Pride and Prejudice

He hadn't messed up...yet.

Of course they hadn't even reached dessert yet, so there was still ample time for things to go wrong. James glanced over at Geb again, this time catching his friend's eye. He was met with a kind of evil grin that made him even queasier in the stomach than he had been. Geb topped off his grin with a raise of eyebrows and a small salute before turning away.

His stomach churning, James turned back to Lily, continuing to pick at his food. Truth be told, he really didn't enjoy what he had ordered, but he had assured Lily that he did. He figured ordering the same thing as her would be wise, because he could tell she wasn't too familiar with anything this place served. It had, at least, earned him a pleasant smile from her and a "Thank you, that's really sweet."

He took down a few more bites before the silence was broken again.

"So, do you come here often, James?"

He nodded nonchalantly. "Sometimes. I went more when my parents were still alive. This was their favorite restaurant."

She nodded understandingly and looked down. "Does it make you sad to be here?" she finally asked, a hint of concern in her voice.

"Not really. My family has known the owners of this restaurant for years. They're kind of like family." He smiled as he looked back up at her, a way to reassure her that he was all right.

It would have been like one of those muggle moments. The all too perfect scene of both of them staring into each others eyes; he would smile and she would bat her eyelashes...

...Had it not been for the jumble of idiotic and smiling waiters that suddenly appeared at their table, scaring both of them out of their wits. For a whole 15 seconds, James and Lily didn't move, staring unblinkingly up at the throng of wizards who all appeared to be holding a different instrument. James' eyes darted around and his heart dropped as he saw Geb standing behind the lot, laughing his head off silently.

His eyes went wide as he figured out what they were about to do, and just as he opened his mouth to stop them, it began.

Every instrument that James could remember started playing and they were all accompanied by the most off key wizards that Geb could scrounge up.

On this night of a thousand stars

Let me take you to heavens door

Where the music of love's guitar

Plays forever more!

James dejectedly buried his face in his hands, not even daring to look over at Lily to see what her reaction to this was.

To be fair, he should have expected this. Geb was not exactly the most serious person, despite how he attempted to act. James secretly had been hoping that Trony would have been on duty tonight, but he had ended up dealing with Geb.

That had been wrong from the start.

As the "chorus" died down, James managed to peak through his fingers and saw Lily. She was sitting politely with her hands in her lap; a pleasant, forced smile plastered on her face, bless her. He felt his face go red with embarrassment. Here he had been, telling her how much these people reminded him of family...

He hoped it wouldn't go much further, but it did.

"Miss Lily Evans..."

James sunk further into his seat.

"On behalf of Monsieur James Potter here...who we all," everyone joined in, "absolutely adore!" James' nose slid down past the tabletop. "We would like to present you with a small token of appreciation for your dining at our restaurant this evening..."

The man stepped forward presenting Lily with a small wrapped box. James peaked through his eyes and watched with bated breath as she hesitantly opened it.

He managed a glance over at the on look of waiters who were all still smiling pleasantly, trying their best to not glance at James and control their laughing.

Lily's face immediately lit up when she saw what was inside the box and James' heart died down quite a bit. He held his breath as she reached in and pulled out a beautiful pearl necklace.

He breathed again.

--*--

"Just how much money was in that bag?"

Geb, who was currently flicking his wand around to wash a few dishes, didn't turn around when he heard James.

"You didn't count it?"

"What do you think?"

The grizzly bartender finally turned around with a hesitant smile on his face. "Come on, Potter. I may be a little on the eccentric side, but I do know a friend when I have one." He reached out a hand to James. "Just think of it as a little bit of payback for all those 'loans' your parents gave this restaurant."

James gave him a skeptical look but reached out and shook his hand anyway. "That necklace is a bloody goldmine, Geb. Are you playing straight with me?"

"Potter, since when did I ever play straight with you?"

James finally smiled and chuckled as he pulled away, putting his robe on. "Well, whatever you did, thanks a lot."

Geb gave him a short salute and turned away again as James headed out. Right before getting to the door, James turned back. "Geb? The singing? Was that really..."

"Potter..."

"Right, got it. I'm out of here."

James made a hasty exit before Geb changed his mind and hurried out of the restaurant to find Lily just coming out of the Ladies room, pulling on her own robe. She smiled when she saw him and he saw that she was wearing the pearl necklace. He would have thought that it wouldn't go with her semi casual outfit, but after such a (mostly) flawless date, he thought she was looking beautiful in anything. Offering her his arm, James gestured to the door.

"Ready?"

"Absolutely."

As they stepped out of the restaurant, both James and Lily had the strangest feeing of déjàfont> vu...

..."We should really get back to the school..." Lily tugged at James' arm, trying to coax him back towards the direction of the school, but it was to no avail.

"Come on Lily! One more stop!" James reached out with his other arm, grabbing her other arm and pulling her a different direction. He, being obviously stronger, won the pull and Lily couldn't help but laugh as they both crunched through the snow, heading towards the frozen lake where a few brave students were attempting to ice skate across it.

James finally let go as they reached a large willow tree where they often spent afternoons together. Lily stopped as soon as he let go, but James kept going, running in circles under the lightly falling snow, a look of pure bliss on his face. Lily laughed as she watched, hugging her arms around herself, feeling more content then she had ever imagined herself to be. Who would have thought that she would be dating James Potter?

Suddenly James quit his circles and rushed up to her and, to her delight, lifted her slightly, twirling her in his arms. Lily cried aloud, reflexively reaching for him but laughing despite herself, wondering rapidly where her life had taken the sudden 180-degree turn.

As James let her down, both of them grinning like tomfools, he was the first to speak. "You think I'm crazy, don't you?"

"No, I think you're insane!"

James smirked at her but only replied with a short kiss, which she accepted giddily. When he pulled back, her heart was beating faster.

"I think that warmed me up a bit," she said sneakily.

"Glad I could be of service, miss." James tipped his head slightly too her mockingly and she slapped him lightly on the chest for his cockiness.

"Don't let it go to your head," Lily warned, half seriously.

"Oh, I won't."

They kissed again, longer this time and Lily began to feel like she was in the Sahara Desert.

When they pulled away, James kept them close enough so that their foreheads were touching and their fingers were still interlocked.

"I think I love you," James said suddenly, quietly, as if he was just thinking aloud.

"You think?" Lily teased.

They were both silent for a few seconds until James' voice lowered even more.

"No...I know it."

Lily's face had dropped and she was looking at him with a mixture of confusion and hope. James, on the other hand, seemed to be pleading through his eyes, pouring every amount of love in them that he could muster.

She hadn't seriously considered James in the "love" category, but in the few moments since it had been brought up, she came to the realization about why she hadn't considered it.

She already knew.

"Yeah...me too."

Her heart fluttered as James' face split into a wide grin and before she could take another breath, he had captured her lips up in another breathtaking kiss...

Though the situation was slightly different now, James felt those same feeling welling up in him as he walked with the beautiful young women beside him.

She seemed quite more relaxed than he was feeling, like she knew something he didn't. Indeed, she was currently reliving the earlier conversation with Nickie while she had been panicking.

James, however, felt like a wreck. His feet kept stumbling and he felt the sweat beads gathering on his forehead as they walked through the candle lit streets of Diagon Alley.

Turning another corner, James felt his heart skip a beat, but this time it wasn't because of Lily.

Since becoming an Auror, James had become constantly on guard, noticing more around him and taking in the details of his surroundings. It had come in handy, especially investigating Death Eater strikes and Dark Mark scenes. He so far had not needed it for being present at actual strikes, but the gut feeling he was getting made him certain he was about to.

Trying not to alert Lily until he was sure, James kept walking on casually, watching the shadows flickering and hearing the scuffling that no one would notice unless they were listening for it.

Unfortunately, Lily's still picked it up and she stopped, causing him to stop, but he held up a hand before she could say anything.

A bright jet of green light streaked across the road towards them. James managed to pull Lily quickly towards him, throwing them both haphazardly behind a near bench. By the time both of them got themselves back together, their wands were out and ready, and more jets of lights were streaming towards them. Realizing they needed more cover, James wrenched Lily's arm, pulling her further into the shadows of a breakaway alley, meanwhile firing a few stunning charms towards the vicinity of the attacks.

"What's happening?" Lily finally managed to squeak in, fear showing deeply on her face.

"Death Eaters," James said shortly, peaking around the corner and seeing the burly shapes of 3 men walking towards them in the alley. "Three of them."

"Why?"

James rolled his eyes. "Does Voldemort need a reason?"

"But Diagon Alley..." Lily trembled. "It doesn't make sense."

"Considering the circumstances, it makes perfect sense."

Lily opened her mouth to ask why, but before she could, James bellowed "DOWN!" and they both dropped as a few streams of light whisked above their heads.

"We know you're there, Potter!"

James grimaced as he heard the voice.

"Fine greeting, Malfoy!" he bellowed back, his mind working dangerously fast as he tried to figure out a way out of this mess. Luckily, the Death Eaters had stopped firing but he didn't dare show his face over their flimsy but working shield of old cauldron's that were thrown away.

Lucius Malfoy laughed deeply, truly enjoying himself too much.

"You're little stunt down in the Ministry yesterday made a lot of trouble for me, Potter, and the Dark Lord as well."

"Excuse me if I embarrassed you a bit."

'I particularly liked the part about me accepting the Dark Mark 3 years ago. Surely you know it was more than 5 years ago?"

"Bloody son of a..."

"My, my, Potter. Did we get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?"

James risked peaking his head slightly over their cover only to swiftly duck back down as an Avada shot right at him.

"No games, Potter."

James laughed bitterly, trying to focus on anyone but Lily. "I could say the same for you! What do you want?"

As he spoke, he deftly whipped out a small ring that he slipped on his finger and began to fiddle with. Lily gave him a questioning look, but he ignored her.

"The Dark Lord wants to know if you've reconsidered his offer."

Dead silence hung in the air and James was grateful he had already finished sending his distress call to the division. They should be on their way soon.

He didn't dare look up at Lily as those words hung in the air. He never told her about the offer from Voldemort, an offer that he had received twice and bluntly turned down.

"Your last chance James...I can make you powerful. In your heart you know that. I can show you power that even Dumbledore does not know of..."

He gritted his teeth and raised his voice louder. "Not interested!"

Luckily, the backup arrived then; compromising of 20 or so trained witches and wizards from James' Auror department apparating into the air everywhere.

James quickly glanced up but saw that on sight of the Aurors arriving, the three had immediately apparated away. He gritted his teeth, seeing that the Aurors were already snapping into action, following up traces from tracking the apparation and yelling orders all about. But through the immediate confusion, James only heard one voice.

"James?"

He closed his eyes slowly, his heart dropping as he heard Lily speak quietly from behind him. Sighing and turning, he only opened his eyes when he was fully facing her again.

"Yes?"

Lily couldn't seem to find the words but simple stared at him with a mixture of apprehension and pity.

James took a deep breath and managed to stand up, offering his hand to Lily, which she accepted. As he pulled her up, though, she didn't let go. She hung on so tight that he finally turned to face her. Her eyes questioned him silently.

"A lot has happened since Hogwarts," he reasoned lamely, knowing she wouldn't buy it.

She scrutinized him for a moment, but she was cut off once again as a tall Wizards strode up to James.

"Colonel Potter?"

James deftly faced the man, a rather talented wizards who had recently passed the Auror tests and who James had picked specifically for his division.

"We traced the apparation line till Little Whinging but lost it," Lieutenant Sam Webb reported. "The movements were quite erratic and were impossible for our tracers to follow." Sam stopped and gave them both a look of military concern. "Are either of you hurt?"

"No, we're both quite alright. I appreciate the group answering my call so quickly." Indeed, James was surprised at how fast they had arrived. The "Ring System" hadn't exactly been tested yet, so James hadn't even been sure if his newest little piece of equipment would have worked, but had relied on it nonetheless.

Webb saluted shortly, "Just doing out job sir."

"Don't bother to try anything else, everyone," James called out to the rest of the group. "You've done quite enough. Sorry to take you away from the exciting paperwork."

Most of them laughed and Sirius, who James finally spotted among the crowd called out, "Down with paperwork!" before they all apperated away. Sirius stayed a second longer to give them both the pointed wink, before he too, disappeared from sight.

Lily tugging his arm up towards a pub two blocks away, brought James back into focus. He followed without question, realizing that this night wasn't turning out as he expected at all.

--*--

"You're serious?"

James snorted and took a short swig of his chilled butterbeer as they sat across from each other in the loud pub, Lily looking at him with pure astonishment.

"He called it an 'honor' for me," James temper rose as he thought about the events of Voldemort's visits to him that he had just relived to Lily. "An honor!"

Lily reached out a hand and laid it on his that was clutching is drink. "But you're family has never been interested in the Dark Arts."

"Tel me about it." James swigged once more and began to feel miserable enough that he considered going to buy a firewhiskey.

"James."

He looked pitifully up at Lily and saw the pity in her eyes. Pity that made him sick. Pity that he didn't want.

"Does Sirius or anyone know about this?"

James huffed. "No."

She looked astonished. "Why not?"

"Because."

"Because why?"

"You want to know why, Lily?" He felt his voice and anger rising but couldn't hold it back. "Because all these people close to me, all these people who find out my secrets, all these people that I care about, all these people that I...That I love..." he swallowed hard, particularly looking her in the eyes as he spoke. "All these people...are in danger...because of me..."

She gripped his hand tighter so that he couldn't hold his drink any longer, but he looked down, almost in shame.

"I don't want anyone to go through what happened tonight...especially you."

He drew his hand away, ashamed, and leaned back, still not looking at her.

"I should never have told you this..."

Not wasting another moment, James stood up, grabbing his cloak and rushing out of the pub, hoping that Lily wouldn't follow, but rationalizing that she would.

Sure enough, five steps out the door, He heard footsteps rushing up behind him.

"Wait! James!"

"It's a dead dream, Lily," he spoke forcefully, still walking fast and not turning around. She still managed to catch up to him but had to run a bit to keep up with him.

"I thought we were going to try and make this work!"

"It won't."

"Who says? Voldemort?"

"Everyone!" James shouted, stopping and turning to her as menacingly as he could. "We couldn't make it through a year at school together. On top of our terrible tempers, there's no way I'm taking you out if we get ambushed by Death Eaters every night!"

"James, listen to what you're saying! Everyone thinks we're perfect!" They were five steps away form each other in the middle of the darkened street, only a few passerby's noticing their argument, but hurrying on quickly. "Do you think so little of me that I would get back together with you under these circumstances?"

"Who's to say that this time will be any different? Who's to say I've really changed?"

"I do!"

"Well what do you know?"

He saw tears pricking her eyes and felt his bottom jaw trembling. She closed the distance between them and reached up to brush a few strands of hair out of his eyes. He defiantly stared down at her, determined to end this here and now, before anything else could happen to her.

"I know you. I know that you're just being brave right now, but you're scared more than you want to admit. I know that you...that you and I need to give this another chance..."

Her tears fell and her bottom lip trembled as she searched his face. He was hoping that she would walk away from him any second but her reaching up to kiss him was the last thing he had expected, and took him quite by surprise.

It was a moment that James had dreamt about and longed for forever since that dreadful ball during their seventh year at Hogwarts. She still tasted the same and her lips still felt perfect against his. There was a small moment of hesitant denial before James started to respond to the kiss, reaching up and putting his arms around her waist, pulling her closer to him, her arms already looped up around his neck. Her tears splashed on his face as their kissed forcefully, longingly, both of them realizing that the intermission had indeed gone on too long.

Lack of air forced them apart and James didn't dare move for fear that his dream would shatter before his eyes. Both of them breathed heavily in the aftermath of the kiss, searching one another's face and not daring to break the silence.

A distant rumble of thunder seemed to jolt them both out of the dream and Lily jerked back, blush rushing up to her face.

"I-I'm sorry...I -"

She backed up two steps before James rushed up and silenced her with another kiss. This one was only broke by the sudden downpour of rain that appeared, soaking them both to the bone, but neither seemed to care that much. His time, however, James did break the silence.

"Give me one more chance?"

Lily gradually smiled and let out a loud giggle, launching herself into James' arms. James joined in her laughter and spun her delicately in the rain, both of them thinking back to better days and the better days that were hopefully ahead of them.