Jily oneshots

Going Grey

done by elanev91 on fanfiction.net

When James finally starts going grey, you would have thought the entire bloody world had caught on fire.

It's Sirius who spots it first, the one shining silver strand in the mass of black hair on James' head. They're trooping in, brooms over their shoulders, mud on their quidditch boots, and James has Harry wrapped up under his arm, rubbing his head while Harry laughs at James' insistence that "You can't slag off your old man. I would have kicked your arse back in the day."

"Yeah," Harry yells, elbowing his father in the side, "back in the day." Sirius barks a laugh, claps Harry on the back, "Nice one, kid." James shoots him a glare and he shoves James' shoulder, "Tough break, mate. Though your kid kicking your arse goes nicely with that grey hair you've got there. Very fitting."

When Lily finds them a few minutes later, Harry is doubled over, barely breathing with laughter, and James and Sirius are nothing more than a tangle of limbs on the now excruciatingly muddy kitchen floor. She pulls out her wand, twirls it deftly between her fingers, calmly threatens to hex them within an inch of their lives if they don't get up right now and clean the floor.

Sirius pops up immediately, laughing that he "didn't survive a whole bloody war to die in the Potter's kitchen," and James groans, pulls his wand out of his back trouser pocket, and scourgifies the mess. Lily smiles, reaches down and grabs James' hand to pull him to standing, plants a lingering kiss on his lips. Harry catches Sirius' glance and rolls his eyes - Sirius laughs, James smiles against Lily's lips and pulls away, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and giving Sirius the finger with his wand hand. It takes a bit of manoeuvring with his wand in his hand, but giving Sirius the finger is always worth it.

"Tell our lovely Lily what we found on your head James."

Sirius' eyes are shining with amusement and Harry starts laughing again. James, on the other hand, doesn't look even remotely amused, and when he turns to Lily, he looks like he's just watched someone murder their cat. "I have…" he swallows and Sirius and Harry are both laughing now because James is just too dramatic to function, "I have a grey hair."

Lily laughs and James blanches, "It's not funny!"

She's shaking with laughter, her side vibrating against his and James huffs, goes to sit down at the kitchen table, "I'm glad my descent into old age, the gateway to death, is so amusing for everyone."

Lily rolls her eyes, "Oh sod off, you prat," she sits down next to him, plants a kiss on his cheek (James smiles in spite of himself), "you have one grey hair. Sirius went grey ages ago, why are you freaking out about this?"

It's true - somehow Sirius had been the first of all of them all to go grey, but he hadn't cared one bit. He'd started crossing his fingers, hoping he would get more grey to fill out his look and started arranging his hair to try and get the grey to pop when he pulled his long hair back. As much as they all rolled their eyes at him, it was a good thing he was reacting so positively - Sirius cared a lot about his hair and they knew he would have brought the place down if he hadn't adjusted to his new look.

Sirius flips his hair over his shoulder, smirks at them, "Yeah, but I make salt and pepper look dashing." Lily smirks, "Remus only tells you that. You should hear what he tells me when you're not around."

Sirius gives her the finger and she grins. "But honestly James," she says, taking his hand, "you're making a big deal out of something that doesn't matter at all."

"But, Lils," he's whining and Lily sighs, pats his thigh, "Remember when I used to look like that?!"

He points at Harry, who is now on the other side of the kitchen, having lost interest in his dad's midlife crisis - he's sitting on the counter, a chocolate digestive hanging out of his mouth while he puts the kettle on. Lily raises her eyebrow at Harry, he flushes just a bit (so much like his father that a raised eyebrow from his mother is enough) and slides off the counter, swallows the chunk of biscuit he'd been chewing, and offers them all tea. Lily smiles, but there's a slight edge to it, reminding him that it didn't matter that they were family, she expected him to be polite and offer, "That would be lovely, Harry, thank you."