Jily One Shots 2

that elusive aha moment

disclaimer: written by Wilhelmina willoughby

Dumbledore realizes it first.

He sees them walking down the corridor - her with her overstuffed satchel dragging along on the floor, him with his too-long limbs and overeager willingness - and stops in the doorway of a classroom to watch them walk past. The little girl, Lily Evans, has a bright blush on her cheeks. James Potter is nearly vibrating as he walks beside her.

"I'll carry them back to Gryffindor, if you'd like," James says, nearly walking sideways in his attempt to help. Dumbledore is surprised that he has not tripped over himself yet. James puts a hand on the strap of her bag, as if to pull it off her shoulder, but she shrugs off his grasp.

"I don't need help," she says. Then, after three steps and a bite of her lip, she says, grudgingly, "But thank you. I appreciate your offer."

The poor boy looks crestfallen. He stops walking and shrugs, as if it doesn't matter, as if she hasn't ruined his idea of chivalry forever, as if he'll never ask a girl if she needs help ever again. To Dumbledore's surprise, Lily Evans stops walking once she looks beside her and realizes that he isn't there.

"I'm going to head back this way, then," James says, nodding his head behind him toward the Great Hall. "I guess I'll see you around."

Now Lily looks crestfallen, but she straightens herself up, nods, and turns away from him. As they walk in opposite directions from one another, Dumbledore guesses that this is how it'll be for a while, their resistance, their reluctance, and that one day, something will shift just enough to bring them together again. Because there was a light in their eyes, a beautiful light that -

"Um, pardon me, Headmaster? Can I get around?"

Dumbledore shakes himself out of his reverie and allows the students in the classroom behind him to leave. Ah, the ponderings of an old man about young love!

...o...

Dorcas realizes it when Lily comes back from breakfast with an ugly red valentine in her hand and a scowl on her face. She tries to broach the topic, but Lily silences her with a vicious glare. The valentine is thrown into the drawer of her end table - not the fireplace, Dorcas notices - which is then slammed shut, and when Lily flops on the bed with her face in her pillow, Siobhan raises an eyebrow.

"You alright, Evans?"

Lily says something that Dorcas thinks is, "I want to die," but Siobhan repeats as, "You want pie?"

When Lily doesn't respond, Siobhan, who has made it clear that she doesn't have patience for this kind of thing and will Dorcas please just let her know if she needs to wear mourning clothes tomorrow, leaves the room. Which leaves Dorcas with Lily. Which makes Dorcas uncomfortable. She doesn't have any siblings or close cousins or second-cousins or even young aunts or uncles, so comforting people is kind of new for her, especially since she doesn't really know anybody at Hogwarts all that well yet and the girls that live in her dorm feel emotions at the extreme.

So she gets up and sits on the side of Lily's bed, awkwardly patting the girl on the back in triangle-shape motions, and asks, "Can I read it?"

The worst that can happen is that Lily will kill her. The best that can happen is that Lily will let her read the valentine, explain in a calm manner what happened and why she is upset, and everybody will go on with their lives. The reality will probably occur somewhere in the middle.

Lily doesn't mutter a word, doesn't make a sound, doesn't even move save the slow rise and fall of her back - Dorcas should probably check to make sure that Lily's not actually suffocating herself - so this must be a yes.