Disclaimer: Obviously I don't own any of the stuff you recognize. That all belongs to a genius…also known as JK. I own the plot and any characters I make up along the way.
A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! I love all of you!
Theo Grint-Weasley: lol maybe I'll write a memoir one day. I really don't know who would read it though.
Nette: The title means The Stars Shine Brighter When There Is No Moon in Italian.
Le Stelle Brillano Più Luminoso Quando Non Ci è Luna
Chapter 2: Tears
The first day of classes dawned bright and early. Sunlight streamed into the girls' dorm, waking Lily from her deep slumber.
"Aargh. I hate mornings" she mumbled before flopping onto her stomach and smashing her pillow on to her head.
"Wake up sleepyhead" chirped Niamh, sticking her head between the curtains of Lily's bed.
Lily proceeded to open one eye, give Niamh a death glare, and very simply, say "No."
Niamh just laughed and jumped onto of Lily, yanking the pillow off of her head.
"I hate you" Lily stated calmly. Niamh just smirked and dragged a scowling Lily into the bathroom. This had been a routine occurrence since the very first day of first year. Somethings never change.
45 minutes later, the girls sat down at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall for breakfast.
"I'm starving" said Lily, reaching for a piece of toast.
"Surprise, surprise" Niamh replied sarcastically. Before they could eat, however, Dumbledore stood up from his seat at the Head Table.
"Good morning students. I have a quick announcement that somehow slipped my mind last night. The first prefect meeting of the year will take place tonight in the library at 7:00."
"Whooo-hoo" said Lily under her breath.
"Sorry Lils. I know you hate these meetings, but you know I'll be there." Niamh said sympathetically, who along with Lily, James, and Aidon Finnigan, was a Gryffindor Prefect.
"It's not the meetings themselves I hate, it's what happens at them." stated Lily quietly, not wanting the subject of her uneasiness to overhear. Prefect meetings…what fun. Sirius and Remus weren't Prefects, so James had free reign regarding Lily at them. The thing was, you never could be sure of how he would act at them. Some, he just sat and stared at her and some, he laughed and made smart remarks at the things she said. There were also the extremely rare few where he ignored her totally. Of course, he never got in trouble for any of it. He always contributed ideas so it looked like he was paying attention, and he always sat far enough away from Dumbledore and spoke quietly enough so that he was never overheard by those in charge. And it pissed the hell out of Lily.
"Don't worry about it. Let's just get to Potions" said Niamh.
"Yeah sure" answered Lily.
The rest of the day passes way too quickly for Lily's liking. Walking slowly toward the library after dinner, Niamh was attempting to calm Lily down somewhat.
"Just breath hun. You're going to have a freaking asthma attack."
"Niamh, I am going to puke up my dinner. I hate these damn meetings" Lily answered.
"No you're not. Lily, you cannot let him get to you like this. You're showing him that he's stronger then you and everyone knows that's not true. Now, you are going to walk into that library and be prepared to let him have it if he starts anything. Got it?" Niamh told her.
"I love you Niamh" Lily answered.
"I know you do Lils" said Niamh laughing. The girls walked in and took their seats at the Gryffindor section of the long table used at these meetings. As usual, they were directly across from James and Aidon. The boys were deep in conversation and didn't even look up when the girls sat down.
" I think everyone is here, so let's begin" said Dumbledore standing at the head of the table. "Tonight we are just going to get any ideas you all have for the year and talk about what to expect. Would anyone care to start?"
"I will" said Columbia Savery, the Head Girl, who was also in Gryffindor. "I was thinking that maybe at the Yule Ball this year, we could pick a king and queen of the dance. Kind of like they do at the muggle proms."
"Oooo that's a great idea Columbia. It would be so much fun" Lily exclaimed happily.
"Yeah like she would ever have a chance at queen." Said James to Aidon under his breath. Lily heard him though and turned to James with a look of pure hatred on her face.
"I don't think anyone asked you Potter" she said through gritted teeth, trying not to attract attention to the situation. God he was such an insensitive bastard sometimes.
"Mister Potter, do you have something that you would care to share?" asked Dumbledore, sensing a problem was brewing.
"Hmmmm, let me think" he said stroking his chin.
"This could take awhile" Niamh whispered in Lily's ear causing her to giggle.
James glared at the two girls and continued. "What about having a sort of family day at the end of the year and like putting on things for them to show what we've done during the year."
"Interesting Mister Potter" said Dumbledore. "We'll consider it"
James sat down looking quite pleased with himself and caught sight of Lily's downcast face. "What's wrong Lily? Don't think you're family cares enough to come?" he asked quietly.
Lily's head snapped up and James was shocked to see tears in her eyes. "Bastard" she spat out, jumped out of her seat, and ran from the library.
"Miss Evans?" Dumbledore's voice called after her.
"She isn't feeling well Professor." Niamh supplied staring straight at James. "I'll go see if she's ok." Giving James one last dirty look and whispering "Good job dumb ass." to him, she left too.
"Damn I didn't mean to make her cry." he said to himself.
"Do you even know what her family is like?" asked Aidon in his ear. James shook his head and Aidon sighed deeply. "You really fucked up this time."
"Professor may I be excused? I don't feel so well all of a sudden." asked James, standing up quickly.
"Of course."
James quickly ran from the library and made it up to Gryffindor Tower in record time. As he entered the common room, he was bombarded with questions from Remus and Sirius. He brushed them off and walked up the stairs to the girls' dormitories.
"I'll tell you guys later." he called to them. As he neared the 6th year girls' dorm, he could hear sobbing and muffled words he assumed came from Niamh. He took a deep breath and knocked. The door swung open and Niamh stood there, glaring at him.
"I'd go away if I were you James. You have no right to talk to Lily ever again" she said angrily.
"Let him in Niamh" said Lily, standing up from where she had been sitting on her bed crying. She walked towards the door, wiping tears from her eyes. "I have some things I'd like to tell him."
Niamh sighed and walked out of the room. She needed to rethink her plan of getting them together after James' little stunt.
After Niamh was out of earshot, Lily went and sat back down on her bed with her head in her hands. James shut the door quietly and walked over to her.
"Lily, I'm really sor…"
"Shut up. I don't want to hear it. What the hell is you problem James? What did I ever do to you? Nothing that's what! And then you go and act like a damn asshole. I'm sick of your bullshit" she yelled at him.
"Lily I'm sorry"
"Don't talk! God I cannot stand the sound of your voice right now" She sat on the bed quietly for a few minutes staring off into space with tears running down her face while James shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. All of a sudden she jumped up and pushed him down onto her bed. "Do you even know why what you said hurt me so much? Do you?"
"No" he admitted.
"Well let me clue you in. I don't have any family. My parents died when I was 13 in a car crash. I was sent to live with my older sister Petunia. And even though she's my sister, she hates me. She can't stand the sight of me, says I make her sick. She hates the fact that I go to Hogwarts and constantly makes my life miserable whenever I see her. I have been called every insult; swear word, and derogatory remark in the English language. So finally, I just stopped going her house during breaks from here. I always go home with Niamh. So, no I don't think my 'family' would care enough to come to a family day. I know they won't. Because I don't have a family!" Lily yelled into James' face still sobbing.
"Jesus Lily, I didn't know. I'm…I'm so sorry."
"Why are you always such an ass to me James?" Lily asked, staring him straight in the face. "You never were this mean before."
"I…I don't know. It's complicated, I guess." he answered looking uncomfortable.
"Complicated? How the hell is it complicated? I deserve a reason" she screamed into his face.
"I don't need to justify my actions to you" James said slowly, fearing her reaction.
"Get out of my room now." Lily replied evenly. James got up and walked out of the room slowly. At the door, he turned back to her.
"Lily I'm sorry about your parents, but I can't tell you the reason for me being an ass because…I don't know." he said quietly.
"Just leave me alone" Lily answered sitting back on the bed with her head in her hands again.
James sighed and walked back to his dorm. Ignoring his friends questions about what was going on, he lied down in his be and pulled the curtains around him. And cried.
Back in her dorm, Lily was also crying. But she had never really stopped.
"Lily?" Niamh asked from the door. "What happened?"
Lily proceeded to tell Niamh everything, how James had apologized and then refused to give her a reason for why he acted like he did.
"Oh Lils. I'm so sorry" said Niamh, rubbing Lily's back. "I know he acted like an ass and everything, but you have to admit, it at least showed the tiniest bit of a heart that he came and apologized"
"Mmmm" said Lily.
"Go to bed. Everything always looks better in the morning." said Niamh soothingly.
"Yeah. Night" Lily said
After Lily climbed into her bed and drew the curtains around her, Niamh crawled into her bed and thought hard. She didn't get James at all. She was almost positive that James liked Lily. She saw the way he looked at her when she wasn't paying attention. And Niamh had a sneaking suspicion that Lily had some sort of feeling towards James. Otherwise why would she care so much about what he thought or said? She kept thinking her plan through until she got a headache. She decided to take her own advice and go to bed. She'd figure things out in the morning.
The next morning, Lily slowly opened her eyes and stretched. Climbing out of bed, she took notice of her bloodshot eyes in the mirror. And she remembered the reason for them.
"Damn" she swore under her breath. Lily really did not feel like dealing with everything. Especially this early in the morning. The door to the bathroom opened and Niamh walked out all dressed for the day.
"So you're up. I was going to wake you but I didn't know if you wanted to go to breakfast and everything." Niamh said.
"Yeah, ummm I guess I will go down. I have nothing to be embarrassed about. Plus, I'm really hungry." replied Lily.
"Hate to break it to you Lily dear, but you are always hungry. I swear, you eat more then my older brother. And he's 23!" said Niamh smiling.
Lily couldn't do anything but laugh, and after getting ready quickly, the two girls walked arm in arm to breakfast.
The first thing they noticed when they got there was that the Marauders were nowhere to be found. Both girls found it a little strange, but just ate their breakfast and headed to class, not giving it a second thought.
The boys never showed up until just after dinner in the Common Room. James looked over to where Niamh and Lily were sitting by the fire, but quickly looked away when he caught Lily's eyes. The rest of the boys waved at the girls and the group made their way up to their room.
The days that followed passed quite normally. Except for one small thing…James no longer made up stories about Lily or said nasty things to her. On the contrary, he acted rather quiet around her. Niamh, Remus, and Sirius didn't miss the looks he would give her when she couldn't see however. And that was why they decided to meet in the Common Room very late on Saturday night in early November.
"So we all know that Lily and James have some sort of feelings for each other" said Sirius.
"Or think we know" broke in Remus.
"Right. So we need a plan to get them together and make them realize what they feel" Sirius said.
"Exactly" Niamh said. "I've been working on a plan-"
"Guys I don't like the idea of trying to get them together. We all know they should be, but they need to realize that on their own. You can't tell people what to feel. It won't work" Remus broke in.
"So what do you suggest?" asked Niamh.
"Leave them alone. Let them realize what they feel on their own. I really don't think either of them would want us involved" answered Remus.
"Ok…how about we make a deal, because I do see your point. We'll leave them alone, but if they don't get a clue by, say, Easter, we step in. Deal?"
"Deal" said Remus.
"Deal" replied Niamh. The three friends stood and shook hands before heading to their cozy beds. Crawling into his, Remus said a little prayer that Lily and James would realize soon enough. He really didn't like getting involved in other people's business. Especially where feelings were concerned.