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[prongsno]

You’re my dream (please come true)

based on @meraudurs text post: lily running into james in diagon alley during the summer after sixth year and seeing him lift up a toddler and making funny faces at them and lily just being like ✓💯fcuk ✓💯 me ✓💯 up ✓💯✓💯✓💯

read on ao3 | 1685 words

The door to Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour bangs open as two kids, laughing giddily with a broomstick each in their hands, escape the scorching sun. The intense summer heat seems to have brought the entire wizarding community to Diagon Alley; there are witches, wizards, giants and goblins everywhere - all eager to taste the sun’s rays on their skin.

“Have you tried the sherbet lemon one?” Lily asks as she frowns at the vibrant yellow ice cream in front of her.

Mary shakes her head. “Dorcas got that one, remember? Her tongue turned yellow for six hours,” she laughs, and exchanges her ten sickles for a double scoop of honey-dew sorbet cone. She turns back to Lily, who’s still staring intensely at the counter.

“Just do Ip dip do,” Mary shrugs, dodging out of the way as two kids run towards the counter. They press their noses up against the glass, joining Lily as they gawk all wide-eyed at the different flavours in front of them.

“That’s scandalous, what if I get the flavour I don’t want?”

“Then I’ll eat it for you, and you can buy another?” Mary offers, grinning as Lily rolls her eyes.

“I’m stuck between pumpkin pasty or chocolate and raspberry,” Lily says at long last, pulling her purse out of her bag and jiggling it about in her hands.

Mary picks up one of her sickles and places it in her palm. “Heads or Tails?”

Lily narrows her eyes. “Heads.”

Mary flips the coin and it flies up in the air and falls before she can catch it.

“I got it!” she says as she bends down to grab at it. “It’s tails - pumpkin pasty.”

There’s silence between them, and one of the noisy kids orders a bubblegum cone with bertie botts beans scattered on top.

“I’m getting the chocolate and raspberry,” she decides and joins the small queue behind the little kid.

Mary moves out of the way, licking her cone. “You sure? Last chance.”

“One hundred percent,” she nods, giving the cashier her sickles and recites her order. “Oo, and some chopped nuts on top - please,” she says with a glance towards the topping section - where sprinkles and beans, nuts and fruit are only a few of the many options available.

It’s only a two minute wait before Lily holds the ice-cream in her hand, a decadent chocolate ganache on top of a juicy raspberry red that looks too delightful to even try.

Mary opens her mouth to speak, eyeing the ice-cream in awestruck wonder. “Can-”

“No,” Lily laughs as they leave the ice cream parlour, the bell jingling as the door comes to a close.

The hot, sticky humidity is a shock after being in the deeply air conditioned shop for some time, so their frozen snacks are a relief and refreshing to have in the heat.

Mary pulls a face. “Not even one, small, tiny lick?”

Lily shakes her head and makes a scene of slobbering over the top of the ice-cream, licking every inch of it so there isn’t one bit that’s been covered by her saliva.

“That’s so disgusting,” Mary grins, elbowing Lily in the side as they turn down the street.

It’s packed, children run up and down, parents and students converse and laugh as they drink frozen butter beers and pumpkin juice.

“Do you want to hold her? I think she likes you,” Lily manages to hear amidst the chaotic noise, and stretches her head to see what’s taking place.

Mary follows in her direction and does a double take.

“Is that,” Mary laughs, shocked. “Is that James Potter, with a baby?”

All Lily can do is sort of nod her head in response, since she’s far too dazed to actually speak.

Because, it is, indeed, James Potter with a baby.

He’s sitting on one of the outdoor chairs at the near cafe, bouncing said baby up and down on his knees. The baby giggles and gurgles at him, finding his silly faces and soft raspberries such a fantastic show that she claps her hands and pats his cheeks.

Lily’s frozen on the spot.

The mum and her friend are laughing, finding James and the baby girl amusing and adorable.

Lily gulps and, with shaky hands, pushes her hair out of her eyes and tucks it nervously behind her ear. She decides to ignore Mary’s evil-like grin, but elbows her in the side anyways when her friend starts to snigger.

“Don’t you even-” she starts, not being able to stop the intense blush that flies over her cheeks and up her ears.

“I didn’t say anything!” Mary shrugs, eating her ice cream as casually as she can.

“No,” Lily snorts. “But I know what you’re thinking and I don’t-”

“You cannot deny that that,” Mary says, pointing to James who’s now playing peek-a-boo, “isn’t adorable.”

Lily bites her lip. “Fine,” she scowls. “It’s cute - happy?”

James decides to look up at that moment, and they have no time to run. He catches them staring at him like he has seven heads, and looks slightly taken aback by his audience.

“Alright?” He asks them, not at all phased by the baby who currently grabs at his glasses and repeatedly takes them off and puts them back on his nose. Each time the baby cackles and James pulls a different silly face.

“We just got ice-cream,” Mary says, waving her melting cone at him as they both stagger towards him, ashamed to be caught.

“Enjoying it, Evans?”

She doesn’t even notice the question is aimed at her until Mary kicks her foot.

She’s too lost in his eyes, enthralled by how good he is with kids, and how different and… amazing he’s being. Mary kicks her again and that’s when she notices James is watching her, and looks incredibly amused.

“Sorry - what?” she asks, breathless.

He laughs and motions to his chin. “You’ve got a bit of - um.”

Mesmerised, she numbly lifts her hand and wipes her mouth with her sleeve. Chocolate ganache, all over her cheeks, chin and nose.

Mary’s trying her hardest not to laugh, and has to smother her mouth with her hand to stop herself. The mother of the baby smiles at Lily sweetly, pointing to the last bit of ganache that she didn’t manage to wipe off.

“Is Black here?” Mary asks James after a few moments of silence.

“He said he was going into Gambol and Japes and then Wiseacres,” he nods, passing the baby back to the mother.

Lily doesn’t have time to beg Mary to stay - she’s already saying goodbye and whizzing off to find Sirius Black, leaving her alone with none other than Freaking James Potter.

He says goodbye to the baby with an air kiss, thanks the mum and then begins to walk towards her. He looks a little apprehensive, but the moment passes in a flurry of seconds. They didn’t exactly part on the most friendliest terms during the last academic year.

“Having a good summer so far?” he asks politely, kicking at a small stone by his feet.

“It’s not bad,” she says, forcing her gaze to her ice-cream. It’s melting quickly in the heat, so she says a quick prayer that there won’t be any more chocolate ganache incidents and takes a few bites of it. “You?”

He nods. “It’s good, but I miss Hogwarts.”

“You mean the quidditch,” she smiles.

“Are you kidding,” he grins, “I’m practically counting down the days until McGonagall can give us homework again.”

“Twenty?”

“Eighteen actually,” he says with gleaming eyes and checks the watch on his wrist, “and four hours.”

“Someone’s eager.”

“Someone’s ready to study and work hard, Evans.”

They pass by Fortescue’s ice cream parlour again, heading in the direction that Sirius and Mary must have gone in. A wizard huffs as he hurries past them, knocking into her just as she’s eating more of the ice cream.

It goes up her nose and she can feel it dribbling down her chin as she stumbles. James is immediately taking hold of her arm to steady her, and angrily calls out ‘watch it!’, but the wizard is already half way down the street and knocking into other people and doesn’t hear at all.

“It’s gone everywhere, hasn’t it?” she groans, throwing the soggy cone into the nearest bin.

She can feel it in her hair and most likely all over her face, judging by the way James chuckles and takes out a tissue from his pocket and hands it to her sheepishly.

She murmurs out a thanks and wipes her hands first, hoping to rub away the stickiness of her fingers. He at least has the courtesy to look away as she mops her face clean, for that she’s thankful because she doesn’t know how long she can last under his intense gaze.

“Um, you missed a bit - may I?”

She can’t exactly tell him no (even if she wanted to), because his hand is already grabbing at a new tissue and flying towards her before she can even register it. He shuffles forwards, glasses sliding off his nose slightly as he leans in to dab gently at her lips.

He’s so close and a shiver runs down her spine, making her knees wobble and knock against each other as she stares into his eyes.

Something’s changed; she can almost taste it on her lips, feel it in the air around her.

“Sorry,” he says with wide eyes, taking a step back. “I didn’t mean to, like-”

“It’s okay,” she smiles, “you can wipe ice cream off me anytime.” Her mouth snaps shut, mortified, as James goes rigid next to her.

“Oh - okay, I’ll - err - keep that in mind.” He doesn’t seem too perturbed, and Lily breathes in a sigh of relief, scolding herself mentally.

He’s smiling, looking at the floor carefully as his mouth twitches. “Rendezvous in the Hogwarts kitchens with some ice cream in, say, nineteen days?”

Her heart skips a beat and she fiddles with the hem of her top.

But she can’t stop smiling.

“It’s a date,” she says.