Moving In

Over the next few weeks, James and Lily were preparing to move into their new house. They had managed to salvage a few things from their old apartment, but not much had survived the attack. But this only gave Lily an excuse to go shopping, so it really didn't bother her too much. James, on the other hand, had to nearly be dragged to every store. He tried to convince Lily that he trusted her judgment about different types of furniture and decorations, so therefore he really didn't have to go, but she didn't buy it for a minute. "But your going to live there, too, remember? I need your input." She would constantly remind him.

So finally at the beginning of April, they were ready for the move. They decided to do it on a Saturday morning, so they wouldn't have to worry about work – not to mention so that their friends couldn't use the I'm-sorry-I-can't-help-you-move-because-I'm-working excuse. Not that their friends were unwilling to help. Sirius himself had even said, "Hey, it can't be that hard. I mean, a few spells and this'll be a piece of cake."

Unfortunately, Lily had to burst his bubble. "Um, Sirius, we're moving into a Muggle neighborhood."

"Yeah," he replied, obviously not following.

"Which means that we can't use magic."

"You've gotta be kidding me!"

"No, as a matter of fact, we need to get to the storage place where we have most of our stuff, because a Muggle moving truck is going to be there pretty soon."

"And who in the hell is gotta drive it?"

"I am,"

000

"Lily, not all of this stuff is gonna fit in one truck," said Elizabeth, who was proudly wearing her new engagement ring. She, Lily, James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter were at the storage facility that was just outside of the town Lily and James were moving to.

"Okay, okay," said Lily, throwing her hands up in surrender, "One charm to make the inside bigger than it looks, but that's it."

000

Twenty minutes later, they were pulling up next to James and Lily's new home. All six were sitting comfortably in the moving truck; Lily had once again let them use magic.

"Wow," said Elizabeth as Lily parked the truck in the driveway. They all managed to clamor out of the truck and walked around the back. As they opened the back, Lily suddenly felt overwhelmed. She looked around at everyone; they looked like she felt. "Well, if we put charms on everything while its still in the truck, and make it look its heavy, then the Muggles will never even know."

"Alright," said James, looking slightly more cheerful as he climbed into the truck, "Lets get going,"

000

About an hour or so later, everything was out of the truck and in the house. Lily was still concerned about letting them use magic; the Marauders had never been very subtle about anything, but everything was going smoothly enough. Another three hours passed and nearly every box was in the right room; the boxes with kitchen written on them were in the kitchen and so on. James and Lily had just said goodbye to their friends. Sirius had wanted to drive the moving truck back to London, but Lily, who knew that this could not be a good idea, gave the keys to Elizabeth.

Lily and James were once again inside their new house, staring at the unopened boxes.

"So where do you want to start?" Lily asked.

"How about the bedroom?" James said casually, though his mischievous smile was in place.

"I should have known," she giggled, but started up the stairs with James close behind her. Unpacking really wasn't as bad as they thought. Nearly everything was shrunken down to fit in a box, so getting their bedroom ready didn't take too long.

Lily was straightening out the comforter when James wrapped his arms around her and lightly kissed her neck.

"I think it's about time that we break in our new home..."

Lily rolled her eyes at the ceiling, but turned around to kiss him anyway. But just when things were getting good, their door bell rang.

"If that is Sirius, I'm gonna kill him." James said in a deadly voice. Lily laughed as they started down the stairs, re-buttoning her shirt.

Once at the front door, Lily looked through the peep hole – figuring that if it was Sirius she could tell him to go away. But it wasn't Sirius.

Standing on the front porch was a slender woman in her mid to late thirties with short brown hair and pale green eyes. Confused, Lily opened the door.

"Hello!" the woman said brightly. "My name is Maggie Hale and my husband and I saw you two moving in. I just wanted to stop by and welcome you to the neighborhood."

Slightly taken back, Lily opened the door a little wider and invited her in. After the general round of introductions, and getting some tea, Lily asked where Maggie lived.

"Oh just across the street in the brick house,"

"Lil," James interrupted, "I'm going to get something from the kitchen,"

"Ok, dear," Lily replied, though she knew very well that he wouldn't come back until Maggie Hale left. "So," Lily continued, trying not to sound to awkward, "you said you were married?"

"Yes, my husband Mark and I have been married for fifteen years. And we have two children. John is thirteen and Katie is eight." Lily nodded politely as she reached for her cup.

"So what brings you two here?" Maggie asked, trying – and failing – not to sound nosy.

Lily took a long drink from her cup, trying to buy herself some time. She obviously couldn't tell her Muggle neighbor that the most feared Dark Wizard of all time and his minions had attacked their apartment, killed the five year old girl that was living with them and her in-laws. "Well, we just thought it was time for a change."

For the next twenty minutes, Maggie went on and on about how wonderful of a town this was. Lily wasn't sure if she wanted to bang her head or Maggie's on the table.

Finally, Maggie got up to leave. "I really must get going. I guess I'll see you around."

"Bye," Lily said in the most cheery voice she could muster before Maggie left.

Slowly, Lily made her way back to the kitchen to find James. He was leaning against the bar and when he saw his wife, a faint smile crept onto his face.

"So how is Mrs. Hale?" he sarcastically asked.

"Ha, ha. She's really not that bad, you know. She just –"

"Nosy,"

Well, I was gonna say she just loves to talk, but, yeah," Lily giggled as she ran her fingers through his messy hair. "You just don't like her cause we could be having sex, but instead she came over,"

"Well then, we'll just have to fix that, won't we?" he said has he set Lily on the bar before kissing her fiercely as she wrapped her legs around his waist.

"Wait," Lily said, coming up for breath, "Maggie is probably watching us through her curtains,"

"Well, then I hope that she's taking notes,"

A/N: I'm thinking of posting another L/J fic. This one will be AU where Lily and James survive. If it sounds like something you'd like to read, let me know. Oh, yeah, and just to clear something up, Lily and James are not living in Godric's Hollow – yet. That comes later. Okay, I'm done...and feel free to leave a nice long review - or a short one, that'll work too. I less than three ( 3 (it's a heart!)) you all!