AN: Me no ownnie Harry Potty. -snort- Harry Potter, sorry.

Chapter Two: Lonely?

"They were angels!" she lied, teeth gritted in a fake smile as she waved off her relatives. It was ten o'clock that night, and finally her Aunt Jackie, Aunt Rachel, and her mother, May, had come home from their convention, and took the children off her hands. She watched for a second as her aunts and cousins walked down the street to their homes–when Lily moved, her whole family moved, and they now all lived on the same street. That was how it worked with Lily's family–they were close. Petunia and Will barely got to choose where they wanted to go to college–it had to be somewhere close, of course–and although Lily had gone to a wizarding school in America, it was not a boarding school like Hogwarts, which is where she'd go for her final year of school. It was a major step for her family to let her to go to a boarding school, but since there was no other option, they allowed it. Since her whole family knew she was a witch, they'd write her daily anyway.

And maybe she'd finally have peace without the constant babysitting.

She loved her cousins and siblings, of course, all of them, but after being forced and forced again to babysit them day in and day out, as her parents and aunts and uncles were very social people and always had to go to some kind of party, it got a little old.

Shaking her head to rid herself of all these thoughts, she turned around and walked into her house, relishing in the slam of the screen door, which somehow managed to be soothing. Leaving the front door open, she walked into her new home.

Looking around, she was able to accept that it was better than her old home. There were wooden flooring instead of carpeting with stains, perfectly painted walls instead of creative drawings in crayon made from over the years, and windows almost covering every wall.

She turned to her right and into the living room. It was large and, even without the correct furniture, or much furniture at all, it gave off a homey vibe. After tripping on a couple of boxes, she walked into the sitting room, which was connected to the living room with sliding glass doors. Windows almost completely covered two of the walls, and the room was filled with boxes and nothing else. There was a door next to the a wall with a built-in bookcase that led into a hallway with more built-in bookcases, a bathroom, and the door to the basement that Lily had a sneaking suspicion was haunted. At least that's what she told herself; it was way too creepy to not be. However, the hallway led into a bright kitchen, and all thoughts of haunted basements fled from Lily's mind. She'd always had some weird love for kitchens, and this was definitely one of the prettiest ones she'd been in. It had white tile flooring, with white cabinets and an electric stove. The kitchen and dining room were only separated by counter tops, but they still felt like completely different rooms. In the dining room, the wooden flooring returned, and there was already a wooden table in the middle of the room with as many chairs that could fit around it as possible. The back door was also located in this room, and led out onto a patio and backyard with a hot tub and flowers.

The dining room also led back to where the front door was, and almost exactly parallel to this was the staircase to upstairs. There were four bedrooms upstairs; one that was Lily's, which was located right next to the steps, a small one that was going to be turned into a bedroom and nursery for Bryce was right next to Lily's, a master bedroom that was going to go to Lily's parents was across the hall from Bryce's and Lily's, and another master bedroom that was going to be Jamie and Belle's was next to Lily's parents. A bathroom was in the middle of the hallway and parallel to the staircase. As Will and Petunia went to college in America and wouldn't be here often, they did not have rooms upstairs, and instead got two rooms in the basement.

Walking into her room and ignoring the chatter that she could hear from her mother talking to her father on the phone, she shut her door and sat on the window seat that was in her room. That was one of the reasons why she picked this room. She'd always loved sitting on windowsills, but it'd gotten harder over the years as she'd grown, and she couldn't fit on the windowsill she'd had back in America.

She sighed and banged the back of her head against the wall once, before letting it stay there, thinking about America. She was going to miss it, even if while she'd lived there she'd complained about her small house or the mindless drama that happened at school. Most of all, though, she was going to miss her friends. Her best friends. Phoebe and Scarlet. The three of them had been friends since day one at the East Coast School of Magic. They'd bonded almost instantly, and had stayed just as close over the years. But now she'd left them, and staring up at the night sky she wondered if they were looking at the same stars.

When her parents had told her they were moving to England because her Aunt Rachel was getting transferred there for her job, she point blank refused. She said she'd live with Scarlet or Phoebe, or anyone, but there was no way in hell that she was going to move away from them. She'd moped and sulked, but it'd done no good.

Now that she was here for the second night, she had an aching in her stomach. All she wanted was to talk to Phoebe or Scarlet. That's all. Tell them about her cute pizza delivery boy and his friend, about anything. She didn't know how she'd make it without they're playful banter and constant bickering. It was what made the three of them the three of them.

Phoebe Heart was outspoken, loud, and crude. She had short, short brown hair, with eyes that had no specific color, they changed too much. She was tall and skinny and Lily often envied her for her beauty and confidence. She didn't care about what other people thought about her, and this often resulted in Scarlet and Lily wanting to pretend they didn't know her at all, but even still, Lily loved her.

Scarlet Baker was the same, only in a different way. Almost everything that came out of her mouth was a sarcastic comment, and when it wasn't it had the possibility of being mean, or extremely heartfelt, although no matter what it was she somehow seemed to always sound uninterested and bored. She changed her hair color as much as she changed her moods, and this happened often, although her eyes never changed from their sky blue. She didn't like big crowds and preferred when it was just her and a couple close friends. Most people thought that this made her shy, but in truth she just didn't think that other people had anything worthwhile to say.

Lily felt another pang of longing and homesickness, but she swallowed it down before she started crying and attempting to rip out her hair or apparate illegally. She tried to push the thoughts from her mind and focus on the stars she knew, but they all somehow formed Scarlet or Phoebe's faces, or something that reminded her of them, so she turned her attention to the dark area around her.

The houses in her neighborhood were close together, almost too close for her liking, and in a semi-circle formation. They were all large and bright and pretty and reminded her nothing of her home in America. She'd lived on the east coast, as you can tell from her school name, and practically in the middle of nowhere, but it was often too small for all of them. Her house was in the middle of a big field, though there was a road that merged into the highway. She could still picture everything in detail; the sign that had been knocked over for as long as she could remember, but no one made any effort to put it back up, the way the flowers bloomed, the steps she had to avoid when she snuck out, the portkey that she took to get to school...

God, she missed it. She missed it so much it physically ached and just when it was about to make her give a heart-wrenching sob, a voice interrupted her. "Lonely?" A male voice asked.

"Pizza boy?" she asked when she noticed who it was. She didn't remember opening her window, she didn't remember climbing out onto the roof that was under it, but looking around she noticed that she'd done it all by reflex. It was almost exactly the same back in America, and she realized with a jolt that she could remember the way the roof felt and grasping Phoebe's hand while she giggled and Scarlet rolled her eyes before they went out dancing...

"You didn't tell me you lived right next door," she noted, again realizing how close the houses were together, and that if he stood from his own window seat and went out onto the roof, he could easily come onto hers and vice versa. She also noted that, ironically, when he'd been at her door, she'd compared him to being like a boy-next-door, and that he was, in fact, just that.

"Didn't wanna ruin the surprise." He smiled. It wasn't an even smile like Phoebe's had been; it was lopsided, and Lily felt relief flood her.

The sound of Bryce crying filled her ears, but she made no move. Instead, she lay down on her roof, putting her hands under hear head and looking around the neighborhood.

"Your brother's crying."

Lily nodded. "My mom's home, though."

"Oh." They sat in silence for a couple of minutes, both emerged in their thoughts, before James broke it. "You never answered my question."

"What question?" Lily murmured, her eyes closed but no where close to sleep.

"Are you feeling lonely?"

She hesitated, before slowly saying, "I miss my friends from America."

He nodded, though Lily didn't see him. "I can't imagine leaving my friends," he said softly.

"Like the guy with the hair?"

He laughed. "Yeah, his name's Sirius."

"Like the star?" she asked, opening one eye and peeking at him. Over the time, he'd come to sit on his own roof under his window, and was now sitting cross-legged on the end.

He cocked an eyebrow at her. "How'd you know?"

"My dad taught me," she lied, since she couldn't exactly tell a Muggle that it was a class she took at her school where they also taught magic.

"Oh. Well, yeah, like the star. It's not just him though, it's my other best mate, Remus–"

She snorted. Upon realizing that she'd just snorted at his friends name, she turned it into a cough and said, "Sorry. Your friends have, um...weird names."

He gave another lopsided grin, ruffling his hair, and Lily was struck by the thought that he looked like he'd just gotten off a broomstick. "Yeah, I've got the normal one."

"I knew a James in the US," Lily said, thinking, "He was kinda chubby. Had greasy hair..."

James shuddered, and Lily looked at him oddly. "What?"

"Nothing, I just know a kid who has greasy hair. Really annoying. Into the dark–darkness."

"Into the darkness?" Lily quoted skeptically.

"He...likes the dark."

"Oh, um, okay then," Lily said, still looking at him oddly, before closing her eyes again. She was enjoying the peace and quiet for the first time today–finally, Bryce had stopped crying–and just sitting there listening to the wind and the very soft sound of the waves she could hear from the beach that was only a minutes walk away, trading words with James the Pizza Boy who she didn't really know, but didn't particularly mind because he was pretty and took her mind of Phoebe and Scarlet.

But nothing can last forever, can it?

"Lily!" her mother called. Groaning quietly, she opened her eyes and sat up.

"What?" she said just barely anything louder than how she normally talked, and definitely more flat.

"Will you play with Bryce? I have a headache."

"You're not the only one..." she muttered. James gave a quiet chuckle, and although Lily didn't really know him, she divulged information that she didn't like sharing with many people. "Honestly, I love her and I love Bryce, but sometimes I feel like I have to do everything for Bryce while she goes out with her sisters and goes to parties. Hell, half the time I have to do everything for her too."

James smiled at her sympathetically.

"This is why you don't friggin' have kids at forty-nine," she added, before sighing and saying, "I'll be right back."

She walked back into her room, and then out into the hallway. Sighing once again–she did that a lot, maybe she needed to stop–she stared at the mirror that was on the wall between her room and Bryce's. There were slight bags under her eyes, and the high ponytail that she'd had in the entire day was no longer so high and small piece's had fallen out. Shaking her head at herself and making no attempt to fix it, she made her way into her mother's room where Bryce currently was staying, took him in her arms, and walked away without a word.

"Were you talking to someone?" her mother asked, even though she was already in the hallway.

"Yes," she said shortly, before returning to her room, and shut the door with a little more force than was necessary. She knew she was being childish, but she didn't very well care. She was allowed to be childish, she was the one who was seventeen, and even that just barely, not her mother.

She walked back out of her window and onto her roof. James was still out on his, regarding her with a curious look. "Is it safe to have a baby on a roof?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Sure. I did it in America, too." He was still looking at her oddly, so she added with a roll of her eyes, "Live a little."

"Isn't that his choice?" he asked, indicating to Bryce.

"Maybe, but I don't particularly care. It's not like he's going to get hurt." With that, she plopped down on her roof, putting Bryce in front of her, but holding him around his chubby middle so he wouldn't wander and fall. James watched her with a small amount of amusement, but they sat in silence except for Bryce's giggles and made-up words.

A familiar jingle sounded from inside Lily's house and within a second she was on her feet, saying, "Oh, my God." Bryce was still in her arms, but it was only by reflex and not because she actually remembered he was there. Jumping into her window, she called a, "Hold on a second." over her shoulder at James.

She fished around on her bed until she found her cell phone. She knew that ringtone; it was Scarlet's, and wasn't it just seconds ago she was wishing she was talking to her?

She grabbed her cellphone and not even bothering to look at the caller ID, she pressed the send button, and asked, "Scarlet?"

"Lily?" Scarlet's voice came floating out and Lily felt that she herself was floating as well.

"Omigod, Scarlet!"

"Lily! How's England?"

"Honestly? I have no idea. Yesterday I slept and unpacked, and today I had to babysit everyone, so I haven't gotten a chance to look around. From what I've seen, though, it's just a small town."

She heard James' indignant cry of protest from outside her widow and popped her head out to smile. "Sorry, James."

Scarlet had been saying something, but once she heard a male voice and then Lily saying a male name, she stopped. "Was that a guy?" she asked.

"Yes," Lily answered with a roll of her eyes. "They do exist, you know. I mean, I thought they were just mythical creatures too, but they're crawling all over the place here!"

"You're starting to sound like me way too much," Scarlet said flatly.

"You rubbed off on me," Lily said with a smile.

"So, about the guy?"

"Oh. Yeah, he delivered my pizza and lives next door to me."

"Cute?"

"I think you'd appreciate his friend. Has the whole bad-boy thing down."

James laughed, and muttered, "Wait til I tell Sirius." Lily grinned at him again, and sat down on the roof again, not caring that James was listening to her half of the conversation or that he could have taken that as rude. As it was, he didn't.

"Leather jacket?" Scarlet asked.

"Yup."

"Sexy."

Lily laughed again. "He could look like a gorilla and you just called him sexy."

"At least he's got the leather jacket." Lily could picture Scarlet shrugging, twirling her wand around in her fingers, her cellphone between her ear and her shoulder. She knew that she'd be sitting in her favorite chair, the one right in front of her desk in her room. That was how Scarlet was, and Lily wished that there was no need for the cell phone between her ear and shoulder, that Lily could be sitting on the floor against her desk like they'd done millions of times before.

But everything was changing now and they both had to get used to it.

Shaking her head to rid herself of the depressing thoughts, her attention was turned to Bryce, who had fallen asleep in her arms, and even though Scarlet was talking, and Bryce almost always bothered her to no end, and she was sitting in the somewhat chilly night on a roof in England, she realized that maybe she didn't mind her mom shoving Bryce on her all the time after all.

AN: REVIEW!