A Note- I am sorry for being so infrequent with updates but I'm moving to London in a week so I wanted to do this Jily one-shot as an early Valentine's day. Well, Valentine's blues for me but I like the Valentine's Blues! I will be updating next from London! I don't own anything!
"Have you seen James Lily?" Remus Lupin asked, coming to sit next to her in the library.
"No I haven't!" Lily snapped, everyone was asking her this today. She wasn't his girlfriend, just head girl!
"Oh well he's been missing since morning! He has- he isn't anywhere we know of in the castle."
"I don't care." Lily regretted the words as soon as she said them but Remus only said.-
"Well you are going alone tonight in rounds Lily."
And alone she went.
It was a cold January night. There won't be anyone there this late at night.
With that thought planted firmly in her mind, Lily decided to take a different turn, away from her designated route. She wrapped her cloak tighter over her robes, shivering. Her mind, now idle, began to wander.
Where had James Potter disappeared to? You don't care, she scolded herself.
She turned around. Where was she? Trust her to be lost in a place she has been in for seven whole years!
She suddenly heard a sound. It had been a sob, a small broken sob. Lily quickly raised her wand.
"Lumos!"
There was no one in sight until-
"James!" She breathed.
James Potter was sitting there on the floor, clutching his knees to his chest. He was staring down at the floor, his hazel eyes reflecting the dark shades of the night. He was only wearing a shirt and a pair of trousers, his body slightly shivering. Lily noticed a bit of parchment lying near him on the floor. His glasses were to his right, snapped into two. His face seemed to have aged fifty years compared to the boy she saw just morning.
"What are you doing here Evans?" He said his voice surprisingly normal. Normal but not arrogant.
"I'm doing the night rounds, James."
"It's Potter to you." His voice now had a sudden, cold edge to it.
"Why're you here?"
"I should ask you the same question."
"I just told you, I'm doing the night rounds."
"Not here you aren't. Your route is three corridors away."
Lily bent down and fished up the piece of parchment on the ground.
"Don't…" James said, his voice lower than usual.
Lily opened the parchment.
'Dear Mr. Potter,
We are sorry to inform you Mr. Potter that your parents have been killed in a death eater attack.
Our deepest condolences,
The Ministry of Magic'
"James I-"
"Don't tell this to anyone Lily."
Lily opened her mouth to ask why but instead ended up saying-
"Of course I won't."
"Good."
Lily went to sit down next to James. He tried to push her away but Lily was resolute. Suddenly he spoke up-
"All these years Lily. All these years cut, short." James broke down.
"It isn't your fault James so don't even think that it is!" James simply sobbed into her shoulder.
Lily noticed that he was cold so she pulled off her woolen cloak and spread it over him like a wand's tip was still alight, radiating light, hope.
She slowly stood up but James grabbed her arm.
"Please don't go." He said, like a child clinging onto his last ray of happiness.
"Alright." She said sitting back down.
After a while, James spoke up-
"I shouldn't have gone to pieces like that Lily. I'm sorry."
"Don't be! You really are quite brave James." James looked up.
"How Lily? How can anyone call me brave? I prank people for fun, I play Quidditch because I don't have nothing else worthwhile to do and I can't even act normally in front of a girl!"
"Well, you see it like that but I don't. You prank people because you have the nerve to face the consequences; you play Quidditch because you are pretty good at it." There was silence for a while.
"Hand this over to Sirius if you can." James took out a folded bit of parchment from him parchment out of his pocket.
Lily accepted it without question.
James laid his head on her shoulder, and, not knowing what to do, they simply stared into the night until they fell asleep.
And that is how they were found in the morning by a very worried Remus Lupin.
