swim || remus lupin

electric love

The morning before we left for the Hogwarts express, Remus and I had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.

This seems practically irrelevant, I know, but it was while eating said pancakes that James pulled Lily into the kitchen.

Remus and I were seated at one end of James's large dining room table, which is perhaps the reason that James and Lily, who entered through a side doorway towards the front of the room, did not see us. Or, perhaps, they were too enraptured in their conversation. 

My chatting with the boy beside me had been plain and depthless, and so we fell silent with the new arrival of our crushing friends.

"I know I was a bit of an annoyance for the first few years of our friendship," James was saying. He scratched the side of his head quickly and then adjusted his glasses. "Well, I suppose we weren't quite friends."

He was not at all the James that I came to know. Usually he was confident, almost arrogant though not quite, holding himself as though he were untouchable. He laughed loudly, talked loudly, felt loudly. Right now, though, he was quiet, stumbling.

"But," he continued. "I feel like this week we've really connected."

Lily was looking fondly up to him, her eyes dancing across his nervous face. She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.

"We haven't gone on any official dates or anything," James muttered. "So I was just sort of wondering if maybe when we get back to school you'd want to go to Hogsmeade with me?"

Lily's typically pinched sort of face loosened into a smile immediately and she nodded.

"Really?" James exclaimed, his tight shoulders relaxing as well.

"Yes, James," Lily said, and Remus's mouth dropped open beside me.

James was suddenly very jumpy.

"Wait here," he requested, holding both hands up as if to freeze her.

He disappeared from the room, leaving Lily swaying on her feet and biting at the smile which spread across her lips.

James returned a moment later dragging along a disgruntled looking Sirius.

"James, you fucking wanker, I was in the middle of-"

"Shush," James chastised, holding Sirius by his shoulders and arranging the boy in front of Lily.

"Evans? What's going on?" Sirius asked, looking between the pair.

"Shush!" James repeated. "Say it again," he directed Lily.

"Say what again?"

James threw his head back in frustration.

"Lily Evans, will you go to Hogsmeade with me?"

"Yes," She said oddly. "But I've already-"

"YES?" Sirius exclaimed, spinning to look his best friend in the face. "DID SHE JUST SAY YES?"

"I TOLD YOU IT WAS IMPORTANT," James shouted.

Remus jumped to his feet, his chair sliding backwards as he did so.

"ISN'T IT INCREDIBLE," he yelled, throwing his arms out dramatically and running to join his friends.

"MOONY YOU WERE THERE?"

"I HEARD THE WHOLE THING, MATE," Remus cried. "I NEVER THOUGHT I'D SEE THE DAY."

"What's all this mucking about?" Peter's voice called from the doorway. He was rubbing one eye, tan hair pointing in every direction.

"THE GINGER IS GOING ON A DATE WITH US TO HOGSMEADE!" Sirius explained loudly.

Peter's hand fell to his side, his eyes widening and his mouth falling open as Remus's had.

"LILY EVANS YOU HAVE MADE US THE HAPPIEST MEN ALIVE!" He screamed, grabbing her head roughly and kissing the top of it.

Lily slipped away from the rambunctious boys, who had joined hands and begun skipping in circles, and came to sit beside me.

"Pancake?" I asked, an amused smile spread across my lips as I watched Remus throw his head back freely with laughter.

"What have we gotten ourselves into?" She wondered aloud, ripping into one of the pancakes from the plate in front of us.

"Do you lot see them dancing as well?" A thick and smooth voice came from the entry behind us.

Lily and I swiveled our heads to find Marlene staring suspiciously at the four joyous teens. Dorcas was beside her, a mix of interest and fear scribbled across her face.

"Yes," I laughed. "They're celebrating their group date with Lily."

Marlene dropped into the chair across from me and grabbed a plate of food as well.

"Ah, Jamsie finally grew a pair?" She asked, emptying buckets of syrup onto her pancakes.

"You need a ship name," said Dorcas, swinging her legs into her girlfriend's lap and pulling the syrup away from her.

"A ship name?" Lily asked.

"Yeah," Dorcas shrugged. "Like combining your names. Marlene and I are 'Dorlene,' for example."

"And Sirius and Sybill are 'Syblack,'" I added, laughing to myself as I remembered the horrified look on the boy's face when the goggle-eyed blonde showed him that notebook of hers.

Lily furrowed her brows again, likely not seeing the point in this nonsense.

"What about 'Jily'?" I asked.

"Ooh, that's good," Dorcas commended with a rhythmic nod.

"Bo-ring," Marlene declared. "We're calling them 'Lames'."

I coughed out a laugh.

"I like 'Jily' better," Lily stated.

"No," I said. "Marlene wins."

And so 'Lames' was born. A name that made James smile brightly and boldly, reflecting like sun off a blacktop in the middle of July. A name that Lily would learn to love, the way she had with that messy haired boy who chased her like one of his golden snitches, until finally she slowed her wings for him. 

And we all departed for the school of witchcraft and wizardry feeling rushed and slightly more full than when we had left it. 

_______

A/N 

okay sorry this is so short and not rlly related to syd & rem but it'll help progress the story a little and give me time to work while still throwing in a little update lol

since i'm posting now i might be able to get a new one done for tmr morning? and then i can maybe upload every morning again? idk i have to do a spanish project start to finish and take two tests LOL but once this week is over it should be better 

song: electric love - borns

how i think it applies: the vibes bro ugh happy james & lily love