"So all of it was just one big prank?"

Lily nods, paying for her latte. "Yep."

"And you and James actually made up and are together again?"

She nods a second time. "Yep."

Marlene laughs loudly, completely disturbing the relative peace of the coffee shop they've decided to meet up at before work. "My god, I still cannot believe you managed to pull that off - and that you got Dumbly in on it too!"

"That was the easiest part, honestly," Lily replies. "The hardest part was sneaking out of the supply closet through the air vent and coming out in the men's bathroom to avoid blowing the whole thing too early. Luckily no one was in there, because god, that would've been weird."

"I'm still just… in disbelief about all of it. You two were so convincing."

They really were, weren't they? Lily had surprised herself in how perfectly easy it was to pull off the whole thing, and how well she and James worked as a team in the very specific setting of pranking all of their coworkers.

And also how easily they'd fallen right out of it as soon as the jig was up; she knows they're still working on rebuilding the things they'd messed up by literally betting against one another, but the fact that being together still feels so natural is hopefully evidence that they're going to recover from it.

"Yeah, well, you know James," she eventually answers. "He takes office shenanigans very seriously. The moment I brought up the idea of us turning everything back on the rest of you, he was all in."

"Honestly, I think we're all probably very lucky that the two of you won't be in the same office for much longer. Between James' dedication to causing mayhem and your craftiness, the rest of us would just be fucked."

Marlene grabs her coffee from the counter, and Lily laughs. "I think we're done causing mayhem," she tells her friend. "We just needed to have a little fun with all of it first."

"Well you definitely got your wish. I'm pretty sure Dumbledore was dying in his office watching all of us try to figure out what the fuck we'd just witnessed after the two of you left."

Technically, Lily already knew that. Dumbledore had sent her a video of it all, accompanied with the background noise of the captain giggling to himself the entire time. It's perhaps the only time she's ever heard him laugh like that.

"The ending was all James' idea - I just went along with it."

"Well, still - brilliant."

Lily grabs her freshly prepared coffee from the counter, and the two of them go off to find a seat in the corner.

They've settled down at a table when Marlene looks at her, somewhat apprehensively. "I hate to bring this up right now, but like, you do realise this means you lost the bet, right?"

"Yep," Lily nods, surprisingly way more okay with this admission than she thought she'd be. "So did James, technically."

Marlene thinks about that for a second. "Oh, I guess he did, didn't he? 'Love' was quite a high bar for ten days, after all."

Lily won't admit it aloud - because hell, she's still not ready to fully admit it in her own head either - but there is… a non-zero chance that that's a bar she's rapidly approaching. It'd be one thing if this were a guy she'd just met, but she's known James for years - she's just getting to know him better and in new ways now. There's something a little deeper there than just honeymoon-phase infatuation.

"Do you know what he has to do for losing his? Now that I think about it, I don't think we ever talked about that part."

Marlene snorts. "So hilariously, that wasn't even a thing we coordinated, but… he also has to sit through one of Peter's homemade cheese tastings."

"Oh god."

"Maybe you two can do it together? That sounds like a… romantic date, right?" Marlene visibly cringes as she says that.

"Yeah, I'm not too sure about romance, but would definitely be an interesting bonding experience," Lily replies, taking a sip of her coffee. "Also, you know, misery loves company and all - at least I wouldn't have to listen to Pettigrew's spiel about the flavor profile differences between bleu and gorgonzola alone."

"True," she concedes, before changing the subject. "Also, I still can't believe it's your last day today. The whole precinct is going to be so weird."

"I mean, I won't be fully gone just yet, I don't think - Dumbledore didn't want me to have to hand off any of my active cases if I didn't have to, so I'll probably still be around a little bit helping Potter with the Lestrange case for a bit longer."

Marlene nods. "Yeah, fair. Still weird though - it really won't be the same without you. At the very least, it'll be a hell of a lot less productive, that's for sure."

"Shouldn't you be excited for that?" Lily teases. "I thought you hated when everyone else in the precinct was working too much?"

"I mean, yes, because sometimes you guys can be boring as shit when you're all working too hard, but also, sometimes I just need everyone to shut up for a little bit and I don't know who else other than Dumbledore can make everyone stop being annoying quite as effectively as you. Especially James - I'm pretty sure you're the only person he'll listen to."

Lily laughs. "Just text me if he's being a nuisance - I'll do my best to put him in his place from afar."

Marlene clutches her hand to her heart dramatically, nearly knocking over her drink in the process. "My hero."

It doesn't feel like her last day. She keeps having to actively remind herself of that fact, because the other half of her brain is convinced that this is just another work day, and she'll be right back here on Monday morning.

She's excited, sure, and this is the best thing for her career and her life plans, but… she'll miss this place. It'll always have a special place in her heart, because the people here have somehow morphed into some of her best friends.

James - who's in early today - looks up as she and Marlene walk in, flashing a grin at both of them.

"Nice work yesterday, Potter," Marlene says as a greeting.

"Thank you," James replies, doing a miniature bow from his desk chair. Marlene laughs at that, before going to her desk.

He turns to Lily. "Happy last day, Evans. How does it feel, knowing this is the last time you'll have to deal with any of us?"

"You say that like we don't already have plans to see a movie together on Sunday." She walks around him to take a seat at her desk. "I'm not done dealing with you just yet."

"And thank god for that," he agrees. "I revise my previous statement - how does it feel, knowing this is the last day you'll have to deal with the chaos that is the 73rd Precinct?"

"A little bittersweet, I'd say," she answers.

"Well, hopefully you'll get some proper excitement on your last day as a send-off."

"I think we might've hit the excitement limit yesterday. I'm not sure how we can top that."

He smirks. "Never say never, Evans. Never underestimate this place."

"I could never," she replies solemnly, before cracking a grin.

He looks down at the papers on his desk, then back up at her. "We're still checking out the Longbottom's apartment today, yeah?"

"Yeah," she answers. "We can go whenever you're ready."

When she told James her idea yesterday after work, he'd been all over it. Essentially, they're just going to visit the Longbottom's apartment - but Lily also has an inkling that there may be more to it. There's a good chance Lestrange herself is keeping tabs on the apartment in some way, waiting for Frank and Alice to make a reappearance, and some activity near there might serve to draw her out.

"I, uh, didn't actually finish my paperwork yesterday," James admits. "And Shacklebolt will definitely kill me if I don't get it handled this morning, so… we can go after that."

Classic.

"Sounds good - don't procrastinate for the entire day though," she says.

"I can't believe you think so little of my punctuality," he replies, feigning offense.

"I mean… it's already late to begin with, so you've already proven my point." She smirks at him, and he laughs.

"Fair enough. I'll take that one."

But fortunately, James only takes a little over an hour to get the task done - and then they're getting in a patrol car to make the trip over to the Longbottom's now-abandoned apartment.

They briefly entertain the idea of fully going into disguise as Frank and Alice, but eventually decide to only put about half the effort in. They're going there to scope the place out to potentially set up a trap should Lestrange try to go after the now-hidden Longbottoms again, so there's not really a need for them to fully lean into looking like the two of them. They do go for civilian clothing though, just in case Lestrange is in fact monitoring the place - that way they'll have a better shot of catching her than if she can immediately identify them as cops.

They play music loudly on the drive over to the apartment complex Frank and Alice live at - or used to live at, before going into hiding. The building is largely unassuming, just yet another high rise in the middle of the city.

They park the car down the street, and when the radio cuts off, Lily feels an edge of anxiety creep into her thoughts. She's not sure why - there's not much of a chance they're going to run into anything dangerous yet, they're just making a quick visit - but the unease won't dissipate.

They get out of the car and walk up to the building.

"You ready for this, Evans?" He's wearing a cheeky grin, but there's a seriousness in his eyes as well. Maybe he feels it too - the fact that, even though this is just following a hunch rather than stone cold evidence, something about it feels like they're almost certainly walking into a danger zone right now.

"Ready as I'll ever be," she answers.

She reaches out, grabs his hand, gives it a squeeze, and drops it again. She just needs that little moment before anything else happens, that little reassurance. And maybe he needs it too.

The inside of the apartment complex is nothing special either, and there's nothing majorly out of the ordinary as they walk down the hallway leading to the Longbottom's flat. But when Lily reaches out for the door handle, she's surprised to find that it turns with ease.

And that sets off all sorts of mental alarms; Alice and Frank didn't seem like the type to leave their place unlocked.

Sure enough, her suspicions are confirmed almost as soon as she and James step into the apartment. They've only just closed the door behind them when -

"I've been waiting for you two," a voice echoes lazily from… some place in the flat that's obscured from view. The voice is so casual and cold all at once, sending a chill up Lily's spine.

"You have, have you?" James replies, not missing a beat.

There's a gunshot, and a bullet hits the wall not two inches from James' head.

Fuck.

The very same woman Lily remembers chasing down a few days ago comes into view, taking aim with the gun in her hand for the second time.

"Oh, no, you're not who I was waiting for," she says, looking at the two of them. "But you'll do for now, I suppose."

The last detail Lily vividly remembers is the unhinged sort of look in her eyes, like this is all some sort of perverted thrill for her.

Everything else becomes a blur - it always does, in moments like this, when her whole body is amped up on adrenaline and everything seems to be happening in slow motion and hyperspeed all at once. She'll struggle to recount the exact details of what happens in that apartment, but at some point it takes both her and James to get a highly resistant Lestrange into handcuffs, her gun on the floor on the other side of the room.

She vaguely recognises that the spot on her thigh where Bellatrix landed a solid kick on will turn into a nasty bruise eventually, and James is already showing the beginnings of a black eye from an errant elbow.

James recites her Miranda rights automatically, not that Lestrange really seems to care much, given that she's still trying her damnedest to resist him. At some point, they really should've called for back-up, but things started moving fast all too quickly for that, and she's not sure it's worth getting back-up just to get her into the car.

Between the two of them, they do manage somehow, even though Lestrange is clearly trying to be as difficult and uncooperative as possible. There's a stony silence in the car as they drive back to the precinct, where everything that just happened really sinks in properly.

Specifically the bullet that came right at James, which she hadn't really had a chance to process at the time.

That was… god.

If he'd been standing in a slightly different place, or Lestrange's aim would've been just a little better, the outcome could've been drastically different than what it is now.

Her mind's still pretty occupied with that even as they book Lestrange in and get to work on all the post-arrest paperwork; she knows that fixating on it won't do anything, and there's no way it could actually do anything to him now, but…

She's just glad he's safe.

She tells him such as soon as they have a moment of peace.

"I mean, I'm pretty damn glad of that too," he replies, grinning in a way that suggests he's taking it as a joke. Or maybe more accurately, he's making it into a joke, because that's what he generally tends to do with distressing situations.

"You know what I mean," she tells him, nudging her with his shoulder.

"Lestrange's first shot, yes," he replies. "We don't need to talk about that though - nothing happened, and there's no point dwelling on it."

It hits her in that moment, that James really is so good for her. They're opposites in so many ways, but in ways that balance out for the better. He's a bit too lackadaisical and free-spirited sometimes, and she's perhaps (definitely) a bit too high-strung and neurotic. But between the two of them, it works out to something of a sweet spot. His attitude serves to melt some of her nerves away.

She thinks about that for a beat longer, before looking at him. "I have to say, this is not what I meant when I said we needed to top yesterday's excitement."

He barks out a laugh at that. "Never a dull day, I told you that."

"Isn't it the truth though," she agrees.

News about the Lestrange arrest has already spread through the precinct by the time James and Lily get back to their desks.

"Heard you guys had a real fun one this morning," Sirius says when they walk in. "And my bitch cousin is hopefully getting locked up for a long time."

"On Crouch's testimony, you're probably right," Lily replies.

"It's just a good thing your cousin has even worse aim than you," James adds, earning himself a wadded up paper ball thrown at his head.

Sirius nods to the spot on James' temple that he just hit. "My aim is excellent, thank you very much."

James bends over and picks up the paper ball. "Still not as good as mine," he says, before flinging the ball across the room, where it very neatly lands in Mary's coffee.

She doesn't even look up from her work as she picks the paper ball out of her mug and drops it in the trash can. "Next time you try that I will murder you, Potter."

He grins, self-satisfied. "I know you will."

Lily finds her seat, but swivels her chair around to face everyone instead of turning back to her desk. She doesn't have much to do workwise anymore, and it seems like everyone's set on treating this like a chill Friday anyways.

"So… when do we get to make you two pay for losing?"

Maybe she should've turned back to her work.

James just shrugs, falling into his seat. "Doesn't matter to me."

"How quick can you have a cheese plate ready, Wormtail?" Sirius asks.

Peter shrugs. "I have a pretty constant stock, so I can curate one based on my collection at any time."

Sirius nods. "That is very helpful information."

There's a look in his eyes that Lily doesn't trust. Granted, she doesn't trust most looks from him, but this one's extra suspicious.

"Hey, so, uhh, has anyone seen the staplers?" Remus asks, changing the subject entirely. He's shuffling some papers on his desk, clearly the only one with any real intent to work right now.

"You mean the ones we all stapled into the ceiling that one time?"

Lily actually remembers that prank relatively fondly. It had been quite a sight to come in one morning to see twenty or so black staplers hanging from the ceiling like some weird avant-garde art installation.

"Well not those exact ones, but just… you know, a stapler I can use," Remus answers.

"You all lost your stapler privileges after that incident," Kingsley chimes in, reminding them all of the aftermath of that particular event. "Just like you lost vending machine privileges that one time, and Lily lost toaster privileges for a year."

"In my defense, I had no idea that would catch on fire like that," Lily quickly defends. "There's nothing in the instruction manual to suggest that kind of behavior is dangerous."

It's important to her that she reminds everyone of that detail whenever it's brought up - the toaster thing was not her fault, it was whoever decided to write an instruction manual without enough proper warnings.

Remus steers them back on course again. "So where do I get a stapler from then?"

"They're in the captain's office, so you're going to have to ask Dumble-diddy-dumpkins about that one," Marlene says, and Lily's eyes almost immediately snap to the very subject of that comment, who's standing not five feet behind Marlene's desk.

Lily isn't the one one who notices though - she can't be.

"What did you just call me?" His voice is so flat that Lily can't even begin to discern the feeling behind it.

The entire precinct comes to a stuttering halt at the sound of Dumbledore's voice, and he walks up behind Marlene like he's just appeared out of thin air. Marlene's eyes go comically wide, but she says nothing.

The captain seems to think for a moment. "Dumble-diddy-dumpkins. Hm. I think I'll make that my new nickname."

And then he walks straight back into his office.

The silence persists. Lily can't read anyone's mind, but she's pretty sure they're all on the same page - that had to have been a hallucination, there's no way that actually just happened.

After what feels like at least a year, Peter breaks. "Does that mean we all get to start calling him that now?"

"Only if you have a death wish, Wormtail," Remus replies. "Only if you have a death wish. Anyone have a paper clip instead?"

The rest of the day feels a bit surreal. Not only because the entire morning feels like it might've happened in an entirely different universe than the one they're in right now, but also because it still just doesn't quite feel real that she's packing up her desk and leaving this place for good.

As she puts the last of her desk decorations into a box to be sent over to her new location, she stares at the now-empty desk, the sight of it exceptionally bittersweet.

"Whatever poor soul gets that desk next has a lot to live up to," James says, and she turns to see that he's looking at her, eyes reading her like an open book. "I don't know if anyone else is worthy of having their desk connected to mine."

"I doubt you'll find someone who's quite as willing to put up with your clownery," she replies, not bothering to conceal the affectionate smile on her face.

"In this place?" James laughs. "They'll have to learn to put up with it if they want to survive. My clownery is only the tip of the iceberg."

"That poor soul."

"Hey now, I think we pack a healthy dose of efficacy and fuckery around here - if anything, that poor soul is going to have their life improved significantly by being here, even if they are filling some pretty big shoes."

She has to admit - he has a good point. For all her joking barbs, this place has absolutely shaped her into the person she is today, taught her that it's okay to let go every once in a while (very rarely, but still), and brought some really great people into her life.

"Yeah, I think they'll manage just fine around here," she eventually agrees. "Just don't go falling for every person who takes the desk next to yours."

"Nah," he says, grinning easily. "That one's reserved just for you."

"Well, that's reassuring," she tells him.

"The same goes for you, you know," he replies, getting up and joining her where she's standing, "you're not allowed to start dating one of your detectives."

"You're safe there too."

She's definitely a little too far gone on him to even consider anyone else.

"Hey, want to come over to mine?" he asks, and it's said in that sort of forced casual way that suggests he's definitely been planning to ask this for a while now.

Of course, she'd also been entertaining the idea of inviting him over, so really, they're both on the same page anyways.

"Sure," she replies, sliding her hand into his.

But if James had any specific plans in mind when inviting her over, they're very quickly ruined.

Well, more specifically, she ruins them.

They're barely through the doorway of his apartment before she kisses him, and he escalates it from there. She soon finds herself pressed between James and the wall as he runs his hands down her sides, untucking her shirt and teasing his fingers under it.

It's exactly where she wants to be.

He's halfway into pulling her top off when he pauses suddenly, pulling back and looking into her eyes.

"Just, uhh, checking - the whole 'no sex' rule doesn't actually apply anymore, right?"

A laugh bubbles out of her at the way that he's trying so hard to be nonchalant and failing at it miserably. "No, it definitely doesn't."

The look of relief on his face is almost comical. "Thank god."

Lily has to agree with him on that one. She has no intention of holding anything back anymore when it comes to him. And this is one area where she absolutely doesn't want to hold back in the slightest.

He pulls her shirt off the rest of the way, his hand tracing over her body as soon as her skin is exposed. It's different than the last time in a way; he doesn't touch her like he's afraid he's never going to get to do it again. He doesn't need to memorise her now, because she's not going anywhere any time soon.

In a move so quick she doesn't even notice it at first, he unfastens her trousers and dips his hand beneath the waistband. He touches her, oh-so-gently, over her underwear, but it's still enough to coax a gasp out of her, and an instinctive reaction of grinding her hips against his hand.

"Someone's impatient," James comments mildly, like he's talking about the weather and not the fact that he's got his hand down her pants.

She wants to say something snarky in return, but the sad truth of the matter is that she can't even think about forming words right now. So she sets about a different sort of mission, which is making James just as impatient as she is.

She rolls her hips against his a few more times, and on the third time, he abandons his current task in favor of pulling her trousers off completely. Which, of course, introduces a separate problem.

"Shit!" she swears loudly, when he bumps into the spot on her thigh that Lestrange hit earlier.

He freezes. "Are you okay?"

She nods, the pain fading away now. "Yeah, I'm good. Lestrange just landed a good kick on me earlier that's still a little tender."

"Ah," James replies, dropping to his knees in front of her to finish taking her trousers off, a tad more gently this time. His eyes find the spot she was referring to - approximately the size of a baseball and in shades of black and blue - and he gently presses his lips to the skin right above it.

"Were you just attempting to kiss it better?" Lily asks, watching him almost disbelievingly.

He looks up at her, smirking. "Depends. Did it work?"

"Debatable."

He moves up slightly, kissing her over her underwear. "What about now?"

"That's definitely making things better," she replies, her breath catching in her throat as one of his hands joins his mouth, sliding underneath the fabric this time. "Although it's a bit unfair that you've stripped me down completely and you're still fully dressed."

He hums, his mouth still against her skin in a way that sends vibrations through her body. "And what are you going to do about it?"

That really shouldn't turn her on as much as it does.

She grabs him by the shirt collar, pulling him up to standing, and then starts working through the buttons of his shirt as fast as physically possible. And then moves straight on to undoing his belt.

"This," she eventually answers. "This is what I'm doing about it."

His shirt comes off, and she's undoing his trousers, when he unexpectedly picks her up and guides her legs to wrap around his waist, carefully avoiding the bruise on her thigh this time.

"If we go any farther here we're not making it to a bed," he tells her, moving towards the bedroom with her still wrapped around him.

"Would that really be such a bad thing?" she asks coyly, kissing along his jawline.

He groans, and it's not clear whether that reaction is from her words or her actions. "Given Godric's proclivity for interrupting us at the worst moments, I'm actually going to go with yes - that would be a bad thing."

As soon as they're in his bedroom and he's nudged the door shut behind them with his foot, he sets her down again. She finishes the job of removing his trousers, and he steps out of both them and his shoes all at once.

When she kisses him again, she takes control this time, walking them both back towards the bed until James falls onto it, pulling her down with him. She nearly knees him in the side as she lands on him and his glasses get knocked off-kilter by the force of the impact, but they're both too preoccupied to care about clumsiness.

At some point, he unhooks her bra, and it's so smooth she doesn't even notice him doing it until the straps fall off her shoulders. The way he flings it across the room is decidedly less smooth, however.

"Hey, be careful with that," she warns. "That's one of my good bras."

"Then it's probably a good thing I got it very far out of our way," he replies, donning a cocky smirk before pulling her close to him again and caressing her newly exposed skin in a way that sends shockwaves to her core.

"Are you suggesting you're going to manhandle me, Potter?" There's a distinct challenge in her voice, even though it's lessened slightly when he starts to kiss his way down her neck.

"I never really specified who's manhandling whom - but if that's what you want…" He rolls both of them over so that he's on top, then dips his head down to attend to her tits again.

Right now… yes, that's exactly what she wants.

Heat pools in her stomach as one of his hands drifts lower, lower, lower, until he's dipping two fingers underneath the lace of her underwear, touching her directly for the first time.

"Fuck," she says, and he echoes the sentiment almost simultaneously.

James is content to tease her for as long as possible, driving her absolutely mad with just the most delicate of touches. It feels like every inch of her skin is charged, and every touch builds it just a little bit more. But eventually, Lily's impatience gets the best of her, and suddenly gentle isn't enough.

Despite being under him, she still feels pretty good about her ability to take control of the situation, tugging his boxers down abruptly and wrapping her fingers around him, setting a pace that is nothing like the gentle movements he's been using on her.

"Lil - oh my god," he manages.

And then, a few moments later, "Okay, condom."

She grins wickedly as he rolls over to grab a condom from his nightstand, feeling pretty accomplished for her ability to get her way with him as she shimmies out of the last article of clothing left between them. He gets the condom on and returns to his place above her.

And with little preamble, he's inside of her.

"Fuck, you feel so good," he says into her shoulder, not moving yet. That alone sends a thrill through her - the idea that he needs a moment to compose himself again because of her - and she laces her fingers through his hair, pulling his head up to hers so that she can kiss him properly.

When he does start moving again, it's in long, deep strokes that set something on fire inside of her. And when James' fingers find her clit, the fire becomes an inferno, consuming her from the inside out.

"You're - fuck - right there, yes," she babbles incoherently, dragging her nails down his back. He moans at the sensation of that - she has just enough wherewithal to make a mental note that he likes that, for future reference - and picks up the pace ever-so-slightly.

The change in pace is what does it for her, along with James' insistent touch, and she falls off the edge with one last ragged cry.

Her orgasm must do it for him as well, because he follows suit a few moments later.

She presses a soft kiss to his temple, then his cheekbone. "I like you so much," she whispers, unable to stop herself from smiling.

It's as much as she'll let herself say right now - there's another set of words on the tip of her tongue as well, but she's not going to speak those ones aloud just yet. She doesn't doubt that they will get said soon enough - how could they not - but right now… right now she's perfectly content with right where they are.

"I should hope so," comes James' reply, before he rolls off of her and goes into the bathroom.

It takes a minute, but when they're both back in bed again, Lily curled up against him, he adds on, "I like you so much too, in case that needed confirming."

"I wouldn't be mad about a little confirmation," she replies, grinning as she looks up at his face. "We both know how I feel about being complimented."

"We certainly do," he agrees, toying with her hair and gently dragging his fingers along her scalp.

It would be a perfect peaceful moment, except they're never allowed to have those. This time though, instead of a cat interruption, it's James' phone ringing.

"I'm going to ignore that," he says, clearly more occupied with his task of raking his fingers through her hair than with the incoming call. And she's not complaining one bit, because fuck does this feel heavenly.

It becomes much harder to ignore though, when it rings practically non-stop for five minutes.

"Fuck," James grumbles, slowly extracting himself from their current position. "That's definitely Sirius. And he won't stop calling until I answer."

He crosses the room, pulling his phone out of the pocket of his pants and putting it up to his ear. "Yes?" he asks impatiently.

Lily can only vaguely make out what's being said on the other side of the line, but it sounds a lot like 'be there in five minutes.'

She's proven correct when James replies irritably with, "Five minutes? You couldn't have given me at least a little more warning time?"

That's answered with a 'you would've had ten minutes if you picked up the first time.'

"I - ugh - okay, great. See you in five minutes."

He hangs up the phone and looks at Lily. "We're about to have company," he tells her, not bothering to hide the fact that he is clearly less-than-thrilled about this development.

Hell, she is too - Sirius honestly couldn't have picked worsetiming. Well, maybe twenty minutes ago would've been worse, but still. She was quite content with the state of things before this.

Sirius is true to his word though - it's almost exactly five minutes later when there's a rapidfire knock on the door (she has no idea how he got past the security system at the entrance of James' building but she also really isn't surprised by it either). She's only just managed to get her clothes back on and ensure that it's not instantly obvious what they were up to before he announced his arrival.

But he's not the only one at the door; no, basically the entire fucking precinct is there, minus Kingsley and the captain. And Peter is bearing a massive plate, entirely covered in various cheeses.

"How convenient that both of you happened to be in the same place at once," Sirius grins, and there's a wicked glint in his eyes that suggests he knew they'd both be here somehow. "We've got a present for you."

"I added a few experimental ones to the tray!" Peter chimes in helpfully, before all of them invite themselves into James' apartment.

"I hope we weren't interrupting anything," Marlene says, and gives Lily a very knowing look that suggests that, despite her best attempts, she has not fully concealed the evidence of her and James' previous activities.

"Not at all," Lily replies, choosing to act like she doesn't understand the look at all. "I wasn't doing anything important."

James turns to her, looking comically affronted. "Excuse you, I am very important."

Marlene bursts out into peals of laughter at that, and Remus smacks his hand to his forehead dramatically.

"I knew that's why you sounded so pissed when I said I was coming over," Sirius laughs, looking over at James. "I figured that was the only thing that would have you that annoyed by a surprise visit."

"Yeah, well, just be grateful I let you in instead of letting you knock for who knows how long while we went for another round," James responds, his hand ghosting over Lily's hip as he leaves her side to wander into the kitchen.

Mary mocks a gagging motion. "I know that acting like you were broken up and hated each other was supposed to be the torturous thing, but you two being all loved up and nauseating may actually be worse."

"Oh hush, Mary," Lily replies good-naturedly. "Just be happy you won a stupid bet and get to listen to me admit that you were right and I was wrong."

A ghost of a smile crosses over Mary's face. "That is a great thing to hear," she admits. "You should say it again."

"Nope," Lily says, shaking her head. "One time is all you're getting."

"Cabernet good, Evans?" James' voice rings out from the kitchen.

"What?"

He walks out, holding a bottle of red. "If we're doing a cheese-tasting, we might as well have wine with it, right?"

"Technically, the best wine for this selection is - "

"Cabernet's all I got, Wormtail."

Peter sighs, like he could think of nothing more disappointing than James' limited wine selection. "Fine. It'll do, I guess."

"Cabernet is perfect," Lily chimes in.

James comes out a few moments later holding two glasses of red wine, hands one to Lily, and looks at the rest of the group apologetically. "Sorry, I would've brought some for everybody, but I wasn't planning for company. Plus, you know, you're all just here to watch us suffer anyways, which I feel is hardly worthy of my hospitality."

"Oh shut it, you drama queen," Marlene replies, rolling her eyes. "But also, you really think we wouldn't have brought our own refreshments to enjoy the show?"

"Because we did." Remus holds up a cooler that's literally overflowing with drinks.

"You're the worst," James responds. "That's sadistic."

"Oh come on now, I know some of my recipes have… not quite gone according to plan, but I promise this isn't actually torture," Peter chimes in, properly defending himself and his cheesemaking hobby for the first time since these bets were made.

"Just… don't give me food poisoning, and I won't complain," Lily tells him, taking a generous swig of wine.

She refuses to spend the last weekend before her new job starts holed up over a toilet because one of Peter's recipes has backfired horrendously.

"I'm not a complete amateur, I can promise that," Peter scoffs, like she's suggesting something so totally beneath him.

And so Lily takes a seat at James' table, and he takes the seat next to her. "Then let's do this."

The rest of the group takes up residence in the living room, sprawling out along the couch and on the floor. They're more engrossed in their own conversations than Peter's long speeches about each different cheese, and Lily vaguely hears a story about Mary's new throwing stars and Sirius reciting information from Wikipedia about giraffe sexuality in the background.

None of the cheese is actually all that bad - some are a little off in taste, but not completely disgusting - and combined with the fact that she's pretty sure James fit half a bottle of wine into the glass he gave her, she's actually not even that upset about this punishment.

At one point James starts throwing cheese blocks and catching them with his mouth - to Peter's complete distress about ruining the aromatic experience - and Lily can't stop laughing at it. She still doesn't stop laughing when he switches gears to feeding her cheese blocks like they're newlyweds feeding each other wedding cake - which nearly results in her choking on cheese.

A sense of happy calm overtakes her, because the biggest stressor of the day - the fact that she's leaving behind a place she's loved for so many years - suddenly doesn't feel all that worrying anymore. Yes, she may be leaving behind a physical building and a desk, but she's not leaving any of these people behind. They're just as much a part of her life outside the workplace as they are in it, and she's not losing that any time soon.

And as it turns out, she may not even be losing anything at all.

"Hey, Lily?" Remus asks from his spot on the floor. "You checked your work email lately?"

She looks over at him, puzzled. She knows she's a bit of a workaholic, but she makes a point not to look at her emails during off hours. "No, not since we left," she replies.

He grins conspiratorially - he definitely knows something that she doesn't. "You might want to check it - Umbridge sent out an announcement about the office reshuffling."

That doesn't apply to her though - it's only the 73rd Precinct that's getting used to house the officers from departments under construction - so she's not quite sure why Remus is singling her out from everyone.

But then she finds her phone and reads the email, and suddenly she understands.

"Looks like you haven't rid yourself of us yet," Sirius says cheerfully.

As it turns out, one of the precincts undergoing remodeling over the next few months is the 78th Precinct, her new one. And starting in two weeks, it's being moved right back into the 73rd for the duration of the construction.

"So it seems," she agrees. "I think the universe is just trying to tell me I'll never fully be able to escape you guys."

And looking around the room and then over at James, she thinks to herself that she's absolutely, one-hundred percent okay with that.