A/N: I'm back and posting! Yay! Sorry for the wait…I've been at cross country camp and then I've been completely exhausted from cross country camp…so. I'm just tired. I'll try to post again soon…sooner than this one took, at least. SO please read…enjoy…and review! Thanks!
Chapter Two: Dinner Visits and Birthday Parties
"Lily, quit looking out the window and come help me set the table." Beverly Evans scolded on Friday evening.
Lily looked away from the window and dropped the white curtain, letting it fall back into its place and went to the dining room to help her mother, not without glancing back at the window. Patrick Evans looked up from his paper where he was reading it in the living room and shook his head with a sigh.
The doorbell rang as soon as Lily began helping her mother set the places and she dropped a fork and ran for the door, slowing down as she reached the door and checking her reflection in the mirror next to the entrance before answering.
Patrick Evans just looked out from his paper and chuckled.
Beverly just sighed from the kitchen.
"Hey." Lily greeted as she opened the door, giving a calm composure even though every inch of her insides was aching with longing and excitement at not seeing James for so long—six days.
"Hi." James replied as Lily ushered him inside and closed the door behind him. James looked at Lily and to her lips but Lily shook her red head and motioned to the couch where her father was sitting.
James pouted and then smiled.
"Hello, Patrick."
Patrick Evans looked up from his paper yet again and folded it.
"Ah, hello James. Dinner should be on the table in a moment."
Mr. Evans then proceeded to stand up and walked into the dining room, leaving the two teenagers alone.
James reached for Lily as soon as Mr. Evans had left the room. Lily smiled and pretended to pull away, but James dove for the kiss anyway, and Lily complied.
She broke away smiling. "Dinner is ready." she whispered.
"It smells good. Pork chops?" he asked expectantly.
Lily grinned. "Of course! My mother thought a cold noodle salad would have been more summer like, but I insisted on pork chops on the grounds that it was your absolute favorite."
"Lily, James, dinner is ready!" Lily's mother called.
James almost bolted for the kitchen, but slowed down when he realized how far behind Lily was from him and let her catch up before pulling a chair out for her.
Once he was seated and the food had been passed around, the expected dinnertime conversation began.
"So James, it's absolutely alright for Lily to stay at your house tomorrow night?" Beverly asked.
James nodded. "Yes, it's fine. My parents were delighted."
"And parents will be there?" Beverly asked.
"My mother will be, yes." James replied. "My father will be for a little while, but I'm sure he'll be called out from the Ministry."
Beverly and Patrick nodded.
"And my parents gave me a letter to give you both." James added as he remembered. "I have it in my pocket; I'll give it to you after dinner."
"Oh, that's fine." Beverly smiled. "Thank your parents for me for replying so quickly. I hadn't expected a reply so soon."
"My Mum loves having things to do; it keeps her from thinking about my father." James replied honestly.
"It must be terrible to have that kind of worry." Beverly remarked with sympathy. "Mind, it's not like the Muggle world is the safest place right now either."
"Yes, it's bad all over." James replied before smiling. "But you have to look for the bright things in life in times like these. It's what keeps us going. It's what makes us certain that times will get better."
"I'm glad you're so hopeful, James." Lily's father said with a smile, and with his words dinner passed by quickly and pleasantly.
XX
"Now drive safely." Lily's mother told James as he came down the stairs with his over night bag with Lily trailing him with hers in hand early the next morning.
James smiled. "Of course. I'll have Lily back tomorrow afternoon."
Beverly smiled at her daughter and James. "Alright then. Have a good day, you two. And happy birthday, James."
"Thanks for everything, Beverly." James added as he and Lily made his way out the door, with Lily hurriedly following behind him, anxious to get out of her mother's leering eyes.
"Anytime." Beverly replied with a wave as she watched James and Lily get into the car, then shutting the door behind her as she returned to her house.
Lily let out a long sigh as she and James sat in the car for a second.
"She's been driving me mad for the past week, I asked if I could get my own flat and she went completely nutters and has been asking me odd questions all week…'Do you know how to grocery shop?' 'what do you do in case of a fire?'"
James grinned at Lily and leant in and kissed her, hard.
After a few minutes of relative silence, James and Lily broke away.
"I've been waiting to kiss you all week." James breathed. "And don't worry, my mum wrote back to yours, and she explained that having your own flat was completely logical, and that if it was any ease, you could be flatmates with Charlotte, since she's going to be working for the Ministry here in London."
Lily grinned excitedly and kissed James again. "Thank-you, and remind me to thank your mother."
"As long as you don't thank her like that, then yes." James remarked as he started the engine.
Lily laughed as they pulled away from her house.
"Happy birthday, James."
XX
They rounded the corner to James's house at lunchtime, Lily's heart lifted as she saw the gigantic Potter Mansion standing so elegantly on the hill.
James pulled the sleek black Mercedes into the drive and parked the car.
"Ready?" he asked.
Lily raised her eyebrows. "For what?"
James smiled. "I think Sirius was going to throw me a surprise party, he was acting all dodgy yesterday…asking odd questions."
Lily grinned. "Really? Do you not like surprise parties?"
"Not really." James replied honestly as he got out of the car and opened the door for Lily.
He inhaled as he held her hand that wasn't carrying her bag and led the way up the steps. He felt his hand around her fingers, and was surprised not to find a ring there. It was her right hand, after all.
Before they reached the door, he turned to Lily to ask.
"Lily, where's your ring?" he asked, fearful that she had something to tell him…like there engagement was off. What a cruel birthday present that would be.
Lily smiled at him and reached for her necklace and pulled it out from her blouse, the gold ring which was encrusted with diamonds was safely looped through her silver necklace.
"Petunia kept staring at it strangely and I didn't want her to bring it up at dinner or anything." Lily replied easily before dropping it back down her front.
"Did I scare you?" she grinned, knowing very well she had.
James's expression relaxed and he smiled. "Of course not, I knew you had done something creative…"
Lily rolled her eyes. "I'm not leaving you, James. Not now, not ever. Not after spending all these months getting used to you running your fingers through your hair."
James grinned and gave her a quick kiss before opening the door to his house.
He looked around frantically, waiting for Sirius to jump out from some odd corner and cackle madly before shouting "Happy Birthday, Prongs!" But none came. The house was unusually quiet, but James chose to shrug it off as he led Lily up the stairs to her room.
"So, no surprises?" Lily asked as she followed him up the steps, smiling.
James shrugged. "I guess not."
"Why, Precious. I almost detect…disappointment!" Lily teased as she followed James to her room.
"I am not disappointed. Relieved, if anything." James protested.
Lily grinned and lay down her bag by her bed.
"I better go put my stuff up too." James stated.
"I'll go, too, I've never really gotten a good look at your room." Lily replied energetically.
James grinned and nodded before walking down the long hall which was full of old wizarding paintings to his room, where he opened the door, not expecting anything but his normal bedroom.
"SURPISE!" Sirius screamed at the top of his lungs, jumping right in front of James, who backed up, temporarily horrified, into Lily, who giggled.
James took a breath and looked around. Sirius, Remus, Peter, Charlotte, Allison, Ellie, and Jacob were all piled into his room, hiding somewhat badly.
"Happy birthday, mate!" Sirius called out while he patted James on the back and then looked at Lily, who was laughing at James's sudden dumbstruck nature.
"Hm…going into James's bedroom…I hope I wasn't interrupting anything." he said, grinning madly at Lily and waiting for her to reach out and hit him, or worse, curse him.
Lily quickly glared at Sirius and grabbed James's hand.
"See, they didn't forget about you." she stated, grinning as a smile broadened across James's face.
"I knew they wouldn't forget." James protested. "I was just expecting the surprise downstairs."
"Well we decided to be sneakier this year. The downstairs thing gets a little old after six years." Remus explained.
Lily laughed as James dropped his bag.
"Well do you all want to go downstairs? There's more room." he said.
The group nodded to each other and everyone got up and followed James back downstairs to one of the living rooms.
"So, does my mother know you're here? Is my dad home?" James asked the group, hoping for an answer as they all took seats.
"Yeah, we told her." Remus said. "She went to go check on the cake. She said your dad would be home later."
James nodded.
"It was bloody hilarious watching her explain to the house elves that they couldn't make your birthday cake." Sirius added.
James grinned as he thought of the house elves protesting back in the kitchen.
"Well you know my mother; she's got to make the birthday cakes around here." James said as he wrapped an arm around Lily.
Lily smiled and then turned her attention to Allison and Ellie.
"So what have you all been doing this week?"
Allison grinned as she played with a strand of blonde hair.
"Well, this week I tried explaining to my mother that I wasn't going to be living at home. She didn't take it to well."
Lily gasped energetically before being absorbed into the conversation.
"I did too, my mother really went off her rocker about staying at home till I was married like Petunia, and my father, he went on about the risks of living alone!" Lily ranted, feeling relieved that someone else had difficulty like her.
Allison's grin faltered as she played with Jacob's hand. "Well it's not the moving out part she was upset about…see I won't be alone. Jacob and I are going to live together!"
Lily's mouth dropped in surprise, but she closed it quickly and nodded with a smile.
"Oh, that's, that's wonderful!" Lily exclaimed as she grinned at the both of them. "Have you found a place yet?"
Jacob shrugged. "We've looked in the papers for a few places…I'm going to be working for The Apothecary, making potions, so I think we'll need to be in London. Allison is going to write for The Daily Prophet office in Diagon Alley, so I think it will all work out nicely."
Allison opened her mouth to speak, but James's mother entered the room, beaming.
"Well hello everyone! Lunch is ready and on the table." She looked over the room and saw James and Lily. "And James, happy birthday! It's nice to see you got Lily here safely."
James pouted before trying to retort to his mother, who smiled at him and walked back out of the room, not giving James time to defend his driving skills.
The group got up and walked to the dining room, or rather, everyone walked while Sirius sprinted to the feast.
James smiled after he took a seat and looked around at all of his friends, with Lily beside him, and he knew this was one of the best birthdays he had ever had.
After they had eaten, James's mother hustled in, holding a large Devil's Food cake with chocolate icing and red, flaming candles. Also in red, the letters "Happy 18th Birthday, James." were scrawled in his mother's handwriting.
"Make a wish James!" His mother exclaimed, happily.
James grinned and took a big breath before blowing out the candles successfully.
He looked up triumphantly, as if he had conquered some impossible task.
"Want me to cut everyone a piece?" he asked his mother, who was now holding small plates and forks.
"No, don't be silly, it's your birthday." she replied, and with a wave of her wand, the cake had been divided onto everyone's plates.
His mother grinned.
"The house elves were being impossible, so save room. I expect you'll have about five more cakes before the day is out. I'm going to go wrap some presents and finish up some paperwork for your father."
James nodded as he grinned at his mother, who scurried back out of the room and up the stairs.
"Well want to go open presents?" Charlotte asked in her rich, smooth voice that was laced with a French accent.
Lily noticed Sirius staring at her in awe and grinning.
James jumped up from his seat. "Of course!"
They made their way back to the living room before everyone realized there presents were still in James's room.
"Padfoot told us to leave them there." Peter defended as he trudged back up the stairs, dragging behind everyone.
Lily smiled. "And I left your present in my bag. I'll be right back!"
After a few minutes of waiting, the guests reentered, this time bearing gifts.
James grinned as he saw them and a period of twenty minutes passed where gifts were being shoved to James's hands and he frantically opened them.
He had received several items that would be useful for his training as an Auror, some things he would need around his own flat, and a gold watch from Lily.
"Thanks, everybody!" James stated as he stood up and put on his new watch. "It's been a great birthday."
James looked at Lily, and Lily understood what he was about to do and went to stand beside him and held onto his hand.
James cleared his throat and held on to Lily as they looked out to there friends.
"We have an announcement to make that will make this birthday even better!" James started, smiling broadly. "Lily and I are engaged!"
The conversation and laughter that had been echoing throughout the room as the news spread through the air, sinking into each of their friends' ears.
And each friend smiled.
Thanks to…prongs, u-know-love-me, glowing-ice, Emerald Lily Flower, PhoenixFeathersx3, Zippy-Wings, Forest Unicorn, Ilirium, Lolly O'Neill, dreamergirl86, purebliss90, chikichiki, KTSweep08, PhoenixNS, Scooter5710, Pixiedust319, killerstorm, kaean, jillybean90, anonymously morgan, hoolihoopgrl131, and 2005girl for being extra special and not just reading…but reviewing! A cut above the rest I tell you what. Thanks for being patient with me as I post…
And even more extra special thanks to hcgolfinfool, my beta…who has done a simply splendid job!