Summary: AU. James and Lily's lives have been anything but simple. From childhood to adolescence, they dealt with problems many don't (and many do). But no matter their problems, they spent January 30th of every year together for ten years. This is just One Day in the life of Lily and James.
Written for the HPFC "One Day Challenge"
Challenge Rules:
1) Your story must be a multi-chaptered fic.
2) Each chapter must be between 500-1500 words.
3) You can change your pairings up to three times.
4) I will give you ten prompts (One for each year) and part of the judging will be how well you incorporate the prompts within the story.
5) You may request pairings but there are no promises that you will get that pairing
6) There are thirty spaces. (Please tell me a number between 1-30 and I will give you a pairing. I may also open up more spaces if I get a lot of people entering)
7) No double claims.
8) Any rating is allowed
9) Femslash/Slash is also allowed. However, please let me know if there is something you really CAN'T write.
Pairing Given: Lily/James
Prompts: Broken, fly, pride, challenge, climb, terror, run, parents, theater, Big Ben
Chapter 1: Prompt: Parents
January 30th, 1969 dawned a dark and gloomy day. The ever-present London rain pounded on the pavement as umbrellas darted to and fro, hiding the stony-faced people under their shady protection. It was a quiet day, this Saturday, and most people were accompanied to their destination by nothing but the patter of rain everywhere.
Inside the safety of his parent's warm bakery, James Potter helped his parents open the bakery for the day. Having turned ten that previous December, James was now proudly helping his father lift the heavy bags of flour from the storage, instead of having to wash and clean the dining area with his mother. His new task difficult but not overly challenging, James was a happy boy indeed.
The entire Potter Bakery, it seemed, always radiated with happiness. The little family wasn't poor, exactly, but neither were they rich – not that it mattered to the Potters. Their happiness came from doing what they loved every day and, in that bakery, there was happiness in the air.
If only all of London was like that.
In a forgotten corner of London, Lily and Petunia Evans were running for their freedom. That morning, not only had the two children woken up to rain pounding on their house but, when their parents didn't rise to start the day, they'd discovered that they'd been kidnapped and, considering their father's job, possibly murdered.
Quite a bad way to start a birthday, Lily thought while running away from home.
Considering how the girls were only nine and ten respectively, one might assume that Lily and Petunia would be shocked, distraught even, at their parent's supposed death. Yet Lily and Petunia, far from being shocked, could not imagine how it had taken those bad people so long to find their parents.
You see reader, their father had been a very rich man, but he had worked with very shady people. Exactly three months before that fateful Saturday morning, he had made one mistake too many. The little family had then fled to a house in the poorest neighborhood in town and their father, much to Lily and Petunia's original discomfort, had started instructing them on what do to after his death (or, as he so eloquently phrased it "demise"). He had told the girls that no matter what, they must run. They must not let themselves be taken by the orphanages.
So there they were, running for their lives.
As they ran (hand in hand, as sisters are wont to do) Lily couldn't help thinking that, even if she didn't have her parents, she could get by with her sister.
As long as she had her sister.
Back in the shop, James Potter was back on cleaning duty. He'd finished with his father in the storage room and, because he wasn't yet old enough to help with the baking, he had to help his mother finish cleaning. It was only due to his boredom and frustration that he looked up, just in time to see a redhead sprint past his shop.
Running by the front window, she was unlike any girl he'd ever seen. While everyone else in London had a grey, boring look in their eyes, this girl was alive in a way he'd never seen before. She was even colored differently, her stark, deep red hair shining as bright as her piercing green eyes which were, for the split second he saw them, looking anxiously one way to another, as if they were being followed. Running alongside her, a tall, skinny, and somewhat older girl grasped her hand, trying to be above and removed from the situation while, in reality, she was gripped with fear. He could see it in her eyes.
The girls were gone before James Potter could even move and, the boy with the glasses thought sadly, gone for good.
