Jily One-Shots

Happy Birthday, James

Ever since he was a kid, James Potter's birthdays had always been a big event. His mom and dad, Euphemia and Fleamont Potter, were never really against spoiling him. Being the only child of older parents had its perks after all. Up until Hogwarts he got lots of presents and had big parties thrown for him, even if those didn't always have that many kids for him to play with. And once he was on Hogwarts, it didn't change much. He had three great friends that were always more than willing to throw him a party or plan some huge prank to celebrate the day.

Which was probably why he was so bummed out today, on his eighteenth birthday. It was his last year at school, they would all graduate in a few months and yet none of his friends had planned anything for him. Not even his girlfriend (yeah, he had a girlfriend now, Lily Evans, actually, ever heard of her?) had bothered to mention anything to him. She hadn't even offered him a private celebration with her on the Heads' dorm at night or anything like that. Really, what kind of friends were those that hadn't even been capable of acknowledging that his birthday was coming for the entire week?

He lay in bed in the morning of March 27th 1978 waiting for one of his friends to jump on him or wake him up by screaming or even a bucket of water. He waited for his beautiful girlfriend to climb over him and pester him with kisses or maybe even something more. He waited. And nothing happened. No one bloody did anything on the morning of his birthday. The moment he realizes that he opens his eyes and sits up on the bed, throwing the blanket on the floor. There's still no laughter, no water, no hugs. The beds around him are all empty, even Frank's, and so he only gets ready for breakfast, maybe they're waiting downstairs, maybe Lily just didn't come up and is sitting in one of the armchairs in the Common Room, a smile on her lips.

She wasn't. Neither his bloody girlfriend nor his bloody best mates were down in the Common Room and that just made him proceed his miserable walk down to the Great Hall. He could only hope that then the ones that were supposed to care about him would dignify themselves to at least wish him a 'Happy Birthday' like even the unknown people that were passing by him on the hallways were doing.

Guess what? They didn't.

As he arrived to the Gryffindor table, Lily only looked up from her waffles, gave him a smile and a quick peck and went back to talking to Marlene (who also didn't bother to wish him a happy birthday or even say good morning). Sirius was nowhere in sight and Remus and Peter only nodded in greeting and kept eating like horses. So, obviously, he did what was expected for him to do.

He turned around and walked away with heavy steps.

And they didn't even bother to go after him!

After that, he decided to give up on the people that, if they couldn't even remember his birthday, didn't deserve him and would only be considered insignificant things in his life from now on. This was why he was wandering the Hogwarts' hallways alone instead of snogging his incredibly fit girlfriend on a broom cupboard or planning a special prank with his friends to play on those Slytherins that had picked on Mary MacDonald the other day. Those suckers weren't worthy of his company on the most special day of the year anyway. It's not like he was bored or anything, especially since it was a Saturday so there were no classes and he could enjoy himself and have some alone time to...

"James! Hey, what are you doing alone here?" He turned around to find her walking up to him, her red hair and her striking green eyes and that slightly too short skirt making it difficult for him to remember that he was mad, incredibly mad actually, at her.

"I'm just walking around." He said, and was incredibly proud of himself when he managed to sound curt and serious and not stupidly in love, which made a frown appear in Lily's face.