A/N I’m an anxious mess lelel so here’s some Jily fluff during the war that I wrote for @hogwartsonline September OWLs.
Prompt: In the middle of the war, character A doesn't come home at the time they're supposed to. Character B starts to worry immediately. How long A stays away and if they're actually hurt or not is up to you.
“She was supposed to be home an hour ago,” James was pacing the living room, drumming his hands on his legs as Sirius, Remus, and Peter watched him from their dark green couch. Lily had bought it because it would always bring out her eyes whenever she sent Christmas cards to the Dursley’s and secretly wanted to look extra good.
“You know these missions run long, you can’t freak out every time she doesn’t come back.”
“She usually sends a message if that happens.”
“Well maybe they weren’t able to cast spells where they are.”
“Or maybe they had to be silent.”
“Lily can cast anything silently.”
“Can you all just please shut it,” James hissed at the boys. He ran a hand through his already very messy hair and looked around the room as if he expected to her just pop up on the mantelpiece with a grin and a wild mission story, “I can’t just sit here I’ll go insane.”
Remus rolled his eyes at James’ agitation, keeping his face calm and clear so that he wouldn’t notice the slight panic that was building in his chest. James was right, Lily always contacted him. Once he even received a Patronus when she was just on a girl’s weekend and had gotten a little too drunk with Marlene to head home.
“We have to go talk to Dumbledore; he knows where they went.”
“You know he told us to stay put,” Peter went to put a hand on James' shoulder but he shrugged Peter off quickly and walked towards the fireplace, his hand hovering over the floo powder, wondering if anyone would stop him if he threw it into the fire. They had been on lockdown for two weeks now, with everyone in the floo network being watched and no way of knowing if death eaters were able to track them as well.
Sirius hadn’t spoken yet, fiddling with the large black ring he still wore on his finger. It was the only thing that Regulus had given to him before he disappeared. He couldn’t tell yet if he was numb to the idea of losing more people or it was like a dam, waiting to burst at the sound of another name brutally murdered or tortured by another member of his family.
James had continued to hover awkwardly in place next to the fire, his mind clearly racing.
“Don’t be an idiot you know we can’t use the floo network,” Remus grabbed his shirt and pulled him away, dragging him back into a seat, “Just give it to me before we raise any alarms.”
“This is ridiculous, why did he only send the two of them,”
“Because they are ten times better spell casters than us, and you always do stupid things to protect Lily,” Sirius stood up finally, looking a little more determined than Remus would like, but to James this meant excitement. He hadn’t really wanted to say it, but he’d been waiting on Sirius to distract him. He was the only one that really could these days.
“Let’s go get a drink, we can pretend it’s a boys night and get Peter to attempt to pick up women.”
“I’m not a spectator sport,” Peter grumbled, curling up on the couch, “And anyway, we can’t leave the house.”
“Fine, we can use the rest of my gin, just as long as James doesn’t run out on us,” Remus stood up to grab his bag and pull out a large bottle.
“Why were you carrying that with you?”
“I wasn’t sure I could get through a whole night indoors with you twats without being tipsy,” Remus winked at Sirius who scowled and grabbed the bottle from him.
“Padfoot, we aren’t 16-year-old girls,” James sat down on the floor in front of the couch, leaning back on his arms. Sirius took a large swig of gin and winced, shaking his head as he shuffled towards the front of the couch so he could lean over and pretend to stare at him maliciously.
“Dare,” James snorted but leaned back towards him raising his eyebrows.
“Alright, I dare you to let us tie you up and do anything to you.”
“Anything?” James winked at Sirius, shaking his chest at him like a very good go-go dancer.
“I mean whilst we would make a very hot couple, I don’t think Remus would approve,” Sirius pouted at Remus who rolled his eyes, “Anyway I was thinking more different kinds of food items that we could raid from the fridge.”
“Or ice!” Peter grinned mischievously, nodding his head slowly.
“Ahh we have taught you so well,” Sirius held a hand to his heart and stood up, “let’s get some supplies, shall we?”
Sirius and Peter had rushed into the kitchen, resulting in a loud crashing noise and feigned whispers of ‘he didn’t hear’ ‘I’ll fix that later’. Remus has a small smile on his face as he walked over to James, wand ready in his hand.
“Are you sure about this?”
“If you don’t tie me up, I will find Voldemort right now and ask him truth or dare,” James winked but there was an edge to his voice. He could hear a little ticking clock in his head that was counting how long she’d been away for 2 hours, 37 minutes, 10 seconds.
“Alright, listen to me carefully, I’m sure Lily would want to try this another time.”
“Was more thinking of you playing Quidditch in the living room.”
Within 20 minutes James has his hands and feet tied up on the carpeted floor with two trays of ice cubes slowly melting on his half-naked body.
“Oh…k,” Shivered James, opening his mouth for Sirius to pour more gin into his mouth, “Who was next?”
“Moony for sure,” Sirius turned his grin on Remus, who looked very apprehensive.
“Please don’t dare him to make out with you again, I never needed to see that much tongue,” Peter shivered and glared at the couple, Remus smiling sheepishly and Sirius waggling his eyebrows.
“Fine no making out, I dare Moony too… striptease us for 30 seconds.”
“Oh, come on, no one wants to see that,” James continued to shiver lightly but was grateful to have a distraction from the ticking clock whilst he tried not to get frostbite in dangerous areas.
Suddenly, there was a large bang followed by figures moving in the back garden. The three boys who weren’t awkwardly tied up jumped immediately to their feet, wands in their hands. James, on the other hand, squirmed uncomfortably, regretting letting them magically tie the ropes.
“Help!” Marlene and Lily came crashing through the back door, Marlene’s arm wrapped around Lily’s waist as she hauled her inside and towards the couch. The marauders swerved, lowering their wands so that they could help Lily onto the cushions and check her injuries.
“Oh my god Lily are you ok, what the hell happened,” James was still squirming, now sitting up so that he could be face to face with his wife, his face paling by the second.
“Something more exciting than your evening obviously,” Lily tried to tease through gritted teeth, wincing loudly as Marlene pulled back her shirt that was stuck to her side with dried blood.
“This idiot decided to go after Greyback and was almost cut in two,” Marlene hissed, “couldn’t just gain intel like the rest of us.”
“Oh, come on Marls, you know it was much more fun my way.”
“More fun, but also more near-death,” Marlene replied sourly, heading into the kitchen to grab the supplies they had left there for any order members who needed immediate attention. Peter had leant over to undo James’ ties whilst Sirius had begun cleaning Lily’s wound with his wand.
Remus was standing above them, unmoving, and looking a little bit ill.
“You did what?” He said quietly, staring at Lily as she squirmed on the couch.
“Well he was there and talking about his plan to turn more children, we couldn’t just leave him there to torture them!”
“It’s not your job to go after random death eaters on intel missions, you could have gotten someone killed,” Remus was unnervingly calm, watching her without blinking.
“Remus, you couldn’t have left him, if you’d just heard what he said.”
“Don’t you dare use me as a reason to lead order members into a useless battle,” Remus continued, his eyes flashing, “What did you think, I would just give you a hug?”
“Just, never do that again.”
The room was silent, Marlene leaning on the door with bandages and a few different potions for pain relief.
“Well if it makes you feel any better, Fenrir was not looking good when we left him, Lily got in a few good curses,” Marlene winked at him, pushing the boys out of the way so that she could start bandaging Lily’s wound.
“Well the next time you do something stupid, try and kill him for me, alright?”
“Can do, Moony,” Lily grimaced as Marlene pressed the bandage tightly around her side to hold in the blood and beginning to silently cast spells across her skin to make the blood clot and skin to heal over.
James was sitting underneath her, his shirt pulled on backwards and hand wrapped around Lily’s almost as tightly as the bandage. His heart was pounding so hard he thought that he might be sick, but he wanted to stay calm for her.
“You’re an idiot,” He mumbled into her hair, pulling himself towards her.
He couldn’t stop his mind from racing over what could happened, how she could have been left on the ground, bleeding to death on the cold concrete, or if Fenrir had gotten to her first, tearing apart flesh and—
“Normally it’s me telling you that after a mission,” Lily gave him a smile, her eyes watering as Remus began to cover the wound with a salve.
“Of course, I do, you twat,”
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