Jily One Shots

Ghosts

James walks next to me with his cold hand in mine. The large banquet hall is empty except for a podium in the middle. Wet tears leak down my cheeks and I feel hollow. As if my heart was wrenched from my body and darkness filled the nooks and crannies. 

James was first, as he always wants to be. Then it was me. I can't seem to get the sound of his lifeless body falling to the ground out of my ears. Thump. My life was over. Thump. He can't be gone. Thump. Please don't hurt my baby. 

We will only use our bodies for the next couple minutes. After that we will be truly separated from Harry.

The deadly silence of the room is so foreign. I guess it is a damning silence. A ghost sits behind the podium.

She croaks in a toad voice, "Hello. Fill out this form." She reaches to hand me a clip board with a pen attached it. Her hand shakes and the pen clacks. She continues, looking down at her paper, "The room on your left."

James' cold hand chills me. I let go and open the dark door. The room has wooden benches on each wall. We sit on the farthest one from the door.

Processing this, I can't even look in his face. He holds my hand so tight. First it was just a normal Wednesday. Then he came. Then thump. And I was next. It was so fast.

I rub my other hand over his knuckles and suck in a breath. grimace. "James, Harry isn't here."

And like that he sobs, sobs like I have never heard before. "He's alive Lily. He's alive." I hold his hand against my heart and I wonder if he feels as hollow as I do. 

He takes the clipboard. "What should we do? Should we stay as ghosts or le- leave him?"

I rest my head lightly on his shoulder as another cold tear slides down. "I don't want to leave him, James."

"I know. But what kind of life could we give him? We couldn't even hold him."

I imagine, "We could never teach him how to walk or potty train him."

Somehow I wish this was over already because the pain in his face is nothing like I have ever seen. But we have to choose. To choose. 

 "But we will never leave him. We will forever be in his heart. And there we can watch over him."

Solemnly, we sign the form and go back to the unhappy ghost. She points us toward a light abyss at the end of the room I didn't notice before.

James and I head towards the abyss. I hug him. He laughs, even with tears flowing from our eyes, "Anyway, I don't even fancy these clothes."