Disclaimer- The world is cruel, and Harry Potter isn't mine, nor are the characters.

The Magic Word Is Sorry, Not Please
(Chapter Twenty Six- Eye To Eye)

Lily didn't speak to any of her family for the rest of the holidays. That was five whole days of hardly leaving her room other than at the end of meal times to rush down and eat a little.

They all knew now. The girls had come upstairs and tried to talk to her, but she hadn't been interested. They'd told her they were sorry for what James did, but not one of them said it was wrong; they talked about how it was "James-ish" but none of them said that he shouldn't have done it.

She didn't know what she had expected when they found out; some stupid naive part of her thought they might surprise her and not mind it too much. She'd known that that wouldn't happen though and that was the worst part of it all; she knew what would happen and she just didn't do anything. She just sat there, putting it off and letting herself fall for Jake more and more until James happened.

He was such a... Lily could think of about twenty words to describe him, not one of them suitable for anyone's ears. How could he be so closed-minded and pathetic; thinking he can control everyone else just through threats and fear?

Today was the worst day yet. Today she had to go into class and see them in the corridors. She had to see him.

She began the day by avoiding breakfast and racing straight to potions and sitting in the empty classroom until the kids started to file in.

She could tell, due to the fact there weren't many whispers, that James had made sure that the sordid little secret had stayed in the family.

She doodled in her notebook, writing curses to use on James or drawing broken hearts; anything to concentrate on so she didn't just burst into tears.

When Hugo came in, she had half expected him to completely avoid her; he was a wimp like that. Instead though, he sat next to her and carefully cleared his throat.

"Not seen you in a while." He commented awkwardly. Lily couldn't help but think that his sister may have commanded him to sit with her.

Lily rolled her eyes in reply.

"It's been, what, five days?"

Lily shrugged. If he was right, and it had only been those few days, then time had gone ridiculously slowly. It felt like forever since... since she'd seen him.

He spun his wand around between his fingers absentmindedly. "I won the chess tournament." He told her smiling a little.

"Well done?" she replied sarcastically, looking at him a little angrily. She didn't care. She didn't care about anything to do with any of them; they were all just little James-worshippers.

"Sorry. I was just telling you what you missed-"
"I wasn't ill; I don't care what I missed. If I cared I'd be down there."

"Lily..." Hugo sighed. "Look, I don't really get what happened but James is sorry, I can tell. He'd never admit it but-"
"Well he's going to have to isn't he?"
"He can't if you won't even look at him."

Lily shook her head.

He didn't speak to her again, they both just sat there awkwardly for the whole lesson while the professor explained some of the theory behind Polyjuice potion.

When the lesson ended, Lily collected her books quickly and left. It didn't matter that her next lesson was with Hugo; she wasn't going to walk with him.

While walking down the corridors Lily noticed how busy Hogwarts seemed. She'd got too used to it being empty in the holidays, now it seemed completely full of people. It was good; she could weave between them and avoid everyone she didn't want to see. She hid behind a group of seventh years to dodge Rose, Al and Scorpius and ducked in front of a statue to not be spotted by Fred, Anna and Dom. She was surprised to see them without James; they normally followed him everywhere. As she was thinking this, her eyes came straight into contact with Jake's.

It was as if time stopped. The rest of the school continued to blur around her, but the two of them just stood completely still and looked at each other. Tears filled her own eyes almost the second they hit Jake's tired brown ones.

She felt a hand on her shoulder what felt like years later, and turned to see Roxy looking down at her.

"Lily." She said, glancing up in Jake's direction. Lily followed her eye line to see that he was still stood at the same place. "What class are you meant to be going to?"

Lily sighed, trying to think whilst blinking her eyes dry. "Erm... Herbology?"

Roxy nodded, and then bit her lip.

"Professor Longbottom shouldn't mind if you miss one lesson."
Lily looked at her confusedly, then shook her head. "No, I want to-"
"Lily, you're coming with me."

She nodded dumbly, looking up to see that Jake was gone; she decided she didn't care what she did any more.

Roxy took her hand and led her through the now emptier corridors, up a few sets of stairs and towards a portrait that Lily had never fully noticed before. Roxy mumbled some sort of password and the portrait seemed to simply disappear, revealing a hole like the portrait hole into the common room. Lily tiredly climbed through it and looked around a room that looked like some ridiculously comfortable living room; large blue sofas and arms chairs surrounded a burning fireplace.

"Sit down." Roxy practically commanded, before flicking her wand and opening the two doors on opposite walls of the room. Then she mumbled something that sounded like "No one in." and sat down next to Lily. "Ok Lils, let's talk."

Lily shrugged. "What about?"

Why did Roxy care? She'd never cared before; she hadn't even been one of the girls who'd come upstairs to see Lily. Roxy had become almost an outsider; she seemed to always just be on the outskirts with Craig.

Lily couldn't help but respect her though, since she was one of the only people who didn't do as James said like some stupid trained hippogriff.

"About you, Jake Thomas, and James."

...

"I don't want to talk about it." Lily replied honestly.

Roxy just shrugged. She wasn't doing this because she was head girl, or even because she couldn't stand hearing James whine or complain about Jake and Lily. No, she was doing this because she was Lily's cousin, and she didn't want to see looking this hurt; Uncle Harry would kill her if she just let her suffer.

"Well you're going to. We're going to work this out, you and me." Roxy said a little hopefully. Lily seemed completely shut off in some other depressing world.
"There's nothing to work out."
"Yes, there is."

Lily just shook her head.

"Look I know James can be a complete idiot-"
"No you don't. You've got no idea-"
That made Roxy laugh.

"Are you kidding?"

Lily looked at her sceptically.

"You have met Craig right?"

"Well yeah, but-"
"And you have heard about what James did to him?" Roxanne continued.
"I've heard rumours. But he didn't try and hurt him or yell or-"
Roxy laughed again. "Oh believe me, he yelled. He told me that if Craig ever looked at me again then he'd kill him. And then he threatened to lie and tell my parents that we'd slept together, just so I was forced to break up with him." Roxy was surprised that Lily didn't already know just how much James had hated Craig.
They had never gotten on, not really. Craig had debated in History of Magic that some of the actions of the Order of The Phoenix were unnecessary in Second year, and it was all downhill from there. James just had grudge against him, maybe because he was hot, smart and popular due to something other than his surname? The day Fred had found out and told James about Roxy and Craig was not a good day.

She could see herself in Lily; she knew better than anyone how Lily would be feeling, and she didn't want her to feel like that.

"Oh." Lily replied simply.

"Yeah. So, what are you going to do about James?"
"Well shouldn't he apologise-?"
"That's not going to happen, and you know it."

Lily nodded; Roxy couldn't help but think that James would hate to see that agreement in his little sister's eyes. "I don't know then. Just, ignore him, I guess."
"Forever?"

Lily replied "yes" weakly.

"You're going to ignore your big brother forever? I have a better idea." Roxy watched as Lily looked slightly interested for about a millisecond. "Keep going out with Jake, and just sod James. Let him deal with it on his own."
"I... I can't."
"James isn't anything to be scared of, not really. You know he only does it because he loves you, and once he sees that you're happy he'll get over himself."

"I'm not so sure." Lily replied simply. "Besides, weren't you and Craig kind of messed up knowing that people didn't want you together?"

Roxy shrugged. She'd never thought about it at the time, all she had known was that she couldn't give up on Craig just because of what her stupid family said or did.

"They always say that they'll hate him, but they get over it. Look at me and Craig, and Rose and Scorpius. Hey, James even said he was going to hate Anna! He gets used to it, he just doesn't like change."

Lily seemed to agree, but didn't admit it out loud.

"So when did you last speak to Jake?" Roxy continued.
"When James yelled at him."

"Ah. Well find him, and fix everything. Don't care about what your stupid brother says."

Lily nodded nervously. "Thanks, Roxy."

"You're welcome. I just hope I helped a little bit."
"You did." She replied, honestly. Roxy didn't feel like she'd made a difference; she felt like she'd just shown Lily what she already knew.

At that moment, Louisa came through the portrait hole.

"Hey Lou." Roxy smiled at her.

"Hey. Lily, what are you...?" Louisa's voice trailed away at Roxy's head shake, and then Lily stood up.

"I'm going to go to class." She told Roxy. She headed towards the exit, then turned around. "Thanks."
"You're welcome. James'll come around, don't worry."

Lily nodded, then left.

"You told her James'd come around?" Louisa asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Yeah. He will eventually. "
"I don't know, he seems pretty angry-"

"Hey, who's the cousin here?" Roxy joked.

Louisa nodded, smiling, then sighed. "Right, I've just got to go out for a bit."

"Out? Where to?"
"Nowhere."

Roxy could read Louisa like a book, and knew when she was lying. She raised her eyebrows disbelievingly and Louisa squirmed.

"Where're you going?" Roxy teased.

"Hospitalwing." Louisa replied ridiculously quickly.

"Why? Are you sick?"

"No." She replied quietly.

"Then...?" Roxy worked it out mid-sentence; partially cursing her brain for working it out. "Oh. I didn't realise you and James were-"
"We're not!" she practically yelled.

"Then why are you-?"
"I mean, we're not yet." She spoke speedily, and didn't meet Roxy's eyes.

Roxy nodded, and Louisa shuffled on her feet. "I'm going to go."
She turned and left through the hole, and Roxy just watched her leave.

It was times like this she was proud of herself for being in such a stable, simple relationship, unlike all the rest of her cousins.