Side blog of @charmsandtealeaves, dedicated to posting exclusively about my works (to save you from all my other random posting if this is all you're following me for).
Follow for fic related posts (works, updates, snippets) and the stuff that probably won't make it onto AO3.
Mostly jily but there’s the odd sprinkling of other things too.
~Ray
His mum seems to think he’s arrogant, forgotten his roots.
James wants to prove to her that she’s wrong and he can in fact stand on his own two feet and doesn’t require coddling.
Her sister’s insane house rules are driving her nuts and if she has to endure Vernon’s snoring for another day she might just have a mental breakdown.
Lily is determined to succeed in her own space.There’s just one problem: they’ve both signed the lease and paid the deposit in a rental scam.
So it’s cohabitate or admit defeat to their loved ones. What could possibly go wrong?
Growing up is hard. Learning to love, and be loved is even harder. A chance encounter at a party over the summer break turns Lily Evans' life upside down just in time for her final year at Hogwarts.
Hogwarts Jily, Rated M, check chapters for content warnings. Read chapter 8 now on AO3, or start at the beginning
Hey look it didn't take me two years to update this time!!
They’re skating on thin ice after their latest shouting match landed them in professor McGonagall’s office. Now Hogwarts co-heads Lily Evans and James Potter need to prove they can actually get along or risk being stripped of their position.
His mum seems to think he’s arrogant, forgotten his roots. James wants to prove to her that she’s wrong and he can in fact stand on his own two feet and doesn’t require coddling.
Her sister’s insane house rules are driving her nuts and if she has to endure Vernon’s snoring for another day she might just have a mental breakdown. Lily is determined to succeed in her own space.
There’s just one problem: they’ve both signed the lease and paid the deposit in a rental scam. So it’s cohabitate or admit defeat to their loved ones. What could possibly go wrong?
James Potter always knew he wanted to build a family; he just hadn’t found the right person to build it with - yet. Freezing his sperm at Gringotts Sperm Bank had been a no-brainer, an insurance policy. Then, Lily Evans had walked into his place of work with her infant son - the spitting image of him, and turned his whole world upside down. Things would be different this time around; he’d be part of the baby making process right from the start.
In hindsight, James could probably recall six separate occasions where he had almost kissed Lily Evans. Almost being the operative word in that sentence.
The bills are piling up, the rent is more than past due, and Lily Evans is shit outta luck. When a big payout presents itself in the form of bounty hunting, she jumps at it. There’s just one problem, her latest bounty is proving particularly tricky to apprehend as he comes with a pain in the arse of a best friend who will stop at nothing to prevent Lily from getting her mark. It’s not like it’s personal.
NOW COMPLETE!
Read Chapter 9 & the epilogue now on AO3
Start at the beginning.
The bills are piling up, the rent is more than past due, and Lily Evans is shit outta luck. When a big payout presents itself in the form of bounty hunting, she jumps at it. There’s just one problem, her latest bounty is proving particularly tricky to apprehend as he comes with a pain in the arse of a best friend who will stop at nothing to prevent Lily from getting her mark. It’s not like it’s personal.
Read Chapter 8 now on AO3
Start at the beginning.
One more chapter and an epilogue to go!
November 2025 @jilychallenge | Cards Against Humanity
Prompt: I got 99 problems and _ ain’t one.
It had become one of the Gryffindor girls’ longest-running gags, and it had all started with what Lily would argue was one scathing comment said in the heat of the moment. I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid. It had been utterly untrue, of course (she’d lamented for some months about her infatuation with the idiot). But James Potter had the annoying trait of getting her so flustered and embarrassed her sanity (and dignity) went out the window entirely. Her friends had never let her live it down.
Read it on AO3. NSFW, mentions of tentacles
meanwhile I have 99 unopened emails and all of them are AO3 fic updates...
The bills are piling up, the rent is more than past due, and Lily Evans is shit outta luck. When a big payout presents itself in the form of bounty hunting, she jumps at it. There’s just one problem, her latest bounty is proving particularly tricky to apprehend as he comes with a pain in the arse of a best friend who will stop at nothing to prevent Lily from getting her mark. It’s not like it’s personal.
Read Chapter 7 now on AO3. Start at the beginning.
@jilytoberfest is back baby! And so am I with 31 prompts.
Day 1, Prompt: "Well, I’m sorry that I love you! I tried not to, but.”
James paranoia must be at all new levels. That's the only reasonable explanation for his current behaviour. He was in the middle of a mental breakdown. The thing he had been warned was coming with all the hours he was pulling for the Order day and night. What else could possibly possess him to follow two muggle women on the highstreets of London, ears straining to catch further snippets of their conversation. He’d caught the name Evans on the wind in he same sentence as wedding, and now he was following complete strangers. For fucks sake Evans was probably a very common name in the Muggle world. What were the chances they were talking about his Evans? Not that she even was his. The war had made sure of that.
He should have just kept walking in the opposite direction. He was better off not knowing. He could have lived out the rest of his most likely short days on Earth in denial and blissful ignorance. Of coursethe pair were going to a bridal shop. Of course he would have the misfortune to watch them through the window and see a familiar redhead and break his own heart into smitherines as he saw them embrace. It was his Evans, trying on wedding dresses, and certainly not his anymore.
She’d moved on. She’d found someone else. He should be happy for her. She’d escaped all this horror which is all he’d ever wanted for her. But he just couldn’t bring himself to feel anything other than despair. He must be masocistic to stand here and drink her in through the pane of glass separating them. Merlin she looked good. That much hadn’t changed.
The group of women disappeared from view behind a rack of dresses. He should leave, find Sirius and drown his sorrows in a hearty amount of Ogden’s finest. He does. Minus the finding Sirius.
*****
One bottle of Ogden’s becomes many over the span of days, weeks, and months that follow. Never on a mission. Always alone. Never enough to make him forget her face. He’s being pathetic. He knows this. That’s his justification for not telling Sirius about what he saw, for not telling anyone for that matter. They’d try to placate him and his feelings, tip-toe around him and his pain, or worse condem her for what? The audacity to be happy with someone else.
Someone else. That’s what has him in this funk he can’t seem to drag himself out of despite the passage of time. Out there somewhere is a him that’s not him. But that verison of him is hers, and that’s the sticking point. Would a name and a face make things easier or worse? The Ogden’s riddled part of his brain answers that question for him. There’s only one way to find out.
James dones the cloak and does what he does best for the Order - Breaking and Entering. Except he doesn’t break anything. Muggle locks aren’t very secure, a simply charm is all that’s required. Evans had been brilliant at charms.
He rummages through filing cabinets until he finds what he’s been looking for. The receipt for the dress purchased on the day and all the sordid details he shouldn’t read but can’t stop himself. Her measurements, the delivery address, the date and destination of the wedding. All there in black and white. .
The knowledge of the name does him no better. The surname attached to Evans isn’t Potter.
*****
He’s definitely gone mental this time. But he’s a man possessed and he just needs to get the words out. The regret is eating him alive. If he doesn’t say it James is fairly certain his silence will be his death. So he buys a suit, let’s the tailor fix his bow tie. If you have to be seen, looking like you belong and blending in were mission critical. Wise words from Alastor Moody, who never would have thought James would be putting them to use like this.
James slips down the corridor to the bridal suite like he has every right to be there. He knocks on the door with a trembling fist. His heart might give out on him before he gets the word out. She’s beautiful. Breathtaking. Her red locks pinned up perfectly in place. Thank Merlin she’s not in her dress yet. The bathrobe tied tightly around her waste.
“James.” His own name an exhale of breath but music to his ears. “You… You can’t be here.”
“I know. I’m sorry but I had to-” he pushes past her, forces his way in.
There’s giggling coming from somewhere deeper in the suite. Bridesmaids no doubt. He doesn’t have much time.
“You can’t marry him. Dursely. I’m sure he’s a top bloke but he’s not the man for you Evans.This isn’t fair, I know. I ended things. I pushed you away-”
“James-”
“I’m sorry that I love you! I tried not to, but-”
“JAMES!” She raises her voice. It’s not a shout, it’s hissed through clenched teeth. However it’s an admonishment all the same. “If my sister catches you in here she’ll murder you and then me. For fuck’s sake, James.”
“Lily, I-” The frog in his throat finally catches and his words can’t come out.
“I’m not getting married!”
His heart stops.
“You’re not?” Dare he hope?
“Of course not you pillock! Do I look like I’m getting married?!” She gestures wildly at herself. He notices for the first time the hem of lilac pocking out from under the bathrobe.
“You’re a bridesmaid,” he says dumbly.
“I can’t believe. After everything we went through. You thought I’d swan off and get married. To Vernon Dursely of all people,” Lily spits the name like its diseased. “You complete and utter-”
James kisses her. A cupping her face in his hands and pouring his soul into her sort of kiss. Which might be the best or the worst way to shut her up, but at this moment he doesn’t care and he can’t express his delight any other way. She doesn’t immediately pull away and slap him. He takes that as a good sign. She tastes salty. He pulls back but keeps her cradled inches from his face. Tears he realises, are spilling down both their cheeks. Her make-up is ruined - nothing a quick glammer charm couldn’t fix.
“I never stopped loving you,” she croaks. “But I could kill you.”
“You’ll be the death of me Evans, of that I have no doubt.”
@jilychallenge | September 2025 | Back to School
Partner: @aeligsido
September boasted the promise of many things: cooler temperatures, leaves changing colour, a return to her friends, and to Hogwarts. But it also had an unfortunate side effect she had not been looking forward to: seeing him again.
The bills are piling up, the rent is more than past due, and Lily Evans is shit outta luck. When a big payout presents itself in the form of bounty hunting, she jumps at it. There’s just one problem, her latest bounty is proving particularly tricky to apprehend as he comes with a pain in the arse of a best friend who will stop at nothing to prevent Lily from getting her mark. It’s not like it’s personal.
Read Chapter 6 now on AO3.
Start at the beginning.