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.
"You look great, Lily," Remus said. "That's what James is trying to say."
"This is so embarrassing, Alexa," Lily said, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring pointedly at Alexa, who smiled innocently at her friend before turning to hug Sirius. Lily hugged herself in the hopes of covering some of her exposed skin.
"So, this is the Lily Evans I've been hearing so much about," said a tall man with black hair and pale blue eyes, who was standing by a barbeque grill near the spot where Lily, Ruby, Alexa, James, Remus and Sirius were all standing.
"Lily, Remus, James, Sirius, this is my dad," Alexa said proudly, releasing Sirius. "Daddy, that's Remus Lupin---"she pointed to Remus---"and that's James Potter---"she indicated James---"this of course is Sirius Black, my boyfriend---"she gave Sirius's hand a squeeze, smiling at him---"and last but not least, the one who is trying to hide behind Ruby is my best friend and Ben's obsession, Lily Evans."
"I am not trying to hide behind Ruby," protested the redhead hotly. Alexa waved her hand dismissively, and Mr. Peters laughed.
"Well, you certainly have an interesting choice in friends, Lexi," chortled her father. He turned back to the barbeque grill. "I'm just about ready to start lunch. You teenagers hungry?"
"Yes!" said Sirius happily, rubbing his stomach. Everyone else laughed.
"You're always hungry, Padfoot." Remus rolled his eyes good-naturedly. He wiped his forehead. "Wow, it's hot out here, isn't it?"
Ruby nodded her head in agreement. "It sure is. I'm just glad it's not raining yet. You know, I think England is one of the rainiest country in the world."
"Ruby grew up in America," Alexa explained. "She still hasn't really gotten used to all the rain here." She smiled fondly at her cousin. "She's my dad's niece, you see. Her mum is my dad's sister, my aunt. She's also Muggle born," she added proudly.
"Really?" said Lily interestedly. "I am too, Ruby. Are you going to be going to Hogwarts then?"
Ruby nodded. "I am. I'm really excited about going. Lexi's told me so much about Hogwarts, and it sounds really great." She smiled brightly at everyone.
"Well, since you girls are so hot---"Remus grinned at James and Sirius, who nodded back at him, smirking.
"Don't you dare---"warned Alexa, but was too late; Sirius, James and Remus pushed Alexa, Lily and Ruby off the dock and into the lake. "You boys are impossible!" Alexa exclaimed loudly once she'd come back to the surface.
Lily surfaced and turned toward the other girls, a mischievous glint in her eyes. The others grinned and went under water, Lily quick to follow them. The boys were still laughing it up when hands wrapped around their ankles and yanked them into the lake.
"You know what they say, boys," said Ruby when the boys surfaced.
"What goes around, comes around," Lily and Alexa chimed in together. They burst into laughter at the sight of the guys' faces.
James was momentarily motionless (well, as motionless as one can be while swimming) as he watched Lily laugh. It was the first time he had seen her truly happy in literally weeks. He could feel a smile forming on his face when she looked at him; happiness about being with her friends made her eyes sparkle with life, like they used to.
He was pulled out of this dream-like trance those dazzling green eyes had put him in when Sirius's weight on his shoulders made him go under water. He came back up spluttering and coughing but laughing nevertheless.
"You've got to start paying attention," Alexa mocked James; she sounded almost exactly like Professor McGonagall did when she caught James sleeping in her class. Lily giggled at Alexa's impression of Professor McGonagall. Ruby smiled, obviously not understanding what was going on, but smiled all the same.
"Sorry, Ruby," Alexa giggled, "you'd understand if you knew who Professor McGonagall is. She's a professor at Hogwarts, our Transfiguration teacher and Head-of-House."
"Oh, that's okay." Ruby smiled at her cousin. She felt movement beneath her feet, but didn't think anything of it; after all, there were five other people with her in the lake that weren't all that far away.
She wasn't the only one who felt movement beneath her feet; in fact all of the teens felt it, but like Ruby, they didn't think anything of it. At least they didn't think much of it until Alexa squealed and grabbed onto Sirius's arm. They all turned to her, startled at her sudden movement.
"Something touched my foot," she said unsteadily, shaking her head and gazing beneath the glassy-looking surface of the lake.
"Maybe it was just one of us, or maybe a fish," Ruby told her cousin reasonably. "There are fish in here, right?"
"Yeah, but it didn't feel like a fish," Alexa replied doubtfully. "It felt like someone's hand or something. And do you really think it was one of us? It just doesn't make any sense." She shook her head again.
"Maybe it was Ben," suggested James. "You know him, always trying to freak you out, Alexa, especially when your friends are over."
"You're probably right, James," she said, but she still didn't let go of Sirius's arm. "Ben is such a jerk sometimes, and since Lily's around, he probably wants to impress her."
"What is---?" James began heatedly, only to be interrupted by Lily's yelp of panic as she was pulled under the lake's surface.
"Okay, Ben, this isn't funny anymore," Alexa said loudly, as Lily struggled to bring herself up to the surface.
"Now what did I do?" Their heads all snapped to the dock, where Ben was sitting cross-legged, watching them. "You can't always blame everything on me, James!" He glared at James pointedly. "I'm up here! I couldn't have touched Alexa's foot!"
Lily broke the surface with a violent splash and took a gulp of oxygen. "Help!" she managed to scream before something pulled her back under. She tried to grab onto anything---anyone---that could help her, but she was being pulled rapidly down toward the bottom of the lake and away from anyone who could possibly help her.
But someone grabbed her outstretched hand and attempted to yank her back, tried to save her. She held onto their hand tightly and tried to swim toward them, but whatever had a hold of her ankle only tightened their grip and yanked her back down. She swam harder, harder, kicking her legs violently against her attacker. She thought she caught him in the head, because she was suddenly released from the death grip, but only for a moment.
Her mouth opened in a silent scream when the attacker grasped her ankle and again tried to pull her to her watery grave; and to make things worse, her fingers were slipping out of her savior's. She was getting dizzy from lack of oxygen; water was filling her lungs and pushing out the oxygen.
When James finally surfaced, he was holding the limp, bluish body of Lily.
Me: Sorry about taking so long to update, but school has started and all, so I haven't had the chance to work on any of my stories, really, but I finally finished this one, so that's good. Review!!