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rose-of-the-grave · 9 months ago

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The Wait Was Worth It

Pairing: Lily x James

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! ❤️❤️❤️ I hope you enjoy and as always I'm the author (please don't repost).

Jily Gift Exchange 2024

@siriuslychessi

Masterlist Read on Ao3

Warnings: Friends to lovers, idiots in love, miscommunication, angst, fluff, secret admirer, pining, slow burn, happy ending, Valentine's day, love confessions, and kissing

Word Count: 3,374

Description: James is trying to move on. Lily thinks it's too late. With some help from their friends them might finally be on the same page.

Taglist: @sylveryfire

It was Lily Evans’ seventh year at Hogwarts and the infamous NEWTs were rapidly approaching. In an effort to do well she, along with some of her friends, had been studying together. Among these friends was James Potter. Over the course of the last year or so they had become tentative friends. At first it had been awkward considering Lily had spent years hating him but they had eventually reached a common ground in their mutual friend, Remus.

Lily, Marlene, Dorcas, James, Remus, and Sirius had all decided upon spending time at the library after classes to study. They were an odd group to be sure but surprisingly they got on fairly well. This was why Lily was preparing her notes to take with her to the library when an owl appeared at her dorm window.

She didn’t normally receive much mail, usually just letters from her parents. She had never gotten a letter from her sister, Petunia, except for holidays and even then it had become far scarcer as the years went on and the two of them grew further apart. It was for this reason that Lily was quite shocked to see that the letter was from her sister.

After spending a few minutes just staring blankly at the contents of the envelope she slid it into a drawer and left for the study session.

When she reached the common room she was surprised to see only James, Sirius, and Marlene.

“Hey, I’m ready to go. Where’s Remus and Dorcas?”

They turned towards her with guilty expressions.

“Remus was invited to study with some Ravenclaws and Dorcas,” James looked over at Marlene who turned to look at her and said, “She has detention.”

“Oh. So it’ll just be the four of us then?”

“Three. I also have detention.” Marlene said before hurrying out of the common room.

“Make that two.” James turned to look at Sirius who then continued, “Last minute Quidditch practice.”

And so Lily and James were left standing awkwardly in the Gryffindor common room while their friends ditched them.

“So…” Lily trailed off.

“Yeah.” He agreed, scratching at the back of his neck. Neither of them were quite sure why but it was evident that their friends had all collectively decided to do something else.

“How come you don’t have Quidditch but Sirius does?”

“I’m not exactly sure.” He laughed nervously. James had a feeling Sirius wasn’t actually going to play Quidditch, the same way Lily suspected that neither Marlene nor Dorcas had detention. If they had then they would have told her earlier. No, none of them had been telling the truth, that was clear.

What they couldn’t figure out was why their friends had done so. Determined to still study they soon decided to head to the library regardless of their friends’ plotting.

The two of them sat at one of the tables in the library and studied separately for about an hour before Lily could no longer focus. Sure James had at one point started to make paper airplanes and raced them against each other but she had somehow managed to remain mostly focused on her History of Magic notes. The words started to blur and all she could think about was her sister. She sighed. Eventually she would have to send a response but for now all she could think about was just how distant they were. She and Petunia used to be so close before Lily had gotten her Hogwarts letter.

Now they were strangers.

“What’s on your mind?” James asked.

Startled, she looked up at him, “What?”

“You just sighed again, what is it?”

“Oh. It’s nothing.”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to but just know that I’m willing to listen if you do want to talk.”

“Thanks, I appreciate that.”

They both turned back to their respective studies, ignoring each other once more. How on earth could the history of magic be so boring? Lily had always thought that it was just the teacher but now she realized it was also the material. It listed everything matter of factly without really examining other perspectives. Out of all magic creatures one would think that there was no way dragons could ever be boring. They would be wrong.

Desperate for a distraction, she allowed her thoughts to wander. Inevitably she started to think of home. She missed her parents. This past Christmas she had been told that they would be too busy for her to come visit but she had still wanted to see them. They had been gone for most of the time and their minds had all seemed preoccupied whenever they did have some quiet time to simply catch up.

Lily sighed.

“Merlin’s sake Evans. Just tell me.”

Her cheeks flushed from embarrassment, James hadn’t exactly been quiet and now the whole library was staring at them. Once they all got bored everybody returned to what they had been doing previously.

“I got a letter from my sister.”

“Oh, what about?” They hadn’t been friends long but he did know a little about her rocky relationship with Petunia.

“It was actually a wedding invitation.”

“I gather you’re not happy about that?”

“Well, I’m happy that she’s getting married. Personally, I don’t really like her fiance, but if he makes her happy then fine.”

“So, what’s the issue?”

“That’s all that was sent. An invitation. No note, no letter, nothing. I guess I should count myself lucky that she even sent me an invitation. I know that we don’t get along that well anymore but I thought that she would at least send something more than just a piece of paper saying that I am cordially invited to her wedding.” As she ranted, she did her best to keep her voice low. With every word, she grew more upset.

He winced, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’m not even sure why I’m so surprised.” Lily shook her head and closed the book in front of her. “You know what, maybe I should go lie down and rest. I can study over the weekend.”

James stood up and gathered up his things. “I’ll go with you. I think I’m done for the day.”

They both put their books away and left the library in silence. It wasn’t that far of a walk from the library to the Gryffindor common room. There were still some people in the hall but Lily assumed most were outside. It was a fairly nice day out so most of the younger students were probably out there having fun. She remembered when that used to be them. Now it was hard to believe that there was a time when they weren’t stressed about tests.

The common room was mostly empty, their friends still missing. James walked her over to the bottom of the stairs before stopping. She turned around to face him.

“Thank you.”

“No problem.” He shrugged. “It’s what friends do.”

Friends. It was still a bit odd to think that she and James Potter were friends.

“Still, thanks.” She hesitated before asking, “Can I have a hug?”

He smiled. Merlin, why did she have to pick that moment to notice that he was attractive? She knew subconsciously that he wasn’t hard on the eyes, she had been well aware of that fact for two years now but she had always just ignored that fact. Now, it was staring her right in the face both literally and figuratively.

He wrapped her tightly in his arms, enveloping her in his scent, the same scent that she had struggled to recognize the year before in the Amortentia. Thanks to her being a bit shorter than him he was able to tuck her head underneath his chin. She had thought that hugging him might be weird but it simply seemed natural.

They stood there, hugging for a minute or two before she pulled away.

“See you at dinner.” She said, taking a step up the stairs without turning.

“See you Lily.”

----------------------------

It was a regular Friday morning. The great hall was full of hungry, exhausted students grabbing something to eat before heading to their classes. After a very long night of studying Lily could barely keep her eyes open. When she left the dorm Marlene had still been half asleep and extremely cranky.

Sitting at the Gryffindor table she watched as her friends all sat in various states of exhaustion. Dorcas was sitting on one side of her, James on the other. Remus and Sirius were sitting across from them. Lily had been surprised to see them all out of bed in time for breakfast, it wasn’t uncommon for one or two of them to get to the great hall late to grab a quick snack before running to class.

Remus sighed, “I wish you'd just admit when you've made a mistake.”

James, stirring his coffee serenely, replied, “I prefer it with salt.”

He raised his mug to his mouth and took a sip without flinching.

“Do you ever drink so much coffee that you feel kinda dizzy, then the world is moving in slow motion, and then you're drifting through space and time, and then you can see everything and nothing while being lost in the void?” Sirius mused.

James looked at him with an eyebrow raised, “...No?” while Remus nodded.

“Excuse me? Hi.”

They all turn around to see a Hufflepuff standing there. Lily was fairly certain they had Potions together.

“I was wondering if you wanted to go with me to Hogsmeade this weekend?”

James was facing away from Lily, and she heard him say, “Sure.”

He turned back towards his friends.

Dorcas was the first to say something, “Did you just say yes to a date this weekend?”

“Yeah, what’s the big deal?” He asked, looking around in bewilderment.

“It’s Valentine’s Day.” Remus said.

“Oh.” He turned pink.

Suddenly Lily’s food became very interesting.

After a few seconds the conversation resumed but Lily wasn’t focused on it.

Dorcas nudged her gently, “Hey, I’m going to take Marlene some food.”

“Okay, see you in Potions.”

“See ya.”

Dorcas got up and walked away, holding some food. Lily turned back to her food, making eye contact with Remus. She arched her eyebrow in question and he simply flicked his eyes over to her right where James sat in deep conversation with Sirius about penguins.

“I’m just saying, what’s the point if they can’t fly?”

She rolled her eyes but smiled.

The great hall had started to empty, students heading to their first class of the day. Standing up, she looked over at Remus and said, “Come on, don’t want to be late.”

--------------------------------

“So, you’re going out with that Hufflepuff tomorrow?” Sirius asked from where he lay on the ground of their dorm.

James sighed, “Yeah, guess so.”

“You don’t seem that enthusiastic.”

“I’m just tired.” He yawned before asking,”Did you think that Lily was ignoring me earlier?”

“Now that you mention it she was acting a little off.”

“I wonder what’s up with her.”

Remus snorted from where he sat on the bed.

James looked over at him, “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing.”

“You know something, don’t you?”

Remus shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Oh, come on Moony, tell us.” Sirius said. “Poor Prongs might go mad if he doesn’t know.” He joked.

James threw a pillow at him.

“Maybe if you’d been paying attention, you’d know.”

James tossed one of the other pillows at him.

Sirius retorted, “You know what? We're clever too, Moony.”

Remus laughed, “Oh yeah? What's the difference between a gamete and a zygote?”

James, narrowing his eyes, warned his friends, “Don't fall for it, Padfoot. He's just making up words.”

“Seriously, what is it?”

“Siriusly.” Sirius chimed in.

Remus groaned, “Not again.”

Sirius just grinned. That joke never got old.

“Fine, but you can’t tell her that I said anything okay?”

“Just tell me already.”

“So she didn’t actually say anything.” He started, “But when that Hufflepuff came over during breakfast this morning she started acting a little weird. At first I was sure it was nothing but maybe it was.”

“What are you saying?”

“Figure it out, that’s all I’m going to say.”

James pondered over what little his friend had said before coming to the conclusion that maybe Lily didn’t get along with this particular Hufflepuff.

“Does Lily not like her?” He asked.

Remus shook his head, “I give up.”

“What? Tell me.”

“Maybe she likes you.” Sirius suggested.

“Who, Lily? No. She doesn’t.”

“I’m right aren’t I?” Sirius asked Remus. “You think she was jealous.”

James turned, wide-eyed, to face him. “Wait, really?”

He tried his best to not get too hopeful, he and Lily were friends. He was fairly certain that that was all she would see him as and he didn’t plan to wait around any longer just to get his heart broken. He was trying to move on. But maybe, just maybe there was a chance after all. He couldn’t deny that being her friend had made him like her even more than he had before. She was easily one of the best people he knew.

“Like I said, I don't know for sure.” Remus warned.

---------------------

Lily spent her Saturday morning trying to be as productive as possible, not wanting to think about a certain fellow Gryffindor and his date. That didn’t last long though. Soon enough Marlene and Dorcas were telling her that they should go to Hogsmeade instead of spending their weekend sitting around in the castle. Reluctantly, Lily got dressed to go with them, abandoning her studies for the next day.

“Come on, it’s finally nice out!” Marlene said.

The flowers were starting to bloom and the sun was shining down on them. It was still a bit chilly but she was right, it was nice out.

The trio walked along the path to Hogsmeade, Lily hanging back a bit while her two best friends excitedly discussed their plans for later. Why did Valentine’s Day have to exist? All it did was give everybody the opportunity to rub their relationships in people’s faces. She loved her friends, but she just wished that she didn’t feel just a little bit jealous every time they went to hang out with their girlfriends or boyfriends.

Lily was happy for them, really she was but she couldn’t help but feel a bit bitter.

When they reached Hogsmeade they went to get some candy before going to get butterbeer. They were all seated in the corner when Lily spotted a few familiar faces.

“Hey, come join us!” She waved at Remus and Sirius. That’s when she saw James, who had previously been hidden behind them. All three of them joined and they all started to talk. When Marlene brought up the date. A few minutes later Lily excused herself, saying she felt tired and that she was going back to the castle.

She stood up, pulling her coat back on.

“See you guys later.”

“Wait, I’ll walk with you.” James offered.

“No, that’s fine. You wouldn’t want to miss your date, would you?” She smiled thinly, trying to seem like she was fine.

Soon after James said that he wasn’t feeling well and that he was going back up to the castle as well.

“What about your date?” Marlene asked.

“I’ll let her know that I couldn’t make it.” He shrugged. “It’s no big deal.”

Once he was gone, the four remaining friends all exchanged glances.

“Merlin, their idiots!” Dorcas exclaimed.

“Yeah. James isn’t even going on that date, he canceled last night.” Sirius informed them.

“Wait, really?” Marlene asked.

“Yeah.” Remus said. “At this point, I don’t think that they are ever going to realize that they both like each other.”

“I know, right. Marls and I are sick and tired of hearing about Potter this and Potter that. She’ll go on and on about him but the minute we imply that she likes him she starts getting defensive.”

He agreed, saying, “James isn’t much better. He keeps saying that he’s moved on but when I mentioned how weird Lily started acting after he got asked out he kept on asking if we thought she liked him.”

Marlene adds, “And have you seen the way they look at each other when they think the other isn’t looking? I swear they are so oblivious it's embarrassing.”

“Maybe we should lock them up in a room together and not let them out until they admit that they have a crush on each other.” Sirius said.

Remus relied, “Or we could just arrange for them to meet up with each other. I mean, it is Valentine’s. Maybe if we could make them each think that they have a secret admirer or something.”

“We could send them each a note telling them to meet them up at the Astronomy Tower or something.” Dorcas offers.

“That’s actually a great idea.” Marlene said. “Let’s do this.

---------------------------

When Lily and James got back to their respective dorms they were each surprised to see a red rose sitting next to a note on their beds. Both told them to meet them up on the Astronomy Tower and were signed “From your secret admirer”.

Grabbing their wands, they both headed there. Lily got there first and started to look around, wondering who had sent the note. After a few minutes she got bored and decided to sit down and wait to see who showed up. An eternity later she finally heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Keeping her wand out and ready she waited patiently for the person to reveal themselves.

“James?” She asked incredulously.

“Lily? What are you doing here?”

“Meeting someone. What are you doing here?”

“The same.” James admitted.

“Oh.”

There was a long and awkward silence before Lily remembered something.

“So, how was your date?”

There was a long pause before he replied, “I didn’t end up going.”

“Oh. Why not?” She asked, trying not to seem too curious.

He shrugged, “I liked someone else.”

She looked over at him. She knew it would hurt but she had to ask, had to know.

“Who?”

His eyes flicked up to hers. He looked like he was about to say something but then he didn’t. His jaw clenched. James sighed and looked away again.

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Is it someone I know?” She asked.

He hesitated before saying, “Yes.”

“I won’t tell anyone.”

“It’s just…I’m pretty sure that they don’t like me back.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. That sucks.” She said while wishing that she was that person.

“Yeah.”

“If it makes you feel better, I’m sort of in a similar situation.”

He looks at her, confused. “Who couldn’t love you? You’re beautiful and smart and kind. Whoever it is, they’re an idiot.”

“Thanks but it’s a little more complicated than that.”

Furrowing his brow, he walked closer to her, suddenly towering over her from where she sat on the ground. “Who is it?”

“You.” She muttered underneath her breath, far too quiet for him to hear.

“What?” He asked, sitting down next to her.

“You.” She looked down, not meeting his gaze. Did she really just say that out loud?

He said nothing. After a few beats she finally looked back up, wondering what he was thinking. Did he no longer want to be friends with her? Did he hate her?

He lifted a hand to her cheek, wiping a stray tear that was rolling down her face. Leaning in slowly, he brushed his lips against hers.

“I like you too.”

She smiled, pulling him back in for a kiss.

-----------------------------

The next morning when they awoke, they were surrounded by their friends. After spending some more time up in the Astronomy Tower they had walked back to the common room but decided to sleep on one of the couches, not wanting the night to be over.

“Morning.” Sirius said with a shit eating grin.

They both flushed, looking back at each other and smiling. James wrapped his arms around her and pressed a kiss to her forehead. It might have been seven years since they first met and James fell head over heels for Lily but they could both agree that the wait was worth it.

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practicecourts · 1 year ago

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20 questions

thanks @charmsandtealeaves & @wearingaberetinparis for the tag. I'm not sure how interesting the answers will be so I'm cutting the post here ;-)

How many works do you have on AO3? 20

2. What's your total A03 words count? 215,620

3. What fandoms do you write for? HP

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

a) Not the Doctor Crazy texting Muggle AU, oneshot, meet-awkward ridiculousness ;-) b) Head Over Handlebars For You Muggle meet ugly, Amsterdam, bicycles, Geese, the WIP that got out of control, only 1 more real chapter and 1 epilogue to go... c) It Was A Clear Black Night, A Clear White Moon - Hogwarts, oneshot roaming outside the castles on a Full Moon. I do love this story a lot myself, so I'm happy to see it here! I like to combine something serious and with something lighter. d) Shall We Shag Now Or Later? Rated M, Not inspired by Austin Powers BUT I did have a great time looking up those ridiculous scenes and dialogues. Classic crazy movie! Order Mission gone wrong, Jily forced to go under cover (wriggles eyebrows) e) When it Tastes so Damn Good another @jilychallenge oneshot, prompt along the lines of melting icecream - let's share... 5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

YES!!! I LOVE comments, incredible to have evidence someone read something I thought up and wrote and then left a comment telling me what it made them feel or just to say they liked it. IT IS AMAZING !! all caps worthy amazing. I do turn of notifications now for those because I became too addicted, so now I try to check once every so often. I do intend to answer all of them.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angtiest ending? My saddest ending is probably Silent Night (it's not Jily but a series of moments in the life of Hope Lupin) There's quite some bits that I've written for it, but I'm not sure if they are coherent as chapters, so there's only 2 currently posted. Angst versus sad, I'd have to say my microfic Jockey has the angstiest ending, but mostly because I know what is going on) and I promise the end of the whole fic (if I ever get to writing it, won't be angsty)

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I love happy endings... I'm hoping to succeed with bringing HOH to a satisfactory happy end. I think I will. Most of my one-shots also have a happy or hopeful ending.

8. Do you get hate on fics? No

9. Do you write smut. If so what kind? Ha, I thought I'd never... but for a writing challenge I wanted to join due to severe FOMO (i'm only human) I did, and I rewrote that into Shall we Shag Now or Later (Idk if anyone wants to know but I literally took almost all the time available thinking of REASONS why my jily would end up in smut pall position and in the end joked I'd just start of with *low voice* "Hey, Evans, we should shag," and take it from there... This turned into M-rated smut (I'm a little foggy on the difference between E and M still) also not sure what constitutes *kinds* of smut, but that 2 shot was more Smut with little plot. By now my wip Jily who really suffered from a lot of sexual unreleased tension finally got some release, so there's some Smut with plot as well, these days (HOHFY)

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? Nope, I don't think I will (unless a certain type of AU would count as a cross over)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope, not that I'm aware of, I'd be appalled and also absolutely flabbergasted if someone would go to the trouble, tbh.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope again, I might translate my own fic in Dutch (although that would be so incredibly weird that I don't actually mean this)

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before? No, but it sounds fun. I am soon adding my 3 line to the express.... there's that ;-)

14. What's your all-time favourite ship? Jily, lames, Limes. 15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Life's a beach and then you dive. I want to rewrite it. I've again not outlined this fic very much, but I've so many plans... Maybe, I should ideally have a time turner to add a few hours to my days. bc I now realise how much work it would need to write it up how I want it to be lol. But there's some very personal stuff in there so who knows. I do like to finish stuff that I've started so... I hope i will, i'm not sure of it.

16. What are your writing strengths? Ok, disclaimer as I'm Dutch I'm very bad at this. BUT ... channeling inner Sirius Black: I'm good at making characters feel realistic, I'm good a little plot twist at the end, at humour (which is of course entirely personal) , I'm good at sneaky throwbacks to canon, I'm relatively good at looking at my own work with a critical eye and improving myself, as well as letting go of things that are * good enough* as they are, as this is * a fun hobby* (anyone want to share what they like about my writing - or what they think I could improve on, tell me in the comments )

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Thinking I'll do more in the time I have... and not outlining, I've tried honestly, but I've not found a way that really works yet, but still I have these huge fic ideas creep up on me, so Ideally I'd like to get way better at following some sort of outline instead of discovering my way through it.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? As I'm not a native English speaker and my fic HOHFY is set partly in Amsterdam there's some Dutch dialogues * i never even bothered to translate them, I'm so sorry. I'm currently also putting some French in my secret finish before posting fic, that will take a while though and it's only tiny bits as it's more the odd word here and there.

19. First fandom you wrote for? I never posted anything for it, but my first fanfic ideas were set in Tortall (Tamora Pierce) who knows, one day I might venture over there.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written? Here Comes The Sun I've recently got a lot of lovely comments on fics that weren't less than a week old (yeah!) and reread this one for Myster May because of it & enjoyed it a lot (idk, I don't do favourites, not really.) But I can see quite a few of my own strengths in this one so I'm putting it up here as a fave.

Tagging if you're not already been asked a million times and feel like doing this, no pressure at all, xx @chierafied @chiechie97 @tiffanytoms @oneofthesirens @suzyq31 @ohmygodshesinsane @jfleamont @uncertainwallflower

#20 questions game #jily tag game

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thecupcakeconsumer · 7 years ago

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The Numbers Don’t Count

JILY CHALLENGE | @thecupcakeconsumer vs. @prongsfoots

Social Media AU Theme: “shoot, i was stalking you on Instagram and accidentally liked a photo from 235 weeks ago”

Notes: Why is this up early? Well, that totally has nothing to do with my procrastinating on math and english and history homework... featuring it’s an AU so I’ll change whatever I like.

The time, her clock read, was 1:37AM – exactly four hours and twenty-three minutes before the same phone that she held in her hand would blast the same alarm as the default tone and she'd moan loudly, trying to turn it off without opening her eyes to the bright, unwelcome light.

Of course, Lily Evans was a little too busy stalking James Potter on Instagram for it to really register.

His account went years back and it seemed as though he'd never deleted anything – not even, she was finding, the photos of him before he'd started to transition.

She couldn't help it – his account was public and he was cute.

He'd been tagged in the most recent picture of their mutual friend Remus Lupin, and here she was, her curiosity having led her to a picture of the pre-transition boy and Sirius Black with the caption “More than friends? Never – we're both too gay.”

She lingered a little too long, and froze when the familiar heart was filled in with red.

“Oh, no,” whispered Lily. “No, no, no no no.”

It was bad enough that she'd been stalking him.

Now, she'd liked a picture from – what was that date? - March 24, 2013.

Four and a half years ago.

As if that wasn't bad enough, it was of him pre-transition: she'd look like a jerk.

Mary and Marlene would either be asleep or out drinking if she texted them at this hour: thus, asking her friends for advice was out of the question.

Should she like every picture so she didn't look like a bitch? Or would that seem too stalkerish?

Would he even notice?

She scrolled up to the top of the screen: @deerestjamie had 254 followers, and was following 409.

Cool, cool, cool cool cool cool. He wouldn't notice one like out of more than three hundred photos, would he?

Obviously, the best solution was just to leave it be and stop stressing, she resolved, putting her phone on the charger and flipping around to turn away from it.

(And yet all twenty minutes it took her to get to sleep, she couldn't stop thinking about it.)

Light streamed in through the narrow opening between the curtains, a bird chirped outside, the fall day just barely cool enough that one could wear a sweater or a t-shirt – of course, none of this mattered to the iPhone whose alarm was about as welcome to its owner as a sheep in heat would have been that morning.

“Oh my God,” murmured Lily, blindly fumbling for her phone and begrudgingly opening her eyes, her relief at managing to turn it off eclipsed by the Instagram notification – a DM from @siriuslyy.

She opened it, and was met with nothing more than “(ง'̀-'́)ง".

“Yeah, real eloquent, Black,” murmured Lily, before realizing there was also a screenshot that seemed to be taken from James's account of her having liked his picture, the only notification for the entire day.

Well, shit.

“Wait, why does Black have access to Potter's account?” murmured Lily, before shaking her head and rolling begrudgingly out of bed, deciding to address it after she got ready for work.

Sirius glared at his phone screen as he sat back on his chair during lunch, feet up on the break table even if he technically wasn't supposed to be lounging as such.

'I know you've seen this message Evans' he tapped out, sending the message, his lip curling when it registered as read almost immediately.

'Is it usual to have access to your best friend's Instagram?' came the sarcastic reply.

'There's nothing usual about us' Sirius answered, then adding, 'Is it usual to like a picture from over four years ago?'

A pause.

'Okay, listen.'

'Listening.'

Grabbing his water bottle off the table, Sirius easily opened it and started to drink, watching with slight amusement as she hesitated.

'I'll explain, but you can't tell James about this.'

'I can't control what the man does and doesn't notice.'

Not that James really would notice, considering almost a third of the pictures were posted by Sirius and he had turned notifications off so as to focus more on his work.

However, it wasn't as if anything would stop Sirius from standing up for James.

'Okay listen I stg I don't have a problem with his being trans – that's not why I was on his profile. Liking that photo was an accident.'

'Was being 3 years back on his profile an accident?'

Another pause, longer than the first.

'No?'

'Look, I have to go.'

And with that, he knew he'd lost her.

Damn.

He’d been having such fun.

“Hey, Lily,” greeted Remus, looking up from the book he was absorbed in when the bell at the door rung.

“Remus, your boyfriend is kind of an asshole.”

“Sirius? We know that by now, but since when do you know him?”

“You know he helps run James's Instagram?”

He blinked. “Since when do you know James? I mean, we all know by now that they're co-conspirators on about everything, but-”

“He was in your most recent picture. James, that is.”

Remus tilted his head to the side, as if trying to gauge what exactly Lily was on about, before realizing.

“You thought he was cute, didn't you?”

She flushed red.

“N-no, that's not what I – not that he isn't, but-” Remus smirked, which did nothing for her comprehensibility.

“I can't blame you, he's always been fairly attractive. Not my type, of course, but you wouldn't be the first who's fallen for him.”

“I did not fall for James Potter!” exclaimed Lily, flailing her arms and flinching when her hand hit one of the bookshelves in the small store. “Ow. Ow. What was I saying? Oh, right, I'm not falling for James Potter! Please. I don't even know the man.”

“Sure, sure, that's what they all say. You know, he's single?”

“He is?” asked Lily, before smacking herself internally when she realized by the way in which he only smiled wider that she'd managed to play herself. “Not that I care. That's great. Lots of people are single these days. Being single is the new being taken.”

“Played yourself, Evans. Now, what were you saying about Sirius? Wait, don't tell me.”

He put down his book on the counter, before walking around to the other side to examine her more closely. “You mentioned Instagram, and the fact that he's cute-”

“I did not-”

“Oh, please. What would Sirius have noticed, then? You know they both run his account, maybe you left a comment on a photo? No, you're that desperate… but stalking him?” Her involuntary twinge was all he needed. “You were stalking him and accidentally liked an old photo. Classic.”

“That's not fair,” murmured Lily, crossing her arms. “You're not allowed to come in here and smart-ass me-”

“Actually, you're the one who came in here, might I remind you. Not that you're unwelcome – it's been a while, hasn't it? And besides, you wear shame so well.”

“Remus!”

“Fine, fine. What do you want me to do about it?”

Her bottom lip jutted out. “I don't know. What am I supposed to do? Is he going to be upset?”

“Who?”

She raised her eyebrows as if it was obvious. “James?”

“Over… your liking one of his old pictures?” Lily nodded furiously. “James?”

“I don't know him!”

“Okay. Think of it this way. James is like the old man who sits in his chair reading the newspaper, and Sirius is like the overactive dog who barks at every disturbance.”

“So…?”

Remus shook his head with a laugh. “He's unlikely to even notice, and if he does he won't care, Lily. It's not a big deal. But – whatever you do – don't let him find out.”

“Because…?”

“Pretty girl like you stalking his Instagram? The man's ego is already big enough that it's a wonder he can fit through a door.”

She sighed in relief. “Oh, thank God. Thanks, Remus.”

“For?”

“For being the smart-ass you are.”

“Me? A smart-ass?” he asked in a bad impression of offense, subtly pulling out his phone and snapping a picture of her in the doorway, looking askance with a smile. “Why, I never.”

“Hey, Moon!” called out James as he entered the shared apartment, throwing his keys on the table and wincing when they fell short.

“James. Good day?”

He nodded, bending down to pick them up. “Great. Actually, work was pretty boring. Paperwork. Buuuut, I saw a cute girl today.”

“She work with you?” asked Remus conversationally.

“Nope!” answered James. “Actually, I didn't see her. Wait, no, that's not even true. I saw her, but like, not in person? I saw a picture of her, that is, taken in… what's your bookstore called again?”

“Lily?”

“No, no, that's not what it's – wait, is that her name?”

His friend smirked. “You know, I have her number.”

“You do?” asked James eagerly, wincing as his voice cracked on the last word. “Wait, seriously? You're not joking?”

“Do you want me to call her?”

“No!” He froze. “Wait, no. I mean, yes. I mean, maybe – you don't just call someone up. Aren't calls outdated? She probably has a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend. Then again, being single's on the up-and-up again. It's like being single is the new being taken. What was I saying? Oh, right, Lily. Pretty name. Pretty girl. Okay, I'll call her.”

James pulled out his phone confidently, before stopping. “I don't have her number.”

“I know, James.”

“I'm sorry, I'm just nervous.”

“I know, James.” Remus held out the phone with a grin. “Here. It's ringing.”

“What?!” squeaked James, hurriedly taking it from him. “Remus, you don't just-”

“Hey Remus, called to torment me?”

Even her voice had him in love.

“This isn't Remus.”

“Is this Sirius? I swear to God going through your boyfriend to get to me is just low.”

“What? No! You know Sirius?”

“Wait, if it's not Sirius, then who is this?”

He grinned. “It's James.”

A dramatic pause, then, “I hate you, Remus.”

“Oi! I'm not Remus! That's offensive, he has no taste in men.”

“I'm right here,” piped up the man in question, but was quickly shushed.

“Aren't you friends with Sirius?”

“Doesn't mean I want to date the man. Anyway, Lily, Lily Lily Lily, what're you doing this Friday night?”

If Remus had been drinking tea, he might have spit it out.

“This Friday night? No plans.”

“Great. Want to go out with me?”

A high pitched squeak resounded on the other end of the line, making it hard for James to discern whether or not it was from the technology itself or from his contact.

“Er, Lily?”

“That depends. Does Sirius have access to your phone too?”

“Not too often.”

“Give me your number and I'll be ready at eight.”

Waggling his eyebrows at Remus, he quickly gave her the number, unable to stop the corners of his mouth from spreading.

“I have no clue when I became your wingman.”

“Oh, shut up, Remus, you know you love me.”

“And?”

“And I love you too, Remy-poo.”

James sloppily kissed Remus on the cheek with a wet smack, nothing able to dull his mood.

Not even when he walked into his own door and found it closed, hitting it head-on.

“Adoorable.”

“Quiet, Moony.”

#jilychallenge #@prongsfoots #prongsfoots #okay so um sirius was a little bitch i'm afraid #sorry he's so ooc it seems so forced #but hey? awkward jily?#and sassy moony?#i'm here for that #THANK YOU FOR READING #and now #j'irai dormir #donc #bon soir!#shut up addi

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startanewdream · 3 years ago

Note

What are the parallels between Jily and hinny( similarities and differences)?

Hey! I know this wasn't a prompt, but I felt that there were already so many good insightful essays about their parallels and I couldn't add more. So instead I went... creative. I hope those 4k words down here make sense:

*-*-*-*-*

i. the setting sun

“Oh, are you starting at Hogwarts this year?”

The worst part is that Ginny knows what she would like to answer him.

Hi, Harry. Yes, I’m starting Hogwarts this year. I can’t wait to see the castle, meet the ghosts, start classes, and lfinally earn to do magic! You could give me a tour, tell me about your favourite spots at Hogwarts.

However, the words get stuck in her mouth, her tongue absolutely refusing to form any coherent sound. Warmth spreads through her body, her face in flames; her body twitches, fighting an urge to just run away, and then her elbow is in the butter dish.

*-*-*-*-*

There’s something about Evans.

James isn’t sure why the mistery about her attracts him so much, and yet he simply can’t ignore it. His eyes seem drawn to her figure – he always looks for her first when entering a classroom, he changes direction so he can sit closer to her in the Common Room.

And he doesn’t think she has even noticed his curiosity, until, one day, she turns to him from the next couch and asks plainly: “Do you have a problem with me?”

There are many fun ways to answer this, but under her gaze, James realises he can’t form any sentence. He can only stare and she knows she is staring and that makes him feel self-conscious. Everyone seems to be looking at him, waiting for James Potter’s witty hilarious answer, and the room is now suddenly warm.

“James—” Sirius’ voice is amused. “Are you blushing?”

ii. get on with your life. relax a bit.

There are tears at the corner of her eyes, but Ginny can’t tell if they are from anger or shame.

“And then, that stupid git of my brother told Harry he could go with me!”

Hermione grimaces. “Ron is not the most tactful person. What did you say?”

“I just said I was already going with Neville… Ugh, the kind of answers I could have give him—”

“Why didn’t you?”

Ginny looks away. “It’s just—Harry was there, and the situation was already too awkward, so I just left afterwards.”

“Hum.”

“What?”

“Do you ever think that Harry might take more notice of you if you—”

“Didn’t become a mute reddish freaky in front of him? All the time.”

“I was going to say if you move on, actually.” Hermione fidgets with her hands. “You know, let go of your—your crush—on him, go on with your life, maybe meet someone else, just be yourself. Give Ron the snarky answer he deserves when he’s obnoxious.”

“And this would make Harry—what? Realise he has deeply hidden feelings for me?”

“I don’t know that, but it would make him realise that he wants to be your friend at least. Your sassy humour is just the kind of thing Harry appreciates, only he never gets to see this side of you.”

“Oh.”

“Just think about it.”

*-*-*-*-*

James can’t help it. It’s his eyes’ fault; for someone who is practically blind without glasses, his eyes work just fine when it comes to noticing Lily Evans’ presence, and then his body reacts at once. Heart racing, cheeks in flame, hand flying to mess his hair, chest puffed out, and his voice becomes louder, smoother.

“They will confirm in the old records, but McGonagall assured me in private that I hold the record for most goals scored in one season—what do you think about it, Evans?”

Evans blinks. She raises her eyes from the book she’s reading, and then she does a double-take as if she is noticing everything about him; only she never seems pleased with what she is seeing.

“About what?”

“My record for most goals scored in one season. I heard there will be even a trophy.”

“A heavy one to match the size of your ego, I expect.”

And then she shakes her head, moving on to see closer to her friends. James sighs heavily.

In front of him, Remus bites his lips, watching him before saying in a very wary voice: “James—do you ever think that maybe this isn’t the best approach?”

“What? What approach? I wasn’t—”

“I mean, if I wanted to engage in a conversation with Lily, maybe Quidditch wouldn’t be the first topic.”

“But Quidditch is the best topic in the world!”

“Except… this wasn’t about Quidditch, but about you.” Remus looks to be regretting even starting this conversation. “Never mind, I—”

“What should I talk about with her? Because everything I try…” He shuts his voice. James hates showing any kind of despair, and yet Lily Evans manages to make him doubt himself every time.

“Well… she was holding a Transfiguration textbook, so instead of talking about your record—which is great, sure, we’re all happy for you and you deserve it—, maybe you could have offered to help her with her studies. Maybe relax a bit more around her so you don’t act all—all—”

“Desperate in love with a girl who hates me?”

“Sirius says she doesn’t. But, yes, less desperate. Maybe actually act like a friend. Talk to her as if you were a decent human being. She might take a bit more notice of you if you weren’t trying so much.” Remus shakes his head. “I know I’m not the best one to give relationship advice, but… just consider it, okay?”

iii. a strange twinge of annoyance

The Common Room is buzzy with the talk; Ron and Hermione invite him to dinner, and Harry denies it, ignoring the looks of concern they share, keeping his stare deeply in the embers of the fireplace as his mind pounders over the same trouble. It must be Malfoy’s fault, that is the only explanation…

And then a wave of a flowery scent suddenly drives away any concern from his mind, and Harry knows who just sat next to him even before he turns towards her.

“Hi, Ginny.”

“Hey.” She gives him a restrained smile due to the circumstances. “I heard what happened. Is Katie—”

“She is stable for now.”

“Thank goodness. Merlin, what an awful thing…”

She closes her eyes and presses her temple, distressed. Harry’s eyes move over her figure; Ginny is still wearing gloves, cloak and scarf, and her hair is all windswept, strands escaping her ponytail as if she had just been flying. It creates a rather charming effect.

“Did you just come back?”

“Yeah, we were strolling around the village, it took a while until we heard the news.”

“We—”

“Dean and I.” Ginny rolls her eyes. “He wanted to visit the Shrieking Shack, and it was so distant.”

For a moment, Harry’s mind plays a trick on him, and then he is seeing himself and Ginny by the fence over the Shrieking Shack, only neither is watching the building. Instead, they are looking at each other, and strands of Ginny’s flaming hair are whipping her face, so Harry puts her hair behind her ears, closes the gap between them and then—

“Then Seamus, Dean and Parvati showed up, and it was only when we got back to the Three Broomsticks that we heard what happened,” Ginny finishes, shattering the vision in Harry’s mind. He blinks furiously. “Are you okay?”

“I—yeah, sure.”

“Okay.” She doesn’t look as if she believes him. “Have you had dinner yet?”

“No, I’m not hungry.”

Again, Ginny throws him a disbelieving look, but what she says is: “I don’t want a full dinner either—how about we sneak off to the kitchens and grab a sandwich?”

Something inside him stirs approvingly at this, but then Harry suddenly remembers all the invitations he has made to Ginny lately and she refused, much to his discontentment, and much unlikely all the time they would spend together in the summer. “What about Dean?”

“He went to dinner.” She shrugs. “I’ve spent all day with him already, he can live a few hours without me.”

The thought of Dean alone makes him feel strangely satisfied, but Harry pushes this thought away, standing up, all troubles suddenly gone. “Sure.”

*-*-*-*-*

James lets out a heavy sigh as he throws himself next to her on the couch; his eyes are closed and he is pinching the bridge of his nose, looking so comically tired, that Lily can’t help her giggle.

“Oh, enjoying my misery, are you?” He asks without even looking at her.

“Your misery is mine as well, remember?” She nudges his shoulder. “I had the same week as you.”

“We are never again planning a Halloween Feast and a Hogsmeade trip in the same weekend. What a stupid idea.”

“I told you, and what did you say?” She deepens her voice, in a loose imitation of his. “Come on, Evans, it will be a challenge! We will have so much fun!”

“Evans, Evans.” He opens his eyes; Lily’s breath catches for a moment. There’s something very enticing in the way his eyes blend green and gold, almost like a kaleidoscope that demands her attention. “I’m the reckless one in this relationship. You are supposed to be the voice of the reason.”

Lily looks away. Lately, the voices in her head haven’t sound reasonable at all.

“Everything worked out in the end,” she says. “Our feast was a success.”

“Best Halloween feast ever, according to a very trustable survey.”

“How many people did you interview?”

“Hum. Four.”

“You and your friends are hardly trustable.”

“You hurt my feelngs, Evans. And for your information, it wasn’t just my friends. It was only Peter—and three First Years.”

Lily grins; that seems to be a common reaction in James’ presence lately. “Peter who never disagrees with you, and First Years who never saw any other feast?”

“The survey is closed, Evans, you can’t question it anymore.”

“Too bad, because if I could give my opinion, I would agree it was the best feast ever.” She can feel James’ gaze on her, but Lily keeps staring at her hands. “You were a good partner, Head Boy.”

There is a short moment of silence. “You were not bad yourself, Head Girl,” he says, voice very softly, as if he too can remember every moment they spent together this week. And then he stands up. “Well, at least now it’s over we will get normal hours of sleep again. No more staying out together late in the night.”

Something itches inside Lily, but she can’t find the right spot. She forces a smile now. “Well, at least Sirius will stop complaining I’ve stolen you.”

James laughs. He nods at her, and then he is gone. The Common Room feels colder now, strangely empty; Lily’s mind keeps replaying all the nights they’ve shared this past week, trying to finish every detail of the Halloween feast while also making sure the trip to Hogsmeade would happen without any problem, while also keeping with all their other obligations.

It had been tiring, consuming, and yet she hadn’t felt miserable at any moment, as if with James she thought anything was possible indeed. She accepted the challenge only because he would be involved—and now they were back to their regular schedule, James with his friends, not a constant presence by her side anymore…

She buries her nails into the palm of her hand and goes up to her dormitory.

iv. in a bit of a dilemma

Harry can’t take his eyes off Ginny.

It should be a normal thing to do, since he’s the captain of the Quidditch team, they are practicing right now, and he should be noticing the way Ginny is flying—even though she isn’t holding the quaffle, even though he’s been standing still for over a minute now, and that’s a dangerous thing to do in the Quidditch field—

He hears the swooping sound of the bludger but he is too late; the bludger hits his side, and he tries to not wince in pain.

“Sorry, Harry!” cries Jimmy at him, though he is not to be blamed at all. “I thought you had seen it!”

“Distracted, Harry?” Ginny asks, flying closer to him. There’s a smirk on her lips that he would very much like to kiss away. “Don’t you have something to do?”

Ask her out. Yeah, that’s the main obligation on Harry’s to-do list and yet he can’t find the right moment. Somehow, fifty feet above the ground, with deadly balls floating around them, doesn’t seem the perfect scenario.

“If you don’t do it, I will have to do it myself,” adds Ginny. Her eyes are sparkling, and she is moving even closer. His heart pumps furiously on his chest.

“You will?”

She spins her broom suddenly, almost hitting him, and then her laugh fills the night. “Here, Seeker.” She shows him the fluttering Snitch, safe in her hands. “It was just next to you, how didn’t you notice it?”

“I wasn’t paying attention to the Snitch.”

“You should, it’s worth 150 points.” Her gaze remains on him as she gives him back the Snitch, their hands brushing together. “You don’t wanna miss your chance, do you?”

And Ginny winks at him before drifting away.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*

James is laughing and somehow, even with all the sounds of conversations and jokes and music around them, Lily can hear it.

It’s a nice laugh, happy, joyful; dimples appear at the corner of his lips—lips that have been a constant presence in Lily’s dreams—, his eyes wrinkle and Lily wants to join this. She wants to take the ten steps that separate them from each other, push all those people out of her way and then—

Then what? She can never decide. Snog him in front of everyone? Ask him out? Ask him to ask her out? Just engage in a conversation with him and keep all her urges to herself?

Except this one is all she has been doing for a couple of months now, and it doesn’t seem to be helping at all. If anything, it’s making all the other urges just increase, in a fight that will probably end up with Lily Evans doing something very reckless and stupid. And that was James’ style, not hers.

If only he’d ask her out once again… or maybe he isn’t because he is not interested anymore… All these doubts are not helpful at all, and neither is his presence; when Lily blinks, she finds James in front of her, offering her a bottle of butterbeer.

“We can’t have anyone not drinking, Evans,” he tells her, with a wink that races her heart. “I would be a lousy Quidditch captain if I wasn’t making sure everyone is celebrating our victory.”

“I’m celebrating.” She raises her Gryffindor flag. “See? Go, go, Gryffindor!”

James chuckles. Lily’s life would be easier if the sound didn’t reverberate inside her.

“Good game, James.”

He beams at her. “It was, wasn’t it?” He looks around. “Did you see how Hestia avoided all those bludgers? I’ve never seen anyone catch the Snitch so fast as Dylan! And Mark and Gwendolyn seemed to be reading each other’s thoughts, the Slytherins couldn’t grab the quaffle from them at all—”

“Watch out,” she says playfully. “Your record will be broken.”

James shrugs. “That’s the thing about records, right? Someone will always break them. It’s just an incentive to be even better.” His hand suddenly flies to his hair. “What?”

“Nothing.” She lowers her head, knowing that she had been staring at James too intensely. “You’ve just really grown, that’s all.”

“Oh.” He hesitates for a moment. “Is this a good thing?”

Lily looks back at him; James’ hazel eyes are sparkling behind the lens of his glasses, and she is aware of the small distance between them, of how close they are, and how James doesn’t seem opposed to it.

She smiles. “Yeah, it’s a very good thing.”

There’s a smile on his lips full of secrets she wants to unveil. “I’ve changed—only not about everything, Evans.”

She can only hope so.

v. and without thinking, without planning it…

Kissing Harry feels… right.

In a moment Ginny is noticing everything; the smell of butterbeer in the party, the cheer of the crowd, the wings of the Snitch fluttering in her hand, the way Harry’s eyes are sparkling with determination, the warmth of his hands as he pulls her closer and the softness of his lips as he closes the gap between them.

And then there’s nothing else but Harry and Ginny, as if they are the last people strand in a desert island in a quiet sea, neither willing to leave their santuary.

It’s an illusion that’s quickly shattered as they break apart, the room erupting in giggles and cries and wolf-whistles, but as she accepts Harry’s hand and follows him outside the portrait, she couldn’t care less about their audience.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Kissing James at the back of the Three Broomsticks feels reckless, and that’s something so appropriate for him that Lily can’t help but smile, their teeth crashing for a moment.

James breaks away, watching her with a dazed expression. “Are you laughing at me, Evans?”

“No.” She brushes her lips against his, unable to stand apart. “I’m just happy.”

“Good, because I’m happy also. Thrilled. Overjoyed. Sparkling.” He pounds each word with a kiss; her cheek; the corner of her lips; her neck.

Her heart beats loudly on her chest. “Shouldn’t we come back inside?”

“Nah.” Another kiss; she is short of breath by the time they break apart. “I think I’ll keep this moment just for the two of us.”

vi. happily oblivious

“I heard her brother acused him of betrayal.”

“I heard they were the reason she broke up with her boyfriend — they’ve been secretly together for months now!”

“I thought he still had a thing for Chang.”

“No, she broke up with because Potter was dating Granger.”

“And now he’s dating Weasley? That’s so messy.”

“Yeah, I always thought Potter would date the other Weasley… Oh, shut it, they are heading here.”

But the happy couple walks past their bench without turning around.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*

“Oh, I can’t believe they are finally a thing.”

“How dense are you, Wormtail? They’ve been making eyes at each other for months now.”

“They are together for months?”

“No.” A chuckle. “I don’t think Prongs would have managed to keep it a secret. Look at him.”

“Yeah, yeah, our dear Prongs is glowing. Who knew that a bit of snogging was all he needed?”

“Not any snog. He’s too smitten with Lily.”

“How adorable—hey, do you think he’ll notice it if we borrow his Cloak?”

“Normally yes, but…” Remus glances at the couple laughing over a Potions essay, oblivious to their discussion. “I’m sure James won’t mind today.”

vii. best source of comfort

The days following Dumbledore’s death are one of the most beautiful days Harry has ever lived at Hogwarts. Everything seems at peace, as if time is suspended; the sun shines high, the afternoons are warm, birds sing in the trees.

It’s so easy to imagine the other version of himself, the one without any scar, without the weight of the world on his shoulders. The one who’s enjoying the end of the exams with the promise of a happy long summer ahead, instead of dreading his future, instead of mustering courage to end the one thing that had made him the happiest he has ever been—

He glances at Ginny at his side; his heart misses a beat. Ginny looks beautiful, wearing her Hogwarts robes, the skirt rose up to the middle of her tights to enjoy the sunlight over her fair skin; her head is thrown back as if she wants every bit of her skin to absord the warmth; the wind waves her hair; her eyes are honey pools in this light, the pupil barely visible.

She feels his gaze, turning to look at him; for a moment Harry fears she will ask him what he was thinking, that she will realise what he’s been postponing all these days. But all Ginny does is extend her hand to him, and Harry accepts it, lets her pull him closer until his head is over her lap.

She stays quiet as she brushes his hair, messing it, taking his fringe out of his forehead. Harry lets her, because when he is with Ginny, he never spares any thought to the lightning-bolt scar marking his skin.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*

The days following his graduation are nothing like James imagined before. No rush to find a nice place for him and his friends at London; no invitation from major Quidditch teams for him to join them; no nights celebrating their new found freedom.

Instead, only one week after finishing his education, James finds himself at St. Mungo’s, waiting for Sirius to wake up from a curse that he never saw coming; or maybe Sirius did and ignored its potential anyway. That would be what James would have done, too certain nothing could kill him.

And why should anything kill him? He is barely eighteen. He was great at school, why wouldn’t he also great out here, in real life? Who is to say he will be killed in this stupid war — and yet it’s been two days and Sirius hasn’t woken up yet and Sirius would never let anything stand between himself and his life, his friends…

“James.” Lily’s voice breaks through the darkness surrounding him. He looks at her, knelt in front of him, offering him a cup of tea that he accepts without feeling its heat. But when Lily holds his face, when her eyes demand his full attention, and when she places a soft kiss on his lips, he feels her warmth, her light.

Something to keep him going. The reason he is fighting for. The reason he has to live for.

“Everything is gonna be okay,” she promises, and James believes in her.

viii. and the feel of her lips on his—

There’s a light breeze that seems to come out of nowhere, bringing it with him a soft scent that Ginny would recognize until her last breath. Harry’s scent, faint but still lingering.

She glances around, squinting her eyes against the darkness of the grounds, but there’s no movement. Harry isn’t there; he’s probably inside of the castle with Ron and Hermione, planning the next move, trying to push away any guilt he must be feeling — and she knows he does — until this battle is won And then Harry will sink into his guilt, will think everything is his fault to blame, and he will say he would give up his life if that meant saving those who are gone—

And Harry would mean it from the bottom of his heart.

Uneasiness fills her. She glances again towards the forest, frowning, thinking; Harry wouldn’t really sacrifice himself, would he? He must know that this would not end the war, it would not make Voldemort stop neither would make them give up. He has to know that as much as she loves him, this goes beyond him…

Except he doesn’t know she loves him. Ginny never told him.

She closes her eyes for a moment, one hand supporting herself against a column of the castle, and the other touching her lips. It’s been months since her last kiss with Harry, and still she recalls that moment, how close they had been in those short few seconds, how she poured a part of her soul into that kiss and how, instead of breaking her apart as the diary made her feel, it had fulfilled her.

Where Tom Riddle had brought her only misery, Harry was happiness and sunlit days and the promise of the morning come.

Her gaze strays one last time to the forest before she enters the castle. Harry will be fine, she has to believe in this.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*

“The first time we kissed. No, the moment you accepted to marry me. Wait, when we actually married and Sirius was weeping, I thought I was going to faint and you—you looked amazing.”

Lily shifts in bed to look at him.

“What?”

“I was thinking—just something Sirius said. Never mind.”

“Go on, James.”

He holds her hand, massaging her knuckles. “That time he almost died… he said he saw his life flashing before his eyes. My—my dad used to say the same thing. About your last thought before dying.”

Her chest feels heavy. “Don’t—”

“I’m not trying to be a pessimist,” he assures her. “But if I die tomorrow or in one hundred years… you would still be my last thought.” He caresses her face, eyes boring into hers as if he could look at her for a long time and never tire of it. “I love you.”

“I—” But her breath catches; James pulls her closer, burying her into his chest, pressing his lips to his forehead and Lily almost wishes she could live in this moment forever. “I have something to tell you.” She presses his hand. “I’m pregnant.”

All sorts of emotions shine through his face; disbelief, panic, numbness, more fear, until James’ smiling, beaming at her, despite everything, and this is all what Lily needs right now. With James everything seems possible.

She saves the memory of his smile in her heart; that would be a worthy last thought.

ix. all is well

The potion glows blue. Neither Ginny or Harry were the best potion makers in school but after their first attempt, all with the same results, there’s only one conclusion.

“I’m pregnant,” Ginny says, and somehow hearing her say it finally makes all of this turn into something real. Her hand touches her flat belly. “We are expecting.”

He hears the amazement in her voice, and that brings him a relief Harry didn’t know he needed. Having a kid had always been part of their plans, but with their careers and the calming notion they don’t have to rush anything, those plans had always seemed to belong into a distant future.

Except this future just became the present.

“I—” There aren’t enough words to explain how happy he feels at this moment, but luckily Ginny always seemed to understand him even when Harry couldn’t express it. She opens her arms, and he spins her around her until everything he feels floods into touches and kisses and still doesn’t seem enough. He loves her. He loves them together.

Later, laying in bed, his hand caressing her belly, he asks: “Is it too soon to think about setting up a room? Buying clothes? Ask for a break at work?”

Ginny laughs. “It might. Let’s see how far along I’m first, then we figure everything else.”

Harry nods. “And about names—”

“Oh, no.” She kisses him softly. “We already know what he or she will be called, Harry.” She closes her eyes. “It’s only fitting.”

#Jily #Hinny #That's to say there are many parallels and differences between them #Harry isn't exactly like James or Lily #neither is Ginny all like James or Lily #it's not a mirror #but sometimes people just go through the same journeys #also there is a sense of things coming around at the end #or i hope so #tell me what you think?

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twelvegods · 3 years ago

Text

dating harry potter headcanons

pairing/s; harry potter x gn!reader

warning/s; suggestive content

summary; what being harry potter’s s/o would be like.

a/n; i... want to write more about this boy pLS THAT LAST LINE CAME OUT OF NOWHERE IT SCARED ME,,, i had to pump the brakes i feel like i was averting a little ways away from the original request but lordie do i have so much more to offer oh my god he’s literally so underrated in his own fandom like i was looking through the harry potter x reader tags and i’m literally coming up blank like ??? he’s the bloody chosen one,, do better

☆ let’s be clear here; harry potter is a simp for anyone that can put him in his place fight me on this do not,, you will lose

☆ the brainer the better

☆ that said he definitely had a crush on hermione second year

☆ no i will not elaborate

☆ you’re most likely friends with hermione brightest-witch-of-her-age granger because you’re not just a brainiac but you’re also an achiever so it’s most likely you hang out with the brainiest of the bunch in hopes of either a.) them rubbing off on you or b.) learning all their secrets

☆ that and most of the time she’s one of the people on the same wave length as you

☆ so prior to your relationship, you best believe he had a raging crush on you to the point that he won’t stop gushing talking about you to ron and hermione

☆ and hermione’s just like “harry i already know all this, they’re my friend, i see them everyday?”

☆ “‘mione you don’t get it, they’re perfect—”

☆ ron’s so close to dunking his whole head into a bubbling cauldron: "mate we do get it; they’re pretty, they’re smart, you want them to break your bloody heart, but please we’re in the middle of flunking potions, get your shit together.”

☆ reminds me of jily but make it golden trio era

☆ he was just listening in on your conversations with hermione one time and was completely hooked by your entire vibes like talk about absolute boss

☆ whenever you’re in the same room as him, he literally forgets how to breathe

☆ it’s the one and only time he actually shuts up about you because you’re right there and he’s flustered and frozen and red in the face and his friends are just holding in laughter at this point

☆ you meet his gaze and smile and he short circuits, leaving you blinking in confusion as hermione and ron drag a shocked harry away, smiling and nodding sheepishly

☆ scours the stands for you during quidditch matches and, moments after ron points you out, devours the feeling of warmth he feels when he finds you looking his way

☆ despite everything, hermione and ron are actually very supportive in his obsession with you because he deserves to be happy and you make him happiest

☆ so of course they set you two up

☆ ron and hermione, straightforward as ever, literally just approach you just as you leave your common room with harry cluelessly in tow, hermione’s red in the face and ron’s a little awkward but they outright blurt “he likes you!” before frantically running in two different directions

☆ leaving the two of you blinking in bewilderment, heat rushing towards both your faces

☆ harry sheepishly admits his crush on you and you do the same, and let me tell you his heart just about stopped

☆ takes you to madame puddifoot’s on the first date because hey, plenty of dates happen there for a reason, right? he’s a little awkward but he’s regaining bits and pieces of his confidence as he sees you enjoying yourself in his company

☆ you maybe harry’s s/o but you were hermione’s friend first

☆ he can be seen pouting in the distance whenever you’re hanging out with the bushy haired girl

☆ accompanies you to the library to try and get stuff done with you but he literally just falls asleep on your shoulder

☆ let him sleep, poor boy’s been through a lot

☆ not a fan of pda, being the chosen one and all that already gives him plenty of unwanted attention. he just wants something private for once and you’re the perfect recluse

☆ doesn’t mean he wouldn’t proudly show you off in public; you’re hands are practically glued together or he has an arm slung around your shoulders or waist.

☆ kisses the crown of your head a lot

☆ don’t be fooled, he’s touch-starved so when it’s just you two, he will literally smother you with his whole self. just straight up spread eagles himself on top of you and will not move, baby just basks in your warmth.

☆ loves spending time in your dorm better because bonus points you read to him and he just loves the sound of your voice mixed with the comforting rise and fall of your chest and the sound of your heartbeat as well

☆ you’re let in in a lot of things now about the whole you know who situation and you’re his rock. he’s tired, not just physically but mentally and emotionally too and often times he breaks down in front of you

☆ being harry potter meant he had a lot of responsibility weighing him down, and you tried to the best of your ability to lift that weight and he appreciates that so much

☆ you both come to each other with your troubles

☆ he takes you on plenty of romantic dates and sometimes he can’t afford to do a lot of grand gestures but he always makes up for it with absolute quality time with you

☆ he isn’t the jealous type, you are in the relationship

☆ harry can quickly tell when you are though and teases you a little before eventually showering you in affection and reassures you

☆ “don’t tease me like that, you don’t understand how many people would kill to be in my shoes, potter.”

☆ “yeah, but i don’t want those people, i want you. i only have eyes for you.”

☆ “four eyes,” you mumble, looking away when your boyfriend’s eyes widen comically before gathering himself with a small smirk

☆ “double the attention, then.” he winks before throwing his head back in shared laughter

☆ he positively lights up whenever you’re around

☆ compliments you all the time

☆ absolute shared glares and resting bitch faces when it comes to draco malfoy trying to bully him, or anyone for that matter

☆ the power that glare holds resonates power couple

☆ all the more powerful when it’s you and harry and ron and hermione just,,, imagine draco literally being blown away by the sheer power

☆ gives you the weekly password to the portrait and in return you give him the answer to your common room (unless you’re in gryffindor then just ignore this one)

☆ loves it when he’s studying in the common room and there’s only a few people and you come in and plop yourself on his lap like you belong there

☆ you do

☆ he was flustered at first but eventually it becomes such a common happenstance that he just kisses the side of your head in greeting before wrapping your legs around his waist and leaning your head against the crook of his neck like you’re a baby while he continues on with his homework

☆ don’t worry he does the exact same thing in your common room

☆ being there for every nightmare and soothing him down

☆ kisses you so sweetly and passionately like he can’t get enough of you but once you take the reign and start nipping at his lips, his legs turn to jelly and he’s putty in your hands

☆ he really, really doesn’t want to lose you, he’s lost so much already

☆ in his head, you’re the only constant

#harry potter imagines #harry potter x reader #harry potter x you #hp imagines #hp x reader #hp x you #harry potter headcanons #harry potter one shot #harry potter fluff #harry potter angst #harry potter smut #mine*

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tiffanytoms · 3 years ago

Text

Just the Smut

Hey! Since I’m taking a writing break, here are all the Jily smut scenes I’ve written from every one of my fics… because sometimes that’s all you really want 😉 Guess it’s been a weird year and a half 😇

Whatever You Say, Professor

(**All sex is between a student, Lily, and her teacher, James, who is 3 years older**)

Tender, first time sex 💕 — First Real Date

Quick, secret ‘sorry I scared you’ hookup — Trouble in Paradise

Sex against wall in the kitchens & James’ first blowjob 🍒 — Cherry on Top

James handcuffed to a bed and ridden — In Control

Role play (student/teacher… it makes sense if you read it, lol) sex on desk and chair🪑 — Teacher, Teacher

Hot, fast quickie in a closet during Petunia’s wedding, they get walked in on 💃 — The Unexpected Wedding

What Are You Doing To Me?

(Canon Jily — James starts off as a jerk but ends up literally perfect and smut evolves with this)

Fingering on the common room couch 🛋— Looking for Purpose

All the lead up of a handjob for only 2 seconds of it — Whipped

Awkward, rushed losing of virginity in a broom cupboard 🧹 — Losing It

Attempt 2 at sexing, complete with eating out — Trying Again

Angry romp against wall in a secret passageway 🕯— Coping Mechanisms

General talk of hooking up all over the place and coming up with a safe word 🍍 — Pineapple

Teasing her in the common room — Toying with Hearts

Lily on top, then tying him up and leaving him 😈 — Who Got the Power?

Start of a deserted classroom hookup — Fighting It

Riling each other up all over Hogwarts, James making her knickers vibrate in class — Sexual Olympics

Rough, jealous sex across a desk 👀 — Green-Eyed Monster

Foreplay — Tell Him

Making love in the Room of Requirement/Quidditch Pitch ✨ — Bang Bang, He Shot Me Down

Morning sex, followed by a lesson in anatomy 🍑 followed by the start of a drunken hookup — Merry Fucking Christmas

Foreplay — Laughing at the Devil

Sex in front of a mirror 🪞— Keep Your Eyes Open

‘I really fucking missed you’ sex — We Shouldn’t

James’ POV hookups with other girls thinking of Lily 🤦🏻‍♂️ — I Fucked Up

James’ POV start of his hookups with Lily 6th year — Love Me

James’ POV middle of his hookups with Lily 6th year — Let Me Love You

James’ POV last of his hookups with Lily 6th year — Cause I Still Fucking Love You, Babe

Beautiful, tender first-time-sex-as-a-survivor after a swim date👙 — Slower

Romantic post-date handjob and hookup on couch 🛋 — Baby

Eating out and romp in Head Office — A Woman Scorned

Sweet, first time anal 🍑 — Cheeky

Tying him to a chair and masturbating in front of him before riding 🪑— Put in His Place

Making love in a closet during Petunia’s wedding (it’s a HC 😉) getting off on vows — Be That For You

Yay-we-didn’t-die making love — She Knows & He Can't Wait

Enemy Within

(James is a Death Eater — kink themes throughout)

Fingering in the Head Office — The Surrender

Eating out with toy 🪄 in Forbidden Forest — The Pleasure

Voyeurism watching James getting a bj then Lily getting eaten out in astronomy tower 🔭 — The Voyeur

Attempted murder 🔪 followed by angry first time fuck — The Mistake

Possessive morning spooning 🥄 sex — The Repercussions

Jealous fuck in bar bathroom 🍻 get interrupted but keep going — The Avoidance

Lily tied to bed and fingered and eaten out while Sirius watches 🛏 — The Gratitude

BDSM foreplay (domination, belt tied, candle wax) 🕯 — The Claim

Pure kinky sex (rough handling, bed tied, edging) followed by romantic bj — The Confession

Sex marathon followed by stealthy love making in Great Hall during a lockdown ✨ — The Betrayal

James eating her out while she’s propped on his shoulders then shagging in a lingerie boutique— The Date

Kinkily hooking up 3 times on a yacht 🛥 (spanking, ass-play, collar) — The Reveal

Edging her in bed and making him prematurely ejaculate in locker room after game 🧹 — The Relationship

Threesome 👩‍❤️‍👨🙋🏻‍♂️ Jily, Sirius — The Trigger

Birthday sex covered in chocolate 🍫 — The Ascension

The Forgotten Night

Drunken foreplay with James being good🍹 — The Forgotten Night

Wickedly Twisted

(Lily is a Death Eater — and she’s out to drive James to his breaking point)

Sexual tension, non-hookup against a wall 👀 — Locked Eyes

Fingering her while trapped in a cupboard 🚪 — Animals

Dry-humping and teasing him on the floor until he comes in his trousers 👖 — idfc

Making him get on his knees and eat her out in the shower 🚿 — I Feel Like I’m Drowning

Her being surprisingly tender taking his virginity on the couch 🍒 — Hurts Like Hell

Begging her to give him another chance while he fingers her in a empty classroom — Problematic

Making him see her naked in class 🍑 so he has to run away to the WC to masturbate where she rides him instead — Greedy

Brief descriptions of marathon sex sessions — Dazed and Confused

James trying to gain some power while getting rode on a shag rug in front of the fireplace; falling for each other 🔥 — Alone With You

She finally lets him 'make love' to her with him on top ❤️ — You're Losing Me

She goes down on him followed by desperate, tender side-by-side prisoner sex where they come together — Breathe

He's losing his mind, cock-warming, still captive — Side Effect

World Cup

This one’s a little different in that it’s James x reader, but it’s basically James being a world class footie player fucking you silly ⚽️

Magic James

An anon request to have James be a Magic Mike stripper for Lily… she loves it 😏

Baby Bird

Lily’s having a hard time not shagging her handsome, chivalrous, perfect bodyguard… and who can blame her? 🙅‍♀️ — Doing It

Right Reasons

Lily is the Bachelorette and James is one of her reluctant suitors. They fall for each other instantly despite far too many hurdles 🌹

Finally sneaking around to have sex, James going down on her, Lily freaking out bc she’s in love, they get interrupted 🇨🇷 — Costa Rica — Part 3

Passionate ‘I love you’ sex on his lap and against the wall, with blowjob ♥️ — Morocco — Part 2

Fuck the Rich

Overworked chef Lily figures a one-night stand with rich boy James Potter can't hurt... so why is he making it so intimate? 🤔

Guys. I’m just giggling to myself looking at this. If you think I missed any… let me know 😅 I must have run out of ways to describe sex by now… right? Right?!?

#just the smut #jily #jily smut #james potter smut #lily evans smut #jily fanfiction #my smut #my smut list #smut recs #James Potter #Lily Evans #tiff’s smut

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narukoibito · 2 years ago

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ooooh pride and prejudice AU

Thank for the ask, @redundant-lava!

This is a Muggle AU/college AU where Harry finds a used copy of Pride and Prejudice with brilliant, witty margins. As he reads more and more, he finds himself falling hard for the mysterious margin writer, only to discover this person’s number. But he doesn’t know that the person he’s been slowly falling for is in fact his best mate’s annoying little sister, whom he has had a fierce sports rivalry since he first went over to Ron’s house and got creamed against her. It’s a play on pride and prejudice, enemies/rivals to lovers.

I shared a snippet of this ages ago. And then I formed a collab with some wonderful people who have read Pride and Prejudice! But then...I never wrote more. And they, being the lovely people they are, never pressed me since I never took the lead. :(

But! I did write this moment between Harry & James (because Jily lives!):

Harry twirled the piece of paper in his fingers. It could be a bloke. Not that was a problem for Harry, but it might be for him. Still, his gut said otherwise. But even if he was right, what would he say.

Hello, I don’t know you but I sort of do, and in fact I think you’re brilliant. I bought a used copy of Pride and Prejudice and you’re clearly the funniest and clever person I have not yet met. And you kind of left your phone number in the book, so I thought I would give you a ring and see if you’d like to have dinner some time?

Harry groaned and dropped his head into his hands. He was absolute rubbish at dating. He’d only had one sort of relationship during secondary, and while Cho had been pretty and a skilled track and field hurdler, the whole thing had ended up quite a mess. In retrospect, he should have waited a bit longer after she and Cedric had broken up. Being an awkward rebound hadn’t been fun, and had resulted in his first kiss being wet with her tears.

If he called the number, would the person on the other line be a hopeless romantic, a bit like himself and his dad, or would it be more in the creepy stalkerish arena?

Harry’s phone rang and he answered immediately, foolishly thinking somehow his mysterious margin writer had miraculously found him.

“Hello son!” A cheery voice buzzed in Harry’s ear.

“Hey dad.”

“Why the long face?”

Despite himself, Harry laughed. “How would you know what kind of face I’m making?”

“I can hear your brooding all the way over here.” Harry could hear his mum in the background asking what was wrong.

“I’m not brooding,” he lied. “I’ve just got a lot on my mind.”

“Is it about a bird? Have you finally fallen for someone?”

I do still think about this WIP a lot! But...ah...maybe some day I'll write more.

Feel free to send me asks on any of my WIPs!

#pride and prejudice au #hinny #harry/ginny #enemies to lovers #but through BOOKS #jily lives #muggle au #wip game #redundant lava

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moonawrites · 4 years ago

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For Jily - “Please just look at me while I confess, after that you can look anywhere you like, I swear.”

Sirius Black has had enough.

Enough of James’ pining and whining and dramatic sighing. It’s embarrassing, but more than that, it’s just fucking annoying. He and everyone else in the entire school knows he’s in love with Lily. Everyone except for Lily.

Incidentally, Sirius has had enough of Lily too. Enough of her longing stares and painful, trying so hard to be nonchalant it actually hurts to witness questions. Everyone knows she’s in love with James too, except the idiot himself.

What’s worse is both of them refuse to admit it, not only to each other, but to everyone else too. So as he so often has to with friends this stupid, Sirius takes matters into his own hands.

“So you’re really not into Evans, right?” he asks James at breakfast one day.

James chokes on his coffee and coughs for a bit, eyes bugging a bit. But then, predictably, he says, “Um, yeah, no. Not at all. Why? Haven’t we been over this?”

Sirius smiles. “Oh, good. That’s what I was hoping to hear.”

James narrows his eyes. “Why?”

“Just, you know. You’re so unbearable when you have a crush.”

James does not look convinced, but Sirius decides it’s time to shift the conversation to the match coming up this weekend, and so it’s forgotten.

Until dinner. They head over to their usual spot at the end of the Gryffindor table, but Sirius jogs ahead and slips into the seat next to Lily before James has a chance. Both of them look a bit surprised, but neither comments.

“This colour looks really pretty on you, Lily,” Sirius says casually. He only notices what colour she’s wearing after he says it – a nice baby blue, so at least it isn't a blatant lie. Lily looks a bit taken aback, but she smiles at him.

“Thanks! I like it too.”

Deciding to play it up a bit, Sirius flits his fingers over the material from her shoulder to her upper arm. Then he makes a show of freezing, as if just realizing what he’s doing, and abruptly drops his hand. “It’s… yeah. It’s pretty.”

It takes a great deal of effort not to snort with laughter at the look on James’ face, like he can’t decide between looking suspicious or scandalized.

Sirius keeps it up for a good few days. He compliments Lily and finds excuses for innocent touches – imaginary lint on her sweater, hands brushing in the corridor, reaching for the same items at the table. All while James is there to see, of course. It all kind of makes him want to gag if he’s honest, but it’s a necessary evil, because he can see them starting to crack.

James becomes snappy and irritable around him, and he has no excuses when Sirius innocently asks why – after all, he hasn’t done anything wrong, has he? He even had the good grace to confirm again and again that James did not fancy Lily.

Lily becomes nervous around him and tries to avoid him, tries to laugh off his flirting when she can’t – and Sirius lays it on thick. It’s all a credit to his immense talent as an actor that she doesn’t just laugh in his face – he’d done a great job of pretending to be hurt the first time she did.

He finally gets a chance to end it all for good when he gets paired with Lily for a Potions assignment. That evening when James announces that he’s off to the library to work on his own assignments, Sirius waits twenty minutes and then he rushes down to the common room and scans the room for Lily. She’s sitting on the ground at one of the tables by the fire, books and parchments spread out in front of her.

“Hey, are you busy right now?” he asks when he walks over.

Lily jumps a bit and glances up from her books. “Um, a bit. I was just working on the Transfig assignment.”

“I thought we could head to the library to start on research for the Potions assignment,” Sirius suggests. “I’ll be busy with Quidditch this week, it would be good to get started early.”

Lily chews on her lip, looking like she wants to refuse. But in the end she just nods. Sirius surreptitiously studies the map while Lily packs up her stuff, and deduces that James is sitting at their usual table in the back right corner of the library. He makes a show of acting jittery and nervous while they walk, brushing it off with a shaky laugh when Lily asks if he’s okay.

Sirius pretends to consider which table they should sit at, before leading them to the table on the other side of the shelf from the one James is at. He knows James will be able to hear them, they’ve spent many hours eavesdropping while they studied in that spot.

Sirius scours the shelves and picks out some good books, and then he actually works with Lily for a bit – eventually they’ll have to work on the assignment for real anyways, he may as well multitask. But not long into their work, he straightens up and fixes Lily with a serious look.

“Lily, I have to tell you something.”

Lily jumps slightly and glances up at him. “Is it important? I’m in the middle of reading.”

“Yeah, it’s very important. I’ve been holding it in for a long time, and I just can’t anymore.”

On the other side of the shelf, he hears a chair scraping back. Sirius bites the inside of his cheek to stop his lips from twitching into a smile. He has to keep acting nervous.

“I... um, maybe you shouldn’t,” Lily says quietly.

“Why not? I know James used to fancy you, but he told me he doesn’t anymore. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Lily’s eyes widen just slightly, but she doesn’t look surprised that the conversation has led them here. She gives Sirius an almost pitying look, and he barely stops the eyeroll. As if.

“I really can’t hold it in anymore,” Sirius says, as if the words pain him. Lily swallows and looks away. Looks at her notes, at the shelves of books next to her, at the ground, everywhere but at him.

“Sirius, I really don’t think now’s the time. We should get back to work.”

“Do you know how hard it was keeping this from you both back when James fancied you? It was torture, Lily,” Sirius says with anguish. “And now I don’t have to anymore. I can tell you the truth.”

“Oh my God,” Lily whispers, panicked. “Please don’t, please don’t say anything.” She still won’t look at him.

“Lily, I have to do this. I have to do it for me, or I’ll go crazy,” Sirius insists. “I deserve to speak my truth. I’ve suffered in silence for long enough, don’t you think?”

“I don’t know what to do,” Lily whines, and she stares up at the ceiling. “Please kill me.”

“Please just look at me while I confess,” Sirius begs. “After that you can look anywhere you like, I swear.” She doesn’t, but Sirius soldiers on. “Lily, I’m in lo– ”

“You can’t!” Lily yells, lunging forward and slapping a hand over his mouth. A few people several tables down turn to look at them. “You can’t. I’m in love with James,” Lily admits, as if the words have been ripped from her throat, and she looks so anguished Sirius almost feels bad.

On the other side of the shelf, a very familiar voice yells “What?” and then there’s a commotion. It sounds like a chair gets knocked over and books flung off the table. James curses several times. Footsteps thunder down the aisle, and then James appears at the end of their own aisle, looking flushed and flustered. His hair is more disheveled than usual, as if he’d been tugging on it in distress.

Lily clears her throat and drops her hand, awkwardly patting Sirius’ cheek. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to smack you that hard.” And then it seems to catch up to her that James is there. James, who she has just confessed to being in love with.

Sirius sighs heavily and stands up. “Well, that was fucking miserable, but my work here is done.” He stretches and grabs his bag. “Enjoy your awkward conversation.” He pats Lily’s shoulder on his way past her, and then James’ when he reaches him.

“If you fuck this up after all my suffering, I’m going to murder you with my bare hands.”

#okay this one was a lot of fun lol #thank you for the prompt!#ask #anon #prompt #jily #jily drabble #james potter #sirius black #lily evans #marauders era #hp #my writing #moona tries to write

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booksarelife-stuff · 3 years ago

Text

Godric’s Hollow’s 286th Annual Lawn Competition

My entry for the August Jily Challenge! @jilychallenge

Prompt: my mother hired you to mow the lawn but can you put your shirt back on its distracting me, and omg stOP grinning at me like that I’m swooning (I did not follow this at all)

Between adjusting to her new town and the hot rude neighbor, Lily is determined to prove herself in Godric’s Hollow by winning their annual lawn competition. Featuring both shirtless Lily and James.

My partner was the amazing @joyseuphoria, whose creativity and ideas really helped me write this fic! She came up with so many fun ideas and was a great partner!

Word Count: 5,075

Read on Ao3 Masterlist

When Lily opened the door to her small cottage to the outside, she took in the fresh air.

Godric’s Hollow was so different from her and Marlene’s old apartment back in London. She could open her door and find a bright blue sky and fresh air instead of the stale smell that the hallway had reeked of. It was a nice and welcomed change.

She pulled the door behind her, taking a second to lock the door. Just as she turned to walk down her small concrete path to the sidewalk, she heard a sudden exclamation.

She whipped her head around just as the words “Dibs!” left the tall man standing on his own walkway right by some overgrown bushes.

He was looking right at her. There was no mistaking what or who was talking about. His eyes widened dramatically as Lily met his eyes. The man’s friend in front of him doubled over with laughter.

“Did you just call ‘dibs’ on me?” she asked, anger coloring her voice.

“No…” The man said, his tone culpable. His friend shook his head, still holding back laughs. “Well okay, yes, but not in the way you’re thinking!”

Lily didn’t want to hear whatever half-assed explanation the man was going to stammer out to her. She just rolled her eyes and continued on her way to the sidewalk, not paying attention to whatever the man was saying to her.

As Lily stomped her way to her first day at her new job, she hoped she would lose the bad attitude and that man was not her neighbor.

But of course, Lily’s hope meant nothing.

That very night, there was a knock on her door shortly after she just got back from work. Lily groaned slightly, pulling herself off her couch and navigated through the maze of boxes she still hadn’t unpacked.

She stubbed her toe on her entryway table and was holding back curses as she opened the door to see four men standing on her stoop. One of which was the man from the morning.

“Hello,” the shortest man said, smiling. He was pale blonde and seemed to have not lost the baby fat on his face even though he had to be at least Lily’s age. “We’re your neighbors and we wanted to introduce ourselves after the little mishap this morning.”

Lily’s eyebrows shot up.

“And we want to know what to call you besides Dibs,” the man with shoulder-length wavy black hair said. He had a smirk on his lips that Lily knew just meant trouble. The dibs man, who was trying to hide in the back besides being one the tallest, smacked him lightly on the head.

“What Sirius meant to say is that we want to welcome you to the neighborhood. I’m Remus,” the tallest of the group with a light white scar across his face. “This is Sirius. Peter’s over to the right. And the one who called dibs is James.”

James groaned. “You guys said you weren’t going to do this to me!”

“And you trusted us?” the blonde, Peter said, innocently.

“The last time that I do,” James said, glaring at Peter. Sirius rolled his eyes and Remus’s smile didn’t waver.

“Are you guys just going to bicker on my doorstep?” Lily asked, leaning in the door jam, her arms crossed. Three pairs of eyes flickered back to her, James looking at the ground.

“No, sorry. We really are here to make introductions,” Peter said, smiling.

Lily assessed the men for a second. Her eyes stopped for a moment on James. She took in the large square frames and his curly hair. She moved on when she realized that she had spent a moment too long on him.

She took a deep breath and made her millionth introduction for the day.

“I’m Lily,” she said.

“Well, it was nice to meet you. If you ever need anything, just call ‘Dibs’ really loudly and James will come running,” Sirius said, his smile seemingly sincere.

“Man, fuck you guys. I’m getting new flatmates!” James said, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

The ribbing on their mate brought a smile to her face, but the man was far from forgiven.

~~~

Lily wondered if her own small town had oddities like Godric’s Hollow. From the people to some of the town events, there seemed to be something that broke her brain a little bit.

Like Bathilda, the sweet old woman who came into the library where Lily worked every day.

Bathilda would come in, walking faster than Lily did, but with a walker, to where the new movies were placed. Ever since Bathilda found out Lily wasn’t from Godric’s Hollow, Bathilda would tell Lily all the town history she knew. From claiming there was magic or a coven of witches here to what the last mayor did to get impeached, Bathilda told Lily all of it.

Like a true customer service worker, Lily just smiled and nodded. She enjoyed Bathilda’s stories but she didn’t really believe them.

“Ah, it’s summer!” Bathilda said, giving Lily a bright smile, a stack of movies balancing on her walker as she approached the circulation desk. “The lawn competition should be starting soon.”

“Lawn competition?” Lily asked, reaching forward and grabbing the movies when they were in reach.

“Aye,” Bathilda said, her white hair that was in a bun moving as she nodded her head. “It started right after they burned all the witches here. To bring back nature to the area.”

Lily just nodded, not knowing what else to say to Bathilda.

“You best be planning for it. Some folks here take it really seriously,” Bathilda warned.

Based on everything Lily knew about the population here, a lawn competition is exactly something the people would take seriously.

Lily didn’t think much of the lawn competition until she got home and saw a colorful flyer on her doorstep with her newspaper.

Godric’s Hollow’s 286th Annual Lawn Competition- Bringing native plants and beauty back to the Hollow.

Lily frowned as she inspected the poster. She needed to pay closer attention to Bathilda’s stories.

She heard the jingle of keys coming from the boy’s house and she looked to see if it was Remus.

Unfortunately, it was James leaving. He had his running clothes on, shorts, and a fitted t-shirt. He had a sweatband holding back his bangs.

She had come to like her neighbors in the month of her being in Godric’s Hollow. She was particularly fond of Remus, but being fond of him meant that a fondness had grown for the others as well, even with their stupid nicknames for each other.

Lily was even fond of James too. Just a little bit. The dibs incident wasn’t forgotten and though he apologized, he never fully explained what it was really about.

He was better with his friends, in Lily’s eyes. With his friends, he was goofy and outgoing. He could make the whole group laugh to tears. But whenever he and Lily interacted alone, it was painfully awkward and he almost always managed to insult Lily in some way.

She sighed and called out anyway just as James was putting his headphones on.

“Hey, James!” she yelled. James jumped and turned, pulling a bud out.

“Hello, Lily,” he said, politely. “Need something?”

She waved the flyer and James' eyes followed it, trying to see what it was. Even with his glasses, he was still blind as a bat.

“What’s this all about?”

“The lawn competition?” he asked, walking across his small yard to the waist-high fence that separated their land.

“So it’s a real thing?” she asked, frowning. James nodded as he leaned against the fence.

“The old tale here is that it started after the last witches were burned,” James said. Lily blinked at him in disbelief, but James looked as neutral as ever, so she decided to just move on.

“What do you do for it? Water your grass or something?” Lily asked. James let out a breath of air like a silent laugh.

“No. It’s all about bringing plants native to the area back. And in the last decade or so, it’s kinda turned into a competition of who can do the most ridiculous things.”

“You’re fucking with me,” Lily said, rolling her eyes. “Ridiculous things like what?”

James looked amused, his hazel eyes sparkling. “I think the winner last year made some constellations out of corncockles.”

This town was crazy. Grade A, certified crazy.

“It’s optional though. You don’t have to participate,” James continued. “People here spend years planting to just win one year. You’ll have some stiff competition.”

Lily felt the flare of anger at his words. “So you don’t think I can win?” she asked, crossing her arms and crushing the flyer. Lily knew she was being a bit competitive, but everything to do with James set her on edge.

James seemed to have picked up on Lily’s temper flaring. He stopped leaning the fence and straightened up.

“I didn’t say that. I just said some people spend years planning to win,” James reiterated.

Lily narrowed her eyes.

“Well, I’m going to win,” Lily said. James huffed.

“Good luck with that,” James said, turning away and popping a headphone into his ear.

Lily let out a noise. “I’d like to see you win with those overgrown hedges!”

James turned around and smiled brightly. “Those are for the competition!”

Lily stared at his back as he started off in a jog down the street. Once he was out of view, she took a survey of her yard.

There wasn’t much. Just grass and a small tree. She looked back to the boy’s yard and it did look like it had a lot more potential than Lily’s. Greener grass, some shrubbery, and window boxes that have yet to be filled.

Lily headed up to her front door, determined to spend the night researching plants and grass. And why witches getting accused and burned would start a lawn competition.

~~~

There was a plant nursery in Godric’s Hollow. There was no website, no place for her to browse the catalog before making any purchases. Just a Facebook page that got updated once a month with grainy pictures.

It was better than Lily expected when she finally dragged herself there after work. There were a few people browsing, one man had a large cart filled with pallets of various plants. Like a lot. Lily wondered if he was the corncockle constellations guy.

Google only took Lily so far with her research, so she looked in the gardening section at the library and had found out that someone had written a book about native plants, specific to the region; The Southern England Guide to Native Plants and Shrubs by Euphemia Potter. She had that open in her hand as she walked around the nursery.

She did a quick walk around, trying to identify what plants were in the book. Most of them she could find, but based on the care instructions, her yard wouldn’t be good for them.

She paused in front of a plant labeled “Pitcher Plant”. It looked weird, but she supposed it would do. She was flipping through the book, trying to find out what the care instructions were when she felt someone beside her.

“Don’t use that plant,” James said, making Lily jump. She glared at him as she rightened herself.

“And why is that?” she asked.

“It’ll discount you from the competition,” he said, touching one of the stems. “It’s an invasive species.”

Lily tore her eyes away from James, back to the plant.

“This plant also eats insects,” he pointed out. “Bad for the bees.”

“Oh,” Lily breathed. “Yeah, I don’t want that.”

She closed the book and sighed, and looked back at James to see him staring at the book in her hands.

“Nice book,” he said with a small smile. She looked back down to it and made the connection.

“You wouldn’t happen to know Euphemia, would you?” she asked, her eyes trailing the Potter after Euphemia on the book cover.

“I knew her very well,” James said, his eyes turning soft for a quick second. “I think there’s a section in there, around page 203. Most of those plants work with our yard type.”

Despite the sincerity in his voice, her eyes narrowed. She took in his lanky form and his hair that was getting frizzier by the second thanks to the humidity.

“Why are you helping me?” she asked, crossing her arms. James laughed and ran a hand through his hair, making some curls stick straight up.

“I just don’t want you to start an invasive plant plague here,” he said, smirking. “It would ruin my lawn too.”

“I wasn’t going to use it if it wasn't in the book!” she pointed out. James gave her a look and Lily rolled her eyes. “I’m not some saboteur!”

“Yeah, I didn’t peg for the type,” he said, frowning. “I was just trying to be nice.”

“Your nice is rather pointed and mean if you haven’t noticed.”

James just let out a laugh. “Only to you, Evans.”

~~~

The sun was hot and beating down on Lily’s shoulders as she was on her knees, squinting at a piece of paper that was just getting dirty as she tried to dig the appropriate depth for the honeysuckle bushes she bought.

She still had no idea what she was doing with her lawn, but she figured she could just add in some plants to spaces anyway to liven up her yard.

It was kind of relaxing, she had come to realize. All the research aside; she was able to just dig and place a pretty thing down in her yard. Tomorrow she could look out the window and admire her work.

And it was something to preoccupy her time. Normally, her weekends had been full of just sitting on the couch, reading, or watching something on the television. Boredom would creep in usually, or the overwhelming feeling of missing her friends.

But so far, gardening had kept her preoccupied. She didn’t feel that same loneliness creep in as she neared the two-hour mark of her being out there.

She also talked to Remus a bit, telling him about the newest book she read. She shared a wave with Sirius as he hopped onto his obnoxiously loud motorbike.

It wasn’t until her fourth honeysuckle was in the ground, that she looked up at the sound of humming and instantly regretted that decision.

There was James, headphones in his ears and humming away. He had an assortment of his gardening tools with him and tons of flowers all spread out in plastic containers along their walkway.

But what made Lily regret her life was the fact that he was shirtless.

It wasn’t a secret that James was the most attractive out of the bunch at his house, though Sirius did give him a run for his money. With his curly hair, infectious smile, and his ability to make everyone laugh. You could look over his lanky limbs and knobby knees. Marlene, after she had come to visit one weekend, had even made Lily admit that if it wasn’t for the whole “dibs” business, she would have probably fancied him.

It was true, but it was rude of Marlene to point out.

He wasn’t buff or had any defined abs by any stretch, but Lily thought he was still well sculpted. His arms looked nice too, as she watched him unspool the garden hose.

She tore her eyes away and tried to focus on her honeysuckle.

Lily stole a few more glances but overall was dedicated to her honeysuckle plant.

Just as she patted the last of her dirt down around the roots, she suddenly felt the blast of cold water rush down her head.

She let out a yelp and quickly raised to her feet as the blast continued to drown her newly planted honeysuckles. In the field of her vision, she saw James scrambling with the other end, trying to pull it towards him and out of where Lily was in the line of fire.

It sprayed her one more time before James finally got it to stop. He ran over, an apologetic look in his eyes.

“Lily, I’m so sorry. I forgot the handle is stuck on the nozzle and I didn’t know you were over there,” he said.

Lily sighed deeply as she pulled her t-shirt that was sticking to her skin away from her body, the fabric heavy.

“It’s fine,” Lily said in a defeated tone. “Why was your hose over here anyway?”

“I was making sure there were no tangles before I watered the hedges,” James said.

Lily barely registered his words and she pulled her shirt off, not wanting to deal with the heaviness on her while she tried to garden. She threw her wet shirt on the ground next to her, leaving her only in her black sports bra. She looked up, running both hands through her shoulder-length hair to stop it from sticking to her face.

James was rooted to his spot on the other side of the fence. His gaze locked onto her face. It was only then that Lily realized she had just casually thrown her shirt off in front of him.

“It was an accident,” she said. “You didn’t point the hose at me with intention, unlike the dibs. At least you watered my honeysuckles for me.”

James let out a laugh that could be mistaken for a sigh of relief.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m still sorry. For this and the dibs incident.”

She laughed. “I think you’re going to have to apologize for that as long as we’re neighbors.”

He smiled, amused, and nodded his head. “Yeah, I’m never living that down. Doesn’t matter that it wasn’t actually what I was doing.”

Lily tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “What were you actually doing?”

“The truth is only slightly less good,” he admitted, his smile falling a bit. “I—Well, no we—No, I. I noticed you when you were moving in and I did make a comment—” Lily’s eyebrows raised. “—A respectful comment!”

“What’s a respectful comment?” she interrupted.

“I said ‘I think our new neighbor is beautiful’,” James said, a hand coming to the back of his neck. “That’s respectful, right?”

Lily’s heart decided to skip a beat and she felt a blush start to rise on her cheeks. She played it off with an eye roll.

“Anyway, we happened to be leaving at the same time and Sirius turned to me and told me to make a move ‘before someone else did’, were his exact words…” James said, making a face. “And then I said ‘What do you want me to do? Point at her and call ‘Dibs’?’”

Lily started laughing. “So all I heard was ‘dibs’.”

“Yeah… I probably shouldn’t have yelled it for emphasis,” he said.

She shook her head. Her opinion of him changed slightly, but not enough to be okay with the way her heart was racing as she looked at his shirtless form again.

~~~

The summer seemed to breeze past. Lily spent almost every moment of her free time working outside after she had formed her plan for her entry to the lawn competition.

There were a lot of times where James was outside too and they would talk sometimes. Most ribbing each other like petty housewives about the state of their various lawns. It brought a smile to her face more than she would like to admit.

They had some nice normal discussion too. Lily had walked to the fence, holding the library’s copy of The Southern England Guide to Native Plants and Shrubs by Euphemia Potter. She wanted to ask James a question about one of the ivy species that was mentioned.

He had gotten that same soft smile on his face when he saw the book and Lily had to ask again.

“Did you know the author?” she asked, looking into his hazel eyes.

He nodded. “My mum. She was a botanist. She came to Godric’s Hollow to observe how the competition was helping with local pollinating numbers. Met my dad, that year’s winner, and ended up staying.”

“That is so sweet!” Lily said, smiling a little before it fell. “Are your parents still around?”

He shook his head. “Dad passed away during my first year of uni. Mum passed away last November.”

“My dad passed away in sixth year,” she said. “It gets better, but it still hurts.”

They continued on, both talking a little more but still refusing to disclose what they were doing for the competition, even though Lily’s was a little more obvious with every passing day. James seemed to just be doing normal landscaping, besides his overgrown hedges.

Lily began to notice a lot of things about James. Besides his tendency to speak without thinking, his heart is always in the right place. It caught Lily off-guard most times.

Something shifted in her over the weeks as they worked on the lawns.

It was two days before the competition when Lily got home to see James outside, hedge clippers by his feet as he examined his four very tall and overgrown bushes.

“I hope you’re not planning to win with those,” Lily called.

James smirked over to Lily. “Just wait until I give them a trim.”

“Nicely trimmed hedges aren’t going to beat my lawn.”

James looked at the monstrosity of Lily’s yard. There were lines of primrose flowers snaking through her front lawn and turning to the back.

Lily had spent back-breaking hours and an embarrassing amount of money to make a maze of her yard. It wasn’t like a true maze, you could see every aisle because the primroses didn’t get very tall, but it was the end that really made it worth it.

Lily had converted her small back patio to a fairy garden. She used hanging planters, climbing ivy, and lights to really make it special.

James hadn’t seen it yet. She was going to show him once she had won the competition.

It wasn’t until the morning of the judging that Lily saw that she actually had competition.

Standing proud at the edge of his lawn were four perfectly cut hedges in the shape of a deer, a dog, a wolf, and a large rat.

Lily stood in awe by her window as James was taking small scissors and cutting more details and cleaning up lines.

She opened up her front door and walked to her fence. James turned and met her with a smirk.

“How did you do that?” she asked.

“Good morning to you, too,” he said. “I watched a million Youtube videos.”

Lily brushed a strand of hair behind her ear as she inspected the hedges behind me. “What’s the inspiration?”

“Have you heard Sirius call me Prongs?” James asked.

Lily had heard their stupid nicknames in passing. She thought Peter was the worst but all of them were stupid.

“Your stupid nicknames, yeah.”

“So I’m Prongs, Sirius is Padfoot, Remus is Moony, and Peter is Wormtail,” he said. Then made a sweeping gesture back to the hedges.

She blinked in confusion as she looked back at the hedges.

“I’m a little lost,” she admitted.

James sighed. “So, I’m Prongs because Peter once told me the way my hair stands up looks like antlers. Sirius is Padfoot because he is the king of sneaking around. Remus is Moony because he exclusively wore those weird shirts that have wolves howling at the moon when we were 12.”

Lily let out a loud laugh, picturing a small Remus in those kinds of shirts.

“Peter?” she asked in-between laughs.

“We were sworn to secrecy for that story,” he said. “He would actually murder me if I said it.”

Lily laughed and James joined in.

The judging wasn’t until the afternoon, so Lily did some last-minute weeding and watering. She made sure the lights in the secret fairy garden still worked and made sure there were no dead leaves insight.

James was standing on his lawn, talking to two of the most oddly dressed people Lily had ever seen.

The woman was dressed in what Lily could only think of as a robe. It was a bright blue, with belled sleeves. The man was in similar clothes, but a blinding yellow with a long white beard. They both had hats that looked like top hats, only decorated with flowers. They also had clipboards in hand.

Yet another town oddity that Lily would just have to brush off.

James caught sight of Lily and waved her over.

“This is another competitor. She just moved here about three months ago,” James told them as she neared.

“Hello, I’m Lily,” she said upon arrival.

“I’m Albus Dumbledore,” the man with a smile and twinkle in his eye.

“I’m Minerva,” the woman said.

Lily shook both of their hands.

“We’ve been judging this competition for, what? Forty years, now Minerva?” Albus said as Lily raised her eyebrows, impressed.

The woman pinched her lips and nodded. “Twice as long as these two have been alive.”

Lily, James, and Albus laughed. “Pleasantries aside, let’s get to judging.”

James and Lily stayed behind as they went and started looking at James’s hedges, inspecting it with great detail.

“Still using those silly nicknames?” Minerva called, as she began writing down on her clipboard.

“Of course,” James answered. “I would have put a mouse for you, Minnie, but we ran out of room.”

Lily nudged him as Minnie shot him a glare. “Unwise to insult the judges, James Fleamont.”

James frowned and Lily laughed. “Fleamont?” Lily asked.

“That was my father’s name,” James replied. “And I got stuck with it as a middle name.”

“I take it you know Minerva pretty well if she’s using your middle name?” Lily questioned.

“Yeah, she was one of my mum’s best friends,” James sighed. “And before you think that means I have some kind of advantage, don’t. She’s going to judge mine ten times harder.”

It took about ten minutes before Minerva started snapping pictures and Albus stopped writing on his clipboard.

“I think we’re ready to move on,” Albus said smiling.

They came around the gate and Lily looked at them to the entrance of her lawn maze. James hopped the fence to join them and Lily laughed as she heard Minerva call him a showoff under her breath.

“This is a maze made entirely out of primroses,” Lily said before stepping away from the entrance. “See if you can get to the end.”

“Normally, it’s customary not to be able to see all the different paths,” Minerva pointed out, looking across the tops of all the lines of flowers she had made.

“Ah, but most can still get lost with directions in front of them,” Albus said, wisely. “Let’s see if we can win, Minerva.”

They started off, Albus in the lead, who turned left towards the dead end. Minerva tapped him and made him go in the right direction, following her lead.

Lily stayed by the entrance with James. He turned his back after a few seconds.

“I want to do it by myself later,” he said.

It took them about ten minutes before Lily saw them take the path that led them back to the secret fairy garden. She smirked at James when she heard Minerva’s surprised gasp and Albus’s appreciative chuckle.

It took another ten minutes to take notes and pictures of it before they were saying their goodbyes.

They were down the lane before James turned to Lily.

“I’m doing the maze now,” he said, his eyes shining with amusement.

Lily wandered behind him, laughing as he took the wrong turn that led him to exit that made him start all over.

But eventually, he got it. And suddenly it was just her and James on her back patio, surrounded by ivy and twinkling lights. She even found a used metal patio furniture set that she placed. It smelled good too, from the extra honeysuckle she placed back there.

“Pretty nice, Evans,” James said, looking around. “And really good for your first year.”

Lily’s stomach swooped with praise. “Thank you,” she replied. “Your hedges are pretty nice too.”

It was shady in her garden area, so she invited James to sit until they announced the winner.

James told her the story about how he ruined his family’s competition entry by squishing a whole patch of Lily of the Valley’s because he thought they would be comfortable. Lily told him that her sister’s name was Petunia and that her mother was Violet.

The hours flew by as they sat there and talked. Around six is when a moment of bravery came to Lily.

“Want to go get dinner?” she asked him.

A bright smile appeared on James’s face. “Like, just the two of us?”

“Yeah, just the two of us.”

“I’d love that,” James said, a hand coming up and raking through his hair.

They stood up and were about to leave when James’s phone pinged. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked down before gasping.

“It’s Minnie!” he exclaimed.

“With the results?” Lily asked, taking a step forward and invading James’s space.

He didn’t seem to mind. “Yep… it looks like… Oh! I'm the runner up!”

“Who won?” she asked, frowning.

James unlocked his phone and pocketed it. He looked at Lily with a soft smile. “Lily’s Maze and Enchanted Garden.”

“Really?” she asked, stepping closer. James nodded and their eyes locked.

In the heat of the moment, Lily stood on tip-toes and pressed a soft kiss to his lips.

Lily could have sworn that the world had slowed its rotation for a minute as pulled away and their eyes met again. It definitely stopped when James cupped her jaw and pulled her in for a real kiss.

They both were smiling when James pulled away. She didn’t know how long they stared at each, smiling like loons until she found her voice again.

“So, uh… Dinner?” she asked. James let out a breathy laugh.

“Yeah, dinner.”

They just entered the maze again when Lily stopped and turned around. She got close to him again and he smiled, thinking she was going to kiss him again.

Instead, she put a finger to his chest.

“Dibs.”

#jily #James Potter #Lily Evans #Lily Evans Potter #James Potter/Lily Evans #jily challenge #august jily challenge #hp #marauders #lawn competitions #jily fic #jily fanfic #Harry Potter fanfic #Marauders era #James x Lily #jilychallenge

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bebepac · 4 years ago

Text

Six Sentence Sunday 04.25.21

Original Post: 4/25/21 at 12:54PM EST

I’ve been a little all over the place this week I know with me being more missing in action! I’ve hit a really busy spell again at work, technically it’s never “not busy,” and I’m also looking for a new job.

Good news I had my interview on Friday and I think it went really well. There are three positions for the department I want to go into as they have been given more clinical trials to work on.

I had my interviewer laughing and I think I asked very good questions about the organization. My questions when I was asked were:

* How does your organization ensure a healthy work/life balance for your employees?

* I know the job is currently remote right now, but when it’s not i’ll be going into the office three days a week and home two. How do you all strive to have a teamwork atmosphere in the office with staff?

* Is there room for advancement?

I’m hoping I did as well as I think I did.

As a reminder if you missed tags, and it seems like the fandom has been relatively collectively busy in their own lives across the board, here’s what I’ve posted in the past 7-10 days.

And Then... There Were Two (The Meet Chapter 1 : A Greek Meat Prequel)

Pop’s 🌎 World (Mia’s World Special: Pops POV)

What are you working on @dcbbw @burnsoslow @bbrandy2002 @sirbeepsalot

@sfb123 @ao719 @txemrn @darley1101 @jessiembruno and anyone else! Feel free to take me in your wips and six sentences sundays!

This is what I have going on:

Derby Girl

The Life of Riley Book 2: Chapter 4

The Book: TRR

Pairing: Liam x Riley

Status: Still in the writing process

Riley glared at him. “I’m not an animal Duke Ramsford.”

“That remains to be seen. If the Cordonian people do not fall in love with you, even though he could be Lady Riley he will not choose you. Love is not the only thing that matters here. It’s honestly not even a factor here. Prince Liam has a duty to his people to pick the most suitable woman to be at his side. So you, dear idealistic girl must learn to give the people what they want. The derby today will give you the opportunity to meet the press for the first time. This will set the tone of how the people will begin to approve of you or disapprove of you. The Queen is also important here as well.”

“I think the Queen might potentially be on my side.”

Bertrand laughed. “You don’t know The Queen.”

“I met with her and she wasn’t rude to me. She was actually helpful when you think about it. She told me to get a feel for the audience that will be watching me and dress for them. I think that’s helpful advice.”

“You’re right that is helpful advice.”

“You need to get ready. Head to the boutique and make sure you pick something suitable.”

Riley almost didn’t want to go to the boutique after what happened to her the last time.

However this time when she walked in she was greeted by a kind middle-aged woman with a genuinely welcoming smile.

“And you must be Lady Riley.”

“I am.” Riley still had her guard up her voice and body language tight and protecting herself.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Oh!”

“I know that the last time you were here, you didn’t have the greatest experience with the staff, and I apologize for that, but if there is anything you need I will be more than willing to assist.”

“Thank you so very much.”

Riley smiled.

“It’s no wonder….”

“It’s no wonder what?”

“Why he’s so enchanted with you. I was sworn to secrecy, but he couldn’t hide how he feels about you. Let me know if you need any help picking out something for him. You’re living your very own Cinderella story right now.”

The Double Date Mistake

The Meet: Chapter 2

The Book: TRR

Pairing: Liam x OC

Status: Still in the writing process

“And done. He has your number now Jili. Now fly my little birdies fly.”

She thought he would text right away but he didn’t. The whole way to Bebe’s apartment the twenty minute drive Jili’s phone was silent.

Bebe looked at Jili as she glanced at her phone. What the actual hell?

She texted Jilian.

“Bebe why the hell are you texting me? I’m sitting right next to you?”

“I was just making sure your phone was on.”

“I mean he’s still working Bebe. He can’t just drop everything and just start texting away.”

“The hell he can’t. What in the actual fuck is wrong with you bruh?” Bebe grumbled as she angrily typed on her phone.

“Wing Woman are you trying to crash this plane?”

“The mother hasn’t even taken off yet with you two trying to pilot it. I’m gonna need you to get your life together Jili.”

The driver pulled to a stop. “Damn I really wanted to see how this turned out.”

Bebe got out of the car in a huff.

“I’ll let you know.” Jili called out the window to her.

Ri-Liamo de Bergerac

Fast Forward Special: A birthday Fic:

The Book: TRH and Beyond

Pairing: Liam x Riley

Status: Still in the writing process

* not complaining here: but you guys love some fast forward! this would be the second time I’ve asked for a specific series pairing on a birthday fic and fast forward is what is mentioned. I miss it too. *

Riley raised her eyebrow at Maxwell. She saw him pacing nervously as he kept glancing in Taylor's direction. Taylor was completely oblivious as she had her nose buried in a book she'd gotten from the estate library.

Finally Maxwell had psyched himself up. He walked over to Taylor sitting in the lawn chair next to her.

"Hey Softie."

Taylor put down her book, as did Ellie as she was sharing the oversized lounge chair in the sun with Taylor. Both lifted their sunglasses to their hair.

"Lord Playlist?"

"So I was wondering if you want to have dinner tonight."

"Silly Uncle Maxwell, we eat dinner every night." Ellie confirmed matter of factly.

"What Riley Jr. said." Both Taylor and Ellie picked up their books again, sliding their glasses back to cover their eyes.

Riley laughed to herself. Oh my God Taylor she thought. She is absolutely adorably clueless. Liam laughed softly. He gently rubbed Riley's stomach.

"Aren't you glad we're married? We don't have to do that."

"You were never like that."

Liam blushed. "I felt like that when I talked to you the first time. I don't even remember what I said on the street to you. I was so dumbfounded by your beauty."

"You don't remember me being so awkward?"

Liam shook his head. "You… were perfect, is all I remember, My Love."

A light blush hit Max's cheeks.

"What I meant Softie, was you and me alone, away from the estate."

Taylor slowly lowered the book again.

"So like a date?"

"I mean date is a strong word, but it could be an accurate one. Two people dressed nicely eating food together at the same table. I mean I'm not opposed to the idea if you are."

Tagging the comments!

#six sentence sunday #cfwc sunday six #liam x riley #trr fanfic #trr fandom #trh fanfic #trh fandom #play choices #choices fic writers creations #fast forward #the meet #the life of riley #riley goes to cordonia

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scvrllet · 4 years ago

Note

imagine being apart of the marauders (or at least close friends with them)

wrote this running on 0 hours of sleep so I’ll be editing soon

running into them during one of their pranks in third year

them thinking you were going to rat them out

but instead you lectured them about how idiotic their plan was then told them how they could’ve done better

them being quite shocked

slowly becoming friends

would definitely prank you

because they just wanted to see what you’d do as payback so they could get a few new ideas since they were running out

them seeing you as their little sister by the end of third year

a vast majority of the school thinking you’re dating all three of them

you’re not, of course

but that doesn’t stop people from thinking so

so you guys just ignore them

if they keep bothering you James and Sirius would probably hex them

or the four of them would prank them

or both

being very protective of you when another student starts getting a little too close or stares for a little too long

“I don’t need to be babied!”

“Shut up, do you want some chocolate?”

oh and speaking of chocolate

they know how to help you through your periods

lots of blankets for cuddling

having an almost endless supply of chocolates, candies and whatever else you may want

Remus helping you study and recommending new books he thinks you might enjoy

“Hey (Y/N), have you read this book yet? I just finished it and it’s really good, you should read it sometime.”

eventually he’d just stop asking and just place it on your bed along with some chocolate

the Marauders not letting you go with them on full nights

them also being scared to tell you at first, especially Remus

but you didn’t really mind

so while they were out on the full moon, you’d be sneaking around the castle getting as much food as possible

Sirius coming to you for advice

letting his walls down whenever he was around you

platonic cuddles!

lots and lots of platonic cuddling

James would be the most protective over you

he’s already the mother hen of the Marauders

but with you?

oh boy

just goes full protection mode

sometimes he can be a little too much

but it’s just because he doesn’t want to see you get hurt

by anyone

will punch someone who looks at you wrong with no hesitation

Peter sneaking around the school with you late at night when you’re bored

often sneaks food to you when you’re hungry in class

when James and Lily started talking at the end of sixth year she’s undeniably jealous of you

she thinks you like him and her smile instantly drops when you’re near

because she’d enter the Gryffidnor Common Room to look for James

only to see him laying on the couch with his head in your lap while you hummed a song, eyes glued to your book

she’d just turn around then ignore him for the next week

that is until seventh year starts

and the two of you are paired together for Potions

it was awkward at first

she’d flash you a convincing smile

though not convincing enough

and you just politely smiled back

but 10 minutes in and Professor Slughorn says something

you quietly mock him under your breathe thinking no one would hear you

but Lily did and she almost got kicked out of class for laughing

and that was the beginning of your friendship with Lily Evans

the boys were very confused a week later when they saw you walk towards her and instead of frowning she pulled you into a hug ?

“When did this happen?”

“Potions.”

helping James ask her out

helping Lily realize her feelings for James

being the one both of them would come to for relationship advice

Jily finally becoming an official couple

going to the Potters for the Christmas holidays

getting a little too drunk in his basement which resulted in everyone passing out

you woke up in Sirius’ arms on the couch

Lily with James’ head on her lap on the opposite side of the couch

Remus had pushed two arm chairs together to sleep

(he was also the most sober one and placed blankets on all of you before going to sleep himself )

Peter was sprawled on the ground

joining The Order right after graduating

you and Sirius being named godparents after Harry is born

the two of spoiled the child beyond belief

then Voldemort happens and whatever

Sirius is wrongfully imprisoned because Pettigrew’s a pussy

you gain custody of Harry James Potter

and though Remus tried to get joint custody and it didn’t work, he often visited and helped you raise Harry

you knew Sirius didn’t kill Pettigrew

Remus, however, did not

you’d still tell Harry about Sirius though because he’s his godfather

time skip to when Sirius escapes Azkaban but instead of staying at 12 Grimmauld Place, he stays at yours

a fairly large house in a Muggle community

Sirius being so happy to finally see you, Remus and Harry again

but then old Voldy comes back again

Battle of the Department of Mysteries happens

and while Remus was holding Harry back from running through the veil with Sirius

you were chasing after Bellatrix

successfully using crucio on her

only stopping when you realized Harry - and his friends - were watching

though they understood and didn’t judge

you broke down that night

and when Harry came the next night the two of you ate dinner in silence

time skip again lmao to Battle of Hogwarts

Tonks and Remus die

you being the last Marauder alive

and being the only one able to grow old with your family

“(Y/N) is most likely to outlive us all.” You remembered James saying one night in the Gryffidnor Common Room

“Why must you always be right, Potter?”

naming your kids after the Marauders

also being the only one to die of old age

though when you woke up one day you noticed you were 17 again and quite scared because what the hell was happened

and you seemed to be in your old dorm back at Hogwarts

then you realized

“Took you long enough.”

A/N: If you don’t understand the ending, reader died (naturally in their sleep) and one (or all) of the Marauders said that last line (you can imagine whoever you’d like)

Taglist (there’s bits of Sirius Black x Platonic!Reader so this counts right?): @jellybeanduck99 @coldlilheart @strangerpilot011 @bravelyparker @emmaloo21 @lozzybowe @jjklefttoe @kamilantya (couldn’t tag you for some reason, sorry)

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writtenonreceipts · 3 years ago

Text

Here’s a Harry Potter fic, it’s just an old Jily fic I found in my files, enjoy. It’s a Canon ifc right around 5.4k words

fine my main masterlist here

The Name of the Game

Year 6- September 2

The one thing that Lily Evans appreciated most about Hogwarts was the fact that escape was possible. Escape from friends, escape from the world, escape even from herself.

It was only the second day of the term and Lily was already feeling smothered by everything. After disentangling herself from Severus Snape at the end of last year, her friends (wonderful as they were) tried too hard in getting Lily to be social and have girl’s night.

Mary, Marlene, Alice, and even Dorcas were her closest confidents while at school. Especially now that she hadn’t been able to reconcile with her sister. Really, she should have been willing to open up and talk to them.

Maybe in a few weeks she would be up to it, but for now she just wanted to mourn.

Running a hand through her hair, Lily shook the thoughts from her head and left the castle. The autumn air was still warm enough that Lily only needed a cardigan to keep warm, her hair hung in a thick sort of mess just past her chin. Thankfully it had begun growing out from the terrible cut she had gotten at the start of the summer. Maybe she could see if Marlene would help her find a spell to lengthen it.

“Hey, Red!”

Lily cringed at the loud and robust call that hailed her from entry way of the Castle. Trying to keep a muted expression, Lily glanced over her shoulder to see none other than James Potter bounding down the steps of the Castle toward her. She was surprised that he wasn’t sliding down the banisters. In First Year, he and Sirius had gotten a month’s worth of detention and a frenzied chase around the castle by Filch. Although, she was sure the boys still found ways to slide down the banisters without getting noticed.

“What did you call me Potter?” she demanded as she continued her walk across the grounds. He, much to her annoyance, kept pace with his freakishly long legs.

They walked down the well-worn path that lead down by the Forbidden Forrest on that late Thursday afternoon. Lily had no real destination in mind, she just desperately needed to walk around after escaping Alice’s pleads for another hour of discussing herbology theory.

Although now that Potter had found her and seemed to be bored, Lily realized she needed to come up with someplace to go quick or else she may be stuck with his presence the rest of the day. Or else she could return to Alice’s side and have another in-depth discussion on mandrake breeding processes.

Given how they’d left things the previous year, Lily wasn’t sure how she felt about being around him anymore than necessary.

“Called you Red,” he replied lightly, his deep hazel eyes catching hers with a near maniac gleam to them. She had a sudden flashback to running about the castle with him in third year trying to get away from Mrs. Norris. “You know, with the fiery red hair, the fiery red attitude.”

She could slap him. Twice. Maybe add an effectively aimed kick. “See, Potter, this is the reason that I choose to ignore you.”

“Ignore me, eh?” he grinned easily his lopsided smile was a force to be reckoned with and Lily had to fight not to crack a smile. “You’ve never been very good at that.”

“Only because you are too starved for attention.” Lily rolled her eyes and waved to Professor Sprout who was maneuvering some rather stubborn looking plants about the First Year Greenhouses. Their conversation flowed easy, too easily, and Lily found herself troubled by it. She should be mad at him. She should be yelling and threatening. And yet, she couldn’t find the energy. Or the desire. The notion of hating him didn’t settle well with her now.

Even after what transpired after the O.W.L.S examination last year, Lily really couldn’t ignore him. She never had been able to. James Potter was an enigma that she couldn’t rightly wrap her mind around.

“And yet, you still chose to satiate my childish need of said attention,” James replied. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, not before Lily noticed, nearly running them through his hair. Lily’s stomach twisted. He remembered the way they left things. Of course he did. Oh, she needed to find an escape route. “What are you up to today, Emerald?”

“Really Potter? Emerald?” She scoffed shaking her head. “I thought you were more creative than that.”

“Well, I was going to call you “love,” but I’d really like to be able to play Quidditch for the rest of the year, y’know?”

“Yes, I agree,” Lily mused, “you really should not call me love.”

James chuckled and Lily noticed (dammit) that he seemed to favor a lower tone, the kind that reminded her of a nicely stoked fire. “So, does Lily Evans have nothing better to do with her day than wander around the Castle Grounds?”

Oh, Lily thought as she finally paid attention to their surroundings. She’d begun to walk in a lackadaisical zigzag pattern, nearing a bit too close to the edge of the Forrest. Potter didn’t seem to be annoyed, just amused. Blast it.

“Well, I’m just clearing my head. We’ve got that Transfiguration essay to write and all.”

“Right,” he agreed, and ran a hand through his hair. Did he really feel that uncomfortable around her? Yes. Yes, he did. And she couldn’t blame him. “I didn’t expect McGonagall to be so intense with us this early. But, she never ceases to surprise me.”

Lily hummed in agreement. “Yeah.”

In truth, while the essay was bedraggling a great part of her mind, Lily was also caught up with thoughts of Severus, her sister, and now the stiff awkwardness she was feeling toward James. Over the summer, while Severus had tried to remain in contact with Lily, she’d finally decided that enough was enough and she wasn’t going to respond. Marlene, Mary, Dorcas, and Alice had all supported her enthusiastically with the decision.

The Petunia Issue was a great deal more complicated. And much to Lily’s horror to the fact, she was slowly realizing that she may need to let her sister go. That thought alone was enough to cause her to want to crawl into bed and never get up.

“Firecracker?” James asked, though it sounded much more like he was searching approval of the name than calling for her attention.

Sweet Merlin, what is this? Lily looked at him incredulously to find that he was failing miserably at fighting back a smile. “Are you serious?”

“No, actually, but I know—”

He was cut off by Lily’s fist trying to connect with his shoulder. Laughing madly, James dashed out of the way and nearly into the line of trees of the Forrest.

“I’m going to tell Black that you tried to make that joke again,” she threatened, but the fear she tried to evoke was lost to her giggles. “I thought you all’d made an oath never to use that on anyone again?”

James suddenly looked very somber. “Yes, I would actually appreciate it if you didn’t tell the boys about that. I already owe them each three galleons.”

“Oh?” Lily was still shaking with laughter as they rounded another corner. “Already? I thought you reset your betting game at the start of the year after you all settled up.”

“Yeah,” James mumbled, a distinct blush flushed his cheeks. “There was a thing, and then this other—I failed again on that front.”

Eyeing him curiously, Lily corralled them away from the trees. While she wasn’t afraid of what was in the Forrest, she still felt a bit uneasy about what lay inside. “Right.”

He kept quiet as they weaved around a patch of boulders and nearer to the Lake. It was curious; James Potter actually seemed embarrassed by something. What he had anything to be embarrassed about, Lily had no idea. Potter was always the calm, savvy type. Albeit a goofball and prankster as well, but this sudden sputtering and blushing caught Lily off guard.

“Why have the boys started calling you Prongs?” she asked suddenly, hoping that would change the mood between them.

His eyes widened, only briefly before his usual easy grin flashed across his face. “Oh, just a bit of a joke between us from the start of last year. Moony couldn’t be the only one with a nickname.”

“Right,” Lily said, though she wasn’t convinced. One of James’ hands seemed to flex at his side. Probably trying to keep from roughing up his hair—again. Lily bit her lip to keep from grinning. “Do I want know where Padfoot and Wormtail came from?”

“Actually, those are funny stories,” James’ eyes brightened and Lily could feel the energy radiating off of him.

“Funny or disturbing,” Lily asked, miming that she was weighing a scale, “because I just don’t know with you.”

“Evans, Evans, Evans,” James chuckled as they came to the edge of the Lake. “Just imagine for me, Peter growing out his hair and deciding to cut it all off except for this long braided strand. He tried to put beads in it.”

Lily let out a laugh and clamped her hands over her mouth. Encouraged by her reaction, James laughed to, continuing the image.

“Evans, I wish I had gotten a picture, for a while there it was a mullet. A mullet that we did not tell him to do. I think he was trying to be a bit more like Sirius honestly,” James glanced out over the glassy water thoughtfully. “We thought he’d grown out of that phase in Fourth Year. We were terribly mistaken.”

Lily sputtered another laugh and had to bit her lip to keep quiet. “Please tell me you cut it off.”

“We got all but that tail,” James mourned. “And he took extra precaution to keep it safe after that. Now, Sirius on the other hand, was much more scandalous. He decided to sneak down into the Kitchen in nothing but his boxers to grab a box of cookies. And then my Mum caught him like that stuffing as many cookies in his mouth as he could.”

They stopped walking now, just at the edge of the Lake. To Lily’s horror, they were near the old tree from last year where most of their issues had boiled over, painfully. Though James didn’t seem too worried about it, so neither would she. Instead, Lily rolled her eyes at the image of Sirius and his lack of modesty. “So, Sirius lives with your family?”

“Yeah,” James’ face brightened at the fact and he looked as though he could talk about it all day. “He does.”

Lily almost asked him what had spurred that, but caught herself. There was no reason why Potter should confide in her like this. There was no reason why they should spend this much time talking to one another either.

After the incident by the Lake, near this exact spot, Lily had been certain she wouldn’t have anything to do with him. She was sure that would be it, that they’d finally go their own ways. Yet here they were.

“Are you just going to follow me around?” Lily finally asked. “I would assume you have better things to be doing with your day.”

His mouth quirks in a smile, he begins to say something before he shakes his head. Biting his lip, James stuffs his hands in his pockets. “Nah. The boys are all in detention. Well, Peter and Sirius are. Remus is…well he’s around. And, I wanted, er, needed to talk to you.”

“About what?” Nice Lily. Hmm, I wonder what you two could possibly need to talk about. It was Lily’s turn to flush and she ran a hand through her hair.

He didn’t look at her as shuffled his feet, hands stuffed in his pockets. James exhaled stiffly and looked out over the glassy surface of the lake, the water reflected sharply in the sun. “I wanted to apologize.”

Lily blinked.

Apologize? As in try to make amends? Wanted? As in he desired to do this and admit he was in the wrong?

“Oh.” Brilliant. That was just a beautiful thing to say to that. Congratulations Lily, keynote speaker right there.

“I mean,” James said quickly. “I’ll be honest that he deserved it. But I should have handled it better than I did. I know he’s your friend and—”

“Was.” She watched a ripple expand over the surface of the water as a tentacle of the Giant Squid skimmed the water.

“Was?”

“Was.”

“Oh.” He frowned deeply and finally turned toward her. “I didn’t know.”

Lily scraped her teeth against her lower lip. She would not start crying. “I couldn’t make excuses anymore.”

“I’m sorry Evans,” he even sounded sincere, Lily realized. They stared at each other for a moment and Lily almost felt a swell of gratitude for him, almost.

“Thanks for apologizing Potter,” she finally said. He pursed his lips and nodded, the fact that she didn’t actually accept the apology wasn’t lost on him.

“No one should ever lose their best friend,” he told he firmly. Something caught his attention as he turned, a broad grin stretching on his features. Lily glanced over her shoulder to see Peter Pettigrew looping awkwardly across the grounds waving madly.

“Prongs! Prongs!” The boy wasn’t as tall as James, nor as slender and lean, but he had a solid quality to him, even as he nearly went tumbling down after tripping over a rock.

“Wormtail,” James called exasperated. He shook his head, but Lily could see the affection he had toward his friend. “You’re going to break your ankle, again!”

“Moony’s here,” replied Peter. He stopped trying to run, opting instead to try and catch his breath, hands on his knees.

“Excellent.” James clapped his hands and tipped an imaginary hat to Lily and smiled. “Thank’s for not hexing me.”

“You didn’t give me a reason to,” Lily replied quietly. She wasn’t sure he heard her as he ran to his friend. The two began talking animatedly as they hurried back to the castle. “Bye.”

Shaking her head, Lily looked back over the Lake. It used to be one of her favorite places to come to and think. It was always one of the quieter places around Hogwarts. Quiet, but with just enough noise to keep her sane.

She stood there for a while longer until she noticed someone come stand next to her. Mary McDonald said nothing as she leaned her head on Lily’s shoulder and breathed deeply.

“Alice is talking about getting another toad,” Mary finally said. “We need an intervention.”

Snorting Lily began laughing and she couldn’t bring herself to stop as she and Mary slowly began to head back to the castle.

.*.*.*

After nearly two weeks, Lily almost forgot about the interaction she had with Potter that day by the Lake. The second interaction. Not the first. That was a lie. They were both still the center of attention to her. But, she couldn’t let them consume her completely. Not when she had to be at the top of her game in her classes and not slack off as a Prefect. Not when the possibility of becoming Head Girl was so close and so possible.

Lily almost forgot about it though. Almost forgot about the nickname game that Potter seemed to be playing.

Almost.

“If it isn’t the Tempestuous Redhead herself.” Sirius Black called cheerfully across the Common Room late one evening. Lily, upon returning from a particularly terrible night of rounds, only wanted to go up to bed and be dead to the world for the rest of her life. Black wasn’t helping matters.

Under different circumstances she might have smiled. But the way Black lounged in his chair twirling his wand nonchalantly, Lily had no qualms about setting him straight with a bat-boogey hex.

“Padfoot,” Potter stage whispered. He sat cross-legged on the floor by the coffee table and could see the murderous expression on Lily’s face. Genuinely concerned for his friend’s safety, he tried to smack Sirius. But, the other young man seemed unconcerned with the looming threat.

The other Marauders seemed at an impasse, be worried or be amused? The general consensus was amused as Pettigrew’s head snapped between Lily and Sirius and terribly hidden smile on his lips. Lupin smirked resting an elbow on the back of the couch, his eyes gleamed with approval in Lily’s direction.

“Care to repeat that Black?” Lily finally asked slowly walking fulling into the Common Room. Black didn’t baulk or shift as Lily glared at him. If anything, he was much more confident. This is why he and Potter are friends, Lily realized suddenly.

“The Tempestuous Redhead,” Black shrugged. His shaggy hair fell across his face casting shadows sharply against his skin. He was actually decently fit. Lily realized she would need to concede in her argument with Marlene over the more attractive boys of Gryffindor.

“Hmm,” Lily raised an eyebrow. “I was going to give you an opportunity to spare your life.”

Sirius propped his feet up on the table, giving more access for James to slap him. Shaking off his mate, Sirius’ grin broadened. “C’mon, Evans, it’s a good nickname. I guarantee you if you have people call you that, those third years will give you less flak.”

“And I can guarantee you that if you continue calling me that, I will murder you,” Lily responded. She held his gaze for a moment before looking between the other Marauders. Pettigrew was giddily bouncing in his seat, Lupin now blatantly smiled as he shook with silent laughter. Potter too seemed to be laughing, but was doing his best to control it. Though, his eyes never left Lily.

“But you could be a pirate with that name,” Peter suddenly burst out. A look of pure terror came across his face, but the damage was done.

“What?” Absolutely flabbergasted at what the blond boy had said, Lily stared at him.

Black, Lupin, and Potter couldn’t fight it anymore and they began laughing outright now. Potter fell back on his elbows, the light of the fire falling on his features and Lily could see dark shadows beneath his eyes.

“Y-you could be a pirate,” Peter whispered horrified that he was still allowing his traitorous tongue to speak.

This sent the boys into another fit of giggles that Lily couldn’t seem to understand. Maybe if she weren’t so tired, if they weren’t all such insufferable gits, she would be laughing with them.

“I-I don’t want to be a pirate Peter,” Lily finally said. She closed her eyes as there was even more giggling and hisses to “shut-up ya fool” and “she really will kill us.” Lily opened her eyes to see Peter had slunk down into the couch so only his eyes and the tip of his forehead peeked over the back. Potter sat up wiping tears of mirth from his eyes. “I’m just going to go to bed. When I get up in the morning, I will not be the Tempestuous Redhead, nor will I be a pirate.”

“Agreed,” Peter squeaked as his eyes disappeared into the couch.

“G’night Evans!” Black called as Lily stomped up to the girl’s dormitory’s.

“Sorry!” Potter called not long after.

Lily spent the rest of that evening falling over in fits of giggles as she recounted the encounter with her friends.

.*.*.*

“Lilykins!” It was James who dared to try the naming game again. Nearly a month after the pirate incident Lily had taken hope that it would be just the two times. Hoped in the relative sense. She would only admit to herself, that yes, it was amusing to see what the boys could come up with as nicknames. And if she was being honest with herself, it nice to have the interaction. Despite how ridiculous it always seemed to be.

This time, Lily and Marlene were headed down to Hogsmead, after Marlene had finally settled on a scarf to wear with her outfit. Apparently the first five scarf attempts made Marlene look like she had five chins. Something Lily didn’t see, but there was no persuading Marlene otherwise. James and Remus walked, a bit to quickly about the halls. Stuffing a spare bit of parchment in his pocket Remus waved kindly at the two witches.

“I think I would prefer to be a pirate,” Lily responded mildly as she carefully observed the two boys. They were trying too hard to appear innocent for Lily’s liking.

“I’ll be sure to let Peter know,” James with a wink as they continued.

“We should probably get out of the castle as soon as possible,” Lily decided. There was the distinctive sound of running footsteps and she was convinced that Potter and Lupin were the source.

“Probably,” Marlene agreed. “Although, the pixie invasion of Halloween was rather enjoyable.”

Lily rolled her eyes as Marlene bumped into her with a hip.

.*.*.*

The chill of the dungeons made Lily wish she’d worn a scarf that morning. Even for late November, it was cold. Pulling her robes tighter around her, Lily hurried from Professor Slughorns office. After an incident with a few fourth years the previous night, Lily hadn’t been able to finish an assigned essay, but gratefully, Slughorn now extended the due date for her. Even if it was just one extra day, it still relieved the pressure that had been building in Lily’s chest throughout the week.

Mary had offered to stay back with her, but Lily declined. They had a free period now, and Mary needed to get caught up on her Charms work. A fact the brunette firmly denied, but Lily had seen the small look of relief in her eyes. That and Mary had begun talking in her sleep. It was bad enough that Alice wasn’t a good sleeper, having two in the dorm who would talk or walk unconsciously could only end in disaster.

Lily smirked at the thought. She wondered if there would be a way to get Mary to admit anything in particular in her sleep.

Someone shouted along the way ahead, Lily almost thought it could be Mary coming back, but the voice was too deep. Frowning, Lily glanced over her shoulder, but it didn’t seem Slughorn was emerging from his office, and she knew he had no other classes that afternoon.

“C’mon Rooky,” the voice continued. Lily felt her stomach sink, Avery. Not that she should be afraid of him. Or Rookwood.

“Relax,” Avery responded as he rounded the corner of the corridor.

To her chagrin, Lily’s breath caught and she automatically felt her muscles constrict, forcing her body to become smaller. This was ridiculous. Inhaling sharply, Lily threw her shoulders

Their voices stilled as they caught sight of her, and the only sound in the dungeons was shuffling feet and swishing robes.

“Well look who it is,” Rookwood mused. They were too far down the hall to actually do anything, but the way the torches unevenly lit the way and the small space of the hall made them feel closer.

“The Gryffindor.” Avery’s low voice seemed to slide across the old stone of the dungeons to Lily. Straightening, she did her best to look neutral to their goads.

“The mudblood,” Rookwood corrected with a disapproving click of his tongue.

“Something I can help you boys with?” Lily asked as they drew nearer. They couldn’t be stupid enough to actually try anything. Could they? Slughorn’s office wasn’t too far down, he would hear if anything escalated. But it wouldn’t. There was nothing Lily needed to be worried about.

“Why would anyone want to be defended by a mudblood?” Ignoring Lily, the two Slytherin’s continued their conversation, drawing closer.

No one would blame her if she cast a sticking charm to keep them in place if she ran, would they? But she wasn’t going to run because there was nothing to run from. It was just like Severus said, Avery especially talked a lot, he never actually did anything. Rookwood, Severus never said anything about him.

So now you’re trusting his word again? Lily thought to herself. She pursed her lips as she neared the boys. Neither moved aside to let her pass, if anything they seemed to be moving toward her like a net. A net of stupid and stupider. She needed to stop listening to Alice and her “insults.”

“If you don’t have a purpose in the dungeons, I can give you detentions,” Lily said, rather proud of the firm authority in her voice.

“Meeting with our head of house, mudblood,” Rookwood said. He was the taller of the two, long limbs that were too spindly, his blonde hair too stringy, lips too thin. A slow smile crossed his features. “We could ask you the same question.”

“Besides,” Avery added. He had attractive features, with dark eyes and splashes of freckles beneath his eyes. “It’s a free period.”

Before Lily could say anything Rookwood smoothly continued. “We are free to do what we want. A mudblood like you however, you shouldn’t even be in Hogwarts.”

“Interesting,” Lily deadpanned. “I’ll be sure to tell that to Dumbledore when I see him next: Blood status is more important than talent. I’m sure he’ll agree.”

Rookwood took a step closer to Lily, forcing her to lean against the wall. “Finally, the mudblood understands.”

“About time,” Avery scoffed. “Maybe she’ll see now this can’t be stopped. That there’s no place for dirty blood here.”

“So, you see,” Rookwood took liberty to make another slur, one that tempted Lily to curse his tongue off. “You see, your time’s limited.”

Swallowing stiffly, Lily kept her gaze locked with Rookwood. “I’ll keep that under advisement.”

“We’ll see that you do,” Rookwood’s hot breath on Lily’s cheek made her long for the chill she’d felt earlier.

And just as suddenly as the boys chose to stop and target her, they were gone. After a moment, Lily heard Slughorn’s booming voice welcome to the two boys and a door slam shut. Closing her eyes, Lily felt tears prick and begin to form.

“Bloody fool,” she whispered bracing herself on the wall. Coving her face, Lily took several deep breaths. She was fine. It was fine. They didn’t actually do anything, just like she’d originally thought. Even if their words still echoed in her mind.

The chill returned, a welcome change in the atmosphere. Tucking her hair over her shoulder, Lily straightened and ran. Stumbling into the main hall of the castle, she was grateful to see that it wasn’t busy. In fact, there wasn’t another soul in sight.

Sighing in relief, Lily straightened her clothes, glancing at her watch. She had about a half hour until Ancient Runes; a delightfully difficult class that would require her full attention.

“Everything alright, Evans?” Squawking in surprise, Lily glanced around to see James Potter emerging from a hall that Lily was sure led to the kitchens.

“Fine,” Lily said, though she knew her voice was an octave too high and she could feel her own eyes bugging out of her head. She usually wasn’t this horrid of a liar.

James, unconvinced, nodded. “You sure—?”

“Yes!” She snapped. The word settled between them heavily and Lily instantly regretted losing her temper, but James didn’t seem hurt or offended. Instead, he merely watched her; lips pursed, arms crossed over his chest.

“I am utterly convinced,” he said dropping his hands to stuff in his pockets. They stood in silence like that for several moments longer. Lily began to feel increasingly uncomfortable while James seemed more and more at ease.

“I shouldn’t have snapped at you,” Lily finally said and tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear.

James merely shrugged. “Thanks, but that’s not why I stuck around.”

Quirking an eyebrow, Lily watched as he walked over to her, and not in that lazy saunter he usually favored.

“What did you want Potter?” she asked.

“Just making sure,” he paused and leaned against the wall. His glasses gleamed in the light making as he glanced in the direction the Slytherin’s left. “Just wanted to make sure you’re alright.”

“I’m fine,” Lily said with a little more authority than she’d had previously. But, she was distinctly aware that his eyes flashed to the dungeons like hers had and one of his hands dove into his pocket where she was sure she heard the crinkle of parchment. “I would ask if you are alright Potter.”

James snorted, shaking his head. “Please Evans. I’m more than alright.”

“Sweet Merlin.” While it was classic Potter and she really didn’t want to egg him on, Lily couldn’t help but chuckled. “You are insufferable.”

“I do try.” He grinned and followed after she left the dungeons.

Lily rolled her eyes over her shoulder at him. “What were you doing down in the dungeons anyways Potter?”

“Um,” he stumbled up the stairs after her, working over his words. “I don’t want you to hex me.”

“Then don’t give me a reason to.”

James gave a soft laugh as he walked beside her. “Of course not Evans, of course not. It’s just that I know you. And you tend to like hexing me.”

“No more than you antagonize me,” she replied. Though, she really couldn’t help but smile.

James cleared his throat before speaking. “I knew you had a meeting with Slughorn. And then I saw Avery and Rookwood head down there too. And while I know you can take care of your self—I’d really hate to see you get expelled.”

They came to a stop in the middle of the Great Hall as students moved between their classes. Lily turned to look at him, still a bit confused that she and James Potter were having a somewhat decent conversation.

Raking a hand through his hair, James shrugged again. “Well, Evans, once again, thank-you for not hexing me.”

“Thank-you for not giving me a reason to,” she replied, his impish grin and sparkling eyes only made her smile more.

With a wink, James made for the stairs, Lily was quite certain she could hear Sirius bellowing at the top of his lungs for his friend.

“You know Potter, you could just call me Lily,” she burst out as she walked to the base of stairs. Her cheeks flushed immediately as she said it. Sweet Merlin her face was probably the same color as her hair. Crap. Despite that fact, she did her best to meet his gaze as boldly as she could.

Surprise burst across his feature, but only for a moment before his grin returned. “Then do one thing for me in return Red.”

Lily quirked an eyebrow. If he dared ask her out, she would deliver that kick she’d thought of since third year. “Oh?”

“You could,” he stepped up the three steps separating with such quick grace that Lily didn’t have time to stumble back or flinch. James was too close to her now. So close, she realized, that she could smell his cologne and feel the heat radiating off his body. Or was it her own body heat? There was a blush already stretching across her cheeks despite how hard she did to fight it. “You could call me James.”

And with that, he bounded back up the steps towards Sirius’ magnified voice (with a bit of McGonagall mingled there as well).

It was only after he’d disappeared up a few more flights that Lily released the breath she had been holding. Running a hand through her hair, Lily watched the way James went and felt a slow smile slip over her lips.

“Alright James,” she whispered.

.*.*.

thanks for reading!

#harry potter #jily #james potter #lily evans

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enbysiriusblack · 4 years ago

Text

Jily, in the friendship stage

It was the middle of spring and half the school was outside, enjoying the uncommon sunshine. Lily was sitting by the lake, leaning against a tree with a book in her hands and pretending to be studying.

Instead, she was watching the marauders, more specifically, James. They had only recently become friends and it was strange.

He was still arrogant, showed off, and acted like an idiot sometimes. But she was starting to not mind it as much, and she realised she liked how he always winked at her when he entered the room, how he would boast about his talents to anyone listening but he would also nonstop boast about his friends talents. She started to like how he would run his hands through his hair when he felt awkward and didn't know what to say or do, she liked how quick he would backup his friends and the glare that went to anyone that dared to insult them. She liked how he hugged his mother and told the world about his love for his parents, not caring that it wasn't 'cool'.

As she stared at James, who was currently playing some sort of childish playground game, she suddenly noticed Remus staring back with a knowing smirk on his face.

She glared back at him and hid her head back in her book. However, it seemed that Remus had told something to James as a few minutes later, James ungracefully plopped himself down next to her.

"Hey Lily, what are you reading?"

Lily put her book down, looked over to him and showed him the cover.

"The history of the Mandrake, the plant known to kill and cure"

"Fascinating" he replied with a grin.

"Oh shut up, it actually is fascinating. It use to be used as a muggle anesthetic for surgery thousands of years ago and was used to cure mania but taken in large doses it was known to induce madness."

James stared at her, confused. "What in merlin's name is annie-ste-tic"

She rolled her eyes, "dont worry, its boring". She put the book down and moved to lie fully down and gazed up at the sky.

A few moments later, James had joined her. And they both layed in the grass, staring up at the light blue sky.

"Nothing you're interested in is boring. If its interesting to you, its interesting to me. Why wouldn't I want to know about the things you love??"

Lily laughed and looked at him. "I dont love the history of mandrakes... but thank you"

James continued to stare at at the sky, and nudged her arm lightly. "tell me more"

"people use to make amulets with them as a good luck charm but there was a superstition that anyone who pulled a mandrake out of the ground would go to hell, hell is this place in a common muggle religion that many believe you go to after you die if you make bad choices and do bad things."

"is it because of the mandrake shriek?? they thought it was some kind off omen?"

Lily grinned, "yes!! thats exactly it, and they would tie the root to animals so they could pull it out for them and get out of being condemned to hell"

James audibly gasped at this news, "the poor animals!! getting sentenced to the bad bad place for something out of their control"

Lily laughed again, "It might not even be real who knows, but I don't think animals go to hell, James."

James shook his head, "still, the animals, Lily, think of the animals"

They slowly progressed to a comfortable silence, and lay watching the sky together. Lily moved her head so it rested next to James' shoulder.

"Can I meet your parents? I know I've seen them but I mean properly. Like going to yours in the summer holiday?"

James turned to look at her. "You.. want to come round my house and meet my mum and dad?"

Lily nodded, "of course. You all speak so highly of Mr and Mrs Potter that I have to see them. Besides... I'd miss you over the summer."

"I'd miss you too"

They both fell silent again as Lily grabbed James' hand and held it connected to hers, as they layed on the grass and looked up to the sky.

Both thinking about each other and what "I'd miss you" meant.

#yes all that mandrake stuff is true #i found it interesting so i did a lot of research on them #i got a lot more of it #jily oneshot #jily #harry potter #harry potter fandom #marauders era #harry potter marauders #hp marauders #james potter #lily evans #james x lily #marauders #jily headcanon

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startanewdream · 4 years ago

Text

The other talk

Summary: Ginny’s happy moment with Harry turns awkward when his mother catches them. (A prequel/sequel to The Talk 2.0)

For @Jilyjilyjily and @prettyflores that requested this moment, and for @madhulika18 that wanted more Jily views of Harry and Ginny after the war. Hope you enjoy :)

Warning for mild very soft smut, so it’s rated M.

Read on AO3 or below the cut:

_____________

When Ginny was six, she broke out in her family’s broom shed, chose a random broom and though she had never done it before, she took flight. She fell ten seconds later, almost breaking her arm, but it didn’t matter. Those ten seconds in the air had been the happiest of her life until then; she had felt free, exhilarated, somewhat powerful. She could fly, despite what her brothers teased her about.

She’d thought that nothing would make her feel happier, but then Harry had kissed her and Ginny had updated her lists of favourite things in the world.

Harry made her feel exhilarated and powerful and like she could do anything, even when they were closed together, his arms around her in a way that Ginny couldn’t escape easily if she tried to. She supposed she should feel claustrophobic, without air, but there was only freedom in kissing Harry - freedom and that warmth inside her, the blood pumping furiously in her veins and the shivers through her body as Harry’s lips moved from her mouth to her neck, sucking the skin there just as he knew she liked.

A part of her felt marvelled at the fact that he still remembered, even though it was one year since the golden sunlit days of the first part of their relationship, when they’d enjoy any free time they had on empty classrooms, isolated places on the grounds, or, even once, on a broom cupboard.

Maybe, just like her, Harry could not stop thinking about their time together even when he was off on that quest of his.

A moan escaped her lips and Harry laughed lowly - Ginny could feel the laugh on her skin just by the change of his breath and she had a mind of calling him a prat, but then he moved to the place just below her ear and all thoughts were gone, replaced by her need to stretch her neck and give him more space.

Sooner than she would like, his lips were looking for hers and Ginny returned his kiss, letting her hands roam freely through his chest, scraping at the edge of his shirt until she lifted it as much as she could, feeling his naked torso, the soft hair on his chest. Harry attended her silent request, stopping the kiss just so he could take out his shirt entirely.

Ginny had seen this chest before, but she felt she could never really get used to that new scar over his heart; her eyes met Harry’s - he looked apprehensive, as always, so she pulled him back to her, kissing him with as much energy as she could, her hands dancing around his torso, willing him to understand she didn’t care about his new scar anymore than for the others he had - just like she never cared for the one on his forehead.

When they were snogging like that, she wanted him to feel only like a normal guy kissing his normal girlfriend on the normal bed of his room.

‘This looks a bit unfair’, he whispered against her lips.

‘Hmmm?’

‘I have one less piece of cloth’.

She giggled, stopping the kiss to lay on the bed, while Harry moved just a little away, taking in the sight of her. He wasn’t wearing his glasses, so Ginny thought his vision was suffering, but his eyes sparkled, much greener than usual. Ginny watched him back, admiring the way his lips were swollen from kissing her, his skin darker and flushed.

'I can't help if I am smarter', she teased. 'It's only up to you how much cloth I wear'.

There was a flash of desire on his eyes, but Harry's hands were careful as he rolled to her side, looking very patient as he started to open the buttons of the shirt Ginny had carefully chosen that day for that effect. His eyes didn't really leave her face until he finished open her shirt and she took it off.

And then his eyes fell to her chest and they shone darker still.

Ginny felt her heart beating faster than ever. It was not the first time he'd seen her like that - thanks to a combination of Invisibility Cloak, late night trip and an open classroom in the third floor of Hogwarts -, but ever since then had been scars from her year at Hogwarts and still some faded marks from the battle. Despite knowing how he felt for her, there was always this nervousness as Harry contemplated her body - too many what-ifs and insecurities and -

'Merlin, you are beautiful', he whispered, his voice shaking with evident want and Ginny felt the seeds of doubt being pushed to the farthest place of her mind.

She bit her lips, giving him a lopsided smile, and took her hands away from Harry's body enough to take out her bra.

She heard his sharp intake of breath and felt her own desire raising even more as she saw Harry admiring her naked chest, his eyes burning brightly as he contemplated her breasts.

'Ginny, you -', but he was obviously at loss for words.

She put her hands around his neck, burying them on his dark hair, and Harry obliged her request once more, lowering his head and kissing the top of her breast, softly, as if tasting her. She arched her back, breathing heavily, until her breath caught as he rolled his tongue over her nipple.

'Do it again', she asked, her hands grasping his hair, and now Harry placed his mouth all over her nipple, sucking it lightly, and Ginny didn't mind moaning this time.

But she needed more.

She put her hands over his chest, stopping him, and Harry let out a cry of despair when he broke away. She ignored it, concentrating on changing places with him. Harry grinned when he understood what she meant, sitting on the bed and helping to place her on his lap, his hand just above the curve of her arse, holding her.

Ginny suddenly wished she was wearing a skirt instead of her jeans.

She kissed him on the lips once more, enjoying that sweet intoxicating taste that was so Harry, but it was not enough - and Harry seemed to think the same, because he broke away first, lowering his head once more in search of her breast while he raised a free hand to touch her other.

And then she moved on his lap, enjoying the friction of the jeans, until she felt Harry. It was not the first time she'd felt him hard during their snogging sessions - but that had been at Hogwarts, and not on his bed in his empty house.

That thought sent a wave of adrenaline through her, filling her with ideas. Her heart beat impossibly quicker and Ginny felt like that time she first took flight - slightly afraid and close to something that knew it could be really good if only she tried to.

Her hands were trembling, but she took them out of his neck to lower them to his waistband, opening the button of his jeans.

'Gin…', it was a warning and a challenge and a pleading.

She could ignore the first one and fully accepted the other two. Harry let out a moan, loud and painful and full of pleasure, as she traced him, even though it was over his trousers and she had a mind of somewhat returning the pleasure he was making her feel…

'Hey!'

It was the instinct of always running when her mother cried like that that made Ginny jump and break away from Harry, her hands automatically grabbing the first cloth she found - his shirt - to cover herself.

But when she turned around, it wasn't her mother. Of course not, they weren't in her house.

It was Lily Potter, her green eyes as dark as Ginny had seen on Harry before, though she would never mistake the fury on Lily's face now.

'What do you think you are doing?'

'I -'

Ginny was usually very good at thinking under stress, but there were no words for her now.

At her side, Harry looked from her to his mother with a frown.

'What does it look?', he asked, sounding annoyed.

'Like someone lied to me about spending the day studying at home', Lily replied, equally upset.

'Mum - you knew Ginny was coming'.

'For dinner, you said. If that's what you are doing alone on the house -'

'I am in my bedroom!'

'Which is still in my house, in case you haven't noticed'.

'Lily', Ginny called, trying for her nicest voice, though it didn't seem to help. Lily turned to her without any shadow of a smile. 'I - we are so sorry, we just lost the notion of… of time'.

'No, we are not sorry', Harry disagreed, and Ginny fought back a grimace. He wasn't helping. 'We were doing nothing wrong, the door was closed and if I could have any privacy at all -'

'You can choose your own privacy when you have your place', replied Lily, her words hissed. 'And right now, I expect you downstairs to start dinner. And -'

'I am not a child - you can't really -'

'I expect you to be wearing your clothes when you leave this room', Lily cut him, making him flush, and she turned in her heels to leave the room, making sure the door was left ajar.

Ginny let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and, making sure there was no way she could have been seen, she returned Harry's shirt, taking her own things. Harry was crossing his arms, looking annoyed, and he just blinked when Ginny raised and offered him her hand.

'Harry?'

'What are you doing?'

'Going downstairs to start dinner?'

He pressed his lips.

'You don't have to - she can't just tell us what to do like if we are kids -'

'She is your mum', Ginny said calmly. 'She gets to tell you what to do'.

'I am not a child she can just ground - I’m an adult now -'

‘Well, I’m not’, Ginny noted, her voice teasing, but Harry didn’t smile.

‘She is not your mother’.

No, Ginny thought, she is just the mother of my boyfriend. Much worse.

'Come on, Harry. Let’s not make this worse, please?’

Harry was still grimacing, but he took her hand. Ginny raised her eyebrows at him when he ignored the shirt she had returned to him, going chest-naked to the kitchen, and Ginny could not question his intentions when Lily entered the kitchen too and saw him like that.

Her lips were pressed thin, in a line that would make Professor McGonagall very proud, Ginny thought.

But despite her obvious annoyance, there was a hard decided look on Lily's face, and Ginny knew she would talk to Harry later - considering what she had caught them doing (or almost doing), Ginny had a fair idea of what it would be discussed and she was pretty sure she didn't want to be part of it.

She could never look Lily and James on the face again if she had to endure them giving them a sex talk.

'I will be going', she said quickly, just as they finished putting the pie in the oven.

'No', Harry's angry expression broke into a pout. 'Don't go, we will watch some movie or - I am sorry for how we broke off things -'

'Hey, it's ok', she assured him, not daring to hug him in the eyesight of Lily. 'I will see you tomorrow'.

There was a loud cough and Ginny blushed just as Harry frowned at his mother once again.

'During the family lunch', she added loudly. 'With everyone. Not hidden. Fully clothed'.

Harry didn't seem to rejoice in this fact much.

'Is that supposed to make me feel better?', he replied, and there was another cough from the door of the kitchen, where Lily was casually leaning, her face sober.

Ginny sighed. These two were too stubborn to their own good sometimes.

'See you later', she said, leaning forward to place a chaste kiss on his cheek; but Harry turned his face, his lips capturing hers rather hungrily, in a way that would have let Ginny dizzy if she didn't know he was doing it just to upset his mother. She broke away, shaking her head at him. 'You are mean, Potter', she whispered, entering the fireplace and letting herself vanish in the middle of green flames.

_____________

There were a lot of things Ginny meant to do, but being in the kitchen alone with Lily Potter was not one of them - at least not for a few days, until she was sure that story was well past them. She would even endure James and Sirius taking the mickey out of it, just so it was clear to everyone that being caught snogging Harry in his room was water under the bridge.

Well, not everyone. She would rather her parents - and brothers, for good measure - didn't know ever.

And Ginny couldn't help herself to be tense anytime she saw her parents talking to James and Lily, even though everyone seemed normal. Harry had been much happier when she saw him that afternoon, kissing her softly in the lips like nothing had happened the day before.

Ginny envied him in that.

'Could you take the treacle tart to the garden?', Lily asked her distractedly.

'Yes, Mrs. Potter', she answered without thinking, and Lily turned to her with an expression Ginny didn't wait to understand.

She took the treacle tart, but before she could leave the kitchen, Lily stopped in front of her. Ginny bit her lip, glancing briefly at Lily; she looked more concerned than upset, but Ginny couldn't be sure.

'Ginny', Lily started, her voice softer than the day before. 'I didn't mean to scare you yesterday'.

Ginny put the treacle tart back on the table, before turning to Lily, careful not to show any emotion.

'I wasn't'.

'You sort of run away, and Harry -'

'He thought it was your fault', Ginny guessed, half-amused with Harry's concern for her. 'No, I just figured that… maybe you needed to talk to Harry alone about... things'.

'You are smart, aren't you?'

'Clearly not enough', Ginny mumbled, not sure how to deal with Lily's apparently good mood. 'If we got caught -'

'Oh, I truly don't want you two to get caught again', Lily agreed, shuddering. 'But we… we talked to Harry. Set some rules just so nothing of sorts happens again'.

Ginny nodded, somberly.

'And… well, I won't share this with your parents'.

There was a rather knowing tone on Lily's voice, and Ginny blinked at her, surprised.

'You won't?'

'I won't betray your secrets. And I am sorry for how I reacted yesterday. It was a little overwhelming'.

'No, it's me who should ask sorry, I shouldn't -'

'You are young and in love and… I know how it feels. I should not have got so….'

'Upset?', Ginny suggested tentatively. 'Angrier than Mum that time Harry and Ron stole a car?'

Lily laughed.

'So maternal, yeah. I just forget sometimes Harry is old now - you will understand when you have your own kids'.

'Oh, no', she sighed, then she flushed. 'I mean, I don't think of kids yet, so please let's not -'

'That's fine, 'cause I don't want grandchildren just yet either', Lily interrupted her, with a smile. Then Lily looked away carefully. 'But - if you want to talk about it - potions or stuff - I don't know if you talked to Molly -'

'No! I mean, Mum talked to me, you know, the basics, but you don't have to worry. I… I talk to Hermione about it and trust me, she knows more than enough about the theory'.

Lily looked to the garden, an amused smile on her face.

'Just theory?', she repeated, watching Ron and Hermione talking to each other, his arms around her waist as they enjoyed the summer day.

Ginny kept her face neutral. She wouldn't betray Hermione's secrets.

'Well, I am glad there is someone you can talk to', Lily added, and Ginny believed in her. 'In any case, whatever you want to talk about - school, or any worry, or even complain about Harry -, I am here'.

'Thanks, Lily'.

Lily beamed at her, and just like when Harry grinned like that, Ginny felt compelled to beam back.

'And please, don't ever call me Mrs. Potter again'.

Ginny laughed and, together, they returned to the backyard.

#eyes glistening #hinny #Jily supports Hinny #harry and ginny #hinny fanfiction #Jily Lives AU #jily lives is a happier world #t: fanfiction

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