#fel writes jily

[thejilyship]

I think this is the last of them for now! Five minute fics are fun, and I forgot how much I like my little jily prompt generator! 

wc: 500

"Lily." James said, unbuttoning the top button of his shirt. "Oh! You're awfully close- are we, are we going to kiss now?"

"You wish." Lily said, as she brushed her hair back behind her ear.

Things had not really gone according to any of the plans Lily had come up with before they set out to do rounds tonight. Of course, most of her plans had included rounds being particularly dull, nothing exciting happening, no one throwing any kind of potions at them.

“It’s really starting to burn now.” James said, his fingers trembling a bit as he continued to work at the buttons of his shirt.

Her plans especially didn’t involve hiding in a broom cupboard with James Potter while they both stripped out of their clothes to avoid getting burned by the potion.

“Hurry up and get your shirt off!” She said, ripping her own cloak off and throwing it to the floor. She started running her hands up and down her sides, checking for any more of the potion. The poor sixth year Ravenclaw hadn’t expected to see anyone on her walk from the extra potions room to the classroom where she was going to store her end of term project.

“I can’t even see the buttons.” James cursed under his breath and Lily continued patting down her clothes.

“We should have ran to the loo. Why did we get in the cupboard?”

“It was what was closest and the girl looked like she was going to start crying.”

Lily watched as James’ hands continued to tremble and then she swatted them away and started undoing the buttons for him. “You not moving fast enough.” She said when she felt his eyes on her. “You’re going to get burned.”

“Right.” His voice is lower.

“Don’t do that. You got a caldron of potion dumped on you. I’m helping.”

“I know.”

“Good.” She finished with the buttons and James stepped back as much as he could to pull the shirt off. It joins her cloak on the floor. His undershirt has a significant blotch of the potion on it too, and he’s quick to add that to the pile. Lily has to turn away from him to hide her blush.

“Alright, now we should find you something to transform into a shirt.” She looked on the wall behind him when the door to the cupboard is opened.

A completely flabbergasted Professor McGonagall stood in the opening and the three of them just stared at one another for a long time.

“It’s not what it looks like.” Lily blurted out.

“I already ran into Priyanka.” Their professor stepped back. “Are the two of you alright?”

“Yes, professor.” James crossed his arms over his chest and tried to turn so his shoulder was facing the older woman.

“James took the brunt of it. He probably needs to go to the hospital wing.”

“Alright. And why a broom cupboard?”

“Yes, we were asking ourselves that question too.”

#jily #jple #jily drabble #fel writes jily

[women-inthe-sequel]

“don’t you dare tell me you love me!”

also on ao3

--

“Don’t you dare tell me you love me, James Potter!”

“Why not?” James asked, grinning down at her like the arrogant prat he was. His glasses started to slide down his nose, but he didn’t move to adjust them. “Lily Evans, I —”

“No!” 

This time, Lily took matters into her own hands. She put her palm over his mouth so the rest of his sentence was muffled, but she knew what he meant to say. His eyes gleamed as he leaned closer and pressed what felt like a kiss into her hand. 

“Don’t,” she said again more softly. 

James escaped from her hand by turning his head. With a small sigh, her head fell back slightly against his pillow when he trailed kisses to the inside of her wrist and hovered over her thumping pulse. 

“Why not?” he whispered, his voice unfairly husky. 

It made a pleasant fluttering — the very thing she was trying to avoid — start somewhere around her stomach. She wanted to let her head fall back and throw an arm over his shoulder, but it was also enough to remind her of what she had to do. 

“Because,” Lily answered, “if you say that, I won’t want to get out of bed.”

“And why would I be upset about that?”

“There’s a Quidditch game happening in about half an hour, and you happen to be the captain of one of the teams playing.”

“Half an hour,” James mumbled against her skin. In another instant, he moved his lips to the other pulse point on her throat. “Plenty of time to tell you that I —”

“No.” 

James pulled away immediately, his forehead creasing in confusion. “All right, Evans?”

His glasses had somehow found their way back up the bridge of his nose, but he squinted behind them anyway. With hands on either side of her, he pushed himself off of her, though their legs remained tangled. 

He looked so perfect in that moment, sunlight filtering through his ruffled hair, which was the kind of messy he couldn’t achieve with his own fingers. 

Now it was her turn to grin.

“That’s not close to enough time to do what I’ll want to do if you say that to me.”

Groaning, James buried his face in her neck and, perhaps for the first time in his life, grumbled about playing Quidditch. 

Lily indulged herself by threading her fingers through his hair. His body fit against hers as it had for most of the night. The vibration of his mouth against her skin inspired a series of shivers that she knew would last through the sharp bite of the autumn air and length of the match, even if both Seekers refused to do her the favor of catching the Snitch quickly. 

She could wait.

“I love you too, James.”

And, perhaps, they had a little more time.

#marieka writes #hp #jily #james potter #lily evans #tumblr prompt #canonverse #fel #established jily

[remywrites5]

           Remus looked at himself in the mirror as he brushed his teeth. He really needed to get more sleep, the bags under his eyes had taken up permanent residence there, and his roots were starting to come in. He spat into the sink and then rinsed his toothbrush off. When he glanced back up at himself, there was the same harrowing reflection staring back. He needed to at least re-dye his hair pink or else pick a different colour.

           He’d dyed it pink on a whim after his last breakup. He thought maybe going from his usual tawny curls to something else would make him more exciting, more cheerful, more something. “Why are you never smiling?” Benjy had asked Remus all the time. As if Remus should just constantly be smiling like some kind of insane person.

           Remus walked over to his desk and flopped into his rolling chair. He sat with one leg bent up towards his chest and hunched over his tablet. The thing was so old it was practically a dinosaur. The program he used to draw on was always crashing – causing Remus to do almost constant saving. Drawing web comics wasn’t exactly the most lucrative use of his art degree, but it paid the bills.

           There was some sort of ungodly sound outside and then the distinct clatter of something breaking. Remus jumped to his feet in surprise, wondering if someone had climbed up to his flat to murder him. Two shadows appeared at his door and then one of them knocked. Well, if they were murderers, they were of the polite variety.

           Remus walked over tentatively, his pen for his tablet still in his hand as his only means of defense. He figured at the least maybe he could poke a few eyes.

           “I don’t think anyone is home.”

           “He has to be home. I haven’t seen him leave the house in days.”

           “Hmm, paying close attention, are we?”

           “Shut up, Jamie.”

           “Ow!”

           Confused, Remus opened the door to find two guys standing on the other side. The dark-skinned one with glasses immediately smiled, while the pale one with long dark hair kept his face neutral.

           “Hiya! I’m James and this is Sirius,” James said, moving what was in his hand so that he could wave. “We run the bakery downstairs. We just came to introduce ourselves and bring you these!”

           Remus took the container when James offered it, still a little bit stunned by the whole thing, and opened it up. Inside was an assortment of baked goods. “Oh. Thank you,” Remus said, a little bit at a loss for words. “This is really nice.”

           Remus was suddenly struck by the fact that two very attractive men were on his doorstep and Remus was wearing the same hoodie he’d worn for three days. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d put on deodorant. Embarrassed beyond belief, Remus felt his cheeks flush.

           “Aren’t you going to say anything?” James prompted his friend, shoving at Sirius’ shoulder.

           “Hi,” Sirius said, running his fingers through his shoulder-length hair.

           Remus swallowed thickly and quickly put the container of goodies down. He didn’t trust his shaking hands not to drop them. “Nice to meet you.”

           “Whoa, are you an artist?” James asked, noticing the pen in Remus’ hand. “Do you think you could design something for us?”

           “James, don’t impose,” Sirius said, crossing his arms over his chest.

           “I’m not imposing!” James insisted, turning and shooting Sirius a look. “We’ll pay for the work. It’s just right now our menus are so bland! They don’t really say ‘Padfoot and Prongs’ Patisserie.”

           “That’s a fancy name,” Remus said, tucking the pen behind his ear so that he could shove his hands in his pockets. Suddenly they’d gotten all sweaty.

           “Yeah well, this wanker is half French, so he wouldn’t let me call it a pastry shop,” James said teasingly. “By the way, you haven’t told us your name.”

           “Oh,” Remus said, realizing that James was right. He shuffled his feet slightly and kind of wished James and Sirius would leave. He hadn’t had such a long social interaction in months. This was getting to be a bit much, and James’ enthusiasm was draining. “Remus. Remus Lupin.”

           “So do you think you can design something for our menus?” James asked excitedly, his hazel eyes big behind his glasses.

           “Um, sure, I’ll take a stab at it,” Remus offered, even though he kind of didn’t want to. He had deadlines to meet and he was already a little behind. But then James and Sirius had brought him baked goods without having even met Remus before. Besides, how hard could designing a menu be?

           “Great!” James said, slapping Sirius on the back. “Isn’t that great, Padfoot?”

           Sirius sighed. “Sure is.”

           Remus pulled out his wallet and handed James one of his business cards. It had been Benjy’s idea that Remus get them. This was only the second Remus had even given out. The first one had been given the Benjy. What a waste of money.

           “My email is at the bottom,” Remus explained, pointing to it on the card. “Just send me the details of what you want and I’ll work something up.”

           Sirius tilted his head to the side. “What are your rates?”

           “Um…” Fuck, Remus hadn’t exactly thought about it. He knew what he charged per page on his web comic but this was completely different. “How about you just, um, let me get a free baked good from time to time and we’ll call it even?”

           “Of course!” James said, nodding emphatically.

           “Hold on,” Sirius interjected, putting his hand up to stop James. “For the rest of time you want free shit from us? Just for a doodle?”

           “Sirius –“ James cut in, his face slightly aghast at his friend’s harsh tone.

           “I – I won’t abuse it or anything,” Remus said, feeling his face heat. Christ, the way Sirius was looking at him made him nervous. “It won’t be every day or anything like that.”

           Sirius huffed and turned his face away. “Fine. But I reserve the right to cut you off.”

           “Okay.”

           “Perfect,” James said, tugging on Sirius’ arm. “We should get back downstairs. We’ve still got a lot to do before we open. I’ll email you later, Remus!”

           “Sounds good,” Remus said, waving after them as they started down the fire escape. The moment he closed the door, he felt like he could breathe a little easier. He didn’t know what Sirius’ problem was, but the fewer interactions Remus had with him the better.

                                                           ***

           Remus finished up the latest update for his comic and sat back with a groan. It was already 10:30 at night and Remus hadn’t had any dinner. For once he had been in a good flow and hadn’t wanted to stop. Now his stomach was so empty it hurt. He couldn’t remember eating breakfast either.

           He walked over to where he had left the baked good James had dropped off and carried the container into bed. He sat munching on them as he scrolled through his phone. He had eaten about half of them when he remembered James was supposed to contact him. He pulled up his email and sure enough there was a message from James Potter.

           Apparently they wanted something kind of classy involving a buck and a black dog. Remus was intrigued, and popped a custard crème into his mouth. Their stuff really was mouth-wateringly good. Remus was glad he had asked for pastries instead of cash. While he could use the money, he tended to live on instant noodles and bacon sandwiches. Having something from the bakery from time to time would be a real treat.

                                                           ***

           Remus’ flat was on the top floor of the building and it meant he had almost exclusive rooftop access. He hadn’t done much with it except put out a table and two chairs. He really only went out there to smoke anyway. He stood by the side of the roof with his elbows on the ledge, watching the street below, his cigarette resting between his lips.

           Sirius exited the bakery and walked down the side alley of the building. He seemed to be having a heated discussion with someone on the phone. Remus felt himself tracking Sirius with his eyes, even though he didn’t mean to.

           “Damn it, Reg, I already told you –“ Sirius seemed to be cut off by the other person on the phone. “I don’t care if they cut me off. I’m not going on a blind date that my mum set up with a woman! I haven’t lived in that house for five years and she still thinks she can control me. Now she’s even roping you into it.”

           Remus felt a bit bad for eavesdropping, but the street was relatively quiet at that time of day, so it was difficult not to hear. Remus wondered why Sirius had said woman like that, as if he were offended by being set up with someone female. Remus didn’t want to get his hopes up that Sirius might also be gay. Thinking that was a dangerous route to go down. He tried to finish up his cigarette and go back inside before he was spotted, but it seemed Sirius was done with his conversation. He dropped his phone by his side and looked up at the sky. His eyes seemed to immediately land on Remus and Remus felt his cheeks heat up in response. He took a slow drag of his ciggy and let it out, letting his eyes drift away as if he hadn’t just been staring.

           He wasn’t wholly surprised when he heard footsteps making their way up the fire escape. He finished his cigarette and lit another one. He usually didn’t chain smoke like this, considering all the nicotine often made him dizzy, due to how little he ate most days. He turned when Sirius made it onto the roof and somehow managed to meet Sirius’ accusing stare.

           “How much of that did you hear?” Sirius asked, slipping his phone into his pocket.

           Remus scratched his cheek with his free hand. “Uh, the whole thing?”

           Sirius sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Can I bum one of those?”

           Remus opened the pack and shook one out towards Sirius. Sirius slid it between his lips and leaned in when Remus flicked the lighter to light it. Remus hadn’t noticed it the first time they met, but Sirius had grey eyes. Remus had never seen someone with eyes like that before.

           Remus had no idea what to say, so he just continued smoking, watching Sirius out of his peripheral vision. It was a little awkward, but not unbearably so, and it seemed Sirius was happy to smoke in silence. Sirius’ apron was covered in flour, and what Remus hoped was jam of some kind. not something more nefarious based on its red colour. The last thing he needed was a Sweeney Todd situation in his building.

           Remus and Sirius finished their cigarettes at the same time and both killed them in the ashtray. They were standing so close, should to shoulder, and Remus had no idea why that made his heart race. He turned towards Sirius in order to say his goodbyes, and suddenly Sirius was even closer.

           “Well, I should –“

           Remus didn’t finish that sentence as Sirius was leaning in. He was moving with intent and his lips just barely brushed against Remus’. Remus gasped, the sound getting swallowed up as Sirius’ lips pressed more firmly against Remus’. Remus let himself enjoy it for a moment, Christ, it had been so long since he’d kissed someone, before he brought himself back to his sense.

           “What are you doing?” he demanded, pushing Sirius away.

           Sirius’ eyes searched Remus’ for a moment and then he took another step back. “Fuck, I – I’m sorry. I don’t even have an excuse.”

           Remus grinned as he watched Sirius flounder for a moment. He decided to let Sirius off the hook. It was just a little kiss after all. “Hey, I’m almost done with the menu design. Do you want to see it?”

           The tension in Sirius’ shoulders ebbed at Remus’ offer. “Yeah, sure.”

           Remus told Sirius to sit down at the little table while Remus went inside to get his tablet. He brought it out and sat down across from Sirius. He opened up the menu design and placed it in front of Sirus. He was actually a little nervous as Sirius looked it over. It was a buck and a dog running through a forest surrounded by berry bushes. James had explained in the email that their homemade jam was a huge selling point for them and they wanted the menu to emphasize that.

           “It’s not too dark, is it?” Remus asked, chewing his bottom lip.

           “No, I think it’s perfect.” Sirius glanced up, and for the first time Remus had seen, Sirius smiled. “We’re doing a soft opening in two days. You should come.”

           “Will I have to pay?” Remus teased, resting his chin in his hand and looking at Sirius.

           Sirius laughed. “Fine, you don’t have to pay. What kind of pastry do you like best? I’ll make it for you.”

           Remus considered it for a moment. “Jammy dodgers.”

           Sirius’ grin widened. “You got it.”

                                                             ***

           Remus went to the soft opening, even though he hadn’t been around that many people in a while, and it put his social anxiety through the roof. He met James’ wife, Lily, and their son, Harry. He also met quite a few of James and Sirius’ closest friends. Even though everyone was very nice, Remus couldn’t help feeling a bit like an outsider.

           However, Remus didn’t miss the way that his jammy dodgers seemed to be the only ones with little hearts in the middle. That knowledge alone was enough to make him stick around.

                                                           ***

           Remus was in trouble. His web comic was about a werewolf and a vampire that fell in love with each other. The werewolf character struck a striking resemblance to Remus, although the character had Remus’ original hair colour. The idea had come to him based on his name. The vampire character, however, had short dark hair and red eyes. Yet, whenever Remus found himself drawing him, his hair seemed to be getting progressively longer for no discernable reason and his eyes seemed to be grey.

           It didn’t help that Remus saw Sirius pretty much every day. During his lunch break, Sirius would bring up something from the bakery, and they would sit together at the little table and eat and smoke. Remus had gotten to know Sirius, little by little, cracking away at Sirius’ shell to the gooey center underneath. Despite his first impression of Sirius, and his original cold exterior, Remus found the man himself was mushy and romantic and sweet.

           Remus told Sirius about the fact that he’d always meant to make a little rooftop garden, but as of yet hadn’t really gotten around to buying any plants. Sirius showed up the next day with a little tree.

           “It’s called Dogwood,” he’d said with a knowing grin. He had continued to buy Remus several flowers and plants since then. He’d even brought some herbs for cooking, even though Remus insisted he didn’t really cook. Every time Sirius and Remus found a place for the new plant, Sirius would get that same smile. A smile that had started to cause butterflies in Remus’ stomach.

           There was no talk about the conversation Remus had overheard or of the kiss they’d shared. Remus figured both topics were off limits.

           Maybe that’s why he couldn’t get Sirius out of his head.

                                                           ***

           Remus dropped his head back and groaned. “I told you if you didn’t stop me I would eat all six éclairs.”

           “An impressive feat,” Sirius said, grinning behind his wine glass as he took a sip.

           “I hate you,” Remus said, scrubbing his hand over his face. He was starting to sweat a bit from overeating. “I’m going to put on so much weight.”

           “You could use some more meat on your bones,” Sirius responded with a shrug. “You barely eat as it is.”

           “I was right, this is a Sweeney Todd situation, you’re fattening me up to put me in a pie,” Remus bemoaned, clutching his stomach. That last éclair had really done him in.

           “We don’t even serve meat pies at the bakery,” Sirius said in amusement. “I think you’re safe.”

           “I’m not buying it,” Remus said, staring at Sirius accusingly. “Why else would you bring me all these sweets?”

           Sirius glanced away, twirling his wine glass between his fingers. “For an excuse to come see you.”

           “Oh,” Remus said, a blush rising to his cheeks. “Really?”

           Sirius stood up and walked over to Remus, placing his hand on the back of Remus’ chair, and leaning into him. “So, I made a mess of our first kiss. Think you might let me try again?”

           “Um.” Remus stared up at Sirius and let out a shaky breath. “Yes. W-we can do that.”

           Sirius slid his fingers through Remus’ curls until his hand came to rest at the back of Remus’ head. Then he guided their lips together into a soft kiss. Remus opened his mouth first, and Sirius was quick to follow suit, their tongues meeting in a mixture of chocolate, wine and cigarettes. Remus eagerly chased the taste from Sirius’ mouth.

           Sirius pulled back after a few life-altering moments. Remus felt his eyes flutter open to find that Sirius was smiling at him. God, Remus loved it when Sirius smiled. “I could eat you up, I really could,” Sirius sang softly.

           Remus busted out laughing. “Do not sing Sweeney Todd at me when you’re trying to be romantic.”

           Sirius chuckled and pulled Remus up into a hug. “Noted. Should I just tell you I love you then?”

           Remus hugged Sirius back, burying his face in Sirius’ neck, ignoring the deep blush currently on his face. “I-I think that would work.”

           “Well?” Sirius asked expectantly, turning his face and pressing a kiss to Remus’ forehead.

           Remus hugged Sirius tighter. “I love you too.”

           Remus stood there, in a moment so like a fairy tale that he didn’t want it to end, wishing he could freeze time. He stood in the moonlight, embracing the man he had come to adore, surrounded by all the plants Sirius had bought just for him. It felt like more than Remus deserved, but he wasn’t about to let it go. He could only hope the next moment would be just as sweet.  

#wolfstar #I write things #fluff #bakery au #can you tell I just read The Baker On the First Floor? #sirius black x remus lupin #I don't know why there's so many sweeney todd references in this #they just kind of happened #long post #background jily #pink haired Remus inspired by Fel #artist Remus #baker Sirius #smoking

[casualmaraudering]

Jily’s first date maybe?

somehow this turned a little bit angsty and also there’s wolfstar cause somehow they creep into anything i write whoops

***

James is pretty positive he’s about to combust. Or die. Or actually both, because combustion would most likely kill him.

Either way - combustion or sudden heart attack, he might die of happiness because he’s on a date with Lily Evans. 

He’s kinda waited for this for four (ish?) years now. Maybe not continuous four years, because sometimes other things took priority - Sirius running away had his attention for a good bit, and then last year his Moony-centric crisis, followed by the two twats finally dating; the honeymoon period and the sheer happiness he felt for his brother and best friend made him forget he’s longing for Lily.

But now here they are, middle of seventh year. In Hogsmeade. On a date. And James is ready to combust from the joy he’s feeling.

And the date is going really well, too. Lily holds his hand, and chatters happily about what she did over the winter holidays, even asks James about Quidditch and lets him rant about the new tactics he’s come up with - it turns out Lily, while not the best player, really likes Quidditch, and so they spend a good portion of their time in The Three Broomsticks talking over the new member of The Holyhead Harpies. 

“Are those Remus and Sirius?” Lily says in a hushed whisper, nodding towards the corner of the Inn. And sure enough, when James turns he sees Remus and Sirius sitting at one of the small couches, surrounded by a bunch of other Seventh Years. Though neither of them seems even slightly interested in talking, judging by the fact they’re, of course, glued to one another. “I thought they were over the honeymoon period.”

“They’ve never quite left it. Though the hols just made it worse, honestly. Pads met Moony’s family, and they liked him, apparently. Pads basically interpreted that as a blessing for them to marry, so they’re back to being sickeningly cute.”

“Are they?” Lily asks, not taking her eyes from the couple, though her expression drops.

“Are they what?”

“Getting married?” 

James sighs. “Sirius said he’s thinking of asking. But don’t tell Remus. It’s supposed to be a surprise and all.”

Lily turns her face to the window. James puts his hand on hers, rested on the table. Her mouth twitches in a sad smile.

“I’m just… we really do live in the worst time possible, don’t we? Frank and Alice got married this year, and now Sirius and Remus, too. It’s sad to think everybody is so afraid of dying and never having a chance of marrying that they do it now, straight after hitting 17.” 

James nods. He gets it, he really does. At first he was outraged when Sirius breached the subject - what would their parents think if Sirius suddenly came home and announced he’s getting married, when he’s just turned 17 a few months ago? But then they talked, and Sirius said he’s scared shitless, and that if anything happened, that would give them some sort of closure, and protection. Being able to see each other in case of emergencies, and Remus getting Sirius’s vault key in case of the worst.

James doesn’t like to think about the war - he fucking hates it, in fact. But it’s getting closer by the day. Soon, they’ll be out of Hogwarts, and it’s the right time to think of what to do about it.

He can’t help but wonder if he and Lily will ever get a chance of having a future together. Marriage, and maybe, one day, children? Will they live to see that?

“I hate that too,” he mumbles, his hand gently rubbing the soft skin of her hand. “But… I guess that’s a good reason to fight. Right? So people don’t have to be scared into marriage anymore.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” she smiles at him, and really, that’s one of the few reasons why James wants to fight. There’s his friends, of course. Sirius and their parents. And Lily… James wants her to live and be happy. He wants to keep on seeing this very smile. 

“Will you come with me? To the wedding?”

“Has Sirius even got a ring yet?” Lily laughs.

“Okay, no, he hasn’t. But once he gets his head out of his ass and asks, will you? As my date?”

She squints her eyes at him with a playful expression.

“I’d honestly be offended if Remus wouldn’t invite me in general. I’m pretty sure I’ll be maid of honour. Or I dunno, his best woman.”

“Well, then you have to be my date. Best man and best woman, it’s perfect.”

She giggles.

“You’re really not so bad, Potter.”

#thank u for the request luv!!!! smooches #jily #james potter #lily evans #the marauders #jily fanfiction #my tag #fel writes #wolfstar #cause im me and they sorta ambushed me #i didnt mean for it to be angsty but something went wrong

[the-dream-team]

Im here to fangirl over your fem!jily fic. I absolutely love that you managed to give me the nostalgic, canon, jily fic vibes, while also serving me queer girls in love. Absolutely perfect. 100/10. 1938 gold stars.

FEL. Stop that, you are the shiniest gem in the treasure chest ❤️ My favorite part of writing fem!jily is working in classic canon jily traits in new and wacky ways, so I’m extremely happy that came across 🥰 Thank you for these kind words, for hosting fem!jily February, and everything you do for this special ship 💕

#what the heck fel!! #you are my fem!jily hero #and my regular jily hero as well let’s be honest #🥺💕

[mppmaraudergirl]

25 and 27!

thank you fel! I hope you had a stupendous birthday! :)

25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

Never relevant to any story, really but: James writes left-handed but throws the Quaffle with his right (this, I think, would be a product of growing up in the 60s/70s). He borders on ambidextrous, very agile hands (ahem), except if you ask him to use his right hand to write, you’ll never be able to read it.

27. Who is the most stressful character you’ve ever written? Why?

I hate writing Snape. In my most recent WIP that featured him, his scenes were always what held me up from finishing the chapter. I never wrote from his POV but he’s so unpleasant. I like living in my fantasy Jily world where he’s off somewhere, alone, crying, drowning, whatever.

[thejilyship]

I’m gonna be writing some 5-minute fics from the jily prompt generator that I made ages ago and have never used before now. Here is the first one!

prompt is bolded

wc: 380

"James," Lily said as she nudged him with her elbow, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"How am I looking at you?" James asked, and the smile she gave him felt like a reward.

They had been sitting side by side in the library for the last hour or so, working on their potions essay that was due at the end of the week, and James had found himself distracted by Lily more than usual today. The fact that she had noticed, and decided to call him out on it, felt like a step in some direction. He couldn’t tell if they were moving in the direction that he wanted, but this didn’t feel like a bad direction.

“I don’t know.” She said, and James could have sworn that her cheeks darkened a shade or two. “Like you have a secret maybe. Or like you’re lost in thought.”

James took a deep breath and nodded his head. “Yeah, I suppose I am lost in thought.”

Lily put her quill down and James, who hadn’t used his quill in the last five minutes, at least, followed her lead. “What are you thinking about?”

James felt his own cheeks start to blush and he bit down on the inside of his cheek. “I don’t know. A little of this. A little of that.”

Lily brushed her hair back and leaned back against her chair. “Right. And you have to stare at me while you do this thinking?”

James tried to smirk at her, but he can’t tell if he pulled it off or not. It felt like the smile was a bit too genuine, a bit too telling. “Do all my best thinking staring at you.” That’s perhaps the biggest lie he’s ever told her. He does hardly any thinking at all when he stares at her. His brain turn to mush, his thoughts melt into puddles and he can’t tell night from day, left from right.

“Alright.” Lily clickd her tongue, not blushing anymore than she had been earlier, so maybe he had pulled off the smirk. “Should we finish this essay now? Or head back to the common room?”

James pushed his glasses up his nose and shrugged. “I’m not gonna get anything else done tonight. Let’s head back.”

“Good call.”

#jily #jple #jily drabble #fel writes jily #this is the first piece of writing I've posted in months and it's just a dollop of fluff and nonsense lmao

[thejilyship]

another day in october

Happy jilytober! This is a fluffy, tropey, HEA, fic that I was inspired to write! Also weird HC, but James and Lily got together on a Thursday. I'm not accepting critics on this, thank you. 

Part One | WC: 3.6K

_________________________

The Thursdays of Lily’s seventh year, made her feel like she was really working for her weekend.

Thursdays consisted of a double block of N.E.W.T. level Defense, followed by N.E.W.T. level Transfigurations, followed by a double block of N.E.W.T. level Potions. Arguably the three hardest of the core classes, at least for Lily, all rolled into one day.

One day where her brain didn’t get a chance to rest.

And when she walked into the defense classroom and saw ‘Patronus Charm’ scribbled across the board in Professor Bones’ nearly illegible handwriting, her stomach dropped.

They had been studying the patronus charm on and off for the last couple of weeks. Last Thursday was the first time that they had a practical lesson on the spell, and Lily hadn’t even managed to produce a white whisp at the end of her wand.

You know who did manage a white whisp?

James Potter.

Actually, by the end of the lesson, he had produced more than a whisp, he had produced a large funnel of white light that almost became corporal before disappearing in a flash. Professor Bones had awarded him 10 points to Gryffindor and Lily had given him a tightlipped smile of congratulations.

She dropped down into her seat and pulled out her textbook, hoping that maybe she was going to give another lesson on how to transfer the happy feelings into the spell. It wasn’t exactly clear. It didn’t make sense that the spell could decide that one memory wasn’t good enough anyway. If something made you feel happy, then that should be enough.

But she knew that it was going to be another practical magic lesson.

She wasn’t the only one in class that hadn’t managed anything last time, but Lily wasn’t used to being one of the students that struggled with a spell. She had always been one of the students that got something right away. She read all of her material before coming to class and made sure that she had all the wand movements memorized so that she started all her lessons with a leg up.

All it had taken was one smarmy eleven-year-old to mutter something about how Lily couldn’t cast ‘lumos’ correctly because she was a muggleborn, and Lily had made sure that no one would be able to say anything like that about her again.

But this spell was hard.

Really hard.

Mary plopped down on the stool next to her and sighed. “Here we go again.”

“You did better than I did last time.” Lily pulled her wand out and twirled it through her fingers.

“Hardly.” Mary gave her a look. “Did you come up with a new memory to think of?”

“No.” Lily shook her head. “But maybe it’s not the memory, maybe I’m mucking up the movements.”

“You never muck up the movements.” Mary argued.

Lily knew that, but she also knew that the happiest she’d ever felt was when she’d walked through platform nine and three quarters and realized that she really was going to Hogwarts. That it was a real place, and she hadn’t dreamt it up.

“Evans, MacDonald,” Remus’s voice sounded from the desk behind them, and they both turned around to greet the prefect. “Morning.”

“Morning,” They both replied.

“We’re doing the patronus charm again.” Lily blew her hair out of her face and frowned at Remus.

He frowned back at her. “Do you think this is going to be the spell they have us do for our N.E.W.T. exam?”

“Probably.” Mary muttered. “Since I can’t get it. Marlene and I tried for hours the other night and I couldn’t manage it. All I can get are sad little whisps.”

More of their classmates shuffled in. Peter joined Remus at his table and Lily turned back around in her desk when James and Sirius sat down at the desk behind them.

She was pretty sure that James had started to wave at her, but she wasn’t going to turn back around to find out.

Professor Bones swept into the room and smiled at them all when she reached the front of the room. Her smile was warm, and her entire demeanor was soft and inviting, but Lily continued to frown. She really struggled with not being able to perform a type of magic. If no one in the class had gotten further than she did, that would be one thing, but there weren’t any students who had done worse than she did and that was hard to sit with.

“I know that a lot of us struggled with this spell last time we worked on it, but I did give you an entire week to practice on your own, or work up the courage to try again here in class.” Professor Bones clapped her hands together. “So, let’s just go for it, yes? I’ll walk around and give you pointers, but I’d really like to just give you all the time you need to practice. This spell is so important, and I’d really like for you to get comfortable with it.”

At least there were only two Slytherins in class with them. If she’d had to endure this lesson with Wilkes or Mulciber or Avery or Rosier or Sev- Snape, it would have been even more unpleasant. But most of the death eater wannabes had opted out of taking defense against the dark arts.

She’d much rather put up with the smarmy looks from the Ravenclaw who was consistently ranked third in their year, than the mutterings of any of those boys.

Professor Bones waved her wand and sent all of their desks and stools flying to the edge of the room and told them all to spread out in a large circle so they could observe each other. Lily chewed on her cheek as she and Mary made their way to the edge of the classroom.

“You look like someone spit in your tea.” James Potter somehow ended up on the other side of her and Lily pressed her lips together. “Alright, Evans?”

She huffed and gave him a small shrug. “I just can’t get this spell.”

He ran a hand through his hair and nodded. “It is a tricky one.”

That only upset her more since he’d managed to do the best of the bunch in last class. And if he’d practiced at all outside of class, she was sure he’d manage a corporal patronus during this lesson.

“Can I ask what your happy memory is?” James asked.

Lily looked over at him and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

It wasn’t just because he’d done better than she had last class that she wasn’t thrilled to be talking to him just then.

James Potter had been made Head Boy this year, opposite her Head Girl. And even though she’d been expecting him to screw it up, take advantage of his position, or generally behave in a way that proved Dumbledore was made to give him the badge, he had been nothing but perfect at the job.

He showed up on time, and he docked points responsibly. He helped her fix problems between prefects, and he was patient with third years who felt like they were much older than they were. He stepped in when people were being too rowdy, he enforced the rules, he did his share of the paperwork and Lily never even had to remind him of the stuff they had to get done.

He’d shown himself to be worthy of the position, and on top of that, he was kind and funny and charming and helpful and he still managed to drive Lily mad with nothing more than a comment or a look.

She shouldn’t have been annoyed by his question, and she knew that she shouldn’t be annoyed by his question, but she was. Because she was annoyed with him, as a whole.

“I’ve tried a few different things.” She said with a shrug, not wanting to start a conversation.

“Like what?” He asked, and it felt like he was trying to start a conversation.

“I don’t know, like seeing the Hogwarts Express for the first time, or waking up on Christmas morning when I was seven, or the first time I did magic on purpose. Stuff like that.”

James nodded and pushed his glasses up his nose.

“More practicing and less chatting, please!” Professor Bones was looking in their direction, which made Lily clench her jaw in further annoyance. She hadn’t wanted to talk to James in the first place, and now he was getting her into trouble.

Or trouble adjacent anyway.

She raised her wand and tried to immerse herself in the feeling of hugging her mum and dad when she got home for Christmas Holiday her first year.

She carefully enunciated the spell and moved her wand in the exact right pattern, and yet…

Nothing.

Not a single thing came out of her wand.

She slumped her shoulders and turned toward James.

“What do you think about?”

He hadn’t yet managed a corporal Patronus, but it was only a matter of time and they both knew that.

James twirled his wand in his hand and shifted from one foot to the other. “It’s not a big memory.” His eyes almost glazed over, like he was transported back in time already. “I think about this one night in fourth year when me and the lads stayed up all night eating left over dinner and pumpkin pasties and our weight in candy. It was after exams, and we were all a little delirious. Nothing really happened, but it’s one of my favorite memories.”

Lily pressed her lips together. Staying up late with friends? That was his happiest memory?

She had been thinking about this entirely wrong.

“Dammit.” She let out a heavy breath and shook her head.

“What?”

She looked back at James and shook her head again. “No, not you. That memory sounds great, it’s just, Mary was right.”

“I usually am.” Mary spoke up from her other side. “What was I right about this time?”

“My memory isn’t good enough.”

“Oh,” Mary made a face. “I didn’t say that. I only knew you weren’t doing the other parts of the spell wrong.”

“That’s true,” James agreed. “You’re the most technically skilled in class.”

It was such an off the cuff compliment, said so casually, as though he complimented her all the time, that Lily felt like her brain was misfiring and she wasn’t sure how she was supposed to react.

And so she ended up just staring at him until he cleared his throat and turned toward the middle of the room.

He held up his wand and carefully cast the spell.

It wasn’t corporal, but Lily was fairly sure that she saw the snout of something come out the end before the white light turned into a funnel shape.

“Very good, Mr. Potter!” Professor Bones grinned at him

Lily chewed on the inside of her cheek and rolled her wand in between her hands.

What was the happiest she’d ever been?

It shouldn’t be a hard question. She had lots of happy memories.

And why shouldn’t the thought of Christmas or Hogwarts be happy enough for the spell?

She closed her eyes and tried to sift through her memories. She could really use an organized pensive right about now.

Her eyes snapped open as she remembered the time that her and Petunia had made a pillow fort in the living room and forced the poor cat to sleep in there with them all night. They had stayed up watching late night television and painting each other’s nails. That was before she’d met Severus and her and Tooney were still best friends.

It made her chest ache, but she remembered how happy she had been and how the two of them hadn’t been able to fall asleep because they hadn’t been able to stop giggling.

She held up her wand and tried to cast the spell again.

This time, white light shot out into the classroom.

It didn’t last long, and it didn’t take any kind of shape, but there was light!

She glanced around her to see if anyone had noticed that she hadn’t completely failed that time, but Mary was focusing on her own wand movements. James had noticed though and he gave her a small smile of encouragement.

Lily felt her cheeks heat up and she quickly looked away. Why was he standing next to her? He was always in the middle of his group of friends. But Remus, who she was actually friends with, was standing four people down from her and instead, James was next to her.

Class went on and she tried different memories, that focused less on the importance of the moment to her overall life, and more on the genuine feeling of pure happiness.

James tried the spell a few more times, getting more light and some shape, but nothing corporal. He spent most of the class helping his friends.

Mary was producing quite large shields of light by the end of class, and Lily was consistently producing shields as well. She knew now that she just had to find the right memory, the right feeling in her chest that wasn’t tainted with any other emotions.

There was only fifteen minutes left of class when Professor Bones stopped in front of James and nodded at him.

“Alright, Mr. Potter, let’s have another go, yes?”

Lily put her wand down and turned her head to look at him.

“Right,” James said, pushing his glasses up his nose as he took his stance, one leg slightly in front of the other, his feet about a shoulder’s width apart, his wand arm raised at the perfect height. He narrowed his brow in concentration and then spoke clearly, “Expecto Patronum.”

The entire class seemed to gasp in unison as a perfect rendering of a stag jumped from the tip of his wand and landed in front of James before it began prancing around the room.

A fully corporal patronus. He’d managed it.

Lily did her best to keep from feeling jealous or comparing her own accomplishments to his. She clapped along with the rest of the class and when he turned to look at her, his face entirely lit up at his triumph, she did her best to give him an honest smile in return. It was an incredible feat of magic, after all.

“Brilliant, Mr. Potter!” Professor Bones clapped her hands as well. “Twenty points to Gryffindor! Absolutely brilliant!” The professor looked around the room, her eyes briefly dancing over Lily before she walked away.

Lily could tell that she was purposefully choosing not to ask Lily to attempt the spell immediately after James had managed to execute it perfectly, and that stung a little, but not more than Lily found it relieved her.

“A stag,” Sirius’s voice cut through the din of the classroom. “Who would have thought?” He laughed, and Lily could tell he was making some kind of joke, but it was lost to her.

“Shut up, Sirius,” James’s hand jumped to his hair, and he looked over at Lily. Almost expectantly. “I didn’t think I was gonna get it today.”

Lily pressed her lips together and nodded. “It’s very impressive, Potter. Were you still thinking about the memory of you and your friends?”

He froze for half a second, long enough for her to notice, but then shrugged. “Nah, I picked a different one.”

“I wish the spell wasn’t quite so temperamental.” She said, not feeling as though it was her place to ask what his happiest memory had been if he wasn’t going to offer it up.

The clock was still counting down to the end of class and Lily really wanted to try again before they had to head to their next class.

She’d tried other memories with Petunia, she’d tried memories of Sev, she’d tried memories of her and Mary, but nothing had given her a corporal patronus.

And then a memory came to her.

A group of her housemates that had stayed for Spring Hols last year. It was early April, the snow had melted, there was still a chill in the air, but the sun usually chased it away by midafternoon.

She had stayed, so had Mary, James, Remus, Sirius, and a few others in the years above and below her. In total there had been about a dozen students.

One afternoon, they had all wandered out to the courtyard in front of the school and decided to play gob stones. A few students from other houses came to join them and they got a tournament going before too long.  

Lily had sat there in the middle of the most magical place she’d ever been, surrounded by her peers, and she had never felt more like she belonged where she was. When she was home, she felt like she had to hide the magical parts of herself, and when she was in school, most of the time she felt she had to hide the muggle parts of herself, but for that afternoon, her knowledge of the muggle game of marbles helped her team score extra points and everyone wanted pointers and even though her team didn’t end up winning the tournament, the winning team had adopted the strategy that her father had taught her when she was a kid and she just felt like she wasn’t meant to be anywhere else.

Lily had smelled like week old garbage at the end of the afternoon thanks to the gob stones, so she didn’t think it would work as her happiest memory, but nothing else had made her feel as content as that day had, horrible smell or no.

She took her stance and held up her arm.

Professor Bones walked to the front of the room and held up her hands, about to draw the classes attention for a quick recap before the end of class.

“Expecto Patronum!” Lily stated clearly, rushing to make sure she spoke before the professor.

The light she’d been achieving shot forward, but this time it started to take shape. Lily held onto the happy memory, willing herself not to lose concentration as she watched the light bend and form.

“Oh, Miss Evans, very good!” Professor Bones cheered, clapping her hands together as a white, slightly wispy creature, stood in the center of the classroom.

“No bloody way,” Mary lightly tapped her shoulder. “And just when I was starting to think that I might get this one before you.”

Lily could hear their praise, but they sounded almost as though they were underwater. She looked at the animal that still stood in the middle of the room and watched as it turned it’s head this way and that, as though it were capable of inspecting it’s surroundings.

It was a doe.

She was graceful and elegant as she turned around and started walking back toward Lily. She had her head tilted curiously, her white eyes wide.

She was the exact match to the stag that James had produced earlier.

And James was standing right next to her. What if her patronus wasn’t walking back toward her? What if she was walking toward-

A rush of nerves had Lily dropping her wand back to her side and the doe disappearing in a flash. She felt her cheeks splotch red as well and refused to look in James’ direction.

“Excellent work,” Professor Bones was in front of her now, a wide smile on her face. “I’ll award Gryffindor another ten points.”

And then she was addressing the entire class and Lily wasn’t listening to a single word she was saying.

They’d been studying this spell for a while now and Lily had read as much as she could about the theory of the spell, trying to understand it so well that it couldn’t possibly give her any trouble in class.

She knew what it meant to have a patronus that was a match for someone else’s patronus.

Mary nudged her with an elbow as Professor Bones waved her wand, the desks and chairs slowly making their way back to where they had been. “So what memory finally got it for you?” Mary asked, and Lily couldn’t figure out what she meant for a minute. But then she heard Sirius laugh.

“Yeah, I wonder what she was thinking abo- oof.”

Lily resolutely kept her eyes on her bag as she collected all her things.

Determined to ignore everyone but Mary, she looked up at her friends confused face. “Would you believe me if I said gob stones?”

Mary had been looking over Lily’s shoulder, but she looked back at Lily with her brow raised. “Like the tournament from last year?” She laughed. “How did that beat out-“

“I don’t know.” Lily shrugged, her mind not focused on their conversation in the slightest. “Come on. We’ve got to get to Transfiguration before Beth and Nicco take our seats.” She hitched her bag up her shoulder and linked her arm through Mary’s.

They were almost to class, and blessedly far from any of the Marauders, when Mary asked. “So are you acting weird because your patronus-“

“Yep.” She interrupted Mary again.

“And that means that-“

“Don’t say it.”

“James Potter is-“

“Mary.” She warned.

“He’s your soulmate.”

“Mary!” Lily pulled her arm away from her friend.

Mary pinched her side and wiggled her eyebrows. “Oh come off it, Evans. You can’t keep pretending that you don’t fancy him. Not to me.”

“I don’t.” She muttered. “Now please stop before someone hears you.”

Mary relented but rolled her eyes. “You’re allowed to have feelings for a boy, Lily. Literally no one would fault you for it. Especially if that boy is, James bloody Potter.”

#jily #jilytober #jple #canon compliant #fel writes jily

[thejilyship]

another day in october | part two

it’s been a minute. what’s worse is that i’ve had this written for almost the entire time the first part has been out and I just didn’t remember that it was mostly done and then when I went back and read it I was surprised by how much i liked it because i don’t remember writing it lmao

anyway, here’s part two. 

Part Two | WC: 3.1K

---------------------------------

Nothing could have prepared James for seeing that doe jump from the end of Lily’s wand.

He didn’t remember walking to Transfiguration, but he was in his seat somehow when Professor McGonagall tapped her wand against the chalkboard and started her lecture.

It was a completely lost on James though. He sat in his chair and stared at the back of Lily’s head.

Lily’s patronus had looked right at him. She had looked at him and started walking toward him before Lily dropped the spell and the doe vanished.

Of course, the doe might have been walking toward Lily. She had looked at James, but that didn’t mean anything. She wasn’t even a real animal, James didn’t think a patronus was capable of showing any kind of preference for one thing over the other.

But then again, a patronus was a representation of a person’s soul. And Lily’s soul matched James.

They were soulmates.

Or, they could be, at any rate.

Or were they?

James ran a hand through his hair. He didn’t know how any of this soulmate stuff worked, or if it was anything more than a story. Maybe it was just a coincidence that they had matching patronus’.

Of course, James had been in fancy (he refused to say love) with Lily Evans since he was eleven years old, so it was hard to believe that them having matching patronus’ was something that could be a coincidence.

No, it had to mean what he thought it meant, but it felt too big to say out loud, even as he listened to Sirius go on and on about it, trying to goad him into either an entertaining reaction, or into going up to Lily and embarrassing himself.

He was refusing to do either.

He stared resolutely at McGonagall and ignored the whispers and the notes.

At one point, he lit one of Sirius’ notes on fire.

He wasn’t sure how McGonagall didn’t see that, or how she didn’t hear Peter snort rather loudly.

Either she was having an off day, or she was ignoring them for some reason.

Most of the class period was spent with him ogling Lily though.

He wished he could read her mind, wished he could get her to talk to him.

Even before her patronus had come out of her want he was having a hard time engaging her in conversation, and now that she had seen her corporal patronus, he didn’t know how he was going to get her to talk to him.

He had resolved to try by the end of class.

They had lunch, so Lily didn’t have another class to rush off to, and so he wouldn’t feel too bad being insistent.

Of course, while he might have made up his mind to talk to her, he didn’t work out what he was going to say to her.

So when he walked up to her desk after class and looked down at her, his brain decided that it had done enough in getting him in front of her and he didn’t need to say anything.

She wasn’t looking at him, if she had been it might have been more awkward. Instead, she was acting as though she didn’t know that he was standing in front of her desk, meticulously rolling up her parchment, putting the stopper in her inkwell and then putting everything in her bag.

Mary gave him a small smile before she hitched her bag up her shoulder and turned to walk out of the room.

“Mary!” Lily’s gaze skirted around him as she turned toward her friend. Mary just waved over her shoulder and looped her arm through Marlene’s.

Her shoulders slumped and she turned back toward James, picking up her bag and putting the strap on her shoulder. She looked at him and his brain still hadn’t made any progress.

“Do you need something?” She asked, her voice wasn’t unkind, but it was purposefully polite and it made James want to scowl at her. He hated when she spoke to him like that, as though they hadn’t known each other for the last seven years.  They hadn’t always been friends, but Hogwarts didn’t have that many students and they were in the same house and the same year.

“Yeah,” He nodded and pushed his glasses up his nose, still not sure what he wanted to say to her. It wasn’t as though he could broach the subject outright.

Turns out we’re soulmates, huh? Fancy a pint at the Three Broomsticks while we talk about what this means?

So your patronus is a match for mine, you know what that means! Go out with me, Evans?

Lily would surely laugh in his face or get mad or get embarrassed.

Actually, embarrassment seemed to be inevitable. But that didn’t mean that he didn’t want to minimize whatever damage he had to do in bringing this up.

Lily was just staring at him. She wasn’t sure what to do, same as him, but she also wasn’t the one that had come over here and forced her presence on him. She had wanted to avoid him, she had wanted to sneak out of the room with Mary, same as she had done after defense. But he had stopped that from happening, so it was his job to figure out what to say now.

“Mr. Potter, Ms. Evans, I’m glad the two of you are still here. Do you mind if I have a word with you both?”

James let out a sigh of relief as he spun around toward his professor. “Of course!” His voice was too chipper, but he didn’t care. He didn’t have to figure out how to talk to Lily, and he got to stay in her presence for a while longer.

Lily also seemed relieved, though she was probably relieved because James had been staring at her without talking, or because she simply didn’t want to talk to James.

Was it common for soulmates to not want to talk to each other? Or for one soulmate to completely trip over themselves immediately upon meeting the other one only for the other one to feel nothing stronger than mild disdain?

Of course, Lily might not be his soulmate.

He liked her, but she didn’t like him, and the entire magic surrounding soulmates wasn’t well known to anyone. True soulmates were rare.

McGonagall took a seat behind her desk and folded her hands in front of her.

“Is something wrong, Professor?” Lily asked, walking around her row of desks and up to McGonagall. Her bag lightly bumped against James’ arm, and he wanted to offer to carry it for her. He wanted to have the confidence to not ask, but to simply reach other and take it off her shoulder, putting it on his own. He wanted to be allowed to help her or assist her without expressed permission.

“I know that you two both have a long day academically, and I don’t want to take up your lunch break anymore than I have to, but Professor Slughorn talked with me this morning after breakfast and said that a couple of the Slytherin Prefects complained to him that their house point deductions were being denied at a rate they felt was unfair.”

Lily straightened beside him. “James and I don’t deny house point deductions unless they should be denied.”

James and I.

She’d called him by his first name and grouped them together.

James was staring at the side of her head with his hand stuck in his hair, but he couldn’t bring himself to care about how obvious he was being.

“You go over all the paperwork yourself?” Professor McGonagall asked, causing James to turn back toward her. He narrowed his brows and opened his mouth, but Lily beat him to it.

“No. James and I split all of the work, and that means the deduction paperwork as well.” James and I, a second time. And She was standing up for him. “James doesn’t unfairly deny the Slytherin’s requests just because their Slytherins. We both deny their requests because last week Gene MacAvoy deducted points from a third year Ravenclaw for ‘looking too much like a muggle.’ I denied his request and I gave him detention.”

“Yes, and then Evan Rosier gave Emmeline detention just yesterday because he found out she turned him down for a date in order to go to Hogsmeade with Dennis Roy.”

“Of course, the paperwork said that she was being ‘disrespectful to an authority figure,’ but that’s horseshi- a lie.” James coughed to cover up his laugh when Lily almost swore in front of Professor McGonagall. Lily glanced over at him and raised her brows, silently telling him to behave himself, or maybe warning him not to make her laugh.

Their professor looked back at them and sighed. “I’m sorry, Potter. I shouldn’t have assumed that you were doing anything less than exemplary work. I know firsthand how hard it can be to maintain a clear head about house rivalries and the like.” She unfolded her hands and her shoulders slumped just slightly. “Would you mind looking through again and bringing me a few examples that I can show to Professor Slughorn?”

“Of course.” James nodded. “And no worries. If I do get a slip that makes me want to hex some prat into the Black Lake, I ask Lily for a second opinion.” He pointed his thumb in her direction.

Professor McGonagall pressed her lips together and sighed. “Yes, well, I suppose that’s a good plan.” And then she smirked. “I have to ask Professor Flitwick to weigh in on anything Quidditch related.”

James let out a small laugh.

“Do you want us to get you those slips now?” Lily asked.

“If you could. Then I can clear this up with Professor Slughorn before lunch is out. And if any students are giving the two of you an extraordinarily hard time, please don’t hesitate to come to me.”

“We had a long conversation with Dumbledore at the beginning of the year. So far nothing has happened that we hadn’t assumed would happen.” Lily tucked her hair behind her ear and shrugged. “Except maybe Hannah Prewett and Emil West wrestling in the courtyard. That one did surprise me.”

“I’m still not even sure what started that.” James tugged at his tie.

“I lost patience after listening to the third person give me a different story.” Lily shook her head. “Alright, we’ll go and get those papers for you and meet you in the Great Hall.”

“Thank you both.” She nodded at them, and they turned around and started for the Head’s Office.

When they were in the corridor, James turned to Lily. “Who do you think it was that went to Slughorn?”

Lily pursed her lips and shook her head. “Avery. He was smirking at me this morning and I didn’t know why, but I’m sure it’s because he thought we were about to get in to trouble.” They turned the corner and started up the stairs before Lily stopped walking and reached over, tapping her hand against James’ arm to stop him as well. “I’m sorry that Professor McGonagall assumed that you were at fault. That wasn’t fair of her.”

James’ eyebrows went high up his forehead. “I mean, I can’t pretend that I don’t know why she assumed that I had something to do with it. She knew that you wouldn’t do it and I’ve got a history.”

Lily shook her head as she started up the stairs again. “You’ve been a wonderful Head Boy. I mean, we both know that I had my reservations at the start of term, but you’re a good partner and you’re very fair, even when they make it hard.”

James’ mouth felt dry now. He cleared his throat and ran up the stairs after her. “Thank you. I kind of thought Dumbledore had gone a bit mad when he made me Head Boy. But thanks for sticking up for me before too.”

Lily’s cheeks looked a bit red when she glanced over at him. “Of course. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Not this time.” He grinned.

“Right. Not this time.” She laughed and he ran his hand through his hair again.

They reached the head’s office without James finding a way to bring up the Patronus’. He’d actually talked himself out of bringing it up by the time they were in their shared office. There were still chairs lined up in front of their desks from yesterdays meeting with the prefects. Whichever Slytherin’s went to Slughorn, must have done so right after the meeting.

Lily walked over to her desk and pull out a bunch of slips that were tied together. She undid the note and handed James half the stack.

Once they had what they needed, Lily put them in her bag and James locked up behind them.

The walk down to the Great Hall should have been uneventful.

Almost everyone was in the Great Hall for lunch, but Charles Avery, Wilber Mulciber and Severus Snape were all leaning up against the wall two floors below their office.

“Told you.” Mulciber started in as soon as they were within earshot. “I honestly don’t know which of them is debasing themselves more.”

“I mean, the Potter name means almost nothing now, and at least Evans is fit.” Avery leered at Lily and James’ hand dug in his pocket, gripping his wand.

“I don’t know,” Mulciber sneered at them. “She’s still a mud-

“Did you hear that, Lily? They’ve been talking about us.” James pushed his glasses up his nose and kept his wand in his pocket. If he wasn’t head boy, he wouldn’t hesitate to take it out and hex all three of them, even if Snape was content to just stand by silently as his mates talked shit about Lily.

“Well, we are more interesting than they are.” Lily hitched her bag up her shoulder and looked over at James. She was uncomfortable, but she was doing her best not to show it.

“Absolutely.” James agreed. “For one, neither of us hang out in random corridors hoping for certain people to walk by.”

“We saw you head up this way.” Mulciber’s lip curled at James and James just laughed.

“Oh, so now you’re following me?” He shook his head. “Wilber, you really need a hobby.”

“It’s not right.” Avery crossed his arms over his chest and looked at Lily. “It’s not right that Dumbledore let you be Head Girl.”

“I’m top of our year, Charles.” Lily also opted to use his first name, and it made it sound like she was talking to a small child. “I’ve been a prefect since fifth year and I’m top of our year. Why wouldn’t I be Head Girl? Come on, James. Let’s go.”

She was using his name again, which shouldn’t have mattered to him in the moment, but it did. And then she grabbed the sleeve of his robes and pulled him off the stairs and after her down the corridor. But James knew that the altercation wasn’t over. And she’d just made him turn his back to three Slytherins who loved to hit someone with their back turned.

He had his wand pulled and a protection spell cast around both of them before the spell hit. An angry blue light flashing away from them.

Lily stopped short and spun around. “Did you just attack us?”

“No.” Avery said. “Did you see anyone attack them?” He looked over at Snape, but it was Mulciber who answered.

“I didn’t see anything.” He smirked. “I wonder who the professors would believe?”

It was entirely ridiculous that he seemed to genuinely believe that their professors wouldn’t believe anything Lily told them.

And then Avery sent another curse in their direction, and it was Lily who’s protection spell shielded them. Apparently, she’d had her hand on her wand this whole time too. Maybe she wasn’t as surprised as he’d originally thought.

“That’s dark magic.” She said, taking down her shield. She looked at Snape. “I thought that was all just a bit of fun. That it was for a laugh.”

James expected Snape to at least pretend to be ashamed of himself, for Lily’s sake. He was always so good at pretending around her. Pretending not to care about blood status, pretending not to be obsessed with the dark arts, pretending that he wasn’t slime at the bottom of the Black Lake.

But he didn’t look ashamed. He didn’t even look sorry that his friends were sending dark magic in her direction.

His gaze shot over to James and then back to Lily and he took a step toward them, his arms crossed over his chest. “You made your choice, and I’ve made mine.”

Avery raised his wand again, but Lily beat him to it this time.

She sent out a knock back hex that had all three of them hitting the wall behind them and then falling back to the floor. She took their wands as well, turning and throwing them over a railing off to their left. “I wonder who the professors would believe.” She threw back at them and then stormed off.

James looked back at the three boys as they righted themselves and smiled at them. “Brilliant move, blokes. We should do this again soon.” Then he bowed his head and followed after Lily.

She was muttering under her breath when he caught up with her.

“Stupid, bloody, prick! What the fucking hell does- I’m not even- and even if I was!”

He put a hand on her shoulder, and she jumped slightly, sparks shooting out the end of her wand. “Sorry.” He said quietly. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“I can’t believe them!” She shook her head. And James could have said something about how she shouldn’t be surprised. He wasn’t surprised, all three of those boys had proven themselves to be exactly what they were. But Lily wasn’t mostly mad right now, she was mostly hurt, so he didn’t say that she should believe it. He tentatively put a hand on her shoulder and nodded.

“He shouldn’t have just stood there.” James said and for just a moment, Lily’s face crumpled. But then she shook her head again and pressed her lips together.

“No. He shouldn’t have.” She hitched her bag further up her shoulder and then fiddled with the strap. “Come on. Let’s get these slips to McGonagall before we miss all of lunch. I won’t be able to make it through potions on an empty stomach.”

He nodded and squeezed her shoulder before dropping his hand back to his side. She started down the corridor and he flexed his hand at his side before he started walking as well.

#jily #fel writes jily #jple #hogwarts jily

[thejilyship]

Another 5-minute fic, though I suppose this one was actually seven minutes. Even though I’m timing myself, I still feel like I need to round off the ending before I call it quits lol

wc: 460

"What on earth happened here?" Lily said, as she bit her bottom lip.

"It was Sirius' fault." James said, shoving his hands into his pockets.

Lily looked around the common room in something close to horror. Bright orange sludge covered a little bit of everything in the room. It was on the couches and the rugs and the chairs and even the drapes.

“Sirius?” Lily’s voice came out far quieter than intended. She looked back to James who had his hand in his hair as he was shaking his head and inspecting all the damage.

“Well, I suppose Peter is at fault as well.”

“What happened? What is it?”

“We were going to… You see, Halloween is coming up. We always do a big prank right?”

“Potter. What is it?”

“I think it used to be pumpkins.” He said, now pushing his glasses up his nose. Two nervous ticks out of the way, she wondered how many more she’d see tonight before he came clean. “It should be quite easy to clean up.”

Lily watched as he took out his want and pointed it at a particularly large pile of the orange goop. He waved it and Lily watched as the sludge started to bubble.

“Oh no.” James’ arm slowly dropped back to his side and he looked toward the boys staircase. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. It’s supposed to be easy to clean up.”

“It wasn’t supposed to happen, or it’s supposed to be easy to clean up?”

James finally turned to look at her again and he smiled at her, a small little crooked thing and Lily couldn’t help the small flip that her stomach did as she watched it appear on his mouth. “Okay, well, I wanted it to be a surprise, but since you’re here for the test run, I guess I’ll let you in on the secret. It wasn’t supposed to happen now. And it’s supposed to be easy to clean up.”

“Potter.” Lily covered her face with her hands and shook her head. “Go and get your friends. You’re going to be the ones who clean this up.”

“Right-o. Of course we are. It’s our mess.” He looked at her for another moment.

“Well go on! Go and get them.”

“It’s just.” He took a deep breath. “You’re not gonna tell anyone, right? We’ve been working on this for quite a while and it would be a shame-‘

“James, I’m not gonna tell. Just clean it up before anyone else sees, and fix it before Halloween, yeah? I’ll be sure to wear something that I don’t much care about during the feast.”

This time, the smile he gives her isn’t all that small at all. And neither is the flip her stomach does.

#jily #jple #jily drabble #fel writes jily

[thejilyship]

split in half

This is written in a different tense than I usually write in. Why? I don't know. I didn't notice until I was done writing it. I tried writing something in first person about a month ago and now I don't know how to write in past tense anymore. I don't know how those things relate, but there you have it. Anyway, I've had this idea rattling around inside my brain for a very long time now, and I've had a few lines of the dialogue written out, but I finally sat down and finished it!

wc: ~800

ao3

Lily has just turned out the light when she hears someone knocking on her door. She sighs, but doesn’t move to sit up or turn the light back on.

“Come in!” She hears the door opening and waits for whoever it is to say something. After a long stretch of silence, she sits up. “I figured it was Mary, but now I don’t think so.” She reaches for her wand and taps on the lantern on her bedside table.

It’s not Mary.

It’s James.

“You know how to get up here too?”

“Too?” His mouth hardly moves with the word. His arms are hanging limply at his sides, and he looks a bit slack-jawed. His eyes are wide, his cheeks are flushed, his tie is missing, but given the late hour, that’s not surprising. His general appearance is disheveled though, tie or no tie.

“Yeah, your mates are always coming up here.” She says, fiddling with the hemline of the blanket she still has covering her lap. “Though, I’m not complaining. Remus brought me chocolate last time, and Sirius has let me borrow a few records.”

“You hang out with my friends a lot?” His expression hasn’t changed yet, and his mouth still isn’t moving enough. He came here for a reason. He’s just shuffling through this first part of the conversation. Lily’s stomach experiences a bit of a flutter.

“I suppose,” She shrugged. “Are you gonna tell me how you got up here? They won’t.”

“You fancy me.”

Silence.

“Ah.” Her stomach is hosting a swarm of butterflies now. Those bastards, by which she means James’s friends, she can’t fault the butterflies. “They told you that, did they? I asked them not to.”

“They’re my mates, of course they told me.”

“Alright, well, I didn’t really want you to know.”

“I broke up with my girlfriend.”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“For me?” It sounds juvenile, but the question is a knee-jerk, wrenched out of her without her permission.

James tilts his head, his glasses slipping down his nose just a fraction. “You have to know how I’ve felt about you all these years.” He lifts his hand to push his glasses back into place.

“Do I?” She shakes her head, worrying the blanket in her hands and pressing it into her lap. “I almost kissed you not too long ago. And you’ve sort of been avoiding me since then. And then you got a girlfriend. None of that really instilled me with confidence.”

His hand shoots to his hair now. “I misread- I was being an idiot.”

“When did you break up with her?”

“About ten minutes ago.”

“Right.” Lily’s butterflies are a bit erratic. A bit too much.

“Lily, do you think that I can-“

“James,” Lily interrupts him, pressing her lips together for a second to stop the butterflies from flooding the room. Ten minutes ago is a bit sudden, a bit deliberate. “Maybe we shouldn’t be talking about this right now. It’s late and a lot has just happened. Maybe we should do this later.”

She needs time to think, to rethink, to make sure that she’s heard him right, that she understands everything that’s just been said. She needs time and space to quiet her swarm and tame her racing heart.

“Alright.” He agrees quickly, and she knew that he would. He looks unsure though and so she almost takes it back. Almost.

“Alright.” She nods back at him and then reaches for her wand. She twirls it in her hand. “I’m going to go back to bed now.”

Another stretch of silence.

Lily can’t look at him anymore, so she lays back down.

She feels him move across the room, though he doesn’t make a sound. Lily pulls the blanket up under her chin, but she doesn’t turn out the light yet. She’ll wait until he leaves.

There’s more silence. An infinite, vast, stretch of silence where Lily is certain that he can hear her heart pounding in her chest. Maybe he can even hear her blood pumping loudly in her ears.

And then he breaks the silence.

“Is it later enough yet?” He asks, his voice quiet and pleading.

Lily freezes. Her breath caught in the middle of an inhale, and everything is quiet and still for just a moment. A brief moment where everything becomes very clear.

What exactly is she waiting for?

What is going to be different tomorrow or in a few days?

Nothing.

She throws the blanket aside as she sits up. “Yeah, I suppose it is.”

James catches her in his arms, and they’re entirely tangled up before their lips even find each other.

#jily #jily fic #fel writes jily #jple #canon verse

[thejilyship]

And a third one! This one is also a bit over five minutes, but I couldn’t just cut myself off. You get it. 

wc: 530

"Can you try not to think the worst of me, just this once?" James asked, avoiding eye contact.

"Can you try not forcing my hand on the matter?"

"Mr. Potter. Ms. Evans. Please." Professor Dumbledore rubbed his fingers against his temples. "We are trying to have a meeting. Can we act professional, just for a little while."

"Yes, Professor." They replied in unison.

Lily felt her cheeks flame with embarrassment. She couldn’t believe that James had made her act like this in front of their headmaster. He was so aggravating sometimes that she forgot who else was in the room, or where she was going.

They had been arguing over some detention the other day, and she’s walk right past her class and ended up being five minutes late because of him.

She folded her hands in her lap and tried to think about why they were here. They hadn’t been in here all that long, and they had started arguing after Professor Dumbledore asked them how prefect meetings were going.

“The meetings are going fine. Everyone is showing up and doing the work that they’re supposed to be doing.” James answered right before she can get the words out. She closed her mouth and tightened her hands in her lap.

“And do you agree, Ms. Evans?” The headmaster looked at her over the tops of his halfmoon glasses.

“Yes.” She nodded. “I do. Everyone is behaving so far this term.”

“Everyone except the two of you?”

Lily sat up straighter, surprised at his question. “Pardon me?”

“Evans and I are behaving.”

“Yes. Neither of us have gotten any detentions or been reprimanded.”

“Well then, allow me to be the first to reprimand the both of you.” Lily felt her stomach drop and she bit down on the tip of her tongue. “There have been a few complaints to the heads of house that the two of you can’t seem to stop arguing with one another long enough to carry out a prefect meeting. Even the first years in your own house have gone to McGonagall for things that they should feel comfortable going to the two of you for, because they’re afraid to upset you.”

Lily dropped her head into her hands. “Oh no.”

“Oh no, indeed, Ms. Evans. It’s an easy fix though.”

“Is it?” James asked, and Lily looked over at him. “Because Evans and I have been arguing since we met. We haven’t worked out how to stop that.”

“Sure.” Dumbledore nodded. “But now I’m giving you some extra homework to help you out. Thirty minutes before every prefect meeting, the two of you will meet up, and talk to one another. Get any arguing you need to do out of your system, and come up with a plan for how to talk to the prefects during the meeting.”

Lily nodded. “That sounds like a good idea.”

“A very good idea.” James nodded as well.

“Yes.” Dumbledore raised his brow and looked between the two of them. “I hope you soon realize that you don’t have nearly as much to argue about as you think you do. You’ll be much ore effective leaders once you realize that you’re on the same side.”

#jily #jple #jily drabble #fel writes jily

[thejilyship]

not in need of  knight

Hey! So I’ve finally gotten around to using the jily prompt generator that I’ve spent half my life making lol

And yes, I know that it’s been months since I’ve posted anything, but that’s just the way things go. They ebb and whatnot. Enjoy. 

Prompt: 

“If they start something, I’m going to finish it.” James said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“And if it ends with you in the hospital wing?”

“What do you care?”

“Do you really think I’d bother to argue with you so much if I didn’t care?” Lily said, breathing sharply through her teeth.

wc: ~2k

prompt generator 

_____________ _ _  _   _    _

She hadn’t planned on going to the library, this is just where her feet had taken her when she’d balled up her fists in anger and stormed off. If she had put a little more thought into it, she wouldn’t have chosen to come here. With about an hour to go until lights-out, the library was full of older students. And that meant that she was likely to run into just about anyone as she marched through her classmates.

She almost tripped over someone’s bag as she turned sharply down a nearly empty aisle, desperate to get out of the center of the room as she spotted the back of Mary’s head. She ducked around an older Ravenclaw, and sidestepped a younger Hufflepuff, and then she was in the back of the library, where the books on divination sat, completely undisturbed, as always.

She glanced over her shoulder, making sure that no one was following her, or watching her, and then she quickly shuffled through a narrow aisle, walking sideways until she made it to the end. There was a wall of books to her left, and in front of her. The only place for her to go from here, was through a narrow opening on her right.

She’d found this place last year, and she’d taken to hiding here whenever things got to be too much, which seemed to be happening a lot more often lately.

Someone had slid a bookshelf against an alcove, leaving only arm’s length of space between the stone pillar and the bookshelf, effectively making a small, secret room in the very back of the library. Once she made it through the aisle, she turned and stepped into the alcove.

There was a window overlooking the Black Lake, a small stone bench that sat under it, and a blanket that Lily had left there from the last time that she’d been here. It was a worn, knit, blanket that she’d nicked from the common room. Its tassels were a faded gold, and frayed from how often Lily had anxiously worried them.

She didn’t sit down on the bench though, she started pacing the length of the alcove, which was barely four steps before she had to turn around and pace back the other way.

She swatted her hair out of her face before she angrily plaited it with the elastic she kept around her wrist.

“Stupid, Rosier.” She muttered, turning to kick the stone bench. A shock of pain shot through her foot. “Stupid, Mulciber,” She kicked it again. “Stupid, stupid, Potter!” Another kick.

That last kick was more painful than cathartic though, so she clenched her fists at her side, and sat down on the bench, glaring at her foot as though it had offended her by being in pain.

Lily was no stranger when it came to big feelings. She had always been a person who felt things fully. 

But anger had never been very familiar to her. 

When it came, it had always arrived in short, chaotic bursts. Gone as quickly as it had arrived. She’d always had a temper, but for the most part, it had a long fuse, and she didn’t misdirect her anger on stone benches or her poor feet.

She was angry now though. More than that, she was angry all the time. She felt as though she’d been angry for most of the year.

“Evans?”

Lily froze, looking up from her foot to stare at the small gap at the corner of the alcove.

“Evans? I know you’re back here somewhere,” It was James, of course it was, and he sounded close. She couldn’t tell which bookshelf he was behind. Someone must have seen her run back here if he knew that she was in the library at all.

Or maybe he just knew where she was because he always seemed to know where she was.

“Come on, Evans,” His voice sounded much closer, and Lily felt her eyes sting because she knew she was about to be caught. She spun around toward the window so she wouldn’t have to look at him when he found her hiding.

“Evans? How in the world did you find this place?”

“I don’t want to talk to you, Potter.”

“I know.”

She refused to turn around.

“I know you don’t want to talk, but I just needed to make sure that you’re alright, didn’t I? I can’t believe that they’d start something like that in the middle of the corridor- a busy corridor-“

“Stop. Please.” Lily closed her eyes and angrily swiped at her wet cheeks. “I said that I didn’t want to talk.”

They were both quiet for a minute and then James was sitting down on the bench next to her.

“You can’t start shit with them,” Lily’s voice was strained.

“I didn’t start anything,” And Lily wanted to roll her eyes. “You know that I didn’t.” His voice was more determined now. Already, he was losing his patients with her. This is why she didn’t want to talk to him, because what were they going to do, but argue about it?

“You weren’t involved, Potter! I had everything well at hand, and I didn’t need you to step in and play knight in shinning armor.”

“I wasn’t playing- Are you taking the mick right now? They were getting in your face, talking the way they were- if you heard them doing that to someone, would you have just walked on by?”

It was different, and he knew that. He was an instigator. His very presence had caused the situation to escalate. Lily was a diffuser, she knew the right things to say to calm people like Mulciber and Rosier down when they got like that. James wanted to fight.

He must have taken her silence as her conceding his point though, because he turned on the bench to face her more fully. “If they start something, I’m going to finish it.” James said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“And if it ends with you in the hospital wing?”

“What do you care?”

“Do you really think I’d bother to argue with you so much if I didn’t care?” Lily said, breathing sharply through her teeth. “You poke and you poke until you find a reason to hex a Slytherin-“

“I heard what Mulciber called you!” James was close to shouting now. “I didn’t do any poking, the bastard-“

“I was handling it!” Lily did shout. She clamped her hand over her mouth and hoped that the musty books surrounding her caught most of the sound. If the librarian found Lily’s hiding spot, she would never forgive James.

They both stood frozen, waiting to see if they were going to be found.

When a couple minutes passed without the shrill sounds of Madam Pince’s stern voice finding them, Lily sighed and slumped against the stone wall behind her.

“I was handling it, James.”

James’ hand went to his hair, and he shook his head. “Why do you think you’ve got to do it all on your own? I know that you could have put both of them flat on their arses, but that doesn’t mean I was gonna ignore what I heard them saying, and it’s not fair that you seem to expect me to.”

It’s different. She thought again. She didn’t know how to explain it to him though, she couldn’t pick the words out of her brain and put them in an order that would make sense to him. He walked around like he was invincible, like nothing could get to him, but she knew that wasn’t true. She’d seen that spell that Severus had used on him last year by the lake before everything had fallen apart, and she knew that he’d perfected it because she’d heard him bragging about it to Avery` in potions.

James was capable, and he was strong, but he was also so good. And throwing a bat bogey hex or a knock back jinx wasn’t going to do much in the face of the dark magic that those boys were studying up. And they might not be at the point where they were openly bragging about wanting to join up with Voldemort and using dark magic in the corridors, but they had used it before. She’d sat at Mary’s bedside after they’d used it on her and listened to Severus tell her that it was just a laugh.

If James didn’t stop, he was going to get seriously hurt. And she wouldn’t let it be her fault.

“I don’t expect you to ignore it, I expect you to not antagonize them. I expect you to back me up, not make the situation worse. When you step in like that- when you pick fights with them, you’re only giving them a reason to retaliate. And what if-“ She wipes at her cheeks again and decides that she has to make this about her getting hurt, and not about him. He’s never cared if his actions cause him to get hurt, but she knows that he would never do anything to hurt one of his friends. “What if the next time they find me, I’m not in a crowded corridor?”

James deflated like she’d taken a needle to a balloon. “Bloody hell, Lily, I’m-“

“No. Don’t.” She interrupted. “I know that you meant well, but I could have done what you did, yeah? Barreling into situations with your wand drawn isn’t the only way to deal with them though. I heard what he called me, I could hear the things they were saying, but attacking them isn’t going to do me any good. Because next time they’ll bring Avery and Wilkes and who knows who else.”

They sit in the quiet again, and Lily took a few deep breaths, watching as raindrops started to tap against the glass.

“They should be expelled. All of them.” James muttered, spinning around so he now faced the window too. “Especially after what happened with Mary last year. And all the shit they keep saying this year.”

“Dumbledore is afraid to radicalize people. If he expels them, then they’re lost. They’ve got no chance to change their hearts.” James scoffed, and Lily agrees, but she can see why Dumbledore keeps them here too. “If Mary had told Dumbledore who attacked her, they would have been expelled.”

“But she couldn’t tell because then Mulciber’s friends would go after her.”

Lily nodded.

James ran his fingers over the blanket that sits between them. “Did you steal this from the common room?”

Lily shrugged. “Maybe.”

“How long has this been your hiding spot?”

“How long have you known about it?” She asked instead of answering. She doesn’t want to bring up what happened by the lake last year.

James smiled at her, though it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “I’m a marauder, Lily, I know all the castles secrets.”

“That’s a little arrogant of you.”

“Yes, well, I have been told that I have a fat head.” He pushed his glasses up his nose. “You want custard?”

“What?” She narrows her brow and tilts her head at him.

“Custard?” He stands and holds his hand out to help her up. “I swear not to start any fights on the way to the kitchen.”

She took his hand and smiled at him as she let him pull her to her feet. “You mean it?”

“Solemnly.” He promised.

#jily #jple #jily fic #fel writes jily

[thejilyship]

okay i just got a hair-brained idea for a story that would be told backwards inspired by a taylor swift song (no surprise there) with an alternating pov and a story structure that I’ve never done before

so I think that’s what I’ll be working on for the rest of the night

#fel writes jily #lmao i have other jily projects to work on #but I like this idea so we're gonna run with it and see if I can pull it off #the thing is I'll have to use flashbacks #but I don't like it when flashbacks feel like flashbacks so I'll have to get creative #it'll probably be a one shot #a long one shot but a one shot #we'll see #i think it'll be a muggle au just for shits and giggles

[thejilyship]

Op. I might have another one shot to share

#fel writes #jily #✌️

[thejilyship]

“Why did you wait until I moved on?” prompt if you want!! <3

This is an old prompt, but I want to write something today, so here is a short little something

It's angsty, canon-ish and yeah. Here you are:

"Why did you wait until I moved on?" The waiver in James' voice had tears springing to Lily's eyes, but she blinked until they were no longer threatening to fall down her cheeks.

They were standing in the middle of the corridor adjacent to the charms classroom. They had just finished up class and James had overheard Marlene saying something very damning to Lily. Marlene hadn't known that James was right behind them, but he had been, and he'd been able to piece together that Lily now had feelings for him. Despite the fact that James no longer had feelings for Lily, despite the fact that James was now dating someone that wasn't Lily.

She shrugged, pressing her lips together. She couldn't speak now, if she tried, the tears would only come back and she'd be unable to stop them again.

So she shook her head until she was able to take a deep breath, and then let it out slowly. "I didn't mean to." She said, jutting her jaw the side and clearing her throat. "I didn't know that you- I didn't know about you and Annabel."

James' hand flew to his hair and he turned away from her, looking toward the portrait they'd stopped beside, the one with the old witches holding broomsticks as they played a game of gobstones. They were unusually quiet and Lily wished they'd stopped a little further down the corridor, near the window or the painting of the sunflower field.

She watched James' face, unable to look away as she waited for him to say something. His hand didn't leave his hair and his eyes narrowed before he looked back at her, but only for a moment and then his eyes turned down, toward the floor.

"I fancy Annabel."

"I know." Lily said quickly, her hands in tight fists around her knit jumper. "I know you do, and I didn't want you to find out that I fancied you! Marlene shouldn't have said that, you weren't supposed to-"

"But you do," He interrupted quietly, turning back toward her. His eyes were still narrowed, but his mouth made him look unsure. "You fancy me?"

A ridiculous question after everything she'd put herself trough the last couple of months. She'd realized she fancied him after visiting with him in Diagon Alley only to find out the next time she saw him that he was dating Annabel.

She hadn't tried to get over him, she knew that she wouldn't be able to do that any time soon. This feeling she was carrying around in her chest for him was heavy like a boulder, permanent like a tatoo. It wouldn't be easy to rid herself of something like this, something that felt tied to her lungs, seared to her heart.

She crossed her arms over her chest and gave one small nod. "Yes."

James shook his head and pulled at his hair, making it stick up more than usual. He opened his mouth and then closed it. Lily stood before him, tightening her arms as he repeated the process a few times. And then she was shaking her own head.

"James, we don't need to talk about it." She said, forcing her muscles to relax and reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear. "I know you're dating Annabel, I know that I'm too late, you were never supposed to find out."

"But I did."

"I know, but it's my burden, not yours." She shrugged, an attempt at nonchalance. James didn't look like he bought it. "I'll get over it," She lied. "I promise. I like being your friend too much to lose you over a stupid crush."

James' jaw clenched and Lily watched his mind racing.

It felt as though the silence might stretch on forever, and then James was nodding. "I like being your friend too."

"Good." Lily forced a smile. "So we'll just keep being friends and I'll throw Marlene out a window for being a loud mouth."

James didn't smile and Lily started to get worried for the first time since he'd asked to speak with her after class had ended. She hated watching him date someone else, but she would hate things to be awkward and weird between them even more.

So she reached out and swatted him on the shoulder. "Stop looking at me like that. People fancy people all he time! It's not a big deal." More lies. "Laugh at my jokes or I'll shove you out the window with Marlene."

James' smile looked forced now. "Be funnier and I'll laugh."

"Ha ha," Lily rolled her eyes and hitched her bag up her shoulder. "Now come on, let's get to our next class. It'd be bad form showing up late when we're the head students."

"Bad form, yeah." James agreed. Lily spun around and started walking, expecting James to fall into step beside her.

He did, and she nudged him with her elbow. "I really do like being your friend you know."

James' smile was almost real. "Yeah, I know." He nodded. "Who wouldn't?"

"There's that James Potter charm," Lily snorted.

She hated that he knew. Things were never going to be the same now.

#jily #jily fic #jilytober #this isn't long #but it's longer than expected #my fic #fel writes jily