Packing Up
Lily awoke to a knock at her bedroom door. She sat up quickly rubbing he eyes before standing up and walking over to the door. When she opened it her mother was standing in front of her. She looked very concerned as she slowly walked past Lily into her room.
"What is it Mum, is something wrong?" Lily said.
"Lily, your father and I are asking you not to move in with Sirius and James." This didn't surprise Lily. Her parents haven't been crazy about the idea since she had told in the hospital lobby; they had said something like this ever since she had come back home. She had been staying with her parents for the past two weeks and it was becoming very tense. She had been going with James and Sirius to find places but it hadn't been easy for her to get out of the house.
"Mum, I've told you a thousand times that I'm going to be moving out, you can say that James and I are moving to fast but—"
"It's not that, it's the fact that you're living away from home. From what I can gather about this war that's going on, I just don't feel comfortable with you being in danger or with the possibility of you getting involved."
"Mum, I hate to tell you this but I kind of already am involved and do you really think I would just sit at home while my friends were out there risking their lives? It's not just the wizarding world that will change from this but the whole world will change. Nothing will be the same and I will not be the one to just sit on the sidelines."
"But Lily, you're so young, let the older wizards deal with this."
"Witches and wizards younger than me are fighting and getting killed on both sides Mum, it's not about your age, it's your ability and I'm a pretty good witch Mum, you may not know a lot about but I am capable of contributing something." Lily stood there, facing her mother.
"We'll stop you, we could stop you from leaving." She said softly looking down at her feet. Lily took a step closer towards her mother. She was now very happy she had her wand hidden away because she was afraid her mother might take it if she got the chance.
"I'm sorry Mum, but you couldn't." Her mother turned and walked out of Lily's room slamming the door behind her. Lily was still angry with her parents but she still felt terrible but this was something she needed to do. She would also need to ask James to help her set up protective enchantments around her house before she left. She walked back over to her bed and pulled the covers over her head. She wouldn't be able to go back to sleep now, she sat up and looked at her watch. It was 9:30am, James would be coming over soon to help her start packing her things.
She jumped at the sound of a large crack near her window. Lily looked out of her window to see James walked down the sidewalk towards her front door. She had insisted that he just apparate into her room but he didn't want to make her parents uncomfortable. She ran downstairs so she would be the first one to the door. She stood there waiting for him to knock, growing impatient she opened the door to see him standing at her doorstep grinning from ear to ear.
"I didn't see a point in knocking anymore." James said.
He bent down and picked her up off of her feet and spun her around, she tighten her grip around his neck so that she wouldn't slip away. When he set her down be bent down once more and brought his mouth to hers. He kissed her deeply, not caring that they were still standing on her front porch. She suddenly heard a loud grunt behind her and the two quickly broke apart. She turned and saw her father standing there glaring at James. James stood there awkwardly waving.
"Ummm, hello sir, I'm just here to help Lily pack."
"Yes, so I've heard." Lily knew her father wasn't too keen on the two of them living together. He glared at James for a moment before walking back towards their kitchen. Lily quickly took James' hand and led him up stairs. Once in her room they both sat down on Lily's bed. She lend up against the wall while James laid his head in her lap. They sat there for a moment, she just playing with his hair while he was just stroking the side of her arm.
"Your dad hates me doesn't he?" James said. Lily looked down at him.
"No, no, he's just, he's not really happy about our living arrangements. I think he feels like your stealing me away."
"I didn't have to steal anything." He said sitting up. "You happily allowed me to take you." He said as he slid his arms around her waist and kissing her neck. She smiled as she slowly lay down onto her bed. He slowly kissed her neck and began to move up to her jaw before kissing her lips. She let her fingers tangle through his hair as she pulled him even closer to her.
Lily slowly began to take of James' jacket and tossed it onto the floor next to her bed. He looked down at her brushing some of her hair out of her face before pressing his mouth onto hers. Lily wished they could stay like this, freeze this moment in time. As Lily thought this she heard a loud pounding at her door, James quickly lifted his head ready to jump off Lily at any moment.
"Yah! Who is it?" Lily said in an annoyed voice.
"Just wanted to make sure the packing was going alright." Lily and James were frozen until Lily heard her father's footstep move away from her door. Lily smiled up at James ready to pick up right where they had left off, but James stayed put above her.
"Maybe we should start packing." He said guiltily. She nodded as he rolled off of her. "Just think, in a week, we can do that without being interrupted."
"I wouldn't get your hopes up, remember we are living with Sirius." Standing up walking over to one corner of her room. She bent down and grabbed a few boxes that were still flat. She tossed one over to James who looked at it with a curious expression.
"What do you want me to do with this?" He said looking at her with a very confused expression. She tried to giggle as she walked over to him.
"Okay, watch." She began arranging the flat cardboard into a box. Once it was done she handed it back to James whose face still looked very confused.
"Sometimes I don't understand Muggles." He said taking the box away from Lily.
"You can start with my book shelf." She said pointing behind him; he smiled at her before turning around and sitting in front of the bookshelf. He pulled out his wand and began putting the books into the box next to him. Lily walked back to the corner of her room and picked up a box and walked over to her dresser. She started picking up her folding her clothes and putting them in the box. Lily turned around to see how James was doing and saw he was standing in the middle of her room trying to put a box together. She laughed as she walked over to him and once again helped him put the box together.
"I don't get it." James said as he walked back over towards the bookshelf, "why don't they just come already put together?" He said staring at the box.
"They're easier to store that way."
"But you use the box to store stuff, why would you need to store boxes."
"If you're not using it anymore you can save it for another time." This seemed to satisfy James' curiosity and they went back to packing up Lily's room in a comfortable silence. Lily found it cute whenever James had trouble or was confused with Muggle ways. It was always a little reminder that she really was apart of two worlds. Part of her wished she had grown up in a magical family, but she also liked having the knowledge about the Muggle world. She thought it might give her somewhat of an advantage someday.
Once she finished packing her dresser she went over picked up a new box and went over to her desk. It had been her Grandmothers old desk from when she was in school. Lily sat here during her summers doing homework and writing letters. She started packing away her old textbooks she had left on her desk, notes, pictures and old letters. She stopped and began reading through some of the letters, she had letters all the way back to her first summer after Hogwarts. At first they were mostly from Severus, Mary, and there were one or two from Alice. There was more of a variety of letters as she went through them. She had a lot more letters from boys after her fourth year at Hogwarts, writing just to see how she was doing. Every now and then Lily would find a letter from James asking her how her summer was going. She would always give the same reply.
Potter
How my summer is going is none of your business, so please do me a favor and leave me alone. My summer is already ruined by my sister I don't need you messing it up too!
Evans
She had always thought that he was being an annoying git, sending her letters every summer. It wasn't until their sixth year at Hogwarts that Lily began to think other wise.
*flashback*
Lily was sitting in the Great Hall alone. It was the first day of classes so she wanted to be up early so she had plenty of time for breakfast. Lily heard someone walk over and sit across from her, when she looked up from her book she saw it was James Potter.
"Leave please." She said flatly looking back at her book.
"Hello to you too." James said, acting highly offended. "I just wanted to ask how your summer was." He said as he grabbed a piece of toast.
"It was fine, now if you're satisfied, I'd like to be left alone." Lily's head snapped up as James slammed his hand on the table.
"Bloody hell Lily!" He said staring at her. "You tell me I'm an arrogant toerag and then when I'm trying to be nice you don't even give me a chance and I tried before too! Every bloody summer I would write to you, being decent, asking how your summer was going and you would just shoot me down or not even reply. I wouldn't even complain when you were shooting me down in your replies! I was happy just to get a reply from you! So why should I bother trying to change if you think it's just an act! Because Lily, you don't really know me and that's what I'm trying to do!" Lily stared at him in disbelief she was speechless. She had no idea that's how he felt.
"I...I..." She tried to speak but she didn't know have to even respond to him,
"You know what, forget it." He grabbed another piece of toast before standing up and walking out of the Great Hall.
*End*
"Hey, Lil?" Lily quickly looked up from her letters and looked over at James. He had finished packing all of her books and was kind of looking around her room for something else pack. She looked around, other than the contents in her desk and a few keepsakes in her closet she didn't really need to pack anything else.
"I think you're good." She said turning back to her old letters. She felt James place his hands on her shoulders than slowly rest his head on top of her head looking at her letters. She was reading one from Severus; she felt his grip on her shoulders tighten. The letter was right before their fifth year at Hogwarts started. They had met at the park and got into another fight about James, the letter was just another apology. Whenever Lily brought up Severus' new friends he would bring up James and his friends.
He was trying to control who she hung out with, and even thought she didn't have any plans of being with James, Severus still wasn't sure. Looking back on it now, there were a lot of things wrong with their friendship. She spent so much of her time worrying about what he was doing and being upset about fights they were always having.
"Snape really does hate me." He said still looking at the letter.
"Yah, you should see the letter I got from him when I was at your house for Christmas. I mean, it's not like he doesn't have his reasons, but, I hate that he would try and control me and tell me what to do. I used to feel so sorry for him sometimes, and then he just..." Lily slowly trailed off. She had never really talked about her friendship with Severus with James. She wasn't sure he wanted to know, the two boys have disliked each other for so many years.
"He was just what?" James said looking at her.
"He just wanted different things, power. He always tried to be the best at everything and he always tried to control what I did, he was my very first wizard friend. It was hard to let go." James let go of Lily's shoulder and slowly walked over to her bed and sat down.
"It was nice that you tried to help him, I mean, I'm not proud for being a giant git to him, and one thing I remember loving about you was your courage to stand up for him."
"Why did you tease him?" Lily said walking over and sitting next to him.
"He was weaker than me and when I would tease him I…I felt higher than others." He looked away from Lily. "I'm not proud of it, I kinda hate the part of me that liked that." Lily placed a hand on his back and placed a head on his shoulder.
"You've changed James, you grew up. I mean look at you, you're volunteering to fight in this war, and you're brave, kind, and caring. Besides I wouldn't be dating you if you were a childish git." She sat up and kissed him on the check and hooked arms with James.
"I love you Lily, and I think you were a big reason as to why I tried to stop being a childish git." James laughed; Lily scooted even closer to James as he said this. They sat there for a few moments in silence just enjoying the others presence. After a few moments James bent down and picked up one of the books from one of the boxes he had just packed. She looked over and saw he was reading one of her favorite Muggle book: Pride and Prejudice. Lily and James sat there reading the book and slowly, without even realizing it, they both fell asleep.
Hope you liked it! Remember to review and check out my other stories.
