Life After Graduation

“James! JAMES!” Lily called down the steps before returning back into their bedroom. They had been staying at James’ parents house for the past month after school while they worked on saving money and finding a place of their own.

Sitting back down on the bed a few papers fell to the floor in a flurry, to which Lily just ignored as she held another piece of paper in her hand. She looked up at James entered the room a bit flustered.

“What’s wrong?” He asked as he closed the door behind him then sat down on his desk chair facing her. He had been in the middle of moving a few things for his parents downstairs in the basement, and he dashed up two flights of steps when she had called him.

“What am I going to do?” She asked thrusting the paper at him that had just come in by owl a few minutes ago. She had picked the color she wanted for her bridesmaid’s dresses and the style, then went and ordered matching ties for the groomsmen to find out the dress shop was out of the color.

“Pick a new color?” James dared but then instantly regretted it with the look she shot him. “We will just have to try somewhere else is all. There is no need to worry,” he said setting the paper down on the desk behind him. Then he smiled sympathetically at Lily when he saw the look of anguish on her face. “It will be fine, we can try a new place tomorrow.”

“But you have work,” Lily whined running a hand through her hair. They had both been accepted to work for the ministry as Aurors, and their schedules were hectic. Both of them were constantly working odd hours, and hardly ever together.

“We can go after, I will be home by two,” James said trying to cheer her up slightly.

“You will be too tired too, and I don’t want to drag you there,” she protested.

“I will be fine I promise, I can’t guarantee I’ll stay awake the whole time, but I promise I’ll be there,” he said with a smirk. Finally Lily cracked a smile, and he knew he had cheered her up a bit. Their wedding was not until April, but there was so much to plan in that short time he could not blame her for being stressed They were also trying to save money to get a small flat together, they had enough to put down a, as well as deposit, and the first two months rent, but they needed money to buy furniture, and plus they had yet to find a place.

“I’ll give you a hand,” Lily said indicating to what James was busy doing. He had dirt smudged on his nose, and his hands were dark with it as well.

They slowly made their way down to the basement to move a few boxes out of the way to make room for their things. Lily had packed up what she wanted to bring from her house a few weeks ago, and James had gone through all of his old things that he would want to bring with him as well to their new place. The problem was the boxes were in the way, making it impossible for his mother to get downstairs and do laundry, and for his father to get to their wine cellar. They had both offered to move it, but they had no idea what was what.

Lily took the job of sealing the boxes, and James moved them into a pile in the back. When they finished they had a decent pile, including a small dining room table and chair set from Lily’s parents, and a love seat from James’.

Once they were done, Lily made some lunch just as James mother returned, she only worked part time as a seamstress at a local cloak store, it was just something to get her out of the house since the Potters were very well off from family inheritance, and James fathers job.

“So now what?” James asked collapsing on the bed after Lily had cleared off all the papers. His parents had offered for Lily to stay with them while he and Lily looked for a place to stay, and he as well as Lily was thoroughly surprised when they said they could both stay in James’ room.

“We can go look for flats,” Lily suggested sitting up by his head, her hand running through his hair lightly. Even after a month had gone by Lily still found herself glancing at her engagement ring a few times a day.

“Sounds good,” James said closing his eyes at the attention Lily was giving him. So far work had taken it out of him, he was still in training so he was constantly running around during his shifts, and he had yet to see a real battle, though they were constantly raging. His father had agreed to talk to Dumbledore about joining their group of resistance, but only after he was properly trained, which would be another few months.

After a second James sat up, removing his glasses for a second to rub his eyes before replacing them, and giving Lily a kiss. “Ready?”

“Yes,” Lily said slipping on a pair of sandals. It was hot out today, for the first time in a while, and she was going to take full advantage of it. “I found a few listings in the local paper this morning,” she said then saw his furrowed eyebrows. “I went out while you were asleep.”

They visited a few flats, and then found one that was perfect. It was two bedrooms, a decent sized living room and kitchen, one bathroom, and on the main floor so it had a small porch leading to a shared backyard.

“It’s perfect!” Lily said once they were home and eating dinner with James’ parents. “It was spacious, two bedrooms, a small yard, and much cheaper than all the others.”

James’ parents looked pleased as well as James did. Once all the dinner plates were cleaned up, Lily and James said goodnight and retreated to their room. James needed to be up by four thirty that morning to be to work by five, and Lily had work the next night from six in the afternoon until two in the morning.

“So did you really like it?” Lily asked from the room’s bathroom as she changed in pajamas.

“Yes love,” James said already in bed, he was just going to wear boxers to bed; it was too hot for anything else. “It’s exactly what we were looking for.”

Lily came back into the bedroom, dressed in just a tank top and a pair of knickers; she followed James lead and lay atop of the sheets with him, curled up by his side. “Do you think we should do it?” She asked him, her hand resting on his chest, rising and falling gently with each breath he took.

“If you really liked it, then yes,” he said looking down at her, smiling at her smile. “We can go tomorrow after we go to the dress shop.”

She squeezed him hard then leaned up to kiss him lightly on the lips. Never would she of thought that right out of Hogwarts she would be engaged and moving in with her fiancée, let alone it being James Potter. Reaching behind her without looking, Lily felt around for her wand, the moon was shining into the bedroom blindingly. With a flick they quickly closed shut, plunging them into darkness.

James removed his glasses before rolling over to face her, though he could not see her very well since his eyes had not adjusted to the sudden lack of light. “Where did you go?” James asked her smirking.

“Right here,” Lily remarked her hand reaching out gingerly afraid she would poke him in the eye, and touched his cheek.

Living with his parents made it dreadfully hard to have alone time together. It had been about three weeks since they had last had been together intimately and his body was aching for her, even with silencing charms there was still a chance they would get caught, which would be dreadfully embarrassing and not a risk either of them were willing to take.

“Goodnight love,” James said as he kissed her lingering a bit.

“Goodnight,” Lily said returning the kiss. She could feel the desire in that kiss, but there was nothing either of them could do about it.