This is the story of two people who have been emotionally and mentally cut off from the world around them. They have been estranged from emotions until these eyes meet up again. What will happen? L/J R for later chapters
Disclaimer: I own no characters, places, ideas, or plots created by Miss Rowling.
No longer Estranged chp 1
"Language has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone, and the word solitude to express the glory of being alone."
-Tillich, Paul
It was snowing out once she was ready to leave. She loved the snow, in all it's white flurries and romantic enchantments. It somehow reminded her of her childhood. When Petunia was still her friend, and her parents were still alive. When the threat of killer wasn't hanging in the air or underneath conversations and emotions. But it was there, and Lily Evans could do was live form day to day hoping for the to rise.
The café was considerably crowded, even though it was the middle of the afternoon. When caffenated drinks were useless or already instilled in ones system. Lily liked this café; it was cozy and didn't bring on a sense of business-like hostility that large tycoon chains have.
She saw Caroline and Lisa sitting at their regular table, all the way in the back near the fireplace. Caroline and Lisa were both a year younger than Lily and much more naïve than her, on certain levels. She always felt like a more wholesome, pure person when she was around the two young ladies. They sometimes brought out the best in Lily, and usually made her forget about some regretful things she'd done. Until they asked her about them of course.
"Lily!" Caroline called (thinking maybe she hadn't seen where they were sitting, even though this had been their regular table for the past year)
"Good Afternoon girls." Lily said as she schlepped her heavy coat off and gave each a kiss on the cheek hello.
"We thought you weren't going to show Lily…" Lisa commented in her low husky voice. It sometimes amazed Lily that Lisa didn't have any boyfriend or prospects that she felt were good enough for herself. She was a beautiful girl, with every attraction a man could want. But over the length of time Lily had gotten to know Lisa, she learned that her attention span for any male specimen who approached her was usually cut short by the plain fact that she knew, she could do better.
"Oh you know me, I strive for the unexpected in life." A young waitress bearing a friendly smile approached Lily, cooperatively taking her order and filling it, as the girls had already received their vanilla chai and frothy cappuccino's.
"So how was your date Caroline?" Lisa asked, flipping her long golden hair over her shoulder, attracting the attention of a few testosterones driven gazes.
"It was lovely. First frank and I went to see a muggle movie, about these hippies who were oddly obsessed with hair…that was quite strange I must admit." Lily snickered at the thought of Caroline going to see the drug and peace induced movie "but then he took me to the most Romantic Restaurant where-"
"Did he pay for everything?" Lisa interjected trying to sum up the poor guy
"No Lisa, we washed dishes because it was cheaper. Of course he paid! Anyway…"
Lily's mind drifted away from the all too mindless familiar conversation. As much as she loved the girls and enjoyed their company, she was tired of having the same superficial conversations about the same types of guys. She didn't even want to talk about guys. She wanted to talk about what was happening out in the world. Of politics, of art, of work, of anything to get themselves out of their old childish habits. Lily watched the people passing by the large glass windows. So many of these happy people had no idea what was going on right in front of their faces. They didn't know that a war was raging behind their backs, just waiting to jump out and ruin their lives. Caroline and Lisa hadn't noticed Lily's attention wane, as it usually had been doing these past days. So Lily quietly got up with her cup and went to the stand in the front of the store where they had stirrers and sugar packets. She just wanted to get a closer look at the passer-byes.
She saw many. A couple families, a few single striders, some romantic couples, and other various groups of people walked by. But one group of people in particular had caught her eye. It was a group of men who seemed to be either her age or a little older, there were four of them. They walked as if they knew what was happening, and that they couldn't give a shit.
The two in the front seemed to be talking heatedly about something. One was quite a short lanky man, with thinning blonde hair and watery blue eyes. The second definitely needed a good night's rest, as the circles under his gray eyes were quite defining. But he did have a kind face, he was about 6 foot with sandy blonde hair and small, but distinct freckles splashed across his face. The two in the back could have easily been brothers. They were both tall with what seemed like lean, hard bodies underneath all the clothing. One had shoulder-length black hair and deep black eyes. The other wore small round glasses that hid brown eyes, and had short uncontrolable hair that went in every direction.
But then something happened Lily did not expect, and certainly wasn't prepared for. The man closest to her with the glasses, turned to the window, and looked right into Lily's eyes as if he knew her.
Lily felt her body for rigid with emotion and uncensored desire. Her hear-beat hastened its rhythmic beating and turned into a screaming race for satisfaction. This handsome man with one look had brought Lily's deepest yearnings and desires into plain view. She never felt like this with anyone before, especially not just a short glance.
As he walked by he kept his eye contact with her. Forbidden images of his body and her stoked her mind. Wanting to take those layers of clothes off him and hold him until the end of eternity. She felt the need to touch him, to fill him with pleasure, to know every part of his body, to-
"Lily, what are you doing?"
Lily was snapped out of her unnatural fantasies, and was brought back to earth by Caroline's curious voice.
"Oh…um…I needed some sugar is all" she looked out the window one last time, trying desperately to find the mysterious man once more.
"Have you your sugar?" Caroline asked tugging Lily from the window and back towards their cozy table. Where Lisa was waiting with an impatient look on her face.
"Are you two done yet?" Lily nodded at Lisa, grabbing her jacket and purse knowing what was to come next.
"OK, I need to go to Gringotts and get some money out of my account!" Lisa pulled on her large fur winter coat and matching gloves.
"Cassandra, you don't have an account…" Lily started, as she whipped her scarf around her small neck
"No…but that cheating bastard of a boyfriend does!"
"OK, and then we can go to Florean and Fortescues and-"
"Caroline, it's the middle of the winter. I don't know how you can stand having ice cream when it's bloody below 7 celcius out there! After Lisa steels her illicit boyfriends' money, why don't we just have a drink at the Leaky Cauldron or something? Or at least do something that involves sitting in doors!" Lily pleaded. She couldn't stand for Caroline's silly girlish needs to 'scout for boys' today, especially not with the lingering feeling of that mysterious man in her body.
"Oh fine. But you know how I hate that place. It's so stinky and all the ugliest men or ghouls go to sit in that place." She huffed, walking out of the café and pulling her coat closer to her.
Lily sighed relief "yes, I know. You only complain about it whenever we go in there."
"Well I have every right to complain. To absolutely horrid, no self-respecting person would actually take a room there anyway, so why do they have those rooms upstairs for people to board in?"
Lily folded her arms in a silent defense. In her sixth year during Christmas holiday, her parents had died and her house totaled giving her no place to sleep. So she waved down the night bus and headed off to London, taking a room at the Leaky Cauldron for the rest of the week. Or until a member of the ministry had come looking for the muggle-born child who lost her parents and everything she had ever known. She didn't quite remember the happenings of that week. All she knew was she came home to find everything she ever owned gone, everyone she ever loved, dead, and absolutely nothing to put a penny to her name. Except a small account at Gringotts.
"I suppose the non self-respecting-"
"Shutup you guys. You can't judge a person by what type of room they sleep in!" Lily interrupted. Earning a huff from Lisa
The rest of the short walk was continued in an awkward silence. Lisa and Caroline knew lily well enough to not speak during one these moods she had, where nothing they said was right or fair. They reached the Leaky cauldron within ten minutes, each ordering a warm butterbeer and taking it into the streets with them. As promised, they stopped off at Gringotts and stole some of Lisa's ex-boyfriends' money.
Before they knew it, it was well into the afternoon and much shopping on 'john's' expense had been accomplished. Lily was just inside Madame Maulkin's when a large explosion shook the entire shop.
Lily turned her head to see what the commotion was. Herds of people seemed to be running out of stores and onto the streets, they were either dissaparating in a hurry or grabbing their children and running for the exit through the Leaky Cauldron. Wanting to get a more lucid view of the hubbub, she pushed her way towards the center square, where most of the people had been running from. There seemed to be a thin mist of a deep red smoke, the probability that the smoke was harmless seemed slim to none. But her curiosity rendered stronger than her common sense at the moment. She took a deep breath, plugged her nose and stepped into the sea of red smog.
For the first 10 seconds everything seemed normal, that is until she tripped over a large chunk of something. Her eyes flickered down to the body for a millisecond before returning to their previous vision of destination. Then it registered in her brain…a body…a body had been lying on the floor, and she had just walked by it like it was an everyday illusion. Desperate to move on through the fog, but knowing that her conscience would never let, leaving a body UN-checked and unaccounted for would haunt her for quite a while. She decided to turn back around to make sure the person was still alive, or at least that they would be identified if this particular gas had indeed been poisonous. Turning on her heel, she prepared herself for the depressing vision of a child or woman, or man just strewn on the ground in utter helplessness.
But what she saw she wasn't prepared for. A pair of pants, leather coat tight on a tall hard body, strong neck, lips, and eyes. Eyes with glasses on them. Those beautiful, bone chilling, frozen brown eyes. Her heart started to race again, the same intense feelings from back in the café rushed through her already tense body. The stupor that was brought on by this onslaught of emotions, also the lack of oxygen pushed her to release her hand from her face and gasp in the red smoke. The impact it had on her, and so quickly, was amazing. She actually felt the septic smog shoot down her throat and into her lungs, it felt as if she had just swallowed a hundred formidable cement bricks. Thoughts crept into her mind, all she wanted to do was collapse, all she needed to do was have her head rest on the floor, anything would feel better than standing in this awkward position. But something was holding her up. Something with strong arms clad in leather and bone chilling, blank, brown eyes.
*****
He had seen her at the café. He had seen her, stupidly walk through the poisonous gas that resonated through Diagon Alley. He remembered her from Hogwarts, always walking around with her nose stuck in the air. Yes, he had graduated two years before her. But that didn't stop him from noticing her, and her prissy little friends. Always chatting about some mindless matter: what they had received on an exam, what boy was currently the cutest and most available, how this dress or that shirt made them look fat. Typical snobbish girl discussion that James Potter had always looked down upon.
James Potter. Quiditch Captain for two years straight, prefects, Head Boy, top of his graduating class, also top of the school. Mischief-maker, and infamous prankster. Yet, to himself the most UN-accomplished young man on the planet and history of this earth. None of this mattered; those superficial accomplishments were just vain attempts to be recognized. He was noticed, he was fancied by many a young girl, he had many a young girl. But nothing worked, nothing mattered.
Going through the motions had become a habitual routine for James these past few years. As more days pass, the more he feels that his life is going on without him. The world was one big blur that he had been stuck in the middle of by accident. He was either to big to fit into this small spot of earth, or too little to even give a shit about. Either way, he was miserable.
James had three close friends. Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. At hogwarts they titled themselves 'The Marauders'. Hogwarts infamous mischief-makers, and prankster extraordanaires. You would have looked upon the marauders one of two ways. One being that you despised them greatly for the pranks they pulled, and felt that their talents shouldn't be wasted on the next blown up toilet seat, but the next class or exam. Two was that you desperately, had to be friends with them, or date them. This information usually got to ones head and it did. By fifth year James' ego was so inflated you could have popped it with a toothbrush.
All until one day after his O.W.L.'s, a small 3rd year Gryffindor red head had shot him down. He taunted her right back, fooling with her, and playfully asking her out. She denied. Not only the facts that Lily had denied him, but the fact that she stood up to him, and held her ground being brutally and utterly honest surprised James. He liked it, he liked being challenged for once, instead of someone yelling a comment out and backing down form it instantly. From that day on he made a point to observe Lily Evans from a distance. She was a normal dim-witted girl around her friends. Laughing and complying with all their conversations, and moronic thoughts. But behind the façade that she put on so well, he saw in her eyes a longing for something more. More knowledge, more experience. Anything to take her away from the constraints and normality of everyday life. He knew this look, for he often wore it himself.
He saw this look again for a fleeting moment as he had passed by the café. It had been as odd a moment for him as it was for her. He had never felt his heart beat at such a painful pace, nor had he ever felt so self-conscience of what he looked like at that particular moment. And the thoughts that had pushed their way to the front of his mind would never be revealed to anyone or living thing in that space of time. Even though, his attraction for that moment had been evidently directed towards her, and even though he had been thoroughly interested in Lily Evans at Hogwarts. James couldn't help but feel a lack of respect for a girl who would willingly contain her emotions from her friends, and go on putting an act for the world as if everything was just fine and dandy.
For lack of anything better to do that day, James and the 'Marauders" felt the need to stock up on the latest Quiditch supplies. That was what had placed them in Diagon Alley in the first place. James had been in Quality Quiditch Supplies when the explosion had been set off, his auror training kicking in he flew out the door, wand in hand, and went to see if it was indeed an attack. Thankfully, he hadn't seen any Death Eaters or signs of disputes. Only large masses of people fleeing out of near-by stores and heading for the near exit. He was about to floo to the ministry to notify them of what had happened when he saw her.
The mid length curly red hair, the slender mysterious body, the innocence that could have easily been mistaken for stupidity, and those eyes. Those beautiful, sad, emerald green eyes. James didn't know what came over him, but the moment her saw her enter that gas, every thought and emotion was replaced with one think in mind. Get Lily out of the smoke and into his arms. He succeeded.
There he was, standing there, holding his breath for dear life, and praying to whom knows what god that he wouldn't drop the precious doll in his arms. With careful handling and skillful moves, Lily had been fixed so that one of his arms were draped under her knees, and the other around her back. Fortunately she was still conscience enough to hold onto him and not just hand limply like a dead rag.
He apparated away as quickly as possible to his flat in a secluded part of the outskirts of Dublin. Why he hadn't gone back to his flat that he shared with Sirius, he didn't know. Common Sense had ebbed away in the madness and rush of emotions; one didn't have time to think sensibly when a beautiful young lady was strewn over their arms helplessly.
He placed her on his rather large love seat and covered her with soft wool blanket. This apartment was usually cold in the wintertime; he always kept extra blankets lying around the place. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know whether to wake her and ask if she needed to be anywhere, or if he should owl Sirius or Remus. The only thing he did know was that the gas hadn't been harmful. He recognized it as Sonamos, a powerful sleeping potion that when smashed against a hard surface, or mixed with fire, a gas powerful enough to put you to sleep for a hundred years would be formed.
He decided to just let her sleep through the night and let her wake herself up with morning cold. Or maybe the smell of a warm breakfast could bring her back to life. The only certain fact that stood within miles between the two misfortuned young people was that James knew he wouldn't be getting to sleep any time soon.
A/N: OK New…odd story…very odd. I know it's short but this chapter is basically for introduction purposes only. I promise I have a point and it shall be a good one. Please..keep reading as I keep updating. I really don't mind if you review or not as I intend to finish this story with or without them. But I would appreciate it…so please Review. Thank you very much.
Disclaimer: I own no characters, places, ideas, or plots created by Miss Rowling.
Pain is a very distinct feeling. It clouds ones mind, makes the room spin and most importantly, causes a head ache the size of France. This of course, was the feeling swimming through Lily's lungs and head as her eyes flickered open the following morning. Raising her hand to shield her eyes from the sun, she slowly raised herself from her crumpled up position. A soft wool blanket had fallen down from her chest, she eyed it carefully.
'I don't have a blanket like this…' she thought to herself. In fact she didn't have any furniture that was furbished in black and gray. As was the love seat that she currently was situated upon. Taking a deep breath, and raising her head as slow as possible, and trying desperatley not to make any sudden movements, for she was quite positive that rush of extreme pain would be experienced. She took a look around the unfamiliar room. It was a modern day flat, with muggle appliances and new found gadget type furniture. Standing up carefully, she trudged across the room to the fireplace where on the mantle she could see frames with pictures in them.
The pictures were moving. Whoever owned this apartment was magical, which in a way was a good thing. It was good thing for the fact that they probably had floo-powder lying around somewhere, so she could just floo back home when her head ache had receaded. Chancing apparating didn't seem like the smartest thing to do at a time when she couldn't even see ten feet in front of her. She started looking for floo-powder to hide in the pocket of her large jacket, which had been taken off her at some point and laid on a near-by chair. If this person whoever they were, turned out to be hostile in any way, she would be able to just chuck the powder into the fireplace and dart out of there. Her plan seemed reasonably sound, except for one small detail.
Lily couldn't remember where home was. She felt the panic start to break into her sedated state as her blood came rushing to her head. Where was she? What had happened? How did she end up here…who was she? For the love of her, she couldn't remember her own name. If you had been in that room at that moment, and named any charm, event, or potion having to do with magic she would be able to spell it out for you in detail, and then go into a full-fledged demonstration. If you asked her who had starred in "Gone with the Wind" surely Vivian Leigh were the first words to be uttered out of her mouth. But if you asked her what her name was, or how long she had had a certain scar, only silence would penetrate the room.
She grabbed some floo-powder and shoved it into her jacket pocket, while the other hand searched the other pocket for any possible signs of her wand. Finally reaching the inside left pocket she found it, hidden safely away from any muggle prying eyes. She decided to put on the coat so the flat's occupant couldn't see or take away her wand from her. A clatter from the next room resonated through the flat. Her heart was beating so fast at this point that it could be heard in Timbuktu.
"Oh bloody hell." She heard a man's voice getting louder, footsteps. He was coming into the room, probably to check on her. Probably to check if his hostage was still wonderfully Un-conscience and ready for raping or chopping up are whatever this pervert wanted to do to her. Why else would he have just let her sleep though out the night, if he hadn't wanted something from her? Why didn't he just wake her and send her home to her mummy safe and sound? Why? Because he was probably some old retired priest who molested younger children, and scarred them for the rest of their life. Forever cutting them off emotionally from the rest of the world and molding their futures into hazardaous waste lands of depression and insecurity. Only a true psycho could be that corrupt.
The door swung open and her perverted child molester entered the room. Her shirtless, muscular, handsome young man of a perverted child molester entered the room. Something about the way he carried himself told her that he wasn't the retired priest type. He wasn't a threat, he wouldn't hurt her…hopefully. She probably had an alarming look on her face, for the moment he caught eyes with her, he darted them from the previously occupied love seat to the fireplace, and then back to her. He sighed relief.
James had come into the sitting room to see if she had woken or not