TW AND CW: crying, heavy cursing

When James entered the Gryffindor common room morosely and saw Ana comforting a sobbing Lily, his mood got even worse.

Ana looked up. "You are a little fuck, you know that?" she spat. "I didn't expect this of you, James. Going around, bullying people like that. I'll admit I'm no big fan of Snape, but to hurt him like that!"

"I know," James mumbled. "Lily- can I talk to you?"

"No, you may not talk to her," hissed Ana. "But you can get out!"

James stayed rooted to the spot, ignoring Ana.

He turned to Lily, who's cries had now become silent, but James could still hear sniffles and heavy breathing.

"S'all right, An," Lily muttered. "He can say whatever he wants."

James was a little taken aback, seeing as Lily probably hated his guts right now.

"Fine," growled Ana. "But you hurt her, Potter, I'll jab your eyeballs out with my own thumbs."

She stomped out of the common room, and out of the portrait hole.

Lily stayed silent.

"Can I sit down?" James asked quietly, to which Lily nodded, teardrops falling off of her tear-stained face. 

James took a seat next to her on the sofa. "Look... Ana had this talk with me a couple months ago about how I might be able to gain your trust, become friends, even. I was really trying hard to fix myself, really. But..."

"But you decided to hurt my friend?"

James didn't answer. "I was in the courtyard yesterday, finishing my homework, and Snape was sitting on the bench in front of me with his Slytherin friends. I overheard his friends saying some pretty harsh stuff about you, Marlene, Alice, and Ana."

"Like?"

"For Ana, it was 'stupid poor half-blood,'" sighed James, making air quoted with his fingers. "Marlene, it was 'filthy half-blood', Alice, 'stupid blood-traitor', and you..."

"Mudblood, I presume," sniffled Lily.

James hesitated, then scooted closer to Lily to pull her into a gentle hug. "I'm so sorry for what happened. I really am, and I wanna be better. But his friends were saying horrible stuff about you and your friends, and Snape was laughing along a little. I just wanted to make sure he got what he deserved. And I admit, I was a bit... arrogant and snotty, I guess you could say, but I really tried for the past couple of months. Truly."

Lily melted into the hug and hugged him back limply. "I know. I regret even being friends with him at all. I think you just wanted to try to do the right thing. But it came out... a bit too harsh, I'm guessing?"

James nodded. "I am so sorry."

"I know," said Lily gently. "And while I don't completely forgive you, I know I can try my best." She smiled slightly. "I guess we both have some things to work on."

They pulled away from the hug.

"Are you feeling better?" asked James quietly. "It's still 15 minutes till curfew, I could head to the kitchens to grab something to eat."

Lily considered this. "How about I come along?"

James' face brightened and a slightly goofy smile appeared on his face, which he managed to hide quickly. "Er- yeah, sure!"

Lily smiled at the idea of him trying his best to wait for her to start feeling better instead of piling all kinds of confusing emotions onto her. 

"I'll be right back," said James, still grinning slightly. "Wait here."

He ran up to his dorm and came down almost immediately with a piece of parchment and a large cloak in his hands.

"What's this?" asked Lily curously. 

"This is our key to the kitchens," said James. He raised the cloak and pulled it over himself. "Come on, get under."

"Er- where are you?"

James pulled his head out from under the cloak. "Right here."

"Is that an...?"

"Invisibility Cloak? Yeah. How do you think we get around the school so easily all the time?"

Lily questioned this no more and slipped under the cloak.

"And the map is enchanted to show the whole school and where everyone is," continued James. "So we can run away before Filch catches us."

"Er... ok?" said Lily nervously. "So... this is against the rules."

"Probably."

"You're ready to break them?"

"Only in times of need."

"This is a time of need?"

"We both need a snack after that painful day."

"Agreed," said Lily thoughtfully.

~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~

Reaching the kitchens wasn't so hard. 

When they reached the large portrait of a fruit bowl, James stretched out his finger from under the cloak to tickle a green pear, which made giggling noises and squirmed until it popped into a door handle.

James swung it open.

"How?" gaped Lily.

"Magic."

~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~

When they entered the quiet, empty kitchen, James walked towards one of the cabinets and pulled out a pack of chocolate chip cookies. "You don't have any allergies, right?" he asked for clarification.

Lily shook her head.

"Ok, cool," said James with a warm smile. He dumped the whole bag of cookies into a large bowl and put it in the nearby microwave.

Lily laughed. "You're putting them in the microwave?"

"Yeah," said James nonchalantly. "I have a thing against cold cookies. They just taste weird. I need them warm. Nice, warm, cookies."

His expression turned a bit dreamy at the prospect of warm cookies, but he was shaken out of his cookie reverie when the microwave dinged and he pulled out the bowl of cookies and brought it over to the spot they were sitting.

James fished out two especially warm ones from the bowl and handed one of them to Lily. "Here- it's one of the warmer ones. Like I said, warm cookies taste much better."

~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~

After their midnight cookie run, Lily and James tucked back under the Invisibility Cloak and ran back to their common room.

When they got back, a disapproving Ana sat on one of the armchairs. "Where have you two been? James, what have you bee-"

"It's alright," said Lily quickly. "He apologized. Some words were exchanged. We're fine."

"Ok," said Ana, squinting her eyes. "But don't think I'm letting you off the hook, Potter, mark my words, I'll murder you one day. I'll make sure it's the headline of the paper."

"I think the headline should be 'Hufflepuff prefect visits other common rooms for the thrilling company of books and her boyfriend'", said James.

"For the last time, he is not my bo- Ah, fuck this shit, I'm done," sighed Ana, running a hand through her hair. "Night."

She walked out of the common room without another word.

"That was random," said Lily slowly.

"It was," agreed James.

"Well..." said Lily, swinging her arms back and forth.

a/n: ohhhhh so that's where harry gets his social awkwardness from

"Yeah," said James with a smile. "G'night, Lily," he continued, starting to walk up his dormitory staircase.

"Night, James."

HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE CHAPTER AHHHHHH

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love y'all sooooo much :)

- Jui Weasley