merry christmas @pensieveforyourthoughts!
There’s something to be said about the beauty of the night.
Ever since she was a child Lily was fascinated by the night sky, the pinpricks of glowing light, hundreds of thousands of light years away. The stars were the first kind of magic she was exposed to, a different kind from the one she can create with just the flick of her wand.
And now-
Now she cradles Harry, his head tucked away carefully in the crook of her elbow as she points out the constellations for him.
‘-the big dipper, and the little dipper, and that’s polaris, the north star,’ she says, and he looks up at her with large green eyes, lip parted. It’s their version of a night time story, when they stand by the little window that overlooks the front garden, and Lily tells him all that she can remember.
‘Uncle Sirius is named after a star too,’ she says, watching as sleep begins to overtake him. ‘The brightest star. It’s fitting.’
His eyes flutter shut, tiny breaths tickling the inner skin of her forearm and she turns to lay him in his crib. ‘I’d like to think we all are in some way. Not like the heroes- they’re just tragedies- but we all have that light inside of us, and you Harry, you’re my brightest star of all.’
She brushes a kiss across his forehead before tucking him in, and when she turns, James is there, leaning against the doorframe.
‘Done with tonight’s astronomy lesson?’ he grins, and she smacks him lightly.
‘Don’t be a prick,’ Lily sniffs, and he laughs lowly, slinging an arm around her shoulders.
‘I can’t help it, love, it’s in my DNA,’ he says, leading them back to their room.
‘Let’s hope it’s not in Harry’s then. Then we’d be in a right bind.’
‘You wound me, Evans.’
‘I try my best,’ she says sweetly, and he laughs again, drawing her close.
‘Merlin knows why I love you,’ he murmurs, ghosting his lips over hers.
‘I love you too,’ she replies, before kissing him soundly.
This is what stardust is, she thinks mildly in the back of her mind. This is a comet hurtling past earth, a supernova, all consuming in a way that she loves.
This is love, she thinks, and she sees James and Harry, Sirius and Remus and all of their friends dancing behind her eyes. This is a love too big for her heart, too painful to keep cooped up inside, but it’s beautiful and lovely and she’ll never once try to go without it.
This is her stardust, and those are her bright stars, the ones that fill up her night sky.
