Back to Gryffindor Tower

Part I

A / N: Hello everyone! As some of you may know, I have a slight (and by slight, I mean very large, crippling, and hindering my daily life) addiction to reading Marauders fanfiction. I live for Jily as a ship and I finally decided to try my hand at writing some! So, I present to you, the first chapter of "Back to Gryffindor Tower", which started out as a Jily oneshot but has become a 3-4 part story (depending on whether I do an epilogue or not - I'm not sure). I apologize for any Americanisms I may have inadvertently used; I tried to replace most slang with British slang, but I really don't know, whoops, and sorry to any Brits I may have offended. For some context, this is set in January of 6th year, and James has given up getting Lily to go out with him after being rejected so much in 5th year. I think this is honestly my favorite thing I've ever written, and it's definitely some of my best writing. I tried out a different writing style for this story - reading the Throne of Glass series and rereading HP books makes me want to ~write fancy~. And, for the first time in my life, I have ALREADY gotten started on the next chapter so look forward to that soon! This chapter is also 2300 words, making it longer than any other chapter of any fic I've ever written, even though in the world of fanfiction that's not that impressive, but I'm proud of myself. Huge thanks to @MacNChez748 and @woollycat22 for being my unofficial betas for this story, and go check out their stories! Some very interesting things are happening over on their accounts :)

Oh, also, it's my birthday today! Happy birthday to me! It's currently 12:49 am, so it's only been my birthday for 49 minutes, but ehhhhh it counts. My amazing friends (including the aforementioned @MacNChez748 and @woollycat22) made me an amazing video, so thanks to everyone who helped!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything other than my TWICE photocards. Please don't try to take them.

Enjoy!

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The icy wind chilled her breath and blew against her skin, raising goosebumps on the pale surface. Her long, dark red hair billowed behind her, and she pulled her Hogwarts robes close to her chest, wrapping herself in warmth. It was January, just after she had returned to the school after going home for the winter holidays. She loved the month and also loathed it; the cold could be frightening and unfamiliar at times, but curling up on the sofa in the Gryffindor Common Room with an absurdly large mug of cocoa was one of her favorite pastimes. January was a give and take.

On this particular frigid afternoon, Lily Evans was taking a stroll back to Gryffindor Tower and attempting to enjoy the weather; the start of the new year was a time of opportunity, she would tell herself. Take advantage of it. Hogwarts was always magical, but it seemed particularly majestic in the winter months, the snow a delicate quilt laying over the towers and turrets. The lake had been frozen over with a thick sheet of ice; she would sometimes see students sliding across the surface, laughing with their friends, not a care in the world. A smile danced onto her lips. Today, Lily Evans was having a good day.

As she strolled across the grounds, she mulled over various topics pertaining to her life at that moment: she had an upcoming Transfiguration assignment that was currently filling her with dread, she had woken up that morning to a thick piece of expensive parchment informing her that there was to be another Slug Club party (Lily liked Slughorn, but found his parties a bit frivolous), and unwittingly of someone who seemed to cross her mind a lot these days - a certain James Potter.

Once Lily had "gotten over herself" (as Marlene had put it) and became friends with him, she found herself frequently surprised at what he was actually like. Of course, she would never admit that she was wrong or that her assumptions had been incorrect; Lily Evans was not the kind of person who was wrong, not after she had spent so many nights convincing herself that James Potter was just as much of an arrogant toerag as she had always thought. But he wasn't an arrogant toerag, she could at least admit that much.