FanFic: In Greyscale Chapter 5
Title: In Greyscale
Summary: The Marauders and Lily trudge through Year Seven at Hogwarts, besieged and beleaguered by a war that cannot be held at bay for much longer. Somewhere along the way, they all realize the world isn't split into black and white.
Category: Lily and James: General/Romance, MWPP antics and the first wizarding war
Rating: T/PG-13, potentially R
Warnings: Language, potential sexual situations in the future, innuendo
Word Count: 8080 and counting
Author's Note: So I'm not sure if I'm doing a great job with the point-of-view changes, and I also feel as if I'm going out of character with the dialogue, which already doesn't get across exactly what I'm trying for anyway. If someone has some useful tips and pointers?
James had blearily woken up, trying to get his bearings as he registered he was in an unfamiliar room, but a room that felt curiously home-like for all its unfamiliarity-and had realized he only had about fifteen minutes to get ready. Which was why he was still buttoning up his shirt and tucking it in while trying to simultaneously comb his hair with his fingers (failing laughably) and put on his tie when he heard a familiar voice call after him:
"Morning Potter!"
"Morning, Evans," James replied to a way-too-cheerful-looking-for-that-time-of-morning-on-first-day-of-classes Lily.
Lily peered at him in a slightly unsettling way before asking rather abruptly, "Potter, did you have nightmares last night?"
James stalled, not quite wanting to answer the question, saying instead, "I thought you were going to call me James now, since I am Head Boy to your Head Girl, so to speak?"
Lily rolled her eyes and said, "Yes, but you called me Evans, and it would just be odd to call you by your first name if you call me by my surname. And don't give me that 'Head Boy to your Head Girl' rubbish, it sounds suspiciously…"
"Sexual?" James cut in, looking highly amused, "Well, you know, head and all…"
"Shut up, Potter, I was going to say familiar…"
"Which is of course so very different…"
"Get your mind out of the gutter, Potter…"
"Because yours is so far out if it…"
"Oh, bloody hell Potter, familiar is not the same thing as sexual, far from it; do I really have to explain it to you?"
"I'd be happy for you to give me a practical demonstration, Evans, but if you'll excuse me, I'm famished and that bacon right over there looks particularly delectable. See you around, Evans."
Lily nearly took out her wand and hexed James right there, but as she fumed she realized the git had rather skillfully avoided her question. Sighing, (it seemed she did that a lot around Potter), she slid in next to Emmeline and started buttering a piece of toast.
"Looks like someone's got her knickers in a twist this morning. How was it sleeping all on your lonesome with Potter right across from your room? You two sharing a bathroom too? Did you walk in and see him starkers, is that what's got you all hot and bothered?" Emmeline said, smirking evilly at Lily.
Lily gagged on her piece of toast, shooting Emmeline her patented death glare, before saying with as dignity as she could muster, "No, we do not share a bathroom, thank goodness for that. And I'm not'hot and bothered' either."
Emmeline looked at Lily shrewdly and said, "No, that's just your James Potter-got-under-my-skin look. It's funny how he does that to you every time, Lily."
Lily did a repeat performance of her death glare before saying through her mouthful of toast, "I do not have a James Potter look, Emmeline."
Emmeline just raised her eyes in a superior sort of wait-and-see (and altogether maddening) way, before the arrival of Professor McGonagall stopped Lily's surreptitious schemes to stab her best friend's eyeballs with her fork.
Lily didn't get time to speak to Potter again before late evening when they were both looking over the Prefects' patrol schedule in the Heads' common room.
"So, Potter, I was saying, this morning," and before Potter could interrupt her with hints about the 'practical demonstration' they'd supposedly discussed in the morning, Lily rushed on, "Did you have nightmares last night?" She wasn't quite sure why she was pressing him for answers, knowing it was a personal question and really none of her business, but still wanting to know.
Potter looked away from Lily, eyes settling on the fireplace instead, and Lily said gently, "You know you can talk to me about it. It might help, especially because we're not really close and I-I didn't know them. I've heard talking to strangers can be liberating, almost."
When he didn't say anything for a while, Lily went back to scrawling out the schedule, until-"First day of term, I'd always get an owl from home. Every single time. I'd always have forgotten something or the other, and Mum would always send it over with Icarus, telling me how much she already missed me, even though it would only have been a day or so since I saw her last. I…I just can't stop thinking about how I left my favorite jumper back home and how there won't be an owl…I always laughed at Mum for saying she missed me, but now I just wish I could tell her just how much I miss her, all the time," James said in a low, thick voice. Lily put a hand on his shoulder, but it just seemed to serve as a reminder to him that he wasn't alone, and he started. "I've got to go see what the other three are up to," he said, slightly hoarsely, and walked out the portrait hole. He didn't come back till the next morning, and Lily just didn't know what to say to him, or if she should say anything at all.
Summary: The Marauders and Lily trudge through Year Seven at Hogwarts, besieged and beleaguered by a war that cannot be held at bay for much longer. Somewhere along the way, they all realize the world isn't split into black and white.
Category: Lily and James: General/Romance, MWPP antics and the first wizarding war
Rating: T/PG-13, potentially R
Warnings: Language, potential sexual situations in the future, innuendo
Word Count: 8080 and counting
Author's Note: So I'm not sure if I'm doing a great job with the point-of-view changes, and I also feel as if I'm going out of character with the dialogue, which already doesn't get across exactly what I'm trying for anyway. If someone has some useful tips and pointers?
James had blearily woken up, trying to get his bearings as he registered he was in an unfamiliar room, but a room that felt curiously home-like for all its unfamiliarity-and had realized he only had about fifteen minutes to get ready. Which was why he was still buttoning up his shirt and tucking it in while trying to simultaneously comb his hair with his fingers (failing laughably) and put on his tie when he heard a familiar voice call after him:
"Morning Potter!"
"Morning, Evans," James replied to a way-too-cheerful-looking-for-that-time-of-morning-on-first-day-of-classes Lily.
Lily peered at him in a slightly unsettling way before asking rather abruptly, "Potter, did you have nightmares last night?"
James stalled, not quite wanting to answer the question, saying instead, "I thought you were going to call me James now, since I am Head Boy to your Head Girl, so to speak?"
Lily rolled her eyes and said, "Yes, but you called me Evans, and it would just be odd to call you by your first name if you call me by my surname. And don't give me that 'Head Boy to your Head Girl' rubbish, it sounds suspiciously…"
"Sexual?" James cut in, looking highly amused, "Well, you know, head and all…"
"Shut up, Potter, I was going to say familiar…"
"Which is of course so very different…"
"Get your mind out of the gutter, Potter…"
"Because yours is so far out if it…"
"Oh, bloody hell Potter, familiar is not the same thing as sexual, far from it; do I really have to explain it to you?"
"I'd be happy for you to give me a practical demonstration, Evans, but if you'll excuse me, I'm famished and that bacon right over there looks particularly delectable. See you around, Evans."
Lily nearly took out her wand and hexed James right there, but as she fumed she realized the git had rather skillfully avoided her question. Sighing, (it seemed she did that a lot around Potter), she slid in next to Emmeline and started buttering a piece of toast.
"Looks like someone's got her knickers in a twist this morning. How was it sleeping all on your lonesome with Potter right across from your room? You two sharing a bathroom too? Did you walk in and see him starkers, is that what's got you all hot and bothered?" Emmeline said, smirking evilly at Lily.
Lily gagged on her piece of toast, shooting Emmeline her patented death glare, before saying with as dignity as she could muster, "No, we do not share a bathroom, thank goodness for that. And I'm not'hot and bothered' either."
Emmeline looked at Lily shrewdly and said, "No, that's just your James Potter-got-under-my-skin look. It's funny how he does that to you every time, Lily."
Lily did a repeat performance of her death glare before saying through her mouthful of toast, "I do not have a James Potter look, Emmeline."
Emmeline just raised her eyes in a superior sort of wait-and-see (and altogether maddening) way, before the arrival of Professor McGonagall stopped Lily's surreptitious schemes to stab her best friend's eyeballs with her fork.
Lily didn't get time to speak to Potter again before late evening when they were both looking over the Prefects' patrol schedule in the Heads' common room.
"So, Potter, I was saying, this morning," and before Potter could interrupt her with hints about the 'practical demonstration' they'd supposedly discussed in the morning, Lily rushed on, "Did you have nightmares last night?" She wasn't quite sure why she was pressing him for answers, knowing it was a personal question and really none of her business, but still wanting to know.
Potter looked away from Lily, eyes settling on the fireplace instead, and Lily said gently, "You know you can talk to me about it. It might help, especially because we're not really close and I-I didn't know them. I've heard talking to strangers can be liberating, almost."
When he didn't say anything for a while, Lily went back to scrawling out the schedule, until-"First day of term, I'd always get an owl from home. Every single time. I'd always have forgotten something or the other, and Mum would always send it over with Icarus, telling me how much she already missed me, even though it would only have been a day or so since I saw her last. I…I just can't stop thinking about how I left my favorite jumper back home and how there won't be an owl…I always laughed at Mum for saying she missed me, but now I just wish I could tell her just how much I miss her, all the time," James said in a low, thick voice. Lily put a hand on his shoulder, but it just seemed to serve as a reminder to him that he wasn't alone, and he started. "I've got to go see what the other three are up to," he said, slightly hoarsely, and walked out the portrait hole. He didn't come back till the next morning, and Lily just didn't know what to say to him, or if she should say anything at all.