〖love can change the world in a moment but what do I know...〗

♬ 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘪 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 ~ 𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘯 ♬

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There was a party downstairs, music blaring, people dancing, singing, drinking. A soft vibrato pulsed through the floor as Lily Evans and James Potter lay flat on it.
They could feel the beats of the music flow through them as they lay there above it all, Lily's head upside down to James, his upside down to her. If either turned slightly, they could look at the other, directly in the eye.

It felt oddly like stargazing at the cracks in the ceiling, telling their own story of how the bumps and scratches ended up there. What mishaps and mayhem led the ceiling to tell its own stories.

It was highly likely they were at least a little bit drunk, enough to make everything fuzzy and perfect around the edges. Neither seemed to mind, they just lay there, taking comfort in the other's presence.

The boys dorm was an odd place to have a heart to heart, but the bedroom was warm and smelt like Remus' chocolate and Sirius' shampoo, a familiar smell that seemed to make everything seem a little bit softer.

"Are you worried?" Lily asked breaking the companionable silence but being too tipsy to worry about decorum.

"That Sirius will make a tit out of himself downstairs? Of course I am."

She laughed, exhaling loudly as she trained her eyes above her.
"No, idiot. Are you worried about the war?"

James turned his head to gaze at her for a moment, he might have been upside down to her but the look on his face was unmistakable.
"Yeah I am."

"Stupid question, really."

"Not at all."

Lily tilted her head to match his gaze, they stayed like that for a moment, just looking at each other and wondering why.

"What do you believe in, Lily Evans?" The question might have sounded peculiar to anyone else, but to them it was almost as commonplace as an inquiry about the weather (admittedly, the firewiskey might have aided that).

"I...I believe in us, in all of us. That we can make a difference in the real world. One day." Lily replied pensively, still holding his eyes.
"What do you believe in, James Potter?"

Lily watched him ponder the question for a moment, his eyes sparkling as his mind whirred.
"I believe in a lot of things. I believe in love, I believe in fighting this war, I believe in winning it. But mostly I believe in you."

Lily sucked in a small breath, he wouldn't have noticed if they weren't so close.
"I think you're brilliant, and talented and beautiful. And I believe that love can change the world in a moment, but what do I know?"

For some reason Lily smiled at that, making his stomach flip like it did whenever she smiled.
For a long while James wondered if she would reply at all, her eyes were sinking into his, she was sinking into him.

"You know a lot more than you let on."

Something in James snapped when she said that. It was probably the nicest thing she'd ever said to him, considering they'd spent so long fighting during their school career. That was all they knew until recently, how to fight. They'd spent so long fighting it felt like a second nature –they fought like night and day, winter and summer. Lily and James had never gotten along. But somehow they'd ended up here, closer than they'd ever been before without screaming and fighting. In fact, they might even be enjoying it.

"Thank you," he whispered, the words barely even leaving his lips.

Lily shook her head, her eyes flickering down to his lips where such soft words had just come from.
"What did you mean?" She heard herself say before she did something she'd regret– like kiss him. "When you said you think love can change the world? What did you mean, really?"

He considered her question for a moment, wrenching his eyes off Lily and facing the ceiling again. He threaded his fingers behind his head and thought.
"It can't."

"But you just sai—"

"I know what I said, but it's not quite what I meant. What I mean is that anyone can love someone, it's just what we chose to do about it that changes the world."
James had never been a philosopher, but something about that warm bedroom, in the middle of the night with the lingering taste of firewiskey on his tongue. It somehow made everything deliciously fuzzy and crystal clear all at once.

They stayed like that until the music began to fade away downstairs, until morning began to bleed into their surroundings like a blush had crept across from the horizon's cheeks.

"James?" Came a quiet voice that he thought was asleep.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think we'll make it?"

He hesitated...

"Course we will."

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happy Halloween everyone, sorry for the anticlimactic final oneshot but i thought it was fitting? anyway, thank you all! :)