No Time to Stop for Breath

"I can't believe it worked!" Lily said as she threw her arms around Remus neck. Lily felt herself being lifted off her feet and swung around. Lily smiled as she heard Remus let out a small laugh, after a moment he quickly set her down and looked down at her.

"I can't thank you enough." Remus said before pulling Lily in for another crushing hug.

"Remus, as happy I am about this, would you mind letting me go. Can't really breath." She said with a weak laugh.

"Sorry, sorry." He said as he stepped back leaving his hands on her shoulder. "Wish you could have been there though Remus said as he looked over Lily's head at James.

"Yah, its much easier, didn't have to really worry about people being around." Peter said.

"Yah, well I was sort of…busy." He said quietly. "But come the next full moon, I'll be there I can promise you I'll be there." He said as he walked over to Remus and clapped a hand on his back.

"You better." Sirius said as James took a seat on the couch next to Sirius.

"That reminds me," Lily said as she walkd over towards her bag, she reached in and pulled out a flask and began to walk back over to Remus. "Here." She said holding it out to him. He smiled as he took the flask from Lily's hand.

"Thanks Lil. I really appreciate it." He said looking down at it. He opened it up and quickly smiled it and Lily let out a small laugh by the look of disgust on Remus' face.

"Something wrong Moony?" Sirius said with a laugh.

"I mean what are you expecting it to taste like? Pumpkin Juice?" Peter said.

"Lily, do…do you think I could put honey or sugar or something into this?"

"I'm not sure, maybe you shouldn't, I don't want to take the risk of it not working."

"Okay, that makes sense." He said looking at the flask. He gave Lily a sad look as if it was his last chance to beg for some kind of sweetener.

"Oh come on Remus, just drink it." Lily said with a laugh. He let out a small sigh and quickly drank the dose for the week. After he finished he let out a small gag and shuttered and then quickly handed the empty flask back to Lily. Lily walked back over to her bag that was sitting on Remus and Sirius small eating table as Remus went to sit in the chair that was beside the couch that Sirius, Peter James were sitting on.

"So," Sirius said looking back at Lily. "That house elf really helped you?" He said.

"Yes Sirius, you've asked me that like a thousand times, why is that so hard to believe?"

"Well, I've just never heard of a house elf helped their master's enemies."

"Well, technically he wasn't disobeying the Malfoys, I just hope they don't find out, just the thought of that poor little elf getting punished—" Lily didn't even want to finish her own thought. She had seen how some wizards would punish their elves in public; she didn't even want to think about how they would do it in the privacy of their own homes.

"I'm sure he'll be fine." Remus said as he leaned forwards and placed his elbows in his knees.

"Me too." Lily said as she looked down at her watch. "Oh, I have to go?"

"Aww, is it past Lily's bedtime?" Sirius said in a whinny childish voice.

"No, I promised my parents I would stop by." Lily said as she began to collect her things. "You coming James, you can stay here if you like."

"Its okay, I'll go with you."

"Heres a thought, why don't we all go. Haven't seen your mum since your wedding and she might miss me." Sirius said with a wide grin plastered on his face.

"Ewww, god, Sirius! Grow up." Lily said. Lily watched as all the boys stood up and started to put on their coats and jackets. Usually they didn't need them but it was still very cold, colder than most Februarys. They four of them walked towards her looking all set and ready to go. "Really guys, its no big deal I can go—" Before Lily could finish her sentence Sirius had grabbed hold of Lily and Peter and they disapparated, but since Sirius wasn't entirely sure where her parents house was, they ended up a block away.

"Did I get the right place?" Sirius asked looking around the street.

"No you idiot, we're still a block away."

"Oh, well I was still pretty close."

"Why did you grab me?" Peter asked as they began to walk towards her parent's house.

"You were close to me than James was."

"But still you could have just gone with Lily."

"What's the big deal? Did you really not want to go?"

"No its not that I just—I didn't want to see—"

"Boys, boys, calm down its not a big deal. Peter, if you really want to leave, you're more than—" As they turned the corner and Lily looked down the street of her parents she felt her heart stop, she felt her blood stop, everything just stopped. Right where her parent's house was supposed to be was a large fire, so big more of the general structure of the house was gone. There were two fire trucks outside along with what looked like everyone that lived on that street. Lily broke out into and ran towards her parents house, her eyes scanning the area, maybe her parents weren't inside the house when it happened, she clung to that though with every fiber of her being.

She saw James jogging over to her, the stopped once the reached each other, Lily looked around James as the crowed hoping to catch a glimpse of her parents. Lily turned at the sound of footsteps and saw Sirius and Peter jog over towards them.

"James, what happened? Where's mum and dad?" Lily looked up at him and saw tears swimming in his eyes. "James, tell me." Lily watched he took a deep breath and placed his hands on her shoulder.

"Lily, I…your parents, they…Lily, I'm so sorry."

"What James! What!" Lily cried.

"They died." James said quickly as he quickly squinted his eyes as if the very words he had just said were causing his physical pain.

"What?" Lily said breathlessly.

"I talked to the men driving that large red truck and well, they told me they didn't make it." He said looking down at Lily. Lily was blankly staring strait ahead, she watched as the world went fuzzy from keeping her eyes open so long. She turned away from James and looked at her house she felt hot tears welding up in her eyes and then quickly running down her checks. She felt a lump in her throat so big she thought she was going to burst. She couldn't breath, she couldn't think, she couldn't move. She felt rooted to the spot as she stood there watching her house burn down.

"No." She whispered at first. She took a step away from her destroyed home. "No, no NO, NO! NO!" She cried again and again as she continued to back away from the fire she felt herself fall into some and when she did she completely let go. She felt a pair of large strong arms catch her and then wrap tightly around her, she knew the moment the arms enclosed her that it was James. She felt herself and the James both come down to the ground. She continued to cry and she felt large and loud sobs coming out of her, the harder and harder she cried the tighter and tighter James' grip got around her. Waves of despair continued to wash over her every time she thought she was starting to calm herself down. He stroked her hair and tried to whisper words of comfort into her ear, but she knew nothing would help. She buried her face into James shoulder and tried to block it all out, the sounds going on around her, the pain, her parents. She didn't want to deal with it, she wanted to stay composed and not lose it, she wanted to be able to handle herself but she couldn't. She wasn't in control of her emotions at all anymore. After what seemed like hours of sitting in the street crying into James shirt, she felt someone place a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and saw it was one of the firemen that had come to her house. She looked up and saw the fire was almost put out and most people were now staring at her.

"So what?" She said as she stood up and looked around at the crowed of people looking at her. "Since the fires out am I the new attraction?" She yelled at all of them.

"Lily." James said as he placed a hand on her shoulder. "Come on lets go home."

"Sir, hold on a moment." The fireman said as he walked towards Lily. "You're their daughter?" He said.

"Yes, she is." James said as he placed another hand on Lily's waist.

"We're going to have to take her in, we just have to go over some things." He said nervously. "Do you need someone to drive you over?" He said to James.

"Umm, yes that might be best." James said as he pulled Lily closer towards him. Before Sirius, Remus, and Peter left they all went over to Lily and hugged her tightly, not the uncomfortable 'I can't breath' hugs she was used to getting from them, these were comforting 'trying to absorb your pain' hugs. Lily knew them pretty well, she had been giving them to James since his father had passed away. Lily and James stepped into the car that had been brought for them and sat in the back seat. Lily looked out the window at the boys and gave them a weak smile and a wave as they drove off into the night.

Lily awoke the next morning with a splitting headache, she slowly sat up and looked around her room, James gone, probably out in the kitchen or the living room. Lily looked over at her clock, it was already 10am. Lily hadn't slept in that late in a while, usually because someone, mostly James, would wake her up by 8am. She placed her feet on the floor as the memories of the previous night started to come back, the fire, going to the police station, they kept asking her questions about her parents insurance and their will but Lily wasn't really paying attention, not until Petunia got there. Petunia seemed more upset that Lily was there than the fact that their parents had just died. Every time they had mentioned the fire Petunia glared at Lily like it was her fault.

Around 2am Lily and James were finally ready to go home but Petunia had other plans, she stop James and Lily before they had anchance to leave.

"Where do you think you're going?" She cried out after them.

"Home." Lily said flatly as she turned her back towards her sister.

"So you're not even going to admit it?" She said in almost a deranged squeal. "This is your fault." Lily froze on the spot and felt as if a wave of anger had just washed over her. She slowly turned back to face Petunia and slowly walked back towards her.

"What?" She said with disbelief.

"They have mo idea how it happened, it wasn't an accident, no sigh that someone used gas or a match, it was as if the fire simply started out of thin air."

"Like magic?" Lily said crossly. She watched Petunias face go red as she said Magic, she always had, ever since Lily knew what she was. "I cant do this now Petunia, come over tomorrow and harass me then." She said as she turned on her heel.

"Is this all a joke to you? Our parents out dead-"

"And you don't think I know that!" Lily shouted as tears started rolling down her cheeks. "I was there Petunia, I watch—" Lily felt her words get caught in her throat, she couldn't say it out load, not yet, she didn't want to voice what had happened tonight, because that would make it even more real.

"Ladies, we're going to have to ask you to keep it down, some—"

"Its okay doctor I was just leaving." Lily said flatly looking up at her sister, the only family she really had left in the world. Sue didn't want to end things like this, her parents had just died, she wanted things to be better between her and her sister. Petunia let out a small huff and turned on her heel towards the exit. "Tunie!" Lily called out after her. Petunia slowly turned and glared down at her. "You can come over you know." Lily said shyly. "If you want, for tea, or anything really." She said.

"I never want anything to do with you or any of your freak friends ever again." She said in a sharp whisper. Then with that she turned and walked away from Lily and back to the exit. Lily felt as if her heart had been ripped out f her chest, sure she and her sister had never really gotten along, but now she had felt she had complexly lost a sister, and for some reason she felt more alone than ever.

Lily splashed cold water on her face to try and clear her head of the horrible memories from last night. She wasn't sure she had ever cried she hard in her entire life, and she was so grateful to James who never left her side the whole night. She walked out of the bathroom and into the living room to find that James wasn't there. She went back into the kitchen but all she found was a note from James stuck to the fridge.

Lily

It seems we are out if almost everything, and I didn't want to wake you so I ran over to the store, I'll be back as soon as I can, I love you.

James.

Lily looked at the letter and then tried to take it off but it was stuck on. Lily tugged on it harder and harder but the not wouldn't come off. Of course James wouldn't think to use one of the magnates Lily had put of the fridge for them to use. With a sigh she walked back into their bedroom and sat back down on the bed, she looked around the dark room and then let herself fall back on the bed. She closed her eyes, just hoping that this was some horrible nightmare that sue was about to wake up from but she knew it wasn't. So she lay there alone in her room, waiting for James to come and home and maybe, some day, this whole nightmare would be over and they would all have a chance to get on with their lives.

They can never catch a break. Well remember to review, reviews give me more motivation and make me happy