The door slammed as Lily got out and scanned the area around her. For what seemed like miles, there was endless countryside. "This isn't funny, Lee!" She shouted.
James watched the woman in silence through the safety of the windshield. She looked to be talking, well, shouting, he could hear what she saying, but there was no one around.
"Figures I'd get stuck with a crazy lady," James muttered getting out of the car, too.
"Where the hell are we? This isn't the right place."
"I thought –" James began but never finished as Lily cut him off, apparently talking to herself.
"How can this be the right place? There were houses, and cars, and streets and children playing. This isn't right."
"What are you –" Again James was cut off.
"No, I've had enough!" She stormed back to the car, bumping past James but not actually registering it as she did. She opened the door of the driver's side and grabbed something off the dashboard. "Tell me what's going on!"
"I don't…" James trailed off as he realised what she was holding. Suddenly he knew she wasn't talking to him because, though he didn't know the actual details, he knew what was happening. "Don't!" He warned her.
Whether it was the volume or the urgency in his voice that got her attention, James wasn't sure but Lily turned to look at him.
- - - -
"Where the hell are we? This isn't the right place." Lily sounded a mixture of things, tired, frustrated, scared but mostly she just sounded angry.
"Yes, it is." Lee countered her complaint.
"How can this be the right place? There were houses, and cars, and streets and children playing. This isn't right."
"Lily, trust me –""No, I've had enough!" Lily cried, storming to the car to get the Defero Orb. "Tell me what's going on!"
There came no response from Lee, which angered Lily more. She held her arm out, getting ready to let the Orb go.
"Don't!" She heard James cry urgently, she turned to face him angrily.
- - - -
"Where the hell are we? This isn't the right place." Lily's rather annoyed voice came through his glass walls and he was, for once, glad it protected him from any physical attack because the words were scathing enough.
"Yes, it is." Lee replied calmly, trying to placate the irate woman he was connected to.
"How can this be the right place? There were houses, and cars, and streets and children playing. This isn't right."
"Make her be quiet," the same cold voice from before demanded. "She's going to get the boy involved in soon. They can't know what's happening."
Lee scowled at the voice but spoke to Lily. "Lily, trust me –"
She cut him off. "No, I've had enough!" He didn't realise she was moving until her clamped around his glass cage. "Tell me what's going on!"
"Do something!" The voice hissed to Lee.
Between the cries of his superior and trying to think of a way to calm Lily down he couldn't speak. That's when he felt the Orb shake.
"She's going to drop it! She can't or this whole thing will be ruined. Do something!"
Lee tried to think of something to say, something to do but his mind went blank at the thought of what was about to happen. Then he heard another voice, a voice that shouldn't have been able to get through the glass.
"Don't!" He looked through the glass to see it was James who had spoken and, though he was grateful of the attempt at soothing the redhead, he didn't think it would have much effect. That is until Lily spoke.
- - - -
"What?" Lily frowned at James. Her main thought was that he didn't know what was going on, why should she listen to him?
"That's a Defero Orb, right? And you were about to drop it? You can't."
"What would you know?" She spat at him viciously. So much had happened over the past couple of days and she had only just re-met this man before her, why should she listen to him?
"I know that if that smashes you're going to wish you'd never even heard of magic."
Lily looked at him sceptically.
"You don't believe me?" James guessed rightly. "Okay then, you remember when you first cast the spell, what happened?"
Lily only had to think of putting the Orb on the floor that night and the whole scene came back to her. "There was a mist…it was horrible, suffocating…"
"That's it?" James asked, he sounded surprised.
Lily immediately went on the offensive. "Yeah, why wouldn't it be?"
"Defero Orb's are dangerous for the most experienced magic users, seven out of ten end up dead. You said yourself you haven't used magic in a while…All you got was mist?"
"Yes." Lily said with a hint of finality in her voice.
James would have left it there but Lily carried on despite her tone.
"What would happen? If I dropped it, I mean."
James studied her closely then shrugged. "Maybe nothing, I mean, if mist is all you got then that's probably all that would happen again but often three of those seven die because the glass smashes."
"But the chances of just mist…" Lily trailed off, shivering at just the thought of the mist.
"Yeah," James agreed solemnly.
Lily let out a sigh and, after one last look at it, pocketed the Orb. "I just don't understand."
"Understand what?" James asked her but she shook her head. "Lily, come on, enough is enough. Tell me what's going on."
"It's none of your busi –"
"I think we've passed the point where that matters," James interrupted her calmly but sternly. "You ran me over, you've seen things most women don't usually get to see until a third date," James saw the disbelieving look on Lily's face and felt a little hurt by it. "What, you think you're the only one who's changed since Hogwarts? Anyway, like I was saying, you caused me extraordinary pain and innumerable injuries and then I was dragged along on this trip of yours. We're long past that point."
Lily stared at James in shock for a moment and then, very slowly, a wry smile formed on her face. "You might be right. Get in the car, it's warmer."
James and Lily both got into the car and an unnatural silence descended on them. Both were waiting for the other to speak.
"Well?" They both asked at the same time. James was waiting for Lily to talk; Lily was waiting for him to ask the questions. The silence came again; this time Lily was the only one to break it.
"Ask your questions then," she said in a rather resigned tone.
James thought about it for a moment and then, "What's this all about?"
"I can't tell you a lot, just what I know, which isn't all that much. A month ago I had this dream and a guy got ran over before I could help him. For the next few weeks I was, shall we say haunted, by this man, each time he asked for my help. Eventually I got sick of it, went to Diagon Alley, bought the Orb, did the spell. The man appeared, Lee, he's called and he told me some sob story about his wife needing help and he gave me directions to get…Here. Except this isn't the place I saw in the dream."
James was silent as he processed all this information. "No," he said eventually.
"No?" Lily looked at him like he was crazy.
"That's not it."
"Yes, it is."
"No…Lily, what happened when you left Hogwarts? Why did you leave magic behind?"
"That's none of your business."
"You want me to start the rant again? Because I have other things to add now."
"Oh, yeah? Like what?"
"Like the fact that you were the brightest, smartest witch in Hogwarts with a strong possibility to be successful in whatever you chose to do. You could have gone far and then you dropped magic altogether. What happened?"
Lily looked through the front window stonily, refusing to talk. Her arms folded across her chest she glared at James until words started falling from her lips.
"I couldn't save them."
"Who?" James questioned gently.
"My parents. We were at home, it was late. We weren't meant to be there, we should have gone out to some benefit of my dad's but I wasn't feeling well so they stayed at home to look after me. Someone broke into the house, my dad tried to stop them but he got…and then my mum…I couldn't do anything to help them. They lay bleeding, dying on the floor and I couldn't help them. I threw so many curses at the guy; he was lucky the Ministry got there. And then there were paramedics and they took them to the hospital but they never made it. My parents died because I had a cold and I couldn't do a thing to save them."
Tears were streaming down her cheeks, her eyes were getting puffy but Lily didn't care, neither did James as he wrapped his arms around Lily and hugged her tightly to her chest. Her body racked with sobs and still he held her until the tears stopped and the shuddering subsided and then he let her pull away but held onto her shoulders, forcing her to look at him.
"It wasn't your fault, you know? You know magic can't save muggle-caused injuries. There was nothing you could do."
"But I could…What?"
"What?"
"Magic can't save muggle-caused injuries?"
"Well, cuts and scratches, sure. Not serious ones."
"But I've seen it work."
"No, you haven't," James answered softly. "You've seen magic-coated muggle-like injuries be healed. I thought everyone knew that."
"I don't…I did. I don't know. I was so upset, I gave up."
James nodded. "Well that's understandable, and that's your problem. Lily, what do you actually know about Defero Orbs?"
"They can house the spirits of the dead, joining them with the spell caster."
"That's it?"
"Well, that and they're really dangerous."
James nodded. "You really have been away a long time. The old Lily Evans would have studied about seventy different sources before she even considered using one."
Lily gave a short laugh. "The old Lily Evans? How would you know? You were too busy checking out your appearance at every available opportunity."
"I saw more than you think," James said cryptically. "But it seems the old Lily died the minute she got beautiful. Not that there's anything wrong with that, a lot of girls are just pure beauty…"
"How dare you!" She cried at him, her emerald eyes flashing with anger. "I have more brains than most of our year put together. Just because I haven't used magic in a while and have tried to stay away doesn't mean I don't still know things. I'm still the same."
"Yep, there she is," James commented with a sly grin. "You gave up a little on the academics though, didn't you?"
"No," Lily answered, ignoring the smug smile that had now appeared on his face. "I still do that, you can't change the habit of a lifetime. The only reason I didn't to get the Orb was because I was in a rush. So, what didn't I find out?"
"Alright, well, first, the spirits that are susceptible to the Orb are often bad spirits. Trapped on Earth for sins committed during life they haunt the living until they can do nothing but turn to the Defero Orb for a way out. Most people die trying to get the spell to work, others find that the persistence of the spirit increases once they've been connected and become so overworked that they die, too. Others try smashing the Orb, very few come out unharmed. Most need to be treated in hospital for burns or smoke inhalation, something like that. No good can come from using the Orb, the person who sold it to you should have warned you."
"She tried," Lily said quietly. "So did Dave."
"You should have listened," James pointed out obviously, earning a glare from Lily.
"Stop being obvious and help me. How am I going to get out of this?"
James looked to be considering her question, that is until he shrugged. "How am I supposed to know? I'm just here to give you information."
Lily looked at him in despair. "Please!"
"I'm sorry, I don't know."
Lily nodded solemnly. "Okay, my turn then."
"Your turn?"
"Yeah, you think you're the only one who gets to ask questions?" Lily gave him a small smile, which he returned wholeheartedly. "Okay, so first I want to know what happened that night."
"I don't remember," James answered mechanically.
"Liar," Lily returned in a similar way.
"What? I don't!"
"Yeah, you do. You might not remember but you know what happened. Even if you don't want to."
"You mean like repressed memories?" James asked, getting a nod off Lily in response. He considered this for a moment before thinking there might be some truth to that. "It's possible but they're repressed for a reason, aren't they?"
"Maybe," Lily said thoughtfully. "Alright, another question. If you don't let people see 'that much' until the third date what were you doing with that woman the first night you met her?"
James was silent, that was a good question. "I don't know, she was so beautiful and I did say 'usually'," he pointed out. "But I really don't know. There was something about her…And I made a bet with the guys…" Lily let out a disgusted tut at this declaration. "Yeah, like you're so perfect," James rolled his eyes at her.
"No," Lily answered. "But I wouldn't sleep with someone for a bet!"
"She knew all about it," James said in his defence.
"That really doesn't make it better," Lily answered in disgust. After a moment's silence where James considered Lily's words, Lily spoke again. "Are you sure she wasn't faking it? Trying to get attention."
"She wouldn't do that," James said certainly.
"How do you know? You only just met her."
"I know, but like I said, there was something…It made me trust her like I would with no one else."
"And that in itself didn't make you suspicious?"
"No, why would it?"
"I don't know but something happened and I don't believe it was you who did it. In the, what, three weeks since it happened she's had how many interviews with the press. Think about it James, it's not like you'd be the only person to have been duped by a beautiful woman."
"Month," was all James said.
"What?" Lily asked with a frown.
"It wasn't three weeks. It happened a month ago. Four weeks tomorrow."
"You're kidding me?"
"No."
"You're kidding me?" Lily repeated. "You've got to be kidding!"
A/N: My brother likes messing 'round and changing my stuff, I think I've caught all of them but if there's anything in here about James or Harry being gay, somebody farting and/or burping or Lily being ginger ignore it because the boy's an idiot! Also, just to show you how weird he is, this is what he's just written:
All of a sudden, out of nowhere, Kim appeared and scared them both so much they imploded and turned into Daniel Dae Kim and then Hurley ran in and they became the island beast and ate everyone. The end.
Like I said; idiot! (And for future reference it's now been dubbed the 'Hurley-Dae-Kim' beast.
Review me, whether you liked it or not. Bye!