Six days after her return, and Lily was glowing once more. The bruising disappeared, leaving no trace of the damage done to her physically. Her throat no longer felt the agony of prolonged conversation, and she had gained back a fair amount of the weight she had lost. The complete liveliness had returned to her eyes, her smile, her demeanor, and it was infectious. Gradually, Lily floated out of the small corner room and took back her strength by being with others, just as she's always done.

So the Order decided to do something they hadn't done before, which was simply to relax. Benjy Fenwick called in a favor with Madame Rosemerta (though, no matter how many times Sirius asked, Benjy would not reveal any details) and had the Three Broomsticks stay open for extra hours, Order only. Hagrid broke two stools and apologized furiously for both, Elphias Doge refused to remove his hat, and the Prewett twins seemed to have a bet on whether they could frustrate Emmeline or Marlene the most, but even Mad-Eye had showed up to have a few (from his own flask, of course).

No one mentioned that two of the Parkinson children had gone missing, or the rumors the vials of mud being sold in Knockturn Alley were mixtures of real blood from Muggleborns and dirt, or that the only reason they'd never done this before was because they had always been too late.

It was well past one by the time the Alice carried away a very intoxicated Frank, saying something about having to get up early for brunch with his mother. Lily laughed, waving the couple goodbye, and moved over to where James sat with the other three boys at a booth talking to Kingsley Shacklebolt, the Auror Mad-Eye had been trying to recruit for the Order. When Lily took her seat next to James, she was not surprised to witness them attempt to convince Kingsley to use a color swap charm on Moody's magic eye every day at the Auror office until he noticed.

"As entertaining as that sounds," Kingsely took another sip of his Butterbeer, "I'd like to keep both my job and my wand hand."

"It would never work!" Moody called from across the bar, downing a shot of Firewhiskey with Benjy and Emmeline. "The damn thing's got a Sheild Charm on it, you nitwits."

"Ah, Mad-Eye, you're no fun," Sirius muttered.

"Fun gets you killed," came the retort.

"We could make that a drinking game," Remus observed. "Take a shot for everything we could list that Moody says will kill us."

"I think we'd all lose at the start, being associated with the Order," Kingsely said with a shrug.

"Bonus shot for being Muggleborn," Lily said.

"Blood traitors!" James and Sirius high-fived.

Even Peter laughed when Remus shrugged, motioning his thumb towards himself, and said, "Lycanthropy."

"None of this is really a laughing matter," Kingsley mused.

"Which," James replied, "is exactly why we laugh."

There was a lull in which Sirius swirled his drink absentmindedly, and Remus stifled a yawn, and Peter stated at the floor, hiccuping slightly. Kingsley watched James and Lily, who despite sitting in the crowded booth, seemed to be their own entity all together as he sat with his arm draped across her shoulders and she leaned into him. Some people were just like that, he guessed. He stood, making some excuse about taking in early hours at the Office, leaving because he felt invasive sitting with that group of five. Sirius broke the silence after Kingsley left.

"The night's still young. How about we crash some Muggle pubs? Those are my favorite."

"I'm in," Peter spoke, perking up. Remus shrugged, but nodded in agreement nonetheless.

"Not tonight, Padfoot," James told him. Lily smiled apologetically.

"Sorry, Sirius." She stood, tugging James' arm up. "But it's late."

"Now you're no fun," Sirius muttered, trying to hide his disappointment. It was understood the plans were off without James. "I may go visit my cousin Andromeda tomorrow," Sirius said as they walked away. "A kindered soul to my own, being a Black outcast. She's got a kid, I think. Do you want to come? Moony?"

Stepping outside, High Street looked just as it had last year at this time, despite everything that had changed about the two people strolling down that path, despite everything that had changed for the worse in the Wizarding community. James eyed Lily, smiling a bit at her blushed face, finally full of color again. Her eyes danced with the evening, brighter still after drinking and laughing with everyone. "You feel up to Apparating by yourself?"

"Hm," Lily mused, but then lunched for his arm and intertwined her own with his. "I think I'll let you take the lead here."

"The question was more of a formality, to be honest," he confessed as they walked farther down the road to a good Apparation spot. He stopped, holding onto her hand with a firm grip. "Ready?"

"Don't take me home," Lily whispered, almost panicked. Her gaze flickered up to his. "I don't want to be alone." James turned so they faced each other for a moment before he reached his free hand out and lifted her chin. Lily, a mere moment ago so happy, had tears in her eyes.

"Hey," James mumbled and he pulled her into a hug, one hand in her hair and the other on the small of her back, soothing. "It's okay, Lily. I'm not leaving you alone. You don't have to do anything until you're ready." She nodded in his embrace, then stepped back a little, signaling that she was prepared to Apparate. James took her hand once more. "To my flat?"

"Is it clean?"

"Beggars cannot be choosers, my dear Lily," James replied haughtily, and she laughed before he turned on his heel, and both were sent spiraling in the vortex. Gasping, Lily and James stood in the alleyway behind James' flat. Wand out but concealed, James led Lily up to his flat.

Lily loved James' place. While it wasn't a dump, his flat wasn't anything the Potter line would necessarily proclaim as their own. Lily loved his flat for all the days (and nights) she spent here, for the times the other boys dropped by, for the eye rolls she'd inevitably have at its lack of cleanliness, and for the safety she felt in something that became so intrinsically James. Lily would never outright admit it to James, but she'd miss the dingy one bedroom flat when they moved into Godric's Hallow in only a few weeks.

James stopped at the door and mumbled a hasty homenum revelio. Satisfied that there was no one inside, James unlocked the door and nudged Lily inside. She gasped.

"It's clean!" She squealed, and he laughed, shaking his head at her shock.

"I've my occasional uses, you know. Figured you'd like it." She blinked, looking towards the state of the kitchen area.

"When did you even do this?" Lily asked, looking at James. He'd been with her at almost every moment since she woke up, leaving very little opportunity for him to have gone home to do a little bit of tidying up. Silly and insignificant as it was to cry over a clean flat, she could feel her eyes tear up. She kept her back to James, not wanting him to see her cry again— Merlin knew he had a lot of that this week. Lily couldn't help it this time, though. James was too good, much too good. She could practically hear him shrug and feel his little smile directed at her.

"Yesterday when I went out for more clothes for you. I knew we'd be here, so I figured…" Turning, Lily saw him gesture at the room at large. "I did okay?"

"You're fantastic," she told him, walking back over to kiss him.

"Ah," James mumbled, "if I had known there was incentive…" She laughed as they broke apart.

"Well," Lily started coyly, "did you clean the bedroom?"

"Why clean something that'll only be defiled?"

"Good point."

Lily walked opposite the small kitchen and into James' room, which to his credit didn't look as terrible as it had in the past. Unfolded clothes littered the floor alongside various knickknacks James possessed. She sighed, then plopped down onto the bed facedown, grabbing her favorite pillow and putting ijjt over her head. "I'm glad I'm alive for this pillow. I wouldn't want anything to happen and have it not know." A joke, of course, but it triggered what James had been avoiding sense the start of this all.

"Lily?"

"Hm?"

"Can I ask you something?" He sounded conflicted, which was odd for a James. Lily tried to remain calm.

"Mhm," she mumbled.

"Are we doing the right thing?"

Lily looked up, head tilted in confusion. He stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame and crossing his arms. James shrugged, sighed, and looked at her with new determination in his eyes. He repeated himself.

"Are we doing the right thing?" asked James again, meeting Lily's gaze. She blinked, and he continued. "Fighting? Risking it all like this?"
"I don't get what you're saying." she replied quietly, fully pulling herself up from the bed. The dim lamplight of the room cast a shadow over his face that lifted only slightly the closer she moved to him. "Joining the Order... It's what we both wanted. Hell, neither of us have actual jobs, James. This is all we know, fighting Voldemort. So..." she continued, "yes. We're doing the right thing." Lily's hand lifted to stroke through James' hair, but he caught her wrist and took a shuttering breath.

"No, that's not what I meant." He took another shaky breath. "Lily, I know the risks of being here. I knew the risks back when Dumbledore invited us in. What I'm saying," James dropped his gaze from Lily's and concentrated on the half-moon visible from the bedroom window. "What I'm saying is what's going to happen when we finally run out of luck? What's going to happen to me if... if you die." James put his head in his hands and pulled at his hair. "I thought you did, you know. There was nothing I could do but look and wait and it drove me fucking insane." he whispered. "I thought this was it. I thought you... I didn't know what I was going to do." Lily realized there were tears in her eyes and she wrapped James' arms around herself so that she could hold on to him, that she was alive and still his (and he was hers). His hands automatically moved to stroke her hair as she tucked her head beneath his chin.

"If I die, and you live," she whispered, "life would go on." She hated these thoughts. She hated having to consider the future, because it was one of the only things she could never properly be certain of. "You'd have the boys, and you'd find another girl to keep you lot in line. Maybe not at first, but you'd be alright." Tears had begun to fall down her cheeks in a steady flow, and James made a noise of protest. She pressed on. "Do you know I think the same thing?" Lily whispered into his chest. "What's going to happen to me if you die? The amount of shit we get out of… If you died, I'd be lost. It's not like I have a family to go back to, James, I'd have nothing." They locked eyes, and James shook his head as her reached down to Lily's left hand to turn the engagement ring around her finger.

It was now his turn. "No. Here's one of the few cases where you're dead wrong, Lily. There's no one else for me out there, and there never has been. Life wouldn't go on for me… But, if I die, and you lived, it would. I would want you to keep living. You'd have the boys, and you'd find another bloke who'll fall in love with you. It's not hard to do, you know," he smiled sadly, "to fall in love with you... Maybe not at first, but you'd be alright." James closed his eyes. "I'd want you to be happy again."

"No." Lily had pulled her hands away from his and grabbed his shirt collar. "No," she repeated. "do you realize that's impossible? I can't, James. There's no one I want to be with, and no one I would rather die with. I couldn't go on without you."

"Do you hear yourself?" James sounded almost angry. "You're upset at me for asking the same thing you asked of me. Lily, I can't go on without you, and if you think that's remotely possible, then you don't understand how much I need you. You are my life. And I'm not living without you."

"And I'm not living without you." Lily replied, looking back at James with a hard look. "But we're going to keep fighting. We aren't running away from this war."

"Then it's decided."

"What is?"

"If neither of us is living without the other," stated James simply, "then we won't. We'll both survive this war. We're not going to die. When this is over, we'll start a family. A big one— do you know how lonely it was being an only child? We're going to have a huge family and we'll buy a house with room to grow, and an orchard in the back for Quidditch" James was smiling, his childlike grin radiating. "The lads will be over all the time, and you'll yell at us for being bad influences on our kids but you'll really just be amused. Merlin," James was positively giddy. "Merlin, we're gonna have little gingers running about, poor bespectacled blighters. Kids, ours." Lily let a laugh escape her as James enfolded her in a hug that lifted her off the ground and spun her around. "We'll be the best parents ever," he finished, "After the war."

"We're nineteen, James!" Lily couldn't believe the amount of happiness etched into James' face at the mere thought of a family. "That's a tall order for a couple of kids ourselves. We're engaged, yes, but that... That's a lot to take in."

"You don't like it?"

"No, James. I love it." His giddy grin had made its way onto her face. "After the war."

"Killing Voldemort has never been more of a priority." James pulled Lily closer to him and started to kiss her neck.

"After the war." she whispered, feeling James make his way to her ear and shivering with anticipation. "I meant to tell you-" more kisses on the neck, just reaching that spot that drove her mad- "that Sirius found us out."

"Hmm?" James hummed into her shoulder, distracted as he slowly, tauntingly, allowed his hands to creep below her shirt.

"Sirius," Lily found it hard to concentrate, "said something about how it's no secret that we- what was it? Ah, yes, we 'shag like monkeys' after missions."

He chuckled throatily at that bit of news. "That just means," he was lifting Lily's shirt up at an agonizingly slow pace and letting his fingers brush softly over her skin and his lips found her ear again, "that we have a standard to uphold."

And with that, Lily's shirt was on the floor in seconds as their lips crashed together, reunited after the hardest week of both of their lives. Lily wasted no time as her fingers moved to the buttons of James' shirt, not pausing in the kiss to drape it off his shoulders. Her hands were all over his chest, leaving traces of goose bumps in their path, and his were making their way down until they gripped her tighter against his body, heat radiating between the two.

"Too much clothing," Lily said into his mouth and she could feel how much she needed him. "If we don't get to that bed right now I swear, James..."

James' enthusiasm to do just what his fiancé wanted sent them crashing down as Lily reached and unceremoniously tugged James' trousers.

"Fuck, Lily." He smirked down at her, taking in the way her hair splayed across her face and the slightly glossed look her eyes had.

"James," she hissed warningly, "nothing funny. Need you now."

His smirk grew wider. "Ah, but since when have I been one to listen to you?" he wondered aloud, now grabbing Lily's wrists as she reached to remove his boxers. Pinning her arms above her head, James placed kisses along her stomach, relishing the moans he was eliciting from her until his mouth reached the top of the skirt she was still wearing. His teeth pulled at the elastic.

"Ja-ames," Lily could only breath out.

And James, finally losing all self-control, released Lily's captive arms and all remaining clothing was torn off their bodies.

They were a lovely couple, the red head woman and dark haired man, she tracing circles on his chest and he running his fingers through her tousled hair. They were the sort of couple that everyone noticed, charming and attractive, making old people wish they were young again and young people envious of the clear magic of their relationship. And this charming couple wouldn't live without each other and would survive this war and have a family of their own and would be great parents. After the war.

At least, they had every intention of doing so.

In Godric's Hollow stands a statue of a charming couple holding a baby. The man's face is too round to be James', and the woman's eyes too dull to be Lily's, but that isn't the point. The statue immortalizes their sacrifice to the Wizarding World, glorifying the murders of two twenty-one year olds who died because society allowed evil to fester and grow rather than take a stand to defend the dignity of all humanity. Over from the stature and six feet under lies the couple, who in their brief lifetime understood death and embraced the life found beyond. They understood their sacrifice because they had known love and had every intention of insuring its survival. Together they had picked out the inscription on their tombstone, and together they had fulfilled it.

The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

AN:/ So that's it! I hope you enjoyed the read because I'm really proud of Nabbed and where the story went and ended up. Leave a review if you haven't cause that would be swell and then carry on with your day/evening/night/dawn or whatever. Thanks for reading!