Small Introduction:
This is just a collection of 49 oneshots about various different characters over various different eras and with various different themes, written for owluvr's Character Diversity Bootcamp Challenge. To make life easier for everybody, I'm doing all the prompts in the challenge in order... so welcome to prompt no.2 Façade! (Prompt No. 1 Forgotten is separate to this, for some strange reason that even I don't know).
Enjoy!
Title: Nail Varnish
Author: Hesta's Journal
Word Count: 2018
Type of Story: Oneshot
Prompt: Façade
Rating: T
Character: Lysander Scamander
Summary: Lysander discovers that he'll do anything for Lily.
Author's Note: Ugh! I HATE this oneshot! HATE HATE HATE!... ahem... yeah... basically, this is the longest I've ever worked on a oneshot, and I know that they say one should only post something if you've written it at your best or whatnot, but unfortunately this is also part of the Bootcamp Challenge by the lovely owluvr (Character Diversity Bootcamp). I just completely and utterly ran out of ideas and then, for some strange reason, I got a sort of glimmer and snatched it desperately. I'm not the best at working for a long time on things, so the fact that I've been working approximately three weeks on this prompt says a lot (although I know a lot of people who spend three weeks on average writing a oneshot)... anyway, let's just say I'm terribly glad I've got this out of the way and can move onto the next prompt :).
That said, I hope you'll enjoy it...
Disclaimer: No, I don't own HP or the universe associated with it.
And when he saw her at Christmas fifth-year, he thought she couldn't get any prettier. Red curls falling softly over her face, eyes glittering, cheeks flushed. A smile lingering on her lips as she danced around the room.
He could hear Rose scolding little Lucy for stealing gingerbread from the kitchen counter, hear Fred and James plotting ways to annoy Albus and Albus's new girlfriend Eliza, hear Roxanne singing under her breath as she decorated a freshly-made batch of muffins. The house was filled with the usual chaos that he associated with a Weasley-Potter Christmas. Yet somehow Lysander couldn't tear his eyes away from Lily.
Her movements weren't graceful and she occasionally knocked into the table or a sofa as she danced around, yet she didn't seem to care. The usual trilling of Celestina Warbeck played softly on the radio, much to Fleur's obvious irritation. Lily's dance was at odds with the slow music - she moved vigorously, energetically, adding in strange twirls and clumsy-looking bows to various people she passed.
Lysander had to conclude he hadn't really seen anything quite like it. Most other girls he knew would have been embarrassed to dance around a room filled with people - not just family members but also less well-known friends of family members. Not only did Lily manage to not be embarrassed by it, but she seemed to also be enjoying herself immensely.
"Lily! Get your arse out of the way! You're blocking my view of Victoire," Teddy said comfortably from his seat on a squashy armchair, causing Victoire to flush with a mixture of pleasure and embarrassment.
"Sorry, lovebird," Lily responded cheekily, sticking her tongue out at him. His words seemed to have brought her out of the strangely trance-like mood she'd been in whilst dancing, and she plopped down inelegantly next to Lysander. "Hey, spacey."
"Hi," why couldn't he say something else? He'd never had a problem talking to her before, even though he'd always had just the teensiest crush on her.
Lysander found himself trying not to stare at her. How had he never noticed before how refreshing being around her was? She was a breath of fresh air, blowing away one's façade and replacing it with sincerity... Lysander bit his lip at his thoughts. He wondered if Lorcan had slipped some alcoholic substance into his drink at dinner - Lysander was pretty sure he wasn't normally this dreamy and nonsensical.
"You alright there?" Lily waved her hand in front of him, bright green nail-varnish blurring as she moved her hand rapidly up and down.
Lysander blinked. "Um... yeah."
Possible conversation starters floated through his head: You look beautiful today, Lily/ I love your eyes/ Do you think your brothers would kill me if I tried to kiss you?
He fished around for something that sounded less... well... pathetic. "I like your nails."
Well, that went well.
Lily stared at him as though he had morphed into a giant wolf. Then she giggled. "If you want, I could paint your nails."
Although it was they both knew that she wasn't serious, for some crazy, insane reason, Lysander found himself nodding. "Sure."
Another stare, another giggle. Then she rose from the sofa and held her hand out to pull him up. "Well then, it's in my room. So... you want to come up?"
Lysander took her hand and then followed her through the crowded room and into the considerably quieter hallway. Lily skipped her way up the stairs - he wasn't sure how she managed that - before reaching the landing and walking along until she reached her bedroom door. She leaned against it and waited patiently.
"So... what colour do you want?" Lily said, looking critically at him once he had reached her. She turned the doorknob and pushed the door open forcefully. He was immediately assailed with the scent of nail varnish and cinnamon - the two didn't mix well together. Lily was already bouncing over to her desk and pulling the desk's drawer out.
"So... we have... dark green, light green, sparkly green, bright green... baby pink, candy pink, fuchsia... silver and glittery silver...," Lily listed, beckoning him over to her. Lysander could only gawk at the crammed drawer. How on earth was he supposed to choose? Was there any way he could get out of this? If he went out of this room wearing any of the colours, Lorcan would never let him live it down. Neither would Fred or James or Albus or Louis or Dominique or Rose or... well, anybody.
"... magenta, burgundy, crimson... Lysander, you're looking a bit confused there," Lily trailed off with an amused glint in her eyes. "Have you decided yet?"
Then again, if he let her paint his nails he would have... well... however many minutes it took to paint his nails alone with her. Although he had never particularly endeavoured to have time alone with her before, Lysander found that, tonight, the idea filled him with some strange kind of delight. Grabbing onto the feeling, he cast his eyes across the bottles of colour. Well... that one looked as nice as any other. He pointed at the colour he'd chosen. "Is that one alright?"
She shot him a funny look. "Yeah, it's fine. You sure you want that, though?"
"Um, yes, please."
Lily shrugged and fished the bottle out of the drawer before pushing the drawer shut. She gestured at the chair next to her desk. "Here, sit down. Make yourself comfortable."
Lysander did as he was told, watching as she picked up a chair at the other end of the room and lugged it over to the desk. Once satisfied with the arrangements, she settled herself on the chair and picked Lysander's left hand up, placing it carefully on the desk. She unscrewed the bottle's lid and carefully began to paint the colour onto his thumb.
It was only then that he realised why she'd given him a funny look: he'd chosen the same colour that she was wearing on her own nails. He sighed inwardly. Tonight evidently wasn't his night, but he couldn't stop her now. Not after he'd insisted on this colour.
Lily finished with his thumbnail and moved onto his index finger. "Why the sudden need to paint your nails?"
"I... I guess I wanted to see James's face," Lysander lied quickly. He felt his face heat up slightly as she narrowed her eyes at him. "And Lorcan hates this kind of stuff so I suppose I thought it'd be fun to... yeah..."
She laughed slightly as he trailed off into silence. "If you say so, mister. How're you enjoying the holidays so far? Anything interesting happen?"
Yeah, I realised that I like you, he thought to himself before attempting a disarming smile. "Not really. Dad wrote an article to some magazine about how he and Mum have found proof that the Crumple-Horned Snorkack exists."
"What did they say?" Lily turned his hand so that she could apply the nail varnish more easily. A small smile was forming on her face.
"They rejected the article, telling him that it didn't have enough proof for their standards," Lysander said flatly, although he could feel his lips twitching. He was remembering how his Dad had taken a glance at the rejection letter and then shrugged and continued eating his cereal, unfazed at what had to be close to his hundredth article rejection letter. Despite being the descendent of Newt Scamander, Rolf had very little credibility amongst most naturalists and it was his wife Luna who was the one that people turned to for common sense.
Lily didn't say anything for a while, instead focusing on the remaining fingernails of his left hand. Once she'd finished, she gently picked up his right hand and began work on it. "Did you hear that Fred wants to be a naturalist? Apparently Uncle George wants him to work in the joke shop but Fred thinks that, by the time he's finished Hogwarts, he'll have had enough pranks to last him for life."
"Don't blame him - working in that shop sounds like a nightmare," Lysander recalled the many times he'd been in there and seen a harried assistant running around and trying to keep up with demands whilst also preventing people 'testing' out some of the love potions and Skiving Snackboxes.
"I'd like to work there," Lily smiled slightly as she dipped the small brush back into the bottle. "I know it's a lot of work, but there's always someone laughing or smiling there. I'd like to work in a place that makes people happy, and Uncle George's shop does that better than any other shop I've seen."
"I thought you wanted to be a Healer?" he remembered her declaring, back in his second-year, that she was going to work in the Hospital Wing when she was older so that she could watch over the next generation at Hogwarts.
"Your marks have to be really high for that - mine aren't."
"Oh."
Lysander resisted the urge to squirm uncomfortably. He couldn't read her expression. Normally Lily was as easy to read as a child, but she had constructed a calm façade the instant he had brought up the subject of her being a Healer. She finished painting his nails in silence, screwing the lid of the nail varnish bottle tightly before stowing it away with all the other bottles.
"You can run your hands under cold water in my bathroom," she gestured to the small white-tiled room connected to her own. "It makes the varnish dry faster. Just make sure you don't dry your hands on any of the towels there - I did that once after running my hands under the water and left pink marks on the towel and had to get Mum to use Scourgify."
Lysander shrugged and pottered over to the bathroom, waving his hands around in an attempt to dry the nail varnish - he had seen Rose do that several times after painting her nails. He twisted the silver tap, let the cold water trickle over his fingers briefly, twisted the tap again and then re-entered Lily's bedroom to find her looking at him with raised eyebrows.
"What?"
"You looked ridiculous, walking around and waving your hands," Lily snorted, getting up from her seat and going over to the door. "Come on, let's go show off your pretty new nails to the rest of the family."
He gulped and followed her down, patting his wet hands against his trousers, being careful not to let the newly-painted nails to touch his jeans. He was pretty sure now that Lorcan had snuck something into his drink - there was no plausible reason for him to let her paint his nails and then get nervous about people seeing him with painted nails (considering it was his own fault).
Lily paused at the entrance to the crowded sitting room, shooting him a dazzling smile. "Stop dawdling, Lysander. You're acting as though it's the end of the world."
Naturally, when Lysander did summon the courage to enter the room, James instantly spotted the nail varnish. The messy-haired boy leapt over a sofa standing in his way and picked Lysander's hands up to examine them. "Man, I can't believe this! And they're the same colour as Lily's! Oi! Fred! Look at what Andy's gone and let my little sister do!"
In a flash, Fred was next to James, admiring the nails. "You know, if you'd told us that you liked nail varnish, then I'd have got you that for Christmas instead of the Quidditch book."
Lysander searched for Lily, wondering why she had left him to his fate. His eyes landed on her standing in front of the Christmas tree. She was talking to Rose, but her eyes flickered over to him. He sent her a pleading look, Please let me get out of here.
He was rewarded by her sticking her tongue out at him as if to say Your own fault.
And he decided that she had somehow managed to become even prettier.
