Jily oneshots

The Benefits of Matchmaking (smutish)

by whimsicallydrifting

Five Days Before

James Potter knew his life was going to shit on the 12th of January with the imminent and unavoidable arrival of the daily post.

"I've been served," Sirius declares at breakfast, prodding a piece of paper distastefully with a Fruit Loop. "Twenty to life."

"Have you broken the law again recently?" James asks.

Sirius twists his lips. "Fucking hell, I wish. I've been promoted." He says the word like its poison. "Sergeant. I start on Monday."

James drops his spoon. "Are you fucking serious?"

Sirius glowers elegantly. Everything Sirius does is elegant. Sirius even walks to the loo elegantly. "Don't make me go there."

James picks up his spoon and immediately throws it in the sink. God knows when the last time they cleaned the kitchen floor was. When they moved in two years ago probably. "Mate, that's amazing!"

Sirius sneers. "Fucking bureaucracy," is all he mutters, but he's pleased, James can see it in the way he's frowning. "I'll need to hijack Remus into moving my stuff."

James, who just got another clean spoon from the drawer, drops this one too. "Moving your stuff?"

Sirius's lip curls. "Sergeant in Camden," he informs him. "Gotta find a new flat." He adds unrepentantly, "Maybe this one will come without the fucking cat hair on my clothes and some wanker using up all the hot water."

"I do not use up all the hot water!" James objects, because a principle is a principle and he will not be made a liar of (so what if he occasionally like to indulge in a leisurely soak? It's as much his shower as it is Sirius's. It's his prerogative what he does with his shower time, thank you very much) even though it is now just dawning on him that Sirius is moving. Moving. Out of their little Notting Hill flat, away from James's crotchety cat and the kitchen faucet that only pours hot water and Chinese takeout Fridays.

But Sirius has worked hard for this and James is nothing if not a supportive mate, so he puts on a smile and says, "I'll help you move your shit, you tosser."

Sirius sneers genteelly and flips him off and James tries to ignore the sinking feeling in his gut.

On the 14th of January, after dozens of boxes, a very angry cat, a broken toe (Peter's) and nearly losing the moving truck in Cambridge (James's fault), Sirius moves out, tosses a fuck you over his shoulder, kicks the door shut and is gone.

That's when the trouble starts.

vVv

Two Days Before

"Lil, there's some bossy woman here to see you."

Lily, who was browsing through cat pictures on Google, snaps her laptop shut with what she hopes isn't a guilty expression. Technically, she's on break but Lena Hardwick from editorial has jumped on Lily for smaller things than this. "What?" she says, twisting around in her swivel chair. The only fun perk of sitting at a desk, though the slow squeak makes her want to wince. "Who?"

Dorcas Meadowes shrugs, the fringe of her hand knitted sweater swaying with the movement. She eyes the mess of pens, papers, old sweet wrappers and elastic bands on Lily's desk, wrinkling her nose, but doesn't comment. "Tall, silvery hair, looks like she could take down a mafia ring—oh, here she is."

Dorcas scurries away and Lily doesn't really blame her.

Euphemia Potter certainly does look like she could take down a mafia ring.