Inevitable

Chapter Twenty-Four

A Scheme to Get Them Plotting

The secret of success is to know something nobody else knows - Aristotle Onassis

Lily Evans loved her life.

She was sitting on James Potter's sofa, sipping her third cup of tea and discussing every little unimportant thing that had happened to each of them over the past month. Her knee just brushed up against his, and she felt tingling all through her body, as though she was a thirteen-year-old with a crush. She liked having a boyfriend - especially when that boyfriend was him.

It had been remarkably easy to sort everything out. She had admitted to being stupid, he had heartily agreed with her, he had again apologised for accusing her, and neither of them seemed to have the will or want to take the discussion further. The details, in lieu of recent events, no longer seemed that important. Neither much cared about what they had said, the truth of the matter was that they missed each other, and that made the rest of it unnecessary to discuss.

They had fallen into a silence though - James had begun a story, reached a part that featured his mother, and just stopped, mid-sentence. He had assured her he was fine, but clearly he was thinking about them. Lily had no idea what to do to comfort him.

She wound a piece of hair around her finger, glancing up at him every few seconds. "Are you sure you're alright?" she asked again.

"Yes, for the eighth time, I'm fine."

Lily frowned. "You shouldn't be fine."

"Well I am. Will you drop it now?"

Well, it appeared that their arguing was not going to decrease in this renewed relationship. Which, Lily supposed, was a good thing - she was used to it. She glanced over at the clock; it was getting rather late, and Lene would be wondering where she had disappeared to. "I should be going," she said, standing. "I'll see you later?"

"But it's only..." James looked frantically at the clock. "Midnight. It's only midnight."

Lily nodded. "And I should get going."

"But... um..." His eyes flashed around. "You - you sure?"

"Yes," Lily began, but then understood. He didn't want to be left alone in the house. It had been rather hard, but they had made their way through every room in the house but one, and he couldn't even look at its door without shuddering. He didn't want to be left alone with the memories. "I'll stay if you want me to."

"No! No. I'm fine."

She nodded. "So you've said. But still, if you'd like me to stay, I will. Or you could come with me and sleep on our sofa."

"Go! I don't care; I'll be fine. Come on, I'll walk you to the door." Holding his arm out to her - very gentleman-like - he led her in the direction of her cloak. "We should have breakfast tomorrow," he said suddenly.

Lily grinned up at him. "I had planned on it. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I think I'll have cereal. You?"

"I mean together. Like a date." He took a rather deep breath as soon it was out.

"Oh. Alright." Lily was forced to look away for fear that she would burst into girlish giggles.

"But you know," he continued, "if you're going to be coming back really early in the morning, maybe it would be better if you just stayed the night. More convenient, less travelling."

Lily nodded slowly, overlooking the fact that it took a whole two seconds to get from her flat to his front door, via Apparation. "That would be more convenient," she agreed. It conveniently got her to stay without him actually asking her.

"So, what do you want to do?"

Lily sighed. "I guess I'll stay. If you don't mind," she added.

"Not at all." Actually, he looked rather relieved.

*

"How was your lunch in Glastonbury last week?" James asked randomly.

Lily looked up from her eggs quizzically. "How'd you know we were in Glastonbury?"

He rolled his eyes. "You were having lunch with Lene, right? Well, Sirius and I went for lunch too. And guess which restaurant he thought we'd try?"

Her mouth dropped open. "They didn't."

"I maybe saw you two through a window and maybe left. Padfoot wasn't too pleased with me." He chuckled at the recollection. "For future reference, never try and take his bike from him. It can get rather nasty."

But Lily was hardly listening, she was thinking back to that lunch with Lene. "She was really jumpy that day," Lily recollected, "I didn't think much about it."

"So they were working together."

Their eyes met over the table, and seemed to have the same idea at the same time.

"That would be so cruel," Lily reasoned.

"Think of the fun."

"She'd kill me if she ever found out."

"The look on his face would be priceless!"

"He already told me that he's out official get-back-together-er."

"See!"

Lily took a deep breath, then nodded. "Alright," she said, a grin forming. "But if they don't do anything for two weeks, then too bad."

But James didn't seem to be listening. "This," he proclaimed, "will be fun. We can sneak around in the dead of night, we can leave little hints until they finally launch an unnecessarily complicated plan to get us together."

Lily grinned - at least it seemed to be taking his mind off everything. "We can protest the entire time that we're completely over one another."

"We can contemplate dating other people in front of them."

"Oh, Lene would love that." Lily thought back to the multiple Ice Queen comments.

"Maybe they'll spend so much time plotting together that that prat Lene's with will move on."

Lily raised her eyebrows. "What's wrong with Brent? I like him."

James shrugged. "I haven't talked to him, but Sirius hated him. Said... some not so nice things about him. He sounded like a prat to me."

"Oh." Lily was confused. "Brent's really nice, and I think Sirius has only talked to him for about two minutes."

James looked confused for a half a second, then shook his head and grinned at her. "They'll be so proud of themselves, it'll be hilarious, all the patting themselves on the back that they'll do."

Lily grinned across the table. She had missed him. "How do I explain where I've been all night?" she asked.

A look of deep concentration formed on his face. "Headquarters? No - Peter was there, so he'd have seen you. But if you get over there now and eat breakfast with the people who did spend the night, maybe no one would be the wiser? He'll just figure that he missed you?"

Lily seriously doubted that, but it was worth a shot. "I'll head over now," she stated, and rose from the table.

Standing before the fireplace with him, she was unsure of what to do. She would have liked to kiss him, but hadn't in nearly a month. She would have like to jump up and have him spin her around and laugh with her, but it didn't seem appropriate for the moment. So instead, she kissed his cheek, hugged him, and stepped back towards the Floo Powder jar.

She hadn't taken half a step when he pulled her back.

"On second thought," he murmured, "don't leave." He leaned down to nuzzle her neck, and if she didn't know exactly what he was trying to do, she probably would have succumbed.

"Torturing Sirius," she reminded him.

But then he kissed her.

Oh.

Somehow, Lily had no idea why she had wanted to go in the first place. It was very nice, right here in the kitchen. Very, very nice. Wait - the kitchen. James' house. Right.

She pulled back and gave him a little smile. "You'll have to stay here alone, eventually," she reasoned.

"Not if you stay with me." He then seemed to realise what he had said. "Damn."

Lily laughed. "You weren't very good at hiding it, anyway."

But clearly, James didn't find it funny. He was beginning to look desperate. "I'll just..." He paused and looked around. "I'll just..."

Lily felt herself giving in. She tried to stop, but it didn't work. He was too lost looking, like a cute little puppy. Although she would never tell him that. "I can think of a different excuse," she said. "Let's go someplace."

*

"I have to go."

"No you don't."

"I have to be upstairs and ready at noon. I have to heal people."

"Oh." James paused. "What if I get myself hit by a truck?"

"Well then you'll be in a lot of pain, won't you?"

"Stay."

"I wish I could." Lily smiled at him as he thought. She wasn't entirely sure why he didn't want to be alone, even in as crowded a place as London, but she did need to go. Or maybe he just wanted to be with her, which, unlikely as it sounded to her brain, would have been really nice. But work wasn't exactly something she could put off or skip, as appealing as it sounded.

They were standing on a corner, a block away from St. Mungo's and surrounded by Muggles. It was a somewhat rundown shopping district, but it worked very well for its purpose, and the tired brick buildings and busy people only helped to conceal magical folk that paraded in and out each day.

"Are you sure?"

Lily smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Positive," she said. "Besides, don't you have somewhere to be? Work? Headquarters?"

"Lily," he said sharply, and she bit her tongue.

Oops. She probably - all right, certainly - shouldn't have mentioned Headquarters in such a busy, crowded setting. While most wizards could be distinguished in a group of Muggles, in these numbers and in this neighbourhood, it was hard to tell. One could never be sure just how much attention people were paying to a conversation.

"Well," she said, covering, "don't you have to be somewhere, though? You must have better things to do than do nothing with me all day."

"I wouldn't say that spending a day with you is doing nothing..."

She rolled her eyes. "Answer the question."

He exhaled and looked at the ground. "I'm off until Moody thinks I'm ready to come back. Same at the... you know. Except there it's Dumbledore, not Moody. Apparently, I'm irrational and impulsive when I'm upset about something." He said it as though it wasn't true. "Apparently, I'm too upset to think straight." His expression clearly stated his opinion on the matter.

Lily chose not to comment on that last bit, and opted to instead hug him tightly; he was obviously unhappy with the arrangement. He needed things to do to keep his mind off what had happened. But, on the other hand, Moody and Dumbledore were perfectly right. James wouldn't be able to think clearly for a while, no matter how he thought he was handling everything, and there was no sense in putting him somewhere where he would just endanger everyone.

"I have to go," she whispered.

*

"Where've you been?"

"Ah, well, that's a really good question, isn't it?"

"It is. I got back after work, and you're gone and there's no note or anything, and what was I supposed to think?"

Lene bit her lip and gave Lily a wry smile. "I... spent last night at Brent's."

Lily raised her eyebrows and went back to her book, not wanting to make a comment. When she had arrived back at the flat, it was quite clear that no one had been there for a time. The most obvious evidence being that the kitchen was still blue, and Lily had known for certain that as soon as Lene saw the blue walls she would whip out her wand and make them orange again. This had made it quite easy to lie about her own whereabouts, but had also made her worried about Lene. Lene had far more talent than Lily for getting into awkward and potentially dangerous situations, so arriving to find her disappeared was not the most comforting of circumstances.

"You're not going to attack me with questions?"

"Nope."

Lene looked confused, and made herself comfortable at the other end of the sofa, stretching her legs out to rest her feet on Lily. "Why not?"

"Because I don't think I want to know the details," Lily said, blatantly lying. "And get your smelly feet off me."

Lene didn't move her feet, but did change the subject. "So, what'd you do all day?"

Lily shrugged. "Slept, went into work, came home and ate some bread and jam." She tried to keep her eyes fixed on the page.

"You're lying."

"I'm not."

Lene grinned. "You always look up and to the left when you lie."

Lily slumped. That's what James had told her once, and she had been trying to stop ever since.

"So," Lene pressed, "what did you really do, Miss I Did Nothing Worth Discussing All Day Long When Clearly Something Exceptional Happened?"

Obviously, lying wasn't going to work. Cryptic answers were the next best option. "Nothing new."

"What! Tell me! Or I'm going to go on a tirade about how much I love Brent and-"

Lily leapt at her chance do change back the subject. "You don't love him."

"I do so," Lene said defensively.

"You've only been seeing him for a month."

"So?"

"You can't fall in love with someone in a month!"

Lene looked rather annoyed. "And just how long did it take you to go from loathing the sight of James Potter to declaring to the world that you were in love with him?"

Lily quickly looked down, to hide eyes that were most likely far too happy looking, and replied, "Two months. And I never loathed him, I just... loathed the idea of him."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Lene said sympathetically, misreading Lily's wavering tone. "You still feel awful, don't you?" She paused. "I meant to owl him today, actually. Can I borrow Isabelle?"

"To send to him?"

"Lily, it's just your owl. He knows I use her. He's not going to think it's a love letter from you or anything."

She continued to look at the page, not reading, but focusing very hard on the word 'just,' some three quarters down and in the middle of the line. "It's not that."

"Then what is it?"

Lily tried, but couldn't think of a good enough response. "Use Isabelle," she said with a sigh.

"Oh, and Lil," Lene added as she attached a letter to Isabelle's leg, "why is the kitchen blue?"

*

There it was. Perched on the tall, scrubbed table, surrounded with knives and scales and vials. And she was going to cut it up. Oh, but she couldn't! It looked like a little person, she couldn't cut it up!

Lily had been at Headquarters all day. She had assisted in some fixing of bones, had cleaned out her little clinic, and had had her first ever lengthy conversation with Kingsley Shacklebolt. She had also pondered all the ways she could get the employment records for Frank - he was becoming quite exasperated with her lack of progress, and she had been 'working' on it for nearly three weeks. What she needed was someone with expertise in the areas of stealing and not getting caught. She would talk to James, Sirius, Remus or Peter as soon as she could.

But the fact of the matter was that she could no longer avoid the inevitable. The Mandrake was mature, it had to be chopped, and Lily was the one to do it.

Lily held a knife very tightly in her hand, earmuffs clamped over her ears. The door was closed behind her, with a sigh on it asking that anyone entering put on earmuffs first. The Mandrake was on its stomach on the table, so that she wouldn't have to look at its face. Lily gripped the knife even tighter, glanced desperately at the clock, as though it would save her, and touched the tip to the Mandrake's back.

It was just a plant, after all.

Killing it - chopping it up - shouldn't be a problem. Just like she would chop up any other plant. Just like a dandelion. Or a carrot. Or a little person who couldn't do anything for self-protection.

Lily threw down the knife and backed up into a bed. She couldn't do it. The poor little thing couldn't be killed. Sitting down, she covered her face in her hands and sat still for a good ten minutes, contemplating how to do this.

The earmuffs were very effective, and blocked out all sound. If they hadn't, she would have heard him approach. As it was, she didn't, and jumped a good three feet in the air when she suddenly felt his arms slink around her waist.

Jumping up, Lily saw James standing on the other side of the bed, a pair of earmuffs clamped over his own ears. He was looking particularly proud of himself, and Lily couldn't have been happier to see him. This, after all, was what men were for. Catching bugs, chasing snakes, and killing things so their girlfriends wouldn't have to. Lily could get him to chop up the Mandrake.

Pointing at the earmuffs, he raised his eyebrows questionably.

Lily motioned for him to follow her, then scampered across the floor, picked up the knife, and handed it to him. She then pulled him towards the table, and directed him to the Mandrake.

His expression went from mildly amused and perplexed to absolute terror in about half a second. He was the colour of porridge. His eyes looked like they were going to fall out of his head. And then he was gone. Lily could hardly blink before he was wrenching open the door and throwing himself out into the hallway, gripping her wrist and dragging her after him.

Once sure that the door was shut firmly, Lily whipped off her earmuffs, pulled his down as well, and rounded on him. "What was that!"

"I just saved your life," he exclaimed.

"From what?"

"That... that..." his voice lowered to barely a whisper, "Mandrake."

Lily could have laughed aloud. "You're afraid of Mandrakes?"

"M'not afraid." James Potter was a horrible liar.

She grinned wryly, trying not to laugh. "You're terrified."

"For good reason," he said defensively. "They're bloody devil plants!"

"Does Sirius know you're afraid of Mandrakes?"

"Unfortunately." His face fell. "He sent me one for my fourteenth birthday. I almost killed him."

Lily couldn't understand it. She shook her head slowly, and leaned her back against a wall to look up at him. "Why?"

"Because," he said obviously, and not without a little fear, "he knew I would try to kill him if he sent me one."

"No, why are you so afraid of them?"

"Oh. They're devil plants. If you hear them, you die. But how do wqe know if we never hear them? It's so tempting, all you'd have to do is slip off the earmuffs, hear them and then you're dead! They're trying to kill us with curiosity."

"Well," Lily said, "I'd like you to kill it for me. Can you do that?"

He shook his head violently, apparently not at all ashamed of this ridiculous phobia.

"I cannot believe my boyfriend is afraid of Mandrakes."

He placed his index finger against her lips and whispered, "Not so loud, someone might hear. I'm not supposed to be here."

"Neither am I. I'm supposed to be in there-" she gestured at the door "-finishing up with the Mandrake! And I can't! Please? What good are you if you can't cut up a Mandrake for me?"

Judging from the smile that immediately lit up his face, Lily decided that she didn't really want to know what he was good for.

"Why are you here?" she asked, steering the conversation in a different direction.

He shrugged. "Wanted to feast my eyes on your beauty?"

Lily rolled her eyes and grinned at him. "The real reason, please."

"I'm invited to your flat for dinner tomorrow, Lene assured me you'd be here all night."

Lily thought. "No," she said slowly, "I'm home. Lene's here, though. Why would she..." Then her face broke into a grin. "She didn't."

"She has. Probably not her idea, but she has all the same."

Lily thought. "Shall we foil their plans? Or make them heroes of the day?"

"We'll decide later," he said, waving his hand as if to say it didn't matter. "I want you to come with me. Now."

"I can't." Lily cocked her head to the side, slightly confused by his rapid change in manner. "I have to finish this."

James looked as though he wished to say something, but wouldn't. "Come with me," he said again.

"I can't." Lily stood on her tiptoes to kiss him lightly, then backed up into the door. "I'll see you tomorrow, alright?"

"Alright," he said, defeated. "Tomorrow."

"Foiling plans. Or not," Lily added, then slid her earmuffs back on her ears and slipped back into the room.

*

Lene pulled the cushions off the sofa, peered around with an air of definite annoyance, then advanced into the kitchen and proceed to empty the cupboards. It was as she was rearranging the crackers and pastas that Lily entered, thinking about possibly eating an innocent sandwich.

"Er... Lene?"

"What," she snapped irritably.

"Are you looking for something?" Lily tried to make her way to the breadbox, keeping close to the wall and hoping not to provoke any outbursts.

"My shoe. Have you seen my shoe?"

Lily looked down, and saw that Lene was hobbling around wearing one black heel and one stocking foot. "No," she said slowly. "Why are you looking for your shoe in the cupboard?"

Lene gave her an obvious look. "Because this is where I keep my shoes," she said.

Lily narrowed her eyes. Lene was in the way of getting to the bread, and she couldn't have a sandwich unless she got to the bread. "Why are you looking for a shoe in the cupboard?" she repeated.

"Well it's not anywhere else!" Lene exclaimed, sounding a little hysterical. "I have to be there for Millie's christening in half an hour, my hair's not done, Brent's meeting my parents and I can't find my shoe!"

"Ah." That explained it. New cousin's christening. Hair. Boyfriend meeting parents. Missing shoe. Perfectly understandable cause for an emotional breakdown. She rummaged through the pots, in order to appear as though she had more on her mind than a sandwich. With that whole-grain bread. And mayonnaise and mustard and turkey and lettuce and maybe, if they had any, a slice or two of tomato. "It's always in the last place you look," Lily said sympathetically.

"Well of course it's always in the last place you look!" Lene retorted. "What kind of idiot would I have to be to keep looking after I've found it?"

Lily decided that maybe her sandwich could wait. Lene was going to need some support. Or at the very least, a pair of shoes to borrow.

"Have you checked my wardrobe?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Oh." Lily had been hoping the answer was no. Then she could go get the other shoe, send Lene on her way, and enjoy a sandwich. And James Potter, but at this point the turkey and mustard on whole grain bread was looking slightly more appealing. "Have you checked the linens?"

"Yes. They're all piled on the floor of the hall, by the way. Didn't get around to putting the back." Lene was now piling cookbooks on the counter, as she pulled them down from a shelf beside the frying pans.

"Did you check in the-"

"Yes. I've checked everywhere."

Lily leaned back against the counter. "Would you like to borrow a pair of my shoes?"

Lene looked up with gratitude. "Could I?"

"Yeah, I'll go get a pair. Black?"

"Please." Lene followed Lily into her room. "You're not going anywhere tonight, are you?"

Lily bit her lip. "Actually," she lied, "I thought I might head over to London and go clubbing. I was talking to Garret Doyle the other day at headquarters, and we decided to go sometime this week." Oh, but it was fun watching Lene try to hide that look of panic.

"But you can do that tomorrow," Lene reasoned, her eyes darting around. "I... um... I was hoping you could stay here? I've got some stuff being delivered... for the Order, and I need you to be here to get it."

"So you want me to hang around here and be bored and have no life? What happened to, 'Go out Lily!' and 'Move on'?"

Lene flicked her hands and wrenched off her shoe. "You can move on some other time. I need you to be here for when it arrives, and I can't reschedule or miss my cousin's christening, can I?"

Lily shrugged and averted her eyes. She didn't want to give anything away. "Fine. I'll just invite Garret over he-"

"No!"

Lily looked back up, startled. "Why not?"

"Because... because... because he can't know what I'm working on. No one can. You shouldn't, even."

"So we won't look," Lily argued, "I'll just move it right to your room and-"

"Lily." Lene had that look on her face. That look that said not to argue with her, because she wasn't backing down. Lily was familiar with that look, and knew that it was now beyond her control. No more teasing.

"Fine." She pouted, hopefully convincingly. "I'll stay here all by myself and be miserable while you go to a party."

"Thank you!" Lene grinned. "And it's not a party, it's a christening."