The Love of Patronus | JILY

Potter

          James was sitting with Remus Lupin under a short, thick tree by the lake. The sky was cloudless and the sun reflected golden across the water. It was also unnaturally warm. James had unbuttoned the top three buttons of his shirt and rolled up his sleeves to his elbow, while he was sitting and reading one of Lupin's spell books.

          "Moony, how do you read this stuff for fun?" He said, turning the next page of his textbook, eyes glazed with boredom. He looked up and immediately jumped, knocking his shoulder into a low hanging branch. Lily Evans was standing at the edge of the water. Her dark robes were laying in a thick pile a few feet behind her, and her white button-up was hanging loosely around her bare legs. James watched in awe as she waded into the golden water, her hair glinting in the sunlight making her seem to glow.

          "Oi, James, you're not even hearing me." James blinked and looked over to his good friend who was grinning knowingly. "Go on." 

          James punched his arm lightly as he hopped up and walked down closer to the lake shore.

          "Hey, Evans! Mind if I join you?" Lily, now waste deep, turned slowly to face him.

          "By all means." This was not the answer he was expecting, but he did not question it. He waded in, pants and all until he was directly in front of her. Of course, the water only reached just under his hip as he was quite a few inches taller. She bent down to her knees letting the water engulf her up to her neck, her darkening red hair swirling around her on the surface, and James quickly followed suit.

          "So tell me, Potter." She said, looking him dead in the eye, "What's caused this change in character?" 

          The answer was obvious, it was her, but he assumed she would only scoff and roll her beautiful eyes in disbeliefs, so he decided to stretch the truth a bit.

          "I love joking, don't get me wrong, it's the best pastime especially to those who deserve it." Snivellus Snape flashed into his mind, focusing on the unforgettable moment he had spat mudblood at Lily. "But it's my last year, and it's not going to get me...." you. "... where I need to go."

          She was watching him silently, her head bobbing up and down in the calm water, causing ripples that stopped only when they reached his chest.

          And then she smiled at him and moved closer so that she was less than a foot away. His breath caught in his throat as he waited for an agonizingly long time to see what she was going to do. And then a wall of water flew up and covered his face, completely obscuring his glasses.

          "Bloody hell!" He yelled in shock, but Lily was laughing and swimming backward, wand in hand, looking completely at ease. "I don't think so," he growled to himself and pulled his own out of his back pocket, raising it towards her and shouting "Habere!" The water around her rose up and formed a sort of mold that held her fast. Her laugh froze and turned to a determined glare.

          Her wrist flicked by her side and the water fell, simply water again. He thought for sure a curse was coming, but she simply watched him, and slowly raised an eyebrow. He clenched his teeth in order to not gasp. A smile had formed on her beautiful mouth now, and she simply said,

          "Good move, Potter." And stood up once more. James did his best to not let his gaze drift from Lily Evans' face, for he knew her clothes were sticking unnaturally tightly to her body.

          "I'll walk you inside." He knew their free hour was coming to an end. 

          "Thank you." She returned, quickly drying herself and fixing her robes. As they began to walk back towards the castle a spur of movement caught James' eye and he stopped immediately. Noticing this, Lily stopped as well and turned her gaze around to see what he was looking at.

          Snivellus Snape had appeared from behind a tree, walking towards the castle and as soon as James looked over, he whipped out his wand. James quickly pulled out his own and they stared at each other, pure hate radiating between the two of them.

          "Snape." Lily's voice was sharp and clipped. "What are you doing?" Snape did not respond bu simply sliced his wand through the air sending a flash of silver light at James who blocked it easily and aimed his wand.

          "No!" Lily knocked James backward. "Don't touch him!" Her words were aimed at James, not Snape, something which confused James and lit a small flame of anger in his stomach. She still defends him? He doesn't deserve it.

          Snape snarled at James ready to raise his arm again, but Lily drew and flicked her wand so quickly, James was sure Snivellus would fall where he stood, but he had dodged. His eyes turned to Lily, undisguised surprised flickering over his pale and sunken face. She lashed out again, and Snape stepped back.

          And then they were dueling, and every time that James raised his wand to help Lily would shout "No!". Then he heard the unmistakable word leave Snape's mouth.

          "Sectumsempra!" The flash of light flew at Lily, and James roared in anger, despite the fact that Lily had easily blocked the curse. 

          "Levicorpus!" He thought furiously. And Snape was lifted into the air by his ankle where Lily shot a well-aimed jinx, and his throat erupted in blisters.

          Her fiery gaze turned to James. "I told you not to-" but James ignored her.

          "I'm sorry, but I don't care what you said. Not with curses like that," He spat in disgust, "flying at you. Like I would let that happen."

          "I blocked it."

          "And if you hadn't, I would have killed him."

          To James' surprise, she smiled slightly, reached out and squeezed his wrist. Electricity soared through his arm, and by the twitch of her fingers, he was sure she had felt it too. She looked up briefly, her soft mouth opening ever-so-slightly before blinked and let go. She turned and pointed her wand at Snape who, with a flick of her wand, fell to the floor and stayed there. 

          Then without another glance, she gestured to James and the two of them walked together to dinner.