lilyanne

[lilytannegerine]

I was going through old WIPs and found a fic I’d gotten pretty far into writing before I ultimately forgot about it. Here’s a snippet:

James led the way to their usual compartment, where Remus and Peter were waiting. They chatted as they pushed past students. James told Sirius why the Comet 500 was so much better than the Cleansweep 100, shooting his friend a look over his shoulder to make sure Sirius was listening, while Sirius used his wand to ward away stray luggage in James' way while he wasn't paying attention.

Suddenly James heard a breathy laugh and froze. Sirius bumped into his back.

"Oi," Sirius snapped. James' gaze went to the compartment with the open door. Lily Evans was standing with her hands on her hips, instructing a lanky fourth year to be careful as he attempted to lift a trunk onto the shelf above the compartment.

James could see Lily's friends within the compartment, but his eyes were on Lily. She was still in Muggle clothes, like him. A knee-length denim skirt and brown boots. Her hair was curled at the ends. He'd thought she looked so cute when she'd cut her waist-length hair in fifth year. He'd thought it was cute until he realised her new short hair drew attention to her body, and then James had begun to focus on Lily Evans' body.

He didn't stare at her body today. Instead, he just stared at her smile and felt that unworthiness wash over him again, that melancholy.

He was glad she was safe, James thought, his eyes roving over her face. He'd been so frightened as he'd held her in his arms, so desperate to get to her.

And when she had opened those pretty green eyes, he had almost cried in relief.

"Just so you know, I'm judging you really hard, mate," Sirius piped up behind him.

James smiled. "I'm moving, I'm moving," he said, and continued walking down the hall.

[livelaughlovetoread]

In defense of Lily Evans liking flying

I think it is a common trope that Lily does not like Quidditch/Flying, but I have always thought she liked it.

The big reason why is that she lept off her swing very high up and floated down.

There was undisguised greed in his thin face as he watched the younger of the two girls swinging higher and higher than her sister. “Lily, don’t do it!” shrieked the elder of the two. But the girl had let go of the swing at the very height of its arc and flown into the air, quite literally flown, launched herself skyward with a great shout of laughter, and instead of crumpling on the playground asphalt, she soared like a trapeze artist through the air, staying up far too long, landing far too lightly. -DH

Lily literally launched herself into the sky to fly down. That sounds like someone who would love to learn to fly and would not fear it.

As for liking Quidditch, I will admit my evidence is weaker on this one

1. My first inkling is that she noticed James playing with the snitch and he did it to get her attention. James was always making a fool of himself in front of Lily, but he would probably do things that would get her attention. Also, why would Lily know about James' hair being windblown or him playing with the snitch if she was not paying attention to Quidditch?

This could absolutely be due to her crush on him, but she knew enough to make the comparison, which means she probably went to matches (or stared at him after Quidditch practice).

2. Lily spoke in her letter affectionally about Harry playing on his toy broom and him being a Quidditch player. If she truly hated the sport I don't think she would have spoken of Harry on his broom the same way - she would have been worried about him getting hurt or something.

3. She married James Potter. I mean, I don't think the Quidditch-obsessed guy would marry someone who truly hated Quidditch. Lily could definitely be indifferent to it, but I don't think she hated it.

My conclusion, Lily was fascinated with flying as a kid enough to disobey her mother. She probably liked flying at Hogwarts and watching the Quidditch games.

[startanewdream]

Ok but what if Lily was the Gryffindor Seeker and that’s why James was playing with the Snitch. He was trying to get her attention, only she would get annoyed (why don’t you play seeker if you think you are so good), and eventually they are making out in the number one spot in quidditch fics: the lockers.

[yallthemwitches]

the modern fandom's obsession w slytherin characters and headcanons and their disregard for canon, means that people don't understand why so many characters esp in gryffindor hated the slytherin characters. then you get people who say "james would have bullied harry" bc he bullied severus, however james' initial dislike for him was motivated by his strong affiliation towards gryffindor and his strong dislike for slytherins and what they represent.

As someone who (for better or worse) gets sucked into the twitter fandom discourse which often surrounds the interpretation of the DE/slytherins by proxy, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is a huge margin of people who are incapable of basic literary analysis and understanding nuance and allusion for specifically morally bankrupt characters AND being able to distinguish between actually evil and being an asshole.

It has also come to my attention that there’s a staggering amount of people that have never read the original novels but I digress.

I could talk your ear off about my feelings on the DE/Slytherin discourse and the good,bad, and ugly of how the modern state of the fandom warps things but to make the very very non-political and basic assertion:

At it’s very core (before thinking about politics) Slytherin and Gryffindor are sport rivals. If you have ever watched sports/been to a school with a rival team, you know what kind of feelings people hold for the opposing group.

….now just add a very thinly veiled fascist/ blood purity vibe to that whole thing…

[shieldhearted]

Written for @jilymicrofics March Challenge Prompt 24: Thesis || Words: 256 Rating: T

“I’ve got a theory,” Sirius said plopping himself down into the chair across James.

“You’ve always got theories, Padfoot, that’s nothing new.”

James pushed his glasses back up his nose, shaking his head at Peter’s Charms essay.

“Aren’t you dying to know what it is?”

“Not particularly.”

“I think Evans fancies you.”

James stilled the scratching of his quill for only a moment.

“And,” Sirius continued, looking smug. “I think you know that.”

“What an astute observation,” James said dryly. “Care to share your thesis?”

“Sure. Point one, she keeps looking over at you. You aren’t doing anything annoying, so why is she acting obsessed?”

James made no comment, but there was a buzzing in his ears now.

“Point two, you seem determined to not look her way, like you’re trying not to be suspicious.”

Still, James said nothing.

“Point three, you smell like her.”

“I do not—”

“And point four, you’ve got a hickey on your neck.”

Shit.

James flushed red, and Sirius put his feet on the table, laughing, causing several studying students to glare.

“You can’t tell anyone,” James said in a rushed whisper, glad that Remus and Peter were in the back stacks. “We don’t want anyone knowing until we know what this is.”

“Seems like you two can’t keep your hands off each other to me.”

“Well,” James rubbed the back of his neck, sneaking a glance at Lily, who was with her friends at another table, her head bent low over some work. “Yeah. Maybe you have a point.”