𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝚙𝚘𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚝𝚜

Rooftops

Every night for five years, she had sat on her rooftop looking at the stars. She had brought the same old quilt and hot chocolate up the apartment building's fire escape and just laid there, looking at the sky. Every night for five years, she had been alone up there, wishing on every shooting star she saw.

That is, until one night in October of 1977.

She climbed up the fire escape, shivering as the crisp autumn breeze cut through her oversized grey sweater and black cargo pants, and laid her blanket down, just as she always did. Except this time, when she looked at the building across the street, there was someone else there. A boy.

He seemed about her age, seventeen, with very floppy brown curls. She could just barely see the outline of circular glasses covering his eyes. He wore plain jeans and a red and gold sweatshirt. Next to him was another boy, who also looked to be seventeen. He had shiny black curls hanging to his shoulders, surrounding his pale face. He wore a leather jacket, white t-shirt, and black jeans. The first boy was sort of tall, while the second boy was sort of short. The two were running around the roof of what she assumed was their apartment building, the pale boy chasing the other one while they both shrieked.

She shook her head at their antics and laid down, watching the stars. When she saw a shooting star she made her wish.

I wish those noisy boys would go away.

She thought her wish had come true, for the noise stopped after a third boy joined them, followed by a fourth, who yelled at them. Unfortunately, this was not so.

It was just ten minutes later when she heard the tell-tale creak of the fire escape. This usually meant her sister had realized she was missing and had come to find her. She did not want to be found, so she leapt up, grabbed her blanket and mug, and ran to hide behind a large planter.

She held her breath as the creaking stopped, meaning whoever it was had reached the top. But instead of hearing her sister shriek for her to come back inside, she heard four voices whispering excitedly.

"Are you sure this is the roof she was on?"

"I mean... I dunno! I'm not great with directions!"

"Jesus, Wormtail, you said you were sure!"

"Will you three shut up? You're probably terrifying her, wherever she is!"

She slowly set down her blanket and mug, peeking her head around the corner. Standing in the middle of the roof, arguing, were the two boys she'd seen before and two new boys.

One of them was rather tall and skinny, also with curly hair. He was the one who had been yelling for them to get off the roof and telling them that they were probably scaring her, which they were. Maybe not scaring her, just annoying her. The last boy was the shortest of the group and rather chubby. He was the one called "Wormtail" who they thought had led them to the wrong roof. 

Her eyes flickered back to the boy with the glasses. Just as she looked over, his eyes moved to meet hers. She quickly ducked around the corner, her red hair swishing behind her, but not before he saw her.

"There! Did you see her?"

"Where?"

"Over there, behind that planter!"

She heard feet rushing towards her and started to panic, but before she could do anything other than stand up, there were four boys standing in front of her. She opened her mouth to say something, but the tall boy with the scars and Welsh accent interrupted her.

"I'm very sorry about them. They have no boundaries or common sense."

The pale boy with the French accent rolled his eyes and poked the tall boy's cheek.

"What're you talking about, Moony? You pulled the fire escape down for us!" The tall boy, Moony apparently, swatted the pale boy's hand away.

"Shut up."

Wormtail, the boy with the American accent, held out his hand to her. "Hi! I'm Peter!"

She shook his hand and said slowly, "Hello... I'm Lily. What're you doing on my roof?"

The last boy, who hadn't said anything yet, ran a hand through his hair and laughed nervously.

"Well, I saw you from my roof over there and thought, 'wow she's really pretty and she likes the stars!' so I told the lads we should come over here and meet you!" Then he frowned. "Now that I think about it, that sounds kind of stalker-ish. Sorry 'bout that!" Lily noticed he had the same British accent as her.

"Uh... ok?" Lily shivered and rubbed her arms. It was past midnight now, and quite cold. The boy with the glasses noticed this and took off his sweatshirt, leaving him in a black t-shirt.

"Here, take this. And don't worry about returning it. You can have it, if you'd like." He smiled and handed it to Lily.

Lily, against her better judgement which told her not to accept clothing from strange men, pulled the sweatshirt on and was immediately warm. The sweatshirt smelled like cedar and honeysuckle, which she thought was probably what the boy smelled like.

Glasses Boy snapped at Pale Boy and Moony, who were still bickering, and gave them a look that said, if you don't stop bickering, I will push you off of this roof. Then he turned back to Lily.

"I'm James, by the way. James Potter." He grinned and pointed at Peter. "That's Pete, but you already know that. And those two are Sirius and Remus, who are constantly either bickering or snogging."

Lily laughed as Remus and Sirius both hit James. "I'm Lily Evans, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." James looked at the ground and shuffled his feet awkwardly. Sirius sighed and pushed to the front so he was standing in front of Lily.

"What our dear oblivious Prongs here is trying to say is that he fancies you very much and would you mind if we stay to hang out with you for a bit?"

James flicked Sirius' nose and pushed him to the back of the group while Lily kept laughing.

"Yes, I suppose that would be ok."

The boys cheered and laid out the blankets they had carried up with them in a circle. Then they moved Lily's blanket to be part of the circle, in between James and Sirius. As soon as they were all laying down on their stomachs on their respective blankets, Sirius reached dramatically over Lily's back and cried out, "My dear Jamie-poo! How will I ever live this far from you, my darling?"

James reached back and swooned. "I've no idea, my love! I might die without you!"

Lily giggled at the boys' dramatics as James flopped over to have his head on her shoulder, blinking up at her.

"Hello, love."

She smiled down at him and poked his nose.

"Hi."

They went on like this for hours, messing around and getting to know one another, until Remus noticed it was five o'clock in the morning.

"I suppose we should get going."

James pouted, but stood up. "Yeah, I guess so."

They all hugged Lily goodbye and walked towards the ladder, carrying their blankets with them. James went last, and hesitated before he walked away. At the last second, he turned around and kissed Lily on the cheek. He stepped back to the ladder and grinned.

"Coffee with me this weekend?"

Lily laughed. "Why don't you come back tomorrow and ask again?"

James winked and went down the fire escape, leaving Lily, once again, alone on her rooftop. She gathered up her things and looked at the sky one last time before she went inside. Just as she looked up, a shooting star passed over her head. She closed her eyes and wished.

I wish for them to come back.