How it began: A Jily Fanfiction

Jily Part 2

The library was quiet, like it always was; the only people in there being Madam Pince, the librarian, and a few students. James and Lily were sitting in the middle of the library, their books and homework spread out over the table they were sitting at. Lily was so caught up in her work that she hadn’t noticed James had been staring at her for the last half hour. She finished up the last sentence on her potions essay and sat up straight to wait for the ink to dry. She set her quill down and looked over at James; he had his elbow on the table, his head in his hand. She was taken aback to see him smiling at her.

“What?” she asked, a small blush forming on her cheeks.

James shook his head and beamed at her, “It’s quite interesting to watch you.” Lily avoided his gaze as she moved around her rolls of parchment and asked,

“Why is that?”

“You get so into what you are working on. You didn’t even notice that I have been staring at you for almost an hour.” Lily looked up at him, dropping the book she had been holding.

“You’ve what?”

“You heard me.” Lily couldn’t move her gaze from his, that silly boyish grin he had on his face made her heart leap out of her chest.

“I thought I had come up here to study, not to have you stare at me all day. I get enough of that at dinner.” James laughed a deep booming laugh that made Lily smile.

“Right, sorry Lily. I won’t look at you from here on out.” He gave her one last smile then turned to the essay he had been working on, continuing as if he hadn’t been idling away his time for almost an hour.

Lily tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and began on her next essay but her mind wouldn’t let her concentrate. The fact that James had been watching her was stuck in her mind.

The scratching of James’ quill made her glance up at him, he still had his head in his hand, only now his fingers were tangled in the messy black locks that stuck up at weird angles, his gaze was on his parchment, his glasses sliding down his nose.

Lily shook her head and began writing, the silence almost deafening. She stopped writing and sighed, how long has it been? She looked at James again, his mouth was pulled into a frown and a line had formed between his eyebrows as his concentration was now on his essay. Every minute or so he would turn to a book that lay open next to him then would continue writing again, the scratching of his quill returning.

Lily didn’t know how long she sat there watching him, his movements had seemed so calm and relaxing. Her gaze drifted down to his parchment for a long time, as he moved further and further down the page and then she looked back up at him as he set down his quill and looked up at her, that silly boyish grin back on his face.

“Couldn’t help it could you?”