Work Text:
The Astronomy Tower was quiet, the kind of quiet that didn’t beg to be filled. Just the wind whispering over stone and the faint hum of Hogwarts in the distance. James Potter leaned against the railing, arms folded, eyes scanning the stars but not really seeing them.
Lily Evans sat cross-legged beside him on a bench, still wearing her prefect badge and that look of amused exasperation she always saved just for him.
“You know,” she said, voice soft, “you’re allowed to enjoy patrols without pretending you don’t.”
James glanced down at her, grinning. “And ruin my reputation? Never.”
She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. “Please. You’ve been suspiciously well-behaved for at least three months. I’m starting to think you like these late-night walks.”
James shrugged, mock-casual. “Maybe it’s the company.”
Lily looked up at him, lips twitching. “Maybe?”
He looked away quickly, suddenly very interested in the stars again.
They fell into a companionable silence, one they’d gotten good at lately. There was no need to fill it — not anymore. Not since they’d stopped being James-and-Lily (capital letters, shouting, detentions) and started being James and Lily (quiet, jokes, shared glances).
“You always do that,” she said after a moment.
“Do what?”
“Deflect. Say something half-sincere and then look away like you didn’t mean it.”
James’s eyebrows lifted. “I didn’t realize I was being analyzed.”
“You’re very analyzable.”
“That’s not a word.”
“It should be.”
He chuckled, then sat down beside her. Not too close, but closer than he would’ve dared last year. He glanced sideways at her, saw the firelight from her wand catching the red in her hair, the freckles on her cheek. She wasn’t looking at him, but she wasn’t looking away either.
“You ever think about how weird this is?” he asked.
She turned to him. “What?”
“This. Us. Talking like normal people. Not hexing each other.”
Lily laughed. “All the time. But I like it. I like this version of you.”
James tilted his head, smile playing on his lips. “This is the real version of me.”
“I know,” she said. “That’s what I mean.”
Something shifted in the air. Just slightly. Like the moment between lightning and thunder — not quite silence, not quite sound.
James looked at her properly this time. “Can I—?”
Lily didn’t let him finish.
She leaned in, fast and certain, and kissed him.
It was soft, a little tentative, but warm in a way that made James forget the cool wind and the stars and every other version of himself he’d ever tried to be. It didn’t last long — just long enough for him to be sure she meant it.
When she pulled back, she was smiling, just a little.
“Maybe I like the company too,” she said.
James blinked, then laughed, breathless and wide-eyed.
“Merlin,” he said. “You’re going to ruin me, Evans.”
Lily bumped her shoulder against his. “Took you long enough to figure that out.”