"Just a little off the sides," James urged, attempting to pat his wild hair into submission. "I really don't want it to look any different."
"Then why am I bothering to cut it?" Lily asked exasperatedly. She moved the scissors she was wielding away from James's head and instead crossed her arms over her chest.
"Because if I come home looking slovenly, not only will I get a lecture from my mother, she'll insist on sheering my head." Again, his hands fussed with his hair. "I don't know if you're aware, Lils, but my good looks depend on my hair."
Lily rolled her eyes. "James, c'mon. We've both got N.E.W.T.s we should be studying for. I don't want ––"
"Lily, love, please. My hair is just as important as our N.E.W.T.s."
"Then let me do something with it."
"You're sure that muggle scissors are the best way to do this, though?"
Lily snipped the scissors in her hand. "James, I've been cutting my dad's hair for years. Besides, you know how I am with household charms..."
"Afraid you'll sheer my ear off?"
"I'm not quite sure I want to be dating Van Gogh."
"Van who?"
Lily paused, once again taken aback by James's lack of what should have been common cultural knowledge. "I have a lot to teach you," she finally conceded. Then, she once again snipped the scissors in her hand.
"Alright then," James said, "we'll stick to the muggle way." He scrutinized himself for a moment and then said, "I s'pose you should take a bit off the top."
"You're sure?"
James was quiet for a beat, so Lily pressed on. She uncrossed her arms and lifted a strand of James's hair. "Are you ready, Potter?"
Just as James said the word "No," Lily made the first snip.
"Lily!"
"Quiet, James."
"Hold on ––"
Lily lowered her scissors yet again. She pressed her head very close to his and whispered into his ear, "Don't you trust me, James?"
"With my life," he replied. The words slipped out of his mouth with no forethought. They were implicitly true.
Lily pressed a quick kiss to his cheek and said, "Then it should be no big deal to trust me with your hair." She stood up straight and turned her attention back to his mop. "Besides, you should know that I wouldn't do anything to make you look less than your best."
James released a heavy breath, but then approved, "Alright, Lily, do your worst."
"I will," she replied easily, lifting another strand of hair and slicing it off.
James let out an uneasy chuckle. "You do realize that was an expression, right?"
"Merlin, James," Lily said, continuing her work, "lighten up."
The two lapsed into silence as Lily worked her way through James's hair. He continued to sit rigidly, afraid to move in the slightest for fearing of messing Lily up.
After almost ten minutes of no change in his demeanor (but a notable change in the length of his hair), James's tenseness was driving Lily mad. In an effort to diffuse his tension she said, "Tell me about what's waiting for you at home."
James settled into his chair, making an effort to relax as he spoke about his family. "My mother's managed to get a week off work, which is unheard of with the war going on. I think we'll head to the South of France, because the warm air is better for my father's health."
"I can't imagine being so casual about that," Lily said. "Going to the South of France! That's quite a holiday."
"Do you want to come?" he asked, a newfound vibrancy in his voice.
"What?" Lily demanded, caught off guard. She was so distracted that her fingers slipped. Snip. The sound of the scissors against James's hair echoed more clearly than her words.
James didn't notice. He couldn't see that she had momentarily stopped moving. He was unaware that she had been captivated by watching a large clump of his hair float down to the ground.
Buggering shit.
It was nothing a little magic couldn't fix. Lily knew the spell. The real trouble was thinking clearly enough to cast it.
"Lily?" James asked, snapping her back to the present. "Is something wrong?"
She stared directly at his botched haircut and smoothly said, "No. Nothing."
"Good," James replied. Lily lifted her scissors once more and James continued, "Then I mean it, you should come with us. My parents would love to have you, and if you're there we'll really have a family affair."
A family affair. Merlin. Snip. Lily slipped again. Was he calling her family? What did that mean? As she lowered her scissors this time, she wasn't collected enough to assess the damage she had done. She had more important things on her mind –– things that couldn't be solved with magic.
A Potter family vacation.
As Lily began to mull that over, James said, "You've been quiet for a bit. Do you not want to come?"
"Of course I do!" Lily answered in a rush. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment as she realized how unsteady her voice was. "Of course."
"Then what?" James asked. A quiet panicked filled his voice, "You didn't do something to my hair ––"
"Nothing a little magic won't be able to touch up," she assured him as his hands found his head in order to assess the damage.
"Lily," James sighed desperately.
She didn't hear him. Her mind was mingling between James's voice saying "family affair" and the cold snip of the scissors. Both sent a chill up her spine.