History repeats itself | ʲ ˢ ᵖᵒᵗᵗᵉʳ

James and Lily Potters' tale was a tragic one, of love only realized mere years before their untimely end. When their son first saw loss. When their son defeated the Dark Lord for the first time. It was a tale nobody wanted to have repeated, for fear of a similar ending.

However, when James Sirius Potter bumped into Lily Abbot in Ollivanders', he fell madly in love, and the cycle began.

Rejection after rejection, he never gave up, and as much as Lily felt bad every time she saw his crushed expression when she said 'no', she couldn't find it in her to say 'yes'. To go on a date, to entertain the theory that maybe, just maybe, they could be together. Because they couldn't.

She was a complicated person, with a complicated home life. Her mother was sick, and her father was rarely home. There was never enough money for more than one meal a day,and even then, it had to be small so she could afford to buy her mother's medicine.

She couldn't tackle another thing, let alone a relationship, which needed trust and attention and no secrets. That couldn't happen, so it was a 'no'.

He didn't understand, she knew that, but she also knew that she had to put all her attention onto keeping the one person who loved her alive. Her mother had to come first, over happiness, over love, over an escape.

~

'Why do you always reject me?'

'I'm not in the mood for this conversation, Potter.'

'Please, Abbot. Why do you always reject me? I love you.'

'You don't love me. Nobody loves me. The one person who did is dead. Dead, Potter. My father is probably sleeping with one of his mistresses, barely aware that my mother is gone and that I'm his child. Nobody loves me, Potter, so stop spouting bullshit and join the reality that this is never gonna happen. Ever. I can barely afford one meal a day in the holidays, you think I can afford to buy a Christmas present for my boyfriend? No chance."

Cover by @sevenoclock