Alright. Let's finish all of this junk up, shall we? Petunia causes such a ruckus when she gets involved in things! Now! It's Saturday again. For that I am terribly sorry again... And I'm going to apologize in advance for next week, I may skip a week of posting. *Don't kill me!* I'm just really busy nowadays and I'm having trouble finding the time to write.

enjoy.

There are always going to be moments in life when you realize that you could have responded better. You could have held your tongue or you could have spoken up. You could have allowed someone more room to be them or you could have stepped in and tried to lead them. You could have been calm and rational or you could have panicked. Lily Evans had been in situations like that all of her life. She had been thrown into a magical world and was forced to respond in a mature way. She had been favored by her parents and she had chosen to remain level-headed. She had been rejected and despised by her sister and she had decided not to let it affect the way she treated other people.

Lily Evans had been appointed prefect and then during her final year at Hogwarts, Head Girl, and she had chosen to stay relatable. She had been hurt and abandoned by her best friend, but she refused to allow that to keep her from enjoying her life. She had been harassed and mocked and made an outcast, all kinds of things had prepared her for reacting in a level-headed, kind, mature, understanding manner. She had been tried and tested on each of these reactions more times than she could count on her fingers and toes. So the fact that she froze during one of the most important times for her to be calm and collected, was both unexpected and unexplainable.

She stood on her front porch, swaying slightly from exhaustion. She had been standing there for over an hour staring at the road in front of her house. Specifically the place on her road that her sister had been parked at only an hour or so prior to that moment. Lily wasn't quite certain why she thought that anything involving the Marauders could go normally, but she had fooled herself into that mindset for no more than twenty minutes before everything started going downhill. She took a deep breath and thought back across the evening, wondering if she could have done something different to avoid the outcome she was living right now.

She could have kicked James and Sirius out the moment they walked through the door. She could have ignored Petunia's insistence that she was ashamed of someone and kicked all four of the boys out. She could have recognized that Sirius can't be trusted to be an adult and refused to let him touch the drinks. She could have given up on Petunia a long time ago. Luckily, she didn't have to choose because Petunia gave up on her. Petunia had stormed out the door and refused to listen to reason when she had been followed.

James' eyes widened when he realized that he was still holding his wand. He wasn't used to spending time around Muggles and his wand felt like it was a part of him. It was such a normal occurrence to hold it in his hand that he hadn't even realized he still had it. His eyes immediately went in search of Lily's but she just stared at his hand. He touched her shoulder and tried to get her attention by calling her name softly, but she just stared in confusion at the long piece of mahogany. He looked up to see his three closest friends all staring at him helplessly.

He stepped back from Lily and dropped his wand to the ground. He took a few quick puffs of air and then ran straight to the door, ignoring his churning stomach. "Petunia! Petunia, wait!" she hadn't closed the door in her haste to leave the house so James ran out the doorway and rushed down the four or five steps on Lily's porch. "Petunia," his voice sounded more like a warning than a pleading. He rushed across her lawn and stopped short right in front of Petunia's car. "Wait, wait, wait, please. Please, you have to just wait. You can't leave." he insisted desperately.

"You- You're a- a-" she kept stuttering and gesturing with her hand. Her purse was swinging around from where she was still gripping it tightly in her hand. "You're a freak!" she finally squeaked out. "You're one of them. I- I thought I was having lunch with..." Petunia was breathing heavily and shaking in anger. She started her sentence over with a forced sense of ease. "I thought I was having lunch with normal people. What about the rest of them? Are they freaks too?" she demanded.

"I get it, you're scared. I'm a wizard, but that doesn't change anything. I'm still a normal person. I eat and sleep and use the bloody loo just like everyone else." James was trying to reason with her, and while part of him knew that if Lily couldn't get through to her, he couldn't either, he couldn't stop himself from trying. Petunia stood completely still with her gaze on a spot about five inches to the left of James' head. "That's you sister in there. She has done so much over the years to get you to love her and if you leave right now, it'll ruin her. Please, don't go. You can't go." James had taken a small step forward and outstretched his hand a little.

Petunia's eyes snapped to look at him. "Who are you?" she mocked. "You don't know me, you don't know Lily! You think she's worked hard over the years? Imagine fighting the nicest person on the planet for attention from your parents." It became clear to James that maybe Lily had been a little off in her assumptions that Petunia was mad about her abilities. He realized that Petunia was bitter about not being treated the same way as Lily and she was blaming magic. "Don't come running out here like you know anything about me. I don't have to do anything. I'm leaving." There were tears lining her eyes as she unlocked her car door.

"Please don't leave." he begged.

"Why do you even care?" Petunia demanded loudly. "You're just her neighbor."

"Because I love her!" the admission seemed to shock both of them. James glanced at the front of Lily's house and internally thanked merlin for the fact that no one was standing there. "I love Lily and she loves you. I'm gonna be honest, you are the most self-centered, boring, controlling, uptight woman I have ever met in my entire life. But somehow, that sweet and patient woman inside adores you. So I'm trying here, if Lily loves you, I'll try to love you too. But if you leave right now," James ruffled his hair slightly and fought off a bitter laugh. "If you leave, it will break her. She needs you, she needs her sister." Petunia didn't move a muscle and she didn't respond to his insisting tone.

"I don't have any siblings, but I do have three best friends that are like brothers to me. I'm really mad at one of them right now, more mad than I ever have been before. Because he did something he thought was funny and it jeroridized a relationship with someone dear to me. But if something were to happen to him, I would be at his bedside without a question. Somethings are out of our control, like someone pulling a prank or being accepted into a school for witchcraft and wizardry." Petunia flinched at his last few words. "But other things, we can control. Like how we respond to a prank, or how we respond to our sister having an ability that we don't."

"You don't know anything." Petunia spit out bitterly.

"I know that Lily isn't the one to blame for what happened in there. I know it's not Lily's fault that she has magic. I know that Lily deserves better than how you're treating her. I know that you're making a decision right now that will change your relationship with her for the rest of your lives. You're making the decision right now, so you better be sure that walking away and abandoning your sister again is going to lead to what you want in the long run." Petunia shook her head and slid into her seat, slamming her car door shut. "Think about Vernon! If you marry him, won't you want Lily to be in your wedding?" he yelled, hoping that she would understand his words even though her windows were up.

Petunia started her car and rolled the driver's side window down about half of an inch. She looked up to make eye contact with James. It was as if there wasn't a single other noise in the world when she spoke because he heard every single word. "When I marry Vernon, I don't want any freaks at my wedding." She rolled her window back up and ignored the shock on his face, instead throwing her car into reverse and then pulling around him.

After James had gone back inside, he realized that no one had moved. He wasn't sure exactly how long he had been outside with Petunia, but it hadn't been a short period of time. He gestured to his friends that they should leave and without hesitation they all gathered their wits and made to exit. Sirius rounded the corner of the table and stood in front of Lily.

"Lily," he started. Remus was shocked by his tone, he hadn't heard Sirius speak with such remorse ever. "I am so terribly sorry."

She finally looked away from where James' hand had been and looked up to meet his eyes. There were tear streaks down her face and fresh tears forming in her eyes. She nodded her head lightly, and it seemed as though she was going to forgive him.

Until she slapped him.

Sirius stumbled backward, not from the force of the slap because it wasn't a powerful slap, but from shock. Lily stared up at him with an unreadable expression and then she walked away. She walked toward her front porch and out her still opened front door. She nodded her head when she saw that Petunia had in fact left, because she had expected it after all.

Lily's knees were trembling and had been for awhile, so she reached forward to grip the railing. The moment her hand made contact with it, she dropped her body to the ground and sat in a heap. The day had been exhausting. From the moment she wiped her hands on her pants to clear the evidence of nerves off of them after her phone call with Petunia, to the first insult thrown her way, to almost kissing James, to sitting on her porch. All of it was emotionally draining. This, she realized, was why she wanted to live as a muggle. Things were simpler. Damn James for moving in next door, he was ruining everything.

She had expected drama, she had expected chaos, she had expected hurt. But if there was anything she had learned from the day she had, it was that expecting something and being prepared for it, are two completely different things.

Okay! There was my heart poured out for all to see. I hope you enjoyed it. :)