InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Jakalope?"

mapmaker (mapmaker) wrote in expresslogs,
@ 2012-08-31 04:41:00

Entry tags:

lily evans, {james potter

Characters: James Potter & Lily Evans
When: Thursday, August 30, evening
Location: front dining car
Warnings/Rating: none; general audiences
Summary: transfiguring some blinds for a lady aboard the train as James promised them [here]
Status: Closed/Complete

There wasn't much to transfiguration once a fellow knew how its mechanics worked. As James had explained to Jaime, it wasn't about changing something into something else. It was about uncovering what one wanted to see from what one could see. Everything had the potential to be anything else. That was why James could never understand the concept that a witch or wizard was only as good as their breeding. What difference did it make what kind of bloodline one was from when there was the same potential in him as there was in any Muggleborn?

He had worked his way through several things in the baggage car before deciding that the best item to showcase its inner beauty as a blind was an old canvas luggage bag. It was a bit floppy, a bit worn, and it had clearly seen enough of the world to know what was out there before it had found its way to the Orient's baggage car. James felt it was more than a bit fitting that the bag find a new life for itself showing a better world to a lady in need of a change of scenery.

James had started out his work by flattening it out as far as he could and then he'd measured it up against the window in his sleeping car before changing its shape to fit precisely. He imagined all the windows were the same size, but he did test that out in an empty room before settling on the size. It had been the work of moments to create the effect of glass on its surface, but changing that to a believable set of scenery had taken a lot more work. Two days off and on he'd played around with it before settling on a set of five images he thought were good enough to share with the woman from the network.

It had taken him more effort to compose a query to Lily for help than it had to come up with the blind treatment for the bag. James spelled the blind into a pocket-sized square and made his way to the front dining car where he took an empty table and slid it into another of the same size to make a longer version. They could blow up the blind to test the charm as he imagined that might make it easier for Lily.

That she was willing to help at all was just like her, he thought. She was the kind of person who'd help anyone, no matter how well she liked them, because that was what a good person did. It took someone like Lily to catch the attention of an ignorant prat like himself and apparently it took someone like Lily to care for a git like Snape.

Pushing that thought away, James finished spreading out the makeshift blind on the tables as he looked up to see Lily approaching, "I'm---it's---thank you. For coming. I, have, well, that is to say I've got five designs that I'm thinking are nice enough for her. Would you like to see them first or would you like to take a run at making the blind change on your own before I demonstrate what I have?"

Nicely done, Prongs, he thought to himself with a wince at his own stuttering ridiculousness. It was hard to think of how to speak with her now. That was all. Mostly.

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emerald_eyes
2012-08-31 11:52 am UTC (link)

Lily could understand the awkwardness, but it pained her a little. She knew in time things would smooth out, and despite his words that first night, she still did think they could be friends ... eventually. She bore him no ill-will, of course, and there would be part of her that would always still love him. Just not in the same way she'd had before the train happened.

Reaching up, she pulled her hair back into a tail so it wasn't going to be in her way while she was working, and she shook her head to his question. "Why don't you show me what you've got first, love?" she prompted as she crossed closer to him. She'd started to move across from him before deciding it would be better to see it from his angle than upside-down.

"That way, I'm not covering ground you've already mapped out." She did wonder if she'd be up for the challenge. It wasn't that she was bad at spells -- quite the contrary -- but she didn't always have his ability to think as completely outside of the box as she'd need to to accomplish something like this.

Still, if she could see what he had already, then it would be easy enough to pick up on it and follow suit.

While she stood beside him, she tried to gauge how he really was. She knew this couldn't be easy on him, and she was honestly surprised he'd contacted her at all. She'd heard bits from Jaime, but she wasn't sure if Jaime had been holding anything back or if James really was as fine as he seemed to be. Well, as fine as anyone could be on a mad train.

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mapmaker
2012-09-02 01:38 am UTC (link)

There had been a lot of scenery that James had rejected off-hand when he was working at the blind. He had decided against anything with too much water though he had done a day-to-night progression of Hogwarts Castle that he thought might work well for a view and that had meant including the lake. Of the other four he'd chosen, James had done a simple view of the countryside, along with a forest view, one with the London skyline, and his final selection had been of a perfectly flat plain filled with flowers as far as the eye could see. They were all simple images that he had been able to day-to-night progress enough to make them believable even if they did stutter a bit.

James used Peter's wand to tap through them, progressing them rapidly to show her how they worked even if it did make the stuttering worse. It set a flush on his face again at how shoddy their movements were, but the images were sharp enough. He thought it would be something she could charm out in the end. If he'd paid more attention to charms in school, they wouldn't be in this situation as it stood; he'd have done it on his own.

Shrugging as if it were no matter, he said, "I did what I could with it. Couldn't quite get the stuttering to go away as they progress, but it should look as if its a real view, eh? I thought, since she's a Muggle and all, if you could make it touch sensitive? She could tap at it or press a corner and it swapped views? I don't think it needs to be fancy enough to charm it to time-recognition. We could simply tell her to only swap it out in the mornings as it progresses on a day-to-day movement."

It wasn't the sort of thing that James would have normally volunteered for at home. He'd never cared about the state of affairs of his decor, but he'd wanted to help in some small way.

He looked away from her to study the blind again.

"You think it's something you can manage?"

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emerald_eyes
2012-09-02 02:09 am UTC (link)

Lily watched, and honestly it was kind of impressive work. But then ... a lot of what he did was impressive. Though it was moreso when he was doing it for the sake of good and not out of boredom or to cause trouble. "I doubt she'll be staring at it all day," Lily murmured when he mentioned the stuttering. "If she glances to it now and again, she shouldn't even notice. Still, I'll see what I can manage, as far as smoothing it out goes." She was sure she could manage it, perhaps with a bit of trial and error, but then once she had one down, the rest should come easy enough.

She did nod when James went on to what he wanted her to try to accomplish. Lily considered it for a moment, dredging up relevant charms and how she'd have to modify them to accomplish that. There were a few different angles she could try it from, her her brow furrowed a little as she caught her lower lip between her teeth as she thought.

Maybe if she could charm it to respond to a temperature change on a trigger point, that could work. She'd have to press her whole palm on it, likely, but Lily thought she could get it sensitive enough to make that work all right.

"I can try," she replied. "Which angle should I work at first? The changing or smoothing it out?" She smiled a little to him as she glanced back to the blind. "It really is brilliant," she admitted softly. "And nice of you, to help someone out that way." Not that he wasn't ever nice, but ... it was pleasant to see him so considerate.

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mapmaker
2012-09-03 04:12 am UTC (link)

Hearing Lily put it that way, James had to admit it was unlikely that the woman would be shut up in her room eyeing her window all the time. He'd not thought on it that way. It was hard for him to think on things without fixating on getting them absolutely right. There was a method to his madness. The method didn't always make sense to others, but that was the nature of all madness as James saw it.

"Yeah, I didn't quite think of it that way. I suppose she might not notice. I think we'll focus on getting it to change on a touch first. Worry over the stuttering afterwards if we've time. It seems a waste of your talents to have you doing that when she might not even notice and it won't help her at all if she can't switch it up on her own as she's a Muggle."

He could be practical sometimes. Occasionally.

Sending a curious look her way at her tone, James quirked a brow in question, "This? It's not really anything. A way to pass the time and I like a good puzzle. I transfigured Sirius's bed curtains back in school once to make them look as if they were crawling over with pixies. I even got their wings to flutter and their fingers to move. They were quite horrifying. In comparison, this has been remarkably simple and I've not nearly done as good a job on its realism. Not for lack of trying, mind! I just haven't seemed to find the right way to manipulate the material. I'm thinking I can manage though. If I can get Sirius to scream like a schoolgirl with a spider on her face, surely I can get this woman a smile with a sunny window view."

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emerald_eyes
2012-09-03 04:51 am UTC (link)

For a reason she couldn't pinpoint, it amused her to hear him calling Trish a Muggle. She didn't know why; it was true, she was sure. Just like Ray was a Muggle -- she just didn't tend to think of him that way. She didn't know why that was, either. He had no magic, nor had he ever. Maybe because he and Jaime were so closely linked in her mind ... well, no matter. The smile had crept over her lips, and she tried to focus on the project. "All right," she agreed softly, making a conscious effort not to tack on the 'love' that she used so casually with everyone else. She didn't quite things were to a place where a casual endearment like that wouldn't carry some sting for him. Perhaps they were fine, and she was simply projecting, but better safe than sorry.

"Yes, well, to some of us, any bit of transfiguration is a wonder," she pointed out. The ease with which it came to him when juxtaposed with her own struggle at that particular art was -- and had always been -- a sensitive issue with her. Not that she was completely horrible at it, but she did have to work harder at it, and focus more on it, and the childish part of her didn't think it was fair.

The fact that she could generally outclass him at charms and potions was mostly irrelevant in regard to the transfiguration issue. Still, it wasn't as though any of that mattered here. He'd transfigure, she'd charm, and their joint project would serve to give someone else an easier time on the train. That was what mattered.

"I think it's fine for the purpose it's serving," Lily replied softly. And really, it was. Jaime had attempted much the same thing when the world had been upside down, though hers had been some crayon and glitter monstrosity that she'd done up as more of a joke than anything else. This, at least, could pass for realistic.

Dropping her attention to the blind, Lily pressed her left palm to one corner of it before she thought about how best to form the spell to work as she envisioned it. Pressure might be easier on Trish, but temperature would be the easier spell. Breathing on it could serve the temperature purpose as well, and Lily thought they could try that.

Lifting her palm away, she very carefully constructed the spell in her mind before casting, her wand flicking neatly over the corner. "Try it?" she prompted James lightly. "See if that's done it. If it has, I'll do the other corners."

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mapmaker
2012-09-03 05:28 am UTC (link)

Magic wasn't the same for every witch and every wizard. Its subjects had a tendency to be specific to people in the way that others might think of one being better at either language arts or mathematics. James had always been good at physical sorts of magic such as transfiguration or dueling -he had done very well in Defense Against the Dark Arts- yet he'd never had it easy with charms. He simply hadn't liked all the swish and flourish of it.

"Listen at you," he teased, "You really have been spending too much time with Snape if you're getting snipey over a bit of natural talent. It should please you to know that any charms more advanced than fifth year take me ages to work. I also happen to be rubbish at Divination if one counts that as a real artform which I'm not sure I do."

He had never cared much for the fortune-telling bit of magic. It was true enough that there were other things that divination was good for, but prophecy? Future revelations? That was all worthless to him. James had been forced to take the bloody class in school, but he'd never enjoyed it. It had only been something he'd done well in because he'd literally been forced to endure it and he couldn't stand to be mediocre at anything.

Pressing his palm into the corner of the blind, James waited a moment for a change to happen and didn't think it would, until his palm seemed to warm the material and then magic.

"From the field to the forest, Lily! Look at that! And you say that you're not good at inventing charms. Spell these other three and tell me if you think you could do something like a perpetual motion charm on the individual scenes. I'm thinking that could take out the skipping."

It was easy to think of something once he'd gotten there to see it working with Lily, but James would still have struggled to do it even half as well as she'd done in a moment's work. He had learned perpetual motion -setting something to working with the intention of having it stop only on a command- in school yet he'd never had cause to use it outside a prank before. It might or might not work for what he had in mind. If anyone could get it to, that'd be Lily though, he was certain.

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emerald_eyes
2012-09-03 06:10 am UTC (link)

Her lips pursed slightly, and she wasn't quite sure how to handle that statement. Rather, she wasn't sure how he'd meant it. She knew how he felt about Snape, and while she was likely overthinking and making too much of it, she didn't think she was comfortable with a joke like that. Not while she was still a little on edge about ... well, the entire relationship thing. "I don't ... think any respectable witch or wizard puts much stock in Divination," Lily replied. "They shouldn't, anyway." It tended to get people killed, after all. People like her. People like him. People like Sirius, ultimately.

She wondered then if he knew yet. If he'd perhaps spoken to Harry, or if Jaime'd mentioned yet to him what the future held. If he didn't know yet, she wasn't inclined to be the one to break it to him. Let him remain oblivious as long as he could, really, rather than have someone blurt it unexpectedly at him. It was how she'd heard the story, and she wouldn't wish that on anyone, let alone James.

Having done the spell once, it was easy enough to set it to the other corners. She realized after she'd done it, if she'd been more clever, she could have assigned an image to each place so Trish could pick through them easier. Well, scrolling through a couple to reach a new one shouldn't be too difficult.

"I can manage," Lily replied softly. She rolled her shoulders, both to relax the tension there and to try to shake off the concerns cropping up about her relationship with Sev. Honestly, she was surprised nothing had come up yet -- no prying questions, no queries about her sanity -- but she was inclined to let that sleeping dog lie if he was.

Focusing on the blind, Lily let her focus slide over the entirety of the image, imagining how it was before imagining the motions required for it to be what she wanted it to be. It was a slightly more complicated spell, and her brow furrowed in concentration before she cast it. Opening her eyes fully, she regarded the motion before she nodded slightly. "A bit like that, then?"

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mapmaker
2012-09-03 07:13 am UTC (link)

"Believe it or not, there are some of the pure families who put loads of faith into it. I've heard of families who lost everything on account of some supposed prophecy or another or some star sign. Muggles do it too! That's what baffles me. It's as if they're stubbornly blind to real magic, but this hiddly-piddly tea reading sort of thing? They're true believers! Why, of course it's a great idea to bet on this! The signs are right!"

If James had rolled his eyes any harder, they'd have fallen out of his head. He made a sound of derision at the concept that only made the gesture that much more exaggerated, but it was easier to think on the fallacies inherent to the inexact art of Divination than it was to think on how this -working with Lily- shouldn't have been as easy as it had been.

He had been waiting on the moment to hit him when it hurt. When being near her, hearing her voice, working with her, physically made him ache. It had seemed to be right there, right out of sight, waiting to pounce on him like some great animal who only wanted the right moment to strike so as to get its teeth in as deep as possible before he could fight back.

James refused to think on what it meant to him that the moment never came. If he thought on that too much, that would be when the pain started in. He was sure of it. He'd no need to test it out to make it more certain than that.

"That's it," he agreed as he watched the movement progress along significantly more smoothly than before thanks to Lily's charm, "Do you think the motion spell will work on the blind as a whole or did you make it specific to the image? I think when you're done with this, it'll be ready for hanging. She'll have to be careful how she puts it up seeing as how the train doesn't like changes done to it, but I think she should be able to manage if she gets creative."

James stepped back a bit from the table to roll his shoulders where they'd tensed up without his realization. He hadn't been working hard on the magic, but he'd evidently been working at something. It felt as if he were shrugging off a weight somehow as he let his arms fall to his sides again.

"Thanks for the help. I do appreciate it and I'm sure she will as well."

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emerald_eyes
2012-09-03 02:50 pm UTC (link)

Lily had always been a rubbish liar, and right along with that was an inability to hide her emotions. Some families had lost everything to a prophecy -- and theirs was one of them. Just because she hadn't yet lived through it (and if things went how she wanted, and they stayed off at a nice stop, she never would live through it and die because of it), she didn't have to to know it hurt. "Sometimes people make prophecies come true," Lily replied softly. One of the first Harrys had explained to her that the prophecy hadn't been in effect until Voldemort had made a choice and gone after him. That it hadn't been anything but words until the choice had been made an action had been taken. "But, no," Lily said as she cleared her throat. "Those sorts are the exception, and not the rule," she agreed. "Most of it's rubbish."

Still, a sorrow darkened her eyes. If she was sent back, or if James was ... their path was laid out and she knew what came of their lives. Their disturbingly short lives. Sometimes she thought she'd come to terms with it -- and she had, mostly, with her own death. James' though ... that was a bit different, wasn't it? Either way, there was nothing to be done about it. They didn't remember anything from the train when they went home -- Don had confirmed that. So if she got home, she'd move obliviously toward her early demise, and she had no way to change it, to stop it.

Exhaling a heavy sigh, Lily tried to shed the darker thoughts. She didn't want to tell, if he didn't know, and she didn't want him asking because she wouldn't be able to lie about it. Deflect it, probably, but lie? No. If he asked, the truth would come out, and she hated the idea of sharing that particular story again.

"The train shouldn't mind this. We've hung things on the walls. Some charms stick ... Jaime's used a permanent sticking charm on Logan's door ... and that survived the resort." She frowned. "The train ... rearranged itself at the resort stop. All the doors of the rooms were blank, and ... there were new sleeping cars. So people got to rearrange themselves ..." she explained before she laughed faintly. "Anyway, that was still on the door, when all was said and done. So it doesn't undo everything we do to it."

But the project at hand was more relevant anyway, so Lily shook her head slightly. "The whole thing. It seemed easier than to try to do it for each picture." She offered him a slight smile before she nodded. "It was fun," she murmured. "I've mostly been working with potions, and not ... the other bits of it. It's a nice change."

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mapmaker
2012-09-04 03:00 am UTC (link)

There was a moment when James thought Lily looked sad. Despondent. Hopelessly sad women were outside of his depth, but Lily Evans had always made him want to expand his horizons. This was, unfortunately for them both, one of the few times that he simply didn't know how. He was limited in the personal sorts of things; it wasn't as if he'd had many opportunities in his life to learn how to talk to someone that way. He'd friends in school, the best of them in fact, but James had always been more hands on than anything else. It'd been a lot easier to show Remus Lupin he cared by teaching himself how to be an animagus than to give him some speech he'd only foul up making.

"Well now," James said slowly, trying to project a hesitant sort of optimacy, "That's hopeful? I haven't seen a lot of that aboard, but I'm thinking we've got something moving in the right direction. It's always nice to feel useful. To be able to do something to help. Never was much for potions myself as a general rule. It's a lot of sitting and waiting when I'd rather---"

He gestured to the table with Peter's wand, the blind folding itself back up neatly to make it easier to carry. It was a handy bit of magic that he'd worked out in school to make their map more portable. Easier to hide hadn't been a bad side effect of that same spell, but James rarely liked to think of himself as the devious sort. He was the first to admit that he was always more likely to start a fight than run to avoid one.

Picking the blind up, he shrugged before finishing, "---be doing something. Anything really as I've no patience for waiting. Even for the things that matter. I suppose you've noticed that. I---I wish I knew---"

James gave up on that because he honestly didn't know what he wished anymore. Everything seemed too complex for the words he had at his disposal and the best he could manage was to scrub a hand hard over his head, likely mucking up his hair something awful but he couldn't care as it helped clear his thoughts enough to matter if nothing else.

"Nevermind that. It's been good of you to help. Maybe we'll try something else some other time, hhm? Hope you enjoy the rest of your day. Myself, I'm taking this to see what Sirius thinks of it and then likely dropping it with its intended owner. I'll be sure to let her know you helped seeing as it was your work made it better all around. Thanks. Lily. I. Yes. Thanks."

He sent a jerky nod her direction before heading off to find Sirius with their completed project. Sirius tended to be a bit wilder with his magical preferences, but he could have shocking moments of brilliance if he were motivated enough. It wouldn't hurt to ask his opinion. Or to have a drink with him. That definitely wouldn't hurt either.

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emerald_eyes
2012-09-04 12:08 pm UTC (link)

He hadn't been here long enough, Lily reflected, to see what hope there was, and why there was so damn little of it. The newcomers all brought it in with them -- they could find a way out, a way back, a way to stop the train, to turn it around. She knew better. If there was a way, they'd have found it already because everyone who'd come and gone, for the most part, had tried.

She listened, all the same, as he stammered awkwardly through everything. Reaching out, she took his free hand lightly in her own, squeezing it gently to try to tell him it was all right. She wasn't sure there really were words to convey the things she'd wanted to, but that would have to do. "I'm sure we'll come across something else to try," Lily assured him with a soft smile.

Watching as he walked off, she wondered if things really would be all right. If he would be. She was sure, in time, he'd be fine. He was James Potter, after all. With a fond, if somewhat sad, smile, Lily turned toward the kitchen to see if there was anything in there that needed tending before she retreated to her own room.

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