Disclaimer:  I do not own any characters, places, magic or anything to do with the world of Harry Potter that you recognise.

Not My Parents (Chapter 7)

Why have they turned against me?

Why do I get the blame?

Why do they treat me like I'm different,

Even though I'm the same?

Why didn't they tell me?

Why did they hide it all along?

Why don't they find out the facts before accusing me -

It's obvious they're wrong.

Lily cried into James, who comforted her the best her could, and tried to get her to talk about things so that she got everything out.  After he while he realised that Lily wasn't telling him everything and, after reflecting how distant Lily had seemed in the past months, he ventured to ask her if anything else was wrong.

"Is there –" James hesitated slightly as Lily tilted her head slightly so that her tear filled green eyes gently looked up at his own.  "Is there anything else?"

The tears pooled in Lily's eyes spilled over once more and fell onto James' jumper.  She wanted to talk, to tell James, and managed to find the strength from somewhere after a few minutes.

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FLASHBACK!

The rain had fallen and Lily had been soaked to the skin.  As Lily stepped through the front door of her house, her parents confronted her.  Their voices still echoed in her brain.

"Did you know?"  Her mother's tear-stained face told her that her parents already knew.  She could see their pain in their facial expressions and their evident distress.  Her father was not crying, he seemed numb to all emotion.  He tried to block things that grieved him, and often became angry and inconsiderate towards other people's feelings instead.  In the stress of the intense emotion that he felt, he often acted rashly, and blamed people for things without any proof or compassion.

"Why Jack, Lily, why Jack?"  Lily could think of no reply to her father's questions, and remained silent.

"Why did you have to get involved with all the magic stuff?"

Lily tried to defend herself – she didn't support Voldemort and she certainly wasn't a Death Eater.  She was blameless.

"I'm not – they just kill muggles, it wasn't because he was related to me.  They're not –"

Her father took no notice of her attempted explanation, and his temper took such a form that he wouldn't have stopped his accusations even if he had listened.  "I wish you'd never got involved – he'd probably still be here."

Lily couldn't believe what she was hearing.  Her mother just cried – she didn't blame Lily; she knew that her husband would regret his actions later on.  Lily stood frozen to the spot, not wanting to stay in her so called home any longer.  Her parents had always said that they were proud of her being a witch.  She knew her father well enough to know that he probably didn't mean his words, but it didn't lessen their effect.  They stung on impact and imprinted in her mind.  How could her own father hate her so much?

The words that rendered the situation unrecoverable were, of course, spat out by the one and only Petunia.

"Face it Lily.  It's like I told you all along.  You're a freak."

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"My parents blamed me – well, at least my dad did.  He said it was my fault because I was a witch.  It's like they've been lying to me for nearly six years."

James stared at the top of Lily's head.  "Are you sure it wasn't because he was upset?"

"No, I think it probably was because he was upset.  He's usually like that when he's upset – he blames someone and regrets it later on."

"Have you talked to him since?"

"No – he tried, but I didn't want to hear it.  Maybe it didn't mean what he said, but it still hurt.  I needed him and he let me down.  It made me feel really low, like I had no one.  Jack was gone, Petunia hates me anyway, my Dad seemed not to care and my Mum – I don't know, she was upset herself.  I don't like crying, especially in front of other people."

James looked down at Lily's tear stained face and couldn't help but chuckle at the last statement.  Lily got caught up in his chuckle and smiled lightly. 

"You've got loads of friends who care about you Lily, me included."

"Yeah, I know, I just feel lonely sometimes because I don't like telling people stuff."

"Maybe you should listen to what your dad has to say now you've got some of it out."

"Maybe."

They sat in companionable silence while Lily thought about her dad and whether she could face him now that she'd talked to someone else and accepted Jack's death.  She'd never forget Jack, but she knew that her dad probably regretted his words and that they'd be weighing on his mind. 

James' kindness towards her made Lily further realise the nature of his character.  He hadn't taken a look at Lily in tears and backed away, or fetched one of her friends.  He had cared about her and had done everything in his power to comfort Lily.  This event, grievous though it had been, had finally made Lily see James in an entirely different light.  James had given her a shoulder - or rather a chest - to cry on.

Meanwhile, just outside the Great Hall……………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Ari was wholly embarrassed that Sirius had found out.  She blushed a bright shade of scarlet and after being temporarily frozen to the spot, her legs took over and she ran in the opposite direction as fast as possible.

Sirius calmly looked around for any spectators before touching a certain brick in the wall and disappearing through the opening that appeared.  He stepped out on one of the corridors on the way up to the Gryffindor common room and awaited Ari.  Sure enough, a few minutes later, Ari came running down the corridor.  Sirius stood in the middle so that she couldn't pass.   Ari wasn't looking where she was running and consequently ran full pelt into Sirius.  The force of Ari's running knocked them to the floor, putting Ari in a very embarrassing position. 

Ari hastened to get up, mumbled a 'sorry' and tried to walk towards to Gryffindor tower. 

"Not so fast."  Sirius somehow managed to stand up in the speed of lightning and get in the way.

"Sirius – I don't want to talk about it, okay?"

"You promised not to run."

"So?"

"So, I need to tell you something important."

"Important?"

"Um, look Ari – I don't know why you're so embarrassed about it.  What your dad did isn't your fault."

Ari narrowed her eyes at him.  "He was someone's secret keeper and he was too cowardly to keep it for them.  A whole family died because of him.  I'm ashamed of him, I thought I knew him."

"Nobody will blame you – sure, the Slytherins might like you more than before-" Ari smiled slightly, but couldn't muster a laugh.

"But, seriously, nobody will blame you." 

Ari felt a little bit better – she still didn't really like the idea of everybody knowing, as it was none of their business anyway, but Sirius' view of things made the situation less awkward.  It would probably be out in the papers soon enough anyway. 

"Was the other rumour true?"  Sirius sounded hopeful; although it was likely to be something that Helena had made up to annoy Andy (and Ari).

Ari raised her eyebrows.  "You have to be joking.  I don't fancy you in the slightest."  Maybe she was lying a little bit there.  On seeing Sirius' crestfallen look, she added "Sorry." 

She remembered something.

"What the hell does S.A mean?"

Sirius grinned at his own ingeniousness and went back to his usual, less serious self.  "Do you really want to know?"

"Yup."

"You sure?"

"Yup."

"Two sures?"

"Tell me now, Sirius Lee Black, before I seriously damage a certain part of your body and render you void of all normal manly functions."

Sirius cringed.  "Short."

"And the A?"

"Arse." 

As Sirius said the last word, he trusted his natural instincts and set off running in the opposite direction.  Ari followed in close pursuit and they eventually reached the common room.  Ari caught up as Sirius had to wait for the portrait to swing open before he could enter.  Ari pushed him to the floor, but he grabbed hold of her as she did so and they both fell to the floor.  Their fellow Gryffindors watched in amusement as they rolled across the common room floor.  They cheered as Ari finally managed to pin Sirius down and made him apologise sufficiently before she let him go. 

Ari didn't get a chance to apologise to Lily until the next day, which happened to be the last day before the Christmas holidays.  Lily's eyes were puffy and red from crying, making Ari instantly feel guiltier.

"Lily, I'm really sorry about yesterday."

Lily didn't say anything.

"I only told you, so I thought that it must've been you, but you were right – someone overheard.  Helena admitted that it was her."

Sirius decided to give his input (Lily was sitting with the Marauders), even though Ari glared at him for joining the conversation.

"Probably because Andy found out and got her to apologise, and she probably did it because she was jealous about Andy wanting to go out with Ari again."

"Anyway, I'm really sorry I didn't believe you Lily.  I don't want to be fighting over Christmas."

Lily laughed, a genuine laugh, which lit up her whole face.  "It's alright.  I actually got some stuff out because of it.  As to the fighting over Christmas – well, James told me that Sirius is staying, so you may be fighting quite frequently over Christmas."

Ari hugged Lily and grinned at James. 

A/N: Before anything else, I have to mention that S.A is a term used by my me and my dad for my sister, who is shorter than us (even though she's 2 years older than me!).  She was mean to me today when I felt ill, so I thought I'd mention that!:o)  Haha – 'James stared at the top of Lily's head' – that cracked me up for some reason.

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