All Tied Up, Chapter 2: Don't Worry About Tomorrow

Mar 30, 2012 01:03

TITLE: All Tied Up
Chapter 2 Don't Worry About Tomorrow
Rating: G
Word Count: 1,109
Genre: Romance, humor
Ships: L/J
Status: WIP
Summary: Now that she's finally figured out what she wants, Lily's hoping for a more permanent arrangement.
Notes:  A little angsty.  It's very, very temporary, I promise.

Sequel to The Price of Freedom. #2 in the Freedom Arc.

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything even remotely related to Harry Potter, except a little bit of merchandise, and I’m making $0.


Back to Chapter 1

Lily is studying in the library.  She’s in the back corner at her favorite table, practically buried in the stacks, books piled high around her and parchment and ink spread out in between.  She knows her presence is irritating at least four couples who like to use the library for purposes other than that for which it is intended.  She knows because each couple has wandered back to her little corner over the course of the afternoon, laughing and whispering and looking for a place to snog, and each promptly drew up short at the sight of her books and parchment splayed over the table, stared at her with incredulous expressions, and then wandered away with many backward glances.

She knows too because James has tried many times in the past to distract her while she was ensconced at this table, ignoring his advances in favor of studying.

This is Lily’s sanctuary.  It’s quiet and secluded, so she can study without interruption or the distraction of other students moving about and whispering to one another, as they do in the main part of the library. She also likes it because it is one of the few places in the library where there is a window.  The window is located right next to Lily’s favorite chair, and she often finds herself looking out whenever she needs to take a little break.

Which is how Lily ends up staring out the window on this particular day.  It starts as a minor study break-just a chance to rest her tired eyes and enjoy the sight of the sun shining on the lake outside.

But then she spots him, tall and handsome, hair mussed appealingly and cheeks flushed from exertion.  She finds herself smiling as she watches her boyfriend chase after his best friend, who is holding something shiny and gold-James’s snitch, she suspects-and is laughing so hard he can hardly keep his feet under him.  Lily shakes her head, her smile growing.  If he keeps up like that, James will surely catch him.

No sooner does she have this thought than Sirius stumbles in his laughter, and James tackles him to the ground, wrestling the tiny winged ball from his friend’s grasp and trapping Sirius in a headlock.  He uses  his fist-wrapped tightly around the snitch-to punish Sirius’s scalp, knuckles digging deep and destroying Sirius’s carefully styled hair.

Lily laughs a little as she watches, loving how happy and carefree James looks.

He often looks like that.  He looks even happier when he is with her-looks ecstatic at the sight of her most days, an expression that usually precedes him bounding over to wherever she is, kissing her breathless and promptly ushering her over to wherever he’s been sitting, tucking her under one arm and keeping her close beside him as they go.

That’s most days.  But some days...More and more days lately...

Lily is beginning to think something is wrong.  James is still reluctant to talk about anything post-graduation.  Lily thought they’d worked everything out that day on the couch,  made everything better, but...

Sometimes James is distant.  Surly.  Sometimes he shoots her strange, apprehensive glances from across the room.  Where once there was always a place for her beside him, now he sometimes is so tightly surrounded by his little group of friends that there is no space for her at all.

Lily is worried.  She is trying desperately not to be.  She wants to trust him.  She loves him.  And really, there’s not that much to be worried about.  But there’s still a tiny part of her that wonders why a boy who could have anyone would want her.  Why he would chase her for years.  Why...just why?

Lily is not unaware of her faults-and there are many of them-or of the way she and James are so incredibly different in so many ways.

Part of her is beginning to wonder, just a little, if maybe the whole thing really was a joke to begin with.

She hates that tiny part of herself.

The more practical part of her knows there was never any joke, but at the same time, can’t help wondering if...if maybe James...

If maybe he’s changed his mind now that the chase is over and all the challenge is gone.

Just then there is a clattering noise behind her, followed by much laughing and shushing.  Lily rolls her eyes, annoyed that there is yet another couple interrupting her solitude, and keeps her gaze trained out the window, intent on ignoring the invaders.  She notices then that James and company have left the grounds and vaguely wonders how she’d managed to miss their disappearance before now.  Before she can come to any kind of  conclusion on the matter, she hears the dearest voice in the world behind her.

“Sirius, go away.  I’m just here to find Lily, yeah?  I’ll meet you back in the Common Room in a bit.”

She hears Sirius snort, mutter something about tagging along to ensure James doesn’t get distracted, and then James appears in the gap between the stacks.  His eyes meet hers and instantly, his face lights up.

“Hey love,” he says, hurrying across the space between them, “I thought you might be here.”  He leans across the table to kiss her, and it’s just like it always is: heart-stopping, breath-stealing, all-consuming.

When he pulls away and smiles at her, that smile, her smile, she wonders how she ever could have doubted him at all.  Because she has never felt so loved, or so much like she’s capable of accomplishing anything and everything, as she does when James kisses her.

And yet...

And yet, even as James helps her pack her things and moves automatically to carry her bag over one broad shoulder, even as he reaches for her hand and twines their fingers together and aims a sharp kick at Sirius’s shin for pretending to sick up at the sight, even as he pulls her close and includes her in their conversation and makes suggestions for how they should spend their next Hogsmeade trip (“No Sirius, you may not  come.  There are times when the Marauders are not, in fact, inseparable; my dates with Lily are off limits to you.”), Lily feels a niggling doubt at the back of her mind that this won’t last.

Lily takes a deep breath and firmly shoves the doubt away.  Regardless of what may happen later, she has him today.  She’ll worry about tomorrow when it comes.

Lily grips James’s hand a little tighter and lets him lead her up the stairs to Gryffindor Tower.

Interlude I

arc: freedom, fic: all tied up, pairing: l/j

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