*~*~*Chapter 8: Tragic Happenings*~*~*~

(A/N: Maybe too much is happening to these people in just a few days, but something BIG is about to occur.)

3 days later [Sunday], the 6 kids gathered at a large grassy park/lake for a picnic. Sirius and Remus were throwing a Frisbee around, shouting gleefully. Ali, Sierra and Lily were doing their nails together, huddled on a tablecloth on the long, pasture-like grass.

James was walking around the lake calmly. He moved around a few trees, hiding himself from his friends' view. Out of the shadows, he heard unexpectedly, "James Potter. We meet again."

James swiveled around. A girl about his height, with shoulder-length brown hair and deep blue eyes stood by a tree, smiling mysteriously.

"Oh. Hey. . .uh. .. it's Victoria, right?" James asked confusedly.

The girl kept her smile on her face and giggled hollowly. "Taylor, actually," she said, as if she knew he'd known her name the whole time and he was kidding.

^#^#^#^

Taylor was always as girl with bad intentions. Always thinking about herself . . .or in this case, James Potter. Chasing after him since the second year, only because of his good looks and popularity, Taylor never gave up. She hated Lily for ruining her chances with the boy - yet now was a time to ruin Lily. Well, ok, so she knew James was completely out of her league, but she figured: if she couldn't have James, then neither could that two faced little brat. She would have put her plan into action at school, but by coincidence, he just happened to be here, of all places! So why not do it now?

^#^#^#

"Jamsie-poo, let's go . . .over there. I need to talk to you about something," she said smoothly, guiding James over to a picnic table where Lily was sure to see. James frowned.

"Don't touch me," he said, trying to be polite, but really annoyed. He moved his shoulder out of her grasp. "And what's with the 'Jamsie-poo' stuff?"

James leaned against the table. Taylor grinned, and quickly looked up to where Lily and her little friends were. "So.what did you want to talk about?" James asked, impatient.

"Actually, I wanted to do this!" Taylor pushed James onto the table and started to kiss him passionately.

&@&@

Lily felt weird. Like this odd vibe.

"What's wrong Lily?" Ali asked, seeing her friend's sudden awareness.

"Something's not right. I don't feel right."

"Like how?" Sierra asked, starting to get worried.

Lily shook her head. "I don't - where's James?"

"Dunno," Ali muttered vaguely.

All of a sudden, Lily turned her head sharply towards where James was. . .well, who knew what he was doing. Lily felt her whole world freezing before her eyes. James and that girl. . .Taylor was her name? That girl from Hogwarts, why was she here? She'd been after him for years. . .and now they were. . .?

Ali and Sierra suddenly caught where Lily was staring, just when James, trying to defend himself, rolled over, making it look even more like they were making out.

"OH MY GOD."

Sirius caught the Frisbee just as it was thrown to him and said "What?" to his girlfriend. Ali just stared, horror-struck. Sirius turned and his mouth dropped open, and the Frisbee fell limp to his hand. Remus looked too. Oh boy. &@&@

James tried to fight the freaky girl off. 'What the hell is she doing?' he thought wildly. He didn't know how she was doing it, but she had a firm grasp on him, and she just kept on kissing him, though he didn't kiss back (obviously.) 'Doesn't she need air?' he pleaded.

Without warning, he felt the slutty girl being wrenched from him. 'YES! Oh...oh...SHIT'. The one who'd removed Taylor from him was. . .Lily. And she did NOT look typical girly-girl when she'd "caught her man cheating on her." She wasn't crying (yet) and yelling 'how could you!' and running away. She just looked downright pissed off. And James knew what she could do to him if he got her mad enough.

"Lily, I swear, I can explain -" he began, slightly out of breath. He never finished his sentence because as soon as he started, a sharp fist came from the air, punching him in the eye. He was thrown off his feet and onto the ground.

"LILY, NO!" Ali screamed. "DON'T!"

"What's she gonna do?" Sirius yelled wildly.

"Oh god.she's gonna beat the hell out of him before we can get an explanation!" Ali answered. "Trust me, she's not the kind of girl you'd want to make angry! Her dad taught her some *defense* tricks and they've all gone to her head!"

The four remaining teenagers plus one *lady of the night* were watching in fear and shock as Lily punched James over and over again. Then she resulted to slapping the boy. Of course, she didn't want to kill him, but NO ONE messed with her. She wasn't hitting his THAT hard, but hard enough to leave a bruise. 'Well, ok, maybe a little harder', she admitted as soon as she made his lip bleed.

In all honestly, Taylor thought this was all relatively funny.

"She's gonna kill him! Stop her!" Sierra screamed.

Sirius and Remus both yanked Lily off of James, trying to hold back the struggling girl. "LET ME GO!" she shrieked, though she was starting to cry. 'How could he? Her James.HER James.no.And I don't want and explanation. He shouldn't have.done anything.'

She kicked forward, trying to hit the boys holding her back, but each had taken hold of one arm. When too many tears threatened to break forth, she gave up, finally choking up sobs and weakening herself, crumbling to the ground in a heap.

Sirius and Remus let go, slightly afraid of a crying girl in misery. Ali and Sierra both rushed forward to hug their friend.

James, being helped up by his friends, stared more than daggers at Taylor, who smiled innocently. He was breathing hard, but soon had tempered his breathing back to normal. He only had a bleeding lip and a forming black eye, and maybe a few bruises, but nothing major. He watched Lily crying on the ground, hugging herself for comfort.

"Lily," he said, trying to speak softly. "I swear it wasn't what it looked like. Just let me explain. And don't beat the shit out of me."

'Crud,' Taylor thought. 'This stupid boy is messing up my plans! I don't think so. NO ONE gets what they want after Taylor Carrisa deals with them. NO ONE!'

"Yeah, well, Jamsie, I think I can tell her what's going on," Taylor spoke up quickly.

James said, "NO!" firmly, but Taylor continued.

"I really don't know why you're so upset, Evans. Didn't Jamsie tell you about us? I mean. . .you didn't think he'd go into the 6th year being with you, did you?" she paused for effect. "Aw, how sweet. You did."

She gave Lily a sarcastic smile and said, "James, honey, I think we should go." James looked at her with complete disgust. "Get AWAY from me, Tay!"

"Oh, so now you call her 'Tay'!" Lily burst out savagely.

"No, Lily -"

"How could you?" Lily cried, ripping herself from Ali and Sierra's grasps. "After everything -after we. . . after you. . ." she couldn't say anything between sobs . "LILY!" James howled. "GOD, LISTEN TO ME! I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! THIS WAS A SET UP!! WHY ARE YOU LISTNEING TO WHAT TAYLOR SAYS? WHAT ABOUT ME!?"

Lily silenced, though she was still crying. Lily realized that, once again, she'd jumped to conclusions.

"God, I mean.UGH, I can't take this anymore, when will you trust me!" James yelled. He stormed off, taking a running start somewhere. Now Lily realized her mistake. The closed her eyes briefly. "Wait, James, hold it!" She called after him. She followed closely behind him, only about 5 feet behind him, trying to catch up.

"This is getting good," Taylor muttered.

"Lily! Don't!" Ali moaned, also following her.

"Ali! No. Stay out --" Sirius said, chasing his girlfriend.

James was in the lead, Lily, Ali and Sirius running after him together; Remus and Sierra trailing far behind, not wanting to get in the way.

James didn't know why he was running, running, running. . .all he knew was, he had to get out of here. He ran across the grass, the gravel path and closed in on the parking lot. He could hear Lily's calls of "JAMES!" and Ali's of "LIL!" and Sirius's of "ALI!"

He was near the gate when suddenly, a horrible sound alerted him. A loud and disgusting thud was followed by an earsplitting screech of breaks. James whirled around, horrified. He saw a black flashy car a few feet from him and.he noticed from the wheel, there was a mess of dark red hair, and an arm was lying motionless on top.

*~*Chapter 9: Accidents Happen*~*

(A/N: I know, I know, lame name for a title, right? Duh! Now go read my fic!)

James stood there, transfixed for a moment, all sorts of wild and crazy thoughts popping into his head. He was breathing hard and unsteadily, as if he's been running for miles. But he wasn't tired; he was terrified of what had become of Lily, Sirius and Ali. Slowly, as if he was afraid to face even worse problems, he walked around the car. A man came out of the vehicle, freaking out and rushing to the aid of the kids he'd accidentally hit. James saw Sirius, red color all over his legs and arms, moaning in fierce pain, clutching his leg, almost crying in agony.

Ali was lying on the ground, not moving, blood covering her body. Lily's arm and part of her stomach were under the wheel of the car, and she was motionless, pale as death and splashed with blood. James acted quickly. "Mister! Back your car up!!!" he shouted at the fearful man, hovering around.

"OK!" the man yelled back. He reversed his car, off of Lily and James rushed to her side. "Sirius, man, hang in there, ok?" James called to his best friend. Sirius gritted his teeth.

"Mister! Call 911!!!!" James called.

(A/N: Now I realize that 911 may not be the emergency code in England, but I'm a clueless American, work with me here!)

The man took out his cell phone and speed-dialed emergency and reported the accident. While as this was taking place, Remus and Sierra burst onto the scene.

"Sirius!" Sierra cried, panicked for her brother. She ran to help him sit up.

James pulled Lily onto him, trying to shake her awake.

"Lily.Lily," he groaned. "Please.c'mon, wake up!" She stayed limp, in his arms. Everything was all a blur.

*#*#*

"L-L-Lily. E-Evans. L-Lily Evans," James said shakily.

He and his friends were at the police station, explaining what had happened. The driver of the car that hit Lily, Sirius and Ali had called 911, gotten and ambulance to take them, and then called the police to report the accident. He was being questioned at the moment as well. The officer was done asking about Sirius and Ali, just Lily was left.

"And of what age was the victim?" the police officer asked kindly. The police lady was a tall, respectable looking woman, blonde and green eyed.

"Uh.uh." James was too shaky to answer.

"She was -I mean, she IS 16," Sierra interjected. Remus squeezed James's shoulder comfortingly. "And how are you all related to her?"

"We're just her friends," Remus began, and then he added, "But he's her boyfriend." He pointed to James. The officer cornered James with a stare over her glasses for a few seconds and then continued filling out the report.

"And, what were you doing that she ran into the street like that?"

At this, everybody looked over at James. He explained most the details, but hurrying to the more important facts. "I ran across, and then she was after me, and. . ." James closed his eyes. He wasn't going to cry. He took a deep breath and tried to calm down.

"Ok. Thanks, kids. That's all I needed to know. Are you ok, sweetheart?" she added kindly to James.

"Uh. Yeah. . .yeah, thanks."

"She'll be alright," the police officer said reassuringly. "Can I get you guys anything?"

"When can we see Lily and the others?" James said quickly. The officer smiled.

"In a few moments we're all going down to the hospital. We'll all see your friends."

^#^#

James stood right next to Lily, holding her hand. He closed his eyes. 'If only he hadn't run across.'

"If she's not ok I'll never forgive myself," James whispered.

Sierra, who was also in the room, whispered back, "It'll be ok, James."

"What about the others? I'll never get over that either," James said tonelessly.

Sierra was quiet. "Don't worry about it," she told him after a while.

"How are they going to get better in time for school? And we've got to lie and say we go to boarding school."

"I'm sure they'll think of something."

"How can you be so calm at a time like this?"

"Sierra," Remus said, entering the room. "You can go see Sirius and Ali now, if you want."

Sierra turned back at James. "Because I believe it'll be ok," she answered him. Then she left, going to see her brother and Ali.

(A/N: This chapter isn't all that important either. I mean, it doesn't affect anything that's going to happen later. But I had to add this for a reason.)

(A/N Note: This chapter is dedicated to my cousins in Brazil: Michelle, Marcell, and Danielle. They suffered an accident similar to this one written in my story, with one of them dying. [But I don't want my characters to die, so I'm not killing them off!] I wrote this chapter to tell everyone to please be careful with your life and to tell everyone you love that you love them -cuz it can all be over in a flash. This family thing happened recently to me, so I used it as an inspirational piece of my fic.)