The three of them stepped of the carriage when stopped in front of the manor. It was a beige color with a big balcony, facing a wide green lawn.

"Your luggage has already been put in the guest room Miss." Lolly said curtly, walking ahead of them. Remus naturally said thank you and followed the elf to the door while Lily and Minnie were still taking in the atmosphere around them. "Don't dally! Come along!" Lolly said waving to the two girls, standing out in the rain.

Lily and Minnie scurried to the dry balcony. The door opened automatically and as soon as they stepped inside the wooden floored foyer, two elves scurried to their side and took their coat and disappeared as fast as they came.

"Lily! Minnie!" A voice shouted above them. It was Shay running down the stairs. She hugged both of them and James, Sirius, and Peter followed her.

"Hey good old Moony! I haven't seen you for a long time!" Sirius said, slapping Remus' back.

"Yeah. Three days is a really long time." He replied sarcastically.

"Miss Evans! You are looking tremendously fantastic, as always." James said, bowing and kissing her hand.

"Same to you Mr. Potter." Lily laughed.

A voice cleared beside them.

"Forgive me to interrupt this special moment, but I believe that my so-called 'well mannered' son forgot his manners and didn't introduce me, the great Chandler Potter, please call me Mr. Potter the Great." A middle-aged man said curtly.

All of them, except James and Sirius stared incredulously at 'great Mr. Potter senior'. James and Sirius' faces were red and their lips were in a thin line. After a few uncomfortable seconds, the two burst out laughing.

"O man Chandler did you see their faces!" Sirius said between gasps.

James laughed. He turned to his friends. "Wow, we should've taken a picture of that one! You guys looked like you just saw a dancing hippogriff!"

"Uh, nice comparison James." Minnie said, smiling.

"Anyways, meet my dad, Chandler Potter, you can call him Chandler. Dad, this is Minnie Kim, um, I forgot her real name. But that's okay, right Minnie?" James said.

"Yeah. Minnie's fine." She said laughing.

"This is Shayla Fintley, she arrived earlier while you were at the Ministry."

"Ah, one of the Beaters, isn't that so?"

"Yep!" She said happily.

"And this is Lily Evans." James announced proudly putting his arm around her.

"Oh! So this is the Lily Evans. Heh, interesting. Your mother had green eyes too James."

"Yeah I know." He said a little sadly. "Oh yes. And meet my mother."

They turned to the large painting he pointed to. The woman waved at them and her eyes were, indeed, sharp green.

"Now I must go back to my office and work on a new case. I hope you guys have an enjoyable stay here. Feel free to call me for anything" Chandler said kindly and disapparated.

"Now how about some food?" James suggested.

They all agreed and followed him to the kitchen.

"Mr. Potter! Mr. Potter! You cannot come here! You cannot come here! Only elves allowed! Only elves allowed!" One of the elves that took their coats said.

"But Bibby, we just want a quick snack. Can we just grab like some cheese and crackers or something?" James pleaded.

"Cheese and crackers sir? Cheese and crackers. Okay. Bibby will do that. Rosy can do that. Now just wait out in the dining room. Just wait in the dining room. We'll be quick. Really quick." Rosy said, before running off.

"Uh... Okay." James muttered. "I guess we'll just sit and wait."

"How many elves do you have?" Minnie asked.

"Five." He replied.

"Really? It seems a lot more." Shay said.

"They're just everywhere. They have apparating powers so they just pop out of nowhere everywhere."

"Pop out of nowhere everywhere?" Sirius asked.

"Yes."

"Nowhere everywhere? Isn't that an oxymoron?" He repeated.

"Yes. You're a genius Sirius." James stated.

"Ha ha, I know. It's a shame that the professors can't see it though."

"It is here! It is here!" A squeaky voice sounded behind them. It was Bibby, holding a tray of crackers. Behind her, another elf was holding a small plate of various types of cheese and jam and a small knife. Bibby set the tray of nicely arranged crackers on the wooden table and the small elf shyly put the cheese and jam.

"Thanks Bibby. Thanks Rosie." Sirius said.

Bibby grinned in response and ran back to the kitchen. Rosy blushed deeply and giggle nervously.

"Th-thank you, Mr. Black."

"Call me Sirius! Sirius! I don't like that name, Black. Sirius will be fine."

"But S-s-Sirius, Black sounds so d-dashing and b-b-brave..." Rosy replied, wringing her gnarly fingers. Everyone laughed. Rosie's dark brown, almost black eyes, started to collect tears around the bottom, her bottom lip started to tremble and before she broke into a full wail, she scampered back into the kitchen.

The girls 'aww'ed and the boys laughed.

"I thought Rosy was over the phase!" Remus said, laughing.

"Yeah me too. Everyone goes through the Sirius phase, but four years is too long." James commented.

"Four years? Oh man, that elf has got to go out and see the world." Shay joked.

"Aww shut up. Girls like me. Right? Didn't you have a crush on me in second year?" He asked.

"Uhh… No." She replied, raising her eyebrows.

"Oh." Sirius said, embarrassed.

They finished the snack and went into the living where they played a wizard's version of monopoly and various other games. Promptly at seven, they were all called into the dining room for supper. The table magically expanded itself to fit more people than the usual two and the food was carried onto the table by two house elves, Rosy and Bibby.

Dinner was filled with laughter and Lily noticed that James had gotten his sense of humor from his father. After a long dinner and some desserts, Chandler suggested that they should get some sleep because they would have to wake up early to catch the train back to Hogwarts.

~*~

Just like he promised, they had to wake up early to catch the Hogwarts Express. By four o'clock, they had all arrived at their destination and started to unpack.

At the owl post next morning, Lily had forgotten her mother's disapproval, until Chrys, her owl, turned up sour and bitter onto Lily's breakfast, holding out her leg. There was a letter, crudely tied onto her leg, with a few pieces of tape taped around for extra security measures. Lily knew exactly who it was from. She knew only one person who would send her an owl post and didn't know how to. With shaking fingers, she gingerly took the letter off the unhappy Chrys and opened it.

"Lily-

I am VERY ashamed in your actions. I thought I raised you to be a better daughter, a good and honest person. Well I have had a long talk with your father and his decisions may not be always the same as mine. We will have a longer discussion on this when you get home for your Easter Vacation. But so far, don't even think about mentioning another gathering with your friends for your whole Hogwarts life.

-Mum"

"Who's it from?" James asked with curiosity.

"Mum." Lily answered meekly.

"What's it say?"

"Well… You see, I wasn't exactly allowed to go to your house yesterday. But my dad let me go anyway because he thought that I should go; it was my mum who disagreed." Lily said, sighing.

"Oh." James said, the guilt clearly showing in his eyes.

"Don't feel guilty James. I really wanted to go and it was definitely worth it." She smiled, looking into his gray eyes.

James' hand found Lily's and she forgot all about the letter and melted into his eyes.

At the end dinner on the first day of April, a black raven dropped a letter on Lily when she was leaving for class. Lily looked strangely when most of the whole hall, including the teachers, fell silent. They stared gravely at her. Remus reached his hand and touched her arm.

"I'm so sorry Lily." He muttered.

"What? What are you sorry about?" Lily asked.

"The raven. It's a death notice post." Remus explained,

looking at the shiny bird with piercing yellow eyes, screeching and flying gracefully out of the hall.

Lily still looked confused and she carefully opened the letter. She unfolded the perfectly folded paper. The font was very fancy.

"Dear Miss Lily Faye Evans,

We grimly announce with our deepest sorrows that there has been a death in your family. Jolene Marissa Evans..."

Lily stopped there.

"Ha ha ha Remus. Not a funny joke. Whose idea was this. I bet it was..." She said, her voice shaking. She trailed off. She looked at the letter again.

The moment her eyes skimmed over that part of the letter the second time, the blood drained from her face. She looked around herself. Hundreds of silent eyes were fixed on her. The seconds seemed to go by slow. Her fingers languishly uncurled, letting go of the letter and the envelope. She watched it fall. The paper was swaying side to flipping over like a feather, finally reaching the floor. Just then, her heart dropped with it.

Her head started to spin and she could hear her heart beating loudly. It was drumming in her ears as if it was telling her that her mother was dead. She started to breathe in and out, raspily, getting faster and faster. Her lungs seemed to be clogged. When she blinked, the world went away, but when she opened them, the reality came back to life.

Her feet automatically fumbled around unconsciously. She turned around, looking for somewhere where she could hide, don't let the reality grab her. She ran out of the Great Hall. She didn't think anymore, all she saw in front of her were thousands of pictures fluttering before her eyes, all of her mother. She ran out into the open grass field and lake. She tripped on a rock by the lake. Her feet stumbled and she kept running, into the forest. She tripped again on the root. This time, she didn't get up. Her fingers gripped the dirt and she squeezed it. She grabbed everything in reach, screaming.

She stopped suddenly, panting and curled herself into a ball. She sobbed silently, growing to a wail. She felt a comforting hand on her shoulder. It was warm and heavy. She laid her hand on it lightly. The hand squeezed her shoulder lightly. She turned around and fell into James' arms. He sat down laid her down in his lap, who was still crying. James didn't know what to say. He wanted to make her feel better and he felt as if the life had gone out of her. He simply gripped her hand and twirled a strand of her hair with his other hand. The sun started to set. The whole sky flamed red at the horizon, turning into a purplish blue at the top. It seemed to be weeping for Lily.

James noticed she had fallen asleep. He picked her up and carried her inside to the hospital wing. The Great Hall was still filled with students and he didn't want anybody to see Lily at this state. So he took the long way around. They were greeted by Madame Monzingo.

"Dear dear... I've been expecting her. Yes. Set her in one of those beds. I would clean her up a bit, but I don't want to wake her up yet." She said, pointing to a row of beds, with fresh white linen. James gently laid her down. He silently drew a chair by her and sat down, holding Lily's hand.

James stared at Lily's fingers. He stroked the top of her hand and studied each of the fingers. He fingered comforting messages on her hands, hoping she could hear them in her sleep. He jumped, startled, when Sirius said James' name.

"She'll be all right. She's strong." Remus said. It seemed like James was ignoring Remus and Sirius, but he nodded after a while.

"James..." Sirius murmured. "I-I don't know what to say. I read the letter. They were in a car accident. Her dad's barely alive." James shook his head and laid his forehead on Lily's warming up hands. Sirius set the letter on the bedside table. "I'll come back in the morning." They left.

Then, Shay, Riley, and Minnie walked in.

"Is she okay? I just heard." Shay said timidly, setting a card on the table. James shrugged and sighed.

"I hope so." James said. Remembering how he had reacted when his mother had died last summer. He refused to come out of his room for a week.

"I made these for her." Minnie said ruefully, offering folded paper lilies. There were seven of them all and they even smelled like lilies. She set them on the tables.

"I'm so sorry Lily." Shay squeaked out before walking out. Riley set a card on the table and walked out with Minnie.

James knew Lily wasn't sleeping throughout the night. He could hear her sniffling occasionally and sometimes squeeze his hand tightly. James fell asleep around two though. But he woke up when he heard the bed squeak and Lily's hand leave his.

"Lily?" James whispered to the ghostly figure.

"Bathroom." She croaked.

"All right." He said, reluctantly watching her shuffle to the bathroom. She went in. About two minutes later, she came back out, sobbing and sniffling. He walked over to her and hugged her. He slipped his hands around her waist and she put her shaking arms around his neck. She slowly set her head on his shoulder and he stroked her head.

"Shhh... It'll be all right." He said.

"No. She's dead. I won't see her again. How do you call that all right?" She whispered. He didn't have an answer to her question. He was languished with rue for her. She sniffled again and drew away. She walked back to her bed and hid under her blankets. When James woke up again, it was morning.

"James?" Sirius said.

"Yeah..." He mumbled back.



"It's 8:20. Breakfast is going on." Sirius said. "Come on." He said, touching James' shoulder.

"What if Lily wakes up?" James said, looking at Lily's ashen face.

"I'll stay here. You go get some food. I already got some." Sirius said.

"All right. If Lily wakes up, tell her I'll be right there, and come get me." He said. Then he paused to think. "No, stay here. Don't leave her. I'll be back soon as possible." James said, walking quickly in the Great Hall. He was bombarded with questions, all about Lily. He ignored most of them and sat down by Remus.

"Hey James. How's Lily?" Remus said.

"Hey. She's sleeping. Can you pass me the toast?" James asked. He ate them plain, not caring to put any butter. He gobbled one up as fast as he could, took a swig of pumpkin juice and went back to the hospital wing. Sirius was still sitting in the same position.

"You already ate?" Sirius asked suspiciously.

James brushed crumbs off his robes as a response and sat down in his chair.

"Why James?" Sirius asked. James looked up. "Why are you doing this for her?"

"I know what it feels to lose a mother. Also, I think I'm in love with her. I realized that yesterday. I can't imagine not spending the rest of my life with her. I can't bear to lose her too." He said, referring to when his mother had died last summer.

"I wish I was in love." He said, sighing. "I wish that I would have someone always waiting for me. The same person. I mean, it's great to have all these girls fawning over me. But I want one person who I can turn to, no matter what. Someone I would do anything for."

"It feels right. It doesn't feel like a feeling you've been wishing for. You wonder, 'This feels like I've been born with. How come I've never experienced this before?'"

"You know, if a girl heard that, they would all fall for you." Sirius said, chuckling. They sat there, talking when Professor Dumbledore came in.

"Mr. Potter. I'm afraid I can't excuse out of your classes today." He said.

"But sir--" He started.

"We'll feed her a sleeping potion. She'll be sleeping all day." He said.

"If you say so Professor." James said sadly, getting up.

"James, she's very lucky to have you." He said with a smile. He left.

"Bye Lily. I'll be back later in a few hours." He whispered, touching her feverish cheek.

________________________________________________________________________

YAY this chappie came out fast huh! Well actually I had the second part of this chappie done a loooong time ago. The hard part was making very flow into it. I didn't do very good. The transition is kind of awkward and it may seem kind of sudden.... but... haha deal with it. it was either this or waiting like another month. I'm trying to get this story done so I can concentrate on my other story. If you haven't read it yet... DO IT NOW~ thnx~! x]