#he feels very normally about his governess no feelings whatsoever about her getting married | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

owlways-and-forever · 5 years

Text

Summary: Lily Evans thought her life would be normal. Well, as normal as it can be for a muggle-born witch in England. But when her boyfriend turns out to be the prince of the wizarding world, and tensions begin to rise among factions of wizarding society, Lily must find her way in situations she never anticipated, and try not to lose sight of her identity. Word Count: 3,293 Links: ao3 | FFnet

A/N: Okay, since this is the official beginning of the story, I'll go over a few points of order now and get them out of the way.

New chapters will be posted every other Saturday. I know this is a long time between chapters, and hopefully you'll be dying for new ones as soon as you've finished the previous ones. But I've got a lot going on right now writing-wise, and I don't want to put myself in the position of having to delay posting because I haven't had a chance to write one week. So I think every other week will have to work for us, and that's just how it's gonna go.

The story is pretty fast-paced, mostly because I'm trying to cover a lot of things happening - both fluff and angst and everything in between. I'm pretty happy with it the way it is but idk, just be aware that if you're wanting a slow burn, this is not that.

Comments and feedback are ALWAYS welcome. Seriously, I love hearing anything from you guys, even if its just one word. Helps me to know that I'm not shouting into the void. Please be respectful with feedback, I don't mind constructive comments, but again, just be nice, respectful, and not hateful. I've never had a problem with this before, but I'm just throwing it out there.

Okay, that is all my points of order at this moment! I am super excited about this story, I've absolutely loved it since I started working on it, and I'm really excited to share it with all of you. My original plan was to finish writing it before I started posting, but I just couldn't keep it to myself any longer. If you check out the "atttr" tag on my tumblr ( owlways-and-forever) you might get to see some edits and artwork to go along with the story! (Also if you want to make edits/art, please do, I would love that). Okay, that's a lot of notes, so without further ado, I present to you the first chapter!

*drumroll*

Chapter 1

The entire wizarding world knew what Prince James looked like officially. He had always been somewhat tall for his age, thin but athletic as he got older, with sleek black hair and hazel eyes. Official portraits of him used to appear in the newspapers every now and then, especially after a big event. The odd thing was, however, no one knew what he looked like unofficially. There were no pictures of him at school or at a bar or anywhere other than somewhere officially planned, where he always looked prim and proper. No one ever saw the Prince out and about, or at least, no one ever knew they did.

Marlene said that when the Prince was born, the King and Queen had made a push to keep his life quite private, and no one really knew anything about his daily life. They didn't even know who his nanny was. Lily had been quite surprised to find out that there was a wizarding monarchy, but then she found out that things were not so different here than from the Muggle world. The Royal Family was largely ceremonial, while most of the functioning government was run by the Ministry of Magic. Like the Muggle world, there were some who thought the monarchy should be disbanded completely, and others who were completely besotted with the Royal Family. She was the same age as Prince Andrew, but Lily had never been terribly bothered about him, especially since she was not likely to ever meet him.

According to Marlene, a long ago, the Royal families had been one family. Brothers who wanted different things or different magical abilities. No one was really sure, it was too long ago. But the fact was that now they were very distinct, in fact the Windsor-Mountbatten family probably didn't even know that there was a whole other Royal Family in Britain.

Marlene was somewhat obsessed with the Royals, and was determined to find out who Prince James really was. She had a number of maddening theories written down in a journal, the equivalent of a board with red string all over it. There was no selfish agenda behind it, she wasn't one of those crazy girls who was in love with him or dreamed of marrying him; it was just a mystery, and Marlene loved a good mystery.

Theory 1: Prince James was homeschooled in the Royal Palace of Whitehall by his mysterious governess. Deemed unlikely on account of needing to socialize with children his own age.

Theory 2: Prince James had been sent to Beauxbatons to be educated. Deemed highly likely owing to English-French treaties and a history of close relations between the two wizarding communities.

Theory 3: Prince James had been sent to one of the other known wizarding schools (probably Ilvermorny) to be educated. Deemed unlikely due to tense relations between wizarding communities.

Theory 4: Prince James had been sent to an unknown wizarding school in one of the Commonwealth states (most likely: Australia). Possible, but not likely.

Theory 5: James Potter was actually Prince James. Deemed highly unlikely for the very obvious reasons.

The last theory had been proposed precisely two days into their first year. The girls were all slipping into their night-dresses and brushing their hair when Marlene burst out of the bathroom, long hair swinging over her shoulder.

"Do you think James Potter is the Prince?" she had blurted out excitedly, hands clutching the railing around their heating stove.

The girls had all giggled at the suggestion, but no one answered. While Lily, Mary and Alice were all Muggle-borns and knew nothing about the Prince, Dorcas simply didn't care. Marlene scrambled across her bed and pulled out a small leather bound notebook from her trunk, opening it to a recent picture of the Prince published on the occasion of the Queen's birthday a few months prior.

"Don't you think they look alike?" Marlene pressed, her eyes wide with excitement.

Lily took the photo from her carefully and looked at the picture of the Prince, waving and smiling with his parents. There was a similarity there for sure, but there were quite a few differences as well. Even though the picture was in black and white, Lily could make out that James had darker skin than the Prince. James glasses and his hair were wild, not sleekly laying down atop his head. And while the Prince had a very proper expression on his face – a smile, but not deep enough to wrinkle his handsome face – James seemed to walk around with a permanent smirk.

That had been when the conversation started, but they had all deemed it impossible, except Marlene who insisted that there was a slight possibility. Over their years at Hogwarts, it did come up a few times, mostly as a joke, but it was clear that it could not be him. Lily had even been to his house once, during their Easter holidays, for a surprise birthday party for Remus. It was a nice house, spacious with a large sloping yard, but it was hardly a royal residence. And also, there was the matter of his friends. Sirius was from a noble family – the equivalent of a Muggle dukedom – but he hated it and vocally opposed the entire aristocratic life. So she highly doubted that he would be best friends with a prince. And she was pretty sure that Remus was a werewolf, not that she had shared her suspicions with the other girls, but she doubted that a prince would be allowed to befriend a werewolf. The aristocracy seemed like that. Not to mention, James Potter appeared to be quite a reckless Quidditch player (and person, in general), and presumably the sole heir to the monarchy would not be allowed to continuously put his life in so much danger.

So when Lily Evans agreed to go to the Three Broomsticks with James Potter to have a butterbeer, she had been quite certain that she was not going on a date with a prince of any kind.

She said she would meet him there, it seemed too much to walk to Hogsmeade together, but now she was rather regretting her choice, as she sat there waiting for James to show up. Her leg bounced nervously, brown saddle shoes lightly tapping the floor. She checked her watch - it was five minutes to 3. Lily had gotten there insanely early, anticipating that her friends would be chatty on the walk to Hogsmeade, pestering and teasing her endlessly, but everyone had been surprisingly quiet. Marlene and Dorcas almost suspiciously so. So she had arrived at the Three Broomsticks more than ten minutes early, and had to sit by herself, anxiously waiting, while her friends went off to do whatever it was they had planned. Mary she knew was meeting Dirk for the afternoon, but wasn't sure what Marlene and Dorcas would be doing. No doubt something they shouldn't be. Lily hoped they weren't planning on spying on her and James.

"Been waiting long?" James asked, sliding into the seat across from Lily with a charming smile and shaking her from her thoughts of her friends. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"You made it, I was starting to worry you'd changed your mind," Lily answered coyly, the corners of her lips lifting in a smile. She wasn't sure she liked how easily smiles came to her when she was around him. He ought to have to work harder to charm her.

"I'd never change my mind about you, Evans," he said, and she felt color rising on her cheeks.

Rosmerta, the pretty, young barmaid approached them with a grin. Lily guessed she had a soft spot for James, as she paid Lily no attention whatsoever, her brown eyes fixed on him, taking in his muscles as they flexed while he removed the jacket he had on over his t-shirt. They were long and sinewy, lean, but clearly fit. Like he was built for speed.

"Butterbeer okay?" James asked, but Lily didn't hear him. She had somehow conjured up an image of his arms wrapped around her, how good and safe and strong it would feel. "Lils?"

"What?" she said, flushing darker as she tore her eyes away from his muscles and fixed on his hazel gaze.

"Is butterbeer okay?" he repeated, his eyebrows arching somewhere between curiosity and satisfaction.

"Yes, that would be lovely," Lily answered, directing her answer at Rosmerta with a weak smile.

"Everything alright?" James asked, once Rosmerta has sauntered away.

"Yeah, fine," she said. "Just… in my head, that's all."

"What are you thinking?" he pressed, grinning.

"Nothing, nothing," Lily tried to say, waving his question off, definitely not making eye contact with him.

"C'mon, Lils, you can tell me anything," he said sincerely, the grin replaced by a moderately more sober smile.

"I... just… you look very good today," she answered at last, blush staining her cheeks again.

"Thank you," he replied, reaching out to take her hand across the table. "You look quite beautiful yourself."

Lily smiled. She had tried to look nice, but beautiful was never really a word she felt applied to her. Pretty, sure, and cute. Maybe even stylish. But beautiful felt like it implied a kind of grace or elegance that she certainly didn't possess. 'Beautiful' was for duchesses who wore elaborate gowns and fine jewelry and had blowouts done every day. Not for girls who just put their wet hair in a plait and never had their makeup right and spent as little as possible on clothes.

"Did you read Maria Melendez' article in the Prophet this morning?" James asked, his thumb moving gently across the back of her hand.

"I didn't, actually," Lily answered, turning to look out the window. She loved Ms. Melendez' writing, and usually tried to follow everything she wrote. She had even been excited for this morning's piece - a scathing assessment of the monarchy's damage to feminism - and had meant to read it, but she had been sidetracked trying to decide what to wear and how to do her hair with Marlene, Dorcas and Mary. (Lily had adamantly stated that she would dress how she usually dressed, and if James didn't like it, he could go fuck a hippogriff. Marlene said she needed to dress sexier, Mary had said she should look pretty, and Dorcas said she should wear one of her political tees so he knew exactly where she stood.) After she had gotten them all off her back and chosen something she felt comfortable in, they had been running late, and Lily had barely had time to wolf down a late breakfast, let alone read the Prophet.

Rosmerta came back and deposited the two butterbeers on their table, casting a sullen look at their intertwined fingers before returning to the bar.

"It was rather well written," he said when she had gone, eyes following Lily's gaze, and she snorted lightly. "What?"

"'Well written' is what people say when they completely disagree with everything in an article but don't want to admit it," Lily replied matter-of-factly.

"That's not true…"

"Do you agree with her?"

"Not as such, no," James admitted, his hand leaving Lily's to run through his hair. Lily knew it was his tic, his way of soothing himself when he was anxious. She'd seen him do it numerous times.

"Why not?"

"How much do you know about the monarchy?" he asked with a small sigh.

"Admittedly not as much as I do about the muggle monarchy," she said. "Most of what I know is what Marlene has told me, or what I actually listened to in Binns' class. But, without having read the article, I would imagine that she has a point. Monarchies are always unfair to women, ignoring them and passing over them not only for opportunities to rule, but also for recognition for the contributions they have been allowed to make."

"There have been quite a few muggle queens," James observed, trying his best to sound off-hand.

"Yes, but they only became queens as a last resort, when there were no male heirs to assume the throne," Lily countered, color rising in her cheeks as she started to feel out a good fight. She loved a good debate.

"Did you know that wizarding queens have equal right to ascend the throne as their male counterparts? Always the eldest child, regardless of sex…" he said, hazel eyes sparkling with defiance.

"I -"

"In fact, the current queen inherited the throne over two younger brothers," he continued. "57% of all wizarding monarchs have been queens, and have served on average longer terms, which means that in the history of the wizarding monarchy, 71% has been spent with a queen sitting on the throne."

"While that may be true, when queens marry, their husbands are given the title of King, not king consort or prince, which puts them above their wives in ranking," Lily argued, but James was ready.

"The Marital Equity Act of 1432," he said, "grants the husbands of queens the rank of rex honorarium et desponsata. It means that the title is subject to their marriage. Should the queen divorce him or die prior to him, his title would disappear. In the case of divorce, he is returned to any titles he would have had prior to marriage, but in the case of death he becomes the princeps patria or, if there are no children, the princeps consiliario. He has no power over her in any situation, but gets equal weight in any decisions of house."

"How do you know all of this?" Lily asked, impressed with his knowledge.

"I'm rather interested in history," he answered with a shrug. "Have been since I was a kid."

"So you don't think there's a problem with the way women are treated in wizarding society?" Lily asked, turning her focus back to their debate.

"That's not what I said," James replied with a wry smile. "But I don't think the monarchy is the root of the problem. In fact, I think the monarchy does what it can to help improve things as much as possible. And I have hope that the next generation with do better."

"You have a high opinion of the prince then?"

"I… I just try to be optimistic," he said. "I have to believe that he understands that there is more that could be done, for women, for muggle borns, for other beings in the wizarding world."

"James… what's happening with the death eaters… it scares me…" Lily admitted, her green eyes focused on the table, and James reached out again and took her hand.

"Me too, but I can't imagine how it must feel for you," he said softly, his eyes full of tenderness. "But I can promise you that you aren't alone. I am here for you anytime you need support or need to talk, and I will offer you any protection I can give. Though I'm sure you don't need it. But the offer, at least, always stands."

"Thank you."

They spent the rest of their date talking about lighter, mundane things - Sirius' new idea for a prank, Lily's plans for Christmas break, the Quidditch season. Lily teased James about Rosmerta and he made her blush when he poked fun at her fling gone awry with Benjy the previous year. Between them, there was an easy air of people who had been friends for some time, who knew each other inside and out. But at the same time, each time James' fingers brushed her hands, Lily felt like there was electricity in her blood, and she nearly jumped when his hand lightly touched the small of her back when they stood to leave.

"Hey Lily," James said quietly, as they were walking down the street together, meandering past shops."I'd really like to kiss you."

"Are you asking my permission?" she teased, the corners of her mouth twitching upward. James had stopped walking, his hand tugging at hers while he wore a very serious expression, as though her answer would be life or death.

"I won't if you don't want me to," he said.

Lily was so touched by this that she moved abruptly, reaching up to place her hands on his face and pulling his lips to meet hers. It took him a second to respond in his surprise, but then he was leaning into the kiss, one hand splayed out across her back while the other caressed her jaw. He pulled away after a moment, touching his forehead to hers as he breathed her in. She could see the blush tinting his tan cheeks, and the way his eyes were focused on her he seemed to be quite affected. She felt like something had changed as well, like this was one of those moments that changed your whole life, and she butterflies swooped in her stomach at the thought of her and James twenty years down the line.

"Okay then," James said, trying very hard to regain his composure as he stepped back, his fingers finding hers again.

Lily smiled broadly, James echoing her, and just like that they were Hogwarts' newest couple.

#gen writes #ATtTR #jily #hp au #jily au #james potter #lily evans

9 notes · View notes