Okay, I'm extremely sorry about the delay in this next chapter. I've been incredibly busy with all kinds of crap. So now in time for Christmas I finally posted! So I hope you like this, most people voted for the unexpected thing to happen. And I wasn't saying I was going to make James gay, I was using it as an example of how the story will take an abrupt turn. Fasten your seat belts; you're in for a weird chapter… If at any time you become confused or lost, please just keep reading and review me with your problems of not understanding it. It might be a little confusing.

Chapter 9: The Unexpected

The following night was hell on earth. This might as well have been my very last rose ceremony. After this show, I am never buying roses again! I honestly didn't feel a hundred percent sure that I was going to receive a rose.

I isolated myself from the other two girls, and took refuge in one of the many bathrooms. I got dressed slowly to try and calm my nerves. For some reason I was extremely nervous. To rid myself of nervousness I thought back to my talk with Ari last night. We talked about everything that we could think of talking about at that time.

"How are you and Sirius?" I said to her with a little playfulness to it.

"What do you mean?" she said innocently.

"Don't try and tell me that you two haven't hooked up yet?"

There was silence on the other line.

"Ah ha! So you have!"

"No."

"You're lying through your teeth, I can tell."

"Oh, fine," she sighed. "We aren't "together". We are merely friends with benefits."

"Right," I said unconvinced.

"I'm bored and he's the only one here to keep me sane!" Ari complained.

"Oh you'll live for a couple more days."

"Why did you have to fall for him?" She meant this as a rhetorical question.

"I'm not falling for him," I said quietly.

"Try telling me that with a straight face."

"I just did."

"Whatever, I need to rest up," I said. "There's a rose ceremony tomorrow."

"You'll get one, don't worry."

"Night, Ari."

"Night L."

Of course our conversation was a lot longer than that, but that's the part that concerned the most. Ari felt confident in me, so I decided to try and be confident myself. As I walked down the stairs, I held my head high.

Molly and Jocelyn were already sitting in the parlor, talking. They looked up and smiled at me. The three of us had become extremely close. Molly still had her bitchy side, but she was so funny.

"Hey girls," I said, sitting next to Jocelyn.

"When is this starting?" asked Molly, reapplying some lip gloss.

"Soon I hope."

"I hate waiting around to see what happens."

"Me too."

We sat there in silence for a couple minutes. None of us knew what to say to each other. Then Chris walked through the French doors that led to the deck.

Once we were lined up outside, Chris spoke. "Welcome Lily, Molly, and Jocelyn. James has had quite a time trying to decide. When you're ready James." Christ stepped back and looked on quietly.

James stepped forward, looking as nervous as I felt. After an awkward silence, he finally said, "I absolutely hate these things. I took a bloody long time trying to figure out my mind. I feel awful about letting such a wonderful girl go tonight. But I have to do this, and I'm so very sorry." He bowed his head and delicately picked up a rose.

My heart beat sped up about 100 beats than it should have been. He fingered the rose over and over in attempt to get some words out of his mouth. His lips parted and said, "Lily."

I could have passed out on the spot. My steps to him were shaky. Once I reached him, he looked in my eyes and asked, "Lily, will you accept this rose?"

"Yes," I said softly, on the verge of jumping up and down. When I was back in my place I finally let my breath out. I was now able to relax.

James grabbed the other rose. I looked over at Molly and Jocelyn. They both looked like they could burst out crying at any moment.

"Molly." Molly let out a knowing sigh. Jocelyn dropped her head and closed her eyes tightly. I instantly went over to comfort her. Jocelyn and I had become wicked friends, and now she had to leave. I gave her a long hug as she cried into my shoulder.

"It's okay Lyn," I said reassuringly. "You will find someone way more amazing."

She nodded. "You better damn well win, Lily. Don't let Molly beat you out of this one."

I smiled. "Don't worry Lyn." She gave me one last hug and exited the mansion with James. They were gone for a couple minutes. James came back in and he gave a toast. "To the last two." We touched our glasses together and drank to it.

That night, Molly and I packed in silence. We would be going back to our homes. The Final Dates were set for next week. We would both be traveling to James' parents' house to meet his family. It felt weird to be going home after everything I've been through here. This house had become my home after two months. There were so many things that I learned. But at the same time it felt comforting to be going back to London to see all my friends and family. We were to leave in the morning. I was leaving at 8, as Molly was leaving a little later, since she lived closer to Los Angeles.

Once in my bed, I couldn't sleep. Too many thoughts were swimming around in my head. I finally drifted to sleep around 1:30. My dream was filled with oddly looking people in cloaks and lots of green lights.

Morning finally arrived. This time I was the first to wake. Molly was still sleeping in her bed comfortably. I wrote her a quick note wishing her the best of luck. Then I grabbed my suitcases and rolled them down the stairs.

The house felt dead and empty. I made a cup of coffee and took one last look at this amazing mansion. The limo arrived at 7:45 and Molly still wasn't awake. I decided to just call her later when I was home.

The limo drove me to the airport. My flight wasn't delayed at all. A mass of people boarded and soon we were soaring through the sky.

During the plane ride, I yet again had some quality thinking time. This time I was thinking about seeing Ari and Sirius for the first time in two months. I wondered if they would be hanging all over each other. But, then I thought about that and knew that they wouldn't do anything like that. Well, maybe Sirius would, but Ari would definitely not let him. After a couple hours of reading, I decided to take a nap. My dreams were all about James this time. His smile, his laugh, his voice, his body, his hair, haunted my dreams. The haunting was a good haunting though. Everything about him made me want to hug him to death. He made me smile with the simplest of things. My heart longed to see him everyday. If this was love, it feels bloody fantastic. It feels like your taking a bath with your favorite bubbles and when they surround you, you don't ever want to get out in fear of breaking them. This is how love must feel.

Later that night I finally arrived at my flat. I had apparated from the airport because it was so much quicker. As I walked in the door I was smuggled by Ari and Sirius. I began laughing and practically jumped on Ari.

"Arabella!" I yelled hugging her to death. "I've missed you so much!"

"Lily!" she shouted back to me. We were still clutching onto each other as Sirius joined us.

"Come on, I feel left out," he whined, giving me a hug too.

Once we settled down from our hellos, we finally were able to talk about everything I needed to talk about.

"Well, my dear ladies I must be going over to Remus' house," Sirius announced. "He is in need of a bachelor party." Sirius gave Ari a long kiss on the lips which Ari came up blushing afterwards. I looked on with a smile on my face. It was great to see Ari finally doing something good with her life. Ari has had good things in her life, but Sirius brings out the best of her, that I can see.

"Bye Sirius!" I called as he apparated. He left us to talk about the more serious matter on hand.

"So, were you surprised when you found out that it was James Potter? Your mortal enemy in school," Ari said taking a sip of her bottled water.

"Are you kidding? I thought about leaving the show!"

"You were obviously mad," said Ari.

"Obviously, I thought of every single way I could murder you two."

"But in the end it was all perfect. I mean after you shagged him you just had to stay."

She earned a slap from me.

"Hey! That hurt."

"It was just weird that I used to hate him during school and I couldn't even remember him."

"I bet that is weird."

"Oh well. Did anything exciting happen while I was gone?"

Ari seemed thoughtful. "Sirius and I met Remus' fiancée, Emily. She is a doll."

"That's wicked! She was on the show too, as a spy."

"No way, she never mentioned it."

"We became really good friends."

"Small world."

"Yea," I sighed.

I spent the next week at home with Arabella and Sirius. Life went smoothly, like it had before I left. Sirius kept giving me information about James' doings since we were apart. It felt weird not to see James everyday.

A week had passed without any word from the studio about the next date. Sirius, Ari, and I were sitting around watching TV as the phone rang. Ari went to answer it.

"For you," she said tossing me the phone.

"Hello?"

"Lily Evans."

"Yes, this is her."

"Lily, this is Chris from the Bachelor. We have recently received some grave news."

My face fell. What could have happened?

"It seems that Molly Walden passed away a week ago in her sleep. We have not yet figured out the cause. It's taken them a week just to figure out that she is dead. We would have called you sooner, but there was a chance that she was still alive."

I gasped, holding back tears. "Are you positive?"

"We are extremely positive."

I fought to keep my voice steady. Ari was looking at me oddly. "Where is her body?"

"We sent it to the nearest hospital."

"There were no bumps, bruises, cuts, blood, anything? Fingerprints, moved objects?"

"The detectives are going over the whole mansion still."

I racked my brain for an explanation. "Do you think we could send the body to England to be examined? There's a hospital here that can find out anything that went wrong."

"I'll have to see if that's okay."

"Or maybe I could have them send out some doctors from the hospital."

"That would be excellent."

"Okay."

"I'll call you back in about an hour in hope of some information."

"Thank you Chris. I'll call the hospital and see if they can do it. I have a friend that works there. And uhm, Chris, does James know yet?"

"I've already called him. He was devastated."

I nodded. "Okay."

"I'll keep you posted. And I'm dreadfully sorry Lily." I hung up the phone quietly. My hands were shaking uncontrollably.

"Lily?" asked Ari tentatively. "You look like you just failed a Transfiguration exam."

"She's dead," I muttered.

"What? Who's dead?"

"Molly," I cried. Ari quickly moved towards me and wrapped her arms around me.

"Who did it?"

"I don't know," I said blinking tears. "But I have a hunch."

"Remus Lupin," I said to the receptionist at St. Mungos.

"One moment please," she said into the phone.

It took a couple minutes to locate Remus. When he answered he sounded tired. "Remus Lupin."

"Hello Remus."

"Lily is that you?" he asked sounding surprised.

"Yes," I giggled.

"Oh how are you? Emily has told me all about you."

"Remus I need a favor," I said getting serious. "This girl, Molly, was on the show with me. She was murdered in her sleep. There is no evidence of anything physically wrong with her. I have a feeling it was done by magic. And I need you and a couple healers to go take a look at her."

Remus contemplated it. "Where do we have to go?"

"Los Angeles."

"We'll be there by tonight."

I sighed. "Thank you so much Remus. Tell Emily I say hello."

"Will do."

Ari and Sirius were waiting in the kitchen while I called Remus.

"So?" asked Sirius.

"He's going," I said.

Ari let out a big sigh. "That's wonderful."

I nodded. "I must go see James." I said suddenly.

"Are you allowed to?" wondered Sirius.

"I don't give a Merlin's beard if I can or can't. Where is he?"

"Our flat," said Sirius.

I apparated. The familiar sensation of apparating took over my body. I ended outside of the flat that Sirius and James shared. All of a sudden I became extremely nervous. I knocked on the door softly. It took a couple minutes for James to answer it. When he opened the door his face was filled with confusion, shock, and happiness.

"Lily?" he asked shocked. He opened the door further, allowing me to enter. "What are you doing here?"

"I just heard about Molly," I said softly.

His eyes adverted to the wall behind me. He brought his hand to scratch the back of his head. "Yeah, me too."

"Aren't you devastated?" I asked.

"Yes, I'm really sad to see this wonderful woman die, but it also angers me to know that someone could have killed you too."

I looked into his bright hazel eyes. "I don't have any idea what you're talking about?"

In one quick movement he had captured my lips with his. "I wanted you from the start Lily," he whispered. "This just means I don't have to make my pick heard around the world." He kissed me again and my heart soared. "Lily ever since I met you at school, all I wanted to do was know you. You finally gave me the chance to know you and I am overjoyed that you didn't run away once you found out it was me. After chasing you for so many years, the chase has finally ended. I'm glad I continued to chase you too."

"Me too," I whispered, giving him a very hearty kiss. "Remus is going to check out Molly's body," I said after we sat down on his couch.

"He will be able to figure out what happened," James said positively.

"Like I said, I think it was the work of magic. There was no sign of physical contact."

"This is the most awkward thing I have ever heard of. So many muggles are going to want an explanation for this. Especially Molly's parents."

"We'll deal with all that shit later," I said moving closer to him.

"Mmm, I see how it is Miss Evans," he muttered.

"Shut up and kiss me you fool." James did as he was told. And boy did he do it well. "James. I. Feel. Like. We. Should. Be. More. Sad. Than. Happy." I told him between his kisses.

"Why?"

"Molly."

"Why do you keep bringing that up?" he asked drawing back from me.

"I feel bad. What if you were going to pick her?" I asked, casting my eyes down.

"Lily," he said putting his hand underneath my chin. "Did everything thing I just say go straight through your little brain?"

I smiled slightly. "I'm sorry; I'm really overwhelmed at the moment."

"It's okay. I was going to pick you anyway. You're to perfect to pass up, and if I did I would regret it forever. Like I said before, I've chased for so long and now I've finally caught what I've been chasing since I was eleven. There's no way in Merlin's beard I'm letting it get away now."

My heart fluttered again, just like it always did when James was talking. He always seemed to make me feel good about myself.

"James, you've been so good to me these past months," I started. "I'm angry at myself for not giving you a chance sooner. If I would have then we wouldn't be in this mess at the moment."

"I wouldn't consider this a mess, Evans," he smiled wrapping his arms around me. "Merlin Evans, why are you so perfect?"

"Quit calling me perfect, I am far from it," I said.

"That's what you think. But you are perfect to me." I smiled and took his face in my hands. He looked me square in the eyes. His hazel eyes were shining with a light I had never seen before. "I love you Lily Evans."

My heart stopped.

Alright don't shoot me and disown me or anything unpleasant. I know I absolutely suck at updating but I'm so busy with sports and school. I know this isn't one of my better chapters. I hope you liked this one. I promise the next one will get better. I've been working on other stories too, so I should have another story up soon along with this sequel. Only two or three more chapters left for this story. Please review, I need some loving. Plus my birthday was last Saturday, the 10th. Give me a good belated birthday present! I love all you guys who review. And thanks for putting up with my horrible slowness of updating.