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The two hovered together awkwardly. Lily bracing herself for Petunia's cutting remarks, and James bracing himself to meet Lily's family, something he had dreamed about many times but always in a different situation from this.
"And why didn't you ask Remus?" James turned to her.
Lily stared at the knocker, still preparing herself to knock it.
"I don't know, I thought you'd be a better option. I feel like he'd be a shite liar."
James laughed, waving a hand dismissively at Lily's confused reaction.
"Plus", she continued, "I kinda thought Petunia would get more pissed off if my boyfriend wasn't just a wizard but also super rich."
"Oh", he slapped a hand to his chest, feigning indignation, "You're just using me for my money."
"Yep", Lily grinned back.
Quickly, before she could overthink it more, she grabbed hold of the knocker, and slammed it down twice.
James turned to her again, "So the boyfriend-"
"Fiance", Lily corrected.
"The fiance", James continued, "He's a prick?"
Lily nodded, "Absolute wanker. Looks like a walrus."
"A walrus?" James grinned, "If he's being an arse, should I give him some tusks."
Lily laughed, "Do not!"
James positioned his pinky fingers on either side of mouth, and let out a grunt.
He leaned closer to Lily, before speaking in a much lower pitch, "Kiss me, Tuney."
Lily burst into laughter, shoving James' face away.
James grinned, before eyes turned to the now open front door.
"Hello."
Lily' eyes followed James', her laughter quickly dying down at the sight of her the frowning woman.
"Hey, mum."
"Lily", her mother responded, pausing as she looked between the two teenagers, "Come in."
She turned around, walking back through the hallway without a glance behind.
James and Lily followed solemnly, before catching each other's eyes, their lips instinctively lifting upwards again, muffling the urge to laugh.
James glanced at the wall, noticing a picture of a young Lily dressed as a frog, crouching down in the grass with a long tube of red-painted toilet roll cores hanging from her mouth. He pointed at it, eyebrows raised. Lily went slightly red, grabbing his arm to drag him away from the embarrassing pictures.
"Lily!" Her father's voice called out, before Lily was embraced in a hug.
"Hey, dad."
He pulled away after a moment, turning to James.
"And you must be the boyfriend?"
"James Potter, sir", James held his hand out, Lily's father giving it a quick shake.
"Great to meet you, James. I'm afraid Lily hasn't told us much about you, but you can tell us all about you over lunch."
He steered them into the dining room, where Lily's mother had gone, now placing a platter of sandwiches on the table that Petunia and Vernon had already sat at.
Lily forced a smile, "Hey, Tuney."
Petunia offered back a tight smile but said nothing.
Vernon glanced at the two before turning back to the table and grabbing a few sandwiches.
James pulled out one of the seats and turned to Lily, "Here."
"Thanks", she smiled at him, sitting down.
He sat beside her.
Lily's mother finally took the last seat, bringing a teapot with her.
"It's great to meet you," she smiled, "James, was it?"
"Yes, James Potter", he smiled back, "It's great to meet you too. Lily's told me all about you all, and with such affection and love, it's truly an honour to meet you all. I've always been curious what sort of people could raise someone so perfect and brilliant."
Lily placed a hand on his hand, whispering slightly, "Okay, turn it down a bit, Romeo."
James gave her a wink before turning to Petunia, "Although I have especially been wanting to meet you."
Petunia stared back at him as if he were a particularly unpleasant sight.
James leaned forward, "I hear congratulations are in order", he nodded to the ring on her finger.
"Oh", she perked up slightly, "Yes. The wedding is next year so I'm very busy with the preparations at the moment. We were going to have a summer wedding, but Vernon convinced me a winter wedding would be especially beautiful and unique."
"Hm, yes", James nodded, "I'm sure it'll look... magical."
Everyone at the table turned to stare at him. Vernon, who had been sipping a cup of tea, spat out, tea dribbling down his cheek and landing on his plate.
Whilst Vernon and Petunia stared at James in disgust, Lily's parents had grown eager.
"You do magic too, don't you?" Lily's mother spoke first, "Just like our Lily. It's amazing."
Lily's father added, "An exceptional shock when we got that letter about Hogwarts."
"I can imagine. I come from a family of all wizards, so when I got the letter, my parents mostly focused on complaining that they had a much longer list of books they had to read than I. Although I will say, Lily being Muggleborn means she's much smarter than us purebloods."
"How so?"
"Well, there are no schools before you turn eleven in the wizarding world, so it's sort of up to the parents to teach anything beforehand. My parents did for me, luckily. Although we don't really tend to learn much maths or science, and we don't have those classes in school, so I've got a mate that always uses a spell just to count stuff."
Vernon snorted.
"You got a problem?"
"Well, it's just, you lot seem to be very behind in being a civilised society. Petunia told me you lot don't even have electricity."
"Well, we have magic; we don't really need electricity."
"Don't even watch the telly?"
"It's not as if we're somehow unable to see a television. My mate's a pureblood, and he bought one for his new place. They're just not something we make or all use, but we can easily just buy one from a muggle shop if we want to."
"Can you not use all those freakish words around me and my woman?"
"Muggle?"
"Yes. We're normal people, alright? Not some weird word you people use to look down on us."
"It's just a descriptive word for people without magical abilities, nothing to do with blood purity."
"Blood purity?" Lily's mother frowned.
"Oh, it's nothing", Lily smiled at her mother before turning to James, "Anyway. Don't you guys want to learn more about James?"
"Oh, yes", Lily's father clapped, "How'd you two meet?"
"Well, we met in our first year", Lily smiled at James, "But we didn't really get to properly know each other until recently. We became friends, and then it all sort of just came together."
Petunia wrinkled her nose, "James Potter, was it?"
"Yep," Lily replied, grabbing a teacake.
"Hm", Petunia hummed, "Potter. Isn't that the name of the boy Snape hated?"
Lily glanced at her, "Yes."
"You know Severus Snape?" Lily's father turned to James.
"Uh, kinda. We're all in the same year at school, so we share some classes together."
"And you don't get on?"
"Not particularly. We're just... different people."
Lily added on, "It's why we didn't really become friends till recently. Sev- Snape wasn't fond of him, so I sort of wrote him off too."
"Oh", Lily's mother softly spoke, "Is that why you're not friends anymore? Was he upset about you and James?"
Lily and James glanced at each other.
"Yep."
"Well", she patted Lily's arm, "Maybe he'll get over it, it's silly to lose a friend just because you don't get on with their partner."
"Yeah."
Lily's mother stared Lily in the eye, tilting her head slightly to Petunia.
"Mum", Lily bemoaned.
"What?"
"Petunia's the one who stopped liking me."
Petunia awkwardly averted her eyes and took a sip of her tea.
"That's not true, your sister loves you. Don't you Tuney?"
Petunia slowly looked up and gave a small, curt nod.
"Sure", Lily scoffed.
"Don't be rude, Lily."
"I'm not! You're just blaming me for not getting on with Tuney anymore, when it's her fault!"
"I've never seen Tuney or Vernon be so rude to you; don't think I forgot what you and your boyfriend were doing just outside!"
Lily huffed, "It was a joke!"
Lily's father gave James a tight smile and tried to speak over the shouting, "So, what'd you do, James?"
James frowned, "I'm a student."
"Oh, right", he laughed, "Um. What are you planning to do? Once you've finished school?"
"Uh", He glanced to Lily, having realised she hadn't wanted her parents to know about the war, "I'm not sure, really. Maybe travel? With Lily or some friends. In the future, I would like to have kids, maybe stay home to look after them."
"Oh!" James nodded, "Bit of a non-traditional lad, eh?"
"I guess. Wizarding kids need quite a lot of attention, and I know Lily wants to get into the potions field. Plus, I don't really need to work to get money, my family are quite wealthy, and my father actually invented this line of haircare that's very popular."
"Lily really hit the jackpot, huh?" Her father joked.
James laughed with him before turning back to Lily, eyes skating past Vernon's disgusted expression.
-
An hour later, James and Lily walked out the house.
They walked in silence for a moment before James turned to Lily.
"He really does look like a walrus."
Lily let out a laugh and wrapped her arms around James.
"Merlin, thank you. Thank you for y'know", she laughed into his shoulder, "pretending to be my boyfriend."
"Don't worry, I loved it," James internally swore, "I mean, I loved meeting your family, your home, and hanging out with you."
"Right, yeah," she let go and gave him a small smile, "Well, I'll see you?"
"Yeah", he smiled back before pausing, "Y'know if you don't want to go back there now, you could always come to mine for a bit."
"Won't your parents mind me just. Hiding out there?"
"Nah, they've had years of Sirius doing it."
"Alright," she smiled, "Yeah."
He grinned, "You get to see where I grew up now. All my embarrassing pictures."
"They can't be any more embarrassing than mine."
"That's where you're wrong, Lils", he countered, "My mum's favourite hobby was immortalising my most embarrassing moments. Plus, they're magical photos, so they move. She's got one framed in the entrance hallway of me throwing a snitch and it coming back and hitting me right in the head."
Lily laughed, "Oh, I can't wait to see that!"
They walked further down the street before Lily turned to him again with a cheeky grin, "Should we pretend to be dating again with your parents?"
"Oh", James paused, "I don't think that'll work... They kinda know you, well, have heard about you. They know we're friends."
"Oh, you tell them a lot?"
"Uh, yeah. They kinda know pretty much everything. So... they might be a bit weird, so sorry for that in advance."
Lily frowned, "How so?"
"Well... I may have told them everything about us."
"Oh. They know you used to-"
"Yeah."
"Well", she shrugged, "They know it's in the past, that you're over me, and we're just friends now."
She began walking again.
"Right", James followed, "Yep. They... know I'm over you."
Lily nodded, a small frown on her face. She turned away so he wouldn't notice.