3

Fifteen minutes later, Lily joined Owen at a small table in the café below her apartment. She was still blushing, but she was determined to ignore the entire situation. Owen, it seemed, had planned otherwise.

"I didn't know you were shagging him now," he said bluntly.

Lily blinked. "We've been together for five years… And it's not exactly something you write in a letter…"

Owen stared at her, his golden eyes seemingly torn between anger and disappointment. "So you've been shagging him for a while then?"

She reddened. "That's none of your business, Owen."

"Do your brothers know?"

"It's none of their business either!"

Owen shrugged. "I think it is. I think somebody ought to step in and tell you to stop making bad decisions, especially when it comes to this guy."

Lily was seething, although she wasn't sure if it was more from embarrassment or the insulting manner in which Owen spoke about Tad. "This guy happens to be my boyfriend, Owen. You know, the one who has spent the last several years with me while you've been off gallivanting across the globe!"

Owen looked livid. "Oh, you mean on the trips you promised you'd take with me? Yeah, I've been off, having great adventures, Lils, and you've been sitting here, rotting away with stupid Tad and that stupid owl shop."

"Shut up, Owen," she hissed, trying to keep her volume down in the café. "You have no idea what my life is like."

"You're exactly right, Lily. I have no idea—because you never talk to me. I hardly ever hear from you, and then when I surprise you by showing up, I find out you're not just dating Tad, but you're also screwing around with the complete prick!"

"He isn't a prick!"

"What if you get pregnant?"

Lily's mouth snapped closed. She hadn't expected that rebuttal.

Owen shook his head—clearly his disappointment was winning out over his anger. "Lily, if you got pregnant by him, you'd never be able to leave this place. You'd be stuck here, with some stupid job cleaning owl cages forever."

Lily was frustrated. "I've told you the plan—I'm going to be promoted to manager and owl trainer—"

"And how's that plan working for you so far? You're still cleaning cages, aren't you?"

Lily felt his eyes on her face, and she instantly looked down at the table. She felt more exposed and embarrassed now than she had upstairs when the blanket fell off of her. And then suddenly Owen's large hand was lifting her chin up, forcing her to look into his eyes. He seemed concerned.

"You deserve better than cleaning cages, Lily. You deserve better than distant promises of being a manager of some pet shop."

"But I love him."

Owen sighed. "Does he love you enough to let you do something else? Something for yourself?"

Lily rested her elbows on the table and sank her head into her hands. "I guess we'll find out if an opportunity ever arises."

Owen, to Lily's surprise, grinned. "Well, I guess you're going to find out then."

Lily raised an eyebrow.

Owen pulled a piece of folded parchment out of his shirt pocket. "This," he said, waving the parchment around, "is your acceptance letter from the Wizarding World Creatures' Cooperation. Congratulations—you've been accepted to enter our training program."

"Excuse me?" Lily asked, baffled.

Owen, it seemed, couldn't stop grinning. "Albus and James helped me fill out the application. Then all we had to do was forge your signature."

Lily was growing angry. "You had no right to do that, Owen!" She snatched the paper from his hands.

"You're right," he said, holding his hands up in defeat. "I had no right. Just look at the information, okay? Besides, it's just a training program. There's no commitment beyond two weeks."

Lily glared at him, but could not help her curiosity at the parchment she now held in her hands. At first, when Owen had been waving around the folded letter, it seemed as though it were only one piece of parchment, but when she snatched it from her friend's hands, it was much heavier than she'd expected.

"Just promise you'll read it, Lils?" he asked.

She glared at him again for good measure, but nodded. "Fine. But I'm still mad at you."

He shrugged and began to stand up.

"We haven't even gotten anything to eat," Lily said, feeling disappointed.

"Then next time, get out of bed on time for brunch," Owen said pointedly. "I've promised Hannah and Neville I'd spend the afternoon with them today."

Lily nodded. "Tell them I said hello."

Owen leaned over the table and hugged her rather unexpectedly. "I've missed you, Lils."

She hugged him back. "I've missed you, too, Owen."

He then did something more than surprising to Lily—he kissed her on the cheek. It wasn't that such an act was wrong or even felt wrong, but rather, the surprise came because he had never done that before. The most intimate the two of them had ever been was embracing and sharing secrets, but he had never kissed her on the cheek.

He was slightly pink when he pulled away, but Lily smiled at him and he smiled easily back, before heading off to meet up with Hannah and Neville.

Lily looked at the letter in her hands. She unfolded it carefully and began to read.

Dear Miss Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into the Wizarding World Creatures' Cooperation.

Your training will begin on July the first. This training is intense field work, and you will be required to work with a group of certified WWCC magizoologists for two weeks. At the end of your two weeks, your fellow field magizoologists will evaluate you. Your evaluation will be a major component of the WWCC's hiring decision.

For more information on your training, please see page two. For more information on the WWCC, please see page three.

Thank you and we look forward to your work in the field.

Yours,

Lyell Harding

CEO of WWCC

Lily hurriedly flipped to page two, where she saw the names of the magizoologists she would be working alongside. Gretchen Freedman, Vladimir Randolph, Valerie Randolph, and—Lily filled with excitement—Owen Thompson.

The information included the meeting place and time for the two week session, as well as a list of necessities to pack for the trip.

By the time she was done reading over all of the information, Lily felt like she was over the moon with the possibilities that this presented her. She couldn't even find it within herself to be angry anymore with Owen or her brothers for submitting her application and forging her signature. She folded the parchment back up, stuffed it in her jeans pocket, and bounded upstairs to her apartment.

She opened the door, ready to run to her bedroom and start packing (even if she did still have a week before having to leave), and saw Tad sitting at the kitchen table, drinking a cup of coffee.

Her heart sank.

Reality hit her like a bludger. She hadn't even thought about Tad since Owen left her with the WWCC information. What would she tell him? She couldn't just up and leave… And she had her apartment and her job to worry about. How could she have even entertained the thought of leaving Diagon Alley, let alone the country?

"Hey, love," Tad said, smiling at her. "You're back earlier than I thought you'd be."

Lily nodded. "Yeah, Owen was going to spend the afternoon with Hannah and Neville, and I… thought I'd come back and see you before you left."

"About that," Tad said, taking a gulp of coffee. "I was thinking, maybe it's time we move in together."

Lil blinked, at a total loss for words. "What?"

Tad raised his eyebrows. "We have been dating for like five years, Lily-Billy."

She nodded, waiting for him to continue. She knew something was going on—she had asked Tad if he wanted to live together multiple times before, and he had always said they were too young to act like a married couple or that he wasn't ready to move out yet. She folded her arms across her chest.

"When do you propose we do this?" she asked carefully.

"Today?" he suggested.

Lily laughed. "You're kidding, right?"

He shrugged.

"Why so soon?" she asked, unsettled that he was being serious.

He shrugged again. "Dad and I may have had an argument yesterday, before I got to the Leaky Cauldron."

She felt her eyebrows raising high on her forehead. Her father always said she got that look from her mother.

"About what?"

"He was in a bad mood, yelled at me for the usual stuff—not helping enough at the shop or at the house," Tad explained. "He told me I was no longer welcome at the shop or home."

Lily felt a sinking sensation in her stomach. The shop... Edwin had finally had enough of his twenty-four year old son acting like a seventeen year old and had kicked him out and fired him. Lily felt ready to cry. If Tad was in anyway disowned or kicked out of the family business, her chances of becoming manager and owl trainer were gone. Their future, the entire reason she always stood up for her relationship with Tad and her job at Eeylop's… everything was gone, unfounded now.

Suddenly the folded parchment in her jeans pocket felt very welcoming.