The colour had been following her all her life.
She wasn't sure if she picked it as her favourite colour or if it picked her. Did anyone really pick their favourite colour anyway? She supposed some people had reasons for liking a certain colour. Mafalda Hopkirk's favourite was blue because it complimented her blonde hair. Sirius Black's favourite colours were Gryffindor red and gold. Red, eye-catching, hot, warning, danger! Yeah, that was Sirius. Gold too, even if his love for red was initially to infuriate his family, gold was something Sirius was very well acquainted with. Remus Lupin's was green to anyone else who asked. She realised it was mostly to wind up his friends ("Green?! Moony, what kind of Gryffindor are you? We should make you sit with the Slytherins during the next match!").
Once he had quietly told Lily the truth in 6th year while they sat in the common room. Potter was at quidditch practice. Black was off serving detention for some stupid prank or another. Peter Pettigrew (whose favourite colour was somehow usually the same as whoever was asking) was shaking his head while Remus teased him.
"Green? Green Lupin?" Peter asked, echoing James and Sirius as he so often did.
"Green," Remus nodded.
"Slytherin green?" Peter asked, horrified.
"Yesssss," Remus hissed back quietly, fighting a smirk.
Peter was not amused. "Traitor," he muttered, before going back to his textbook.
"What is your favourite colour, Remus?" Lily asked, curious now.
He paused for a minute considering. Not considering his answer, but whether or not to tell her.
"Orange," He said quietly.
"Why?"
He looked at her now before smiling sadly, "Sunrise."
James Potter said his favourite colour was yellow but that was a lie too. It really was green she later found out, but he could never tell Sirius that, let alone why.
Mafalda's favourite colour choice was because it made her look good. Sirius' because they helped him distance himself from his parents. Peter's because he could find common ground with anyone. Remus because it offered him relief, sunrise, the full moon over for another whole month.
They all did something for them. Had something to offer them. Lily's didn't. It was just….there. Always there. She didn't choose it. Maybe it chose her? Like her wand chose her. Her wand that came in a box lined with purple velvet when she was 11.
The plum coloured jam stains on her school shirt when those idiots, Potter and Black, caused all the jam pots to erupt at Sev's table when she was 12.
The indigo black eye she had when Potter "lost concentration" in the library and the book he had been levitating landed on her as she passed when she was 13. He apologised profusely, and he did seem sorry, only Sirius Black was laughing so hard, she was sure it was planned. She even thought she saw Potter smile at her right before the spine of 'Quidditch Through The Ages' crash landed.
The lavender jumper she wore to Hogsmead when Potter yelled "Nice jumper Evans!" in front of everyone, to embarrass her no doubt, when she was 14.
The mauve ink on the letter from McGonagall informing her she would be a prefect in her fifth year with Remus Lupin. Spending more time with him she noticed the violet bags under his eyes each month. She worked it out and they became close friends at 15. She needed a close friend after Sev…
The grape coloured wine stains on her lips after they won the quidditch championship. She danced with Remus and his friends (their friends? Or was that the wine talking?) all night, laughing and joking, being 16.
The flowers that magically appeared when she opened her book each morning, blooming like an enchanted pop up book. Violets, Scottish Heather, Lily of the Nile, until James finally got up the courage to ask her out when she was 17.
"It's your favourite, right?" He had asked, bringing a wild purple assortment that didn't really compliment each other, but she loved all the same, to their first date.
She had never told him that, he had just been observant.
"What's yours?" She asked, feeling guilty that she didn't already know.
"Green," he smiled shyly. When she asked him why, he just shrugged and blushed, saying that he thought it was beautiful.
She associated purple with the wizarding world. Robes in dark magenta and pointy hats of deep eggplant, things that would make her sister and her new brother-in-law balk. She also thought of it as a rich and powerful colour, a symbol of royalty in the muggle world.
For their wedding though, she settled on a less regal shade of periwinkle for bridesmaid dresses, each table adorned with bouquets of the different purple flowers James had brought when courting her. The head table had her favourites though. Lilacs.
More and more she would notice things in her favourite colour. The amethyst engagement ring James gave her. The orchid colour he painted their front door to surprise her. The iris coloured baby blanket they first wrapped Harry in.
"His eyes are my favourite colour, like yours," James whispered as Harry blinked awake in his arms.
Realisation struck her like lightning. Green. "Beautiful" he had said. That's why he chose green as his favourite. Or maybe he didn't choose it any more than you can choose your eye colour or who you love. Maybe it chose you.
The colour chose her and she chose it right back.
The lilac collar on their cat, the tiny lilac hat Sirius gave Harry his first winter (that had to have a growing charm placed on it he loved it so much), the lilac knitted socks from Peter, the lilac tea set left by James' mother, the lilac quill Remus got for her birthday, their lilac bedspread.
And the lilacs Remus put on their graves.
The colour had followed her all her life.
To the very end.
THC
House: Hufflepuff
Class: Astronomy
Drabble
Word count: 998
Prompts: [Colour] Lilac
