Utz-20 - Utz

'Smile!'

For the Day 1 prompt! @jilytoberfest

‘I still don’t get why you bother with that chunky muggle thing, we can’t even move in those photographs!’

‘You know,’ Lily’s sweet tone was betrayed by the roll of her eyes. ‘It’s nostalgic, and I can’t really expect Mum and Dad to frame wizard photos.’

‘Why not? We keep that horrible vase your sister’s given us, they can keep something of ours.’

‘You know,’ she starts again, ‘Muggles don’t usually keep moving pictures around, now I wouldn’t be opposed to that, but that would mean she’d have to hide it… and I don’t think Mum would want to hide any of us.’

James straightens his back. ‘Yeah, you’re right, we make too good of a family to keep it to ourselves. The Muggles deserve to see the handsomest of them all.’

That makes Lily giggle and peck her husband on the cheek. She reaches for the polaroid camera that lay discarded on the coffee table, James never figured out how to work it.

‘Smile!’ She exclaims, and right before the camera clicks, James starts tickling the small baby sitting on his lap. Lily rejoices, sure she must have caught the moment.

‘Mum and Dad are going to love this.’

James stands up, Harry’s head resting on his chest as he recovers from the attack. ‘I bet, they’re going to make a right fuss as soon as they see how much this little guy’s teeth have grown. Is that right, Haz? Is grandma going to send another letter complaining about how we never bring you over so she can smother you in peace?’ He speaks in an exaggerated silly voice that makes Harry laugh and reach for James’ face.

‘Oh, please, at least they don’t yell! If I get another howler over breakfast from Euphemia telling me we need to visit soon and bring Harry because they have more gifts for him…’

‘Hey, leave her be! You know she gets lonely, alone with Dad in that big house, her two kids away –‘

‘Talking about her kids,’ interrupts Lily, waving the polaroid near her face. ‘Is Padfoot dropping by soon?’

Harry seems to perk at the mention of his Godfather. ‘Pa’foo?’ He asks, big green eyes travelling from his mother back to his father.

‘Yeah, yeah, your beloved will be here soon,’ says James, talking to Harry rather than Lily. ‘I still can’t believe that was his first word.’ He mutters that to himself.

Mere moments later, the telltale roar of Sirius’ motorbike can be heard from outside their home, and the familiar sound makes Harry clap and laugh in anticipation.

‘Talk of the devil…’ utters James, but he was smiling from ear to ear.

Lily’s eyes roll back as she watches her husband excitedly go for the door. She follows them and crosses her arms, leaning against the wall with what she’s sure is a sickeningly sweet look; watching her son smile big and squish Sirius’ cheeks in his tiny hands whenever his Godfather picks him up does that to her.

‘Heard from a little birdie that little Bambi was missing his Pa’foo?’ Sirius coos while kissing one of Harry’s hands, and Lily was sure that if she tried telling any of their old classmates the Tall, Dark and Handsome Sirius Black actually spends at least three days of the week making a baby voice for her son, they’d say she was mental. Oh, yeah, they’d require proof to believe that.

Struck by an idea, she makes her way back to the coffee table and picks up the discarded muggle camera before quickly walking back and snapping a picture of the scene. Sirius, noticing the click, finally stops fussing over Harry and turns to Lily.

‘I hope that’s not your muggle rubbish, Evans,’ he jokes and Lily laughs freely because she knows he doesn’t mean any of it. ‘I want proper pictures of this baby here, need this charming smile in my wallet to balance the dad’s ugly face.’

‘I’m afraid you’ll have to make do,’ she retorts and shakes the fresh picture as James makes an indignant noise. ‘And it’s ‘Potter’ now, you of all people should know, best man.’

‘Yeah, yeah, sure, let me see that.’ Sirius dismisses the conversation when he notices the picture developing.

Soon, all three of them are looking fondly at the blurry photograph in Lily’s hand and Sirius takes it before turning his attention back to Harry, who had started crying out for him.

‘You know…’ whispers James, ‘We are going to use wizard film for my parents. No this isn’t up for debate! Mum will skin me alive if I send her still, blurry pictures of her grandson – hey, stop laughing!'

okay you know what makes me so sad??? james potter probably wanted like 20 babies. he was so definitely the dad that was like “I’m gonna have enough kids to make a quidditch team and then some” like he and lily could have had so many kids. and james would love them so so so much. like he cries more than lily every time one is born. and he would be the best dad. 100% fair and equal, no favourites. he would have something special that he did with each of them. and he would soooo be the cuddly father. his little kids would crawl up into his lap in the evening and he’d tell them stories of the great marauders. and harry with siblings??? with how much he loves and envied the weasley’s it would be so great, he’d be the best big brother. and then further down the road when james has like 30 grandkids he’d be the fucking best grandad. he’d give them sweets and tell them the stories he told his kids while his kids rolled their eyes like “dad we’ve heard this a million times” but he wouldn’t even care. james potter deserved better, man. he deserved a family that he got to grow and cherish and be apart of

mischief (not) managed! 🐺 🐀 🐾🦌

listen i hate to say it, but the marauders fandom lowkey toxic! just let people live! everyone can ship whoever they want! u don’t have to read it! and u most certainly shouldn’t hate on people for not liking a ship just because you do. everyone is entitled to their own feelings and ppl should not be harassed for what brings them joy. fanfic brings comfort to a lot of ppl, ppl should not be hated on (especially writers) for reading/writing their own ships. that’s literally what ff is for. putting your own creativity into an already established world!!!

happy birthday to the most precious boy in the entire universe ❤️

My headcannon is that James got scars from fighting Remus to save snape during the Prank

Because let’s be realistic here just because James was a stag does not mean that he would’ve been able to single handedly prevent a werewolf from attacking without getting some form of scarring

Now I don’t think those scars would be obvious, I think they would be like around the torso so most ppl didn’t know they existed, however I picture them as similar to scars Bill Weasley obtained from greyback

And Remus would always feel guilty for the fact that he permanently scarred James but James would never let him feel sorry

Also Sirius would feel guilty too because he was the one who told snape abt Remus and therefore he was more than partially to blame

And then we would get some absolutely lovely marauders angst as Peter tries to prevent the group from falling apart while being pissed at Sirius and taking care of James and remus

It would also explain why Remus never looked after Harry after the deaths of his parents because Remus always feared he would scar Harry just like he had scarred his father

part v on AO3

He doesn’t need placation. He knows he’s an idiot.

And he will spend hours, days, hoping to pinpoint that moment when his feelings—genuine feelings—started, only to be left wondering if they have simply been here all along. If perhaps they were sparked the moment he saw her across the apothecary, bold beautiful green eyes stealing the breath from his lungs as well as the heart from his chest.

Perhaps a part of him has fancied her from the moment she first looked at him with her head tilted slightly, and he simply didn’t understand it at the time.

All of that time wasted, he wants to chastise himself, but deep down he knows it never would have worked between them then. If he had asked her out that first night at the pub—it wouldn’t have mattered.

She is still looking for more than he’s ever felt capable of giving. She shared her secrets with him and the night sky, and nothing about him has changed since that moment.

Read on AO3 || Start at the beginning

How they annoyed each other productively. Spoiler: she read the book.

Lily: Why is this book so funny? James: I won’t tell you. Lily: I’m not going to read it. James: Then you will never know why I’m laughing.

family.