Thanks for the great reviews of last chapter guys. I'm really trying to keep this one going because I have a pretty clear vision for it. Let me know what you all think of this chapter. P.S is everyone excited that the new book is coming soon? Anyway happy reading
James stumbled in to his house around 7'oclock the next night and felt the exhaustion consume his body. He and Sirius had spent the entire day searching the surrounding area after death eaters had attacked another family's house outside of London. It had been the fourth attack this week and Voldemort and his supporters were getting bolder with each strike. He and Sirius had arrived on the scene to find a crumbled house and no survivors. Needless to say, James' mood was dark. So when he entered his apartment and found a large sofa upholstered with flowers, he was less than amused. He looked around and realized that his couch wasn't the only thing that had received a makeover. He now had pink curtains and frilly pillows adorning his living room. He swore loudly. It was at this point that the culprit appeared before him.
"Doesn't this room look so much better? I think a feminine touch was exactly what it needed," Lily said. "Wait until you see what I've done with the bedroom."
James looked at her and his mood went from dark to black. He'd hoped that he wouldn't have to deal with his "wife" today. He simply wanted to unwind after the awful day he'd had.
"Fine, go ahead and waste your money trying to make me mad," James said as he took a seat on the offensive couch.
Lily looked at him innocently and then a wicked smile formed on her face.
"Oh, but James I thought you said it was our money," Lily said sweetly. "So I used our account at Gringotts."
He had to laugh at her little plan to irritate him. She could spend his money until she was blue in the face and it wouldn't make a dent in his bank account. Much to his dismay, he was the heir to the Potter family fortune.
"Go ahead and spend as much as you want, we both know I have enough galleons for you to fill a hundred houses full of ugly pink couches. Honestly, I always thought you had better tastes than that," James nonchalantly. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've had a horrible day and I'd rather not be harped on."
Lily watched him as he walked up the stairs to his bedroom and disappeared. She sat on the ugly couch and used a few charms to transform the room back to how it looked originally. She chided herself for thinking that spending his money would bother James. He wasn't driven by money. She was getting desperate and she was going to have to do something drastic.
An hour later she was still sitting in James' living room thinking. She barely noticed when he walked back downstairs, freshly showered and shaved, wearing a wrinkle free shirt and jeans. He looked at her, surprised that she was still there. However, he didn't say anything and continued to walk to the door.
"Do you have a hot date?" Lily asked, before he had a chance to escape.
He looked at her quizzically and gave her the famous lopsided grin.
"As a matter of fact yes," he replied and then apparrated away.
She smiled to herself. She had a plan.
James sat in a booth at the Three Broomsticks with his arm draped around his date with a bored expression on his face. Sirius, Gabby, Remus, and Kate were on the other side of the room playing a game of pool. He eyed them jealously, obviously not enthralled with what his date was saying. Carrie Liston worked at the quidditch shop in Diagon Alley and had flirted constantly with James every time he came in. Finally he decided to ask her out, and he was beginning to regret his decision.
She was gossiping about something inane when James saw Lily walk through the door. He may despise her, but she still was the prettiest girl in any room she walked into. Her shoulder-length wavy red hair framed her face perfectly and her green eyes sparkled. She was dressed casually wearing a pair of jeans and a black sweater, but somehow she looked more stylish then he remembered. Their eyes connected and she gave him a mischievous smile. He braced himself for the mayhem she was about to start. She casually walked over to his table and smiled at his date, but it was a different smile then she had given him earlier; it wasn't full of vivaciousness and it lacked authenticity.
"Hi James, fancy seeing you here," she said casually.
"What do you want Lily?" he asked bracingly.
She stared at him with her innocent big green eyes.
"Now is that anyway to talk to your wife?" she asked as a look of triumph developed on her face.
James' date just watched in confusion.
"I'm sorry how rude of James not to introduce us. I'm Lily Potter, James' wife," Lily said kindly, as if what she was saying sounded completely ordinary.
When James heard Lily use his last name, he smiled slightly, but then immediately realized that she didn't mean the things she was saying. Kelly looked like a kid who had been caught doing something naughty at school. Her cheeks flushed.
"You're married?" Carrie asked as she looked at James who was trying hard not to laugh.
Lily didn't know it and if she found out she wouldn't be happy, but she'd done him a favor.
"If you define being married as not seeing your wife for seven years and then one day she shows up and announces she's engaged to another man, then yes I guess I am," James said with a smile.
Carrie still looked confused. She looked back and forth between Lily and James trying to figure out if she was having an elaborate joke played on her.
"He's married," Lily said with enough force that she surprised herself with how real it sounded.
James looked at her with exasperation.
"Not for long," James protested and he took Carrie's hand and led her towards the bar to buy her a drink.
Lily tried hard not to laugh when she saw the tiny skirt Carrie was wearing.
"I see the plan to torture James into giving you a divorce is under way," Gabby said as she walked over to Lily and handed her a drink.
Lily just nodded her head. She downed her drink and challenged Gabby to a game of pool. Several drinks and several games later, Lily was the undisputed champion of pool. So far only Sirius had come close to beating her and she wasn't even trying that hard. Lily was finding it hard to concentrate while she was watching James and his date at the same time. She watched as Carrie draped herself over James. She didn't know why this bothered her, but she had the desire to hex Carrie into oblivion.
"Care to see if you can beat your wife at a game of pool?" Lily said to James.
He was leaning up against a wall talking to Sirius as Carrie acrobatically tried to latch on to him. He looked at her with interest when she extended the invitation.
"Funny how you're my wife only when it's convenient for you," James said as he took a swig of beer.
He grabbed a stick and chalked it up.
"Oh come on, I'm doing you a favor trying to scare her off. I saw that bored expression on your face. It was the same look you had when you dated Chastity Sellers during sixth year because you thought it would make me jealous," Lily said.
James laughed, but it didn't keep him from sinking his first shot.
"No, I dated her because I thought she was hot, but then I learned that Chastity wasn't just her name, it was her way of life, and that's when I got bored," James said jokingly.
Lily whacked James in the arm with her stick for his offensive comment.
"And don't get me started on the gits you dated at Hogwarts. Remember Glen Keller?" James said with a smile.
"Hey, he was sweet, just because he got nervous whenever he tried to kiss me and broke out in hives, doesn't mean you can make fun of him," Lily said playfully.
"Ok fine, but you can't defend Stanley Handley, or as Sirius and I called him, Stan the man with the wandering hands," James said with a laugh.
"Yes, but you didn't have to hex him so that every time he talked to me his face would grow huge boils," Lily replied. "He probably still has scars."
"That was one of my more brilliant ideas," James said as he congratulated himself on his ingenious.
Lily had not been paying attention and when she looked back at the table, she realized that James had cleared it. He gave her one of his infamous smirks and put his stick on top of the table.
"Guess that means I win; your game is really slipping Evans" he said and then turned around and headed back to his date.
Lily pounded back another glass of fire whiskey and glared at James as he kissed his date forcefully. She looked around and saw everyone paired off. Gabby and Sirius were talking in low tones to each other and Kate and Remus were enjoying a quiet moment. She felt a pang of sadness as she watched her friends together. She'd missed major moments in their lives and she regretted it. For the first time, she felt a pang of regret for living them behind. She pounded back another drink and grabbed her pool stick again.
"Come on Remus, grab a stick and see if you can redeem yourself. I've been drinking so my hand eye coordination should be a little off," Lily said belligerently
Remus accepted her challenge and walked over to the pool table. She threw the stick at him and he grabbed it before it hit him in the face.
Lily lined up her first shot and when she went to hit the ball, she completely missed it.
Sirius laughed at her. "Nice aim Lily," Sirius said.
"Out of everyone in this room Sirius Black, you shouldn't be criticizing my aim," Lily said somewhat playfully, but with a slight bite to her words.
Sirius stared hard at her, daring her to continue down the path she had started. She smirked at him.
"Or do I need to remind everyone about how you missed a goal that would have beaten the Slytherins and won us the Quidditch Cup?" Lily shrieked.
Sirius glared at her and then shot a jelly legs jinx in her direction, which she sloppily deflected in her inebriated state.
"That's an old story Lily and we all know that James saved the day and caught the snitch and we went on to win the cup," Sirius said testily.
"Irrelevant," Lily shouted. "You had the chance to be the hero and you choked."
"I think you'll find I've never had any desire to be a hero," Sirius growled at her and Lily decided to turn her venom on Remus
"Come on make your shot so I can finish kicking your ass," Lily slurred.
Remus laughed.
"Lily, look at the table. I am killing you," Remus said as he pointed out all of the balls she had left to sink.
"Just like that night during fifth year when I met Moony the…" but she didn't finish because James had placed a hand over her mouth
He glared at her fiercely for being so careless as to reveal Remus' condition. Lily looked at Remus, who was staring at the ground. Katie had her arms around him whispering something into his ear, but he looked visibly upset. She knew it was a cheap shot and that Remus would never intentionally hurt anyone. It was her own foolishness that had led her to danger in the first place. She'd followed the marauders, curious about where they disappeared to every month. When she entered the shrieking shack and came face to face with a full grown werewolf, she regretted her curious nature. The werewolf lunged at her and pinned her beneath him. She could still remember the paralyzing fear she felt. If it hadn't been for James, who fought off Moony and gave her the time to run back to the castle, she probably would have been bitten, or worse, died. She knew it killed Remus that he'd put her in danger and she was lashing out at him for no reason.
"I think I'm going to call it a night," Remus said stiffly.
He put down his drink and his pool stick and walked out of the room. Katie followed him and gave Lily a disappointed look.
"Oh come on I was just kidding. Rosmerta, how about another round of drinks for my friends," Lily shouted, trying to defuse the awkward situation.
Rosmerta looked at her and shook her head. "I think you've had enough," she said.
Lily looked around and saw people staring at her, even her friends.
"You all think your lives are so perfect," Lily shouted. "Well I've got news for you. There is a whole wide world out there and I've seen it. That's right. I'm happy. I've got someone who loves me so you can judge me all you want. I don't need you," Lily ranted.
She was stumbling around and bumping into things. Her friends just looked at her with exasperation and anger. Gabby shook her head, wondering what had happened to her best friend.
"Alright that's it," James said and he picked Lily up and threw her over his shoulder.
She kicked and screamed and threatened to hex James into the next century, but he didn't put her down.
"Put me down," she shouted.
"Not until you stop acting like such a brat," James growled as he carried Lily outside of the Three Broomsticks.
"It's your fault, you made me be mean to everyone," Lily said churlishly.
James dropped her on the ground and turned to look at her.
"I made you treat my friends like dirt?" James asked angrily. "That's rich."
"Our friends," Lily spat back.
"No, they stopped being your friends when you ran away because things got hard," James said quietly, which was usually a sign that he was seething with anger.
Lily blinked back tears as she looked at James.
"Why do you always have to make things so difficult," Lily shouted. "I'm trying to be happy. Why can't you understand that?"
"Don't kid yourself Lily, you won't be happy until you figure out how to let people in who love you," James said viciously.
"I let you in and look how well that turned out," Lily shouted back.
"You closed the door on us and pushed me away as soon as things got rough. You never even gave us a chance," James roared.
"I gave you seven years of chances and you never took any of them," Lily cried. "And now it's too late."
James just stared at her. He'd gone to New York half a dozen times to bring her back, but each time he couldn't bring himself to talk to her. He couldn't face the idea that she might be happier there than she was with him. So he'd resigned himself to waiting for her to come back to him. And now that she was here, he was more confused than ever.
"Fine, don't say anything. I didn't expect you to," Lily said quietly and then closed her eyes to apparate to Gabby's place.
"Oh no you don't," James said as he shook her. "You can't apparate in your state and I'm not about to let you splice yourself," James said.
"I'll be fine, just leave me alone," Lily shouted.
James quickly found Sirius' flying motorcycle and told Lily to get on. She refused and he was tired of arguing with her. He picked her up and placed her on the seat rather harshly. He got on the bike behind her and started it up.
"Hold on," he said gruffly and they were soon flying through the night air.
Lily fell asleep as they were flying over Oxford and stayed asleep until they reached James' flat. He'd argued with himself about whether or not to take her to Gabby's but he decided she probably wasn't too pleased with Lily at the moment and would want nothing to do with her. When they landed, he tried to wake Lily, but she wasn't budging. So he scooped her up and carried her into the house. He walked up the stairs to his bedroom and laid her on his bed. He pulled the covers over her and decided to spend the night on the couch. Tomorrow he thought he might set about trying to straighten things out with her.