AN:
-- Okay, here is Chapter 8. I hope you all enjoy it. I want to make it clear that Lily and James do like each other at this point but they don't know it yet. They think they are just the best of friends but everyone knows that they like each other though neither will admit this. I am only saying this because it seemed in the Reviews that some people thought that they where already getting together. This is not the case they act like a couple in some sense, but they think of each other as just really good friends. Okay I know that I am rambling but I just wanted to make this clear.
-- The second point of business is that I am not going to say ten reviews and you get next chapter any more because I failed on my part of the deal last time. Also I will not stop if you don't review because I do the exact same thing I am just too lazy to review even if I really like a story. I do love reviews though; it's so nice to have people tell you what they think about your story. I thank all of you who have been reviewing this story and give you tons of hugs and kisses. I hope you will keep on reviewing - it's just such a lovely thing. Please no flames, I don't mind constructive criticism, but I won't five you another thought if you put it in a mean way. Well, I hope you enjoy this chapter and the others to come.
Disclaimer:
I won the plot, Fran, and Adrian, and any other characters you do not recognize from the Harry Potter books. Rowling owns all of them (as anybody reading Harry Potter fan fiction would know :) )
Lily's New Friend Chapter 8"…you should tell her…"
Lily, Fran, and Adrian stood on the train platform in Hogsmead with the other Hogwarts students who where going home for Christmas. There was a light snow falling from the dark gray December sky, landing on the already snow covered village.
"Oh, I always feel as if I am in a story book when it is winter in Hogsmead," said Lily to Fran and Adrian as they stood waiting for the Hogwarts Express to come into the train station to take all the students back to Kings Cross Station.
Three boys running down the platform heading right towards Lily, Fran, and Adrian interrupted Lily's reverie on how beautiful Hogsmead is covered in snow. "Hey girls there you are! Guess what we just did!" shouted Sirius making all three girls jump slightly.
"Oh, I don't know, did you play a prank on someone?" Asked Fran sarcastically.
"How did you know?" asked Peter with a down cast face.
"Well maybe because that's all you four ever do is pull pranks on people, so who was the victim this time?" asked Lily to James who had come over to take the seat next to her.
"Oh just our good friend Snape, it's been ever so long since we have played anything on him that he was over due," said James with the usual glimmer that was in his eye when ever he was talking of pranks of in the presence of Lily.
"So what did you do to him?" asked Adrian excitedly, ever since her break up with Tom she had become as close to the Marauders as Fran, though not as good of friends as Lily had become with them for they seemed to all have their own little secret that neither Fran nor Adrian shared in.
"Oh you will see," was all that any of the boys would say about if.
Exactly what they had done to Snape became apparent shortly after the train pulled away from Hogsmead. The whole group was sitting in a compartment somewhere around the middle of the train when they heard shouts coming down the hallway outside. The shouts got louder until they stopped outside of the compartment that the group was sitting when the door suddenly burst open to reveal a very angry Snape. He was standing in the doorway his hair that was always a shiny black was now a spiky shiny green and his eyes had turned pink as well as his tongue going blue with bright pink fingernails. Every one in the compartment howled with laughter at the sight of the very colorful Snape.
"Oh shut up and turn me back Potter! I can't meet my parents looking like this. Turn me back now!" yelled Snape at the Marauders.
"Well Snape that would be a problem because this spell has no counterand it lasts for twenty-four hours, so you see even if we wanted to help you we couldn't do anything Snape," said Sirius calmly without standing up, but continuing with the game of exploding snap that he had been playing.
Snape could think of nothing to say to this calm answer so he just stood looking around the compartment and his eyes fell on James and then onto Lily who had already gone back to the conversation that they had been having before Snape had barged in.
Snape grinned "perfect" he thought, "So potter looks like you have a new girlfriend, can't say she's not pretty, to bad the pretty little flower is a dirty mud blood," said Snape slyly trying his best to pick a fight, and he would never have guessed how well it worked. He made fun of the bimbo Hufflepuffs that the Marauders hung out, and made out, with all the time never getting a real rise out of them just the usual, "Shut up Snape before I curse you!" from one of the boys.
At Snape's cruel comment Lily turned a bright shade of red that matched her hair, she quickly looked out the window in hopes that Snape would not know how much his statement had actually hurt the her, all she had to do was ignore Snape's taunts. She had decided that this year she was not going to let Snape get the pleasure of seeing her temper flare. But none of the others in the compartment could leave this without a remark in Lily's defense. As soon as the words had been spoken James had jumped up quickly followed by Remus and Sirius as Peter cowered in the corner of the compartment in his seat behind Fran and Adrian who looked livid.
"Get out now before I do more than just turn your hair green," said James, in his anger taking up more space in the compartment then usual. One could almost see the aura of hatred and power around James, who stood there, and even though Remus, Sirius, Peter, and Snape himself had all seen James very angry but this was a new James to them all. No one had ever seen him so mad before one could almost see how much he hated Snape at this moment.
"Oh, am I supposed to be scared of ickle James Potter?" asked Snape with as much sarcasm as he could muster even though it was obvious that he was scared of the teenage boy standing in front of him. His normally pale face was whiter than ever and his lips had gone from the usual pale pink to the whitish blue. Anyone looking on could tell that he was terrified of James at this moment.
James was loosing his tempter no one insulted him, and absolutely nobody called Lily a mud blood. With one swift move he had his wand in
his hand and looked about ready to curse Snape, but suddenly a pale hand came out of no where and grabbed his wand hand causing the curse to hit the wall of the compartment instead of Snape, it's intended target. The owner of the pale hand whispered to James, "he's not worth it James."
Her touch and voice calmed James down immensely and he turned to look at the red haired girl who was still clinging to his wand hand.
Snape raised his wand when James turned his back but the others were ready and they all shouted, "Expeliarmis!" Causing Snape to be hurled against the door of the compartment falling down to the floor crumpled up and unconscious.
"Come on Sirius help me get this slime ball out into the hall," said Remus as he moved to where Snape's form lay near the door and helped to push him into the hallway of the train.
Sirius and Remus entered the compartment closing the door behind them. At the sight in front of them Sirius started to giggle and Remus had a silly grin on his face. When Fran and Adrian saw the looks on Sirius and Remus faces' they could no longer hold in their laughter and burst.
In the middle of the compartment stood Lily and James, no longer holding hands, looking into each other's eyes with an intensity that had never been there before. At the sound of laughter their moment of tranquility was broken and the both stepped back blushing furiously.
After every one had calmed down Fran asked, "So what is every one doing for Christmas?"
"Well I'm going to have to go stay with my father," said Peter gloomily, his father was a muggle and had left his mother for another woman leaving he and his mother all by themselves.
"Oh that's to bad," said Adrian and then she started to talk about her Christmas planes.
Lily though was thinking, 'what am I doing this Christmas?' the answer was easy, 'Being bored with a lot of muggles, including Petunia and Violet, at her family's annual Christmas party. Wait, why should Petunia and Violet be aloud to invite friends to the party but I can't.'
Lily looked up to find every one looking in her direction, "What?"
"I asked, what are you going to do for Christmas?" said James with a smile knowing that she had been in a totally different world, and sometimes he wished that he could go to that world and get away from all the horrors of this one.
"Oh being completely bored at a Christmas party and having Petunia always bugging me about how much I was missing at muggle school," said Lily then she had an idea, "Can I barouh an owl from someone?"
"Sure," said Adrian standing up to get Fluff, her owl, out of its cage in the luggage rack above their heads.
Lily took out a piece of parchment and scribbled,
Mom,
I have been wondering if since Petunia and Violet are aloud to invite some of her friends to our Christmas party if I could too? There are six of them Fran and Adrian plus some boys that are very nice. Though all of them would have to stay the night for they live all over England, Scotland, and Ireland there for it would be difficult for them to get home that night. I know that you don't like owl post but if you could send and answer quickly so I can ask before we get to Kings Crosse. Thank you!
Love,
Lily
She tied the letter to Fluff's foot and after opening the window throwing her out in the torrents of air flowing all around the train as it speed through Scotland.
"What did you ask?" inquired Fran.
"Oh you'll see," said Lily and then every one agreed to splay a couple of game of exploding snap.
A few hours later Peter was asleep in the corner and Fran and Adrian were asleep in their seats. Sirius had left a little while ago on the pretense of using the rest room but that was thirty minutes ago and James was sure that he was some where on the train either flirting with girls or even more likely trying to pick fights with the Slitherins. Remus was also asleep his eyes heavily shadowed his face pale with out even looking at a calendar he knew the full moon was less than a week away. Then there was Lily who sat quietly reading a book though if James had been paying more attention he would have noticed the lack of sound for she was not turning pages but staring down blankly at the book in her hand occasionally look up at him out of the corner of her eyes.
"So what are you reading?" asked James getting board.
"Uh? Oh, yes. It's a muggle book, you have probably never heard of it, called Jane Eyre. It's very good." She said with a small smile on her lips.
"Oh that's, um, neat," James said having as she guessed never having heard of the book it was rather hard for him to have an opinion on it, he decided to change the subject, "You know Lily, you never told me you had sisters, why not?"
"Well it's not one of my favorite subjects," said Lily, "I never even really talk about it with Fran or Adrian."
"Well then I guess you need to vent, come on I'll listen," said James with a smile and his eyes shown with a mischief that was always there even when he was a grown man, all the way until the day he died.
"You really want to know all these things about my family?" Lily asked amazed that he was interested.
"Yeah, go on tell me every thing," said James leaning back and putting his arm on the back of the seat.
"Well Petunia is two years older than me, she just turned eighteen. We used to be close that is before I got my letter to go to Hogwarts. My parents where so very proud of me, they where happy to have a witch in the family but I was from then on different and our parents have to go out their way to get me things. Petunia has thought from that day on that I was taking all the attention away from her by being different. She told all my friend from home that I had gone insane and thought I was a witch, there for cutting me off from the people I had known all my life. She has always been taller and stronger than me and she uses these facts to her advantage. She has never actually hit me or anything but she has been very mean these last five years, but I still think that some where under all her jealousy and hatred that there is still a little bit of love for me, or at least I like to think that," Lily broke down, this was one of her darkest fears that Petunia really did hate her with all her might and really wanted her dead like she said all the time.
James saw the tears welling up in Lily's eyes and moved his arm that had been resting on the seat back behind her down so that it was on her shoulders. At his touch she her body shook with a silent sob and she drew closer to him.
"It's okay," said James into her hair that smelled of juniper, "You know that your Parents love you, and Fran and Adrian think you are the best friend that they could ever have. Peter, Sirius, and Remus like you they think as a great friend, and you know that I like you."
He ran his fingers though her curls and held her as she cried, her head against his chest.
"Lily what about Violet?" James asked when he thought she had calmed down.
"Oh, she is the best little sister any one could ever have," said Lily brightly, though also a little stuffily. As she spoke James kept his arms around her and she kept her head on his chest. Lily continued, "She thought it would be neat to have a witch for a big sister, and I have never told her this because I don't want to get her hopes up but I think that she might be one too. I remember the summer after third year Petunia made fun of her and she muttered, "I wish she would just shut up!" And then even though Petunia had been screaming loudly only seconds before was noiseless even though it was obvious she was still trying to scream. Petunia didn't get her voice back until the nest day, mother said her voice was just sore from screaming and Violet thought agreed with mother but I have always had my doubts," Lily yawned and then continued a little more quietly, "but her eleventh birthday is coming up and I hope she gets in to," she yawned again, "Hogwarts."
"Oh Lily that would be so good for you if you had another witch in the family then Petunia would be the different one, and you and Violet could gang up on her then, right?" said James still running his fingers through her hair.
There was no answer and he looked down at the girl in his arms who was fast asleep. He move an aburn curl from in front of her face and tucked it back behind her ear and saw the sweet smile her lips made as she slept in his arms. "She looks like an Angel," thought James, and then he thought something that frightened him but that he also knew was true.
James bent his head and softly kissed Lily's forehead, "You know Lily, what I said earlier isn't true. I don't like you. I love you."
He smiled to himself and lifted his head and rested it on the back of his chair he had the girl he love in his arms what else in the world could he want. The answer came to him softly, but not from his mid as he had expected, it came from the door of the compartment. James' eyes snapped open and standing in the door was Sirius with a grin on his face, though not the goofy grin that was always there, this was different he grinned now not from mirth, but from happiness for his friend who he cared for as if he was his own brother.
"What did you say?" asked James; a little surprised that Sirius was not laughing at what James had just said to this girl he had only really even become friends with a few months ago.
"I said James, that you should tell her how you feel," replied Sirius, and he plopped himself down next to Remus and immediately fell asleep
James smiled, "He should tell her, but what if she did not feel the same way," he thought and he sat their thinking for a long time, until he heard a tapping on the window of the compartment.