Dedicated to Shannon, for Hogwart's Teacher Appreciation Event. I adore Jily and I hope you like my version of them.
Written for the 100 Ways To Say "I Love You" Challenge. (2. "It reminded me of you.") and for Astronomy Task #1- Write about someone who makes sure he or she dies with a bang.
Time is not chronological. It is a mess of emotions and moments, a ripple in a puddle. It is ends and beginnings and middles and it is never, ever, in order. You cannot make up a human concept and expect the universe to stick by it.
James Potter's and Lily Evans's story is not in order, but it is theirs.
The End
The first time Lily Evans leaves, James Potter is eleven and giddy with it. She storms off in a blaze of hair as red as fire and he cannot do anything but stare as she disappears from sight.
He's sorry he made her angry. He doesn't like Slytherin but he also doesn't like the way her face fell when the miserable looking boy beside her glared at him.
James doesn't want her to look at him like that ever again. He hopes she'll forgive him.
(Spoiler alert: she won't for a long time.)
(Spoiler alert: she will eventually, but that's another story.)
The Middle
Lily Evans sits beside James Potter in McGonagall's transfiguration class for all seven years of Hogwarts. She should complain because she hates him and his purposefully messy hair and smug grin, but in that class, she almost likes him.
In Transfiguration, James Potter is alive. She likes the way he's giddy whenever he manages to get a spell right and the way his eyes are warm as he glances around, sticking out his tongue when he catches her looking. She sticks her tongue back and him and he smiles.
"Enjoying the view, Evans?"
James Potter may have a nice smile but he's still a prat.
….
James Potter is different when he's around his friends. Sure, he's an arrogant prat, but he flutters around them like a worried parent, fretting over their bad decisions. Lily doesn't get the people who think it's Remus who's the mother of the group. She's witnessed Remus's sly comments far too often to think that's he truly as kind and shy as people think he is.
But James is soft and fluffy when he's worried.
"Sirius Black, you are not too punk to eat your eggs! Sit your bony butt back down here, Padfoot!"
She likes him best when he's like this.
…
Her mother dies when she's in sixth year and it's the worst time of her life. First, it was Severus and then Lily's dad and then her mother. Petunia is all she has left. Petunia, who does not respond to Lily's letters. Lily attends the funeral alone. She stays with an elderly great-aunt that summer, doing odd chores and listening to the creaky roof.
James writes that summer. Sure, it's partially condolences, but he also writes pages on the motorcycle Sirius brought, Peter's horrible new haircut and the muggle band Remus got him addicted to.
Lying on a bed in her great-aunt's home (it's not Lily's home and it never will be), Lily writes him back a curt paragraph.
He writes back four pages front and back. After their fifth correspondence, Lily goes and gets the band's newest album. She hates it. She writes him a scathing review.
He writes back anyways.
…
In her sixth year, she sits on the common room couch with James, his arm slung over her shoulder and a shared inside joke on their lips. It's not love (it won't be for a long time) but it is friendship and she clings to it. He's soft and warm and far too cuddly and she adores it.
(She won't admit it but that's when she first falls for him)
The Beginning
When she reaches down to kiss him at the end of the year party, James jumps back like a startled animal. Lily laughs at him for the rest of the night and spends the rest of her life making deer-in-headlight puns.
He twirls her around the dance floor that evening. She's a horrible dancer but he's surprisingly coordinated and she has the best night of her life.
They're out of breath, red-faced and laughing, and, gosh, she's sixteen and so in love that it takes her breath away.
…
He screams himself hoarse at the graduation party, cheering for every single person he knows and a couple that he doesn't. Lily rolls her eyes at him but she holds his hand and cheers loud enough to challenge him.
He hopes it lasts. He's head over heels, anyways, and it might destroy him if she'd walk away.
...
"It reminded me of you."
Her breath catches as she looks down at the ring. It's emerald and the exact shade of her eyes and it's so thoughtfully James. She's only eighteen but she knows, without a doubt, that she wants to marry him. Sure, there's a war going on but watching him fidget nervously in front of her, she feels like she's finally home.
"Arent you going to ask, Potter?" She teases.
"Willyoumarryme?" He says without a single breath, gasping when he's done. She smiles so brightly it hurts.
"Of course."
...
Harry's perfect. He's so small and delicate and James cries when he's born. They name him after Lily's father and it suits him so well. He grows so quickly it scares them both and is far more energetic than any other child they've seen before.
(And, also, this: Lily beats him to asking Sirius to be the godfather and James sulks for a week straight. They don't talk about it.)
It's a fairytale, their family of three (plus another three) but it doesn't last long. Like all fairytales, the perfection ends.
The End
When Voldemort tells her that he'll spare her life if she moves away from Harry, she wants to laugh. By the gods, she's scared and terrified and so, so angry that she wants to laugh. How naïve is he to think she'll just give up her son like that? Doesn't he know a mother's love?
It tears her apart, sure, to know that she'll never see her son go to Hogwarts or graduate or marry, but it's worth it. It's a sacrifice she's willing to make, her life for his. Sirius and Remus will be amazing fathers. He'll know the stories.
When she stands in front of Harry's crib, twenty-one and vengeful, she dares Voldemort to do his worst. Her son will live and more importantly, he'll be loved.