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.

It felt like time had finally sped up and left her behind, moving in slow motion, because suddenly there were loads of people all around what was left of her house. Sirens blared and lights flashed and people chattered all around her, but the noises and lights just blended together and dulled, until she could barely even hear any of it.

She was laying in the middle of the street, staring up at the sky that was filling with smoke, listening to her laboured breathing. Her heart was pounding against her rib cage so hard her chest was starting to ache. She could feel what felt like a million pairs of eyes on her, but somehow she couldn't seem to get up.

And then the sound of feet pounding on the pavement near her brought someone to her side. Strong arms wrapped around her and tried to help her sit up. The first thing she saw when she was in the sitting position was her house---or more like the ruins of her house.

"Oh, God…" She jerked out of the strong arms that held her and started running for her house---her dad was in there, her dad! ---but someone reached out and grabbed her arm, stopping her. She whipped around and found her face nearly touching the face of Potter. "James! What are you---let go of me!"

"Lily, wait! You can't go in there!" he was yelling after her, but she wasn't listening. She had jerked out of his grip on her wrist and tore off toward her house. Before he could stop her, she was already inside. "LILY!"

First she ran to the living room, but she already knew her dad wasn't in there; she'd seen that before the explosion, so she headed for the kitchen next. There was broken glass everywhere, from shattered windows, tea mugs, and plates, along with the splinters of the table and chairs, which had been torn to pieces. Lying among the glass and splinters of wood was her dad, blood splatters all over the floor around him and the clothes he was wearing.

She ran over to him the moment she saw him lying there in a puddle of his own blood, not hesitating for even a split second. "Daddy?" she said softly, bending down to see if he was breathing. "Daddy? Please be okay, Daddy, please be okay…"

"Lily?" her father choked out, coughing and gripping her hand in his in such a tight hold that it hurt. "What happened, Lily? What was that explosion?"

"Daddy I'm so sorry about yelling at you about getting Veronica pregnant," Lily whispered, tears stinging her eyes. "I'm sorry I ran out of the house like that, and saying that you forgot about Mum."

"Oh, Lilykins, that's not---" He started coughing again, and Lily's heart slammed against her chest. Her ribs ached so much, but she didn't even feel the pain. All she could really focus on was her dad, lying there on the kitchen floor with pieces of glass and wood and blood all over his clothes.

"Ma'am, I need you to step away from your father now," said a deep but gentle voice from the kitchen doorway. Lily turned away from her father to see two male paramedics standing there, holding a stretcher between them. "Ma'am?" he said again, when Lily didn't move.

She finally backed away enough so that the men could get through to her father. But she stood near them and watched while they carefully lifted Mr. Evans onto the stretcher and carried him outside of the house, beckoning her to come along. She followed the men who now carried her (probably dying, a nasty voice said in her mind) father in a daze, as if she couldn't really believe what had happened.

"C-can I come w-w-with you?" she asked the paramedics hesitantly while they loaded her father into the back of an ambulance. "Please?"

"I'm afraid not, miss," said one of them, who then ran to the front of the vehicle and opened the door to get in and drive.

She stopped the man who was just about to close the back doors, begging him to let her in there. "Please! He's my dad; I have to go with him! Just let me come with you, please? I'm his daughter!"

"Look, you heard what he said," the paramedic told her impatiently, trying to close the doors, but she had grabbed hold of one of them and refused to let it go. "Ma'am, please step away from the truck!"

James came up from behind her and pulled her body away from the truck, forcing her to look at him. She fought against him as hard as she could, but she couldn't seem to break free of his vice-like grip. All the while she just kept saying over and over again, "He's my dad! He's my dad!"

Finally she stopped struggling against him, just falling limply against his chest, and he finally dropped his tight hold on her. As soon as he had, she yanked out of his grip (as she'd been counting on him to do just what he had) and, pulling out car keys out of her front pocket, ran down the street a ways until she finally spotted her dad's black Austin Healey. She quickly got the door unlocked and open when James caught up with her.

"What are you doing?" he demanded as she hung half in and half out of the car

"I'm going to the hospital," she told him flatly. "I need to see my dad, now. I have to make him forgive me for saying those horrible things about Veronica and---Mum, before something happens---" She sucked in a breath and got in the car. "Are you coming, or are you going to stay here?"

He just stared at her, mouth agape, until he finally said, "My mum, she'll wonder where I am if I go with you, Lily."

She shrugged and started the car. "You can call her from the hospital, if you're really that worried about that. But if you don't want to come with me, fine." She closed her door and started the car, but before she could pull away from the curb, James had opened the other door and was getting inside.

Nodding grimly at him, Lily pointed to the seat belt. "Buckle up."