Lily Evans stared at the fire place in the Head's common room. Curled in a ball with a blanket for added warmth was how James Potter had left his partner. Now he had come back, four hours later to find her in the same position. No tears, no sad face. Just an absent stare was all that was on her face. The letter that had caused all of the trouble lay on the ground at her feet. James knew what the letter contained, having gotten a similar one two months ago himself. He grabbed the red apple he had managed to sneak away from dinner out of his bag and walked over to her.
"Here, Lily, you need to eat something." James offered.
She stared at the offered fruit before taking it and staring at it instead of the fire. Finally after almost five minutes of silence, she spoke. "You know, once, when I was little, I asked a question about apples. I asked why they were red." she said quietly.
James had no clue as to why she was talking about apples when she had just found out her parents had died. Had Lily Evans finally turned crazy? Almost as quick as he thought it, he recieved an answer.
"When I asked that, my mother gave me an answer I laughed at. She told me they were red for many different reasons. That it was a fruit that symbolized much of the world. It was red because eating an apple a day keeps the doctor away, so to speak. Apples are red because your heart is red and its a good fruit to help the heart out, she told me. Mum told me apples were a sign of knowlege used by teachers because the cells in the brain were red. Whether that's true or not, I don't know. But she also said the color of apples were red because of anger. Supposedly, when Eve ate the apple and then offered it to Adam in the bible, it angered God. Before that, all apples were a shade of green to represent the fruitfulness of the earth. But God changed it when the two disobeyed and angered him. So he changed half the apples to red to remind him of their sin.
"She also said they were a sign for love because the center of an apple is an oddly shaped heart. The red apple is a sign of change, for apples taste best if eaten in the fall when they have had time to grow old and other things are changing to become new in the spring." Lily rotated the apple in her grasp as she talked. Finally, she looked up at James. "I can't eat this...it means too much to me. I don't think I will ever be able to eat one again. They remind me of my childhood, a happy time when my mother was able to answer stupid questions like why apples are red."
From that day until the day Lily was murdered by Voldemort, she never ate another red OR green apple. Neither did James.
A/N: Corny? Stupid? Good?... opinions are welcome.. just click the little button below...