Just an random idea that I came up with! Enjoy!
No-Magic AU
Date: September 2020
Location: New York (because I don't have time to google the in's and out's of London protocol)
Ships: Jily, and a touch of Wolfstar :)

~~~~~~

Lily really didn't feel like going to work that morning. There were only a few customers at the Three Witches, the cafe in New York City where she worked, to begin with, but almost nobody showed up due to the fact that the world was practically ending. Days could go by before a single person came, so what was the point of wasting hours of her life in a practically abandoned building?

Nevertheless, she still needed money. Global lockdown was turning out to be pretty expensive after all, and she had no idea where she would find another job. The Three Witches also offered her the ability to see her coworker and best friend Marlene, which was now the only place they could get together, sadly. 

Sighing to herself, Lily rolled out of bed and, after taming her fiery red hair into a more manageable form, dug around in her closet for a clean pair of black clothes (as per the rules of her contract, she had to wear black). Black really isn't my color, she thought, walking into her small kitchen to make herself a sandwich for later. She threw the bagged sandwich into her cheap handbag and walked out the door into the narrow apartment hallway. 

She stopped suddenly, just as she was about to leave the building. "Forgot the mask," she grumbled to herself, turning and running back into her room, where her handmade mask lay on her table.
~~~~

Lily saw Marlene glance up eagerly as the former walked in. "Dang it, thought you were a customer, Lils," Marlene grumbled, looking down again. She pushed her blond hair out of her face and pulled out her phone. Lily walked around to the other side of the slick white counter and sat in her usual chair next to Marlene, digging around in her bag for her own phone to check the news.

"Well, good morning to you too," she smirked. "Three hundred-seventy new cases just yesterday, have you seen?"

"Just New York, I'm assuming? Or has the world decided to cut us some slack?" 

Lily laughed bitterly. "I wish. But I'm still holding on, though. Only twelve days until Biden finally slays Trump." (A/N please don't start a war in the comments, I just imagine Lily would be a Democrat :D)

"That'll be entertaining, one way or another." Marlene nodded solemnly and the two lapsed into silence. There wasn't much to say these days, and the two of them had always gotten along better nonverbally, anyway. It was about an hour of comfortable silence until a loud noise startled them both off their phones. 

It was the sound of the cafe door being opened. Four masked boys, definitely the same age as Lily and Marlene,  were shuffling through the threshold. The second shortest one had clearly just told a joke, as the other three were howling with laughter. The tallest, a lanky, sandy-haired boy had his arm wrapped around the jokester's shoulder. The shortest boy looked like an admirer of the group, almost like a fanboy of sorts. But the last member of the group was a taller (not quite the tallest, however) boy with thin, wiry glasses. His messy, jet-black hair made him look as if he had just gotten off a motorcycle. And as much as Lily didn't want to admit it, he was really hot. He approached the counter and eyed the two girls behind it.

"Welcome to the Three Witches, the best cafe in town, et cetera, et cetera," Marlene deadpanned, though Lily could see her best friend staring at the jokester with a certain interest. "Sit anywhere you want as long as you're wearing masks, which you definitely are, and we'll get your orders down in a second."

The boy with glasses looked a bit surprised at being addressed so bluntly. Nonetheless, he gestured to his friends and said jokingly, "Well, you heard the charming lady, let's go pick a spot. But Padfoot and Moony, keep the PDA to a minimum, please and thank you!"

The boy called Padfoot gave a dramatic sigh as the group walked toward a booth. "Oh, my sweet Moony!" he said in a whining, high-pitched voice. "Don't leave me, please! I thought you loved me!"

Despite being hidden by a face mask, the boy Moony was clearly reddening. "Well sometimes I wonder why I do," he muttered, and the boys were soon out of earshot. 

Lily turned to Marlene. "You take their order, I deliver?" Marlene nodded, looking excited to finally have some action at the cafe. She walked away and Lily could hear her talking to the boys for a little longer than necessary. She came back after a few minutes. 

"Those boys have the weirdest nicknames," Marlene said, holding a slip of paper. "Anyway, here, they wanted one cappuccino, one Americano, one mocha, and one flat white. They don't look like they're in a hurry, which is nice."

Lily looked around at the colorful paintings that hung over the many empty booths. "Yeah, it's a nice change of pace. It'd be nicer if we got more customers, though." She waited a minute to fiddle with the espresso machine before calling over her shoulder, "And Marls, I wouldn't sound too disinterested, I saw the way you were looking at one of them."

"Well of course you did," Marlene rolled her eyes but shrugged nonetheless. "It doesn't matter though, it looks like he's taken anyway." 

Lily finished the coffees and carried them to the boys' booth. They had taken off their masks to talk more clearly (she didn't blame them; masks were the bane of almost everyone's existence nowadays), and she could get a better look at them now. She put the drinks on the table one by one, her eyes sweeping over the loud boys before--

She almost dropped the mocha. She had locked eyes with the boy from the counter, and without his glasses fogging up now, she could see into his perfect, hazel eyes. She shakily put the mocha down on the table as she looked him over and noticed that, as embarrassed as she felt for even thinking it, he had one hell of a jawline. For a brief moment, she considered giving him her number on the spot.

She snapped herself out of her reverie. Fortunately, none of the other boys had noticed her sudden freeze. Unfortunately, the dream boy did.

"You good?" He asked, looking genuinely concerned. 

"I- yeah, I just had a thought." She could tell she was blushing so brightly.

"About what?"

"Nothing. It's fine." Lily glanced down at the coffee in her hand. "Who ordered a flat white?"

The boy named Moony spoke up. "I did," he said, leaning over to take the drink. He smiled at her in a friendly manner and cleared his throat, silencing the other two boys who had been talking to each other. "Well, fellow Marauders, here's to the first finished week of college! Only a few dozen more to go!"

The table laughed and broke into even more conversation. Lily all but ran back to the counter and almost into Marlene. 

"Did you catch fire or something?" She asked rhetorically. Lily could tell she was smirking under her mask. "You look a bit red, Lils."

"Shut up, it's nothing."

Marlene raised her eyebrow suspiciously but didn't answer.
~~~~

Lily had a good feeling about the next day. It was Sunday, and Sunday had always seemed like a good day to visit a coffee shop (of course, she was a bit biased). She changed into her work clothes, grabbed her purse and mask, and headed out the door to walk to the cafe.

She was doing her shift by herself today, but she didn't mind. Hopefully, her good feeling would get her through the rest of the day. She lost track of how long she stared at the door until it finally opened. The "Marauders" from yesterday walked in, led by the hot boy who seemed to be dragging them to the counter. The short one named Padfoot was protesting loudly.

"--went here yesterday already, why do we have to come back?" he was whining. "If you want coffee, go stop by Dunkin', it's way cheaper that way."

"No, come on, I like this it here, this can be, like, our new hangout place!" The hot boy grinned sheepishly at Lily, as if to say, What can I do? They're like this a lot. Lily smiled back. "You guys want to sit at the counter or something?" she asked.

Moony spoke up. "Sure. C'mon, Padfoot, let's go sit down." 

They took their masks off and ordered the same coffees as yesterday, and as Lily turned around to make their drinks, she said awkwardly, "So, what brings you guys here? Not many people come through this way."

"We made it a point this year to support local businesses, right Padfoot?" the hot boy said, putting an emphasis on his friend's name. Padfoot rolled his eyes quietly. "You know, with the whole 'the world's dying and it's dragging the small businesses down with it' thing. Call it our little contribution to the people."

Although her back was to the boys, she could hear three of them snickering. "How long have you been working here, ma'am?" said a timid voice that Lily hadn't heard yet. She could only assume it was the shortest boy, the one who had seemed like he was just following the others around.

"Since February, about a month or so before the pandemic killed the city." She turned back to the boys and slid their coffees toward them. "Just graduated high school in June and now I'm in college, I need at least some source of income. How's school going for you guys?"

"We've just started college too! So you live pretty close, I take it?" the hot boy asked.

"Just down the road from here, actually. I've been meaning to ask, by the way, what's your guys' names? Like, aside from those weird nicknames you have."

Padfoot lit up like a Christmas tree. "Ah, so you've heard of us, you lucky duck!" He stood up and pranced over to the empty space in front of the counter, where he began to gesture to the other boys like a game show host. Moony groaned audibly but smiled nonetheless. "I'm Sirius, or Padfoot if you will; Remus is Moony, Peter's Wormtail, and James is Prongs! And together, we-- are-- the Marauders!" He broke into jazz hands, bowed, and returned to his seat at the counter. The hot boy-- James-- high-fived him. 

Lily half expected confetti to shoot down from the sky. But most importantly, the hot boy had a name. The name James sounded rather nice. James, James, James. "You guys want some cookies? I can get them for you free." 

The boys nodded consent and she handed out some of the cheap cookies that were behind the counter. Lily let them talk among themselves for a little while before they stood up to leave, putting on their masks and waving goodbye to her. James stopped short just next to the door and said, "Wait guys, I left something inside. I'll be right back." Before anybody could answer, he slammed the door shut and walked back to the counter. 

"Hello again, Red."

"Hello, James." Lily eyed him curiously. He had pulled out a scrap of paper and a pen from one of his jacket pockets, and was now writing something down. He straightened after a moment and handed the paper to her.

"I dunno if you want this, but here's my number."

Lily froze. "What?"

"You know, like the thing you use to call people..?" James rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "If you don't want it, you can throw it out. I just figured then we could, y'know, talk or something."

"I'll keep it, thanks," she smiled.
~~~~

Lily texted James almost every day for the next few weeks. She kept him updated on the latest news (which there was quite a lot of), and he passed on all the baseball stories he could find (they were both very interested in baseball, they found). The Marauders occasionally came back to the Three Witches for coffee, and Sirius quietly told the two girls that this was now the only coffee shop they ever went to anymore. She and Marlene were quickly becoming good friends with the boys. The two girls had even gone to visit the boys' apartment twice, having a great couple of hours each time. 

Lily was in her apartment room one Saturday morning, enjoying one of her few days off, when she got a call from James. Her heart skipped a beat as it always did before answering. "Hey James!"

"Hey, Lily!" came the boy's voice. "You're not at work, right? I don't want to mess with your job or anything."

"No, I'm off today. What about you?"

"I'm free as well. I was just wondering if you wanted to go hang out today or something..?"

Her heart fluttered with pure joy. She loved that James made her feel so much pure happiness, even though she wasn't sure why. "Yeah! You can come visit my apartment if you want."

"Sweet, I'll be there in fifteen minutes!"

He hung up, and Lily looked around, suddenly aware of the little clutter all over the place. She quickly changed out of her pajamas into a rich green T-shirt and sweatpants (because it was beginning to get colder outside) and began to tidy up, only stopping when she heard the knock on her door. "Come in!" She called, dropping a plastic plate into the sink.

James opened the door and walked in. He had no mask on, but Lily didn't care too much. They had seen each other multiple times without masks, although they did try to maintain proper social distancing.  "That was fast."

"I like to think I got here pretty quickly." James glanced around the apartment, as if he was drinking in every last detail. "Nice place you got. It's a lot neater than ours, obviously."

"Definitely," she laughed. "How 'bout a game of Monopoly, then?"

"Only if you can handle losing, Red."

Lily smiled at the sound of her nickname. "Oh, you wish."
<>
Needless to say, James meant what he said. Within thirty minutes, he had Lily deep in debt.

"...that's another $950 from you, Red! Hey, if you don't like it, then don't roll a nine!"

"Ah, yes, such sage advice. 'Don't roll a nine.' Let me just ring up the probability gods and tell them that James doesn't want me rolling a nine. Easy peasy," she grumbled, smirking nevertheless as she lightly threw a spare house at him.

"Love you too, Red--" James stopped short, his face turning redder than a tomato in a matter of seconds.  

Lily panicked, words tumbling out of her mouth faster than she could filter them. "Glad to know the feeling's mutual, then."

They looked into each other's eyes, both fully aware that they were leaning in closer. Stop! said the voice in Lily's head. What about the Coronavirus, what if you get exposed, what if you lose your job over this?

I don't care, she thought to herself. I don't care, I love him, and that's all that matters. 

It was worth it, really. That kiss, that day in October over coffee and board games, was worth the risk. It was worth coming six feet closer.