The Pen.
Words: 707
Couple: Lily Evans and James Potter.
Book: Harry Potter.
Generation: The Marauder's Era.
Disclaimer: All characters you recognize do not belong to me. The prompt was found on Tumblr.
AU.
…
27th of November. (Sixth Year)
He hasn't seen her in a week-and-a-half, and he didn't expect to see her for a while. Hestia Jones had told him she'd be gone for at least a month while she and her sister sorted out their parent's things and put the house up for sale. Personally, James Potter wouldn't blame the girl for not returning to school at all, he knows he'd felt like not coming back after his own father had passed.
But he pushes this all aside as he enters the Gryffindor Common Room and drops lazily into a lounge chair late one night. He notices a sleeping figure on the couch but ignores it, swinging his feet up onto the coffee table.
"Feet off the table Potter, it's rude."
James sits up in shock, his feet dropping off the table.
"Lily?"
He watches the figure on the couch sit up and almost jumps when she says, "No, the freaking boogy man. You came in past curfew and I need your help."
"Uh," he blinks, "Sorry, what?"
"McGonagall gave me the work I missed in Transfiguration, I need your help."
It takes him a moment to process, watching her move over so he could sit beside her. He's thrown off by how casual she seemed, how un-fazed she was, how Lily she was acting.
"She gave me the reading stuff, I get it all in theory, but then I go to actually do it and I'm sort of stuck."
James looks to where she's set out the work, recognizing it all from the last three-or-so Transfiguration lessons he'd had without her. With a glance at the watch on his wrist he gives into the idea that she wasn't sleeping and that neither was he, and he moves to sit beside her.
…
Hours later, he's successfully explained the assignment to her and he can no longer ignore the yawn she tries to hide.
"You need to sleep," he murmurs as she's putting the finishing touches on her essay.
"I'm fine," Lily argues, "I have to finish this."
James can only sigh, leaning back to take in her appearance properly. Her paled face and the dark circles under her eyes are doing no justice to his assumption that she's barely slept while she's been away.
"I know you're lying to me, don't think you're ever going to be capable of lying to me Lily Evans."
He knows that she's rolling her eyes as she begins packing her work away. She's pushing her hair from her face repeatedly in an annoyed huff and he gives into temptation. Reaching across he pulls the hair-tie off of her wrist, momentarily stopping her as she moves her hand for it to slide over her fingers.
"Brush?"
Lily gives him an odd look, glancing between the hair-tie and him, before she obliges and hands him the hair brush from her school bag. He gestures for her to turn around, and she does slowly, obviously concerned with how this may end.
"I know you're tired," he starts as he softly begins to brush the ends of her hair, "Not just physically, but emotionally. And I know that you probably don't want to sleep because you'll dream about it, but you also don't want to stay awake because you feel as though you're constantly drowning in guilt. It's a struggle, and you're burning from both ends of the candle here, but you'd rather feel the guilt then drown in nightmares."
Beginning to brush from higher up in her hair, he takes a deep breath.
"But what happened isn't your fault, and you can't do anything to change it. Even if Petunia is making it seem like it, Lily I assure you, it's not your fault."
He's using the hair brush to softly pull hair away from her face before beginning to gather her hair together at the crown of her scalp.
"Now firstly, before you begin jumping to conclusions, I live next door to this little girl and every once in a while I babysit her," he explains, earning a tired laugh from the girl in front of him, "I could braid your hair too but my fingers may get lost in it, there's way too much of it here Evans."
He's finished putting the elastic in her hair when she begins shaking her head and turning to face him.
"And secondly?" Lily questions.
James picks up her pen off the table and holds it between them, "Secondly, I have spent the last few days trying to figure this out. Can I test my theories with you?"
"Okay," she nods.
"Yeah?"
"Yep."
"Okay, theory one," he takes breath, "Magic."
He can't help the grin on his face as she begins laughing, he's just happy to see her smiling.
…
Because I'm sorry I killed her parents but I'm also not sorry because bonding.
Thank you!
All mistakes are mine.
Review?
