A/N: Okay, so arguably this chapter's a little late but it could have been much, much more delayed had a certain release date not been announced and awoken my writing muse, so enjoy, read my AN at the bottom and don't forget to review!
Chapter 11: Apologizing is Only Ever Easy in Theory
Head rested back against the couch, James tossed the stuffed Quaffle up in the air and caught it with ease, an activity he had been at for over three hours. He sighed again for what seemed like the umpteenth time, causing Sirius to peer over at him from above the wizarding magazine he was leafing through. Sirius studied his friend for a moment before raising the magazine and once more absorbing himself in the article he was reading.
James restlessly allowed the quaffle to fall and watched it roll off the couch and onto the floor before letting out yet another exasperated sigh.
"Oh, stop moping already!" Sirius exclaimed, closing the magazine and tossing it on the nearby coffee table.
"Moping?" James laughed forcefully. "I'm not--"
"Prongs, let's skip the part of the conversation where you deny the fact that you're moping until I convince you that you are." Sirius interjected. "Instead, let's get to the part where I tell you what to do so you can fix this little mess of yours."
James smiled, a bit more genuinely than before at the thought of Sirius fixing one of his 'little messes' that ironically almost always involved one, Lily Evans.
"And how, pray tell, do you propose I go about fixing things?" James asked.
"Easy," Sirius grinned. "Go talk to her."
"Now?" James replied.
"No, in another fifty years," Sirius' tone was sardonic as he rolled his eyes. "Of course now!"
James muttered something about the fact that waiting a good fifty years might give Lily just enough time to cool off and forget this ever happened before he noticed that Sirius had gotten up from the single armchair he had been sitting in and was walking over to where, he, James sat on the much larger sofa.
Sirius grabbed his friend by the upper arm and pulled James up to his feet with ease.
"Padfoot, wait," James said nervously as Sirius steered him toward the front door, by this time practically pushing him every step of the way. "m-maybe this isn't such a good idea-- maybe I should give her time to cool off."
"Nuh-uh! No way, it's now or never, mate and trust me, you'll thank me for this later." Sirius said opening the door and with one final push, effectively forcing James to stumble onto his own porch steps.
James straightened himself before turning around to face his best friend with a look of shock on his face.
"Now then," Sirius said from the doorway. "You're going to go next door, talk to Lily and find out what's going on, ideally through apologizing since that's probably the only way you're going to get her to talk to you and don't even think about coming back until you've made up!" Sirius added before slamming the door in James' face.
"I believe I've just been kicked out of my own house…there is something so wrong about that." James mused before plucking up the courage to walk toward the Evans' home just next door. Padfoot was right, he needed to sort this out with Lily sooner rather than later.
James reached the Evans' front door and with a determined look on his face, rang the doorbell. He cold hear the pounding of footsteps coming from the other side and a flash of red zipped by the sheer curtain covered window to his right.
Good, James thought associating the red hair in the window to be Lily's. It's better she answers the door-- less of a chance of her pretending to not be home or slamming the door in my face before I can explain myself…I hope.
James gulped nervously but quickly pushed all thoughts of rejection out of his head, launching instead immediately into explanation as soon as the door opened.
"Look, Lily, I'm sorry about yesterday-- I didn't mean for it to happen and it wasn't all my fault!" James rambled, talking a mile a minute and looking down at his shoes rather than at the girl who had just opened the door. "I just-- what he aid was just…and you-- you shouldn't have to put up with it and I know you don't need a hero or someone to protect you, but it's just not right and someone's got to do it,"
"Um, exc--"
"No, wait, just, let me get this out, Lily, please." James said, cutting her off, still not daring to look her in the eye.
"But I--"
"What I'm trying to say is," James said, cutting her off once more. "that I'm sorry, Lily--" James who had finally looked up let his sentence trail off as he took in the sight of the girl in front of him for the first time. "and you're not Lily, are you?" James finally finished, bemused.
"Correct, Captain States-the-Obvious." the girl replied, her arms crossed over her hest and a tinge of good natured laughter in her voice.
"Sorry, it's just you look an awful lot like Lily-- well, actually, now that I think about it you don't but…hang on, why didn't you tell me you weren't who I thought you were before I got off on my speech?" James asked.
"Well, in my defense, I did try but you didn't exactly let me get a word in now did you? Just kept telling me, or rather Lily, to shut up." The girl replied, her thick American accent bowling over James, who thought it sounded quite out of place in this quaint English town.
"And technically speaking," the girl elaborated. "most people do care to look at who they're speaking to before they go off on a rampaging monologue, or at least they do where I'm from."
James fought a blush-- the girl had a point and he was feeling rather sheepish but he hid his embarrassment with another question.
"And where are you from anyway?"
"Take a wild guess" She responded rolling her eyes.
"Alright, stupid question," James replied. "I guess it'd be better for me to ask you who the heck you are, wouldn't it?"
"Better, yes, but then again, I think I should be the one asking you that question."
"Huh?"
"Well, do you have a name?" she asked expectantly.
"Of course," James answered defensively, "don't you?"
"Naturally."
"Well…?" James' tone was expectant and he was trying rather hard not to let his slight annoyance show.
"Well, what, exactly?" She smiled as if she were giving him a hard time on purpose.
"Aren't you going to tell me what your name is?" James said, this time knowing he hadn't kept the annoyance out of his tone.
"I feel like we're going around in circles-- not exactly very productive." she mused.
"Well, we wouldn't be if you'd just tell me who you are…"
"Why?"
"Why, what exactly?" James said, mimicking her exact words from moments before.
"Why should I be the one to tell you my name first, of course!"
"Because-- because…because I asked you first!" James exclaimed, realizing after the words had escaped his lips how childish it sounded.
"But that, is an elementary fact, my dear Watson."
"Watson?"
"You know, Watson…?" The girl explained, seeing James' confused expression. "assistant to one of the greatest detectives ever to grace the pages of English literature?" The girl continued, seeing James' face still showed no signs of recognition, "Sherlock Holmes? Oh come on, he's British! How can you not…oh just forget it! The point is, this may not be my house but you knocked on the door and I answered it, therefore it is considered proper for you to introduce yourself since technically you initiated this little conversation."
James looked at her and shook his head as if willing his thoughts to unscramble.
"You lost me at that Sherlock fellow, whoever he is…"
"Sherlock? Maggie, who are you talking to?" Jeff Evans asked, now entering the room as well.
"Dunno, some strange boy who won't tell me who he is." The girl named Maggie shrugged.
"Strange-- Oh! Hi James!" Jeff exclaimed, noticing him standing on the porch.
"See? Now really, how hard would it have been for you to say 'Hi, my name's James'?" Maggie interjected.
"Hi, Jeff…um, can I ask you a question, sir?" James asked, effectively ignoring Maggie's comment.
"Yes." Jeff said curiously.
"Who's Sherlock?"
"Sherlock? Oh Maggie, don't confuse the poor by-- you can't expect wizards to know everything about muggles!"
"Aww, but Uncle Jeff, it's so much fun and he's so easy to confuse!" Maggie pouted playfully.
"Uncle Jeff?" James repeated.
"Oh yes, sorry where are my manners? James, this is my niece Maggie, Maggie this is James Potter-- he lives just next door."
A look of dawning passed over Maggie's features.
"Oh, James Potter, huh?" a smile played on her lips. "The same James Potter who goes to school with my favorite cousin? Well, it's nice to meet you, then, I've heard a lot about you."
"Lily's cousin?" James asked.
Well, really, he thought, that would explain why he'd confused her for Lily in the first place. Although, now that he got a good look at her, James realized they didn't look much alike at all-- they were around the same height by the looks of it and they appeared to have the same nose, but that was where the similarities stopped. For one, Maggie, although a redhead herself, had hair of a lighter shade and she had quite a deal more freckles scattered about her face and arms. Her eyes were also a light shade of blue rather than the deep shade of green Lily's were and they were quite a deal smaller than Lily's larger almond shaped ones.
"Yes, that's usually what we refer to the relationship between two siblings' children as." Maggie stated as if talking to a five year old.
James was brought back into the conversation at hand at Maggie's statement.
"Maggie," Jeff said as if scolding his niece, although one look at his facial expression would tell you he was far from being seriously mad at her.
"Sorry! Sorry!" Maggie said grinning. "I can't help it, Uncle Jeff-- he's just so confuses so easily!"
"You'll have to excuse my niece, James, she has a rather twisted perception of what humor is…" Jeff said looking down at Maggie who gave him an innocent 'who, me?' expression.
James laughed. "It's alright, Jeff…being friends with Sirius for almost seven years skews your sense of humor to an extensive range."
"Well," Jeff said, changing the topic. "I'm guessing you stopped by to see Lily-- she's actually not here, though."
"Oh?" James replied.
"I think Laurie said they were going to pick up bridesmaid dresses today but then again, I could be mistaken. Either way they're doing some kind of wedding related activity-- would you like me to tell her you stopped by?" Jeff asked, politely.
"Erm, sure, that'd be great, thanks Jeff, I'd better be getting back to check up on Sirius anyway-- he's probably bored out of his mind." James replied. "Bye Jeff, it was nice meeting you, Maggie!" James said, waving as he walked back to his own house.
Jeff watched James go inside before glancing sideways at his niece.
"Sherlock? Watson?"
"What?" Maggie said innocently, looking up at her uncle who was a great deal taller than she was. "It's a perfectly well known saying-- how was I supposed to know he was a wizard?"
Jeff laughed good heartedly, giving Maggie's hair a loving ruffle.
"So that's the James Potter, huh?" Maggie said changing the topic slightly, "The bane of my dear cousin, Lily's existence?"
"I guess so," Jeff said.
"I like him." Maggie said finally in a rather definite tone.
Jeff smiled and ruffled her hair once more.
"So do I, love, so do I-- come on, we'll make some lunch before the girls get home." Jeff said leading Maggie to the kitchen as he closed the front door.
Lily trudged up the front steps, wrenching the door open tiredly, and extremely grateful that her mum had allowed her to skip the trip to the florists and the bakers which she, Petunia, and Marge and Barbara Dursley still had to endure. It was three in the afternoon but all the same Lily was exhausted-- not to mention completely agitated, but then again, that's what bridesmaid wedding shopping with Petunia and Mrs. Dursley does to you, Lily thought to herself. She closed the door leaning heavily on it for a moment before depositing three large bags near the hall closet.
The house seemed uncommonly quite and solitary to her all of a sudden. Strange, Lily thought, Dad's supposed to be at home today…
She wandered into the living room thinking her father might be in there but stopped in her tracks as she took in the scene of an unidentifiable and unrecognizable figure seated in the middle of the two-seater sofa, a copy of today's 'London Times' news paper effectively covering their face.
"Hello?" Lily called out to the stranger cautiously.
"Well, it's about time you got home," The stranger replied slowly. "And here I thought my clothes were going to go out of style waiting for you."
The voice coming from behind the newspaper was strikingly familiar to Lily but she wasn't sure why. And then it hit her like a sack full of galleons over the head, exactly who the voice belonged to.
"Maggie…?"
Slowly but surely, the person seated on the couch lowered the newspaper until Lily found herself staring at the freckly, grinning face of her cousin Maggie.
"Hi, favorite cousin!" Maggie exclaimed, unable to control her excitement any longer.
"Maggie!" Lily squealed tackling her cousin before she had the chance to get up from the couch. "Oh, I've missed you! How's school? Why are you here? No, wait, when did you get here? Is Aunt Rose here too?" Lily rambled as she seated herself as close to Maggie as possible.
"Woah, Lily, one question at a time."
"Sorry but it's just, I can't believe you're actually here!" Lily grinned widely.
Maggie's smile widened if possible even further and she threw her arms around Lily again, embracing her tightly once more.
"It's good to see you, Lily."
Lily let go and looked at Maggie once more.
"So, what's going on?"
"What do you mean?" Maggie asked.
"Well, not that this isn't the best surprise in the world but well, you're HERE! How?" Lily gushed excitedly.
"Well, I'm here for the wedding, obviously."
"And Aunt Rose?" Lily asked.
"Mom's flying down closer to the actual wedding date-- she wanted to come down earlier with me but the office could only let her come down two days before the wedding earliest-- we'll be staying for about a week after the wedding though, that's the compromise." Maggie explained.
"And you?" Lily asked.
"What about me?" Maggie said laughing.
"You just randomly decide to show up almost two weeks early without your mum?"
"Oh, this? No, this was planned about a week and a half ago."
Lily let her jaw drop in shock at Maggie's words.
"And why wasn't I informed of this?" Lily asked.
"Lily, Lily, Lily! Haven't you ever heard of a little thing called a 'surprise'?" Maggie grinned.
"Yeah, well, surprises suck-- I like to know what's going on around me." Lily grumbled.
"You lie." Maggie challenged.
"Okay, maybe you're right but still-- I guess I just can't believe everyone knew-- even dad--"
"Oh, yes, Uncle Jeff was crucial to the plan-- I mean someone had to pick me up from the Heathrow airport!" Maggie laughed.
Lily giggled.
"Oh and by the way, before I forget," Maggie began, still grinning. "someone came by to see you today,"
"Who?" Lily asked curiously.
"About six foot two, messy dark hair, glasses, lovely hazel eyes, and coincidentally happens to live next door…?" Maggie described, watching Lily's face.
"So you met James Potter, did you?" Lily said simply.
"Yes…and why, my darling Lily did you not inform your favorite cousin to whom you tell EVERYTHING that James Potter the bane of your existence ever since you met him during your first year at that school of yours just so happened to move in next door, hmmm?"
Lily winced slightly at Maggie's sideways glance-- that was a very good question. Why hadn't she told Maggie James had moved next door? Why hadn't she told any of her friends from Hogwarts, James had move in next door? The answers to these questions were enough to make Lily's head spin.
"Dunno…it just never came up…" Lily finished lamely.
"Alright, well, I am rather curious about one other thing…" Maggie trailed off.
"And that would be?" Lily asked.
"What he did to make you so mad." she shrugged.
"Mad? How'd you know I was mad at him?"
"Well, when I opened the door, he started apologizing, almost groveling, really. So whatever he did, you must have been really upset…"
"But, why would he apologize to you?" Lily asked.
"Well, you see, he must have thought you were going to be the one to answer the door so when I opened it, he thought I was you and since he didn't actually look up until he finished his little spiel, he didn't realize he had been apologizing to the wrong person the whole time."
"Oh dear…" Lily said through a laugh.
"It was a very nice apology though, just in case you're wondering-- I was a bit out of the loop since I have no idea why you were so mad at him-- he must really like you though, to come over here and face your wrath, not to mention to apologize so profusely." Maggie mused.
"Yeah, well…" Lily grumbled.
And all it took was one look, one pressing look from Maggie before Lily found herself spilling the events of the past three or so weeks of the summer-- everything from the day she'd found out James had moved in next door all the way up until yesterday when she'd yelled at him for trying to be her knight in shining armor.
An hour later found the two girls exiting the Evans home and walking toward the Potter house next door, or rather, Maggie was walking toward the Potter house with Lily in tow, dragging her along as she went.
"Aww, come on, Mags, can't I just wait for James to come back and apologize again?" Lily asked.
"No you most certainly can't! Besides, you know you were a bit out of line yourself so it's only fair for you to go over there and initiate some sort of conversation that'll eventually lead to a reconciliation between the two of you." Maggie replied.
Lily dug her heels into the slightly moist grass of her front lawn.
"Lily this is ridiculous," Maggie said. She paused for a moment before a look of dawning swept over her blue eyes. "You're not scared are you?"
Lily laughed. "Scared? Of what? Why would I be scared?"
"I dunno, maybe because deep down you actually want James to be the one who saves you all the time…" Maggie trailed off. She saw Lily give her a warning look as her comment sunk in and not wanting to agitate her cousin so soon after her arrival she changed her course slightly. "Or maybe because a part of you knows you overreacted yesterday and it wasn't all James' fault and now you're afraid to admit it?"
"Nope, that's not the reason either-- next!" Lily replied.
"Well, I've run out of theories, my dear, so why don't you tell me why you don't want to go." Maggie said, giving her a pointed look.
Lily thought for a moment, knowing a simple 'I dunno' wouldn't be a specific enough answer for Maggie.
"Nervous, I guess." Lily mumbled finally.
"Nerves? Is that all?" Maggie asked, taking advantage of Lily not fully paying attention and pulling her slowly closer to James' house. "the Lily Evans I know never gets nervous-- she's brave and determined! You even told me so yourself once that was the reason you got put into that house at your school, Gryffin-whosits."
"Gryffin-whosits?" Lily repeated raising an eyebrow. "You mean Gryffindor?"
"Exactly! Gryffindor! Home of the brave, or so you told me."
"So basically you're saying its time for me to muster up that Gryffindor courage, yeah?"
"Right-o." Maggie said giving her an encouraging smile.
"Right…" Lily replied, heaving a sigh and turning around to find that she had surprisingly reached the Potter's front door.
Lily extended her index finger cautiously, barely grazing it with her fingertip before pulling it back as if she had been burned.
"I changed my mind-- I don't want to do this now, Mags!" Lily whispered as she turned to look back at her cousin.
Maggie smiled inwardly. Obviously Lily was going to need a small push in the right-- 'Sorry, Lily, but it's for your own good.' Maggie thought inwardly before grabbing Lily's hand and forcing her to ring the doorbell.
The distinct ring echoed loudly through the house and Lily's eyes grew to roughly the size of saucers as the realization of what Maggie had done dawned on her and instantly, fleeting thoughts of possibly having enough time to run away before one of the Potter answered the door crossed her mind.
"Don't even think about it, Lily, besides, we're a little old to be playing ding dong ditch, don't you think?" Maggie stated, recognizing the look of panic on Lily's face.
"Never! You're never too old to relive all those fun childhood games." Lily said stubbornly.
"Lily, be reasonable!" Maggie said in a stage whisper. "You can't just leave now, anyway-- they'll see you walking, or rather, running back home and really, how would that look?"
"Oh yeah?" Lily replied in a testy voice. "And what exactly am I supposed to do then? Because unless you've got another brilliant idea, my initial fight or flight instinct is starting to look pretty good right about…" Lily trailed off her sentence and abruptly turned around at the sound of the door before her opening.
"Hello, Lily!" Moira Potter greeted kindly.
"Hi, Mrs. Potter, how are you?" Lily said, so confidently you would have never guessed just a moment before she had been dreading this moment entirely.
"Just fine, love, and yourself?"
"I'm doing great!" Lily lied. "This is my cousin Maggie-- she's here from the States for my sister's wedding."
"Oh how nice," Moira smiled. "Have you been to England before, dear?"
"No, Mrs. Potter-- well, once actually when I was about six but I barely remember anything."
"Ah, so there'll be lots for you to see before you go back home."
"Yes, ma'am, hopefully, if we have time, that is." Maggie smiled.
"Please, dear, call me Moira-- I've asked Lily to do the same but I expect old habits of referring to your elders as Mr. Mrs. Die hard, don't they?" Moira said, giving Lily a wink.
Lily blushed slightly.
"That's right, Mrs. Potter-- er, Moira."
"Now, were you looking for James, dear?" Moira asked, turning to look at Lily.
"Yes, Maggie mentioned he stopped by earlier while I was out with my sister-- is he here?" Please say no, please say no, please say no!
"Yes, of course, dear, he's in the sitting room-- go right on in!"
Damn.
Moira moved aside to let both Lily and Maggie in before closing the door behind them.
"You kids have fun and if you need anything, just let me know-- I'll be in the back doing a bit of gardening." Moira said, walking toward the back door.
"Thanks, Moira" Lily said, watching her leave.
"She was nice," Maggie commented. "I like her."
"Me too," Lily smiled.
Her smile faltered slightly as she heard two muffled but very distinct voices up ahead in the next room and she realized suddenly why she had been so nervous to come here in the first place. In the almost seven years of knowing him, she had never once apologized to James Potter, not once-- not even if she'd hexed him or poured a pitcher of pumpkin juice over his head. He had always been the one to apologize even if Lily had owed him one herself, but this time, Lily knew she had more of a reason to apologize than James did and that thought alone made her nervous.
James opened his front door with ease. Quite frankly, he was surprised Sirius hadn't put some kind of spell on it prohibiting him to enter until he and Lily had worked out their differences.
He went back to the sitting room, plopping himself down on the sofa directly across from where Sirius was seated, still reading the same magazine from this morning.
Sirius peered up at him from the magazine curiously.
"She forgave you so quickly? That's got to be some kind of a record, mate." Sirius grinned.
"No, not even close." James said, laughing hollowly.
"That furious with you?" Sirius laughed.
"Hardly a laughing matter, Sirius but lucky for you that's not exactly the case." James replied.
Sirius raised his eyebrows as a signal for James to elaborate.
"She wasn't home-- off shopping with the wedding party." James explained.
"So we're back to square one until she comes back?"
"Yep." James sighed, grabbing the stuffed quaffle from the ground and tossing it up in the air. "back to square one."
"Think she's home yet?" Sirius asked around an hour later.
"I'm afraid to answer that question…" James said seriously as he tossed the quaffle at him.
"And why would that be?"
"Because if I say yes, you're liable to throw me out of my own house again."
"I wouldn't…not if you came willingly, at least." Sirius smirked tossing the ball back.
"Willingly being the key word in that sentence, but no, I don't think she is."
"Why?"
"Well, last time she went wedding shopping she didn't get back until around eleven in the evening."
"And you know this why?" Sirius asked before gasping and answering his own question. "Are you stalking her?"
"No." James said defensively. "Her bedroom window just happens to be directly across from mine and--"
"Directly across from yours," Sirius interrupted. "And why haven't you mentioned this to me before-- very sexy and possibly kinky."
"No, it's not anything, you pervert because I, unlike you, do not plan to take advantage of the fact that I have a very clear view of the girl I've fancied since forever's room."
"Come on, Prongs, you can't tell me the thought alone isn't tempting."
"Tempting, maybe, but I--"
"You respect her too much, I get it." Sirius said.
"Yeah, that and well, let's face it, she'd kill me twice and then bury whatever remains of me if she ever caught me." James said, joking slightly. "Besides, it's not like Lily's stupid enough to strip with the curtains open anyway."
"Right….why are we talking about the view from your window again?"
"Ummm…" James thought. "Oh right, you asked why I knew Lily got home so late-- I heard her mumbling about her sister and the wedding through my window."
"Interesting."
James rolled his eyes thinking to himself that Sirius found almost everything interesting.
Sirius changed the subject, asking James instead who would win the Quidditch World Cup this year. He was going into his speech about how Sirius crazy to think that the Tornadoes stood a chance considering they hadn't gone to the World Cup in a good fifteen or so years when he suddenly had an inkling to look toward the door. There, standing at the doorway to the living room was none other than Lily Evans. He was so shocked by her presence that James shut his eyes tightly before opening them again, as if once he opened them again, the figure of Lily Evans would vanish, having been nothing more than a mere mirage.
"Lily." her name fell from his lips, and she could hear the slight surprise in his tone.
Lily smiled slightly.
"Hi, Lily!" Sirius said brightly
"Er, Maggie mentioned you stopped by earlier…" Lily trailed off, her attention still focused on James though she gave Sirius a smile of acknowledgement.
"Maggie? I thought your sister's name was Petunia…" Sirius said.
"Maggie, my cousin." Lily explained, motioning to the girl standing beside her who waved.
"Right, we met earlier." James said, smiling at Maggie.
"But we didn't." Sirius said, grinning widely.
"Sirius, my cousin Maggie," Lily said, introducing. "Maggie, this is James' best friend Sirius."
"Sirius as in the star in the constellation? Interesting name"Maggie mused, shaking Sirius' hand.
"Er, thank you?" Sirius said, not sure if he should take that as a compliment or not.
An awkward silence fell upon them and James shuffled his feet.
"I have to pee." Maggie said suddenly.
"Thanks for sharing, Mags." Lily said, sardonically.
"Think you could show me where the bathroom is, Sirius?" she asked.
"Sure, it's just down the hall-- take a left and it's the first door on the right." Sirius said automatically.
"Thanks, but my sense of direction's horrible-- I think it'd be lots better if you could show me yourself where the bathroom was." Maggie said, hoping he would get the hint.
Sirius gave her a confused look before it dawned on him why Maggie was insisting he show her where the bathroom was.
"Oh! Right, sure! Follow me!" Sirius said, grabbing her by the arm. "Er, Prongs, Lily, we'll be right back-- cant' have your cousin getting lost now, can we, Lily?"
Maggie rolled her eyes, as she dragged Sirius out of the room, taking care to shut the door behind her slightly.
As soon as they reached the hallway she let go of Sirius' arm.
"I'm guessing you don't really have a need to use the loo, then?" Sirius asked.
"Obviously, but this is going to be awkward enough without us in there and I figure we should give them a little space-- I'm sure you know how my cousin is, by now-- she's rather proud and apologizing to her former enemy isn't something she does everyday."
"Right." Sirius smiled. "But you can't tell me you're not curious as to see how this goes."
"Of course I am."
"You up for discretely listening in on their conversation through the crack in the door?"
"Definitely!" Maggie grinned.
"You'll have to excuse my cousin-- no sense for subtlety that girl." Lily said, finally, breaking the silence.
James laughed shortly before silence overtook them once more.
"I--" Both Lily and James started.
They grinned awkwardly.
"You first," They said in unison once more.
Lily pointed to herself, signaling that James should be quiet and listen.
"I'm…..sorry," Lily finally said. "about yesterday."
"No," James said, prompted by her apology. "I'm sorry-- I shouldn't have used magic on a muggle…I'm supposed to know better."
"You're right, you shouldn't have…"Lily trailed off. "But, I shouldn't have yelled at you. I mean, I was mad at you, but it wasn't just you I was mad at really…if that even remotely makes sense."
James gave her a contemplative look before responding. "No, it doesn't really."
"I was upset about my sister, if anything. It's hard…to have a sister who hates you so passionately because of what you are, especially if she didn't always hate you. Believe it or not, things used to be pretty good between us until I got accepted to Hogwarts and well, I guess, I was just upset that what happened to Vernon yesterday gave her yet another reason to hate magic-- to hate me." Lily explained.
James nodded. "But it wasn't even your fault. Surely she understands that…?"
"That's the thing, it's all the same to her-- it doesn't matter to her who did it so much as either way, I'm in some way related to what happened yesterday, you see?"
"I think I do," James said finally. "But it's quite a narrow minded way to live-- to hate something because you fear it. Or to believe all magic is evil."
"Yes, but it's also hard to change someone's views on the matter if their views are already set." Lily pointed out.
"What you did yesterday, James," Lily began. "Trying to 'defend my honor' or however you'd like to look at it, it was a nice gesture and deep down, I want you to know that I appreciate it, but you can't keep saving me-- you're not always going to be around to save me." Lily reasoned.
But what if I want to be? James thought inwardly as he nodded, showing Lily that he understood what she was saying.
"You've got to let me stand on my own first before you come riding in on that white horse, so to speak, or else, how will I ever learn how to defend myself if everyone's doing it for me?" she said, smiling.
"Okay." James nodded. "But, if you can't, I mean hypothetically speaking, if by some rare occurrence you couldn't save yourself, could I, you know, save you?" James asked feeling rather sheepish asking the question after it escaped his lips.
"Sure-- if, like you said, by some rare occurrence I couldn't take car of myself." Lily promised all the while thinking in the back of her mind that the odds of that happening were slim to none. "But really, being the smartest witch of Hogwarts, you don't think I could have taken all those other people who've teased me in the past if I wanted to?"
"Of course you could have, Lily." James grinned, realizing she was teasing him slightly. "Everything's okay with your sister and her fiancée, right? I mean, he didn't call off the wedding because of…" James trailed off his sentence.
"Oh, no." Lily said, to a relieved looking James. "Actually, right after you left and she caught up with Vernon, an obliviator from the Ministry showed up at our house and wanted to know if a memory charm was in order-- I gave Petunia the choice of erasing Vernon's memory of the afternoon's events but surprisingly, she said no."
"Really?" James replied curiously.
Lily nodded. "She said she could deal with Vernon knowing and this way she wouldn't have to be so round about when talking about my school life and such-- they did however decide not to tell his parents."
"Interesting."
"Quite. But I did have a few conditions concerning the matter and I told Petunia she'd better follow them or I could call the Obliviator back at any moment--"
"Lily! You know you can't do that!" James interrupted.
"Well, of course I know that, but she doesn't." Lily said, mischievously. "Anyway, I told her to change the bridesmaids dresses to a colour that was a bit more flattering to my hair." Lily explained.
James laughed, remembering the night when Lily had shown him the swatch of fabric in the color of her dress. "Well, that was quite convenient…anything else?"
"Not much more-- but Petunia said the arrangement would be off if we, that is to say you, Sirius, and I, ever did magic like that again on Vernon which shouldn't be a problem, right?" Lily asked.
"Right." James assured. "So…we're okay, now, yeah?"
"Yeah." Lily smiled. "completely forgiven."
Maggie and Sirius smiled at each other from their crouched positions near the living room door and waited a good five seconds before walking back into the sitting room trying not to look as if they'd been standing outside door and listening in on every word Lily and James spoke.
"Thanks for taking me to the bathroom, Sirius-- I'd have surely gotten lost without you." Maggie said, more for show than anything.
"Anytime." Sirius said.
James rolled his eyes and gave Lily a knowing smile.
"So, what'd we miss while we were gone?" Maggie asked.
"Not much-- James and I talked out a few things." Lily said, casually as if nothing had happened.
Sirius shot James a questioning look and James gave him a discrete thumbs up, letting Sirius know him and Lily had made up.
"What are you both doing tonight?" James asked. "Do you want to stay for dinner? Mum's been dying to have you over."
"Ooh…" Lily winced. "Sorry, we can't-- my mum'll be getting home soon and I'm sure she'll want to see Maggie but we'll take a rain check, won't we Maggie?"
"Definitely, but Lily's right, we'd better get going." Maggie said, smiling.
"Oh! Before I forget, here." Lily said, hading James a fancy cream colored envelope.
"What's this?" He asked.
"An invitation for Petunia and Vernon's wedding for all of you guys." Lily explained.
"Wait a minute-- you're telling me that your sister and her boyfriend are going to let us-- me and James come to their wedding even after what happened earlier?" Sirius asked, hardly believing it.
"Yet another one of my conditions," Lily said, grinning. "Trust me, Petunia didn't surrender quietly but my parent's really want you to be there…and well…" Lily thought before adding with a slight blush, "I put my foot down about this one.-- I'd really like for you guys to come."
"We'll be there, definitely-- all four of us." James said, automatically.
"Great!" Lily exclaimed. "Well, we'd better go-- see you both later."
"Nice to meet you." Maggie smiled as she followed Lily out.
James looked down at the envelope in his hands before deciding to go with Sirius to pester his mum about what she was going to make for dinner, feeling much lighter now that everything was good again between him and Lily.
A/N: ACK! Deathly Hallows is going to be released on JULY 21st! That's two days after my birthday and a week after OotP comes out in theatres-- needless to say my 20th birthday is going to be a complete HP extravaganza.
Okay, so I want to know everyone's initial reactions on getting the release date! -- never mind the news being arguably old!
Personally, I started crying, right in the middle of screaming and squeeing over the phone with my friend Lora, and then Lora ((thank god for friends like her)) had to calm me down over the phone-- it was quite an experience.
Right, so anyway, hope you liked this chapter-- I'll start working on the next chapter as soon as I can but there's a bit of a problem, I have no idea what I want to happen as of yet so, if you're feeling generous and want to act as my muse IM me if you see me around on the internet! If not, well, then hopefully that 11 hour plane ride to Germany on the 16th will spark some kind of fan fiction related thoughts!
Oh, and you should all download the song "Last Chance to Lose Your Keys" by Brand New-- it awesome and it's such a Lily/James song, or at least, that's what it strikes me as-- especially the second verse.
And to make it easier for all of you, I've uploaded the song onto YouSendIt so all you have to do is go here:
http://download.yousendit.com/0924D40D1587BFCB
and download it if you want to listen. Enjoy! J
NOTE: It's only good for 100 downloads or 7 days-- whichever happens first-- so if you want the song, better get downloading fast, as in right now!