A/N: Written for the Photograph Challenge at the Writing Challenges forum. The end get a bit crazy, and it's slightly unrealistic…and Lily changes her mind over the course of three hours…but come on, she was already over the biggest hill! She just had to clear the smaller ones. (Read on to understand)

Dedication: Failing to fall out of love, for setting up the challenge! And to anyone who's ever judged too quickly…

Disclaimer: I. Do. Not. Own.


Dusty Pages

Lillian Rose Evans was bored.

Bored out of her mind.

It was Christmas Break, and everyone was gone. Her friends were with their families. Merlin, did she miss them.

She missed everyone. Hogwarts was usually crowded and bustling, but for the past week, it had been deadly quiet and no one walked the halls but the ghosts and teachers.

She even missed the infamous obnoxious Marauders.

She wanted to be asked out by the bane of her existence, James Potter, one more time.

She wanted to be laughed at my Sirius Black, James' sidekick, one more time.

She wanted Remus Lupin, the werewolf and best friend of the two idiots mentioned, to grin at her sheepishly.

She wanted Peter Pettigrew, the dull one in the drawer, to hide from her glare—one last time.

But it was to no avail—they wouldn't be back for another week, and she was alone until then.

So, out of sheer loneliness, we find her walking up to Boys' Staircase in Gryffindor Tower, opening the 7th year dorm, and heading to James Potter's messy bed.

She knew immediately whose was whose. Remus' was well made, with a stack of books next to it. Sirius' had a bag of suspicious looking objects, his sheets rumpled as if he'd just rolled out of bed. Peter's had a moldy sandwich in the center, and it was done clumsily.

And James? His blankets and pillows where strewn across the floor and on his bed was a drawing of "Lily" in a heart. Next to that was a photo album, opened to a page.

Intrigued, Lily slowly approached the book. It was covered in dust, save for one picture, which had been stroked by a loving finger—or so she surmised.

She grabbed the book and flipped to the cover. "Baby Book" it read. Engraved by magic, underneath, it said, "James before Hogwarts".

Lily opened to the first page, and was amazed by what she found.


Three hours later, Lillian Rose Evans was not the same girl she had once been.

Once meaning three hours ago.

She no longer hated James Potter.

That was one major difference.

She stared down at the last page of the photo album, back aching, head aching, legs aching from her position—but a smile on her pale face.

She pushed a piece of red hair behind her ear, grinning down at the page, lying flat on her stomach on James' messy bed, caressing the very same picture she had seen at the beginning of this fascinating adventure.

It was a picture of baby James, grinning up at the camera. He had one tooth and he was waving a toy broomstick around. He occasionally got onto the broomstick, but fell off again and landed as he had been before, grinning hugely as only a baby can.

And something in Lily's heart melted.


So when James Potter burst through the Boy's Dorm door, she was completely prepared for what she did.

Well, not really…


The door opened with a bang! Lily looked up to find a stunned James Potter standing there.

"I-I came back early. Sirius and I are back…we were bored at home…and you're here…why are you here?"
Lily looked at him for a moment, and then sprung off the bed and kissed him right on the lips.


And that, my friends, is how Lillian Rose Evans and James Lucas Potter got together.

All thanks to that lonely Christmas break…that dusty photo album…and James' toy broomstick.

THE END!