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combining lily's bday with firefighter James was an amazing idea on your part, flawless excecution 10/10 no notes

thank you ❤️ it's not often anymore that a fully fledged idea pops into my head, but this was a fun one!

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I have to say that I discovered like 10’ ago that you were back in here. I think about your fics maaaaany times during the week and I don’t lime when I say that this has been the peak of my month. I’m truly delighted 💖💖

Thank you 🥹 I've republished a couple of my older stories, I hope you enjoy them! ❤️❤️

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happy belated birthday

“Happy belated birthday, Lily!”

“We wish we could have celebrated last week—”

“No more apologies!” Lily said firmly. “You are ruining the fun!”

“Sorry.”

Truthfully, Lily had been a little sad that most of her friends were unavailable to hang out on her actual birthday the previous weekend, but she certainly wasn’t angry about it. They were all in their thirties after all, and being an adult put a damper in most things, but especially, she discovered, birthdays.

They’d more than made up for it tonight, however, having spent the evening at a fabulous Italian restaurant before retreating back to Lily’s flat for cake, snacks, and buckets of alcohol. Lily already knew she’d be paying for the two glasses of wine at dinner and decided if her Sunday would be spent nursing a hangover, she may as well ply herself with margaritas and make it worthwhile.

She was sipping her third in between bites of her birthday cake—an unpleasant mixture with more sober taste buds, surely—when the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it!” Mary cried out, jumping unsteadily to her feet before Lily even sat down her plate.

“Don’t tell me you ordered more food, Mary! We’ve already eaten our body weight in tortilla chips and salsa, not to mention—”

But Mary was out of sight without replying and Lily’s interest left with her brunette friend. It didn’t take long for Mary to return, though when she reappeared, she had a tall man—a man dressed as a firefighter—following behind her.

“Look what I happened to find!” Mary announced loudly, gaining the attention of all the girls in the group. “Is it getting hot in here—?”

The sudden uproar of her friends nearly startled Lily into dropping her drink. A couple of her friends ran quickly to the kitchen, empty glasses clutched in their hands, nearly knocking over another couple of women who were digging through their bags, searching for something…

And then Lily realized what she would have spotted immediately in sobriety.

“Mary… Mary, you didn’t!”

Mary, looking quite pleased with herself, was about to reply, when a second man came into view behind the first and stole her attention.

“Two?!” came a gleefully tipsy whoop from somewhere behind Lily.

“What’s this?” the second man said. “What’s the emergency, James?”

“Oh, they’re in character,” Mary announced to the room.

“We’re in what—?”

The first man, James evidently, swore loudly before turning to the man behind him and urgently saying something in a low voice. Suddenly the second man let out a bark of laughter before backing out of the room. His laughter continued even after he’d ducked out of site.

“Look, there’s been a mistake,” the man called James began, casting an uneasy look at Mary and then behind his shoulder.

“It’s quite all right,” Mary said in her most assuring voice. “I only ordered one, but we’ll pay both of you, not to worry. This is Lily—” Mary gestured, “—our lady of honor, tonight—"

His face turned a violent shade of pink, and Lily realized what he was about to say a second before he said it: “No—no. That’s—it’s not that. We’re not strippers. We really are firefighters and came here in response to a call to the station.”

Silence fell over the room at this before the group of girls broke into a furious round of giggles.

“Mary! You called the actual bloody firehouse?”

“This is the last time we put you in charge of anything!”

“Quick, someone snap a picture—”

Mary looked a mixture of embarrassed and deeply amused. “Oh, sod off, all of you!” She rounded on James, who appeared to be trying—and failing—to make himself blend in with the floral wallpaper behind him. “You could make it clearer on the internet, when people search, you know!”

James cleared his throat. “Erm. I don’t think that’s how it works.”

“Mary, leave the poor man alone,” Lily said, now rising to her feet, surprisingly steadily, and heading toward the pair. “He’s only trying to do his job. Go have a glass of water, love.” She turned to James and then nodded toward the hallway. “Let's get you out of here.”

He looked relieved at her suggestion and did not linger a moment longer than he had to, not even to say his last piece to Mary, which Lily found commendable. Lily led the firefighter to the front door, but before opening it, turned to face him.

“I’m terribly sorry about the mix-up. I hope we didn’t put you out too much.”

James smiled for first time, seemingly more at ease now that he was away from the rowdiness he’d unexpectedly walked into. “It’s all right. This will make for a good story. Although…” James leaned back to look out the window of her front door before his attention returned to her. “Although I reckon my mate is going to enjoy taking the mick for a while.”

“Nonsense,” Lily said. “Take the ego boost. A bunch of women thought you made a living taking your clothing off.”

He laughed in reply, and Lily enjoyed the sound of it. She wasn’t wrong, he was very nice to look at. Especially a moment later when she was met with a lopsided smile.

“Well, I reckon it’s always good to have a back-up plan if I need a career change.”

“Just keep the outfit, if you can.”

“Yeah?”

She cleared her throat, feeling her cheeks pinken under his focused gaze. “Yeah. You… haven’t you ever heard the saying, women love a man in uniform?”

James laughed again and nodded. “Yeah, I suppose I have. Well look, I’d better go. And you need to get back to… what is it, a hen do?”

“Oh, no, just celebrating my birthday.”

“Really? Well, happy birthday then.”

“Thank you. It’s been an interesting night, to say the least.”

“Well if it gets more interesting in a bad way,” James began, now rummaging around in his coat pocket, “which I hope it doesn’t, mind… you can reach me here.” He proffered a small business card out to her, and she took it without hesitating.

“James Potter… what kind of firefighter carries calling cards on him?”

The lopsided smile returned. “Depending on if I hear from you… the lucky kind, I reckon.”

Lily laughed, tucking the card safely in her hands as James reached for the door. She was going to need to store this card somewhere for her more trustworthy sober self to find in the morning.

“It was nice meeting you… Lily, I believe it was?”

She nodded. “It was nice meeting you, too.”

As she watched the small firetruck drive away, Lily couldn’t help but wonder if she might have just received the best belated birthday gift in her life.

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i have a fun idea for a little birthday fic to celebrate our fav gal. but will i have the time or energy to write it tonight?

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"One of the brightest I ever taught. Vivacious, you know. Charming girl."

[james]

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we need more firefighter james

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thinking about introducing some absolute chaos in the next chapter of rumor has it. must...resist...temptation...

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Lily usually didn’t take baths in the morning. It was difficult to ramp up for a day of work when lulled into such a state of relaxation, and she needed all of her wits about her today. Phineas, her boss, had assured her she wasn’t needed until lunchtime, but she had long learned when and when not to listen to her aging boss—and she found that not listening won out far more often now compared to four years prior when she started this job. If she knew the old coot as well as she thought she did, he would spend the entirety of his morning holed up in his office, listening to his wireless at the loudest possible volume and alternating between puffing tobacco out of his long-stemmed pipe and leafing through the mound of publications on his desk.

She debated casting one final heating charm on the water but decided against it. Though the staff on site were more than capable of handling things, she wouldn’t leave them to it. Not today.

Chapter 2 || Start at the beginning

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stayed up late watching a stupid football game instead of finishing the next chapter of rumor has it. hoping to have the next bit up tonight

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Join the sweet fun of this month's Jilychallenge! Prompts will be as sweet as candy ;-) and we're welcoming anything short and sweet (but if you have a sweet tooth you're welcome to keep the sweetness going as long as you want ;-) how to enter February's Jily Challenge:

please reblog this post by the 31th of January and tag with what you'd like to make (for example #one-shot, #writing, #art, #drawing, #mood board, #playlist etc. You can be as vague as or specific as you like) Please note that a reblog without tags is not a sign-up.

At the beginning of the month, we will assign you a partner and you will receive your prompt (here or on the JilyChallenge Discord- dm for an invite). Keep an eye on this blog or Discord and please check your messages on Tumblr.

Each creator makes their own creation, collabs are encouraged but not the aim of this challenge. 

(optional) please follow the jilychallenge Tumblrblog for updates.

(optional) join the Jily Challenge on Discord (send an ask for an invite) for beta help, chatting and mental support.

when posting: 

creators should try to post their entries by the end of the month (What to do when you miss the deadline?)

please tag your partner and the jilychallenge in your post (including the theme and your prompt, if possible)

we will reblog all entries tagged #jilychallenge

if you post your art or story on ao3, please add it to the collection of Jily Challenges 2025

If you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to send us a message or ask! If you have an idea for a theme for an upcoming month we'd love to hear it!

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James was running late.

Exasperated yelps and swears followed him as he darted through the haphazard collection of desks and chairs, though he paid little mind to the frustrated people in his wake. He was going to get an earful when he finally arrived where he was expected to be nearly a quarter of an hour ago. But the key to making it for that earful was to not impale himself on the end of a table or decapitate himself by mistakenly running into the flock of memos soaring around the office.

(He wasn’t truly worried about doing such a thing, as he’d never heard of such a gruesome injury in his three decades of life, but that didn’t mean he wanted to make it in the records as the first. Sirius would never let him hear the end of it once he finally joined James in the afterlife.)

The meeting had to be happening in the boardroom at the furthest end of the building, of course. When he finally skidded to a halt in front of the closed mahogany door, he took a moment to compose himself, slipping quick fingers down the front of his robes and then through the tangle of curls atop his head. As quietly as he could, he pressed open the door and slipped inside the room.

Read on AO3

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yo new fic coming as soon as I think of a suitable title

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what if I wrote another breakup story

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yet another day gone by without me impulse posting a wip that will give me euphoric excitement for approx 57 minutes before the stress sets in.

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🤔🤔

today has real start a random unplanned/unplotted jily multichap energy

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today has real start a random unplanned/unplotted jily multichap energy

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The last thing Lily Evans needs is the complication of falling in love with James Potter, renowned professional Quidditch player, her boss' son, and the most emotionally unavailable man she's ever met. So naturally, that's what she does.

In the process, she learns that the journey to love is not a sprint, but a marathon.

A companion to Chasing Life

Read on AO3