James eyed the basket she'd just placed down with interest. "Is that food?" he asked hopefully. He'd had a kind of half-baked plan about bribing a house elf, or just heading down to the kitchens and sneaking something (a job which had been much easier when he'd had his cloak, but that was beside the point). But maybe his very clever, very wonderful wife had saved him a job.
"I don't blame them," he shrugged. "I wouldn't want to grow somewhere this miserable either. It's a miracle I haven't shrivelled up already." He cast a slightly reproachful look out the window, streaked with rivers of rainwater. With a sigh, James pulled himself up from his short stay on the couch and clambered ungainly over the back, narrowly avoiding stumbling as he hit the floor and strode over to Lily.
"Um..." He reached out and gently pulled a clump of dirt from her hair. "You sure you didn't get into a fight with a mandrake?"