Lily
When Lily returned to her room after a long day of classes it was to a large pile of what looked to be books pristinely gift wrapped and placed neatly upon her bed.
She would have rolled her eyes at the stacks, thought it was some over the top gesture from Potter and mourned having to give away perfectly good literature if it wasn’t for the incredibly precise way the packages were stacked up—the tell tale dark green ribbon that immediately gave away who had sent them. She knew they were from Regulus without needing a note to tell her so, just as she realized that her friend must have snuck off while she was distracted talking to Marlene at the shop to buy her all of this.
Lily rolled her eyes a bit anyway, but couldn’t help the fond trace of a smile that grew on her face as she began unwrapping the pile that Regulus had so thoughtfully acquired for her. She knew that he had gone to all that effort partially to spite her, and was very familiar with Regulus’s strong moral objection to her “depriving herself of books” as he had put it. She knew that the sheer amount of books he had gotten her alone was a purposeful statement he was making against her pride.
Lily had heard Regulus griping about it plenty of times before, stopped many an attempt to allow him to buy her armfuls of pricey books, swatted away his black card more occasions than she cared to admit, so it didn’t take a genius to figure out that Regulus had finally decided to make a statement.
And though she was a bit bitter about her friend’s blatant jibe and over the top victory, Lily allowed herself to grin as she cracked the spines of a few of the hardcovers. Ran her hands appreciatively over the smooth leather covers and took a deep breath in at the smell of new books—all of them ones she had forced herself to put back earlier at the store and had secretly wished she could have taken home instead.
But not everyone was made of money, like the Blacks and James fucking Potter—Lily stopped herself before she could even begin to go down that road—so she had been sensible, prudent, and frugal. But she couldn’t deny that it felt good to have the luxury of returning to all the books that she had so much as considered purchasing now in her possession.
Every copy that she had picked up then put back down, that Lily had discreetly had her eye on, was now sitting directly in front of her. Gift wrapped and smug in meticulously arranged piles that made her both want to wrap her arms around Regulus to kiss him and scold him rather harshly for spending such an obscene amount of money on her. She would probably do both, and maybe even threaten to stop going to bookstores with him altogether if this was going to become a habit. But then she’d have to go with Remus and risk whatever she told him getting back to James and making Potter all the more irritatingly bearable…
Lily flipped open the signed and remastered edition of ‘A Guide to Niche and Complex Spell-work’ that Regulus had bought her and forced herself to put the thought of Potter far out of her mind. She would not let that bastard bother her any more than he already had today.
So immersed in her reading, Lily almost didn’t hear the bell that signaled the beginning of the dinner hour, had to take a minute to shake herself out of her stupor before she shoved her book under her arm to finish reading as she ate and maybe hit Regulus over the head with. She had already gotten through most of it within the past few hours and was readying it in her hands to be used as a weapon when she locked eyes with Regulus and narrowed her eyes at him instead. Sat down next to him only long enough to pettily utter,
“Buy me books again and I’ll take a pair of scissors to your black card, Reg,” with a quick kiss to his cheek and a ruffling of his feather-soft black hair, slightly grown out curls almost getting caught in her fingers.
Regulus only raised a brow to her good natured threatening, and the corner of his lips tugged upwards as he nodded towards the book she was holding.
“That one was on sale if it makes you feel better,” he shook his hair back out after having Lily’s hand running through it, blue-gray eyes amused and unapologetic, “and you’re welcome,” Regulus almost smirked.
Lily shot him a halfhearted glare as she saw Mary, Marlene, and Alice walk in and Regulus returned her earlier kiss on the cheek with a warmer but more hidden away one of his own before gesturing for her to head over there, the soft brush of his lips leaving Lily with a bit of a tingle as they left her. With the inexplicable desire to linger as Regulus hid away a small smile.
“Go,” he encouraged, nodding his head towards her friends with a gentle sort of fondness Lily hadn’t heard him use with anyone else, “I’ll talk to you later,” Regulus promised.
Lily nodded wordlessly at her friend and started to get up to do just that when Regulus tossed over his shoulder, “oh- they have those chocolate pastries that you like today,” as if he’d almost forgotten it. Lily made an ‘oooh’ noise of intrigue before she felt Regulus placing something in her hand that turned out to be one of the said pastries.
She grinned at the action—how he had so thoughtfully saved her one (because those things were always picked over only minutes after being set out), at the understated consideration that Regulus was so good at. Lily happily took a bite out of the chocolate dessert and hummed at the taste, thanking Regulus briefly before going back to her regular table to talk with Alice about how she thought her boyfriend Frank was intimidated by her on the quidditch field and if he wasn’t that he should be, to which Lily wholeheartedly agreed, finishing her pastry before she had so much as had a bite of any of her actual dinner.
Towards the end of her meal however, Lily found herself wandering back towards Regulus, having accidentally caught the eye of one messy haired quidditch captain one too many times for her liking and needing her friend’s steady gaze to recenter her after Potter had gone and taken her center of gravity out from under her. But when she approached him it seemed Regulus was just as frazzled, causing Lily to cock her head at him in silent questioning. To which Regulus shook his own then muttered,
“Fucking Potter,” and Lily hummed in understanding and agreement.
“Wanna talk about it?” She offered, but Regulus simply took her hand in his own and shot a very pointed glare in James’s direction—where James was rather pathetically staring at the both of them—before in a very out of character move for him, cupping Lily’s cheek with his hand and kissing her in front of the entire hall. In front of Potter, more specifically.
But what surprised Lily more than the sudden and pointed show of affection from her usually quite reserved friend was how long Regulus let the kiss go on. How easily he made the kiss feel just for them despite the surrounding audience, his hand tender against her skin as it slowly moved to the back of her neck to rest in her hair, Regulus’s lips fond and leisurely against her own. Appreciative as he kissed her as if he had been wanting to kiss her all evening. Making Lily gasp lightly when he did pull away, furrow her brows as she uttered his name in an undertone.
She felt warm and fuzzy all of the sudden, taken aback by Regulus as he gave her lips a final peck before parting again, the two of them now seemingly the center of attention for most of the hall. But before she could give much thought to it Regulus gave a light tug to her hand and hummed,
“Let’s get out of here, Lils,” guiding her away from the hall and all that occurred there with a practiced sort of ease. Lily noticed a satisfied sort of smirk on her friend’s face as they walked past Potter and his protégés, and she found herself nearly matching it when she saw James’s slack-jawed and dumbfounded expression, his eyes practically glued to her back as the two of them walked out.
. . .
The next day Lily woke up unreasonably early yet again. 4:00 am that time, thanks to Marlene and Dorcas noisily bursting into her dorm room mid-make-out session. Lily groaned as she saw the time on her alarm clock.
Her friends, clearly still up from the night before and giggling to themselves were either unaware of or ignorant to Lily’s presence and still seemed drunk from the night before. From the party the night before celebrating Gryffindor’s victory over Ravenclaw at quidditch. A party Lily had only stayed at for an hour after James Potter appeared, flushed from the liquor he was drinking and overconfident from his victory as he had loudly and clumsily attempted to seduce her.
Slurred, “You’ve got the prettiest eyes, Evans,” as he’d spilled some of his beer on her then ripped his shirt off in a panic to dry her with it. Shirtless and stupid, Lily had been glad James had been intoxicated because in such a state he hadn’t noticed just how affected she had been by his antics. By James’s chiseled glistening chest and ridiculous antler tattoo sitting right above his v-line that she had never noticed before all but striking her down for her sins as she had stuttered a response in an effort to get away from Potter and all his well muscled glory before she said anything she would come to regret in the morning.
Lily had tried to escape the party entirely then but ran into Marlene on the way out and was pulled into a conversation about how she and Dorcas—who had been in an ‘off’ portion of their on again-off again relationship—were supposedly never getting back together again. Although they seemed to be getting along rather well that morning… Lily rolled her eyes as Marlene’s shirt was thrown off in her direction and she decided to announce herself to the fairly oblivious pair before they fucked on her bed with her still in the room.
“This isn’t even your dorm, Marls,” Lily threw the blonde’s shirt back so that it hit her, “and it’s four am,” she groused halfheartedly. The truth was she was glad that the two of them were making up again, though she did wish they wouldn’t do so directly in front of her.
“There was a sock on mine,” Marlene barely acknowledged her, belatedly added, “Mary said we could use yours,” before she went back to making out with her girlfriend, completely indifferent to Lily’s presence.
Lily sighed to herself and went to grab her shoes and jacket. She supposed she wouldn’t be sleeping now, she decided she would just have to take yet another early morning walk.
Still in her pajamas but not willing to spend the time in her room it would take to change, Lily surrendered her dorm to her unaffected friends, tossing over her shoulder,
“all yours,” before making her quick escape, wondering if Regulus would be up at such an obscene hour so she could take refuge with him, then cursing to herself when she realized the only person that likely would be was James goddamn Potter. A person she was very pointedly trying to avoid. Especially after her slip up on the quidditch pitch a few days before. The last thing she needed was Potter getting false hope. Lily was sure he would only nag her more if that happened. And worse, she wasn’t sure that she would be entirely bothered by it if he did.
Not willing to repeat her previous mistake, Lily went out of her way to stay far away from both the quidditch pitch and Gryffindor tower, in case she ran into James while he was leaving. Just to be safe. But bored wandering the halls, to the point of considering breaking into the library just for something to do, Lily eventually decided to risk taking a nice hot bath in the prefect's bathroom. Even though she knew she was running the risk of seeing Potter there.
But he was probably still practicing, right? Lily deluded herself into thinking Potter didn’t have a sixth sense for finding her and Regulus wherever they were and oh-so-conveniently ‘happening upon them’. She let herself believe it would be perfectly safe to occupy her time in the prefect’s bathroom, which she was sure would be 100% Potter free when she arrived.
Only to open the door to no one else but the exact person she had been trying to avoid. Potter in all his goddamn glory standing unaccompanied in the middle of the baths. And of course, because the world had no mercy, the man was shirtless too. Probably naked, come to think of it, Lily winced to herself as James locked eyes with her, his whole face lighting up like a Christmas tree with a grin that spanned miles before he fucking saluted her and cheerfully greeted,
“Morning Evans,” the fool covered in bubbles and completely unaffected by his own nudity, which seemed to be the running theme for that day, “fancy running into you here,” James continued to grin.
Lily made an audible “ugh” noise as she realized she would now have to surrender her bath too.
James, only encouraged by her less than enthusiastic response, teased, “always thrilled to see me, aren’t you Evans?”
Lily rolled her eyes, then winced as James only rose further out of the water as he walked closer to her. Exposing more perfectly carved muscle that she had to purposefully avert her eyes from.
“I was going to use the baths,” Lily felt the need to explain her presence there, to make it clear that she wasn’t there for him before James got any ideas. James made deeper eye contact with her and hummed in understanding. He was doing that thing where he really truly listened to her as she spoke, Lily noticed, Potter’s own annoyingly heartwarming brand of ‘active listening’. Merlin, she wished he wouldn’t do that.
Especially shirtless.
She forced herself to keep her eyes trained to his face. Though that seemed to be worse because Lily found herself getting lost in his chocolatey brown eyes. They were so sparkly and sincere. Too sincere.
“Why are ya’ here so early?” James asked with painfully genuine curiosity. Lily grimaced. She felt remarkably compelled to answer honestly.
“I’m running away from lesbians having sex in my dorm,” she answered, “and trying to avoid you,” Lily unwittingly admitted, slipping up and risking a glance down to James’s wet and once again glistening abs, “which clearly didn’t work,” she finished.
James had the audacity to smirk in some kind of self satisfied victory at that and Lily narrowed her eyes sharply at him. Stupid soaking wet asshole, she groused to herself.
“Why aren’t you on the field?” Lily all but accused as irritation flooded through her in a hot and quick wave. “I thought you got up at the ass crack of dawn to practice.”
“Not always…” James shrugged with a pleased and easy sort of smile. He probably relished getting such a reaction from her, Lily thought to herself pettily. Why she hadn’t left yet was beyond her.
James moved several steps closer to her until his body was half out of the water, bubbles only just covering the area past his v-line.
“Sometimes I come in here hoping to see you,” James finished with all the charm that must have been left over in his frequently concussed rat brain. Lily smirked to herself at her internal insult.
“You think you’re so smooth, don’t you?” Lily refused to admit that the line had at all affected her. Stomped down on the butterflies that had once again risen in her stomach and forced herself to at least appear unruffled.
“Honest, actually,” James shook his wet hair out with a grin, “I’ve been taking baths in here instead of using the locker room showers since we became prefects hoping I’d see you or Reg in here.” James spoke casually, remarked, “Remus says it’s pathetic, but he’s an arse who won’t do my transfiguration homework.” He looked back at Lily with his trademark at ease grin. Lily almost matched it as she took note of the familiarity with which James had mentioned Regulus’s name. Called him ‘Reg’ instead of Regulus.
Instead Lily allowed her lips to quirk up, almost into a smile as she retorted, “Remus is right, that is a bit pathetic,” a bit more warmly than she had meant to. Very nearly cordial as she felt herself sucked into the conversation. Sucked into Potter’s charms.
James hummed once again, nodded pleasantly in acknowledgement. Lily fleetingly wondered if James enjoyed being insulted or if he was too stupid to even realize he was being insulted. Then she wondered why she was actually somewhat enjoying talking to him.
“You look nice today by the way,” James changed the subject easily, unaware of her internal criticisms and turmoil. Lily forced herself not to indulge the compliment.
“I’m in my pajamas,” she stated rather flatly.
“They’re nice pajamas,” James disputed amiably, flashing her a casual smile, “they suit you,” he continued. Lily felt her face heat, then, before she could even begin to recover from the easy and matter of fact way James had complimented her—too genuine, and almost charming—the asshole stepped even further out of the water and walked out of the bath stark naked.
Eyes going wide, and her face only growing even further heated, Lily cursed to herself knowing she wouldn’t be able to burn the sight of James Potter’s chiseled and completely bare body out of her brain. The sight of his semi-hard dick bouncing slightly as he walked, Potter needlessly slow to grab a towel. James also needlessly dried off his hair before he wrapped the towel around his waist.
Lily closed her mouth the second she realized it had been agape.
“Well, I wouldn’t want to hog the baths,” James spoke as if she hadn’t just seen his bare ass and nearly everything else.
“What?” Lily found herself slow to process his statement. She sounded just a bit irritated as she spoke, thought to herself good, because that was better than cordial. Friendly, as she had just been on the precipice of being.
“You came here to use the baths,” James reiterated pleasantly, “figured I should give you some privacy,” he shrugged. Lily only blinked.
“Unless you don’t want any,” James insinuated with a maddeningly dirty smirk. Lily immediately wanted to smack it off. Or maybe see what would happen if he did stay… Her hand twitched with indecision. With irritation, she corrected herself.
“Fuck off, Potter,” Lily huffed, thanking Merlin she hadn’t said ‘James’, “immediately,” she glared at him.
Instead of doing so, James tipped his head back with a loud and wholehearted laugh. The type that filled a whole room and tended to be contagious to anyone around it. But Lily forcibly didn’t laugh. James was still laughing by the time he had thrown his clothes on and moved to walk out the door, was only a foot or so away from her when his laugh died down to a grin and he responded, “knew that was coming at one point or another,” as if they were old friends and he could predict her every move.
“Fuck off,” Lily unpleasantly reminded him.
James only grinned further, then, right before the door shut slightly more seriously added, “have to if I don’t want to end up in an unmarked grave somewhere anyway,” before letting it fall shut behind him.
Lily furrowed her brows together for a moment before it hit her.
“Regulus,” she muttered to herself with a faint smile. He must have threatened James on her behalf.
She shed her clothes and felt her smile grow a bit as she slipped into the warm water and tried her best not to think about James Potter’s dick.
. . .
Lately when Lily wandered through the castle late at night due to her unfortunately acquired Potter induced insomnia she had begun to run into a fluffy black cat that frequented the library and the astronomy tower. With steel blue eyes and an uppity attitude as it rubbed its head against her hand and very snootily padded across her lap, the cat often reminded her of Regulus.
At first she only saw it on occasion, but when she did it was very friendly towards her, and slowly, Lily had found herself rather charmed by it as she began to see the cat more frequently.
The cat seemed to follow her around whenever she stayed out past curfew, initially watching her from afar then meowing at her heels eventually when she started to make her way back to her dorm as if it was hurrying her along.
One time she had been coming back from the prefect's bathroom when she had run into her former friend, Severus Snape, and the cat had hissed at him ferociously when he tried to talk to her. Clawed at him and drawn blood when Severus had made to grab her arm and Lily had jerked away from him, Severus bearing the scar of their late night encounter for more than a week after.
The cat had followed Lily all the way back to her dorm then rubbed itself fondly on her leg and meowed in what Lily liked to think had been it's way of saying goodnight to her before it darted off into the dark and she didn’t see it again until a month later when she was returning a book to the library that would have been late if she’d waited even a few hours longer.
That time the cat had observed from a distance until Lily went up to it herself to scratch under its neck, the cat very slowly and begrudgingly purring at the touch. Leaning into her hand until it realized it was doing so then pulling away from her with an indignant huff. Jerking it’s head in the direction of Gryffindor tower as if it was telling her to go back to bed then refusing to let her pet it until she did. Only to disappear once again once she was back in her dorm. Almost protective as it made sure she actually went in before sauntering off.
She thought about bringing the cat treats a few times but figured that with its indignant and prissy nature it would probably refuse them. The animal hardly even allowed her to pet it without a bit of attitude, though it had warmed to her significantly over time.
Lily got the feeling that the cat was more cuddly than it let on, but she wouldn’t push it. She was happy enough just to run into it as she did, feeling its fluffy little head nudging her along with impatient guiding pushes to her shins. Having it crawl into her lap and cock it’s head at her whenever she sat down as if it was silently asking her a question.
In a way she felt like she was friends with it, the bossy little fur ball, and sometimes Lily found herself taking unnecessary late night strolls just to see it. What could she say? She had always liked cats, but that one in particular… Lily found herself inexplicably drawn to it.
Drawn to it enough that her after hours outings had become a bi-weekly occurrence, and Lily regularly sought the cat out instead of continuing her regular sleep schedule in hopes of maybe seeing the cat in the daylight too. Becoming friendly enough with it that she could find out where it lived, if it had an owner, though she had never seen a collar or a tag, and really just because she had grown pathetically fond of the creature that always seemed just a little put out to see her.
But although Lily regularly looked forward to her late night visits with the cat, they had unfortunately done absolutely nothing to clear her mind of the image of James Potter soaking wet and naked in front of her that had made her unable to sleep in the first place.
On the upside, at least she could safely say that she was back to hating Potter.
Though while James’s dick still haunted her dreams and had become one of her worst waking nightmares, Lily couldn’t say that hating him felt like much of silver lining.