Written for Crayola Colour Creations Challenge. My colour is twilight lavender and prompt is to write about a character having an evening walk with lavender scent.
Summary: Lily is having a walk in Hogwart's Grounds when she comes to a startling realization, alas there is no use denying love, it is just like the lavender fragrance in the air unavoidable.
She walked briskly as she passed the Entrance Hall entering the beautiful, vast grounds of Hogwarts. She walked further ahead, not really paying attention to where she was going; she knew her legs would take her to the right direction. As she neared her private sanctuary, her stance shifted, her shoulders relaxed and a smile crept her face, lightening her emerald green eyes with happiness. She adored this place. One of the good things about having a school like Hogwarts is that you cannot get enough of exploring the place. You learn something new every day.
She had found this place in her first year, with Sev of course. She avoided the stab of pain she felt when she thought about Severus. Well, you cannot ignore years of friendship and it does not go away in couple of years. But she had to learn to move on. Being in her 'lavender meadow' of sorts she felt like she was a first year again. Those were the times when Severus was her only friend in Hogwarts. Her fellow Gryffindors were reluctant to befriend a girl who was friends with a Slytherin. They accepted her later, though. By the end of the first year, she was inseparable from Marlene, Alice and Dorcas, her best friends. Later, when Severus changed, she learned their importance.
Things took a turn in her third year and her paradise started to crumble. Severus started to change, suddenly her friends weren't worthy of his attention and he was constantly embarrassed by our friendship, even though he was perfectly fine back home. But it was evident that the distance between two friends. The final nail to the coffin was when Severus called Lily a Mudblood. She sighed and shook her head as she tried to remove the memories of that day. The day reminded her of James Potter. That day, she had called him 'an arrogant toe-rag' with a mixture of other insults and proclaimed that she would rather date, Giant Squid instead of him. She had been re-thinking about that recently. Even after insulting him so much, he comforted or rather tried to comfort her, she did not get him then, to her he was applying salt to the recent wound so she hexed him. She regrets it now.
One might wonder what changed so much that she is rethinking everything she did to James Potter… It was the scene she witnessed a while ago in the Great Hall…
Lily had been quite happy that day, she was smiling almost the whole day even through classes. James and Sirius teased her and wanted to know what was going on… Remus just smiled in a wise, all-knowing way. She happily skipped, yep, skipped all the way to the Great Hall but stopped in her tracks when she took in the scene.
Iris Clearwater, the Ravenclaw chaser was all over James with her predatory stance. She was flirting shamelessly with him. What hurt the most was that he was responding with equal verve. And just like that she turned round and fled the Great Hall.
The scent of the lavender flowers, the magically perennial lavender flowers of her secret place wafted to her senses. She took a deep breath as she walked around the field, taking in the scent of the flowers.
She and her friends had started to hang around Marauders, when the inevitable happened, Marlene and Sirius started dating. There were bets and many lost as almost everyone had though James and she would get together first. No one doubted that. No one ever did except her. She had always assumed that James was playing a prank on her. There was no other logical explanation as to why James Potter, Marauder extraordinaire would be interested in me? No, she did not believe herself to be pathetic or good for nothing, and she knew she was beautiful. But she did not pin herself as James' type.
James was arrogant, handsome, happy-go-lucky, funny, rule-breaker, happy kinda guy and she was more towards shy, stubborn, rule-stickler kinda girl. Nope, they were not supposed to happen, but they were meant to be. She gasped as she realized that she loved him. Not just fancied him. Or the school-girl crush. She fully, irrevocably loved him.
"I love him…" she whispered, "I love James Potter." The words sounded strange on her lips. She had hated him, shouted at him hexed him, fancied him and now she loved him.
She sat down on the soft grass in midst of lavender flowers as realization hit her. A smile spread across her face. As everything came back in flashes,
The way James smiled at her and rolled his eyes at Sirius and Marlene's mushy public display of affections. The late night talks during the patrols. The shared smiles and laughs, the first time she pranked them and the price-less look on his face after knowing she was behind it. The first time she realized she fancied her and the awkward days following the realization. The jealousy she had felt just few moments ago, when she had seen him talk to that bimbo who was a perfectly fine girl until that moment. She sighed as it hit her square and fair, "It has finally happened… Lily Evans is in love with James Potter."
A.N.: Just tell me what you think about it. I am marking it complete but I am tempted to make it multi-chapter. Should I? Review, Follow and Fave.
Constructive Criticism, welcome
Should I continue the story?