Deer Diary || Jily

Year 4 II

Lily nearly had a heart attack right then and there. "Merlin! What the actual bloody—"

"Don't you 'Merlin' me." James squinted his eyes as he looked furiously at her. "I've been waiting here for hours."

Lily rolled her eyes as she kept walking. "I hope you realize how creepy you sound."

James took a few quick strides forward until he reached her and wasn't awkwardly trailing behind her anymore. "You and Padfoot walked into the Room of Requirement and then he left and then you didn't leave."

"Thank you for summarizing my life for me."

"What were you two doing... together?"

"Why don't you ask him?" Lily shot back.

"He didn't even tell me he was going to talk to you, so I doubt he would tell me why." James ran a hand through his hair and with the other, he ran his thumb up and down a thick piece of parchment.

"Why would you think I would tell you what we were doing?"

"Is Sirius okay?" James grabbed her wrist and stopped her from walking any further. "That's all I want to know. I don't care if you two are making out or are having a secret affair... I mean, I do care and I would hate that, but you don't have to tell me that, I suppose, because it's none of my business and I don't want to be that person that stalks their best friend and the love of—"

"James!" Lily interrupted quickly. "Sirius is fine. You don't have to worry."

"Then why is he coming to you and not to his friends?" James asked, his head dropping to the floor and his eyebrows crinkling together in a way that Lily couldn't deny looked absolutely adorable. Or maybe it was the way he was so concerned about his best friend that was absolutely adorable. No. James Potter was not absolutely adorable. Well... okay, maybe he was slightly adorable.

"There are some things in life that require a woman's touch," Lily replied, in an attempt to sound mysterious.

James looked up so quickly it gave Lily whiplash and she watched as his eyes widened comically. "You touched him?"

"No!" Lily exclaimed, completely appalled. "I meant a woman's expertise! Like guidance and advice."

"Advice on what?"

"Life," she stated vaguely.

"Life?"

"Life."

"Oh, come on, Evans." James rolled his eyes.

"What can I say, Potter?" Lily continued her walk to the dining hall. "Sometimes a woman just has this deep understanding of life. An intuition, if you will. They have this beautiful vision of the world and their words can be so powerful and— oh, goddamn it!"

"Now those are some powerful words. Well done, woman."

"The dining hall is empty." Lily pouted.

"Yeah, no shit. It's past midnight."

"I didn't get any dinner."

"At least it isn't my fault this time," James joked. Lily remembered her first year when the two of them had detention together and had to work past dinner.

"I suppose I was a little dramatic as an eleven year old," Lily reminisced.

"A little?"

"Oh, sod off. I was well justified in my anger and I was hungry!" Lily's stomach growled loudly to prove her point. She crossed her arms around her stomach in embarrassment, but James just laughed it off.

"I did tell you I knew a place where we could get food."

Lily bit her lower lip, contemplating whether she was willing to risk spending more time James Potter in exchange for food, but the rumbling in her stomach answered the question for her. "Alright, let's go."

James looked at her like an overeager puppy, or she supposed, an overeager deer. "Really?"

"Let's go before I change my mind."

"Now that's the attitude I love." James opened up the blank parchment and Lily curiously peeked forward. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

"Excuse me?" Lily asked.

"I'm talking to the paper," James replied. Soon enough, lines started forming on the pages and Lily watched in fascination as a map of Hogwarts came into full view.

"That's amazing." She couldn't keep her eyes of the page. "You can even see the people."

"It's great when you're trying to avoid prefects." James grinned at her cheekily. "Speaking of, Amos Diggory is headed this way now. Let's go before we get caught."

The two of them raced down the hall and into one of the crevices of the castle. James examined the map again to make sure the coast was clear. Lily studied the map again. "How do you know so many secret passages?" she asked curiously.

"My mum and dad told me before I left for my first year and they learned it from their parents and them from their parents and on and on. So Remus, Sirius, Peter, and I decided to make a map of all the passages that we can pass down to our kids instead of just telling them. Plus, we found a few more of our own when we would go on adventures."

"This is some advanced magic." Lily could hardly believe that four kids had done something like this. "Hold on," she realized, "the Room of Requirement isn't on it."

James nodded as he closed the map and began walking towards their destination. "Yeah, it had some powerful cloaking spells on it making it unplottable. Every time we added it, we would blink and it would disappear."

"Hmm. I suppose your kids would have to find that place all on their own." Lily looked at him and grinned.

"Can't spoil them with all the answers now, can we?" James's eyes twinkled. "We have to let them go out on their own adventures once in a while."

"Of course. How else do we build up their character if we don't let them get at least one detention every week?" she said sarcastically.

"I'm glad you and I are on the same track of how we're gonna raise our kid," he joked off-handedly as he checked the map one last time before making a turn.

"Hilarious."

"And we're here," James announced proudly as he stood in front of a portrait of fruits.

"As hungry as I am, I don't think I'm hungry enough to eat a painting."

"We can eat anything we want where we're going," James said as he tickled the pear in the picture.

The painting opened up and Lily was amazed to see a magnificent kitchen inside. "So this is where all the food comes from."

"It has to come from somewhere."

"I just never imagined... wow. It's so clean and there are so many pots and pans."

"That's what you focus on?" James couldn't help but smile at Lily's child-like wonder.

"You're right." Lily turned to face him. "So where's the food?"