Hate Is A Strong Word (A Jily Fanfic)//FINISHED!

The Patronus Revealed

Hey guys! I hope you like the chapter!

James
James had been waiting for Friday all week. The week had been a good one. Lily's mood was still swinging to and fro, but she was usually kind towards him. In Potions, James found it easier to let Lily, who was absolutely brilliant in that class, do most of the work. He only helped when he needed to and that made their working relationship a lot better. He also spent a lot of time with her on the nights they were patrolling. She almost seemed to get along with him more when they were alone.

The only downside of the week had been worth all of the trouble. The Marauders already had a week's worth of detention due to their start of the year prank.

On Wednesday, the four boys had enchanted the breakfast of all of the students to change their voices in sounding like their house mascot. The Gryffindors growled and roared, the Ravenclaws screeched, the Slytherins hissed, and the Hufflepuffs squealed. It had been a funny situation until the four boys had easily been caught.

Now that it was Friday, James couldn't wait for Charms. He wanted to impress Evans with his beautiful stag patronus. He had learned with the rest of the Marauders how to conjure one before anyone else had. He had also learned to become an animagi, but that he planned to keep secret.

When James went down to breakfast this morning, he plopped down next to Sirius. Lily sat across the table with her nose in the Daily Prophet. She had already finished eating her breakfast and was rapidly discussing something with Remus. Her hands were flying around and her long, auburn hair kept falling over her shoulder.

"...and I know that even if I was there, I wouldn't be able to do anything to save them. I just feel so stuck. You know?" Lily continued on.

James wished she could talk to him this easy. Lily had always been closer to Remus than she was with any other Marauder. She had even gotten along with him before she had liked anyone else in the group. James recalled how he used to get so jealous of Remus' ability to make her talk. He still envied it a little now.

"Yeah I know, but I'm sure you have nothing to worry about," Remus said reassuringly.

"Hey, what's wrong?" James asked.

Lily looked over at him, and he suspected that she would snap at him for intruding into their conversation, but she just handed him the paper.

More Muggle Killings in London

James quickly realized what they were talking about. Lily didn't want to leave her family unprotected, but there was nothing that she could do for them. The idea of Lily trying to fight off a horde of Death Eaters made him feel slightly nauseous.

"Oh..." was all he could say. After a few moments of silence, the bell rang.

"Shall we be off then?" Lily asked. James nodded as Lily, Alice, and the rest of the Marauders walked off to History of Magic.

When James took his seat in the back of the classroom, he pulled out his notebook and quill and began to doodle. James always had a habit of doodling on all of his notes and tests. More often than not, he would doodle Lily's initials, LE. He didn't know why he did it; he just had really bad habit of doing it. He had stopped for a while when he had told himself he wasn't going to like Lily Evans anymore, but now it seemed his habit was back. Sirius had noticed, too.

"Oh no, not again," Sirius said with a smirk.

"Shut up," James muttered. Professor Binns had started the lesson, but James didn't hear a word he said. He wrote the letters LE in different fonts. He sketched a stag and broom. He blocked out the class around him as he thought and thought.