Discalimer: The world of Harry Potter does not, sadly, belong to me. All the property of Jo Rowling.


Lily's parents had been so shocked when she got into Hogwarts that they hadn't known what to do.

So they'd bought her a camera.

She hadn't known if it would work at Hogwarts, but she'd taken it anyway – she didn't want them to be upset – and when she got there she'd asked her new head of house, and the nice professor had shown her a spell that would make it work.

Since then she'd chronicled her years at Hogwarts through her lens. Her parents had given her a noticeboard that first Christmas – after they got fed up of the owled-through photos – and it hung above her bed.

She'd had to hide it recently.

Lily developed all of her photos – no picture, she said, was a mistake, even if it was – and they all went on the noticeboard before being transferred to her albums, but recently she'd noticed an abundance of James seemed to be taking up a lot of room.

It wasn't really all that surprising she supposed (they were talking now, they were friends now, they'd grown out of their bizarre rivalry now, they were seventh formers now), it was just a little…surprising.

They'd crept on there, these little James Potters, starting with just a couple of snaps with him on the edge: autumn leaves with Marly and the Marauders; in the background of a gorgeous one of Frank and Alice; and she'd even noticed a small figure on a broomstick flying over the corner of a picture of the lake. At some point he'd stopped being the background and started being the subject as they spent more and more time together: in front of the Common Room fire, his eyes glowing; laughing on patrols; sleeping when they were supposed to be planning the Hogsmeade visits…

Pictures of everyone else seemed to fade away in comparison to pictures of him. He was so bright, so glowing, so beautiful really; his smile lit up each photo he was in in a way that no one else seemed to, and Lily wondered if something was starting to shift.


'And then he turned around, slipped, and fell flat on his face!' Lily recounted, and they both burst out laughing. Together they sat, on that snuggly, burgundy sofa next to the fire, their laughs filling the room. Her feet were in his lap and her camera was round her neck. Quickly, she snapped a shot of him laughing.

'Why do you always do that?'

'Always do what?'

'Take pictures of me.'

'I take pictures of everyone James.'

'Yes, I know, but why?'

Lily paused. 'Because…well, it started so I could show my parents what it's like here.' James leant forward, gazing straight at her. 'And then it became a habit, and then it became a necessity. Like…' she waved her hands, 'like, in fifth year, when everything changed. Then in sixth, when my parents…' she faltered, but he still sat there, listening, 'because everything changes, but I can carry on with my photography and keep on taking pictures, and they mean that I will always have the moments captured to look back on.' She looked down into her lap, playing with her hands, suddenly embarrassed.

Leaning forward, James lifted her chin to face him. 'I like it.' When she started to protest, he carried on: 'I do! I sometimes think about what's going to happen after Hogwarts, with the war and everything…I mean, right now, it's real, and it's in front of me, but how will we remember?' She didn't answer.

He pulled her over to him, taking the camera out of her hands, and hugged her. Wrapping his arms around him, Lily smiled.

'Click'

She raised an eyebrow at him, and he grinned back.

'Night Lily.'

Looking around, she realised they were the last two in the Common Room.

'Night James.'


She could not keep her eyes off that picture.

She wasn't even looking at it anymore for goodness sakes', but she could still see it in her mind's eye, the two of them wrapped up in each other's arms.

It was a pretty good photo actually, as they go, the composure was just right; subjects slightly off-centre, faces – or at least, James' face, with his eyes shut – in focus, with the fire's rim light making them both seem to almost glow.

That glow again.

'You're glowing Flower.' Alice had said when she came up into the dorm.

And she'd been right; Lily did glow when she was around James, and she didn't know why.

Oh, that picture…


'James.'

'Yes?' He looked up, surprised at her serious tone. Frowning, he asked: 'where's your camera?'

'I don't need it.' He frowned again, raising an eyebrow.

'Come here James.' He came closer towards her. Lily trembled slightly, looking down at her twisting fingers.

'I don't need it because…because I think I'll remember this moment without a picture of it.'

He still looked confused, so she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him.

Looking down at her, he blinked. Lily smiled. 'Are you sure?'

'James Potter, I have never been surer of anything in my life.'

'Good. Because I think I'll remember this moment forever too.'


AN: Not my usual style, but I kinda like it. Rimlight, by the way if you didn't know:/, is when the primary light source of an image is behind the subject, creating a kind of 'halo' effect.