*Apparates*
Hola! I don't own Harry Potter, so I probably don't own James, Lily, or Petunia. (Jo, that would be a great Christmas present if, you know, you're feeling generous...)
A three year old in fluffy pink slippers padded across the room to her sister with great caution. She was uneasy; the sudden rumble of thunder and flash of lightning proved to be the cause. She darted to her sister's bed at an unnatural speed.
"Tuney! Tuney!?" Another flash invaded the sisters shared room. "TUNEY!" The three year old with frizzy red hair in pink pyjamas said as loud as she could without waking their parents up. When unnaturally awoken, Jack and Hannah were not pleasant people.
Finally, the blonde haired girl turned to her desperately afraid sister and muttered, in as sympathetic a voice she could muster, "What!?"
"The light flashing! It's scary!" Lily whimpered.
"Really?" Petunia, her beloved sister, could not keep the sarcasm out of her voice as she said, "It's a storm, Lily! It's not like it's coming to hurt you!"
"But storms are dangerous! People get hurt in them all the time!"
"Who told you that?" Petunia asked, curious how a three year old could know such a thing.
"The alien box in the living room." Lily clutched Petunia as another rumble of thunder and flash of lightning swept by.
"You mean the television?" Petunia rolled her eyes, "That's not alien; it's technology. It's powered by lightning actually." She added as an afterthought.
"What!" Lily's eyes were as round as the stupid, fake 'UFO's the television reported occasionally.
"There's nothing wrong with lightning!" Petunia said, thoroughly exasperated.
"But it crashes down and is just scary!" Lily was close to tears./div
Petunia gave up. "Fine, you can come sleep in my bed until the storm has stopped."
As Lily clambered in, Petunia wondered why Lily was so scared of storms. She couldn't remember any time Lily had been lost in a storm or anything along those lines. But then again, Lily was a very funny toddler; Petunia just couldn't understand her.
"It's not the storm," Lily mumbled as Petunia was about to drift off to sleep, "It's the Lighterneng."
"Lightning." Petunia couldn't resist correcting her.
Lily tossed and turned as she attempted to ignore the wailing of the storm outside. She would have told herself banshees, sirens, ghosts, and all that sort of thing weren't real, but she didn't know anymore.
She had gotten her Hogwarts letter that day. Severus had been telling the truth. She sort of wished he was here now. Anyone to help her get though this.
She couldn't go to Petunia. Now she had her letter, Tuney was shutting her out for good. The expression she'd had when she read the letter was a mixture of anger and, Lily suspected, jealousy.
She didn't want to think about how her sister had shut her out. She didn't want to talk to her parents, as they were still overcoming the shock of learning that their daughter was a witch. She had never felt so alone.
"She was wondering about Hogwarts, about being a witch, when another flash of lightning invaded the room, sending her straight under her covers.
How could she be a witch when she couldn't face a storm?
Lily lay silently, as if waiting for the roar of thunder to come, no doubt accompanied by a bright flash of lightning.
If she'd thought going to Hogwarts would help her overcome her fears, she was dead wrong. Now she had the added worry of the lightning's blinding flash in fact being a spell – one that could go notoriously wrong.
As she lay in her dark and lonely four poster, with the slight weight of the maroon drapes covering her, Lily realised that she might as well be productive and get some work done – after all, there was no way she could fall asleep with the threat of the storm just outside the tower walls.
So she pulled herself together and slipped out of bed. As she carefully grabbed her satchel, she heard another rumble, and could not help but shudder. Oh, how she hated storms.
Once she'd made her way down the golden spiral staircase to the Gryffindor common room, she found that her instincts had failed her yet again. The room was pitch black, with not even a dim glow from the candles scattered around. Lily glanced helplessly at the slightly smouldering remains of what was usually a roaring fire.
She crept across the room, almost afraid to make any sound that would threaten the raging storm outside. For all she knew, this could've somehow been sent by Voldemort. She knew this was completely ridiculous, but she couldn't help thinking that it might just be true. After all, anything seemed possible in a storm.
As she sat in the dark, fearing what might be waiting beyond, she heard the ever so slight creak of the staircase. Oh goodness, she couldn't let anyone see her! She was meant to be a brave Gryffindor, unafraid of whatever the world threw at her, yet here she was, cowering away at the threat of a silly storm.
She heard the person, whoever it was, make their way across the room. Maybe they couldn't see her! Perhaps she could go unnoticed, and be saved the humiliation!
She felt someone lightly sit on the sofa. Crap. They didn't move at all. She did not dare look around.
Suddenly, a great roar of thunder, along with a sudden, terrifying, flash of lightning invaded the room. She gave several sharp intakes of breath, and began shaking like mad. She couldn't stand this, she simply couldn't!
Then, a hand slid into hers. Their grasp, whoever they were, seemed to bring her back to earth, grounding her, almost calming her.
As the storm almost faded away, Lily pondered this person. Their touch was not like Severus's, it was far gentler. She realised that she was holding their hand, enjoying it even. It was even distracting her from the storm!
Before long, Lily was calm enough to drift into a peaceful, undisturbed sleep.
When Lily woke, she was lying on the Gryffindor sofa, Marlene, Mary, and Ruby next to her. When they saw she was awake, they gave some comment about her 'mad late night studying', which was possibly due to her open school bag, half tipped open on the floor next to her. She remembered the night before very clearly, and was still curious about who it had been.
Lily stared at the bedroom ceiling, tensing up. It was a wild storm that night and, despite all that she'd been through, she was still scared of storms. She lay, trying not to panic enough to let James know. After all this time, she was still desperately afraid of people knowing her weaknesses. It was what made her a great fighter, though it most definitely had it's downsides.
"Lily?" Crud, she'd woken James up.
"I - I'm fine!" She stammered, feeling worse by the minute.
Despite the dark, she was sure James was glancing at the window, wondering. "Lily," he whispered softly, "It's okay."
Lily gave a deep, shaking breath. In response to this, he clasped her hand. It was not an unusual gesture for a married couple, but the action, along with the storm, and the flash of lightning that came at that very moment, made her recall that one night so many years ago.
"James." She said quickly and quietly, "There was a storm, in the middle of the night, in first year. I- I acted as stupidly as I am now, and went down to the common room to try and calm myself down. Then somebody came and held my hand. For some reason it calmed me down. Was it… Was it you?"
There was a short silence, before James quietly said, "Yes. Yes it was."
"You… You knew? You knew I was scared of such an idiotic little thing, yet you didn't care?"
"Of course not." He gently ran his hand through her long, loose, auburn hair, " Everybody has their ridiculous things they're afraid of. You know I am absolutely terrified of being hit by bludgers. I panicked like crazy to you before almost every game." Lily smiled a little. "But it's alright. I was never seriously hurt, and I still could play the game. I bet I couldn't have without your sweet reassurance, no matter what form it took." Lily laughed and hit his shoulder.
"I guess you're right." She cuddled close to him, and shut her eyes, trying to ignore the flashes outside and just focus on his steady, beating heart.
Yeah... I came up with the idea of Lily hating storms during a thunder storm in the middle of the night a few months ago. It took me a while to get round to writing it, and then even longer to get round to publishing it, but I've finally done it! I hope you enjoyed it, I do love James/Lily! Please review if you liked it!
*Disapparates*