Challenge #89: Snakes and Lions
Title: Lily's Plan
Rating/Warnings: G
Characters/Pairing: Lily Evans
Summary: Adolescent melodrama.
Word Count: 590
Registered purchases?: Both
Lily moved her hair out of her eyes and stared at the sun a little while longer. She’d never considered herself to be a dreamer, too realistic, too down-to-earth, less cloudy, more sunshine. She didn’t like thinking about life in abstract terms, not the way some people did, not the way her mother did and certainly not the way she sometimes wished she could. She’d never been skilled at divination, and she’d never been skilled at arithmancy. She liked charms best of all - they were something real, something instantaneous and something observable. Charms were air and light and making people happy.
Severus was always nagging her to be more interested in potions, which were much the same design as charms, he’d once argued, only more physical and less sincere. She’d never understood that the way he’d wanted her to. She let her eyes drift shut.
The way to Severus’s heart was unpaved, but she knew he’d burn down any tree that stood in her way if she gave the slightest inclination. Lily never would. Perhaps he thought she was just naïve about the world - she certainly liked him to think so, at times - but she was more perceptive than he gave her credit for, she thought. Not that he’d ever been very good at hiding his emotions. Sometimes she thought that she was more a Slytherin than he was, at heart. Gryffindors always got what they wanted, after all. What was more Slytherin than that?
Lily sighed and packed up her bags, rose, marched calmly back to the castle with bright green grass underfoot. Soon they’d be gone for another summer, a summer of jealous Petunia and studiously avoiding conflict at home, then soon they’d be back for another school-year, sharpened quills and minds in all.
There was another flicker on the horizon just before she turned around, and she smiled a very small smile, tilting her head back, lips curved upward lightly and eyelashes brushing still more lightly over cheek. There was no perceivable end in sight.
Opening another window a little while later, Lily gazed out at the now darkened grounds. Such mystery. Such wonder. The world was hers. This entire school was hers. James had been nagging her again earlier, or something like it, and she’d ignored him steadfastly and continued on in her pursuit of knowledge and of the domestic bliss she’d one day encounter.
Sometimes her rationality was rather sporadic: it came and went on whims of its own to which she was not, nor had she ever been, privy.
Severus had held her hand yesterday, and she’d thought it was nice. Today he’d tried the same thing, and it had sent shivers of disgust up and down her spine. She wasn’t sure what she wanted just yet; it was best to leave all options open.
Seven more minutes, she thought to herself, calm as she pulled the curtains shut. She climbed into bed, dried her face off, and let her head fall back against the feather-down pillow. She dreamt a little while longer.
Sitting at breakfast the next morning, Lily charmed her napkin to fold itself and charmed her companion to do the same. Her smile was too brittle and much too much alive.
Much later, going back over every thought she’d had that day, Lily marked the date down in her diary and put it next to the textbook in her bookbag. Perhaps tomorrow.
590 words / 30 = 20
20 + 10 = 30 points for Slytherin
Mari-Linn // Slytherin
Rating/Warnings: G
Characters/Pairing: Lily Evans
Summary: Adolescent melodrama.
Word Count: 590
Registered purchases?: Both
Lily moved her hair out of her eyes and stared at the sun a little while longer. She’d never considered herself to be a dreamer, too realistic, too down-to-earth, less cloudy, more sunshine. She didn’t like thinking about life in abstract terms, not the way some people did, not the way her mother did and certainly not the way she sometimes wished she could. She’d never been skilled at divination, and she’d never been skilled at arithmancy. She liked charms best of all - they were something real, something instantaneous and something observable. Charms were air and light and making people happy.
Severus was always nagging her to be more interested in potions, which were much the same design as charms, he’d once argued, only more physical and less sincere. She’d never understood that the way he’d wanted her to. She let her eyes drift shut.
The way to Severus’s heart was unpaved, but she knew he’d burn down any tree that stood in her way if she gave the slightest inclination. Lily never would. Perhaps he thought she was just naïve about the world - she certainly liked him to think so, at times - but she was more perceptive than he gave her credit for, she thought. Not that he’d ever been very good at hiding his emotions. Sometimes she thought that she was more a Slytherin than he was, at heart. Gryffindors always got what they wanted, after all. What was more Slytherin than that?
Lily sighed and packed up her bags, rose, marched calmly back to the castle with bright green grass underfoot. Soon they’d be gone for another summer, a summer of jealous Petunia and studiously avoiding conflict at home, then soon they’d be back for another school-year, sharpened quills and minds in all.
There was another flicker on the horizon just before she turned around, and she smiled a very small smile, tilting her head back, lips curved upward lightly and eyelashes brushing still more lightly over cheek. There was no perceivable end in sight.
Opening another window a little while later, Lily gazed out at the now darkened grounds. Such mystery. Such wonder. The world was hers. This entire school was hers. James had been nagging her again earlier, or something like it, and she’d ignored him steadfastly and continued on in her pursuit of knowledge and of the domestic bliss she’d one day encounter.
Sometimes her rationality was rather sporadic: it came and went on whims of its own to which she was not, nor had she ever been, privy.
Severus had held her hand yesterday, and she’d thought it was nice. Today he’d tried the same thing, and it had sent shivers of disgust up and down her spine. She wasn’t sure what she wanted just yet; it was best to leave all options open.
Seven more minutes, she thought to herself, calm as she pulled the curtains shut. She climbed into bed, dried her face off, and let her head fall back against the feather-down pillow. She dreamt a little while longer.
Sitting at breakfast the next morning, Lily charmed her napkin to fold itself and charmed her companion to do the same. Her smile was too brittle and much too much alive.
Much later, going back over every thought she’d had that day, Lily marked the date down in her diary and put it next to the textbook in her bookbag. Perhaps tomorrow.
590 words / 30 = 20
20 + 10 = 30 points for Slytherin
Mari-Linn // Slytherin