Characters
Summary
This isn't really a fic. It's my own personal headcanons on the events that led to James and Lily being a couple. Written in point form.
April 30, 2025 at 10:46 AM
- In 6th year, James manages to sit beside Lily for an entire meal and makes her laugh a total of three times
- She doesn’t even realize this but James never forgets it
- The next week he sits beside her for all three meals in a day and makes her laugh a total of eleven times.
- She notices and goes to sleep smiling that night
- A few days later he sits beside her for lunch and hands her the salad
- Their hands brush and Lily looks away, blushing and she doesn’t know why
- The next week he doesn’t sit with her at all, too wrapped up in an essay to think about it
- Lily notices and goes to bed on Sunday night feeling hurt and still not understanding why
- On Monday she drums up her courage and purposefully sits beside him, staring determinedly at her plate
- James has his back to her, facing Sirius, who’s eyes widen and he starts flapping his hands to get James’ attention
- James finally realizes and blushes, and Sirius gives Lupin a knowing smirk
- Lupin looks like he’s about to laugh at James’ expression so Peter grabs them both and hauls them off to another part of the table
- This time Lily makes James laugh and it’s the first time she’s heard him laugh genuinely and it sounds so beautiful she can’t help but smile and then she’s laughing and then they’re both laughing and they can’t stop
- For the rest of the day she can’t stop smiling and at least four classmates come up and ask her if she was hit with a Laughing Charm
- A few nights later, Lily sneaks down to the kitchens using a Disillusionment Charm and comes back with two cups of hot cocoa
- Her and James spend the rest of the night wrapped in a blanket on an old couch in front on the main fire drinking their cocoa and talking
- They end up falling asleep like that and Sirius comes by and wakes them up on his way to bed after cramming until two for a test
- He doesn’t smirk or laugh this time as him and James go up to the dormitories together, just gives him a tired smile and claps him on the shoulder before passing out in bed
- James lies awake for another two hours, thinking about his night with Lily and every time he does a warm feeling fills his chest
- The next day James takes things a step further and sits beside Lily in Charms, claiming he’s struggling with the lessons and needs her help (even though they both know he’s doing better than her in this class, even if she’ll never admit it)
- They end up sitting together for all their lessons that day and the other Marauders spend Transfiguration screening them from Severus’ gaze because these two have been driving them crazy and nothing’s going to come between them now that they’re finally together
- The next week Lily asks James for help on a Potions essay and he laughs in surprise since Lily has the top marks in the class
- Lily turns away, embarrassed and James grabs her before she can leave, apologizing and saying he’d be happy to help
- Before she can stop herself, Lily kisses him on the lips
- It’s so quick it’s more like their lips just brush and then Lily’s pulling away, muttering an apology before disappearing up the stairs to her dormitory
- James tries to follow her but can’t get up, as the stairs turn into a slide when he’s halfway up
- James sits at the bottom of the stairs, staring up them in anguish, silently pleading for her to come back down until finally the Marauders come into the common room and find him there
- They bring him back to the couch where he and Lily had sat talking the week before and sit there well into the night, comforting him
- Lily spends the night crying softly, scared that she’s blown her chances with James and confronting the fact that she might actually love him
- The next day Lily sits at the Gryffindor table with puffy, red eyes and James sits further down with a pale face and dark rings under his eyes
- Their friends come together during their free period and plan on how to get them to talk because James and Lily belong together
- That night Lily’s friends distract her while the Marauders drag James over and force him down beside Lily on that same couch
- They tell them they aren’t allowed to leave until they’ve figured this out
- The two sit in silence for quite a while before Lily apologizes for kissing him
- James apologizes for not kissing her first
- Lily laughs at this, feeling the tension break, and throws her arms around him and suddenly he’s kissing her and she’s kissing him back and they’re kissing each other and are completely oblivious to the very full common room around them until Sirius whoops and they break apart, laughing
- The next month they go to Hogsmeade on a date and spend the day being so lovesick that Sirius jokingly refuses to hang out with them if they’re going to continue to act like that
- Four months later, Lily finds Remus asleep in the library and tells him she’s figured out his secret and she still loves him and he’s so relieved that he just throws his arms around her and sobs into her shoulder for half-an-hour
- The two become inseparable after that and they begin sharing all their secrets
- Lily and James have their first fight at the end of the year and decide to take a break over the summer to think things over
- They both leave heartbroken and unsure of what the future will bring
- They come back after the summer and are still unsure if their relationship will work
- They find out they are Head Boy and Girl together and at first things are tense but then James brings hot cocoa one night in September to the common room and sits with Lily on their couch beside the fire and they reminisce and are able to work through their issues
- As they work together as Head Boy and Girl, they become closer and closer and learn to deal with things as they come through communication and they learn to respect each other’s views
- Every time one of them has a particularly hard day or need to discuss an issue or just think about something good, they sit on that couch
- It becomes a neutral zone and when they are there they have to be honest and neither can leave until both have had their say and have taken the time to listen to the other
- They draw comfort from it and it becomes a small refuge in the storm that goes on in the world around them
- On their last night at Hogwarts, there’s a huge end-of-the-year party, just like every year
- But this time Lily and James are leaving and they’re spending they’re last night separate from the rest, on their couch by the fire, talking and worrying about what’s waiting for them beyond Hogwarts
- That’s when Lily decides they should leave their mark at Hogwarts, something to say that they were here and they were in love and they made it
- They’re wondering how when Lily looks down and realizes how they can do this
- Getting out her wand, she tells James her plan and together they raise their wands and speak the spell
- Slowly, the colour of the couch changes and it turns gold, standing out against the rest of the crimson furniture
- Lily smiles at James, lacing her fingers through his and leaning her head against his shoulder
- “It’s perfect”
- The couch goes to storage for a few years so that all the furniture can match
- Then one day, McGonagall is organizing the first-year letters to go out and comes across one that she’s been waiting for
- “ H. Potter, The Cupboard Under the Stairs, Number 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey”
- McGonagall wipes a tear away and stands, going down to where they kept old furniture. It was a handy room but not easy to find. It requires the user to walk past it three times while thinking of the room in question
- Entering the room, she finds a golden, worn couch and brings it back to the Gryffindor common room
- Two months later, a young boy with glasses enters the Gryffindor common room for the first time alongside his best and only friend
- He sees the golden couch and heads straight towards it, settling in with his friend, laughing at a joke the redhead made about them being outcasts
- He is home