Friendship Has Its Limits

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters you recognize as J. K. Rowling's, obviously, or else I'd be worth more money than the queen of England, know who the half-blood prince is, etc, which I'm not, and I don't.

The six teenagers left the Muggle hospital together, but went their separate ways after that, the three girls to the Peters' home, James and Sirius to the Potters', and Remus to his own house. Since Lily had driven to the hospital in her dad's car and Alexa had borrowed her mum's car, they decided that Lily would follow Alexa and Ruby home. Alexa had wanted Ruby to go with Lily at first, but Lily said that she kind of wanted to be alone, so Ruby went with Alexa.

As they pulled out of the parking lot, Lily turned on the car radio, changed it to her favourite station, and cranked the volume until her ears almost couldn't take it anymore. She was hoping to drown out her thoughts with music, and it worked for a time, until she followed Alexa onto the main road that lead to her house half an hour later. It was then she realized that she wasn't going to her house again, ever. As she killed the engine and got out of the car, she tried to push all thoughts like that out of her head. She just couldn't deal with that yet.

Ruby put her arms around the redhead's shoulders and walked her up to the house, where Mrs. Peters was waiting on the front porch for them to return, along with a petite, frail looking young girl with pale blue eyes and light brown hair that fell limply to her shoulders. Lily figured this was Alexa's sister, Caroline, but wasn't sure.

"Oh, you're back," said Mrs. Peters, standing up from the deck chair she'd been sitting in to greet the girls. She sounded slightly worried. "Lily, I'm terribly sorry to hear about your father. I hope you know that you're certainly welcome to stay here for as long as you need. We're certainly happy to have you."

"Thanks," the redhead muttered almost inaudibly. Alexa watched her friend with carefully hidden pity, as she knew Lily would not be pleased with her if she let her friend know that she pitied her. But how could Alexa not feel bad for her? She was probably going to loose the only sort of parent she had left, after all.

"Ah, Misses Evans and Peters," said a voice from behind them. The girls turned around to see Professor Dumbledore standing there, looking at them grimly. He held his hand out to Ruby, who shook it. "Ruby Timminson, I presume," he said, smiling politely. "I'm Professor Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise," Ruby replied, forcing herself to smile at the old man. He seemed nice enough, but she couldn't seem to make herself smile, partially because of everything that was going on at the moment. "I'm just sorry we had to meet on such…stressful circumstances."

"Ah, yes," the headmaster said, shaking his head grimly. "About that, Miss Evans, if you'll please come with me, I'd like to talk to you about something. Ask you some questions, and that."

Lily swallowed and nodded, following Dumbledore into the Peters' front lawn. She raked her fingers through her hair in the hopes of looking somewhat better. "Yes, Professor?"

"What exactly happened?"

"I, uh…I found out that my stepmother was pregnant and kind of…flipped out," she said awkwardly, shifting her weight from one foot to another. "I left the house for about fifteen to twenty minutes at the most, and when I came back, I, um, noticed that there was a rune glowing in blue in my foyer. From taking Ancient Runes, I knew it meant explosion, but I…wasn't fast enough to warn them."

Dumbledore sighed. "I'm terribly sorry to hear about your father's current condition," he said, "but I need to know where you'll be staying for the remainder of the holidays."

She looked up, a confused look on her face. "Here," she answered, as if it were obvious. "Where else would I stay?"

He smiled slightly. "As one would assume," he responded, nodding. "Well, I had better get back to the school, you know, things to get in order before everyone comes back and all. I look forward to seeing you back there."

She nodded as well, not trusting herself to speak. Then she somehow managed to find her way back up the porch steps to where everyone else was standing.

"Lily dear, would you like something to eat, or a drink perhaps? I could make some tea," Mrs. Peters offered. The young girl stood behind her, almost as if she were afraid to be too far away from her. "By the way, this is my other daughter, Alexa's younger sister, Caroline. She's a tad bit shy, but she'll warm up to you."

"No she won't," Alexa said. Her mother gave her an exasperated look. "What? Caroline hasn't warmed up to anyone but you, Mum, and I don't think she ever will. She barely even speaks to us, and we're her family. Why would Lily be any different?"

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At two o'clock in the morning, the telephone rang, its loud ringer echoing through the entire house. Mrs. Peters sat up in bed, shook her husband's sleeping form, and flipped on the light. Mr. Peters hurried down the stairs and to the kitchen, where he snatched up the phone. He'd barely even said hello before Alexa and Ruby both came down the stairs in their robes. They watched Mr. Peters closely.

"Yes, she's here. Hold on a moment, let me have someone go and fetch her from bed," he was saying, and gestured to Alexa to go upstairs and get Lily. Ruby looked at him expectantly, and all he did was shake his head. Her heart immediately sank. "Yes, I understand what this means. No, I'll let you tell her."

A moment later Alexa came back into the kitchen, Lily in tow. The redhead was rubbing at her eyes sleepily, not seeming to understand what was going on. Mr. Peters handed her the phone, and she took it, trying to force her eyes to stay open.

"Hello? Yes, this is she." The tiredness fell away as soon as she heard the doctor's voice on the other line. "What?" she whispered, clutching the phone to her ear with both hands. "A-are you sure? I mean, you could have made a mistake---"

She must have been cut off by the doctor, Alexa thought, because Lily looked like she was trying really hard to understand what was happening. She could pretty much figure out by herself why the doctor was calling.

"Oh," the redhead said in a small voice. "T-t-thank you for calling to let me know. I'll be by later to…yeah. I'll be by later." She set the phone back on the cradle with a small click. Her body suddenly felt as if twenty-pound weights had been attached to everything, including her eyelids. She straightened up and took a deep breath before turning back to the others.

"Lily, are you…okay?" Ruby asked, feeling ridiculously stupid as soon as she'd said the words. Of course she wasn't okay; she'd just lost her only other parent and was now an orphan. How would she be okay?

"I just need some air," she responded in a breathy voice, as if she'd just run two miles without stopping. "I just need air, and I'll be fine." She rushed to the back door, yanked it open, and ran out into the backyard. Alexa and Ruby both followed her, and Ruby managed to make it in time to hold back her red hair while she vomited into the grass.

"Come on, babe, let's go back inside." Ruby helped the redhead up off the ground, and tried to wrap her arm around her shoulders, but Lily pushed her away.

"I just need some air," she repeated, shying from Alexa's arm, too. "I think I'm going to take a walk." Both girls nodded and watched helplessly as Lily headed toward the fence that lead into the front yard.

"Wait, Lily, at least take a jacket!" Alexa called after her. She stopped, turned around, and stared numbly at her friends. Alexa ran inside, grabbed a jacket at random, and ran it over to Lily. Coincidentally, the jacket Alexa happened to grab was the one that James had given to her not too long ago. Lily slipped into it and pulled it tightly against her body, welcoming the comforting smell it brought her.

She then turned around and headed out of the gate, crossed the lawn, and walked at a steady pace down the street. Sighing, Alexa turned to Ruby, who went over to her cousin and looped her arm through hers.

"What now?" Ruby asked, and Alexa started walking to the house.

"We call the boys and tell them, I guess."