Chapter Text
Tell them how we first met.
“Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I’d leave, wouldn’t you?”
“Come on, Severus, let’s find another compartment.”
No, maybe not.
And probably best to avoid mentioning anything about fifth year. The pair of them tended to avoid mentioning that year.
Maybe better to start with a platitude like…This has got to be the happiest day of my life…
Oh fuck that.
Maybe best to start with a hilarious anecdote then…
12 Years Earlier
James’ 18th Birthday
(Most of which he was too drunk to remember)
Lily couldn’t remember the last time James had been so happy. True, he’d had about six shots of Ogden’s finest with no signs of stopping, but it was still nice to see her fellow Head cutting loose. The winter term had been brutal. Between the extra course work the professors were assigning before they got into N.E.W.T review, Head duties, not to mention Quidditch, Lily had found herself getting fewer and fewer hours of sleep. How James was managing it all, in addition to being Gryffindor captain, she hadn’t the slightest. She’d barely managed to show up on time to their early morning conditioning sessions and even had to bail on more than one practice during the last month due to various tutoring sessions. Perhaps James had gotten himself a Time-Turner, or something.
No matter how he was doing it, James Potter seemed to be on top of the world. And why wouldn’t he be? He’d just secured Gryffindor their second Quidditch victory this season during the longest Quidditch match Lily had ever played during her time at Hogwarts. It didn’t even matter whether she’d caught the Snitch or not (she had); with the amount of goals James scored they would have won regardless. It would be easy to call it Birthday magic, but then what was the absolutely slaughtering of Slytherin back in November? Sirius’ Birthday magic?
Actually, those two were conjoined at the hip, so maybe that was true.
Lily watched him over the top of her own shot of fire-whisky. She’d long since lost count how many drinks that’d been handed to her after she and the rest of the Gryffindor team had shown up, still sweaty, after their victory. But, she figured it was okay for now. She held her drink the best of anyone on the team. When one of their beateres, Farley Fawcett, started doing cartwheels she’d switch to water.
Probably.
Usually, when there were parties happening, Lily and James tried to divvy up who got drunk and who stayed at least semi-sober just in case they needed to break things up or prevent little Matthew Ogden from imbibing on his Great Uncle Tiberius’ product. He was, after all, only a third year. Technically, it should have been James’ turn, seeing as Lily had gotten the last party. But, it was his birthday. And he’d just won them the match making them the league favorite for the Quidditch Cup.
All that being said, it’d been an especially tough match. And she deserved a bit of a break.
I’d better not have to fish little Matthew Ogden out of the lake tomorrow , Lily thought, before downing her shot and setting off in search of another drink.
She didn’t have to search long. Remus and Peter beckoned to her from over by the record player and handed her a goblet full of something very, very pink.
“What’s this then?”
“Dunno,” Peter said, “Niamh made it, said to give it to you when we saw you.”
“Lovely,” Lily said, “I’m sure this won’t give me the worst hangover of my life tomorrow.”
“We’ve got something for that, by the way,” Remus said, “So it’ll only be the worst hangover of your life for about five minutes.”
“Or however long it takes you to get from your dorm to ours,” Peter grinned.
“Cheers, Peter.”
Lily took a massive gulp of the sadistically pink drink. It tasted only of strawberries and cream. That Niamh Kelly was an evil one. Brilliant at potions and in turn mixology, apparently. But evil. She’d be on the floor in no time. Probably wake up with a false mustache or her hair dyed blue, whichever Sirius thought was more amusing. Lily took another sip as ABBA’s Waterloo started up on the record player. Cheers erupted around the common room, before everyone rushed to the make-shift dance floor that Sirius had transfigured hours earlier. Lily wasn’t entirely sure how, but Waterloo had become Gryffindor’s official anthem that year, even though the song had come out quite a few years earlier. It was a good song, and Lily loved ABBA, but she never understood why the Gryffindors had gravitated towards the song, seeing as most of them had probably never heard of Napoleon’s surrender in 1815 or Eurovision.
Regardless, she joined the surge towards the center of the common room, downing her drink as she went. She lost sight of Remus and Peter in the crowd, but soon ran into James who was bobbing up and down like a hyperactive cork.
“Lily!”
His hands found her shoulders easily and he continued his bobbing, though now he had extra help and went slightly higher. Not wanting to miss out on all the fun, Lily put her hands on his shoulders and also started to bob.
“Are you having a good birthday?”
“The best!” James shouted.
Lily smiled.
The later the party went, the more debauched the crowd became. Lily thanked her lucky stars McGonagall hadn’t decided to check up on them as she sometimes did when she suspected there might be a raucous party (post Quidditch victories, Sirius Black’s 17th birthday, and the like). It was nearing midnight and all but the sixth and seventh years had headed off to bed, meaning no one had any qualms starting games like Strip Exploding Snap or forcing anyone who said the word “spell” to take a shot. Lily had already taken three.
“Evans!”
Sirius Black, who had seemingly just won his game of Strip Exploding Snap, seeing as he still had his eyebrows but had lost his trousers and shirt, though he retained his robes, swung his arm around Lily, spilling some of his drink on her.
“Whoops!”
But Lily didn’t care. She was eighteen and hadn’t a care in the world.
“Have you seen James?” Sirius asked, looking into his cup.
“Not for a bit, no,” Lily replied.
“Hmm…we’ve got cake in a bit.”
Sirius reached into his robes, pulling out a worn piece of paper. He scanned it quickly before pocketing it.
“Astronomy Tower.”
“Pardon?”
“James is up on the Astronomy Tower.”
“How do you…?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Lily rolled her eyes.
“What’s he even doing up there in this weather, is he mad?”
“Probably,” Sirius chortled, “can you go grab him? And I’ll start gathering everyone for cake?”
“Sure,” Lily said, “I’m least likely to get in trouble anyway.”
“You wound me, Evans! I can be crafty.”
“Says the forty or so detentions you’ve had!”
“Is it only forty? Really? That seems so low.”
Laughing, Lily headed towards the portrait hole.
If Lily was less drunk, she might have attempted to be more stealthy as she wandered the corridors after hours towards the Astronomy Tower. However, she figured she could convince anyone she came upon with varying degrees of success that she was on patrol duty. Mrs. Norris would be the only real challenge, but thankfully she hadn’t encountered the feline by the time she reached the staircase that led up towards the tower. Lily took the stairs two at a time, hoping that Sirius was still figuring out the cake. She didn’t want to turn up with James and have all the candles melting into the cake. Hopefully Sirius would have the foresight to wait until they were walking back through the portrait hole to actually light the candles.
By the time she reached the top of the stairs, Lily was freezing. Though she’d made fun of James for deciding the Astronomy Tower was a perfect spot for a birthday contemplation when the weather had oscillated between freezing rain and gusty winds all day, she herself had neglected to bring both her cloak and her wand (which so happened to be nestled in the pocket of her cloak back in the common room). Rubbing her arms, she turned the knob on the heavy door that led towards the main stargazing portion of the tower and stepped out onto the open air tower. James stood at the edge of the tower, eyes gazing outwards, towards Hagrid’s hut.
“Oi!”
James spun around, surprised to see her.
“All right, Evans?”
“Potter.”
It was so funny how after almost seven years of school their greetings hadn’t changed. Though the tone certainly had. At least on her end. James had always been friendly to her, even if he’d annoyed her in turn.
“Come to brave the cold with me then?” James asked.
“No actually,” Lily said, “I’ve come to retrieve you for cake.”
“I think I’m too old for cake.”
“Too old for cake? Is that a thing?”
Lily made her way towards James, joining him in looking out over the grounds.
“Where’s your cloak?”
“Forgot it, along with my wand incidentally.”
Not a moment later did a warm breeze begin drifting around Lily, she smiled at James.
“Thanks for that.”
“What are friends for?”
James pocketed his wand, which Lily hadn’t even seen him draw. The two settled into a comfortable silence, gazing out towards the forest, mist hovering around the exposed roots at the edges. Wordlessly, James offered Lily his flask full of what she assumed was Ogden’s finest, based on the smoking coming from it. Though Lily was already quite comfortable thanks to the warming charm James had performed, she took it, enjoying the burning sensation that rushed down her throat and all the way to her toes. In her periphery, she saw smoke seeping out of her ears. She loved how silly magic sometimes was.
It wasn’t until a few minutes later that James spoke, “I can’t believe we’ll be leaving soon.”
“Ooh, don’t remind me. That just makes me think of all the N.E.W.T practice I still have to do.”
“Come off it, you don’t need to practice. Just go in there blind and I’m sure you’ll show us all up.”
“Look who’s talking Mr. Nine Outstandings on your O.W.L.s.”
“And one Acceptable.”
“Yah, but that was Arithmancy. An A in Arithmancy is like an O in any other subject.”
“You’re too kind, Evans. Especially for someone who did get an O on their Arithmancy exam,” James winked.
“Yeah, well…I, unlike you lot, actually studied maths before coming to Hogwarts.”
“Another failing of Wizarding society,” James said solemnly, “Right there along with Love potions and curses that can literally kill you.”
“To be fair though, Muggles have invented several ways to kill people. So maybe that’s a society at large problem,” Lily argued.
“Seems a bit pessimistic.”
“You said it, not me.”
“Maybe it’s not society though. But rather individuals who stray down the wrong path.”
“You know, that’s quite clever, Potter.”
“I am wont to be from time to time, yeah.”
Lily smiled at him. And James at her.
“Promise me something?”
“Anything.”
Their heads were much closer now than they were at the start of the conversation. Lily hadn’t realized they’d been drifting, but just as she made to step backwards, James took hold of her wrist.
“Don’t freak out, okay?”
The question Lily was about to ask died on her tongue as James Potter closed the gap between them and kissed her.
Lily Evans would be lying if she said she’d never thought about kissing James Potter. A nuisance though he was, he was a nuisance with great hair and a charming smile to which, try as she might, she wasn’t totally immune to. For most of fourth year, she nursed a very secret crush on him. That is until he and Sirius had started targeting Snape for seemingly no reason.
Well, she knew the reasons now. And she could hardly blame them, though she still questioned their methods.
Lily Evans would also be lying if she said she’d never thought about kissing James Potter this year . They’d developed a tenuous friendship at the start of their sixth year, hastened of course by the fact that Sirius had started dating her best friend, Mary Macdonald. But by the time Mary and Sirius had broken up three months later, James and Lily had become fast friends (and in Lily’s dreams, something a little bit more than friends).
She almost told him, once, how she wanted them to be more than friends. How she wanted to run her fingers through his already very messy hair. How she might die if she didn’t kiss his crooked jaw. She planned to tell him as soon as she saw him in person. She even wrote a letter arranging for them to get together during the school holidays. They could meet anywhere; they’d just gotten their Apparition licenses after all. But then she’d gotten another letter. A letter informing her that she’d been selected to be Head Girl. And James Potter was to be Head Boy. And Lily Evans, responsible to a fault, shoved her feelings aside.
And yet here they were. Less than three months away from the end of their tenure as Head students and kissing out of bounds on the Astronomy Tower.
Lily should have known kissing James in her imagination would have never lived up to the real thing. In her head, he did everything right. In reality, the best parts of James’ kiss were the mistakes. His initial tentative kiss had turned into two kisses, then three, each more urgent than the last. An accidental tooth bump here, a bitten lip there. Lily leaned forward, wrapping her arms tighter around James. James, on his part, met her enthusiasm with earnest, and pulled her back towards him. Lily’s feet lifted in the air slightly as she leaned further into their kiss. James groaned, the sound making the hair on Lily’s arms stand up, even though between James’ warming charm and his embrace she was quite warm. Lily never wanted it to stop.
But, of course, all good things must come to an end. It was the nature of the universe. After all, how could there be good things without the bad to put everything into perspective?
Unfortunately for the pair of them, when James had first kissed Lily, she, having been caught off guard, ended up dropping the flask they’d been sharing. Under any other circumstances, it would not have been an issue; the both of them had been plenty drunk enough, so the rest of Ogden’s finest that had spilled from the flask was no loss to either of them. What they could not have foreseen, however, was where the flask fell; just behind James’ left foot.
If this had been under normal circumstances, both James and Lily, skilled athletes with above average balance, could have avoided tripping over said flask. Yet, these, of course, were not normal circumstances; James being far too preoccupied kissing Lily, and Lily all too consumed with kissing James right back.
And so, in James’ haste to pull Lily even closer, he stepped right onto the edge of the flask. This, of course, caused two things to happen in very quick succession. The first being, the near empty flask ricocheting across the Astronomy Tower only to be discovered in three days time by two fifth year Prefects. Luckily, the flask was nondescript and the Head Boy was never implicated in drinking out of bounds. The second thing that happened, which was much worse than the first thing, was James falling backwards, grip tightening on Lily as though he meant to protect her.
In James’ defense, Lily came out relatively unscathed from their tumble to the floor of the Astronomy Tower. A couple of scraped knees and a bleeding forearm. Nothing a quick trip to Madame Pomfrey wouldn’t fix. James, however, wasn’t so lucky. With a sickening crack, the back of James’ head hit the hard stone. His grip slackening on Lily drew her attention to him immediately.
“James?”
He was out cold.
Shit.