If and Only If . . . Jily

The Book Club

James Potter met Lily Evans when he was dragged to a book club hosted by the Evans. The Potters lived a few neighborhoods over from the Evans and their mothers had met in the PTA where Lily and James went to school. They both would recognize each other on sight but that was as far as their friendship went. 

That was, until Mrs. Potter was unable to find a babysitter to watch her son and to his annoyance, brought him along to the book club. 

"But, Mom!" James whined as they walked up the driveway to the Evans' house. 

He complained, "It's just gonna be old people there. What am I going to do?" 

Mrs. Potter scolded, "You're to behave and be polite, that's what you're going to do."

James sulked. 

Mrs. Potter rang the doorbell and an enthusiastic Mrs. Evans answered.

"Mia!" she exclaimed.

Dropping the reprimanding attitude at once, Mrs. Potter welcomed Mrs. Evans with a matching tone.

"Thank you so much for inviting me, Eliza! I am sorry, though, I couldn't find a babysitter for him," she put a hand on James's shoulder.

Mrs. Evans shook her head, "That's not a problem. I have two daughters his age who would be delighted to have some company. Do you know Lily and Petunia?" she turned to James who shrugged.

"Anyway, where are my manners? Come in!" Mrs. Evans gestured into her home.

Once inside, Mrs. Potter immediately began to socialize with other mothers and James stood awkwardly in the foyer. 

"Here, James," said Mrs. Evans gently as she gestured to follow her. Trailing behind her curiously, he looked about the house. It had a very homey feeling, James decided as he looked at a photo of a hand drawn flower, framed. 

"Petunia! Lily!" Mrs. Evans called. Two very different looking girls came bounding down the stairs. One was tall and lanky for her age with dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. She eyed James skeptically and he shifted under her scrutiny. The other came down a few seconds later and James marveled at the contrast between them. He knew Lily by sight but never really saw how vivid green her eyes were and how her hair was actually red and not orange.

"Hi," James offered.

"Hi," Lily replied politely. The other one, Petunia, he remembered, merely sniffed.

"Okay," Mrs, Evans clapped her hands. "I'll be in the living room, you guys can play upstairs or down here but just stay out of other people's way." She seemed to look at Petunia during the last bit.

An awkward pause followed her departure.

"I'm James, James Potter," he broke in, trying to be friendly.

"I'm Lily," she said shyly, never having had a boy in her house before.

"Well, my name is Petunia," she declared while still eyeing James.

Attempting to follow his mothers instructions, "I like your hair," he complimented to Lily.

She flushed and Petunia narrowed her eyes.

"Okay," she announced. "Lily, let's go upstairs and play again." Petunia grabbed Lily's arm and tried to drag her up.

Brushing Petunia's hand off of her, Lily resumed her conversation with the nice boy who liked her hair. 

"Thank you," she replied. "I was wondering, are your eyes green or brown?"

James sighed, relieved that this wasn't totally awkward. "Oh, I don't really know. My mom says they're called hazel, which is both. Unlike yours which are really, really green."

Lily opened her mouth to respond but Petunia, annoyed at her for not coming with her the first time, tugged again.

"Stop it, Tuney!" Lily turned, angry for embarrassing her in front of the polite boy who she was talking to. Petunia harrumphed and went upstairs, certain that Lily would follow her.

"Sorry about her," Lily apologized.

"It's okay," James assured. 

Looking around in case Petunia came back down, Lily bit her bottom lip.

"Do you want to go downstairs? We have a trampoline."

James eyes widened. "You have a trampoline! I've always wanted one of those!" he exclaimed excitedly. 

Lily laughed and impulsively grabbed his wrist. 

Following her down the stairs, James marveled at the color of her basement.

"Hey, how come it's painted bright yellow?" he questioned.

Lily who had brought them around the bend to where the trampoline was, looked back, letting go of his wrist.

"I don't really know," she answered slightly indignantly. "It's always been like this."

"Hey, don't get me wrong, I like it a lot. It looks like sunshine!" James defended.

Lily smiled, that's exactly why she enjoyed it so much. 

"C'mon," she climbed on the trampoline, kicking off her shoes.

James followed her, carefully untying his shoes and placing them down. 

"Hurry up!" he glanced up to see Lily already jumping around happily. Trying to hide his nervousness, James hesitantly stepped onto the trampoline. It bounced slightly and he took another step. Lily bounded over in one leap and he yelped as her jump sent him stumbling into the net.

Laughing, Lily helped James up as he had tripped and he turned bright red. 

"Have you done this before?" she asked curiously even though she was fairly certain his answer. 

"Yes," James answered defensively. "It's just . . . been awhile."

Holding in her giggles as he tried to leap like she had and overshot into the net, "Obviously."

Blushing even more furiously, he watched as she bent her knees and performed a perfect flip and landed right next to him. Feeling bad that she teased him, Lily decided to teach James because it was kind of hard to learn. She got it first try but she was too considerate to mention that.

"Watch this," Lily demonstrated, taking a great leap to the other side. She tried to slow it down and, because of her pride, perfect the landing. James scrutinized carefully and when he tried again, he actually did as good as Lily.

"Wow, you learn pretty fast!" she remarked. He puffed up his chest in return.

When Mrs. Potter was ready to leave, she looked for James only to find he wasn't anywhere. Seeking the help from Mrs. Evans, the two of them found Petunia pouting her and Lily's shared room.

Exploring further, they discovered Lily cheering as James successfully performed a flip and landed it steadily on the trampoline. He bowed dramatically and began to blow kisses to an imaginary crowd. She laughed and pushed him. He pretended to be mortally wounded and soon retaliated. 

The two mother smiled at each other knowingly. 

Disclaimer: Most of the characters belong to JK Rowling and I'm just borrowing them because they're awesome. Thanks so much for reading and I'll try to post often but I'm pretty busy so fingers crossed. 

(1084 words)

-willow