Summary: Before they gave birth to a legend, they were just students, trying to hold on to hope as the war threatened to tear their world apart.

Rating: M

Universe: Canon

Genre: Drama, Humour, Romance

Diclaimer: Harry Potter and its characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am but a fan, writing for other fans, for absolutely no profit.

A huge thank you to my betas, gryffindormischief and Maz, for their help and hard work!

Chie: The spark for this story was born around December 2013, when a few months in to my stay in England, I was struck with the sudden urge to re-read the Harry Potter series. However, my copies of the books were safe in my bookcase back home, thousands of miles away, so instead I turned to fanfiction. Specifically, JamesxLily fics.

And pretty much from that point on it was a slippery slope: the more stories I read, the more I started to think how I would do it.

Before I knew it I was up to my ears in background research, wanting to pour my headcanons on the paper even though any and all plot bunnies were blatantly absent.

And then one night when I was trying to sleep, the opening sentence popped into my head. More sentences followed.

So here we are.

What if you would know that it all ends tonight?

And what if you would know that you can't win this fight?

Would you have regrets, someone to miss

Or friends to say goodbye?

Or would you tell the one you love

It was the best time of your life

The Giant Leap: The Best Time Of Your Life

Their Halcyon Days

Prologue

Sitting in the corner of the sofa, resting her chin on her knees, Lily Evans was failing miserably in the fight against boredom. She kept staring at the TV screen, not really even seeing the picture in front of her.

The front door opened and closed, and without turning, Lily called a "Welcome home" to her mother, trying in vain to make her dejected voice sound cheerful.

But instead of her mother's warm voice, there was a loud sniff behind her back. Lily bit back a groan, her already abysmal mood instantly turning sour.

"Brooding on your own again, I see," her sister said in a disapproving tone.

"Nice to see you too, Petunia," Lily replied, still keeping her eyes on the TV screen.

"It's like every time I see you, you're just moping around the house," Petunia continued, ignoring her response.

"Well sorry to bother you," Lily said lamely, getting up from the sofa. "I'll just go to mope in my room, then."

Turning around, she saw the thin line Petunia's lips were making. There was an odd look in her sister's eyes as she regarded her, quite unlike the typical disgust or thinly-veiled jealousy.

"I'm surprised you're not off running around with that Snape boy like you usually are every summer," Petunia remarked.

At the mention of the name, Lily's stomach instantly plummeted all the way down to her knees.

"What's the matter?" her sister continued snidely. "You two finally broke up?"

A thousand responses sprang to Lily's mind then, ranging from snarky retorts to vehement insistence how she and Severus hadn't been dating.

But in the end, she could not summon the strength. She knew that while picking a fight with her sister might grant her a moment of reprieve, she would only feel worse after the anger would leave her.

So she simply forced out a small, broken "Yeah," and then hurriedly pushed past her sister, sprinting upstairs to the safety of her room.

If she had not been so caught up in the turmoil of her emotions, of the hurt, of the still fresh loss of her best friend, of trying to hold back the burning tears, she might have noticed that Petunia hadn't really taunted or sneered at her and how unusual it was for her to initiate a conversation with her to begin with. But Lily remained oblivious to this rare show of sisterly concern. Climbing into her bed and curling up, she missed the soft tap of footsteps on the carpet right behind her door, where someone paced nervously for a moment before finally giving up and turning away.

She hugged a pillow close, finally letting out the tears she had been holding in for weeks.

Lily Evans was having the most miserable summer of her life. Under usual circumstances, she could barely wait for the autumn to come, for the first of September when she would finally board the Hogwarts Express and start a new year at school. But even though she was having a terrible summer break, she was not particularly looking forward to its end.

In fact, for the first time in her academic career, she was feeling apprehensive about returning to Hogwarts. Last year had been an absolute disaster. The tensions had been running high all year long, what with the stress of the O.W.L.s, with James Potter – the arrogant bullying git – suddenly deciding he fancied her, being a complete arse every time she as much as walked past him. And then there had been the ever-growing strain eating on her and Severus' friendship, as it was slowly becoming more and more apparent that their chosen paths had irreparably diverged.

All three of these factors had finally culminated in an utter catastrophe at the end of the school year – in the middle of the exam season, with the stress levels running high, James Potter had chosen to be an utter toerag and bully Severus out of sheer boredom. Lily of course had intervened, but things had only gone downhill from there. Potter had tried to blackmail her to go out on a date with him, and she had let her temper get the best of her, telling him exactly what she thought of him and publicly announcing her preference to the Giant Squid. Severus had been furious and had not appreciated her help at all – in fact; he had hurled a deadly insult in her face. After that, this time in private, she had argued with him, too, telling Severus that their friendship had taken the final blow it could suffer.

And there was really the gist of it all, therein lay the reason why she had stayed indoors most of the summer. Though staying put made her feel confined and bored out of her mind, she had not dared to venture outside and risk bumping into Snape. They had been friends for seven long years until Lily had ended it four odd weeks ago. It really had been the only choice. She had run out of excuses for Severus. She had had enough. She had known for a while that they were growing apart, but the time had come to actually admit that it was too late, that their chosen paths lead to opposite directions.

But even though she knew she had only done what she had to, it still hurt.

Lily glanced at her desk, nearly hidden underneath a heap of books, quills, letters and rolls of parchment. So many times, she had wanted to ease her pain by telling her friend how miserable she was feeling about it all. A few times, she had even started a letter. She could never get the words out, though, because she knew none of her friends would understand. Not even the kind and sweet Mary MacDonald, not after having almost been hexed last year for fun by Mulciber, that vile friend of Snape's.

So when she had finally written a letter to Mary, Lily had chosen to stick to more neutral topics than Severus Snape. She had complained about Petunia and how bored things were at home, and then she had talked about her O.W.L. scores.

Lily had done well enough, though she was a bit disappointed with her E in Defence Against the Dark Arts. She knew she could have done better; she had not really performed up to her usual par in the practical examination in the afternoon as she had still been upset by the lakeside fiasco that had taken place before lunch. Still, despite her disappointment, she couldn't really complain. After all, 'E' had been the lowest score she had got, and she only had two of them. Her other friends, Gwen Douglas and Marlene McKinnon, had already sent her letters to poke fun out of her multitude of 'O's. Just yesterday, a letter had arrived from Marlene, stating that she wasn't at all surprised that "Miss Prefect – I mean Perfect – Evans gets equally Perfect grades". Lily had no trouble picturing the short blonde witch snorting and rolling her eyes. Gwen had dryly reminded her that since it was summer break, she should take a leave from over-achieving and give her brain some rest.

Lily welcomed the teasing, after all it was one of the ways they showed affection. Where Lily was mocked about her studious habits, they were always laughing at Gwen for how crazy she got about Quidditch, at Marlene for her laziness and always making a mess of their dormitory, at Mary for being a doting mother hen.

Still, writing to her friends and reading their letters could only stay the sheer, mind-numbing boredom for so long. Being trapped in the house meant there the things she could do were fairly limited – and Lily had already finished her homework for the summer and re-read through her entire bookcase. It didn't help much either that she was mostly home alone. Her father was at work. Her mother was at home, but she spent half her time in the garden and the other half busy with housework; and it felt like every other day she would visit a friend or have a club meeting or something other of the sort. Petunia was hardly ever at home. She had found a summer job and any spare time she had was spent with her friends. The latter didn't bother her so much, however; Lily was secretly grateful for not having her big sister around. The two of them did not exactly get along – which was putting it mildly.

Lily sighed and rolled over in her bed, staring at the white ceiling. She hugged the pillow closer. All of a sudden, she ached for the summers of her childhood, when she and Petunia had been inseparable. The faraway days had been filled with laughter and warm sunshine, rolling on the green grass and catching butterflies, exploring the neighbourhood and playing in the nearby park. They had been so close, then. Now, if Petunia acknowledged her at all it would be just cold glares and loud, disapproving sniffs sent to her direction. It broke her heart that she had lost her sister, partially because of her best friend. Now her best friend was lost to her as well, and Petunia still hated her.

For a fleeting second, Lily was tempted to get up from the bed, sit down at her desk, and write a letter to Mary asking if she could come over to stay with her.

But she didn't. She already spent most of her years away at school with her friends. Summers were when she was able to spend time with her family. She could talk with her mother and help her around in the garden; she could play cards with dad and watch the silly detective shows together with him. She could be polite and civil to Petunia when the whole family gathered for dinner. She loved her family, she wanted to spend with them the little time she could. And really, in the end, the reason why she was feeling so gloomy and miserable had nothing to do with her family and everything to do with Severus Snape.

Lily drew a trembling breath and angrily brought her hands up, wiping away her drying tears. She was done, she swore to herself. No longer would she shed tears over Snivellus, these would be the very last ones she would spare for the memory of their broken friendship.

Her resolve finally found, Lily pushed herself off her bed and walked over to her desk. She dragged a spare bit of parchment closer, dipped her quill into the small bottle of ink, and started to answer the pile of letters from her friends.