Misunderstood
I put the last of my clothes in my trunk, and closed it shut. I looked around the empty room and sighed. My four other roommates were already downstairs. I had to room to myself for a last few moments. I sat on my bed and brought my knees up to my chest, blinking back some tears, wondering when going home became such a bad thing.
Home was never really all that bad. It was only until I came to Hogwarts, and then I realized how many more people like me there were. I realized I truly belonged here and not in the Muggle world, where I never really fit in. I was always doing strange, inexplicable things, and no one really had an explanation for it, until Snape explained it to me, and then Dumbledore explained it to my parents.
Eventually, as the years went by, I enjoyed being at Hogwarts, surrounded by all this magic, more than anything. My days at Hogwarts were some of the best of my life. As Petunia drifted away from me in the beginning, I learned to live without her, making some of my close friends here like my own sisters.
As I entered my teen years, I started drifting away from my parents, spending more time in the Magical world with my friends, rather than staying at home during the Summer holidays. I started to spend every vacation here at Hogwarts. Then, during this year, I got word that they died. After the initial shock, I didn't know what to think.
It was terrible that they were gone, but I eventually realized that my remaining connections with the Muggle world were going away. Now I only had my sister, and if we could help it, we didn't talk. It was some kind of a bittersweet feeling.
"Lily?" A masculine voice asked softly. "Are you okay?" He asked, this time coming closer, and sounding worried. I quickly wiped the tears from my face.
"I-" A quick raise of the eyebrow told me James wasn't going to to be fooled. "Not really." I finished quietly. I broke eye contact with him and started to look around, remembering all the memories and the great times in this room. He sat behind me on the bed and pulled me on to his lap.
"Remember," He started, stroking my hair, "Right here? In this exact spot? You said 'Yes' to me for the first time? It took ages, didn't it?" He chuckled. "And over there, right in front of the bathroom door, we both found out we'd gotten the exact same marks on our N.E.W.T.'s?"
"Except for Potions and Transfiguration," I sniffled. "Those were switched." He laughed.
"Yes, they were." He looked around the room some more. "And right there, in front of the door? It was the middle of the night, and you woke up, and started hitting me, demanding to know who it was without even letting me get a word out because you'd gagged me already."
"It was a perfectly reasonable thing to do." I giggled. "You aren't supposed to know how to get up here!"
"It was your fault, really. You suggested I read Hogwarts: A History!" He defended himself.
"I didn't know there was another book with the same title that gave you all the bad secrets of Hogwarts!" I protested.
"It was actually a fake book, you know, written by Fabian and Gideon Prewett. They wrote it in the last page. Fake book, real secrets." He gave me the lop-sided grin that never failed to fill my stomach with butterflies.
"Did you leave it there?" I asked sharply.
"Of course." He replied. I rolled my eyes.
"You're supposed to confiscate these things!" I reminded him, as I had many times this year.
"It's a crime for me to do that to a fellow prankster, no matter how high of a position of authority I have." He grinned. "Besides, I'm sure Dumbledore knows it's there, and he hasn't done anything about it."
"That's why McGonagall handles those type of things." I shook my head. He laughed, but it quickly died down with the silence.
"Are you ready to go?" He asked quietly, rubbing my back. I let the question hang in the air for a while.
"Yeah." I finally said, getting off of his lap. He pulled my trunk off my bed and with one last longing look, I left the room. It was hard to imagine that I'd never go back again. I'd never sleep in one of those four poster beds ever again. It was impossible to think that next September, another new first year Gryffindor would occupy my bed.
"It'll be okay," He whispered to me. "We've got each other, yeah?" I nodded in agreement as we started to go down the stairs towards the Common Room. Sirius, Remus, and Peter were already down there, but they were three of the few.
"Are you two ready?" Sirius asked, looking from me to James. James looked at me. I glanced over the Common Room again.
"Let's go." I said, determined not to cry again. We left the Common Room without a word, all of us trying to commit the entire Castle to memory before we had to leave.
"Can you three take our stuff to the train? Lily, do you mind if we go near the Quidditch Pitch?"
"Of course not, let's go." I said, determined to stall time. We held hands as we descended through the many staircases, trying to remember the good times and enjoy our last few minutes here. I was tempted to purposely fall in the Trick Step, but at the last second, I skipped past it out of pure habit. I reluctantly followed him out the castle. We walked to the middle of the Quidditch Pitch, and only a few other Quidditch enthusiasts were still here.
"Are you still planning to go live with your sister?" He asked, looking at the Goal Posts, and tearing up a little.
"Yes." I said solemnly.
"Why? Neither of you actually like each other." He reminded me, still not quite meeting my eye.
"Because," I sighed, "Her place is the only place I have left, I don't have enough money for my own flat. I'll have to wait until I get enough to support myself. And she's more than happy. She wants to 'stamp out' all the Magic out of me." I said bitterly.
"Then come stay with me. We'll get our flat together, and we'll pay for it half and half, I'll even pay for two-thirds of it." He said, finally looking at me. I looked up at him in surprise. It would really be wonderful to stay with him, it only made sense!
"That'd be great." I smiled, my insides starting to bubble with happiness. I'd be free now, and truly part of this world, where I really belonged.
A/N: Every time I sat down, and tried to write another chapter of James Potter, other things would come to mind. Hence, two new one shots. Review? Love,
SAM :)