What if...

A/N: I told you I meant soon. Erm, anywho, here is the first official chapter.

Jaw-Dropping Reunions

There was a loud thumping fist banging on his door. He hated it. He wanted whoever the idiot was to stop. Now. He groaned. He was much too tired to actually get up, open that door, yell at whoever the person was, and tell them to go away forever - or at least until he got a few more good hours of sleep.

James Potter rolled over onto his right side and squeezed his eyes closed tighter. Maybe if he pretended he heard nothing, the person - whoever it was - would go away. This seemed like a good plan until a good two minutes later when the person was still pounding never-endingly on his hotel door.

“Grrr,” James growled in frustration. He rubbed his eyes tiredly as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. Through his closed eyes he could see the light of the day pouring into the room, and he hated it. It always seemed like the days went on forever, and the nights - which he had grown to love - were over much too soon.

He glanced at the clock as he put on his glasses. It was past noon.

James stood up from his bed and ambled over towards the door - the person still racking their hand on this door - and he put on his sleep robe to cover up his shirtless self and flannel pajama bottoms.

“C'mon, Prongs,” came the voice of Sirius Black from the other side. “I know you're in there. Open up!”

James opened up and came face to face with his best friend.

“Padfoot!”

“Prongs mate!”

The two embraced each other with a hug that would fit two long-lost brothers. They practically were brothers.

“So what took you so bloody long to answer the door?” Sirius asked with a grin.

“Erm - sleeping,” James replied bashfully.

Sirius chuckled as he stepped past James and took a good look around the expensive and enormous hotel room. It was a complete mess, just how James loved to keep his living places. James watched him closely, wondering to himself just what Sirius was doing here, but thinking it'd be too curt to ask him so.

“So - so what are you doing here?” James asked.

Sirius looked over at James and smiled. “Just thought I'd stop by! You know ever since your team took second we've hardly been seeing each other!”

“Yeah, well a lot of traveling you know,” James replied, shrugging and scratching his bed-ruffled hair.

“How about you put some decent clothes on, and we head out to get a bite?” Sirius suggested.

“Aren't you supposed to be at work right about now?” James asked.

Sirius shrugged. “Took the day off. Now get dressed, mate! I'll wait down in the lobby. The clerk down there was eyeing me as if I were a piece of chocolaty treacle tart. And I liked it!”

James laughed as he watched Sirius open the door and close it behind him. He stood there for a moment and sighed. Maybe a day out with a friend - Sirius being his closest friend of all - wouldn't be such a bad idea after all. It was better than hiding underneath the warm covers thinking about the past. Thinking about what would never be.

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“Oh no!” screamed Lily Evans in horror, jumping up from her bed. Her usually wavy and shiny red hair was a tousled mess all around her sleepy face as she stared at the clock with her jaw dropped.

She was late! Two hours late!

She, Lily Evans, wasn't supposed to be late. She never was up until now!

“Oh no, oh no, oh no,” she repeated frantically as she rushed about her bedroom, laying her perfectly straightened work attire out on her bed and dashing inside her closet to retrieve some decent shoes. She then hurried to her bureau to gather fresh undergarments before running into the bathroom to take a shower.

A quick shower - a very cold quick shower - later, and Lily was standing in front of the bathroom mirror with a hairdryer and a toothbrush trying to dry her hair and brush her teeth at the same time. Unfortunately, she accidentally ran the tooth brush through her fiery locks and attempted to shove the hairdryer in her mouth before realizing something…

“I'm a witch!” she exclaimed stupidly, smacking herself on the forehead.

She retrieved her wand and used a speedy drying charm to take care of her hair, before finishing brushing her teeth.

Hair completely dried and wearing nothing but a towel, Lily Evans of age twenty-three hurried back into her bedroom and threw on her clothes. She hardly had time to brush her hair and she even almost forgot to put on her shoes.

The last thing she grabbed in the room was her cloak and purse, and then she scurried off into the living room.

“Mr. Henderson is going to be terribly upset with me,” Lily groaned as she threw floo powder into the fireplace and stepped into the grate. “Ministry of Magic!” she shouted in the midst of the dancing emerald flames.

With a whirl and a swoosh Lily Evans was gone.

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“Still dating Kylie, are you?” Sirius asked, taking a seat at the table as James took one across from him.

“No,” James replied shortly. He didn't like this topic at all. It made him uncomfortable.

“Why not, mate? She was pretty enough wasn't she?” Sirius winked at the waitress as she passed by with the table nearby's order. The woman blushed and almost bumped into an empty chair.

“Still got the ole Black charm, eh?” James chuckled. He was eager to change the subject.

“Of course, mate. Could any woman resist this?” Sirius said, gesturing to himself.

“You're so humble too,” James added sarcastically, laughing along with Sirius.

“Aw, I'm just joking. I don't think I'm some God or something,” Sirius said afterwards. He looked over seriously at James and said, “So why'd you end things with Kylie again?”

“I don't know. She ended it with me,” James lied.

“Really?” Sirius said He seemed to know this was a lie in an instant. He watched James as he stared out the restaurant window, an obvious miserable gleam to his hazel eyes. “Maybe,” Sirius said, “It didn't work out because she and you both knew she could never be anything better than second place.”

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“YOU'RE LATE!” screeched Mr. Henderson, sending spittle this way and that.

Lily flinched at the flying spittle but chose not to say anything about it.

“Erm, I know, sir. I'm sorry. It will never happen again,” Lily apologized sincerely, feeling like the most irresponsible person in the world, though she really had no reason to. Being late for the first time in her life hardly nominated her for the position of `most irresponsible person in the world'.

“I expected better from you, Miss Evans,” Mr. Henderson said simply. He gave her that odd one-eyed beady look he gave people he was disappointed in. It actually kind of looked a bit funny, but Lily dared not laugh at him; she didn't really wish to be unemployed after being employed at the Daily Prophet for merely two and a half years.

“I understand, sir. I got home very late last night, and I must have slept in. It's never happened before and like I just said, it'll never happen again.” Lily almost exhaled in relief when he stopped giving her the beady one-eyed glare.

“No need to repeat yourself, Miss Evans. Time will tell if it'll happen again or not.” He shuffled the papers on his desk before looking back up at her. “I gave your story to Miss Kylie Mills.”

“What - sir!” Lily gasped, eyes widening and her mouth opening in surprise.

“You weren't here, Miss Evans, and well, Mills was. Besides, I think Miss Mills is almost as capable as you are,” he explained frankly, crossing his hands on his desk in front of him.

Lily could not believe this, and she was fairly tempted to argue why this was unfair before reminding herself this was her boss. She couldn't. She had to bite her tongue and listen.

“Yes, sir. May I ask what I'll be covering then, sir?”

“The only thing that's left is sports. Rowsky's on vacation. You'll have to report on the big Quidditch match this weekend - Canons versus the Tornadoes. Interview all the star players, and of course you get a VIP pass to the game,” said Mr. Henderson matter-of-factly.

Lily's eyes widened and her voice shook.

“T-The Canons, sir? THE Ca-Canons?” she repeated dumbly.

“Unless you have a hearing deficiency, you heard correctly the first time,” he said, giving her an incredulous look. “Now that's all, Miss Evans. I have other matters to tend to.” He shooed her off like some annoying stray dog, making her grit her teeth at how discourteously she had been dismissed. She felt like some petty servant.

She made this man his favorite flavor of coffee every morning (vanilla nut), she sent out his Holiday greeting cards to every one of his family members and friends and acquaintances, she had even run personal errands for him from time to time like picking his children up from daycare, and shopping for new sets of robes for him. And this was how he treated her.

It made her sick. But there was nothing she could do about it and that's what killed her.

She, the one back at Hogwarts who would have fought against something wrong or unethical was now biting her tongue and following stupid instructions. She, the one who spoke her mind and didn't back down to anyone if she felt she was truly right. And now look at her, acting like some lap dog to some idiotic and incompetent man that thought much too highly of himself.

“Morning Lily,” said Kylie Mills, and she wore this sort of gloating grin on her stupid pretty little face.

Lily grimaced.

“Morning Kylie,” she said with forced politeness.

“Sorry about sort of stealing your story,” Kylie apologized again in a triumphant manner, making it sound like anything but an apology.

“Oh, it's all right,” Lily lied. She felt like some little child right now. She looked a year or two younger than usual, too, with her hair down and freely hanging over her shoulders rather than how she usually wore it, pinned up in a tight and professional-looking bun. Her clothes were wrinkled and messed like some kid that had been playing outside for hours, and her stockings were unevenly put on.

In comparison to Kylie, whose dark brown hair was pulled back in a stylish twist at the back of her head, and whose clothes were straight and orderly, she looked a complete and total mess.

“Well, you should know I'll do it justice,” Kylie said, smiling sweetly in a venomous way.

“I'm sure you'll try,” Lily remarked.

Kylie laughed dryly. “Try and succeed, as Mr. Henderson told me I surely will.” Kylie smiled wider and let off a fake giggle. “But don't get me wrong, Lily…I'm sure he felt you'd do a…decent job too. Well, I must be going. I have a featured story to report. Ta!”

And she stepped around Lily and disappeared down the office hallway to her cubicle at the far end. Lily looked over her shoulder and watched the wench walk off, unsure of what she felt. She was disappointed and embarrassed that Kylie now looked to be the better reporter, and at the same time she wanted to cry out at this injustice, for Mr. Henderson had clearly told her he'd give her the Ludo Bagman story!

She sat down at her small and crowded desk in her small and crowded cubicle and put her face to hands in frustration. This was not how she pictured her life to be when she was a child - even a teenager. This was not how things were supposed to be.

She wasn't supposed to compromise for what was fair and right just to have a paycheck, she wasn't supposed to practically lick the ground her boss walked on for absolutely no respect, and she wasn't supposed to live probably the dullest life of anyone on the blue-green earth.

“I can't do this,” she sighed, sitting up straight and running both hands through her silky hair. She couldn't sit here and mope and whine about everything that was wrong at the moment. She had to be mature about this and cover the story she was given - even if that meant going near James Potter for the first time in almost five years.

Lily charmed her hair up into the familiar tight bun at the back of her head, and gathered her things. She was going to get started on this story now; she was going to prove to Mr. Henderson that she was responsible and she at least deserved an ounce of respect.

After all, she was the youngest staff writer in half a century to cover a featured story well over two dozen times.

She stood from her desk and hurried out of the Daily Prophet office. She'd grab a quick bite to eat and then she'd schedule interviews with the players on both teams.

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Sirius sighed. He wished the old James would come back, because the James Potter sitting across from him at the present moment was definitely not the arrogant and suave James Potter he remembered from their Hogwarts days. And though most teenagers would say he was old, he knew he was still much too young to be getting Alzheimer's disease. He was not imagining the old, “cooler” James from their Hogwarts days. It was definitely James who had changed.

Even if James was hurting he would have hidden it brilliantly behind a cool grin and talk about Quidditch. Now he showed his hurt, he showed it all over his face and in his eyes.

“James,” Sirius said. “I know what's bothering you.”

“Do you?” James snapped. He was feeling irritable.

“It's Lily, right? You never stop thinking about her. And you know what? It's unhealthy, James. It's been almost five years since you've seen her. And she didn't even like you. Mate, she hated you. Can't you at least try to forget about her?” Sirius said, leaning slightly across the table so no one would overhear.

“Don't you think I've been trying?” James asked miserably. “I've tried, Sirius, I've tried. But at the end of the day all my thoughts come back to her. How I could have proved to her I loved her so much if she had just given me a chance. One ruddy chance, Sirius. One. That was all I needed.”

“I understand that, but she's gone now, James. You'll probably never see her again. Last I heard about her was that she had moved to France,” Sirius said. He frowned at his best mate. “She's gone for good, Prongs. What do you think she's just going to walk back into your life in an instant after this long?”

Just then the restaurant door opened and in walked none other than Lily Evans. She took a seat at the far window and set down her cloak and purse just as the waitress walked up and took her order.

“Maybe you're right,” James mumbled, poking at his food but not eating it. He had barely taken two bites. “What are the chances of me ever seeing her again? She's probably halfway across the world.”

Halfway across the room was more like it.

“Yeah. What do women see in foreign blokes anyway?” Sirius asked, glad to see James brightening up. His gray eyes went past his friend, though, and landed on a strikingly beautiful redhead sitting at the far end of the restaurant.

He leaned to the right for a better look at her. Her fiery red hair was pinned up at the back of her head, and she was sitting alone, waiting for her food as she read a book. She was very pretty indeed, the only thing ruining it for Sirius being her horn-rimmed reading glasses. Sirius never did fancy women with glasses very much.

“Hey mate, check her out,” Sirius said, grinning. He nodded his head in the woman's direction.

James looked over his shoulder and at the beauty in the distance.

“Wow, she's really something, isn't she?” James commented. “But the glasses do make her look a bit old, don't you think?”

“Yeah, but glasses can be removed,” Sirius said with a dimpled grin that would have caused almost any woman to melt for him then and there. “What do you say we go give her some company?”

“And what would you say after she tosses her drink in your face for shamelessly flirting with her?”

Sirius shrugged. “There's always magic, mate. Scourgfy it off!”

“You take her. I'm going to use the lav,” James said, standing.

“If you wish,” Sirius agreed, also standing.

Sirius walked right up to the woman's table while James continued toward the restaurant lavatories. Sirius cleared his throat to get the woman's attention.

Lily Evans looked up from her book and straight up at Sirius Black. Her emerald eyes widened behind her glasses and her mouth dropped in shock.

Sirius took an astonished step back, eyes wider than Galleons.

“LILY!” he shouted in utter bemusement.

“Sirius,” Lily almost groaned, not daring to believe that this day could get any worse. Apparently it just had, and for Lily it wasn't quite over yet right when…

James whirled around at what he had just heard, and gaped at the woman he was so sickeningly in love with.

“Lily,” he said quietly. And though it was quietly that he had said this, Lily and Sirius and everyone else in the restaurant that was watching looked over at him. He stood stock-still gazing at Lily as if he were falling in love with her all over again.

“Potter,” Lily groaned, putting a hand to her forehead. This was the worst day of her life.

Five years it had been, and even after five years she still seemed to hate him.

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A/N # 2: Thank you for reading, and now you'll review, of course. Chapter 2 should be coming fairly soon; of course not the same sort of “soon as in soon” as with this chapter, heh, but soon nevertheless. Have a nice day. =)