by acci0pr0ngs from archiveofourown.org
“I can’t take this anymore, I’ll never do it!” Lily exclaimed, throwing her hands up over her head and huffing in frustration. “Casting a patronus is impossible!”
“Come on, love, we’ve been practicing for only two days, we haven’t even reached this topic in class!” James protested, going over to his girlfriend and pulling her into a hug. He held her to his chest, laying his chin on top of her head, trying to calm her down.
It was a fresh July day, James and Lily stood in the girl’s childhood bedroom, while he tried to teach her how to cast a patronus charm. Seventh year was just a little over a month away, and with the stress of NEWTs just around the corner, she decided that it would be best to get the hardest charm out of her way before classes began. And that is how the pair ended up spending the last two days working on Lily’s patronus, although all she had managed so far were a few silver sparks that didn’t make up any recognizable shape - James thought it was still impressive for someone with so little practice.
Of course, James had mastered a full corporeal patronus by the end of fourth year, when he, Sirius and Peter finally became animagi. His took the shape of a beautiful, grand stag, which was also the reason for his nickname, Prongs . When Lily found out about the boys’ secret, she was in awe. Three fourteen year old boys had accomplished, by themselves, one of the most difficult magical processes in the wizarding world, and managed to keep it undercover. Becoming an animagus involved months of work and only very few wizards were able to complete it.
She was the only person outside of the marauders who knew, James told her when they began going out. The redhead already knew everything about Remus’ lycanthropy, he had opened up to her when they both became prefects. However, she could never imagine how his best friends - brothers would be a better word for the relationship the marauders shared - were helping him, taking such great risks without having a second thought about consequences.
When Lily and James finally became boyfriend and girlfriend, Sirius, Remus and Peter knew it was only a matter of time before he told her. James Potter had not a single doubt in his mind that he loved the girl unconditionally and would step in front of a curse for her. Actually, everyone knew this - everyone but Lily. Albeit being top of her class and an extremely bright witch, she was oblivious about James, which is why it took her so long to understand that the boy’s insistence in taking her out was a real sentiment, and not a prank. And even longer for her to realise that the flutters in her stomach everytime he did so were not irritation.
Two and a half months later, there they were. Although James hadn’t professed his love with every word, he believed Lily knew about it, but she was, again, clueless. She was maybe the only person in Hogwarts who couldn’t see it, and because of that, she was now constantly thinking about it. In just a few weeks of being James Potter’s girlfriend - Mrs. Prongs, as Sirius had put it -, the girl found herself in love. It was a real, burning feeling, one she had never felt before, but she was waiting for him to say it first, and he never did. So, one had no idea how deep the other felt about their relationship.
To James, it still felt like a dream. Lily Evans, the girl he met on the Hogwarts Express in 1971, fell in love in 1972, asked out on a date in 1973 (also the year of his first rejection), 1974, 1975 and 1976 and called his girlfriend in 1977 (also the year of his last rejection ever). When he told his friends she had accepted his invitation to the Hogsmeade weekend in May, they didn’t believe him until they got to the portrait of the fat lady and there she was, waiting for him. Just two weeks later, he asked her to be his girlfriend, and she said yes - it felt like the happiest moment of his life, although he didn’t know that moment would be topped by another “yes” in early 1979.
They spent every day of summer together. With an apparition license and the trace left behind with their 16 year old selves, it was hard to keep the couple separated, which also meant their friend group became one: it wasn’t just the marauders and the Gryffindor girls, it was James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Lily, Mary, Marlene and Dorcas (also a new addition to the friendships, as Marlene’s girlfriend, although she had just graduated).
Fleamont and Euphemia Potter loved Lily dearly and were always happy to have her over, but they spent most of their time in the Evans household. James was entranced by every muggle artifact in his muggleborn girlfriend’s house. He spent hours talking about science with her father - “How did you get to the moon? My broom would never fly that high!” - and world history with her mother - they analyzed important moments in muggle history and how wizards were involved -, and those sights made Lily so much happier than she could ever imagine. After Petunia moved out, Lily’s witch side was free. She could talk about Hogwarts, have her wizard boyfriend over for dinner and perform cleaning and repairing spells at home.
Because of that, it was possible for the extra charms practice lesson to take place in her bedroom.
“Easy for you to say! You learned this three years ago!”, she responded, her face cradled between his shoulder and his hand, while he ran his hand through her hair. Her beautiful red hair, that took James’ breath away.
“Maybe you just need a break. We’ve been doing this for almost two full days, you barely even slept”, he said, running his thumb over her cheekbone. “Hey, let’s try this - why don’t you tell me about which memory you’re using? Recalling the details might make it more vivid”, he suggested, as he sat on her desk chair and pulled her into his lap, still holding the girl in his arms.
“I tried a few memories, like the day I got my Hogwarts letter, but the one that seems to be working best is actually my first Hogwarts feast”, she told him.
“Really? That day? That’s the day you started hating me, you were in such a sour mood I was afraid of attending class the next day”, James recalled. On their first night at Hogwarts, James had already teased Severus Snape - and created his nickname, Snivellus -, set a dungbomb in the girl’s dormitory staircase and lost Gryffindor ten points for it. It was probably the first time a house began the year with negative points.
“Well, yes, I was thinking before all of that”, she grimaced. “Entering the Great hall, being sorted into Gryffindor, meeting Mary and Marlene. They were the first friends I made at Hogwarts, and before them the only real friend I had was Sev”, James flinched at the mention of her ex-best friend. “It was a great day, finally being able to let out this part of me that I didn’t even know existed but still felt so suppressed. And then, yeah, you kind of ruined some moments, but it was a great night.”
During sixth year, when James and Lily put their bickerings aside and actually started a nice friendship, they agreed to leave the past in the past. The girl forgave him for all his pranks and jokes because she saw how the boy had changed and matured, and her irritation and anger towards him slowly turned into desire and enamourment. And so, today, they talked about their past interactions as if they were other people’s stories: she hated him, he annoyed her, past tense. Today they were in love, present tense.
“What if you try a different memory? One with a little less grey ending? I switched out mine a few times. We have happy memories but the sentiment may have been bigger in some other situations and that’s why the magic could be giving you trouble”, he told her.
“Tell me about them. Maybe I need a break from my own head”, she asked, laying her head on his shoulder and breathing in his scent, which relaxed her more than she cared to admit.
He felt tingles in his spine at hearing her sighing against his neck, but he just wrapped his arms tighter around her, kissed her hair and gave into her wishes. “The first one was my letter. I had been waiting for it since I first learned what Hogwarts was, so the morning it came was better than any Christmas or birthday gift. I was so afraid I’d be a squib, even though I had been performing accidental magic since my first birthday”, he chuckled. “Then, detention with the marauders in the trophy room in second year - that was the day we figured out what Remus’ secret was and made a vow to be friends forever”, Lily smiled in his shirt, “Getting into the Quidditch team, and then the day I found out about Quidditch Captain, and…”, he trailed off, blushing. She looked up at him.
“And what?”, she asked.
“Nothing. It’s still that one”, he replied, trying to act nonchalant.
“No, it isn’t. I can see in your face that it isn’t”, she could read right through him. “Tell me”, she asked, and he could feel himself coming closer to tell the truth. “James, come on, I’m not going to make fun, it’s me”, she pleaded.
Those green eyes looking up at him searching for an answer were the breaking point. “My patronus memory today is the day you said yes to being my girlfriend.” He had never told anyone that, but it was, to James, the happiest moment of his life. The joy he felt that day still radiated through his body two and a half months later, and he couldn’ help but being honest with her.
Lily broke into a huge grin, and those damn flutters returned to her stomach. “That was a great day”, she said in response.
“It really was”, he felt relieved at her reaction. He was so afraid of saying something too soon and scaring her away, which is why he still hadn’t let her know the full extent of his feelings. He was so much in love, and he didn’t want to add that pressure to her.
“Ok, I’m ready to go again”, she said, getting up from his lap. All the reminiscing had her reconsidering her memory, and she had a new idea of a memory to try. “Can you just show me yours again, please? One last time, I promise.”
“Of course”, he smirked, and got up, too. With his eleven inch, mahogany, pliable wand pointed in front of him, he focused again on that day. Her smiles, her hugs, her soft caresses, her kisses . Pure happiness. “Expecto patronum!”, he exclaimed, and a brilliant silver stag soared into the room. Unlike Lily’s, James’ patronus actually took a long time to fade because of how strong it was, so it just ran around the room, lighting it up. “Okay, try now. Maybe they’ll even be friends”, he laughed.
She pointed her wand in front of her and closed her eyes. Her mind went to a different day than James’, instead she thought about their first kiss. After a date in Hogsmeade, they returned early to the castle for a walk around the lake. It was empty, all the students were enjoying their last hours in town, and they had the whole space to themselves. He had taken her hands in his and she felt immediately warm, the flutters performing cartwheels in her stomach. She knew it was coming, and when it did, it was as perfect as any of them had ever imagined. She felt it inside her to this day, and summoning that bliss, that happiness, she had the strength to let it out: “Expecto patronum!”
But what came out of her wand was something none of them could expect. James’ eyes widened and Lily almost fell to the floor due the force of her charm, as a silver doe made its way to the stag, still fully corporeal in the bedroom. They began playing together, rubbing their noses and chasing something Lily and James could not concentrate enough to see.
Lily looked over at James, who had the biggest smile she had ever seen in a person. He looked as if he was about to burst, but he was frozen in place. And so she broke into a huge smile of her own and ran over to him, throwing herself in his arms and kissing him with a passion that spoke every word they wanted to tell each other in those last months.
One of the strongest magics in the wizarding world just confirmed what they had been feeling for weeks, and maybe even longer before then. They were soulmates. They were the perfect person for each other, and the love they shared was as strong as it could be, but it would still grow stronger everyday.
When they broke apart, the smiles had not faded at all. They knew what they felt, and words were not necessary, but they used them anyway. “Fuck, Lily Evans, I fucking love you .” Generally, she would scold him for his language, but right now she had only one answer: “I love you, James Potter.”
And so they kissed again, and felt the love radiating through their bodies that would last them for the rest of their lives.