Disclaimer: I own next to nothing.

Author's Note: I've got to stop saying I'll update sooner. I've been so busy as of late, what with exams and the holidays and everything piling up after that. Plus, I've been trying to apply to college as well, so that's taken up quite a bit of my time. But I think I've finally found time to start writing again. Hopefully, anyways.

Anyway, about the chapter. This one takes place about three weeks after the last one, just to clear that up. It's been so long since I've written anything that I think I might be a bit rusty. Hope it's alright anyway.

Chapter 6: Settling Down

As Mrs. Evans strolled down the hallway, casually passing her daughter's room, she did a double take. Boxes were floating around the place, clothes were flying up in the hair but landing neatly; it was chaos.

"Gracious, Lily," she said with a small laugh, standing in the doorway of the room. "Could you be making a bigger mess?"

From the other side of her bed, Lily's head popped up and she looked over in her mother's direction. "Sorry," she grinned apologetically. "I promise it will be perfectly clean when I'm done."

Mrs. Evans smiled and walked further into the room, eyeing her daughter's belongings. "I was only teasing," she said. "Do you want some help?"

With a soft grunt, Lily got off her hands and knees and brushed hair away from her face where it had been sticking. "No, thanks," she said. "I think I've got it under control. But you can keep me company."

"I'd be happy to," Mrs. Evans replied, and she sat down on the only part of Lily's bed that wasn't taken up by some box or garbage bag of her things. "Make sure you get everything."

Lily pulled her drawers open, and began emptying them the same way she had done her closet earlier. She waved her wand, and the clothes from inside flew out and landed in the garbage back on the floor. "I will," Lily promised.

There was quiet for a few moments as Lily finished emptying her wardrobe and moved on to pull all her books off the shelf.

"We'll miss you when you're gone," Mrs. Evans said, then. She was idly fiddling with a loose thread from Lily's comforter.

Lily turned to flash her a small smile. "I'll miss you too, mum," she agreed. "But just think, you'll be able to turn my room into the painting room you wanted. You want have to lock yourself in the basement anymore."

Mrs. Evans chuckled. "That's true," she nodded. "Your room is much nicer that the basement."

"There's always a silver lining," Lily smiled.

"I suppose there is. Your father says he wants to help you drop your stuff off this afternoon."

Lily sighed. "Of course he does," she said, but she was still smiling. "He knows I won't let him carry anything, right?"

Again, Mrs. Evans laughed. "And you know that he's not going to listen. You're his little girl, Lily, he just wants to see you off right."

"I know."

And as though he'd heard their conversation, Mr. Evans' voice carried up the stairs. "Lily!" he shouted. "Are you almost ready to go?"

"Almost!" she called back. "Just a few more minutes!" Lily waved her wand once, and her books pulled themselves off the shelf, and filed themselves into the last box.

She glanced around one last time; to be sure she'd gotten everything and found that she had. All her belongings seemed to have been packed away, and all that was left was to levitate them downstairs. She waved her wand again, and one by one, the boxes lifted into the air and floated into the hall and down the stairwell.

Mrs. Evans rose to her feet with a slight creaking from Lily's mattress and followed her daughter as she in turn followed her belongings. The stairs groaned under their feet as they hurried down the stairs to find Mr. Evans already lugging Lily's things out to the car.

"Dad!" Lily protested and he hoisted a pile of two boxes into his arms and turned towards the door.

"You worry too much, Lils," he told her as he headed outside.

Lily turned to her mother with a sigh and a quick roll of her eyes. Mrs. Evans laughed and draped her arm around Lily's shoulders, gently pulling her against her side. "Let him have his fun," she said with an affectionate smile. "He'll regret it later when he's lying in bed with a back ache, and you can call and say I told you so.

"We'll miss you, Lily Billy," she said as the pair of them started to walk towards the door. She pressed a kiss to Lily's cheek and turned to place her hands on her shoulders, standing in front of her and holding her daughter at arms' length. "We'll want to hear from you and see you all the time."
Lily smiled. "Mum, it's not like I'm leaving the country," she pointed out teasingly. "You'll be hearing from me more often now than you did while I was at school."

"I know," Mrs. Evans said. "But this isn't the same. You're not just going away to school, you're moving out. It's a big deal. You're all grown up."

Lily opened her mouth to reply, though she wasn't sure what to say. Luckily, she was spared as her father reappeared in the doorway; he'd managed to transfer the boxes and garbage bags while Lily and her mother had been talking.

"You ready to go?" he asked, leaning against the doorframe.

Nodding, Lily turned back to her mother and leaned down a bit to kiss her mother's cheek. "We'll invite you over as soon as everything's settled, I promise." She said.

Mrs. Evans nodded and followed her daughter out the door, hovering on the front stoop while Lily slid into the passenger's seat of the family car. Her father put the car in reverse and pulled out of the driveway. Lily returned her mother's wave as they started off down the street.

The drive to the new house was a rather quiet one as her father was naturally a quiet man, and Lily could think of nothing to say. She watched the towns flash by outside her window, fingers drumming against her knee in time to the music playing from the speakers. It didn't take too long to reach the house, just over forty-five minutes or so, but eventually Mr. Evans was parking outside the house behind an old purple car that Lily didn't recognize.

Both doors of the car opened and Lily and her father stepped out. Mr. Evans walked around the front of the car to join Lily on the other side and for a moment, both of them gazed up at the house. The front door was left open and she could see a pile of boxes already stacked in the front hall.

"Nice place," Mr. Evans said after clearing his throat.

Lily glanced over at him and nodded, smiling widely. "Yeah, it is," she agreed.

Her father cleared her throat again and stepped around her, moving towards the trunk of the car. He opened it with the keys and began to pull Lily's belongings out, setting them on the sidewalk.

"Dad, I can do that," Lily protested.

"Naw, it's fine, I –"

"No, really, Dad," Lily said, and she pulled her wand out of the pocket of her jeans and waved it; the boxed lifted into the air and floated off towards the house at top speed.

Mr. Evans smiled sheepishly and nodded. "I forgot about that," he said, watching them speed off.

There was a loud noise, then, coming from the inside of the house. It was a crashing sound and a loud yelp. Lily and her father exchanged glances of curiosity before hurrying up the pathway and entering the house to find Lily's boxes scattered on the floor and James sitting in the middle of them, his glasses slightly askew.

"Shoot," Lily said, chewing her lip as she moved to help him up. "Are you okay?"

Grinning, James took the offered hands and stood up. "I'm just fine," he laughed, leaning down to kiss her cheek. "Kind of scared me a bit when boxes were suddenly flying at me, though, and I think I might have a bruise." He pointed to his chest to indicate where the bruise might appear, but he was grinning the whole time.

"Sorry." Lily muttered.

James glanced around her to smile at her father. "Hello, Mr. Evans," he said politely, stepping forward to shake the man's hand.

Mr. Evans grinned back. "Tom," he corrected, clasping James' hand for a moment before letting go. "You haven't even settled in yet and she's already trying to kill you," he teased, glancing at his daughter.

Lily frowned. "I said I was sorry, didn't I?" she said, looking between the two others.

Another voice joined the conversation, then, and Lily looked up to see Mr. Potter coming down the stairs. "I heard crashing," he said, smiling cheerily. "Who's trying to kill who?" he asked with a chuckle, stepping around both James and Lily to shake Mr. Evans hand, joining him at his side and smiling over at Lily.

"No one's trying to kill anyone," James said, peace-making.

"That's a start," Mr. Potter said. "We'll leave you two to unpack, I guess," he said, looking at Mr. Evans who nodded in agreement. James' father clapped his son on the back, beamed at Lily. He paused on his way to the door and turned back. "Say, Tom – how would you and Virginia like to come to dinner at our house tonight?" he asked.

Mr. Evans grinned. "That sounds nice," he said with a nod. "I'll run it by Gin and let you know."

Mr. Potter nodded again and left, and the sound of a car starting could be heard. Lily raised her eyebrows at it, but no one else took any notice. She turned her attention to her father, and she took a few quick steps towards him and wrapped her arms around his neck. Mr. Evans returned the hug.

"We'll miss you at home, Lily Billy," he told her in her ear.

"I'll miss you, too," she replied. "I'll call every day. So much that you'll get sick of me and turn the ringer off on the phone."

Mr. Evans chuckled and pulled away. He leaned forward to kiss his daughter on the forehead, nodded at James and turned to walk away.

"Bye Dad," Lily called after him, stepping into the doorway to watch him climb back into the car. She waved as he drove away, just as her mother had done to them before. He disappeared down the street and before Lily had the chance to turn around and take a few steps further into the house, strong arms caught her around her waist and lifted her into the air, hugging her as they spun in a small circle.

She was laughing as James set her back down on her feet, and she kept her arms loosely draped around his neck.

"Hi," he grinned, pressing a brief kiss to her lips.

"Hi," Lily smiled back.

James chuckled and kissed her again before he let her go.

"Looks like we've got a lot to do," he said, eyeing the many boxes stacked and scattered around them.

"No kidding," Lily agreed, running her hands through her hair. She glanced up at him. "Should we get started?"

James shrugged. "Might as well," he said with a small sigh, and he turned to one of the boxes, just as Lily crouched down in front of another. He raised his eyebrows when she began to pull things out of the boxes and stack them in a pile. He cleared his throat.

Lily turned with a puzzled look to see James waving his wand pointedly. "Oh, right," she said, pulling her own out of her pocket and getting to her feet. "I forgot." She waved it once and things flew out of the boxes and stacked themselves with a lot less effort on her part.

James chuckled.

It was hours later, the day entirely gone by by the time they'd managed to unpack all their things (it was amazing how easy things were, and how quickly things got done with magic on your side). Though the place was still quite unorganised, much to Lily's dismay, she had to admit that it was much better than leaving boxes stacked messily in the entrance to their home. The bookshelf from Lily's old room was stuck against one wall in what would eventually be their sitting room, and her books (and the few of James') were piled onto it. The television from James' old room had been put into what would be their bedroom, and the rest of the belongings had been put into their proper places (at least for the time being).

"Well," James said that evening as he and Lily sat curled up on the two-seated sofa that James had managed to salvage from his parents' garage. "I think we did a pretty good job, what do you think?" With the arm he had around her shoulders, he gave her an affectionate squeeze.

Lily smiled. "I agree," she said, snuggling closer against his side.

They lapsed into a comfortable silence for a few moments, each apparently lost in their own thoughts, until Lily broke the quite, tilting her head upon James' shoulder to peer up at him.

"Since when does your dad drive?" she asked, eyebrows arched in curiosity.

James laughed. "For a while, I guess," he said with a slight shrug. "He's not very good at it. He got the car from my grandfather; he liked to play around with muggle things every now and then."

"Oh," Lily said, and she readjusted herself against his side so she wasn't craning her neck to gaze up at him.

James simply nodded, and then, quite out of nowhere, he gave a quiet chuckle and Lily lifted her head again, staring him down curiously.

"What?" she asked, but at the sight of him smiling, her own lips curved up as well.

"Nothing," he said, kissing her forehead and then a path down to the tip of her nose. "I just can't believe we finally have our own home."

Lily's smile only grew. "I know," she agreed. "It's hard to believe. I used to hate you," she added laughingly, teasingly.

"That's true," James nodded with a smirk. "I was right all along, though. I always said we'd end up together."

"Rub it in, why don't you," she said, pretending to frown.

James leaned his head down and kissed her. "I love you, Lily Billy," he said quietly, his breath softly fanning across her skin.

Lily's lips curved back too. "I love you, too, Potter," she laughed, and cuddled a bit closer against his side, head upon his shoulder again.

James smoothed hair away from Lily's fair face, tucking it behind her ear before he tightened his arm around her, pulling her even closer and they stayed that way until the pair of them fell asleep, chests heaving evenly, heartbeats almost merged together.

Author's Note: So, there we have it: Chapter six. It's not really important or crucial to the plot of the story, but I thought I'd throw it in there just to show how Lily and James settled in together, or whatever. I'm not sure if it's entirely accurate – the whole moving in and unpacking and everything – since I've never moved anywhere, but I did my best, and I figured it wouldn't matter since they're magical anyway (

Anyway, I'm really sorry for the really slow update, and I hope you liked the chapter.

Thanks for reading, and as always, please review!

-Cait.