Hey there, my people! Here is the second chapter! I know this is still pretty sad, but what can I say? This is a sad story. Anyway, I really want some reviews people, I got a grand total of three last time and I'd really like some responses. Please people, I'm begging you, reviews, even if you hate it with a fiery passion, review it to tell me that!

Happy reading.

Chapter 2: Stolen Part II

"I'm worried about him," Scarlett said, her arms elbow deep in soapy water.

Scarlett and Sirius were downstairs, Sirius sitting up at the counter eating a very late lunch BLT from the leftover bacon from James's breakfast as Scarlett did the dishes—she always insisted on doing it by hand because she said the spell didn't do a good enough job. Sirius looked up at her, surprised by this sudden announcement after five minutes of complete silence.

"I am too," Sirius said, setting down his fork.

"So?" Scarlett said, glancing at him. "What do we do about it?"

"Scar, we can't do anything," he said patiently. "He has to hash this out himself."

Scarlett said nothing, which Sirius correctly interpreted as Scarlett's 'that-wasn't-what-I-wanted-to-hear' reaction.

"Scarlett…" Sirius said, coming around the counter. He came up behind her and slipped his arms around her waist, resting his head in the nook between her head and her shoulder. "Honeybear…"

"Call me that again I'll castrate you with a plastic spork," Scarlett said, scouring a pot with steel wool and an alarming ferocity.

"Alright," he said hastily, smiling into her hair. He leaned his head down, planting a soft kiss on her bare shoulder. "Love, we can't butt in here."

"There has to be something we can do," she insisted furiously, never looking away from the pot she was scrubbing. "There has to be something…"

"Scarlett," Sirius said firmly, forcing her to put down the pot by turning her around. "I know you don't like feeling helpless, and I don't either. But he has to do this on his own."

She nodded, looking down.

"How could she just leave like this?" Scarlett whispered, still avoiding Sirius's gaze. "How could she leave James like this? How could she leave us? She was supposed to be our best friend and then suddenly… she's just gone without a trace. No notice, no time to deal with it, just a fucking note and a forwarding address, and leaving devastation in her wake, devastation we're gonna have to clean up after…"

Sirius took note of the hardened expression, the clenched jaw, knowing that behind the angry façade Scarlett wanted her best friend back as much as James did.

"It's not good to dwell on this," Sirius said softly. "You just told James to let it go, and you need to do the same."

"Don't you tell me what—" Scarlett started indignantly before being cut off by a kiss. Sirius remained at her lips for a moment, leaving a sweet, lingering kiss, before straying, leaving feather-light, trailing kisses along her jaw and down the line of her neck.

"Hey, you can't just kiss me and hope I'll forget about this…" Scarlett said, her breath shallow and completely unconvincing, although she was trying to sound stern. Sirius's finger went to the strap on her camisole, slipping it off her shoulder. "Oh Jesus Christ Sirius, stop it, I'm still mad at you…"

"Stop talking, Love," Sirius murmured, grinning mischievously. "Show me you're mad some other way." She pursed her lips, trying not to smile.

"C'mon, Black," she said indignantly, angry that she couldn't stay mad at him as she pulled him by his shirt collar into their bedroom.

---

James came downstairs after a while for something to eat. He had just showered, spending two hours trying to wash the gross, sticky hungover feeling from him, and he was now voraciously hungry. He pulled open the refrigerator, glancing through to see if there was anything that struck his fancy. He could've sworn they'd ordered out for pizza before the bar—after the oceanic volumes of liquor he'd consumed, he couldn't remember—but there was an odd absence of pizza in the refrigerator. He decided to ask Sirius about it.

James glanced over at Sirius's bedroom door which was easily visible from the kitchen. Noticing that it was closed, he tossed a grape from the fruit bowl at the door. As he expected, it bounced off before it even hit it. He rolled his eyes good-naturedly, deciding to check one more thing. He walked over to the door.

"FIRE!" he shouted, his lips only mere inches from the door. "OH MY GOD, FIRE! SCARLETT! SIRIUS! GET OUT OF HERE, THERE'S A FIRE!"

Nothing.

James smiled, sitting down at the couch with an apple. There were God knows how many Silencing charms and one huge Imperturbable Charm on that door, and there was only one reason to put the Imperturable/Silencing combo on the door.

Without any warning, James suddenly felt very sad. Not bitter or angry or frustrated, simply very sad. He was of course happy for Scarlett and Sirius and all their happiness, but… he supposed he wanted some for his own. He didn't want to spend all his time trying to remember what it was to be happy or gazing nostalgically at those who knew.

This was not how you lived, hanging in from one happy instant to another. He wanted stretches, expanses, of happiness, the way it'd been when he and Lily had been together.

He checked his watch. 7:00 pm. He nodded to himself, getting up and going to his room. He got dressed to go out.

Lily was over the whole thing, obviously. It was time that he did the same.

---

Scarlett stood on the balcony that came off hers and Sirius's room, watching the very last of the sun slip down under the horizon. To Scarlett, it was the best time of the day during the best time of year: the air was warm but never hot, the summer breeze was gentle and comforting, and the sky was an explosion of color. And she loved spending this time of day right here, so far above the city. It was as though she could watch the hustle and bustle of the street below without getting swept up in it. It was reassuring to her, that the city could keep up it's routine no matter what was going on ten stories above it. No one on the ground knew about the cousin who had lost the only girl he'd ever loved and that she'd left him by means of a note, and somehow she felt like it was supposed to be that way.

Sirius emerged from the room onto the balcony, coming up behind Scarlett, breathing in the scent of her flowery shampoo on her still damp curls and the ivory soap on her freshly showered skin.

"Stop thinking about it," he said softly into her ear.

"How do you know what I'm thinking about?" she asked quietly.

"Because you've got that look on your face." He kissed her on the cheek. "He'll come around."

"I hope so," she mumbled.

---

James walked into the bar and sat himself in his usual seat. Sirius wasn't working tonight, but the replacement from last night, Jack, was.

"Hey," he said cautiously, coming up to James. "We're not gonna have a repeat performance of yesterday, are we?"

"No," James said good-naturedly. "I promise to be a good boy."

"Okay," Jack said, still careful but relaxing a bit. "Can I trust you with a beer, or am I gonna have to keep you on club soda?"

"Better safe than sorry," James said. "But make it a coke."

"Alright," Jack said, walking off to the other end of the bar and bringing him back his drink. James sat there for hours, drinking coke after coke. After approximately fifteen cokes and nearly four hours, a girl came up and sat beside him, flagging down the bartender and asking for a rum and coke. Glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, James could see her curled sandy blonde hair, sea green eyes lined with dark eyeliner, dark, thick eyelashes and pearly white teeth. She was in a sexy black top and a pair of dark wash skinny jeans whose hemline fell over the tops of her fire-engine red Mary Janes. She was just plain gorgeous: tall, thin, tan and inexplicably mesmerizing. She had the look of one of those girls who everyone wanted but no one could have, so full of mystery and allure.

James knew if there was anyone who would keep his mind off of Lily tonight, it would be her.

"Hey," James said smoothly, glancing at her. "What's your name?"

"Well, aren't you forward tonight?" she said with an American accent, which James found even more irresistible.

"Only with a beautiful lady," James said, flashing his world famous James Potter smile. "Now tell me, Love, what's your name?" She started at him with a warm smile, her eyes narrowed as though she was unsure if she should tell him.

"Lorelai," she said softly, smiling in a way that was inexplicably sexy. "Lorelai Seidel."

"Oh, are you William and Amelia's niece?" James asked. The Seidels were a highly influential wizarding family from the States, members of his parents circle of rich families.

"No," she said, laughing coyly. "I'm their daughter." James stared at her for a moment.

"Rory," James said finally, pointing at her. Lorelai glanced down, looking embarrassed. "You're Rory. We met at that Christmas tea at your house when we were fifteen."

"Great, you remember me," she said, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. "That kills my plans for tonight."

"What, why?" James said, poking a little fun at her. "You weren't that big a geek."

"Oh thanks," she said sarcastically. "I was though. A geek. I was odd and strange and ugly."

"You really weren't," James said, in earnest this time. "You were admittedly a little socially awkward, but you were never ugly."

"Yeah?" she said, raising an eyebrow skeptically, though James could tell she was warming up to him. "So tell me James, what are you here drinking about?"

"It's actually just a coke," he said, looking at his drink nostalgically, as though willing it to magically contain any alcohol it could muster.

"Yeah, but you're staring at it like you want nothing more to drown your sorrows in it," Lorelai noted, a knowing look in her eye. "So who are you drinking to?"

"Lily…" James said, tipping his glass towards Lorelai before taking a swig, only to be disappointed when there really was only coke in his glass.

"Ah…" Lorelai said, nodding with a sympathetic grin. "A girl."

"No," James said, shaking his head gently. "The girl."

"Oh…" she said, understanding. "What happened?"

"Lily and I had been together since we were in school," James started slowly, not really believing that he was telling this to someone who was practically a stranger. "Since we were both nearly seventeen. We were… god, we were just right together. There isn't really any other way to explain how we ended up together. We have nothing in common, we fight like cats and dogs, but somehow being together just made more sense than all the other options. When we graduated, we moved in together and everything continued to be good. Up until about five months ago, that is." James paused, forcing himself not to break. "I came home from work, and she wasn't there. See, Lily's worked from our flat, so if she wasn't home, it was a big deal. I went up to our bedroom, and there on the bed was a letter. Folded up into thirds. I took it, sitting down, and read it." James glanced at Lorelai, who was listening attentively. "I'll spare you the whole speech, but she basically told me that she had been offered a job in the States, and she'd had to leave immediately if she had any hope of accepting it. She fed me a bunch of bullshit about it being an amazing opportunity for her, one that would never come around again. She said that she'd realized that I was the only person she'd ever really been with in a real relationship and that she was letting this relationship sabotage the dreams she'd had before us."

"You didn't go after her," Lorelai said, as more of a statement than a question.

"I didn't see much of a point, really," James said, not at all offended by her comment. "She'd made it clear that being with me was keeping her back, and as much as I hate it, I love her and I reckoned… if that makes her happy then who am I to hold her back?"

"Wow," she mumbled softly, her voice kind and somewhat trusting. "That's awfully big of you."

"Yeah," James scoffed bitterly, taking another drink of his coke. "Great for me…" Lorelai said nothing, and took a drink of her rum and coke. She looked at him, watching his heart break all over again. She hadn't been expecting to be this person to someone else, the comforter, especially after having so many people be it for her; but here she was, desperately trying to find a console a man she'd barely even met, and she didn't really mind all that much.

James looked at Lorelai. She seemed so sincere, so real… she wasn't the same mysterious, mesmerizing girl that he'd thought she was. But it wasn't bad; before she'd been untouchable and superhuman, and now she seemed fallible and broken and… amazingly beautiful.

Lorelai didn't dare admit to herself that he'd caused the zero-gravity feeling in her stomach. God, didn't she ever learn? Love was a big nothing, a sorry excuse for people who needed something to believe in. It didn't make the world go round, it didn't make you whole again, and it didn't right all wrongs. All it did was give you a momentary high, a fleeting moment of light and bliss, before taking all you had and leaving you with nothing but the memories of what had been.

But there he was… so fantastically good looking and just as heartbroken as herself. And she felt herself giving in yet again.

James leaned in a little closer to Lorelai, the sweet, clean aroma of honeysuckles filling the air. She felt her heart jump into her throat and leaned in as well. He could see every facet of sea green in her eyes, every tan freckle spattered across her nose and cheeks…

As James kissed Lorelai, with about twenty some-odd witnesses, he felt a shift in the universe. Like some wrong was somehow being righted, something stolen was somehow being returned to its owner. The way James saw it, he'd fallen for Lily because she'd stolen his heart. He hadn't expected it, or even wanted it at first, but she'd held his heart in the palm of her hand, and after that, he couldn't have taken it back even if he'd wanted to. But now, sitting here in this bar, kissing a beautiful and amazing woman, James felt it coming back to him.

Yes, Lily had stolen his heart, even damaged it in the process, but here and now, James had stolen it back.

So? Good? Bad? Other?

If it's any of the above, please review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another chapter should be up soon.

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