#claudiawrites

Promises In Frost

One-shot | Words: 1.4K | Rating: T

Summary - Lily Evans has an important question to ask before Christmas.

[Written for @jilychallenge December Jily Advent Calendar 2022]

Hoodwinked

Rating: E | Words: 6.7K

Summary: James and Lily release stress after a night of undercover work for the Order

For @all-things-jily: Happy Birthday, my love 💗 Hope you enjoy this bit of smut (with a little plot)! Thank you for being the person I write my essays to

Chapter 2 - Shape

Summary: "Each student from the creative writing course will be paired with another student from the art course to work on a collaborative project over the duration of three weeks for a chance to be featured in the Hogwarts University Annual Art Exhibition." What are the chances that Lily gets paired with the one person she absolutely cannot stand?

Read chapter 2: AO3 || FFN

We're Just Friends

Rating: M | Words: 4.1K

Summary - James Potter is in love with his flatmate. There. Best to get that out of the way before he is accused of being in denial or drowning in obliviousness.

Happy Belated Birthday, @mabeltothknows 😻 Here's the little surprise gift fic that's no longer a surprise because I gave it away without requiring any sort of persuasion. I love you and your mind entirely too much! Hope this makes your birthday a bit better, even if it's late.

Congrats love!!! ❤❤❤

Hey, Lauren! Remember when you sent this? 💖 Neither do I 🥲 But I wrote something for it, so thank you, queen!

Fighting Fear

Through the light veil of intoxication clouding his vision, he spots her across the room, stood near the fireplace with Mary Macdonald, a cup of punch in hand.

“—how he did that swerve and roll when the bludger came his way! Are you listening, Prongs? What’s—” Sirius’s annoyed tone morphs into a heavy sigh the very next second, and James doesn’t even need to turn to know that he’s spotted the girls too. “Ah. Suppose I’ve lost you now, then.”

With a self-admonishing shake of his head, James looks away, shifting so that his back faces the fireplace now; not entirely eliminating the temptation but lessening his masochistic tendencies somewhat. “It’s nothing,” he makes himself say, chugging a huge gulp of his own punch and instantly regretting the move when his insides recoil with horror. “I’m fine. It’s over… whatever it was.”

“Is it really?” Sirius asks, looking exasperated. “Because not a single person in the room—no, fuck that; the castle—would believe that, given the fat fucking clouds of gloom the two of you seem to carry around with you these days.”

James clenches his jaw. “What do you want me to say, Padfoot? I did what I could, but—”

“You gave up.”

That does it.

“She is the one who went fucking silent on me!” he hisses, fingers clenching around his now-empty cup. “I told her how I felt, I asked her out, because you—all three of you!—told me she had to feel the same way, and then I scared her off. It’s exactly what I'd feared, and now—”

“Stop whining for a moment, would you?” Sirius glares, snatching the crushed cup away from James's hand for no apparent reason. “She didn’t go fucking silent on you; she said she needed some time.”

“Yes, to think of how to let me down gently, no doubt.”

“You know, Prongs, Evans has called you arrogant ‘bout a dozen times in the past, but now is when you really need to pull your head out of your arse, mate,” he scoffs. “Give the bird a bloody chance. She’s never had her feelings all sorted out, like you have. She clearly likes to complicate matters and overthink them to death, and I shouldn’t have to tell you this, because you already know it! If you just stopped panicking like a headless bloody chicken, you’d see all of this more rationally.”

“Merlin,” James mutters, ears a little red. “What’s with you suddenly?”

“I’m tired of watching you mope around and be miserable. Disbalances the atmosphere in the dormitory.”  

“Right.”

“Are you gonna let her talk to you then? She’s been trying since Thursday.”

“I know,” James sighs, runs a hand through his hair. “I’m just—”

“Scared of getting your heart broken, I know,” says Sirius, rolling his eyes, though not without fondness. “That’s not going to happen. No one chases the person they want to reject quite that badly. If Remus hadn’t stopped her, she might’ve marched down to the locker rooms after the match today to find you.”

“You’re kidding,” James whispers, sudden images flashing through his mind about this potential confrontation that could have taken place. He thinks he sort of regrets its non-occurrence now. “You… really think I should take a chance?”

“For fuck’s sake, yes!” Sirius barks, eyes jumping towards the fireplace for a beat. “And I’d do it soon, too, because from the look of things, Evans has clearly started thinking you want nothing to do with her anymore.”

“What?” James frowns, turning around to find only Mary standing near the large, scarlet couch, glaring with undisguised annoyance right at him. “Okay, she does not seem well pleased.”

“No shit.”

“Where’d Evans go?”

“Outside,” Sirius replies, clapping James firmly on the back. “Now go fix this or Macdonald won’t be the only one hexing your balls off.”

“You can try,” he says, mostly distracted as his feet carry him towards the portrait hole. Heart thundering behind rib-cage, skin too red-warm, breathing a little unsteady, James opens the portrait to step out, all the while trying not to completely lose it.

At first, the corridor looks seemingly empty; quiet and unoccupied given the late hour, and he wonders how she could’ve possibly gone somewhere far so quickly. But then a soft, rustling noise catches his attention, and his eyes scan the space to land on the barely-visible movement of a shadow within the nearest alcove.

He swallows, keeps his footsteps light so as to not startle her, and moves closer.

However, before he can traverse the entire distance, she steps out of the darkness, a soft gasp of surprise escaping her lips when she notices him, feet coming to an instant halt. At the sight of her, something in his chest flutters madly, then tightens to the point of pain; her eyes are sad and red-rimmed.

“Oh god,” Lily says, “How long have you been standing there?”

“I haven’t—I just came outside to—not long,” he blabbers like an idiot, feeling worse by the second. Fuck, had she really been out here, crying by herself? “I came looking for you, actually.”

“Really?” she asks, and he finds his brows climbing high when she juts out her chin a little defiantly. The action almost makes him smile with its familiarity; but only almost. “Are you just saying that because you ran into me here and have nowhere to go? Because from what I’ve seen, James, you haven’t seemed very interested in even looking at me lately, let alone looking for me.”

Merlin, this wasn’t going well. “Evans—”

“So, if awkwardness is all you’re trying to avoid, please don’t worry. I can leave you be in peace. You don’t have to feel bad—”

“Lily, stop.” He frowns, takes a step closer so she’ll see he means to go nowhere. “I’m not here because I felt bad or anything like that—although, yes, I’m not feeling too grand at the moment. I came here to tell you I’m sorry.”

He’s surprised her again; the tension evaporates from her shoulders gradually, green eyes widening. “What?”

“I’m sorry. I’ve been such a prat.” James runs a hand through his hair, finds it difficult, suddenly, to keep holding her gaze. “I knew you were trying to talk to me, but I kept avoiding you because I was scared that you’d—” say it, say it! “—that you’d say no. Or worse, that you wouldn’t even want to be my mate anymore. It was just easier to run away from that, I suppose.”

He breathes out deeply, feeling a strange sense of relief even as his heart still continues to trill in anxiety. Lily blinks, lips parted, expression painted in stunned disbelief.

He rushes to add: “That’s not to say that I still feel the same way! I mean, am I afraid? Well, yes, deathly. But I’m ready to accept whatever your answer is, Evans, I promise I am. I never should have expected you to have an immediate response anyway, and I know that—that you probably don’t feel the same way, but I respect your feelings, so… yeah.”

Fucking hell, his face feels like it’s positively on fire.

But at least his embarrassing spiel has resulted in light pink splotches on Lily’s cheeks too, which he notices only a little too well when she steps even closer, leaving barely any space between them.

“So, you were not avoiding me because you changed your mind?”

“Changed my mind?”

“About how you feel… about me,” she elaborates, voice quiet.

He can only gape in response. “You have to be kidding me. Are you absolutely mental? You thought I could just move on, change my mind, about you in four bloody days?” He scoffs, or laughs, or sobs a little—it’s hard to tell. “Honestly, Lily, that’s the most ridiculous—"

“James,” she says softly, effectively shutting him up, and in that half of a millisecond in between, James thinks that if she’s about to let him down after saying his name like that, she’ll need to take a lesson or hundred on how not to be heartbreakingly cruel. Thankfully, what she does instead is smile the most beautiful smile he’s ever seen on her, and pull him down with a light tug on his jumper. “Thank you for respecting my feelings, but I very much feel the same way.”

Close Your Eyes

Words: 3.3K | Rating: T

Summary: “Really?” he whispered, voice tight, clearly hurt. “Do I really repulse you that much?”

@jilychallenge November 2022 submission | Trope: Enemies Friends to Lovers | Partner: @annabtg 💗

New Jily Fic: Tracing You

Chapter 1: Outline

Summary: "Each student from the creative writing course will be paired with another student from the art course to work on a collaborative project over the duration of three weeks for a chance to be featured in the Hogwarts University Annual Art Exhibition." What are the chances that Lily gets paired with the one person she absolutely cannot stand? [Artist!James | Writer!Lily]

So, so, so excited to post something after 6 months of not writing. In fact, I'm positive it's a little sloppy but I'm just happy to get this baby out there ❤️❤️

@all-things-jily @mabeltothknows @missgryffin @the-dream-team this one's for you amazing ladies!