Okies, thanks to the (one) person(s) who reviewed... what about the other 34 of you out there? I know you're there... you can run but you can't hide...

anyway, major thanks to phoenixtear19 for the review... for the rest of you... just wait 'til i get bachi on you...next chappies up... you do the procudure now, right? you better, but just to refresh your memory:

0. All not mine. Joanne Kathleen Rowling's characters, etc.

1. You read.

2. You like.

2. You hate.

3. You write review.

4. You write nice review with constructive criticism and i send you an owl carrying the biggest box of honeydukes' goodies.

4. You write flame and i use it to burn your face off.

5. We all happy.

Got that? Good! Now read.

It's gonna start with a bit of refresher from the previous chapter. And it will begin with my (extremely poor) attempt at getting inside of a guy's mind, meaning James...

Haha... silly me! wrote that i would put in a refresher and didn't write one... sorry! here it is:

Lily gets a message from Professor Dumbledore and learns that her dad's been shot. She manages to get through the day, but...

James turned over in bed, unable to sleep. He tried to figure out why, but his mind kept going to Lily. Why had she been so quiet and deflated after the meeting with the Headmaster? Had she gotten in trouble? If so, what? And if that was the case, why wasn't she in detention or suspended or expelled? He turned over to look out the window, gazing at the clear lake water glistening in the moonlight. Maybe if he went for a swim he would feel less... less... oh, he didn't know how he felt. He put on his glasses and grabbed a towel and a robe and headed down the stairs when he heard something in the Common Room.

Curious, he peered into the dim room rather than take a secret passage down to the lakeshore. By the light of the dying embers, he saw the figure of a girl curled up on a sofa staring at the fire.

He went down the stairs to her.

"Err...Pardon me."

She turned and he caught the full force of Lily Evans' double-barreled glare. He was disconcerted to see that she had been crying.

She dashed the tears from her face, a futile gesture because more tears flowed to take the place of those wiped off. "What do you want, Potter? Come to have a laugh me?" she asked bitterly.

"Nothing, it's just... why are you crying?"

"None of your business."

"Lily, you never cry. Not even we humilate you to the utmost, not when you get hurt, you never cry. So what's so horrible that it made you cry?"

"It's nothing... nothing except for the fact that world is so unfair and that mine has just shattered."

He sat down beside her. "You can tell me, honest. I promise I won't hold it against you."

"My dad... he's just died. And the ironic thing about it is that it wasn't even because of the cancer. It was because a psychotic man came into the hospital he was in and shot him." She gave a mirthless laugh. "I could've accepted it if were the cancer. We've known about it for a while now, so it wouldn't have been a surprise, or at least not as much as this."

"I'm so sorry, Lily." He put an arm around her and she leaned into him, burying her face in his chest as she began crying in earnest now.

"Why did he have to go? First we see him dying slowly and then his life is cut short so brutally and unfairly!"

James couldn't do anything but comfort her and make soothing noises as her tears soaked into his shirt.

"What was he like, your dad?"

Bit by bit, he heard the story of the man who had been Lily's hero, father, and friend. How they first heard that he only had a few years left to live. How they saw a man who had been so active and lively and humorous with a dedication to the protection of others deteriorate into a pale imitation who couldn't walk very far on some days. Lily told him a story about a time she and Petunia had been fighting.

"Dad came over and told me that because we were sisters, we would be the only people left for each other in this world after he and Mum died. So I had to take care of her."

James couldn't think of anything to say to this. She began to tell more stories about her father. About an incident involving a frog, whipped cream, and the roof that had elicited yelling from her mother at first, but then she too joined in laughing after her father lightened the mood. (James noted that idea as a prank... but not to use on Lily.) About the time they had gone to a haunted house and she had been scared, but her father had held her tightly and even managed to frighten some of the people in the house. They both laughed a bit at that one. Each story brought a fresh attack of tears and soon his shirt was very wet.

Slowly, she subsided and fell still and silent.

"Lily? You'd better be going to bed now. Lily?"

She had fallen asleep, tears still on her face. James wiped them off Levitated both her and himself up the stairs to her dorms and tucked her in.

"Good night, Lily." She half-turned towards him before subsiding.

James left the dorms and sat in the Common Room staring at the flames for the rest of the night.

WHEE! IT'S CHRISTMAS AND ME'S HIGH ON SUGAR! wow... now that i see that, that's such a contrast between the somber mood of the story and this extremely hyper author's note...

BUT IT'S CHRISTMAS! i love christmas... it's not so much the present part as it is the cheer part. i love christmas songs and the smells and the atmosphere of joyful anticipation. and the winter break, but isn't that a given? i don't think i ever really believed in Santa, but i believed in the songs, mostly.

anyway, before you, dear reader, get annoyed and bored by my nostalgic reminisces, i will shut up now.

Joyeux Noel (imagine the umlaut over the "e")!

PMM

P.S. If you were annoyed by my little lecture at the top, live with it. 1 out of 35 approximately 2.8 of everyone who read the story. If you don't want to be lectured again, write something... that was very Grinch-y... oh well.

And mail me any questions. I'll answer all of them.