Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise. (Check chapter 1, 2 or 3)
"Don't leave me. I love you so much" he whispered "You are the single most important thing to me, ever"
"I know" Lily replied softly. "But I can't, it all seems too much..."a tear ran down her face and he brushed it away. "Don't cry. Just stay"
"I can't help it " she said wiping her face "Do you know how hard it is for me to love you?"
"I'm beggining to. I'm so sorry. I know I do all the wrong things, if I could take it back..."
"You can't" said Lily numbly "Go back to her, she needs you...I know what it's like to be pregnant and I won't let you"
"The heart is infinite in its ability to love and overcome pretty much anything. The only way to move on and live your life is to love and let love" said James and he pulled her closer, and kissed her slowly holding her the tightest he ever had. She could feel every inch of his body enevelop her and soon their hearts were beating exactly in the same rhythm...
Chapter 12- Trust me
Don't you see it's you and me against the world
'cause we're in this together,
You and me
One on one forever
(In this together-Apotygma Berzek)
In that heartbeat everything seemed to fade away. The pain, the regrets, the sadness, the anger and the sorrow. Love was overpowering their rationality, their fears, their expectations...
"What's the worst thing you have ever done?" asked James as he took a sip of his beer.
"Why do you want to know? I am not so sure if I should tell you…."laughed Lily
"Lils, I love you. Nothing you say will ever change that. I want to know everything about you"
Lily sputtered out the butterbeer she just had drank "What did you just say?"
"That I want to know everything about you, because I love you" said James looking at her straight in the eyes, no hint of mock or laugh in his handsome face.
"Really?"
"Yeah really" he said with humour in his eyes.
"Wow" she said smiling widely "I think I love you too" and she leaned over and kissed him.
"You think?" he asked in mock horror. Lily looked at him and smiled "I know I love you" and she kissed him again
In that moment she forgave him, for getting married. He forgave her for not telling him and wanting to leave.
"James watch out" yelled Lily as she gazed at the death eater behind him raising his wand pointing it to James.
"Avada Kedavra" and a green jet of light emerged from Lily's wand, hitting the death eater right in the chest.
Lily fell to her knees and dropped her wand, she was just seventeen and had killed a man, to save the one she loved.
"Lily are you okay?" asked James embracing her as hard as he could.
"I am now" she said wrapping her arms around him tightly.
They realized they would rather die together, than live apart. Because even if they had problems or got hurt, at the end of the day they had each other, they found each other, they loved each other, and it was all worthwhile…..
"Is she still in with James?" asked Remus. Natasha merely nodded with a wary smile, Remus sat next to her. "She is leaving ..."
"I know" Remus wrapped an arm around her.
"Sometimes I feel like a lifetime has gone by "Natasha whispered "but at the same time it feels like it was just yesterday we left Hogwarts and we were young and stupid."
"Yes it does" assured Remus, stroking her hair, and holding the girl closely. "Although Lindsay and Danielle would be offended if you tell them they're old. And Sirius is still stupid" he said more lightly.
She, like him were victims in this war, they both had suffered the death of their parents, Jane's, Lily's fake one, the attacks, friends getting hurt and they knew it wouldn't stop any time soon.
"More stupid then" said Tash smiling lightly and resting her head in his shoulder. They decided to keep each other company silently, and wait for their best friends to emerge. Until they were startled by a mesmerizing light coming under the door of James' room.
Remus got up and took his wand out. Natasha followed closely. They walked to the door and when Remus turned the handle and opened it. He found something incredible happening.
James and Lily were kissing and glowing, literally glowing. Some kind energy was enveloping them, and pouring out powerful bright silvery rays of light. Probably magic, Remus could sense it. It was powerful one too, it was love…
Both of them had their eyes closed oblivious to the amazing and breathtaking moment or their friend's presence.
"Remus…"whispered Natasha with a hint of fear in her voice.
"It's okay" he whispered back and grabbed Natasha's hand.
Suddenly the light turned brighter blinding Remus and Natasha, and making it impossible to see the couple anymore, and in one second it was all gone. When they were able to see James and Lily again, they were apart, both breathing heavily and looking at each other lovingly and mesmerized at the same time. All their bruises, wounds and scars were gone.
They were healed……completely healed.
"Lily, James?"asked Natasha unsure of what had just happened. Lily smiled brightly for the first time, and took Christina in her arms again "We're staying"
"You are???"asked James not believing how lucky he was.
"You and Christina?"asked Natasha
"You are not leaving then" said Remus smiling
"No we're definitely not leaving" she said looking at James adoringly
"Miss Evans, Mr. Potter" Dumbledore greeted the two young adults as they sat in front of him. "I believe you might want to know what happened at the headquarters. I am sure your friends have told you what they witnessed, and what they believe it to be."
"Magic" said James
"But not any kind of magic James. Love magic." said Dumbledore putting and end to their speculations
"Love magic?" asked Lily incredously.
"Yes Lily, you've read about it" said Dumbledore knowingly, and James turned to look at her surprised.
"I know, I just didn't thought I…" said Lily and looking at James "or we could conjure it just like that. Especially that kind of magic"
"Well you can, three years ago when I called you, after the first time you faced Voldemort, I explained the magic within yourselves was very powerful and how if you worked together it could be unstoppable. Which brings me to the next issue: Christina." He paused and pushed his glasses up. "After what happened we might guess why Voldemort wants to get a hold of her."
"But she is just a baby" said James rising his voice "She is not a threat"
"Not a threat but perhaps an instrument" said Dumbledore carefully."We can only speculate, for all we know, we could be wrong"
"But Christina's safety is at high risk" said James resigning . "We know that"
"You could go into hiding" suggested Dumbledore "There's a spell…" but Lily cut him off "No hiding, no running away."
"We talked about it" explained James "At least we decided not now."
"Then what have you decided?" inquired their old headmaster.
"To stay, and live and if possible be happy"said Lily smiling at James and squeezing his hand.
"I think that's a good idea, but I ask you to consider your options" Dumbledore insisted, trying not to push it.
"We'll keep that on mind" said James.
"There's one more thing I would like to know. Lily will you continue to be an auror?"asked Dumbledore.
"I haven't decided yet…"said Lily nervously, in this brief meeting with Dumbledore she realized she and James had so much to decide, they had no plan, no nothing. For Merlin's sake James was married, there was his pregnant wife to deal with…
She hadn't thought this through…….
Well she she had and that's why she had decided to leave. It was just too complicated….
"Okay I see you have many things to talk through still" said Dumbledore noticing Lily become pale. He got up "I'll schedule an order meeting for next week, I hope to see you both privately afterwards".
Lily only nodded weakly and stood up to shake Dumbledore's hand and made quick exit, not waiting for James.
"What was I thinking??!!!"yelled Lily exasperated pacing through her apartment.
"Calm down, please" said Natasha bringing a tray with two cups of tea.
"He is married and Alexis is expecting…How ??How, how is this going to work?? I Just can't. And Christina, is just a baby she needs her father, she needs a family a stable home, something I can't provide. Something we can't give her."
"Lily please just sit down and try not to panic" Natasha took Lily's hands. "It's going to be okay, you and Christina will be okay"
"No we won't. And I have to tell my parents and his parents, and Nelle and Sirius and Lindsay and Peter and it's going to be all over the Prophet and Voldemort will find us and I …."Lily stopped she was going to say and I will die,
"You're home it's different now" tried Natasha, she was worried to for her friend's sake and her daughter and unfortunately Lily was right to some extent.
"I know…"she said trying to push her insecurities away. "You have to calm down before James and the girl come back. She shouldn't see you like this."
"See I'm a terrible mother"
"Stop it. Now when they're back I'll take her over to my date with Remus, and you two will have all night to talk"
"Thanks you, Tash." Said Lily relaxing a little bit "I….she'll spoil your date"
"We were just going to have some coffee anyway. And I am positively sure he won't even mind" said Natasha. "Now let's wipe up some dinner"
"Who's there!?!"Adam was completely dark and he couldn't see a damn thing.
"Adam, it's me"said Alexis turning on the before Adam could say anything, Alexis busrt into tears.
"Lex, what's wrong?"looking at her "What is it?"
"I….I….Adam.."Alexis choked on her tongue and tears.
"Shush, come on, let's go sit down."Adam led Alexis to the sofa in the living room, "Let me get you some water first."Aleixs only nodded.
Adam returned to his sister and handed her a glass. Alexis sat up and choked down a few sips. She wiped her face on her sleeve and drank a bit more.
"Lex, what happened?"Adam asked
"It's over"
"What is?"
"James"Alexis took another sip, and lifted her head up to her brother, she watched concern begin to crinkle on Adam's brow.
"I thought you were okay, I thought …"
"I thought so too… he fucked up"Alexis' eyes brimmed with tears "It's all ruined. It's…."crying harder "over."
"Lily, what's wrong?" asked James, as he sat in the kitchen stool. Lily was finishing up dinner.
"We need to talk"
"I know, it seemed pretty clear when Tash took our daughter to her date" said James trying to lighten the mood.
"James" she said turning off the stove and turning to face him "What are we going to do??"
"We discussed that already" said James "I'm getting a divorce, we would move in together and raise Christina, and I would fulfill my responsibility with Alexis and our child. You agreed"
"I know I did, but now…"
"You love me, don't you?"
"You know I do"
"Then that's all that matters. You need to trust me as I trust you. It's you and me babe, it's always been you and me."
"Is it?" asked Lily. James entered the kitchen and cupped her chin
"Yes all along. Since I first laid eyes on you" whispered James making Lily shiver. "You're mine"
"So we're in this together" repeated Lily trying to convince herself.
"You won't be alone ever again. I promise" taking her right hand and bringing it to his mouth, he kissed her knuckles. Lily who had still been resisting James' gestures gave in in that moment. She was aware of the danger of the vulnerability she was exposing herself to but it was done, there was no way back now.
This was their second chance to fill their souls with new memories, mistakes and magic.
"Yeah it would've been totally weird to share the same bed with Lily that I shared with Alexis" explained James.
"I don't mean to pry, but you slept with her already?" Sirius, levitating some of the boxes of James bedroom.
"No, but we are moving in together" said James exasperated, pointing to the mess
"So you are back together for real?"
"Yes Padfoot, I am not kidding" laughed James at his friend's grin. A crack was heard, and then another and soon Remus and Peter were in the doorway joining James and Sirius.
"Glad you could make it" said Sirius glaring at Remus.
"Why is he glaring at me ?" asked Remus passing Sirius and hugging James.
"He's pissed off" laughed James "That you get to be the godfather of Christina"
"Come on Padfoot, it was Lily's pick" laughed Peter "Besides I'm sure they'll have plenty of children"
"I don't care, I was best man. "James winced and Remus looked at Sirius knowingly "I mean I was going to be with Lily too…. whatever you all know what I mean"
"Why don't we all finish here, so we can take all this to Lily's and then go back to your place Sirius, for the lovely dinner the girls planned" said Remus trying to avoid certain unpleasant issues to James.
"Yes you can complain with Lily then" suggested Peter.
"She is beautiful" said Lindsay as she took the baby in her arms, "Just like her mother" said Tash.
"I'm so happy for you" exclaimed Nelle taking some candles to put in the dining room.
"Thank you for doing all this for us" said Lily smiling at her friend. "I thought you would be mad at me…"
"Nonsense, I understand. Probably you did good on not telling me, it would've stressed me to no end and would've been no good for the baby".´
"So are you and Sirius really waiting until you give birth?"asked Lindsay.
"Yes, we thought we had already waited this long, a couple of months can't hurt. Beside I want my body back and a normal dress."Lily patted Nelle's prominent belly and laughed.
"It's going to be hard" Lindsay teased.
"Lils were you this big?" asked Nelle. Lily stopped laughing and turned serious.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to…"said Nelle
"It's okay." Said Lily, she half smiled " I was just like you when I gave birth. Hope fully you'll make to the nineth month" When none of the girls said anything, Lily smiled again. She appreciated her friend's concern, it meant a lot to her, but she was moving on. Because this time she had her daughter and James with her "I'm okay really"
"I'm sorry" said Nelle
"There's nothing to be sorry for, just the fact that we haven't finished dinner"said Lily brightly, and her friends relaxed.
"She loves you" said Lily amused as she watched James play with Christina in the sofa, from the kitchen.
"I love her" said James kissing the girl's forehead. "Fell in love with her the first moment I saw her"
"Where have I heard that before?" said Lily grinning ""I hate to stop the fun, but it's bedtime" She walked into the living room with a bottle of milk.
"You are no fun" whined James, stealing the bottle.
"Well that's my job" putting her hands in her hips.
"Parenting definitely suits you" grinned James, feeding Christina.
"It's not doing you any bad either "Lily replied sitting next to him,
"And this is only the start" said James watching adoringly as Christina began to close her eyes.
"The start" said Lily wiping of a curl from the Christina forehead, and resting her hand in James forearm