Disclaimer: None of the stories James tells in here were written by me. I found them by barious authors such as Hans Christian Anderson, the Grimm Brothers,etc. ENJOY!!!
When It's All Pretend
Two days later, on Thursday, James' mother was almost worried on how eager her son was to go to preschool, when before he'd made them almost half an hour late each day with his refusals to go. However, although she did kind of notice, she was too excited about some letter or other that James' brother had received the day before. It was something about a magic school or something. James didn't really care. If there was such a thing as magic, of course his brother would get in. However, he didn't think much about it. Currently, he was far more excited about the stories he had to tell this redheaded girl. He'd found a great collection of amazing tales for her. He'd heard from someone that she loved happy endings, so he'd tried to get many amazing stories with happy endings. He only hoped she hadn't heard any of them before... He was actually coming quite early for once into the preschool. There weren't very many people there. However, once he stepped in, he saw that the young girl was just getting there, too. James bounded up to her in excitement.
"Hello!!!" he exclaimed happily, beaming at her. He was so excited, and wanted to start right away. "I'm James Potter!!!And I'm five years old," he added the last part as an afterthought, quite proudly, too.
The young girl smiled at him happily. "Hello!I'm Lily Evans. I'm five, too. Are you new?"
James said thoughtfully,"Yes,I'm new. Say,I thought you weren't going to talk?"
Lily laughed warmly,"That's only for when I lay down on the silk cushions with the silk v-v-veil..."she said slowly, as if she had learned the word recently, which she had. "I only start not talking wen I do that and when the stories start," she added dreamily.
James grinned, remembering what was to come, a little disappointed that it wasn't time to start with stories yet. "Oh. Well, when does that start? I have a story to tell, too. And why exactly do that if you can talk to people before your stories? Then what would be the point of having the prize be for whoever gets you to make a sound?"
Thoughtfully, Lily said, "You know, I hadn't thought of that. And the girl in the fairy tale didn't talk at all. I still talk to my family, but here is a different story." She turned to him. "Thankyou for pointing this out to me. From now on I won' talk here at preschool at all, even before or after the stories are over...Good luck with your story!I can't wait to hear it!!Bye-bye!"she ended happily, and then she became silent.
James frowned a little. Great, now he wouldn't get to talk to her at all. 'Oh well,'he thought. 'I guess that just makes it even more of a reason for me to win!' He had to wait five more minutes for everyone to get here and for the stories to start, and then he was shoved all the way to the back of the line. He protested with indignation, but nobody cared, and his protests soon proved to be useless. He sighed in hopelessness, and stood on his tiptoes and looked a little to the side of the many heads before him to try to catch a glance at the girl, at Lily. He saw her lying sprawled out on the soft pillows, trying to hold back the urge to laugh. She was pretty good at keeping a straight face and holding in her emotions. She looked almost exactly like a real princess, he decided. Not because she was pretty. She wasn't really pretty at all, although she had an interesting type of face that just screamed 'LOOK AT ME AGAIN!' She had frizzy, strawberry-blonde hair that was very short. Most of it wouldn't stay in her pigtails, as it was too short to even fit in the pigtail-holders. She had a pink face and even pinker cheeks. Not very nice-looking. She had a small, turned-up nose, and lots of light freckles scattered on her cheekbones and nose. She was slightly chubby, as most of the girls in preschool were. His old best friend, Lizzie, had been MUCH prettier than her, and she was just the same age! However, this girl, Lily, seemed like just the kind of person he would want as a friend. Preschoolers didn't really care much about looks, and neither did James. He watched as a dreamy, contented expression lit upon her face, and glanced at the little boy who was telling the story. He hoped the little boy wouldn't win. He wanted a friend so BAD! He sighed unhappily and boredly, and knew that he would just have to wait.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Finally, at 2:00, James was almost there. There was only one boy in front of him, already telling Lily a story. James had been listening in on it too, so he wouldn't feel so bored, and was now discovering he liked it. The stories being told were creative and made you want to listen to them. However, the ones he had actually heard were nowhere near as good as his. Finally, it was James' turn. Lily saw him and smiled warmly for a second, before settling back into her regal queen mode. Nobody had managed to get her to make a sound so far. He was positive that HE would. He took a deep breath and came up to her. He couldn't change his mind now.
"Hi Lily," he started out shyly. "I found a great story that I think you would like. It's called 'Cinderella'." She nodded at him and seemed interested by the title. He took a deep breath, and began, stumbling along with some of the words, as any child would. "The wife of a rich man fell sick,and as she felt that her end was drawing near, she called her only daughter to her bedside and said, "Dear child, be good and pious, and then the good God will always protect thee, and I will look down on thee from heaven and be near thee." Thereupon she closed her eyes and departed. Every day the maiden went out to her mother's grave and wept, and she remained pious and good. When winter came the snow spread a white sheet over the grave, and when the spring sun had drawn it off again, the man had taken another wife.
The woman had brought two daughters into the house with her, who were beautiful and fair of face, but vile and black of heart. Now began a bad time for the poor step-child...."
He went on with the story. Lily seemed to love it. However, every time he thought she would make a noise, a laugh, a sigh, ANYTHING, she with-held it!What was he going to do?! At the very end of the story, he looked up at her hopefully, and sorrowfully realized she wouldn't give up on her game. He trudged off sadly. He would just have to find a new story. However, having already gone a month without any friends after 'The Move', he didn't think he could bear much longer. When woud Lily relent?
Two days later, he came back, with another story. Another happy ending. He stared down nervously at his shoes as he finally began his story, this time called 'Toads and Diamonds'. He began with,"THERE was once upon a time a widow who had two daughters. The oldest looked so much like her mother and acted so much like her that whoever looked upon the daughter saw the mother. They were both so disagreeable and so proud that they were very hard to live with.
The youngest, who was just like her father. She was sweet and courteous and was one of the most beautiful girls ever seen. As people naturally love their own likeness, this mother spoiled her oldest daughter and at the same time was very mean to the youngest daughter--she made her eat in the kitchen and work continually..."
He glanced up every now and then, and saw her listening very attentively and delitedly. He began to gather more hope, and became more and more confident. 'Perhaps- just perhaps she'll make a sound this time!' He certainly hoped so...
He looked up at the ending, and noticed she could barely contain her excitement and happiness from hearing the story. "Did you like it?"He asked tentatively.
She nodded ecstatically. But she didn't speak. James left with his head hung in defeat. He needed to go about this differently...
Two days later, he came back with the final story. He knew that he would win this time. This was going to be the key to winning. He waited all day in the line, through some of the schooling, through lunch and snacktime. He waited, ready to tell his story. Finally, it was his turn. Once again, he walked up to her, it being his turn. Once again, she smiled at him, eyes eager for another one of his stories. He indulged her wish. "This time I have a story called 'The Little Match-Seller. It's by someone name Hans Christian Anderson."
She nodded politely, but looked like she was going to strangle him if he didn't begin the story now. He had captured her attention with just the title. He told her the short story. "It was terribly cold and nearly dark on the last evening of the old year, and the snow was falling fast. In the cold and the darkness, a poor little girl, with bare head and naked feet, roamed through the streets. It is true she had on a pair of slippers when she left home, but they were not of much use. They were very large, so large, indeed, that they had belonged to her mother, and the poor little creature had lost them in running across the street to avoid two carriages that were rolling along at a terrible rate. One of the slippers she could not find, and a boy seized upon the other and ran away with it, saying that he could use it as a cradle, when he had children of his own. So the little girl went on with her little naked feet, which were quite red and blue with the cold. In an old apron she carried a number of matches, and had a bundle of them in her hands. No one had bought anything of her the whole day, nor had anyone given her even a penny. Shivering with cold and hunger, she crept along; poor little child, she looked the picture of misery. The snowflakes fell on her long, fair hair, which hung in curls on her shoulders, but she regarded them not.
Lights were shining from every window, and there was a savory smell of roast goose, for it was New-year's eve-yes, she remembered that. In a corner, between two houses, one of which projected beyond the other, she sank down and huddled herself together. She had drawn her little feet under her, but she could not keep off the cold; and she dared not go home, for she had sold no matches, and could not take home even a penny of money. Her father would certainly beat her; besides, it was almost as cold at home as here, for they had only the roof to cover them, through which the wind howled, although the largest holes had been stopped up with straw and rags. Her little hands were almost frozen with the cold. Ah! perhaps a burning match might be some good, if she could draw it from the bundle and strike it against the wall, just to warm her fingers. She drew one out-"scratch!" how it sputtered as it burnt! It gave a warm, bright light, like a little candle, as she held her hand over it. It was really a wonderful light. It seemed to the little girl that she was sitting by a large iron stove, with polished brass feet and a brass ornament. How the fire burned! and seemed so beautifully warm that the child stretched out her feet as if to warm them, when, lo! the flame of the match went out, the stove vanished, and she had only the remains of the half-burnt match in her hand.
She rubbed another match on the wall. It burst into a flame, and where its light fell upon the wall it became as transparent as a veil, and she could see into the room. The table was covered with a snowy white table-cloth, on which stood a splendid dinner service, and a steaming roast goose, stuffed with apples and dried plums. And what was still more wonderful, the goose jumped down from the dish and waddled across the floor, with a knife and fork in its breast, to the little girl. Then the match went out, and there remained nothing but the thick, damp, cold wall before her.
She lighted another match, and then she found herself sitting under a beautiful Christmas-tree. It was larger and more beautifully decorated than the one which she had seen through the glass door at the rich merchant's. Thousands of tapers were burning upon the green branches, and colored pictures, like those she had seen in the show-windows, looked down upon it all. The little one stretched out her hand towards them, and the match went out.
The Christmas lights rose higher and higher, till they looked to her like the stars in the sky. Then she saw a star fall, leaving behind it a bright streak of fire. "Someone is dying," thought the little girl, for her old grandmother, the only one who had ever loved her, and who was now dead, had told her that when a star falls, a soul was going up to God.
She again rubbed a match on the wall, and the light shone round her; in the brightness stood her old grandmother, clear and shining, yet mild and loving in her appearance. "Grandmother," cried the little one, "O take me with you; I know you will go away when the match burns out; you will vanish like the warm stove, the roast goose, and the large, glorious Christmas-tree." And she made haste to light the whole bundle of matches, for she wished to keep her grandmother there. And the matches glowed with a light that was brighter than the noon-day, and her grandmother had never appeared so large or so beautiful. She took the little girl in her arms, and they both flew upwards in brightness and joy far above the earth, where there was neither cold nor hunger nor pain, for they were with God.
In the dawn of morning there lay the poor little one, with pale cheeks and smiling mouth, leaning against the wall; she had been frozen to death on the last evening of the year; and the New-year's sun rose and shone upon a little corpse! The child still sat, in the stiffness of death, holding the matches in her hand, one bundle of which was burnt. "She tried to warm herself," said some. No one imagined what beautiful things she had seen, nor into what glory she had entered with her grandmother, on New-year's day. "
James ended his story, and fully looked up at her. This story had been different, it had had an unhappy ending. But it had worked. Small little tears were sliding down her cheeks, making her emerald eyes unusually bright. She let out a soft sob. Then she spoke in a strangled voice. "I don't LIKE unhappy endings!"she wailed.
James let out a grin. VICTORY!!! He told her,"Don't worry, I know many more stories if you ever want to hear them. But first, will you be my friend?"
She smiled through her blurry eyes, and said,"Yes. I've been hoping for one myself. It's ever so lonely keeping so silent all of the time."
James smiled wryly to himself. "I know exactly how you feel! I just moved a month ago, and I haven't had a new friend since!"
Lily smiled at him. "Want to play hide-and-go-seek?"
........................................................................................*****.........................................................................................
Needless to say, Lily and James became friends fast. They both decided that although they loved stories, silence wasn't as golden as adults said it was. They both played many games, from the usual duck-duck-goose to their pretending games. Other children were actually jealous of how close the two were. They told each other everything, not that they had much to tell, although the subject of James' brother, Genemenus, was particularly interesting. James had finally figured out what all this 'magic' business was about. However, he was devastated to find out that he couldn't tell Lily about it. He couldn't tell anyone like Lily about it. Genemenus said it was because muggles like he and Lily wouldn't understand a thing about it. James knew it was probably true that he would turn out to not have any magic, he'd gathered that much. However, every night there was ever a star in the sky, he always wished otherwise. He felt guilty about not telling Lily any of this, but it had to be done. Then came the horrible day the next year, on his sixth birthday, when he found out his family had to move again. His father had once again been placed in another job, so 'conveniently' hours away from Lily, his best friend. She'd turned out to be an even better friend than Lizzie. He thought he'd never forgive his parents for taking him away from his best friend in the world, but just as he'd forgot about Lizzie after a while, he forgot about Lily after a while, and made new friends. Two new friends actually. Lily, too, forgot about James. However, it took her much longer, and she didn't make any new friends. There were too many incidents where strange things seemed to happen to Lily... Incidents like when her teacher once tried to slap her backside with a yardstick hard for saying the wrong multiplication answer, and had suddenly found herself slamming hard into the blackboard, yardstick broken in half. Anyhow, THAT teacher was fired. Lily, however, was considered more of a freak then ever. And for every year she went to primary school, she withdrew more and more into her 'pretending' games. Unlike most children, she didn't grow out of her pretending games, and people weren't so fascinated by them or accepting of them after she hit 1st grade. In fact, her pretending games were one of the reasons she didn't have any friends. Sometimes, she got a bit TOO into her pretenses. Sometimes she felt as though she actually was the person. She knew subconsciously that she really wasn't, but let her fall into the role for that time anyways, let herself really believe that was who she was. Without any other friends, Lily wanted to make herself another life, a temporary life, where she played a role that she knew, where she lived in a story that always held a happy ending. She had already grown to become a great actress,for she convinced even herself that she wasn't who she was at times. However, she had never learned that her act was finished when the producer called 'CUT!'.
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A/N: Hi!!Sorry the ending was a little rushed. I think this chapter may have been a little boring for you guys too. I don't know, I thought it was really interesting, because Iove those stories that I put in here. However, I do think the ending may have been kinda unoriginal with his moving and everything, but....I dunno. I mean, I wanted them to know each other as children, and I wanted to somehow explain a little on how Lily acts for later chapters. This is as good as the explanation gets. I hope that you guys liked this chapter, and I'll try to make it more interesting for you in the future!!!!Please write and tell me whether you liked it!!!!I need more reviews, they're my inspiration!!!In the next chapter, I'm going to skip ahead to Hogwarts, but I don't know which year I want to skip to. It can't be first, but you guys can review and tell me which year I should skip too.
Lots of love,
Kristi
When It's All Pretend
Two days later, on Thursday, James' mother was almost worried on how eager her son was to go to preschool, when before he'd made them almost half an hour late each day with his refusals to go. However, although she did kind of notice, she was too excited about some letter or other that James' brother had received the day before. It was something about a magic school or something. James didn't really care. If there was such a thing as magic, of course his brother would get in. However, he didn't think much about it. Currently, he was far more excited about the stories he had to tell this redheaded girl. He'd found a great collection of amazing tales for her. He'd heard from someone that she loved happy endings, so he'd tried to get many amazing stories with happy endings. He only hoped she hadn't heard any of them before... He was actually coming quite early for once into the preschool. There weren't very many people there. However, once he stepped in, he saw that the young girl was just getting there, too. James bounded up to her in excitement.
"Hello!!!" he exclaimed happily, beaming at her. He was so excited, and wanted to start right away. "I'm James Potter!!!And I'm five years old," he added the last part as an afterthought, quite proudly, too.
The young girl smiled at him happily. "Hello!I'm Lily Evans. I'm five, too. Are you new?"
James said thoughtfully,"Yes,I'm new. Say,I thought you weren't going to talk?"
Lily laughed warmly,"That's only for when I lay down on the silk cushions with the silk v-v-veil..."she said slowly, as if she had learned the word recently, which she had. "I only start not talking wen I do that and when the stories start," she added dreamily.
James grinned, remembering what was to come, a little disappointed that it wasn't time to start with stories yet. "Oh. Well, when does that start? I have a story to tell, too. And why exactly do that if you can talk to people before your stories? Then what would be the point of having the prize be for whoever gets you to make a sound?"
Thoughtfully, Lily said, "You know, I hadn't thought of that. And the girl in the fairy tale didn't talk at all. I still talk to my family, but here is a different story." She turned to him. "Thankyou for pointing this out to me. From now on I won' talk here at preschool at all, even before or after the stories are over...Good luck with your story!I can't wait to hear it!!Bye-bye!"she ended happily, and then she became silent.
James frowned a little. Great, now he wouldn't get to talk to her at all. 'Oh well,'he thought. 'I guess that just makes it even more of a reason for me to win!' He had to wait five more minutes for everyone to get here and for the stories to start, and then he was shoved all the way to the back of the line. He protested with indignation, but nobody cared, and his protests soon proved to be useless. He sighed in hopelessness, and stood on his tiptoes and looked a little to the side of the many heads before him to try to catch a glance at the girl, at Lily. He saw her lying sprawled out on the soft pillows, trying to hold back the urge to laugh. She was pretty good at keeping a straight face and holding in her emotions. She looked almost exactly like a real princess, he decided. Not because she was pretty. She wasn't really pretty at all, although she had an interesting type of face that just screamed 'LOOK AT ME AGAIN!' She had frizzy, strawberry-blonde hair that was very short. Most of it wouldn't stay in her pigtails, as it was too short to even fit in the pigtail-holders. She had a pink face and even pinker cheeks. Not very nice-looking. She had a small, turned-up nose, and lots of light freckles scattered on her cheekbones and nose. She was slightly chubby, as most of the girls in preschool were. His old best friend, Lizzie, had been MUCH prettier than her, and she was just the same age! However, this girl, Lily, seemed like just the kind of person he would want as a friend. Preschoolers didn't really care much about looks, and neither did James. He watched as a dreamy, contented expression lit upon her face, and glanced at the little boy who was telling the story. He hoped the little boy wouldn't win. He wanted a friend so BAD! He sighed unhappily and boredly, and knew that he would just have to wait.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Finally, at 2:00, James was almost there. There was only one boy in front of him, already telling Lily a story. James had been listening in on it too, so he wouldn't feel so bored, and was now discovering he liked it. The stories being told were creative and made you want to listen to them. However, the ones he had actually heard were nowhere near as good as his. Finally, it was James' turn. Lily saw him and smiled warmly for a second, before settling back into her regal queen mode. Nobody had managed to get her to make a sound so far. He was positive that HE would. He took a deep breath and came up to her. He couldn't change his mind now.
"Hi Lily," he started out shyly. "I found a great story that I think you would like. It's called 'Cinderella'." She nodded at him and seemed interested by the title. He took a deep breath, and began, stumbling along with some of the words, as any child would. "The wife of a rich man fell sick,and as she felt that her end was drawing near, she called her only daughter to her bedside and said, "Dear child, be good and pious, and then the good God will always protect thee, and I will look down on thee from heaven and be near thee." Thereupon she closed her eyes and departed. Every day the maiden went out to her mother's grave and wept, and she remained pious and good. When winter came the snow spread a white sheet over the grave, and when the spring sun had drawn it off again, the man had taken another wife.
The woman had brought two daughters into the house with her, who were beautiful and fair of face, but vile and black of heart. Now began a bad time for the poor step-child...."
He went on with the story. Lily seemed to love it. However, every time he thought she would make a noise, a laugh, a sigh, ANYTHING, she with-held it!What was he going to do?! At the very end of the story, he looked up at her hopefully, and sorrowfully realized she wouldn't give up on her game. He trudged off sadly. He would just have to find a new story. However, having already gone a month without any friends after 'The Move', he didn't think he could bear much longer. When woud Lily relent?
Two days later, he came back, with another story. Another happy ending. He stared down nervously at his shoes as he finally began his story, this time called 'Toads and Diamonds'. He began with,"THERE was once upon a time a widow who had two daughters. The oldest looked so much like her mother and acted so much like her that whoever looked upon the daughter saw the mother. They were both so disagreeable and so proud that they were very hard to live with.
The youngest, who was just like her father. She was sweet and courteous and was one of the most beautiful girls ever seen. As people naturally love their own likeness, this mother spoiled her oldest daughter and at the same time was very mean to the youngest daughter--she made her eat in the kitchen and work continually..."
He glanced up every now and then, and saw her listening very attentively and delitedly. He began to gather more hope, and became more and more confident. 'Perhaps- just perhaps she'll make a sound this time!' He certainly hoped so...
He looked up at the ending, and noticed she could barely contain her excitement and happiness from hearing the story. "Did you like it?"He asked tentatively.
She nodded ecstatically. But she didn't speak. James left with his head hung in defeat. He needed to go about this differently...
Two days later, he came back with the final story. He knew that he would win this time. This was going to be the key to winning. He waited all day in the line, through some of the schooling, through lunch and snacktime. He waited, ready to tell his story. Finally, it was his turn. Once again, he walked up to her, it being his turn. Once again, she smiled at him, eyes eager for another one of his stories. He indulged her wish. "This time I have a story called 'The Little Match-Seller. It's by someone name Hans Christian Anderson."
She nodded politely, but looked like she was going to strangle him if he didn't begin the story now. He had captured her attention with just the title. He told her the short story. "It was terribly cold and nearly dark on the last evening of the old year, and the snow was falling fast. In the cold and the darkness, a poor little girl, with bare head and naked feet, roamed through the streets. It is true she had on a pair of slippers when she left home, but they were not of much use. They were very large, so large, indeed, that they had belonged to her mother, and the poor little creature had lost them in running across the street to avoid two carriages that were rolling along at a terrible rate. One of the slippers she could not find, and a boy seized upon the other and ran away with it, saying that he could use it as a cradle, when he had children of his own. So the little girl went on with her little naked feet, which were quite red and blue with the cold. In an old apron she carried a number of matches, and had a bundle of them in her hands. No one had bought anything of her the whole day, nor had anyone given her even a penny. Shivering with cold and hunger, she crept along; poor little child, she looked the picture of misery. The snowflakes fell on her long, fair hair, which hung in curls on her shoulders, but she regarded them not.
Lights were shining from every window, and there was a savory smell of roast goose, for it was New-year's eve-yes, she remembered that. In a corner, between two houses, one of which projected beyond the other, she sank down and huddled herself together. She had drawn her little feet under her, but she could not keep off the cold; and she dared not go home, for she had sold no matches, and could not take home even a penny of money. Her father would certainly beat her; besides, it was almost as cold at home as here, for they had only the roof to cover them, through which the wind howled, although the largest holes had been stopped up with straw and rags. Her little hands were almost frozen with the cold. Ah! perhaps a burning match might be some good, if she could draw it from the bundle and strike it against the wall, just to warm her fingers. She drew one out-"scratch!" how it sputtered as it burnt! It gave a warm, bright light, like a little candle, as she held her hand over it. It was really a wonderful light. It seemed to the little girl that she was sitting by a large iron stove, with polished brass feet and a brass ornament. How the fire burned! and seemed so beautifully warm that the child stretched out her feet as if to warm them, when, lo! the flame of the match went out, the stove vanished, and she had only the remains of the half-burnt match in her hand.
She rubbed another match on the wall. It burst into a flame, and where its light fell upon the wall it became as transparent as a veil, and she could see into the room. The table was covered with a snowy white table-cloth, on which stood a splendid dinner service, and a steaming roast goose, stuffed with apples and dried plums. And what was still more wonderful, the goose jumped down from the dish and waddled across the floor, with a knife and fork in its breast, to the little girl. Then the match went out, and there remained nothing but the thick, damp, cold wall before her.
She lighted another match, and then she found herself sitting under a beautiful Christmas-tree. It was larger and more beautifully decorated than the one which she had seen through the glass door at the rich merchant's. Thousands of tapers were burning upon the green branches, and colored pictures, like those she had seen in the show-windows, looked down upon it all. The little one stretched out her hand towards them, and the match went out.
The Christmas lights rose higher and higher, till they looked to her like the stars in the sky. Then she saw a star fall, leaving behind it a bright streak of fire. "Someone is dying," thought the little girl, for her old grandmother, the only one who had ever loved her, and who was now dead, had told her that when a star falls, a soul was going up to God.
She again rubbed a match on the wall, and the light shone round her; in the brightness stood her old grandmother, clear and shining, yet mild and loving in her appearance. "Grandmother," cried the little one, "O take me with you; I know you will go away when the match burns out; you will vanish like the warm stove, the roast goose, and the large, glorious Christmas-tree." And she made haste to light the whole bundle of matches, for she wished to keep her grandmother there. And the matches glowed with a light that was brighter than the noon-day, and her grandmother had never appeared so large or so beautiful. She took the little girl in her arms, and they both flew upwards in brightness and joy far above the earth, where there was neither cold nor hunger nor pain, for they were with God.
In the dawn of morning there lay the poor little one, with pale cheeks and smiling mouth, leaning against the wall; she had been frozen to death on the last evening of the year; and the New-year's sun rose and shone upon a little corpse! The child still sat, in the stiffness of death, holding the matches in her hand, one bundle of which was burnt. "She tried to warm herself," said some. No one imagined what beautiful things she had seen, nor into what glory she had entered with her grandmother, on New-year's day. "
James ended his story, and fully looked up at her. This story had been different, it had had an unhappy ending. But it had worked. Small little tears were sliding down her cheeks, making her emerald eyes unusually bright. She let out a soft sob. Then she spoke in a strangled voice. "I don't LIKE unhappy endings!"she wailed.
James let out a grin. VICTORY!!! He told her,"Don't worry, I know many more stories if you ever want to hear them. But first, will you be my friend?"
She smiled through her blurry eyes, and said,"Yes. I've been hoping for one myself. It's ever so lonely keeping so silent all of the time."
James smiled wryly to himself. "I know exactly how you feel! I just moved a month ago, and I haven't had a new friend since!"
Lily smiled at him. "Want to play hide-and-go-seek?"
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Needless to say, Lily and James became friends fast. They both decided that although they loved stories, silence wasn't as golden as adults said it was. They both played many games, from the usual duck-duck-goose to their pretending games. Other children were actually jealous of how close the two were. They told each other everything, not that they had much to tell, although the subject of James' brother, Genemenus, was particularly interesting. James had finally figured out what all this 'magic' business was about. However, he was devastated to find out that he couldn't tell Lily about it. He couldn't tell anyone like Lily about it. Genemenus said it was because muggles like he and Lily wouldn't understand a thing about it. James knew it was probably true that he would turn out to not have any magic, he'd gathered that much. However, every night there was ever a star in the sky, he always wished otherwise. He felt guilty about not telling Lily any of this, but it had to be done. Then came the horrible day the next year, on his sixth birthday, when he found out his family had to move again. His father had once again been placed in another job, so 'conveniently' hours away from Lily, his best friend. She'd turned out to be an even better friend than Lizzie. He thought he'd never forgive his parents for taking him away from his best friend in the world, but just as he'd forgot about Lizzie after a while, he forgot about Lily after a while, and made new friends. Two new friends actually. Lily, too, forgot about James. However, it took her much longer, and she didn't make any new friends. There were too many incidents where strange things seemed to happen to Lily... Incidents like when her teacher once tried to slap her backside with a yardstick hard for saying the wrong multiplication answer, and had suddenly found herself slamming hard into the blackboard, yardstick broken in half. Anyhow, THAT teacher was fired. Lily, however, was considered more of a freak then ever. And for every year she went to primary school, she withdrew more and more into her 'pretending' games. Unlike most children, she didn't grow out of her pretending games, and people weren't so fascinated by them or accepting of them after she hit 1st grade. In fact, her pretending games were one of the reasons she didn't have any friends. Sometimes, she got a bit TOO into her pretenses. Sometimes she felt as though she actually was the person. She knew subconsciously that she really wasn't, but let her fall into the role for that time anyways, let herself really believe that was who she was. Without any other friends, Lily wanted to make herself another life, a temporary life, where she played a role that she knew, where she lived in a story that always held a happy ending. She had already grown to become a great actress,for she convinced even herself that she wasn't who she was at times. However, she had never learned that her act was finished when the producer called 'CUT!'.
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A/N: Hi!!Sorry the ending was a little rushed. I think this chapter may have been a little boring for you guys too. I don't know, I thought it was really interesting, because Iove those stories that I put in here. However, I do think the ending may have been kinda unoriginal with his moving and everything, but....I dunno. I mean, I wanted them to know each other as children, and I wanted to somehow explain a little on how Lily acts for later chapters. This is as good as the explanation gets. I hope that you guys liked this chapter, and I'll try to make it more interesting for you in the future!!!!Please write and tell me whether you liked it!!!!I need more reviews, they're my inspiration!!!In the next chapter, I'm going to skip ahead to Hogwarts, but I don't know which year I want to skip to. It can't be first, but you guys can review and tell me which year I should skip too.
Lots of love,
Kristi