Illicit Love

Illicit Love

Chapter Three

Question of Partners

A week and a half (not to mention hugs, kisses, laughs and snogs) later, Lily found herself sitting in a compartment of the Hogwarts Express, traveling southwards to London. She could not believe that the days had gone by so quickly and it was summer holiday all ready. She was disappointed to be leaving four new friendships for two months, but they promised to owl one another as much as possible.

So now Lily sat on the seat of the compartment, attempting to doze off when a large ruckus came from the corridor. She didn't open her eyes, figuring someone was dragging around a trunk on squealing wheels. But then there were odd flashes of light - and squeaky trunks didn't have lights of flashing red, green, gold and blue, did they?

Lily opened her eyes just as Alisa Leone and Louisa Jamison cooed something about being so sweet. Within a millisecond, Lily's eyes flicked over to the bright and sparkling and squealing trunk, which, as it turned out, wasn't a trunk at all. Rather, it was a large, magicked, colorful message emanating ear piercing sounds as it changed colors.

"That is so cute!" Louisa sighed.

Lily had to agree.

The message read, "Lily Evans, for nearly a month we have been friends, and that time has gone by fast. I can't wait and would love to spend many more adventures with you. If you are interested in the offer, please open your compartment door. Love, James."

Naturally, Lily pushed open the door to the compartment and saw James standing there with a large bouquet of red roses. She blushed when James handed her the lot.

"Lily, would you give me the honor of being the one you call your One and Only?" he asked - not a hint of nervousness was in his voice.

"You'd think you were asking me to marry you," Lily replied with deeply flushed cheeks and a wide smile. "Yes."

James stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her waist. Alisa grabbed the flowers so Lily could hug James back. She threw her arms around his neck and he pressed his lips against hers and kissed her deeply. Louisa, Alisa, and Sirius, Remus, and Peter (who seemed to come out of nowhere via the Invisibility Cloak) all applauded.

The rest of the train ride was seemingly eventless as the train sped towards King's Cross Station. As Lily and the quartet of Gryffindor boys pushed their trunks from Platform nine and three-quarters, they laughed and joked and said woeful goodbyes. Peter, Sirius, and Remus gave Lily hugs and kisses on the cheek, and then James squeezed her tightly and kissed lips deeply for a second time that day. They did have two months until they could see each other again, didn't they?

"Ahem."

James and Lily pulled away and looked up at the person who was responsible for interrupting. She had long brown hair and pale blue eyes. Her face was thin and tan and she had the same nose as James. Lily knew who she was, but this girl looked nothing like the young man that was still holding her around her waist, who had black hair and black eyes.

"Jessica," James sputtered. "Here to pick me up?"

Jessica smiled evilly, showing two rows of perfectly straight and white teeth, just like her brother's. She crossed her arms over her low-cut blouse covered chest and smirked.

"As a matter of fact, yes," she said. Her voice was high and too innocent-sounding. Immediately, Lily knew it was an act. In fact, she was sure that James' sister was a She-Devil reincarnate. Didn't they all look, sound, and act like that? "Little brother, dear," she said in a sickeningly sweet voice, "I've missed you so!"

Jessica threw her arms around James, shoving Lily out of the way. "I do so hope you had a lovely term."

"It was wonderful, Jess," James replied, pushing his sister away from him. "I want you to meet Lily Evans."

Jessica looked at Lily with a glint of warning in her eyes, but there was a smile on her face. The brunette stepped forward and engulfed the redhead in her arms, just as she had done with James.

"It's so wonderful to meet you! What a precious little thing you've got here, Jimmie."

Lily saw James roll his eyes.

"Don't call me that!" he snapped.

Jessica still hadn't let Lily go a few seconds later, and Lily was starting to worry. James turned away to say goodbye to Sirius, Remus and Peter when Jessica hissed in Lily's ear, "Stay away from him if you know what's good for you, little girl. James doesn't need to get mixed up with the likes of you."

Then Jessica pushed her away and turned her back to tap James on the shoulder. "We best be going now," she said, using her fake tone again.

Lily wondered what was up with this girl. She looked at James confused, and he stepped forward to give her one last hug. Lily was going to mention about his sister, but she was standing two feet away and watching them like a hawk.

"Goodbye, Lily, love," James whispered softly in her ear. "I'll owl you, I promise from the bottom of my heart."

Lily smiled and kissed James on the cheek. Jessica then grabbed James' arm and dragged him towards the barrier that would take them from the Muggle platform to the Floo Network Station, using her wand, all the while, to pull James' trunk behind her, not even being cautious of the Muggles that were watching her.

"There you are!"

Lily whipped around and saw her mum walking towards her. The older woman embraced her youngest daughter and kissed the top of her head.

"Hello, Mum," Lily said. "Are we ready to go?"

"Yes," her mum answered. "But do tell me who that handsome boy is that I saw you with."

The two started walking to the car park and Lily explained about James and her three other new friends.

"Isn't that wonderful!" her mum exclaimed, though less enthusiastically. She helped lift Lily's trunk into the boot of the car and they climbed in.

"Where's Petunia and Daddy?" Lily asked.

"Both at home with the flu," she said. "I'm lucky to have escaped it!" Mrs. Evans started the car and pulled onto the street and headed for the place where Lily spent eleven years and five summer holidays there.

"So. This James Potter is a wizard then?" Mrs. Evans asked casually.

Lily nodded. "He's so brilliant too."

"Really?" she said. "Of course, my daughter would only go for the best."

"Of course, Mum."

"Whatever happened to Nicholas VonBurryn and your fantasies of being with him?"

Lily knitted her eyebrows. Where had that come from?

"Mum, Nick was from primary school. Those were primary school fantasies. Besides, he's lived around the corner for as long as I lived in our house. You know how girls are, daydreaming of marrying the boy next door."

"Yeah, but Nick is such a nice boy. And so...er...normal. These boys you're hanging out with seem like they're...troublemakers, I suppose would be the word for it."

"Mum, I like James and he likes me. I'm not going to have this conversation with you right now."

"All right dear," her Mum said.

And as she drove along the streets of London, Mrs. Evans stopped all questions on the subject. She even stopped talking.

Because inside her brain was a little plan forming to set up a little meeting for Nick VonBurryn and her daughter.

* * *

Jessica and James walked through a barrier and into the Floo Network Station.

"You can drop the act now, O Caring Big Sis," James said. "I don't know what the hell you were trying to pull back there."

"Don't be ridiculous," Jessica said, her fake voice gone. "You have to keep up for appearances." She jerked her head to the side, obviously pointing to someone to the left of them.

James glanced over to the left and saw a pretty blonde woman wearing a scarf and dark sunglasses holding a small camera and an enchanted quill. James swore loudly, which caused Jessica to stamp on his toe. He looked back at his sister.

"If I had shouted my disapproval in front of the public, she would have noticed and it would have been on my permanent record."

"Disapproval?" James asked, confused. "Since when were you so against Muggle-borns?"

"Since I brought home David Brusch and Dad found out he was a half-blood," Jessica whispered. "Dad threatened to place him in the Hole for even looking at me."

James cringed. The Hole was a nasty magical room that was completely dark and dank and smelled of dirty socks. When someone was in there, they could hear Charles Potter's voice all around them, telling them off for what they did wrong. Having something like the Hole in a household wasn't illegal by the Ministry of Magic's standards, as it was usually used to berate children for when they had done something wrong; but Charles Potter, however, had a thing for abusing the power of the Hole. James remembered being in there for hours on end right before his first year had started. He was placed in there to be punished for talking to Sirius Black, as he was a half-blood.

"James, you better know what you're getting yourself into," Jessica said, as they waited in line for their turn to step into one of the large fireplaces. "Dad's no better than those dirty-rotten, Slytherin-worshipping, slime-eating Malfoys. They may be longtime followers of the Dark Arts, but you don't have to be a part of the Dark Side to be blood prejudice."

"Yeah, but the Potter line is a longtime wizarding family. No Squibs, and never marrying outside of our kind. Most of us are inbred, I'm sure," James informed. "Mum was a Palmer, who were second cousins to Dad."

"Don't remind me." She shuddered.

"They're both just anal retentive about keeping family traditions, that's all. They'll just need some persuading that blood really doesn't matter, then they'll see that family traditions don't matter."

"Good luck with that one," Jessica said, knowing exactly what was going to come of this. She knew what was waiting for him at home at the moment.

It was their turn to step into the fire and soon they were spinning swiftly through chimneys and into a large fireplace. James grabbed Jessica's hand and helped her out of the firebox and into the large sitting room of the Potter Summer Mansion.

Yes. This was only the Summer Mansion. There was one for winter in the Caiman Islands, one in Canada for spring, and one on the East Coast of America for fall. Those four didn't even count the amount of castles and hundreds of thousands of acres of land they had too. His father was very into living the high life.

Speaking of his father, or rather, speaking of the Devil, Charles Damian Potter, richest wizard in Britain, second richest wizard in the world (working his way to number one, of course) waltzed into the room, with the Daily Prophet tucked under his arm.

"Good evening, father," James said, which was the typical, not to mention expected, greeting for him. "You're looking well."

Potter the elder crinkled his eyes at his son in a glare and ran a manicured hand through his salt-and-pepper hair. He took a deep breath, then pulled the newspaper out from under his arm and threw it at James. He caught it deftly, as he was star chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and looked up at his father in confusion.

"Do you mind telling me what the hell is going on?" Mr. Potter shouted.

James looked down at the Daily Prophet's front page. The words 'oh' and 'shit' were the only ones that could register in his brain when he saw what was there.

And what was there was a large picture of himself at the Three Broomsticks leaning in for a kiss with Lily Evans.

* * *