HUIT
the library!
THE WORKINGS OF time eluded Lily and Henry because before they knew it, their time had ended and James was waiting for her in the library. She reluctantly got up, packed her things and headed over to the library, but not before encouraging Henry to talk to Will again.
She made her way to the library to find James already there, sitting and reading by himself. She didn't know if she wanted him to see her quite yet, so she stood still, just observing. It was curious what had happened to him over the course of a few months. Perhaps it was because she'd gotten to know him, but it was like he'd grown up five years in a matter of months. He still held on to some of his boyish tendencies, but they were different — more controlled.
Unfortunately, her time observing was cut short as he looked up, feeling her eyes on him. Instead of smirking like she was certain he would, he just smiled and waved her over. She resigned herself to her situation as she headed over to the table. He had on his full uniform as it was quite chilly outside, but when she set her bag down, he took off his cloak.
"Hi Lily! Thanks for meeting me!" James said.
"Hi Potter," she said shortly.
She hated how nice he was being. However, when she looked over the contents of the table, she noticed books on unicorns and not Basilisks.
"Wait, Potter, we're doing the essay on basilisks, not unicorns," Lily said, confused.
"Oh, I finished that essay a couple days ago, it's Lysander who hasn't handed it in. But I asked Clearwater what the new essay topic was going to be and after a little bit of persuasion she said it was unicorns," James revealed with a knowing smile.
"What?" Lily asked.
"Unicorns. That's what we're studying next," James repeated.
"So you brought me here on false pretenses?" Lily asked him.
"Well technically you asked me, so you brought me here on false pretenses," James corrected with amused eyes.
She gave him a bored look as she regretted every life decision that she'd ever made that led her to the seat diagonal from him.
"So, Edwards, are you going to sit down or not?" James asked.
She huffed and sat down. Her favorite magical creatures were unicorns and he already had the books so she reasoned that she could get the work done, even if her partner was less than favourable.
"Did she say how long it had to be?" Lily asked, not looking up from the books.
"Two and a half feet minimum," James replied.
"Comprehensive?" Lily asked.
"Yup," James said.
"Alright," Lily muttered.
Lily reached for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and flipped to the section about unicorns. She could feel James sneaking glances at her, gauging what she would do. She sighed in defeat, knowing that she'd have to talk to him some time.
"This book is by Lorcan and Lysander's great-grandfather right?" Lily asked.
"Yeah on their dad's side," James replied.
"That's cool. I wish I had cool relatives," Lily said with a small smile.
"Me too," James joked.
She gave him an annoyed look and he gave her a goofy smile. She couldn't stay mad at him for long for a reason she couldn't explain. And as she kept looking at him, even though she fought it, a smile crept its way onto her face.
"There's that smile," James said softly.
She blushed.
"Don't hide it, you look gorgeous when you do," he said.
He then looked down and continued working. He looked down. He ended the conversation. What the hell was happening? Lily's face was flaming and she hated that he was the one to act calm and collected.
"Do you want to work on it together?" Lily asked tentatively.
James looked up at her question.
"Sure, I'm just reading over stuff and taking notes," he replied.
"Me too," she mumbled.
Lily shifted herself so she was next to James instead of diagonal from him, picked up a book and started taking notes.
"I can take notes on the properties of unicorn hair and blood and you can take them on their lifestyle and aging and then we can swap?" James asked.
"Sounds good!" Lily replied.
So they got to work, flipping through books, occasionally they went for the same one, but not often. They worked in a slightly uncomfortable silence, but instead of James sneaking looks at Lily, it was the other way around. Eventually he broke the silence.
"So how are you?" James asked.
"Busy," Lily replied.
"Nice," James muttered.
"I have a lot of plans this weekend, that's all," Lily explained.
"What kind of plans?" James asked.
"I think we have the same ones," Lily said.
"Studying tonight, the Thomas party tomorrow, Slughorn's party the next day and then also a shit load of homework?" James asked.
"Sounds about right!" Lily said as she laughed a little.
"They give us homework like they think we don't have social lives! And the worst part is, I can't ask my dad for test answers because he didn't go to seventh year!" James exclaimed.
"Oh yeah, what was he doing? Saving the Wizarding World?" Lily asked.
"I think so, I'm not entirely sure," James joked.
They laughed a bit together, but kept their voices lower so as to not be reprimanded by Madame Pince.
"But seriously, it must be so cool to have Harry Potter be your dad!" Lily exclaimed quietly.
"It has its benefits, but also its drawbacks," James replied as his smile lost its shine.
"Oh, right. Sorry," Lily muttered, noticing the falter in his demeanor.
"It's fine, Lily, honestly. I've learned to deal with it. I'm sure you have things you have to 'deal with' as well," James said.
"Yeah," Lily mumbled.
They smiled at each other. They understood.
"I can't believe I'm actually going to say this and I won't say it again and I'm regretting this already — you're not half bad Potter," Lily said.
James's eyes widened in shock and he looked at her for a moment. He then grinned.
"Oh yeah?" James asked.
"Don't make me take it back," Lily retorted.
"No take backs. That's a rule," James said playfully.
"According to who?" Lily asked.
"MI6," James replied.
"You know James Bond?" Lily asked.
"I'm a half blood, not socially inept. Also they are a branch of the British government in real life," James stated.
"Right. I forgot," Lily muttered.
She laughed a little. "Sorry."
"For that offense, I do believe you owe me something!" James exclaimed.
"I didn't offend you," Lily said, obviously not catching his drift.
"Calling me uncultured because of my blood status? Lily Edwards! What would Headmistress McGonagall say?" James asked playfully.
"I never said that!" Lily protested.
"But you implied it," James insisted.
"I did not!" Lily protested.
"Did too," James insisted again.
"I'm not getting into one of these spats," Lily huffed.
"I'll tell you how you can make it up to me," James said.
Lily rolled her eyes.
"How can I make it up to you Potter?" Lily asked.
"You can go on a date with me," he suggested.
"No," Lily grumbled.
"Fine, you can let me walk you out of the library and back to the dorms ... possibly to the kitchens for a snack," James suggested.
"Ok," Lily sighed.
James grinned. Lily tried to suppress a smile.
"Well, Edwards, now that's sorted, we should get on with our work," James announced.
Lily smiled and shook her head, turning back to the book she had been reading. They continued like that for quite a while: swapping books and gathering information. Though unicorns weren't the only thing that they were studying. James learned that Lily turned the parchment almost at 90 degrees when she wrote. Lily learned that James spun his quill around his fingers while he read.
They made the occasion chit chat, but not too much, Lily had set the precedent that this time was for studying, not talking. This was only reinforced by Madame Pince coming over to their table to quiet them down when James cracked a joke, causing Lily to laugh. Every once in a while though, James would nudge Lily's foot, which, to her dismay, made her smile. Sometimes she looked up, sometimes she didn't. Playground stuff.
"Well Mr. Potter, I do believe that we have both crafted sufficient essays and it's getting quite late," Lily announced as she slammed her book closed with a blasé smile.
Lily started to pack up her quills and parchment. She stacked the books that she needed to return to the shelves and looked down to see him still writing.
"One moment, I just have to finish a couple more sentences and then I can help you put away the books if you'd like?" James asked.
"Oh, thank you! That would be great!" Lily replied cheerily.
Lily sat back in her chair, waiting for James to finish. She drummed her fingers a little and when he showed clear annoyance at the action, she stopped and started to braid her hair loosely. He then suddenly slammed down his quill in completion and quickly packed up his things. He smiled up at her when he'd finished.
"I'll take the first half of the alphabet and you take the second?" He asked.
"Sounds good!" Lily replied.
"I'll meet you by the doors after?" James asked.
"Why?" Lily asked.
"Because you owe me remember?" James reminded her.
"Right, right. Sure," Lily said.
They headed off and swiftly shelved all of their study books and eventually met each other at the front. James held the door open for Lily.
"My lady," James said cordially.
Lily giggled a little and decided to play along.
"Why thank you my fine gentleman!" she exclaimed.
"But of course!" he said joyously.
They mocked the overly posh British accents on muggle TV and laughed to themselves at the absurdity.
"Honestly, is that seriously what the Americans think we sound like?" Lily asked.
"That or the cockney accent, it's either the very top or the very bottom of the classes that they refer to, never the normal people," James responded.
"That's the truth if I've ever heard it. But then again that's usually how things go," Lily sighed.
"So Lily Edwards, what do you like to do for fun?" James asked.
"I feel like you would know the answer to that considering you stalked me for years," Lily quipped.
"I did not stalk you," James protested.
"Oh really? It was just a coincidence that you hide in bushes near me or use your dad's invisibility cloak, oh yeah I know about that, at night to try and sneak in the Ravenclaw girl's dorm?" Lily asked.
"Uh ... yes, but as you can see, I haven't been successful!" James smiled sheepishly.
"I guess ... I don't know, I like to read a lot," Lily said.
"How Ravenclaw of you," James joked.
"We're not the smart house you know. Intelligence is not in our list of traits. I know a lot of Ravenclaws who are absolutely shit at school, but geniuses in other areas. It's like saying Hufflepuffs don't matter, Slytherins are evil and the only good house is Gryffindor. Like that's all bullshit!" Lily exclaimed.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to get you worked up ..." James stuttered, backtracking from his previous, careless statement.
"You wouldn't understand, you're a Gryffindor. The other houses have the monikers put on us. I feel the worst for Slytherins. Like SO many Slytherins are really kind and good people, it's just people like Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange and all of those other death eaters, who may I add were not all in Slytherin cause everyone to think they're evil and I fucking hate it! I was almost put in Slytherin for Merlin's sake! I was a hat stall," Lily exclaimed.
"Yeah I remember that. It took a while didn't it?" James asked.
"Not too long, but that's not the point," Lily said exasperatedly.
"The point is that Gryffindors are put on pedestals while the other houses are 'chopped liver' as the muggles say," James finished.
"Yeah, basically," Lily sighed.
"I'm sorry if you've ever felt pressure or anything like that. That must be awful," James said as he shoved his hands into his pockets.
"No it's alright," Lily mumbled.
"But it's not alright. All of this stuff is complete bullshit! And we say that we're better now, and yeah we are, but Hogwarts projects everyone feeling accepted, but we're still not there," James exclaimed.
Lily beamed at James. He went red in the face.
"I mean that's exactly it," Lily said.
James was about to say something when Lily Luna Potter came bounding down the hallway.
"James! James! James! James! James!" she yelled.
James looked up to see his little sister and smiled a bit. Lily's wide grin was replaced with a warm smile.
"Hiya Lil!" he exclaimed.
"Hello Lily Luna!" Lily said kindly.
"Oh Lily! You're with James! You guys are together!" Lily Luna said joyously.
Lily and James blushed a little bit at the insinuation.
"No darling, well yes, but not in that way," Lily said.
Lily Luna was visibly a little disappointed.
"Oh, anyway, not why I'm here! James! You know how I was super nervous about making the Sleeping Draught and you helped me study? Well I just made it and I got the best marks in my class!" Lily exclaimed.
James lit up like the sun. He was animated, his eyes widened and had the biggest smile Lily had ever seen on his face.
"Really? Lil! I'm so proud of you!" James exclaimed.
Their bodies collided into a hug. More like a bear hug. In his excitement, James picked up Lily Luna a little bit and spun her around.
"I have the coolest little sister ever!" James said, but it was muffled slightly by her hair.
"James!" Lily Luna laughed, her smile was just as big as his. "Put me down! You always do this!"
"Because I'm a proud older brother, that's why!" James protested.
Lily felt the butterflies spring up again while watching the interaction. But they had doubled. Instead of two, there were four. This time, they were hard to ignore. They went on a double date and relished in the new found company. She was speechless and only watched as the two siblings interacted.
"Ok well, I have to go. I promised to meet Laura by the Great Hall before curfew. But I just wanted to tell you!" Lily Luna said as she started to rush off before pausing. "It was nice seeing you Lily!"
Lily Luna winked at the two and then headed off. James grinned after the girl with his hands on his hips.
"She's the coolest, I'll tell you. I act like I'm cool, but she's actually cool. She gets it from my mum," he said.
Lily could not speak. Never ever had she met a boy who looked like that and had that many abs who spoke about his mum and sister in such a way.
"I ... I ... I bet ... your mum's the coolest! Wasn't she a chaser for the Holyhead Harpies?" Lily asked.
"Yeah! And an all-star at that! Puddlemore United and the Montrose Magpies tried to poach her. The Montrose bloody Magpies! They're the best in the league! But she stayed with her team because her and aunt Gwen were so close," James explained.
"That's really awesome of her!" Lily replied.
"Yeah! And my dad's an auror, well ... he was ... now he's Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. They're awesome together. What about your parents? What do they do?" he asked.
"Oh well, one's a pastry chef, he owns a chain of bakeries and the other is an anesthesiologist," she said carefully.
"Ok so when I said I was knowledgeable on muggle stuff, I meant limited," James admitted.
"Well baking is where — " Lily started to explain.
"I know what baking is," James retorted.
"Oh, sorry, well Anesthesiology is basically — like ... you know the pain relieving potions that Madam Pomfrey gives you?" Lily asked and James nodded. "Well, in the muggle world, we have those, but they are much more dangerous if you take too much — "
"Dangerous how?" James asked.
"You could die," Lily replied.
"Oh," James muttered.
"Yeah, so Anesthesiologists are in charge of administering anesthesia — the muggle equivalent to a pain relieving potion — among other things," Lily said.
"Oh, that's cool!" James exclaimed.
"Yeah! It just means that he smells like alcohol wipes a lot," Lily said with a laugh.
"But I thought your dad was a pastry chef?" James asked, confused.
Lily's eyes widened at her mistake. She felt her fight or flight response starting up.
"Are we almost at the dorms yet?" Lily asked quickly.
The gears in his head turned as it all clicked. The mystery around her home life, her diverting the conversation whenever it came up, how uncomfortable she was around Slughorn and his nosy habits. How couldn't he have realized it?
"Lily, you know, it's wicked that you have two dads," he said carefully.
Lily stopped walking as suddenly, her fuzzy brain was clear as day. The storm clouds had vanished and the sun peaked out — allowing her to think. Allowing her to breathe.
"Really?" she asked, not looking at him.
"I mean, yeah, why wouldn't it be?" James asked.
"I ... uh ... yeah I guess it wouldn't. I just ... even though I've been in the Wizarding World for six years, I'm still not ... you know ..." Lily admitted as she turned to face him.
"Quite sure on how people will react? That's understandable. I mean yeah, six years is a long time, but not that long. And you haven't really experienced anything outside of Hogwarts so yeah, it's expected I guess," James said cooly.
"Oh, well, thank you for being cool with it," Lily said as she fumbled with the ends of her sleeves.
"You don't have to thank me. Honestly, heteronormativity is bollocks," James said with a scrunched nose.
Lily looked at him with surprise as the corners of her lips turned up.
"What!?! Some of my friends aren't straight and so I decided to read up on LGBTQ+ rights so I could understand a little bit better what they face everyday. The library has a pretty big section on it," James defended.
The butterflies swarmed her ribcage as her ears started to buzz. She wanted to simultaneously kiss his cheek and gag at the new sensation. So, she decided to do the only logical thing — suppress it — like she did with most of her emotions.
"You read outside of class?" She teased.
"Only that one time — don't think that reading is cool or something," James joked.
"Potter! How could you hurt me so?" Lily teased.
James started stuttering, obviously having forgotten that it was one of her favorite hobbies.
"S...so back to my question earlier, other than reading — which is not that bad at all, in fact it's probably one of the best hobbies on the planet — anything else?" James asked.
Lily laughed lightly at his interjection and she couldn't wipe the grin from her face.
"Um ... I guess I like to paint and draw. And I cook and bake like my papa. I also like to travel and stuff. I love the woods. I find them to be very calming," she replied.
"Oh that's cool. Ly loves camping. He's forced his family to go camping for each of his birthdays since forever," James said.
"Merlin! That's brilliant! I wish I could travel more! When I graduate, I want to travel the world and experience culture outside of my own," she replied.
"That's wicked Lily!" James exclaimed.
Just then, they reached their dorm. James said the password and they disappeared into their rooms. When Lily closed her door, she paced, mulling over the conversations that had transpired. As she changed into her pajamas, she couldn't stand still. Maybe, Merlin forbid, should she give him a second chance?
Before she could start overthinking everything, Lily did something that she never usually did: she acted on impulse. And so, she found herself standing outside of James's door. She took a deep breath and knocked softly. She heard him get up from his bed, she assumed, and walk over to the door. He opened it.
"Are you ok?" he asked, clearly confused as to why she'd knocked on his door.
"Uh ... yeah ... sorry ... I shouldn't have bothered you," she said as she turned to leave.
"No, no ... it's ok," James said as he caught her hand. "You wanted something, you never act on impulse."
She chuckled softly
"For you I did," she muttered.
She blushed as it slipped out.
"I... um ... shit ... I just wanted to say thank you for talking about all that with me and for being so open and I know that you're going to say that I don't need to thank you, but I'm still going to. Because that was really cool of you. And you're a pretty great guy. I misjudged you," Lily replied.
She smiled. James was blushing furiously, but trying to hide it. Then she did something that he never thought would happen. She hugged him. She buried her face in the crook of his next and he thought he felt her lightly kiss it. He took in the scent of her lavender shampoo, he felt how soft her hair was. He felt her hands clutch the material of his cotton shirt.
He could feel how warm her body was. He could feel the rising and falling of her chest with her breath. He could feel her exhale when she first initiated the hug. He carefully put one hand on her upper back and the other on the back of her head, hesitantly as if asking for permission. When she didn't object, he pulled her closer and he felt her smile. He smiled.
The hug ended all too soon.
"I'll ... uh ... I'll see you in the morning?" She asked while tucking her hair behind her ears.
"Definitely," he replied with a grin.
She turned to go, but his voice stopped her.
"Are we friends now?" James asked.
"Yeah, I'd say we are," Lily said with a nod.
"Wicked. I'll see you tomorrow," James replied, his smile growing.
"Bonne nuit!" Lily called over her shoulder.
Lily closed her door and sighed as she rested the back of her head to it and smiled to herself. Maybe ... no she shook her head, discarding any thought of them being more than what they were and carried on through the evening.