Chapter Text
Lily
Remus
Sirius
James
Thursday, 16 January
“Have a good day!”
“Hi! How can I help you?”
“And is that all for today?”
“Oh sorry we are all out.”
“Next please!”
“Bryan with the tall macchiato and extra caramel”
“I’m sorry we are not Starbucks and do not carry that. Maybe try looking at our menu and seeing if we have something similar for you to try”
And on it went for the rest of Lily’s shift. The same 7 things that she has burned into her brain at this point. Lily curses internally for agreeing to do a double shift but well, the money wasn’t bad and she could always use more. Plus it wasn’t as if she had anything else to do. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were having a “marauders day” and she didn’t need nor want to know what the fuck that meant. So she was at work and saying all the things she needed to say and making the drinks she had to.
In the back of her mind were all the assignments that she had to get done by tomorrow. Another analysis on the themes of a 700 year old book, an essay on a memoir of some old, dead, white guy, studying for a quiz on basic themes in “classic” books. She just thought the word “classic” was stupid for categorizing books because what does it even mean to be categorized as a “classic” book. Plus, half the books that they considered classics were racist and sexist and written by old, dead, white guys.
Don’t get her wrong, she still reads them but that has more to do with her whole “love for old English things” that she has going on more than thinking they are “classics.” It's just something about how they say, “If I loved you less, I could talk about it more” and “You have bewitched me body and soul and I love you” and “I never yet saw anyone as beautiful, neither man nor woman, and am lost in admiration as I behold you.” It is so impossible for Lily not to fall in love with the world of old books. Also the smell of them is so enriching.
At about ten to 5, the coffee shop was finally empty and she went to close the door. Right as she was locking it, a stunning person in a black leather skirt, a pink striped jumper, and matching pink butterflies in their curls came up to the door. They saw Lily locking it and visibly deflated and started walking away and in that moment, Lily suddenly hated that she had to lock and close up shop. She went back to the counter and finished closing up the shop, clocked out, and left. She put in one of her headphones and headed in the direction of her apartment that was about a 15 minute walk from the coffee shop. She started planning out what she would do when she got home, as per usual:
- Make some tea
- Heat up her leftover pasta that she made the other day
- Text James and ask if they are still on for movie night this Saturday
- Check her text messages for anything important; respond to the important ones and ignore the rest
- Text Remus about the beautiful person
- Finish her food and tea and shower/get ready for bed
- Start on the analysis that she has due and try to finish it before going to sleep.
- Go to sleep at a reasonable hour
That last one seemed a little less attainable with step 7 but she could always be hopeful. As soon as she got back to her apartment, she started on her list and made it to 6 before realizing that she hadn’t even finished the book she was supposed to be analyzing. It was “The Old Man and The Sea” by Ernest Hemingway and it was painfully boring. She remembers back in sixth form she had to read it and she didn't even finish it and bullshitted the essay on the A level exam. So instead of starting and finishing her analysis, Lily was stuck reading the world’s most boring book. So she read. And read. And it was about 3 in the morning by the time she finished reading and annotating the book. Lily had consumed 3 cups of tea, texted James for about 30 minutes about which Legally Blonde movie was better (obviously, the first one), and made a new Pinterest board for the finished book on her lap.
Naturally she wasn’t able to complete step 8 so why not stay up later to at least complete step 7. So that is what Lily did. And at about 5 am, after finishing two more cups of tea, and a finished analysis of probably the worst book she’s ever read, Lily decided to call it a night and go to sleep.
Friday, 17 January
Lily awoke the next morning to a phone call from Remus and about a billion texts from James asking if she wanted coffee this morning. She answered the phone, just barely awake:
“ Lily?”
*unintelligible grumbling*
“Lils? Are you awake?”
“Obviously, I’m awake, dickhead. I answered the phone, didn’t I?”
“Well, are you out of bed? We have class in about 15 minutes.”
“Mmm, okay.”
“Does that mean you’ll be meeting me on the corner or am I coming up there and dragging you out of bed?”
“No, no. No dragging is necessary. I’m getting up and will meet you at the corner and we will go to class and learn the lessons and listen to the lectures.”
“Uh, okay? *muffled* Yeah, she’s on her way, though she sounds like a gremlin so don’t say anything stupid.”
*distant* “Hey! Why’d you look at me?”
“You know why, Sirius. Okay, see you in a minute, Lily.”
“Mhm”
She had a feeling Remus was rolling their eyes but did not care one single bit. She hung up the phone and started getting dressed. She plucked a long, white, flowy skirt that had yellow flowers all over it off the floor and went into her dresser to find her green tank top that paired well with the skirt. She found a pair of white socks and decided to wear her Mary Janes today.
After brushing her hair and teeth, she went into the kitchen and quickly made tea to go, gathered the books she needed in her bag, grabbed a brown corduroy jacket off the rack by the door and was heading out 3 minutes later.
Every time Remus or any of her friends had classes together, they met at the corner of the university apartment complex and walked to class together. Remus and Lily shared a good amount of their classes since they are both English Literature majors so she spent most of her days with him. Occasionally, James walked with them because he also had morning classes in the same building but most of his classes were in the Business college down the street. Peter and Sirius never chose morning classes but sometimes they would tag along and Pandora was at a whole different university so they had to get creative with their meet-ups.
She spotted Remus first because they towered over everyone and then eventually saw the other two, seemingly wrestling over a pretzel. Why? Well, guess she’ll find out.
She walked up to Remus, put her right arm through his left (her to-go tea cup in her left), and started walking in the direction of their college.
“Why are they wrestling over a pretzel?” She asked
“I genuinely have no idea. James bought a pretzel from one of the stands we passed and then Sirius realized they wanted one but we were already here so they asked James for a bite and James said no and Sirius did not like that, apparently. So, we ended up here.” They explained
“Oh good lord. Who even sells pretzels at 8 am? And who wants a pretzel at 8 am? Also Sirius is in a they/them mood today?
“That pretzel stand a couple streets over, James bloody Potter, and yes they are.
The children seemed to realize Lily and Remus had left them and quickly caught up; James next to Lily and Sirius next to Remus.
“Hiya, Lily! And how are you feeling this lovely, wonderful morning?” Sirius sing-songed from beside Remus, looking around him to catch Lily’s eye.
“Would have been better if I could have not woken up, but you know, I guess I have to wake up and live and stuff.” She shrugged her shoulders and took a sip of her tea. At least she will always have tea to wake up for.
“Huh, that was pretty morbid, Lils. Remus was right, you are a gremlin this morning.”
Lily death-glared them but they had already looked away and seemed to be staring at a huge golden Labrador that was passing by. Without looking back at them, Remus grabbed Sirius’s arm, careful not to put too much pressure, and brought them back to walk with the group.
James nudged Lily to get her attention and grinned in that annoyingly knowing way of his, “So, what kept you up last night that made you all gremlin-like?”
“The stupid old man and the stupid sea. Like why are there so many pages of an old man and a sea.”
“An old man and a sea?” He tilted his head in confusion. Had he never heard of Ernest Hemingway before? Lily thought he went to a private school growing up and those private schools almost always study the “classics.” She looked back at him.
“The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway? The one almost every year 10 learns about, especially ones who went to a super posh private boarding school?”
“Oh! That one! Sorry, I thought you might have meant like an actual old man and the sea. I forgot about that book. Yeah, I am sort of remembering it now and yeah, it was very boring. I think Sirius, Peter, and I made a dirty production of it.” He chuckled slightly at the memory.
“I am sort of scared to ask but how did you make a dirty production out of that book?”
“Um,” He scratched the base of his head where his hair meets his neck, like he always does when he is slightly embarrassed, “it had a lot of masturbation and beastiality, actually. Sirius made a great octopus.”
“Yeah, I did!”
“There isn’t even an octopus in the book.”
“It was a stroke of creative genius! You wouldn’t understand.”
“I think I’m glad of that fact.”
They had just arrived at the English Literature college and James and Sirius had to continue walking so Remus and Lily said their goodbyes and walked up the grand stairs of Hogwarts’ English Literature College.
“Why do I feel it in my bones that this day is going to be excruciatingly long and exhausting?”
“Because you are an angry gremlin in fairy clothes and are a pessimist despite what everyone else thinks.”
“I hate you”
“Mhm. Let’s go face the day, huh?”
And with that, they half walked with and half dragged Lily up the steps into the college and to their classes for the day.
{15:06} wanna go for lunch?
She checked the time after looking at James’s message and decided that she will spend 30 more minutes on the essay in front of her and then text him back and go for a late lunch or an early dinner.
An hour later, her phone buzzed again
{16:10} lily?
And again
{16:10} lils?
And it did not stop, until she decided to answer before the librarian came over and yelled at her for excessive phone buzzing.
{16:11} lilyflower?
light of my life?
bestie for the restie?
sugar baby, darlingest dearie?
bitch answer me or i will call you and i know you’re in the library and don’t want to get on the librarian’s bad side >:)
{16:12} jesus christ james, what?
{16:12} did you seriously just ask “what” when i texted you an hour ago asking for lunch??
please tell me you haven't been at the library this entire time?? you got out of class at 2??
{16:13} if i said no, would you believe me?
{16:13} not one bit
{16:13} then i plead the fifth
{16:13} ??? what does that mean
{16:13} don’t worry about it. do you still wanna do lunch?
{16:14} it’s almost 4:30??? it’s closer to dinner than lunch
{16:14} then do you want to have an early dinner?
{16:14} …
{16:14} jamie boy that is not an answer
{16:15} sure, yea let’s do dinner.
{16:15} okay. where are we going?
{16:15} um, how about broomsticks? i could go for their mozzy sticks :D
{16:15} … did you just
{16:16} if you call them mozzy sticks again, i will bury your body so far underground that they think you are fossils from 300 million years ago.
{16:16} lil, what the fuck?? would that even work?? like do you think a homo (hehe) sapian would be confused as a fossil from 300 million years ago??
{16:17} james, that is so FAR from the point. just… i will meet you at broomsticks in 30 minutes. I’m going to stop by my apartment to put my bag back and pick up my purse.
{16:17} okay! I will see you in 30, at the broomsticks, for our mozzy sticks :D
{16:17} omfg
And sure enough, 30 minutes later, saw Lily standing outside with her hands in her
jacket pocket waiting for James to show up. She suddenly saw him speeding through the crowd and apologizing after accidentally hitting some poor person in the back, making them fall off the curb. James looked sort of guilty for that but Lily knew that he felt more guilty for making Lily wait outside for him, even if it was for only a few minutes.
“I am so so sorry. Sirius started complaining about us having dinner and then I reminded them that they were having dinner with Regulus tonight, and they were like “Oh yeah” but were still a bit sulky so I promised we would go out to eat on Sunday and then they were okay again.”
He took a very large breath after all that because he realized he was not doing that. Lily rolled her eyes at Sirius’s dramatics then waited for James to be steady again and look at her.
“James, it was literally two minutes. You don’t owe me an apology. Anyway, I already put our names in and it’s a 15 minute wait so you are completely fine, okay?”
“Yeah, okay. Thanks, Lil.” He looked at her and smiled handsomely. Lily has found out that James needs to be reminded that little things do not disappoint people as enormously as his brain leads him to believe. He tries to do so much sometimes and forgets that he doesn’t have to do everything.
“So,” said James, followed by a smirk, “What name did you use?”
Lily smirked right back. “I used-” She was cut off by the hostess coming out and saying the name “Anita Dump”. James and Lily immediately bursted out laughing as the hostess’s face went bright red and walked back inside. They immediately followed after the poor hostess as they tried to control their laughter.
The evening ended up being incredible. They laughed and talked about anything and everything, like they do. They got a free dessert because it was James’s birthday… well according to tonight’s Three Broomsticks’s staff it was. And they ended up laughing and leaning on each other for support the whole way back to her apartment.
“I believe this is your humble abode.” James folded into an extremely dramatic bow. Lily followed after with a curtsy and said,
“Why, yes it is, kind sir. I truly appreciate this wonderful escort you have provided me with and hope to see you again in the near future.”
“I will have your people call my people.” He said this with a wink and a salute then he was off in the opposite direction, probably to go home.
Lily dumped her stuff on the floor and went straight to shower. She ended up finishing her essay late at night and falling asleep almost right away because as predicted, it was an excruciatingly long and exhausting day.