dates, disasters, and coming home
It's Lily Evans (Potter)'s 59th birthday today (30th January) and so I had to write this for her.
Warnings for quite a lot of language so there's that. No angst because some stories have to end happily.
without further ado...
[Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and accept no credit towards it. I am not J.K. Rowling nor am I in any way affiliated with her.]
"I'll call Remus," James suggested.
"Good idea," Lily said flatly. "You do that."
"You're not mad at me, are you?" James lowered his phone.
"No, I'm not." Lily folded her arms. "I'm fucking furious."
"Well, I'm not exactly Little Miss Sunshine over here, Evans, but we could at least pretend to be amiable until we get home."
Lily sniffed.
"Whatever, Evans. Just hold on and I'll call Moony. We'd just better pray Sirius hasn't gotten hold of the liquor."
.
There was a considerable amount of moaning from Remus when James explained exactly where they were but, after several minutes of pleading and two death stares from Lily, James had managed to convince his friend to make the two hour drive from London.
"And now we wait," he said, plopping down next to Lily on the curb and pretending to ignore her noticeable sigh.
"Brilliant," she muttered and hugged her knees to her chest.
"Evans." James gave her a look.
"Potter." She shot him one back without even the slightest traces of humour visible on her face.
"Well, this is fun," he said sarcastically, looking up and down the dusty road. "We should do it again sometime."
Lily snorted.
"Fat chance. I'm busy avoiding you every day for the foreseeable future."
"We're dorm mates."
"It'll be a very covert operation."
Her tone was dry and James snuck a look at her. She still looked royally pissed off but he couldn't exactly blame her.
"You can't ignore me until Remus gets here," he said reasonably but the look on her face made it very clear she could. "It's two hours," He added, making his eyes wide and beseeching. "C'mon, Evans. You're not the only one who's got the right to be angry."
"Go on, then," Lily said flatly, poking the dusty ground with a stick. "Shout at me. See if I care."
"I'm not going to shout at you," James said, as if explaining something to a small child. "Because, unlike some people, I was actually taught manners."
"Fuck off," Lily snapped, breaking the twig on half and discarding the broken ends on the floor. "Don't try and goad me into an argument, Potter."
As a matter of a fact, that had been exactly what James had been trying to do; he'd hoped arguing over something petty like they always did might make her forget she wasn't speaking to him, but he wasn't about to voice these thoughts aloud to Lily.
"Fine, then." he said, sounding rather like a petulant child.
"Fine." She echoed and crossed her arms firmly.
There was an awkward pause.
"Are you cold?" James ventured hesitantly.
"No," said Lily, looking dead ahead and avoiding eye contact. Then, a second later in a more concerned tone, "are you?"
"Nope." James straightened up.
"Good." Lily said, her gentle voice gone, and went back to resting her chin on her hand.
James watched her for a minute, watching the way her eyes caught the dying sun and how her hair - which reached almost down to her hips now - tangled together at even the slightest breath of wind.
She was gorgeous, James had known that from the moment he'd lain eyes on her, but he'd never thought that after two years of arguing and fighting like cat and dog they'd manage to get along.
Or, at least, they had been until they'd ruined it.
.
"Are you staring at me?" Lily asked, jolting James out of his stupor.
"What?" He said defensively, blinking. He'd been so lost in thought that he'd hardly realised he'd still been looking in Lily's direction. "No."
"God, Potter, I thought we were past you staring at my arse." She huffed dryly and turned away.
"I was not staring at your arse!" James said hotly, glaring. "I'm not a complete dickhead, thank you very much."
"Well, you don't half act like one." Lily muttered and they both shared a scowl.
"It's a wonder anyone wants to go out with you, you're so charming." James snapped, forgetting himself for a moment because he very much wanted to go out with her. And then Lily was facing him once more, her eyes alight with fury.
"It's a wonder anyone even speaks to you, your bloody head's so big. I'm surprised you can even fit in your stupid car!"
"Well, that was below the belt."
"You called me undateable!"
"You called me a dickhead!"
"I did not! I only agreed!"
They both looked at each other. Lily was red; flushed and embarrassed and she kept reaching up to tug at her necklace; something she only did when she felt awkward. James was half hidden behind his palms, running a nervous hand through his hair over and over again, trying to fill the silence that stretched between the two of them.
"Well, sorry for shouting," Lily said awkwardly, drawing her knees in to her chest. "I'm still mad at you, though."
"Of course," James said, adjusting his glasses. A moment later, he added, "I don't really think you're undateable, you know."
She smiled at him, a small, rare smile.
"And you're not always a dickhead, you know."
.
It was half an hour later and James was starting to get bored. He'd checked his phone but Remus was still forty minutes away, his phone only had thirty percent left, and there was no reception. He looked over at Lily, who was sketching patterns in the dust.
"Do you want to play a game?" He asked and she glanced at him.
"What kind of game?" She asked warily. "I'm not playing truth or dare with you again."
"Word Association." James said and raised an eyebrow. "That suit you, your highness?"
"Yes," she said, albeit a little stiffly and put down her drawing twig. "You go first, then."
"Alright. Tomato."
"Red."
"Lily Evans."
"Me."
"Perfect."
"You."
They both looked at each other.
"Um," Lily said, suddenly breathless. "Um -"
"It's my turn." James said softly.
"Oh! Oh, of course," Lily said and flushed beetroot red. She began fiddling with her necklace again.
"Ruby." He said, looking at the stone between her fingers.
"Oh," She said again, following his gaze. "It's a garnet actually. For my birth month."
"Okay," he said, the corners of his lips twitching into a smile. "Garnet."
"Birthday." She continued, her fingers still clasped around her necklace.
"Special."
"Holiday."
"Christmas."
"Favourite."
"Let's just talk," Lily said suddenly, scooting closer. James noticed that she'd let go of her necklace.
"About what?" James asked.
"Everything." Lily smiled. "Nothing. This is supposed to be a date, after all."
"Well, yeah," said James. "Until I got us lost and you missed your mum's birthday dinner and we both started shouting at each other and kind of lost the plot."
"God, it sounds quite bad when you put it like that, doesn't it?" Lily said, her eyes twinkling.
"Quite bad," James scoffed. "Evans, you nearly threw a shoe at me."
"I'm wearing flats," Lily protested. "It wouldn't have hurt."
"You're not really going to ignore me when we get back, are you?" James asked.
Lily rested her head on his shoulder.
"Probably not," she said. "Don't you worry, Potter."
.
Remus' car drew up thirty minutes later, with a very drunk Sirius hanging out of the passenger seat and an exhausted Remus who was looking as though he was loosing the will to live.
"Oh, good, you haven't murdered each other," he said and sighed with relief, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Get in, it's getting dark."
"Do you want me to drive?" James asked as he and Lily clambered into the backseat, embracing the hot blast of air that hit them as they entered.
"Absolutely not," Remus said, clutching the steering wheel protectively as though James might snatch it off him. "Not after last time."
James snuck a look at the dent still etched into the bonnet of the car.
"Thanks for coming to get us," Lily said, strapping herself in and unwinding the scarf from her neck. "You shouldn't have driven all this way just for us."
"I know, poor me," Remus said sardonically as he started the engine again. "I had to make the journey with that for company." He nudged Sirius with his elbow and then looked at Lily and James through the rear view mirror. "You two owe me a beer in the The Leaky Cauldron at least."
"You're being quiet," Lily remarked to Sirius, exchanging a look with James. "How much have you had to drink?"
"You sssound like his m-mother," Sirius said, slurring his words and nodding towards James. "Not like mine, though. Mine'sss a bitch. A bitch is a female - a female dog, you know. Did you know that, Lily? Did you?"
"Bloody hell, he's practically delirious," Lily whispered and James rolled his eyes.
"I've seen him worse, Evans. Don't worry. He once climbed into a dustbin and rolled himself down a hill so this is tame compared to that."
"You lot were wild in your school days," Lily said, her eyes widening. "I'm almost glad I didn't know you, then."
"You missed out, surprisingly," Remus said dryly. "James actually knew how to flirt in secondary."
James shot his friend a sour look.
"I like flirting." Sirius said suddenly and then lapsed back into silence again. Remus shook his head at him.
"And to think I used to admire you."
"Where's Pete?" James asked, suddenly realising that there was only four in the vehicle.
"Well, he's still alive if that's what you're thinking," Remus said, turning onto the motorway. "He's holding down the fort back home. Marlene's gone mental." He shot Lily a look in the rear view mirror.
Lily flushed.
"My phone's dead," she explained, holding it up as evidence. "Someone," she looked at James. "Got us hopelessly lost and I used up all my battery yelling at Siri."
"Well, there was quite a bit of yelling at me, too." James added.
Remus rolled his eyes, grinning.
"You two. You're as bad as each other."
"Oh, Evans is better than him for sure." Sirius said and James just about threw a shoe at him.
.
Lily was starting to look tired.
She kept stifling heavy yawns and her eyelids were definitely dropping.
"Don't let me fall asleep," she instructed James, pinching her cheeks. "Marley's going to give us an earful when we get back and I suppose I'd better be awake for it."
"I'll wake you," James promised. "Go to sleep, Evans. You're exhausted."
"I'm exhausted," Remus muttered before peering at Lily. "In all seriousness-" (Sirius snickered and Remus gave him a look) "-you do look tired though, Lily, you really should close your eyes for a bit."
"I could sing." Sirius volunteered.
"No, no," James said hastily and shook his head vigorously at Lily. "That's fine. C'mon, Lils, don't you trust us?"
"Not really," Lily said, an amused expression on her face. "Forgive me but you lot aren't exactly known for your honour."
"That's res-reserved for people we don't like," Sirius said matter-of-factly. "We all like you, Evans."
"How very comforting," Lily said and yawned again, putting her head on James' shoulder. "Ooh, let's just keep talking. We haven't got long till we get back."
"Are you hungry?" James asked. "We could order Chinese when we get in."
"We'll have to survive Marlene first," Lily said but there was a wistfulness to her voice; Chinese was her favourite.
"She's like a bull," Remus shuddered. "Raging."
"You're really making us feel so much better back here." James called and Lily smiled faintly, her eyelids closing.
"Maybe I'll just close my eyes for five minutes..."
.
"Time to face the music," Remus said as they pulled into a parking space and he turned off the engine. James looked up at their dorm. Every single light was on.
"Evans," he said gently, turning to Lily was sleeping soundly, her head on his shoulder. "Evans, wake up."
Her eyes flickered open and she yawned, tilting her head to look at him.
"W-what? Did I fall asleep?"
"Yeah," James told her as Remus began to help Sirius from the car. "Don't worry. You're home now."
"Yeah, with you." She snuggled closer into his jacket, her voice laced with drowsiness. "Thanks for today."
There was a pause.
"Isn't it polite for a man to kiss a lady after a date?" Her voice was strangely shy.
"Come again?" James said, raising his eyebrows.
She looked up at him, her eyes suddenly awake and full of nervous excitement. He wondered if she could hear his heart pounding beneath his chest.
"Kiss me," she said, sounding sure. "I want you to kiss me."
His lips crashed on to hers without hesitation, sealing the space between them.
It felt like fire, it felt like coming home and James thought that he could probably stay there in that moment forever, kissing Lily Evans and trying to remember the taste of her lipstick.
"Thank you," she said again, her breath raggedy as they broke apart, well aware of the approaching footsteps, which most likely belonged to Remus. "for today. For everything."
"Want to do it again sometime?" James asked, his breath hitching in his throat as she made eye contact with him.
Her hand found his under the blanket of coats and squeezed.
"Absolutely." She said and rewarded him with a flash of white teeth as she laughed, kissing him again.
She was always beautiful, James couldn't deny that. But she was even more so when she was smiling.
Fin. Pure fluff and I have no shame and also because these beautiful characters deserve some happiness
Quick note: Letters From a Stag and a Doe should be updated soon.
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As always, thank you so much for reading! Xx