Author's Note: This is for the Smile challenge on the HP Fanfiction Challenge forum. The italicized parts (and the title and a few lines within the story) are part of the song "Smile" by Uncle Kracker. I own none of it.


You Make Me Smile


just the thought of you can drive me wild,

oh you make me smile


smile like the sun

There's a lot of things about James that Lily doesn't like. She hates his cocky arrogance, she can't stand the way he tortures Slytherins, she dislikes his smirking confidence.

Somehow, she manages to forget these things when she sees James smile. His smile lights up the room and shines like the sun, and almost makes Lily breathless with the sheer intensity of it.

He has a beautiful smile, and it makes Lily fall a little bit in love with him.


fall out of bed

James dreams of Lily- her glittering green eyes, her silky red hair, the way she smiles, the way she says his name.

He dreams of the dusting of freckles on her cheeks, and the redness of her lips. He dreams of her imperfections and her perfections all rolled up into one. He dreams of touching and dancing and laughing and kissing.

James dreams of Lily, and it's all so real, that when he wakes up and realizes it was just a dream, he falls out of bed, crashing into reality.


sing like a bird

Lily can't sing, but something about the look in James' eyes when he notices her makes her want to. She doesn't know how she went from despising James to having butterflies when she sees him, but it makes her want to sing, and Lily never sings.

She's just so happy now, and she wants to sing like a bird, sing it to the heavens.

And he has a feeling that James wouldn't mind if she did sing, no matter how horrible it was, and it just makes her want to sing even more.


dizzy in my head

Thoughts of Lily swarm James' head until he's dizzy, memories of her warm laughter and the smallness of her hand and her cute blush mixing together and intoxicating him.

She's talking to him now, properly, for the first time since he's laid eyes on her, and it makes him so happy, but confused and nervous too, because he doesn't want to ruin this, it's all too precious.

He wants to tell her that every time he gets around her, he sees the best of him inside her eyes, but he doesn't quite know how.

And the thoughts of Lily, and the memories of Lily, and his hopes, and his dreams, all blend together inside his head and he feels very dizzy indeed.


spin like a record

James kisses her with a rush of uncertainty and nervousness and desire, and her mind spins round and round until she's practically dizzy, but she kisses him back and her mind keeps spinning.

She doesn't know if it's too soon, or if she's ready to be with James Potter, or if she's being incredibly foolish. All she knows is that just like that, he steals away the rain with his kind eyes and his brilliant smile and his infectious laughter. Just like that, he steals her heart, and just like that, she falls more and more in love with him each day.

It's all so fast, and her mind spins and spins, like a record, but she can't bring herself to care.


crazy on a Sunday night

He tries to follow the rules when he's with Lily, tries to be a better person. He's scared to do anything that will make her realize how much he doesn't deserve her.

So when she creeps up into his room on a standard Sunday night, and tugs at his hand, and leads him to the Astronomy Tower, all whispers and giggles and sparkling eyes, he's surprised. He loves that she can surprise him so thoroughly, he loves that she's not afraid to be crazy on a Sunday night.

He didn't think it was possible, but he falls a bit harder in love with Lily.


dance like a fool

There are some things Lily would never do. Dancing in the Common Room is one of them. But somehow, James takes away all those restrictions, and she finds herself dancing with James late at night.

Nobody's there and there's no music, and Lily feels silly, but James grins and twirls her around, and suddenly, nothing matters anymore. She feels carefree and wild and happy around James, and it's enough to make her dance like a fool in the Common Room late at night.


forget how to breathe

He loves her, and he tells her that, and she smiles and kisses him and says she loves him back.

James' mind goes blank with shock, and for a second, he forgets how to breathe, because Lily Evans loves him, and what is a girl like that doing with him?

She stands on her tiptoes and whispers that she doesn't know how she lived without him, and it's then he knows that he's going to marry her someday.


shine like gold

Lily has heard the comparisons between her red hair and a siren before, and she's listened as boys stutter out a compliment directed towards her startling hair color. It's meaningless, and she's never cared.

But when James plays with a strand of her hair when they're sitting outside, and tells her that he loves her hair in the sun, the red mellowing into auburn, because it shines like gold, it means so much.

She thinks that James is the first one who really studies her, who takes the time to discover all the little quirks and facts about her, and she loves it.


buzz like a bee

Some days, all he can think about is Lily. He'll be sitting in the Great Hall, listening to Sirius or Remus or Peter babble on and on about something, and he'll catch Lily's eye, and his mind will cloud over and all he will hear is buzzing.

He doesn't know why Lily has such an effect on him, but she makes his mind buzz like a bee, until all he can think about is her.

He doesn't mind though, he finds that he's happiest when he's thinking about her.


you make me smile

At graduation, Lily's crying, and James wipes the tears away with his thumb. He grins at her, and tugs gently on a strand of her hair, and she finds herself smiling through her tears.

"You make me smile," she whispers, clinging to him with gratitude and love and the fear of the next chapter in their lives.

James kisses her then, unspoken promises of forever and always between them, and she wonders vaguely if it is possible to be anymore in love with James than she already is.

He slips something on her finger, and smiles at her wide eyed expression. "A promise," he murmurs, "that I will always be there to make you smile."

Lily's crying anew, but she's grinning anyway, and as she kisses him, she realizes that it is indeed possible to love James more, and somehow, even though there's a war, even though their life won't be all sunshine and roses, she doesn't think she'll ever stop smiling.