Unofficial Portkey Archive

Chapter Fourteen

"Well...." Sirius rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Well what?!" James seethed. He was still reeling from the fight earlier, and he had one hell of a hangover.

"Well this is a fine mess," Sirius dropped his hands and stared at him. "I took you out to get drunk so you could realize what kind of a girl you had, and you screw that up!"

"I didn't screw a thing up, she over-reacted!" he growled, sitting down and holding his head.

"To tell the truth, Prongs, this wasn't my best idea ever."

"Actually, it's the best idea you've ever had!" James exclaimed, looking up. "Showed what kind of a person she really was! Good thing I broke up with her before I married her-"

"Don't bullshit me, Prongs," Sirius rolled his eyes. "You'll be back together within a week having glorious make-up sex."

"Sex wasn't that great-"

"I said not to bullshit me, Potter," Sirius said, throwing a pen at him. "I heard the tales, and the moans on several occasions. The sex was fine."

"All right, I'll miss the sex, but that's it!" James exclaimed. "I won't miss her nagging or her...well...whatever else she did to annoy me!"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Direct your bitching the other way, please, I don't really want to hear it because I'll be hearing the exact opposite from you next week, and it'll annoy me."

"Aren't you supposed to be my best friend?" James asked. "And you're taking her side?"

"I'm not taking anyone's side, Prongs," Sirius said, standing up. "You've had a fight, she's threatened to move out-"

"I kicked her out!" James said, proudly.

They both heard a loud gasp of indignation and turned in time to see a flash of red fly off. Sirius sighed, melodramatically.

"That is the fifth time she's walked by."

"So?"

"In fifteen minutes."

James frowned. "She's the one who overreacted! She's getting what she deserves!"

Sirius stared at him, then finally said, "Just go." He pointed to the door. "I can't listen to your idiocy anymore."

"Well...fine!" James grabbed his coat from the chair and stormed out.

James wandered around London for the rest of the afternoon, hands stuck in his pockets and a permanently moody expression on his face. He was going over the conversation he had with Lily and the one he had with Sirius. Some of the things that had come out of her mouth were so hurtful, so mean, and he was sure he hurt her just as badly.

Truth was, he wasn't sure if he slept with that girl or not, and truth was he didn't care. They were on a break, anything goes, right? She could have gone out and slept with anyone she wanted, and he wouldn't care, right?

The unhappy feeling in his chest told him the answer to that question.

Kicking a piece of trash across the street, James decided to go talk to his own personal counselor who knew him better than he knew himself.

He found himself standing on his own doorstep and knocking the door meekly. Normally, he'd just walk on through, but he wasn't sure if his mother was still sore about the kitchen-burning incident. He waited and knocked again when the door opened.

"H-You," he stared.

"You," she stared back.

For a moment, both of them were silent, staring into each other's eyes. The former feelings of love and affection welled up in their chests, and, for a second, they both felt the magnetism towards each other.

Then the loving feeling was overtaken by a hurt and angry wave of emotion and the eye contact was broken by a flurry of blinking and blushing.

"W-What are you doing here?" James stammered after regaining the ability to speak.

Lily also seemed to be having trouble finding her tongue, but once she found it, it was acidic. "Your mother invited me to stay here until I found a new flat."

"What?!" he exclaimed.

"James, darling, I thought I heard you yelling," Mrs. Potter said, briskly, coming out of the kitchen. "Lily, dear, go check on that pie."

Lily turned around and once she had fully broken eye contact with him, seemed to be more sure of herself, because she turned around and sent a glare James' way. James returned it with intensity. Mrs. Potter noticed but brushed it off until Lily was out of the room.

"What did you do?" Mrs. Potter asked, shrilly, once the door to the kitchen had been closed. "Sleeping with another woman! I thought I taught you better than that!"

"It's none of your business, Mum," James frowned. "I came here to talk to you, and you're housing her?"

"For crying out loud, James, she's your girlfriend, not a parasite," Mrs. Potter shook her head, walking into the living room.

"Ex-girlfriend, Mum," James said, loudly and towards the kitchen. Mrs. Potter held her tongue and sat down on the couch, crossing her ankles snappily and waiting for James to take his seat across from her.

James plopped down on the couch, slouching, and Mrs. Potter began gently. "I don't doubt that you were frustrated-"

"Frustrated?!" James sat down. "Frustrated is a bloody understatement! For a whole month, Mum, a whole bloody month, I tried to propose to her. Every single bloody trick in the book! Now I realize what was wrong?"

"What?" Mrs. Potter said, tiredly.

"I don't really love her!" James said, throwing up his hands. "That's the only reason why I could possibly screw up that many times!"

"Oh for heaven's sake...."

"And then, when I decide to go see what else is out there, she goes crazy on me! If she truly loved me, she would have understood!"

Mrs. Potter stared at him.

"Well..." James lessened a bit. "She wouldn't have gone crazy the way she did..."

She continued to stare.

"The point is, Mum, that we're over," James finished. "And she just needs to get over that."

"She already is," Mrs. Potter pointed out.

"So why is she staying here?" James asked.

"Because, dimwit," Mrs. Potter snapped, and James frowned. "Her sister refused to even let her in the door."

James felt the beginnings of guilt. "Oh..."

"She's gone over there three times. The first time she had the courtesy to open the door, and the other two times, she completely ignored her."

"Um....I'm going to use the loo," James said, lamely.

"Go right ahead," Mrs. Potter sighed. "Oh, the one downstairs is being inhabited by some sort of creature that likes to grab at things, nearly gave your father a heart attack the other day. Use the upstairs one."

James nodded and headed up the stairs. He trotted down the hallway to the bathroom across the hall from his room and put his hand on the knob. But the knob turned before he could do it. Lily stepped out, not paying attention, and found her nose pressed into his chest. She slowly raised her eyes to meet his.

It was the first time they had been so close in nearly 24 hours. And though they were loathe to admit it, both of their bodies were telling them to get closer, out of habit. They both appeared to be fighting the feeling with every thing they had. Finally, Lily put her hand on her hip and flipped her hair behind her shoulder.

"Are you going to move?" she demanded.

"Why don't you move?" James demanded back.

"You're in the hallway."

"You're in the bathroom."

"You are such a prat," Lily said, moving from side to side, but finding no easy exit. "I can't get around you."

"Not my problem," James said.

Lily grunted angrily and pushed him out of the way, her hands brushing at his chest, which, unhappily, sent shivers down her spine. When she was far enough away from him that she could think clearly again, she turned around to sniff at him, "I wouldn't be drunk for the meeting again, Potter."

"What meeting?" James asked, whirling around.

"Dumbledore's meeting, nitwit," Lily said, walking down the hallway. "Try not to be late for it, he says it's important."

"I'm never late for the meeting!" James yelled after her, groping for a comeback. "You're late for the meeting!" he said, lamely.

"M-ME?!" Lily whirled around.

"Out of my way, Potter," Lily growled, shoulder to shoulder against James as they rushed into the meeting place. They had spent so much time arguing in the hallway that they both had realized that they were at least five minutes late.

As the meeting was a top secret one, the Aurors were told to Apparate to a certain place (in front of an old bar in Scotland) and follow the directions from there. Lily and James had Apparated at the same time and were currently racing towards the meeting spot, shoulder to shoulder.

James, the bigger and stronger of the two, was winning, but Lily was quite fast and was keeping up. They reached the door and both reached for the handle. When their hands met on the golden handle, they both retracted as if the other was on fire.

"Where are your manners, Potter? Ladies first," Lily put her hands on her hips.

"I don't see any ladies," James said, quickly, and while she was recovering from the indignation from that comment, he slipped in the door.

Dumbledore had already started talking, but paused a few seconds when the door opened. James nodded to him and found one of two available seats, next to Peter.

"What are you doing here, mate?" James whispered, sitting down.

"Dumbledore asked me personally to be here," Peter shrugged. He smiled at Lily when she sat down, grumbling at the only other seat.

"Go sit somewhere else," James growled at her.

"There are no other seats!" Lily growled back.

"Uh-oh..." Peter said, sitting back a bit to get out of the line of fire.

Dumbledore continued on as if he couldn't see the storm brewing over one circular table in the back. "And in this time of disunity, this is the time that we need to gather together. Our system of learning about the enemy's movement is, at best, shrouded in fog. For too long we have relied on the abilities of just Aurors, for it has been commonly known that they are the only ones with the talent to do anything against the Dark Lord."

"What's he been talking about?" James asked Peter.

"I don't know-"

Lily made a sound of impatience. "Shut up, Potter, I'm trying to listen-"

"Shut your own fat mouth, Evans-"

She gasped. "I do not have a fat mouth!"

"Both of you!" Peter shushed them.

"But the Auror cannot do his or her job without knowing where the enemy will be. Lord Voldemort has not and will not hesitate to use others than his army of Death Eaters to do his work. We have reports that he has offered the hand of friendship to giants, werewolves, and other creatures which the wizard community has shunned. We must do the same-"

"Albus," came the wizened, Irish voice of Professor McGonagall. "You cannot expect us to-"

"Unfortunately, those whom we would most benefit from have already allied themselves with the Dark Lord. Which is why Aurors must ally themselves with those who would most benefit them; the common wizard."

An astonished look crossed the faces of every one in the room.

"Common wizard?" Lily muttered to herself.

"Shut up Lily, I'm trying to listen," James mocked her. Lily was about to retort when Dumbledore continued with a lighter air.

"As odd as it sounds, the common wizard is the best secret weapon an Auror possesses. For if we have the common wizard on our side, we have access to a mountain of information on the movement of dark wizards that otherwise we would not be able to know. The common wizard can strike up a conversation with another common wizard about the latest attack, and the other wizard will be open and honest with him. If an Auror were to ask the same wizard the same question, they would get a dishonest and chopped story, because the wizard would be too afraid of being incriminated."

"He's got a point," James remarked to Peter. "You'd probably get more information than I would-"

"That's because nobody likes to talk to you, Potter."

"This new order of wizards must remain a secret," Dumbledore warned. "All information must be transferred through a highly secured route. Fawkes the Phoenix has offered his services as a method of communication between members. Each one of you will be given a feather which you will be able to use whenever you need to communicate with someone else of the Order."

James started snickering and turned to Peter. "That'd be useful."

"How's that?" Peter whispered.

"I could send you guys feathers every time I wanted something-"

Lily snorted. "Leave it to you to abuse the privilege, Potter."

"This new Order of the Phoenix shall be the forefront of the battle against Lord Voldemort, so those who are not willing to lay their lives on the line, you may choose not to join without any fear of penalty. Now that we are the united response to the Death Eaters, they will not spare you as they have in times before."

"One can only hope," James threw a look Lily's way.

"Yes, miracles can happen," she sneered back.

"This is the only way," Dumbledore said, heavily. "The only way we can prevent more loss of innocent life. We must rise and meet them as one front, united and unwavering."

"United?" Lily snorted, looking at James.

"Fat chance," James returned.

"Can it, both of you," Sirius hissed from the next table over. James closed his mouth and sat back, sending death glares Lily's way, and she returned them with interest.

"This is effing ridiculous," Sirius grumbled over his glass of pumpkin juice. Everyone was milling around after the meeting had ended in a large feast, courtesy of the Hogwarts elves. James and Lily were still hidden under a giant storm cloud, with poor Peter in the middle, unable to leave.

"To be perfectly frank, that was quite the dumb idea," Remus cleared his throat.

"I know it was a dumb idea!" Sirius growled. "That was the point!"

Remus stared at him, confused.

"Look," Sirius leaned into talk to Remus quieter. "I took him out to show him that he couldn't find anything better than what he already had at home."

"And...what were you going to do when Lily found out that James had slept with another woman?" Remus asked, slowly.

"She wasn't supposed to find out..." Sirius cleared his throat. "And for the record, they didn't have sex."

"How do you know that?" Remus raised his eyebrow.

"Because she told me when I shagged her this morning," Sirius said, putting his hand to his chest and burping. "He'd been moaning about how much he loved his Lily that she didn't have the heart to go through with it."

"Wait a second," Remus said, turning around. "Back up....you shagged her?"

"Yeah," Sirius shrugged.

"What happened to Dorcas?"

"Oh...well...." he looked at the floor. "She doesn't know about them."

"Them?!"

"Well, her friend while James was busy in the bedroom and then the other girl, because she was pretty damn hot-"

"And you aren't telling Dorcas?"

"She doesn't need to know, Moony," Sirius shook his head. "Speaking of which...I think I'll see you later."

"You lead a very odd life, Padfoot," Remus chucked, as Sirius passed him to go meet up with Dorcas.

"Hi," came a voice to his right. Remus turned around and smiled.

"Hello Em," he said, turning to go sit down with her.

Back at the "happy" table, James and Lily were still sending hints to each other that they were not thrilled to be there. Peter was about to hex both of them, but figured that he might get into a bit of trouble if two Aurors ended up dead next to him.

However, he was spared momentarily from the bickering, because Marlene McKinnon held up a camera and got everyone's attention.

"Let's get a picture of everyone!"

"Because next week we could all be dead," Moody grumbled audibly.

Marlene levitated the camera in front of her and peered through the lens. "Smile everyone!"

James and Lily leaned in, arms around Peter, not knowing the other had done the same.

"Get your hands off me, Potter," Lily smiled through her wide smile.

"Fuck off, Evans," James grinned back.

SNAP!