Hello, I'm back after an inexcusably long hiatus. I'm not even going to try and explain myself, so I'll just go on with my reasoning behind this story. It's another muggle AU (and if you're wondering, "My god, Shelb, will you ever stop writing muggle AUs and write magical Harry Potter fanfiction like a real person?" the answer is no. I'm living my life the way I want to be.
Anyways, since most Halloween Jily fics are terrifying and depressing, I thought I would put a little happy fun times into the mix! Before this story began, Lily had moved to England from Ireland to live with her schoolmate Severus (boo am I right), but he joined an immigrant hate group, and you know what happens from there. So now she's just moving in with a new friend in a new flat.
This really isn't my best work, it's my warm-up of NaNoWriMo. That being said, I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you enjoy reading it.
I hope you all enjoy this break from whatever sad Jily fic is next on your dash during this dark day. Please review! I love hearing what I can improve, and I love ignoring my homework to edit even more!
The first night she heard the screaming, Lily was genuinely worried about the well-being of her new next-door-neighbors.
It was an early October night, too warm to keep the windows closed, even if the dumpster three stories down did let in some unpleasant odors. Lily had moved into her friend Marlene's flat a month before, and was up late trying to knock out some final unpacking while the heat of the day wasn't seeping in.
The Irish girl had just ripped open the packing tape of a box labelled "Romantic Fiction" (one of twelve other boxes of books, all meticulously labeled according to genre) when the screaming started.
At first, it was just a single yelp coming from the apartment next to her. Someone must have stubbed their toe, or something. It's no big deal, Lily. Reassuring herself, she continued to unpack her small library of books, taking pleasure in arranging and rearranging them according to color, title, size, and author.
The next scream she heard, Lily got worried. It was again, little more than a short yelp, but it alarmed her. If I don't go check something out, am I considered an accomplice to murder? Those signs do say "If you see something, say something". Wait, that's about terrorism and racial profiling. And, anyway, I didn't see anything. So I don't have to say anything.
The third time, though, Lily just couldn't ignore it. It was getting louder every time, and after what she'd experienced living with Severus, she couldn't look past possible violence. So, armed with her father's cricket bat, she went out the door in her shorts and "Now Ladies Let's Get Information" t-shirt (from the library in Cork) to investigate the source of the commotion.
It didn't take long to figure out that the screaming was coming from the apartment next to hers-flat 305. She thumped loudly on the door, gripping the cricket bat tighter in her hands, but the screaming stopped immediately. That can't be right, Lily thought, her heart pounding fiercely. Their attacker just shut them up. There has to be another way in.
Suddenly, she remembered her open window and the fire escape just beyond it. It probably connects to the apartment next door.
With her bat in hand, she slid out her window. The frame next to hers was cracked open, with no screen impeding her way in. Bracing her hand around the bat, she steeled herself for what she needed to do.
"STOP HURTING MY NEIGHBORS!"
The short, red-haired girl practically flew in through the window, bat held aloft like a fencing foil. There was fury in her eyes; even if she didn't know her neighbors yet, she wasn't about to let them be-
As soon as her feet were firmly on the ground, Lily began to sense that something was off. There was no sign of an intruder, just four pale-faced boys with varying degrees of terror showing on their faces. One round, pudgy boy was curled up under a table, his eyes filled with fear and his hands clutched around a phone, frozen with shock. A lanky, mousy-haired boy wearing a frayed than sweater held a pillow above his head, frozen in place. A shorter, stockier boy was halfway over the couch held a remote control in a position that looked like he was about to throw it, and directly to his right, a boy with square-framed glasses and messy hair was closest to her, wearing a woman's apron and holding a spatula.
The tall, mousy-haired boy looked the short, fiery redhead up and down. "Madam, can we help you?" he asked quizzically, a hint of humor haunting his voice.
Lily looked around at the three boys, completely confused. "I heard screaming, and when you didn't answer the door, I got a little scared…"
The messy haired boy with glasses stepped forward, his face flushed with embarrassment. "We're so sorry. October is horror movie month for the lads and I, and you must have overheard us getting a little...antsy at some of the jump scares. Then, when you flew in through the window-well, that's the stuff horror films are built on. You can imagine it was a shock."
Lily lowered her bat slightly. "So, nobody's attacking you?"
"Well, Wes Craven is," the tall, mousy-haired boy in the corner offered. When Lily made to lift her bat again, his eyes grew wide. "No, no, that's just the director of the film were watching."
The messy-haired boy looked at Lily apologetically. Won't you stay for movie night?"
Lily began to panic. I can't stay here after what happened with Sev. What if these boys run in the same crowd? What if they'll target me-I have an Irish accent and this flaming red hair, I'm such an idiot, they've probably already identified me, they're calling backup, that's why that little man's on his phone-
Her mind racing, she panicked and screamed, "NO!" dropping her cricket bat on the foot of the messy-haired boy, and running out to hop the fire escape over to her own apartment, where she checked, re-checked, and triple checked that every way out of the house was locked. She went to bed for the night, but woke up with her head cleared of fear, with shame in its place.
Lily, you fool! They're just nice guys, and you overreacted. Really, they should have been the ones freaking out-you swung into their apartment holding a cricket bat like you were some sort of chimpanzee criminal. You need to either apologize, or never show our face around here again and search for a new apartment.
Lily sighed, climbed out of bed, and began to fix an "I'm So Sorry For Breaking And Entering" coffee cake. Or that's what she hoped it would come across as, at least.
When she returned from work that evening, the cake she left out in front of the door was gone, and the platter left back in front of hers. Smiling slightly and hoping the note she left explained everything, she turned her key in the lock and nearly dropped her platter.
Standing inside, leaning on her father's cricket bat, was the lanky, messy-haired boy from the night before.
The same instinct from the night before made Lily scramble towards the door. The boy in front of her held his hands up, the bat dropping to the floor. "Whoa, whoa! I'm just here to return your bat and introduce myself. My name's James, an I'm not going to hurt you, I'm not out to get you."
Lily clung to the door handle, her eyes narrowed. "If you aren't here to do something terrible to me, then how did you get in here? You broke into my apartment!"
James' eyebrows raised. "Well, first of all, no, I didn't. Your roommate Marlene let me in to wait for you to get home. But for your accusation, I suppose I could refer you to yourself, who broke into my apartment just last night with very good intentions, as was explained by your note."
Lily blushed, but she relaxed her hand on the doorknob. "I'm so sorry about last night. I was genuinely worried about you guys, and when you didn't answer the door I just thought..." She took a deep breath. "Sorry, I've had some not so great experiences."
"Yeah, your roommate told Sirius when he came over to try to return the coffee cake plate. Which was delicious, by the way," he said, nodding appreciatively at her. "Anyway, I just came over to return your bat, assure you on the behalf of my three roommates and I that there's no ill will, and maybe, invite you to our next movie night?" he asked, smiling hopefully at her.
"Sorry, I don't think that's such a good idea for me right now," Lily muttered.
James looked at her for a moment, then smiled brightly, ruffling his already unkempt hair. "Well, that's okay, but you're not going to get away from us that easily. You're interesting. I'm going to get to know you better, Lily Evans. And that's a promise."
The second night Lily heard the screaming, she was just worried about her neighbors' sanity.
Lily had been living with Marlene for another week, and in that time, she had bonded with Remus over book hoarding, tripped over Sirius, who had been drawing in the stairwell ("there's no scope for imagination in the flat, Lily") at least three times, and received two-and-a-half casseroles from Peter (one had accidentally been partially devoured by the boys before they were informed it was meant for the red-haired girl next door) . But despite her and James' bad first impression, he didn't seem to be deterred-he always seemed to be present when she came home from the grocer's to help her carry the bags up, leaving at the same time to walk her down to her car in the morning, or leaning on the doorframe to ask her if she knew the second-to-last clue on his daily crossword puzzle.
So Lily felt significantly less alarmed the second night she heard the screaming start. Discerning four separate screeches, she shook her head, smiled and put the kettle on to boil.
Twenty minutes later (coming in the front door this time), Lily entered the boys' flat armed with a plate of warm cinnamon buns and five mugs full of hot chocolate. Comically, all four of them flipped with the same look of terror on their faces, which turned into relief as they saw the red-haired girl, armed with warm snacks and a look of amusement on her face. She settled down with them, laughing at James flailing at the jumpscares, at Remus pointing out the plot holes, at Peter stealing the other boys' cinnamon rolls under the cover of a particularly gruesome death. She found herself at peace around others for the first time since leaving Ireland-that she wasn't being targeted for being an immigrant like she was at Sev's. So for the first time, Lily let herself relax around new people, and opened herself to the idea of making friends outside of Mary and Marlene.
The third time, it didn't begin with a scream at all. One quiet Saturday night, Lily found herself dragged out of the multifarious mishaps of Longbourn by a sharp knock on the door. Assuming it was just Marlene, coming in slightly tipsy and unable to locate her keys, Lily merely pulled a Halloween sweater with a ghost saying "You Go, Ghoul" on the front and padded to the door. On the other side, however, was not Marlene, but a pale-faced James Potter, eyes wide behind his square-framed glasses.
"I'm sorry to bother you, Lily," he gulped, "but nobody's home and I'm terrified."
Lily's brow furrowed, stepping out of her apartment into the hall. "Is something wrong, Potter?"
"Er, it's a little ridiculous, but I suppose you've seen that side of me already."
Lily snorted in agreement, but stopped and assumed a somber expression after seeing the look on James' face. "Sorry, continue."
"Well, I was working last movie night, and in order to finish this movie series on time, the lads told me to watch the third Scream on my own time, and, well, I'm…"
"Scared."
"Not scared," James said indignantly. "Just a little jumpy."
"Potter, I don't know-"
"Before you say no, did I mention that I made hot apple cider and snickerdoodle cookies this afternoon?"
The mention of sugar made Lily cave. With a wistful glance at the cozy armchair and afghan sitting in the room behind her, she followed the gangly, messy-haired boy to the flat next door.
As it turned out, James Potter was absolutely not the easiest person to watch movies with. He was always either asking her questions that had already been answered, pausing to "go to the bathroom" (although these bathroom breaks coincided a little too perfectly with the most frightening parts of the movie to be entirely believable), asking questions at the exact time the answers were being revealed so he didn't catch them, or looking up the times of the jumpscares so he wouldn't be frightened (he inevitably was).
After his third time "refilling the cookie plate" (which still had seven cookies on it), Lily had spread out on his side of the couch, looking at him with laughter in her eyes. "Jeez, Potter. I thought I'd seen the worst when you and the lads were watching movies. But this? I can see why the others didn't want to go through this a third time."
James flopped down on her legs, glaring at her. "They have to. There's still another movie left, it's for Halloween night."
Lily shook her head. "Those poor, poor boys. Now, get off my legs."
He settled in, shifting slightly so his weight wasn't hurting her legs. "Not a chance, Evans. The rules of this couch aren't of manifest destiny; what you take will be taken back."
Even with his irritating behavior, Lily could sense a little bit of her clawing her determined apathy toward the boy away. Despite her best efforts to dislike him, he was endearing. With every jumpscare, he seemed to get a little smaller, stealing a little more of the green wool blanket they were sharing. By the middle of the movie, James had moved almost completely to Lily's side of the couch, his eyes wider than serving platters and his face buried up to his glasses in blankets. Lily took pity on him and reached her hand out to grasp his when the particularly gruesome parts hit, and that's where she fell asleep-hand in hand with James Potter.
The next morning, Lily woke up very confused. He was spread out on an unfamiliar couch, underneath a warm but itchy blanket. There was an unfamiliar smell in the air- was that bacon? Marlene's never up early enough for breakfast. Lily opened her eyes and sat up, confused, on a sectional that was not her own. She looked directly to her right, where a long, lanky, dark-haired boy was sprawled out on the floor. She smiled slightly, vaguely remembering waking up to James covering her up with a blanket, propping a pillow behind her head, and moving to the floor, muttering that he didn't want to take advantage of her.
To her left, a stocky, tattooed, long-haired miscreant was leaning up against the kitchen counter, looking at Lily with amusement.
"Certainly didn't expect you here at this hour, Evans," Sirius chuckled, turning around to flip the bacon. "Did you and our dear James have a wonderful night of romance together?"
Remus walked in, yawning and pulling on a frayed, cable-knit sweater. "Oh, did they finally go on a date? Maybe James will finally shut up about it now-"
"We were not on a date!" Lily hissed vehemently, trying to get up off the couch without stepping on James. "He was scared of watching Scream 3 alone, so I took pity on his cowardly soul and came over to keep him company."
Sirius and Remus exchanged a look. "Sure, Lily. That's what they all say."
Torn between wanting to tell them off and fear of waking James up, Lily stayed silent. She picked up her sweater, which had been shed during the course of the movie (James generated more heat than a furnace), stole a piece of bacon from the plate Sirius was sitting out, and exited the boys' apartment with an indignant slam of the door.
The fourth night Lily heard screams, she knew what was going on. That being said, the kids coming her door trick-or-treating did not know, and by the time the fourth group of kids scattered before she could give them candy, Lily was fed up. Dressed in her witch costume, pointy hat, striped stockings, and broom in hand, she marched over to flat 305 and knocked decisively on the door.
A voice from behind, moving closer started to holler. "i'm so sorry, kids, but my mate Remus ate all the chocolate. Can you make do with-"
The door opened, and Lily found herself face-to-face with one James Potter, his hand in a bowl of gummy worms. Lily looked at him in disappointment. "Really, Potter? You were going to offer them unpackaged candy?"
James looked at her, smirking slightly. "No, these are mine, dearest Lily. I was going to send them over to your flat to take a double share."
Lily huffed, ignoring his last statement and choosing to look James over. "And who are you supposed to be?"
Clad in leather armor, a brownish-gray cloak, and with a sword by his side, James grinned-an image Lily was starting to struggle to keep away every time she closed her eyes. Since she'd fallen asleep at James' watching the third Scream movie, Lily had felt less and less irritated by the quirky brunette's presence. In fact, she found herself thinking about him, even actively seeking him out on occasion to help her with domestic tasks like setting up the printer, fixing the leaky shower head, or helping her move her couch. As of late, her mission was to extract the recipe for the phenomenal Snickerdoodle cookies Lily had partaken in the week before. His humor, his kindness, not to mention his goofy good looks-they were all starting to take hold on Lily.
But standing before her, wearing a tight shirt that showed off the muscles that were hidden under the bulky sweaters he wore-Lily suddenly was having a hard time thinking normally.
He drew a sword from the scabbard at his side. "I'm Aragorn, son of Arathorn, the rightful king of Gondor. But with terrible vision," he said, tapping his glasses and looking down at Lily with a winning smile. "Remus is Legolas, Sirius is Gandalf, and Pete is Sam." He shifted. "But I'm guessing that's not why you came over here?"
Lily shook herself out of her James-induced trance. "Er, yeah. You and your goons are scaring all those little kids away with your screaming. They think someone's getting murdered."
James shrugged. "Doesn't it just add to the ambiance? This musty hallway, a red-haired witch living at the end, the screams of her victims-" he broke off laughing as Lily punched his arm. "Alright, alright, we'll knock it down. This one isn't even that scary, and that's coming from me. And after all, we don't want a certain witch to come flying through our window trying to save us from some alleged "attacker".
"What do you mean, alleged?"
"I think you just saw me in the hallway and were too intrigued not to pursue it."
Lily rolled her eyes. "Keep dreaming, Potter."
James grinned. "Oh, I will.
Long after the last trick-or-treater finished begging, Lily was out on the fire escape, her nose buried in J. R. R. Tolkien's Fellowship of the Ring. In fact, she was so engrossed in it that she didn't hear Marlene call out to tell her to go to bed, the drunk people roaming the streets below her, or the quickly dropping temperature. She was so entranced by the misadventures of Frodo and his comrades that she hardly noticed when someone else stepped out on the fire escape.
"Lord of the Rings, eh?"
She snapped the book shut. "I'm not reading this because of you, you know."
James nodded solemnly. "I'm sure."
Choosing to ignore the sarcasm in his voice, Lily looked off the fire escape into the building next to her. Through the window, she saw a young family, sitting in their cramped living room, celebrating their young daughter's first Halloween haul. Next door, she saw an older couple, dressed up as Westley and Buttercup from the Princess Bride, their hair graying but their joy evident. She sighed, wistfulness creeping into her usually no-nonsense attitude.
She shivered, her voice softening. "Do you think we'll ever find someone like those people, James?"
His chest tightened, and he reached out to drape his cloak around her shoulders.
"I really hope so, Lily."
"What if we already have?" she murmured, her voice dreamy. "What if we've already met the person that makes the stars brighter, that makes the world warmer…" Her voice drifted off into a gentle hum.
"Maybe we have," he whispered back, his eyes soaking her in-how she seemed to glow under the streetlights, his cloak pooling around her, her hair in a static halo beneath her witch's cap. His hand found hers in the darkness. "Maybe we have."
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