Prompt #11 – Chocolate
Words: 1,643
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is written by J.K Rowling, but darling the night is still young (:
Summary: James sees Lily in the halls, and since he just got back from sneaking out to Hogsmeade, he had a considerably large amount of un-eaten chocolate on his hand. Leading James and Lily to talk in depth about their families, and the pressure James' has on him.

At night, when the only light outside was coming from the moon, the stained windows on that floor of Hogwarts looked amazing. Lily knew that for a fact, because of all the late nights she spent in the Hogwarts Library, trying to read every book in there.

At that moment, Lily just had to settle for the light the sun was giving the window, to see its current beauty.

The different colours danced off of her skin as the sun shone through at different angles, each angle capturing the way the light was reflected. Even now, the window looked stunning.

As like every picture and painting in Hogwarts, this window was moving. The mermaid had one tear dropping from her face; she would turn to hide that tear whenever anyone looked at the window.

The mermaid wasn't sad because of the fact she was a window, it was because she was lost.

The story behind the window had said that the young mermaid had fallen in love with the wrong person, she had ventured for many years, many miles, before she had realised what she was doing.

Lily felt lost.

When she was young, and she hadn't known she was a witch, she was sure of where she was. She was sure that she would be fine in the future, and that her family would be safe.

But then she was brought into this world, filled with magic and chaos.

The magic was wonderful, yes, but she was scared of the outside of this castle. She was scared that she would receive a visit from a Ministry official saying that her parents were murdered by Death Eaters.

Lily knew everything about this war, she had read a lot about it, and she had been told a lot about it also. Hearing sides from Severus, Hestia and James, the war had sounded so surreal, yet not surprising.

Lily wanted to be able to stop this war, but she knew she had no power for it. But she knew that she wasn't going to sit back and let her family and friends die because she didn't know how to at least help win their fight.

She had heard whispers that the war may soon be drying out, but from what she already knew, she could tell Lord Voldermort wasn't going to give in so easy, not until he got what he wanted.

All muggle-borns dead.

All traitors banished.

All pure-bloods on his side.

Lily was a muggle-born, she was his target, and so was her muggle family. That was her motivation for this fight; her motivation was to keep her family safe, and her friends from being pulled to his side.

Even though she knew her friends wouldn't go over, she knew that the Dark Lord had his ways of blackmailing people into joining. She had heard stories about people who were under the Imperious curse the entire time, because they refused to cave into blackmail.

He would threaten there families, their friends, the people they love, and they would get killed into the end of the war, by the man who blackmailed them to begin with!

It disgusted Lily, she felt as though she was no longer proud to be the witch she was, because of this man who was terrorising the world outside.

It made her scared that she may never be able to walk the calm streets of Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley again, without Death Eaters swarming around her.

"What are you thinking about?" she heard a small voice behind her, when she turned to look over her shoulder, James Potter stood holding an assortment of chocolates and lollies, in the midst of it, she could spy a box of 'Bernie Bott's Every Flavour Beans', she remember the last encounter she had with those lollies, a utterly disgusting snot flavoured one.
"Stuff," she shrugged, looking back at the glass-stain window.
She could see James sit down across from her, placing everything out in front of her, "Chocolate Frog for your thoughts?"
"I think the saying is 'a penny for your thoughts'," she smiled at him.
"Chocolate Frog sounds better," the boy chuckled, "What are you thinking about?"

Lily sighed, she knew from experience that this boy was annoying, impatient, arrogant, stupid, foolish, at-times-smart, and she knew that he could always worm things out of her.

"Everything," she said, "The war, my family, friends, the future."
"The way you said it means that you don't think you have a future."
"I'm going to fight James, I'm going to fight, but I won't last long," Lily told him, her voice growing smaller by each word, knowing that he knew that she was scared.
"You'll last, you'll fight and I know you'll win," he assured her, "I can promise you that much."
"I'm a muggle-born James, do you really think that a muggle-born could last against something like You-Know-Who?"
"You sound like my father, I'll tell you that much," James shook his head, "Yesterday he had to tell the entire wizarding world that he is trying to finish this war, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to, only Dumbledore can but Dumbledore won't fight"
"The Minister of Magic told everyone that, James, your father works for the ministry, he didn't say it," Lily corrected him, unsure by what he meant.
"Lily, my father is the Minster of Magic, why else do you think I would stay here over the holidays, because there is no point going home when he's too busy playing Minister to worry about his family," James ended his sentence through gritted teeth, "Maybe Snape was right in first grade, my father is too busy sitting there with his wand up his arse to do anything."
"Your father?" her eyes widened, "Your father is the Minister of Magic?"
"You have no idea how much it isn't fun," he shook his head once again, "It sounds fun, but when your father is a prick who wants his son to follow in his direct footsteps, it's absolutely no fun at all."
"He wants you to become Minister of Magic?" she smiled, "James, you can't say you've never thought about it!"
"I'm not Minster material, Lils, Dumbledore is I'll tell you that much. But yesterday he turned down the public's plea for him to take over, again."
"He turned it down?" she questioned, "But Dumbledore is hope! He is what keeps half of us students going in this place!"
"I know, but he doesn't want to do it. He knows what to do Lily, and he thinks that fighting this war from his position here will help, not fighting it from where my father sits right now"

"I never knew it would be so hard," Lily said quietly after a moments silence had engulfed them, "I never thought that you of all people would be under that much pressure."
"No one would," he chuckled dryly, "when I joined the Quidditch team, my father reminded me that Quidditch isn't what I want to do when I get older, when it's one of the two things I wanted. He thinks that I'm on a straight line to becoming Minister of Magic when I get older, a straight line, more like a curly fry."
"I thought my family was deranged," she muttered, breaking off the head on the Chocolate Frog, before it could leap away.
"I wish my family were muggles, I really do," he told her, "It would be so much easier."
"It's not, trust me!" she laughed, "You try coming home after your first year at Hogwarts, telling them that the Ministry of Magic will be placing protective spells around their house because there's an evil wizard out there trying to kill all Muggles and muggle-borns, my sister was purple"

"Petunia and you still fighting?" he asked her.
"She hates me, ever since what Severus did, she hates me with passion."
"She can't hate you, she is your sister," James was astounded.
"She hates me because I'm some sort of 'freak', her boyfriend is a prick too," she laughed, "they're perfect for each other! Both vile and have no sense of right and wrong."
"He can't be that bad."
Lily looked at the Gryffindor boy across from his with wide eyes, "You'll bite your tongue one day James, you'll bite your tongue and eat those words, trust me"
"He's that bad?"
"He's worse than you!" she laughed.
"Thanks Lily, because that is so nice and all," he smiled, watching her laugh.

James Potter had seen Lily in all sorts of moods, but one he hated seeing her in was the one she was in just before, he hated seeing her scared. He hated seeing her worried. He hated seeing her doing anything but laughing and smiling, she was simply too fragile for that not to happen.

"There is way too much chocolate here," she complained, finishing off her third chocolate frog.
"There won't be when you finish inhaling them like air," he pointed out, a smirk plastered on his face.
"You just called me fat, didn't you?" she asked him, "James Potter, I'm going to murder you one day."
"That will probably be the day that you go on a date with me," he hinted at the last time he had ever asked her out.
"Don't push your luck, Potter," she smiled, shoving a whole chocolate frog into his mouth, it was still jumping around.
He swallowed it carefully, "yeah, yeah, just eat the chocolate Evans"
"Will do," she laughed again, placing another chocolate frog in her mouth.

James watched her as she ate. He found it amazing to see her so happy. He thought it was simply gorgeous the way she laughed and smiled. He likes it when she was like this, because then there was no worry in the world for the future.