Prince Charming
Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs first and foremost to JKR, then to her partnerships with Scholastic, Bloomsbury, Warner Bros., etc.
Summary: While your older sister bought into the fairy tales of happily ever after and knights on horses it did not appeal to you. You would not hold your breath waiting for Prince Charming. And that's what made you the perfect candidate for finding him.
Prince Charming
Ever since you were a young girl you were always the strong one - the brave and courageous one. You never turned back; you never strayed away from a challenged because you, and maybe even you alone, could withstand the troubles and pressures that others caved in to. You were strong and you wouldn't have yourself any other way. You loved and admired those in your life, but by no means were they your source of living. You believed you had the strength to carry on past all tragedies.
In consideration of the life you lived, a bright young witch who could do magic and make extraordinary things occur, you were immensely grounded. You can attribute that to your childhood. While your older sister bought into the fairy tales of happily ever after and knights on horses it did not appeal to you. You would not hold your breath waiting for Prince Charming. And that's what made you the perfect candidate for finding him.
It's the most brilliantly constructed story straight from the hands of God. You, a stable-headed girl who felt as though she needed no others found the person she needed most in the last person she'd ever think. In the last person you would've ever considered worthy. You're not sure how he became your Prince Charming. You don't know how he surpassed the inclusive wall you built so intricately around yourself.
Your closed mind becomes your downfall in this aspect. He could surpass any and all changes with you because he's your Prince Charming. Though he may not be out slaying dragons and riding horses into battle, he could beat anything with you. He could conquer any of your problems. He always has...
In a common room filled with people, roaring fires and the noises of carefree Christmas chatter, she trudged through the portrait hole, knocking snow off her boots as she went. The only compensation for the blazing snow outside laid in the ability to hide her sad and sunken face by blaming the weather. She didn't want the questions or the looks, but that seemed to be all she received when she entered; it was as though the general cheerfulness of the room was sucked out upon her entrance, as though she was a dementor. But what she wanted to avoid more than anything was the person who was first to approach her. He always was.
"What's going on, Evans?" he stated routinely. He finally looked around at her and caught a glimpse of her shining face. He immediately stood up and walked toward her. She could she his friends looking curiously at them. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Routine answer, she thought to herself. Just have to stay calm now, brush Potter off then head up to bed.
"But your face..."
"Yours isn't the prettiest sight in the world, either, Potter."
"I didn't mean that," he said, pushing the comment aside and walking ever closer to her; this time she took a step backward. "Your face is all red--"
"Yes, that typically happens when it's freezing cold and snowing outside and you're enjoying a walk along the grounds."
James studied her for a moment and then turned away. She took a step forward but then he turned back and caught her wrist.
"Have you been crying?" he said, releasing her hand as she turned back to him.
"Potter...no. And if I had been, it's none of your business."
"Lily, wait, no," he said, again cutting across her path to the stairwell. "Why've you been crying? What's wrong?"
"Nothing, Potter, now get out of my way or I'll hex you to next--"
If Lily was known for anything when it came to fighting James, it was being the bigger person and never pulling a wand out. But at this point her wand was threateningly held between his eyes at the bridge of his glasses.
James grabbed the tip and pushed it upward out of his face. "What's wrong?" he persisted.
"How many bloody times--"
"Until you tell the truth," he said, as she violently grabbed her wand away from his fingertips. "What's wrong, Lily?"
"Do you want to know, Potter? Because I can certainly take care of my own problems, but since you're so nosey I guess I ought to tell you, too!" It was difficult for the Gryffindors to keep their attention away from Lily who was losing her composure for one of the first times out of her five and a half years at school. Sirius seemed to be the only face courageous enough to directly look at the couple.
"I'm not trying to be nosey," he insisted, not losing his steady voice. "I just want to help--"
"Well you CAN'T!" Her composure was completely lost now. "You CAN'T help, Potter. You may walk around acting like a god but you are not a god! Only a god of some sort could help me at this point!" She fought back the tears in her eyes. "Unless you know ways to bring back the dead I don't give a bleeding damn--"
"Lily," he said softly, approaching her as though to comfort her. "Lily, I'm--"
"Don't, Potter," she said in a dangerously low voice. "I don't need your damn sympathy. I don't need you to sit here and tell me it'll be all right. To hold my hand and say 'Oh, Lily, don't worry, you're going to be okay, your mum's in a better place--'"
"Lily," he said louder. "You don't have to do this alone--"
"I don't need your help--"
"You will get through this!"
"Of course, I will!" she said harshly. "I can get through any--"
"Lily, just come out of the portrait hole with me," James offered, completely aware of the people who were staring at the scene and that the emerald eyes in front of him were almost overflowing with tears. "Just come outside and nobody will be there to--"
"I don't care who knows," she said in return. "It doesn't matter, everyone will know eventually. Just leave me alone, Potter, I don't need or want your help--"
James gave a defeated frown and went to turn around and stopped. Lily, who thought he had finally given up heeded his advice and walked back out the portrait hole. Not a moment after she walked outside James followed. She could barely see him through the tears.
"You know the first time I met you," James said, coming up to her side, speaking in a natural reminiscent tone. "You thought I was over the top with my love for Gryffindor, do you remember? You told me to get over it and shut up about old, moronic, brave Gryffindor." He paused, effectively, and Lily, who was wiping her eyes furiously, turned away from him still listening. "But now I think you're more of a Gryffindor than I am."
She wanted to turn around and ask for elaboration but she didn't. He went on anyway.
"I've never met a person who's tried to be as brave as you try to be."
"Try to be?" she whispered out, in a bit of a sarcastic tone. "I am."
"Why do you never accept the help of others?" he asked quietly.
"Are you trying to point out my faults, Potter, because I don't--"
"No, Lily." She was fully facing him now and the tears had returned. "I don't want anything from you, if that's what you think--"
"No," she said, shaking her head. "I don't think you want anything. I just don't want help--"
"I want to help," he said, reaching out a hand. "You don't have to be alone right now. You probably already feel alone now that you've suffered a loss." She looked at his hand with a repulsed look on her face. "I know when I lost my mum, I just sat there with Sirius. Didn't say anything, didn't have to. Just knowing that life would go on and people would be there..." His voice trailed off. The sting of a loss seemed to reopen a wound.
He gave her a short look before turning away. Closing his eyes and breathing deeply, he threw himself against the wall and slid down, sitting on the floor. He pressed his head to the wall and closed his eyes, continuing to breathe deeply.
Lily looked down at him, her eyes softening even through the tears. For a reason she couldn't comprehend, she sat down next to him and rested her head on his shoulder and cried. He opened his eyes when the weight fell upon his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her back and pulled her up into his arms. She wailed into his chest: heart-wrenching and earsplitting gasps of agony. Tears poured everywhere and stained James' school shirt. Lily only looked up when she felt a drop of waterfall down her forehead: James' face was stained with tears of his own and his lips trembled in unspoken agony for her loss.
...and always would. Any pain you thought you'd have to bear on your own was split. He carried your pain for you; he became the one person you could depend on, even when you fought so hardly against it. The Prince Charming who once invaded your dreams as a young girl, who invaded and ruined the future you envisioned for yourself, became your future. You never had that person to save you; the thought of being saved was repulsive to you, the idea that you needed to be saved made you sick.
But every girl wants a Prince Charming to help her when she's hurting, to protect her when she's in trouble, to honor her as his only lady and to love her through the good times and the bad. What you associated with weakness now fulfills your life; now completes you. And even though you are far from a damsel-in-distress, James became the Prince Charming you never even wanted and gave you a happily ever after you never dreamed possible.