Chapter Six: "What, Have You Never Seen a Girl Cry Before?!"

A/N:- Meh! No one reviewed! cries It's okay if you didn't review any other chapter was the last chapter was my favourite so far cos we get to see James making the effort but hey, the show goes on and here's the next chapter!

This Chapter is Dedicated to:

Maroon 5, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Incubus and Van Halen – It took all of your music to help me keep the ideas flowing for this chapter! Yay for music!

Lily ignored Zoë, Sarah and Kirsty's persistent question about why she looked so upset as she insisted she just needed sometime alone and hurried up the stairs to her room. Inwardly she was quite surprised about how James' words had affected her. It was not like any of it was true .... well, certain parts of it might be: 'bookworm', 'workaholic' .... Her eyes opened wide as it suddenly dawned on her why she hated hearing those things coming from James – it was the fact that if the boy who was apparently 'in love' with her thought those things about her, then what the hell did everyone else think? Was she really a Know-It-All who loved being a teacher's pet and surely she was not THAT boring .....

Her anger with James subsided a little as she remembered that she had called him some not very nice things as well, rejected his apparent offer of friendship and completely wound him up during Quidditch practice.

She took a big gulp, swallowing the urge to cry over something so stupid and opened her bedroom door, ready to curl up in her warm bed and sleep away those things that that ignorant prat had said. As she walked into her room she saw that her owl was waiting for her on her bed, jumping about impatiently. She managed a small smile as she walked over and stroke Luthiel gently before proceeding to untie the letter. Lily glanced over the letter and suddenly turned very white.

After a few minutes had passed James walked back to the Common Room. What had happened him back there? Yes he was playful and cheeky and name-called people like Snape but he had never said such nasty things to anyone before – so why did he have to go and do it to the one person whom he wanted to be on 'his side'?

"What the HELL did you do to Lily?" seethed Kirsty, storming up to him as soon as he entered the Common Room.

"What?"

"She came in here about five minutes ago looking like she was on the point of crying and I know for a fact that she had just come back from doing duty with you." said Kirsty, glaring at him angrily.

James ruffled his hair nervously. "Look I didn't mean what I said ...."

"What did you say?"

James sighed. "She said some things and I said some things which weren't very nice – I called her a Goody-Goody and a Teacher's pet ..."

The girls exchanged looks: they had often called Lily things like that albeit jokingly and they knew that Lily hated James so much that she never took any notice of what he said so why should she be so upset this time?

James saw them look at each other, confused. "We were shouting at each other and the way I said those things ... well it wasn't exactly nice ..."

"Look James, we like you as much as anybody and we really wish for your sake that Lily would like you back but you can't go making her cry as revenge for her not wanting to sleep with you." Zoë said quietly.

"You think that I don't know that?!" exclaimed James, frustrated. "I'm going to bed."

James walked up the stairs angry with himself and with Lily's friends for making him feel even worse about himself than he already did. He was about to stumble tiredly into his bedroom when he heard crying from next door. The guilt rested even heavier on his heart until it occurred to him that maybe it was something else as well that had upset Lily because surely, knowing her, that if she was crying because of him then she would probably muffle it against the duvet, not wanting him to have the satisfaction of hearing her cry ....

James opened Lily's bedroom door and Lily glared at him through her tears. "No I'm not crying because of you so don't come and gloat: my cousin has just died." she said as steadily as she could.

James just stood there, not knowing what to say, how to comfort her. Maybe if they had not just had a shouting match downstairs then maybe he would have risked going over there and hugging her.

Lily's eyes narrowed as James just stood there. She could hardly believe that he was so cold hearted to just stand there and stare. "What, have you never seen a girl cry before?!" she shouted.

"I just want to help Lily and I didn't mean those things I said earlier-"

"Whatever! You would know nothing about losing someone you loved so just leave me the hell alone!" she shouted.

James just stood there looking at her, expressionless before stepping out of the room.

Lily woke in the morning and put on a brave face as she stumbled down the stairs into the Common Room. She had barely entered the room when and her three friends ran up to her and drew her into a group hug.

"Awwwh hun. You've been crying all night." Sarah said sadly, peering into Lily's face.

"Don't worry, we got him told last night. No one goes making our friend cries without getting away with it." Zoë said firmly. "And we're not going to speak to him until he apologises to you properly."

"Who?" asked Lily confused. Kirsty jerked her head in the direction where James sat with Remus and Sirius playing Exploding Snap and the confused expression cleared from Lily's face and she even managed a small laugh. "Oh, him. I wouldn't worry about it, I'm not mad at him anymore."

"But he made you stay up all night and cry." said Kirsty, confused about Lily's change of heart.

"Oh no, that was something else." Lily sighed. The three girls looked at her expectantly. "My Mum sent me a letter telling me that my cousin's been killed in a car crash."

"Oh hun!" Kirsty said, drawing her friend into a hug and comforting her.

"We're really sorry." Sarah said.

"Hannah was so young – we used to play together when we were little and she used to be the only person I could talk about anything with, plus she was the only one from that side of the family which understood about me being a witch and it didn't change things between us. I can't believe she's gone ...." Lily said, breaking down into a fresh bout of tears.

Kirsty held her tighter. "When's the funeral?" she asked quietly.

Lily stood up, wiping her eyes. "Today. I'm leaving after breakfast." she said determinedly.

"Well, I guess we better go down and get fed and watered so you can be on your way." said Zoë, practically.

"Yeah, thanks guys." Lily said gratefully.

Sirius looked over at them and seeing the girls ready to go down to breakfast, he grabbed Remus by the sleeve and hurried over. "Wait for us!" he cried. Zoë, Sarah and Kirsty rolled their eyes at each other.

"Ready?" asked Kirsty, looking at Lily.

Lily glanced over to where James sat by himself, tidying the cards up. "I'll follow you down." she said to the others.

"We'll wait for you if you want." Zoë said carefully, following Lily's gaze.

"No, it's alright, you go, I'll be down in a bit." she assured them.

"Well, if you're sure." Kirsty said reluctantly, leaving the Common Room with the others.

Once they had gone Lily walked up to where James sat. He did not look up at her or even acknowledge that she was there but just carried on collecting the cards from the table. Lily felt like a fool just standing there. "I'm sorry you're going to have duty by yourself tonight." she said.

"Ok." he said dully.

Silence.

"Look, about last night, I'm sorry I snapped, I was just really upset; I know you just wanted to help and that you didn't mean what you said last night. I said some things that I didn't mean and I know I'd been a bit of a bitch to you all day." she said.

Lily could hardly believe that she was standing there apologising to James Potter of all people but yet it felt right – she had never known him to be so quiet, and he hadn't even looked at her once yet.

James shrugged.

The familiar feeling of irritation that Lily always felt when she was around James, came rushing back and she lent down and snatched the pack of cards off him and threw them on the floor. "Will you just listen to me this once!" she said crossly. "I apologised to you and owned up to the fact that I wasn't very nice yesterday, and you're just sitting there shrugging like it doesn't matter! Well it does to me. I accepted your apology so are man enough to accept mine?"

James turned, clearly startled and looked up at her, staring deeply into her eyes. Lily's anger subsided. There was always something about the way he looked at her – it unnerved her, it was like she was losing control of her senses, how she felt, and what to think ....

"No, I'm not going to accept your apology." James said firmly.

"What?" Lily questioned quietly, trying desperately to tear her eyes away from where James held her in his stare.

"I'm not going to accept your apology cos this is all my fault. Right from the beginning. For years and years I've been winding you up, not getting the message so I deserved all that you said or did yesterday. Living in each other's pockets isn't going to work unless I just leave you alone, so that's what I'm going to do, you'll be pleased to hear."

Lily nodded and looked away nervously. She sincerely hoped that James hadn't magically been able to read her thoughts just then. "Yeah, that would be best – and I'll stop annoying you in Quidditch practice – you know Quidditch isn't as bad as I thought it would be." she said, forcing a smile.

James smiled back at her, before breaking away from her gaze and handed her a small package. "Don't open it until you're on the train." he instructed.

"What's this?" Lily asked curiously.

James shrugged. "You'll see." he said simply. "Look, I'm really sorry about your cousin. Be strong and take care today." he said before stepping closer and awkwardly placing a kiss lightly on Lily's forehead and squeezing her arm before hurrying out of the room, down to breakfast.

Lily felt like she was in a daze. This was just surreal; she felt like she was floating in mid-air and as thoughts of James filed in succession in her brain, she literally had to shake herself back down to Earth with memories of the arrogant, obnoxious James. Checking her watch, she realised that she was not going to have time for breakfast. She quickly scribbled a note to Kirsty, and hurried to Hogsmeade station.

The train felt like a huge vault of emptiness and it was deathly quiet when she was so used to it being full of shouts and laughter. Lily needed something to distract her from slipping back into thoughts of her cousin so she took out James' package and stared at it for a moment before ripping the brown paper off of it. First there was a note: 'For the times when I'm selfish, arrogant and the biggest IDIOT in the world. James.' When Lily saw what the object was, she laughed aloud. 'Thanks James' she muttered, smiling as she stuffed the dartboard with a picture of James on it and the darts back in her bag.

A/N:- So what did you think? Please, Please Review as it makes me H.A.P.P.Y!