Jily oneshots

Copilot (smut)

by sevenperseids

The car lurches as they round a sharp turn on the A82. The sky's a brilliant, endless blue and the windows are open; the road snakes ahead of them, cutting a sharp edge between the mountains and the banks of Loch Ness. Electric guitars are blasting from a record player strapped into the back seat - blasting, because they've been flying down the highway at about a hundred twenty kilometers per hour, and the record player couldn't make itself heard over the roar of the wind until James had reached behind him and put an amplifying charm on the speakers that he and Lily had crammed into the back with their food and sleeping bags. It's July 1978 and there's a war on that they're about to join, but for now, they're borrowing her parents' 1969 Ford Cortina for a four-day camping trip in the Scottish Highlands.

It's a much-needed trip for the both of them. Less than two weeks ago they'd each moved out of their parents' houses and into their respective flats in London, Lily with Mary MacDonald and Marlene McKinnon, and James with Sirius, one floor up from Remus and Peter, and they're worn out from packing and unpacking - but what's really been driving them all stir-crazy is the waiting, the seemingly endless waiting, that comes with having just pledged their lives and loyalty to the Order of the Phoenix. This is the first time James has experienced firsthand the way the organization's iron-fisted exclusivity plays out: As soon as he'd signed his life away, he'd been informed that he was going to be subjected to the most exhaustive background check he'd ever heard of. Criminal history, if there was any; family ties; friendships; ownership of any weapons other than a wand; and political and social beliefs, as much as they could be unearthed by Order detectives. Given the feverish pitch of the war and the fact that the Order functions as an underground strike and resistance force, James can understand why they'd insist on vetting the recruits so thoroughly, but that doesn't make the waiting any easier. Even working on Sirius's motorbike hasn't helped, because Sirius is also waiting to hear from the Order on his background check, and neither of them have been able to concentrate. All week bolts have been breaking and screws being stripped, and at one point James even got a thread chaser caught in the exhaust as he tried to tap a hole he'd drilled a millimeter too small, and couldn't for the life of him get the thing out. It was at that point that Sirius had given the whole thing up as pointless and stated that they all needed to get out of town for a few days. You take Lily and go somewhere interesting, he'd said. Get out and be with her, just the two of you. I'll go with Remus and Peter to Amsterdam or something. We can finish this bike once they're done vetting us; for now let's just go and live a bit.

So James had floated the idea to Lily, who hadn't needed persuading. She'd been in a rather agitated state herself when he'd asked and had just locked herself out of her flat for the fourth time that week, and Mary was worried that the neighbors had begun to notice every time Lily took out her wand and kicked the door open with a frustrated Alohomora - James had hardly finished saying the word 'holiday' before Lily was stuffing her clothes and toothbrush into a rucksack. Three hours later, she'd gotten permission to take her parents' car for the next few days; that same night, they dug her family's camping gear, along with a spare tire, out of the basement and threw it all in the back seat and boot.

And here they are now on the A82, racing away from it all in an old car that clatters but still roars. Lily is driving and James is happy as a pig in shit.

"Oh, I love this song," Lily nearly shouts, the words flying away behind her as her hair whips in her face. "James, turn it up."

He has to dig for a moment to get to his wand (his lap is piled up with a mess of atlases, road maps, Pumpkin Pasties, and Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans), but he's quick enough. The music blares up even more loudly just as the bass drops and the opening riff begins. Lily grins, wraps her fingers around the gear shifter, and pushes down hard on the clutch pedal. The car lurches again as she shifts into fourth gear and presses the accelerator. Off they go.