For Jily Week 2025, Day 6 - Angst vs Fluff (Of course I'm team angst, was that even a question?🤣) @kay-elle-cee @sunshinemarauder
Summary: Seeing the future can be a burden or a gift. You could be able to save someone you love or doom them to a fate you aren’t sure you didn’t write yourself.
When Lily and James start getting visions of a possible future they rush to find out what they might mean before it’s too late.
His breath quickens as he runs, faster and faster. He’s almost there, he can feel it, but suddenly there’s a prickling sensation at the back of his skull and he knows someone is watching, he knows he’s running out of time, but he’s almost there.. he’s yanked back all of a sudden and he stumbles, turning around, meeting her green eyes, wide with fear “JAMES STOP!” –
“Fuck!” He wakes up, gulping a breath and trying to slow the beating of his heart down. He closes his eyes and presses sweaty palms on his face, the darkness allowing him more clarity.
Written for Jily week 2025 day 5 - Summer Fling.. thank you so much @kay-elle-cee and @sunshinemarauder for organising!!
Summary: Lily doesn’t know what’s happening to her, but she reckons this is to be expected when you get stuck with one person for a long period of time. You start to lose your mind.
Or Lily Evans inadvertently spends the summer after Fifth Year with James Potter.
He’s perched on the fence, feet dangling carelessly under him, as unconcerned by the web of cracks spreading on the wood as he usually is, coasting through life uncaring of the mess he leaves behind. It’s that last thought that gives her pause, chin leaning on her joined hands as she keeps observing him. If she were to be honest with herself she guesses it isn’t entirely his fault her life blew up in flames and the git tried to apologise, but Lily isn’t feeling particularly generous when she’s stuck in Hogsmeade just to avoid the possibility of running into Severus.
this is genuinely the funniest sirius and bellatrix parallel to me:
[...] also a heavy locket that none of them could open, a number of ancient seals and, in a dusty box, an Order of Merlin, First Class, that had been awarded to Sirius’s grandfather for Services to the Ministry.
“It means he gave them a load of gold,” said Sirius contemptuously, throwing the medal into the rubbish sack. (OoTP)
“Begging your pardon, Mr. Malfoy,” interjected Greyback, “but it’s us that caught Potter, and it’s us that’ll be claiming the gold —”
“Gold!” laughed Bellatrix, still attempting to throw off her brother-in-law, her free hand groping in her pocket for her wand. “Take your gold, filthy scavenger, what do I want with gold? I seek only the honor of his — of —”
the two heirs of the most ancient and noble house of black: GOLD? who even cares about gold 😂😂😂
Last year, Kelsey ( @kay-elle-cee ) and I had a blast hosting Jily Week. We were blown away by the enthusiastic participation — 85 works from 27 unique creators, including fanfiction, art, videos, and more. We are, of course, delighted to bring it back this year, so clear your calendars and start your plotting for August 25th to 31st!
To participate, post a creative work corresponding to the daily prompt – fanfiction, fanart, playlists, metas, moodboards, etc. – anything goes! You can participate in as few or as many days as possible, but we challenge everyone to try and create something for every prompt, even if it's only a hundred-word drabble or a 5-minute sketch! Don't stress about meeting the exact prompt or the deadline - the most important thing is to have fun with it!
Remember to tag your works with #jily week 2025, mention @sunshinemarauder and @kay-elle-cee, and add any fic you write to the Jily Week 2025 AO3 Collection.
🌷 PROMPTS:
🌺 Day 1 – 25th of August – Knight in Shining Armor
Getting into a spot of trouble is unavoidable with these two, but half the fun is how they get out. Wherever there’s a damsel in distress, there must be a righteous protector following at their heel.
🌺 Day 2 – 26th of August – Green-Eyed Monster
Jealousy. It happens to the best of us, and the future Potters are no strangers to that dormant beast.
🌺 Day 3 – 27th of August – Calamity Strikes
If the world was ending, I’d wanna be next to you. There’s something about the eye of the storm, a stolen moment during the apocalypse, the climax of a bloody war, that unearths buried feelings.
🌺 Day 4 – 28th of August – More Than Convenient
Sometimes, the foundation to a healthy relationship is… convenience. Whether it's an advantageous Regency match or a last-minute roommate switch, any scenario involving a relationship/marriage of convenience is welcome.
🌺 Day 5 – 29th of August – Summer Fling
Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but Summer is also the prime time for seeing someone in a new light. Have these two been separated due to distance or Hogwarts break, destined to spend the summer as pen-pals, or have they been thrown together by happenstance onto a beach, pining away under the sun?
🌺 Day 6 – 30th of August – Angst vs Fluff
We’re bringing back a classic, with a twist! Write angst or fluff—your choice—but you’ve got to work in the phrase “You could have warned me”. Get creating!
🌺 Day 7 – 31st of August – Choose Your Own Adventure
Click here for a prompt generator and get inspired! Use as few or as many prompts as you want. Come up with unique trope-y concoctions – anything from Childhood Friends + Crime-Fighting + Bed-Sharing to Canon Divergent + Secret Identity + Norse Mythology!
———
Feel free to message us or drop an ask if you have questions!
Get to reading! Next week we will release polls to confirm your guesses! (Watch out for our master post next week). Polls will run for 7 days and we will then reveal authors once the polls have expired. Happy sleuthing! 🕵️♂️
Authors remember if you’re going to comment on works do so using guest comments or you’ll give yourselves away 😉
April 29th and 30th for @jilymicrofics with the prompts how and feeling
“I never said you aren’t good!” She yells, cheeks flaming.
“Oh, really? Because that’s what it sounded like.”
“I’m trying to help you, but you only care about making the team –”
“I don’t understand why you’re trying to take it away from me!” His stubbornness isn’t new, but she isn’t used to the betrayal she can see in his eyes now, directed at her. She met him on the train, a year before, and he became her slightly annoying but also endearing shadow, and she doesn’t understand how it came to this, how it’s all falling apart. “A true friend would support me.” He says coldly and she feels tears raising to her eyes, but refuses to let them fall.
“We have a different definition of a friend then, because I think a friend is someone who tells the truth.” She turns away then, running back to the Common Room. That same night when she opens her mum’s letter asking her to come home she doesn’t tell him and she can’t know it will be ten years before she’ll see James Potter again.
10 years later
“Evans, come in.”
She straightens the collar of her robes and step inside Cuffe’s office. She tries not to show it, but she’s nervous. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for her career. She has the chance to impress the editor in chief of the Daily Prophet, move back to England for good and thrive as a professional journalist, something she’d wished for since she was a little girl.
He looks at her above his rounded glasses, as if studying her. “They tell me you made quite the impression back at the Sorcerer’s Gazette.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“I’ll be straight with you, Evans. What we need right now is someone capable of making connections and not afraid to use those connections for the good of the paper. Are you that person?”
“I am.” She answers with no hesitation.
“Good.” He picks a parchment from his desk and pushes it towards her. “James Potter, chaser for the Falcons and son of Fleamont Potter, former member of the Winzegamot. He caused quite the mess last year, but all seems forgotten now, some are even pressing to make him take his father’s seat.” He pauses. “Of course what happened was quite the tragedy, but that shouldn’t stop us from investigating if he’s fit for the job.”
Lily takes the parchment, eyes flying to the title above a picture of James Potter, turning his back to her.
Still no suspects in the murder of Fleamont and Euphemia Potter. Son James refuses to comment.
There’s a slight tremor in her hands as she puts the paper back on the desk, but she pushes what she’s feeling down, down until she knows her voice won’t waver. “What do you need me to do?”
April 27th and 28th for @jilymicrofics with the prompts guy and tell
“You’re sure –”
“Yes, Lily.” Mary said, waving off her worries with an eye roll. “Sirius said his mate is down for everything. I think he also said he doesn’t like women.” She added after a pause. “I think.”
“You think? Wait, you’ve met him right?”
For the first time Mary seemed to falter, looking slightly guilty. “Not exactly. But Sirius – ”
“I’m not going to take your fuck buddy’s word for it! I’m going home.”
“Wait!” Mary interrupted her. “There’s no reason why this won’t work. And really, I’d marry you if the Ministry of Magic wasn’t so backwards.”
Lily sighed and grabbed her friend’s arm, dragging her to the side. She quickly checked the busy street, but no one seemed to be interested in them. “Mary, I’m about to commit fraud. I need this guy to be serious about it.”
“And that’s why we’re meeting him! Come on, just keep an open mind and if you don’t like him, I promise I’ll drop it.” Lily shot her a look, but there was no heat to it. “What do you have to lose?”
And that was the problem. What did she have to lose? In meeting Sirius Black’s friend, nothing. In leaving England, a job she enjoyed, a group of friends she adored and an admittedly adorable apartment. “Alright. But if he is a creep, I’m out of there.”
As it turned out, James Potter wasn’t a creep. He seemed a bit too full of himself and obviously thought the whole situation was a joke but, as Lily dragged her eyes over his face, she had to admit, at least to herself, that he wasn’t the worst option for a fake husband.
“So,” He said, leaning back on his chair. Lily’s eyes went to the shirt stretching on his chest and his grin, if possible, grew even more smug. “do you need me to get down on one knee now? I have to admit, I’ve always thought of the Leaky Cauldron as a romantic spot.”
Lily narrowed her eyes. “Is this just a big joke to you?”
He had the gall to shrug, which only irked her further. “Well, it’s an interesting new experience at least.”
She got up, grabbing her bag, avoiding the helpless look Mary was sending her. “We’re leaving.”
“No wait.”
“I’d rather be deported that have an arrogant toerag as a husband.”
***
“Toerag. Such a sodding toerag.” Lily muttered as she stirred her potion. It wasn’t turning the proper hue of lavender, but the only thing in her mind was James Potter’s insufferable attitude. She could picture him, as if he was standing in front of her: carefree grin, strong fingers pushing dark curls away from his forehead, warm hazel eyes gazing down at her. Strong fingers? Warm hazel eyes? What was wrong with her?
“Hullo?” She froze, hand clenched on her wand. It couldn’t be. “Is this a bad time?”
The sheepish look on James Potter’s face was almost enough to convince her he was truly sorry, but then she remembered his smug grin and narrowed her eyes in a glare. “For you? Yes.” She went back to her potion, satisfied that was enough to send him on his way, but apparently he was as stubborn as he was conceited.
He approached the table, joining her in front of the cauldron. “That doesn’t look right.” He observed and, as Lily glanced up at him, he seemed focused on the pink liquid. “I can tell you boiled it too much.”
She dropped her wand on the table with a huff and turned to look at him, arms crossed over her chest, because he was right, damn him. “What do you want?”
“Look, I’ll admit I didn’t put my best foot forward the other day –”
“You think?”
He tilted his head, looking slightly exasperated. “I want to help you.”
“Why?”
“I just want to do it.”
Lily sighed. She wasn’t about to accept the help he offered out of guilt for the way he’d acted, only to change his mind again down the line. There was too much at stake for her. “Look, it was a stupid idea anyway.”
“No, it wasn’t. It’ll work.”
“Lily – oh! I apologize for the interruption.” They swirled around, the booming voice of Slughorn, Lily’s boss, making her take an instinctual step away from James.
“No need,” She answered after a moment. “he was just leaving.”
But he didn’t seem to be paying attention to her. His eyes were glued to James and she frowned as a wide, excited smile broke on his face. “James Potter! Merlin’s beard, boy, what a wonderful surprise!”
“It’s good to see you, professor.”
Lily glanced at him sideways. Professor? “What are you doing here? I wasn’t aware you and our Lily knew each other.”
“We do. Lily is quite the character.”
“She is!” He exclaimed, delighted. “She is one of the most brilliant witches I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. You two would have hit it off at Hogwarts.”
Oh, of course. He must have been one of his students at Hogwarts. Sometimes she forgot how small the wizarding community was.
“I’m not sure.” He answered, turning to look at her with a mischievous grin. “I think Evans here might have found me arrogant back then.”
“No, no, don’t listen to him. He was perfectly charming.”
“I’m sure.” Lily said, holding back a laugh. “Was there anything you needed, sir?”
“It can wait! You two should catch up. And James, come see me before you leave.”
He nodded, even if she noticed his smile dimming a little as he watched Slughorn close the door behind him.
“What does he want from you?” Lily asked curiously, but he only shrugged.
“Who knows? So, what do you say about my offer?”
She hesitated, observing him, his obvious attempt of deflecting her question intriguing her as much as his odd insistence to help her. “I’m not sure I’m adventurous enough to marry a stranger.”
“Well that’s disappointing.” He looked at her for a long moment, before thrusting his hands inside his pockets. “It was nice seeing you again, bye Evans.”
She watched him walk away, somehow torn, confused by the mystery that seemed to be James Potter. “Wait!” She jogged to catch up with him, pushing back the door he was about to open. “I said I don’t want to marry a stranger.”
“I heard you.”
“Which means,” She interrupted him with a touch of impatience. “that I should get to know you.”
April 26th for @jilymicrofics with the prompt other
“I dunno why you accepted to be on this mission with me.”
She doesn’t know if the words were intended from her, the whisper barely audible over the howling of the wind outside, but they’re alone, sharing a bed in the only room available in the old inn tucked in the Scottish countryside, so Lily turns towards him. His eyes are closed, but he’s frowning, face clouded and she doesn’t know why she feels compelled to reassure him.
“I trust you.” He opens his eyes swiftly at her words, as if he needs to see her face, to check she isn’t lying.
“You do?”
She nods, hand tucked under her cheek. “What happened between us is in the past, I know you’ll always have my back.”
“Of course I will.”
“And so will I.” She adds, watching his expression clear and it’s too much now, too reminiscent of nights like this, spent looking into each other’s eyes, but things are different then. She would have held him then, showed him with more than her words that she will always be there for him. She can’t now, everything’s changed and she turns around, escaping his eyes.
He can’t help but take out his anger on the files he throws with little ceremonies on the desk, a cloud of dust raising around them. He offered, came close to pleading, but apparently protocol doesn’t make excuses for trivial things such as feelings. It doesn’t matter if Lily Evans doesn’t remember him, no one seems to care if they used to wake up next to each other, skin on skin, blissfully happy. She is the star Potioneer the Ministry wants him to work with, even after the accident that caused her to lose her memory, to forget him, them, how they fell in love, how they planned their life together.
Something must still be in there though, he thinks, feeling pathetic for the hope that blossoms in his chest. But he saw it. He felt it in the way she looked at him that morning, there was a spark of recognition there, he’s sure of it. And yet he can’t do anything about it, can’t compromise the mission.
He takes a picture out of his wallet, gentling tracing its edges, watching the girl trapped inside of it laugh before she reaches out to hug him and watches himself, his carefree grin, an expression that has become unfamiliar now. It’s unfair, so bloody unfair, but he still puts the picture back into place, tucking his feelings right along with it. He won’t tell her the truth, not now, not when his selfish desires could compromise the lives of others.
April 24th for @jilymicrofics with the prompt from
“Do I know you?” The bloke in front of her freezes, warm hazel eyes jumping to hers, and she has the strongest burst of something coming from deep within her chest. It feels like there’s someone trapped, screaming to get out, to be heard, and it scares her, but she doesn’t stop.
“No, I – I don’t think so.” He lowers his eyes, then smiles, or tries to, and it’s so weird she can’t help but approach him, block his escape.
“What is your name again?”
“Potter.” He answers, then glances to the door again. “Sorry, I have work to do. I’ll see you around.” He adds, as if it’s an afterthought, and she lets him go this time, not understanding the hollowness in her chest.
