Lily's Decision – A Jily Fanfiction
Students of all houses were gathered around the school notice board, some staring in wonder and awe, some (mostly girls) jumping up and down excitedly, discussing what to wear, and some simply standing with their mouths gaping wide open.
Lily Evans struggled through the crowd to get to the front and looked up at the new notice to see what all the fuss was about. It read;
On Friday 24th December, a Christmas Dance will be held in the Great Hall. All students in their fourth year and above will all be welcome to attend – third years and below are, regretfully, not allowed to attend unless they are invited as another's partner in their fourth year or above. Thank you,
-Prof. Tibble-Tuft
"Great!" Came a voice from besides Lily, and she turned to find her best friend, Severus, grinning broadly at her, "It's gonna be amazing!" He said excitedly. Lily grinned back and they walked off to their double Divination class together.
Lily Evans was one of the very few Gryffindors who enjoyed their double lessons with the Slytherins. It meant she could spend a good two hours speaking to Sev in between work. But that particular day, Professor Rimms stated in her dreamy, husky voice that all the Gryffindors were to sit on one half of the room and the Slytherins on the other, saying it was the easiest way to divide them. Lily shot Severus a look of apology and gloomily slumped down onto her squishy padded stool next to Francesca Wooden-Hilt and Jasmine Falls, two best friends who were hurriedly whispering under their breaths about their dates and dresses for the dance.
Lily didn't wish to join in, finding the subject uncomfortable, and so instead, slumped leaning against the wall and staring out onto the snow-covered grounds. She was absent-mindedly doing this for much longer than anticipated as she was suddenly brought back down to Earth with Professor Rimms' husky voice exclaiming it was time to move to their next lesson, before yelling "No! Wait! Sit back down!" and muttering under her breath that it was foolish of her forgetting they were on a double lesson. Lily repositioned herself, sat up straight and tried to listen to her professor, gabbling away about reading people's futures by the patterns in their irises. She was just starting to drift off into a doze, however, when a piece of scrunched up parchment flew across the room, unnoticed by the Dewey-eyed teacher, and hit her sharply on the head. She jumped and whipped her head around, her shining red hair swinging behind her. She did not, however, see anyone acting suspiciously and so glanced down at the parchment that had hit her. She saw it slowly, magically begin to unfold until a message was distinguishable in a messy scrawl across the page;
Evans,
Fancy going to the dance with me on Friday?
Potter
Lily was frustrated that the invite she got was a few words on a piece of parchment and she shot an angry, slit-eyed glare over at James and his friends who were muffling sniggers around him.
Not if you're going to ask me like that, Potter
-Lily
She enchanted the paper to zoom back across the room, aiming precisely at James' face, who caught it and read the message.
She then got another note reading, fine – wait 'til later… and the messaging stopped after the two hours of pointless divination and Lily, questioning herself for the thousandth time, why she decided to take the subject as one of her OWL's.
* * * * * Later in the Gryffindor Common Room * * * * *
The last couple of sixth years had cleared off to bed, including James' friends, Remus, Sirius and Peter. Finally, she was sitting in the common room, alone with James. She'd been eyeing him suspiciously all evening, wondering when he was going to make his move.
All of a sudden, James slowly got up and strode over to where she was sitting, sprawled across the two-man squishy sofa in front of the crackling fire.
"Budge over…" he said, nudging her bare feet lightly with his hand. Lily swivelled her legs round to face front and looked James in the eye. "So…" he said, awkwardly drumming his fingers on his knees,
"So…?" Lily repeated, her eyes still fixed on James' handsome face. She was surprised, however, at what he did next: She thought he would be cowardly and awkward, and would find it hard to ask the question, but he exploded into clear, confident sound, looking back at her with a mixture of ferocity and pleading in his eyes,
"Ev—Lily, I wanted to ask you, if you would do me the honour of accompanying me to the dance this Friday night, I promise to take care of you and I ensure you, it will be the best night of your life." He said this in a high, posh, humorous voice, which made Lily giggle. Smiling, she raised her head high, going along with the little role play,
"Why, yes, Mr Potter, I most certainly shall!" They both crippled over into peals of laughter, rolling about on the sunken sofa. "But!" She added, still in the same, high, posh voice, attempting to recover from the laughing fit, "You have to promise never to be arrogant towards anyone again," she stated, "Including me and Sev," she added, her voice half breaking into seriousness. James, however, and much to Lily's delight, kept the posh manner and replied, "Of course, fair lady, anything for you…" And they spluttered again. This was when Lily realised how nice, funny and kind James Potter could be when he wanted to…
"Lily!" Yelled Severus the next day, running the length of the corridor and shoving past a group of first years to meet his friend,
Lily turned to grin at the lean, greasy-haired boy, "Hey, Sev…what's up?" She asked politely, breaking into a slow walk with him.
"Oh…uhm…I have to ask you something…" Severus stuttered. Lily let out a playful sigh,
"If it's the Herbology homework again, then I've told you a thousand times: its powdered root of a Wigpotail, not dried…" She began to explain, but Severus continued,
"It's not that," he said, breathing heavily. He closed his eyes and blurted out the question,
"Wudyouliketocumtothedancewi'me?" He spluttered, looking exasperated,
"I'm sorry?" Asked Lily, a genuine look of apology on her face, her brow was ever so slightly furrowed, "I didn't quite catch that, Sev…"
Severus took a deep breath and painfully slowly stuttered the words, nervously but clearly,
"I w-was just wondering, i-if you'd like to come to th-the dance with me on Friday," he said, rubbing his sweaty palms on his robes.
"Oh!" Lily turned a brilliant shade of scarlet, "Oh, Sev…" – Any other person would have looked ashamed and would stare solemnly at the floor, but Lily bravely fixed her large, doe-like green eyes onto Severus' face, her lower lip slightly trembling, "Sev…I-I…I've kinda already been asked b-by somebody else, and w-well…I said yes," she finished, biting her lip.
"Wh-what? Who?" Severus demanded, having to restrain himself from snapping,
"Jmspttr…" Lily mumbled ever so slightly under her breath, so quietly that it was barely audible as a whisper,
"Who?"
"J-James Potter," she stated firmly, though her eyes began to swim with tears,
"him!?" Sev spluttered, a look of horror on his face, "b-but we hate him! He's horrible…arrogant…selfish! Lily, him!? You've got to be serious!?" He howled,
"No! You've got to understand, Sev! I think there's kindness behind all the ignorance, I think that if he's not trying to be cool all the time he might be nice! I think I can bring the best out in him! That's why I said yes – please, Sev, you've got to hear me out!" She spluttered, desperately trying to gabble an explanation in the short time Severus would listen in his state of shock,
"Oh! And you never thought how I might feel? The thought never crossed your mind that I might ask you—!?"
"No, it didn't!" Lily suddenly yelled, "We're best friends – it would be like dating my brother!" She'd meant this in a nice, kind, reassuring way, but in Severus' eyes, she'd said the wrong thing, his warped, horrific expression had flicked to that of hurt, his eyes grew large as he looked down at the desperate, pleading face – but he could not bring himself to forgive right at that moment. Breathing heavily out his nose, he shouldered past her and thundered to his potions lesson,
"Sev! Please!" Lily cried after him, but he ignored her and continued stomping down to the dungeons.
Lily suddenly burst into floods of tears. She had transfiguration, and then, the last lesson of the day, charms with Severus, but she didn't care about classes at that moment: Not looking where she was going, she elbowed through the crowd and sprinted to the Gryffindor common room, tears pouring from her eyes. She skidded to a halt in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady,
"D-Draconum L-Lingua," she sobbed and with no sympathy, the Fat Lady swung forward, revealing Lily to the apparently-empty common room.
Crying uncontrollably, she slumped down into the nearest chair and held her face in her hands, sobbing endlessly into them, until,
"Evans?" The surprisingly soft voice sounded from the table behind her, however it was easily recognisable,
"J-James?" She mumbled, not taking to the last-name basis, and whipping around in her chair,
"Hey! What's wrong?" He immediately sprung to his feet and rushed over to where she sat. He put an awkward and stiff hand on her shoulder as she wept into the arm of the chair,
"It's S-Severus!" She cried, not remotely uncomfortable with revealing this to someone she barely knew, "H-he hates me because I-I'm going to the dance w-with you and-and…and n-not-hiiiiiiiiiim!" She wailed, sobbing each word through gasps of air.
"What? But it's not your fault! He should have gotten there first!" James snapped angrily, jumping up from his perch on the arm of Lily's chair.
"N-no – it's – not – his – fault! – H-he – thought – that – I kn-knew – he – would – ask me!" She howled, still sobbing into her arms.
James was speechless; one thing he'd never had to dealt with in his 16 years was an emotional girl – he didn't know what to say,
"Oh. Well….uhm…Lily, you can go with Severus if you want, I don't mind…"
"No!" Lily said this defiantly now, "You're right," she said, ferociously wiping the tears from her blood-shot eyes, "You got there first! You want to go with me as much as he does," then realising how selfish she'd sounded, she added hastily, "right?"
"Well yes…of course I do, but Severus is your best friend; maybe he's right – maybe he thought he didn't want to ask you straight away, because he'd sound too full-on, so he asked you the next day and got frustrated because he didn't think somebody else would have asked you that soon….but obviously they did. Look, you go with him, I know you want to, it's fine, really…"
"No, James! I'm going with you! He should have asked me first!" She sniffed… "Anyway," she said, trying to change the subject, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at Transfiguration?"
"I should ask you the same thing," he replied, the corners of his lips twitching, "I've – uhm – been working on something…needed to get it finished, y'know?"
"Hm? What is it?"
"Oh, it's nothing," he said, suspiciously. He was edging over to the table and very noticeably snatched a piece of parchment and clasped it tightly in both his hands behind his back,
"Show me!" Lily pleaded, forgetting very suddenly about Severus,
"No…really, it's nothing important," But Lily had sprung up from the sofa and had darted over to him in the blink of an eye. She reached round and grabbed the parchment and looked down on it. Her own face was staring up at her, almost every detail of her was intact. The picture was stock still but the eyes were blinking. "I-I was just in the middle of developing it so it moved…" James explained, turning red,
"It's brilliant!" Lily exclaimed, "I didn't know you could draw like this!"
James ran his fingers through his sticky-up hair, and looked abashed, "Yeah, well….it's a hobby really…"
"It's nothing to be ashamed of, James! It's fantastic!"
"Uhm..well…thanks." He said, smiling a little.
Severus avoided Lily for the next 2 weeks before the dance. Everyone, even the boys, were desperate for a date to go….in everyone's eyes, you either got a date, or didn't go at all, it was that embarrassing, and Lily had caught wind of a rumour that Severus had asked Narcissa Black, who had promptly said yes.
Severus shot Lily nasty looks when they passed in the corridor, and it near broke her heart when she saw him swaggering down to the dungeons for potions, hand-in-hand with Narcissa. Once or twice, she even thought she saw him mutter the word "Mudblood" to his new girlfriend when they brushed passed her. And more than once, she'd rush from her previous class when it was her free period and cry for an hour in her empty dormitory.
Severus had changed towards her.
* * * * * At the dance * * * * *
James was waiting patiently in the common room at 7 o'clock to escort Lily down to the dance. He was dressed smartly in plain black and white dress robes with a black bowtie. He was perched in the arm chair and was playing with a golden snitch, setting it free from his grasp and then catching it again before it escaped out of his reach.
Meanwhile, at the top of the stairs leading to the girls' dormitories, Lily was steadying herself on the banister and taking deep breaths. She glanced down at her dress:
It was deep crimson and fairly low cut. It swept around her thighs and knees as she walked and the torso part had folds in neat rows. It had two thin straps coming up from her shoulders and joining round behind her neck…what if James didn't like it? Her hair hung down, bouncing on her chest. It was shiny and fluffy and shimmered bronze when it caught the evening sun. Clasping he hands together nervously, she made her way down the stairs in her gleaming blood-red strappy heels.
James sprung from the seat when he heard her coming and positioned himself at the bottom, waiting for her, which was just as well as Lily trotted down the stairs and tripped on the last one, falling comfortably and safely into James' arms. Feeling herself flushing scarlet, she pulled herself back up and looked up at James, a sheepish grin on her face,
"Whoops," said James, playfully, then he held her at arm's length and looked her up and down, "You look amazing," he grinned, blushing a little himself. Lily broke the awkward silence with a quiet clear-of-her-throat,
"So where is everyone?" She asked, looking around the deserted common room,
"Gone," said James shortly, "We're the last Gryffindors: Sirius went down first with Daisy Walters, y'know that fifth year, and Remus is smitten with a girl in our year – you might know her? – Sapphire Chansling,"
"Yeah, I know her, and Peter?"
James smirked, "Stacey Jones,"
Despite herself, Lily found her mouth falling open, "The first year?!" She gasped. James spluttered,
"Yeah, bet she just wants to go for the sake of it, not interested at all in poor Peter…"
Lily tutted, "You shouldn't jump to that conclusion, James…" But James raised his eyebrows at her and she found herself restraining a giggle.
By now, they'd reached the door of the entrance hall. Lily took a deep breath and smoothed down her dress,
"You look fine," James reassured her, and he clasped her hand. He'd attempted to do this many times before when he'd seen Lily's hurt face after Severus and Narcissa walked past hand-in-hand, but she'd always rejected, claiming she would never stoop to his level of jealousy, which was fair enough. But this time, she clasped his back and gave it a small, comforting squeeze.
They rounded the corner and stepped into the busy entrance hall. The most extraordinary couples and the most likely couples could be seen in the midst of all the happy, excited faces;
Lily could see Remus positively drooling over Sapphire, and Peter scurrying after a midget-of-a-first-year, waiting on her hand and foot. She saw seventh years with first years, fifth years with first years and, right in the middle of the crowd, as though he were popping out of a screen at her, was Severus, snogging Narcissa hungrily…so much in fact, it looked like he was trying to eat her face.
Lily's face screwed up as she attempted not to cry and, before she knew what she was doing, she sprinted over to James who was kindly waiting for her, chatting to Sirius in the corner next to the doors. She flung herself into his arms and sobbed into his shoulder. She absent-mindedly threw her arms around him as she wept.
James, who had been thoroughly taken by surprise, gently held her whilst she cried. He then held her at arm's length again and chucked her chin playfully with one finger,
"Hey," he said in a soft, quiet voice, that only she and Sirius could hear, "Don't worry about him. He's not here to ruin your night, okay? I promised you it would be the best night of your life, and it will be – don't let him get to you, Lily…" then he added grinning, "Shut up, Padfoot," as Sirius smirked at them. Lily suddenly remembered something she had to discuss with James,
"Oh, yeah," she sniffed looking back at him, teary-eyes, "I want to help you…"
"With what?"
"With Remus,"
"Re—what? H-he doesn't need any hel—he hasn't got any problems. What are y-you on about?" James stammered,
"Hmph," Lily snorted, "I could probably learn how to turn into an Animagi way faster than you lot," James and Sirius both looked flabbergasted,
"You-you, how do you—you-you, how do you know!?" Sirius spluttered,
"I followed you one night…I saw you turn into some dog-thing, James into a stag and Peter into a rat. I just put a disillusionment charm on myself and followed you…I watched Peter press the knot on the Whomping Willow's trunk and you all run into the hole…I was never fast enough to get in before the tree started moving again, you see, but I heard Remus' howls and cries and it wasn't hard to find out he was a werewolf...I've followed you ever since…" she finished with a shrug, still wiping her tears.
"Y-y-you, y-you," Sirius stammered, never quite reaching a sentence.
"I want to help," she stated, flourishing her hands, "Please let me…I'll learn to become an Animagi really quick…"
James sighed, "I wish you could, Lily, but even the most skilled witches and wizards on the planet would take at least two years to become and Animagi…and by the time you'll learn, we would have left school."
All the while James had been saying this however, Lily had worn a broad grin and was shaking her head vigorously. "Come with me, you two," she said, clasping James' hand again and beckoning to Sirius who reluctantly left his date. She took them into the first unlocked deserted classroom she found and ushered the two boys inside, "Repello Oculos!" She muttered, and all the windows shaded to a tinted black, "No one can look in now," Lily explained. Then she tore off her shoes, making herself considerably shorter and trotted to the middle of the room. She then screwed up her face, which began to turn red, in concentration. Her whole body began to shake, and her face began to slowly turn violet in her dedicated focus. And then, all of a sudden she began to morph before their very eyes, first developing the tufty tail, then the head with the slanting eyes and finally the body, which rested on all four legs. James and Sirius both looked on in amazement. Lily, who was now in the form of a doe, looked down at her back left leg. Where there was meant to be a hoof, there was a shrunken human foot. Lily the doe's eyes scrunched again and, after a minute or two, the foot resumed to turning into a trotter.
Once the full transformation was complete, the doe began to canter round the room excitedly, before finally springing upwards, turning into the human Lily in mid-air. She landed in front of the two shocked boys, a look of pure excitement on her face,
"Wow!" She squealed, jumping up and down, "Did you see?! I've been practising for ages, and all my hooves have always been feet, but this time I did a full transformation, did you see!?" She shrieked excitedly, still jumping, "And if you're Prongs, Sirius is Padfoot, Peter is Wormtail and Remus is Moony, then I'd like to be…" she thought for a moment before exclaiming, "Prancer! I want to help Moony! Any friend of James' is a friend of mine!" She exclaimed cheerfully. Then suddenly, and very unexpectedly, James grabbed Lily's wrist and pulled her into a tight embrace, softly kissing her lips and holding her tight. Lily did not object; she flung her arms round his neck, and he placed his hands in her long silky hair, caressing her face with his thumb, before finally pulling away to look at Lily. She glanced over at Sirius, who was awkwardly trying to look anywhere but at James and Lily and she giggled. She then turned to face James, beaming at him. He grinned back,
"Welcome to the club," he whispered and, laughing, he pulled her into another blissful kiss.
The End
P.S. – Dear Readers, firstly, thanks for taking your time to read my new Jily fanfiction! It's the first headcannon I've written (I usually only do ships) but I really enjoyed writing it! I think I'll definitely do more Jily, as I've enjoyed it the most but, as you probably noticed, I've written this one in a slightly different layout; this one is shorter but all in one go, whereas my other fanfictions ("Love, Lies and the Biggest Betrayal – a Fremione Fanfic" and "We're Forbidden – a Dramione Fanfic") are longer and in chapters and both not even completed yet! Please review/follow, as it always makes my day, and private-message me which layout you prefer, or any suggestions (e.g. – was this one too long to be an all-in-one?)
Much appreciated,
-Megan