Lily Evans sat on the plush, red sofa in the Heads Common Room, seated comfortably next to her boyfriend of roughly a month, the one, and only James Potter. Lily secretly studied his profile over the top of her potions text. He looked the same as ever; same messy, black hair that he constantly ran his hands through, same sparkling hazel eyes staring out behind black-rimmed glasses, same dazzling smile, same facial features. But the man sitting before her had definitely changed. Some time in the last few months, he had grown up. Admittedly, Lily had never really known him that well but he had seemed different. He had finally become the Prince Charming that everyone had been telling her he was.
She was shaken out of her thoughts as the light rain that had been drizzling from the skies all day, suddenly began to pour down with renewed vigor and far off in the distance, the distinct sound of thunder pierced the sky. Lily shuddered lightly, pushing down unwanted memories that rose to the surface at the noise. Shaking her head softly, she turned back to her half-finished potions homework and let herself get lost in the lists of ingredients and pages of instructions. This didn't quite work as she planned as she'd been so caught up in her work that she was unaware of the fast approaching storm. She nearly jumped out of her skin when the loud crack of the thunder boomed outside the window and upset her ink bottle in the process, spilling it all over her almost finished essay.
"It's not funny," she snapped at her boyfriend, who was trying and failing miserably to hide his laughter.
"Yeah, it kinda is," James chuckled. Lightning lit up the common room followed by a loud burst of thunder seconds later and Lily jumped again, just as violently as the first time. James raised an eyebrow at her.
"Are you actually afraid of thunderstorms? You, the great Lily Evans?" James asked jokingly.
"N-no," she stuttered and sighed when he raised an eyebrow. "Yes."
"Really?" he asked, wondering if she was joking with him.
"Yes," she replied in a small voice.
"Oh," he said. "Why?" For what had to be the first time he could remember, Lily Evans didn't answer a question. Lily always answered questions, whether being asked by a teacher or a friend, Lily always had an answer. Heck, even when they argued, she still answered every question he threw at her, which was normally "Why are you so stubborn?". So now that she wasn't talking, James automatically knew something was wrong. "Lils?" he asked carefully. His only reply was a small sniffle before red clouded his vision as Lily buried herself into his chest.
"Mprtakdbdahetas." James frowned.
"Love, I can't understand you." Lily pulled away and James felt his heart contract painfully as he took in her tear-filled eyes.
"My parents were attacked by Death Eaters this summer. I was spending the day at Alice's, since I hadn't seen her in a while and when I got back, the Dark Mark was over my house. I can remember standing out in the pouring rain, just staring at it," Lily said shakily and James pulled her back into his arms. They sat like that for a while and eventually, Lily's breathing evened out and she slipped off into dreamland. James smiled down at his girlfriend, silently thanking Merlin and whoever else was up there for letting him finally be able to call her his girlfriend. He shifted, tucking her against his side before setting his glasses on the coffee table and following his girlfriend into the world of dreams.
That was how Sirius, Remus, and Peter found them the next morning when they came to get them for breakfast.