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Chapter 3: Amos Diggory

"POTTER!" Lily yelled, upon entering the practically empty Common Room. "Get down here!"

"Right here," was James' melancholy response from the couch by the fire. He didn't even turn around, but he sounded like he had been crying.

"What's wrong?" Lily was worried. James was a social person who loved food and he had skipped dinner to sit all alone in the Common Room and stare at the fire. She sat down next to him and he turned to her.

"I got an owl. From my parents. There was a Death Eater Attack. My Aunt Mildred, Uncle Fred and their daughter Jezebel are……they're….." James broke out in noisy sobs, tears trickling down from his red puffy eyes.

"They didn't make it," Lily finished. She patted James on the back, forgetting this was her enemy since the boat ride, forgetting what he'd done that day, forgetting everything but an overwhelming sense of sympathy. "Just remember their in a better place now, with out war and anger and hurt. Just cry it all out. It's OK. How close were you?"

"I hadn't seen them for years. My family's on the top of Voldemort's hit list so it's not like we have time to organize family reunions. But it makes everything more real. This war is here and now and people are dying. Sirius I can look after, but my parents. We're here and my parents are Merlin knows where and I can't help them. What if it wasn't Fred it was my dad? What if it wasn't Mildred, it was my mum? I'm scared, I'm so scared."

"Shhh, it's OK to be scared. I'm scared. Hell, I bet even Dumbledore's scared. But we can't live our lives in fear. We've got to fight back. Fighting back for what we believe in. It's the only way to keep going tomorrow."

Suddenly, she felt uncomfortably close to James and started mumbling something about going to bed or getting Remus. James immediately knew what was going on, probably because she had gone bright red. He chuckled

"I promise I'll keep my hands to myself," he stated through the laughter.

"Well it's you," Lily was flustered. "You'd probably hit on someone on your death bed."

James decided that now was a good time to change the subject as he wasn't exactly comfortable with shielded people. "You know Amelia Henrikson," he started.

"Yeah." Lilly answered dubiously.

"Do you think she's interested in Sirius, 'cause he definitely likes her. And I don't mean broom closet likes, I mean proper fancies. He was absolutely furious for a month after Jake Thompson asked her out to Hogsmeade, and he started singing at bizarre moments for a week after he heard they'd broken up. And that's subtle compared to the rest of the obvious hints. Well, only the marauders pick up on them cause we know the real Sirius, not the mask he shows the rest of the world."

Lily was shocked by this. "Why doesn't he just ask her out then?" she asked, completely confused.

"Ah, well Sirius has this weird philosophy. If you ask out girls who you don't care about then you don't care if you get turned down."

Lily, suddenly breathless, asked, "And what do you think?"

James answered without a second thought, like he had wanted to say this for many years now, "well if you put you heart on the line, it should be for someone special."

As he said that, Lily felt that they were close, too close. Like he could read her mind, James suddenly stood up, "Well I'm gonna get to bed before the guys get back from dinner, I'm not sure if I could face them yet." He took of to the stairs but stopped, inches from the first crimson, carpeted step. "Oh, and by the way," he started. "It was me who turned Amos into a canary. Thought it would match his robes see." At this he ran as fast as his legs could carry him to his dormitory.

Lily considered chasing after him, but decided against it. Just this once.

AN: Thanks to Yingfa Dreamer, BlondeGinny05, ashbaer, FyAnnwn, just another harry potter fan, King for a day Princess by dawn and QueenCate for their story alerts, favourites and reviews. I'm about to start a new fic, The Ball, and another, Catherine Smith, but I'll make sure I still try and update regularly.