Author's Note: This is my first story :) It was inspired by the song Cry With You by Hunter Hayes.
Cover Art: taken from Google Images
Disclaimer: the Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K Rowling
Cry With You
The sun was beginning to dip below the hills, illuminating the sky with bright red, orange and pink hues. The sunset acted as a backdrop for the castle that stood alone on the hill.
A few students sat by the lake and watched the sunset, while others were watching it from their dorm windows.
Lily Evans sat in the Heads' common room staring into the fading light outside. She remembered the saying, " red sky at night, a sailor's delight; red sky in the morn, sailor's be warned," and thought about how the next morning was suppose to be beautiful.
The night's journey to the morning however, wasn't going to be as pleasant as the sky looked now.
Lily was jerked out of her thoughts suddenly, when the door opened loudly. Her dorm mate, and Head Boy, James Potter walked in.
"Detention couldn't have been that bad, that you felt the need to slam the door could it?" Lily said smiling, not moving from her perch in the window.
James stared blankly around, "huh? Oh..." he looked at the door and frowned, "right... sorry."
Lily's smile faded slightly, "what did McGonagall make you do this time?"
She frowned when James continued to stare into space, "are you okay?"
He looked at her slowly with unfocused eyes, "uh...yeah...sure. I'm gonna...go...bed...tired."
"Oh," Lily said surprised, "o-okay. I have to go meet-" she stopped as she moved out of the window and caught a glimpse of James' face.
It looked pained – though he was trying to mask it – his hazel eyes, usually bright with mischief, were bloodshot and slightly puffy.
"Hey." Lily said alarmed, "what's wrong?" She moved closer to him and reached out, but he flinched way from her hand.
"It's nothing," he said. Lily could make out a slightly congested sound to his voice, as though he had been crying.
"Don't insult my intelligence," she said, "I can tell something's wrong. Even though we haven't been on the best of terms until recently, I still know when you're upset."
James ignored her and abruptly turned his back on her and fled to his room.
Lily blinked, then frowned. James was usually an open book, and make it known what was on his mind.
She walked quietly up the stairs and knocked softly on the door, "James," she said gently, "open the door." When he didn't respond, she tried the knob. Locked (truthfully, she wasn't expecting it to be unlock and would have been more surprised if it was). She knocked again, "come on, James. Unlock the door. You know I can get in with or without your permission."
She waited a minute before deciding he was stubborn, pulling out her wand and unlocking the door herself. She opened the door and stood in the doorway.
She saw him laying face down, sprawled on his bed. His mop of black hair was visible against the white pillowcase. Lily leaned against the door frame, giving him time to kick her out if he wanted to.
When he didn't, she moved across the room and sat on the floor beside the bed, leaning on the side of the mattress. She sat in silence with her eyes closed.
"What are you doing here?" James' muffled voice said finally.
Lily shrugged, her eyes still closed, "just checking to make sure you're not going to do anything stupid, in your state."
"My state?"
"Oh, you know...upset, depressed ... wouldn't want you to do something stupid, like jump off the balcony.
"Why would I do that?" James asked, his voice still muffled as his face stayed hidden in the pillow.
"Beats me," Lily said looking at him, "you're the one who's going to suffocate if you keep your head in the pillow."
James slowly turned his head to the side to look at her.
"That's better," Lily said smiling, "now- what's actually going on?"
James closed his eyes and look a breath, tears rolling down his face when he opened his eyes, "my parents were killed on an Auror mission tonight."
Lily moved to sit on the bed beside him, "James. I-" she rested a hand on his back and began rubbing her fingers in small circles, "I-" she tried again, but knew there was nothing she could say that would be helpful to him, "I'm sorry," she said, feeling slightly generic.
"It was suppose to be just a routine mission," James said suddenly, "they've done this stuff for years – it was almost second nature to them." He got up abruptly and began pacing the room, "all they had to do was bust a Dark magic party and arrest everyone," he said, "they've done more dangerous stuff than that all the time!" His voice started to rise, "why should this time have been any different?!" He swept papers off the desk. "This is what they're trained for!" A bottle of ink fell to the ground and shattered. "they've practised mission in order to prepare them for raids!"
Without warning, he turned and punched a hole in the wall, and promptly threw things across the room. "It's not fair! Why them?! Why now?!" He continued yelling until he dropped to this knees and started to shake.
Lily waited a moment before she knelt beside him and wrapped her arms around him. He buried his face in her shoulder and repeated, "it's not fair," over and over into her hair.
She stroked his hair. "I know," she whispered.
"Why them?" James said sounding hopelessly lost.
"I don't know," Lily said, "but listen. You - look at me – you will not not be along during this. We'll get through this," she reassured him.
James sniffed, "we?"
Lily smiled, "yes, we. You and Remus and Siri-" her smile vanished, "does Sirius know?"
"Oh yeah. He knows. He was given a Calming potion almost immediately," James said warily.
"And you didn't need one?"
"I ran before they could give me one."
"Of course you did," Lily said, "you could probably do with one know though," she noticed he had begun to shake with sobs again and his breathing was becoming faster.
"Shh," Lily said trying to wipe the steady stream of tears away that flowed down his face, "just breath," she whispered, "in and out ... breathe." She rubbed his neck in small, soothing circles again until this breathing became somewhat normal.
Lily got up and lead him to the bed where he lay down. When she moved to leave, he panicked and tightened his grip on her hand.
"Don't leave," he said, practically begging, "please."
Lily gazed at him. His eyes were still bloodshot and there were tear tracks down his cheeks, "okay."
James relaxed slightly and pulled her down beside him.
They lay in silence, until Lily could feel James twitching as he fell asleep. Everytime he moved and woke himself up, he shook his head as if to ensure he stayed awake.
"You can go sleep you know," Lily said quietly.
James shook his head, "if I sleep then you'll leave."
Lily looked up at him and saw the sincerity in his eyes, "no, I won't."
"Yes you will," James yawned, "because you're suppose to be meeting someone."
Lily frowned slightly, "so?"
"So, if I sleep, you'll leave so you can go on with your plans – and I'll be alone."
"Alice will understand – and even if she doesn't – I'm not going anywhere."
"But-" James started.
"But nothing," Lily interrupted, sitting up, "I hate seeing you like this and I'm not going to let you deal with it alone."
"Yes but-" James tried again.
"I'm not leaving, and I'll be here when you wake up. I promise."
Seeing that he was going to try and argue again, she did something she knew would catch him off guard. She leaned down and kissed him.
"I. Am. Not. Leaving." Lily said clearly, laying down and using his chest as a pillow, "got it?"
"Yeah. Got it." James said, draping his arm on her waist and finally allowing his body to release all the tension the last few hours had built up.
"You've just sealed your fate with me thanks to that kiss." James said, kissing the top of her head.
"I know," Lily said smiling.
Hmm... re-reading it makes me feel as though it was a little rushed. Oh well ...
Please let me know what you think by posting a review :)