And here we are!
I've been working on this fic for years it seems, but until recently, I haven't been able to find a plot and narrative that worked for the story. I think I've found it, and so I'm sharing it with you now! I hope you like it, and apparently movie/book aus is what I'm doing now. First with the Hunger Games fic and now this. I do have some none movie/book ideas to, but these have been more fun recently.
Any way, enjoy!
Lily had never thought that she would miss the dulcet tones of her old alarm clock. It had always played its little tune both off key and off beat, no matter how many times she had reset the thing or tried to change the tone it played. The box that it came in had advertised that it should have been able to play over a dozen different alarms to wake one up in the morning, but her alarm clock didn't seem to know that it was supposed to do that, and it continued to play its one off beat, off key rhythm for the four years that Lily had used it.
And now that she found herself without it, she missed it.
This was due to the fact that she now had a new method of waking up in the morning, and she really could do without it. She wasn't a child after all. She didn't need to be woken up like one.
"Lily!"
She brought the pillow up over her head and buried herself deeper under her covers.
She'd been up for a while now, but she wasn't ready to face what she knew this day was going to bring, so she hid under her pillow, like she was in fact a child, and let her maids busy about her room, drawing open curtains and twittering on about how excited they were.
Lily was not excited.
There were a lot of things that didn't pan out how Lily Evans thought they would when she became princess of Gryffindor. She had moved to what felt like the other side of the world to take care of this small and proud country, that she hadn't been aware existed until half a decade ago. She'd changed her entire life plan to come here, and while she knew that she wouldn't change her mind for anything in the world, she was still adjusting.
There was always one more tradition to learn, one more family to meet for the first time, one more law that had just been revised, one more something that required her attention and focus, so even though she'd been living in Gryffindor for about half a year now since she'd graduated from Brown, she still didn't feel as though she had her footing.
And so, it sort of made sense that her grandmother would tell her that she would need to get married before she took the throne in early February.
And since she was set to take the throne in just over a month, that meant that she was either going to have to cross her fingers and pray that she would fall in love tomorrow, or she would have to agree to an arranged marriage. What a fantastic Christmas present this news had been!
Anita and Lily tried to fight with parliament to get them to change their outdated and sexist law, but they weren't bending and there were another two families lined up and waiting for her to abdicate, so that they could take the throne.
So, she let her grandmother and the castles administration assistant, Emma Vanity, put together a list of eligible bachelors who could potentially become her king consort, making it legal for her to take the throne after her twenty first birthday.
She looked at many, many pictures of men, and she read through even more bios, looking for someone who seemed like they would fit into the small family that Lily had built herself here at the castle; herself, her gran, and Mary MacDonald.
Mary's input into the selection process was mainly comments about how cute they were, or about how they had to look at pictures of their fathers to see if they were going to lose their hair like Prince William had. Lily would have ignored her, but her droll commentary on Sirius Black's blue steel pose, or Bertram Aubrey's extraordinarily large head, kept her from tearing out her hair and fleeing her country.
It was a hard choice to make, as she'd only met these men once or twice before at state functions over the last five years, and she was picking one out to spend the rest of her life with. The whole thing made her feel grimy and itchy.
And then Lord James Potter's picture popped up and Mary's first comment was, "Oh my god, who let his hair look like that?" And Lily snorted, because James' hair was drastically different from any of the other men that they'd looked at. Where they had been styled and kempt, James' was wild and looked as though it had never had a brush run through it. Surprisingly, it also looked amazing.
Mary's second comment was, "Awe, look at his nerd glasses. He looks like someone you'd date."
Lily had rolled her eyes of course, but she also kind of agreed. James did look like a bit like a nerd. A nerd with far too much money, who was also a Lord, but much nerdier than any of the other options.
And so she read his profile and she listened to her grandmother talk about how much people in the country liked him, and how she thought he would be a find choice. Emma, the administration assistant, told her how she had met the Potter family only twice, and all of them remembered her name as well as what she did in the castle the second time they met. "The Lady even sent me a fruit basket for Christmas!"
So he was Lily's type of attractive, he was beloved by the people, he came from a kind family and he had her grandmother's stamp of approval. What more could Lily ask for in a handpicked husband that she would know for all of thirty days before she married him?
But when her maids came to wake her up the day that she was set to meet Lord James Potter, Lily wasn't thinking about how he would be good for her image politically, or how he was good looking, she was thinking about how she'd never get to run into someone in the grocery store, drop an armful of produce and then clonk heads with the perfect man when they both knelt down to pick up the mess. She'd never get to go out to a pub and make eyes at the cute boy across the room, waiting for him to come and ask her to dance. She'd never get to have her Hallmark moment or go on any more first dates. She'd never get the chance to fall, willfully and carelessly, in love.
She still got up though, and let her maids dress her, and style her hair, and when she was told that the car was approaching the castle, she went out to the front and waited to greet him like she was meant to.
She was standing near the front of the castle, beside a window that was as large as the entire back wall of her old room at her mum's house. This was her favorite view of the grounds, with the fruit trees all dormant and covered in snow for the winter, the mountains cool gray and ice capped in the distance; this was exactly where she needed to be in order to convince herself that she didn't want to say goodbye to all of the wonderful things that this country had to offer her simply because she had to do this one thing that she found unpleasant and unreasonable.
One very large thing, but still, just one thing.
Or perhaps it was more than one thing, because she was going to have to agree to marry a stranger and give up all chances of falling properly in love. And that meant giving up a lot of little things over the course of her lifetime, and she got a stomachache whenever she started to think past what was happening right now.
At least she got to pick which stranger it was that she was going to tie herself to forever.
James Potter's profile had stood out to her. The first thing that she had noticed (aside from his hair) was his smile. It made his eyes crinkle and took up a good portion of his face. It looked real and genuine and it made her smile. And even as she sat in the room with her grandmother and Mary, going through dozens of who had been deemed 'eligible bachelors,' she had kept going back to his. His eyes were soft and warm and full of mirth, everything about him invited mischief and his hair looked entirely too unkempt for someone who was supposed to be extremely polished.
She hadn't grown up a princess, she was just Lily before her grandmother had dropped that bomb. A girl from Cokesworth, who had gone to public school with the rest of the factory town kids. It wasn't until she was fifteen that she found out that she was royalty, the heir to a throne no less. So perhaps that was why she kept coming back to him. Perhaps she thought he would be a good partner for her because he didn't seem to perfect, he seemed like he could be a normal bloke.
She had to keep reminding herself of the reasons that she had chosen him as she looked out the window, waiting for his car to appear.
Though she knew that she was probably just trying to come up with reasons to feel a connection with one of the men on the screen.
Whatever the reason she chosen him, she had chosen him. Which meant that if this all went to hell in a hand basket, it was entirely her fault.
Her stomach was in knots.
"There you are, Lily!" Mary came around the corner of the hallway, saw that she was standing in front of her window and rolled her eyes. "I should have checked here first, obviously. You can't live your life in front of this window. You know that, right? You have to actually go out and do the terrifying things that cause you to want to stand here."
"He's not here yet. I can stand here for a few more minutes if I need to. Besides, I can see the driveway from here so it's a good place to wait."
"You don't need to stand here though. We've talked through this. If you don't like this bloke, then we can just pick the next most handsome man on the list your gran gave us."
Lily cocked her head to the side and gave Mary a look. "I didn't pick him because he's the most handsome."
"Oh. I thought that was why you picked him."
"No, I picked him because... I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing, and no one should have to get married to a stranger. Unless that's what they want of course," She looked over her shoulder in case her gran was walking toward her. She'd entered into an arranged marriage willingly. She'd never fallen in love, but her and her husband were very good friends.
Lily sighed. She didn't want a really good friend. She had Mary for really good friend things. She wanted to fall in love, and she didn't think that she should be penalized for that by some sexist law that her country had put in place over a century ago. She liked to think that they had come a bit further than that.
"You are a brilliant, beautiful, wonderful person and this bloke is going to fall for you the moment he sees you. You, on the other hand, need to get out of your head. How are you going to form any kind of connection at all with this James kid, if all you're thinking about is how unfair all of this is? I mean, what if he's as great as he looks on paper."
"You mean his picture, right? You're not talking about all the humanitarian work that he's done or the fact that he's gone to Oxford and-"
"No, I meant his picture! I actually don't remember anything from the written portion of his profile. God, that hair!"
Lily smiled at her. "Look, I know that you're right-"
"I know you know. You saw his picture."
"He does have great hair, though I was talking about how I'm in my head. But it's not something that I can help. I feel like I'm in a glass house of sorts. Everything that I do is being watched by everyone in the country. They already know more about James than I do. And they've gone ahead and made it sound like the two of us are already in love and I haven't even met him- Or even talked to him yet! And, we're already in love!"
"I know." Mary nodded, and leaned up against the wall in front of Lily. "It is frustrating, but you know that I'm going to be here with you every step of the way, and I'm going to make sure that everything is above the board."
"What does that mean?"
"That he doesn't try anything." She shrugged. "Unless you want him too." She added with a wink. "And before you say anything, I'm also going to be your sounding board, no matter how annoying you get with your repetitive comments about fishbowls and cameras being shoved in your face."
"Thanks, Mary," Lily said, only half sarcastic as she glanced out the window again. She took a sharp intake of breath as she saw a long black limo pulling up to the front of the castle. "I think I'm out of time here." She sighed, brushing her hair back over her shoulder.
"It's going to go well. And if it doesn't, I'll kick his ass for you. On television if you'd like." This was not a new offer.
"I will never ask you to do that, Mary."
"You haven't yet thought of a reason that you would ask me to do that. You would ask me to though. If you had a reason." Lily laughed, because she was nervous and her friend of over a decade was ridiculous.
"He's here!" Lily wasn't sure if that was her blonde maid or the brunette, they were both new and spoke so often at the same time that she had yet to learn how to tell them apart. "Princess Lily!"
"I am over here," Lily stepped out of the alcove and let herself be found.
Mary hadn't been right in many regards, but she was right when she had said that Lily couldn't live her life standing here by the window. She had to step away and act.
She took a deep breath and straightened her skirt as she started walking toward the staircase that would lead her out to the courtyard. James car was pulling up now, and it would appear as slight if she wasn't at the door ready to greet him.
She didn't know if he would take it as a slight, but she knew that the reporters waiting at the gate would report it as a slight. 'Cold and bitter Princess Lily, queen to be, can't change the rules so she chooses to pout.' They were ever the finicky bunch. She was too progressive for calling for an end to the marriage clause in the country's highest law of the land, but she was absolutely smitten with the Lord James, giddy to have him coming to stay with her. She would kill for some consistency.
She reached the top of the steps outside the castle and clasped her hands behind her back, reminding herself to focus on what was about to happen and to stop thinking about how the press had been treating her for the last couple of months.
Her fall from media darling had been a sharp plummet. Quick and painful. All it had taken was a few quiet whispers from some disgruntled members of parliament, and suddenly there were twice as many terrible stories about Lily as there were good ones. Reminders that she was too young, too English, too female.
Anita, her grandmother, thought that James would be able to help her with all of that as well.
Lily was distracting herself again, so she dug her nails into her palm and forced herself to stay in the moment.
James' car door opened and she could see the top of his head as he stuck a leg out of the car and then came his hand and the rest of his head and then he was standing there, smiling at the man who had opened his car door for him and then shaking his hand. Lily almost nodded in approval before she caught herself. People were watching her, she couldn't visibly add points in his favor. Someone would notice. And if they noticed her approval, they would notice her disapproval. They already had noticed her disapproval when she and Lord Slughorn had first started fighting about the marriage clause. And then they had noticed her argument with Lord Fenwick over a tax bill. And then and then...
Her grandmother had taken to reminding her before each meeting with parliament, that she was to remain completely neutral in public if she wished to avoid turbulence.
Lily had never been good at remaining neutral in the face of stupidity or misogyny, but she didn't want her future husband to read about her disapproval of him in the local tabloid. That would be quite an uncomfortable way to start a marriage.
And then James looked up and met her gaze.
Future husband. Marriage.
Those words came back to her and punched her in the gut.
She was going to marry this man. In less than a month.
She should probably smile at him.
She couldn't get her face to listen to her brain. She hoped she was smiling, but she didn't know for sure if she was.
Perhaps Mary had been on to something when she had mentioned his hair. And how handsome he was. Lily would be lying if she had tried to claim that she had not noticed how handsome he was before now, but people rarely looked their best in government issued photographs and James' photo really hadn't done him justice.
And now he was walking up the steps and she was still just staring at him blankly, possibly with a slight smile on her face, but she still couldn't be sure. She quickly schooled her face into something that she hoped resembled calm and pleasant, and then straightened her posture and glanced over her shoulder. Where was her grandmother? As the current queen of Gryffindor, Anita should be here to greet James, same as Lily.
Well, not the same as Lily, but the point still stood.
"Your highness," Lily's gaze snapped back in front of her and there was James, his grin aimed at her now as he bowed before her, his hand outstretched and awaiting her own. Lily heard the clicking of the cameras from the gate and quickly moved to rectify her mistake. She had warned herself before about getting distracted.
In her haste to place her hand in his, she overshot and hit him square on the forehead.
She gasped and brought her hands up to cover her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut.
Not again. She thought miserably, hearing the clicking of the cameras quicken as she slowly opened her eyes. It wasn't that she'd hit many lords in the face when meeting them in front of the press, but she had done many stupid and embarrassing things over the years. Tripped while walking into rooms, torn dresses on garden décor, spilled tea on no less than three older women. And once, at a dinner, she'd even started a fire on a diplomat's sleeve.
Her stomach was filled with the same icy dread.
"Don't fret, princess." James was still grinning at her. "I'm alright." He reached up and took her hand, pulling it away from her face before he kissed the back of it. Lily smiled at him, removing her other hand from her mouth and tilting her head.
"You must believe me when I say that I had not envisioned hitting you in the face when we first met."
"Oh, I believe you." James released her hand and looked up at her, still standing a couple of steps below her. He was taller than his pictures had suggested as well. "That typically comes around the third or fourth time after someone meets me."
Lily's smile froze for a moment, not sure how she was meant to take that.
James smiled again. "I'm only joking, princess."
She smiled again, for the cameras or because he seemed truly at ease in this bizarre situation, she wasn't sure. "Lily, if you please. There's no need to add titles to our list of obstacles."
"Lily." He repeated. "I agree." He nodded and then he took another step toward her, leaving her only one step ahead of him. "Do you think we've given them enough for now?" He asked quietly, nodding toward the reporters.
Lily chuckled, glad to feel as though she had a partner against the flashing cameras. "I think I've given them more than enough to run with." She reached for his arm, "Come with me, I'll give you the grand tour."
Lily may have started walking a bit faster than she normally would have, but the sound of the cameras and the reporters now shouting out questions for both her and James did spur her on. James, for his part, didn't mention it and moved along at her speed.
Once they were in the castle, Lily let go of his arm and put a breath of space between them. She felt far lighter once the doors were closed. But then she looked over at James again and her stomach turned to lead once more.
Husband.
"The drive here from the airport was absolutely beautiful." He ran a hand through his already disheveled hair and messed it up even further. He seemed to be able to sense her discomfort. "All the fruit trees were covered in snow and it was all we could see the whole drive here. It was like driving through a snow globe."
"Oh, yes." Lily nodded, trying to find her words. "Yes, Gryffindor is known for its fruit trees- er, it's fruit. Pears, apples, cherries, we have peaches too…" She frowned and shook her head. He lived here, he knew that they had fruit, what was she rambling on for?
"Perhaps we should acknowledge what a strange situation that we're in. Do you think that might help?" James asked, his smile soft and honest looking.
Absolutely charming, that's what he was. And Lily was being as stiff as a brick wall.
She took a deep breath and let her shoulders fall, ignoring the clicking of her maids' heels as they followed her and James down the corridor. "Yes, perhaps it might. I know that many people agree to arranged marriages for all sorts of reasons, but until last week, I hadn't thought it was a possibility for me."
"That sounds like quite the life choice to make in a week."
Lily nodded, "It's either an arranged marriage, or I'll be forced to abdicate the throne. And I love my people, there is so much that I want to do for them."
"Well, I'll try and make your sacrifice as painless as possible," James gave her another smile, but it didn't reach his eyes like the others had.
"Oh no, James," She reached out and put a hand on his arm. "I knew that I was going to mess this up." She bit her lip and looked down. "First I hit you in the face and now I'm making it sound like your somehow to-"
"Lily, I didn't mean to make it sound like I was put out." James put his hand on top of hers and they stopped walking. Her maids stopped clumsily at the end of the hallway. "I just genuinely think it's horrible that your parliament doesn't see the double standard they've created. If you were a man, you wouldn't be required to get married before taking the crown, yes? And for them not to tell you until now? Giving you only a month to get everything in order." He shook his head. "I knew of the situation that I was agreeing to walk into. You're not messing anything up." He assured her.
And with his hand on top of hers, with him looking at her like he was, she almost felt better. She almost felt calm about the situation.
She felt herself deflate, "I appreciate that you understand where I'm coming from." Lily took a step back and started down the hall again. "What about you?"
"Oh everyone in my family has been a part of arranged marriages for centuries. I always knew that this was in the cards for me. And even still, it's not an easy thing to accept."
Lily looked over at him again as they approached the kitchen. "You're very different than I thought you would be."
He looked over at her and grinned, one side of his mouth pulling up higher than the other. "And what did you think that I'd be like?"
Lily shrugged her shoulder and couldn't help but smile. "Perhaps a bit more like everyone else. Less understanding and a bit more arrogant."
"Oh, I've been told that I'm plenty arrogant, I'm simply trying to put my best foot forward today." Lily laughed and pushed open the kitchen door.
"I figured the kitchen is a good place to start the tour."
"I thought you were using the tour as an excuse to get inside,"
"No, you'll be living here, you should know all the ins and outs."
"Well thank you. Would you mind if I did a bit of exploring on my own after the official tour though?"
"Of course not, like I said, this is going to be your home. Besides, I did the same thing when I moved in. I've found four different secret rooms so far, and many secret passageways as well."
They walked down the small stone staircase into the kitchen, and Lily was surprised to find that all the lights were already on.
"How well must I know you, that I assumed that you'd first bring him to the kitchen?" Anita was seated at the small dining table at the edge of the room. She looked immaculate, as she normally did, and she had an apple pie already dished out, two empty chairs with full plates in front of them.
James bowed, even as he laughed. "Your majesty, it's an honor."
"Oh, please dear boy, if my granddaughter has told you to treat this as your home, you must not address me so formally."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Better." Anita nodded at the empty chairs and Lily moved to take a seat, not sure what this would be about, but feeling as though she was about to be reprimanded. Her palms got sweaty again and she needed to pee.
"I was wondering where you'd gone to. We haven't even been on our first official outing, and you already find it necessary to sit us down?" Lily didn't hesitate in picking up her fork and taking a bite of her pie. It was missing a scoop of ice cream, but it was still warm and absolutely delicious. "Did you make this?"
"Well of course," She looked James over as he took his seat. "I simply wish to make sure that the three of us are all on the same page before we take off."
"That makes perfect sense," Lily nodded, though she probably would have appreciated a heads up that she was going to be accosted by her grandmother only ten minutes after James' arrival. She didn't know how she would have prepared for that, and it might have stressed her out more to know ahead of time, but she still would have liked to know.
But her grandmother liked her surprises, and it didn't matter how many times Lily told her that she preferred a heads up, she never got one.
"I thought so as well," Anita grinned at Lily, probably sensing her discomfort. "James, it's been just Lily and I for a good many years now."
"And Mary," Lily added.
"And Mary," She amended. "Lily's mother comes to visit every now and then, but she lives far away and has other family to tend to, so most of the time, it's just the three of us. I know that no promises have been set in stone yet, but just know, if you agree to marry my granddaughter, you will be binding yourself to the person who I hold most dear to my heart. I know that this is an arrangement, that neither one of you are here for love, but it is not a choice that I want either of you to take lightly.
Over the next couple of weeks, you need to work together as a team, to overcome whatever obstacles are put in your path. I'm sure parliament will have a great number of things to say about the fact that Lily has managed to find someone so soon after they set their deadline, I'm sure that the media will have even more to say, but if you stick together, everything will be easier in the long run." They were all quiet for a moment and Anita took a small bite of her pie before she continued.
"An arranged marriage doesn't have to be a lonely thing." She looked at each of them, "Remember that."
She then stood up, taking her plate with her and left the room.
Lily's tongue felt heavy and dry and for perhaps the first time in a long time, her apple pie didn't look all that enticing.
She pushed her plate away. "I did like the part where she said I am what she holds most dear."
James chuckled and took a bite of his previously untouched pie. "That was sweet."
"Parliament hates me. I'm not sure if you know that or not, but you should. I'm not at all what they wanted." She tucked her hair back behind her ear and sighed. "I mean, they wanted my father, and while I never even met him, I can tell from how they treat me that he and I must have had very different political views." James took another bite and Lily broke off a piece of the crust.
James sat up straighter and turned to look at Lily. "Well, it's like your grandmother said, we're a team now. We'll just have to get them to change their minds."
Lily nodded. "I hope that that's a task that you're up for. I've been trying to get them to like me since I moved in here. Which is just another problem, they don't like that I grew up in England either."
"Well, I grew up here." James grinned, and then he frowned slightly. "Though, that's probably one of the reasons that you chose me, isn't it?"
Lily gave him a small smile and nodded. "We started off looking at everyone, but I narrowed the pool to citizens of Gryffindor after the first snide comment about two outsiders sitting on the throne." He was easier to talk to than she had thought he would be.
Actually, overall, he was a lot less scary than she'd thought he would be. She smiled, and he smiled back.
"What?" He asked, tilting his head.
She shrugged, "Nothing. It's just that, so far, everything is going a lot more smoothly than I had anticipated."
James nodded. "I don't want to overstep by making any assumptions here, but you do seem like the type of person to prepare for the worst."
Lily nodded. "That sounds right to me."
"Well then you must be pleasantly surprised a lot. The worst doesn't normally happen, right?"
"I suppose not." She agreed. "You sound like my friend, Mary." She took one last bite of her pie, her appetite back now. "Come one, I'll show you the rest of the castle."