I do not own Harry Potter.

"Lily? Lily, can you hear me?" a familiar voice came above Lily. She felt cool hands on her face and neck, stroking her in a soothing motion. "Love, open your eyes if you can hear me." Odd, she hadn't even realized that her eyes were closed. But they felt so heavy, it wasn't worth the effort.

There was the sound of shuffling and a new set of hands found Lily's neck. They were rougher and warmer and Lily could feel a small bump on one of the fingers. "Ms. Evans please open your eyes." The new voice was so beautiful and deep, Lily wanted to hear it again so badly. She was afraid that if she opened her eyes it would disappear, like it did so many times in her dreams. Once she was awake the voice would be gone until the blackness came again. Not worth the wait. "Ms. Evans? Ms. Evans!" The voice had jumped about an octave to a panicky sound. Lily knew the voice too well. "Lily, please, open your eyes!" the voice begged. It was a crime to hear the desperation in such a lovely sound.

Lily's eyelids felt as if the weights had been lifted. By their own accord, they sprung open and then shut again rapidly as her eyes adjusted to the bright light. Above her kneeled two figures: one with straight brown hair and one with wildly messy black locks. Both heads she knew very well.

"Hey Remus…James" she croaked out. "What's happening? Why am I on the floor?"

Remus answered her while James continued to stare at her worriedly. "You passed out at the sight of the Goblin hanging from the ceiling. You've been out for nearly four minutes…the Aurors have showed up along with your coworkers and the people from the Goblin Liaison Office."

In the distance Lily could see the figures of Sirius and Marlene McKinnon sulking along the edges of the room, inspecting for clues. Moody himself was interviewing Mr. Murano, who was fiddling with a ridiculous looking nightcap in his hands. Taylor and Skippy were standing a little behind Carlos and Mad Eye, whispering behind their hands. A man she knew to be Dirk Cresswell was inspecting the body with a familiar plump figure shadowing him. The plump figure was very familiar…

"Why's Peter here?" Lily asked dazedly.

"He works for the Goblin Liaison Office now," Remus explained. "That's him over there with his boss, Dirk Cresswell. You should remember Dirk from school, a couple years ahead of us. Bless him, he's just been promoted to head of the office. It's a miracle too, a Muggleborn being appointed in these times."

"Gang's all together, huh?" Lily asked.

It was James that answered her this time. "Not under the greatest circumstances though. A crime scene…lovely." He shook his head, as if to remind himself that he had a job at hand. "Now Ms. Evans I need to take you into a reclusive spot for questioning while Mrs. McKinnon reviews Mr. Lupin here."

"Fine, fine. But are the formalities really necessary here James?" Lily asked. She found it rather ridiculous, referring to each other by their surnames when they had known each other for years.

"Please Ms. Evans, it's my job."

"I refuse to go until you stop being formal about this."

He let out an exasperated sigh. "Stubborn as ever, eh Evs?" He threw in a rueful smile at the use of her nickname.

"Much better."

James stood up and brushed off his pants. Then he held his hand down to Lily, offering to help her up. She stared at the hand for three seconds and then stood up on her own and made her way towards her office. The Auror had no choice but to roll his eyes and follow her.

Lily settled into her oversized desk chair and motioned for James to take a seat in one of the two chairs in front of her desk. "You know normally this position is flipped during inquiries," James commented, somewhat irked.

His ex simply raised her eyebrow and replied, "You're on my turf, buddy."

"Ms. Evans, when was the last time you saw Spronkle, prior to his hanging in the lobby?" Smart man - best not argue with Lily.

He did, however forget her no formalities rule. She refused to answer until he rephrased his question. "Lily, when was the last time you saw Spronkle, prior to his hanging in the lobby?" Needless to say, James was a little more than somewhat irked by now. And Lily knew it. So she decided to play upon it.

"Why aren't Aiden and Anthony here for questioning too?"

James knew that resisting her question would be futile. "Mr. McHugh could not be reached and Mr. Dolocelli appears to have avoided the questioning."

Lily fumed. "Avoided it how." What should have been a question came out as nothing less than a glower.

Oh how James had forgotten how beautiful Lily was when she was angry. The way her eyes glowed, her mouth twisted, her face blushed…and he knew all too well that her face wasn't the only place that blushed when she was mad. That he knew extremely well. "Well it appears that the Ministry will be getting the new fountain they've been wanting."

The spark went off. Lily stood up and screeched down at him, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? DOESN'T ANYONE REALIZE THAT THERE'S OBVIOUSLY A REASON WHY HE NEEDED TO AVOID THE QUESTIONING? THERE'S SOMETHING FISHY GOING ON THERE. ALL OF YOU ARE SO CORRUPT IT'S UNBELIEVABLE."

James knew that something was up. He also knew that Moody knew that there was fishy business about. He also knew that Moody knew that if they accepted the bribery the Ministry would be more lenient towards them in all their later actions. He knew that he would be able to secretly disclose this information to Lily. He knew it would calm her down. So he stood and said, "I think the fountain will be pretty."

The fiery redhead started to scream again. "JAMES ADAM POTTER, YOU ARE THE MOST IDIOTIC, MORONIC BLOKE I HAVE EVER HAD THE DISPLEASURE OF MEETING. YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ABLE TO PASS THOSE AUROR TESTS, WITH ALL THE NONSENSE THAT FILLS THAT OVERSIZED HEAD OF YOURS. YOU OUGHT TO - mmpsfh!"

What James ought to do he never learned, for he leaned over Lily's mahogany desk and silently pressed his lips to her flaming ones. His head started to spin, he was running out of air. He had forgotten what kissing Lily was like. It was like he was floating, as if he was the happiest man alive. All of those old feelings rekindled in such a chaste kiss, he could hardly imagine what being with her again would feel like.

He was scared.

So James did what any scared man would do. He pulled out of the kiss and whipped out his wand. With a crack he was gone.

...Hi? Kay so I've been amazingly busy lately and I'm sorry about that. Since school started I've had band practice, play practice, dance practice, Confirmation classes, schoolwork, hanging out with friends, parties, etc. Sorry!? But I have basically the entire story outlined now!!!! (Before I was just making this up as I went along. But now I have an actual plan! I'm very excited about this.)

Before taking my little break I deleted the story "A Missing Spark." It was a story based off my friend's rape. Well it turns out it wasn't a rape. I found out that the entire thing was totally voluntary. She told everyone it was a rape because she had a pregnancy scare and didn't want to get in too much trouble. And I really hate to tell people this, but she's such a slut now. We're not really close anymore and I apologize to anyone that liked the story. I just didn't feel it anymore so I found it useless to continue. =/

Review! The faster you review, the faster the updates come! Plus bands done now, so I'll have more time to write!

Isabel