Chapter 2: The Reason Why
The morning came bright and early, and Lily Potter awoke to the sounds of birds chirping and some people scrambling to get to work.
She sat up and yawned widely, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She pulled the sheets back and got out of bed, stretching and making her way down the hall to her son's room. She was checking to see if he was awake, because at this time he was usually downstairs watching television and eating cereal.
Lily got to his room, and she knocked softly at first, saying, "Harry? Love, are you awake?" She didn't hear an answer, so she pushed open his door.
She stood in his doorway, studying his room. Harry always liked the Gryffindor colors, so he had asked his parents if he could paint his room maroon and gold. The wall opposite Lily was maroon, and on it were posters of many muggle bands and singers, some British and others from the states, like Nelly. Lily had no idea how her son listened to rap, but he liked it, so she wasn't one to complain. Underneath the posters, leaning against the wall, was his football and basketball, and next to those on the stand was his electric guitar.
He kept his acoustic guitar over by his desk, which was on the wall to Lily's left, painted gold. His closet was on the left side of the desk, filled with his muggle and wizard clothes.
The wall to Lily's right was where his bed was, and a short distance away from his bed sat his dresser. Above his bed, tacked on the wall, were pictures of him, Lily and James, and Harry's friends from Hogwarts. Most of the pictures were of him and one of his best friends, Jamie McGinnis, who lived next door. The two had grown up together, since they were in diapers. A lot of the pictures were just of Jamie, and Lily smiled.
She moved into his room towards his desk, where a picture in a frame sat. Like pictures in the magical world, it was moving. She looked down at the picture, which was of Jamie at Hogwarts. Harry had taken it, and in it, Jamie was sitting underneath the willow tree by the Black Lake with Harry, drawing a random picture. Every now and then, the Jamie in the picture would look up at the camera and smile flirtatiously, then stick her tongue out.
Lily knew that Harry was in love with Jamie; being a mother, she had figured it out a couple of years ago. It was painfully obvious; whenever Jamie was over the house, Harry always seemed in an excellent mood, and he never left her side if he could help it. He was always hugging her and teasing her, and she would do it right back.
She put the picture back on the desk, then she turned and started to make her way over to her sleeping son's bed. She stopped 3 feet from the foot of his bed, however; his sheets were covering his chest down and one of his arms was folded under his head, but on his chest, just visible under the sheets, was a mane of jet-black hair that she knew didn't belong to Harry.
Lily went into "mother mode", and she put her hands on her hips, narrowed her eyes and screeched, "HARRY JAMES POTTER!" Harry jerked awake, and as soon as he saw his mother, his eyes went wide and he said sleepily, "Uh….morning, mum." Lily said, "Don't you 'morning mum' me, young man! Who is that with….." but she stopped as the other person started to wake up also.
The other person sat up slowly, so the covers slid off inch by inch, and the hair was revealed to belong to a young girl, about Harry's age. She had a very pretty face, a beauty mark on her right cheek, and slightly pouting lips. The girl opened her eyes, and they were a soft, ocean-blue color.
When Lily saw her, she gaped in disbelief, and she said, "Jamie??" It seemed that the sharp tone of Lily's voice caused her god-daughter to fully wake up, and she sat up straight as if being addressed by a teacher in Hogwarts. She then looked for the source of the voice, and as she saw Lily, she said, "Uh……um...good morning, Aunt Lily."
Lily said sternly, "Jamison McGinnis, what in heaven's name are you doing here? You're supposed to be at the Burrow!"
Jamie's eyes went wide as she remembered why she had come to Harry's house, and the event that transpired at the Burrow. She immediately started to tear up, and as a few tears leaked out, Harry gathered her in his arms and said to Lily, "Mum, could you not talk about the Burrow for now? Jamie's really upset at someone there."
Lily's face softened into a motherly expression, and she said softly, "What did Ronald do this time?" but that was the wrong thing to say, it seemed. As soon as Jamie heard Ron's name, she let out a wail and clutched onto Harry even tighter, sobbing violently. Harry rocked her back and forth, whispering soothing words to his distraught girlfriend, and he looked at his mother incredulously, saying, "You had to say his name, didn't you?"
Lily was thunderstruck, and she said, "I….I didn't know! I'm sorry!" When Jamie had calmed down enough to form a coherent sentence, Lily asked her, "What happened, Jamie?"
Jamie tried to talk, but the words wouldn't come, so she looked at Harry, who understood what she wanted him to do. He waved his hand over her face, and Lily gasped as the bruises were revealed.
She then said, "Did R….." but she caught herself this time, saying instead, "Did he do that to you, sweetheart?" Jamie nodded, and Harry whispered, "Do you want me to tell her, love?" She nodded again, and Harry sighed, turned to his mother, and said, "Last night, he tried to rape her."
Jamie broke out in a fit of fresh sobs, and Harry once again soothed her, while Lily's jaw was agape in shock. She knew the Weasleys, and Ron would never do something like that. It seemed untrue, but here was Jamie, sitting here and telling her that the youngest Weasley son had tried to force himself on her.
Lily sat in front of Jamie, and she held her chin in her hand gently and said, "We'll see that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley hear about this, okay sweety?" Jamie sniffed, and she said quietly, "Okay. Thank you, Aunt Lily."
Harry and Jamie then got dressed, Jamie borrowing the shirt of Harry's she had slept in and a pair of his jeans and shrinking them to her size, and they ate breakfast. After, James had gone to Grimmauld Place to see Sirius and Remus, so Lily accompanied Jamie and Harry to the Burrow. They Apparated outside of the house, knocked, and the door was soon answered by Mrs. Weasley bustling around to make breakfast.
She saw Jamie, and she said, "Oh, Jamie, thank goodness! I was going spare when I couldn't find you! Thank you for bringing her back, Lily……" but Lily cut her off and said, "Actually, Molly, we came to get Jamie's things. She's going to be staying with us for the remainder of the summer." Molly ushered them inside, and she said, closing the door behind her, "Oh, well, that's all right, then." Then, she yelled, "KIDS!! GET DOWN HERE, BREAKFAST IS READY!" Feet were thundering down the stairs, and Percy, Fred, George and Ginny, the youngest Weasley and only girl, came into the kitchen.
Ginny saw Jamie, and she rushed to her and hugged her, saying, "Jamie, where'd you go? How could you just disappear on us like that?" She pulled back, and the others were nodding in agreement. Then, Molly said, "Well, Ron will be happy to see you, I can tell you that!"
Jamie looked scared, and she moved closer to Harry, who grabbed her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. Lily then said, "Well Molly, we wanted to talk to you about Ron."
Molly said, "Oh, dear. What did he do this time? Whatever it is, I can assure you, he's going to apologize, and I'm sure you'll all make up." Harry shook his head and said quietly, "It's a bit more complicated than that, Mrs. Weasley."
Harry then nudged Jamie forward a bit, and he whispered, "Go ahead, love. Tell her what happened. I'm right here, don't worry." Jamie took a deep breath, and she said, "Well, Mrs. Weasley, last night Ronald told me that he had wanted to talk to me privately about something important. I snuck out of Ginny's room and into Ronald's. When I was inside, he locked the door and silenced the room, and I asked him what he wanted. He then proceeded to blurt out that he loved me." Mrs. Weasley looked ecstatic, and she said, "That's wonderful, dear. Now you'll be a….." Jamie cut across her and said, "I'm not finished, Mrs. Weasley. I told him that while I was flattered, I didn't return his feelings, and that I was in love with someone else. He got angry, and he said that he would make me see that we were meant to be together. He forced me down on his bed, and he tried to kiss me, but I moved my face. He tried to do it again, and I moved again, and that's when he hit me."
Molly looked aghast, and Jamie continued, "He split my lip, and I was telling him to stop, but he wouldn't. He started to grope me, very hard, and I kept on yelling and begging for him to stop, but he just told me to shut up and it would all be over soon."
Jamie had started to cry again, out of anger, and she kept going, her accent turning Scottish as she did so. "He wouldn't stop, an' ah begged an' begged him to stop. He hit me again when ah tried to bite 'im, an' he just…..he reached down an' tried to rip off my underwear. Ah kicked him, an' he hit me again, on my thigh."
Everyone was silent, and Jamie said, "He almost got my underwear off, but I kneed 'im an' jumped up, an' that's when ah Apparated to Harry's."
Molly had gone an impossible shade of red, and she opened the kitchen door, calling out, "Ron, will you please come in here?" A couple of minutes later, he entered the kitchen, and Jamie let out a small squeak of fear, moving closer still to Harry. Ron looked up and said, "Why's everyone looking at me like that?" He then noticed Lily, Harry and Jamie, and when he saw Jamie, an ugly leer formed on his face, and he said, "What's that slut doing here?"
The Weasley children and Harry had their wands out and pointed at him before anyone could blink. Harry stepped forward and said menacingly, "You will never call her that again, or so help me God, I will kill you!" Ron said, "Hey, mate, did she tell you how she just let me get into her pants? I told you, she's a slut. She gave it up so easily I didn't even have to do any work, she did all of it. If I had known she was such a bloody slag, I would've fucked her 2 years ago!"
Before Mrs. Weasley or anybody could act or say anything, Jamie ran at Ron and punched him with all of her strength, crying out, "YOU BLOODY FUCKING LIAR!!" He cried out as his nose shattered, and he fell back, clutching his broken and bloody nose, saying, "What the fuck is your problem? It's true isn't it?"
Jamie was so angry that she was shaking, and he hands were balled into fists at her sides. She then screamed, "YOU KNOW IT ISN'T TRUE! YOU'RE ONLY ACTING LIKE THIS BECAUSE I TURNED YOU DOWN! YOU TRIED TO RAPE ME, RON!! HOW COULD YOU DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT? I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY BEST FRIEND. YOU SEE MY FACE? YOU DID THAT TO ME. THAT'S WHY I KNEW I BELONGED WITH HARRY; HE WOULD NEVER TRY TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ME!!"
Mrs. Weasley then yelled out, "THAT IS ENOUGH!!! RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY, HOW COULD YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT FORCING YOURSELF ON JAMIE? HAVE YOU COMPLETELY GONE 'ROUND THE TWIST?? YOUR FATHER AND I RAISED YOU BETTER THAN THAT!!" She then started whacking him upside his head with the dish towel she had been drying dishes with.
Ron was shouting, saying, "Ouch! Ow…mum……geroff…..stop! Stop!!" When Mrs. Weasley finally stopped, Ron looked around at his siblings, hoping to get someone to back him up. Percy was staring at him like he always did, only this time, he was much more upset. Fred and George were cracking their knuckles menacingly and giving him such heated looks they could've melted ice. Ginny was eyeing her idiotic older brother, and she slowly walked up to him, making him say, "Thanks, Gin. At least my favorite little sister is willing to back me up." Ginny got right in front of him, he looked down at her, and without warning, she pulled her hand back and slapped him hard.
She said, through her own tears, "How could you do something so stupid? She is my best friend too, you know, and you've hurt me by hurting her. I don't consider you my brother from this point up until Jamie decides to forgive you. I don't even want to breath the same air as you. YOU MAKE ME SICK!!"
Everyone was shocked at her outburst, and she went over and hugged Jamie again, and she said, "I am so sorry for what that idiot did. He should be sexually assaulted, and see how he likes it!" Jamie cracked a smile for the first time that day, and she said, "Thanks, Gin." When she went to walk over to her other brothers, she added, "Oh, and by the way, congratulations, you two. I always knew you would end up together."
Ron said, "Wait one fucking minute. You left me for Harry?" Jamie looked at Ron and said coolly, "You never had me, Ronald. I've always been in love with Harry. He tried to tell you countless times how he felt about me, but you just didn't care about his feelings. You were determined to have me, and look how well that turned out. Harry's always had my heart, from when we were kids."
Harry wrapped his arm around Jamie's waist, and Jamie looked up at him sweetly, and they kissed tenderly. Jamie heard Mrs. Weasley and Ginny let out an "Awwwww!" and Ron snorted. The couple then went upstairs to retrieve Jamie's trunk and her grey and black striped tabby cat, Kieran's, carrier. Jamie carried Kieran slowly, seeing as he was asleep and she didn't want to wake him.
Before Harry, Jamie and Lily left, Jamie said, "Oh, and Ronald?" He looked up at her and said rudely, "What??" She then said, "I hate you, fuck you, and I will never forgive you.Go to hell."
With those lovely parting words, Lily, Harry and Jamie Apparated to Godric's Hollow.
