the sweater ~~ jily

2.

Chapter Two: Tears and Sweaters

"Evans?"

Lily, a little startled of hearing a voice from what she thought was an empty common room, pushed herself up to face the owner of the familiar voice. Her face was still tearstreaked, red, and tired.

The owner of that voice was none other than James Potter. The boy with the round glasses and bird's nest hair. The boy who loved Quidditch more than anything, wearing his Gryffindor zipper sweater almost every day. Head Boy, surprisingly. Became a little more handsome over the summer.

Lily's heart stopped for one moment.

James gave a small gasp when he saw Lily's sad face. His hazel eyes filled with worry and shock. Given James's reaction, Lily turned her face away. She felt ugly from the way he was looking at her. A few strands of her hair flew to her face, barely covering it.

James tilted his face to see it a little. "Hey, Lily, what happened?" he asked softly. Lily shook her head. "You don't want to talk to me about it?"

Lily shrugged. She felt as if she could trust him, but wasn't completely sure. It seemed she was crying for a stupid reason, and if he knew, he might think of her as a crybaby and stop fancying her. 

"You can always trust me, I'm always here for you."

His words made her feel a bit better.

"Do you want to move to the other corner? The other Gryffindors will be coming any second now. If you want, I can stay with you," James suggested. Lily nodded without words.

James pointed to the corner underneath the stairs. It was an open corner that was lit by only from an open window. It was basically unseen, although spacious and clean. Moonlit since it was dark outside. It's just Lily had to duck because of the stairs.

Lily adjusted herself to sit under there comfortably. She sat on the floor with her knees up and her arms crossed, resting on her knees. Hiding her face from the world, hiding it from the common room, hiding it from James. Lily let a few tears fall before she heard someone walk to her corner.

"Can I sit with you?" asked James. Once Lily nodded, James leaned against the wall and sank right next to her. Lily could feel him looking at her. 

Unexpectedly, James put his arm around her shoulder. He pulled her a bit closer to him, just a little bit. "It's okay, Lily. Everything you're worried about, I promise it's only temporary. Everything will be okay," he whispered to her.

Lily let out a few cries, and she was sure James had heard. She liked the comfort of his arm around her, and without thinking, she no longer hid her face. She leaned back and onto his shoulder.

Lily had a feeling James was surprised about her little move. Although after she leaned on his shoulder, he took his other arm and grabbed the other that was around her shoulder. Wrapping her in what felt like a nice hug. James rested his head on Lily's and let her silently cry in his arms.

"Shhh, shhh, it's okay. I'm right here, I promise," whispered James, comforting her. 

Lily had never been held like this in her seventeen years of life. It felt nice like this as if she wasn't alone anymore. Kind of like a warm blanket.

The only difference from a warm blanket to James's comfort is that Lily was cold. Freezing. Chills went down her spine of how cold the common room felt. She shivered quite a bit.

And the one thing she didn't want to happen was for James to notice. But he did. "You're cold."

"What?"

"Are you cold? You seem to be...shivering. Do you want to borrow it?" James gestured to his Quidditch sweater.

Lily let out a sigh. "The likelihood for me to give it back is very small, you know. You might not even get it back for months, or I don't know."

"Lily, at this point, I really don't mind. It's okay if you don't end up giving it back, I'll manage or something. You're more of a priority right now," blurted James. He paused to take in what he just said.

Lily blushed, twitching a small smile. She nodded.

James slipped off his sweater and handed it to her, but Lily paused. "You know you're not getting this back, right?"

James simply nodded.

"All right, James, but you better not have sweated on it," Lily reminded.

"I promise I haven't."

She nodded, then put her arms through the sleeves of the red sweater. It seemed to be a bit big on her, not letting her hands completely out. Only the tips of her fingers could be shown.

The sweater smelled very much of him, of course. Lily grabbed the side of the sweater with the zipper side and wrapped it around her. 

James teasingly flipped the hood over her eyes, making himself laugh at Lily's confusion. Lily took the hood off, stopping James from laughing. She leaned back on him again, crossing her arms. His arm wrapped around her again.

Lily thought for a moment. "You said I can always trust you, correct?"

"Of course."

She exhaled deeply. "Severus called me a Mudblood. Again."

Lily looked up at James's face and she could automatically tell he wasn't pleased. His eyebrows furrowed and he looked slightly angry. "Lils did you say Snivellus made you cry?" he asked a bit angrily.

"Yes, but there's nothing you can do, James. It happened. He's not ever going to talk to me ever again. I'm sure of it."

"And I can make him sure he'll never talk to you again — "

"James, no," warned Lily.

"What? I'm not gonna have some greasy-nose make you cry, okay? The last thing I want is for you to be upset," James said kindly.

Thinking, Lily came up with an idea. "I have one idea to make him angry. Not only will it be a benefit for both of us to see him angry, but I also get to use your sweater again. Quite a lot, actually."

James smiled. "What is it, Evans?"

"Can I borrow this again?"

James nodded.

"Well," Lily thought. "Sev seems to really like me, although hiding it from his friends, and really hate you, to be honest, so if he saw I was wearing your sweater, he'd know it's yours seeing it says 'Potter' and the seven on the back, also going to mention how he's staring at me almost all the time, he's going to be really angry. What do you think?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, if it means he'll get angry, then absolutely."

a/n

and that's chapter two, guys!
thanx again for reading
this chapter (including author's note is 1,141 words)
have a great day!!

~the sweater