(Originally posted on old account: Honeydukes' Padfoot)
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare,
As any she belied with false compare.
~ William Shakespeare
James gazed at her curiously, smilingly unknowingly as he watched her muttering softly to herself as she added ingredients to the pewter cauldron.
Her hair clung to her damp forehead and cheeks as she, once again, hung her head over the rising steam that spiralled from the cauldron, its colour almost matching the current shade of his potion, which frothed angrily away from his distracted thoughts.
No, instead of the porcupine quills that he continued to scoop into the copper contraption, he watched as she fussed over the way her friends added their ingredients, eyes alight as she took them from their hands and added them with the care and attention of a mother loving a child into health.
Her green eyes looked almost luminescent and frighteningly startling as she grinned, slightly manically, down at the potion, smearing dragon blood across her cheek with the back of her hand as she attempted to brush a stray flame of hair away.
Emily and Jenny were laughing heartily at her as she shrieked hysterically in delight as the potion turned from the palest lilac to the darkest midnight blue with a gentle pearly sheen, and with a single counter-clockwise stir she had bottled it safetly in a crystal tube.
She hurried past him to slughorn with the bottle of perfection, and he breathed in deeply as she passed, breathing in the subtle smells of old well-thumbed books, morning dew at sunrise, minty soap and flowers on a summer breeze... All distinctly Lily.
As she handed the vial proudly to Slughorn she smiled ecstatically back at her friends, her whole face glowing with pride and content.
He wished she would smile that way at him.
The thing that puzzled his friends about Lily was that, well, she was plain. Charming, sure. Intelligent beyond compare. But undeniably , in his opinion, was what was so truly beautiful about her though.
Because to anyone else but him, she was indeed Lovely Lily yet caring, smart and funny, although not necessarily beautiful in any way... but to him she was perfect.
Just the way she held herself; never arrogantly, never misconceived, never afraid. Just the way her button nose sniffed adorably when she was irritated with him. Just the way her alabaster skin felt against his face, so soft and smooth the slaps barely hurt. Just the way she tossed her mane of fiery red hair that fell in waves over her back as she stormed off. Just the way her green doe eyes pierced right to his very soul as she glared fiercely over her shoulder at him. Just the way that he knew that sometimes she chuckled quietly to herself at some of his better jokes. Just the way he found her every move so heartbreakingly beautiful.
And, most importantly, just the way she never even knew.