Reviewers: Thanks so much for reviewing! All of your reviews always make my day a whole lot better.
Authors Note: I'm so sorry this chapter took such a long time, I got a bit busy with some family things. However, all of that is all settled so I finally have some time to write! In other news, I'm very excited about the next few chapters, so expect them out very soon! Now on with the story!
Dedication This chapter is dedicated to Corey, beloved brother and uncle. He will always be dearly missed and we will never forget you. You are forever in our hearts. April 21st 1988 - Saturday October 27th 2007
This chapter is also dedicated to all of those readers who sent me song suggestions! I loved all of the suggestions thanks so much!
This chapter is also dedicated to all those who have loved ones or have Cystic Fibrosis. We will find a cure! Donate to find a cure!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, if I did Lily and the boys (minus Peter) would still be alive! I also do not own the song Thank You, by Simple Plan.
Recap:
"What are you doing?" James asked, watching in fascination as Remus changed the channels, reaching forward to grab a biscuit from the round table.
"Looking for this great muggle show; I watch it nearly every summer when I'm home." Remus replied, "People sing and talk, it's great! It's what all the muggles our age watch." He added and stopped suddenly, "Aha! I found it!" A grin lit up his face as he set the remote down and turned to watch the tv with avid fascination.
The three boys watched silently as a young, dark haired man joined a woman and a man on what appeared to be a stage. People in the audience screamed happily at the sight of him, cheering and wildly waving their arms in his direction, girls screaming shrilly to the point where their ears began to throb. "And now the beautiful and talented Lily Evans!" The man standing next to the woman announced happily, a somewhat fake grin plastered on his face.
The three boys froze as the familiar sight of a smiling Lily appeared on the screen, walking towards the stage in a glamorous outfit, her hair done up extravagantly. James' hand was frozen halfway to his mouth, biscuit in his hand and mouth gaping widely. The glass Sirius was holding went crashing to the floor, juice spilling all over Remus' nice, clean carpet.
Chapter Three:
The three boys watched, wide-eyed, as Lily hugged the three people already on stage, a smile lighting up her face. They hadn't seen her in such a long time, but it was as though she hadn't changed at all - minus the grand wardrobe and makeup; that was definitely a new feature.
"Lily," James said in a desperate whisper, snapping out of his shocked state as he stared in awe at the screen.
"I can't believe its her," Sirius said, his voice barely above a whisper. All three boys clearly ignored the juice that was now seeping onto the carpet, creating a huge, orangish-red stain. They watched the screen intently, bodies leaning towards the screen, brows furrowed in concentration.
"Its great to have you both here!" Sharon, the female host, said enthusiastically as they all sat down on stools that had been set up for them.
The man - Riley, James recalled - turned to wink charmingly at her. "Its good to be here," He quipped, smiling from his spot beside Lily. Lily nodded in agreement, smiling slightly but remaining silent.
"So the two of you will be kicking off both of your first world-wide tour!" Mac, the male host, said. "Give us some details on it!"
"Well," Lily began, smiling breathtakingly as the camera zoomed in on her face, making James' throat catch. "Our tour begins early next week; we're going to be touring all over Europe, the United States and Canada for a little over three months. We kick off the tour right here in London."
"All tickets that have been made avaliable have already been sold out," Riley added with a happy grin, the picture of an adored celebrity.
"So how does it feel to have made it this far?" Sharon asked, playing the perfect role of a TV host. She returned Riley's charming grin and leaned towards him, looking eager.
The two turned to look at each other simultaneously, their faces mirroring the other's ecstatic facial feature."It feels awesome!" Lily and Riley chimed together with a laugh, slightly blushing at having said it at the same time. "It's like a dream come true," Lily added, nodding.
Sharon raised an eyebrow at the camera, as though she'd already anticipated that response and was thus superior to them. "So what have you guys been doing to get ready for the tour?" She asked with a slightly phony smile that made James want to hit it right off her pale face.
"We've been doing a lot of rehearsing on the stage we will be using; we're getting it tailored for each concert - or at least trying to get it as close as we can because," Riley winked at the camera, "believe me when I say that, that the stage is awesome."
"Now we've heard a lot of rumors about you two," Mac spoke up, a mischievous smirk on his face, "Care to clear a few up?"
"Well," Lily replied with a wide grin, innocently oblivious as to what Mac may have been alluding to, "Contrary to popular belief Riley and I did not meet at one of his concerts. It was far less glamours; we simply met at a tutoring session."
"I believe I tried to convince her to give me the answers to the test within five minutes of meeting her," Riley added with a grin, the epitome of a roguish teenager.
"And did she give you those answers?" Sharon asked.
"No," Riley replied, looking forlorn. "She told me I would never learn if I copied off of her and then asked me who I thought I was."
"Thats my girl," James muttered, looking slightly happier that she still acted like his Lily, even if she didn't look quite the same.
"Shh!" Remus said in a hushed whisper, desperate not to miss a minute of seeing his friend. "I'm trying to watch!"
"Well we have to cut to a commercial break." Mac said standing up and flashing the camera a warm smile. "When we come back, Lily and Riley will be performing a song each!" With that said, a sudden commercial for cat litter popped up, breaking the Marauders' intense concentration on Remus' TV.
"I can't believe it!" Sirius said, astounded, "Our Lily is famous!"
"I can," James replied quietly, "I always knew she'd do great things, even after she left."
"Did she ever tell either of you that she could sing?" Remus asked, his tone slightly hurt, "Because she never told me!"
Sirius shook his head, while James smiled and nodded. "I knew," He said, "But I never expected this. This is bigger than I ever imagined; I didn't even know she wanted to sing professionally. As far as I knew, it was just a hobby for her."
"I wonder why she didn't tell us," Sirius said with a slight whine, "LilyBilly told us everything! How come she told you?" He gave James an accusing glare, as though it wasn't fair that James got to know and he didn't.
"You never asked," James replied with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "Besides I may have walked in on her when she was singing a song she wrote...she was amazing," He added, lost in the memory.
"Oh," Sirius noted. "Well now that thats settled, we need to figure out how to see her again. This is obviously a sign!" He flailed his arms in the air theatrically to prove his point, nearly hitting Remus in the process.
"Sirius and his signs," Remus snickered, pushing his arm out of the way. "You're nearly as bad as a superstitious old woman, Padfoot."
"Well it is a sign!" Sirius said childishly, crossing his arms and pouting. "Besides I'm sure LilyBilly would be happy to see us again!" His tone suggested that that was a fact; as though everyone would be happy to see them; Remus smiled at Sirius' attitude.
"I wouldn't be so sure," He pointed out, "She hasn't spoken to us in months; she was pretty upset when she left. I can't blame her either." Remus pursed his lips as he thought of the reason Lily was currently not speaking to any of them.
"Lily has never been able to stay mad at us for very long before!" Sirius said, "I'm sure she's already forgiven us," He grinned wickedly as he internally ran through the possibilities of what would happen once they were all reunited as friends.
"It's different this time, mate." Remus replied, eyes downcast.
"Shut up!" James said suddenly, his body stiffening, eyes fixed back on the television, "It's back on!"
The three boys sat in relative silence as the boy, now known as Riley took the stage. The listened quietly for a few moments as Riley began to sing, but after a few minutes of listening to what James could only describe as noise James said the one thing that had been on all three of their minds since the show had begun; "Do you think he's with Lily?" James asked in a quiet whisper, not really sure if he wanted to know the truth.
"I dunno, mate." Sirius replied, "He could be; they'd see enough of each other on that tour, so even if he's not now, they might be soon."
"Lily wouldn't date a muggle!" James said, mainly trying to convince himself. "He's not part of our world."
"I don't think he is a muggle Prongs," Remus added quietly. "If they met in tutoring that would mean he's a wizard... besides Lily's not prejudice against muggles, you know that, she never was."
"I know she's not," James said with a sigh, "I just can't stand the thought of her with someone else."
"You should have thought about that before," Sirius said quietly, looking away. Although Sirius loved James as a brother, he couldn't help but feel as if it was James' fault that Lily was no longer in their lives. Essentially James really was to blame, but Sirius couldn't really comprehend anything to be fully James' fault - years of being a Marauder had trained him to believe someone else could possibly be to blame. If James hadn't have cheated on her, Sirius thought, then we would probably be there with her instead of watching it on the television.
"It's Lily's turn!" Remus said cheerfully, breaking the awkward silence that Sirius' comment had created. "I can't wait to see how she sounds."
The three boys watched in awe as Lily walked onto the stage. She had completely changed her outfit, and was now wearing a night black dress. The top of the dress clung tightly to her body, showing off her perfect figure, tied off at her neck, leaving her shoulders exposed. At her hips, the dress came out in a flowing fashion to her knees, showing off her hips and lean legs. On her feet she wore a simple pair of black strappy stilettos, amazing Sirius that she could even walk in them.
"She looks incredible," James breathed, while the other two boys nodded silently in agreement. They quickly fell completely silent when Lily stepped up to the microphone, their breaths stopping short in anticipation.
"How are you London?" She yelled energetically, encouraging the already enthusiastic crowd into uproar. "This song goes out to all of you that have ever lost a best friend! This is all for you!"
The camera zoomed in on Lily's face as she began to sing, her lovely emerald eyes sparkling in the light.
I thought that I could always count on you,
I thought that nothing could become between us two.
We said as long as we would stick together,
We'd be alright,
We'd be OK.
But I was stupid
And you broke me down
I'll never be the same again.
So thank you for showing me,
That best friends can not be trusted,
And thank you for lying to me,
Your friendship and good times we had you can have them back
Yeah!
I wonder why it always has to hurt,
For every lesson that you have to learn.
I won't forget what you did to me,
How you showed me things,
I wish I'd never seen.
But I was stupid,
And you broke me down,
I'll never be the same again.
So thank you for showing me,
That best friends can not be trusted,
And thank you for lying to me,
Your friendship the good times we had you can have them back
When the tables turn again,
You'll remember me my friend,
You'll be wishing I was there for you.
I'll be the one you'll miss the most,
But you'll only find my ghost.
As time goes by,
You'll wonder why,
You're all alone.
So thank you for showing me,
That best friends can not be trusted,
And thank you for lying to me,
Your friendship and good times we had you can have them back.
So thank you, for lying to me,
So thank you, for all the times you let me down
So thank you, for lying to me,
So thank you, your friendship you can have it back
"Wow!" Mac said, jogging onto stage as soon as Lily had finished singing. "Was that incredible or what? Thank you for joining us! We will see you all tomorrow!" As the credits began to roll up, the Marauders saw Lily hug the boy she would be touring with, followed by the announcer before the screen quickly went blank.
"Well that was interesting," Remus said, standing up to turn the television off. "At least we now know what she's been doing ever since she left." Suddenly noticing the carpet, he quickly grabbed his wand, pointed it at the carpet and muttered the spell to clean it; the carpet instantly went back to its usual clean state.
"She has such an angelic voice," James sighed wistfully, "But she still hates me."
"Can you blame her?" Sirius asked, "Besides, based on that song, she doesn't only hate you."
"No," James replied, looking thoughtfully at the ground. "I can't blame her either, but I have to win her back."
"And how do you suppose we do that?" Remus asked, raising his eyebrow at James, who didn't really notice.
James finally looked up at Remus and announced; "I have a plan."
"Oh," Remus said disbelievingly, a half-smile on his face as he imagined what sort of hare-brained scheme James might have concocted. "And what exactly is this plan?"
"It's simple really," James said. "We just find out where she's going to be and talk to whoever tries to keep us away from her. After we tell them we're old friends, I'm sure they'll let us in. If they don't, we always have my cloak."
"One flaw in that otherwise devious plan," Sirius replied sarcastically. " Well, two, actually. Number one, we don't know where Lily is going to be. And two, Lily doesn't want to see us; that much was obvious in her song."
"I don't care," James said stubbornly, frowning. "We've given into her wishes and left her alone long enough. I'm not going to let her go without a fight."
"You didn't give into her wishes!" Remus said in a slightly raised voice, "You wrote to her for weeks on end! In case you didn't notice all of your letters came back unopened. She doesn't want to see you!"
"That was then, this is now!" He clung on to his feeble plan with desperation, shaking his head stubbornly; this time, he really wasn't giving up until he saw Lily in person - let her try and get out of talking to him then!
"Look Prongs," Sirius began gently, laying a hand on James shoulder. "We want Lily back just as much as you do, but she doesn't want to talk to us. Any of us."
"We still have to try!" James pointed out, exasperated. The boys fell silent, processing what they had learned in the past half an hour; Lily being famous had clearly come as a huge shock to them.
"I think I know where we can find her," Remus said suddenly, breaking the silence.
"Where?" Sirius asked, looking hopeful despite of himself.
"There's only one place in London that's big enough to hold concerts," Remus said, speaking slowly as he tried to process his thoughts. "I went there once with my parents; I bet that's where we will find Lily."
"That's great Moony!" James said cheerfully, standing up and walking to his bed and laying down quickly. "We can leave first thing in the morning!"
"Going to bed already Prongs?" Sirius asked, watching in amusement as James slid under his covers, not even bothering with pajamas or showers or dinner.
"It's not even nine o'clock yet!" Remus added, smirking.
"The faster I fall asleep, the faster I'll see Lily," James replied, setting his glasses down on his nightstand. "Besides, I need my beauty sleep if I'm going to be seeing Lily again."
"You're such a girl!" Sirius muttered darkly under his breath, rubbing his forehead slightly in exasperation.
Yay! Another chapter done! I can't wait til the next chapter. Its going to be a lot of fun. Anyways, I know the song Lily sings is by well male singers. But who cares. I felt it grabbed the emotions she must be feeling, so just pretend that it was a girl singing or something. Not a whole lot happened in this chapter, but the next chapter should be more interesting. Hehe I can't wait.
As the last chapter, if you have any song suggestions please put it in your review! I love hearing them, and have found some great songs I otherwise wouldn't have heard!
Please review!