Author's Note: We did it, guys!
The response to this fun little story about two dramatic teens has been absolutely insane, completely unanticipated, overwhelming and lovely! Thank you all so much for your enthusiasm and for the beautiful comments! You guys are the best!
I can't even explain how happy I am that I'm finishing this story on Lily's birthday.
Chapter Seven: L and J
Mary's party wasn't starting until eight, but Lily turned up at five to assist with the setup, dragging with her a large canvas bag filled with gifts and party supplies, after assuring her mother and father that there would be adult supervision, which was only half a lie. Mary's brother would be swinging by later, and he was twenty-two, which technically made him an adult who could technically pretend to keep order. That was a good enough basis as any upon which to build a necessary untruth.
Her best friend squealed - as was customary for young ladies - as she threw the front door open and her arms into the air. "You look amazing!"
"Not now, there's an emergency," Lily boldly announced, and charged past her without waiting to be asked inside. The bag was deposited on the hardwood floor with a hefty thump.
"What?"
"If you so much as sniff at that bag, I'll brain you. Your birthday gifts are in there."
Mary, who had been poised to nudge the bag with her toe, drew her foot back and turned a pair of innocent, sky-blue peepers on Lily's face. "No, I meant, what kind of emergency?"
"The most shameful kind."
"Boy related?"
Lily nodded. "I don't even know where to start."
"Oh god." Mary turned and performed a kind of trust fall into the wall, her heels jamming into the ground while she leaned at an angle and let her head bump gently against the plaster. "Sirius isn't coming, is he? I bet he thinks it's too much like a date or something, and I went out earlier and paid £30 to wax my bikini line and everyth—"
"Sirius is coming, relax!"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, this has nothing to do with him, except that I might need you to bite his tongue later, but we'll see if there's time."
Her friend's face contorted in confusion. "What the hell is going on?"
"What's going on is that I need to tell you something incredibly weird and convoluted," said Lily, and tugged Mary away from the wall by the crook of her arm. "But before I do, I need to remind you that you kept your thing with Sirius from me for two weeks and I didn't get angry—"
"I kept him secret because I was ashamed of him, because he's a sexy hipster and that's such a cliché," Mary snappily countered. "And you hacked my Facebook."
"That was for recon purposes!"
"Which you never explained?"
"Well, you're about to get an explanation, and I need you not to judge me."
"I'm the non-judging birthday princess," said Mary. "And I'll ask you again - what's going on with you?"
"I'm in love with two boys—"
"What?!"
"—but they're both Potter."
Mary's mouth dropped open. "The fuck?"
"Yeah, I don't even - I need to explain."
"Well, clearly!"
"Mum had a bottle of prosecco she let me bring, do you want to start drinking now?"
"Yes," said Mary loudly. "I think I fucking have to."
And so they drank, or Mary drank, while Lily sipped from a mug of strong tea – all the better to maintain a clear head - and recounted the entire story from start to finish. Her initial suspicion had been correct, it did sound completely insane to Mary, and even more so that she and James made it four months without either of them having the temerity to just admit to who they were.
"But you're Dream Girl," said Mary, hunched across the breakfast bar, dropping her voice so as to be inaudible to Terry Heaney, who had shown up unexpectedly at 5:30 with an obscene amount of alcohol. Mary hadn't even invited him, but he'd earned himself the right to stay based on the strength of his booze game and his willingness to act as their errand boy, and was currently pottering around the living room, setting up the snack table and blatantly attempting to eavesdrop on their conversation.
"We can't know that."
"Jesus, Lily, I do know that. I've been saying it for years. Why do you never believe your own best friend when all I tell you is what anyone else in the school would agree was the truth?"
"Because you've got no proof."
"Maybe not, but you do!" She reached over, picked up Lily's phone, and shook it from side to side. "All you need to do is ask him. After the stunt he pulled last night I bet he'd do anything to keep you sweet—"
"You don't think that's a bit manipulative?"
"No, I don't, and I'll tell you why; because you're being honest. You're not going to be comfortable until you know for sure who this Dream Girl is, that's just the truth. Telling him that isn't being manipulative, it's communicating properly, which is what you two should have done instead of starting this fucking ridiculous contest that I still can't make sense of, and I'm two glasses into this prosecco."
"And when he tells me that Dream Girl is someone else?" said Lily defiantly. "What then?"
Mary made a low, snarling noise in the back of her throat, threw her head back and cried, "Heaney!"
Terry Heaney poked his head around the kitchen door almost instantly. "Yeah?"
"Who, in your learned opinion as a gossipy creep, sent Lily those flowers on Valentine's day?"
"Potter," said Heaney, without missing a beat.
"And why did Potter send her those flowers, Terry?"
"Because he's into her."
Lily scoffed, and set down her tea. "Heaney, if you've been paid to say that as some sort of elaborate ruse—"
"He got McNamee to stop calling you frigid," Terry interrupted, and in his voice and eyes lay not a hint of insincerity, even under the withering scrutiny of Lily's disbelieving glare. "He said he'd kick him off the football team if he said it one more time."
"Oh my god," said Mary, her hands flying up to cover her mouth. "What a babe. Did he really?"
Terry nodded.
"No," Lily protested, bravely trying to ignore a burgeoning feeling of hope, or the tell-tale thump of her wanting heart. "Potter can't just kick someone off the team whenever he fancies."
"Yes, he could!" cried Mary. "He's the team captain, and his parents are the school trustees! He could probably get McNamee expelled if he fancied it."
"And he always says nice things about you," Terry seconded.
"Like what?"
"Like, that you're pretty, and all that. I hear him talking to his mates about you sometimes. They get really sick of hearing about it."
Mary slapped the table with the flat of her palm. "Jesus Christ, Heaney, where were you all those other times I was trying to tell her this?"
"Lurking around in the shadows, I suppose."
"Right, well." Mary threw Lily a guilt-ridden grimace. "Go back to the living room, there's a good boy."
He toddled off, though no doubt he'd be party to the rest of their talk, leaving Lily to drum her nails anxiously against her mug, and still, despite all the assurances of Mary and now Terry Heaney, the part of her brain that dealt in cold, hard logic said that this was much too good to be true.
But then, someone in school had sent her those beautiful roses. She had mattered enough to someone to warrant a sweeping gesture, and wasn't that the kind of thing that Prongs - with his warm and affectionate heart - might have done for a girl he claimed to love? In revealing himself to be James Potter, he'd turned out to be the exact person Lily had wanted him to be, so why couldn't she be the same for him?
"I don't know what to do, Mare," she sighed, and ran a hand through her hair, pushing it away from her forehead. "I mean, are we really set on believing Heaney after what he did with my shoe?"
"You're never going to believe a thing, not until you hear it from Potter," said Mary gently, and held out Lily's phone, screen up. "Go on, ask him."
"Yeah!" Terry called from the living room. "Ask him!"
It didn't leave her with much of a choice.
Text Received from: Jane Doe
Sent to: Prongs, on Saturday, 12th May 2018 at 5:58pm
...
Jane Doe: Hey.
I hope you're not too hungover.
Prongs: hey
hi
are you okay?
are you still going to the party?
sorry i don't want to hound you
jane?
Jane Doe: You should probably stop calling me Jane now.
Prongs: i would if i knew your real name
or where you were
or anything
Jane Doe: I'm going.
I mean, I think.
I don't know. I'm feeling really weird about it.
Prongs: is there anything i can say to get you to come for sure?
Jane Doe: I don't know.
Yes, actually. There's one thing.
Prongs: which is?
Jane Doe: The thing is, I really need you to tell me who Dream Girl is.
Prongs: what?
Jane Doe: Please?
Prongs: why?
what good could it do either of us?
Jane Doe: I've been thinking about it a lot.
And the thing is, I really like you.
A lot.
To the point where I think it would really hurt to be passed over.
Prongs: i like you a lot too
i'm not going to pass you over, i really promise
Jane Doe: But if you don't tell me who she is, I'm never going to stop wondering WHO she is.
And I really don't want that, I don't want to compare myself to every girl at school and wonder if you'd rather be with her than with me.
I can't do that to my self-confidence, so I need to know.
I know you like us both, and I know that must be hard and confusing and that you feel guilty, and I don't want you to feel that way because it's totally fair to be confused. You had strong feelings for her for two years and I wasn't supposed to happen.
I know it might take time for them to go away, so for my own peace of mind I need to know.
Once I know, I can make a decision, but I need to know if I can deal with that. With her. With knowing who she is.
I mean, what if she's a close friend? That's not something I can handle.
Prongs: that's fair
i'm sorry, i should be honest with you, you deserve that much
it's evans
Jane Doe: Evans?
What?
Prongs: lily evans
Jane Doe: Lily Evans?
You've been in love with Lily Evans for two years?
Are you serious?
Really?
REALLY?
Prongs: i'm so sorry
the last thing i ever wanted to do was hurt you, i swear
and look, i know she's going to be there because she's best mates with mary and she asked us to come
but i won't say a word to her
i won't even look at her if you want
Jane Doe: No but really are you serious?
Oh god.
You said.
You said she was a genius. Ages ago.
It was so obvious and I didn't even think.
OH MY GOD
OH MY GOD
LILY FUCKING EVANS OF ALL PEOPLE ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
Prongs: jane?
Jane Doe: Oh my god and the whole time I never even noticed.
Were you the one who sent those flowers? On Valentine's Day?!
Prongs: yeah, that was me
i literally don't know what else to say right now
i don't know if you're angry or upset?
or what i'm supposed to do?
Jane Doe: And all that stuff you said about her lighting up rooms and the whole time it was oh god oh god oh god.
Oh my god.
I need to I don't know I need to do something.
I just
Give me a minute, okay?
I need a minute.
Prongs: can you please just tell me what's going on in your head?
like we normally do?
Jane Doe: No, listen
Don't say anything else just
Oh god.
I'll find you at the party later.
I'll let you know who I am, I promise.
I just need to do something.
Oh my god.
Prongs: do what?
jane?
do what?
James almost ducked out of going at the last minute.
His conversation with Jane, from whom he had not heard a peep since, had shaken him. He was worried that she was now trying to figure out how to tell him that she was no longer coming, or that she wanted him to fuck off forever, or both. The idea of hanging around Mary Macdonald's house all night, stinging from the pain of rejection whilst trying to keep up a cheerful front, was completely unappealing.
He had been so insistent that Jane make an appearance, though, so he couldn't afford to be a hypocrite. Besides, Evans had caught him in the canteen yesterday and asked him if he and his mates were still coming, and he'd promised her that he would.
Evans, who he'd swore to Jane he'd make every effort to avoid.
A promise such as that would not have presented an issue under normal circumstances. He and Lily didn't move in the same circles, so it was rare that either of them would have reason to seek the other out, but his best friend just had to go and start some kind of casual, unofficial, not-even-anything-in-typical-Sirius-Black-fashion, quasi-sexual arrangement with her best friend, placing James and Lily in the de facto positions of best man and maid of honour, at least until said arrangement fizzled out and Mary decided to hate Sirius forever. Lily, being the devoted friend she was, had started to show an interest in hanging out with his group for the sake of what she had adorably referred to as BlackDonald, and that complicated matters.
James would now have to ignore her whilst simultaneously not ignoring her. He'd have to be politely rude to a girl who could make his heart ache with a smile, whilst nursing a hangover and at least four different flavours of anxiety, to boot.
Jane was worth it. He was certain of that. The danger, now, was that she might not feel as certain about him in light of the truth.
Lily answered the door when he and his mates arrived and revealed herself to have grown at least ten times more beautiful since the last time he'd laid eyes on her, and since it had only been twenty-nine hours since he'd seen her last, that shouldn't have been biologically possible.
"It's the guys!" she cried, beaming at the four of them with stunning luminosity. "And you've brought... cheesy Doritos? Really?"
"People bring fancy gifts to fancy parties, Evans," said Sirius, waggling his family-sized bag of crisps. "It's a thing."
"Very sophisticated," she agreed. "Come in, anyway. You know you're an hour early, right? Only Terry and I are here. Mary's upstairs, getting ready."
"Why is Heaney—" James began, and stopped, realising that he wasn't supposed to speak to her, just as Remus said, "I thought it started at seven? James said you told him—"
"Oooh, did I?" she said, blinking innocently in the sunlight which fell upon the door. "I can't remember. And as for Terry, I don't even know, to be honest. He turned up over an hour ago and brought half an off-licence with him, so Mary said he could stay."
"What's that music?" said Sirius, peering down the long hallway, wood-panelled hallway.
"Africa" by Toto," said Lily promptly, and swung her hips from side to side as if to place emphasis on the beat. "Mary let me put on my eighties playlist until more people get here."
"Why the fuck would you have an eighties playlist?"
"Because I'm a happy fucking person, and I don't give a shit about looking cool," she cheerfully retorted, and gestured for them to step across the threshold. "Come in, now, before the neighbours start to think I'm running a brothel."
As the four boys moved as one to push they way into the hall, Lily winked at James and bounced off like a giddy child, disappearing through a door on the right. "In here!"
"What's up with her?" Peter mumbled.
"High, probably," said Sirius. "Or she's plastered."
Whatever had happened to Lily Evans since their chat in the canteen, she appeared to have attained a sort of euphoric state of existence, which made her all the more enchanting, and therefore impossible - unless this was all just in his head. Perhaps, he thought, this was what happened when one tried to force oneself to abandon an infatuation. Addicts went through it all the time when they quit their unhealthy habits. Suddenly, the thing they wanted became even more appealing. He must have going through a withdrawal period.
But she listened to eighties pop. He listened to eighties pop. How was this fair?
He slid his phone out of his pocket as he followed Sirius into Mary's living room and found a blank lock screen - no Jane - then looked up to see Terry Heaney dancing, with an enviable kind of abandon, by a table of snacks.
"Isn't he great?" said Lily, ushering them over to the sofa. "Like that Armie Hammer video."
"Um," said Peter. "Is he drunk?"
"Never mind Heaney," said Sirius, and tossed the crisps on the coffee table. "Are you drunk, Evans?"
"Why would I be drunk?"
"You're acting weird."
"You would think that any indication of a good mood is weird, Black, but no," she said, gesturing for them to sit down, which they all did. James wound up stuck in the corner next to Remus. "I'm not high or plastered - and yes, I could hear you in the hall - I'm just perfectly, wonderfully happy."
"Why?"
The music switched from Toto to A-Ha's "Take On Me" and Lily shrugged, throwing a knowing glance to the ceiling. "Because I'm in love, if you must know."
Every sword was doubled-edged today.
Jane would certainly be happy to hear that Evans was dating someone else, and that might work in his favour when it came to securing confidence in his fidelity, but James had been thoroughly cut regardless, and was bleeding out on a proverbial floor. He could even feel his friends' eyes burning holes in the side of his head, sense their pitying gazes for their poor, lovelorn friend, and had to put a great deal of effort into looking as if he didn't care. "You are?"
Less than five minutes and he'd already broken his no talking rule. He couldn't do anything right. Part of him almost hoped that Jane would stay away and spare herself the trouble of a boyfriend like him.
Lily nodded, smiling dreamily at him. "I am, and he's perfect, just wait until you see."
"McNamee, is it?"
"God, no! Why would you think that?"
"Because you went on a date with him?"
"Did I?" She frowned slightly. "I thought that was some sort of protracted punishment, like McGonagall had given me a detention I didn't know about, and speaking of authority figures..." She reached into the front pocket of her dress, which reminded James of how excited Jane had gotten when she bought a dress with pockets, and pulled out a small ring of keys, which she dangled on the end her finger as if she were tempting a donkey with a carrot. "Since I'm chaperoning you four, I thought I'd let you know that I've been given control of these."
"What are they?" said Peter.
"Keys to the upstairs bedrooms," she said proudly, and dropped them in her pocket again. "They'll be locked for the night, and Mary's left the only set of keys with me, so if for any reason you feel like defiling my best friend, Black, you'll have to go through me first, and I'll have to conduct a thorough assessment of her blood-alcohol levels."
Sirius draped an arm across the back of the sofa. "Meaning?"
"Meaning, keep your tiny, dirty genitals in your pouch or I'll cut them off with a rusty spoon, alright?"
"That's a bit rich," Sirius retorted. "Weren't you just talking about making it in a bedroom with James, like, a few days ago?"
"I guess that's why I've got the keys," she said wryly. "Anyway, drinks? We've got beer, lager, we've got Malibu, we've got vodka, Terry brought four bottles of Apple Sourz for some psychotic reason, and we've got tequila – oh, also we've got wine, so if you fancy pretending to be an adulty-adult for the evening—"
"Do you have Coke?" said Sirius.
"Yeah, Coke, Sprite, all sorts."
"I'll have a vodka and Coke, then."
"Just get me any kind of beer," said Peter.
"Same as Peter," Remus agreed.
Lily's eyes fell on James, "What about you, lovely?"
"Um," he said. "I'll have a Coke."
This was desperately painful. Why had she started being all flirty and sweet with him in the last few days, after two whole years of nothing? What business had she to be so blithe and alive, like starlight captured in a jam jar, when he was being forced to confront his worst failing - a selfish, inconstant heart that wanted two girls. Why couldn't he have just had guts enough to tell her how he felt a year ago, and avoided all of this?
"Just a Coke?"
"Yeah, I don't really feel up to drinking."
"Hungover, right?"
"Just a little."
"Okay, well - you know, I almost feel like I should have roller-skates and an apron to do this." She paused, looking thoughtful. "Except I'd crash into everything."
"Evans?" said Sirius.
"Yeah, sorry," she said, returning from wherever her mind had taken her. "So that's one vodka and Coke for Sirius that I may or may not spit in, a beer each for Remus and Peter, and then a Coke for – what was that nickname you made up again, Potter? The Captain?"
"No," he said. "It was—"
"No, don't tell me!" she quickly interrupted. "I can get it myself."
"What is she on about?" said Sirius.
"The Commander?" Lily tried again. "No, wait, it was something like the Communist or — no, definitely not that, it was something like — you know, I literally just had it. I had it a minute ag— oh!" She snapped her fingers, triumphant for a spell, then her shoulders dropped and she let out a sigh. "Nope."
James frowned. "What?"
"I've lost it," she said. "Never mind, I'll go and get those drinks."
She twirled on her toes and sprang away like a wood-nymph, gliding past a still-dancing Terry and vanishing into the adjoining kitchen. Immediately, Sirius let out a low whistle.
"If that's what love does to people," he said, quite unkindly. "It's a disease and I never want it."
James couldn't handle this any longer. Lily was magical, and in love with someone, and as ill-equipped as he was to deal with the jealousy that this knowledge had set to creeping through the darkest part of his soul like a venomous snake, not knowing what Jane was thinking, or doing, or even her real name, was just as awful. He had to sort this out tonight or he was going to lose his life to a stress-induced cardiac arrest at the tender age of seventeen, and if that happened, he hoped Evans and Jane would stand side-by-side at his grave, weep over the harm they had done and languish in an everlasting guilt.
Remus, Peter and Sirius were discussing Lily's apparent slide into mental instability, but James turned away from them, took out his phone and started to type a message to Jane, throwing one hasty glance over his shoulder to make sure that his friends hadn't noticed.
could you please just tell me if you're still coming to the party? please?
He had expected to watch and wait in an anxious silence until she got the message, but to his surprise, the message was read at the instant it sent, meaning she had been watching her phone, waiting for him to make contact.
Then the little dots at the bottom of the screen were moving. She was responding. His stomach became a hard, protruding knot.
This might be it. Finished. She could kick him to the kerb, right now, and he'd never be any the wiser as to who she was or what had changed her mind.
He was going to throw up.
An age seemed to pass him by, hours condensed into the tiniest fragment of time, and then...
For the love of god, James.
I'm already here.
It took James, perhaps, twenty seconds to read and process the message she had sent, but he sprinted the ten-foot distance between Mary's sofa and the kitchen door, in a fine, dramatic fashion befitting the boy she'd come to know, while she dug cans of Coke out of a multi-pack box near the toaster like a normal person, who did normal things, and hadn't just set off an emotional firework at her best friend's party.
He might have knocked Terry over – Lily heard some sort of commotion – but he clearly hadn't cared to stop and check, coming to an ungainly halt as soon as he dashed through the door, and looked as if he was surprised to find her standing there. Perhaps he thought she'd travelled further, to give him more of a chase, instead of doing what she'd said she would do in the first place. The sight of her seemed to stun him.
Lily turned to face the boy she adored, keeping one hand on the box to hold herself steady. He was staring at her as if she was awe-inspiring, and seemed of no mind to stop, though she wished he would. He was making her blush.
"Jane's my middle name," she told him quietly.
He nodded, a rough, compulsive movement. "Right."
They may have stood and stared for longer, but Sirius appeared in the doorway, hands braced against the living room wall, and poked his head in, looking quite annoyed to have been left out of something important.
"What the fuck, mate?" he said. "Why'd you shoot off like that?"
"Not now," said James firmly, and kicked the door shut behind him, Sirius be damned, and Lily knew what he was going to do before he did it.
It made her spine tingle.
"So, do you want ice in this?" she said, simply to fill a minuscule, dwindling number of seconds, knowing that it didn't really matter what she said, but silence didn't seem to fit the situation. "We've never discussed your ice preferences, but if I was going to guess, I'd think—"
It wouldn't have been a big, romantic moment if he hadn't cut her off, if he couldn't move like a speeding bullet where she was concerned, if Lily hadn't found herself swept into his arms, and being kissed, thoroughly kissed, with an exquisite kind of boldness. Not like her first kiss, awkward and sloppy, and not like the unwanted, rapid-fire attempts of whatever-his-name-had-been on that ill-fated date. James Potter knew how to kiss - or perhaps he knew how to kiss her - and he wasn't messing around.
There he was, in a collision of lips. Her guy. Prongs. James had hidden him from her for a really long time, but she'd found him out in the end.
Pulling away was a true tragedy, what with the way his arms had snaked around her waist, and hers around his neck, and how blissfully content she'd be if she could kiss him forever, but quite necessary, too. She needed to talk, face-to-face for once, and look into his eyes, all of that stuff she'd been dying to do, no matter which half of him she'd wanted, for far too long. Not kissing him when he was so perfectly made to be kissed was a harsh blow, but softened by the certainty of the rest that was to come.
"Wow," she sighed. "That was—"
"I know," he said, in a voice she'd never heard him use before. It was cocky, almost. And quite appealing. "I'm good at that."
And if that wasn't exactly what she wanted...
She dropped her forehead to his chest and laughed, the quiet kind that shook her shoulders and made no sound.
"What?" he said. "What's so funny?"
"Nothing, just—" She shook her head to demonstrate her disbelief, lifting her chin, and he gently caught her face between his hands. How very like her Prongs he was. "That's so something Prongs would say—"
"Dunno if you're aware, but I am Prongs, so—"
"Exactly," she said, and gently boffed his arm. "Where has he been for the last two years? You never let me meet him!"
"He's been terrified!"
"Why?"
"Because you're my sodding Kryptonite, Evans," he said, with an utterly gorgeous grin. "My brain melted out of my ears every time I saw you and I acted like a panicky arsehole, but everyone else thinks I'm dead cool and suave."
"Is that so?"
"Ask anyone, they'll tell you."
"So, what, one kiss and you've instantly recovered from two years of awkward radio silence?"
"It was a bloody brilliant kiss."
"Well — no, that's true."
"And - and!" he cried, eyes wide. "You said that you loved me! You, Lily Evans, said that you loved me!"
"You've said you loved me way more than I have—"
"But you said it more recently—"
"I've already beat your arse in one competition, James—"
"I handed you that victory, you'd be as lost as I was if I hadn't given you that clue—"
"You had your number displayed on your Facebook!"
"You don't even have Facebook!"
"Yeah, well," she retorted, stalling, smiling, understanding - for the first time - how another person could light up a room. "Coming back to the first contest, which I won - in fact, I'd go as far as to say I destroyed you - I believe I'm owed a prize of some sort?"
"I already bought you an incredibly romantic bouquet," James replied, laughing, which made her laugh, too. "What more do you want?"
"I'd quite like a boyfriend, if you know of any available."
"Oh my god," he said, and laughed again. "Done and done, if you want me."
"Very much, thanks."
"Then I'm yours," he happily agreed. "Anything else?"
"I don't have to call you Prongs in real life, do I?"
"No, but what about the Commodore?"
"Not a chance."
"Not even once a month?"
"I'd literally rather die."
"Bit dramatic, don't you think?"
"Just a bit," she agreed, and tugged at the front of his shirt, pulling him towards her to meet his lips with her own. "And I hold you entirely to blame."
Text Received from: James Potter
Sent to: Lily Evans, on Sunday, 13th May 2018 at 9:35am
...
James Potter: are you awake yet?
i hope you are
i've been awake for ages
who could sleep on a day like this honestly
i changed your name in my phone
lily
lily
lily lily lily
lillllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
Lily Evans: Lol, good morning, you silly arse.
I was in the shower.
James Potter: hi! you're here! good morning!
Lily Evans: Hi!
Where else would I be?
James Potter: um how about IN MY ARMS please?
Lily Evans: I was going to text you when I woke up, but I thought you might be tired after our late night.
So I figured I'd let you sleep for a while.
Also, yes please, your arms are lovely and I miss you.
Do you charge an hourly rate for cuddles or do I get them for free?
James Potter: have i mentioned that you're so considerate and that i don't deserve you?
Lily Evans: I mean, I'm new to the girlfriend thing but I feel like being considerate is part of the job description.
Also, cost for hugs please. I'm making up my monthly budget.
James Potter: free for you always
always always always
also
you know how you just called yourself my girlfriend?
can you say it again?
Lily Evans: I'm your girlfriend.
James Potter: this is like twelve christmases at once holy shit
mum says are you coming over for dinner today?
she's dying to meet you
she might actually kill me if you don't so please do
Lily Evans: You know I'd come over with or without the possibility of your death to obligate me, right?
Also that your mum's probably not going to kill you.
James Potter: i mean, my death is always an imminent possibility
you forgot about my cat
Lily Evans: I did not.
He's the entire basis of your appeal.
James Potter: i've already accepted that algernon's going to prefer you to me
so i guess i can take your cruelty like a man
Lily Evans: Was I cruel? I'm sorry.
Have I mentioned that I love your hair and you're the best kisser I've ever met?
If you've collapsed into unconsciousness I can probably manage an ardent round of applause but I'm hoping my shameless thirst for you will be enough.
James Potter: have i mentioned also that aside from being considerate you are also AMAZING and BEAUTIFUL?
i still can't believe you're YOU
you're jane
jane is you
and you're lily evans
Lily Evans: I can't believe I was jealous of myself.
The whole time!
James Potter: that was all my fault
i should have realised the only girl i could have loved more than you was you
really my initial hunch that we were meant to be together was correct, which means that i've got good instincts and am possibly psychic
i wonder if i could market that
would you still fancy me if i became a magician?
Lily Evans: Trust you to turn a declaration of love into a declaration of love for yourself.
James Potter: people could call me THE MAGNIFICENT PRONGS
Lily Evans: That makes you sound like a really fancy fork.
Like, an antique fork.
Possibly a haunted one.
James Potter: i will gladly entertain you with fork-related illusions should you care to come for dinner tonight please
Lily Evans: Didn't I answer that already?
Oh, whoops, I didn't.
Of course I'd love to come.
James Potter: brilliant
now to spend the next few hours looking up fork magic on youtube
it only takes an afternoon to completely master a subject, right?
wait, mum says no
she says i can't take the forks for practice
she says i'm an idiot
she wants to know what bet you lost to wind up with me
Lily Evans: Excuse me, you're my idiot.
James Potter: your idiot
Lily Evans: And I love you anyway. Tell her that if you want.
James Potter: i love you too
remind me to buy helena a tasteful gift basket
for bringing us together
Lily Evans: Skip the gift basket altogether and take an ad out in the school paper.
James Potter: i could throw her a parade?
Lily Evans: Or hire a skywriter.
James Potter: we should definitely invite her to our wedding
Lily Evans: Lol, suddenly we're getting married?
James Potter: obviously we will
in an appropriate number of years
as i'm psychic, i've already foreseen all of this
i won't bore you with the details
but careless whisper = first dance
Lily Evans: Well, shit.
How can I say no to that?
A/N: Stay tuned for... epilogue? Yes? Yes.