Friendship Has Its Limits

Disclaimer: I own nothing, other than the characters you don't recognize from the Harry Potter series, OK? Those things happen to belong to J.K. Rowling, and as far as I know, my name isn't J.K. Rowling, so therefore I must not own them.

"What are we going to do?" Alexa asked as soon as James had Lily's limp body down on the dock. "Is she breathing James?"

He shook his head, trying not to panic. "I don't think so. We need to do mouth-to-mouth, but who's going to do it?" Everyone looked around at each other. "Doesn't any one know it?"

"I'm going to go get Dad, Lexi," Ben said, getting out of the lake. "He might know what to do, right? I'll hurry back, promise." He ran off toward the house as fast as his legs would take him.

"I think you should do it, Prongs," said Remus. "I mean, Lily is almost technically your girlfriend, even though she keeps denying it."

"I would if I knew CPR, but I don't," James replied, starting to panic a little. "Are you sure no one knows how to do it?"

"I do," said Ruby. "My mom made me go to a class to learn it when I was fourteen." She hoisted herself out of the water and over to where Lily lay. But before she could actually do anything, Mr. Peters was at her side. Ben was standing a little farther back from his father.

"Let me try something I leaned at summer camp when I was your age," Mr. Peters said, turning Lily onto her side. Carefully, he opened her mouth and began to pay her back, rather hard. After about a moment of this, the redhead started to cough up water. Mr. Peters helped her sit up after she had coughed up most of the water in her lungs.

Her eyes open as she took a huge gulp of air. The slight blue tint of her skin caused by lack of oxygen started dissipating, until soon enough her was back to her normally pale skin tone, except for her lips, which were still blue. She tried not to shiver from the cold but didn't do very well.

"What in the world was that thing?" she asked breathlessly, taking in as much air as her lungs would allow. "And what made it go for me in the first place? Why not someone else?"

"Perhaps it was only random," suggested Ruby, watching Lily closely. "Maybe whatever it was just happened to grab you by coincidence."

Lily looked at her new friend doubtfully. She honestly couldn't think that she hadn't been the one that thing had chosen to drown for a reason. It probably had something to do with finding out about her mother's magically caused death.

"I don't really care what that was or why it tried to drown you at the moment," said James, going over to the shivering Lily. "We need to get some clothes on you before you get hypothermia or something." He helped her up off the ground and supported her body weight by making her lean on him.

"Oh, James relax, please," Lily said, trying unsuccessfully to push James away from her as he lead her back toward the Peters' home. "I'm fine, I promise I won't die on you now."

But James stubbornly refused to release Lily from his grip until they were all the way back to the house and inside. Once she had changed back into her dry clothing Lily went back downstairs to announce that she should probably get back to her house before her dad started to worry or something.

"Would you like a ride home, dear?" Mrs. Peters asked Lily kindly. "It's an awfully long walk back to your house."

"You really don't have to, Mrs. Peters," said Lily genuinely. "I could always walk. It really isn't that far, and I could always use the exercise." She offered a small smile for Alexa's mother.

"Nonsense," said Mrs. Peters, wiping her wet hands on her apron. She had been washing dishes, but she stopped in order to speak with Lily. She apparently wasn't going to take no for an answer. "I was going to take James home anyway. Come on, dear."

Lily said goodbye to her friends, and told Alexa she'd call her later to talk. Together she, James and Mrs. Peters left the house. Lily was dropped off first, since James lived further away from the Peters' house than Lily did. She stood in the front lawn and watched the car until it turned around a corner. Then she went inside her house.

Her father and Veronica were in the front room, sitting next to each other on the couch. Mr. Evans had Veronica's hands cupped in both of his, looking pale. Veronica was looking rather pleased, though also pale. She looked up as Lily walked in.

"Oh Lily," she said happily, grinning up at her step daughter, "just wait until you hear the good news."

"What good news?" Lily asked, smiling a little. Veronica's enthusiasm was contagious.

"I'm pregnant!"

"What?" All Lily could do was stare stupidly at Veronica. Her words couldn't seem to register in Lily's mind. It was like her brain had suddenly gone numb.

"Isn't it fabulous? We just got the results from the doctor," Veronica continued, oblivious to Lily's lack of reaction. "I'm four weeks along. Oh, this is wonderful, isn't it dear?"

Mr. Evans looked up finally, and did the thing that finally woke his daughter up. He looked right at her, and smiled. He was happy that Veronica was pregnant. It was like he had completely forgotten what had happened almost five years ago to Lily's real mother. Something snapped into place in her mind finally. Veronica was pregnant, with her father's baby.

"How could you do this?" she asked, her voice barely even a whisper. She stared directly at her father. "Why would you do this to me?" Veronica watched Lily with a look of shock on her face. Her father's smiled faded. "Did you forget what happened to Mum? What were you thinking?"

"Angel, of course I haven't forgotten about Mum," her father said, his expression and voice pained.

"Then why would you do this?" she cried. "Why would make me go through everything all over again? I can't do it again, Dad, I can't. I can't watch history repeat itself. You can't ask that of me! I'm seventeen! How could you?" Her voice caught in her throat, and she tried to hold back the tears that pushed behind her eyes.

"Lily, you aren't being fair---"

"Fair?" she shouted back, interrupting him. "I'm not being fair? What about you? How is getting her---" she pointed to Veronica---"pregnant being fair to any of us? Mum died when she was pregnant, and so did the baby, if I have to remind you. For nine months I watched my mother die, and now I might have to go through it all over again, because I'm not being fair!"

Lily ran to the door, wrenched it open, and slammed it shut behind her. How could he do this to her, to her mum? He acted as if he'd forgotten all about Adrienne Evans. It was almost as if he wanted to forget about her, to pretend that she'd never existed. Why was he doing this?

She walked down the sidewalk a ways before crossing the street and entering the park her mother used to take her and Petunia to when they were little kids, where she sat down on a swing. She closed her eyes and let her feet push her along the ground. The wind blew from behind, causing her hair sweep gently across her cheeks.

She swung back and forth, back and forth, the way her mum used to rock her to sleep at night. The motion of the swing combined with the wind gently pushing her calmed her down and erased all thoughts from her mind. She took in deep breath, and her nose filled with the scent of lilacs. Her mum used to smell like lilacs.

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Me: Sorry it's taken me so long to update. I've had a really hard time trying to write anything lately, with school and life in general, but now that I'm on Winter Break, I figured I could find the time to write some of my chapters. Please review, please?