Being back in London felt strange to James. This was partly because he spent the last two days inebriated, shutting down pubs with Sirius and Remus. This odd feeling could also be blamed on the fact that this was no longer his home. He didn’t have a home. In the past few years he’d rarely been in the same place for more than a week or two. James had grown accustomed to life on the road. While there was an air of familiarity here and he was enjoying catching up with his oldest friends, he couldn’t help but feel fidgety, like he needed to be across the country somewhere fighting someone for something.
All that being said, his anxiety immediately calmed when he spotted Lily at the meeting. What was a loud restless roar in his head, quieted down to nothing but the dull buzz he’d grown accustomed to over the years - it kept him on his feet. He wondered how she was doing; where she was staying, who she was seeing. They’d tried writing each other for a short time when he first left, but that communication, or lack there of, only proved to make their separation harder. James never wanted to leave Lily, he felt he had to. How happy would they really be in constant fear, putting their lives in danger every time they stepped out the house? He left so they could actually be together in peace, and he thought things had certainly progressed in that direction. Even if he and other members had to sacrifice their lives to get it done.
James had just wrapped up his story to Kingsley about a rather nasty Death Eater he faced in Sweden and said his goodbyes when Lily approached him. He’d been preparing for this moment from the very second he returned, rehearsing every word, now he was speechless. So instead he doesn’t say a word, he does what feels natural to him, what had been natural to them. He smiles, steps forward, erasing the casual distance between them, and wraps his arms around her into a hug.
While they weren’t exactly on the best terms, and hadn’t said the most pleasant things to each other last time they spoke. James still loved her. That fact couldn’t be denied by space, time, or bloody Death Eaters. He takes in the smell of her hair before taking a step back. He’d almost forgotten the feeling she gave him; like he was weak in the knees but able to run a marathon if she asked him to.
“Yes I am, alive. No thanks to Sirius, I didn’t think it was possible to drink that much whiskey.”
James chuckles and runs a hand through his untidy black hair. He scratches his beard, which had grown rather long, and adjusts the collar on his shirt - all this as if just realizing how unkept he must’ve looked.
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