Letters From A Stranger || James and Lily ||

A Breath Away

Disclaimer: The only thing I have in common with JK Rowling is the two n in our names so I'm definitely not the owner of Harry Potter.

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Part II

Quick Recap: Before Lily's sixth year at Hogwarts, she joins a pen friend program through which she starts talking to a stranger named Harry. Lily refuses to accept Snape's apology but gets closer to James. After a few months, Lily realizes that James isn't a bad person like she believed and that she is starting to like him. Sirius and Marlene plan to set Lily up with James. Lily gets recurrent hallucinations and hears voices in her head. Lily is hexed by Mulciber. Gryffindor wins the Quidditch tournament. Marlene is confused about her feelings for Sirius and an incident that happened between the two some time ago. On their last day at Hogwarts, James almost kisses Lily while he's drunk.

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Chapter 38

It had only been a few weeks and James was already losing his mind. It was an occurrence of every year. For someone who couldn't go a day without seeing Lily Evans, it was a surprise that he had remained patient for this long.

If it had been an year earlier, James' jerk self would have written a corny and annoying letter to Lily, which she would, under no circumstance, grace with a reply. But now, he couldn't do that either without thinking and over thinking the consequences of something like that.

He was walking aimlessly along the hallways of Potter Manor like a lost puppy, when he heard hushed whispers coming from Marlene's room. He stopped outside the door, identifying the voices as that of Sirius and Marlene's. Frowning, he moved closer to the door in an attempt to catch bits and pieces of the conversation.

He couldn't hear much except a few words here and there which made no sense to him. He realized that he should have thought that it was Sirius who was talking and nine out of ten times Sirius opened his mouth, it was to spout some incoherent nonsense.

Shaking his head, James moved forward and without bothering to knock, turned the door knob. He heard movement on the other side and opened the door to see Sirius sprawled out on the bed and Marlene sitting cross legged on the floor.

"What kind of secret meeting for world domination is going on here?" James asked, raising an eyebrow at his cousin and best friend.

"We're planning on taking down the Black family." Sirius answered nonchalantly, "Care to join?"

"Only if I get snacks afterwards." James said, sitting down on the bed and swinging his legs around. He didn't realize that his lips were turning down in a frown as his thoughts strayed back to a certain redhead.

"What's with that face?" Marlene questioned, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Don't you know?" Sirius asked, raising himself slightly from the bed, "It's the annual Lily missing week."

"Shut it, Padfoot!" James threw the nearest cushion at his face, which Sirius ducked effortlessly with the talent of a beater. James laid down on the bed, staring at the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling. He didn't bother asking why Marlene still had the stars on the ceiling. It was just another one of the typical Marlene things.

"If you miss her so much, then why don't you just write to her?" Marlene asked, confused at how James didn't think of something so obvious.

"I did think of it." James answered, dejected, "But I don't think that's a good idea."