Tears

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or settings that you recognise and am not making profit of any kind out of this material; this is purely for shits and giggles.

The letter had arrived that morning by owl: Lily's name written neatly on the front. She hadn't had a chance to open it with all her lesson so she had tucked it inside her robes for later. It was from her mum, the loopy scrawl that distinctly belonged to her, the white printer paper and the 1st class stamp in the top corner. Her parents, being a Muggles, still hadn't quite gotten the hang of owl post yet, even though Lily had been at Hogwarts for years.

As soon as she did open it however she wished she hadn't. The same handwriting continued on the inside and was signed from her mum and dad, no Petunia; even though she was the subject of the letter.

Lily's older sister Petunia had been her best friend up until that fateful day when her letter from Hogwarts arrived. Ever since then Lily had been as good as dead to Petunia. Then she had started going out with Vernon Dursley, a fat, lazy boy who thought that he was above everyone else and that only his opinion mattered. Petunia was smitten and however much Lily tried to convince her to see reason she couldn't. The worst part of Petunia's hatred was the names she called Lily. Freak being the most common and Lily so often wished during the holidays that she had never even received the letter telling her she was a witch. That is until she went back to school and realised that she had such fantastic friends and even though it still hurt that Petunia hated her she could convince herself that she wasn't a freak.

This letter however was worse than anything else Petunia had done to her, worse than name calling and turning her nose up, and definitely worse than ignoring her advice about that Dursley. She had actually married him. And not even told her.

She supposed that she didn't invite her because she didn't want to be embarrassed by her freak of a little sister but even afterwards she had kept it a secret. In the end it was her mother that had written to her to explain.

The edge of the paper creased in her dainty hands as her grip increased in pressure. She wanted to scream, throw things or hit someone. Anything to relieve the stress that was welling up inside her. She settled for screwing up the crisp white paper into a crumpled ball and throwing it, hard as she could, at the bookcase in front of her. The Librarian looked up at the movement, narrowing her eyes at the litter.

"Please clean up your rubbish," She barked without getting up from her desk. Lily sighed, pushing herself out of her chair and going to collect the ball of paper, smoothing it out as she tried to bite back the tears that threatened the escape, then re-folded it, slipped it back into the envelope and put it carefully away in her bag.

The Librarian was looking over at her with a frown wondering if Lily knew that the library was supposed to be closing any minute but, realising she was putting away her stuff, turned away from her. Throwing her bag over her shoulder Lily slipped from the library, silently heading for the Gryffindor tower trying not to think of the letter that was tucked away in her bag.

It hurt more than she wanted to admit, even to herself, that she hadn't been invited to her own sister's wedding and she was glad for the emptiness of the hallways as she followed her frequent route from Library to common room.

She gave the password almost without thinking as she tried to keep her mind elsewhere. The beautifully framed portrait of the fat lady, donned in her pink cocktail dress and matching fan, swung outwards opening the way into the warmly lit Gryffindor tower. The red and gold decor illuminated by the flickering fire that sparked and crackled in the grate, throwing shadows across the room.

Once again she was glad for the emptiness of the room, it was late and she guessed that everyone else had trudged upstairs to their beds to sleep out after the busy day. Dropping her bag to the floor she lowered herself onto a sofa leaning back and trying to relax as she let the flames warm her.

She couldn't hold it back any more as thoughts of her family tumbled around her head. The tears she had fought away in the library came rolling from her half closed eyes before she had a chance to even think of how to stop them. All the hurt and feeling of being unwanted came rolling out with them, dropping onto her shirt with tiny splashes.

Stifling a sob that shook through her body as she tried to calm herself down and failed, Lily didn't notice the person standing at the bottom of the stair behind her. His face was cast in shadows, but his expression was that of sympathy towards the crying girl by the fire. Walking forwards he stepped into her line of sight, so as not to scare her further, but she showed no reaction to his presence.

She clutched a letter in her hands while her tears splattered the page, diluting the ink and leaving great splodges across the parchment; where the writing had once been, now only swirls of colour in the tear drops. The dark haired boys stepped forwards again, sitting down beside her slowly. He pushed his glassed back up his nose before resting a hand on hers to steady her shaking.

Finally she looked up at him, her beautiful emerald eyes red and puffy, her flawless skin, blotchy and her auburn hair, the colour of autumn leaves, was knotted and messy. Her gazed fell upon his brown eyes, full of sympathy and care that she didn't know could be found in this boy.

"James, I don't need this right now," She sighed dejectedly, not even managing to summon her usual annoyed tone that she reserved especially for him.

"I wasn't going to," He told her softly. "I just wanted to make sure you were all right," Reaching up he tucked the lock of hair that had fallen across her face, behind her ear. She breathed in sharply, involuntarily, and her grip on the paper tightened. Crumpling it in her grip once again.

Slowly, carefully James Potter lifted the paper from her hand, placing it down gently on the table where it was out of her reach. He wondered what could possibly be in the letter that could make Lily – the girl who was usually strong for everyone else and had never seed cry or break down – fall apart in such a way. But he loved her, and that was why he was here. It didn't matter if she turned him away just like every other time, he would be here to comfort her and make sure she was okay.

Another sob shook her as yet more tears tumbled down her beautiful face, it seemed like no matter how hard she tried the tears wouldn't stop. Even though James was sat beside her and even though it meant showing her vulnerability to him, she couldn't stop the feeling inside her.

Then as she tried to wipe the moisture from her face she found it being wiped away for her, she breathed in the musky smell of pine trees as she buried her face into James' chest and he rocked her back and forth like a child after losing their favourite toy.

He didn't question her like she knew the other girls would, or tease her like she expected from him. Instead he simply held her to him, stroking her hair as he rocked back and forth. Why was she so comforted by him, the boy she declared she would never even like let alone love. Yet here she was crying into his chest as he comforted her unquestioningly.

"My sister," Lily whispered, feeling the need to explain to him anyway, turning her head to look over at the desk. "It's about my sister," he knew she was talking about the letter.

"Shhh, you don't have to talk about it," He comforted, tilting her chin with his hand so that she was looking up at him. Their eyes met and for the first time they really looked. Lily's tears slowly subsided as they sat there in silence before the fire that danced around the fireplace.

Lily pulled away then, out of James' arms as she took the letter from the table and picked up her bag from the floor. James stood quickly, wanting to make sure that she was all right before letting her leave.

"Lily," He began, not really knowing how to continue as she turned to him. He was spared of having to think of something as she opened her mouth to speak.

"Thank you," She said quietly, looking at her feet instead of James. "I really needed someone to... you know," She finished awkwardly shuffling her feet from side to side.

"It's OK," James smiled; rubbing the back of his neck nervously at having Lily stood so close to him. "Just here to help," She smiled up at him, actually smiled. She hadn't ever genuinely smiled at him before, it was always sarcastic of forced. His heart did a somersault inside his chest sure that Lily could hear how fast it was beating.

And then, before he could think about what he was doing, or Lily could stop him, James leant down and pressed his lips to Lily's. For a second she stood stock still, partially shocked at what was happening before she crumbled, falling into his kiss as if it were the natural thing to do. Her hands found his chest, then his shoulders as she snaked her hands around his neck and into his messy black hair, pressing her lips into his.

James almost pulled back at Lily's response, which took him by such surprise his eyes flew open. Realising that this was actually happening he pulled her towards him as her fingers tangled into his hair, wrapping his arms around her slim waist as though if he let go she would be dragged from him forever. His head was swimming when they finally parted; Lily looked up at him eyes wide in what seemed to be shock at what she had just done.

"Sorry... I-" James started before Lily's finger was placed across his lips, stopping him mid-sentence.

"No," She said, another smile gracing her lips as James grinned back behind her forefinger. "It's late, we should get some sleep," She said, shifting her bag further up her shoulder and stepping around James. He nodded, not sure if he trusted his legs to work properly even just to turn around.

Pausing besides him, Lily reached up on tiptoes to place a soft kiss on his cheek, before slipping up the stairs into the girl's dorm to go to bed. Thoughts of Petunia seemed like nothing more than a petty argument between sisters now.

James was left stood in the common room, his mind filled with the feel of Lily's lips upon his, grinning like a maniac as he tried to make his brain work enough to move his legs.

A/N: My first One Shot, it's about Lily and James and I really loved writing it so there will definitely be more Lily/James from me. I really hope you like it and I would really appreciate reviews since I find One Shots harder to write than longer stories. So feedback would be awesome. Thanks :)

Azealia xx