A/N: Sorry about my evil cliffhanger at the end of the last chapter...I just couldn't help myself! Thanks to everyone that reviewed, you guys rock!
Oh, and I don't think I've said this before, so I'll just say it now: I am not JK Rowling. If I was, I would be writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and not this fic.
Chapter 4
Temptation Can Be Deadly
Lily stood there – in the middle of the popular wizarding pub – completely dumbfounded. Sitting directly in front of her was James Potter, the man who she had once loved and now despised. She wanted to lunge at him, to hit him, to punch him, to cause as much pain to him physically as he had caused her emotionally. And yet...she felt an uncomfortable jolt in her stomach that she knew had nothing to do with her anger.
Ashley looked from her boyfriend to her trainer. "Do you two know each other?"
"We – uh –" Lily stammered. Where should she begin?
"We all went to school together." Remus said.
"Oh," Ashley replied. "Then why don't you sit down, Lily. Catch up with everyone."
This pulled Lily out of her stupor. "Wh–oh, no – I – I couldn't possibly –"
"Oh, come on, Lily," Sirius said as he stood and walked around the table to where Lily was standing. He pulled her into a hug and whispered, "Glad you're home, Lils," into her ear and led her to sit in between himself and Remus, directly across from James.
Before anyone could say anything else, Tom the barman took their drink orders. Lily's thoughts of an nonalcoholic beverage flew out the window by merely glancing across the table. She ordered a firewhisky.
After they had gotten their drinks, Ashley persisted, "So, you all went to school together?"
"Yeah, same year and house." James replied, not looking at Lily.
"Were you all close?" Ashley was looking directly at Lily.
"Remus and I were prefects in our fifth and sixth years,"
Steering away from this dangerous conversation, Remus asked Lily, "So, how was New York?"
"I loved it. It's such a beautiful city."
"I still can't believe," Sirius said, "that you've been gone for a year."
Lily smiled. James's stomach did a back flip. "I did really miss London, though."
"Are you staying in London?"
"Yeah, with Rachel for now, but I'm looking for my own place."
"You know," Remus said, "I don't think anyone's moved into your old apartment."
Lily laughed, she staring to feel the firewhisky. "I'll have to look into it."
"Did you get your shopping done in Diagon Alley?" Ashley asked.
Is this interrogate Lily day? "Yes, I did." As an afterthought, she looked at between James and Sirius, "You two will never guess who I ran into at the apothecary."
"Who?" they both replied.
"Severus Snape." The reaction was very close to what she expected – shock. "He seemed surprised that I had returned, though I'm not sure how he knew I had left."
"Who's Severus?" Ashley asked. She had gone to a wizarding school in America with her mother, and knew nothing of the now infamous fights between Snape and the Marauders.
James and Sirius exchanged looks before they burst out laughing.
"You'll have to excuse them," Lily said, rolling her eyes. "Severus was in our year, and him and I were partners in Potions during our, what, sixth and seventh years? And these morons," she gestured to James and Sirius, "were his mortal enemies."
"If you're going to tell the story, tell it right." Sirius said, "He hated us as much as we hated him."
Before she knew it, they were laughing about their seven years at Hogwarts. It was a though nothing had changed as they bashed the Slytherins and Mrs. Norris. But after a while, Ashley grew bored. Sirius was in the middle of one of his tales of escaping Filch when Ashley began to run her hand up James's thigh. While Lily obviously couldn't see it, his reaction gave it away.
She couldn't take it any more; she couldn't just sit here and pretend that nothing had happened. After Sirius had finished talking, Lily looked at her watch and said, very quickly, "Well, it's getting really late, I've got a ton to do tonight and I'm working twelve hours tomorrow, so I'd better get going." She bid everyone goodnight and headed out of the pub as fast as she could.
"I've got to use the restroom." James said shortly after Lily left. Ashley looked slightly put off but didn't argue. Once she was no longer looking James, he mouthed, "Distract her!" His friends both nodded. Remus asked Ashley something and James slipped out of the pub.
Lily was at the end of the block, leaning against the brick building, taking a drag out of her cigarette.
"What do you want, Potter?" she said coldly as he approached.
He wanted to tell her everything, the threat letter, the pictures, everything...but the daggers that where shooting out of her gorgeous green eyes made him change his mind. "Smoking's bad for you."
She rolled her eyes. "I was going to quit. I haven't had a cigarette in four days. But after that little discovery, I bloody well deserve this."
"What discovery?"
Lily released a mirthless laugh. "Oh, I don't know," she began sarcastically, "how about the fact that you are fucking my trainee?"
"She told you?"
"No, but she didn't have to. The way she looks at you makes it all too clear." Her face relaxed slightly, but still looked into his eyes. "But she's not as good as I was."
"You can't possibly know that, Lily. Even you can't read people that good."
"Oh, but I can. If I had been the one who had just run her hand up you thigh, we'd be at you place by now." She tossed her cigarette on the ground and leaned closer to him so that they were inches apart. "Tell me something James, do you think of me when you're pounding into her?"
Surprised, James took a step back. Lily smiled her sweetest smile and said, "I'll take that as a 'yes'," before she turned and left.
000
Lily walked up the stairs to the apartment she shared with Rachel. Thankfully, she lived on the second floor. Once at the door, she didn't bother with her key; she charmed the door open, slammed it shut, and fell face down on the couch.
"Bad day?" Lily lifted her head to see Rachel sitting in the chair opposite her, bottle of wine in her hand, already in her pajamas.
Lily sat up straight. "I don't know if you'd believe me," she said as Rachel passed her the bottle of wine.
"Then I'll tell you about mine. Three of my patients died today. And Edward Potter was admitted so you might want to stay away from my floor because James will be there quite a bit to see his father."
"Edward's been in and out of the hospital for, what, two years?"
Rachel nodded. "Lil, between us, I don't think he'll leave."
Lily sighed and took another drink. "I saw Remus today. Then I met my trainee's boyfriend. You might know him, he's our age."
"Who?"
"Take a wild bloody guess."
Their eyes met for a few moments before Rachel clapped her hand over her mouth. "No way!"
"And she calls him Jamie. I could literally feel the bile rise in my throat when she said it. Oh, and their sleeping together."
"Alright, you win, your day was worse than mine."
Lily slumped back against the couch. "You know, it never occurred to me that he'd find someone else. Oh well, good night, Rach,"
"Night, Lil."
000
"So, I'll see you tonight?"
"Actually I can't, my dad is in the hospital and I'm going to see him tonight."
"All right, I'll see you later then."
"Bye,"
Ashley kissed him and headed off to St. Mungo's.
James turned to see Sirius giving him an odd look. "What?"
"Nothing," Sirius said as he went to the kitchen, James close behind.
"What?" he asked again.
Sirius took a deep breath and said, "You didn't tell Lily, did you?"
"She hates me," James said in a pained tone. "Did you see the look on her face when she saw me? And I told you what she said last night when we were outside. There's no way that she'd even listen to me."
"And I take it that you're not going to tell Ashley about you and Lily."
James raised his eyebrows. "You mean tell her that I loved Lily and wanted to marry her but the Death Eaters threatened to kill her? Hell no."
Sirius turned to rifle through their mail and handed a thin envelop to James. "I'll see ya later, Prongs."
James glanced at his watch. "Your going in awfully early."
"I've got to do my paperwork that I blew off yesterday or Scrimgeour will be on my ass – again."
After Sirius left, James opened the envelop, put there was no letter.
Only a picture...
A picture of Lily, exiting the Leaky Cauldron.
Frantic, he looked in the envelop for a note of some kind. There was none. He flipped over the picture and on the back, was one sentence:
Temptation can be deadly.
