Gateway to Heaven - James and Lily Potter (Jily) #Wattys2016

At the Gate - Lily

Early update because I love you guys and I'll be so busy this week so yeah.

Ariana in the media again :)

Also, for those who don't know what the 'lake incident' is - I'm referring to what Harry saw during his Occlumency lessons with Snape in book 5. Basically, what happens is that James and Sirius start teasing Snape, which more or less turns in bullying, and then they start cursing each other but then Lily comes up and gets really angry and Snape calls her a Mudblood and she walk away angry at both James and Severus so yeah that's more or less what happened.

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James stops in his story when he sees me laughing so hard the tears are flowing from my cheeks. I slap his arm, choking on my breath.

"We - we were so s-s-stupid James, I c-c-can't believe we took that s-s-seriously..."

James smirks at me while Ariana eyes us with a very puzzled expression. We're probably the weirdest couple alive. "Yeah, well, I was a little shaken up at first." he responds, the cocky half-smile still plastered on his face. He's proud of making me laugh so hard, but on the other hand he's a little clueless when it comes to why I'm laughing in the first place.

I force myself to stop and start coughing loudly, James massaging my back in order to calm me down. It's a weird sensation, being out of time - the coughing fit, although its a loud and heavy one, gives me no physical sensation at all. That peaceful feeling haunts every ounce of my body, and for a second I wonder if I can even control my body.

But I can, that I am sure of. I feel James rubbing my back and kissing my cheek ever so delicately, I feel the smooth pavement-ish structure under my feet, I feel the warm sofa that I am nestled against.

If this is what being dead feels like, it's not that bad at all.

"But did you forgive him?" Ariana asks, her eyes still wide from the tragically amusing story we just narrated.

"She did in the end," James said,"she kept denying it, but she had been madly in love with me for so long, there was no way she could hide it anymore."

"That's not true, you conceited little piece of scum!" I exclaim, eyes wide open and trying very hard to look angry. My acting doesn't last very long and I end up laughing once more, this time at Ariana's horrified expression.

"Don't worry, miss Dumbledore, she's not actually drunk. No, wait! I mean," he gulps, suddenly realising he's speaking to a girl of about thirteen who's - although it's difficult to believe James and I are in the same state right now - dead as a doornail. "I mean, she tends to act a little strange at times, but she's not actually crazy - I mean, yes she is but..."

Ariana's puzzled expression only intensifies. Her eyebrows are furrowed as if she's trying very hard to decipher the motives behind our immature behaviour. "Right," she says after an awkward moment of silence,"but then when did Lily finally fall in love with James?"

"As I just told you, she..." James cannot finish his sentence as I pinch him, hard, in the shoulder. "Ouch!" he exclaims as he sees me giggling,"that wasn't funny at all." "Where can I file a divorce?" he asks, looking around the empty space,"I need a lawyer!"

"James!" but now he's the one who's laughing.

"I have never seen people taking death so comically," Ariana mutters suddenly, more to herself than to anyone else. "But that's a good thing, I suppose."

The little girl attempts to find reason in our jokes and it's absolutely adorable. Feeling a little guilty, I clear my throat and give James a stare. "You wanna get to heaven? You better behave," I say, winking mischievously before I can even help myself.

"You two are impossible," Ariana points when she sees James suddenly bending over and kissing me full on the lips, still chortling.

"Anyways," I clear my throat again after having half-heartedly pushed James away - no kissing in public used to be our rule back in the days - a rule we kept to for approximately two minutes, when James had pulled me to the front of the Great Hall in the middle of lunchtime and snogged me which such passion I could not but respond with equal enthusiasm. The teachers stared at us with an amused expression while I heard some people wolf-whistle while the younger students, their young hormones still very much in development, stared at us in awe.

"What I was saying is that it took a while for me to admit I had feelings for James. And no, I've not always had positive feelings towards him - the lake incident was the trigger for me to publicly express feelings of resentment towards him. Truth is, I felt guilty for not being as angry as I should have been. I resented his acts, that's for sure, but I just couldn't get to hating him as a person though I didn't really know why. But then he started avoiding me and I got all confused but then I discovered that I kind of liked him and -"

"Liked him? You were madly in love with me, Evans, you just didn't want to acknowledge it because you felt bad for betraying Snape and -"

"Well yeah, more or less, though I wasn't madly in love with you at first. It was a gradually developing emotion and you showing me your better sides only intensified these feelings, until I couldn't hold it anymore and I, I..."

"You what?" Ariana is sitting at the tip of her chair, looking more interested than ever before.

"PG RATING 13-!" James suddenly exclaims, clasping his hand over my mouth as I try to finish my sentence. I push him away, laughing.

"That's not true, you idiot! We didn't actually do anything like that, I just..."

"What's PG Rating?" Ariana questions innocently.

"Never mind," I quickly say before James get the chance to embarrass me again.

"What Lily wanted to say," James says, and I glare at him warningly, prohibiting him from saying anything stupid,"is that I asked her out for the one millionth time, and for the first time, she said yes."

"She did?" Ariana exclaims, clapping her hands happily.

"Well, yeah," James shrugs his shoulders. I rejected him for so long yet he held on until I was ready and ended up marrying him. It's a stupid, messed-up story, but it's also my favourite story which is why I'm always so keen to tell it to those who ask.

"But James had changed a lot, too," I remark,"he was much more mature, thus changing drastically the way in which he proposed at the time."

"Really?" James says, wiggling his eyebrows,"do you think standing on top of the dinner table with the entire school present could be seen as -"

I cut him off rapidly, slapping him. "You ruined the plot!" I say, trying to sound angry again,"I wanted to tell that story!"

"Oh, please do!" Ariana blurts out, her cheeks reddening in the process. "And you didn't ruin anything, James, don't worry about that."

"Good," I say, and start narrating.

JILY JILY JILY JILY JILY JILY JILY JILY

that's all I have to add.

(also please vote, comment, give feedback, and I'll start doing dedication as soon as my phone lets me do them aye)

love always,

Isa