Deer Diary || Jily

Year 2 II

The next few days felt awkward as James stopped his advances towards Lily and tried to mind his own business.

He didn't seem mad at her, but Lily always saw a layer of hurt when she saw him. When she noticed him in the halls of the school, he would give her a tight lipped smile and then they would go separate ways.

Lily also noticed the pranks seemed to stop during those days. And whenever there was a mini prank, it seemed half-hearted, like a key player in the pranking business just dropped out.

Hogwarts morale seemed to decrease rapidly in those days and Lily couldn't help but feel it was her fault.

The next few days were strange. But Lily began to notice other things about James she hadn't seen or cared about before.

Take away his voice, and his actions shined through.

The same Hufflepuff that was bullied earlier by the Slytherins was found cornered once more and scared out of his mind.

This time, Lily convinced herself, she was going to stand up for what was right and defend the kid before he got hurt again. But before she got the chance, as always, James Potter came to the rescue.

Lily faltered in her steps as she saw James approach the group of five Slytherins.

"What seems to be the problem?" James asked with a faux calm voice.

"Bugger off, Potter," the short, stumpy Slytherin said, before turning back to the Hufflepuff.

"No, I don't think I will bugger off. How about you?"

"What?" the group turned back to him and before they could say, or do, anything else, James punched their leader in the face.

Rookie mistake, Potter, Lily thought to herself, it is never a good idea to throw the first punch.

It was five people against one James Potter, but James seemed to be putting up a good fight. Two of the bullies grabbed James from behind and held his arms back so he couldn't throw any more punches. However, that didn't stop James from kicking the Slytherin in front of him with all his might. A crowd gathered around them to watch the fighting, but the crowd fortunately also drew in professors, so the fight was put to a halt before James could have gotten seriously hurt... not that Lily cared if he got hurt or not.

Lily saw that during the fight, the Hufflepuff boy managed to slip away and escape from the grasp of the Slytherin team, which was exactly what James wanted.

Hearing McGonagall yell at the Slytherins and James, Lily slipped away to follow the Hufflepuff to the same corner where she broke down the year before after a Slytherin had bullied her.

"I know you're not alright," Lily said cautiously as she approached the boy in the dark crevice of the hall. "But is it okay if I join you?"

The boy looked up at her with a startled face, but slowly nodded as he tried to quickly wipe away his tears.

Lily took a seat next to him against the wall and stretched out her legs. The two of them sat like that for a few minutes as the Hufflepuff boy calmed his breathing and tried to wipe away the rest of his tears. The abandoned hallway was calm and silent. A bit echoey from the students walking and chatting in the other passageways, but in a nice way.

After a while, once the boy seemed to collect his bearings, Lily turned to him and introduced herself. "I'm Lily by the way. Lily Evans."

"I know who you are," the boy muttered.

Lily looked at him confused.

"You and James always have the loudest fights in the Dining Hall," the boy clarified.