"I want a story."
Lily Potter sighed, halfway out the door of her son's room. "Mummy is tired," she said. "Can you sleep on your own, Harry?"
"I want a story."
With another sigh (how could she resist those large green eyes, so like hers?) Lily returned to her son's side and sank onto the bed beside him. "Very well," she said. "What would you like to hear?"
Harry thought for a moment, his eyes screwed up in concentration. "Something with magic in it."
Lily smiled at that. "Magic?" she asked. "Like magic carpets and curses?"
The little boy nodded solemnly.
Lily rolled up the sleeves of her thin robe dramatically. "Have I ever told you how your father and I met?" Harry shook his head, settling back onto his pillows expectantly. "It was many years ago," she said, "though quite recently. It was in a far-off land, but it was right here. It was full of contradictions, but it was delightfully simple. Do you understand?"
"No," Harry said. "But I don't care."
So Lily began.
James Potter was born the wealthy son of a wealthier merchant, and he hated every second of it. He grew up in a house that felt like a palace, but without any of the power that came with one. He had three friends he loved dearly, so he spent every waking second in their company.
One day, under the baking sun, the four friends sat in the shade near the harbor and stared out at the ships that came and went. The ships slid through the cool water to the horizon, and each boy found himself wishing he were on one. The white sails and shining decks were dreams, edging just slightly out of grasp with each swell of the waves.
"Can you imagine the freedom?" James said wistfully.
"Can you imagine the adventures?" Sirius said hopefully.
"Can you imagine the sights?" Remus said eagerly.
"Can you imagine the riches?" Peter said jokingly.
The four looked at each other, then once more at James. He was the richest, with the means to easily purchase a ship and never have to look back.
"Could we?" they asked. "Should we?"
The answers were simple: Yes, and probably not.
And so, without any further ado, they marched down to the harbor and right up to the fanciest, most beautiful vessel they could find. For a small bag of gold coins, the foursome managed not only to buy passage on the ship but the ship itself. James was named captain, as he had paid the men. Sirius was first mate by default, and Peter and Remus became co-first-and-a-half mates, a position Remus suspected had been made up.
The four boys (for no one could argue they were men) set sail before sunset, learning the ropes (if you'll pardon the pun) as they sailed.
To absolutely no one's surprise, least of all yours, they shipwrecked on the first island they came across.
The Marauder, as they named her, tossed and turned on a relatively calm sea, jostled by incompetent hands. The glare from the sun was blinding, and James ran her aground onto the sandy beaches of a small island. In an attempt to reverse course, the back rudder snapped entirely off. (How that is possible is beyond me—let me merely tell you that these boys were woefully terrible at sailing a ship.)
Remus and Sirius disembarked first to evaluate the damage.
James hopped down onto the sandy shore, throwing a hand over his eyes to shield from the glare of the sun. Was it his imagination, or was something glinting up ahead in the dunes? Yes, there it was: a sharp glitter amid the haphazardly strewn trees, further inland.
Peter shouted after him, but the scent of adventure was in the air, and nothing could stop James once he caught it. He hurtled across the sand, scrambled and slid over the rocks, and found himself facing a small golden lamp, sitting on a rock as though forgotten.
James looked around. Though small, he had moved to the center of the island, and could no longer see his friends or the ship. He stuck a fallen leaf in the sand in the direction from which he'd come, then picked up the lamp and sat in the shade of a tall palm.
Something was written on the side of it, carved into the gold, but it was covered in a fine layer of sand. James tugged his sleeve over his hand and wiped the sand gently away, pulling the lamp closer to inspect the curling letters.
No sooner had he done so, however, than the lamp grew unbearably hot in his hands. With a yelp, James dropped it and fell backwards off the rock, landing ungracefully on his back.
There was a loud BANG, and something was looming above him.
James squeezed his eyes open, then shut them again. He was seeing this, obviously seeing things. Because there was no way a gorgeous woman with hair like fire was leaning over him, her face frowned in concentration.
"If I'm dreaming," he muttered. "I'd very much like to be back in Gryffindor when I wake."
"Gryffindor?" the woman said. James supposed if she was a dream, his imagination was really quite marvelous. She wrinkled her nose. "That little seaside village?"
James blinked and sat up. "It's quite a large city."
"Oh." The woman looked down, then sat on the rock James had so quickly vacated. "I suppose I haven't been there in...many years."
"It's been a city since before I was born," James said, sitting beside her. "You don't look much older than—that is to say, how many years has it been?"
"What year is it?" The woman asked.
James told her, and she blushed.
"Several hundred years," she replied. "Give or take a few decades."
"My goodness," was all James could think to say in response. "You look quite well for seven hundred years old, I must say."
She laughed, like bells and honey. "I'm far older than that." Suddenly she jumped up. "I can't believe you let me ramble on like that! We have business to attend to, don't we?"
He followed suit, standing a little more heavily due to exhaustion. "D-do we?"
"You rubbed my lamp, didn't you?" she indicated the discarded thing. "What is your first wish?"
"Wish?" James asked dreamily.
The woman folded her arms impatiently and scowled. "You're certainly very new to all this, aren't you?" She spread her arms and stepped back, light sparkling off her multicolored robes. She looked like a sunset, all fire-red hair and pastel cloth. "I am Lilith, Djinni of the lamp. You..." she wrinkled her nose again. "You seem to be a shipwrecked sailor with no taste in clothing." She twitched, like an idea occurred to her. "I know! You'd probably love some shade or fresh water, wouldn't you? Why don't you wish for that, maybe a lady companion as well, and I'll just go back into my lamp and wait for someone..." her eyes swept him up and down. "Cleaner."
"You're awfully impatient," James said. "Give me a moment, would you? My brain is a little addled, I did just shipwreck, after all..." he began to pace around the lamp, muttering to himself.
"Water?" Lilith suggested every so often. "Some food?"
He waved her away each time.
Finally, footsteps and shouts. "James! Mate, wherever you've wandered, it looks like we're stuck. There's a hole in the back, we're taking on water fast..."
James' head jerked up, and he snapped his fingers. "That's it! Lily—"
"Lilith."
"I wish my boat were fixed."
Lilith sighed and rolled back her sleeves, revealing two thick golden bangles. "About time," she muttered. "Let's see the damage, then. Can't fix something I haven't seen."
James scooped up the lamp and set it carefully into his satchel. "This way." He kicked the leaf he'd set in place, leading her towards Sirius' shouts. "I'm here!" he called. "I found a solution, I can fix it!"
"You can fix it," Lilith scoffed. "I am right here, you know."
The other three boys had gathered on the beach, and stared in awe as James neared, the radiant Lilith in tow. "Boys," he announced happily. "I present Lilith, Djinni of the lamp. She'll be fixing up the Marauder."
As Lilith neared the ship, she began to laugh. "What have you done? This is an absolute disaster. Have any of you sailed before?"
They shook their heads, though Sirius scowled while doing so.
She raised her hands. "Very well. Your first wish is my command." Golden light gathered at her fingertips and arched away, swarming the broken parts of the ship and surrounding them; it glowed so brightly James had to cover his eyes. When the light faded, the Marauder was safely tethered to a nearby tree, anchor dropped, plank lowered.
Lilith's lips quirked in a half-smile as the boys turned to her, dumbfounded. "Good as new," she declared. "Now, master, your next two wishes—"
"Not so fast," Remus said. "James, you have three wishes."
"Two," Lilith corrected.
"Master," Sirius cackled.
James blushed. "Please don't call me that."
"Two," Remus amended. "Don't use them all right now."
"Of course not," James said, as if the very notion were ridiculous. "Come, let's sail on. Lily, there's a spare cabin for you below, I believe—"
"Oh, dear me, no," Lilith said with a tinkling laugh. "I'd much rather sleep in my lamp for all eternity than live on a boat—"
"In there?" James interrupted. "That's inhumane! No, you'll live with us until we reach our destination. We have plenty of food and fresh water—"
"I don't need to eat," she said dismissively. "And I will not get aboard your vessel."
A week later, Lilith sat in the galley with Sirius and Peter, recounting the tale of Urg the Unfortunate while beating Peter at chess.
"He wished for...let's see, what was it? A new button, a mouse, and the key to the hidden treasure his sultan had hidden beneath the palace. Of course, he never found it, so the key was a complete waste. Still, I've heard it's now a family heirloom..."
"What did he do with the mouse?" Peter asked, fingering a pawn.
Lilith grinned wickedly, sliding her rook forward. "Fed it to his cat."
"No!" Peter said, horrified. He had several pet rats in his cabin, all named Wormtail. When Lilith inquired as to why, he simply sniffed and said, "If you don't know, I won't tell you." It remained the biggest mystery she had encountered in a thousand years of life.
"Yes," Lilith said, as feet clattered down the stairs. James appeared, running a hand through his hair and looking harried. "Ah, if it isn't my master. What can I do for you?"
"Don't call me that," he said. "Sirius, there's a storm on the horizon, I need your help plotting a course around it."
"I don't really know what I'm doing, mate," Sirius warned, getting to his feet.
"You've gotten us this far."
"I could help," Lilith suggested helpfully, as she had several times. "Just wish you'd reached your destination—"
James gave a small smile, though his entire demeanor was worried. "It's about the travelling," he said. "Not the location. Hey, Pete."
Peter nodded in response, turning back to the chess game as the two disappeared on deck.
Several hours (or perhaps it was days—spending decades at a time inside a lamp tended to skew one's sense of time) later, Lilith heard a resounding crash from up on deck.
She set down the book she had borrowed from Sirius and got to her feet, ready to affectionately scold the boys for whatever havoc they were wreaking now. Despite initial hesitations, she had grown to enjoy her time out of the lamp, to stretch her legs and interact with humans. This was one of the longest times she'd been out, since an evil wizard had trapped her in the first place.
As Lilith began to ascend the wooden steps that would lead her to the deck, she reminded herself firmly that the wizard was dead, and of no harm to her (or anyone) anymore. She had seen to that, she thought grimly.
At first, when she reached the deck and was assaulted by a wall of water, she assumed the boys were playing a prank on her, as they were wont to do occasionally. When her eyes adjusted and the water hadn't stopped, she realized they had sailed into the storm, and the crash had been the main sail toppling over. How she hadn't noticed the rocking was another mystery—she must be losing her wits after all this time free from the lamp.
She heard a shout and found herself, her eyes catching a flash of Sirius' dark hair amongst the rain and fog. "Lily!" he was calling, desperately, over and over.
Like magic (though, of course, she had only run) Lilith appeared beside him, where he was cradling James' prone body.
Lilith's blood ran cold. "What happened?" she shouted.
She had never had a master die on her before. Would she die as well? Would she live the rest of her immortal life, tethered to a functionless lamp, doomed to wander for all eternity?
All of her questions flew into the void as she saw James was still breathing, replaced with a single, surprising emotion: overwhelming relief. She knelt beside Sirius, pulling a piece of mast to shield them as best she could.
"Part of the mast hit him," Sirius shouted back, the howling wind ripping away each syllable. "Remus and Peter are below, there's nothing any of us can do!" Suddenly there was a gleam in his gray eyes. "You can help."
"I can't!" Lilith screamed over the wind. "I can't do anything! My magic is tied to the lamp!"
"Lilith, I wish he were safe." Sirius bent over his friend, removing fogged up glasses from hazel eyes.
There was no twinge of compulsion. Lilith shook her head. "It has to be James," she said. "Only he can channel my magic—I'm sorry!"
In disgust, Sirius pushed away from her, leaning James' unconscious form against the railing as he swore, staggering towards the helm.
Lily pushed James' hair out of his eyes (though it didn't help), and suddenly became aware that some of the water staining her cheeks were her own tears. "Please wake up," she mouthed. "Please, please wish you were safe, you were awake and alive, we were safe!" She bent over him, all her magic useless. "You have to wake up!" she screamed. "You stupid, stupid sailor—why did you go and get yourself knocked unconscious? I can't fix all of your mistakes!"
She screamed her throat sore, and then she screamed some more, hearing Sirius wrestling with the wheel to no avail.
A hand touched her cheek.
James was awake.
Lily gave a surprised yelp. "Quickly," she said, watching his fluttering eyes. "Quickly, wish we were safe, wish we were home!"
"I—I wish—"
"Go on," she said. "Wish we were home."
"...who?"
"It's me," she sobbed. "It's me, it's Lily."
"I wish we could get home safe."
Magic surged to Lily's fingertips, warming her through her toes, and she cried with relief. She hated not having her magic be truly hers, but for once it felt like it could be once again.
She got unsteadily to her feet, the deck swaying back and forth. Lilith threw her arms out, and the golden light swept from horizon to horizon, gathering up the storm clouds and the rain, swirling around the broken mast and James' head.
It was so much; so powerful, that Lilith's head spun and she fell sideways onto the warm deck. Changing the weather was huge magic, and Lily was drained. She pressed her cheek to the hot wood, melting in the new warmth around her. Hands were grabbing her shoulders, turning her face sunward.
"Lily—Lily—Lilith—"
At her given name from her master's mouth Lily's eyes jerked open. "I'm sorry," spilled from her mouth. "It was a powerful storm, I'm s—"
She was pulled into a strong embrace, her eyes widening in shock. She hadn't been hugged in a thousand years. Lily leaned into James, her cheek pressed against his shoulder.
"You did it," he was saying. "You saved us."
"I did, didn't I?" she said faintly. "Look, I know I said I didn't need to sleep...but I think...I might make an exception..." She slid sideways out of his embrace and into welcome darkness.
There was a tap on Lily's door, jolting her from unconsciousness. Sleeping was a foreign concept. In her lamp she drifted in and out of awareness, but it was nothing like true sleep. With her energy restored, Lily found herself wide awake. She would most likely not need to sleep again unless James' third wish required something equally taxing, which she sincerely hoped not.
She found herself dreading the arrival of the third wish. It meant a return to the darkness of the lamp and an immortal life of servitude. Lily dug her hands into the soft blankets on her bed, trying to ground herself in reality. She had time. He had, after all, only just used his second wish.
The knock came again, more insistent this time.
Lily swung the door open. "Yes, master?" she asked, leaning against the doorframe.
"I hate it when you call me that. Can I come in?"
"You can do as you please." But Lily found herself wanting his company as she stepped back to let him in. "What can I do for you?"
James stood awkwardly, then sat on the bed. "I wanted to thank you for saving my life."
Lily shrugged. "It was your wish."
"Yes, but...you could have manipulated that into anything. I've read up on genies—"
"Djinni," Lily interrupted. "We prefer Djinni."
"Djinni," James said. "They're...well, it said you were tricksters."
"I have been known to play my fair share of tricks," Lily admitted. "Oh, once there was this man, Dippet, he wished for clarity and I made him invisible." She laughed at the memory.
James patted a spot on the bed beside him, and Lily sat. "I hate this," he mumbled.
Lily's blood ran cold, much like it had when she thought he was dead. How curious. "What?" she asked. "I—you can make your third wish, you know. Anything you like. I won't trick you." She paused. "And I'll go back to the lamp."
"No!" He grabbed her hands. "That's not—gods above, that's not what I meant, Lilith."
"Lily."
"It's grown on you," he grinned.
She smiled back. "It makes me feel more human." Lily blinked. She hadn't realized that was true until she'd said it aloud. "More human," she said again. "No. I don't—I don't need to be human!" She stood abruptly. "I am a Djinn. I wish I were Djinn again, I wish I could use my magic again, not be chained to some lamp and some human!"
"That's what I hate," James said quietly. "I hate that I control your magic—that's what Sirius said you said, anyway. It's not fair. How...how did this happen?"
A white, snakelike face. Two red eyes. Green light, a shocked human.
"It was a long time ago," Lily said eventually. "You don't want to know. You'll think less of me."
"Not possible," James said immediately.
"I..." Lily sighed. He was staring at her intently, like back on the island. He was determined. "Very well. I'll start at the beginning, then.
"Djinn have life spans very similar to humans. The main difference is that we have magic. I know, I know, a few rare humans do too, your wizards. That is where my story begins. I was seventeen years old, barely having mastered basic elemental magic. I was the worst at earth magic, so when my parents were busy and my sister was out, I snuck out into the mountains to practice.
"There had been rumors of a wizard in the mountains, a fearsome human, but I always suspected those were just tales, told to frighten younger Djinni from venturing out on their own. Besides, I was a seventeen-year-old, a teenager, full of idiotic ideas of being indestructible and noble.
"I began to practice. Little things at first—lifting stones, then boulders, then shifting the ground and the cliffsides. I was making too much noise, using too much magic, drawing too much attention to myself. The wizard noticed me, and he approached.
"He told me he was impressed. Told me I had talent, that I was better than my unrefined Djinni cousins. I was flattered. He offered an exchange: he would teach me the finer points of human magic, and I would teach him elements. It sounded too good to be true. A mentor, someone who appreciated my talents! I went with him at once to his castle, way up in the mountains. He led me to his lair, down in the dungeons. He wanted to show me a spell, something he thought I'd love.
"It was a golden lamp. He said whoever held the lamp could have their hearts desire, and I was to wish for the ability to perform human magic. It all sounded so perfect, so logical, so obvious. I took the lamp.
"No sooner had I touched it than bracelets appeared on my wrists, locking into place. My hands were stuck to the lamp. His eyes...I'll never forget. They glowed red, he chanted something in another language...and then the lamp clattered to the stone floor. It seemed I was free. I raised my hands to blast him with fire, to kill him for whatever he'd tried to do, but nothing happened. My magic was blocked, like a cork in a bottle.
"He wished for me to murder a family of humans that lived on the other side of the mountains, just to see if I would. I did, and because he relished in it, so did I. He wished I would transport him to the kingdom of Slytherin, and I did. He wished I would assassinate the king, and I did. As soon as the third wish was granted, I vanished. Everything was dark, and all I knew was relief. I thought he had killed me, and all I could think was...was thank the gods I was finally free.
"But then I was back. I was in a different human wizard's room, and he looked as surprised to see me as I was to see him. He was kind, he was good. Only a few years had passed, and the wizard who trapped me had taken Slytherin's throne.
"The young wizard wished his mother was healthy, and I did that gladly. He wished his spells would work, and they did. And then...then he wished for the kingdom's peace. There were so many ways I could have accomplished that; I could have created a surplus to last a thousand years, filled their rivers to the brim, slaughtered their enemies. Instead, I acted selfishly. I murdered their king, the wizard who had imprisoned me. I killed him slowly, and I thought I would be free. I had no idea what had happened to me, or what would happen. With his death, I suppose I ended a tyranny, so I had brought peace. But the young human's face...his shock, his hurt. He hadn't wanted that. He'd just wanted the people to be happy.
"I sank into nothingness again, not expecting to wake again. I had broken the cycle before it had begun.
"But I was wrong. I found myself in the hands of countless humans, sometimes days apart, sometimes centuries. I have travelled the world in snippets, never staying in the same place for longer than a week. Humans are impatient creatures, they always use their wishes as soon as they can."
Lily fell silent, watching James. His eyes hadn't left hers the whole time she spoke.
"Until now."
James looked at her for a while longer. "I don't think less of you," he said, his voice rusty. "I admire you."
"What?"
"You've remained strong," he said. "A lesser Djinn than you would have broken. But when I look at you, I don't see a murderer or a lost soul. I see a powerful woman who is completely in control of what she has, despite what she doesn't."
He had leaned closer to her, so close she could feel his breath on her cheek.
If he wished for her to kiss him, she would disappear into the lamp happy.
"JAMES!" A voice bellowed. Remus was running down the stairs. "Land! It's Gryffindor! We've circled around, I suppose, we've gone back home—" the door was flung open, and James sprang away from Lily.
"Home? I—I suppose my wish did say something about home, I hadn't thought..." He looked back at Lily. "I'll be right up. Tell Sirius to take us into the harbor."
James turned back to Lily after Remus had left. "I don't have to make a third wish," he said. "You could come with me, back home."
"I thought it was about the traveling," Lily said with a weak smile.
"I've had enough adventuring for now, I think," James said. "I still own this ship, don't I?" He stepped towards her again. "Please," he murmured. "Please come with me. I won't wish anything, you can stay..."
Lily found herself shaking her head. "I can't," she said. "I don't know what would happen. I wouldn't age, and when you die...I have no idea what will happen to me."
James bit his lip. "At least come up," he said. "We can decide what happens next. Together."
Lily had never had a together, not even when she was a seventeen-year-old Djinn at home with her family. "Alright," she said. "We can decide together."
They met the other three on deck, pulling more smoothly into the harbor than they had left it.
"D'you reckon my father will be very upset?" James asked Peter, who just laughed.
The boys turned to Lily. "What will you do?" Remus asked.
"I don't know," she said. "James will have to make a third wish, and then..."
"One of us could take the lamp," Remus suggested. "That gives us nine more wishes to figure out what to do next."
Lily blinked. "You—you would do that?"
"Hey, it's free magic," Sirius said. "D'you know how much a wizard costs these days?"
Peter elbowed him.
"I mean. Yeah, of course, Lils." He threw the rope over the deck, where someone down below tied it off. "I'll be in a pub if any of you lot need me. After all that, I need a good drink."
"We brought three barrels of rum," Remus protested, following him off. Peter took one look at James and scurried off after them.
"I can't believe your friends would do that for me," Lily said. "And not just for the magic. For me."
"They're your friends too, Lily," James said amusedly. "I wi—I'm glad you'll be staying with us. Even if it's only until we run out of trustworthy confidants."
Lily cracked a smile. "I wish I could stay with you forever."
"I wish you were free."
Golden light was everywhere, rushing over her skin like tiny feathers. The wind picked up, swirling around her like a tornado, catching her hair in its swarm, dragging her arms forward. Lily watched with stunned eyes as the light ate away at the gold bands on her wrists, dissolving the metal like acid, then shrank away from her limbs, collapsing in on itself until a small spot of light remained, just over her heart. Then that, too, vanished, sinking into her skin.
Lily and James stared at each other. She felt lighter than she had in a thousand years, in control of her limbs and her mind. Experimentally, she lifted her arm, beckoning to the sea around her. Hundreds of tiny jets responded to her call, arching over their heads, twining together and evaporating into a fine mist that settled in their hair and onto their skin.
A happy giggle burst from Lily, as she twirled, changing her robes from multicolored to bright yellow then back.
"You did it!" she cried, throwing herself at him in a hug. "You freed me—how? How did you know it would work?"
"I didn't!"
They were both yelling and laughing and spinning and hugging, and Lily couldn't stop herself from changing his hair to green and purple and blue and shades she'd never even seen before. James took her face in his hands and kissed her, and she felt it, every nerve in her body on fire, no longer numb and dull.
It was like being alive after centuries of sleeping.
On the deck of the Marauder they kissed, and she cried, and he laughed, and they both lived happily ever after.
"You didn't tell me there would be kissing," Harry said, sounding betrayed.
Lily smiled faintly, still lost in memory. "I'd forgotten about that bit."
"Mum, can you make my hair blue?"
Lily laughed. "No, darling. Think about what Daddy would say if you and he didn't have the same hair! He would be distraught."
Harry thought about this for a moment. "Okay," he said. "Goodnight, Mummy. Thank you for the story. Even if there was kissing in it."
"Goodnight, my darling."
James was waiting outside the door. "And they all lived happily ever after?"
"What?" Lily asked, pulling him in for a kiss. "We did."
A/N
Hello! Not my best work, probably submitted too late (it is March 1, after all!) but I really liked how it turned out. I hope you do too!
All my love,
Alys xoxo