The Flower's Story chp9

"The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it."

-W.M. Lewis

Sirius Black walked up and down his staircase numerous times. He didn't know why, but he thinks it's because he likes that tired feeling in his legs. Or he is just very bored. Which usually is the normal story.

"Sirius?" someone yelled

"Yes mum?" He said as he walked down the staircase for the 14th time

"What are you going?" She said in her very twitchy voice.

Sirius' mum was very strange. Ever since she accidentally got electrocuted by a muggle vacuum cleaner that his dad had brought home, well lets just say she hasn't been the same.

"I mean what are you doing?" she corrected

"I'm walking up.....................now down." He said with irratation

"Well there is a girl at the door who looks very upset! I-I-I suggest you help him! I mean her!" she paused for a moment trying to give Sirius a stern look that didn't really have any affect on him. So she just left.

He ran to the front door, and when he got there he found a very steamy red head.

"It took you long enough!" Lily steamed

"Whats wrong?" He asked concerned

"Your wrong!" She practically screamed. It looked as though she was trying not to make a scene but it was a very futile effort.

"Great Wizards Lil, what is your childhood trauma??" He closed the door behind him. He didn't want his mum eaves-dropping in her strange mum-like way.

"You are!" She said pacing back and forth looking very disoriented.

"I don't understand!"

"Oh you understand very well! Why did you tell James to do that-that-that-thing to Petunia?" she was turning the shade of her hair.

"Hey! Wait a second as much as it sounds like I would want to take credit for this I have NO IDEA what so ever as to what your talking about!"

"Oh yes you do! James sent a neon pink owl flying through my sitting room window it swooped over to me, gave me a letter, and then pooped on Petunia's head! I'm grounded until Hogwarts! I'm not even suppose to be here!" she was making herself dizzy.

After breaking into hysterics he asked "How did you get here anyway? And how do you know where I live?"

"I took a bus and Tasha told me! Anyway the letter said that it was your idea so here I am yelling at you-"

"For something I didn't do Lil! I did not tell James to do that!" He snickered as he pictures owl poop on Petunia's head.

"Well James thinks other wise! Listen I have to go home, can I use you floo powder?" Finally calming down, Sirius let Lily in. She said hello to his mother and then rushed to the fire place. He had a little pot with the green powder inside it.

"Bye lil! See you at Hogwarts!" he smiled at her. "Oh, wait there's something I wanna know!"

"What?" obviously she was still annoyed

"When is Tasha's Birthday?" He blushed a little and avoided eye contact with her.

This was not what she had expected.

"June 18th." She turned to go but gave him a quick wink before she disappeared.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

"Oy Lily!"

Lily whipped her head around and waited for the commotion to begin.

"Agh! What did you do to yourself?" James asked with concern and amusement all mixed into one. It sounded very strange.

"I didn't give myself a black eye all right? And I didn't cut my own hair!"

Lily had a huge black and blue on her right eye and her hair had been cut up to her shoulders. It was usually down to the middle of her back. This change pretty much shocked everyone. She had loved her long hair, and a black eye wasn't that flattering!

"How'd you do that Lil?" She saw Tasha and Molly's head poke around James.

"I didn't do it! I'll explain on the train! Lets just get our stuff into the compartment all right?" She looked extremely tired.

As all the girls and Sirius walked onto the train James Pulled Remus aside.

"How'd she get the black eye?"

Remus could see James was very worried.

"You think that's bad? You should see her back! When Lily escaped the house again because she was very bored she went wondering into the bad part of town! These kids jumped her! James if I hadn't gone looking for her…I don't think she would've made it! They beat her to a pulp! Bed-ridden, the rest of the holidays, I begged her to wait a little longer before getting out of bed. But you know her, stubborn as a hippogriff that one is. You should also see her leg, I don't know how strong this girl is but, she must be pretty strong to stop herself from limping!"

James couldn't contain himself "Did you see who they were?"

"Yes I did, they were wearing black cloaks and masks. I think they were mini death eaters." He said with finality. Remus hopped onto the train, he couldn't bear the idea of Lily... Dead.

James jumped on after him.

"But what happened to her hair?" he pursued the subject.

"Oh, that's actually quite funny! Petunia was sooooo mad at her about the pink owl thing. That she got back at her by cutting her hair during the night. It was cut in so many different places that she had to go to a proffesional and get it stratened! You should've seen her face! Remus smiled at the memory

James laughed.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Back at Hogwarts nothing had really changed except there was an opening on the Quiditch team for Chaser and Keeper. James and Sirius both declared themselves already on the team.

"Don't get your hopes up to high about that!" Molly said

"Why not? Are you declaring that I Sirius Black, and him, James Potter, might not get on the legendary Gryffindor Quiditch team?"

"Yes" everyone chimed

They lowered their egos slightly after that. But only slightly!

Care of Magical Creatures was a very cool subject. Their first lesson in that class they had these furry little things that dug up gold for them, then they actually got to inter act with unicorns. It was one of the most amazing things Lily had ever done.

Divination was anything closer to insane! They had a new Divination teacher named Professor Trewlany. She was as bug eyed and fish nosed as anyone. From certain angles Lily said she looked like Petunia. But this Professor was insane as it is. She always thought someone was going to die the next day or month or year. She particularly targeted this on Lily and James.

"She's just a load of dung." Lily said to a worried looking Pettigrew.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

It was one month into the school year and Lily was the only one left in the common room for the evening. Supposedly she was studying for a potions exam that was coming up, but large bursts of pain in her leg and back seemed to be preventing her from accomplishing much studying.

Whenever somebody asked if she was all right, or if her bruises had completely healed she would always put on a brave face and control the limping, her body desperately pleaded her to perform.

"Lil?"

James had been watching her from the back of the common room. He came down to ask her if she needed any help with the Potions work, but was distracted by her lifting up the back of her uniform to rub the swollen bruises on her back. She had been lying to them the past month, in insisting that she was better, and 'pain was a thing of the past'. Remus had been right when he assumed how strong she was. So he walked over to her and scooted next to her on the love seat.

"Why have you been lying to Remus? About your bruises healing?"

She slowly lifted her head to look into his deep blue eyes. She had hoped Remus wouldn't spill but, you can't expect the world from people these days.

"He told you huh?" she asked, gingerly lowering the back of her shirt.

"Yes"

"Oh, well it wasn't my fault people are just jealous of my beauty!" she was trying to lighten the mood.

He smirked at this

"Yeah I know, I have that same problem!"

She smiled gratefully then turned to go back to studying.

"Um...is there anything I can do?"

"About what?" she asked immediately

He gently put his hand on her back and pressed down, light enough for her to feel the pain, but not hard enough to truly cause it.

"Oh…well…" she blushed pushing herself off the love seat and limped over to the fire. "I'd umm…have to…you know nevermind I'll just get Tasha or Molly or…nobody to do it!" Lily forced herself to walk normaly and headed towards the staircase.

"Lily!" James called after her "Just push aside your god damned pride and let me help you." Lily turned around shocked at his little outburst. Although it accomplished it's goal. She forcedly walked straight over to her bag and pulled and a vile filled with an icy blue goop.

She sat down next to James again, and plopped the vile into his lap. He shivered instantly from the intense cold of the goop.

"You have to put it on my back. So far I've only been able to put it on my leg, because I can't reach my back. And yes it's really cold to touch but once it's smoothed over the 'problem areas' I feel a world better."

"That's not bad, I don't understand why you didn't want me to do it, if it makes you feel better."

"James your such a prat…in order for you to put it on my back I'd have to take my shirt off…"

James blushed furiously at this thought.

"Now are you still willing to help me?" he nodded meekly "And I swear James potter if you so much as let out a peep of me being around you with my shirt off, you shall never NEVER have children, do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal." James muttered opening the vile and placing it on the table in front of them

"Good, now close your eyes."

"What? Lily you don't expect me to put this on with my eyes closed."

"No but I don't intend for you to see me undress either, now close your eyes and I shall tell you when to open them." He obeyed and closed his eyes dutifully.

Lily slowly unbuttoned her shirt and took it off, plcaing it over her front along with a pillow and blanket she could lean on. This also prevented James from seeing anything but her back.

"All right open your eyes, and no comments please." James slowly opened his eyes, and took in a sharp gasp of breath. The view of Lily's was quite horrifying. Blacks and blue and yellow and purple swells covered her back and spine. They were so large, that one could mistake them for natural born deformities, fortunately for Lily if this potion was applied, they'd only be temporary.

"You ready?" he asked softly she nodded closing her eyes and making sure her hair was out of his way. The second the cool blue goo touched her skin, a mix of pain from the pressure James was putting on her back, and relief from what the potion was doing swept through her body.

James not wanting this to be too akward decided to start a conversation.

"Sirius, Peter, and I were talking last night about Remus and his, you know... problem!" Lily shook her head for him to continue "Well we've come up with a solution to make it easier on him." He looked very proud of himself.

"James... what are you talking about?" She gasped as a sharp pain shot through her side

"sorry" he muttered quickly "Do you know what animagi's are?"

"yes…"

"well!" He watched as the last bruise he put the potion on, shrunk to a miniscule size, leaving only a small bump.

"Yes, of course I know what Animagi are!" she said sighing relief

"Well, are you ready?" she nodded impatiently going back to closing her eyes "We're going to become animagi!" he looked at her with his cocky smile and hoped it would charm her into not jumping him.

It didn't work. She instantly ordered him to close his eyes again so she could put her shirt back on. Once this was accomplished she swung around furiously

"James Potter have you completely gone bonkers? You three are going to be caught, expelled, or even worse, turned into a tree! Do you know how complex and illegal that is?-"

"Listen Lil, we went over all the precautions and dangers and we understand."

"Then get it through your thick head that it won't work" she picked up her stuff and started to leave.

"Do you not want Remus to be happy? If we were animals, he couldn't hurt us and it would be easier for him to change knowing we were there with him. This is for his own good and if you were his best friend you'd let us do this! It's like you don't want him to be happy!"

"How dare you! How the hell do you know what is for his own good James huh? How do you know? Are you a werewolf? Were you bit?" he could see rage in her eyes but he fought back anyhow.

"Listen, just because you were attacked doesn't mean you know whats best for him either! At least with this he'll have friends while he's changing! It's not like anything happened to you lil!"

"EXACTLY! It should have been me! It should have been me that got the full blow of the attack! Remus saw the werewolf approaching me from behind and pushed me out of the way! He got part of his leg torn out off him! I just got my shirt torn!" She was upon breaking down into tears, but tried to hold them back. The mix of the memories from the wolf attack and the attack from the mini death eaters were mixing in her mind. "James, If anything ever happened to the three of you while he was changed...I don't think-"

She stopped herself there.

"Lil, is that what this is all about? You blame yourself for what happened? Well lemme tell you something mate! You couldn't help it, you couldn't help what happened! So move on for Godric's sake! And stop wallowing in it!"

He then did something he never thought he could do. He scooped her up into a huge hug. She didn't move but she smiled to herself. It made her feel all warm and tingly on the inside.

That was the only way of explaining it.

She pulled away and looked into his eyes. Those eyes were flowing with concern and caring. He truly was a friend.

"James, make yourself an animagi and I'll-"

He shuddered to think what would come next..

"I'll be there every step of the way!"

She smiled at his surprised face. But then leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. She left him standing there dwelling on his thoughts.

When Lily got back to her dorm she flopped onto her four poster bed and sighed loudly.

"So, you in love yet?" Tasha askes

"Yep!" Lily replied with a warm fuzzy smile, all pain in her back and leg now forgotten.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

James stood in the common room with a very content look on his face.

"So James, did you get her yet?" Sirius said poping out of the boy's staircase.

"Almost!" he said happily

"And what did she say to the little matter?" he asked suddenly living up to his name.

"She said she'd be there every step of the way!" he said returning the look

"Good, because there is a lot of Charm work involved and we stink at charms"

They laughed.

James knew in his heart that this day was the start of his life.