Friends Make What You Are
Disclaimer: Me no own, you no sue… ^_^
~*Friends Make What You Are*~
"James! Where are you? I have a maniac chasing me!" a boy with black hair yelled. A girl with bright red hair and green eyes was running after him. The boy was holding his arm, which looked black and blue.
"My, my, Sirius! Don't you think you have enough colors on you?" a boy strolled out of a portrait of a fat lady in pink, smirking.
"What colors?" Sirius looked around, bewildered.
"Why, these colors, of course!" James pulled out his wand and immediately, Sirius was rainbow colored. The girl laughed and said,
"James! That is so old school, take a look at this!" and she proceeded to put flashing colors on him. James grinned and helped, claiming a color war, while Sirius yelled shrilly.
"When you two are done using me as your guinea pig . . ." he shouted sarcastically. Both Lily and James were grinning their heads off as they stood aside, letting Sirius stagger into the Gryffindor dormitory ("Fairy lights.")
James then turned to Lily, a questioning look in his face, and the pair exchanged smiles and walked outside, comfortable in each other's silence. They reached the lake, and after they had sat down, James turned to Lily.
"So, how did the funeral go? Did you sister say anything?" he asked softly.
The girl's eyes suddenly filled with tears as she was reminded of the pain that had made her cry for three weeks straight. "Oh, James! Petunia didn't even look at me! She's always looked at me like I was a freak and told me so, but at least she talked to me! But last week, she didn't even talk to me except to tell me everything was my fault and cry on her boyfriend. And you know what? She was right. After all these years, she finally is right. If I wasn't a witch, Voldemort wouldn't have come after my parents. They would still be alive. I could at least have been there, but instead, I decided to stay here! I could have saved them, I could have. . ."
James shook her, hard. "It isn't your fault, Lily! Listen to me: if you had been there, you might not even be alive today. Petunia is going through trauma, and she wasn't there either, she was at her boyfriend's house- wasn't his name Vernon Dursley? So she has nothing to talk about, either. Voldemort has been going after a lot of Muggles, so it's not your fault!"
Lily shook her head. "I know it's my fault, though, because. . . he. . . left a message for me, James. He left a message which told me that it was because I was a witch that he had known of my parents."
James glared at her then. "I refuse to let you go wallowing in self-pity like that. Lily, figure it out, won't you? He would have gone after them sometime or another anyway, and that is the truth. You know that. But if want to insist on killing yourself over this, go right ahead."
His callous words made her straighten up, and her eyes flashed, before her shoulders slumped once more. "James?" she murmured. "I'm so glad I have a friend like you. Without you – without any of the Marauders – I don't know how I would have survived through this. You helped me, and you brought me through this. Thank you so much, James."
James said softly, "Next time you have a problem, Lily, you come to me, okay?"
Lily stared up at him, and she laughed, painfully, but it was still a laugh. "I changed my mind. Actually, I know what would have happened if you hadn't been there for me. I would really be wallowing in self-pity and guilt. You're a great friend to me, you know that?"
James grinned and said, "Well, that thought had crossed my mind, why?"
Lily had to laugh at that, and she lightly swatted at his arm. "See? That's why you're so good. You make me laugh with the simplest thing. . ."
"I know, Lily, I know," he replied. "And I intend to see to it that you will never, ever, become like your sister: all bitter and kicking and ready to set blame on someone, especially yourself."
"Hey, James?"
"Yeah?"
"You're a big brute, you know that? You're so cruel and evil to me. And you're my best friend. Shouldn't there be something wrong with that?" she said.
"Well. . ." he edged, "not really. Why?"
"Ohhh, I'm going to kill you, James Potter!" Lily cried.
James smirked. "I think you shouldn't. But if you are. . . why?"
And that was how the day ended. Lily ran after James, trying to chase him down so she could curse him silly, while James secretly exulted in the fact that he had made his best friend happy. Of course, the fact that he had forgone dinner just to help her should also say something about how much he wanted Lily Evans feel better.
A/N: Hey! If somehow, this seems familiar to you, it's because it is. I'm just rewriting it, because I think that I know more about writing styles now, and my 2-year-old writing style is so horrible, even I'm shuddering at it. So, R/R this, please?
