Chapter Fifty Five

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Chapter Fifty Five

Once they had finished eating a couple of hours later, James paid, managing only a minor tussle with the card machine and no problems at all with his PIN - thankfully the goblin who had given the card to him had written it down on a piece of paper and explained to him multiple times that it was extremely important. Lily, who had always thought that the instructions on the machines were a little unnecessary, now found herself very grateful for them as James succeeded in paying without looking too much like an idiot. He even deflected the waiter’s curious glance when he pulled the paper out of his pocket with a laugh and, “It’s new.” This did prove one thing however, which she planned on reminding him of every so often: he was perfectly capable of following instructions when he wanted to be.

When they left the snow was still falling and James, linking his arm through Lily’s, watched the flakes land in her hair. “You’ve got a little something right here,“ he said, resting his fingertips on the top of her head.

“I’ve heard women with dandruff are becoming quite attractive,” she joked. They walked in silence for a few minutes before James suddenly said, “I just don’t understand those card things. I mean… how do they work? Why can I pay for something by typing a number in? It doesn’t make any sense Lily.”

She smiled and shrugged. “I have no idea how they work James. I mean, in the Muggle world when you earn money it goes into your bank account, which is basically a vault. And then those cards are… connected to that so that it takes the money out of your bank account. Beyond that I’m not entirely sure and I don’t know the actual logistics of it.”

“So do they have a bank like Gringotts?” he asked.

“Well sort of. There are lots of big banks and small banks - there are loads of Muggle banks so you can choose where you go - but the money isn’t real. You can’t go and visit your bank account like you can visit your vault, it’s just… there. But you can get real money from your card if you go to the bank.”

“Merlin the things these Muggles invent…” He looked off into the distance and frowned as he tried to puzzle it out before he shrugged and gave up. “I’m not going to need to know this am I?” he asked.

“I doubt it. I suppose your card could be useful another time though.”

“Cool…” They subsided into silence again and they were nearly at Lily’s flat when he stopped suddenly. “Hey Lily can I ask you something?”

“You just did.”

He smiled and nodded. “Uh huh yeah. You’re very funny. Actually no you’re not, that was terrible. I mean that’s Sirius and Peter humour so… that’s bad… But that wasn’t what I wanted to ask you.”

“You’re not breaking up with me, are you?”

“What? No!” he yelped. “Why are you-?”

“It’s fine James,” she chuckled. “I was teasing you. What did you want to ask me?”

“Oh right. Um well… I’ve been thinking-"

“Always a bad sign,” she interrupted with a grin.

“Li-ly,” he sighed, “stop it! I’m getting there!”

“Right yeah, sorry.”

“Okay well I’ve been thinking…  um… well I’ve been thinking…” Lily bit her tongue and fought the urge to say, ‘Yes we’ve covered that bit now’. “You know how… I mean… everything is really dangerous now because of the whole… Death Eater situation… Um and well you know how I’ve spent years… being in love with you and how I’m… you know sort of… maybe a little bit completely in love with you…”

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