It was exceptionally quite in Hogwart's library. This reason, of course, was exactly why a certain red headed girl was there. Although she was sitting at a table overflowing with piles of books and had her face all but buried in one, it was rather easy to see that she was not here on a quest for knowledge. This was judged of course by the fact that the book that she currently held was upside down.
She refused to let the reasons behind her hiding enter her head however and instead spent the time in the darkest recesses of the library holding the book to her face, further ruining her reading charade by not moving her emerald eyes a fraction of an inch or in fact bothering to turn the pages.
Instead she choose to sit there, as she had for the last two and half hours and stare in-comprehensively at the words on the page before her, all the while making it clear with her eyes that she was seeing something else entirely in her mind. She was perfectly still, except for the fact that every few minutes or so her fingers would twitch in a stiff sort of way from the death grip on the book she held. And twice in the last hour her left eye had given a rather involuntary twitch. It was clear that whatever was keeping her hidden had affected her in much stronger ways than she was used to. Perhaps even more than she would have thought possible.
She sat that way; her porcelain, troubled face buried into the book's pages for another twenty minutes. And then, quite suddenly there was an unseen changed.
One second she was sitting as still as she had been, her face just as worried; the next she had gone (if such a thing was possible) even stiller and the book had fallen from her suddenly very limp hands.
Her eyes wide with unsurpassed shock she stared into the dark library shelves in front of her, not seeing the books, the dust; not seeing much of anything really. All of this was because her mind was currently flashing in fast forward motion of the past four months of her seventh year at Hogwarts. Well it wasn't actually flashing everything of the last four months. Rather all the memories were surrounded upon one particular bespectacled boy. One with atrociously messy hair and gleaming hazel eyes.
The girl closed her eyes and a strangled sort of moan escaped her frozen lips. This girl was not stupid, rather far from it actually, one of the brightest students in her year. However she was just now learning a characteristic that she did have. Obliviousness. And as the realization of what her obliviousness was blocking was shoved center stage she suddenly found herself wishing rather desperately for the ignorance to come back. To come wrap her up in her false sense of security. To make her forget that this sudden self awareness had ever occurred. To make her feel safe again.
For now that it was out in the open, this knowledge could not be ignored.
She wasn't strong enough to pretend that it wasn't there. She didn't think that she was strong enough to even try.
It was on shaky legs she stood up on as she walked away from her secluded table, her sanctuary, and out into the harsh bright light of the rest of the library. As she left she had the dim thought that she hadn't put her books back, a first for her, but a more pressing matter kept her moving forward. She felt eyes looking upon her, but in reality it was no more than normal. Even though she was sure her realization was written plainly upon her face all that appeared to be there was fear, worry, shock and pure disbelief.
Somehow she managed to make it up all seven flights of stairs to the Fat Lady's portrait. When she got there she just stared dumbly up at it, not hearing the requests for the password or the worried inquiries on her health when she made no move to answer. Finally some thought sparked a bit of light into her eyes and she rummaged in her pockets looking for something. She pulled her wand out of her right pocket and out of her left a few crystal encrusted bobby pins that had been in hair until earlier that day when they became far too much hassle to bother trying to keep them in place.
Turning slightly from the Fat Lady she murmured a spell and then closed her left hand into a tight fist. Looking in the direction of the Fat Lady she murmured the password, "Goblin's lair" and stumbled through the portrait hole as it swung open.
Once again she felt like eyes were upon her but this time she was right. One pair of hazel eyes, their brightness not muted by the spectacles in front of them, met hers the moment she entered. They proceeded to change from happy to concerned the moment they met hers and a small crease appeared above them.
She walked over to him and stood at his feet, looking down at him with a rather blank expression on her face. She seemed at a loss of words to say. Fitfully she cast a quick glance down at her left hand.
"Lily." The hazel eyed boy asked before pushing himself up a little to sit higher and see her face better. "Are you alright? What's wro-"
Before he could finish that sentence, before he could finish that thought really Lily cut him off. Rather effectively too. She placed one slender creamy finger against his lips and leaned down to better look into his eyes.
"James Potter it has taken me roughly seven years to wrap my head around this. Why didn't you ever tell me that I am bloody blind?" she asked vehemently.
James looked up at her worriedly still, although the faintest trace of hope shone through his eyes. "Well you wouldn't have listened first off. What's this about Lils?" he asked with concern clouding his tone.
She didn't answer him right away. Instead she stared down at him as if thinking something through. Then quite suddenly she leaned down and placed her lips softly against his. She pulled away approximately two seconds later and opened her bright green eyes to meet the hazel ones before hers. Hers had been anxious until she caught sight of the utterly blissful look in the eyes across from her and then a sigh escaped her lips.
She leaned forward again and James hand reached up to cup her face. She was distinctly aware of faint cheers in the background but she supposed they were only faint to her because she was so utterly distracted.
When she pulled away a few seconds later James stood up with her. She held out her left hand and took his right, holding it palm up.
"Lily." When he whispered her name she looked up, loving the way her name sounded from his lips. "It was worth every second of those seven years for these last few minutes."
She smiled and stretched up on her tiptoes to press a light feather kiss to his jaw.
When she pulled back her emerald eyes bore into his. "I have one request." She spoke casually.
"Anything." He promised immediately.
She smiled, even though it was clear she wasn't asking for him respond just yet.
She held his palm open again and placed a cool hard object into it. She didn't move her hand away from his as she moved to whisper in his ear, "Please don't break this."
With that she pulled her hand away and emerald and hazel both watched the light reflections dance off the surface of the small crystal heart.