Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 1 - Casual Conversation

James hesitated before peaking his head around the corner, hoping to not catch his unruly hair in the many cobwebs that littered the ceiling. He frowned slightly as he surveyed the room with distaste. The two twin beds were covered with dusty, dark blue quilts that seemed torn in several places. The lumpy pillows (James could already tell) were looking extremely uncomfortable, and the bedside cabinets were covered with a thick green substance that made James want to cast a cleaning spell on the spot. But as this was not yet his, he figured he best leave it be.

"Prongs!"

James didn't bother to hide his disgusted face as his best friend walked into the room.

"Padfoot, you can't be serious about this..."

Sirius smiled wide, a mischievous smile that often crossed his face when he knew something someone else didn't. Since their graduation, Sirius had grown a small goatee and let his hair grow out a bit so it hung just below his chin. Now that he had moved into his own flat, Sirius had become much more cheerful about his life, and much more cheerful about disobeying every single rule that his mother used to make him follow.

"James, I am Sirius, remember?'

James threw Sirius an evil look through his glasses and turned back to the room.

"You expect me to live in here?" James swiped a finger along the nearest dressed, dragging with it a thick layer of dust that he proceeded to blow of onto the floor. "This is worse that our school dorms."

"Which is saying a lot." A third voice joined them and they both turned to see Remus Lupin step into the room, a half smile on his face, as if he couldn't quite figure out whether or not to laugh or be serious.

James frowned and shook his head. "No way," he said flat out. "A Potter does not live in such circumstances."

Sirius grimaced and put his hands to his ears. "Oh please, Prongs! You sounded like my mother right there!"

James glanced over at Remus who rolled his eyes in response.

"Where's Peter?" James voiced aloud to no one in particular. Sirius still had his hands covering his ears and his eyes clamped shut as if trying to block out a painful memory, which, James' reasoned, he probably was.

Remus leaned back a bit to glance down the hall. "I think he's sniffing around the cupboards, trying to find something to eat in this dump."

"Food in an apartment that hasn't been occupied in years?" James questioned. "What's he gonna find?"

Remus put both his hands up. "Far be it for me to start questioning Peter's behavior after I've known him for so long."

James frowned and started out of the room, clipping Sirius on the shoulder as he went, knocking him out of his memories. As if following orders, Sirius and Remus both followed him back up the narrow hallway and they came to a standstill in the kitchen, where they saw Peter sitting idly on the nearby couch, twiddling his fingers. All three of them stopped to look at him with raised eyebrows. Noticing them at last, Peter scurried up and took a few steps forward, his eyes moving to James.

"Any luck, James?" He asked in a hurry. "What do you think of it?"

James held up his hands in front of him. "No way...No bloody way, am I paying money to stay in this dump."

"Aw, come on Prongs!" Sirius wined. "You specifically gave us this price range to work with and, believe it or not, this was the best we could find!"

James dug into his pocket, producing a list of addresses they had checked so far. James scrolled to the bottom of the list, taking his wand and striking out the second to last name.

"We'll go see the one off of Palmay Street," James said, pointing to the last name on the list. "It's got to be better than this."

James and the rest of the Marauders had been scouting for weeks to find a suitable apartment for James. Actually, they had been looking since before their Hogwarts Graduation night, and that was almost 2 months ago. Sirius had offered the extra bedroom in his flat, but James, knowing Sirius' cleaning habits, convinced his friends to help him with his own house hunt instead. It seemed like they had covered all of Great Britain, and a few places that were so far away you would think that they were not actually IN Great Britain. None of them, as of yet, had suited James, and everyone was starting to get hot tempers about it.

Peter sighed and Remus stretched a bit. James noticed and rounded on them.

"Listen, this wasn't my idea, okay? You're the ones who want me to stop using my parent's money. Well, this is as much as I can afford right now, especially while I'm doing Auror training." James crossed his arms in a huff and fell back down onto the couch, a cold of dust covering him as he disturbed it.

Sirius sighed out loud and reached down, snatching the piece of parchment out of James' hand. Remus and Peter glanced over his shoulder as he scrolled down the list. The last and only name that had not been scratched out, read;

Godric's Hollow

"I don't know, James. This one didn't look promising when we found it," Remus admitted. "We only wrote it down because it was in the price range and was actually a reasonable distance from the Ministry."

"Wasn't this the one that was actually a real house?" Peter asked.

Sirius raised an eyebrow at James, who was resolutely ignoring them, and nodded his head slightly. "A 'fixer-upper', the man said. Whatever that means."

"That usually means it's a piece of junk..." Remus murmured under his breath so James couldn't hear, even though James was trying his best to ignore them anyway.

"Well that could be a good prospect," Sirius reasoned, speaking loud again towards James. "I mean, it would give you something to do on your days off?"

James snorted. "Days off?" He turned his head to them with a slight grin. "Padfoot, have you even met Alastor Moody?"

"He's your trainer!" Peter squeaked out, sounding more like his Animagus form than himself.

"Why didn't you tell us Prongs?" Sirius asked with a wine in his voice.

"Lucky one, James," Remus said, an obvious note of awe in his voice. "I've heard he was the best."

James laughed bitterly. "Oh, he's the best alright, and he doesn't let you forget it. I swear he's trying to make me into a clone of him or something."

Sirius huffed. "You think I have it any better?" he complained. "Dumbledore set me up with old Longbottom..."

Peter cocked an eyebrow confused. "Longbottom...?"

"Not Frank, smart one," Sirius said in exasperation. "His dad. And if you think Frank's bad, you should see his mother..." Sirius shudders, his eyes closing momentarily. "I swear I have nightmares about that woman..."

"At least you two have real jobs," Peter complained. "My application for the Ministry still hasn't gone through yet. I had to borrow money from my parents again last month."

"Where did you apply again, Peter?" Remus asked politely, though all of them knew, having been reminded about it several times already.

Sirius lightly treaded on Remus' foot to keep him from continuing. "The Misuse of Muggle Artifact's Office, Mooney," he said through clenched teeth. "I KNOW you remember that..."

"How's your job going, Mooney?" James asked, hastily changing the subject before Peter could figure out what was going on.

Remus bit his bottom lip in frustration. "Last month was really bad. I had to be out two whole weeks..." he hesitated. "My boss fired me."

James' eyebrows flashed and he stood up quickly. "No!"

"How come I never know what's happening with you people anymore," Sirius howled in frustration. "Stuff like this should come up sooner!"

"It's okay...it's okay..." Remus assured them before they both got too worked up. "I got pension before I left and I have a job lined up for the joke shop in Hogsmeade next week." He grinned. "They know me very well there and when they heard I lost the job, they offered to give me one part time until I found something new."

James smiled in triumph. "Yet another reason why being a Marauder is good for the soul."

Sirius clapped Remus on the back. "Congratz, Mooney..." he put on an innocent face. "Can you get us some discounts then?"

Remus pursed his lips and pushed Sirius away. "We're not here to talk about our career lives gentlemen," he said in an exasperated voice, turning to James. "You want the house or not, Prongs?"

"No," James said flat out.

Sirius let out an exasperated sigh and flapped dramatically down onto the couch where James had just been.

James rounded on Remus and Peter who both looked at him with a small amount of fear. Well, Remus was doing well, but Peter was almost shaking.

"Well you have to admit, James. We've been looking for quite a long while..."

Peter nodded vigorously and tried to crouch behind Remus as he spoke.

"And you got to admit this is a very good price..."

"It's a good price because you spend twice as much as it on cleaning supplies!" James fumed. "What kind of friends are you?" he wined, reaching over to kick Sirius' dangling foot, causing him to fall on the floor with a crash. "I'm asking for one more house!"

Sirius stood up, rubbing his nose and looking disgruntled. "But James!?" he wined. "This is the fifth house today!"

"So what's one more?" he argued back.

All four of them jumped as they heard a scratchy voice behind them.

"Well, what do you say, my dears?"

They all turned to see the wizened old witch who owned the apartment grinning up at them, her yellowing teeth causing Remus to shudder again and Peter to almost squeal in fright.

"Ah..."

"Umm..."

"Well, you see..."

"No thanks!" James said finally, barely acknowledging the witch as he hurried past her and ran out of the apartment building.

Sirius, Remus and Peter all exchanged looks before hurrying out after him, Remus calling a last "Thank You" to the old witch.

"Prongs! Wait up!" Sirius shouted to his best friend, but James just walked faster.

All three of them managed to finally catch up with James as he headed back into the main road of Diagon Alley and stopped to stare into the window of one store.

"Listen, James, you're right. That was awful, okay?" Sirius slung an arm around James shoulders. James grimaced and pushed Sirius away, pulling back to study his three best friends.

James opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by the adjacent store's door opening and a pair of giggling girls exiting. James grimaced as he recognized them and he hurriedly turned the other way, trying to ignore the snickers from his friend who saw his discomfort.

"Well, Marauders," James heard the lovely voice say. "Fancy meeting you here by a ladies robes store?"

James heard Sirius and Peter snicker while Remus replied. "Actually, we just followed James here, he seemed quite taken by the scene in the window."

James winced as he realized that his friends had caught on faster then he would have liked. That girl had been the scene in the window, which was the only reason James had stopped in the first place. Of course, she didn't need to know that.

James tried to turn farther away but he could sense everyone's eyes following him and he had no choice but to turn as he heard himself addressed.

"Hello, Potter."

James managed a smile as he turned to look at Lily Evans for the first time since their graduation night.

"Evans," James inclined his head a bit and tried to avoid her eyes.

But they were such a startling green.

Lily seemed to scrutinize James for a moment before finally turning away.

"Nice to see you all again," she said to the others.

"See you, Lily," the chorused. "Bye Nikkie."

The girl who had been with Lily, and was currently the redhead's best friend, smiled sweetly before following in her friend's path.

There were a few moments of silence where James followed the girl's retreat, his eyes staying focused on Lily, rather then her black-haired companion. Finally, Sirius clapped his hands together, hard, breaking everyone out of the awkwardness.

"Well, that went quite well!" he said with a smile.

"If you compare it to a bar brawl," James sighed. Seeing Lily again had brought on a whole new set of emotions to this day than James cared to deal with. He still blamed himself exclusively for their breakup, but what hurt him more was that she seemed to have gotten over him a lot quicker then he was getting over her.

"Well, considering the last time you guys were in the same room together you wouldn't even acknowledge each other's presence, I'd say it was a definite improvement," Remus reasoned.

"At least she said hi, James," Peter pipped in.

James scowled. "Only in the loosest sense of the term."

"Lighten up, Prongs." Sirius slung his arm around Jame's shoulders again but James didn't bother to push him away. Instead he cranked his neck around to try and catch one last glance at Lily, but she was already out of sight. "Casual conversation is the first step on the road to recovery."

James smiled a bit and raised an eyebrow at Sirius. "Casual conversation? We said three words to each other."

Sirius seemed to think about that for a moment before he gave up. "Well, whatever. You've got more important things to be worrying about now." He pulled out the parchment again and waved it in front of James sullen face.

"What next, James?"

James turned to his friend with a confused face.

"James, you prat," Remus said with a hint of annoyance. "You think one little argument is actually going to break us up?"

"The best friends you've got?" Sirius added with a grin.

James managed a small smile and pulled away from Sirius again, studying his friend for a moment before speaking.

"Godric's Hollow?"

Sirius smiled. "Godric's Hollow."

His friends smiled and one by one, Disapparated to their last destination of the day to look that the very house that would change James Potter's life.

--*--

Lily thanked the kind witch at the counter as she grabbed the two desserts and walked back out into the sunlight of the ice cream parlor of Diagon Alley, joining Nikkie at one of the smaller tables.

"Chocolate raspberry with almonds for you," Lily presented, putting down one of the bowls in front of her friend. "And vanilla strawberry with whipped cream for me."

Nikkie grinned and picked up her spoon, taking small bites of her ice cream as she watched Lily sit down, a curious grin on her face. Lily noticed the staring, but quickly sat down, focusing more on her ice cream than was normal. After almost a minute of silence Lily finally slammed her spoon down and glared evilly at her best friend.

"What?" she asked through clenched teeth.

Nikkie gave a knowing smile and raised her eyebrows a bit, taking another small bit of ice cream.

Lily groaned and banged her head on the table in front of her, a small groan escaping her mouth and her spoon flying off the table, hitting a passerby in the forehead, but Lily didn't even notice him yelling at her.

She sighed heavily. but didn't lift her head.

"Why...? Why oh, why oh, why!" she murmured to Nikkie, who kept eating her ice cream, grinning to herself as she watched her friend. "Why can't he just leave me be?"

"Well, I must say, you both were very mature around each other today..." Nikkie replied.

Lily raised her head from the table and glared at her friend. "Mature? Him? You have got to be kidding me!"

"Oh, come on Lily! Why don't you give him a chance for once? It's obvious he still likes you, AND..." She paused for effect and Lily only glared at her harder, "you have to admit, he's still really hot..."

Lily just rolled her eyes and summoned another spoon from the parlor with her wand, starting to eat again. "Hold your tongue, girl...hold your tongue..."

Nikkie reached over, whapping Lily lightly upside the head, causing Lily's spoon to flick a wad of ice cream onto her own face.

"Nikkie!" Lily cried, grabbing a napkin and wiping off her face.

"Lily, he's being more mature about this than you are!"

"Nikkie, what did I tell you about saying that word?"

"I'm just saying, you guys really had something going during seventh year and it seems a shame to end it all just because of some little prank..."

"Nikkie, he RUINED the spring ball!"

"Only after you told him you didn't like the theme anyway!"

"That still didn't give him or anyone else the right to make the flowers shoot out pollen and bees at everyone!"

"He didn't know you were allergic!"

"Well, he must have been the only one in the whole school because everyone else certainly knew!"

"By everyone else do you mean Sirius and Remus...?"

"You know what I mean! Him and those silly friends of his..."

"You didn't think they were so bad when they helped you and James sneak into the Astronomy Tower that one night..."

"Enough!" Lily finally cried, attracting the attention of a bunch of the other customers who looked around, confused. She stood up and looked furiously at her friend. "James Potter and I have absolutely nothing in common! He is a stuck up, self centered brat, who likes to mess up his hair too much, and I...." She noticed now the attention she was attracting and whipped back around to glare at Nikkie. "I'm leaving!"

Nikkie started laughing out loud at that point and was still laughing heartily after Lily had Disapparated. Plenty of people went back to their conversations, only now they were discussing something all together different.