(one-shot- drabble)

Belong

"I don't even remember the season. I just remember walking between them and feeling for the first time that I belonged somewhere."
― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Lily Evans never belonged; not when she was a kid and not as she grew up. She didn't stand out extraordinarily but just never really belonged. Even when she was a kid and all her friends had decided that chocolate was the best ice cream ever, she nodded in agreement. She convinced herself that she really liked chocolate too but in reality, she preferred vanilla. There was something enticing about vanilla's smell that she couldn't resist. As she grew older, she preferred her hair hanging loosely around her shoulders; not because she looked better that way, simply because that was what everyone preferred. Deep down inside, she liked them out of the way, tied up in a fancy plait.

The pictures that decorated the Evans' mantelpiece will tell you this- Lily Evans didn't belong there. Her eyes were a striking almond green, entirely different from her parent's or her sister's blue ones. She had chalked of her red tresses to a genetic abnormality from a very young age. No one in her family had red hair as she did, save one distant cousin and she didn't even remember her name. And even her cousin didn't have the exact same shade. Lily's hair was slightly darker.

Among her many different qualities, Lily Evans was also a witch and witches don't belong in the world of normalcy, of Muggles as the wizarding term would be. She attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and every summer when she came back home for her holidays, her sister reminded her of the cruel fact that haunted her. She didn't belong there with her non-magical family. She was a witch, a freak.

This leads one to assume that nine months of her year would be filled with excitement and fun as she spent them at her magical school. Admittedly, she enjoyed her classes and she did have fun but she didn't belong there either, not really. She was from a Muggle family, she wasn't supposed to have the magical gene, she just did. She was an abnormality once again, someone who wouldn't be accepted for what she was - helpless. She was a part of the magical world but she didn't belong there, not by a long shot.

By the time she was nineteen, she was used to it. She had given up entirely on hoping to belong anywhere. She had found happiness without being a part of anything real. She had found friends. She had several boyfriends. She was happy and as content as one can be while being an outsider. She had accepted that wouldn't belong and she was fine with it. She was happy.

But half asleep, as she snuggled closer towards her fiancé, who in return, unconsciously put his arm around her, she couldn't help but feel like she belonged. She belonged there, in his arms and she was safe there, from the cold wind coming through the open window. She was happy, content and she wasn't on the outside looking in. James Potter made her realize that she could after all belong. She wasn't an abnormality and she certainly didn't need to get used to feeling as one. He opened a part of her that was meant to be someone else's; a part that she had kept hidden away and he didn't realize it. She belonged in his arms.

For once in her life, she belonged.