Chapter 4: How To Finally Get the Girl
The finale of my fic "How You Get The Girl" that I started in 2019 when I was a wee fresher in college. It is finally over. *phew* I hope this story stops haunting me now.
Read it on AO3.
...
The clock in her room read 7:39pm when Lily watched Isis disappear into the horizon, soaring higher and higher above the identical houses of Cokeworth.
She wasn't sure which part of her brain was working overtime when she thought of sending a letter through Isis. Or when she thought of the idea. She just remembers Sirius holding her by her shoulders and shaking with excitement at the idea as he exited her room and her house and disapparated from her front yard with a distinct pop.
She should have checked around if anyone saw him disappear. She should have berated him for being so careless in a muggle neighbourhood, *her* neighbourhood, as he apparated back at the same position exactly 12 minutes later with a grey owl sitting gleefully on her shoulder, playing with his black hair. But words suddenly seemed foreign to her.
Despite her newly found resolve and the shadow of a black haired boy peaking behind her shoulder, she had hesitated. Multiple times. Her quill broke twice. Isis fluttered around her room from her bed to the shelves. Sirius paced the small length of her bedroom muttering, "Good god woman, you don't have be Shakespeare."
She couldn't shake the guilt looming in her stomach, making her nauseous. *What if he truly has moved on?*
Sirius had been ecstatic, almost jumping off the walls of her bedroom as Isis flew out her window. "He's going to come as soon as he gets it, I promise."
Lily knew Isis was pretty fast, even for a magical owl. And after conveying her urgency in getting the letter delivered as soon as possible, Lily was almost sure she saw Isis' eyes become determined. She loved a challenge, that feisty little thing. Lily promised her an entire box of her favourite treats and off she flew, feathers fluttering to an inch of her face.
Her mother came in announcing dinner just 10 minutes later, asking Sirius to join them. 30 minutes and multiple pointless conversations later, she was ready to stab herself in the thigh with a fork.
"So there is actually a magical giant squid that lives in the lake at Hogwarts?" Her mother asked, absolutely aghast.
"Oh yes, my mate James and I arm wrestled one of his tentacles last year," Sirius responded as-a-matter-of-fact. Even Petunia, whose usual response to any time Hogwarts came up on the dinner table was a scowl, looked shocked.
"You what?" Her mother asked, looking at her for confirmation.
"They did," Lily told her mother nonchalantly, moving the contents of her plate from one corner to another, "Though they mostly just annoyed it. It got bored and dumped them on the shore and went back inside."
Almost an hour later, she couldn't take it anymore and went outside for fresh air. Surely Isis must have reached James by now? He was in the middle of London, not a cave up in the mountains.
It was 10pm when Sirius joined her outside on the front yard, after relaying some more Hogwarts stories to her mother.
"Maybe Isis is having a hard time finding him," He said softly, sitting down next to her on the grass. She just hummed in response, her heart hammering against her chest.
By 11pm, even Sirius seemed to have ran out of reasons. Isis should have reached James by now. Hell, she would have reached London by now if she had taken the train. And she was a witch. If only she knew where to go IN London. She could have just run around Leicester Square screaming his name like a deranged pelican.
At 11:58pm, a sudden movement caught the corner of her eye and before she knew it, a grey feathered blob landed directly in front of them. Isis looked ecstatic and proud. And as happy as Lily was to see her, her excitement lasted for 2 seconds exactly until she noticed the empty talon.
Her heart sank into her stomach. The answer was staring right in her face.
"Lily, maybe he got stuck-"
"Don't." Her voice was barely above a whisper, and her vision started to blur. Sirius wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and she hid her face in his shoulder. “Don’t."
"I'm sorry."
---
It took a very long time to convince Sirius that she was fine. Or, it took a very long time to tell a convincing lie to Sirius that she was fine. But he finally departed around 1am, with a promise to take her out for ice cream the next day to cheer her up.
She had already planned not to leave her bed for the next 3 days, to sleep as much as she could and to be awake as less as she could help it. But unfortunately, the world seemed adamant to not let her have her way, because despite her plans to be unconscious, but she was still wide awake at 2:30am.
Lily rolled over for the hundredth time, facing the pink wall of her bedroom and closed her eyes. She tried to go to her happy place, back to Hogwarts and its hallways and her friends, when a light tap sounded behind her. At first, she thought she had imagined it, the silence of the night deafening her and playing tricks on her mind. But the tap happened again, and again, and that's when her heart sank and her mind took a much darker turn.
She had heard of the rumours of muggle borns and the news of the 'disappearances', and suddenly, each name she had read in the newspapers flashed at the back of her head as she grabbed her wand, remembering every hex in the books. Tomorrow, she was sure, her name would be added to that never ending list. She slowly pulled the curtain above her desk to peak out at the offending noise.
But there, floating right outside the window in the middle of the night, was a boy holding a lit wand with a goofy grin. A grin she unfortunately knew way too well.
"POTTER!" she whispered angrily, half on instinct, but the sound wouldn't reach him. She put her wand aside and slid the window open.
"Potter! What in Merlin's pants are you doing?" she hissed, her eyes wide with disbelief.
"Can we talk?" he asked, his voice barely audible over the wind.
"You are floating outside my window," she stated, still processing the sight before her.
"Yes, I'm on my broom," he replied nonchalantly.
"You are floating outside my window on a broom," she repeated, her tone incredulous.
"Great observation skills, Evans," he remarked, a hint of a grin tugging at his lips.
"You are FLOATING outside my window IN A MUGGLE NEIGHBOURHOOD on a BROOM.”
"Oh. Yes. That. Uhh," he stuttered, looking around nervously, "Can I come in?"
"Can it not wait till tomorrow?"
"I would highly prefer today.”
"Today, right now? As opposed to today noon at Diagon Alley with butterbeer?"
"Today, right now.”
She sighed impatiently, backing up and gesturing him to come inside. While James was ambling his frame into her very small window, knocking down books and pencil stands as he came inside, alarm bells were ringing in her head.
"SHHH!" She shushed him, and he stopped for a second before continuing to get his other leg inside the window and pas her study table.
Bollocks. He was here. The reality of the situation was settling in now. What did he want to talk about? Did he want to apologise? Tell her thank you, but no thank you?
She glanced down at her worn out blue pyjama set, deciding she didn't care how she looked. Even if it wasn't, she wasn't going to change to be let down. How pathetic would that be?
"Cute room, Evans." He said once he had manoeuvred his broom inside her room and started inspecting everything.
"You better have a very good reason for this, Potter."
He just looked at her bemused, eyebrows raised, reached into his jacket and pulled out a folded piece of parchment.
"Oh, I have a very very good reason, Evans."
"Look-"
"Oh no, here is where I will talk and you will listen." That shut her up real quick.
"So, I was sitting in this quaint little restaurant in the middle of muggle London, on a date with this wonderful girl. She's pretty, funny and she loves Quidditch- and guess what?- she supports Puddlemere, I was sold by then and the date had hardly started. She's a splendid conversationalist, did you know? We didn't have any of those awful awkward silences, those are always a deal breaker for me. So we laughed all through the main course-"
"-I'm going to toss you out the window if you've come here to tell me about your new girlfriend-"
"-I swear the manager wanted to throw us out of there-"
"-You have Sirius to discuss the nitty gritties about your dates-"
"-and we were waiting for desert, when I look out the window and to my surprise, I see Isis there."
He looked right in her eyes, and Lily was sure he could see the blush colouring her cheeks despite the low light in the room. Hell, he could have spotted it from a mile away on his broom at this point.
He took a step in her direction, and she instinctively look a step back.
"Yes, Isis with a letter. She singlehandedly unleashed havoc in the restaurant, you should have been there, there was spaghetti flying around and people were slipping on spilled pasta sauce, all for a letter. Clearly, someone asked her to deliver it urgently.”
"Now, you must know how that scared the living daylights out of me, because what could be so important that couldn't till the end of the night? It's a difficult time in our world, you know," James Potter continued babbling animately, his usual self, but Lily's heart was threatening to beat out of her chest, matching James steps, as he continued to step closer to her and she continued to backtrack.
"So, we ran out the restaurant before we were arrested, though what for I still have no idea, but I must be completely pale and speaking gibberish because Emily said she couldn't understand what I said, and frankly neither could I."
"So, with trembling hands, I opened the letter, a million different worse case scenarios playing in my head, and can you guess what it said?" He asked, holding open the parchment and Lily could make out her hasty scrawl.
"Uhh.." Lily's back hit the door to her room and she realised she had nowhere to go now.
"It was from this rather infuriating bird, with bright red hair and a temper to level the entire city of London, who does not lose a single chance to wound my ego, who has spent the last 6 years hating me and my guts, and if that was not enough, for some weird reason I've fancied all that time?"
"Now, I had imagined this particular scenario many times in my head. My personal favorite ending in passionate and wild lovemaking, but never had I imagined this happening on a letter that I thought was the worst news I'll ever receive, when I was on a date with another girl I was about to ask to be my girlfriend. Now do you understand my anger?" James had closed the distance between the two, and Lily could smell broom polish on him. And his cologne. She was pointedly trying not to think about his cologne. She was sure she was hallucinating at this point.
"Well, if you put it that way.."
"..yes?" He put the parchment back into his pocket, and rested his right arm by her head, boxing her in.
"..I might have not have thought this through." She whispered, looking into his hazel eyes, forcing herself to not glance at his lips.
"Of course you didn't," He whispered back.
Lily cleared her throat and looked down, arms folding around her chest defensively. She couldn't look him in the eye while saying this. "Look, James, if you flew all the way here just to say this, you needn't have come. I got your message, loud and clear."
"Message? What message?"
"It's fine, I'm happy for you."
"Happy for me?"
"Yes, I promise I will keep my distance at Hogwarts. She need not worry, neither do you."
"You know, for a brilliant witch, you can be so dense sometimes." Lily's face contorted, taking offence, and ready to spew out some witty come back that would be weirdly accurate, but he put both his hands on either side of her face, and tilted her head up slightly, ensuring their eyes met.
"Lily, why do you think I am here?" There was a tender intensity in his hazel eyes, a silent promise.
Lily's eyes widened, one hand subconsciously coming to rest on his arm, holding it there, holding her.
"I.." She stumbled, staring into his eyes, unable to come up with any response, much less a rational explanation of his presence here.
He waited patiently for Lily to reply, his thumb softly brushing her cheeks.
"You didn't reply." She whispered finally.
"This is something I wanted to tell you in person," he said, nudging her nose with his. "I also had to escort Emily back to her place."
"Out of all the times, this was the one you chose to be a gentleman," Lily replied, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm always a gentleman," he retorted with a playful smirk.
Lily actually snorted. "SURE."
"I could always go back, you know, if I'm not wanted here. I'm sure Emily would love a good night stroll-" James teased, backing away and turning towards the window. But Lily grabbed him and pulled him towards her, his arms instinctively wrapping around her waist.
"Just shut up and kiss me," she whispered, her lips a hair's breadth from his. James grinned, his eyes sparkling with mischief and affection. He closed the gap between them, his lips brushing softly against hers at first. The gentle touch sent a shiver down Lily's spine, her heart pounding in her chest. She felt impatient, and deepened the kiss and her heart actually skipped a beat when James responded equally enthusiastically. She forgot that she was in her tiny bedroom, that she was wearing her old battered night suit, that 5 minutes ago she wasn’t sure how her last year at Hogwarts would pass.
But he was here. It felt impossible, but he was here and he was kissing her, and by Merlin, it felt more glorious than she could ever have imagined. James's hands slid up her back, pulling her closer, while Lily's fingers tangled in his hair, those black locks that she had dreamed of running her fingers through.
When they finally broke apart, both breathless, their foreheads resting against each other. Lily's cheeks were flushed, and James’s grin had softened into a tender smile.
"I’m getting this letter framed.” He murmured into her lips and Lily chuckled.
"I'm going to buy Isis the whole store."
6 notes
·
View notes
✮ ⋆ ˚。𖦹 ⋆。°✩ ⋆ ˚。𖦹 ⋆。°✮ ⋆ ˚。𖦹 ⋆。°✩ ⋆ ˚。𖦹 ⋆。°✮
┌───── .˳·˖✶𓆩𓁺𓆪✶˖·˳. ─────┐
Hi, I am THE Fragile Cosmos. My real name is Evren. I am currently 16 years old and use any pronouns (usually They/He).
I am located in Argentina. I could definitely communicate in Spanish, but I write in English to make it less personal, and therefore less uncomfortable.
This is the most authentic social media account I have. It's basically a virtual diary where I write when something meaningful happenes in my uninteresting life. Expect an entry every night between 11PM and 12AM. And occasional crazy updates outside that time.
I'm basically Franz Kafka but instead of a 40-year-old man in the 1910s, you have a 16-year-old queer loser with a blog on Tumblr in the 2020s. He's literally me tho.
Contrary to unpopular belief, I am fully aware of the fact that nobody cares about my stupid, boring life. But I still make this public because I don't want to manually accept people (I'm just that lazy.)
Well, except for one person. Hi, dude!
He's the only reason I write daily because he's very interested in my life for some reason.
Thank you for being here anyway. I feel less alone on the Internet with this.
└───── .˳·˖✶𓆩𓁺𓆪✶˖·˳. ─────┘
Extra links can be found here !
Check out @evrencore if you wanna know my aesthetic goals
Yeah, my username is a lyric from a Mazzy Star song. Specifically "Sparrow", from the album "Seasons of Your Day" (2013). I'm a huge fan of Hope Sandoval.
Things I enjoy, because why not:
♱ Noodles and rice - I love carbs.
♱ Horror and all things weird and scary - even though I'm a fucking chicken.
♱ The Arts - I draw and read sometimes. I love movies and listen to music every day.
♱ Tomatoes - I'm a sucker for that shit.
♱ Ugly things and people - I don't know why.
♱ The 2000s, the 90s and before - I know I'll never experience those times ever, but at least I can see them through a screen in the 2020s.
♱ Sleeping - but I always have dark circles under my eyes. They're kind of a vibe tho
+ many more things, but there are some of them.
My Favourites:
𖦹 Music: Beach House, Faye Webster, Hope Sandoval, MARINA. The full list is on Musicboard.
This is a playlist with the songs from my entries.
「Currently listening to...」
𖦹 Books: The "Serpent & Dove" series (Shelby Mahurin); The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (V.E. Schwab); Loveless (Alice Oseman); The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)
「Currently reading...」
𖦹 Movies: Cinderella (1950); Sleeping Beauty (1959); Esperando la Carroza (1985); The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993); Girl, Interruped (1999); The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl (2005); Coraline (2009); Frankenweenie (2012); When Marnie Was There (2014); Beauty and the Beast (2017); Parasite (2019); K-12 (2019); Unpregnant (2020); Cruella (2021)
「Last watched... Project X (2012)」
𖦹 TV Shows: Gravity Falls; Heartstopper; Regular Show; Steven Universe; The Amazing World of Gumball; The Mandela Catalogue
「Currently watching... 」
𖦹 Artists: Mako Vice and Takato Yamamoto
𖦹 YouTube channels:
「In English: Angela Benedict; antiheroines; FunkyFrogBait; Li Speaks」
「In Spanish: Fzst; Matias Candia; Tri-Line; vida segun richie」
✮ ⋆ ˚。𖦹 ⋆。°✩ ⋆ ˚。𖦹 ⋆。°✮ ⋆ ˚。𖦹 ⋆。°✩ ⋆ ˚。𖦹 ⋆。°✮
1 note
·
View note
My Favorite Myon Volume 5
Volume 5 of randomly selected tracks from my favorite producer/DJ Myon, mixed by me. Catch me every Friday night at twitch.tv/djbigdirty at 11pm Eastern time, 8 Pacific, 0400 GMT for a couple of hours mix more tunes like this for a couple of hours. As always, turn this baby up.
1. [00:00] Intro 2.
[00:33] Late Night Alumni, Boom Jinx & Maor Levi ft Ashley Tomberlin- When You Loved Empty Streets (Myon & Shane 54 Mashup DJ BigdirtyReconstruction) {White} 2013
3. [07:15] Shakira- Me Enamore (Myon Miami South Beach Mix) {Patreon} 2017
4. [11:29] Myon & Shane 54 & Natalie Peris- Outshine (Myon & Shane 54 In Search of Sunrise Mix) {Ride} 2013
5. [16:54] Stafford Brothers & Christina Milian- Hello (Myon & Shane 54 Monster Mix) {CHM} 2013
6. [20:22] Seven Lions & Myon & Shane 54 ft Tove Lo- Strangers {Casablanca} 2014
7. [25:00] Myon Ft Icon- Cold Summer (Dash Berlin Remix) {Thrive} 2019
8. [28:03] Above & Beyond vs Seven Lions & Jason Ross Ft Paul Meany- Higher Crash Love (Myon Mashup) {Patreon} 2020
9. [33:28] Above & Beyond ft Zoë Johnston- Alchemy (Myon & Shane 54 Redemption Mix) {Anjunabeats} 2016
10. [40:00] Andain- Promises (Myon & Shane 54 Summer of Love Mix) {Black Hole} 2011
11. [45:20] Aruna & Mark Eteson- Let Go (Nic Chagall [Myon & Shane 54 Refill]) {Anjunabeats} 2010
12. [50:46] Norin & Rad vs Coldplay- Clock Bloom (hAdes Myon & Shane 54 Rework) {White} 2012
13. [55:51] Myon & Shane 54 feat Aruna- Helpless (Alexander Popov Remix) {Armada} 2013
14. [01:01:49] Armin Van Buuren feat Laura V- Drowning (Myon & Shane 54 Classic Mix) {Armada} 2011
15. [01:06:55] Nadia Ali- Triangle (Myon & Shane 54 Classic Mix) {Smile In Bed} 2010
16. [01:12:10] Aruna- Save The Day (Myon & Shane 54 Summer of Love Remix) {Black Hole} 2012
17. [01:16:57] Juventa va Shog- Feel Me Through The Radio (Myon Mashup) {Patreon}
18. [01:22:26] Signum feat Julie Thompson- Never Be The Same (Myon & Shane 54 Monster Mix) {Armada} 2011
19. [01:28:13] Signum feat Anita Kelsey- Come Around Again (Myon & Shane 54 Monster Mix) {Armada} 2010
20. [01:32:52] Andy Moor & Carrie Skipper- So Much More (Myon & Shane 54 Remix) {Armada} 2010
21. [01:38:07] First State feat Sarah Howells- Brave (Myon & Shane 54 Monster Mix) {Armada} 2010
22. [01:42:54] Markus Schulz & Gabriel & Dresden vs Danilo Ercore- Without Your Same Song Again (Myon Mashup) {Patreon} 2021
23. [01:47:57] Lange feat Sarah Howells- Out of the Sky (Myon & Shane 54 Black Army Remix) {Maelstrom} 2008
24. [01:52:21] DNS Project feat Madelin Zero- Another Day (Myon & Shane 54 Re-Edit) {Armada} 2012
25. [01:57:23] Faruk Sabanci & Nurettin Colak- Anatolian Emotions (Myon & Shane 54 Remix) {Armada} 2009
26. [02:00:05] LTN- One Night in Ibiza (Myon & Shane 54 Remix) {Alter Ego} 2010
27. [02:04:16] Cole Plante & Myon & Shane 54 feat Koko Laroo- Lie to Me {Teknicole} 2012
28. [02:09:10] Paul Van Dyk & Roger Shah feat Daphne Khoo- Louder (Myon & Shane 54 Summer of Love Remix) {Vandit} 2015
Check out this episode of dj bigdirty's night club musical
0 notes