Quarantine Prompt #3 from youreyesinthestarsabove on Tumblr: i dare you to write a disney one shot that doesnt turn into a series (yes i know you've done it dont look at my like im not a total lady and the tramp stan, but im a struggling extrovert so taunting the lion seems fun) (yes i know you are not a lion but a lovely hufflepufff badger
He'd been sitting on a large head of some old deity, dangling a stick covered with moss over Lily Evans' head as she took a brief nap in the shade. They were all parched from hiking the jungle and Lily was especially feeling the heat that day. James let the moss touch her nose and she waved at the air without opening her eyes. James did it three more times before Lily shot awake and started looking around wildly.
"James Potter!" her voice carried through the jungle, "show your face coward!"
James jumped down of the piling of rocks, his feet landing in the dirt with a loud sound. Lily crossed her arms over her white V-necked shirt. She dressed like a boy and it was utterly maddening, every moment of everyday. She was so pretty, even after weeks in ships and jungles, James wondered if the sight of her in a dress might actually kill him.
"Alright, Evans?" he asked playfully.
"I was trying to nap." she pushed him, the glint in her eyes promising him a bit of fun.
"Oi!" Sirius called from inside the ruins, "get in here!"
Lily and James sent each other firm looks, promising to fight later, before they raced over to where Sirius' voice had floated from. Sirius had stumbled upon a small pooling of water along the inside of the ruins, fed from a skylight above. In the dark temple ruins, the water almost glowed, it was so blue.
Remus and Peter, who'd been exploring farther away, slid into the ruins eagerly. Peter looked disappointed when he didn't see any gold, just the beautiful water. James sat on another rock beside Lily, noting that the water seemed to look heaven sent—but that was probably because they hadn't had any fresh drinking water in over a day.
"Have you ever seen water so turquoise?" Sirius said, awestruck by the beauty.
"We shouldn't drink it." Lily tried to dissuade them, "it could be toxic."
"We don't drink, we die, Evans." James shot back, "we haven't had water for two days."
"We have another two-day trek back to the beaches." Remus said, "I vote, drink."
Sirius grabbed an old grey-stone cup from the ruins to scoop water from the spring.
"Cheers."
And Sirius drank five full cup fills.
James had three cups full.
Peter had four.
Remus drank the most, seven cups.
Lily, she'd only taken a single cup.
In later years, James would think back and deduce that the young medical apprentice had been the only one who'd seen the waters for what they were: cursed.
Lily stuffed the cup into her bag as an afterthought while they continued their trek, saying they might be able to learn more from the ruins sketched on it. The cup was simple, made of stone with no jewels. It would've faded into the jungle forever had Lily not taken it. James thought she was barmy for keeping it and told her so.
"We came looking for gold." He hip-checked her as they walked down the mountains, "not stone cups."
James just teased Lily to get a rise out of her. He did it with everyone he cared about, as it was his way of showing affection. Lily acted as if James were the bane of her existence, regularly calling James a toe-rag. Or a git. Or a toe-faced git. She was getting craftier each day that passed.
Sirius threatened to throw them both into the river filled with snapping fish if they didn't stop fighting or flirting. The threat worked, Lily and James leaving their playful bickering for when the others weren't around. After all, they were far from home and nothing out in the jungle would save them from certain death except each other.
"I'm not here for gold." Lily snapped back at James when Sirius was out of earshot, "I'm here because the king thought you idiots might need a healer."
The king might've thought his ragtag team needed a healer when he sent four men into the jungle in search of a city of gold, but the king was wrong.
They didn't need a healer from the minute they drank from the spring in the ruins.
Not that any of them knew that, especially not James.
The first inclination that something was wrong happened right after Peter slipped and fell from a rock face over twenty meters high. He bounced back up as if he'd only fallen from a carriage. Lily hardly had enough time to pull out her medicinal kit, he was that quick.
From there, things only got weirder.
James took a snake bite in the neck that Lily claimed should've killed him on the spot. Remus should've broken his leg on multiple occasions, as they made their way back to camp, but he remained as spritely as a colt. Sirius and Lily were both caught unawares by a Jaguar. Lily took a pounding to her head that should've killed her. Sirius should've lost so much blood he'd become a part of the jungle.
Despite the challenges, they all lived to see bonny old England again. They claimed it was luck that had gotten them through the jungle. The king was more disappointed that the only thing they'd come back with were some pots and the old cup that the King let Lily keep. He was planning another expedition to find the city of gold, but he didn't ask the four original explorers to go back.
Lily went on to finish her studies in America, bringing the cup with her as a token of her adventures. Sirius joined another expedition, ready to see more of the world or die trying. James settled in at home, teaching History classes at Oxford college with Remus as his assistant Professor.
Life was normal, at least for a general amount of time. James even started courting some ladies, although not one of them could hold a sparkle to Lily Evans, medical genius extraordinaire. It was probably why James lived alone, even five years after saying goodbye to Lily.
Sometimes, Remus and James got a letter from Lily. Sometimes she added an extra p.s. just for James in those letters. After a few years, the letters stopped arriving. They only knew that Lily went west in America to study indigenous diseases. James worried she'd succumbed to disease until she wrote two years later, claiming to be on the frozen tundra.
James never told Remus how relieved he'd felt when they got that letter. The world just didn't seem right to live in without Lily Evans. James wished he'd had the guts to tell her that before she'd left but he also knew nothing could keep her tied down. Lily had dreams and James wasn't one of them, sadly.
More years passed and james had started noticing little things that didn't make sense. His parents aged but James didn't even gain a wrinkle. Remus looked the same as the day they'd gotten back to the boat from the ruins. They both never got sick, not even when plague threatened their small world. James wondered, often, if they were living in a different plane of the world than everyone else.
But that was mad, wasn't it?
In the end, it was Peter, who figured it out first.
He'd gone on a deep-sea fishing expedition in the Northern territories. The entire ship went down in a freak accident. It sank into the sea, taking 47 well-established sailors to the depths. Every life aboard that ship was sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic, every life but Peter's.
Instead of drowning, Peter woke up at the surface of the ocean, unscathed and strong enough to swim to an ice flow where a fisherman's boat found him one day later. Peter had not a scratch on him and he was released from the hospital marked as a miracle. No one understood how he survived but he did, and it marveled everyone.
Peter determined quickly that it was the water that had given him the capacity to live through terrifying ordeals such as a sinking ship. He came to James' study at Oxnard, telling James and Remus his theory with wild hands and hair. James listened to their old friend, pondering the theory but feeling like it was impossible.
"Think about how many times we all almost died in that jungle." Peter urged, "think about how none of us have aged a wink! We're immortal!"
"Are you mad?" Remus said, pulling on his beard, "immortal?"
"I'm not mad," Peter said, despite knowing how he sounded, "I'll prove it to you."
"How?" James asked.
Peter pulled a handgun out of his pocket and shot Remus straight through the heart. Remus was standing upright again before James could jump up from his chair. Remus survived, not even bleeding, it was as if the bullet disappeared like magic. After Remus was done cursing Peter within an inch of his life and James' heart had slowed to a measurable beat, they determined that Peter was right.
They were immortal, all thanks to turquoise waters in the jungles of the New World.
When Sirius returned from his voyage, he had the very same theory. Apparently, Sirius had taken a bullet (or several) to the gut on a dark street in Russia. He thought he'd die on the streets, only to find that he didn't die at all.
"Woke up right next to the vodka I'd been slamming before the thugs got me." Sirius showed them his flawless abdomen, "I thought I'd dreamed the whole thing until I saw the blokes again later and they stared at me like I was a fucking ghost."
"We can only assume Lily is the same." Peter said, "she drank the same water as us."
"What do we do?" Remus had been the least accepting of their fate, "how do we alter this?"
James was the grim voice of reason, "I don't think there's a way to alter this."
Peter had been the one to suggest selling the water for a hefty profit. He wanted to go back to the lost ruins and bottle the water they'd found for riches. James, Sirius and Remus all agreed they didn't want to go back to the ruins. Peter got angry and went by himself. When he returned, he had the bottled water and was selling it for as much as he could get.
The first person who bought it was an old man dying of cancer in the lungs. Peter felt like he'd found a cure-all. It was the old man who paid handsomely for Peter's greed, when the cancer continued on. The old man died one day after he drank the water from the ruins. Peter's name was dragged through the streets of London and Peter was forced to run away from his own stupidity.
"If Peter's water didn't work," Remus said as they pushed the remaining of Peter's water stores in the local pond, "what's wrong with us?"
"I don't know." James said as he watched the water from the ruins mix with water from the pond, "but the only thing we know, is it had something to do with that jungle."
James made the expedition again, just to look more into what had happened to them. The university thought James was studying the historical ruins and that wasn't totally untrue, by the time he was back in England James knew the ruins inside and out. Remus and Sirius joined James, hired by the University as his scouts. They were unable to find anything new, except for an old book of ancient writings and unfortunately, James never found a scholar knowing enough to transcribe them.
So James took to trying to transcribe them.
Years passed and soon, James and his friends realized they needed to make new lives for themselves. People were starting to notice how they never aged and never got ill. It wasn't long before talking of witchcraft was being whispered through the streets of London. The boys decided that their best course of action would be to separate for the time being.
James hopped on a boat that led him to a Polynesian island and he stayed there for eleven years pretending to be a scientist studying local species. From the Island, James made it to California just as the gold rush peaked and he took a job mining for gold. That's where he ran into Remus and Sirius, both of them working for the same company to mine gold. The three men refused to separate after that, calling each other 'brother' from that point on.
Every ten years or so, the three bachelors would pick up their lives and move to a new place. By the time Typhoid fever found its way to a Seattle jailhouse in 1901, James and his mates had settled in New York. James and Remus were Professors at Columbia. Remus was teaching psychology and James was teaching history, respectively. Sirius was working nights at a bar downtown.
One day, James woke up alone in his bed and realized he was 118 years old.
It was a fucking curse. They were in their ninth year in the city and already getting nervous about someone catching on to their lack of aging. Every time James looked in the mirror, he could never understand how his face never changed. No new wrinkles. Not one single grey hair. James' parents, meanwhile, had passed away fifty years before that. The only family James had, were Sirius and Remus.
Remus and Sirius had each other, thick as thieves in and out of bed, while James' bedside was cold every time he woke up. James was lonely and took to taking young woman to bed more often than was socially acceptable. He made himself try and forget the possibility of ever having a family, a proper family. He couldn't have a wife because there was no one else out there who knew what it was like to live a long life so lonely.
James had almost forgotten that one other person was cursed with the same fate as them until she stumbled, quite literally, into his lap in the middle of the college courtyard. James had been reading his students papers, marking them to be graded. He hadn't even noticed her walking across the yard in a long Victorian gown, not until she was passing right by him. She tripped on her shoelace and James reached out to catch her before she fell into the fountain he was sitting on.
"I am so sorry!" her voice bounced off the fountain as she rolled in his grasp, "sir, please forgive me! I'm so clumsy!"
James almost didn't recognize her, for her hair was loose about her shoulders, instead of pinned out of her face. The last time he'd seen her, she was in men's clothes. She used to walk with a gun on her hip and a medic pack on her back. It was her eyes that gave her away, a bright intelligent green that he simply couldn't ever forget if he tried.
Lily Evans' red flush only grew when she realized who's lap she'd unceremoniously fallen into, "James? James Potter?"
"Lily."
All at once, hope fluttered in his stomach as he stared at the only woman who'd held his fancy for as long as he'd known her. And they'd known each other a very long time, indeed. She was an exception to his rule about never falling in love, so naturally, James fell right then and there as he stared into her eyes.
For a moment there was nothing but silence between them. Lily's giant hat had fallen to the grass and her fingers were still holding onto his robes for support. They both traced each other's faces in wonder, as they grew aware that they both hadn't changed a bit since their last goodbye over 80 years before.
Lily drank the water too.
Lily fell from his grasp, only for a second, so that she could right herself. Then, once she was standing again, her hands were clasping his again. James couldn't look away, finding himself incapable of such a hard task, not when Lily was so beautiful.
"You're alive?" She whispered, eyes brimming with tears, "you're in New York."
James nodded, standing up, his own eyes filled with saltwater, "it's been too long, Evans."
Lily half-laughed before she jumped into him and wrapped her arms around his neck, "I never thought I'd see you again."
James rocked her in his arms, tucking his chin on top of her head. She hugged him back for a bit, but she was still confused and that resulted in her next question.
"James, how are you still here?"
James tilted his head at her, "how are you still here?"
Lily looked down at her feet then back up at him, "I thought it was an Inuit curse."
James drew back, smiling so wide his cheeks hurt, "I've never been near an Innuit in my life, Evans."
Lily's green eyes flickered with bewilderment, "but how?"
James looked around before he assumed, "it was the water, it changed us all."
"What water?" Lily asked, furrowing her brow.
"The water at the ruins," James reminded her, "the water we all drank from."
Lily shook her head no, "If that were the case, my friend Marlene would be alive too."
"Who's Marlene?" James asked.
"I took Marlene back with me to those ruins after I noticed I was never getting hurt, or sick," Lily described, "we both drank from the water that day, but Marley died a year later from a fever. If it were the water, Marley would still be alive too."
"Yeah, Peter had someone drink water from the ruins, and he died too." James scratched his head, "but still…how else do you explain all of five of us, alive?"
"That's why I came here, actually." Lily said, removing herself from his arms, "I'm looking for answers, I was told there was a Professor here who studied ancient cultures, specifically."
James chuckled, motioning to himself, "that'd be me, Evans."
Lily looked up from her feet, "you're the Professor?"
James motioned to his robes, "you think I'd wear these blasted things otherwise?"
Lily cocked her hip lightheartedly, "no, you always preferred trousers and water slacks."
James motioned to her dress, "coming from a woman who stole Sirius' trousers on more than one occasion."
There was a twinkle in her eye, "I still steal trousers on occasion."
James wished she were in stolen trousers now. Time had done nothing to her curvy figure, leaving it as robust and forthcoming as she'd been 85 years prior. James loved her arse, something he'd never tell a woman, especially not a woman who could kick his own arse...even in a dress.
Lily adjusted her collar as if it were bothering her, "how long have you been here?"
James shrugged, "about nine years, it's almost time for us to leave again."
Lily pulled on a strand of her red hair, "us?"
James nodded eagerly, "Remus and Sirius are here with me."
Lily perked up, "you're all here?"
"All of us but Peter"
Lily's lower lip fluttered out, "Where's Peter?"
James shrugged, "we haven't seen him in a few years, he's gone a bit mad to be honest."
"Haven't we all?" Lily countered, "I certainly can't remember the last time I've felt normal."
James shook his head at her, "mad in a different sense, Evans. He's trying to bottle his life."
Lily's expression grew somber, "he's trying to sell the immortality?"
"Honestly?" James disclosed, "I think he'd sell his mum, if the poor hag wasn't already six feet under."
Lily pursed her lips before she asked bluntly, "what do you teach?"
James smiled, "history of ancient civilizations."
Intuitive glimmers shone in her eyes, "I suppose a hundred-year-old man might be a decent teacher of history."
James grinned back, "don't I look good, for a hundred-year-old man?"
"Fishing for compliments, Potter?" Lily teased.
"Only from you, Evans." James goaded back, "only from you." Lily's face remained red as she tucked her equally red hair behind one of her ears. James took a deep breath, not believing they'd found each other again after so many years. James was thankful, suddenly, that the universe had cursed him alongside some of the most interesting humans in history.
James reached out to pull her into a hug again, "wait until Remus and Sirius find out you're here!"
When Lily pulled back, she was crying, "I can't wait to see them!"
It was like a family reunion when James brought her through the doorstep of the small flat that they rented right outside the college. Sirius whooped like a cowboy as he dragged Lily into his arms. Remus stood back in disbelief, eyes taking in Lily's stuck-in-nineteen persona. As Remus and Lily hugged, Lily reached up to ruffle Remus' perfectly swept hair.
"Looking good, Lupin," she said, "you've barely aged a day."
"Make that 85 years." Remus' smile grew as he drew away from Lily, "how are you doing old lady?"
Lily laughed again, her laugh echoing through the room like it used to echo through the jungle, "better than you old man…still hanging out with these gits?"
James interceded, "you were happy to see me!"
Lily turned back to James, eyes sparkling, "was I?"
Sirius rolled his eyes, "here we go."
"You said you thought you'd never see me again and then you cried in my arms!" James nudged her, "admit it, Evans!"
"Never!" but her smile was wide, and her laugh was infectious.
"Wait," Remus interrupted them all, "I thought we determined it wasn't the water." "So?" Sirius asked.
"So," Remus reasoned, coming around to motion at Lily, "if it wasn't the water, how is she still alive?"
The four survivors looked around at each other. James sat on the edge of the furnace heater, which had been switched off for summertime in New York. Lily crossed her arms and pursed her lips as she thought of an acceptable answer. Sirius was staring at the ceiling as if waiting for a sign. It was Remus who spoke first.
"Maybe it was a plant we all came into contact with?"
"Maybe." Lily said, "but don't you think we would've noticed a weird plant with magical life-altering magical properties?"
"Maybe." Remus said, "but maybe not, we were looking for treasure for the King."
"Treasure." Lily scoffed, "the only thing we found were dusty old ruins."
James glanced sideways at their old friend, "but why were you looking for a Professor of Ancient History, Lily?"
"She was?" Sirius looked back and forth between the pair, "is that how she found you?"
"Yes," Lily reached into her hand purse and pulled out a page torn from a book, "this came from an old Inuit book, I thought it might hold the answers to why I was never aging."
"Never aging is the least of your worries." Remus told Lily, "you can't die, at all."
Lily narrowed her eyes, "pardon?" "Whatever happened to us," Remus motioned around the room, "it made us immortal."
"No one-being can be immortal." Lily said, daftly brushing at her dress nervously, "that's absurd."
"Evans," Sirius said earnestly, "I got shot three times in Russia, I've gotten my throat slit and every time I should've died...I am standing."
Lily pulled her fingers through her hair, looking around at the men with nervous eyes, "you're all sure about this?"
James nodded solemnly, "Peter figured it out first, that's why he tried to sell the water from the ruins."
Lily chewed her lip, "but the water, it doesn't have elixir properties it's just—water."
The four of them debated possibilities for hours, well into the night. Finally, it was settled that they might never know what made them immortal, only that they were. Lily helped James clean up the china after dinner, lost in her own train of thought. James hip-checked her, noticing she was rather quiet.
"Alright, Evans?"
Lily looked up at him through her light lashes, "just ruminating on immortality, Potter."
James used the dishrag to dry the china he'd brought from England. Lily made some tea in the pot for them both to enjoy, while they listened to Sirius snore on the sofa across the room. James cheers-d her as he fell into the chair beside her, both of them sipping their tea.
"I almost feel like no time has passed," Lily said unexpectedly, "when I know so much time has."
James looked over at her, taking in her sad expression, "the burden is easier to bear when you aren't alone, Lily."
Lily sighed deeply, cupping her teacup with both hands, "I've foolishly thought myself alone in this world."
"How could you have known we all lived," James countered back, "you ran off to America, first chance you got."
Lily shot him a wicked grin over her cup, "I wanted a life of adventure and I knew if I stayed in England, the King would've married me off to some Lord, just to keep me out of trouble."
"You were a lot more trouble for the King than we were," James recalled, "did you not turn down his proposal, six times?"
Lily laughed gayly, "it was only two times, James."
"It felt like six," James said, "especially when he tried to convince you before the voyage."
"He wasn't my type." Lily took a sip of her tea.
James played with his own teacup wonderingly, "did you ever?"
"Ever what?" she dropped a sugar cube into her tea.
"Ever marry."
Lily's green eyes shot up and she considered James for a moment before saying sharply, "no man could ever measure up."
James flushed and looked down at his lap. Lily had always been independent, an adventurer at heart. It was no wonder she couldn't look at a man and see herself with him. She'd always been great at being alone. Lily nudged his knee with hers when he didn't reply. James looked up from his shoes to find she was regarding him with heightened awareness.
"And you?"
"Me?"
"Did you ever marry?"
James didn't know why he wanted to lie to her, perhaps so that she wouldn't feel so sorry for him. After all, the King wasn't the only one who proposed to her. James had done so as well, on one occasion. It was right before she left for America, but she'd turned him down. James wanted to lie to her so that she wouldn't pity him for holding on to an impossible daydream for 85 years.
"No," he told the truth, "I never married."
Lily kicked her legs back and forth against the chair, observing him with a softer expression. They cleaned up tea and James offered Lily his bed, sleeping on the floor beside it instead. Lily stayed with the boys for a week, then one week turned to two and eventually, she followed the boys when they quit their jobs and started a new life again.
The small family settled in central Florida, going by a new last name and delivering a new story to curious neighbors. Lily made a small clinic to practice healthcare and soon, was the talk of the town. Lily introduced Sirius as her cousin, Remus as her brother and James as her husband. They were all welcomed into the small community, but a sense of peace never settled on the tiny family. About two years into their newest residence, Lily started acting strange.
James first noticed Lily's jumpiness when they were out walking the town with Remus. Lily jumped and grabbed ahold of James' arm when she saw a balding man in the general store. Two weeks later she pulled her gun from its holster while they were tilling the farmland, shooting a crow that had surprised her. James wasn't the only one to notice Lily's nervousness.
"Is something wrong?" James asked her when he finally caught her alone doing the wash outside in the muggy Florida air.
Lily looked through the waving curtain of cotton, her face tanned from long Florida days, "No, why?"
"You're really jumpy." James noted, "it's not like you."
Lily closed a pin over the laundry before walking around the white shifts to stare up into James' warm face. The longer they'd played an adoring couple, the easier it had been to touch her without warning. James' hand came to rest at her cheek and Lily leaned into his touch, her green eyes flickering worriedly.
"Don't you think we've been here for long enough?"
James shook his head no, "we normally spend around ten years in one spot."
Lily pulled back from him, aghast, "ten years?"
"Well yeah," James scratched his fingers through his thick black curls, "why would we move every two years?"
"Well-I mean-" Lily's fingers buried in her frock, "you shouldn't."
James tilted his head as his fake wife, "what's scaring you, Lily?"
Lily chewed her bottom lip, glancing back up at the house. They'd just finished building the lovely four-bedroom house on the edge of a sparkling blue river. James was happy with it, spending most of his days on the porch reading. Remus was currently napping on the banks by the river, undisturbed by Lily's recent weird moods. Sirius had gone hunting and wasn't expected back for hours. It was just them. Lily turned back to James, clearly feeling nervous about something. James took a step towards her, holding his arms out.
Lily fell into his embrace, allowing him to hold her like they were real lovers, "I'm being tracked."
"What?" James looked down at Lily, confused, "What do you mean?"
Lily pulled back to show him her watery eyes, "the longer I stay here, the longer I'm putting you and the others in danger."
James unraveled his arms from around her only so he could clasp her cheeks, "what are you talking about?"
"I'm being followed." Lily said, "I don't know who he is, but no matter where I've gone...he's followed like a ghost."
James brushed his thumb along her cheek, "what does he want?"
"I've never stopped to ask, obviously." Lily said sassily, "but he's onto me, to us, I know it."
"Lily-"
"I've lost him several times but," she touched her hand to his, "he keeps coming back."
"Hey," James tucked her back into a warming hug, "whoever he is, he'll meet a sad fate if he comes looking for you here."
Lily wrapped her hands up into James' shirt and sobbed softly, "I don't want him to hurt you, or Sirius, or Remus."
"Shhh," James placed a kiss atop her head, "nothing's going to happen to us."
Lily looked up at him. The sunshine filtered through her hair, turning it into gold that twisted around his fingers. The curtains and cotton clothes hid them from view when Lily leaned up on her tiptoes to kiss him soundly. James settled into the feel of her mouth against his own until she finally pried away, muttering something about dinner. His eyes trailed after her, loving her.
James shared the news that Lily was being tracked long after she'd retired to her room. Sirius nursed an empty bottle and Remus was making cornbread on the stove for breakfast in the morning. The muggy Florida air was just as stifling at night so James was fanning himself with a magazine.
"And you're certain that she's certain?" Remus asked as the pan sizzled, "she's been alone a long time, maybe she kept seeing the same face in different people."
"Perhaps that's why she's been so trackable." Sirius countered, eyes flickering to James knowingly, "she never worried, until now, until she had something to worry about."
James' eyes fluttered up the stairs where she was sleeping, "she's really scared."
"The world is closing in," Sirius muttered darkly, "it won't be long until we'll have to start moving continents...states won't be far enough away."
James frowned, knowing Sirius was right. James himself had seen tire marks near the wash only weeks before. The world was wide, and humans were taking up every square inch. James fell into a chair and placed his face into his hands before announcing the new rules.
"No one let's Lily out of their sight, not until we can be sure that person still isn't following her."
"At least we know one thing," Remus said bitterly, pulling the food from the stove.
"What's that?" Sirius asked.
Remus looked up from his cooking dejectedly, "whoever it is, they can't track her forever."
James rubbed his eyes, "no, not forever."
They took extra care when venturing to town. Lily stayed at the house with one of them, but nothing could keep her from going to town when it was her monthly medical run. Whenever she went to check on her patients, James went with her. He was determined to be with her in case that man ever showed his face.
The nights got colder, even for Florida. James had the furnaces running in each room, but it was still frigid. Late one night, Lily crawled from her bed into his and James let her wrap herself in his arms. James couldn't resist resting his nose against hers, and that's when her lips found him in the darkness. Semantics went out the window when one lived forever but, from then on, the 'husband' ruse was no longer a lie.
James put a real ring on Lily's tiny finger when they married under church bells in the nearest town. Sirius was their best man and the old cat that fished on the river acted as a witness. The wedding dress Lily wore was made out of the fabric of the very dress she'd worn when she fell into James' lap in New York.
And they were happy.
Lily and James went off on their own to live as a married couple, settling on a deserted farm in northern-eastern England. Remus and Sirius joined them, several years later. The cottage was tucked back into the trees and as such, untouched by the rise in technology. Time continued to turn like a wheel and the small family of misfits settled into the quietness of the countryside like stone walls.
James was 130 years old when Lily came to him in the mid-morning, a weird sort of smile on her little face. She wrapped herself in his grasp, kissing his mouth softly.
"I'm pregnant."
At first, James had thought she was teasing him, but it turned out that she'd somehow still been biologically able to conceive. They didn't try to question it too much, as they worried for the safety of the child. After all, it had been conceived by two immortal humans who never changed. This fact didn't stop the baby from shifting and shaping in Lily's stomach, as if it were normal.
And if it were a normal child, James already knew they'd have to watch the child grow old. Sometimes he wished there was a way to break the curse that held its grip on his family. Still, he didn't look at the child as a curse, but a gift. Immortality was dull and mundane, but a child was ever-moving and growing.
James couldn't wait for the baby to arrive.
"Your wife will enjoy these so very much, Mr. Evans."
They flipped names often, every ten years or so, just to keep people off their trail. James didn't think anything of it as a man in a suit turned to look at James with beady black eyes. The store grocer examined the little animal shaped figurines, smiling as he wrapped each one in paper. James pointed to some peppermint candy being sold on the counter.
"Lily would love these too," he said, "may I buy three sticks?"
"Of course," the storekeeper wrapped up the treats, "anything for our best doctor, we miss her in town."
"She'd be happy to hear you think so." James dug coins from his pocket, "she feels useless, being pregnant."
"When is the bundle of joy due?"
James felt his forehead wrinkle, "we're not quite sure."
James passed the man in black, the man with snake-like eyes, but he didn't think anything of it. Not even when the man's eyes followed James as he exited the store with gifts for his wife. He was too busy thinking of the small form, growing in Lily's body.
For some time passed slowly. Only an hour can seem like an eternity. For others, there was never enough. For James Potter and his family, it didn't exist. But it was about too, once his wife gave birth.
James made the trek back to the cottage on foot, arriving just as sundown. Lily, Sirius and Remus were all sitting on the steps of the house. Lily jumped up from her seat when she spotted James coming through the thicket of trees. James waved at her animatedly, only to watch his wife's face contort in horror. Sirius jumped up from his lounging seat, but it was too late. James heard the bullet and felt the gunshot hit against his spine.
And he should've died but he cannot die and so, he simply turned to face his attacker.
The man was bald and held the impression of once being handsome. His nose was slighted, and he had eyes so dark that they blended into the forest behind him. Those eyes cleverly stared James down, a flicker of a smile upturning his face.
"Hello," he said, "you have no idea what a pleasure it is to finally meet you."
"You're the man who has been following my wife." James deduced, holding up a hand to keep Sirius back when he ran to aid James, "the man tracking us."
"Indeed." the man gave a mock bow, "tell me, is it a relief to finally be discovered? I imagine so many years of hiding must've taken their toll on folks like you."
Sirius placed a hand on James' shoulder and barked at the man in the black suit, "who are you and how do you know so much about us?"
"My name is Tom Riddle. I first heard about your family from my grandmother." Tom played with the edges of his gun, "She knew a man in a mental facility who used to rant and ramble about immortals who never grew old and never died."
"And how did you deduce my wife to be one of those people?" James asked coolly.
"I was given her name, all your names, by an associate of yours, a Mr. Peter Pettigrew." Tom's eyes shot a bright glance back to where Remus was holding Lily back from the war of words, "he claimed she'd be able to give me more information on the elixir, as she was the healer on expedition that led to him being the lone survivor of a shipwreck in 1803."
"How dare you come here," Lily snarled in Remus' arms, "how dare you trespass on our lands only to talk blasphemy."
"I don't want a discussion, girl." he said simply.
Sirius narrowed his eyes, "what do you want, Riddle?"
"Well, you see," Riddle twirled the gun in his hand, "I've got a ship waiting for one of you, waiting for you to take me to the spring that gave you all eternal life."
"What spring?" James acted dumb, "what do you really want?"
"Don't insult me, sir." Riddle's eyes glistened dangerously, "It's immediately clear to me that the water's powers have been wasted on...unimaginative people like you. I intend to make this fountain of youth, as the simpletons would call it, available to those who deserve it, for a price, of course."
Lily stepped forward, away from Remus' protection. The true nature of her form showed off in the setting sun. Riddle's eyes fell on the round belly, the sign of pregnancy. Lily placed her spare hand on James' other shoulder, supporting his movements with clear green eyes.
"Please leave, Mr. Riddle." she said softly, "we have no quarrel with you, leave us, you will only be disappointed."
"There's no disappointment in eternal life, girl."
Disgusted, James spat at the old man's feet, "You'll die of old age before any of us take you."
"Is that so?" Riddle moved fast, yanking Lily away from her family and pointing his gun at her protruding stomach, "how much are you willing to bet that the daemon spawn in her belly is as immortal as its parents?"
Lily's hard expression turned to panic, and she screamed James' name in terror. Riddle seemed to realize that he'd found the key. He started walking away with Lily, gun pointed at her unborn child, their miracle.
"Yes!" he announced gleefully, "show me the way...lead me to eternal life!"
James waited for the man to turn, waited until Riddle was back in the thicket, before he grabbed Sirius' gun off his hip. James ran into the woods, his feet carrying him into range for the gun to go off, and the bullet to lodge right into Tom Riddle's head.
Riddle fell to the ground as if he'd just been plucked from the sky. Lily fell away from him, her small body crawling away with a choking sob. James ran over to his wife, sliding into the dirt and grabbing her face.
"Are you okay?"
"Fine." Her green eyes were tearful as she looked over at the pool of red now surrounding Riddle's head, "how many more people do you think know about us?"
"I'd say the secret lived and died with him." Sirius had appeared, "Peter's not mad enough to tell anyone else, not when he knows that the spring doesn't actually contain the elixir of life."
James helped Lily to her feet and back to the house. While James started a fire to warm Lily and the baby, Remus and Sirius started their own fire far away from the cottage. When they came back, they had notes in a pocketbook that confirmed Riddle was alone in his endeavor.
Lily still rubbed her stomach nervously, "I don't want anything to happen to our baby."
James shook his head firmly, "no one will touch our baby."
"The chances of him being immortal are slim to none." Lily's voice shook, "he grows at a normal rate, he's not stuck like we are."
"And he'll be loved far longer than anyone else on this blasted planet," James reminded her.
Lily shook her head, "I'm scared he'll turn out like that man, like Riddle. What if he becomes obsessed with finding the elixir too? What if he resents us?"
James knew that she, like the rest of them, viewed immortality as a curse. They were lucky to have each other for whatever reason, but the child would grow. It would rely on them for life and then, live life despite them.
"Our baby could never." James said sharply, kissing Lily's forehead, "our baby will know that you don't have to live forever. You just have to live. And he will."
James wasn't wrong.
Harry James Potter came into the world two months later, at the end of July. He grew as any boy would and as he grew his parents taught him every lesson they could. Harry eventually was told the story, and the story was repeated over the years. Lily would show Harry the cup she'd nicked from the ruins and Harry would pour obsessively over the animal skin notebook that James had found in the same spot.
James often reminded his son, "What we Potter's have, you can't call it living. We just... are. We're like rocks, stuck at the side of a stream."
"Is it hard?" Harry asked, "defying death?"
"It's the hardest thing I've done." James would answer truthfully, "watching you grow, knowing you'll get to live how your mother never got too."
"And it's because of the elixir." Harry always questioned, "it was a fountain of youth?"
"No Harry," James always told him, "it was a curse of youth."
It was Harry, who figured out that the elixir hadn't come from a spring, it had come by the cup and the spring together. The book depicted a curse placed on any who dared travel through the City of Death and drink from the ancient springs with the Grail of Death. Harry deciphered the textiles, read as many books as he could, and then took the trip back to the ruins himself at only eighteen.
Unbeknownst to his parents, Harry stole the cup from his mother, who'd stolen it from the ruins nearly 200 years before. Harry placed the cup back inside the ruins, filled to the brim with the spring water. He followed the etchings on the cup to set it against the setting sun just right.
At the same time the sun set in the ancient jungle, James Potter was making morning tea on the stove when he slipped and grabbed the hot tea kettle. James couldn't remember the last time he felt pain, until that moment when he called out in fear.
Lily came rushing out of the bedroom, bandaging James quickly. They were in awe of the pain, instead of fearful of it. Sirius was the one who decided to test the theory and cut himself with a kitchen knife. It took Lily three days to clean the blood off his clothes and the floor.
Harry's return to England two months later only confirmed what they'd all wondered: the curse was broken.
For some time passes slowly, an hour can seem an eternity.
For others there's never enough.
For the Potter family, it finally existed.