I do NOT own any part of Harry Potter. This is merely fanfiction

This story was written for the House Competition by Moonlight Forgotten (Year 4)

Round 4

House: Gryffindor

Position: Year 1

Category: Standard

Prompt: Marauders Era

Words: 894

James was already asleep by the time Lily entered their bedroom after putting Harry to sleep. She gazed at her husband lovingly. At times, she wondered how they had gotten this far after she had spent years despising him. Maybe despise was too strong of a word, but she certainly immensely disliked him and with good reason. As a teen, Potter was truly an arrogant, bullying toerag as she had eloquently put it. Somewhere around third or fourth year, he had developed a crush on her and this only added to her woes as he would constantly do stupid things for her attention. But even worse was that as much as she despised his attitude, she couldn't help but be attracted to him. He was attractive, good at sports and she was a teenage girl with hormones after all. A part of her was also flattered that the popular jock fancied her over other girls. But going out with someone so arrogant and full of himself and someone who was a bully was out of the question.

In sixth year, James had gradually toned down arrogance and showing off and stopped hexing people for the fun of it. He stopped doing stupid things for her attention, flirting with her or asking her out. This led to a civil accordance between them which eventually led to them being friends. Lily of course denied having any sort of attraction towards James that it took her jealousy over him getting a new girlfriend for her to realize and admit to herself that she fancied him. But she was sure he had moved on from his crush on her especially in the light of him having a new girlfriend. She let herself get a boyfriend, convinced that it would help her move on from her crush. The relationship ended amicably after a few months as she simply couldn't get herself invested in it as much as she tried.

It didn't help that her feelings for him grew deeper the more time she spent with him. Lily had discovered many attractive traits about James aside from finding him to be fun company and easy to talk to. But she couldn't admit it to him or anyone else that she was falling for him. She was afraid of being rejected. In seventh year, they were made Headboy and Headgirl. Having to spend more time with James made Lily more snappish as she was afraid of her ever growing feelings for the Marauder. In was during one of their patrols that she had yelled out her feelings for him. Initially confused, James confessed that he never stopped fancying her even if he tried to move on. He never acted on it because he was afraid that he would be taking advantage of their friendship.

Initially, Lily and James chose to keep their relationship a secret. They'd snog in empty classrooms during patrols and sometimes he'd spontaneously pull her into an empty corridor. The sneaking around added to the fun. When they came out, quite a few people including Sirius, Remus, Peter and Dumbledore made a few galleons on the side from their bets. James had told her he was certain McGonagall also made a galleon or two even if she wouldn't admit it. They had the same aspirations of fighting against Voldermort's reign of terror and this only bonded them further. When they confessed their love for each other towards the end of the schoolyear, it was drama free, easy and natural.

At the height of the war, Lily and James were part of the Order of Phoenix and would constantly be worried sick whenever the other was on a mission. It was after a close escape from death that they emotionally decided they didn't want to lose the opportunity to spend their lives together if one of them died in the war. A few months after they were married, Lily found out she was unexpectedly pregnant. She and James were afraid of bringing a baby into the war, but he held her, kissed her head and told her everything would be alright and they had each other. Despite their initial concern, they were delighted when Harry was born but their happiness didn't last long when Dumbledore informed them Harry was targeted by Voldemort due to a prophesy. They had live in hiding even since.

Lily knew being in hiding was frustrating for the even adventurous James but he did his best to put on a smile for his wife and son and took joy in the little moments he had with them. She didn't know how she herself could get through this without him by her side. His hugs and kisses gave her comfort like no other.

"Lily," James had woken up from his sleep.

"Oh, sorry James, did I wake you?"

"No. Work of nature. I can hardly sleep nowadays," he replied, trying to play it off as a joke but she knew he was worried about everything from their safety to people dying in the war.

"I can't sleep either" she admitted.

"Come here" James gestured, opening his arm as Lily snuggled into him and he put an arm around her and stroked her hair with the other.

No words needed to be said as they wordlessly understood each other's fears and took comfort in the other's arms.