he was sick, the both of them, and they didn't tell me." He said picking up the glass on her night table and draining it.

Lily wasn't sure how to handle James, she'd never seen him like this, so she decided to go with her instincts, "They probably didn't want to worry you."

"Worry me? Who cares if I was worried, they should have told me." James spat. Okay, wrong thing to say. Lily thought. "I didn't even get to say goodbye to him." James yelled and threw the glass across the room, causing Lily to jump.

He rubbed his hands over his face, "Merlin, I'm sorry Lily, I didn't mean to scare you." James said making an effort to reign in his temper. "I'm just so angry and, I just, I had to get away. And I needed you. I still do."

Lily swallowed; James' eyes were dark and focused on her. She stepped forward, "I'm here."

James grabbed her arms and pulled her roughly against him. He looked into her eyes and Lily met his stare head on. James crushed his mouth to hers, almost brutally, and swallowed her gasp. Lily's heart pounded as James nipped his way from her mouth to her neck and back again. James pulled himself away from her mouth only to pull her shirt over her head. He filled his hands with her breasts and reveled in her gasping moan.

Lily's own hands worked their way to the hem of his shirt. She discarded it quickly and tossed it in the general direction of hers. She grunted when James pushed her against the wall and boosted herself up to wrap her legs around his waist. Her nails dug into his shoulders and scraped down his back when he took her breast into his mouth. The little pricks of pain fueled him on, his hand snaking under the elastic of her shorts and panties. And using just his fingers; brought Lily to peak.

James dropped her on the bed and quickly stripped her of her remaining clothes. "Again," He muttered, before using his mouth on her, "again." Lily arched into him, one hand fisting in the bed sheets, the other pressing James's head closer to her.

After the second orgasm ripped through her Lily went wild under James. She tore at his clothes and rolled over the bed with him when he, too, was naked. James' hands gripped her hips hard enough to bruise as she filled herself with him. Twin moans of pleasure filled the air. James reared up, caught her mouth with his own as Lily rode them both towards insanity.

"Are we still breathing?" Lily asked some time later, when she was able to speak again.

"I don't know, but your heart's still beating." James replied.

"Oh, well, that's good then." Lily shifted so that she was lying next to, rather than on James. "Are you feeling any better?"

James kissed the top of her head and pulled her closer to him, "Some." He admitted. "But, Merlin, Lily, he's gone, and I'll never see him again. I didn't know he was sick, so I didn't get the chance to tell him I love him, and he died thinking that I was nothing but a disappointment to him. I didn't get the chance to tell him that I was Head Boy." Lily sucked in a surprised breath, "He always wanted me to be Head Boy, he was so disappointed when I wasn't made prefect."

"James," Lily interrupted, "your dad didn't think that you were a disappointment. You could see how much he loved when you two were in the same room together, or whenever he talked about you for that matter."

"Just because he loved me doesn't mean that he was proud of me."

"No." Lily agreed. "But he was; I could tell whenever he looked at you."

James ran a hand down her side, "Thank you."

Lily touched a hand to his cheek, kissed his lips lightly. "It's the truth."

"Lily, I can't go back. Not now at least. He died at home and I, er, I just can't stand to be there right now."

"You can stay here if you want." Lily replied.

"What about your parents?"

Lily sighed, "We can think of something in the morning."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, don't worry about it." Lily replied kissing him softly again, "Just try to get some sleep."

"Thank you, Lily."

"You don't have to thank me James, I love you."

James kissed the crown of her head, "I love you too."

"James," Lily asked suddenly.

"Hmm?" He replied sleepily.

"Does your mum know where you are?"

James thought about it for a moment, "I don't know. I was so upset about my dad, and then when I found out that he and my mum knew he was sick I was so angry. I don't remember if I told my mum that I was coming here or not. I might have just apparated; it's kind of a blur right now."

"Okay." Lily responded. "We'll leave it for now, but we're going to have to tell her in the morning where you are."

"I know."

Lily waited until James fell asleep before she got out of bed, quickly dressed, brushed out her hair, and hid any evidence of what she and James had been up to. Then she grabbed her wand and disapparated. She appeared with a pop in front of James house, and prepared herself to go talk to him mother.

Lily walked quickly to the door and knocked loudly. "Jimmy!" Mrs. Potter called, flinging open the door. "Oh, Lily, Jimmy isn't here, I don't know where he is. I'm sorry; this is such a bad time." Mrs. Potter said and then burst into tears.

Lily did what came naturally and hugged Mrs. Potter. "I'm so sorry, Mrs. Potter."

"I've been married to Grayson for most of my life; I don't know what I'm going to do without him. And Jimmy, he adored his father, he's so angry and upset, and I don't know where he is. Anything could happen to him." Mrs. Potter sobbed.

"Mrs. Potter, James is at my house." Lily continued hurriedly when Mrs. Potter blinked at her, "When he told me what happened and that you didn't know where he was I figured that you would be worried, so I came here."

Lily shifted uncomfortably when Mrs. Potter just stared at her. "Oh, yes, of course. I tried Sirius, Remus, and Peter, and none of them had seen Jimmy, I didn't think to try you. I'm sorry."

"No, don't be." Lily waved it off. "Mrs. Potter, do you want to me to call on anyone, you shouldn't be here by yourself, especially after tonight."

Mrs. Potter patted Lily's cheek, "You're a good girl. So good for my Jimmy." Lily blinked at her, "I'm not alone, dear, when I told Sirius what had happened he came right over."

The words had barely left her mouth when the shout of, "Mrs. P?" Came out the door. "Mrs. P are you out here?" Sirius asked coming out of the house, "Lily?"

Lily reached out and squeezed Sirius' hand, "I'm sorry."

Sirius felt his eyes well up, viciously fought back the tears, and nodded at her. "James is with you?"

"Yes."

He nodded again. "Good. Mrs. P come on inside, you should get some rest. Lily can you have James back by," he glanced down at his watch, "two tomorrow."

"Yeah, sure. Goodnight Mrs. Potter, Sirius. Let me know if there's anything that I can do." Lily said kissing each of their cheeks in turn.

"Just take care of James, for now." Sirius replied.

Lily nodded at him and apparated back home. She quickly pulled off her clothes and tugged James' shirt over her head. She climbed softly back into the bed and set the alarm for ten, sighing when she realized that would only give four and a half hours of sleep. Then she snuggled into James and promptly passed out.

The irritating buzzing worked its way into Lily's foggy mind and she flung her arm out to smack at her alarm clock. "Bloody hell." She muttered as she sent the alarm clock crashing to the floor.

"Finally." She heard James mutter. "That has got to be the most annoying thing that I've ever heard. And that includes the time the Sirius got drunk and was sinning at four in the morning."

Lily stretched, "I know, but it usually gets me up in the morning." She looked at James, "How are you feeling?"

James eyes unfocused for a second, "It hurts." He said after a moment.

Lily shifted to place a hand on his cheek, "I know."

"Thank you for being here for me. I know that I was a bit…" He waved his hand in the air.

Lily kissed his forehead, "You were entitled."

James sighed, "I'm going to have to go home. I need to tell my mum where I am. She's probably worried out of her mind."

"I went to see her last night."

James' brow furrowed, "When did you go see my mum?"

"After you fell asleep, I didn't want her to worry, with everything going on."

"Huh." James said. "Thanks. How was she, I shouldn't have left like that. She shouldn't be alone in the house right now." He sat up, rubbed a hand over his face, "I've got to be the most selfish son of a bitch in the world." He got out of bed, started searching for his clothes.

"James, you can take some time for yourself at a time like this, no one is going to blame you for it."

"I'll blame myself." He replied pulling on his pants.

"James." Lily said getting out of bed. She hooked her arms around his neck and his came to rest on her waist. "You take on too much sometimes." She shook her head, "And your mum isn't alone. Sirius came over to stay with her when he heard about your dad."

James sighed, "I'm glad that someone was with her. I'm going to have to go home to be with them."

"I know." Lily replied. "Are you going to be alright?"

"I'll be fine."

"James, I want to know if you're going to be okay." Lily said with an eyebrow raised.

"I don't know. I'm going to need to be alright. I'm not going to let my mum and Sirius be there alone, I need to be there as well."

"Do you want me to stay with you?"

James rested his forehead on Lily's. "I appreciate it, but I think I need to spend time with just my family."

Lily ignored the little stab of hurt, "Alright."

"I'm going to need you at the funeral."

"Of course."

"I'll tell you when it is." James hugged her fiercely, "Thank Merlin for you."

Lily could do nothing but hug him back and wait out the storm of emotion. When James stepped back Lily grabbed her robe, took off James' shirt, and pulled on the robe.

James took his shirt and tugged it over his head. "I'll be back tonight." He said giving Lily a kiss, then disparating.