Jily side blog

“No,” she said in a tone that left no room for argument. She took several steps to the side so she was no longer in the bathroom doorway. “You. Shower. Go.” 

James side-eyed her dramatically even as he obeyed, walking into the bathroom. “You are a cruel, cold woman.”

“You didn't think that a couple hours ago,” Lily reminded him. 

Not that he needed reminding. He turned to her, a hopeful grin on his face. “Are you sure…?”

“Shower. Alone,” she said firmly and, picking up her wand from the table by Sirius's bed, she magicked the door shut in his face. Again. 

She heard him grumble, and knew he didn't actually mean it, and then heard him turn the water on. There was no rustling as he undressed since he hadn't been wearing anything other than his shorts all morning – she had stolen his shirt when they'd finally crawled out of bed and it was already wrinkled on the bathroom floor. She had a feeling he was planning to raid Sirius's wardrobe rather than wear the same clothes her parents had seen him in the night before, anyway.

Lily dressed quickly, half afraid that James would take a very, very brief shower and emerge to find her naked and get them both very – pleasantly –  sidetracked again. Unfortunately, she did not have a change of clothes, so she had to rewear the dress from last night. Of course, her parents knew by now that she had not come home last night. Still, Lily wasn't overly excited to provide her parents with the visual reminder when she walked inside in a formal dress at ten o'clock in the morning. 

Turning to study herself in the mirror, Lily noticed several things very quickly. Her cheeks were pleasantly pink, her eyes were bright. She looked unreasonably happy. Well, perhaps not unreasonably, but ridiculously. And oh God there was the lovebite on full display on her collarbone. She had half a mind to tell James off for it when he got out, but the memory of his mouth on her skin gave her pause. She felt warm all over, and her stomach gave a pleasant little lurch at the memory. She couldn't scold him for that. Maybe she could just threaten him a little instead, warn him not to leave a mark again. 

Absent-mindedly she picked up the hairbrush on the dresser and began running it through her tangled hair. Halfway through, she realized it was Sirius's. It gave her pause for half a second before she continued. Sirius had shared his best friend (non-negotiable), his flat, his bed, and his shower with her. He could share his hairbrush as well. 

When she finished, James was still in the shower. She could hear him humming as he washed himself and recognized the tune as Amortentia Nights by Barnaby Basil. Smiling to herself, she slipped out of the bedroom and into the hall. They never had gotten around to making that tea, but now that James was safely in the shower away from her it was the perfect time to finish that particular task without distraction. 

They still had thirty minutes before they had to leave to make it home for the time her father had given James. Plenty of time for a quick cuppa. 

She had her wand pointed at the kettle to get it to boil quickly by the time she realized there was already steam coming off it. She stared at it, puzzled, for a moment. She wondered if James had set it to boil again while she had been in the shower, but she was fairly convinced he had sat on the bed waiting for her the entire time. 

Frowning, she reached into the cupboard to take down a mug. 

“Nice dress, Evans,” said a deep, suave voice from behind her. 

Lily shrieked, then dropped the mug which shattered at her feet as she whirled around, wand drawn, half a second before she recognized the voice. 

Sirius Black was sitting lazily, comfortably, the picture of ease, on the couch in the sitting room, which was appropriate since it was his sitting room. He had his legs extended far out in front of him, ankles crossed. One of his arms was resting on the back of the couch; in his other hand was a steaming cup of tea. He was smirking at her. She had walked right past him without even noticing. 

“Sirius!” she exclaimed. 

“I liked that mug,” he said mildly. 

“Oh honestly,” she mumbled, embarrassed as she pointed her wand at the shards on the floor. Immediately, the mug was intact again. Her heart was still racing, but at least it had settled back down to her chest. She waved her wand again and the mug shot up into her hand once more. “How long have you been here?” 

He shrugged. “Long enough.” 

“Sirius,” she said again, this time in a much more matronly tone. 

His smirk broadened. “Long enough to hear James failing to negotiate joint shower rights.” 

Lily’s face grew hot. Before she could manage a response, she heard the bathroom door fly open. James crashed into the hall, a towel haphazardly wrapped around his waist, shampoo suds still in his hair, glasses absent, wand in hand. He froze just inside the sitting room, squinting at Lily, then Sirius between them. 

“What are you doing here?” he demanded. 

“Seeing as I live here,” Sirius replied casually as he took a leisurely sip of steaming hot tea, “I simply returned home.”

“You stayed the night at my parents’ house, though,” James said. 

“I did,” Sirius agreed. “And since it’s now morning, I have left your parents’ house.” 

James gaped at him and finally, as if just realizing he was still brandishing it, lowered his wand. “But why? You’re not a morning person.” 

Lily decided now was as good a time as any to pour herself a cup of tea. She knew from experience how long a witty, if frustrating, back-and-forth between James and Sirius could last. 

“It’s half nine,” Sirius said evasively. 

She placed a teabag in the mug she’d broken and subsequently repaired. 

“Again, you’re not a morning person,” James said. 

She poured water over the teabag. 

“We wake up at seven for classes back at school,” Sirius pointed out. 

She opened a cupboard at random, closed it when she didn’t find the sugar, opened another one. 

“It’s Christmas break,” James growled. 

She smiled, privately victorious when she found the sugar, and then set about in search of Sirius’s spoons.

“I was homesick,” Sirius pivoted. 

The silverware drawer proved easier to find than the sugar had been, and she placed a spoon and the sugar next to the mug of steeping tea. 

“You were not,” James said loudly. 

Lily turned then, and walked into the sitting room to join her idiots. 

“Fine.” Sirius heaved a long-suffering sigh. “Since my poor, heartbroken, lovesick best mate didn’t come home last night after seeing his estranged girlfriend, I was concerned. I knew it either meant things went well, or very poorly. I had to check on him.” He turned his attention back to Lily as she strode up to James’s side. “Since you’re here too, I guess it went well.” He  made a show of looking her over and his cool grey gaze lingered on her bruised collarbone. “Very, very well.” 

“It did,” she said, cutting James off before he could tell Sirius off. “Rest assured, he will not be in need of any institutionalization.” 

Lily had been under the impression that Sirius had known James might bring her here after the party, but judging by his apparent surprise at her presence, maybe he hadn’t. Maybe he had just wondered where James was since he hadn’t come home and realised that this was the most likely place for him to have gone, heartbroken or happy. 

Sirius raised an eyebrow. “He told you everything, did he?” 

“He did,” Lily said, holding his gaze steadily, “Padfoot.”

His gaze was cool and steady on her for a moment as James sighed next to her, still radiating frustration. Then, a corner of Sirius’s mouth quirked up as he shot her his usual smirk. “Am I  meant to feign shock? We all already knew you’d figured that out.” 

“Well, sure, but now he told me about it all,” she said. 

“That makes a difference, does it?” Sirius asked glibly. 

She nodded firmly. “To me, it does.” 

“Fair enough.” Sirius’s attention shifted back to James. “You’re dripping on the shag, you know.” 

James looked down and saw the pool of soapy water at his bare feet. He glanced back up at Lily, who was trying very hard not to laugh at him now. Honestly, it was ridiculous the way he’d appeared naked and wet at the first sound of alarm. 

“I should probably finish my shower,” he said. “Will you be okay?” 

Lily allowed herself to laugh at him then and gave his wet chest a playful shove. “It’s Sirius, not a Death Eater. Of course I’m okay.” 

“Alright, alright,” James said. “I’ll be quick.” 

“Nah, he won’t,” Sirius taunted lazily as James turned and headed back to his bedroom. James called him a very nasty word over his shoulder.

Lily laughed again and went back into the kitchen to squeeze out her teabag and stir in a spoonful of sugar before she returned to Sirius in the sitting room. 

“I used your shampoo, I hope you don't mind,” Lily informed him as she took a seat on the other end of the couch. 

He shrugged. “That's fine.”

“And your conditioner,” she added, taking a delightful first sip of her tea. 

“Not a problem,” he replied. 

“I also used your hairbrush,” she said. 

“Well, now you've gone too far.” He gave her his signature smirk when she chuckled at him and a companionable silence fell between them. After a moment, Sirius broke it. “You know, he was really fucking miserable.”

Lily looked at him. He was looking right back at her. His gaze was steady and neutral for the most part. She could almost believe he was simply being conversational, if it weren’t for the tiniest glint of blame in his eyes. 

“So was I,” she said softly. 

He watched her, and then nodded. “Sure, I believe that.” He paused, sipped his tea, gaze still on her. After a moment, he sighed. It wasn’t the theatrical sigh from before when he had been mostly teasing James. This one was quieter and quicker, harsher, like he regretted setting himself up for this particular conversation. 

“I’m just saying,” he continued. “Next time you go a month without speaking to him, it better actually be a break up.” 

Lily blinked at him. 

“He’s an idiot sometimes, and I know he can be a wanker. Trust me, I know.” He wasn’t looking at her anymore, but glaring broodily at the coffee table like he regretted the line of conversation he had set them on. “But he’s also my best friend. He’s my brother, and he’s a damn good person. The best person I know. He didn’t deserve to spend a month wondering whether or not he’s got a girlfriend.” 

“I know,” Lily said quietly. “But Sirius, he wasn’t talking to me, either.” 

Sirius lifted his gaze to hers again, and she saw the incredulity there. 

“I’m not saying I was in the right, or he was in the wrong,” she said quickly before he could attack her in that lazily scathing way of his. “We were both in the right, and we were both in the wrong. And we’ve worked that out between us, thank you very much.”

He stared at her for a moment, his grey eyes unblinking in his scrutiny. Then, he glanced at her love-bruised collarbone again very briefly before he met her eyes again and nodded once. “Good. I didn’t like resenting you.” 

Lily pursed her lips around a small smile. “I missed you too, Sirius.” 

He scoffed and looked away. “Whatever.” 

When James came into the sitting room again, this time with fully rinsed and charm-dried hair and fully dressed in Sirius’s clothes - jeans and a plain red t-shirt - they were still seated on the couch. Laughing now, perfectly at ease with one another, not a hint that they’d just had a semi-emotional conversation themselves. He smiled when he saw them, and crossed the room to stand behind Lily. 

She leaned her head back to smile up at him when he rested his hands on her shoulders. When James leaned down to kiss her, Sirius made a gagging noise. 

James made a rude hand gesture at him before he tore his mouth from Lily’s and turned to the kitchen. “Thank God for tea!” he called. 

Lily reached over and gripped Sirius’s wrist, ignoring his annoyed huff when she yanked his hand close to her face so she could look at his watch. 

“I don’t think you’ve got time for that, love,” she announced as she dropped Sirius’s hand. “It’s nearly ten.” 

James groaned loudly and Lily laughed without mercy. 

“You did this to yourself!” she reminded him. 

“What’s he done to himself? What’s at ten?” Sirius asked. 

“Last night, as we were leaving, he made a date with my father for breakfast this morning,” Lily informed Sirius, who raised one eyebrow in surprise. 

“A breakfast date with the in-laws,” he drawled. “The morning after you’ve defiled their youngest child, and left visible proof on her skin. Brave of you.” 

Lily’s face went red. “Sirius!” she hissed. He did not look repentant. 

“Visible proof?” James whipped around and walked back into the sitting room to study Lily. It didn’t take long for him to find the mark on her collarbone and he groaned. “Oh, God.” 

“You didn’t forget,” Lily said, watching him walk around the couch to stand in front of her now so he could stare at her collarbone in dismay. 

“About breakfast, or the hickey?” Sirius asked. 

James and Lily ignored him. 

“I didn’t realize it would be that obvious,” James lamented. “D’you think Dittany would help?”

Lily almost asked where they would even get Dittany on such short notice, then remembered she was in Sirius Black’s flat. She was sure he had some somewhere around here. “No, it’s not an open wound. It’s really not that bad. I mean, it’s only visible because of this dress.” 

“Yes, this dress – this lovely, really fantastic dress – that you are currently wearing and will be wearing when we walk into your home and face your parents,” James pointed out. “Your parents like me! Your father in particular seemed to enjoy my presence last night. I can’t have ruined that already!” 

“James,” Lily said, standing to hold his handsome, anxious face in her hands. “I guarantee my parents noticed how you never brought me home last night. Did you think they were under the impression that we just sat here and talked all night?” 

“We did talk a lot,” James said weakly. “For a long time. There were tears, remember?” 

“Which one of you cried?” Sirius asked, grinning as he looked between them. “No, wait. Let me guess. It was James.” 

“It was both of us, actually,” Lily spared before turning back to James. “It’s going to be fine. Trust me.” 

“Did the tears occur before or after your questionable decision to bed this one?” Sirius asked. 

“Shut up!” James snapped.

At the same time, Lily said, “Before, of course.” 

“Would you stop encouraging him?” James pleaded with her. “I am having an existential crisis.” 

“You’re so dramatic,” Lily said, taking his hand. “Let’s go before we’re late. My mum does not like tardiness.” 

“It was your dad’s idea,” James mumbled. 

“And you were the one who accepted the invitation without running it by me,” Lily pointed out. She glanced at Sirius again, offered him a smile. “Thanks for hosting, even if you didn’t realize you were doing it. I owe you one.” 

“No, we’re even, Evans,” he told her as they fetched their coats from the hall closet. 

This time it was Lily who brought James Side-Along, not because he didn’t know where she lived but because he refused to drop her hand. Of course he didn’t stumble on the landing, she noticed bitterly as she opened the front door and pulled him into the foyer. 

“We’re here!” Lily called, and yanked her hand out of James as she walked purposefully down the hall. She gestured for James to go into the kitchen where her parents were plating breakfast even as she continued toward her bedroom. “I’m going to get out of this dress!” 

Her mother caught her right outside of her bedroom. 

“Did you have a nice night?” she asked quietly, eyeing her daughter carefully. 

“I did,” Lily said softly, still holding her coat closed so that her mother couldn’t see the mark James had left on her. It didn’t matter; she knew that her mother knew. “How upset is Dad?” 

“Moderately,” her mother said with a small smile. “Petunia never stayed out all night with Vernon until they were already engaged.” 

“Yeah, well…” Lily trailed off. Vernon didn’t look like James, nor was he passionate or emotional or romantic like James, as far as Lily knew. 

Her mother’s smile broadened a bit. Lily was relatively certain that she knew what Lily had been thinking. “He’ll give James a hard time, but not too hard. He likes him.” 

“James can handle a hard time,” Lily said with a smile. “Although, he is very nervous about facing Dad. Would you go back in there for moral support while I change?” 

“Of course,” her mother said, looking delighted by the request, but she lingered for a moment just looking at her daughter. 

“What?” Lily asked. Suddenly, she felt self-conscious. Did she have more marks that had somehow slipped her notice? She was certain sharp-eyed Sirius would have picked up on any other evidence and teased her relentlessly for it. 

Her mother shook her head. “You’re so beautiful. And you look so very happy.” 

“Mum…” Lily laughed, embarrassed. 

“I know, I know. Forgive me, I’ve gone sappy for a moment.” Her mother held her hands up in surrender before she drew her daughter into a quick hug. “I just love you so much. It’s such a lovely thing to see you happier than you have been all week. You’re back to yourself again.” 

“I am,” Lily assured her. 

“Now,” her mother said, suddenly brisk and no-nonsense. “Go get changed, and I’ll go supervise your father.” 

Lily laughed as her mother headed down the hall and turned into her bedroom. She changed quickly, not wanting to keep James waiting on her. 

“You know, James,” Lily heard her father saying as she walked back out of her bedroom wearing a pair of jeans and a soft Gryffindor jumper that easily concealed her marked collarbone. “When I said ten o’clock, I meant for you to be here at ten o’clock. Not for you to keep my daughter out all night with you.” 

“Yes, sir. That was implied, sir,” James said. He was running a hand through his hair when Lily joined the two men in the kitchen. “I’m very sorry, sir.” 

“Lighten up, Dad,” Lily said and kissed him on the cheek as she bypassed him to take James’s hand. “He would have brought me home if I’d wanted him to.” 

“Lighten up, she says, as she saunters in after a being missing all night,” her father mocked. 

“Do you take milk in your tea, James?” 

James startled as if he had forgotten Lily’s mother had returned. “Oh, er, yes, a splash, please.”

“I was hardly missing,” Lily argued with her father as she pulled James to the scarred wooden table under the window. “You knew where we were. We were at Sirius’s.” 

“Sugar, James, dear?” her mother offered kindly. 

“Hmm? Oh, none, thank you,” he answered. 

“Oh! At Sirius’s! Yes, this mystical inhumanly attractive boy! You were at his house all night! That makes it all better!” her father said. 

“Would you like to meet him? He’s sitting on his couch right now having a cuppa tea by himself if you’d like us to go get him,” Lily offered. 

“Oh, I’m sure he’d love that,” her father said sarcastically as he sat heavily at the head of the table and glared at James and Lily, who were still holding hands. 

“He would, actually, sir – oh, thanks Mrs. Evans,” James said, distractedly accepting the tea Lily’s mother was pushing into his hands as Lily took a seat. “Er, that is, Sirius would find this whole interaction very entertaining.” 

“Maybe he can join us next time,” Lily’s mother said, pushing James into the chair next to Lily. “When your father is not feeling quite so… emotional.” 

“I am not emotional,” her father said stiffly. 

“Of course not, darling,” Lily’s mother said placatingly, patting his shoulder before she began spooning food onto plates.  

“It’s not really the Sirius of it all that’s the issue, Lily,” her father continued as if they hadn’t been interrupted. He pointed at James. “It’s the him of it all.” 

“James is usually the issue,” Lily said sagely. 

“Hey!” James protested, but he smiled when Lily looked at him with mirthful eyes. “You’re supposed to be on my side.” 

“I am on your side,” she insisted. 

“How many sausages, James?” 

James tore his gaze from Lily to look at her mother, who was holding a serving fork over a plate laden with buttered toast, fried eggs, potatoes, and already a small mountain of sausages. “Oh. That’s plenty. Thank you.” 

Mrs. Evans looked down at the plate in her hand. “Is it? Lily told us you were an athlete.” She added two more sausages to the pile before she set the plate in front of him. “You can always have more. There’s jam in the dish there.” 

“Thank you, Mrs. Evans,” James said again as she quickly served up a noticeably smaller plate for Lily, another hefty plate for her husband, and another smaller plate for herself. 

There was silence for a few minutes as everyone began to eat. 

Then, Lily’s father grunted, “Quidditch, right?” James looked at him quizzically. “The sport you play. It’s the same one you were telling me about last night, isn’t it?”

“Oh, yes, sir,” James said, nodding eagerly. “Best sport ever.” 

“So you said last night. What position do you play?” 

“I’m a Chaser,” James said proudly.

“Of course you are,” Lily’s father said, frowning at James, but Lily could see her father was beginning to lose the thread of his annoyance. She knew James could tell as well. “You score a lot?” 

James glanced at Lily. “I do pretty well.” 

“He scores a lot,” Lily said just as he lifted his cup to his lips. 

James choked on his tea and very determinedly did not look at her. Lily bit her lip, doing a very poor job of hiding her smile. Her mother caught her eye across the table. Lily began to shovel eggs into her mouth. 

“I’m the Gryffindor team captain,” James continued once he’d recovered. “So, yeah, I guess I’m pretty decent.” 

“Team Captain, eh?” 

“Yes, sir,” James said. 

“So,” Lily’s mother said, studying him over a bit of toast slathered in jam. “That means you run the show.” 

James lifted a shoulder. “In a manner of speaking. Really, it just means I’m the one everyone blames when things go wrong.” 

“Sounds familiar.” 

Lily watched James blink in surprise. Then he smiled. “Do you coach a sport or something?” 

“No, I’m a building manager,” her father said, then he leveled a look at his daughter. “But I was referring to the fact I’ve got daughters.” 

“Hey!” Lily protested as James burst out laughing. 

After that, conversation came much easier. Lily’s father asked for more details about Quidditch. James delved into telling about his personal experience with the sport, including the fact that he had once scored so many goals that even though the Hufflepuff Seeker had caught the Snitch, Gryffindor had still won. It could have come across as bragging, but Lily knew he was only trying to illustrate why the Snitch was worth so many points. He then made the mistake of mentioning the time he had been knocked off his broom thirty feet off the ground and ended up in the Hospital Wing for a week his first year on the team. 

Horrified, her mother declared the game senselessly dangerous. Her father said it sounded ridiculous, but admitted he would quite like to see a match. Lily reassured them both that it was actually very entertaining while James beamed at her and nodded emphatically. Somewhere along the way, Lily realized her father was no longer interrogating James, but making conversation with him. James seemed to have noticed it too. Slowly, he shifted so that he was no longer sitting at rigid attention, but leaning back in his chair, his arm casually draped over the back of hers.

When breakfast was finished, everyone was smiling. Then, Lily’s mother stood and asked her for help clearing the table. 

“I can help!” James offered immediately, already half out of his seat, but Lily shook her head and placed a hand on his shoulder to push him back down. She understood what her mother was doing separating them. 

“So, James,” her father said, leaning back in his seat as Lily helped her mother gather the dishes. 

“Yes, sir?” James said. There was an odd, strangled quality to his voice as he found himself alone at the table with her father. Lily smiled to herself as she began to fill the sink with water. She could just charm the dishes to do themselves, but she thought it would be more fun to have an excuse to leave James to squirm. 

“About last night,” her father continued, trailing off again. 

“Yes, sir,” James repeated, sounding much more like a soldier heading off to a certain death than a seventeen year-old wizard sitting at the breakfast table with his girlfriend’s father.

Lily bit her lip. 

“I believe you promised me a lecture on wizarding aristocracy,” her father finally said. 

Lily groaned even as she heard James’s breath leave him in a relieved sigh. 

“That is one promise I can definitely keep, sir,” James said. “Although, how long do you have? Lily wasn’t exaggerating when she said I could be longwinded.” 

Lily’s mother bumped her hip and the two women shared a small smile as her father said, “We don’t have any plans for the rest of the day.” 

“Well, I should probably get home and see my parents eventually,” James said. “But I’ve got a few hours.” 

“Let’s move this to the sitting room, then,” Lily’s father said, and she heard the scrape of chairs against the floor as the two men stood and left the room together.