#bittersweet challenge

[jilytoberfest]

Bittersweet Challenge 2025!

Another year, another Bittersweet Challenge!

The rules are simple: if an angst prompt is given, a fluffy piece is supposed to be created and vice versa! Fics, moodboards, playlists, artwork are all allowed!

To sign up, send an ask to this blog!

[kay-elle-cee]

Magic Like This || Read on Ao3

“Do you want to go?” He presses. “It’s not that simple.” If only it was. Of course she didn’t want to go. The boy in front of her shrugs. “It sounds simple enough to me: it’s going to be miserable for you. Don’t go.” Lily blinks at him—he speaks as if it’s the easiest thing in the world to just live by your own rules, put yourself first. He’s standing there, staring at her as the concept winds its way through her mind. What Lily really wants, if she’s being honest with herself, is to spend the day with James Potter.

My fic for the @jilytoberfest Bittersweet Challenge. Prompt: "Don't Go" but make it fluff.

[harryissuchalittleshit]

Baby Blues

Summary:

Lily isn't ready for such a big change, but James helps her feel better about it.

Written for the Bittersweet challenge, prompt was "Am I too late" angst to fluff!

Read on Ao3!

[theesteemedladydebourgh]

Rating: E

At seventeen, Lily fell in love in secret. At eighteen, she said no to a marriage proposal from a man she loved. At nineteen, things that were always meant to be come back together.

(How Lily and James fought a war, lost each other, and fell in love a second-first time).

For the @jilytoberfest​ Bittersweet Challenge! FLUFF TO ANGST: "It's nice that your voice was the first thing I heard today."

Thank you @clare-with-no-i for helping me push my Sisyphean Boulder up the hill by making me add this post (and @mabeltothknows aka the original architect) and all it’s E-ratedness to this. your order!jily separation anxiety legacy lives.

um also if you’re on the jily discord and saw me go through my mid-life crisis trying to finish this fic…no u didn’t

It was October.

The rain pattered for weeks and anxious first years were overheard excitedly wondering if it would abate in time for the first Quidditch match of the year.

Lily nearly laughed when she heard this and told them not to worry; the Gryffindor captain was too determined and insane to let something like weather spoil a match. Which might have been quite inconsequential, if their Head of House didn’t share the same values and could be heard loudly lecturing on the importance of a stiff upper lip in the face of ‘a bit of rain’.

Lighting and thunder boomed outside, rattling the windows of the Great Hall.

Lily’s eyes went to James.

He was sitting on the far side of the hall, tucked amidst his laughing friends and teammates. Lily was on the steps by the doors; out of sight, out of mind. The Slytherins were getting bolder each day, more and more Muggleborns ending up in the Hospital Wing, and the shadows offered her a bit of peace.

James spotted her looking and an instant smile broke across his face. He didn’t wave, but he cocked his head at the table, a silent invitation.

Lily shook her head, raising her napkin filled with toast as justification.

James grinned. Mouthed: Hey.

Lily bit the inside of her cheek so she didn’t smile, then glanced around to make sure no one saw them. He wasn’t being as careful as they usually were today, but his mates were all distracted with their own things, so there was no harm done. They were still a well-kept, lovely secret.

Good luck, she mouthed back. See you after?

He grinned and made another vague gesture—one that left nothing to her imagination as to what he wanted to do to her after.

Continue reading on Ao3!

playlist

[the-dream-team]

Managed to throw something together for @jilytoberfest based on this insane premise for the Bitter/Sweet challenge - prepare for the sappiest fluff and the most tooth-achingly sweet James (who definitely picked up Ewan McGregor from Moulin Rouge vibes from a recent viewing of that perfect movie) <3 [Bitter to Sweet: “It sucks. Because I want to hate you, but I can’t.” ]

Know Thy Hogsmeade Date

Greater philosophers than Lily Evans had spent years pondering what constitutes The Self. Had mulled over what makes a man that man and not another. Was it a combination of mind, body, and soul? A recollection of memories tracing back his actions? Was it his choices that made him who he truly was? Aristotle, Locke, Descartes: all were powerful thinkers who’d done a great deal of thinking over the matter, but Lily suspected none of these men faced the same high stakes she did that Saturday morning in 1997.

“Okay, explain it to me one more time,” she sighed, fingers pinching the bridge of her nose, late autumn breeze colouring her cheeks.

In front of her stood two boys. One, elegantly handsome with worry on his lips and silver clouds in his eyes. The other, bespectacled and boyish, amusement etched in every line on his face and a posture that suggested he could become bored at any moment.

The one with glasses spoke first. “Look, Evans,” he started, flipping his hair out of his eyes, “I don’t know how we can make this any clearer. We found the spell in the back of an old textbook and James thought—”

“No, you’re James,” she insisted, narrowing eyes as though it might help her see clearer. “You’re the one who I’ve been snogging up and down this castle for the past month— the one who asked me to Hogsmeade with that stupid little doodle.”

“You thought it was stupid?” said the other boy, a wounded expression looking completely out of place on his sharp features.

Her eyes dodged from grey to hazel, back and forth like a particularly hard-to-follow tennis match. “I— of course not, I thought the drawing was charming, but that’s beyond the point! You—” she pointed a finger at the taller one with windswept hair— “were the one who gave it to me.”

The shorter one stepped forward. “Lily, please, I promise I’m the real James. We didn’t realize the spell would make us switch appearances. I swear, I thought we were only going to swap voices for a bit to mess with Moony.”

She let out a huff, crossing arms over her rattling chest. “You boys and your ridiculous pranks. No, don’t speak, Black— or Potter— whoever you are. Bloody hell, how am I supposed to know that I’m not the butt of this joke?”

Pale skin turned somehow paler. “Lily, you must know I would never purposefully jeopardize our first date for anything.” He moved forward, resting an unfamiliar hand on her shoulder. “I’ve spent ages hoping this day would finally come, but I can wait another month— hell, another year if I have to— if that’s what you want.”

It wasn’t what she wanted. Not even close.

“Prove it,” she said, staring down arched brows and high cheekbones.

“What?”

“Prove you’re James and not Sirius. Tell me something only James would know.”

Hazel eyes rolled dramatically. “C’mon, Evans, Prongs tells me everything. There’s nothing he could say that I don’t already—”

“You have a birthmark the shape of a snitch on your hip and the first time I saw it, I nearly cried.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Prongs!” groaned the one with James’ face.

The heat on Lily’s cheeks felt lethal. “I— er— I guess— who’s to say you didn’t tell him—”

“Evans, believe me, I wouldn’t have wanted to know that.”

Another unfamiliar hand tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear in a very familiar manner. She’d been trying to ignore those grey eyes staring resolutely at her, not used to that particular gaze holding so steady, but when he started speaking with a nervous waver in his voice, she couldn’t avoid them for long.

“Wait. Do you remember on Monday night, when we were doing rounds and stopped at the stained glass window overlooking the lake?”

Her stomach erupted in a flurry of wind, much like the one that currently sent yellow and orange and red fallen leaves dancing around the air; unable to settle, to know where they’d land. Of course, she remembered that night.

“You told me about the first time you saw the Great Hall’s enchanted ceiling,” he continued. “Before that night, you assumed magic was only something living inside you, like your blood or heart or lungs, but when you saw the sky expanding limitlessly inside the castle, you knew you had it wrong. You realized it was the world that was magical and your magic came from belonging in it. I was quiet afterward, and when you asked me what I was thinking I said—”

“That you were glad I was in this world,” she finished.

“Yeah, except what I really wanted to say was that I love you. And I thought the way I loved you— alone without any hope of reciprocation— was the biggest feeling in the world. So big it could burst. But when you kissed me that day by the lake, and I realized that feeling could exist in the world— be shared in the world— I realized the love was limitless.”

She looked into his eyes, wide and brimming with emotions, and could see the ones that had caught her stare from across the charms classroom, had crinkled at the corners late at night by the fireplace, had fluttered open under candlelight in tucked away alcoves. They were James’ eyes. Hazel simply desaturated.

“It sucks,” she sighed through a watery laugh, “because I want to hate you, but I can’t.”

She laced her fingers through the hand that under normal circumstances belonged to Sirius Black and tugged.

“Where are we going?” he asked, stumbling forward, hand running through silky hair.

“To Hogsmeade, James,” she said, her heart swelling as a wide smile spread across the otherwise haughty face. “You’re not the only one who’s been hoping for this day.”

“Oi!” barked James’ voice in a harsher tone than she’d ever heard. “While I’m both happy for and disturbed by you two, what the hell am I supposed to do while you drag my body through the village like a lovesick idiot?”

“I’m sure you’ll think of something,” Lily laughed.

A conniving shadow fell over James’ usual face, making him almost unrecognizable. “Now that you mention it, I’ve got a few words for Minnie that she’d probably rather hear coming from her precious Head Boy.”

The real James nearly tripped over his own feet, but Lily held him steady, gave his hand a squeeze. “Don’t mind him,” she said, heart fluttering over the way he reached up to nervously ruffle his hair in a way only James could. “There could be a hundred Potter impersonators running around Hogwarts, but you’re the only one I love.”

[jilyism]

In which Lily Evans realizes yearning and hatred are two sides of the same coin.

“Evans.” His thumb moved lower; his voice was barely a whisper. “God, your eyes are beautiful. Did I ever tell you?”

For a horrible moment, she believed him.

Then she remembered.

READ ON AO3

for the jilytober bittersweet challenge, fluff to angst with the prompt “Your eyes are beautiful.”

@jilytoberfest

[isahorcrux]

with a big cake, happy birthday

For the @jilytoberfest​ Bittersweet Challenge! FLUFF TO ANGST: “Make a wish!”

Thank you all so much for all your support on some with arrows - it has literally led to me writing companion pieces. If you haven’t read chapter 4 of some with arrows, I would pop over there first before reading this one.

Special shout out to my dad who explained to me how logistically the Oscars work, because obviously I have never been to the Oscars.  And yes, I did procrastinate at work today to make this fake movie poster for a fake movie with fictional characters.

It wasn’t an ideal way to spend a birthday, that was for sure.  Sure on television, the Oscars looked so glamorous.  But, in reality, it just meant you had to wake up early to be poked and prodded, sometimes quite literally sewn into a suit, and spend several hours without food.  Of course, if things had gone a little differently, James might have enjoyed his evening a bit more.  After she won and he presented, they could have nipped off to the bar and spent the rest of the night having the bartender surprise them (gin based for her, bourbon for him).

But, things hadn’t gone differently and she had lost, which was all very bittersweet in James’ mind.  On the one hand, he was happy that she was suffering now, just as he had been suffering this week.  On the other hand, as much as he hated to admit it, he still deeply cared about her and had wanted her to win.  Wouldn’t that have looked nice on the posters in a few months, Much Ado About Nothing starring Academy Award Winning Actress, Lily Evans, and James Potter.  Better luck next time, James supposed.

continue reading on ao3 | read some with arrows, some with traps

[jilytoberfest]

Bittersweet Challenge 2024

The Bittersweet Challenge is back! The rules are simple: if an angst prompt is given, a fluffy piece is supposed to be created and vice versa!

Fics, Art, Moodboards and Playlists are allowed!

To sign up contact @tinyluminaryzombie

✨Happy creating✨