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James "Prongs" Potter ([info]_cervus_) wrote in [info]expresslogs,
@ 2012-02-16 23:29:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:lily evans, {james potter

Who: James Potter, Lily Evans.
When: Friday 16th, late evening.
Where: Starting in sleeping car 14 and moving up the train.
What: A confused (and festive) new arrival, and a rather sad story.
Rating: Medium. Some language.

Okay.

Okay. Right then.

James managed to move from the spot he'd frozen into. After all, it was a bit of a shock. He'd been in the kitchen, running Harry's dummy under the sink after the baby had managed to chuck it under the sofa, and had turned back to go back into the living room and... now he was on a train. A train that looked worryingly like it was parked at a stop beside a city. It wasn't quite what he'd expected, even after having a madman as his best mate and Death Eaters chasing his family. You did not expect to turn around and be on a train.

James slid his hand to the back pocket of his jeans, carefully, cautiously, as if any moment someone might come bursting through that door. His wand was still there, which was a vague hint maybe this wasn't some kind of plot to drag him away from his family but maybe just... Godric knew. Something else. After all, Death Eaters would have taken his wand, wouldn't they? They couldn't be that stupid. They'd have never made it through childhood otherwise - probably have drowned in a toilet or something.

Ignoring the babbling on his own inner thoughts, James drew his wand, holding it tightly before him as he took a breath and headed out into the corridor. He needed to find Lily. They'd been in the house together. If they - whoever they were - had got him... James refused to let himself finish that thought, swallowing it down along with the wave of panic that kept threatening to sweep up over his head and drown him. Instead he forced himself to start moving down the corridor, looking for a way out, one ear listening out for anything that might be approaching.

Merlin, James thought again. He was on a train... And he was pretty sure he still wearing those damn comedy antlers.

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[info]emerald_eyes
2012-02-17 04:05 am UTC (link)
"Well then take a sodding nap and stop whinging about it," Lily called over her shoulder, a laugh in her voice. "It was your idea anyway." She paused long enough to hear Jaime's response before she grinned and turned her face forward again as she stepped through the doors. She wasn't really sure she had any destination in mind; she thought she'd check to see how the body removal was going and if they needed any assistance in that regard, but she thought the doctors had it well in hand.

She was just glad it was over with. The idea that there had been another, invisible person on the train that no one had managed to ferret out before the attack on Jo was a little horrifying. But it was over, and it was done, and she was just ... checking on how the clean up was going.

Or rather, that had been her intention until she actually saw who was in the corridor of the second to last car. For half a second, she thought it was perhaps Harry, but ... no. No, it was James. Or someone who bore an extremely strong resemblance to him. For a moment she was struck speechless, unsure where to even start with this. Her mouth worked soundlessly for a moment before she managed to find words. Well, a word, but it was a start. "James."

She'd been both dreaming of and dreading this day, and she'd always wondered how she'd feel about his arrival. Now she knew -- she had no idea how she felt. She was pleased to see him, of course, and horrified he was stuck here with them, and there were so many other thoughts swirling around, she couldn't even begin to sort them all out.

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[info]_cervus_
2012-02-17 10:28 am UTC (link)
James' grip tightened on his wand as he heard footsteps approaching, his heart suddenly making the decision to go it alone and start doing some kind of quickstep in his throat. He was trying really, really hard not to freak out completely, but his head was full of thoughts of his family and what the hell was going on. Right now, 'not freaking out' was a lot more effort than it had been this morning, when he'd been watching a six month old prefer wrapping paper to any of the actual presents themselves.

And then an all-too familiar figure stepped out, and there was a second when they just stared at each other. Then relief hit him as a physical force. James reached up suddenly, pulling the pair of antlers off his head. Which was stupid, because he'd only put them on in the first place to make her laugh.

"Lily," James croaked, before stepping hurriedly towards her. She was okay, he told himself, she was okay. And then he realised something else that made him stop in his tracks in front from her, the panic he'd escaped for a split second pressing back against him.

"Where's Harry? Don't you have him?" James reached out with his free hand, grasping hers shakily. Perhaps he wasn't as good as staying calm as he had thought. "Lils? Where the hell are we? What happened?"

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[info]emerald_eyes
2012-02-17 02:44 pm UTC (link)
She very nearly took a step back when he hurried toward her, and she supposed that was just a testament to exactly how muddled her thoughts were. She did lift her hands slightly, almost as if to embrace him, but the motion could have been construed as a gesture to encourage him to stop. He did though, before he got to her, and she shook her head to his question.

Tell him what happened ... he made it sound so easy. She had no idea where to start. With the fact they would die soon? Sooner for him, if Harry was already born in his when. Why was it so hard to find places to start with this? Maybe because she'd never had to explain it to her to-be husband before. Or ... husband, when he was from. Oh lord this was about to get complicated.

"It ..." she began before she faltered. "We've been abducted by a train. I ... didn't know it still picked up people when it was stopped. It didn't, the last time we ... were stopped." She hesitated, realizing she was going to need to back track a lot. "I've been here already for ... for nearly three months, James. I don't think I'm from the same when that you are. Harry's here, some of his friends as well, but he's ... he's grown. He's our age." She paused. "Well, close, to our age. A couple of years younger than me."

A faint smile crossed her lips, but it didn't quite reach the swirling emotional mess of her eyes. "It's ... complicated," she said quietly. "All of it is," she added. "Sirius is here though. I ... he's likely out and about, enjoying the stop but ... he'll be pleased to see you." She was pretty sure she was pleased to see him, or would be, once she got all -- well most -- of the news she'd gained out into the open.

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[info]_cervus_
2012-02-17 03:05 pm UTC (link)
Abducted by a train. Did she just say they’d been abducted by a train? For once, James didn’t have any words readily available, instead opening his mouth to gape at her silently. What the hell was she on about? Struck dumb, he narrowed hazel eyes in his wife’s direction, trying to keep up with everything she was saying.

Sirius was here, which wasn’t right because Sirius was off doing something for Dumbledore. James didn’t return her faint smile, but glanced over her shoulder, half expecting his best friend to come bounding out of a compartment, grinning like there wasn’t a war on and he hadn’t just been told he’d been kidnapped by a train. And it’d all be one of Sirius’ mental ideas and they’d laugh and apparate home… He turned back to Lily.

“Harry’s six months.” He told her, slowly. James dipped a hand into his jeans pocket and pulled out the baby blue pacifier he’d been clutching when he’d turned up here, as if that worked as proof of his son’s age. “It’s Christmas,” he added, almost desperately. But looking at Lily now, she was younger. A year or so younger, if he had to guess, before the baby. Before the wedding? “You were in the sitting room a second ago!”

He reached up, dragging the hand holding Harry’s dummy through his thick hair until it stood up on end – more a nervous gesture these days than the cocky one it had been back at Hogwarts. His expression had turned from confused to quiet pleading. “How do we get home?”

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[info]emerald_eyes
2012-02-17 03:14 pm UTC (link)
Lily shook her head slightly. "It was February of 1979. Early February," she emphasized, wanting it to be clear without saying it that she wasn't yet a Potter. "When I showed up here. You and Sirius were out doing Order things, and I was home, waiting for you to show up and tell me all about it, and then I was on a train. That was ... I don't know, exactly. There's no real way to keep time on the train. It's ... got to be close to three months though."

Gesturing slightly toward the window, Lily continued. "It's ... September of 2009 out there, and we're in New York. This train ... it travels through time. Through realities. It's picked up people from whenever and wherever it's inclined to. We have people from ... from the 1100s, and the 2500s, but most seem to be after the 1970s." To the best of her recollection, which was suddenly fuzzy right now.

She shook her head to his question. "There is no way home. I would have been back ages ago if there'd been a way, but there isn't." None they'd found yet, at any rate, and she knew people had been trying. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I wish ... I had better news." And the horrible part was ... the news only got worse from here.

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[info]_cervus_
2012-02-17 03:45 pm UTC (link)
But Lily hadn't vanished for three months in February 1979. James knew he wasn't always completely on track of things, but he was pretty sure he'd have noticed if his wife (Or fiancee, apparently) had buggered off for twelve weeks. He suddenly wanted to sit down. He wanted a wife who would glare at him and talk absolute sense until he had to agree with her. He wanted his baby son and their house and their wonky Christmas tree. He did not want to be in New York on a train in 2009.

But then Lily wouldn't lie to him about that. That was one thing he could believe, which meant that it must be true. The animagus shut his eyes for a moment, forcing himself to think. There wasn't any magic, as far as he knew, that could make a train travel through times and realities. There wasn't any that he could think of to provide a trip back to Godric's Hollow. But there had to be something.

"Bollocks," he said weakly. James closed his fist around the pacifier so tightly the plastic dug into his palm painfully, leaving a red welt behind.

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[info]emerald_eyes
2012-02-17 04:17 pm UTC (link)
“I know,” she said softly. And she did know, honestly, even if her arrival on the train had been some time ago, and she’d sort of just gotten used to … all of it. She could recall the early days when she hadn’t actually known anyone on board, but she thought somehow telling James that at least he had company wasn’t going to go over terribly well.

Then again, nothing she’d learned here was going to go over well. She was suddenly exhausted at the idea of sharing all of it. Or any of it.

Lifting one hand, she did her best to smooth down his hair, a faint smile on her lips. “He looks just like you, you know. Harry. He’s got your hair, and everything.” Her eyes, but she imagined even as an infant, Harry would have had her eyes, so James should already know that.

“I am glad you’re here,” she murmured. “Not … pleased you’re stuck on the train. I’d rather be home, of course, but … it’s about bloody time you showed up.” Though now she supposed she’d have three of them to try to keep in line -- she reasoned once Jaime found out (and got over the fact they all knew too much), the three of them would be ten times worse than just her and Sirius had been.

Lily dropped her hand briefly to James’ shoulder, squeezing softly. “Now all we need is for Remus to show up, and we’ll be set.”

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[info]_cervus_
2012-02-17 06:09 pm UTC (link)
James had visibly slumped, turning his gaze down. But he looked up as Lily's fingers brushed through his hair, trying to flatten the disaster that James had managed to create with the combination of genetics and his own bad habits. He looked at her for a moment, before he forced a small, fond smile to curl softly around the corners of his mouth. "Lucky kid," he quipped. Although it was all so surreal.

But he supposed it could be worse. She was here, and she was safe. And Sirius was here, apparently. And Harry, even if he was... well...

"I like to be fashionably late, remember?" He let her hand fall onto his shoulder, then sighed and took a step in to close the space between them, pressing his lips against her forehead before wrapping his arms around her. "And Pete," he murmured against her vivid hair a second later. "Remus and Pete."

It didn't feel right unless they were all together, after all. And it had been too long since he'd seen either of those two.

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[info]emerald_eyes
2012-02-17 06:36 pm UTC (link)
Lily smiled a little, letting her own arms wrap loosely around Jame’s waist when he stepped closer. It was all well and good until he mentioned Peter. “No,” she said coldly, a little more sharply than she’d intended. He didn’t know. Couldn’t know. Not yet. Which meant she’d have to explain, and oh dear lord did she ever not want to explain. Not ever, but especially not yet.

“He wouldn’t be safe here,” Lily said quietly. “Sirius would kill him. I would kill him. S--” She cut herself off, because she hadn’t quite gotten around to mentioning that Sev was here. So she looked away and swallowed before she tipped her chin slightly to regard James again.

“There’s … there are a lot of things … I need to tell you, love,” she began softly. “None of them are good.” There were still blanks, still gaps, still things she didn’t quite understand. There were missing links in her chain of events, but she had enough to understand the idea of things. She imagined that, right now, she had about as complete a picture as she was going to get of the situation.

“We can go sit down … Sirius and I are sharing a room,” she offered. “We can go there. Unless you’d rather have something to eat? We could go to the kitchen first.”

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[info]_cervus_
2012-02-17 06:49 pm UTC (link)
James frowned at the unexpected sharpness in her tone and pulled back a little to look down on her. And then she was looking away and suddenly, even though she hadn't said anything yet, his whole body seemed to go cold. Something was wrong, he realised. And not just 'you've been abducted by a train and taken to a place where your baby is an adult and your wife isn't your wife' kind of wrong, but really wrong wrong. He knew it.

"Sirius..." he repeated. What would Sirius have against Pete? There were times when the two hadn't been that close, sure, but they were still, well, them. Him, Sirius, Remus and Peter. Like it had always been. James' brow crumpled as his frown deepened. "What?"

"I just had a bloody huge Christmas dinner," he said, still frowning down at her, his hand skimming down to thread his fingers absently through hers. He didn't like this. He didn't want food. He wanted to know what was making her look like at him like that. "I'm probably good for a fortnight. Let's go sit."

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[info]emerald_eyes
2012-02-17 07:21 pm UTC (link)
Lily ached to ask him about Christmas. What had it been like, how was Harry at that age, were their friends over, or did they go somewhere? She knew the war wasn’t over; she knew it had another ten months left to go before it was over. But she wanted to ask about the happy things, the things they laughed about when they were so oblivious to their death rushing along toward them.

She didn’t want to tell him the things she knew, but everyone else knew, and she didn’t want him getting blind-sided by it all.

So Lily led him down to the room she shared with Sirius, gesturing for James to have a seat or join her as she climbed up onto the bed, sitting cross-legged in the middle of it. “I …” She hesitated. “It’s not good. None of it’s good, but I don’t want you to hear the way I did. To find out the way I did.”

Of course, there was no gentle way to say ‘so, we die but hey, we end the war for a little while’, so Lily tried to find a thread he might be familiar enough with that she wouldn’t have to explain much. “Are we … hiding yet? Because of the prophecy? I don’t … know exactly when things happen,” she admitted. “I know … things happen, but not exactly when, or how. But if you already know about it, then I won’t need to … to explain as much.”

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[info]_cervus_
2012-02-17 09:20 pm UTC (link)
James followed Lily into the room and settled himself on the edge of the mattress as she sat down on the duvet. Even now, with everything that was happening, he couldn't help but notice how ridiculously attractive she was, sat curled in the middle of the bed. Then she was talking and he forced himself to concentrate, even as he found he really didn't like the direction this was going. A voice was piping up at the back of his head, voicing the worst, and James did his best to ignore it.

"Ermmm.." he dragged his hand nervously through his dark hair again, undoing all Lily's good work in tidying him up. "Kind of. I know about it... It was made a bit before he was born. About a kid born at the end of July, right?" he finished a little glumly. It wasn't exactly his favourite topic, the fact that a bloody madman without a nose was trying to kill his baby son. "I know we're going to have to hide."

It wasn't a plan he could say he liked much. James, a Gryffindor to the heart, wasn't one for hiding. But if that's what he needed to do to keep them safe, then he'd do it. He pressed his lips together, ignoring the way his heart seemed to have picked up speed and the dread that was flooding his veins, waiting for Lily to continue.

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[info]emerald_eyes
2012-02-17 10:19 pm UTC (link)
Lily wondered if it was worth asking Severus for more specifics about the prophecy, then reasoned he’d probably be steering clear of her once he head James was now a passenger on the train. She studied her hands, clasped together in her lap, before she sighed quietly.

“When … when the time comes for us to hide, they put a Fidelius charm on the house. Sirius suggests we make Peter the secret keeper.” Lily’s voice was strangely flat, her eyes unfocused as she started to recount the tale. “He betrays us.”

She bit down on her quivering lower lip before she lifted her head slowly. “He sells us out, and Voldemort kills us.” She looked away, wanting to get it all out before James can react to just that part of it -- because the question of Harry’s survival was bound to come up. “Somehow … somehow Harry survives. I’m not exactly certain on the details of that, but Jaime said … it was something about love, and the fact I had a choice.” Lily didn’t think that was completely true. Something must have gotten lost in translation because she couldn’t exactly see any situation in which Voldemort would ask her if she’d like to live or die and then actually let her live if she’d chosen that. It just didn’t fit the facts as she knew them.

Lily exhaled softly before she tilted her head to meet James’ gaze. “There’s more. I … don’t know how much of it you want to hear.” She lifted one hand, brushing the back of her index finger along her cheek to chase away the tear there. She thought she’d come to terms with the idea of her death, but somehow, it hit harder while she was telling the story to James -- the other person in the tale who was going to die.

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[info]_cervus_
2012-02-17 11:07 pm UTC (link)
No.

James’ first reaction was one of flat-out denial. Peter wouldn’t do that to them. There must have been a mistake. They’d been friends for almost a decade, they’d grown up together – James knew him. He trusted him, clearly, not only with his life but that of his wife and child’s. How could something he believed that completely be wrong? It couldn’t be. He wouldn’t let it be.

But why would she lie? Knowing how much that would hurt him, why would Lily say it if it wasn’t true? James looked into her face as she looked away, reading the familiar features and knowing, with the kind of finality that seemed to fill his whole body, that she was telling the truth. Pete. Of course he’d trusted him – why wouldn’t he? Peter wasn’t the kind of join the Death Eaters. He was too quiet and nervous. No’one would ever have thought they’d pick him as secret keeper. They’d have assumed it was Sirius. Why hadn’t it been Sirius? James felt strangely numb.

Harry had survived. That fact brought some kind of emotion back to James. Relief, full and aching and poisoned with betrayal and guilt. He’d been stupid. So fucking stupid. Why hadn’t he been able to stop it? He couldn’t pick up the details of the story that he should have been questioning. Like how a baby had managed to survive, why Lily had been given a choice. Later he’d think them through, probably obsess over them, but not now. There was only so much room in his head as it spun trying to take it all in.
James turned to look at Lily again – at some point he had chosen staring at the carpet as the preferable option, his hands pressed hard against his mouth. She was wiping away a tear, which had left a shining mark down her cheek, and the sight sent an arrow of pain straight through him. James reached out to take her hand.

“Tell me,” he said, and was surprised to hear he still sounded like himself. It felt like something should have changed. He swallowed hard, hating the catch in his voice when he spoke again. But he couldn't very well stop now, could he? "I want to hear it all."

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[info]emerald_eyes
2012-02-17 11:32 pm UTC (link)
Lily wasn’t surprised he wanted to know. She would have wanted to know. Even when Jaime’s stories had been overwhelmingly devastating, she’d wanted to know. Later, she’d regretted hearing some of it, but … at least she knew.

Exhaling softly, she squeezed his hand, gazing down at their linked hands and tangled fingers. “He frames Sirius,” she whispered “The Sirius that’s here … he’s from 1986. He’d been in prison for five years for our murders, James. Murders he didn’t commit. Murders he would have died before letting happen.” She wanted to ask him why, why they hadn’t had Sirius for a secret keeper, but he wouldn’t, of course. Sirius might have been there, but he wouldn’t necessarily know what they’d discussed or how she and James had concluded that Peter was the better option.

She ran her free hand over her cheeks, sniffling once before continuing. “Harry …” She laughed faintly, hoarsely. “Tuney and her husband raised him. It … it was the only person they had left to take him to. His godfather in prison, and … us dead.”

Lily sighed again before she shook her head slightly. She didn’t want to say ‘and it gets worse’ but … it did, didn’t it? “At any rate … when … when Harry survived the killing curse Voldemort cast on him after … after we …” she gestured slightly, tipping her head and not wanting to actually say ‘died’. “It backfired, somehow, and … it didn’t quite kill Voldemort, but it … it put him out of commission for several years after.”

Until he came back, but she guessed she’d see if James had anything to say, or to ask, before she went on. “Everything … I know, I’ve heard second or third hand, and I know there’s a lot missing, but … the facts seem to be the same across the board as far as all the people here from our future are concerned.”

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[info]_cervus_
2012-02-18 09:19 am UTC (link)
Oh buggering hell! James stared at her, eyes wide. "Sirius," he repeated. "They thought Sirius... Are they fucking insane?!" It came out louder and angrier than he'd expected, and he bit down hard on the inside of his mouth to quell the rant that was bubbling in his chest. Sirius would walk through fire for any one of them, they all knew that. Everyone knew that. How could anyone think, even for a moment, that Pads would do that to them? To him?

"Petunia?!" he yelped. "And walrus-face?! Who... I mean... What about Remus?" he snapped. Then remembered, too late, that Remus was a werewolf and probably wouldn't even have been offered the chance to take Harry. James swore again under his breath as, unbidden, an image blossomed in Jhis head. Harry shipped off to Lily's bitch of a sister and her first-class-idiot husband. Sirius curled on his own in some dark, damp cell. Lily and himself... James felt sick. He shut his eyes tight against the waves of alternate anger and nausea and willed his heart to slow as he listened to the rest of what Lily had to say.

So it didn't even get rid of him. For some reason that made it all a hundred times worse. There wasn't even any bloody point to all this happening. James released Lily's grip and buried his face in his hands instead, pressing down until stars exploded behind his eyelids.

"I'll kill him," he muttered. "Wormtail. I'll fucking kill him." He pulled his face up from his hands and looked sharply back at Lily. "But... we know now. When we get back... we can just pick Sirius, right?"

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[info]emerald_eyes
2012-02-18 06:02 pm UTC (link)
Lily didn't say anything when James suggested Remus, knowing he'd catch on as to why that wouldn't have worked. She was also pleased he was on the same page, and she almost hoped, for Peter's sake, that the bastard never showed up here. "He hid," Lily murmured. "As a rat. Faked his death, and let Sirius take the fall for all of it, and hid for ... for years, until Sirius broke out of prison and tracked him down, forced him out."

She exhaled softly. "I want to know what arguments the pair of you made to get me to agree to Peter. There's always been something about him I've never taken to." Which she supposed was neither here nor there. She'd been somehow convinced, and had likely agreed despite her better judgement, and that was that.

"I don't know," she admitted quietly. "That was my plan, when I first heard what happened. That I'd do anything, everything, whatever I had to, to change it. But we don't know for sure ... what happens if we ever get off the train." She hesitated a moment. "There was a passenger, Amy. She was on the train, and then she died ... but a day or so later, a slightly older version of her was back on the train, alive, and ... she didn't recall her first time on the train. It ... some people say it might be a matter of alternate realities, or different incarnations, but ... if we don't remember when we go back ... I'm not sure we can fix it.

"I want to try though. I ... I don't know. Write a note to ourselves and carry it around, and if we ever do go back, even if we don't remember, maybe we'll have the note still."

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[info]_cervus_
2012-02-20 12:12 am UTC (link)
James shook his head a little hopelessly, looking to Lily with an expression that suggested he couldn’t quite think of a proper reason that he might have used to convince her to involve Peter.

“I trust…” He caught himself, and took a shallow breath before continuing. “Trusted Pete. Why wouldn’t I? He never… he was part of us. And you know how everyone knew how close me and Sirius were. If they knew there was a secret keeper, they’d have gone after him straight away.” James paused, collecting his thoughts. “No’one would have suspected we’d use Pete.” He felt a bit bad for saying it, which was insane considering what he’d just heard, but you couldn’t switch off a decade’s worth of friendship and trust like that. Or so he had thought.

He looked around to Lily, then twisted so he was kneeling on the bedcovers in front of her, his feet caught underneath him. He nodded and set his jaw, changing it into a harsh line before he reached out carefully to push a strand of Lily’s rich red hair back behind her ear.

“We’ll figure it out,” he promised her, with a lot more confidence than he really felt. But he had to hold onto some kind of strength. He had to believe they could change that horrible story because otherwise what was the point? James forced himself to give a small smile, leaning forward until his forehead touched briefly against hers. “We always do, right? I’ll tattoo it onto my forehead if I have to.”

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[info]emerald_eyes
2012-02-20 12:32 am UTC (link)
The difference was, of course, that Sirius would have died before giving them up. No matter what they'd done to him. But Lily knew James had to know that as well as she did -- better than she did, really. They'd been friends first, and far longer. "I know," she said softly.

She rested her hands on his shoulders, rubbing them lightly when he knelt in front of her. "We will," she agreed. "Though I think if you're going to have a tattoo, perhaps somewhere a little less obvious would be the better way to go." She did manage to stir up a little smile for him as she lifted one hand, her fingertips caressing lightly over his hair before she made another attempt to smooth it down.

Exhaling softly, she tried to think of something cheerful to tell him, but she wasn't sure there was anything precisely cheerful. They'd stopped, and that was something. They could get off the train and stretch their legs and all of that.

"You'll have to go meet him," she decided. That was pleasant -- the fact that their son was here. "He'll be thrilled. And Sirius as well. Harry's mates that came along with him." She hesitated, but it was bound to come up at some point. "Severus is here, as well. He's ... a bit older than us though." Which was mostly irrelevant, but she honestly wanted to skate right past the topic of Severus Snape just now.

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[info]_cervus_
2012-02-20 01:15 am UTC (link)
"I'll get it on my arse," James replied carelessly, his own smile growing in response to the small one Lily offered him. He was glad she was here. Even with the news she was sharing, he imagined it'd be even harder without her. James let her have another attempt at taming his mad excuse for hair while he once again tried to get his head around the whole 'Peter' thing. And the 'dying' thing. And the 'Sirius' and the 'Harry' thing.

He pulled himself back to the present when she spoke again. Harry wouldn't know him. That thought stuck in his throat painfully as he thought of the little boy he'd left behind less than an hour before. And he really needed to talk to Sirius. Then Snape's name came up and James couldn't hide the unpleasant grimace that suddenly twisted his features. That Death Eater piece of... They'd let bloody anyone on this train, then? That was good to know.

"Improved with age, has he?" he muttered.

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[info]emerald_eyes
2012-02-20 01:27 am UTC (link)
"Lovely. That's the first place I'll check when we get home then," she replied with a lightness she didn't entirely feel. Still, it was something worth looking into ... maybe if they did do something like that, they'd be able to keep the ink on their skin when they were returned home. If they returned home.

For a moment, Lily was silent, gazing down at the bed covers. She didn't know how to explain it, least of all to James. She also didn't know how long she'd be able to keep what she knew from him. She'd always been painfully transparent and she really wasn't a good liar. At all. "It's complicated," she finally said.

She both did and didn't want to get into it. Some of it would have to come out eventually, but she could let it be someone else's story to tell. Parts of it, at any rate. Right now though, she wanted to talk about something else. Anything else.

Lifting her eyes, she gazed into his before she cupped his cheek gently. She ran her thumb lightly along his lower lip. "So, would you like a tour of the train? It's ... fairly empty now. Most everyone's off enjoying the stop."

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[info]_cervus_
2012-02-20 01:45 am UTC (link)
What wasn't she saying? Lily wasn't much of a liar - you could read her like a book half the time. It was one of the things James liked about her. But there was definitely something there that his wife (Was he still allowed to call her that?) was avoiding saying, and although James considered trying to get it out of her, he didn't know how much more he could bear to hear in one more sitting.

Her hand was warm against his cheek, her thumb dragging gently across his lip. James kept his hazel eyes locked with hers for a moment before he nodded slightly. After all, if he was going to be stuck here he supposed he might as well know his way around. And a part of him hoped they'd run into Harry or Sirius, although it sounded like they were both likely to be off... somewhere.

"Okay," he agreed. "In a moment." Then he leaned forward and pressed his lips softly against hers.

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[info]emerald_eyes
2012-02-20 01:58 am UTC (link)
Lily reasoned James knew something was up, and she was glad he didn't push the issue. She would have shared if she'd been pressed to, though right now she'd had more than her fill of complications and tragic stories of a future they hadn't yet lived.

She did laughed softly as he leaned in, though the noise was abbreviated as she returned his kiss tenderly. She rested her hand on his shoulder, squeezing lightly as she eased a little closer to him.

"We'll have to go explore the city as well," she encouraged. She wasn't sure what everyone else's plans were, but she reasoned she had a better chance of keeping James away from Severus if they spent more time off the train than on it. He'd have to meet Jaime, of course, but ... later, after she'd had a chance to talk to her. While she doubted very much Jaime was going to spill secrets, she'd rather it be clear. "And I can tell you about the almost three months that I've been stuck here, and all the wild and crazy adventures we've had."

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