"So what are you going to do? You can't just plan on raising her without a father when her father lives right-AHHHH!" Remus yelled when he found Lily launching herself out him in an effective attempt to silence him.
"Shut up, you imbecile! Celeste is right here!"
"She's two, what the hell can she comprehend?"
"Would you watch your mouth?"
"I can comprehend that you are in deep kitty poo," Celeste said smugly.
"Okay…okay. Let's all settle down. Celeste, why don't you go visit Professor Figg for a bit, and Remus, you can come with me on a walk, we obviously need to talk; that way you can talk freely without teaching my daughter inappropriate language. Let's go."
Lily took Celeste across the hall, and Professor Figg cooed in delight to her before promising popcorn balls and hot chocolate while their cats played together. Lily and Remus went down to the street to walk idly down the sidewalk. She hooked her harm casually through his, sighing. "Everything's so confusing right now. Have you been well?"
"Not too bad. I'm the guinea pig for a company trying to make a lycanthropy remedy, hence the gray hairs and wrinkles. They're not getting too close," he said ruefully. "So, uh, you have a lot of interesting additions in your life, a kid and tattoo among them. What the crap is going on?"
"You have a bad attitude. The tattoo will come off easily with magical medicine, I just have to go back some time. I love Celeste, I wouldn't be able to handle this without her. She's someone to love, and the only someone I have right now, Remus."
"You could go live with Petunia, I'm sure she would have you."
"I would feel like a bug crawling there after the way we left each other. It was a nightmare," she said, kicking rocks as she went along, head bowed to deflect some of the sharp wind.
"You do realize he's legally married to you, not Penny. You could have a hell of a court case."
"Why in the world would I want a court case? Did some of that trial potion kill half of your brain? I just got out of the closest thing to hell on earth, and right now, all I want is a normal, safe life. I don't want Daily Prophet coverage on my every word. If James can move past me, I can most certainly move past him. I was the one who carried that relationship, anyhow."
"Is that what you want to think, Lily?" James asked, hurrying up beside them.
"You!" she said indignantly, pointing. "Are you stalking me? I know self-defense. I have a guard-Kneazle."
"Both of those sure worked in the past, didn't they? Where are you two going?"
"Shouldn't you be getting back to Penelope for some sort of Sunday afternoon activity?" Lily asked venomously, wondering if there was some way she could trip him successfully.
"We don't have afternoon activities. She's undoubtedly calling her friends to complain about me, so I'm free to chase my other wife and friend," James said with false brightness.
Lily made some sort of growling noise and glared.
"I just want to talk to you. By the way, what's with your sudden chattiness? Conversations with my friends, but not with me, isn't that a find deal?"
"I don't want to talk to you," she gritted out, and walked faster.
"Tough. We're married, I could move in."
She walked faster. "Only in your casket."
"Creative. Come on, are you going to avoid me forever?"
"Oh no, I expect someday we can be best pals." Lily started walking at a comically fast speed, not wanting to be near James at the moment…it just wasn't safe.
Of course, he had to walk faster too.
And of course, there's that point you can't walk any faster and you have to run.
They reached that point. Lily had an easier time darting through the crowd, which was an advantage until the crowd started parting for them, everyone wanting to witness James chasing her down the sidewalk. This would be great gossip. The chase actually ensued for about three blocks, then he finally caught her.
"Would you just stop, Lily? I think we've drawn enough attention."
"Why did you have to chase me? Nobody would have noticed if I had just walked away, but you had to follow."
"Maybe I didn't chase you long enough the first time."
*~*~*
"Oh, man," Sirius observed.
"Yeah." Remus and Sirius watched the spectacle that was their friends from a bench on the sidewalk.
"He said he was going to the loo. One minute, he was standing by the window, the next he was rushing away. Then, I see him following you two."
"Do you have the feeling all involved are going to be screwed over?"
"At some point or another, yes, yes I do."
*~*~*
Lily eyes widened, and she had to fight desperately not to cry. "James, please don't do this to either of is. You know what you have to do, and I'm not part of that have to. Penelope is your wife now."
"But I loved you, Lily, so much." James brushed her hair back from her forehead back in a tenderly familiar gesture.
She stepped back abruptly, looking outraged. "Do you want me to laugh at you? What are you going to do? Date me and sleep with her? Oh, goody, that sounds like fun!"
James's jaw dropped.
"Listen, James, you're apparently not grasping reality like you used to. You gave up on me, not the other way around. That means I owe you nothing, and I don't care how wounded and neglected you think you are. The day you married her you divorced me, legally or not. I am not going to let you constantly keep my life in limbo. I have a daughter to raise, and I'm going to raise her all by myself. I don't care what you think about it because you have absolutely nothing to do about the situation. I am not going to be treated as a stand-by wife. I didn't go for it when we were married, and I don't know why you have that notion now. I'm not normally one for ultimatums, but I'm giving you one now, buddy. It's her or me, not both us…ever. And you better make sure you do one damn fine job of deciding, because when you say yea or nay, it is permanent. Do you understand me?"
"Yessss," he said hesitantly.
"Good, now go home and think about it."
"Okay. I will." He started to walk off, then turned to see her still standing. "Nice to hear you talking…or yelling as the case may be, again." Before she could register it, he brushed his lips against her cheek and strode off in the direction of his flat.
*~*~*
That night, two unhappy scenes took place on the same flat level.
In one, a little girl crawled under the covers of her mother's bed and kissed her cheek, whispering, "Don't cry, Mummy."
In another, a man settled down for a restless night
on the couch. No matter what he did, it
wasn't right.
*~*~*
I'm basically just getting this out before Saturday. This way, I don't feel bad about not having a weekend update, and I'm happy. After I read it, I'm going to see if there's any way I can alter this a little to make it match whatever new information we get, so it might be a little while before the next update. Can you believe it, we'll actually have book five!
MtMurphy89-Thanks, that's one of my goals to keep them different, and I don't know how I have time either!
Memyselfandi-Things are seldom what they seem…then again, sometimes they are just that.
Angelisa Snape-Sometimes she makes me mad too, but then sometimes I feel bad for her.
Nicole-What makes you think that?
Lilybird-Just wait and see
Kelly-I really do feel bad for her in a way too. Maybe three more chapters, it sort of depends. I could finish this, no frills, in about five chapters, but I doubt that I will.
The Elfin Child-I hope you had fun with that.
RBTfreak22-Maybe…maybe not. Lily's the only one with the answers, isn't she?
Luv-jinxy-I agree
Memyselfandi-This is really giving you a hard time, isn't it? I might need to make Penelope a bit more likeable, I'll consider it.
Tina-They better stay different…I have to keep them in hand.
Kiki-He didn't, didn't he? That's the first time I had one of my characters use that word, ironic that it was Remus.
Missy-Apparently you didn't read very carefully, or you read into it too much. I didn't give a definitive answer either way.
Julie Anna-It probably would be cute, couldn't you see him with a daughter?
Adenara Yatman, unicornjewel, HPfreak, Jessie xxx, torifire126, Sea, Melissa, Trish, Cherie, Lexie,