A/N: Just a short one shot...
Prompt: Comfort/Friendship
Lily found James sat slumped against a wall in the Room of Requirement.
The room was large and empty, save the hunched figure, isolated and melancholic. The windows were tall and the ceiling was infinitely high. Outside, the sky was a wide, inky expanse flecked with spots of light and the moon hung, almost full, like an ethereal bauble, casting panels of white light across the desolate room. A crumpled piece of parchment lay discarded beside James and he sat with his head in his hands, the moon bleaching his hair from jet black to grey.
He didn't look up as Lily's footsteps were sent like a wave, echoing around the bare room. He knew who it would be. Ironic really that he yearned for her company endlessly and now when she came, he no longer wanted anyone around. He expected her to say something like the others had done; words of comfort, sympathy, pity. But she just slipped down the wall next to him wordlessly, clasping his hand in her small one. The usual hammer in his chest and ears when Lily approached was gone. All he felt was platonic gratitude and comfort he doubted anyone but her could have given him. He didn't want to be looked after, least of all pitied.
She looked into his hazel eyes full of shattered emotions and terrible sadness; but also gratitude. His eyes met her green ones, which were not full of pity but full of grim understanding and a steely glint that James knew was a show of her strength. Intense and captivating, they both stared at each other until James' eyes started to water and a lump caught in the back of his throat. Lily looked away, instead, resting her red hair on James' shoulder allowing him time to hide his tears if he wanted.
The panel of light in which they sat, turned Lily's hair lighter, almost as if they had sat there years and aged. James wondered if maybe one day he would be sat with Lily, grey haired, in perfect understanding with each other. James wondered if growing old and grey was even a possibility in these dark times. His parents were dead. He grew cold at the thought. Perhaps Lily sensed this because she let out a soft whisper and squeezed his hand.
"I'm sorry James."
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