Chapter 4



The day had passed, James and Lily had finished copying Cassie's notes; and Cassie and James had finished copying Lily's notes…at different times. Lily woke up, and didn't feel good. She felt like crap, she knew what today was…it was Friday and she still hadn't heard from her mother. So she really didn't know if it was okay for James to come with her. Lily lay in her bed for a few minutes allowed herself to fully wake up, and take in what this weekend was going to be like for her. She just hoped that James would act like a gentlemen this weekend, instead of how he usually acted.

"Lily, you need to wake up." Came Cassie's voice from the other side of her curtains on her four poster bed. It was obvious why Cassie's voice wasn't full of happiness and joy as it usually was. She knew how Lily was feeling as what today was. Lily sighed and opened up the curtains and walked to the shower without saying hi to any of her roommates.

"What's wrong with her?" Paris asked looking at Lily snootily.

"Her grandmother died, and she has to leave today and be gone all weekend to grieve with her family. That might be why she isn't the happy go lucky Lily, you prat." Cassie spat. How much did Cassie hate Paris and Heather? About as much as James and Sirius hated Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape.

"You didn't have to get snappy with Paris; she was just asking you little bitch." Heather retaliated.

But, that had been a wrong idea, because Cassie picked up her wand and cursed warts all over Heather's face. Heather began to cry and scream. She ran off to the Hospital Wing, with Paris following after her.

"You shouldn't have done that," Alice said looking scared. Cassie had a really bad temper, and if you pissed Cassie off you usually got sent to the Hospital Wing.

"Yeah, Cass. You'll probably get detention from it." Gabby said worrying about her friend.

"No I won't, because they know if they do tell I'll go after them again. How many times have I cursed them?"

"You know maybe she's got a point," Gabby said. "Oh, well I'm headed to breakfast, I have to find Ludo…he said he had a present for me. Tell her I want to see her at breakfast. You coming Alice, Frank will probably be looking for you."

"Yeah okay, Cassie can you and Lily save us seats at breakfast."

Cassidy couldn't believe this. Their friend was in so much pain over her grandmother and they'd rather go see their boyfriend, "Yeah fine whatever. But, don't be mad at me if I just covalently forget."

"What's wrong with you, Cass?" Alice asked.

"Don't you see how much pain our friend is in…and you'd rather be with your boyfriends?"

"Maybe we should stay?" Gabby asked.

"No forget about it," Cassie said. "She'll know who actually her friend is."

"Cassie what are you going on about, we are her friend…" Alice tried.

"No obviously your not, since you want to see your boyfriends over making sure your friend is okay."

Gabby tried, "She always understands though…"

"True she always understands but do you realize how much she's hurting…"

"CASSIE!" Lily walked out of the shower her hair soaking wet, and a towel wrapped around her body. "It's not your place to yell at them. If they want to go meet Ludo and Frank, then they can."

"But…"

"No Cassie, no buts. I'll be alright; you all were there for me last night. All I'm going to is breakfast and then packing my bags and sit in the common room until it is time for James and me to go."

Then an owl that was very familiar through the window and Lily knew it was the response from her mother saying if James could come or not.

"Are you expecting mail?" Gabby asked Lily.

Lily nodded, "Yes, I wrote my mum saying that I was coming and ask if I could bring a date, you know James. This letter should have her response."

"So read it!" Alice said getting happy.

Lily took the letter from Cherry, her owl and gave Cherry owls treats.

Dearest Lily,
It's so wonderful to hear from you, especially in the circumstances that we are under. We are glad to hear that you are coming; I'm guessing Petunia wrote you like I told her to. All the preparations are done. The funeral will be at our church, the memorial service at the funeral home, and everyone is welcome to come to our house after the funeral. Yes, it is okay if you bring this James boy…but is this the same James that you complain about every letter I get from you…the James that you hate? We'll need to have a talk when you get here. Your father and I are wondering if this is your boyfriend or just a friend coming to help you out in such a hard time. As you know we have a guest room that James may stay in, we just ask that you do not perform any magic so you wouldn't scare the guests that will also be staying here. I expect you and James to act as if Jesus was here right in front of you, got it? No funny business. But, other than that we'll be as happy for you and James to arrive. I'll meet you today where you told me to.

Love,
Mom, Dad, and Petunia


Lily chuckled, "My mum is so funny. She says for James and I to act as if Jesus is right in front of us. And is this the same James that I hate with a passion. Then the ending says: 'Love, Mom, Dad, and Petunia.' I wonder if Petunia knows that, because I know for a fact Petunia doesn't love me, she hates me."

"You all can go ahead and go to breakfast, I need to find James and tell him what's going on…and make sure he's wearing proper nice muggle clothes."

"Lily, your not even dressed yet." Cassie commented.

"I know," Lily got her wand off of her bed and dried her hair. She then pointed her wand to her closet and then to her body and an emerald t-shirt that fit her well and a pair of jeans that flattered all her curves nicely, was now on her body instead of the towel. "Now I need to put on some make-up and fix my hair. I'm going to take a while you, guys go on."
"Are you sure?" Gabby asked.

"Positive, you guys go on." Lily sat in front of her vanity and began applying make-up. Lily usually just said a spell to put it on, and when she did that it was only foundation and clear lip-gloss. Lily knew this weekend was different, so she needed to look her best to say good-bye. Even though it would be a few days until the funeral, but they were having more guests in the Evans Mansion and most likely it was family. She rarely saw her family, because she was always her at Hogwarts. The rest of the family thought she just went to a normal boarding school.

Lily applied foundation, powder, thin black eye liner, light green eye shadow, pink lipstick with lip gloss over it, mascara, and blush. The eye liner and eye shadow made her eyes pop and they looked more beautiful then usually. Lily always looked beautiful normally, but she looked magnificent. Lily wasn't going to wear her hair up in a pony tail, like she usually did, instead it was down. Lily had on a necklace that had a black heart pendant on it, black stud earrings, and a charm bracelet that her grandmother gave her on her eleventh birthday, just a few days after she got her Hogwarts letter. She told her grandmother, that was the only other family member that knew she was a witch except for her mum, dad, and sister.

The charm bracelet had: a witches' hat, a broomstick, ballerina slippers, a lily flower, a heart, a butterfly, and cross on it. Each had a meaning behind them. The witches hat and broomstick obviously because she was going to school to become a witch. The ballerina slippers, because she'd been a dancer since she was two, until she had to give it up to come to Hogwarts, and the Lily flower because her name was Lily and they were her favorite flowers. A heart for the love that Lily's grandmother had for her and the love Lily had for her grandmother. The love that Lily brought to everyone and the love that Lily would one day experience from one guy that she would eventually marry and have beautiful children with. A butterfly, for the butterfly kisses her grandmother and Lily always gave one another. Last, but not least the cross was to remind her of Jesus and that he died for her sins.

Lily looked at herself, she looked better then she usually did, but she really didn't care. Lily looked down at her wrist watch she'd just put on, breakfast started twenty minutes ago. Lily sighed and muttered to herself, "Here goes nothing."

Lily went down the stairway into the common room receiving looks of amazement from every guy that was still in the common room, but Lily didn't notice she never noticed.

"Do you see Lily Evans?" Mike Jordan asked his best friend Amos Diggory.

"Yes I do, god, she looks better than she always does. Lily isn't only hot today, she's fucking hot!"

Lily looked around the common room, the girls had indeed left, but that's what Lily wanted. She had wanted them to leave her so she could walk to breakfast by herself and think about what was going to go on this weekend. Lily opened the portrait and began stepping out of the common room when she heard. "Evans! Wait up!" Lily sighed, she knew who it was, and she wasn't ready to see him yet.

James stepped out and looked at Lily; she looked like a complete knock out. "Thanks for waiting," he gasped out of air from running to catch up with her. "So have you heard from your mum yet?" Lily nodded and took the letter out of her jeans back pocket and handed it James to read for himself. "You want me to read this?" Lily nodded, "All of it?" Lily nodded again. They began walking to breakfast in silence until James was done reading the letter she'd received this morning.

He didn't say anything until he was done reading it, "I thought your sister and you didn't get along."

"We don't," Lily stated.

"Then why does it say…"

"Because my mum wrote it."

James could tell that she wasn't in the mood to talk about her family, James stopped and Lily turned around and looked at him. "Is there something wrong?"

"No," James said.

"Then why did you stop?"

"To tell you how beautiful you look." Lily blushed, she hadn't expected that. It surprised James to see Lily blush at something he'd said to her. He always complemented her on her looks and she had never blushed before.

"Your just saying that to make me feel better," Lily said walking on, but James grabbed her wrist and she stopped and looked down at his hand then at his face.

"No Lily, I'm serious you look more beautiful then you usually do….wait that came out wrong….I mean you always look lovely…just that."

"James, it's okay. I understand. I took a long time to get ready today."

James smiled; she said his first name again. It gave him butterflies in his stomach. "Can we go to breakfast now so I can go back to the common room?" James nodded and they walked the rest of the way in silence.

Lily joined breakfast with her friends, much to James's disappointment, and so James joined Peter and Remus for breakfast.

"Where's Padfoot, Moony?" James asked when he sat down.

"I thought he'd come down with you? I guess he's still sleeping; I'll bring him some toast to Charms class to eat. So has Lily heard from her mum yet?"

"Yeah, this morning."

"So do you get to go with her?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, her mum said I can stay in a guest room. There's supposed to be a lot of her family members there. I just hope she trusts me enough to cry on my shoulder if she gets upset."

"Well, hasn't she already?" Peter asked another question.

"Yeah, but she was very distraught, I bet if Malfoy came to comfort her she would of even let him." James sighed. He really wanted Lily to trust him. He'd had a thing for Lily Evans for a while now, but he knew Lily was too good for him. He'd never end up with a girl like Lily.

"So where's Lily now?" Remus asked.

"Eating breakfast with her friends, wish she would of eaten with me."

"James you act like the two of you are dating and your not…your not even sure if she likes you."

"Stuff it Wormtail, I don't want to hear that." James said dripping with venom.

"I was just saying Prongs…."

"I don't want to hear it Wormtail."
"Wormtail, we need to go wake up Padfoot. Classes start in ten minutes. Later Prongs, good luck this weekend."

"Yeah, good luck."

"Bye, thanks you guys." James said sighing.

Cassie looked across the table and saw that James was sitting by himself at lunch and she brought this to Lily's attention, "Why is James sitting by himself?"

"Uh…what?" Lily looked over, and Cassie was right. "Well, I don't know. I thought he'd be eating with his friends."

"It'll be okay," Alice spoke up. "We need to head to class anyways; we've got five minutes girls."

"Alright," Gabriella stood up and hugged Lily. "Try and be strong this weekend, and if you need any of us just send us an owl, okay?"

"Yeah, Lily. Tell your mum and dad that I say hi." Alice said getting up and hugging Lily also.

"We'll see you Sunday, okay Lily? I hope you feel better," Cassidy got up last and also gave Lily a hug and they walked off to their classes. James looked over where Lily was sitting and noticed that she was by herself too; her friends must have walked off to class, so James went to sit with her.

"Hey Lils."

"Hey," she said with no effort. She was really down and it was killing James. "Do you mind if we go back up to the Common Room now?"

"Nope, let's go." He said getting up and offering his hand to help Lily out, she looked at his hand and then up at him. "I'm trying to help you up from your seat…like a gentleman…but if you don't want me…"

Lily took his hand and got up, and James was stunned. Maybe he could finally get her to trust him. Lily looked up in his eyes and thanked him. When James saw how sad those beautiful eyes looked he wanted to do something to make her feel better.

When they were back in the Common Room, classes had already resumed and of course no one else was there…everyone else was in class. Lily sat on her usual couch and James was back in the armchair he'd been in from last night. Lily laid all the way across the couch watching the fire roll in the fireplace. Watching a fire had always eased her.

James just watched her, she was magnificently beautiful, then add the firelight playing off her face and auburn hair made her look even more beautiful.

Lily felt a pair of eyes looking on to her and she sat up and saw James just gazing at her none stop. "Is there something wrong?" She asked looking at her clothes, touching her face, and hair. James couldn't help, but chuckle.

"No, Lily there isn't anything wrong. You just take my breath away."

"James, please stop," there was a few things in her voice that he'd never heard before. There was force and fear.

"What did I do wrong Lily?"

"You just keep saying things that aren't true and it's making me really mad, could you please quit."

"What am I saying that isn't true? That your are beautiful, that you take my breath away? Lily I'm sorry to tell you this, but it's not a lie…it's true. Do you see how every guy can't take his eyes off of you? Lily you're missing something, I don't know one guy that would give everything to be with you. There are even some Slytherins that I catch checking you out."

"That's gross, I don't like Slytherins."

"Do you hear the rest of the things coming out of my mouth?"

"Yes, I do. But, I just can't accept it. I'm sorry, but I can't. Now I have to go pack my bags. I didn't realize how long it's been from breakfast, it's now 9:30. I suggest you go pack, also."

"Okay, Lils, I guess I'll see you when you come back down here."

James ran upstairs to his room and packed with his wand and was packed within five minutes. He went over what he had to pack more than two minutes. James brought his stuff down stairs with him and the homework that they were going to have to make up. Lily wasn't back yet, but James expected that. She was a girl and girls always took longer. So James started on some of his homework.

Half an hour later James looked up at the clock and Lily still wasn't back down, James knew something was up. So he went to the Girls' staircase. James knew for a fact that guys couldn't go up on the staircase, because it turned into a slide. Sirius found a counter curse for it, but it only lasted a minute…so James had to hurry. James muttered, "Freeze-io!" The staircase stayed the way it would have for girls and James ran up the staircase and found a sign on a door that said 5th Year Girls. James opened the door and had one foot in and the staircase turned back into a slide and James hopped in to get the other foot in.

The room's only light was the sunlight coming in from the only window. All the beds draperies were open, except one, which he guessed was Lily's. He opened it to find her in a ball curled up and crying her eyes out. She gasped when she saw James, "James Potter! What are you doing up here?! How did you get up here?!"

"Sirius found a counter curse to make the staircase stay still a year ago, but I'll tell you about that later. Why are you crying up here and didn't tell me."

Lily sat up, "James we are not dating, I don't have to tell you every single thing about me."

"Lils, I know we're not, but I thought we were friends."

"James, I don't know…I just don't know. I mean I hated you just days ago, and now your nice to me. Just leave me alone."

"No
."

"What?" She sounded angry and then she just sobbed harder and harder.

"Lily?! What did I do?" He sat down beside her and she put her head on his shoulder again and James put his arm around her waist and started stroking her back again. Her cries slowly started to subside until she was finished. "Better?" James asked, but Lily didn't respond. James pulled her back a little and saw that she was sleeping, so James laid her down and went to lay down on the bed across from her's, which was actually Cassie…but James didn't know. James laid in Cassie's bed for a few hours just watching Lily sleep.

James looked down at his watch after a while, it was eleven thirty and he decided he needed to wake her up. He walked over and lightly shook her, she blinked her eyes open. She looked so perfectly beautiful. "Lils it's eleven thirty, we need to be in Dumbledore's office in twenty minutes…you want to get up?"

"Yeah I should, I'm already packed. Let's just go downstairs.

They sat down where they'd been earlier, silent until Lily looked up at the clock. "It's time, ready James?" He nodded. She went to bend down to get her bags, but James got to them first. "What are you doing?" She asked.

"Carrying your bags, like I'm suppose to."

"You don't have to, we are not together. How many times do I …"

"Lily, I know we're not together, but a decent man carries a woman's bags. So please let me, or I'll feel like a complete ass for not carrying your bags."

"But, their really heavy. You have one and I have three."

"Lily, they can't be that heavy and if they are I'll put a charm on it to make sure it's not heavy okay? Just pick up your purse and lets go."

"Oh, alright." She gave in, because she knew she wasn't going to win.

"Ready to go Miss Evans, Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore asked and they both nodded. "Okay when you go back to the Leaky Cauldron to Floo back here the word is, "Sugar Quills Office!"

"That's a different one." James commented.

"Yes, it is. And this fireplace is only open under certain circumstances. I'll see the two of you on Sunday. Good-bye Miss Evans, Mr. Potter."

"Good-bye," they said at the same time. James went first, and then Lily went.