Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
The next morning Severus and Remus arrived at the Potter's house to help Lily to take James back to the nursing home. Both Jamie and Harry were going to go with her to the home this time. Severus was going with them in order to support Lily, while Remus would have extra time to visit with James and help her with the children. When the group of them finally got there, Lily went straight to the front desk where she had to sign James back in and to return any of his unused medication of which he didn't have any. After James was signed back in Lily immediately took him back to his room, where Remus and the kids immediately went with her to help settle James back in. Severus took the chance to look around and noticed that it seemed to be much nicer than St. Mungo's and that James had much more room to move around. He also had the chance to go outside, which he never would have had that chance at St. Mungo's. He did notice that there was also a large living room, where the residents could visit with their friends and family members of which Severus was neither. When Lily came out of James's room and saw him sitting there by the window, she immediately took him by James room where she wanted him to visit with James even though Severus felt that James wouldn't want him to be there. Severus noticed that Sirius wasn't too pleased that he was in James's room or even that he was there at all, of course he wasn't there to see James but only to support Lily. Severus wasn't even sure that James would even know if they were even in the room or that he would even know that they were enemies. Though Severus realized that spending these last few moments with James until they visited him next week were reassuring to them even though James probaly wasn't aware of his surrondings. When it was ready to go, Severus noticed that Lily took a while in saying goodbye to James, noticing the loving look that she had in her eyes when they left James, though she did have the same look for her children. When they were away from the nursing home, it was nearly lunch time so Lily decided to take everyone to McDonalds, since it would be a treat for the kids.
Lily gave Severus a reassuring smile since she knew that Severus wasn't too fond of the fast food restaurant, but he agreed to eat there for the kids sake and he even thought that it might be entertaining to see how Sirius and Remus would interact with Harry and Jamie inside of the restaurant. Severus also realized that he needed to savor every minute that he was able to spend with Lily, since both of their jobs and other obligations caused them not to be able to see as much of each other that they would like. Severus knew that his absence from the school wouldn't be noticed too much over the holidays, since most of the students went home over the holidays and none of them cared about their professor's personal lives anyway. As soon as the group of them returned to Lily's home, the kids immediately asked to go play over at the Weasleys with their friend. Lily seeing that the kids wanted to spend some time with their friends after spending the morning with their dad. Lily let them go and even had Remus to escort them over there, since she had to clean up after James's visit. While she was cleaning up Severus was helping her, trying to prolong his visit with Lily. He even helped her in finishing cleaning up, which made the job go by faster. Lily wondered if he was needed at the school, though she was glad that she was able to spend more time alone with him since they hardly get to see each other during the school year. Lily was tired of sleeping by herself at night and sometimes she even wished that James was dead so that she could be free to openly date Severus instead of sneaking around with him during the few stolen moments that they had together. It only took Lily a few minutes to clean up after James's visit with his friends and family, so after they were done Severus wondered if Lily would allow him to take her out on an outing. Lily agreed to go out to dinner with Severus, since she knew that Molly would feed the kids and they would get to spend a little bit of extra time with their friends, that they didn't get to see during the holiday. Severus returned to the school, looking forward to an evening out with Lily that evening. Severus immediately decided that he should take Lily to one of the nice restaurants in London that he could afford, since they haven't had time to see each other during this holiday so far. Severus only hoped that since James was now back in the nursing home, that he would be able to spend more time with Lily this week. Severus was sure that he could get away from the school without arousing too much suspicion. Though he really didn't care what the students thought of him anyway. He can go out with a woman if he wanted to, as long as none of the students found out that he was going out with a married muggle born witch who was waiting for her husband to die. He decided that he would take Lily to a nice muggle restaurant in London, where they wouldn't risk being seen by anyone in the wizarding world. Lily on the other hand made plans with Molly to let the kids sleep over at the Weasleys for the night in order to give them a chance to catch up with their friends. With seven kids she understood that Lily needed to have some time to herself and of course Jamie and Harry were excited to spend more time with their friends and even try to catch their friends' older brothers doing something they shouldn't be doing. Lily was relieved that the children were going to sleep at the Weasley's that night, since she didn't have to worry about being back by a certain time from her date with Severus. She was excited when she was getting ready for her date later on that evening.
When Severus came by to pick her up Lily was looking forward to spending some time away from the kids with Severus. She enjoyed spending time with him after reconnecting with him a few years ago. She never admitted to anyone that Severus was her first love, that she loved him ever since she was nine years old and he was her best friend who originally introduced her to the wizarding world. She enjoyed hearing Severus's stories about his teaching adventures at Hogwarts and Severus loved hearing about her work as a Healer. Lily savored the moment being here with Severus in an environment away from the children where they could be by themselves. After dinner Lily invited Severus back into her home for an after dinner coffee, where the two of them could extend their time together. Lily who was tired of being alone at night and liking Severus, even seeing him as her future husband after James's death if he was willing to wait that long. Lily didn't know where the invitation for Severus to spend the night with her came from, only that she wanted to have him spend the night together where the two of them would just sleep together, and maybe make out a little bit. Lily wasn't too surprised when Severus accepted her invitation, after she offered to loan him one of James's old shirts that she didn't take to the home for him to wear to bed that night. Lily was excited not to have to spend the night alone for the first time in a long time.