Gift for: lele_leprechaun
lele_leprechaun, your gift has been submitted - enjoy!
Title: Atonement
Recipient's LJ name: lele_leprechaun
Rating: PG-13
Pairing(s): Lily/James and mentions of Lily/Caradoc
Word Count: 1,764
Warnings: Nothing bad in this one actually. It's pretty tame.
Prompt Chosen: Atonement
Authors notes: Features a whiny!James and attempts to pick fun at someone else's style of writing... I'll explain later. Hope you like it, Leonie!
Atonement
1. August
“I think I’m going to write Lily this holiday,” James sighed, staring at his stack of blank parchment on his desk. Sirius let out a loud laugh from the chair beside him.
“You said that last holiday. You ended up just complaining that you didn’t know what to say.”
“I still don’t know what to say.” James frowned, slumping over the desk. Sirius came up beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
“You’re in luck, Jamesy boy. I do.” Sirius smirked, scribbling a few words onto the parchment. James kept his head down, still dismayed. He completely forgot about Sirius’s schemes in his misery. That was what his love for Lily Evans did for him.
“Dearest Lilykins, I haven’t seen you once this summer and it’s taking its toll on me. It makes me so sad that I have to have the ever so handsome Sirius Black flaunt pretty girls at me. Not a one compares to the beauty of your angry red face to match your beautiful hair. Your pa...”
“Enough already,” James groaned, shoving Sirius gently. “I’d never say anything like that and she knows it.”
“Let’s see.” With a flick of his wand, Sirius sealed the letter into a waiting envelope and handed it off to James’s obese owl.
“Sirius...” James trailed off, his mouth opening in an ‘o’ of horror. “You didn’t just...”
“Oh, I did. You should be thanking me. I just let your Lilykins now exactly how you feel, as if your constant begging for a date with her wasn’t enough.”
“Bugger.”
2. September
No response letter ever came to poor, sad James Potter’s window. However, Lily did a very good job in going out of her way to ignore him. Not so much as even a look came in his direction.
“She’s ignoring me,” James lamented a week into school. He was yet again slumped over a desk, but this time the one in the common room. There was no one around to hear his agony, except for a few first years who were attempting to do homework.
“Blasted idiot, that Sirius Black. That one letter is going to ruin everything.” James slammed his head down onto the desk. The motion made his ink well jump before it crashed over onto the sleeve of his robe.
“Great.” He rolled his eyes, putting the ink well upright and running off to the nearby prefect’s bathroom. “No one’s going to mind. It’s for the Head Boy too. They have all the good soaps anyway.”
The problem was James forgot to knock first.
“Bloody hell, James!” Lily shrieked from the large tub. Mortified, he inched the door closed, shielding his eyes with the hand that wasn’t dripping ink.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t see anything, honest. I just spilled ink on my arms and...”
“Come. Back. Later.” Lily growled. He had to admit, the growl was a very pretty sound from her voice. Then he remembered why she was growling and slunk back off to another bathroom quietly.
3. October
James’s agony only increased the following month - Lily had a date for the first Hogsmeade visit. It was only that sissy Caradoc Dearborn but it still made him upset.
“You honestly can’t stay like this forever, James,” Remus frowned. He was accompanied by the usual group of Sirius and Peter, the four on their way to the center of Hogsmeades. Only James was not quite as excited about the first trip of the year as the rest. The gloominess from the last two months was still heavy on his soul.
“Yes, I can. Dearborn, Remus. Caradoc Bloody Dearborn. He walked right up to her and asked her on a date. You know how many times I did that and she said no?” James cried, his green eyes resembling those of a lonely puppy.
“Sirius, he’s coming with us to the Three Broomsticks. He needs company,” Remus pleaded his best friend. Now Sirius was frowning too.
“You’re lucky I’m nice.”
“Don’t worry ‘bout me though,” Peter chided smugly. “I’ve got a date too.”
“Even Peter can get a date.” James wailed. “Hic!”
“Are you actually crying?” Sirius asked with disbelief. Peter just laughed, taking off with a blonde Ravenclaw girl.
“No, I think I managed to hic! get the hiccups.” James groaned.
“Oh well,” Remus sighed. Sirius grabbed James’s arm and began to physically drag him into the Three Broomsticks. Only he wasn’t watching where he was going due to the distraction of James’s high pitched hiccups so he led James into someone else waiting at the door. The person, a certain Caradoc Dearborn, was knocked over onto the person he was conversing with. All three went toppling to the ground. Sirius and Remus stood off to the side, not involved at all now.
“Oi!” Caradoc shouted, pulling himself together and getting off the ground quickly. “What are you trying to do, mate?”
“I’m so sorry, Caradoc. It’s just this idiot again.” Lily, the third one to fall, was glaring daggers at James from her perfect eyes.
“I’m so, so, sorry Lily. Hic! Oh, and Caradoc, I was just trying...”
“To sabotage my date again. I’m sorry, Caradoc.” Lily stood up, brushing the dirt off her coat.
“Ah, it’s all right.” Caradoc smirked, extending a hand to Lily. James was now the one glaring from the ground.
“I hate you,” Lily mouthed before walking into the building. Sirius was chuckling quietly from the side.
Remus, on the other hand, was in a bit of shock. “Wow, she really does hate you.”
4. November
“James, you can’t lock yourself in there forever.” Remus called, knocking lightly on the door to their shared dormitory. James sat on his own bed, his face in his palms.
“Yes, I can.”
“But it’s the first snow fall!” Peter cried out excitedly.
“And Caradoc’s got a date with Cassandra next week.” It was Sirius’s words that brought light into James’s dark life.
“Really?” He sprinted to the door comically fast, wearing a thick black cloak that was two sizes too big for his skinny frame but would be well suited for the weather. His friends stared back at him as he opened the door, laughing.
“Yup. Now come on and join the snowball fight.”
James followed them, joining the majority of Hogwart’s students out in the snow. There was a giant snowball fight in the works and there was no way James would miss an opportunity to pelt Sirius in the face.
Only his very first throw hit the red haired girl running towards the tall tree Sirius had been hiding behind. Who else but Lily Evans could have been the lucky recipient of James’s half ice, half snow ball? It even managed to hit her in the face. James ran over to where she now stood frozen, attempting to brush the snow delicately out of her face.
“What are you doing?” Lily cried out, squinting from the ice around her eyes.
“Trying to help,” James stated.
“That bloody hurt. What was in that thing?” It amazed James that Lily could even speak to him civilly. She didn’t even slap his hand off her face. He wondered whether or not she was enjoying it for a minute before remembering that she hated him. Somehow, he managed to answer her back coherently, regardless of the fact that her face was that perfect shade of red again that turned his brain into mush.
“Snow and some ice. It was meant for Sirius.”
“Get some aim, James Potter,” Lily growled. “I hate the snow.”
She then stormed off, away from the now ecstatic James.
“She spoke to me! And she let me touch her! I might die!”
5. December
James Potter had a plan. A good plan, one that was going to work because no one else was involved except Lily and him. He had the perfect opportunity the first week of the month, but it fell through because he couldn’t find her. Today, however, the day before the last exam before the holidays, he knew exactly where to find her.
Her nose was buried in a rather large and very dusty Runes text. She was surprisingly alone in that section of the library, all to the betterment of his great plan. He tapped her gently on the shoulder, disturbing her studies.
“What do you want?” she questioned, never looking up from the book.
“Come with me,” James beamed. This caused her to look up at him, a confused expression on her face.
“Okay,” Lily muttered, following after the boy she usually ignored. James wanted to start dancing and humming in his happiness already but didn’t because then she’d probably run away. Instead, he just bit back his smile.
“Where are you taking me?” She questioned. He said nothing. Instead, he just opened the door to the kitchen for her and let her see for herself.
On the countertop nearest the door were two large mugs of steaming hot chocolate and a plate of biscuits. Lily turned to face James, eyeing him with disbelief.
“Why?”
“I’m so sorry for everything... that stupid letter Sirius sent you and for the bath incident and for ruining your date with Dearborn and the snowball. I thought this might help make it up to you. Happy early Christmas, Lily Evans.” James beamed.
“Wow,” was all she spoke before moving over to her hot chocolate and taking a sip. “I think I forgive you now, at least a little bit. I love hot chocolate.”
“Anything else I can do for you then?” James asked, picking up his own mug.
“We’ll discuss that at the next Hogsmeade visit over lunch.” Lily smirked, causing James’s jaw to drop.
“Did you just...?”
“Yes. Just hurry up and agree before I forget that you’re not the idiot I’ve thought you to be for the past five months.” Lily laughed, causing James to grin even more.
“Yes, I’d love to go on a date with you.” James spoke rapidly, causing Lily to laugh again.
“You sure are eager.”
“You have no idea how long I’ve waited for something like this to happen...”
“Oh, I do. I have a record of how many times I turned you down.” Lily admitted, pulling a small piece of parchment out of her pocket. “It only took three hundred and sixty times for me to give in.”
“That’s not so bad.” James grinned, pulling the paper out of her hands and ripping it into little pieces. Lily smiled back at him, watching the pieces fall like snow onto the kitchen floor.
Title: Atonement
Recipient's LJ name: lele_leprechaun
Rating: PG-13
Pairing(s): Lily/James and mentions of Lily/Caradoc
Word Count: 1,764
Warnings: Nothing bad in this one actually. It's pretty tame.
Prompt Chosen: Atonement
Authors notes: Features a whiny!James and attempts to pick fun at someone else's style of writing... I'll explain later. Hope you like it, Leonie!
Atonement
1. August
“I think I’m going to write Lily this holiday,” James sighed, staring at his stack of blank parchment on his desk. Sirius let out a loud laugh from the chair beside him.
“You said that last holiday. You ended up just complaining that you didn’t know what to say.”
“I still don’t know what to say.” James frowned, slumping over the desk. Sirius came up beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
“You’re in luck, Jamesy boy. I do.” Sirius smirked, scribbling a few words onto the parchment. James kept his head down, still dismayed. He completely forgot about Sirius’s schemes in his misery. That was what his love for Lily Evans did for him.
“Dearest Lilykins, I haven’t seen you once this summer and it’s taking its toll on me. It makes me so sad that I have to have the ever so handsome Sirius Black flaunt pretty girls at me. Not a one compares to the beauty of your angry red face to match your beautiful hair. Your pa...”
“Enough already,” James groaned, shoving Sirius gently. “I’d never say anything like that and she knows it.”
“Let’s see.” With a flick of his wand, Sirius sealed the letter into a waiting envelope and handed it off to James’s obese owl.
“Sirius...” James trailed off, his mouth opening in an ‘o’ of horror. “You didn’t just...”
“Oh, I did. You should be thanking me. I just let your Lilykins now exactly how you feel, as if your constant begging for a date with her wasn’t enough.”
“Bugger.”
2. September
No response letter ever came to poor, sad James Potter’s window. However, Lily did a very good job in going out of her way to ignore him. Not so much as even a look came in his direction.
“She’s ignoring me,” James lamented a week into school. He was yet again slumped over a desk, but this time the one in the common room. There was no one around to hear his agony, except for a few first years who were attempting to do homework.
“Blasted idiot, that Sirius Black. That one letter is going to ruin everything.” James slammed his head down onto the desk. The motion made his ink well jump before it crashed over onto the sleeve of his robe.
“Great.” He rolled his eyes, putting the ink well upright and running off to the nearby prefect’s bathroom. “No one’s going to mind. It’s for the Head Boy too. They have all the good soaps anyway.”
The problem was James forgot to knock first.
“Bloody hell, James!” Lily shrieked from the large tub. Mortified, he inched the door closed, shielding his eyes with the hand that wasn’t dripping ink.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t see anything, honest. I just spilled ink on my arms and...”
“Come. Back. Later.” Lily growled. He had to admit, the growl was a very pretty sound from her voice. Then he remembered why she was growling and slunk back off to another bathroom quietly.
3. October
James’s agony only increased the following month - Lily had a date for the first Hogsmeade visit. It was only that sissy Caradoc Dearborn but it still made him upset.
“You honestly can’t stay like this forever, James,” Remus frowned. He was accompanied by the usual group of Sirius and Peter, the four on their way to the center of Hogsmeades. Only James was not quite as excited about the first trip of the year as the rest. The gloominess from the last two months was still heavy on his soul.
“Yes, I can. Dearborn, Remus. Caradoc Bloody Dearborn. He walked right up to her and asked her on a date. You know how many times I did that and she said no?” James cried, his green eyes resembling those of a lonely puppy.
“Sirius, he’s coming with us to the Three Broomsticks. He needs company,” Remus pleaded his best friend. Now Sirius was frowning too.
“You’re lucky I’m nice.”
“Don’t worry ‘bout me though,” Peter chided smugly. “I’ve got a date too.”
“Even Peter can get a date.” James wailed. “Hic!”
“Are you actually crying?” Sirius asked with disbelief. Peter just laughed, taking off with a blonde Ravenclaw girl.
“No, I think I managed to hic! get the hiccups.” James groaned.
“Oh well,” Remus sighed. Sirius grabbed James’s arm and began to physically drag him into the Three Broomsticks. Only he wasn’t watching where he was going due to the distraction of James’s high pitched hiccups so he led James into someone else waiting at the door. The person, a certain Caradoc Dearborn, was knocked over onto the person he was conversing with. All three went toppling to the ground. Sirius and Remus stood off to the side, not involved at all now.
“Oi!” Caradoc shouted, pulling himself together and getting off the ground quickly. “What are you trying to do, mate?”
“I’m so sorry, Caradoc. It’s just this idiot again.” Lily, the third one to fall, was glaring daggers at James from her perfect eyes.
“I’m so, so, sorry Lily. Hic! Oh, and Caradoc, I was just trying...”
“To sabotage my date again. I’m sorry, Caradoc.” Lily stood up, brushing the dirt off her coat.
“Ah, it’s all right.” Caradoc smirked, extending a hand to Lily. James was now the one glaring from the ground.
“I hate you,” Lily mouthed before walking into the building. Sirius was chuckling quietly from the side.
Remus, on the other hand, was in a bit of shock. “Wow, she really does hate you.”
4. November
“James, you can’t lock yourself in there forever.” Remus called, knocking lightly on the door to their shared dormitory. James sat on his own bed, his face in his palms.
“Yes, I can.”
“But it’s the first snow fall!” Peter cried out excitedly.
“And Caradoc’s got a date with Cassandra next week.” It was Sirius’s words that brought light into James’s dark life.
“Really?” He sprinted to the door comically fast, wearing a thick black cloak that was two sizes too big for his skinny frame but would be well suited for the weather. His friends stared back at him as he opened the door, laughing.
“Yup. Now come on and join the snowball fight.”
James followed them, joining the majority of Hogwart’s students out in the snow. There was a giant snowball fight in the works and there was no way James would miss an opportunity to pelt Sirius in the face.
Only his very first throw hit the red haired girl running towards the tall tree Sirius had been hiding behind. Who else but Lily Evans could have been the lucky recipient of James’s half ice, half snow ball? It even managed to hit her in the face. James ran over to where she now stood frozen, attempting to brush the snow delicately out of her face.
“What are you doing?” Lily cried out, squinting from the ice around her eyes.
“Trying to help,” James stated.
“That bloody hurt. What was in that thing?” It amazed James that Lily could even speak to him civilly. She didn’t even slap his hand off her face. He wondered whether or not she was enjoying it for a minute before remembering that she hated him. Somehow, he managed to answer her back coherently, regardless of the fact that her face was that perfect shade of red again that turned his brain into mush.
“Snow and some ice. It was meant for Sirius.”
“Get some aim, James Potter,” Lily growled. “I hate the snow.”
She then stormed off, away from the now ecstatic James.
“She spoke to me! And she let me touch her! I might die!”
5. December
James Potter had a plan. A good plan, one that was going to work because no one else was involved except Lily and him. He had the perfect opportunity the first week of the month, but it fell through because he couldn’t find her. Today, however, the day before the last exam before the holidays, he knew exactly where to find her.
Her nose was buried in a rather large and very dusty Runes text. She was surprisingly alone in that section of the library, all to the betterment of his great plan. He tapped her gently on the shoulder, disturbing her studies.
“What do you want?” she questioned, never looking up from the book.
“Come with me,” James beamed. This caused her to look up at him, a confused expression on her face.
“Okay,” Lily muttered, following after the boy she usually ignored. James wanted to start dancing and humming in his happiness already but didn’t because then she’d probably run away. Instead, he just bit back his smile.
“Where are you taking me?” She questioned. He said nothing. Instead, he just opened the door to the kitchen for her and let her see for herself.
On the countertop nearest the door were two large mugs of steaming hot chocolate and a plate of biscuits. Lily turned to face James, eyeing him with disbelief.
“Why?”
“I’m so sorry for everything... that stupid letter Sirius sent you and for the bath incident and for ruining your date with Dearborn and the snowball. I thought this might help make it up to you. Happy early Christmas, Lily Evans.” James beamed.
“Wow,” was all she spoke before moving over to her hot chocolate and taking a sip. “I think I forgive you now, at least a little bit. I love hot chocolate.”
“Anything else I can do for you then?” James asked, picking up his own mug.
“We’ll discuss that at the next Hogsmeade visit over lunch.” Lily smirked, causing James’s jaw to drop.
“Did you just...?”
“Yes. Just hurry up and agree before I forget that you’re not the idiot I’ve thought you to be for the past five months.” Lily laughed, causing James to grin even more.
“Yes, I’d love to go on a date with you.” James spoke rapidly, causing Lily to laugh again.
“You sure are eager.”
“You have no idea how long I’ve waited for something like this to happen...”
“Oh, I do. I have a record of how many times I turned you down.” Lily admitted, pulling a small piece of parchment out of her pocket. “It only took three hundred and sixty times for me to give in.”
“That’s not so bad.” James grinned, pulling the paper out of her hands and ripping it into little pieces. Lily smiled back at him, watching the pieces fall like snow onto the kitchen floor.