#ust jily

He laughs, a chuckle really, and who the fuck chuckles these days? “More than you are.” He gently pushes her hand from his rib cage and takes a swig of his firewhiskey. It doesn’t mean anything, it’s Potter for fuck’s sake it’s not like you’re flirting.

“Where’s Black, anyway,” Lily says because she doesn’t want to talk about how she’s drunk and he’s not. That’s a dangerous mix. 

“Doing what Black does best,” Potter says. He points again and Lily sees Black in the centre of the common room, lazily perched on an arm chair, giving a monologue to a crowd of admirers. 

“Harassing people?”

“I believe he’s giving a retelling of one our best pranks, actually,” Potter says, jumping up to sit next to her on the table. Lily tries not to notice that their shoulders brush. 

“Second year swimming pool?”

“Fourth year vanishing act, I think.”

“That was only average.”

“McGonagall fell for it.”

“She was only pretending,” Lily says, and then burps. “Didn’t want to bruise your egos.”

yes !! i don’t think they would have got together if they hadn’t been friends first and they definitely were. 

imo lily never exactly hated james but obviously he was a bully and a dick to her best friend and, from james’ pov, why was such a cool girl hanging out with such a greasy boy ?so there’s no room for close friendship before lily cuts snape out of her life and james grows the f up. which he does end of fifth year - seventh year and this is when they become friends. 

spending time together in the common room, cheering him on at matches, head duties when seventh year comes around, group discussions in front of the fireplace, exploding snap tournaments....i think the gryffindors probably melded together as a group in sixth/seventh but james and lily sort of just... gravitated towards each other in this group too

Jily Muggle AU, pre-dating. I really don’t know what I’m doing.

Warning: body parts mention?? is that even a thing?? It’s not smut bc I don’t have the life experiences necessary lol, but if someone were to write a smut fic based on this that would be grand too wink wink

“So who the hell thought this was a bloody good idea?” James grumbled, brushing a sopping lock of hair out of his eye.

“Peter,” replied Lily with a sigh, “and he’s managed to weasel himself out of it.” Her shoe sank in mud, and she pulled it clear with an exasperated groan.

James, Lily, Sirius, Remus and Marlene were hiking somewhere out in the damned wilderness, soaked to the bone with practically no vision. They’d been walking for hours now, and what had first seemed like a pleasant little adventure soon turned into a struggle through torrential downpour. In addition, they had already gone through most of the snacks, as Peter had promised to bring the bulk of it but had gotten the flu at the last minute. Everyone’s spirits were low.

“Honestly, though. We should’ve just gone to the beach instead, like Marlene suggested.” Lily said, squinting at Sirius.

“Where’s the fun in that? We’re having a marvelous bonding experience, surviving life-threatening experiences together. Can’t get that on a pretty little beach.”

“Well, maybe on a pretty little b-”

Suddenly, the ground under Lily gave way, and she disappeared off the side of the path with barely a squeak.

Before anyone can react, and without a second thought, James leapt after her.

-

They landed at the bottom of the slope in a big splash of mud. James felt himself for injuries, and sighed with relief when he found all his limbs in place. But then his thoughts turned to Lily.

She lay a few meters away, unmoving.

Fuck fuck fuck.

“Lily?” He yelled through the thundering rain, panic laced through his voice. “Lily!”

She sat up, wiping dirt off her face. James crawled over, examining her.

“Are you hurt?”

“My ankle,” she said, before looking up at him. “It’s probably not a big deal though.”

Nodding, James stood up. He looked back over the bank from which they fell. It was quite high up, but not too steep, so it was more of a slide than a fall. They’d made it down, but there was no chance their mates were going to come down to help anytime soon.

He turned to look behind him, and jumped.

An old shack was just there, as if anticipating their arrival. It looked neglected, worn down, but it would do for some cover until this rain eased up.

This could go two ways, James thought. It could be one of those horror movie types where some guy with an axe massacres them… or it could be the other type. You know, where they can’t start a fire, and they’re all alone, and they get cold and…

We’re in the middle of nowhere in the middle of a storm, for god’s sake. Get a grip.

He pulled Lily up, wrapping an arm around her for support. They hobble to the door, finding it unlocked. They stepped inside.

They shed seemed to be a small woodcutter’s hut, long abandoned but still holding up. There was a shelf-ish looking thing attached to the wall, which must have served as a bed at some point. A few hooks on the wall. A stool. It was only the afternoon but it was dim inside, the only shaft of light coming in through a small window near the ceiling.

James looked around, and looked back at Lily.

“Uh,” he said.

“Um.” She agreed, but then she laughed. He broke into a grin as well, running a hand through his mop of wet hair.

“What are we going to do?”

“Wait for the rain to stop, I guess?”

Lily shot him an exasperated look.

“How long d’you think it’ll take them to f-”

Just then, a violent shudder ripped through James.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, no, yeah. Fine. I’m fine.” He gave her a reassuring smile.

“You’re cold.” She frowned.

“I’m fine.”

The other scenario, the non-horror one, flashed through his mind again and he blinked. And blinked again.

“So what were you saying?”

“Right. Because they knew where we fell, yeah? Obviously they can’t come down the way we did, but it shouldn’t be too hard to find us, right? Just as long as the r-“

“James?”

He shuddered again, against his will. He knew he wasn’t the, you know, broadest or anything, but this cold intolerance was just annoying.

Pulling his arms around himself, he turned back to her and blanched.

Lily Evans was taking her soaking top off like it was no big deal, hanging it up on one of the pegs.

Averting his eyes, James stammered. “Wh-what are you doing?”

“You’ve seen the movies,” she said lightly, peeling her socks off. “Body heat.”

“I-“

“You spend half the year whipping your top off at every given sporting event, and you can’t do it here??” She snorted.

Scowling, James took his shirt off, hanging it up next to hers. He turned around as his heavy jeans came off too, and he took a seat on the rickety stool, which creaked ominously as he lowered himself onto it. He stared determinedly at the wall.

He heard her snicker as she shuffled off to the wall again, shuffled back, and thumped onto the bed.

“You alright there?” James asked.

“Yeah,” she said, a smirk in her voice. “You?”

“Yeah. Fine. Fine,” He replied, pretending it wasn’t bloody weird to be talking to a wall thirty centimeters away from his face. There was a silence, and then…

“Look, you aren’t hiding your shivers. C’mere.”

James gulped. “I’m okay.”

“No, you’re not.”

No, I’m not. “Yes, I am.”

“No, you’re- see?”

His now-chattering teeth grit out a Fine. He turned around, taking deep breaths, and made his way to where she is lying down. He sat down next to her, looking down at her pale face.

“Hey,” she smiled.

“Hey,” he nodded.

“No funny business,” she warned, and before he knew it, he was dragged down beside her on the hard wooden board. Hardly daring to move, James took shallow breaths as he stared up at the ceiling.

“See? Warmer.” She murmured, her back to him. She snuggled into him, and James took extra care to move his lower regions to a safe distance. He wrapped an arm around her, surrendering.

“Yeah.”

-

When she awakes, before she opens her eyes, Lily is aware that it is bright. That she is warm. That there’s a hand protectively grasping her breast in a way that could definitely be considered Funny Business, not that she actually minds all that much. And that there’s something poking uncomfortably into her lower back, and so she shifts, when-

“SHIT.” A voice yelps, and there is a sudden lack of heat just as a large THUMP resounds in the small hut.

Opening her eyes and rolling over, Lily peers over the edge of the bed to find a wide-eyed James on the floor, looking up at her. Her eyes travel down his body, pausing as she figured out what had caused the offending poke. Eyebrows raised, her eyes look back up to meet his.

“Morning,” she smirks.

-

“Well, they aren’t hurt,” Marlene concludes, sliding down Sirius’s back to land on the soft earth. Remus hands her shoes back, which she slips on with a wobble. She glances back at the high window, before turning to face her mates.

“Fine. Great. Let’s go in-“ Sirius starts, but Remus hastily pulls him back.

“Yeah, I don’t think we want to be walking in there.”

She slides her backpack off her back, pulling out a bag of marshmallows.