Lily:

The door swung closed on its hinges behind him with a finality that echoed in her brain.

James.

James was King of Godric's Hollow.

James was her betrothed husband.

James was the man she'd been running from all this time.

James had known who she was.

James knew she was running from him.

James had been lying about that to her for nearly two months!

Lily had trusted him!

She had felt guilty for putting him in the way of danger thinking he wasn't fully aware of it! She berated herself for selfishly keeping him and Sirius with her! Her guilt had threatened to consume her over it! Knowing Sirius was going to die because she insisted their group keep traveling together was killing her! James' grief over his brother had brought her to her knees! She'd cried like a broken child on James' bed for the last three days while he slept!

And all this time James had been completely aware that he and Sirius were traveling with a runaway princess! The runaway princess he agreed to marry having never met her!

She felt sick.

Lily clutched her stomach and her chest felt like it was imploding. She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. She wanted to hit James across the face with all the force her strong arm could muster.

But all she could do was crumple to the floor as her body caved under the betrayal she felt.

How could he have done this!? She had trusted him! She had thought him her friend! She asked him to run away with her!

Had he spent all this time simply trying to win her over so she'd come willingly to Godric's Hollow? Had he been on his way to fetch her that night in Knockturn? Had he made it to the palace only to have Petunia show him a picture and then he hightailed back to collect what was rightfully his? Were his stories even real? Had he carefully crafted these lovely stories to win her over? Was this just a game to him? If Sirius didn't lay dying in this house she'd question if the attack had been orchestrated by James as well.

Her questions only managed to confuse her more as her heart cried out that it couldn't be true. He said he wanted to run away with her, but couldn't. He held her when she cried. He reached for her constantly. He did everything he could to make her smile.

He couldn't be awful.

But her brain couldn't come to terms that he'd been lying to her for this long.

He wasn't lying now, her heart whispered quietly.

Lily had never let herself call what she felt for James love because if she really loved him she'd have to be honest with him. She couldn't be honest with him and so she couldn't love him.

But he'd intended to be honest with her before the attack. He'd intended to tell her as he was leaving for Godric's Hollow.

"Lily!"

Lily felt Alice's arms wrap around her.

"Lily, are you hurt? What's wrong?"

Lily tried to put words together, "He's, he's the, he's who…"

"Who, Lily?" Alice pleaded.

"James," his name felt bitter on her tongue and that's when the sobs started.

"He's fine, Lily," Alice soothed, "he took Marlene to get a better healer for Sirius."

Lily only sobbed harder.

"Lily, please, you can talk to me." Alice's voice was calm, steady.

Something about her steady, sure voice broke Lily all the more. And in stuttered and halted sobs, Lily told this beautiful, kind woman everything.

She told her how Petunia had not only kicked out magic users but also promised her to the King of Godric's Hollow. Lily told her how at the time she couldn't believe the King was anything but terrible and so that same night she ran away. She told Alice about running into James and Sirius. That they had been so careful not to reveal who they were at that point, and then they had caught up to her and Marlene in Diagon and convinced them to travel together. Lily told Alice about the men who attacked them in Diagon, and her desperate desire to keep traveling with James and Sirius. And then today, James declared he was the man she was supposed to be sent away to marry, and not only that, he knew who she was, that she was promised to him.

"Oh, Lily," Alice held her close as she cried.

Lily clung to her new friend. She wished Alice would have some grand wisdom to impart to her, something that would put this mess back into perspective and make everything clear again, but the woman wasn't much older than Lily herself. So Lily simply accepted that in this chaos that had enveloped her current situation, at least she wasn't alone, at least she wasn't crumpled on the floor sobbing with no one the wiser to her pain.