Portraits of a Flower in Bloom | Jily

12: Soaring, Flying

~ Sunday 18th September, 1977: James & Lily's day ~
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James was in the locker room of the quidditch team, gathering cones to lay out a small obstacle course for Lily to manoeuvre her broomstick round. Contrary to everything James had ever stood for, he was well prepared and ready for the lesson ahead. Luckily, thinking about teaching Lily to fly during most classes meant now he had a clear plan of action, and was determined to look like an organised, responsible adult in front of Lily. For the last few weeks James had been performing his Head Boy duties admirably, at least he thought so anyway, sooner or later she was bound to notice how perfect he now was for her. Right?

"Potter, you in there?" Lily's voice echoed through the empty locker rooms and James picked up all the cones ready to start the lesson.

"Yep! Coming now," he yelled back, as he walked toward the pitch.

James tutted sarcastically, "impatient today aren't we?" Lily rolled her eyes, and James dropped his attempted comedy, "Anyway... you ready to start? Got your broom?"

Lily opened her mouth to confirm but then trailed off, "I don't... I thought I could borrow one, maybe?"

James shook his head and sighed, "oh Evans, unprepared for class yet again. Not a good  first impression on your new professor now is it?

Lily narrowed her eyes and breathed out a "ha ha" dripping in sarcasm.

"Hmmm, well," James looked down at the broomstick in his hand, "you'll have to borrow mine for today. Probably better as well, it's very sturdy, good for a beginner."

Lily looked down at the broomstick in awe. This was James prized possession, even first years who'd only been there for a few weeks knew that. He practically slept with the thing; took better care of it than he did himself. If anyone even went near it he'd freak it and question their intentions. This was an incredible honour, and Lily acknowledge that.

"But... it's your broomstick, I couldn't- I can't," Lily stuttered her words, now actually feeling incredibly guilty for not being prepared.

James laughed, "don't look so scared Evans, you can borrow it, it's fine. I trust you." He smiled at her and looked in her eyes with a soft kindness that once again let Lily see a genuine side of James that wasn't around all the time.

She smiled back, weakly. Still feeling guilty, and now even more nervous and now she had to be good, for fear of breaking his precious broomstick.

"Ready to start then?" James started out at the great training field, and back to Lily. She nodded at him, ready to attack the day with a fervour.

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"Am I at least getting better?" Lily groaned, and leaned her face into her arms, still atop the broomstick.

It had been an hour since they'd started and Lily could barely stay on the broom stick for more than 5 seconds without her feet on the ground before falling off or losing control entirely.

"Uuuhh, sure?" James sounded unconvinced but didn't want Lily to quit the lessons. This past hour had been testing his limits to the extreme and he was realising his theory of understanding how each other feel when he studied under Lily wasn't as silly as he'd thought. To him, flying was so simple, something that flowed through his veins like air, and could be done with less than a second thought. Apparently, this was not a universal feeling. And it didn't help that Lily also didn't particularly seem to care. Boy, was James really understanding why she yelled at him so often about unfinished (or, most likely never-started) homework.