James and Sirius had obtained permission to use Lily's backyard for Quidditch, as long as they didn't break any more windows, from Rebecca Evans, and the two were taking full advantage of it. Petunia, as a result, spent as much time as possible away from her house. She was absolutely mortified at the things that were going on around her. Petunia spent as much time as possible at Vernon's house, confiding to him about what a FREAK her sister was.
Vernon was the only one who understood her, Petunia thought. No one else could truly understand the extent of her sister's weirdness, or the trauma inflicted upon her by her sister's lot. James and Sirius were worse than Lily, in Petunia's eyes. The two boys had quickly become her worst nightmare.
Lily shared her attitude, at least in part. While Lily had disliked James strongly during her first year at Hogwarts, she was now sure that she hated him! Whenever she tried to confide in her mother, Rebecca only responded with a patronizing, "he saved your life, dear! James is a dear boy and he is welcome to spend as much time in our home as he wants."
James was certainly taking advantage of this. He ate out of Lily's fridge, used her bathroom, played Quidditch in her back yard and even invited over Sirius to join him. James seemed to dislike his grandmothers house, and spent as much time at Lily's as possible. He and Sirius even spent the night in the living room for a few nights.
Lily finally exploded after she caught James using her toothbrush. "This is the last straw!" Lily screamed. "Get out of my house, now!"
James only laughed, "Make me."
Lily ran into her room and proceeded to cry into her pillow. Finally, she was withdrawn from her grievous state by her owl, Lothlorien. He carried with him a letter, from Brittany. Lily tore open the letter eagerly. She had been waiting forever to hear from her friends and this was the first letter she had gotten.
Dear Lily,
I hope you are having a good summer! Mine has been terribly boring so far. My grandmother hasn't let me write to you until now. She heard about what happened to you and thought you needed your rest. I know you are perfectly fine now, and I think it must have been awfully exciting! It was very heroic of James to have rescued you, Jackie thinks it was romantic as well. I wish we could visit each other, but my Grandmother will not allow it. Please write back right away and tell me everything that has happened!
Love, Brittany
The letter put Lily in a much better mood, although the part about James was sickening. Lily set out right away to start her letter.
It was three pages in length by the time she was finished. Lily signed her name and folded the letter carefully, placing it in an envelope. Just as she was about to seal it, Sirius Black threw open the door to her room.
Sirius was wearing stylish clothing and his hair was perfectly groomed. Sometimes Lily was amazed at how different he was from James, yet the two were like brothers.
"Oh Lily," Sirius called cheerfully. "James decided to umm… experiment with one of your muggle cooking thingies, and well… it's not good. You better come look!"
"What happened Sirius?" she hissed, standing immediately to follow Sirius into the kitchen at a run.
When she entered the kitchen, Lily had to laugh. James's always messy hair was standing straight up and his face and clothing were lined in black soot. Around him were the remnants of what appeared to be the Evans's toaster.
"What did you do?" Lily asked finally, when she could finally stop her bout of giggling.
James shrugged. "I was trying to make toast," he replied, as if blowing up a toaster was a commonplace event which could happen to anyone.
While Lily coerced Sirius into helping her clean up the kitchen, James made use of Lily's bathroom to clean himself off. Then, reluctant to take part in the cleaning of the kitchen, he took it upon himself to explore Lily's bedroom.
He found the letter straight away. After reading through Brittany's letter and rereading the parts about himself happily he unfolded Lily's reply, intending to make a few revisions.
Dear Brittany,
My summer is going terribly! I cannot imagine anything worse could be happening to you. I miss you so much! You really should have written sooner.
Petunia is being horrible, as usual, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. The nightmare started when James and Sirius crash landed through my living room window, complete with broomsticks and bludgers. They succeeded not only in ruining the living room, but breaking holes through two other walls as well! Petunia's boyfriend Vernon was there at the time, and he and Petunia will not let me forget it.
Worst of all, James is living with his Grandmother, who happens to live next door to me! So the idiot himself has been at my house the entire summer. My mom loves him and makes me clean up after him! He stinks up the bathroom, eats all of our food and even uses my toothbrush! Sirius is also here as well, although he is not quite so bad as James. Still, two Marauders are more annoying than one.
About what you said in your letter, James was not acting heroically. He probably just stumbled on the port key by mistake and mad up all of that stuff about dreams…
Eventually, James got tired of reading the long letter, and crumpled it up in a ball, tossing it into the trash can. He knew it was up to him to write a reply. Lily obviously was in denial about him, James knew that she could not help but be in awe of his amazing good looks and talents.
So, he started on his own version of Lily's letter, adopting his own unique style.
To Brittany Jacobs,
I am very busy or I would write you a longer letter. The reason I am busy is because James Potter suddenly moved in next door. He is so incredibly cool and I wish that I was as cool as him. You should really consider dating him or his friend Sirius. You are right, they are both very brave, but I don't know about romantic, that is a girly thing. Anyway I am so happy to have James in my house that I do not think you should write back to me because I am too busy fantasizing about him. Still, I know he would never stoop to my level. Currently I am off snogging my sister's ugly fat boyfriend Vernon, just to practice for James (even though he is too cool for me).
From Lily Evans
James sighed contentedly, assured that his letter was a great improvement. "Lily will thank me for this someday," he muttered under his breath while sealing the envelope which Lily had already addressed.
Just then, Lily walked in. "What are you doing, James?" she asked in a cold voice.
"Oh, just mailing your letter," James responded smoothly.
Lily grabbed the letter out of his hands, glaring at him suspiciously. She examined the envelope and after noting that it was the one she had addressed, handed it to Lothlorien herself reluctantly.
"Get out of my room!" she shouted, not for the first or last time.
James grinned blowing her a fake kiss and dashed out of the room cheerfully. In James's mind, he had done his share of charity for the week. Revising Lily's letter was really a nice thing to do, or so he told himself.
Later, when he shared the incident with Sirius, James was surprised at Sirius's laughter.
"What?" James asked innocently. "I did do it to help her?"
"James, my man," Sirius grinned, slapping his friend on the back, "You have a strange way of helping."
The next few weeks were not nearly as much fun for James. Sirius's mother had appeared in person in Cornelia's fireplace, and ordered him to come home. James spent most of his time moping around the Evan's house. His grandmother was truly a formidable witch, and he tried his best to avoid her.
Without Sirius, even the prospect of annoying Lily had lost some of it's fun. Finally, left her alone altogether, resigning himself to living under the house of his strict Grandmother.
One day, Lily approached James furiously, having received a very strange reply from Brittany.
Dear Lily,
I don't know if you actually wrote a letter in reply to my last one, but I didn't get it. The reply I got was written as if it was from you, but it obviously wasn't. First clue, you seemed to be praising James. Second clue, it just didn't sound like you. And third, it was most definitely not in your handwriting. Just to check I am going to enclose a copy of the letter I received. Is it true that James is living next door to you? If it is, you might want to check for tampering. Anyway, I instructed my owl to make sure that YOU, and no one else, get this, so write back right away!
Love from Brittany! XOXO
"What is this about?" Lily screeched after shoving the letter towards James. "You re-wrote my letter!"
James shrugged modestly. "Don't thank me, it was just one of my many selfless acts."
Lily stepped forward and gave James a shove. James staggered back and his eyes widened in mock surprise.
"I thought you would be pleased! Your letter was horribly written. I just made some simple corrections," James explained calmly.
"You jerk!" Lily yelled. "I have put up with you in my house for too long. If you come back again I promise that you will be sorry!"
"Sorry that you are such a loser, who can't write letters?" James asked innocently.
Lily let out a frustrated shriek and ran off without further comment, lost for words. She ran down the street until she could calm herself enough to stop her feet. Letting out another scream, Lily took a swing at a brick wall and realized a few moments later that such a move was not really a very good idea.
She screamed again upon impact, this time not out of frustration, but out of pain. Shooting stabs ran up her arm and Lily stared in shock at her mangled fist. She managed to calm herself when she flexed and saw that nothing was broken, though it was badly scraped, and summoned the strength to walk calmly back to her house to bandage her hand.
James was sitting on her couch when she walked in the door. Lily avoided his gaze and tried her best to hide her injured hand from his view. The thought of his ridicule was too much to bear.
Holding her breath, Lily walked past him as subtly as she could. When she made it to the bathroom she gasped in pain, trying to hold back the tears. The bones were not broken, but her entire fist ached horribly and the skin was raw and painful.
James noticed something, he was not stupid, for all that he pretended to be. He waited a few moments, and then went after her, wanting to surprise her. James thought of a good taunt and then threw open the door.
"Gonna make me pay?" he asked cheerfully. "It'll take more than a threat…" James trailed off suddenly, noticing the blood.
James's mouth dropped and before Lily could retort, he was at her side. The transition was automatic, James did not even realize how quickly he reverted to protective mode.
"Lily," he gasped. "What happened?" James put an arm around her shoulder and attempted to examine her hand.
Shivering and looking faintly sick Lily shoved James away violently. "Go away!"
James ignored her and proceeded to rummage through her cabinets until he managed to surface a first aid kit. Lily tried to fight him off, but James forcibly rinsed the blood off of her hand, checked for broken bones and bandaged it.
Lily examined the bandage skeptically. It was more a mass of wadded up bandages with medical tape in random places than anything else, and it looked somewhat awkward. James was obviously not an expert bandager.
"What did you do, anyway?" James asked in a superior voice.
"Nothing," Lily insisted hastily.
"That doesn't look like nothing," James replied in a singsong voice.
"Leave me alone! I said nothing," Lily hissed.
That ended the conversation. Yet later, when Lily's mother rewrapped her wound, Lily was forced to confess the source of her injury. Rebecca Evans was furious.
"I understand that James annoys you Lily, but you must learn to control yourself. This was not his fault, it was your own," Her mother chided, oblivious to her daughter's protests.
For the next few weeks, much to James's disappointment, Lily retreated to her room. No amount of James's pleading could allow Lily's mother to allow him access. Still, James found little ways to annoy her, switching her shampoo with syrup, hiding her various belongings, and snapping pictures of her at every possible moment with a cheap muggle camera and later begging her to autograph them, claiming to be selling photos of the weirdest person on Earth. James did in actuality find buyers, Peter was sending James money by owl in exchange for shots of Lily. The pudgiest marauder seemed to have developed a crush on Lily.
Just when Lily felt she could take it no longer, and James was beginning to get bored of torturing Lily, a letter arrived at for James, from Sirius.
Jamesie-
The annual Black family reunion is taking place next week. I do not know if I can withstand another one alone. Assistance is requested. Of course, my mother cannot know that you plan to come, she would never allow it. You must show up unexpected and at the last moment, together we can revenge ourselves on the fouler aspects of my family. Don't write back, just show up at my house at seven AM on the third of August.
-Sirius Black
Vernon was the only one who understood her, Petunia thought. No one else could truly understand the extent of her sister's weirdness, or the trauma inflicted upon her by her sister's lot. James and Sirius were worse than Lily, in Petunia's eyes. The two boys had quickly become her worst nightmare.
Lily shared her attitude, at least in part. While Lily had disliked James strongly during her first year at Hogwarts, she was now sure that she hated him! Whenever she tried to confide in her mother, Rebecca only responded with a patronizing, "he saved your life, dear! James is a dear boy and he is welcome to spend as much time in our home as he wants."
James was certainly taking advantage of this. He ate out of Lily's fridge, used her bathroom, played Quidditch in her back yard and even invited over Sirius to join him. James seemed to dislike his grandmothers house, and spent as much time at Lily's as possible. He and Sirius even spent the night in the living room for a few nights.
Lily finally exploded after she caught James using her toothbrush. "This is the last straw!" Lily screamed. "Get out of my house, now!"
James only laughed, "Make me."
Lily ran into her room and proceeded to cry into her pillow. Finally, she was withdrawn from her grievous state by her owl, Lothlorien. He carried with him a letter, from Brittany. Lily tore open the letter eagerly. She had been waiting forever to hear from her friends and this was the first letter she had gotten.
Dear Lily,
I hope you are having a good summer! Mine has been terribly boring so far. My grandmother hasn't let me write to you until now. She heard about what happened to you and thought you needed your rest. I know you are perfectly fine now, and I think it must have been awfully exciting! It was very heroic of James to have rescued you, Jackie thinks it was romantic as well. I wish we could visit each other, but my Grandmother will not allow it. Please write back right away and tell me everything that has happened!
Love, Brittany
The letter put Lily in a much better mood, although the part about James was sickening. Lily set out right away to start her letter.
It was three pages in length by the time she was finished. Lily signed her name and folded the letter carefully, placing it in an envelope. Just as she was about to seal it, Sirius Black threw open the door to her room.
Sirius was wearing stylish clothing and his hair was perfectly groomed. Sometimes Lily was amazed at how different he was from James, yet the two were like brothers.
"Oh Lily," Sirius called cheerfully. "James decided to umm… experiment with one of your muggle cooking thingies, and well… it's not good. You better come look!"
"What happened Sirius?" she hissed, standing immediately to follow Sirius into the kitchen at a run.
When she entered the kitchen, Lily had to laugh. James's always messy hair was standing straight up and his face and clothing were lined in black soot. Around him were the remnants of what appeared to be the Evans's toaster.
"What did you do?" Lily asked finally, when she could finally stop her bout of giggling.
James shrugged. "I was trying to make toast," he replied, as if blowing up a toaster was a commonplace event which could happen to anyone.
While Lily coerced Sirius into helping her clean up the kitchen, James made use of Lily's bathroom to clean himself off. Then, reluctant to take part in the cleaning of the kitchen, he took it upon himself to explore Lily's bedroom.
He found the letter straight away. After reading through Brittany's letter and rereading the parts about himself happily he unfolded Lily's reply, intending to make a few revisions.
Dear Brittany,
My summer is going terribly! I cannot imagine anything worse could be happening to you. I miss you so much! You really should have written sooner.
Petunia is being horrible, as usual, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. The nightmare started when James and Sirius crash landed through my living room window, complete with broomsticks and bludgers. They succeeded not only in ruining the living room, but breaking holes through two other walls as well! Petunia's boyfriend Vernon was there at the time, and he and Petunia will not let me forget it.
Worst of all, James is living with his Grandmother, who happens to live next door to me! So the idiot himself has been at my house the entire summer. My mom loves him and makes me clean up after him! He stinks up the bathroom, eats all of our food and even uses my toothbrush! Sirius is also here as well, although he is not quite so bad as James. Still, two Marauders are more annoying than one.
About what you said in your letter, James was not acting heroically. He probably just stumbled on the port key by mistake and mad up all of that stuff about dreams…
Eventually, James got tired of reading the long letter, and crumpled it up in a ball, tossing it into the trash can. He knew it was up to him to write a reply. Lily obviously was in denial about him, James knew that she could not help but be in awe of his amazing good looks and talents.
So, he started on his own version of Lily's letter, adopting his own unique style.
To Brittany Jacobs,
I am very busy or I would write you a longer letter. The reason I am busy is because James Potter suddenly moved in next door. He is so incredibly cool and I wish that I was as cool as him. You should really consider dating him or his friend Sirius. You are right, they are both very brave, but I don't know about romantic, that is a girly thing. Anyway I am so happy to have James in my house that I do not think you should write back to me because I am too busy fantasizing about him. Still, I know he would never stoop to my level. Currently I am off snogging my sister's ugly fat boyfriend Vernon, just to practice for James (even though he is too cool for me).
From Lily Evans
James sighed contentedly, assured that his letter was a great improvement. "Lily will thank me for this someday," he muttered under his breath while sealing the envelope which Lily had already addressed.
Just then, Lily walked in. "What are you doing, James?" she asked in a cold voice.
"Oh, just mailing your letter," James responded smoothly.
Lily grabbed the letter out of his hands, glaring at him suspiciously. She examined the envelope and after noting that it was the one she had addressed, handed it to Lothlorien herself reluctantly.
"Get out of my room!" she shouted, not for the first or last time.
James grinned blowing her a fake kiss and dashed out of the room cheerfully. In James's mind, he had done his share of charity for the week. Revising Lily's letter was really a nice thing to do, or so he told himself.
Later, when he shared the incident with Sirius, James was surprised at Sirius's laughter.
"What?" James asked innocently. "I did do it to help her?"
"James, my man," Sirius grinned, slapping his friend on the back, "You have a strange way of helping."
The next few weeks were not nearly as much fun for James. Sirius's mother had appeared in person in Cornelia's fireplace, and ordered him to come home. James spent most of his time moping around the Evan's house. His grandmother was truly a formidable witch, and he tried his best to avoid her.
Without Sirius, even the prospect of annoying Lily had lost some of it's fun. Finally, left her alone altogether, resigning himself to living under the house of his strict Grandmother.
One day, Lily approached James furiously, having received a very strange reply from Brittany.
Dear Lily,
I don't know if you actually wrote a letter in reply to my last one, but I didn't get it. The reply I got was written as if it was from you, but it obviously wasn't. First clue, you seemed to be praising James. Second clue, it just didn't sound like you. And third, it was most definitely not in your handwriting. Just to check I am going to enclose a copy of the letter I received. Is it true that James is living next door to you? If it is, you might want to check for tampering. Anyway, I instructed my owl to make sure that YOU, and no one else, get this, so write back right away!
Love from Brittany! XOXO
"What is this about?" Lily screeched after shoving the letter towards James. "You re-wrote my letter!"
James shrugged modestly. "Don't thank me, it was just one of my many selfless acts."
Lily stepped forward and gave James a shove. James staggered back and his eyes widened in mock surprise.
"I thought you would be pleased! Your letter was horribly written. I just made some simple corrections," James explained calmly.
"You jerk!" Lily yelled. "I have put up with you in my house for too long. If you come back again I promise that you will be sorry!"
"Sorry that you are such a loser, who can't write letters?" James asked innocently.
Lily let out a frustrated shriek and ran off without further comment, lost for words. She ran down the street until she could calm herself enough to stop her feet. Letting out another scream, Lily took a swing at a brick wall and realized a few moments later that such a move was not really a very good idea.
She screamed again upon impact, this time not out of frustration, but out of pain. Shooting stabs ran up her arm and Lily stared in shock at her mangled fist. She managed to calm herself when she flexed and saw that nothing was broken, though it was badly scraped, and summoned the strength to walk calmly back to her house to bandage her hand.
James was sitting on her couch when she walked in the door. Lily avoided his gaze and tried her best to hide her injured hand from his view. The thought of his ridicule was too much to bear.
Holding her breath, Lily walked past him as subtly as she could. When she made it to the bathroom she gasped in pain, trying to hold back the tears. The bones were not broken, but her entire fist ached horribly and the skin was raw and painful.
James noticed something, he was not stupid, for all that he pretended to be. He waited a few moments, and then went after her, wanting to surprise her. James thought of a good taunt and then threw open the door.
"Gonna make me pay?" he asked cheerfully. "It'll take more than a threat…" James trailed off suddenly, noticing the blood.
James's mouth dropped and before Lily could retort, he was at her side. The transition was automatic, James did not even realize how quickly he reverted to protective mode.
"Lily," he gasped. "What happened?" James put an arm around her shoulder and attempted to examine her hand.
Shivering and looking faintly sick Lily shoved James away violently. "Go away!"
James ignored her and proceeded to rummage through her cabinets until he managed to surface a first aid kit. Lily tried to fight him off, but James forcibly rinsed the blood off of her hand, checked for broken bones and bandaged it.
Lily examined the bandage skeptically. It was more a mass of wadded up bandages with medical tape in random places than anything else, and it looked somewhat awkward. James was obviously not an expert bandager.
"What did you do, anyway?" James asked in a superior voice.
"Nothing," Lily insisted hastily.
"That doesn't look like nothing," James replied in a singsong voice.
"Leave me alone! I said nothing," Lily hissed.
That ended the conversation. Yet later, when Lily's mother rewrapped her wound, Lily was forced to confess the source of her injury. Rebecca Evans was furious.
"I understand that James annoys you Lily, but you must learn to control yourself. This was not his fault, it was your own," Her mother chided, oblivious to her daughter's protests.
For the next few weeks, much to James's disappointment, Lily retreated to her room. No amount of James's pleading could allow Lily's mother to allow him access. Still, James found little ways to annoy her, switching her shampoo with syrup, hiding her various belongings, and snapping pictures of her at every possible moment with a cheap muggle camera and later begging her to autograph them, claiming to be selling photos of the weirdest person on Earth. James did in actuality find buyers, Peter was sending James money by owl in exchange for shots of Lily. The pudgiest marauder seemed to have developed a crush on Lily.
Just when Lily felt she could take it no longer, and James was beginning to get bored of torturing Lily, a letter arrived at for James, from Sirius.
Jamesie-
The annual Black family reunion is taking place next week. I do not know if I can withstand another one alone. Assistance is requested. Of course, my mother cannot know that you plan to come, she would never allow it. You must show up unexpected and at the last moment, together we can revenge ourselves on the fouler aspects of my family. Don't write back, just show up at my house at seven AM on the third of August.
-Sirius Black
