A week into Christmas Vacation, Lily Evans attended her parents funeral. She went more or less alone. She was being followed by our two favorite Gryffindors (or two of our favorite Gryffindors.) James Potter and Sirius Black had been employed (without pay) by Professor Dumbledore, to follow Lily. Not because Lily was weak, but because he didn't like the idea of her being all alone.
Lily walked down the familiar streets of her childhood, stopping to look at a little yellow house, shielded from the sun by an expanse of miniature fir trees. She sighed, and leant against the fence. The house was empty now, but if she looked hard enough, she could still see children playing in the yard. Two little girls and a little boy. The oldest girl had blonde hair, and somewhat large teeth, but she was smiling happily at the other girl, who's brilliant red hair stuck out and had twigs and leaves in it. The little boy was blonde also, and he seemed to be the same age as the youngest girl. They were playing in the mud, building a large castle. The breese that blew across the yard seemed to carry their words to Lily.
"Petty! You can be the Princess, and Myles and me will be Unicorns!"
"I am a boy! I can't be a Uni-corn Lily"
"Yes you an, Myles. How do you think there are baby unicorns if there are no boy unicorns?"
"I thought you found babies in the pumpkin patch."
"No you-"
"Lily! Quiet, don't tell him! Member what mommy said after you told your class?"
"Yes Petty. Come on, Myles, you can be a wart hog!"
"Whats a wart hog?"
"A kind of monkey."
"Really? Cool!"
Lily smiled at the memory. But a dark cloud passed over her face. A month later, They had been playing ball, and it had gone over the fence when Lily kicked it. She had made Myles go after it, and he had not seen the speeding car coming towards him. Lily could still recall his limp body flying through the air, landing beside the road and…..she brushed the though away as well as a few stray tears, and swiftly continued her course. The graveyard was covered in trees and flowers, with tombstones poking up like bodies themselves, gray and broken, they marked the eternal beds of those departed. Lily saw the funeral procession up at the top of the hill. People dressed in black. She herself was wearing a long black skirt, a black shirt and jacket, which felt almost like robes, but made her look deathly pale. She sprinted quickly up to the procession, just as the priest uttered his last words
"Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust"
The words seemed to echo around inside Lily's head, repeating, mocking, until all she heard was Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust. Over an over again, re-vibrating inside he head.
"Lily? Lily." The words broke her stupor, and Lily lifted her head to see her Aunt Nellie.
"Lily dear, how is boarding school?" she asked, pinching Lily's cheeks.
"Fine Aunt." Lily said to the woman whose only purpose for funerals was gossip. She wanted to slap her. But, luckily for both people concerned, James tripped over a rock coming up the hill, and fell out of his cloak.Luckily, he did it out of view of everyone except his friend. Lily looked startled, but Aunt Nellie, who followed the gaze of her niece, smiled.
"Is this your boyfriend, Lily?" she asked cheerfully.
"No Aunt, he's just a mate from school." Lily replied, coloring up to her ears.
"James Potter ma'am" James said, extending a hand, which Aunt Nellie shook. Then, after giving James an appraising look, she hurried off, probably to tell the others about Lily's 'beau'.
"What the hell are you doing here, James Potter?" Lily hissed angrily, just as her sister, Petunia, came walking towards them, followed by her elephant of a boy-friend.
"Hello Petunia. James, this is Petunia, my sister." James was astounded to see how little Lily resemble Petunia. Her sisters hair was blonde, her face square and horse-like, and her neck long, while Lily's hair was, of course, flaming red, her eyes green and sharp, and her face softly rounded. He extended his hand, but neither Petunia nor the man beside her took it, so after an awkward pause, he let it fall.
"Is this your…..boyfriend Lily?" asked Petunia icily.
"No, Petunia, it-he is not."
"I see." Petunia said, finally extending a hand, which James almost shook, until he saw that she was showing Lily the overly-large and rather tacky ring upon it.
"We're engaged. Myself and Vernon. This is Vernon, Lily." She said, Lily shook Vernon's hand, his grip almost crushing hers.
"Nice…to meet you" she said, gasping a little at the pain in her fingers. Vernon grinned, showing yellow teeth. Lily looked hurriedly at James, but he was too busy staring at the ground
"Our wedding is in two months time." Petunia prattled on "My dress will be white, and we will have hundreds of people at our wedding. Vernon is rich, aren't you dear?" Lily wrinkled her nose at her sisters obvious lack of tact.
"What kind of gift do you want, Petunia?" she asked.
"Nothing from you, you little freak. Did you actually think you'd be coming to the wedding? Not bloody likely!" Petunia spat, before walking off. James blinked. It had happened very fast
"Is she-"
"Yes, my sister has always been like this." Lily said, reading his mind. "Now her and Aunt Nellie will go off, and tell everyone how I am dating you. Only Petunia's version will be somewhat more lewd, and will trash my reputation. She'll say I am having your child, that we're only having a fling, and that you are only one in a string of many. Aunt Nellie will go on and on about how your going to ask me to marry you, and how we plan to have a huge wedding, with lot's of lovely decorations and people. By the end, the two versions will mix together, and everyone will think that I've changed quite a bit from the sweet baby they remember. If only they knew how true it is." This was the most honest statement Lily had ever made, and it warmed James quite a bit to her.
"So I'll ask you to marry me, then? Shall I? Wouldn't it be fun?" he asked, already loving the idea of fooling her relatives.
"No James. It's not appropriate, and I don't much feel like being made gossip of."
James shrugged, and slung a friendly arm around Lily's shoulders. She turned red, and ducked out from under it rather peevishly.
"Hey, that was a friendly gesture. What's the matter Lily?" James demanded, not understanding his new friend very well.
Lily stopped, and sat down on the wet grass, James sat beside her.
"I didn't want to come. Not especially. I just wanted to make sure…maybe Voldemort hadn't killed them. You know, maybe it was a sleeping spell only I could detect, or something like that. But people I know aren't supposed to die, James. I guess I am unlucky, but whenever I love someone, something happens to them. Mum and Dad, my cousin, Myles, my goldfish, Goldy." James was tempted to laugh at the last utterance, but didn't. "And every time it happens, it hurts more, and I can't tell anyone, and no one understands. Petty did, when we were little, but she hates me because I am a Witch. And now, the only person who's listened to me is a guy from my school who has only recently become my friend. And I have to wonder, do you know, James? Do you know what I mean?"
James had been finding it a little hard to follow Lily, but he nodded
"Yeah, I think so, at least. Voldemort killed my grandfather. He's, you know, after powerful wizarding families, and mine's one of them. And…I am scared of him." Lily didn't seem as shocked as he had thought she would be at his statement, especially the last bit. Maybe she thought he was a baby, James worried.
"Well, it's natural that you should be" she wiped a few tears away from her face, and James sighed with relief "But don't be scared, James. As long as you've got friends, we'll do anything in our power to help you. And, of course, Professor Dumbledore will too" she added as an after thought. James was very glad she had said 'we', He hadn't know that she really considered him a friend.
"Good. Now let's go get lunch…Sirius too, I guess." He said, because he (and the author) seemed to have completely forgotten the sly Gryffindor (those two words don't really seem to go together, do they) who was watching from a few feet away.
"What? Your not serious? He's here? Where is he?" Lily asked, standing up to look around her
"Under my invisibility cloak." James said, as if it was a normal thing "And of course I am not Sirius, I am James."
"You have an invisibility cloak?" Lily asked, slightly awed.
"Yes. And if Sirius doesn't remove it, he will get no lunch." James said, as Sirius appeared, grinning.
"Sorry, didn't want to interrupt the love fest" he smirked, as Lily glowered at him.
"Come on you two, lets get going." James said, stepping in between the friends.
They walked to the little café just down the street, and to a table by the window. James noticed a group of boys in one corner send Lily appraising looks, and felt just a little disgruntled. Especially when, after they had sat down, one came over, and pulled up a chair.
"Hi Lily. It is Lily Evans, right?" Lily looked up with surprise, but her face immediately slipped into a warm smile.
"Yup. And if I am not mistaken, your Marshall Warner. You were…my cousins friend." She said, her smile drooping a little. But the boy grinned.
"That's right. Where did you go off to, Lil? Petty told me you went to the mental asylum" here he snorted "But Petty seems to be the mental one-forgive my saying so- and I was wondering where you'd gone to?"
"I went to a Boarding school in Stratford. Theses are my friends, James Potter, and Sirius Black. You guys, this is Marshall Warner" she said, remembering her companions suddenly. Marshall shook their hands, and turned back to Lily.
"You don't look very different-well, your prettier. But other than that, you still look like that little girl who gave our whole class the sex-ed lecture!" he laughed out loud, and Lily turned quite red, both because of the compliment and because of the reminder. James raised his eyebrows, and Marshall grinned.
"I'll bet you can't see Lily ever doing that, eh? She always did like to share what she knew, there was another lecture about-"
"What have you been up to, Marshall?" Lily cut in, trying to save herself from embarrassment.
"School, and skateboarding, and a little acting. Not much else. How about you? Back for good?" he asked hopefully.
"No, unfortunately not. I am there till grad, and then I might come back." Lily reached up to help the waiter, who had arrived, with their burgers and shakes. Marshall stood.
"Well, Lily, it's been great seeing you- you need to write me. And don't forget to invite me to your wedding, you said you would when you were little, and I can't wait. I've been saving up for the wedding gift. What was it you wanted? A BiBi gun?" Lily laughed, but nodded
"I'll be sure to remember!" she said, standing up to give him a hug.
"What's a BiBi gun?" Sirius asked Lily
"It's a muggle weapon. You shoot bullets- they're like really hard metal rocks- out of it, and it-"
"I know what a gun is. I just wondered what a BiBigun was." Sirius said, indignant.
"A smaller version that shoots pellets, and isn't supposed to hurt things." Lily said. Sirius nodded, satisfied.
They devoured the burgers and shakes, but, as it turned out, James didn't have any muggle money, so Lily ended up paying.
"You owe me, James." She stated as they got up to leave, waving goodbye to Marshall "You owe me lunch."
"I know, I know" James said as they walked into The Leaky Cauldron to use the fireplace.
A/N: I know the whole "I am not Sirius" thing has been used a thousand bazillion times, but tough. This chapter was irrelevant, but it was needed. Make any sense to you? Nope, me neither. I tried to be descriptive, but I guess it gets rather morbid (So my little sister, Anya tells me.) Oh well, c'est la vie!!!!!!! I think James likes Lily by now, but she has no idea…how cliche am I? So, read and review, and I'll love you….well, not really, but do it anyways, kay? J