and you know the reason, dear it's you

jasmine (she/her) | my ao3

[blvnk-art]

“Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you’ve just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can – I’m surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK.” Lily Evans, HP5

James after a Quidditch match. 

[instagram @potterbyblvnk]

[jilyxz]

5 months now,,,,the physical urge to post as much as i have so i can find the strength to write the rest 🌚

[constancezin]

Jily winter dream

[lumoxy]

Mr. Sirius ‘Padfoot’ Black

[bloodonthetracks93]

"my idiot brother, soft enough to believe them" has got to be the most misunderstood line in all of HP. sirius says this about regulus in the tapestry scene in OOTP when sirius is giving harry a tour of his family tree, and i see it cited so frequently as evidence that sirius didn't actually hate regulus. and it just drives me NUTS because "soft" in this context doesn't mean "sensitive." in colloquial british english, it means "stupid." sirius calls regulus an idiot about five different ways in this passage ("stupid idiot, he joined the death eaters" is an all-timer line) and he does not mean that regulus was a helpless baby boy who couldn't tell right from wrong.

sirius is an incredibly principled character. he lived and died for his friends, and for the causes he believed in. do you really mean to tell me that sirius wouldn't have hated regulus for joining the violent fascist hate group that targeted his friends and ultimately killed lily and james, orphaning harry? he breaks out of AZKABAN to avenge james.

i frequently see "but regulus was forced/coerced/groomed" to join the death eaters, and to that i say...so was sirius! they grew up in the same environment and they were both indoctrinated in hateful ideas. at 16, he gives up all the comfort and stability in the world because he can't bear to be associated with the blacks anymore. sirius saw regulus' choice to stay a black and join the death eaters - and it was a choice, no matter how young he was - as a moral failing. and frankly, we all should.

can there still be complexity in this relationship and in regulus' characterization? yes, of course. but regulus' complexity should not come at the cost of sirius' defining characteristic: his loyalty, his commitment to doing what's right. sirius hated every single thing that regulus stood for, because joining a violent hate group with a clear genocidal mission is not an accident.

[jilyxz]

the (good i think) thing about marauder era canon is that most of every bit of information we have comes nearly 2 decades (and wildly altering circumstances) after their hogwarts years. so beyond some things stated as truth, even the things characters themselves are saying aren't necessarily pure fact, untouched by memory, loss and change, or just personal opinion. (e.g everything lily says to james in swm could all be something she doesn't mean beyond that singular moment ((james's characterization, manner and attitude is also as harry percieves it)) and equally, sirius saying 'nah she didn't' could well be untrue, she could've hated him). that's me overexplaining to say that how adult sirius speaks of regulus is so very far removed from when they grew up together, and as such, leaves an incredible margin to work in.

sirius, as I read him, is extrememely intelligent, curious, fun loving, freedom loving, and strong-willed as a character, and he'd hate and resist his family from wherenever he came into consiousness for trying to control him and imposing something so regressive, droll and anti-intellectual as concerns of blood purity on his autonomous self. i wouldn't, however, say 'committment to doing the right thing' is a defining trait of his. loyalty, for sure, and it's more loyalty that ultimately determines how far he goes to do the right thing, and of course by that I mean it's ultimately finding james that determines the trajectory of his character.

and it's also james who's morally rigid, self righteous and largely unconcerned with context and mitigating circumstances when it comes to the lines he's firmly drawn between good and bad. that's also why jegulus is so incomprehensible outside of personal preference because everything ever written about james clearly points to an Inflexibility of character, which is what makes him both frustrating and a kind of steady anchor for his friends -- specifically, sirius. that's not to say his family would've ever gotten to sirius, he's simply not malleable as a person, but he's had a lifetime of exposure to violent pressures and myriad toxicities involved in the house he grew up in, and I find it more likely than not that he would struggle with and dabble in guilt, and always have a small lingering doubt regarding the repercussions of leaving his younger brother behind there. (it would again be james's very fixed position that there's nothing stopping regulus from leaving too.) and that's not because regulus is soft (in the actual sense of the word) but because sirius is. lily is too. james isn't.

that being said, i do believe he grows in hate for his brother as regulus's choices become more final and as the war becomes more real and personal for sirius, and by the time we're hearing from adult sirius, he's already died a few times over and grown in a james level (or more) rigid single-mindedness. (i'd say he'd probably consider any festering emotion or concern with regulus to be a betrayal of his dead loved ones too.) but i do think for as long as his world hadn't fully toppled over, it's more likely than not that regulus was a deep buried and several times scabbed over wound for him. (also why i feel compelled to keep saying james hated that guy haha. he also has no love lost for petunia on a similar account.)

as for regulus himself, from the three odd things we know of him, one of it is that he did at some point make a willing choice to act against voldemort (unlike snape). what his reasons were aren't known and don't excuse his association with and participation in a genocidal group, but there's something there (cowardice in this case i find uncompelling) and so you work your way backwards to this something he may have had when he was young and that sirius would be most intimately aware of. it's also ofcs possible that he was all good with the projects and just creeped out by the never-dying aspect of his tyrant boss lol but it's also possible he had a change of heart for which he'd have had to have a heart once upon a time in the first place. and that version also makes for great blackevans bonding.

[lalunavinoalafragua]

Not a trace

of doubt in my mind.

I'm in love,

I'm a believer,

I couldn't leave her if I tried.

[dirklp]

lily wip

[dirklp]

jily wedding wip

[miiilowo]

days used to last all day. now days last 5 hours. If you're lucky

[doodlemcjazzhands]

[jilyxz]

any breaking through the clouds updates soon?!

oh hello I was only just travelling around these parts again :/

I actually wrote some 10k words very early on and then life got so painful for a while there that I couldn't do angst..or anything else heh. I've been looking a bit again since a few days though and the fic increasingly feels so unfamiliar to me as a jily reader that I'm experiencing every shade of self-doubt there exists. But I did move a few words around today and came up with some more scenes I have no space to fit in, so I promise I will finish it, and whenever I do, it'll probably be unreadably long xxx

[thequibblah]

humiliation ritual of reading your own writing

[notyorqia]

James and Lily ✨

[gigglesandfreckles-hp]

i didn't read as much fic this year as i wanted to, but i did do a better job of bookmarking the fics that stuck with me! some of these are from 2025, some of these are just some that i discovered this year as i've continued acclimating myself with the talents of the fandom!! (i am, after all, only in year 2 of hanging out in this corner of the internet.) so, once again, in no particular order...my recs for you to consider reading in 2026.

ps here's my rec list from last year!

i'll be fine, i'll be good by @kay-elle-cee - i have recced this one on other occasions over the last year, but it deserved a place here because it is truly The Slytherin Lily Fic. and by that, i mean it's the only one i've read and the only one i see myself reading. kelsey is one of those people who could quite honestly write my least favourite trope ever and i'd still give it a go. she's that talented. this one is no exception and is one i've gone back to multiple times over the last year!

breaking through the clouds (feels impossible now) by @jilyxz - okay. OKAY. i need everyone to read this fic. i've gushed quite a bit to jasmine about it, but truly...i need EVERYONE to be gushing to her! this is her debut fic and it's truly one of my most favourite things i read all year. it's a wip, but each chapter is so obviously a labour of love for these characters. she just Gets Them in a way i need absolutely everyone to witness. also, as someone who came into the jily scene last year...getting started with writing (whether it's first the first time ever or the first time in a fandom), can feel scary. so give her and any new authors you know of lots and lots of love xx

December's Valentine by @stonecoldhedwig - i'll never stop laughing at james's sex puns. i can't, i won't. i refuse to even try!!!!!! this is peak modern au jily and the setting is just...perfect??? you know when you read a fic and you're just like, "god these characters are so meant for each other" and i mean...maybe that sounds dumb, because isn't that always what we want when we read fic about pairings we love? sure! but it doesn't always happen that way, does it? anyway, i wanna print this out and make a, like, coffee table book out of it and put it out every christmas for visitors of my house (not my young children) to read and love as much as i do

Just Keep Your Eyes On Me by @crossingwinter - housemates-to-lovers is a vastly unexplored trope within the jily fandom...that i adore!!!! this one does it so so well. the pining, the marauders' banter, the hilarious mystery of james' job (i really love that bit so much). a fun 50k+ one-shot. ha!

songbirds in springtime by @ohhevans - okay so the hardest part of this rec list was my having to choose only ONE of pen's fics. idk if anyone gets jily like she gets jily. but i ultimately had to go with this one, because it was my birthday fic and made me cry actual tears. jily and fleamia in one place. what more could a (this) girl want?! genuinely, pen's gorgeous prose paired with her just Getting james potter and lily evans (paired with!!!! her being my actual FRIEND) is a spectacular thing to witness. please read everything she has written ever and then get back to me and tell me what was your favourite. (i mean, tell her, too, but if you tell me, i can relay the message)

Come morning light by @startanewdream - hunger games adjacent jily? idk how else to describe this tbh. i don't like the hunger games. but i loved this beyond reason. and it's not actually hunger games. JUST READ IT and you'll understand. arranged marriage and forced proximity are a couple of my favourite things, especially within universes like this one. lastly, the morally grey albus dumbledore agenda is alive and well in this fic and i loved the slightly twisted, haunted, creepy nature of this dumbledore.

someday we'll know by @startanewdream - read the tags on this one!!! my bookmark said this and i'll leave it here because i have nothing more to say about this brilliantly heartbreaking fic: resurrection stone jily. rip my heart out and throw it into the sea please. gotta go kiss my husband real quick and tell if he ever leaves me i’ll kill him again

I Can't Read Your Mind (Though I'm Trying All The Time) by flowrday - a potter family dynamic i can fully support and get behind! ahhhHHHH. the mutual pining in this one is especially good and you all know how much i love a good fake dating sitch. i'll just never get tired of the "hey mum, look at this beautiful, smart, clever girl i'm bringing home to impress you, no i'm not in love with her lolllll why would you SAY THAT"

Ice Baby by elixirsoflife - i’ve never read a soulmate story before to my knowledge! and honestly i'm not entirely sure if i’ll ever read more because it's possible that this delightful fic has woefully misrepresented them all and set me up for failure anticipating as wonderful an experience as THIS EVERY TIME? not sure if it’s possible tbh. so bloody cute. 'the cutting edge' was my favourite movie when i was a teenager so this really set my ice hockeyXfigure skater heart alight.

fields of feverfew by @apalapucian - a second hunger games related rec on this list? madness!!! but thus is the power jayne has over me. if she writes it, i read it...and this one was such an incredible use of that freewill. i always love the little beats of blackevans that shine through her jily fics and this particular story had one of my favourites. also, as someone who is squeamish, this wasn't overly gory, which is something i am always hesitant about when it comes to hunger games aus. truly, though, the focus of this fic was on the characters first, setting second...and i loved loved loved it!!!

Golden Love by GwenMontrose - i honestly may have recc'ed this last year, i don't remember, but i reread it this year while doing some research for my jily tennis au (coming soon!!!!!) and it's just SUCH a bloody delight. i don't care if you don't care about tennis or swimming or the olympics or whatever. read this. my precious babies!!!!!!!

i don't know why i like you (but i do) by @firefeufuego - maybe my favourite fic of 2025?! idk, but i think about it at least once a week, which is kind of...insane. right??? i rarely see enemies-to-lovers done in a way that makes sense for my understanding of the dynamic and characters of jily. but this fic does it splendidly. also, i grew up in oxford so this scratched my niche homesickness. anyway, this fic has absolutely everything i love. no notes!!!!!

hold me like you mean it by emerqldv - fwb jily!!!!!! tis the season!!!!!! like, sorry, but i'll never be normal about these two idiots falling in love on accident again and again (cue charli xcx or whatever). I JUST LOVE THEM!

[constancezin]

Enjoy a very sweet and happy Christmas lily

[deerly-departed]

James and Lily Potter Week is July 28th - August 3rd, 2014 [x]

[redstonedust]

kinda crazy that your entire school life sets up an expecation of summer vacations and winter holidays and spring breaks and then you graduate and most workplaces are like "you get 2 weeks of PTO AT MOST and if you even think about using any of those days off on a major holiday there is a 50/50 chance your manager will kill someone and frame you for it"

[jilyxz]

truly the best (only good??) part about going back to school to teach because what do you mean i get summer vacations and winter and spring breaks again !!! it's v reorienting but in a familiar fitting sort of way not like the other wildly disorienting experience of being a decade older in a place that still feels the exact same way