Once Lily's hand was set, James took her back to the flat in East London, not wanting to spend a minute more at Mungo's than was absolutely necessary - especially now that they'd found what shoddy protection was afforded them there. "I don't trust you with anyone except myself," James told Lily, tucking her under a warm blanket on the couch. "Do you want tea, love?"

"Tea would be nice," Lily said, "But I can get --"

"No, no! You stay relaxing. Rest your hand. I'll get it." James leaped up and walked into the adjoining kitchen, waving his wand to put on the kettle as he went and collected tea cups from the cupboard. 

Lily sighed and leaned into the cushions, closing her eyes a moment.

James returned with the tea what seemed like only seconds after she'd closed her eyes, though she supposed she may have dozed just a tiny bit. He was sitting beside her on the couch when she opened her eyes again, the tea cups steaming on the table before them, bent forward and staring down at the carpet, a look of deep concentration on his face.

"What's the matter?" Lily asked him.

He looked up at her in surprise. "Nothing's the matter... Sorry, I thought you were asleep." Lily leaned over and rested her head against his shoulder as he sat back against the couch, putting his arm around her. "I'm just glad that you're alright, I s'pose is all I'm thinking," he said quietly.

She nuzzled into him. "I'm glad that you're alright, too."

They sat quietly, huddled together, for some time. Somewhere in the apartment, one of the wall clocks was ticking quietly and, despite all the trouble with ticking clocks and the blind seer, Lily was surprised to find the sound oddly comforting. It reminded her of the last vision she'd had from the Seer, when she and James had been visiting Edinburgh, and been sent to assist the boy in a graveyard...

"I love you, Potter."

"I love you, too, Evans," he said.

She smiled. "You know what? I don't want to sit here lingering on the terrible things anymore. We have enough terrible things to think about when we're actually engaging in them, why waste the time we have when we aren't by thinking of them all the more?" 

James's lip quirked up, "And what would you rather be thinking about, then?" he asked.

"Something fun. Something good." She reached for her tea cup and took a long sip of the warm chamomile, curling back up as she held it so that her legs were folded to her chest and her shoulders wedged beneath James's strong, warm arm. The yellow diamond in her engagement ring caught the light and flashed and she smiled at it, then said, "Let's talk about our wedding."

James's eyes lit up almost as brightly as the diamond had. "Alright. What about it?" he asked.

Lily said, "What sort of ceremony would you like?" 

"Are there different sorts?" James asked cluelessly.

Lily laughed, "There are tons of sorts, James. I was thinking a small wedding, but really lovely... maybe at night, so it's all candle lit and soft."

"I like that," he said.

Lily snuggled closer. "When should we have it? That will affect the colors and the flowers and all of that lot."

"Dunno," James answered. "Not in July - that's been taken by Rey and Sirius." He considered a moment. "What about April?"

"Petunia's going to be married in April," Lily answered. "She would positively murder me if I chose the same month. Besides, Spring is sort of cliche for a wedding, isn't it? All that rubbish about new beginnings and that lot... Everyone gets married in the Spring it feels like."

"I s'pose," James said. "But it would be terrible to wait an entire year. I don't know that I can wait that long, especially not after a day like today. Everything seems so... temporary... so dangerously close to being taken away... I want to marry you more than life itself, Evans. Please don't make me wait an entire year, all the way to next summer!"

Lily laughed, but she felt the same way about it. The sooner she was married to James Potter, the more safe and happy she would feel. She knew nothing would change about the world the moment they said their vows - that was silly to believe that it would - but it felt like it just may. Perhaps the difference it would make would be the hope that it would give her. The purpose. She looked up into his eyes a moment. "What about Christmas?"

"Christmas?" he asked, looking back at her.

Lily nodded, "What if we got married for Christmas?"

James smiled, "Would be quite easy to recall our anniversary."

"We could do the theme with pine cones and sprigs, poinsettia flowers and candles... loads of candles... and paper stars and gold..." Lily's eyes were positively sparkling now.

James smiled. "I know the perfect place we could do it."

"Where?"

"The woods. Behind the Dumbledore house, where we always go camping every year? There's a brilliant clearing not far from there..."

Lily's heart thrilled at the thought of it. "Oh but what if it snows?" she worried.

James grinned, "Are you a witch or not, Evans? We can clear it off, cast a charm that warms the area. Like I did for our Valentine's Day date that time. It'll be warm and comfortable inside, and if it's snowing it'll be like a reverse snow globe, won't it? The snow flakes falling just outside our little love-bubble." 

Lily laughed, "Love bubble?"

"Yes," James said. "And I reckon we could talk Sirius into setting off some Filibusters to commemorate the evening."

Lily leaned in quickly and kissed James, unable to hold back anymore. Just imagining the scene thrilled her from top to bottom and made her senses tingle with excitement. His mouth was warm and soft and he held her all the closer, both of their minds racing ahead toward the plans they'd just made.

Remus and Sirius arrived back at the flat later to find James and Lily asleep on the couch.

The afternoon sun was coming through the window - but they were all rather exhausted, given that they'd been up and fighting all night. Remus had insisted they stay at Mungo's until they'd heard for sure how the others from the Order were. None of the Order members had been killed, he was thankful to find out, though there were some significant injuries, there was nothing that the healers couldn't fix. He was glad of that - there had been a few minutes during the fray, when he'd gone out into the square, that he'd expected terrible news when the morning came.

Of course, it wasn't all good news - the Death Eaters had managed to escape, every last one of them. And there was the poor muggle man, who James and Lily had risked their lives to save, who was found dead in his hospital room.

There had been a terrible fight in the corridor outside the man's room. Crouch and Underhill had fought fiercer than they had before, and had only stopped their shouting when the Minister for Magic, Harold Minchum, showed up and broke it apart. "Bloody hell, men," Minchum had snapped, shoving the two wizards apart. "Are you men or are you children? I've had enough of this constant bickering between the pair of you. If you can't get your acts together we shall restructure the law enforcement branch of the Ministry so that you'll both be out of a job. Now one of you tell me who is responsible for this ridiculous escape that's been made!"

Sirius had mimicked Minchum's authority later when he, Remus, and Marlene had gone back upstairs to Emmaline's room to tell her all that had been going on. "He was fierce as fuck," Sirius announced, "Like a bloody tiger leaping for their jugulars."

Emmaline had shaken her head, "You can't blame him! It's an absolute atrocity that something like that happened right under their noses. Minchum's going to have a tough time explaining what happened to the public, isn't he? And that's on him - even if they've done it, it reflects on him, doesn't it? Don't think for a moment that folks won't remember it when the time comes for voting in the next term."

"Well I reckon Minchum isn't quite the deadly fighter we all thought he might be when we were campaigning for him, is he?" Sirius said.

"I certainly expected more out of him," Marlene agreed.

"It's a very hard job," Remus said pragmatically, "Being Minister for Magic, I mean. Even this situation, just look at it. He didn't even do anything wrong and it'll reflect on his leadership skills, won't it? And doing anything at all means getting approval from about eight different layers of government. If even one says no, he's stalled up in arguing for his political moves. It really can't be easy. It must be rather frustrating."

"Still, though, he could do better," Sirius had said.

They'd talked, too, about Lyra Greengrass and Emmaline revealed that Lyra had joined the Mediwitch program at about the same time as she had herself. "But she's younger than us, isn't she?" Marlene had demanded, "By a couple years."

"She's very advanced," Emmaline explained. "She's a natural at it, too. She's bloody brilliant at healing." She paused. "Or I guess, she was anyway. I don't suppose she'll come back to it now she's been outed as a Death Eater."

"I suppose not," Remus agreed.

"Good, she can bloody stay away," Sirius said, "I wouldn't want no stinking Death Eaters fixing me up no matter how bang-on my ailments were."

"I'm sure she would do less fixing and more murdering on you anyway," Marlene said. "Even real Mediwitches might consider it with how dramatic and annoying you can be." She was smirking.

"Bloody hell, you bitch," Sirius had declared, laughing as he looked at her.

They'd all stood about talking a wee bit longer, but they were all exhausted and the hours were dragging on and Remus felt quite weakened by his tiredness. There wasn't much else to do there at the Ministry, and so Sirius and Remus wished Emmaline well and they hugged the girls goodbye and had returned to the flat. 

Now they stood there before James and Lily's sleeping forms and Sirius smiled, watching them for a moment, then looked at Remus. "I suppose everything will be alright, 'ey?" he asked. Somehow Sirius could see the hope at the end of everything so long as Lily and James were alright. Like they were a sort of beacon that would guide the rest of them through the dark nights that lay ahead.

Remus nodded. He felt the same way. "I suppose so." He rubbed the back of his head, mussing up his hair even further than it was already. "Let's go to bed," he murmured, "I feel as though I'm asleep standing up..." and he started off down the hallway. Sirius stayed, lingering before James and Lily a moment longer, then rushed after Remus down the hall.