Jily One Shots

An Olive Branch

Lily

Lily Evans sank against the trunk of a tree, hugging her knees as tears spilled down her face. The letter from Pertunia, in which her sister explicitly declared their relationship over, lay on the grass beside her. It was an unusually warm day for March, but Lily felt an icy chill inside from the cruel, biting words in her sister's writing.

Lily had tried for years to repair their strained relationship, but Pertunia wanted nothing to do with her. The void between them grew deeper every year. She had sent one last hopeful letter, a final olive branch, but Pertunia had torn up any last hope of reconciliation.

"Oi, Evans!"

Lily flinched.

No. Not now. The last person she wanted to see in this moment was the insufferable git, Potter.

She glanced quickly to her left, where James Potter was swaggering across the grass towards her, clad in his red and gold Quidditch kit with his broomstick swung casually over his shoulder.

Lily turned away, grabbed the letter, and scrambled up. She wiped her eyes hastily and swung her bag over her shoulder, trying to hide her face as Potter's shadow fell across the ground in front of her. But as she hurried to walk away, the letter slipped from her grasp and fluttered to her feet.

Potter snatched it before she could even reach for it. She inwardly groaned, still refusing to look at him.

"Love letter from Snivellus?" he teased, the familiar mischievous smirk in his voice.

Lily forced herself meet his eyes with a glare, and waited for a mocking comment about her appearance. 6 years had taught her enough about Potter's lack of care for people's feelings. Just look at said "Snivellus". The thought of her ex best friend tugged painfully at her heart.

But Potter's smirk faded when he saw her red eyes and tear-streaked face. He blinked and Lily was shocked to see his eyebrows pull together in concern and his eyes soften.

"Shit, Evans, are you ok?"

Lily sniffed and grabbed the letter from Potter's hand. She could feel the weight of his gaze, and for a second his other hand reached out tentatively as if to give her arm a comforting touch. But it faltered and it ended up tugging anxiously at his hair. His wide, uncertain eyes stayed on her.

"I'm fine."

But her voice cracked with the word fine and she let out a sob as she turned on her heels and hurried away.

"Wait-"

----

Lily couldn't stomach dinner and definitely did not want the chance of seeing Potter at the Gryffindor table. So instead she retreated to her bed, ignoring her rumbling stomach as she cried quietly. Pertunia's words rang around her head over and over.

The dormitory door creaked open and she glanced up to see Alice step inside, fiddling nervously with her braid.

"You ok, Lil?" She asked, gently, walking over to Lily's bed.

"Yeah ... just tired," she murmured.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

She shook her head and Alice chewed her lip but didn't press. Her eyes flicked back to the door.

"Erm, so i just saw James," she started, hesitating. "And, er, he asked me to give you this."

"Potter?"

Lily sat up slightly and watched with curiosity as Alice pulled out a small, badly wrapped parcel from her pocket. Lily examined it closer and saw that there was a scrap of parchment stuck to it with a poor attempt at a bow sitting on top.

"He wouldn't say what it was. Just told me to give it to you."

Alice handed her the parcel then retreated out the door, fiddling with her braid anxiously again.

Lily sat up properly and unfolded the note. She read the untidy scrawl.

sorry about what ever happened earlier... hope this cheers you up - Potter

She picked up the parcel and turned it over in her hands, feeling warmth through the brown paper.

She tapped her wand against it and waited for anything to jump out at her. She had seen enough of the Marauders' pranks to know never to trust anything they gave you. When nothing happened, she untied the bow and the brown paper peeled apart.

It revealed a slightly squished chocolate blueberry muffin.

"Huh" she muttered, recalling her 4th year birthday party which Potter and Black had gate-crashed. Mary had baked her a tray of chocolate blueberry muffins - Lily's favourite. But that was 2 years ago - how could Potter even remember that?

She eyed the muffin suspiciously again. But her stomach let out a loud, insistent rumble and with a reluctant sigh, she took a cautious bite. Warmth spread through her immediately, and she instantly felt a bit better than before.

When she finished, her gaze drifted back to the crumpled scrap of parchment containing Potter's words.

She read through it again and again then turned it over her fingers, deep in thought.

Who would have guessed that James Potter possessed some small amount of empathy after all?

A/N

Hope you like this one! Let me know what you think :)

I'm trying to have a good mix of their 'enemies' stage and 'to lovers' stage 

Also there's been a lot of Lily's POV lately so I'm gonna do a James POV soon ;)

-jo