Friendship Has Its Limits

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, apart from Alexa and anyone else you might not recognize. The characters that you do recognize from the Harry Potter books all belong to the brilliant imagination of J. K. Rowling. Okay, I'm done now.

Forward Note: Stick around till the end of the chapter, because I will be answering the comments of the reviewers (possibly even your comment or question). Okay, now, on with Friendship Has Its Limits.

Lily jolted into a sitting position, startled awake by a loud sound of something hitting her window. She got out of bed, went over to her window, but before she could open it, another noise sounded, as something met the window. Swallowing her fear temporarily, she opened her window and peered cautiously down toward the ground. Then she ducked back inside her room, a pebble nearly missing her head.

Looking below her again, Lily nearly lost her self-reserve and cursed a very naughty word. "James! What on earth are you doing here at this time of night?" she hissed. She looked at her wristwatch. "It is 3:08 AM, James Potter!"

Before he could respond, Lily shut her window and raced as softly as she could (it wouldn't do if her dad and Veronica---or worse, Petunia---woke up to the sounds of a boy calling on her at this cursed hour of the morning) down the carpeted stairs. She yanked open the front door and stepped out onto the porch, gently closing the door behind her.

"What are you doing here?" she repeated, stomping over to where James Potter stood, his hands in his jacket pockets. She kind of wished that she'd have thought to bring her jacket with her.

James raised an eyebrow at her, and then shrugged. Suddenly feeling self-conscious about her appearance, Lily raked her fingers through her hair. "I just wanted to make sure that you were okay," he said finally.

Lily rolled her eyes at him. "At three o'clock in the morning? Don't be daft, Potter. And do not make the mistake of thinking that I am, either." She crossed her arms over her chest.

"What? I never said---"he began to protest, but much to his annoyance, Lily cut him off, waving her hand in his face angrily.

"Never what, James? Never thought about my feelings?" she hissed, speaking about their past conversation at his house. "I told you not to bring it up! But you never listen to me! Just---just give it up already! You will never know everything about me, and I will never let you just pick at my feelings until I break. I don't know why you came here tonight---"

"I was worried about you!" he said, starting to loose his seemingly never-ending patience with her now. "Aren't I allowed to be worried about my friends? I know you've got something on your mind that bothering you---"

"I'm not telling you---"

"And I know that you aren't ready to tell me about it yet, but I'm worried about you, Lily," he finished, trying to ignore her interruption. "I'm not trying to intrude on your life, honestly, I'm not. I just want to know what's wrong with you."

A gust of wind blew Lily's red hair out of her face, causing her to shiver and get goose bumps all over her skin. She hugged herself, as if she could shelter herself from a lot more than the wind. "I'm not ready to talk about it," she told him softly. "Not yet, anyway."

James nodded understandingly. "When you're ready to talk, I'm here for you." Smiling a little, he added, "I just hope it won't take you six years to talk about it again."

She smiled and even laughed a little, but then shivered again. James took off his jacket and helped her into it. She snuggled into it; it was still warm from his body heat. She smiled up at him, and he smiled back, and once again she was aware of how weird she probably looked. The jacket was huge on her, as James was quite a bit taller than she was; it came down to her knees, covering up her outfit entirely, so it looked as if she were only wearing his coat and nothing else.

Unknowing, the two teenagers had been getting closer to each other. We're going to kiss again, Lily thought, but this thought didn't make her pull back. However, just as their lips were almost touching, the porch light turned on, and the door opened, revealing Veronica. Lily jumped back quickly, causing a large gap to form between her and James.

"Lily? Is that you out there? Who's that with you?" Veronica began rapidly shooting out questions. "Do you have any idea what time it is? What are you doing out here? You aren't hurt, are you?"

Lily bit her lip and shot James an apologetic glance before saying, "Don't worry, Veronica, I'll be right inside. Just give me a second, all right? Thanks." She waited until the front door closed again before turning back to James. "I'm really sorry about that."

"Veronica?" His eyes were questioning but not demanding.

She winced. "Yeah. She's my step mum. She and Dad dated for a year, back when I was in fourth year. And then they got married. They've been married for almost three years now."

They stood there awkwardly for a long, agonizing few moments before James finally leaned down and kissed her cheek gently. "I guess I'll see you around then." He turned to leave, but then stopped and looked back. "Oh, and Lily?" When she looked back at him, he said quietly, "Always know that I'm here for you, no matter what time of the day or night, I promise."

"Thanks, James. Goodnight."

Lily stared after his retreating form, wishing that she would just call after him and tell him everything. But she was too much of a coward to do that. Instead she buried her face in his jacket and breathed in the scent of him for a long time before Veronica finally called her back inside.

Author's Note: Sorry about the short chapter. I just thought it was a good place to stop it for the time being. If you don't want to read the comments, just review! Please? Okay, now for answered comments:

Laynie: Just out of curiosity, how do you figure that Lucius was way older than Lils and James? I can't remember if J.K.R. ever said anything about that in the books...By the way, I didn't even know that my separators (for when I change scenes) weren't showing up! I'm sure that would get confusing. I'll try and make them show up. ;) Thanks for letting me know.

Lady of Masbolle: Yeah, Lily was going to have a little brother named Harry, but he died when Mrs. Evans died, trying to give birth to him. But technically, Harry was not really alive, because of the magical cancer. Make sense?

Hermione Elizabeth Granger: I'm glad it isn't too dramatic. You'll find out who murdered Lily's mum sometime later in the fic, I promise. You really didn't think that I'd never add that in, do you? Lol.

Moonsong k'Shallia: Yes, it's true that James needs to work on his people skills, but he's a funny character to mess with, no? He really doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut, does he? Hopefully he'll learn eventually.

Refallen: I'm glad you liked chapter four, and I'm glad that you saw what I was aiming to show in that chapter. I'm sorry that I don't update a whole lot, but I think I've been doing pretty good so far, don't you?

Thanks also to everyone else who reviewed so far: Malibu, ebony-plays-the-viola, trashcan522, SessyLover. Slydawn, and BohemianRaps767. Please keep reviewing!