Lily Evans looks around her. The walls of the room are bare, there's only one picture and it's beside the bed. The rest of the room is the same; the only furniture is the bed, the dresser, and a desk. The picture is the only thing that is really hers. It's of Lily and her best friend Jenna. The people move and hug, it's of them on the last day of school last year. Lily smiles, she remembers that there's only a week left until school starts again. Once that week is over she can return to Hogwarts and get away from her father.
Lily's mother left them earlier in the week; she took Lily's older sister Petunia with her. Lily remembers earlier in the day. Her father got drunk and beat her. He was mad and upset about Lily's mother leaving. His words cut through Lily.
"It's all your fault", he said, "She never would have left if you hadn't of been going to that school every year. It's your fault, why didn't she take you with her if it wasn't your fault?"
She hears the door slam shut downstairs. Maybe he left, she thinks. Lily walk's to the top of the stairs and looks out the window. She watches the car drive away. He's probably going to the pub again, she thinks. Lily runs to her room. She throws all her things into her trunks. Lily puts her wand into her back pocket and drags her trunks downstairs. She drags them out of the house and starts over to Jenna's house. Jenna lives a few streets over. I hope I can make it, Lily thinks, she feels faint and weak. She drags the trunks; they're getting heavier and heavier to her. Lily doesn't know if she can make it. Finally she gets there. Lily knocks and knocks, there's no answer.
"Jenna...Mr. Chine...Mrs. Chine?" Lily calls. Maybe they can't hear me, she thinks. She calls again, "Jenna...Mr. Chine...Mrs. Chine?" Still no answer. Maybe they just went out for awhile, she thinks. Lily sits down on the front step and waits.
James Potter leaves his house, he notices someone sitting on his next door neighbour's front step. He can hear her crying. Who is that, he wonders, I recognize her. He walks over. James doesn't like to see a girl in pain, which this girl was obviously in. Wait a sec, he says to himself.
"Lily?" he asks the girl. "Lily Evans?"
"Go away" the girl says. James recognizes the voice. It's Lily Evans. James goes to school with Lily. He likes her, but has never been able to show her.
Lily recognizes the voice of the boy. Why is he here, she wonders, probably here to torment me. Lily has always been tormented by James. He hates me, Lily tells herself, and I hate him.
"Go away Potter, I'm waiting for Jenna"
God why won't she let me help her, James wonders.
"Lily, Jenna and her family went away on vacation. Didn't she tell you? Jenna's parents are dropping her off in Diagon Alley before school; my parents are taking her to the train station. We're meeting them there on Saturday." James tells Lily. Why's her hand covering her face, he wonders. James kneels down in front of her. He pulls her hand away from her face. Oh my God, what happened to her, he asks himself. Lily's lip's bleeding and her left eye's black. "Lily what happened to you? Who did this?"
"No one James, leave me alone", Lily tells him angrily.
Why won't he just leave me alone, she asks herself.
"Shit", she whispers.
"What?" he asks. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing"
"Listen, come with me. If you haven't noticed there's no one else around to help you, but me. If you come with me my mom can help." he tells her.
"Fine, but only because I have nowhere else to go." she tells him. James stands up. Lily tries to stand, but stumbles and falls into James' arms. He wraps them around her. Lily's confused, but too weak to fight him so she doesn't say anything. James helps her into his house, she forgets about her trunks. They're still outside by Jenna's front door.
"Mom..." he yells. "Mom"
"No need to yell darling", Mrs. Potter says as she comes to the door. She sees Lily barely standing there. "What happened to this girl? Who is she?"
"I go to school with her; she won't tell me what happened." James says. "But Mom can you help her?"
"Of course, I'll take her upstairs to the guest room beside your room James."
Lily snaps out of the trance she was in. She remembers her trunks outside.
"My...my trunks... their still outside by the Chine 's.", she says.
"James dear, go and get her trunks. We don't want anyone opening them with all her book in them, now do we?"
"Of course not Mom, I'll go grab them." he says.
"Now dear come with me." Mrs. Potter says to Lily. She helps Lily up the stairs. They go into the guest room, Mrs. Potter shuts the door. "What's your name dear?"
"Lily Evans"
"What happened to you?" she says as they sit down in the chairs by the fireplace. Mrs. Potter pulls the bell for a house elf to come. The elf arrives in less then a minute. Mrs. Potter addresses the house elf, "Betty, could you please bring that slave that we use to use on James when he got into all those fights?"
"Of course misses." Betty says and she leaves as quickly as she came. "Lily what happened?"
"My...gulp my father he beat me." Lily doesn't know why, but she feels like she can open up to Mrs. Potter, even though she is James' mother. "My mother left with my sister a few days ago, she just took off. My father got drunk this morning and beat me; I snuck away when he left, probably to go the pub again."
"Oh dear, you're friends with Jenna Chine aren't you?" Mrs. Potter asks her. Lily nods. "Well since they're gone you'll have to stay here for the week and go to Platform 9 3/4 with us."
"Thank you, but I really couldn't impose."
"It's no imposition really, any friend of James is no imposition on us at all." she says. James' listening by the door. Holy shit, he thinks, what a bastard. I wanna kill him, I should, but that would hurt Lily. She cares about him no matter what, I can't hurt her, and she's been hurt too much already. The door opens; his mom comes out after she applies the slave to Lily's eye and the bruises on her legs and stomach.
"James were you listening through the door", she whispers. He nods. "Don't say anything to her, if she wants you to know she'll tell you." He nods again. Mrs. Potter leaves. James knocks on the door.
"Yes?" Lily says from her chair. She looks up and sees its James. "Come in"
"Hey you ok?" he asks her as he drags her trunks in.
"Better…" she tells him. He stands there and looks at her. "Do you wanna sit down?" Lily says as she motions towards the other chair. James sits down. "So, if I know you, you were listening to me and your mom from through the door. How much did you hear?"
"Lily…" James says gently. He was speechless.
"What James Potter speechless? That's gotta be a first. I know you heard something, I just don't know how much. I need to know." Lily tells him
"I'm sorry I really shouldn't have, I couldn't help it. Lily I'm really sorry about what happened. If you want I'll go over there and…" he starts.
"No don't do anything to him; he's still my father after all."
"I understand, do you wanna talk?" he asks. James' really sincere. Lily looks surprised. Why does he want to talk to me? Why's James Potter being nice to me? Lily wonders.
"What you actually want to talk to me? No tricks or pranks. Just regular conversation."
"Yeah, is there anything wrong with that?", James jokes. Lily breaks down crying.Did I do anything wrong? James wonders.
"Lils are you ok?", he asks. She looks up at him. He gets up and kneels down in front of her seat. He looks up at her, Lily looks down at him. She shakes her head. "What's the matter, do you want me to get my mom?"
"No… I don't know what I want anymore.", she cries. James stands up and opens his arms.
"Want a hug?", he asks. Lily wipes her eyes and laughs. "I'm serious."
"Sure.", she says. Lily stands up and hugs James. Why am I doing this?, she asks herself, what is happening to me, this guy's a huge idiot. I hate him… I think. How can this be happening? Why is it happening? "You're not off the hook though."
"For what? I didn't do anything. All I did was help you."
"At school you're an arrogant, pig-headed, son-of-a-bitch. You bug the hell out of me and are annoying.", Lily tells him. Bloody hell, James thinks, I didn't think that I was like that.
"I didn't realize… I'm sorry. I just have fun at school, I didn't realize that it did anything to anyone."
"You didn't think, you never do." Lily tells him angrily. "You know what why don't you just go back to that, I don't know why you tried the whole nice guy bit. It didn't work."
"Lils… I'm sorry.", he says. He hears Lily's stomach growl. "Come on let's go get you something to eat."
"Why do you assume that I'm hungry? It's the same way you assume that I'll go out with you."
"Lily, your stomach growled. I didn't assume you're hungry, you gave your self away."
"Shut up James.", Lily says playfully. How can she change from being so angry to being so playful, James thinks. He grabs her hand and starts pulling her downstairs. Lily pulls her hand away. How come she's not like this at school?, he wonders. Why am I acting like this? I never act like this around anyone but Jenna, Lily thinks.
"Come on, down to the kitchen we go.", James tells her. She follows after him. Why'd I drop his hand, Lily thinks, oh yeah, he's a jerk who I hate. They go into the kitchen, there's a bunch of house elves getting supper ready. One runs up to them.
"Hello master James and miss.", he says.
"Hey Tom. Could you possibly get us some Butterbeers and some… what do you want Lily?", James asks her.
"Just the Butterbeer is fine.", she says.
"You heard her Tom. Lily will be staying with us for the week, so if there's anything she wants get it for her ok?", he tells Tom. Tom nods, he runs and grabs the Butterbeers and brings them back. "Thank you Tom."
"Yeah thanks Tom.", Lily says.
"It was no problem miss Lily, master James.", Tom replies. Lily and James leave the kitchen and James leads her out onto the back porch. There's two big circle chairs out there. Lily curls up in one and James sits in the other. The one James sits in turns to a regular chair.
"Interesting, I've never seen a chair do that before.", Lily says.
"That's because my uncle made it, he works in furniture."
"Bloody hell, I thought that because it's a chair he worked in food.", she says sarcastically. James laughs at her joke. He's got an amazing laugh, she thinks. Lily quickly pushes the thought from her mind. "So about upstairs…
"Lily, I'm sorry."
"About what, that you listened in or about how you acted?"
"Both."
"How much did you hear?", she asks. How much does he know, she asks herself. "Please tell me, I wanna know how embarrassed I should be."
"Don't be embarrassed, nothing that happened was your fault.", James says. He looks at her. "Ok, seriously, I heard everything about your dad." I wanted to kill him, James thinks to himself. He looks at his watch, "Crap!"
"What?", Lily asks.
"We gotta go get ready for dinner. My mom planned a dinner party for tonight."
"What!?!", Lily yelps. "I can't go what will people think."
"Nothing, they won't think anything. Listen, the Hunter's are coming you can see Alice."
"How do you know I'm friends with Alice Hunter?"
"I pay attention to what goes on around me.", James tells her. Lily looks at him confused. "Just come on, we can do something to cover up that bruise on your eye."
"Ok.", Lily says. They go back upstairs and Mrs. Potter is in the guest room waiting for Lily.
"Hello.", Lily says.
"Hello Lily.", Mrs. Potter says kindly. "James go get ready the guests will be here soon."
"Ok Mom. See you soon.", James says. He leaves the room and enters his own. He puts on the pale blue dress shirt and the black dress pants the house-elf had laundered earlier.
In the next room Mrs. Potter and Lily are getting Lily ready.
"This won't hurt a bit, Healimento.", Mrs. Potter casts the spell to heal Lily's face and legs. "Now this will only last for a few hours, but it will be long enough to last you through the dinner party."
"Thank you Mrs. Potter, for everything."
"It's no problem at all dear. Now get ready and meet us downstairs."
"Alright.", Lily says to her. Mrs. Potter leaves the room and shuts the door. Lily opens the closet to pull out her trunk which she had put there. She found a beautiful lilac dress and a pair of black heals in there along with all her things hung up and put away. Wow, she thinks. Lily holds up the dress and sees a tag attached to it, it says.
Lily, please wear these tonight at the dinner party.
I thought they would look wonderful on you.
Mrs. Potter
How nice can these people get?, she asks herself. She puts the dress on, it has spaghetti straps and falls right above the knees. She stands in front of the full length mirror and twirls. The dress floats up and falls when Lily stops spinning. She takes out her wand, James told her that the Ministry can't tell who uses magic because of his parents there. "Curlmento." This curls her hair so that it falls beautifully around her face. She does her make-up with out magic. Lily walks out of the room. James is standing there waiting for her. Wow he looks good, she thinks. James' hair was messy as usual but the blue shirt looks amazing on him.
"Wow.", James says out loud. Did I just says that out loud?, he thinks. "You look great."
"Thanks, your mom helped. Oh and you're not too shabby looking yourself."
"After you.", he says. She smiles at him. She walks down the stairs first, James follows. They go to the living room. Everyone is in there already. Mrs. Potter stands up.
"Everyone you remember our son James.", she says. She gestures to Lily. "And this is Lily Evans, she's staying with us for the week.". Everyone nods in her direction. "Lily these are the Longbottoms, the Hunters, and the Scotts."
"Hello.", Lily says.
"The others are all outside on the porch dear.", Mrs. Potter tells James.
"We'll see you later.", James says to everyone. Lily and James walk outside. They see Alice Hunter and her boyfriend Frank Longbottom, Sirius Black (one of the Marauders, you all know who they are), and Eloise Scott. They are all sitting in around in the chairs.
"Hey guys.", James says. Everyone looks over.
"Oh my god, Lily!", Alice exclaims. She hops up and runs over to Lily. She gives her a huge hug. She grabs Lily's hand and drags her over to the chairs, two more appear. Lily and James sit in the two new seats. "What are you doing here Lils?"
"I uh…", she starts.
"So guys, how is everyone?", James asks. He senses Lily's nervousness. He looks over at Lily, she turns and smiles at him. Thanks, she mouths. No problem, he mouths back. No one really pays attention to James' question. Alice and Eloise get up.
"Come on Lily, let's go for a walk.", Alice says. Lily gets up and the leave the boys alone. "So Lils you never answered my question, why are you here? I don't mean to sound rude or anything, I just didn't expect to see you here."
"That's ok Alice, I don't really want to talk about why I'm here right now. Let's just say that I needed some help and the Potter's were nice enough to give it.", Lily tells them. She doesn't really know Eloise that well. She's in her 5th year, unlike the rest who are in their 6th. I don't want to tell them about my dad, the only ones who know are the Potters and the Smiths, Lily thinks. They just wander around the yard for awhile. I never knew the Potters had so much land, she thinks.
"So James", Sirius says. "Why is Lily Evans here? What's up there?"
"Sirius I really can't say why Lily's here, she made me promise."
"Ok, but what's going on between the two of you?", Frank asks. James looks at him. I wish I could answer that, he thinks.
"I don't know, I wish I knew.", he tells them. James looks out in the yard. Where are they?, James wonders. He's getting impatient, they've been out gone awhile.
"They'll be back soon, god James what's up with you. If I didn't know better you better I'd say you were in L. O. V. E. and with Evans." says Sirius.
"Come on Sirius, you've got to be kidding me." James tells them. Could that be what this is?, he asks himself, naah, can't be, Suddenly he sees the girls running back. Thank God, James thinks. He stands up and walks out to meet them, Sirius and Frank follow. Alice runs into Frank's arms, Eloise runs up to Sirius and he puts his arm around her shoulders. Lily slows down as she reaches the guys, she didn't know what to do. The others were all couples, but not her and James. She walks up to him, she has to look up to see him in the eyes, Lily smiles. James smiles back. They start walking to the house, Betty, a house elf, comes out.
"Masters and misses, it's time for dinner.", she says.
"Thanks Betty, we'll be in a second.", James tells her. They all walk inside. James leads them into the dinning room. All the adults are sitting down already. Sirius and Eloise sit down beside each other on one side of the table, and Frank and Alice sit down on the other side. Mrs. Potter pats the seat beside her, Lily goes and sits there.
"James please take the head seat, your father can not join us tonight.", Mrs. Potter says to James. There is an undercurrent of annoyance in her voice, James hears it.
"Of course Mum.", James says. He goes and sits at the head chair.
Supper last about a couple hours, everyone keeps a lively conversation going. James doesn't get a chance to talk to Lily, she's sitting at the other end beside his mother. Soon after supper everyone decides it's time to leave. James looks at his watch it's 10:30. Holy crap, he thinks, didn't know it was that late. Mrs. Potter, James and Lily go to the door to say goodbye to everyone. Sirius whispers to James.
"We'll talk later.", he says. James nods and shakes Mr.Longbottom's hand.
"Goodbye everyone.", James and Mrs. Potter say. They shut the door once everybody's gone. They all go into the living room, Mrs. Potter collapses on the couch. "Mom, why isn't Dad here?"
"Like I said James, he had to work."
"That's all he ever does anymore."
"I know dear, but we can't do anything about it.", she says. Her tone changes to a friendlier one. "Well it's getting late, I think you two should head up to bed."
"Now that you mention it, I am getting tired.", Lily says. Why I am I so tired, Lily thinks, this is so weird. She yawns and stretches. She gets up and starts to leave the room, she turns around.
"Goodnight Mrs. Potter, James.", Lily says.
"Lily,", Mrs. Potter says. "Call me Anya, dear.". Lily nods and heads upstairs. She enters her room and shuts the door. She changes into her pyjamas and puts on her robe. She hears a knock on the door. She goes over and opens it, it's James.
"Hey." she says to James. "Come in."
"Thanks." he says. James walks in to her room.
"What's up?" Lily asks.
"I wanted to show you something." he says. He walks over to the curtains and pulls them apart. They reveal a pair of French doors. Lily hadn't had time to really look around the room yet, she thought there was just a window there. "Come on."
"Huh?"
"Come on." James says. They go out the doors and onto the balcony. Lily looks out at the yard.
"Wow. This is amazing." she says. There's a pond she didn't notice before behind a patch of trees. The moon shone off it, the reflection's beautiful.
"Look over there." James says. Lily looks, it's a unicorn. The moon reflected off its horn and made its whole body shimmer. Oh my god, she thinks, it's beautiful. James looks down at Lily. She looks so beautiful right now, not that she doesn't always, James thinks.
"It's beautiful." Lily says.
"Yeah it really is." James says still looking at Lily. She looks up and realizes what he really meant.
"Oh." she says and blushes. Bloody hell, James thinks, I really embarrassed her. "Can I stay out here for a little?"
"Yeah, why couldn't you?" James replies. He suddenly realizes she wants to be alone. "I'll go inside, goodnight."
"Goodnight, I'll see you in the morning." Lily says. He starts to enter the house. Lily turns around. "Oh, James."
"Yeah?" he says as he turns around.
"Thanks…for everything." Lily tells him. He just nods and walks away. James goes through Lily's room to get to his. I don't want her to know about my door to the balcony just yet, he thinks. He goes into his room and closes the door. James changes into his pyjama bottoms. He peeps out the French doors, Lily is still out there. She sits down in one of the chairs and stares out into the night. I'm not sure what's going on, why am I so confused, James has never been like this before, tonight he was so sweet and kind, and today, he helped me.
"What's going on?" she says to no one. "Could I actually like James Potter?"
She stays out there and falls asleep.
"Could I, James Potter, like Lily Evans?" he asks himself in his room as he lies in bed. James slowly falls asleep.
The next morning James wakes up. He gets up and goes over to Lily's rooms, he knocks on the door. No answer, he opens the door, no one in there. Where is she, he asks himself. He walks over to the open French doors; he sees Lily curled up in a chair asleep.
"Lily…" he whispers into her ear. She groans. "Come on Lily wake up." It doesn't work. Maybe if I kiss her she'll wake up, he thinks. James leans in and kisses her lips, he starts to move away. Lily reaches her hands up and grabs his face and pulls him back. She kisses him back. Does she know what she's doing, he wonders, does it really matter? James sits in the chair beside her, it's a huge chair. She's still holding his face though she stopped kissing him. Her hand moves to his neck. Lily is fully awake now. She moves her hand away. Did I just do what I think I did, she wonders. I liked it, I know that, I can't believe I did that.
"James…"
"It's ok Lily I understand." he says with a hint of sadness in his voice.
"Understand? There's nothing to understand James…"
"You didn't know what you were doing Lils. It's ok. You were asleep."
"James maybe I didn't know what I was doing, but I want to do this." she says. Lily stretches up and kisses James again. I'm crazy, she tells herself. She continues kissing him, they start to get passionate. James pulls away; he lies back in the chair panting.
"Don't…we can't…this isn't you."
"Why can't we…why isn't this me? Well Jamie you don't know the real me. You were such an arrogant git that I couldn't like you. You couldn't know me. I'm not as innocent as you may think."
"I don't believe that." he says. "If that's true then what you think about me isn't." Lily gets up and pulls her robe around her. "Lily…" If this was anyone else I wouldn't be pushing her away, he thinks to himself, I don't want to hurt her.
"I understand James; you think I'm just some innocent girl who doesn't know what a guy can do to her. I understand that you couldn't possibly fathom the idea that I could have any experience with a guy right?"
"Lils come on; you know what I mean…" James says quietly. "I understand what you're saying, I really do. Listen why don't we go to down and have breakfast?"
"Fine, but I'm not forgetting this." Lily says. James gets up and they pass through the room and go to the kitchen. Tom rushes to them as soon as they enter.
"Master James, miss Lily. What would you like us to get you?" Tom asks.
"I'll have some eggs and bacon Tom." James tells him.
"Same for me please." Lily tells Tom too.
"It won't take too long master and miss." he says. They walk out and go into the living room. James sees his mother lying on the couch. Not again, he thinks, why does she get drunk when we have people here.
"Is she ok?" Lily asks. James looks over at her, she looks worried. Mom why did you do this, he asks himself, I don't want Lily worried.
"She will be, I'll just take her upstairs. She'll sleep it off."
I feel so bad for him, Lily thinks, his dad's still not home and his mom got drunk. Seems like he takes care of everyone around here…even me. Wow, I'm just a burden to him.
"I'll be back in a minute." James says to Lily. He picks up his mother and carries her upstairs. Lily watches him. He's really strong, wow. In a few minutes he comes back downstairs. Lily's sitting down on the couch.
"Are you ok?" Lily asks James. He sits down in a chair.
"Yeah, why do you ask?"
"No reason. Come sit over here." she says and pats the seat beside her. James goes and sits beside her. "I want to help you."
"I don't need help." James says rudely. Lily looks him in the eye.
"James I understand what you're going through, I really do. I mean when my dad got drunk I had to take care of him. You've gotta be really stressed."
"I'm not."
"James…" Lily says. She reaches over and massages his shoulders. "Don't lie to me."
"I'm…" he starts to say. Lily turns his head towards her and kisses him. This'll shut him up about that, she thinks.
"Stop that, I don't believe you. I can tell when you're lying." she says to him. He just looks at her. She can't understand, he thinks, I always have had to look after my mom.
"Lils…you couldn't understand."
"Explain to me then, help me understand." Lily says. She lays her hand on his arm.
"My dad's never here, he's always working. She can't handle it…or me."
"James… if you don't want to continue you don't have to." Lily tells him.
I've never seen this side of him before, she thinks. Could I have misjudged him completely, she wonders. Lily leans in and holds him. Suddenly a face pops up in the fire, it's Sirius. He sees them.
"Hey what's going on here?" he jokes. Lily gives him a cold stare as James gets up and goes to the chair by the fireplace. "Did I interrupt anything?"
"Nope." James says. He cheers up when he sees his friend. "Lils would you mind telling Tom to hold breakfast?"
"No problem. I'll leave you two alone." she says. She gets up and leaves. Lily walks into the kitchen. Tom runs over to her. "Tom could you hold breakfast for a little bit, James is busy right now."
"Of course miss Lily."
"Thank you Tom." she says. Lily walks upstairs.
And thank you for reading this. Please review with any criticism at all