With Arms Wide Open

***

With Arms Wide Open

Chapter Two: Surprises

***

"Now I'm not so bad and I'm not so hot

I said I don't care but I cared a lot

It was changes that I wanted

Changes that I got

Ready or not

Now I'm not so radical as I thought

I said I don't care but I cared a lot

It was freedom that I wanted

Freedom that I got

Ready or not"

~part of "Ready or Not", by Evan and Jaron~

***

It was an extremely hot August day, a few days after everyone had adjusted to their new homes. About four o'clock, Lily and Katty were sitting on the front steps of their building waiting for a few friends. They each wore Muggle blue-jean shorts with tank tops because of the heat. Sirius was somewhere nearby, driving his motorcycle, no doubt to scope out the girls. Lily had no clue where James was; last time she saw him had been in his kitchen, making a sandwich, but that was over an hour ago.

"Katty! Lily!"

Two girls--Devin Ashiz and Brenna Lessiger--came running up to the aforementioned two, laden with bags. They both stood to great them.

"Oh, you guys, it's been so long," cried Devin. She was a short girl with hazel eyes and short blond hair in tight curls.

Katty started laughing as Devin enveloped her in a hug. "It's only been a few months!"

"Yeah, but we've hardly seen you! We only got a few posts all summer. And summer's almost over now."

Lily smiled at the girls. They had also been good friends of Lily and Katty. The four of them always hung out; while Katty and Lily were best friends, so were Devin and Brenna. They hadn't gone in on the plan to get a nearby place with Lily and Katty and the two boys; instead, they opted to live in Bristol, where Brenna grew up. "Well, we've been so busy lately, finding a flat and moving in," said Lily. "It's also somewhat hard to send owls in the middle of the Muggle world. Now we're just so glad you could come today, especially on such short notice."

Brenna and Devin looked at each other and laughed. "What?" asked Katty.

Brenna smirked wickedly and looked up at the sky. "Naw," she began. "You just got us on a good day. We were planning to come into London today at any rate. We needed new dress robes for work."

"Yeah, Gladrags is having a sale," added Devin. "If you hadn't owled us, we would have popped in anyway--because you know we always love to bug you."

Laughing, the girls finished their greetings (or rather, hugs), and opened the front door to go to the flat. It wasn't until they were almost upstairs that Lily realized what Brenna had said.

As Lily held open her flat's door, waving her friends inside, she cocked her head to the side.

"A job?" she asked. "A job? Oh, please, do tell!"

But Brenna merely shook her head. "No, not now. Let's wait until everyone gets here before we talk about that. Else, we'll just have to repeat everything."

"Yea, good idea," echoed Devin.

"Oh, you two are way too much trouble," was Lily's only reply.

***

Katty managed to keep from inquiring about her friends' jobs by pure sheer will. That, and the fact that Lily had to restrain herself, too, didn't hurt. But somehow, both she and her friend waited until everyone else arrived.

Everyone else (not including Katty, Devin, Brenna, and Lily) was Sirius, James, and their two friends Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin. They were going to have a celebratory "I'm on my Own" dinner. Although the eight of them were never the 'bestest friends in the whole wide world', as Emma liked to put it, they all got along decently enough. Those four boys had called themselves the Marauders at Hogwarts: their greatest amusement was to pull pranks on those they didn't like (mainly Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy), and wouldn't think less of playing jokes on anyone else. Of all the girls in their year at Hogwarts, they had put up with James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter better than anyone else, especially Lily and Katty. It only made sense that they banded together outside of Hogwarts.

Katty wouldn't admit it to anyone (although she had the sneaking suspicion that Lily somehow knew), but she had a small crush on Remus. He was by far the sweetest of the four boys: smart, ambitious, somewhat insecure, and very shy. He also was pretty cute. She never voiced these thoughts mainly because they were such good friends, and she hated being taunted (as inevitable as that was since she was friends with the Marauders). So she had ulterior motives in looking forward to the dinner.

By five, everyone had reached the flats--Remus and Peter weren't as bad at arriving on time as Sirius and James. They had all gotten the "Grand Tour" (name compliments of Mr. Hindom), and had gushed appropriately at what their friends had done with the decorations. Now they were all talking animatedly in her living room.

Well, not everyone. Being the best chefs in the group, Lily and Sirius were stationed in the kitchen, 'slaving away' over steaming pots and pans. Lily had a few cookbooks that she had acquired from her parents and from Flourish and Blotts, the wizarding bookstore. The ones from Flourish and Blotts were decidedly easier to use--there were video-pictures that showed exactly what to do for each step of the recipe. One of the cookbooks was full of recipes from Spanish-speaking countries; the group had decided to try something new, so Sirius and Lily were frantically rushing around, making paella.

Katty thought it was horribly funny to watch them: they kept twirling around to check something new every two seconds, and just barely kept from smacking into each other. Although they occasionally gave input into the conversation in the other room, curses could be heard most prominently. She got the feeling that in the kitchen, it was mainly Lily swearing at Sirius, who had the tendency to be obnoxious or do things wrong on purpose.....

"Could you pass the rice," she'd once asked.

Sirius looked at her strangely. "Rice?" he repeated. "What rice? I bought noodles."

Lily's face immediately went beet red. "Sirius, what's wrong with you?" she yelled. "I gave you a copy of the recipe! I even highlighted exactly what you needed to bring. We even went over it together!"

At this point, everyone has congregated (inconspicuously) outside the kitchen to listen and watch. Katty was doing everything in her power not to laugh, her shoulders shaking and a hand clamped firmly over her mouth. She didn't know why, but whenever someone was yelling (even if it was aimed at her), she had the sudden desire to burst into laughter. Remus seemed to notice this, and put a restraining hand on her trembling shoulder. "Let him have it," he whispered, leaning close. "If you laugh and Lily hears you she'll stop yelling and then where would we be?" And Katty had immediately stopped, without really knowing whether it was because she didn't want to lose her current amusement, or because she could smell Remus' aftershave, he was so close.....

"I'm sorry, Lily....." began Sirius sheepishly.

"Well, sorry doesn't cut it! We've been at this for over an hour, and now you've ruined it."

Sirius looked apologetic as he pasted a puppy-dog expression on his face. "I'm sorry," he repeated, wringing his hands, "but I only got five bags of rice."

"What?" And Sirius had received his second verbal thrashing in the past five minutes.

Around seven-thirty, Lily and Sirius were finally done. Somehow Sirius was still alive; he'd survived relatively unscathed. Lily slipped into her room to change out of the old Muggle clothes she had worn while cooking into newer--and nicer--blue jeans and a black peasant top.

"Hey, dinner, everyone," cried Sirius, flicking his wand to create a bell noise that sounded exactly like one of those triangle-bells that Katty had once seen in a Muggle old Western movie. He then sank down in one of the corner chairs at the large dining table that was to the right of the front door. There was a chair at each corner, and two placed on each of the longer sides. Sirius patted the chair to the right of him. "Peter, you sit here."

Peter, timid as always, peeped out of the magazine he was leafing through. "What are you going to do to me?" he asked.

"Do you have that low an esteem of me?" Sirius cried, holding his hands to his heart in mock horror.

"Yes," Peter said simply, but sat next to his friend anyway.

Minutes later, everyone was seated except for Lily and Katty. Not trusting Sirius, or any of the Marauders, they brought the food to the table.

"Just like Hogwarts," said Peter. He loved to eat, which explained why he was suddenly becoming a bit.....round. "It looks great, you guys."

Lily grinned, blushing. "Thanks," she said, and placed the paella on the table with a flourish.

A couple of minutes later, Katty looked up from her helping of paella. "So, Brenna," she began, "were you going to tell us about your job at all?"

"Of course! I was waiting for you or Lily to ask."

Devin continued for her. "Just after we moved into our flat in Bristol, someone came to our door."

"A very cute someone."

"That's putting it lightly."

"Okay, he was downright gorgeous."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Will you two get on with the story? You didn't come here to gossip for hours about guys."

Devin glared at him. "Of course we did. We came to meet up with you guys, talk, and get robes for work. Last time I checked, gossiping is included with 'talk'."

Oh, Black, can't you keep your mouth shut for two seconds? thought Katty. She jumped to his defense anyway: "It's alright, you two, we'll talk about it after these losers go to bed. I really want to hear about what happened.

Smiling, Devin started talking again. "Well, remember that Hufflepuff Head Boy when we were in third year? Jason Patil? He has a few brothers; Asriel was in our year, in Ravenclaw. Anyway, he works for the Ministry."

Brenna jumped in. "Under the department of Magical Creature Regulation. And....."

"He offered you a job?" Lily guessed.

"He offered both of us jobs. You know how much we love animals. We started in July; the hours are good, and there are a lot of good-looking guys in that department. Whoever knew so many guys would want to work with animals?"

"Not me," said Lily. "Well, congratulations."

They ate in silence for a few minutes. However, dinner with Sirius was never a quiet affair; Katty assumed he had only been silent because he was too busy eating. Which, like Peter, was something he loved: one was as like to find Sirius with a mouthful of food as to find some gorgeous girl hanging over him. She could never fathom how they all liked him.....apparently he had some sort of charisma of which she was unaware.

And now he clamped a hand onto Peter's shoulder, frightening him so that he spit his food back out. "Sirius!"

"Yeah? So, Peter, what have you been up to? You must be doing something."

"Well," he started, his face coloring. "Um--well--you're gonna laugh."

Sirius looked shocked and began to plead. "No, of course not. Come on." James smiled encouragingly.

"Fine. I got--I got a job in Diagon Alley. I'm working at the Apothecary."

James' smile turned into a grin. "That's great, Peter! You were always the best of us lowly Marauders at Potions. And as my dad always says," and here James adopted a deep and boisterous voice, " 'Play to your strengths'!"

Peter smiled feebly in response. Then Lily asked, "Since you work there, could we get special employee discounts?" He only weakly laughed and shook his head. "Oh, well, it was worth a shot, wasn't it?"

"Lily, you next," said James after shoving a huge piece of sausage in his mouth.

"James, haven't you ever learned to chew with your closed, and to not speak when eating?" asked Katty, thoroughly disgusted.

Sirius answered for him, since James' mouth was too full. "Nope."

***

"Well, I do have news," said Lily. She was extremely happy and proud of it, too. She had accepted a job at Roland Charm Developing--the most prestigious researching clinic in the magical world! She had managed to keep this a secret from even Katty; she had at first wanted to make sure she was fully qualified and capable to perform her duties.....and then she had simply wanted to surprise everyone.

Right after leaving Hogwarts, she had been approached by Jermyn Roland himself. At the time she was staying with the Pampts.....everyone had been out (Katty was having a catching-up lunch with her parents, and Emma was at a friend's house).

***

"There's a person at the door," announced the doorbell in a gender-less voice, yanking Lily out of her imagination--she had been rereading her favorite book, Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott. As a Muggle-born, she had been accustomed to both Muggle and wizard literature, and been introduced to American lit early on. Anyway, she had gotten up and opened the front door.

A large man was hovering on the porch, his midnight-blue dress robes billowing all around him. He seemed reasonably young, maybe in his fifties; his silver hair hung chin-length and constantly flopped into his face. For a second he seemed shocked to see Lily standing there: as the Pampts were rich and lived in a large house, he probably figured they'd have a house elf or two running about. Either that, or Lily's vivid red hair and bright green eyes set him off. Damn her looks, she thought, as the man quickly recovered. "Does a Miss Lily Evans reside in this household?" he asked. His voice was deep and rich.

"Why, yes," answered Lily. "I'm Lily Evans. I'm sorry, but could I have your name, please?"

"Of course. It's Jermyn Roland."

"Excuse me?" Lily practically reeled back. She had heard about Roland.....no less than ten years ago he had built an entire Charms foundation from scratch--she had read about it in The Daily Prophet, and other books on recent innovations. Lily had always done best in charms; in fact, her wand was best suited for that specialty. As an avid student, she had done extra studying when they discussed modern discoveries, and had been surprised by the amount of work they'd done. She always had wanted to do research.....

"I'm Mr. Roland, the head of an organization called Roland Charm Developing. Could I come in?"

"Oh, sorry, sure." Lily led him into the kitchen. "Would you like some tea?"

"That would be great. Of course, I'm sure you're wondering why I'm here?" he asked as he sat down in one of the chairs at the table. Lily nodded fervently. "Ten years ago, your Professor Flitwick came to work for me. As you of course know, three years later he accepted a position as the Charms Professor at Hogwarts. He still works for me in the summer. Well, every year since then, Professor Flitwick has given me the names of select students he deems would be most successful for a work in research."

"And he gave you my name," said Lily, catching on.

"Of course! He said you were the most qualified. When he hands me the list of students, he normally makes a general comment like, 'seems to be a good batch this year' or 'you might want to give these students a trial-run first'. But this year, he specified that you were studious, enthusiastic, diligent, intelligent, and persistent, and would make one hell of an employee. If you'd forgive my French."

Lily poured some the tea into two mugs (she couldn't find the tea cups) and handed one to Mr. Roland. He smiled his thanks.

"Did he?" she asked.

"Of course! Do you think I'd lie? Well, maybe, you don't know me well. But I don't! Anyway, do you think you'd be interested?"

Lily took almost no time thinking. She had been waiting for an opportunity like this to occur, and would probably go searching for a similar job.

"Yes, but....."

"But what? Ah, I'm assuming you're wondering about the pay and all?" How'd he know? thought Lily as she nodded her ascent. "Well, the pay is good, if I may say so myself. My checks concluded that my offered salary is the highest of the other companies in the UK." He flicked his wand, and a piece of parchment appeared; he scribbled some figures on the sheet and slid it toward Lily.

"And the hours?"

"The standard hours are from eight to six, with an hour for lunch. Of course, you could work earlier or later if necessary. So what do you think?"

Well, those were decent hours. And he was right, the pay was good. Grinning, Lily looked up from the parchment. "I'd love to work for you!" she said.

And my god, Mr. Roland really loved the phrase 'of course'.

***

"You're working with the best researching company on the planet and you didn't tell me?" cried Katty. She was more than slightly annoyed, as happy as she was for her friend. Lily was supposed to be her best friend, and she kept this huge thing a secret? Lily shook her head no, smiling.

"Wow, Lil, that's great," said James. "Is everything you do confidential?"

"No, but you might not understand half of it anyway. The work's pretty difficult."

Brenna jumped up and hugged Lily. "I'm so proud of you!" Devin then did the same.

It was already common knowledge amongst them that James and Sirius were enrolled in training to be Aurors (they had been approached during school by old Mad Eye Moody), and that Katty had decided to continue with school at Merlin University in London (she had absolutely no clue what she wanted to do with life), so no one said anything more about their jobs. In other words, the guys began to talk animatedly about Quidditch and the UK teams.

By this time everyone had finished eating, even Sirius. Katty and Lily stood up to clear the dishes. When they were in the kitchen, cleaning all the dishes, she asked, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I'm sorry, Katty," Lily said. "But I really wanted to surprise everyone. You really don't know how hard it was to not say anything!"

"Oh, I can imagine," replied Katty. She was purposely being vague; she did not want Lily to openly know about her feelings on Remus just yet. A few minutes later, they had finished the dishes (they opted to use magic this time; things went faster that way), and moved out to sit with the rest in the living room. Hours later, Peter and Remus followed their friends back to the other flat, while Devin and Brenna set up camp in the living room.

It was only until much later that Katty realized that Remus had not said a word about what he was up to.

***

A couple of weeks later, Lily and Katty were completely out of food. Staying on our own is harder than I thought, mused Lily as she perused the aisles of the local market. "Oh, I think we need that," she muttered as she passed the meat.

She really had no clue what she was doing. Katty was normally the one who went shopping, because she was home more often as her classes didn't run for many consecutive hours as Lily's work did. But this time, she hadn't been home. She was still at the university, and there was no food in the flat but a few bags of tea and some bananas, so Lily had ignored her lack of knowledge about groceries and gone to the store.

Lily moved on to the produce. She stood before a pile of fruit, trying to pick the ripest and freshest pears.

Suddenly, something grasped her shoulder harshly. Lily choked back a yell. Whatever is was then yanked her around.

Lily gasped, dropping both of the pears she held in her hands.

"Oh my god," she whispered.