And with that we say goodbye to the Lily/George arc. Wow it's been a long time since I updated. I honestly haven't had a single moment of rest to write until Thanksgiving break and was so happy to make my way back to this fic. Hopefully updates become more frequent again for you guys but no promises although winter break is coming up so I should have some more free time! I'll see you on the next adventure. Next up Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw!
James was woken early as usual by the feeling of the sun drifting in through his window. He opened his eyes, considering making his way down to the quidditch pitch to practice some plays before class that morning. But before he could decide he noticed, curiously, that Sirius was already awake. He was staring at a spot on the map in deep concentration.
"Padfoot, what's up?" James said, and Sirius jumped as if unaware of how long he'd been sitting in his trance.
"Nothing, I was just checking something, it's alright."
James pulled himself out of bed, moving towards Sirius who muttered, "mischief managed," before he could make it to him.
James raised an eyebrow at him, but Sirius just sighed, flipping some hair out of his eyes in an attempt to look collected.
"Just give it a rest Prongs."
"Alright, we don't have to talk, but hand me the map. I've got an idea to lift your spirits."
Sirius shrugged, handing it over, mind drifting to a certain brother of his still sleeping soundly in his bed at this early hour.
James held the map in front of him, pointing his wand at it, saying: "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
He smiled as the ink spread across the previously blank parchment, glancing immediately to Gryffindor tower where a redheaded girl with beautiful emerald eyes was likely still getting an hour or two of shut eye before classes right across from them. But this was not time to pine after Lily Evans, James' friend needed assistance. He scanned the map, going immediately to the Slytherin dormitory where he noted Regulus' name in fading red ink, sighing as he began to understand Sirius' rather dour mood. Had he been staring at that name all night? It didn't matter, as James scanned the dorm before moving his eyes towards the library in the castle where he found the object of his search…Snape.
He pointed him out to Sirius who got a devilish grin across his face. At this point Remus was awake, getting himself ready for classes that morning, while Peter slowly came out of sleep with all the activity around him.
"Come on, let's go pay Snivellus a visit, shall we?"
Remus looked at the boys, about to say something, but changed his mind. He just kept straightening his already perfectly done tie, a familiar scowl across his features.
"Can I come?" Peter asked, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
Sirius responded with an offhanded "Whatever Wormy," before he turned around and stopped Peter with a rough hand to his chest. "Just don't screw it up."
Peter nodded with a slight gulp, hurrying into the bathroom to pull on his robes. After Peter was all dressed and ready the group made their way to the library's entrance, waiting for their prey. As expected, about five minutes later, Snape made his way out, nose in a book as usual. James began the attack by sticking his foot out, causing Snape to sprawl out on the floor, smacking his chin hard against the tile. He moved his hand up to check for blood when he immediately went on the offensive at the sound of that familiar voice.
"Sorry about that Snivelly. Here let me give you a hand."
James stuck out his hand, but Snape ignored it, gathering his papers and trying to make his way to his class. It was too early for this sort of trouble.
"Well, that wasn't very polite was it Pads?"
"Not at all. Oi, Snivelly! Where are your manners? Flipendo."
Sirius' shouted spell knocked Snape to the ground once more, and this time he refused to take the vicious attacks lying down. He turned to face James' cocky sneer, aiming his own wand in fury. But before he could get a word out James struck again.
"Densuago" The boys laughed at the top of their lungs as Snape's teeth began to grow wildly out of his mouth, like yellowed tusks, reaching nearly to the floor as Madame Pince hurriedly approached the scene having heard the commotion outside.
"Mr. Potter, what on Earth is going on out here?"
"Nothing at all Madame."
Noticing Snape's condition with pity and fury she approached him. "Come on Severus, I'll get you to the hospital wing."
"I don't see any difference Madame they're just as big and yellow as ever."
She turned to James with a glare that could turn one to stone, and he gulped as she made her way back to Snape giving him a hand at moving towards the hospital wing with his teeth in tow.
"Detention for all three of you!" She called back.
James and Sirius shrugged it off, having expected as much, but they were far more amused than they had been that morning. Peter just beamed with pride at having been included in the troublemaking for the first time in a while.
"What are you smiling at Wormy? You just sat there on your fat arse. Next time do something why don't you?" Sirius said, instantly deflating any amount of pride Peter had felt. The boys headed to breakfast, knowing they were going to get a stern talking to from McGonogall that evening, but not particularly caring at the moment. Food was on their minds, and the glow from their latest triumph over Snape kept them beaming for the rest of the morning.
While Snape was fighting off bullies his former best friend was sitting in her room, thoughts of her crumbling relationship with George filling her head. And although she tried very hard to hide it, her roommates were experts by now at picking up on her varying moods.
"Everything ok Lily?" Susan asked after ten minutes of utter silence from her side of the room.
"It's nothing really." Lily replied, not wanting to get into her boyfriend woes.
"Come on Lily, you've been a downer all morning." Marlene said, receiving an elbow from Mary. "I mean, you can tell us whatever it is."
"It's just some trouble with George." Lily replied.
"If he's done something…" Marlene started, immediately going into defensive mode.
"No, Marlene he's not done anything. I just…we had a disagreement is all."
"Well, all couples do that. If Sirius and I ended things every time we had a disagreement, we wouldn't have lasted a day." Marlene replied, seeming relieved that it wasn't anything she would have to hex George over.
"Yeah, I know. You're right." Lily said, though she didn't sound sure.
"Come on Lily, what's really going on?" Alice attempted, knowing that there was more to Lily's dour mood than just a silly fight.
"Have you ever noticed that some purebloods are more understanding than others?"
"Like what?" Susan asked, but Mary stayed silent, knowing exactly what Lily was talking about.
"It's just that, George is not a bad guy. He isn't, but he can just say things sometimes that are really…"
"Ignorant." Mary replied, saying the word she knew Lily was trying to avoid.
Lily sighed, looking down in embarrassment when Alice spoke up.
"Love isn't always about being understood Lily. It's just about being there for each other. Frank doesn't understand everything I do or say, and we're both purebloods. But I know he loves me. So, you have to ask yourself if these comments or lack thereof are coming from a lack of understanding or from a lack of love."
Lily paused at that, Alice's words mingling with Sirius' in her mind. Lack of love and unwillingness to change kept playing in her ears, and before it could get too loud, she stood up, muttered a quick "Thanks Alice," before walking out of the room.
Lily didn't feel like going down to breakfast, knowing that she would see George there, so she just ended up wandering the halls, making her way onto the grounds just in time to arrive at the herbology greenhouses. She caught sight of Remus scribbling in his notebook a few seats away, pointedly avoiding conversation with his roommates for reasons unknown, and so with a deep breath she headed towards him. With her thoughts of George, she'd almost forgotten that she still had to apologize to Remus for her behavior the Friday before. She felt her stomach tied in knots but figured it would be better to just bite the bullet and go for it.
"Remus, I've been meaning to talk to you." She said as she sat down beside him.
"Yeah, what about?" Remus said. He seemed oddly chipper, as if nothing had gone wrong between them. Lily considered leaving well enough alone, but her guilt overshadowed her nerves at having this conversation.
"I owe you an apology, a massive one actually. I've been going through stuff with George and that's not an excuse but…"
"Lily, it's alright. Don't worry about it." Remus said, shooting her a quiet smile in an attempt to avoid the conversation as well.
"Remus, please don't do that with me." She protested.
"Do what?" He asked.
"Shut down. You all do that, you know?" She said, referring to the way the other Marauders tended to deflect when confronted with emotion. "And I don't know if it's a male pride thing or just a secret keeping habit, but if you're angry or upset you can tell me. I won't send you away."
"Yeah," Remus didn't look so sure, but he took Lily at her word with his next statement, "Look, you did hurt my feelings a bit, I won't lie, but I'd rather not let one argument cast a pall between us, alright? Thank you for the apology, but can we just forget it happened? Go back to normal?"
"I'd love that." Lily replied, happy that Remus had taken it so well, her guilt decreasing sizably.
"Me too." They finished the conversation with a quick hug before class began with a cleared throat from Professor Sprout cutting through Sirius' wolf whistle. Lily and Remus chose to work together that class, Lily learning from him that his friends had made another assault on Snape, and this is why he was refusing to talk to them at the moment.
"I'm sorry I know I should have done more, but once they make up their mind about something…"
Lily shrugged, feeling a lot less sympathy for Snape now that they weren't talking anymore.
"You didn't join in at least. And you're showing them now that you didn't approve; maybe that'll finally be enough to make them grow up a little bit."
Remus laughed at that, not seeming too sure about that.
Class ended and the two of them brushed the dirt off their robes, talking about classes and the upcoming Gryffindor quidditch match before Remus finally fell back when Sirius refused to cease his calls of "Moony, Moony, Moony!". Lily rolled her eyes, while Remus glanced at her apologetically, making his way towards Sirius with an annoyed glare. This left Lily alone to ponder over her decision as to what to do about George. She wished she could put it off for another week (or a year), but she had made her decision and she had been avoiding George for 1.5 days now, the longest they'd been apart since Christmas break. She needed to tell him. She walked into the Great Hall for lunch, seeing George talking to his friends around the Ravenclaw table. She approached him, tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention. He jumped up excited to see her after she had been avoiding him since their spat, but his face fell when he saw her guarded expression.
"George…can we talk?" She asked, (not good), but he nodded, trying to save face in front of his classmates by approaching her.
"Yeah, of course."
The two of them made their way out of the Great Hall, Sirius with perfect timing as ever hooting alongside James at the two of them sneaking off for some "alone time" as they assumed. But Lily didn't even have it in her to shoot them a meaningful glare, too absorbed with the task at hand. Remus looked at her curiously, trying to catch her eye, but even he couldn't pull her in.
They made their way to a private alcove where they could talk without being interrupted by students passing by, or, Merlin, Peeves. Lily started a couple of times before finally coming right out and saying the first thing that came to her mind, George patiently waiting for her to be ready.
"Look George, I know we have different perspectives but…I just can't do this. I'm not ok with testing on werewolves."
"Oh, is that what you're upset about? Lily, this is all still very theoretical." He said with a sigh of relief. "We can talk about that; I was worried that this was about something else." George said reaching out for Lily's hand, but she pulled away.
They spoke at the same time.
"George, I…" "Lily, look…"
"You go first." George said, ever the charmer.
"I don't want to give up on this, I really don't but…" Lily forced herself to choke out.
"Give up on what?" George asked, still thinking she was talking about the research for a moment, until he saw the look in her eyes. She didn't answer his question.
"Lily this sounds less like it's about the research and more like it's about…us." He said, and when she didn't respond he began to get more panicked.
"George." Lily tried to placate him.
"This doesn't have to come between us Lily. It's not that big a deal. I'll talk to Belby, or better yet we can cast him out. We can do it together just like we planned." George said rejected again from reaching for Lily's hands.
"It's not just about the research George. It's everything, the pureblood mania…"
"Pureblood mania?" He cut her off. "Lily, I'm not a death eater you know that."
"I know, but George you just have never understood me, or really cared enough to try and see my perspective, where I come from. You pretend that the muggle part of me is a mistake, like I was always meant to be a witch, and just have to learn all these 'proper' ways to live. But I had a whole life before you George, and when my parents died it was like you didn't understand how devastating that was. I didn't just lose them I lost the one thing that was familiar."
"And I understand that."
"No, you don't. You can't. Your father has always believed the wizarding way of life was the proper thing, and that's fine for you. But it's not what I want. I can't be stuck in the wizarding world for the rest of my life. I need the muggle world too."
"I can be better about that. You've never told me any of this Lily, how was I supposed to know?"
"That's the exact problem. It never even occurred to you, and I just can't be with someone who doesn't try and understand me the way I need."
Lily turns around, walking away. George calls after her.
"Lily! Come on, Lil!"
She walks past James Potter who seems surprised to see her after she disappeared with George, expecting them to be knee deep in a makeout session by now.
"Trouble in paradise Evans?" He asked, jokingly, but she just huffed as she walked past him.
She didn't feel like going to her second class, so she went to the hospital wing complaining of a headache. Madame Pomfrey took one glance at her swollen eyes, and sighed handing her a calming potion informing her that she "just needed some rest".
Lily was grateful that she didn't pry further, and took a long nap in the hospital wing, forgetting about the complete devastation that losing George brought her for a little bit. But soon enough she had to get back to reality. Madame Pomfrey shooed her out, informing her that there were truly sick students who needed the beds, and Lily skipped out on dinner making her way upstairs to the Gryffindor common room. No one was in her room, so she was free to lie in her bed and cry her eyes out alone before having to face telling her roommates what had happened.
James and Sirius were skipping dinner too, but for a different reason. James was mopping the floor in front of the Great Hall…without magic. Meanwhile, Sirius and Peter had been assigned polishing the suits of armor around the castle. But although they'd been separated so they couldn't goof off during their manual labor Sirius and James were still able to talk through their mirrors.
The mirrors had been a gift from Sirius' Uncle Alphard for his thirteenth birthday. "In case you need someone to talk to while you're home." He had said, well aware of the less than friendly nature of Sirius' home life over the winter and summer holidays.
Of course, Sirius had given the second mirror to his best friend James, and the two of them used the mirrors practically every day those summers when Sirius was still stuck at home. And of course, while at school, although they were practically inseparable, they tended to use them for some of their sneakier troublemaking or when they were put in separate detentions, as was the case tonight. So, the two of them served their separate detentions, complaining together about the ridiculous nature of their punishments.
"Honestly, I don't know how Filch does it, especially after quidditch matches in the rain, all that mud. He should get a raise."
"Never thought I'd hear the day you were arguing for Filch to get a raise." Sirius chuckled while he rearranged the suits of armor. He figured while he was polishing them, he might as well put them in interesting positions. That is until the third one he approached shot him a stern look as he began moving his hands in front of a very private area and muttered:
"Don't even think about it boy." He glanced at the two others down the hall who had snitched and gulped, quickly putting them back into their appropriate places.
"I'm just saying the poor fellow's already gotta deal with being a squib, might as well get paid extra for it."
James said. He chuckled as a couple of first years leaving dinner slipped on the wet floor before receiving a stern glare from McGonogall who muttered a spell to dry a path from the hall to the staircase.
"This is not another opportunity for you to fool around Potter this is a serious punishment. If you're not careful you'll find yourself out of the next quidditch match, and no I am not bluffing."
James nodded knowing that as much as McGonogall loved Gryffindor house and their team she hated him fooling around more. He had to keep his nose clean, or Jane would really kill him. He heard Sirius' familiar snicker through the mirror and looked down at his best friend's face on the other side of the castle.
"She really put you in your place Prongs."
"Shut up." James laughed receiving some glares from Snape's friends as he hid the mirror behind his back innocently. As the rest of the students finally left the hall he pulled the mirror out again, looking at Sirius diligently polishing his armor, not feeling like receiving a second punishment for not completing his task thoroughly. "How's Wormtail doing?"
"I don't know. I sent him to the other side of the castle. I don't need Wormy messing up my hard work with his greasy fingers."
"You could be a little nicer to him Pads."
"Yeah, well when he stops messing up all our plans then maybe I'll throw him a bone."
James laughed again, setting the mirror down as he continues mopping. He didn't notice until Sirius shouted, "Prongs!", that the mirror was not by his side anymore. He looked over in shock as Severus Snape stood there with a foul grin across his face, his teeth back to normal, holding the mirror out of James' reach.
"Well, well, interesting development isn't this? Too bad you won't be able to plan 'round the clock with your stupid friend."
James glared at Snape, immediately pulling out his wand, but Snape beat him to it.
"Flipendo"
James was knocked to the floor with the same spell they'd used on him earlier as Snape took off, robes billowing behind him. James tried to run after him but was interrupted by a familiar voice.
"I hope you're not leaving the rest of the mopping to me Mr. Potter. I'd hate to report this to your head of house and make you my permanent assistant." Filch's voice suggested he would love nothing more than that, and so James remained. But as he finished mopping the floor, furious at the thought of Snape having access to his and Sirius' mirror, he was already plotting a way to get it back.
James arrived back to the common room late, Sirius had already gone up to bed and Lily was sitting by the fire. James ruffled the back of his hair, loosening his tie and throwing on a smirk as he leaned on the armchair putting his face dangerously close to Lily's ear.
"Hey there Evans." She jumped, having been lost in deep thought and rolled her eyes at the sight of James with that familiar flirtatious look across his features.
"What do you want Potter?" She asked, trying to hide the sniffle in her voice. James didn't seem to notice.
"I was just thinking, you've got a real man standing right here and maybe we should give this thing a shot? I see the way you've been looking at me the past few weeks."
"Looking at you," Lily scoffed before turning to him with a look that certainly would have killed were James not so arrogant. "A real man wouldn't go after innocent people just for the fun of it. A real man wouldn't come after me when I've repeatedly told him no. And a real man certainly wouldn't be as terrible as you are on a regular basis so why don't you just leave me the hell alone?"
James was surprised by Lily's outburst, especially the brief mention of Snape.
"Woah, come on it's just Snivelly I thought you two weren't even friends anymore."
"It doesn't matter. It doesn't give you the right to keep attacking him, and I would rather marry the giant squid than go on a single date with you James Potter."
"Look, I didn't mean to make you upset Evans I just…"
"Whatever, just leave me alone." James took a moment to look at her, really look at her, and realized that there was something off. Usually, she would brush off his comments or lately even join in with his easy-going banter.
"What's going on Evans? You seem upset."
Lily rolled her eyes, clearly covering her immense sadness behind mile thick layers of walls.
"Just because George and I are broken up it doesn't give you free reign to come after me. I'm my own person Potter, and I thought even a complete asshole like yourself knew how to respect those boundaries for at least a day."
"Lily, hey I'm sorry I really didn't know."
Lily looked at James, surprised at the sincerity in his eyes. "I wouldn't have said anything if I had, oh Merlin I'm an idiot."
"Yeah, you kind of are." Lily replied, although she was willing to give James the benefit of the doubt. Not even Lily's roommates knew the details of their breakup after all, how could James?
"I'll just leave you to your thoughts then. Sorry again Evans." She nodded, watching as James turned to head up to his dormitory, before turning around again.
"Can I just say one thing?"
She nodded, figuring she didn't have much to lose. And she was curious as to what James might have to say to her.
"He doesn't deserve you, not because of me. Anyone who lets you get away is a fool, Snive- Snape, Michael, Rody, and now George. Absolute morons the lot of them."
"You really remember all of their names, Potter? That's kind of pathetic…" Lily chuckled, as she hardly even remembered her brief fling with Michael back in third year.
"Yeah, I know, what can I say? I've been holding out for someone." He said, looking a bit sheepish for the first time since she'd known him. "Let's go to Hogsmeade together this weekend. Not just you and me," He said noticing the doubt cross her features, "the rest of our friends will be there too. It will help take your mind off things."
"Alright Potter," he smiled, turning to go up to his dorm again, but she grabbed him by the arm, "but on one condition."
James was in deep, as Sirius had been constantly reminding him since he told them about his deal with Lily from the night before. He looked at Snape from across the hall, the git who still had a piece of his property, and yet he walked towards the table where he sat at breakfast with an apology on the tip of his tongue. He almost turned around until he locked eyes with Lily whose stare could have melted him into the floor right there.
"Merlin." He muttered, not understanding how he let himself become so infatuated with that damn Lily Evans.
But he walked up to Snape all the same, shaking, but determined.
"Snape," he said, opting to avoid the cruel nickname for the apology to have any meaning.
"I'm not giving you the mirror back Potter I don't care if you run to McGonogall I'll just deny it."
"That's not what I want. Look what we did it was," He chokes on this next word "wrong."
"We shouldn't have messed with your abnormally-" He heard Lily's snarl from across the room and cringed as he continued "Excuse me normally, perfectly normally sized teeth. And I am-" He paused again before mumbling the next word: "sorry."
"What was that I didn't quite hear you?"
"I'm sorry." He practically whispered.
"Go on Potter. Don't be shy. Sonoros." Snape muttered, making his wand into a microphone so that the whole hall could hear with a smirk."You like attention, don't you?"
James was mortified, standing there at Snape's mercy. But he glanced at Lily who had suddenly grown very quiet and jumped up on the Slytherin table.
"I'm sorry to Severus Snape. We pulled a nasty prank on him, and it was wrong."
After the initial shock wore off the Great Hall began to laugh assuming this was some sort of gag by James. James glanced at Lily again who was looking worse by the second. Snape was looking horrified at how his brilliant plan had backfired.
"Mr. Potter, that's quite enough." McGonogall's voice rang across the hall.
James glanced at Snape who had turned off the microphone spell in shame. He thought to himself, looking around at all the laughing students, and at Snape humiliated at the hands of James Potter once again. He looked at Lily who seemed to be feeling worse than ever at having managed to screw up so royally in pleasing her ex-best friend despite not feeling as strong a connection to him.
"Bollocks," James swore under his breath, knowing what had to be done in order to turn this joke around.
"Multicorfors" James thought, wand in hand, looking down in faux shock as his robes turned a brilliant pink complete with a large bow, much like Snape's own robes had the year prior. It felt fitting as James tried to fight off the humiliating blush reaching his cheeks, the Great Hall bursting with laughter as the Slytherins looked around at each other in triumph. No one knew who had done it, none of them suspecting James was the one who had done it himself, but they were all proud to finally have turned the pranking around on the master. And Snape's ugly chortle was the loudest of all. It made James want to beat him to a pulp, and on a normal day, any normal day, he would have turned the laughter around. He would have bowed and strutted, shown off, made a fool of the guys who tried to make a fool of him, but Lily Evans was laughing for the first time in a while, and that George bloke was staring at her with both guilt and envy. And so James ran from the great hall in fake shame, smiling widely the minute he'd left, and making his way to Gryffindor tower to get his hair perfect for classes that afternoon.
As the weekend approached Lily began feeling better and better about her breakup with George. Marlene was behind her 100% of course, as were the rest of her girls, and she had the whole of Gryffindor supporting her even if a large number of Ravenclaws wouldn't look her in the eye. It didn't help that the Gryffindor/Ravenclaw match was coming up, so hostilities were already at an all-time high. But Lily didn't care too much about that, focusing on her remaining friendships, including a strange but up-and-coming one with Sirius Black. After the news of the breakup spread around the school, he had approached her with a soft smile which looked out of placed on his normally hard as nails face.
"Here, Moony said they're your favorite." He said, handing her the same candy that James Potter had purchased for her that Christmas.
This was the first time she'd received a gift from Sirius Black, as well as the second time she'd received a packet of Bertie Bott's from one of the Marauders. Far more of those candies were to come as she got to know the boys better, although Lily couldn't have known it at the time, and she beamed gratefully at Sirius who took off as quickly as he'd come, not one to stick around for a heartfelt moment. Nevertheless, there was an evident change in Lily and Sirius' relationship after this. They weren't the best of friends or anything like that, but they spoke a little bit more often in class and at meals and asked each other about homework answers in the common room more than they used to. Lily came through on her promise to help tutor Peter in charms, and as a result she began spending more and more time with the rest of the Marauders in general, not just Sirius. It felt good to have a distraction after spending the last six months or so totally enraptured with George.
By the time the weekend Hogsmeade trip came around Lily was actually excited to go with her fellow Gryffindors, the Marauders included in that excitement for what felt like the first time. They were walking around the village, having taken refuge in Honeydukes in order to get out of the cold for a little bit, when that familiar voice broke through their reverie, cutting through the group like a hot knife.
"Lily, can I talk to you?"
James moved to step in front of her, but Marlene held him back. She shook her head, and James surprisingly listened to her. He knew she was Lily's best friend after all and knew what she needed better than he possibly could.
Lily followed George outside, using her toe to move around some snow that had fallen off of a pile in front of the candy store. He took a deep breath, clearly having something on his mind, but not quite sure how to say it. He finally took the plunge.
"It's Remus, isn't it?" He asked.
Lily stared at him in shock, nerves breaking out across her face as she began to try and stutter out a suitable lie: "I don't know what…"
"Look, it's obvious, he's always sick once a month, and it would make sense why you have an affinity for werewolves despite never having met one of them."
She shushed him, looking around to make sure no one was listening in. He stopped, realizing her anxiety.
"Lily, I'm not going to tell anyone. That's not why I'm here. I'm here to say that I'm sorry and I get why you got so upset with me now. But I can change."
"George." Lily tried to interrupt, but he kept going.
"Please, we can make this work if you just give me another chance."
Lily put a hand up, stopping his pleas.
"George, I just can't." She said, although such a big chunk of her heart wished she could just leap into his arms, kiss him and pretend that nothing was wrong.
An apology wouldn't change the fact that George was not what she wanted anymore, and she couldn't even explain why. But she had made her decision, and that was that. He wasn't ready to let her off the hook that easily though.
"Because of Remus?" He asked, a hint of jealousy sneaking into his tone.
"No, no it's nothing like that." She assured him, trying to find the right words to explain how she felt. "We're just…not a good fit." She finally settled on this, feeling like it explained how she felt better than anything else.
"Yeah, yeah I guess not." George nodded, although he didn't seem to agree with her. But still he put on a brave face. A relationship can't continue one way, and he knew that. "Still, I think a part of me will always love you, Lily Evans."
Lily felt tears fall from her eyes, freezing on her lashes as George turned to walk away, a slight snow falling and dusting his perfect blond hair. She heard his quiet laugh in her ears, his nervous stumbling, his bold proclamation of love from before Christmas break. But she knew in her heart that she had made the right call. Her heart wasn't in this relationship anymore. She didn't love him like she should, and it wasn't fair to either of them to keep pretending that this was something it wasn't.
"Evans! We were going to grab some hot chocolate or something it's freezing out here." James said, approaching her with that wide smile.
She nodded, thinking back to simpler days of childhood spent drinking the fresh cocoa her mother had prepared, not the strange albeit pleasant drink that was butterbeer. She felt like muggle cocoa was just what she needed right now, and she was so glad James had suggested it. She wouldn't find out until years later that he had done some research of his own on what had caused the breakup between her and George, and figured that after all she'd been through, she could use a taste of familiarity. She also wouldn't find out for a few years that James had spent the rest of that semester listening to Peter's long rants about Muggle studies to try and learn something that might help him score points with the famous Lily Evans. James Potter may not have been the humblest young man, or even the kindest at that point in his life, still growing out of a mean streak programmed into him by a spoiled rotten childhood, but he loved Lily Evans with all his heart, and he'd be damned if he didn't do anything he could to prove it to her once and for all.