Hello there! I know, I'm no where near finished writing Quae faceret recte (in fact I'm only just learning how to spell the title) but my friend's given me a list of prompts to write one shots from. So, this idea was born. For every prompt, I'll add a chapter.
Feel free to put a prompt in a review if you've got something you'd like to read!
Please review and let me know what you think.
I will add as a disclaimer for all chapters in this fanfic: I do not own Harry Potter. I own the books, and my stuffed penguin has it's own Gryffindor quiddich uniform.
Title: Through their eyes.
Author: savingthestars
Prompt: 2 A.M.
The first time it happens is purely coincidence. It had been a hard week for the staff and students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Three little black letters had interrupted breakfast on Tuesday, and several more had followed on Thursday. No one had known what it was the letters contained, but the recipients were all muggleborns, and they were all seen crying later on that day.
Lily had been unable to sleep. Her mind kept coming up with insane and barbaric reasons behind the letters, and she couldn't help but feel afraid that she would be the next student to receive the dreaded black letter.
After tossing and turning for what seemed like hours, Lily turned to face the little stain steel alarm clock on her bedside table. The little red letters laughed at her as the flashed 02:00. The red head groaned and heaved herself out of bed. If she was going to be awake at such an unlawful hour, then she was going to get some work done. There was no point just laying there and allowing her thoughts to wander to more worrisome topics than her charms homework.
It was when she'd reached the foot of the stairs that lead up to her bedroom that she realised she wasn't alone in the common room she shared with the head boy. The familiar messy hair of James Potter stuck out from above the plush red sofa she had been thinking of heading towards. Instead she moved to sit in the matching armchair next to the fire.
It was as she sat down that James looked up, abruptly aware that he was no longer alone. He gave her a weary smile and then looked back at his feet, his face screwed up in concentration. Lily reached out and pulled the thick red charms book from under the coffee table, extracting from it her essay. She picked up the quill and pot of ink that lay next to it and began to focus her mind on the complex theories behind spell design.
The night carried dragged on, the two heads absorbed in their individual activities, and it wasn't until the sun rose early the next morning that either one of them moved – not a word had passed between them.
As the weeks passed the early morning meetings in the common room grew more and more frequent. It seemed that at 2am, one of them would be sat either on the sofa (if it was James) or in the armchair (if it was Lily), waiting for the other. They never spoke. Neither one of them felt the urge to ask the other why they were awake at such an unusual time. Instead there was a mutual understanding, they were there because they'd rather stare at the fire, or finish off their homework, then lay in bed wondering whether it would be their turn next, to receive the news of a loved ones death.
- X - -
It was February 22nd and the atmosphere around the school seemed to have lifted slightly. There had been no unwelcome black letters for several weeks and the harsh winter weather had been pushed aside by some much missed sunshine. Then birds were chirping and the air outside was warm and inviting. The seventh year Gryffindors had been sat in the Great Hall discussing McGonagall's latest essay and Marlene McKinnon had half-jokingly said she hoped that if she received another failing mark for her work, that their strict head of house would throw her out of the Transfiguration class for good.
When the post had come no one had looked up for that uninvited black envelope. The fluttering piece of raven parchment had gone unnoticed until it had come to rest beside its unsuspecting recipient.
A deafening silence fell starting with the seventh years, then the rest of the Gryffindors table, and then finally it spread across the Great Hall as the receiver grabbed the letter and fled the room quickly.
- X - -
It was 2am once again and Lily had made her way down to the common room only to find James Potter sitting there, looking up at her door, as if he had been waiting for her.
She took up her usual seat, but didn't make any attempt to reach for the ever-growing pile of homework she had stashed underneath the coffee table. She was in no fit state to do any work. She felt as if she'd been ripped apart, her heart torn from her chest and her body flung aside. She couldn't quite comprehend what that awful letter had told her, and no matter how hard she tried to focus on other things, her mind always wandered back to those same few words,
"I regret to inform you that at 21:34 last night, your parents, Mr and Mrs Mark Evans, were hit by the killing curse in an organised death eater attack."
She fidgeted; feeling James' gaze still on her. She risked looking up. Emerald met hazel and Lily felt the tears welling up behind her eyes once more.
"I'm here Lily." James voice was soft and sincere. "If you need to talk. I'm always here."
She nodded at him and unable to hold them back any longer, the tears began to slowly cascade down her face. That's what these silent 2am meetings were all about, she thought, being there for each other. No matter what their past might be, she knew, and he knew, that they would always be there for the other should anything happen.
Even though right now, she felt like she was falling apart, James would be there to put her back together again.
