"No."

Lily pauses in packing her backpack, an incredulous expression on her face. "Pardon me?"

"No."

James is standing at the doorway, filling it with his lanky frame. His face is stony, his eyes hard behind his glasses.

"No? No as in what James?" She spins to face him fully, hands on her hips. "No, I shouldn't be packing a backpack? No, I don't need to take that many pairs of knickers?"

"No, as in there is no way in bloody hell that you are coming with us."

Lily's mouth tightens and her cheeks flush with red. He's never seen her look so furious, so blazingly alive. "You fucking wanker. You heard Dumbledore. Every man is needed for this mission."

"Every man, Lily." Her mouth thins even further at this, eyes glittering with indignation. "You're not going."

"You are a condescending prick. How dare you. You don't own me Potter." She storms over to the chest of drawers and rips it open, rifling through the clothes blindly.

"You're not going Lily." Now James is moving into their bedroom, striding towards her backpack. "You'll be a liability."

"I got an O in my Defense NEWT, thank you very much." She's throwing various items onto the bed now, shoulders shaking. "I beat you if I remember correctly."

James throws back his head and laughs. "This isn't school Lily. You think a Death Eater is going to pause and give you marks on your wand movement? Don't be daft."

"I'm not staying here."

"You're not coming with us."

For every piece of clothing Lily chucks onto the bed, James removes one from her backpack and discards it onto the floor.

"Why not?" She turns to face him, arms crossed tightly over her chest.

"I'm not discussing this with you – "

"Why the fuck not?" She shouts, glaring at him. "Is it because I'm a girl?"

"No, I'm – "

"Afraid I'm going to break down into tears at the first sign of danger?"

"NO! You're– "

"I'm ten times the fighter Marline is and you didn't kick up a fuss when she went on mission last month!"

"I DON'T GIVE A RATS ARSE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS TO MARLENE!" James roars, startling Lily into momentary silence. "How am I supposed to fight when I know that you're there and you could possibly be getting KILLED any second? That at that very instant, you could be tortured? I couldn't. I wouldn't be able to concentrate, I'd be murdered within seconds and then you'd be gone too and how can I live with myself?"

For a second he thinks he's won. Her eyes soften but then she's glaring at him so ferociously that he takes a step back.

"Oh, poor baby. Do you think it's any easier for me?" Her voice is quiet, dangerous. "Do you think I enjoy sitting at home, waiting for you to come back? I pace up and down that room," she points to their lounge room, "thinking that you could be being murdered at that very instant and I'm at home and I can't do anything to help you. Do you think that's fun?"

"Fun?" James finds his voice. "Fun? Because battling five Death Eaters with only Sirius for back up sounds like your idea of fun? Watching children and women being ripped apart around you while you struggle just to survive sounds fun to you? At least when you're here you're safe and I don't have to worry about you."

"I'm not staying behind again." She rips a sweater out of his hands and shoves it back into her backpack, avoiding his furious gaze. "I can fight. I want to fight. We're a team James, we do things together."

James falls silent, watching her feverishly move around the room, picking things up and putting back down again. She's packed and repacked her bag three times before he speaks again.

"Lily, please."

She paused at the raw emotion in his voice and looked up, surprised.

"I can't – I couldn't stand it. If you died." He takes a deep, shuddering breath. "If you died and I was there and couldn't stop it. I – you're –"He's crying now and she moves towards him, tears welling in her own eyes. "You're the only – you're everything. I'm fighting – everyone thinks I'm fighting for the greater good and I am, but it's you. I'm fighting for you. What am I supposed to do if you're gone?" He whispers this last part and he sounds so broken, so sad that Lily feels her heart break.

"James," She wraps her arms around him, guiding his head to her shoulder. He buries his face into the soft crevice between her shoulder and neck, arms snaking around her waist, pulling her tight to him. "James, darling." Now he's sobbing, body shaking against hers, tears hot on her skin.

They hold each other until the tears subside, James clutching at her desperately. She's squeezing him as tight as she can, whispering soothing words into his hair, her own tears hot on her cheeks.

"I'm sorry," he croaks eventually, wiping at his eyes. "I'm supposed to be the strong one and I'm crying like a little girl."

Lily rolls her eyes and kisses him once, twice, three times and pushes his hair out of his eyes. "I can be strong too."

James laughs at this and he gazes at her with affection. "I know. I was being a prat."

"You were." She smiles softly at him.

"We're going to get married Lily Evans. We're going to have loads of little red headed babies who will wreak havoc on the world. But first we're going to take down Voldemort."

"Together." Lily agrees.

"Together."

A/N: AAAAND another one…I'm not too happy with the ending, but no matter what I did it didn't work out and I just wanted to get it out of my drafts so I don't feel guilty about working on another story ;)