All Of Me | A Jily Love Story

Chapter Fifty Three: Through The Looking Glass

- JAMES -

A day had passed since Jessica Vane almost ruined two beloved relationships with her incessant shit stirring. That night Sirius and I had walked in on Marlene and Lily alone in the Heads common room, sharing a bottle of wine between the two of them while taking turns throwing a dart at a pinned up picture of her on the mantle piece. They'd fallen silent upon our entry, taken one look at each other and burst into laughter. Lily had rolled on the floor silently for endless minutes while Marlene howled maniacally. It turns out she'd found the photograph laying on the Gryffindor common room girls staircase and stolen it for this very purpose.
"Perhaps Vane was trying to save us after all." Sirius had muttered as Marlene eventually fell to her knees, snorting into the nearly empty of bottle of wine. I'd spied a second demolished bottle lying on the carpet feet away and almost started to laugh, when Lily, after hearing what Sirius had said, abruptly straightened up and tossed the dart in our direction forcefully. It narrowly skimmed my arm, hitting the wall behind me with a sharp thud. Lily gasped, clapping a hand to her mouth. I stared at her, gaping in surprise before she looked back to Marlene who's eyes were popping madly, and the two fell into a relapsed pit of hysterical laughter.
"Let's go." Sirius breathed.
I'd disappeared out of the portrait hole before the words had fully left his mouth.
Later Lily informed me that they'd ended up burning the photo after each of them had managed to get a bullseye (this entailed hitting the dart into one of Jesscia's eyes).
Monday morning arrived with a letter from Mum and rectangular parcel for Lily with the Ministry Wax seal. I frowned, shoving the unopened letter into my bag as she stared down at the brown paper.
"I'm sure it's fine," I reassured her as she lifted a trembling hand, glancing up to me almost fearfully. My stomach churned the slight uneasiness in her nod as she turned to eye the neat parcel.
"Yeah." She mumbled absently, her eyes flickering a shade darker. I felt my hands clench into fists, remembering the last post she'd received from the ministry.
"There's a note," She lifted a piece of neatly folded parchment from the parcel and scanned it hastily as I held my breath. A moment passed before Lily gave a shuddering breath, lifting her gaze to me.
"They found something." She was frowning now, as if not quite understanding. I blinked, trying to piece it together without asking.
"...I -"
"At my house." She added blankly, glancing to Marly, who had looked up from her breakfast with alert eyes. "They said that it had been roped off all this time, they must have only now gotten around to inspect it. They've enclosed..." she paused, swallowing audibly. "What was left of my half of their will. And some other objects 'I might find interest in'."
"Took them bloody long enough." Sirius growled angrily, and I felt inclined to agree.
"Apparently Moody was there," She said to him, biting down on her lip. "I thought everything was gone. And I had no idea they had a will." She added bewilderedly, staring at the note.
"You don't have to open it now." I said, scanning her face. She didn't look at me, a frown etching into her forehead. It was silent for a moment before she reached in to untie the brown string, slowly pulling away at the wrappings. I watched with baited breath as the last of the package came undone, to reveal -
A cluttered pile of numerous objects. I blinked In surprise, immediately turning to Lily as she made a small sound that could have been a whimper. I lifted my hand from the mahogany bench to grasp her thigh, giving her a tight squeeze and sliding closer until our sides were touching.
"May I?" I murmured as the stared unmoving at the package before her. She nodded silently, and I reached forwards to separate the random collection of items. First was a mug: A yellow ceramic mug, with a detailed sunflower on the front. Besides it were two shining white picture frames, both holding a still Muggle photograph inside. One was a family portrait of Mark, Jenny, Petunia and Lily, what must have been three or so years ago. Lily's face was a little rounder, her chest slightly flatter and eyes a little brighter. I studied the way her deep red hair only reached just below her shoulders, where she wore a brightly coloured yellow dress that flowed out from her hips. She stood beside her Mum, Jenny, who could have been her twin if it weren't for the slightly longer hair and dark blue eyes. With ivory skin and little freckles, Lily was the sixteen year old spitting image of her Mother, who was only an inch taller at the time in a blue flared blouse and jeans. On Jenny's left stood Petunia, with light blonde hair, the same dark blue eyes and sharp bone structure that made her appear rather horse like. Although she was smiling, I had a suspicion it had something to do with the diamond on her left finger as well as the fact that she wasn't standing besides her sister. I didn't bother to linger on her face for long, instead scanning the frozen smile Mark wore. It wasn't Lily's smile like Jenny's was, but it shone with that same undoubted kindness that I saw in her every morning. His hair, slightly receding, was light blonde like Petunias, skin a shade darker, and eyes a startling green. Jenny and Mark were on either side of Lily, where they stood before a familiar sweeping willow tree.
"That's the park near my house." Lily murmured eventually, noticing my gaze. "We went there before the funeral."
Sirius and Marlene, the only two present at breakfast with us, had leant in to look at the photographs. As they murmured to Lily about the similarities between her and Jenny, I turned my attention to the second framed photo. It was a portrait of Lily, what must have been the day she'd received her letter announcing that she'd gotten Headgirl. She was smiling broadly, her long, sweeping auburn hair falling in delicate waves to her navel. She wore her shining Headgirls badge, pinned to the front of her Gryffindor school robes. I consciouslymoved my hand to the small of Lily's back, sliding the other to her leg so that I was subtly holding her as I studied the photo. Her dimples were as pronounced as ever, bright emerald eyes shining with hope and prosperity for a last year of Hogwarts adventure.
"Both of these were such good days." She murmured, dragging her eyes to besides the framed photographs where a gold chain glistened. Her lower lip trembled slightly and I held her tighter, feeling myself exhale in relief when she slid an arm around me in response.
"Mum's locket," Her voice was still and hand even steadier as she reached out to lift the shining chain. Attached was a gold pendant in the shape of a heart. I glanced up to see Marlene and Sirius both watching with darkening eyes of grief as Lily hesitantly opened the locket. Inside were two photos; one of Mark at a familiar looking beach with a youthful smile - he looked young, maybe in his early twenties. The second was of a pre-pubescent Lily and Petunia, holding hands and grinning up at the camera.
"That was Mum's birthday." She was smiling, her bright eyes clear. I studied her face, feeling my chest bloom with pride as she continued to grin, a quiet laugh even slipping from her lips. "Dad got her this locket as a gift. We brought her burnt toast in bed and coffee with salt instead of sugar."
"A Lily specialty." Marly laughed quietly, sliding a comforting arm around Sirius's shoulders.
"How old were you?" He murmured, leaning in to look at the photo.
"Six," She grinned, tilting her head. "Petunia must've been nine."
"You were so cute." Marlene's face crumpled slightly as we all studied the photo, Lily's dimpled cheeks round with baby fat and chest length hair in frizzy curls. I laughed quietly at the missing front tooth in her huge grin.
"Glad you don't still look like that." I teased without taking my eyes away from the photo, noticing her green T-shirt and yellow little cotton shorts. She tutted, nudging me in the stomach affectionately.
"Mum never took this off." Lily admitted, scanning it once more before closing it with a soft click. "I always admired it when I was little, she used to let me wear it when I dressed up."
"Here." I gently reached out to take the locket from her open palm, lifting my other hand to sweep the thick hair from her back. She smiled slightly, turning to face the opposite end of the hall as I slid either end of the chain around her neck and clasped it shut. Marlene lifted the second photograph to look at with Sirius as Lily clasped a hand over the locket, now hanging directly between her breasts. She turned to me, her eyes wide and clearer than I'd ever seen them.
"Thank you."
I gave her a crooked smile, leaning in to brush my lips to her cheek.
"Was this yours?" I asked when I pulled away, looking at the ceramic mug.
"It was Dads favourite." Lily admitted, following my gaze. "He had tea in it every night. I wonder how it survived."
"Is there anything else?" Sirius asked, craning his head to look inside the mug. He paused, and I could've sworn his eyes flickered slightly.
"I don't think so..." Lily was humming, leaning in to follow his gaze. She blinked. "Oh."
Marlene gave me a worried look as she hurriedly tipped the contents of the mug into her palm, pink lips parting slightly in surprise. Out fell two plain gold wending bands.
"You'd think they'd list the items on their note." Marlene muttered, glancing to Lily's face with a slightly worried expression. "It's very insensitive of them."
"Everything was gone." She breathed, gazing down at the rings. The smaller, thinner one was encrusted in tiny diamonds. Lily's stiffened. "Petunia would be furious."
"The will must have left her other things." Marly excused instantly. "Please keep them, Lily." 
"Oh, I'm not giving them to her." She gave a hoarse laugh, closing her fingers around the rings tightly. "I wonder what else was left behind."
"The letter doesn't say what she got?" I asked curiously. She shook her head, glancing down to the piece of parchment that had been left with the package. "No, only that their will was discovered from the local bank. These were the only things that were left from my half - and they said that two other framed photographs were found but they were sent to Petunia." She frowned, gazing down at the photograph Marlene had placed back down on the table. "I s'pose they just chose to give me the mug, then. It's more than I could have hoped for. Petunia must have gotten something else."
Sirius gave Lily a smile, reaching for her emptied tea cup and topping it up from the fresh pot.
"Thanks." She accepted it feebly, her other hand reaching out to wrap up the treasured items.
"Here," I offered, tugging the other side of the box closed and pulling my bag over a shoulder. "I'll take them to the common room."
"We have potions." She frowned at me.
"I know." I gave her a crooked grin. Her face softened, and seconds later a brilliant smile broke across Lily's cheeks.
"Thank you." She slid a hand to cup my face, brushing her lips against mine tenderly. Still gripping her thigh I gave her a small squeeze, pulling back to kiss her forehead.
"Class doesn't start for twenty minutes anyways." I climbed out from the bench, lifting the wrapped box in my arms. "I'll see you soon, my love."
"Bye darling." Lily blew me a kiss and I winked, ignoring the crude gesture from Sirius.
"Miss you already!" He called after me as I turned to leave the hall.
The day dragged by more slowly than I could have anticipated. I kept glancing to the locket around Lily's neck, smiling at the memory of her toothless grin and rounded cheeks. She'd been so small. I imagined that Lily had been one of the kids who were mistaken for being years younger than truly they were. Normal six year olds were at least three inches taller. I'd told her so and she'd rolled her eyes, chiding me for finding any excuse to tease her about her height.
"You are abnormally short." Sirius said to her as we made our way to dinner hours later.
"It's not abnormal." Lily spluttered at the same time Remus muttered quietly, "You can talk."
Sirius straightened up, his face hardening. "5'9 is a perfectly acceptable height."
"Yeah but it's not 6'2, is it?" I grinned at him, slinging a lazy arm around Lily's shoulders.
"At least you're taller than me." Peter piped in from the rear of the group.
"And Alice." Frank was grinning.
"Thanks, dear." She rolled her eyes, leaning into his touch as he kissed her cheek affectionately.
"I'm still growing." Sirius added stiffly, and Remus snorted.
"No you're not."
"Shut up." Padfoot lifted his nose, shoving both hands into his trouser pockets.
"I don't know where Marlene got her long legs from." Lily eyed her best friend jealously.
"Me Mam, of course." She grinned, wriggling her eyebrows.
"I always tell her she should do modelling," Sirius said to Lily, sliding a hand around Marlene's waist. "Don't you think she'd be delicious?"
Lily gave him an amused look. "Not that I want to eat her, but yes, absolutely mouth watering."
"I was thinking about it." Marly pondered, giving Sirius a sly side glance as he flicked a cheeky eyebrow and leaned in to kiss her cheek. "Or you could just paint me naked."
"I have had an art lesson or two in my life." He growled, nipping at her jaw.
"Christ," Remus muttered.
"Don't be so miserable, Moony." I grinned at him. "We need to find you a girlfriend."
"I heard that Amy and Amos broke up," Sirius said suggestively, smirking at him. Remus's face hardened. He slowly turned to glower at Sirius before marching forwards abruptly, speeding up ahead of us to sit down at the house table.
"Sirius." Marlene scolded, turning to whack him around the head.
"You've really gone and done it now," I said grimly, tilting my head to the side as we watched Remus viciously spear a potato.
"Least he's not a virgin."
We all glanced to Mary.
"I wasn't referring to myself," She snorted, rolling her eyes. "but hey, thanks for that."
"I'm a virgin." Peter said glumly. Mar glanced to him.
"I s'pose you are."
"And me." I offered her a grimace and she threw me a dirty look in response.
"James, that doesn't count."
"Why ever not?" Lily asked in surprise. Mary sighed somewhat exasperatedly.
"Because Lily, you and James are about to shag at any given second with the insufferable amount of sexual tension in every room you walk into." She huffed, folding her arms. "I don't want to hear about your stupid sex privilege."
Lily gaped at her, and I watched her cheeks warm as the rest of us laughed loudly.
"She's not wrong." I smirked, sliding my hand down her back to the cup round of her rear.
"Well," She struggled to find the words, her pink cheeks now a shade darker. "...I-"
"We'll be able to tell." Marlene cut in cheekily, Sirius guffawing besides her.
"Probably." I grinned, winking at Lily as she surreptitiously glanced up to me. She pursed her lips to prevent herself from smiling, stopping to slide next to Remus along the Gryffindor table bench.
"Today was horrid." Sirius complained, climbing over the table with a nasty look over his shoulder at the front of the hall where Flitwick sat.
"Why?" Lily asked, watching him amusedly as he lifted Marlene by the waist over a platter of cured meats. She squeaked slightly, falling into the bench with a flustered laugh.
"Well first of all," Sirius sat down besides her, heaving a great sigh before yanking the pitcher of pumpkin juice towards him. "I lost my favourite pair of socks." He dug in his pocket for a moment, pulling out the shining silver hipflask Mary had gifted him for Christmas. She grinned at this, snorting loudly when he not so discreetly poured a generous amount of contents into his goblet.
"Hmm." Lily scratched her ear distractedly, looking over her shoulder to pretend she couldn't see him screwing the lid back on and offering it to Marlene. She shook her head, stifling a laugh.
"Second of all?" I prompted, plopping a helping of brussel sprouts onto my plate.
"Well," He took a deep gulp of juice, smacking his lips. "Flitwick told me this morning that I'm failing charms."
Lily abruptly choked on her mouthful of chicken. I eyed her in concern, patting her back delicately as she slowly straightened up, massaging her throat.
"You what?"
"I know," He replied grimly, tugging an empty plate towards him. "And I'm not half bad, either."
"How'd you manage that one?" I grinned, accepting a goblet of juice from Lily with a tender kiss. She grinned, sneaking a hand along my thigh beneath the table teasingly and I found myself biting my lip, resisting the urge to look at her. I knew that if I did, I'd find a familiar glint in her eyes and all of a sudden find better places to be. Such as the broom cupboard along the right corridor parting from the entrance hall.
"I just forget to do the work." Sirius snorted, biting into a slab of steak. Marlene coughed, reaching over him for the potatoes. He paused, fork hovering midair as he turned to look at her. 
"What?"
"Nothing." Her lip twitched. Sirius's nostrils flared and he let the hovering forkful of food clatter into his plate.
"You don't think I forget?"
She looked at him amusedly, reaching for the baked potato dish. "I think you're lazy."
"Hear hear." Remus agreed with a rather doleful smile.
"It may or may not be a combination," Sirius settled in reluctance, causing Marlene to smirk rather smugly.
"I'll help you." Lily waved an absent hand, cutting into a Yorkshire pudding. "It'll be fine. Flitwick doesn't let anyone fail."
Sirius was silent for a moment before adding, "...I'm also failing Muggle studies."
She paused, slowly lowering her fork.
"Well then, we'll work on that too."
"Wish she was this patient with me," I muttered, earning a light nudge in my side. I winked at her, noticing the twitch in her bottom lip as she tried not to smile. Sirius stared at us for a moment before rolling his head back to face the ceiling with a long, dramatic sigh.
"Very proud to announce that I am officially a lost cause." He dragged himself upwards, flinging a hand and haphazardly gesturing to the Great Hall. "Thank you all for the continuous support," His voice raised, now echoing through the room. "Unfortunately it was all for nothing!"
A ripple of chuckled filtered down the Gryffindor table and across the hall. Marlene rolled her eyes at him as Lily scoffed, tossing a shredded pride of Yorkshire pudding at his head. It rebounded onto his plate and he blinked in surprise.
"I'll help you pass." She repeated firmly, giving him a hard look. "Alright?"
He watched her for several moments, seemingly unimpressed, before eventually sighing with a disgruntled, "I s'pose."
She narrowed her eyes at him.
"You're an idiot." Remus snorted, ducking as Sirius lurched in his seat to tackle him.
Tuesday morning also came slower than usual.
Divination dragged on as Sirius informed me of what happened between him and Marlene Sunday afternoon, Peter laying half asleep besides us. He explained the series of events in quiet mutters to me whenever Trelawney had her backed turned. Today we were supposed to be delving into the dream journal I'd absolutely forgotten about and didn't plan on completing.
"So I woke up to her there," He grimaced, glancing over his shoulder before randomly flicking the page of his journal. "All the memories just came back and I freaked out for a second in case she came to murder me or amputate my twang."
"Nice." I hummed, frowning at his filled pages. "How come you've done more than me?"
"Eh?" He asked mildly, leaning in to scan the empty parchment of my journal. "Would you look at that. I have to." He shook his head in amazement. "Mental."
"That's a first." Peter mumbled from his chair, cheek plastered to the side of the table.
"Sorry, something about Marlene chopping off your knob?" I prompted, pretending to trace a finger down the textbook we were using to analyse these dreams.
"Yeah," Sirius blew out a breath of relief. "She just stared at me for a moment before throwing herself onto my bed and kissing me so intensely that darling Poppy had to come and ask her to calm down." He gave me a sly grin.
"Did you talk about it?" I asked skeptically.
"So much talking," He sighed, shaking the hair from his eyes. "I say less talking and more snogging. But yes," he added when I gave him a bemused look. "I blurted it all out and she nodded, almost crying, telling me that Lily had gone to find her already. Apparently you solved the mystery," he flashed me a grin. "Thanks Prongs, right when I needed you."
"Sorry I couldn't stop the angry werewolf from breaking your nose." I guffawed.
"At least we know he's loyal." Sirius chuckled, hastily looking over his shoulder. "I would've loved to see him so riled - ah shit, here we go."
I stifled my groan and straightened up, hastily dipping my quil into Peter's ink pot.
"Ahem." Professor Trelawney appeared behind Sirius, lifting her draped arms to her hips. She wore a great big dress robe, with billowing flared sleeves and multicoloured patches covering the entire garment. Her greyed hair was permed terribly, with the usual glasses magnifying her frightening eyes. I grimaced, reluctantly meeting Trelawney's penetrating glare. Sirius stared at me with a bored expression, rolling his eyes. He inhaled slowly and I watched in amusement as his face smoothed out into an expression of pleasant surprise. Sirius smiled, turning to look up at Trelawney, who stood besides him.
"Hello, gorgeous." He licked his bottom lip seductively, tilting his head. "Fancy seeing you here."
Professor Trelawney tutted angrily, leaning in to whack him on the arm. I choked, hastily disguising it as a cough as Sirius blinked in surprise, turning to look at me. He pulled a face and I tried my best to ignore him, pursing my lips to stop myself from smiling as Trelawney yanked his journal closer so that she could read the pages.
"Have you completed any work this lesson, Mr Black?" She snapped curtly, flourishing a multicoloured sleeve in his face. I watched in fascination as a sly grin tugged up one cheek, those dark grey eyes lowering slightly as he tilted his head to offer her one of his most smouldering looks.
"You see, Professor..." he dragged a single ringed finger along his page slowly, still staring into her terrifyingly magnified eyes. "I found myself...distracted." He bit down on his lip.
"Well, don't let it happen again." Trelawney's voice came out stiff. She folded her arms, turning to face me. Sirius was smirking proudly as he leaned back into his chair, and I threw him a scornful look.
"And you, Mr Potter?"
I glanced to the blank pages of my journal reluctantly, preventing my sigh.
"To be honest with you, I forgot about it." I admitted, remembering how I'd found the journal tucked into the bottom of my backpack at the beginning of the period. "I mean, It's actually empty." I added when she raised her thick eyebrows expectantly.
"Not good enough." She reprimanded, giving me a sweeping glance. "I'm going to need to see a little bit more effort."
"What happened to 'what will occur, will occur'?" Sirius gave her a wink, kicking his feet up onto the edge of the table. Trelawney straightened up. She turned to glare at Sirius before lifting up either leg and dropping them onto the floorboards with a thump. His smile vanished.
"That was rude." He pointed out as I bit down on my laugh.
"What did you dream of last night, Mr. Potter?" She had fixated her attention on me once again. I eyed her warily, wondering why she wasn't her usual airy fairy self today.
"Um..." I felt my cheeks heat at the image of Lily wearing nothing but her jewellery. Sirius roared with laughter at my hesitation, throwing his head back and howling so loudly that even Marlene, Mary and Alice turned to look at us amusedly from the very back of the room.
"Fools." I heard Mary mutter.
I straightened up, nudging my glasses up the bridge of my nose with a knuckle as Sirius grinned at me, leaning forwards in his chair once again.
"Go on, James." He grinned, his eyes sparkling. "What did you dream of last night?"
"I'm afraid you don't want to hear the answer to that, Professor." I grinned at her sheepishly, avoiding everyone's eyes. Sirius snorted loudly, banging a fist against the table so vehemently that Peter was wrenched from his nap.
"I expect to see a full journal from the likes of our Headboy." Trelawney hissed, slapping her hand against the table top and giving poor Wormtail another fright. "Detention, Mr. Potter, 4 0'clock."
"What?" I yelped in surprise, staring up at her. "I- but what about Sirius?"
"He has at least filled in his journal." She said in a clipped tone, narrowing her eyes at me. "Which I assigned to you four weeks ago."
"I at least filled in my journal." Sirius grinned at me tauntingly, wiggling a single eyebrow.
"4 O'clock." Trewlawney snapped from his side.
I cursed, slumping back into my seat as she departed with a swish of her flowing robes.
"That was priceless." Sirius grinned, leaning back in his chair with folded arms. "So James, tell me about this dream."
"I actually received a nice blowjob, I'll have you know."
"Wicked." He responded mildly, giving Peter a side glance. "Wormtail, we need to find you a shagging partner."
He blinked at him. "A what?"
"You need to shag." Sirius repeated, giving me a pointed look. "He needs to shag. Doesn't he need to shag?"
I grinned as Wormtail turned to me. "You need to shag."
"What about you?" He retorted hotly, shoving his books into his bag. "You're the one with the hot girlfriend."
"Valid point, my friend." Sirius said as I too discarded all of my things and threw my bag over a shoulder resentfully. "I don't want to admit it, but Peter's right. Blowjob dreams won't satisfy you forever," he added, guffawing with Wormtail as I rolled my eyes and stood - right as the bell rung through he classroom, signalling to the end of the lesson.
"You've just got to bite the bullet and think fuck, It's now or never. Think about how long you've been fantasising about her tits, James. And I mean really visualise  -"
"Mr Black!" Professor Trelawney screeched over the ringing bell, the grin vanishing from Sirius's face. I ducked my head, hiding my smile as Peter snorted into his bag.
"Professor, I was only joking -" He tried to defend himself but was instantly cut off.
"You will join Mr Potter at 4 O'clock, my office."
"But -"
"No exceptions." She hissed, flapping a hand in his face. "I will not tolerate such crude language! Now, off you go!"
"Whinging cow." Sirius muttered to me out the corner of his mouth as we turned to leave, Peter's quiet laughter coming out in wheezes. Professor Trelawney gasped and abruptly seized the discarded textbook from our table, launching forwards to whack him over the arm.
"Ow!" Sirius covered himself with his weathered bag, cursing loudly as Wormtail and I sped off , falling over ourselves from laughing so hard.
"Blimey woman, are you mad?" He yelled over his shoulder as Trelawney whacked him again, her shrill voice following us down the trapdoor as we made a beeline down the circle staircase.
"4 O'clock!"