Written for...

Romance Awareness Month at Hogwarts: prompts- quill, Gryffindor Common Room

Word Count: 2208

James entered the Gryffindor common room, scanning the room for a table to do his research. He saw Lily sitting at a table, furiously scribbling on a piece of parchment. A few broken quills, a textbook and her wand were spread out in front of her. A look of intense frustration was on her face.

James approached her cautiously, not wanting to startle her and risk being hexed. They still weren't on the best of terms, but at least she talked to him normally now.

"Hey, Evans, need any help with that?"

She looked up, a frown on her face. "Does it look like it?" she snapped.

James recoiled, stung. "I was only offering, but if you don't then..."

He trailed off as Lily sighed, stretching back in her chair. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude; I'm just under a lot of stress right now."

"Duly noted. What're you so worked up about?"

"Transfiguration," she muttered, "I don't understand any of this rubbish."

James nodded noncommittally, yanking a chair out from under a first year. He squawked and glared at James indignantly as the latter sat down. James threw a superior look over his shoulder and the first year stomped over to the couch.

Lily, who hadn't noticed this exchange, feverishly rifled through her textbook. "I can't find any more information on Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration!" she moaned, "I have all five exceptions and an explanation for each, but I can't connect them to Switching Spells!"

"Did you look in the glossary?"

"I have! I can't find anything except a basic overview of Gamp's Law and Switching Spells. There's nothing in here about them being related!"

"Well, McGonagall wouldn't have assigned us this essay if there wasn't any available information," James pointed out logically, "As a matter-of-fact, I've completed the essay and so has Remus, meaning there has to be resources on this topic."

"Yes, but you Marauders are Transfiguration prodigies!" Lily gestured wildly to the boys' dormitory stairs, "I need your help, James!"

His face warmed. Lily had just complimented him and his mates, but more than that, she'd called him James.

Lily seemed to realize her slip-up, because her face reddened. "Potter, I—"

"Don't," James interrupted, his heart soaring with euphoria, "Just call me James."

Sirius tapped James on the shoulder. "Oi, you. McGonagall wants to see you in her office."

James shut his newspaper and slid his glasses up his long nose. "What does she want?"

Sirius shrugged. "Dunno." He plopped down in the empty seat next to James and reached for the plate of muffins.

James stood and a few seats down he saw Lily doing the same, a third year having just delivered the same message. She shot him a curious look which he returned.

They trooped silently to McGonagall's office.

Lily knocked on the door. "It's us, Professor."

"Come in!"

"You wanted to see us, Professor?" asked Lily, settling down on an red armchair and folding her hands. James took the yellow one.

"Yes, there is a matter I must discuss with you. There is a Christmas Ball approaching and the Headmaster has requested that the both of you go together."

She waited for the inevitable protest from Lily to follow, but it didn't come. Lily and James glanced fleetingly at each other and James spoke earnestly for both of them. "Of course, Professor. It's not a problem."

McGonagall was taken aback. "Really? You have no objections?"

"Of course not, Professor," Lily piped up, "We're actually cooperating well now, so there aren't any complaints."

"Fantastic," said Professor McGonagall, regaining her composure, "You two will be organizing the prefects and giving them their duties. I am putting you in charge of decorating the Great Hall and the rest you can dole out. Any questions?"

"Is there a theme?" Lily asked.

"No, there is not. You are to just to dress formally and be present at the ball. You will open the ball with a typical ballroom dance, with the prefects following," McGonagall nodded to James, who was in seventh heaven upon hearing these words, "and then you may separate and dance with whomever you wish."

Lily chanced a glance at James. He was listening attentively and occasionally nodding. Faintly, she heard McGonagall say, "I hope you will be able to collaborate."

James nodded determinedly.

The Deputy Headmistress smiled, her face relieved. "Then you are dismissed."

"All right, so today we will be working on our Patronuses. Some of you managed to make progress last lesson, but not enough. I will be giving extra marks to those he produce a corporeal Patronus."

James smirked, lounging lazily against the desk. The Defense Professor had no idea that he and Sirius had mastered the Patronus Charm already and they could both create a full-fledged Patronus. He preferred to not participate, mostly enjoying watching people struggle. He didn't need the extra marks; he had an O in this class.

Lily, meanwhile, was not so lucky. Her face was scrunched up in concentration, trying to conjure her Patronus. That part wasn't hard; it was just summoning a memory that was difficult.

She couldn't use any with Severus in it; anger and sadness would still be clouding up the memory. Petunia was out of the question for similar reasons. Her parents were dead, so all the happy memories stored within her contained her friends or the Marauders.

Lily racked her brains. Closing her eyes, she recalled the first time she had entered Hogwarts. The spellbound feeling washed over her and she smiled slightly.

Lily raised her wand and called, "Expecto Patronum!"

A wisp of silver shot out of her wand and dissipated. Disappointed but not disheartened, she searched for another memory.

Meeting her friends, Lily remembered Hestia greeting her with a cheerful smile on her face, Alice with a shy one.

Hestia had nicked some of Lily's jellybeans and she'd been irate, but laughed as she threw them at the Marauders.

A broad grin overtook her face. Lifting her wand once more, she tried again.

A shape emerged from her wand but was gone before anyone could tell what it was.

Back to the drawing board. Lily tugged absently at her hair as she desperately looked for a memory.

James's buoyant laughter rang across the classroom just then. She looked in his direction and a magnificent stag bounding around the room. A dog was pursuing the stag, presumably Sirius's.

Lily thumped her head on her hand. Why could she not get this right?

A sudden spark of inspiration struck her as she watched the stag outrun the dog. Closing her eyes once more, she remembered having a food fight in the Great Hall. James had cornered her and pelting peas towards her. His joyful yells were filling her up with exhilaration.

Lily yelled, "Expecto Patronum!"

To her amazement, something large, just as large as James's, burst out of her wand. She watched, awestruck, as the doe cantered towards the stag, who stopped in its tracks.

The entire class paused in what they were doing and the room fell silent as they watched the spectacle unfold.

James's stag nuzzled the doe lovingly and they curled around each other, shimmering with love.

Lily's heart plummeted. She knew enough about Patronuses to know what that meant.

She and James were soulmates.

James sat in an isolated corner in the library (yes, he did venture in there once in a while) and flipped through a book. Several other books were scattered around him, some open.

A soft cough broke through his focus. He looked up to see Lily, who had an armful of books. Her bookbag was slung over her shoulder.

"What're you doing?" she queried, gazing at the books. Some of the titles caught her eyes.

"The Right One for You: How to Discover Your Soulmate," she read aloud.

James locked eyes with Lily, relaying his dilemma wordlessly. She nodded understandingly and joined him.

After all, she needed some answers too.

Sirius came barreling into the seventh year boys' dormitory, waving a book in the air.

James, who was currently residing in the dormitory out of pure laziness (he could not be bothered to travel all the way to the Heads' dorms) and perusing his Quidditch playbook, did not look up.

"I'm a genius!" Sirius shouted, frantically searching his trunk for his wand, "I'm a fucking genius!"

"Shut up, Padfoot," muttered Remus, who was curled up on his bed and attempting to take a nap.

Sirius ignored him, instead addressing James. "It's about Evans!"

James was on his feet in an instant. "What did you do?" he accused, "I swear, Padfoot, if you pissed her off with your stupid shenanigans..."

"Such distrust," Sirius sighed dramatically, clapping a hand to his forehead, "I see where I stand now."

James released a heavy sigh. "Just tell me what you did."

"All right, so I went to library," Sirius began, and he saw James's eyebrows shoot to his hairline.

"What?" he said defensively, "I do go in there."

"To snog some girls," Remus mumbled.

"True," Sirius admitted, "but I had a different purpose today."

Remus sat up, his interest piqued.

"I was there to look for a book of pickup lines."

James snorted; Remus slapped a hand on his forehead.

"You're insufferable," he snapped waspishly, falling back down on his bed and covering his head with a pillow.

"Love you too, Remmy. Anyway, I was browsing through the shelves—who knew there were so many books on this subject?—and I spotted something."

He lifted the book in the air so James could read the title.

"'Finding Your Soulmate'," he said dubiously, "And this affects Lily how?"

Sirius hit him on the head with the book. "You dolt! You can use this to finally convince Evans that you're her soulmate!"

"Oh!" Comprehension dawned on James's face. "You are a fucking genius!"

"I know, right?" Sirius was glowing. "Go on, have a look at it!"

James flipped to the first chapter. "'Chapter One: What is a Soulmate?' "

"You don't have to read the whole book; just go straight to the information you need," Sirius said impatiently. Red sparks burst out of his wand and James looked alarmed.

"Alright, alright, keep your pants on," he said hastily, flicking through the pages until he found the correct page.

"'Chapter Five: How to Find Your Soulmate'," James read animatedly, skimming through the page, "'The spell is fairly easy, but only if you are an adept wizard. When you say the incantation, a thin string of light will come out of your wand and will lead you to your soulmate.'"

"That's ridiculous!" Remus protested, tossing the pillow on his face, "What if your soulmate is say, I dunno, Australia?"

"Hush, I'm getting to that part now," James hissed, "'If your soulmate is too far away, the string of light will flicker out. Only when you are in their vicinity will the spell function properly.'"

"What's the incantation?" asked Sirius.

James turned the page. "'To activate this spell, you must do a clockwise circle with your wand, jab it, do a counter-clockwise circle and jab it again. Then you must say, Animabus coniungens amorem opes inveniens, which translates to finding love means joining souls. The aforementioned light will shoot out of your wand and guide you to your soulmate.'"

"Excellent!" exclaimed Sirius, "Let me try!"

"Sirius, no wait—" Remus went unheard as Sirius lifted his wand and did the motions. He said loudly, "Animabus coniungens amorem opes inveniens!"

A jet of light shot out of his wand, zoomed around the room and collided with a table, causing it to explode. The three boys ducked and dove for cover as shards of wood rained down around them.

Somehow, amidst the chaos, James managed to find the door and escape with the book and his wand.

James went down to the common room. He spotted Lily chatting with her friends and approached them.

"May I speak to you alone?" he asked quietly, the girls giggling as he spoke.

Lily shot them reprimanding looks. "Sure," she replied amicably, following him out of the portrait hole.

"I found something," he began, and Lily's eyes lit up, "or rather, Sirius did. It will help find out if we are really soulmates, or it's just a fluke."

She nodded solemnly.

"It's a long spell," he continued, "which one of us has to cast. I was thinking maybe you should do it, since you're better at Charms then I am."

She was flattered by his trust in her. Slowly, she accepted the book in his hands, flipping through the book until she arrived at the desired page, skimming through the contents.

She raised her wand, did the motions, and chanted calmly, "Animabus coniungens amorem opes inveniens."

A jet of light zoomed out of her wand and zipped straight towards James, who stood absolutely motionless. The light swirled around his body, encasing it in a box of light.

Lily gasped and James grinned. There was only one thing left to do to close the gap.

"Go out with me, Lily Evans?"

"Yes," she said resolutely. James was her soulmate and there was no denying that now. She had enough proof.

And she promptly lunged towards him.