QLFC Round 7
Montrose Magpies
Chaser 2
Prompt: A fairytale story (Beauty and the Beast, live-action)
Extra prompts: 3 (action) dancing, 5 (dialogue) "This is going to be a night you'll never forget", 15 (action) kissing someone's knuckles
Word Count: 2,984
A/N: Some of the facts of the fic may not completely line up with Beauty and the Beast - for example, I found it better to portray Lily's character as inquisitive and daring when she stumbles upon the castle of her own accord/desire to explore rather than her going to rescue her father as Belle does in the Disney version, etc.
13 days, 0 hours, 1 minute, 30 seconds, 31, 32…
Lily Evans laid on the floor and stared up at the dark blue ceiling, painted over with dazzling yellow stars.
13 had always been her unlucky number, she reflected. Clearly, this was going to be no different.
13 days, 0 hours and 2 minutes.
13 days, 0 hours and 3 minutes.
There was a crash outside her door and the sound of glass shattering.
Lily sat up with a bolt, heart racing. Faint cursing. She scrambled to her feet and wrenched open the heavy, wooden door.
James Potter stood outside, bent over, trying to sweep together the jagged shards of a vase he had clearly just dropped. Water pooled at his feet and a bouquet of roses lay limp in the middle of the mess.
"What the hell are you doing?" she demanded.
He stood up and ran a hand through his floppy, jet-black hair sheepishly.
"I was going to surprise you," he admitted. "Today's…"
"I know what today is," Lily snapped. "And you think waking me up at midnight is the best way to start it off?"
"Were you really sleeping, though?" James asked, and Lily rolled her eyes, because he was right.
Two weeks (or, to be more exact, 13 days, 0 hours and 5 minutes ago), Lily had stumbled upon an abandoned castle. She and her father had moved to a small village in Alsace, France shortly after her mother's death in Paris. Lily remembered very little of the move - she had just been a young girl at the time. She had thrived in the village at first, but as time had gone on and she had grown older, she had become frustrated with the claustrophobic, cobbled streets and the town in which women placed no value on education and furthering themselves.
She had taken to wandering in the forest and through the beautiful, flowered mountains until the wretched day nearly two weeks ago that she had inquisitively entered the seemingly abandoned castle.
Long story short: it wasn't abandoned. It was inhabited by a frustratingly handsome prince and his posse of enchanted, magical objects that tended to the prince's every whim.
"I hoped we could start anew," James said now. "I know that we…got off on the wrong foot - " the wrong foot being him imprisoning her in the cold, albeit beautiful castle and refusing to release her - "and I wanted to fix that. I've forgotten…everything else."
Everything else being the fact that when he turned twenty-one he would be changed into a horrible beast for the rest of his days if he couldn't get a girl to fall in love with him.
"You had two weeks to fix it," Lily said coldly. "Instead you kept me trapped up here against my will."
"You're able to roam the castle as you choose," James pointed out. "I didn't…I didn't know how to go about it."
"Also, I hate roses," Lily snapped, and she slammed the door in his face.
—
Lily had a hard time falling back to sleep, when she finally got into bed and actually attempted it. The forlorn look on the prince's face refused to escape her, no matter how much she tried to banish it from her mind and think of things that she actually cared example her father, and how he must be worried sick now that it was almost two weeks since her disappearance.
There had to be a way out of this. Not necessarily falling in love with the prince, which, realistically speaking, was impossible in a day, but something else. Anything else.
Lily stood up once again, moving to the door almost mechanically, as if she were a marionette and a higher power were pulling her strings. She pulled it open and saw James sitting across from it, legs up to his chin, head in his hands.
"You're still here."Her voice sounded strangled.
He looked up and his hands dropped limply. Was that a tear streak on his cheek illuminated by the glow of the moonlight?
"I'm still here," he said wearily. She crossed the corridor and knelt next to him. If anything, Lily was kind, even towards princes who locked her up in their castles.
"What will happen if I don't…fall in love with you?" The question was ridiculous and she found it hard to voice.
James shrugged.
"I don't know. You can go home, I suppose. There will be no reason for you to stay."
"And you?"
"I'll be turned into a beast," James responded listlessly. "But I've already given up. I turn twenty-one at midnight. There's nothing more I can do."
He turned his head away from her and under the moonlight, Lily saw that he had indeed been crying.
Despite everything, her heart broke just the tiniest bit for the prince who had resigned himself to his fate. Slowly, without fully realizing what she was doing, she reached out and took one of his hands, folding it between her own.
His hand was large and warm, despite the chilly breeze that swept through the corridor, and it responded to her touch, fingers brushing briefly against her palm before he pushed them through hers and interlaced them.
"Well, you have one more day," Lily murmured. "You can't just give up. You have to fight until the very end. I'll try. I promise. But whatever happens, you have to let me go. You can't keep me locked up. Alright?"
"Of course." James still wasn't looking at her but his fingers tightened around hers.
"Good. It's a deal, then."
Lily gave his fingers a light squeeze and then withdrew brusquely, getting to her feet and wiping her surprisingly sweaty palms on the edge of her nightgown. "Let's get started by getting this mess cleaned up, shall we?"
James followed suit, clambering to his feet and running a hand through his hair.
"I just have one question."
"Yes?" Lily looked curiously.
His hazel eyes sparkled.
"Do you really not like roses?"
—
After disposing of the discarded flowers and shattered glass, James suggested they make their way to the roof. Lily was initially skeptical of the idea, not trusting that he wouldn't push her to a bloody death despite the fact that his fate lay in her hands, but relented when he pointed out that they would be able to see the sunrise.
They settled down on the roof of the east wing and, unprompted, James began telling Lily about his childhood: how he had been cursed by an evil witch at birth as punishment for his father's vain and lavish lifestyle whilst his subjects were struggling with famine and poverty.
He recounted, bitterly, how his father had killed himself out of guilt when James had been thirteen, leaving the young prince alone to his fate in an empty castle save for enchanted objects who had once been faithful, living servants.
He choked a bit as he recalled what he could of his beloved mother's death due to a severe illness when he was just five.
And his voice grew heavy and raspy as he told Lily of his prior attempts to get a maiden to fall in love with him - once at twelve, once at fifteen and once at seventeen.
"Only three girls have been here before me?" Lily interrupted incredulously. She had listened silently as James talked, but somehow found it difficult to believe he had met no more than three girls before her.
"I can't leave the castle grounds," James explained. "And once my father died, there was really no way to advertise. Not everyone is courageous enough to go exploring foreign castles on their own."
Lily smiled at this.
"But that's enough about me," James said. "What about you? How did you get here?"
Her smile faded ever so slightly and she turned to watch the bright orange sky.
Several minutes had passed before she spoke again.
"I live alone with my father. He's an inventor. We moved here from Paris when I was very young, after my mother died of the plague. I fit in fine until I was thirteen or so…I wanted to learn and educate myself and every other girl was just looking to get married and start a family."
"So you don't have a dashing fiancé waiting for you at home?" James teased laughingly.
Despite herself, Lily smiled again.
"I don't. Just a nutty father who spends most of his time with his inventions, and all the books I can afford."
"Well, that's good news for me," James joked and Lily found herself laughing out loud despite the ridiculous situation she was in. When looking past being locked in a castle- although she wasn't exactly locked in- the prince was actually quite charming. And he was incredibly handsome. Had she already mentioned that?
Her laughter faded and she looked James in the eyes. He was staring earnestly at her, some unreadable emotion in his own hazel orbs. An odd tingle started in Lily's stomach. He reached out and brushed a wisp of hair behind her ear. Then -
"Come with me. There's something I have to show you."
—
"This isn't real."
"I assure you, it is."
"No - it can't be."
"I promise it is. Only the servants here are magic."
"I - wow."
Lily was staring at the biggest room she'd ever seen in her life; a huge library with high ceilings and lined wall-to-wall with books. It was- and this was putting it lightly- the best thing she'd ever laid eyes on.
"Can I - "
"Go ahead," James allowed. Lily stepped to the nearest shelf, barely breathing as she raised a shaking finger to tenderly stroke the spine of the first book she could. She longed to sink into a chair and spend the rest of her life in this room.
"What's your favorite book?" she asked, spinning to see him lounging against one of the cushioned sofas, hands in his pockets.
"I like history," James admitted. "Any one I can get my hands on. My father had a complete collection on the whole history of France, and I've read it multiple times."
For some reason, this made James suddenly more attractive to Lily. Every other man she had met in her small village was more concerned with finding a young, naive woman to marry, and of course, war, although France was currently at peace.
"And yours?"
"Candide, by Voltaire," Lily told him, allowing herself to relax into a chair as well.
At this, James crossed to the far-side of the room. He searched for what was barely a minute, then returned, proffering a copy of the book with a beautiful covering.
Lily took it in her hands. She was still in awe.
"You can keep it."
"Really?" She looked up at him, hardly daring to believe it. He offered her a small smile.
"I'm not sure how much beasts get around to reading."
Somber reality dawned on her again, and while she did not discard the book, instead hugging it to her chest, she made a bold suggestion:
"Will you show me the castle grounds?"
—
The morning sun was bright, casting an incandescent glow over the pearly white snow that lay on the ground. The two strolled and talked and Lily found they had more in common than she ever could have imagined. She would have liked to be friends with him, she reflected as he pulled a low-hanging branch of a tree back for her to walk under,if not for the situation at hand.
"Do you believe in love at first sight?" she asked impulsively as they came to a halt on a small bridge overlooking a frozen-over pond.
James laughed, but the laugh was lacking any real amusement.
"No, I don't. Physical love, maybe. But that's not real love. That's lust. I think true love comes after two people have been intimate with each other, after they've seen the worst of one another and still decide to love them anyway."
"So what exactly are you expecting from this?" Lily went on before she could stop herself. "It's been a day. From what you just told me, there's no realistic way I can fall in love with you and break the curse."
He laughed again shortly and pushed himself away from the bridge.
"I guess I was just hoping. Foolishly, clearly."
"Then why don't you just let me go now?" Lily challenged. "What's the point of keeping me if we both know it won't amount to anything?"
James leveled his head and stared at her. His hazel eyes twinkled no longer and had grown as dark as a cloud-masked sun.
"Fight until the end," he said stonily. "I'll see you at dinner." And he stalked away.
—
Lily spent the rest of the afternoon in the marvelous library but found she could not concentrate on any book she selected. Instead, her thoughts were whirling with anxiety at the fate that would befall James once the clock struck midnight. For the first time in her life, she felt completely useless, and she knew any sort of knowledge that could be derived from books would be useless, too.
She had certainly come to enjoy James's company, and the raw, profound conversations they had had over the course of the morning had given her an insight into a well-thought and sensitive man belied by his prickly exterior, but could her undeniable, newfound attraction to him be any help before midnight? Could it even be called a naive, foolish love? She doubted it.
When she elected to return to her bedroom on the far side of the castle she found a gorgeous, yellow gown draped over the bed. There was no note. She assumed James had planned something for the evening and donned it silently.
She was not the one fated to turn into a beast at midnight, but still felt she was walking to a painful end as she left the bedroom and made her way to the dining hall.
She stopped at the top of the stairs. James was standing at the bottom, faced away from her, hands in his pockets. He had changed into a deep blue overcoat. He looked as stiff as a marble statue. Fair, in his situation, she concluded.
At the echo of her heels clicking lightly on the stairs, James turned. His jaw dropped ever so slightly at the sight of her and Lily had to laugh, a real laugh, as his gaze travelled over her.
"Lily," he breathed as she reached him. "You look - "
"Thank you," she interrupted, blushing. "You picked out the dress."
One hand twisted nervously in the folds of the gown and James reached to grasp the other one. She allowed the movement, heart racing. He bent his head and brushed his lips over her knuckles ever so slightly, eyes never leaving hers. Her cheeks warmed further.
"Thank you for allowing me the pleasure of your presence this evening," he whispered, and his warm breath cast over her hand, lips mere centimeters from them. "I promise this is going to be a night you'll never forget."
In lieu of responding, Lily just laughed again as he pulled her hand towards him and tucked it through his arm.
"What have you planned for tonight?" she asked, securing her hand more firmly as he began leading the way.
"Do you dance?"
"Do I - what?"
He chuckled.
"Do you dance?" he repeated, softer this time.
"I never have," Lily admitted.
"I'll show you."
Rather than lead her into the dining hall the pair veered off a side door and down a small corridor. They entered a large ballroom (out of the corner of her eye Lily recognized the entrance to the library across the hall) and came to a halt in the middle, standing across from one another.
James took her left hand and placed it on his shoulder and grasped her right with his own. "Now just follow me," he murmured, and they began to dance.
It started awkwardly but as they moved in time to their equally quickly beating hearts Lily found her feet stepped delicately of their own accord and they whirled smoothly around the ballroom.
"You're a natural," James whispered. His head had migrated down towards hers and their cheeks brushed lightly. Lily, feeling bolder than ever and almost drunk off the high rush of emotions coursing through her body, pulled her head back ever so slightly and searched for his lips with hers.
They kissed and an explosion of fireworks went off in Lily's chest as James dropped her hand and swept his to her cheek, thumb brushing against her skin. She clung to him, feeling almost dizzy, and was disappointed when he pulled back.
He was breathing heavily.
"Lily - "
"I love you," she said hurriedly. "The James Potter who I have come to know today, who is standing right before me - I love him. I do."
James dropped his head, and she reached for his chin, tipping it up to force him to meet her eyes. Tears were welling up and she found that her eyes were no longer dry either.
"I love you," she whispered again. "I hope that's enough."
"If it's not, I will be satisfied with the knowledge that I spent the best day of my life with you," James said huskily. "You are an enchanting girl, Lily Evans. I love you, too."
He brushed his lips over hers once more, then bent and placed a soft kiss on her knuckles.
They spent the remaining hours until midnight in each other's arms on the castle's front balcony under the brilliant, starry sky.
When the clock struck midnight, its chimes rolling through the great halls, James Potter did not change. And they lived happily ever after.