Marauder crack

James and the Walls of Jericho

- Lily?

At some end of the Great Hall, talking to a group of female students of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor that for James Potter could well be invisible, Lily has a glass of punch in her hand and looks up slightly surprised when she hears her name. She looks at him with those green eyes so intense, and the other girls just exchange glances gossipy.

- Can I speak to you? It will only be a min'.

He uses the calmest voice he has. He once put that voice with Sirius and the idiot asked him if he had a cold. Lily is so surprised that she mutters "I guess so..." and follows him a few steps further, almost out of inertia, with a certain apprehension.

-Just wanted to tell you...- It's hard to remember anything when she's around but James takes a deep breath to do it. It ends up being because he fills his lungs with her perfume that smells a thousand times better in her than in a bottle and clouds his mind. Still, he searches for words, or at least he tries. - I just wanted to tell you, I will continue insisting.

He sees that Lily wants to interrupt him with some for real shit, but he avoids it by doing one of those things that lead to death or glory. He puts a finger over her lips. And he is almost more surprised than her. Although she looks hell surprised. Those soft lips, those lips so soft oh god makes him want to get on his knees.

- I tell you so that you are forewarned, and so you think if, honestly, it's worth continuing to reject me. Because I will insist on you to go out with me, Lily, and I'm not giving up. I'll be here on the first day of class and the day after that and the next. So yes, if you think to say no, better have a rest on vacation, because you will have to say it a lot of times next course.

Everything comes out at once.

It is not that difficult once you start.

He hasn't died or anything like that.

Although he dies a little when she takes his finger from her lips. But only a little.

- And you know why I'll do it?

A fracture. Something. A little tear in Lily Evans' shell. She seems to see him. Right there in the emerald green of her eyes. So close, and simultaneously so far. Lily gives up. Only a little. 

Slightly.

-No...- she admits. - I have no idea, James.

- Because even if you say no a million times, if you say yes only once, it will have been worth it.

The fracture on her mouth it's just about to turn into a smile, but at the last moment, she backs off and stays like a hunch and a little more. Not bad as an end-of-term gift. Almost a smile and James feels like levitating, chasing the fastest snitch of his entire life.

Lily returns with her group of friends but says a sentence before leaving, and that for James is even more than everything that he comes to expect.

- Y'Know? There is nothing wrong with being Paul.

Sooner or later, that snitch has to fall.