"Good morning Evans."

Lily's eyes blinked open and there was James Potter,  grinning and holding a tray of breakfast, complete with a tiny bunch of flowers.

"What is this?"

"I thought it was rather obvious," James said. "Pancakes." He paused, tilted the tray so she could see, and said, "Look, Remus showed me how to make'm look like mice."

Lily laughed. "Well it's certainly a surprise." She sat up and patted the bed next to her. He grinned and climbed aboard, setting the tray before her and sitting so his arm went around her shoulders as they started eating. "Did you sleep well?"

"Not a wink," he answered, "But I made some decisions and I think you'll approve them."

"Oh?"

James nodded, and proceeded to tell her all about the motorbike ride with Sirius the night before.

"Oh I do hope you lot were careful on that thing," she said. "Especially if he's driving it like a muggle. I very seriously doubt that he follows traffic laws!"

James shrugged, "I digress."

"Uh huh..." Lily eyed him suspiciously and shoved a bit of bacon into his mouth.

James smiler around the bacon.

"I'll be after him for that if he's going to be driving my most important human about."

James looked rather pleased with himself for this designation.

"I have to make sure I keep you safe, after all."

James mused, "Well... that sort of leads into what I'm about to tell you."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," James answered. "I have decided that I'm not going to go back to the Ministry." There was a long silence. "Like... ever."

Lily put down the fork she'd been using and wiped her mouth. "You're quitting the Auror program?"

"Yes." James was firm. "What do you think? Seeing as you're a month off from being married to me, I want your input and I want to respect your feelings about this."

Lily thought for a moment. "Okay. Let's sort this out then." She pushed the tray away and turned so she was sitting, facing James, crossing her legs. He did the same and they held hands, their wrists balancing on their knees. "Why do you want to quit, first off?"

"Well," James said, "I feel as though I'm not built for the job of being an auror after all. I don't think I'm good at it."

"Because of what Underhill said yesterday?" Lily asked.

James nodded, and he told her about the encounter with Underhill he'd had in the morning as well, which he hadn't had time to recount to her in all that had happened. "And you know what happened last night."

"But you can't let just one person's opinion ruin your aspirations, James. Just because Underhill has said some things to you, doesn't mean you ought to quit."

James shook his head, "No you misunderstand me. I'm not quitting because of what he said, but because of what he said."

Lily looked confused.

"I mean that I think upon reflection that he is correct. I'm not good at details, I'm not good at taking a pause and asking for back up or thinking things through. Bloody hell, I'm thick as porridge, you say so yourself."

"Yes, but -" she paused, "James, did you talk to Sirius?"

"About what?"

"About all this, about Underhill's visit and -"

"No but Mr. Underhill said it all that I need to know... Expecting me to hang back and call for back up! I'm not a sit back and wait kind of bloke, never have been. I wasn't about to sit there and watch Voldemort torture Jasper! I couldn't stomach it. But every one of the trained aurors did because they didn't have the signal to make a move yet. Well fuck that!" James shook his head. "If they want to be all bureaucratic about it, then I'm not going to be able to fit their requirements. If I see something like that, I'm going to go in."

Lily nodded. She couldn't really argue with him on the point.

"Also, the Ministry is entirely morally bankrupt and I think the administration there is malarky and I don't think I can respect my superiors there the way that being an auror requires also," James said. "As a decent human being, I can't agree with the rubbish the Ministry is allowing to happen at Mungo's and in the Restriction Act and all that. I can't. The way they treat -" he used fingers for air quotes here, "- halfbreeds is stupid. They grunt and groan about Voldemort and how bad he is, but they turn around and do the same thing in a legal manner to hundreds of folks! It's unnecessary. It's just as bad as him picking on muggles."

Lily could feel the passion in him.

"I never thought I'd say this, but that's one point I do agree with Voldemort on."

Her heart felt fit to burst. She nodded. He was right. "Alright," she said, "All that makes sense. So if you don't become an auror, what are you going to do?"

"I plan to be your husband and take care of you," he answered, giving her that lopsided grin.

"Alright, loverboy," Lily said with a smirk, "While I'm very glad for that - tell me how?"

"How?"

"Well, how will you take care of me?"

"With my body, Evans," he said in as sultry a voice as he could muster.

There was a dead pause of silence between them, and then they both cracked up. "You're an idiot," Lily said.

"I'm your idiot."

"Aren't I lucky!" She rolled her eyes. But she smiled in a way that said she was lucky.

"I have plenty of financial resources, if that's whag you're on about," he answered seriously. "More than we could use in a lifetime."

"And... what about the dogs?" she asked, lowering her voice. "We both know they'll be needing help time to time."

James nodded, "More than enough for that, too."

Lily nodded, then, "And if we... have... you know... children?"

"We can have loads of children, Evans, and it'll still be enough in Gringott's. If there's ever not enough, then I'll figure it out, I'd do what it takes, and I'd be the first one to starve if we were going hungry."

Lily squeezed his hands.

"I promise, Evans."

"Then I think you need to do what you think is best. And if being an auror is not what you want to do, or what you think is best for you after all, well... then you've presented some very good reasons, and you've got the means to make it happen, and so... I think you can make your own decision."

James stared into her eyes. "Are you disappointed in me for it?"

"No." Lily searched herself, then, "I'm actually proud of you for not being afraid to admit it's not what you expected it to be."

"And you don't think I'm a loser or something?"

"I've told you from day one I thought you were a loser," Lily joked.

James grinned, leaned over, and gave Evans a peck on the cheek.

"Oh come on, that was the lamest kiss you've ever given me!" And Lily leaped at him suddenly, knocking him back into the pillows and smothering him with kisses as she straddled his torso, slowly melting into what turned out to be some rather good snogging.

Underhill was sitting at his desk in his office, going through paperwork required by the heads of departments detailing the events at the Chainwright Theater when the office door burst open and in sloped Alastor Moody.

"Jumping gargoyles Underhill, I told you to take care of the problem with Potter, not put the kid out!" Alastor's face was bright red and he was carrying the notice of suspension that Underhill had submitted only ten minutes prior by interdepartmental owl.

Underhill barely looked up from his paperwork. "I did what we would do to any auror that acted the way he did yesterday."

"And that's your problem! He isn't just any auror!"

"I'm not making special exceptions because he's a pet of Dumbledore's," Underhill shrugged. "I don't think it's fair to him or to anyone else that he works with to overlook issues that the boy has that could potentially get himself and others killed."

"It ain't just that he's a pet of Dumbledore's --" Moody began and Underhill removed his glasses, put them on the table and held up his hand, interrupting without a word. Moody stopped mid sentence, glowering, but pausing his ranting to hear Underhill out.

"Alastor, we both know that pushing anyone through this program at an accelerated rate is unsafe, first of all. Second of all, Dumbledore is not in any position of authority here at the Ministry. He has been offered the position of Minister for Magic and turned it down. If Dumbledore wants a psoition of authority here, then he ought to have accepted that position instead of working out deals and sneaking about putting lemon sherbets in peoples pockets to manipulate things in such a way as he sees fit."

Moody's eyebrows knit together, "Dumbledore is --"

"A master of manipulation," Underhill said firmly.

Moody looked angry, "He's one of the most powerful wizards alive and we owe him a great deal of respect - our lives, even, most of us here."

"Grand," Underhill said, "I'm sure I owe him my life a few times over. But I don't owe him my unchallenged allegiance and he won't get it. I know what it takes to be an auror - a successful auror - and I know what will get a man dead really fast." He paused. "I intend to instill THAT into Potter, not a ridiculous creed of blindly following whims and the commands of that master manipulator. Potter's wellbeing means more to me than Dumbledore's hurt feelings."

James was walking through the Auror Training Center that very moment. There were whispers and nudges being passed between other trainees who had heard what happened, and a few people openly stared as he passed by.

"Didn't he get suspended?"

"Bloke walked in front of He Who Shall Not Be Named and three hundred of his supporters with no back up."

"Is that the one they said once was kidnapped and tortured by You Know Who?"

"Openly defied You Know Who. Not a drop of sweat on his brow for it, is there?"

"He's a bit of a tosser actually... a real dork if you know what I mean, ol' four eyes Potter, always dreaming of one day being as cool as his hero, Frank Longbottom! Now there is a bloke!"

James turned to find Frank had come alongside and fallen into step with him. Grinning, Frank waved with just the tips of his fingers. "Hey there."

"Hullo Frank." He stopped. "Listen, I want to tell you something - its about the Marjorie Grant case, I know Underhill ---"

Frank flinched. "Oh gods - Sirius has told you hasn't he? That arsehole, can't keep a secret longer than he can come off as straight, can he?"

Before James could ask what Frank meant by that, the older boy rattled on, "Do me a favor and when you bring it up to Underhill, leave me out of it! He's on a suspension spree today and last thing I need is to get written up for a blank case, alright? Mum would have my head for it."

James's face tweaked with confusion. "A blank case?"

"Yeah that's what the Prewetts call the training cases."

James stared at Frank.

"Because the paperwork might as well be left blank for the good it does," Frank mimicked Fabian's tone perfectly. Or perhaps he was being Gideon - who could tell?

But when James continued to stare at Frank, it sunk in, and Frank muttered, "Awe shite, you mean he actually did manage to keep it a secret?"

"Keep what a secret?" James asked, suddenly remembering Sirius jabberjawing about having talked to Frank Longbottom the night before. "What hasn't Sirius told me?"

Frank laughed nervously, "Too late to say its nothing, isn't it?"

"It's a fake case," James said, realizing. "It's a sham. To train me. That's why he didn't give me all the details. That's why I'm the only person looking for her."

Frank reddened. "Look, Potter, he tried to go easy on you, he was trying to give you one he thought you might have heard about in the news... I told him it might be too close to home, what with the Minchum girl you helped save back in fifth, but --"

James shook his head, and felt dizzy. "But Marjorie Grant is real, her situation is real - I saw Grant killed in the battle."

"Yeah, and Underhill adopted Marjorie."

"Underhill did?"

"Yeah because she doesn't have any fit next of kin."

James shook his head, "Bloody hell. Why am
I an idiot? How did I not see this? That's why Constance had already been seen by a student. Was it you, then?"

Frank turned red.

"Well this just settles it then..." James muttered, "Excuse me, I need to go talk to Mr. Underhill."

Frank panicked, "No mate listen, what if you just tell him you solved it and he'll reinstate you and we'll just move on alright? No need to get peeved, yeah? I can give yoi the details so you're clear, and --"

"I don't intend to re reinstated, Frank. I'm here to quit."

"Quit!" Frank paled. "You can't quit!"

"I can and I'm going to - and you've give me just yet another reason why I ought to, honestly." James shook his head, broke away and left a stunned expression on Frank Longbottom's face as James walked away.