Jily One Shots

Complications of War

January 1914,

Lily wasn't good at understanding boys, but everyone seemed to think that Benjy Fenwick was courting her, to any other 17 year-old girl, that could seem flattering, but to Lily Evans, it was nothing more than embarrassing. He didn't look too bad admittedly, but he just wasn't right for her, she just wished that he would get the message to leave her alone, though she did accept the fact that she could do much worse, but she was still young, she could still find someone that she liked more. It probably sounds bad when you word it like that, but she couldn't help it, she wasn't the right person for him and she didn't feel comfortable settling just then, she thought it was way too early to marry, she had only just left school a year or two ago, and she was now spending as much time as possible learning the best ways to keep a tidy household with her mother.

Lily didn't come from a poor family per se, it was more of an upper middle class family and she was more than comfortable in her way of living, she was safe and she would be for a long time. She felt secure in her home, she wasn't ready for a change yet, when he came to town she was still feeling the same. When he came to town she found him rather annoying really, yet he could still make her blush in a way that she would rather not reveal. James was handsome and charming and that's exactly what got on her nerves about him, he also wouldn't stop speaking. She never did socialise with him that much but when her family invited him over for dinner she knew that it was going to be trouble.

Her sister Petunia, seemed to think that he was quite pleasing to look at, Lily had to remind her countless times that she was engaged, though Petunia just told her to hush and be on her best behaviour. Lily found it annoying but not surprising that she had to be on her best behaviour for someone that seemed extremely egotistical and selfish, when he was barely on his. But she knew that was just how the world works and her mother always told her that she would never find a good husband with that attitude. Lily hated social gatherings, it always seemed as if it was overrated, she wasn't that girl whos only aspiration in life was to get married, she wanted to do something, instead of just going to all of these gatherings in hope that her life could finally begin and end in the same night. She was sick of how corrupt the system was, the fact that people thought that women needed a man to be happy. Lily always had the dream of becoming an old maid, she was never told anyone this because she would be thoroughly judged for not having the same thoughts and beliefs as every other young woman alive, but she always had that one fantasy that she could go and live on her own somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

"Hello, you must be one of the Miss Evans'," James Potter approached Lily trying to make small talk.

"Yes, you must be Mr Potter," Lily replied back trying not to make the situation even more awkward than it already was.

"Please call me James, Mr Potter is too formal," James said, Lily's mother would think that is scandalous, but Lily didn't think it was that bad, she grew up in a different time, times were changing, Lily could feel it.

"Ok, James," Lily said awkwardly.

"Will you tell me which Miss Evans you are?"

"Lily, you can call me that, I don't mind."

"Alright Lily. How long have you and your family lived in Surrey?" James asked curiously, he was genuinely interested but Lily still thought that he was trying to fill the awkward silence.

"I've lived here my whole life, but my parents lived in London originally, before moving here."

"Oh yes, I used to live here before I moved to London, for a few years, but of course I moved back recently."

"When did you move to London?" Lily asked wondering if she could've known him before he moved from Surrey and moved from her memory.

"About nine years ago it was, I was ten," James said as if the sadness that he had felt about moving away all those years ago had just come rushing back. Lily suddenly realised that she had seen him before, she remembered that there was a big event in the schoolyard about James leaving, though she didn't say that she remembered him, in case he didn't remember her, she wanted to avoid the future embarrassment that would come out of that.