School is FINALLY over, so this chapter is up sooner than planned. Expect that a lot for the next two months! Oh, about the trivia, right, right (gets out notes) uhh…let's see… a big thank you to Ally French for getting the correct answer first, and another thanks to KeeraSango for reviewing with the exact answer and for saving me a lot of typing time! Here's the answer: "Uric the Oddball attempted at one time to prove that the Fwooper song was actually beneficial to the health and listened to it for three months on end without a break. Unfortunately, the Wizards' Council to which he reported his findings were unconvinced, as he had arrived at the meeting wearing nothing but a toupee that on closer inspection proved to be a dead badger." Thanks a bunch!

Disclaimer: It all belongs to The One.

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Harry stayed with Lily for most of the rest of the day. He helped her clean Petunia's mess and together they were able to get started on the decontamination of the second floor. Lily was very thankful for her son's help; she would never have been able to finish her work so quickly and easily if he hadn't been right beside her the whole time. Lily made dinner for the Dursleys and set aside a portion for her and Harry to eat later on when they were done with their chores.

The bad weather that had plagued them on and off for the past two days seemed to have finally cleared by evening; the sun had set magnificently at around seven o'clock, casting bright light and beautiful colors across southern England. The neighbors had shut their windows and closed the blinds, protecting themselves from the sunlight, but Harry and Lily had stopped, taking a break from their cleaning, to go outside and watch the sunset.

They now sat together on the curb, their legs stretched out loosely into the gutter, staring at the magnificent reds and oranges and pinks spread out through the sky like an artist's canvas. Lily had brought along chocolate and crackers, and Harry had grabbed a blanket from the Dursleys' linen closet, so the two were enjoying a little picnic. A silence had passed over them, albeit a comfortable one, as though both were too consumed in their thoughts to speak. This was undoubtedly true.

Lily was still thinking about Harry's mental state. Dumbledore had told her about his two friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Was it possible that he had already talked to them about Sirius? The Headmaster, though extremely useful for getting information on the major happenings in Harry's life, couldn't give Lily any information about what was going on in the mind and private life of her son.

Lily's thoughts were interrupted by a munching sound, breaking the silence. Looking quickly to her left, she saw that Harry was chewing noisily on a cracker. When he spotted her, he paused, and swallowed. "Sorry," he smiled. "Hungry."

Lily nodded and ate a piece of chocolate herself. That was when it hit her- how perfect was this opportunity? It was so serene and peaceful out there, ideal for deep moments between mother and son. Lily cleared her throat, and spoke.

"Harry, listen. Uh, your, uh, aunt told me what happened to you in June, about your godfather." Lily quickly cooked up this plausible lie. "And I know that, you know, I just met you a couple of days ago, and…erm, you probably don't want to, but, I mean, if you did, you could talk to me. I'll listen." She was shocked at how ineloquent she sounded.

Harry seemed to be surprised by this sudden declaration from Lily, because he didn't speak for several moments. A quiet "Thanks," was all he could get out after a while.

Lily nodded, feeling a little disappointed, and turned her head back to the sky. An awkward silence passed over them. By then, only a couple of pink rays of light were remaining in the sky. It had faded to a cool blue aquamarine, promising darkness in the coming hour. Lily felt the tension in the air, and tried to make small conversation.

"Pretty colors, eh?" She started lamely, feeling helpless. She had completely ruined any chance she had had at bonding with her son. Harry probably hated her now for bringing up painful thoughts of Sirius; he wouldn't ever want to talk to her again. No longer would they be able to eat ice cream together at Shrine Park, or laugh at Dudley's boxing uniform. Lily's dream, her only chance at happiness for the rest of her life, was gone because she had rushed into the moment. It was over.

"It was over…just like that…I…I didn't even…get a chance…to say…goodbye…" Harry's barely audible whisper snapped Lily out of her depressing thoughts. She turned back to him quickly, eyes wide in disbelief.

"To Sirius?" She whispered in return.

Harry nodded, and released a shaky sob. His shoulders were trembling and his eyes were closed tightly. "He was gone…so quickly…and…and…and I couldn't do anything…" Harry's sobs grew stronger now, and he was biting his lip so hard that it turned white.

Lily leaned towards him, placing a calm, comforting hand on his shoulder, though she was terribly excited about Harry's sudden display of emotion. "Tell me about it. What would you have done?" She asked him quietly.

Eyes still sealed shut, Harry lifted his head toward the sky. Lily spotted a glistening tear forming in one of the corners of his eye. "I don't know…it happened so fast…" Harry shook his head disbelievingly. He started to get more anxious. "Bellatrix was so quick…I would have done something, if I could have! I would have jumped between them-" Harry shut his mouth quickly, as if realizing that he was not confessing this to a wizard. In his shook, he opened his eyes, like he was seeing Lily for the first time that night.

Catching sight of the red and irritated bloodshot eyes, Lily's heart broke all over again. She fell speechless, unable to think of anything to say for the time being.

o-o

Realization of what he had said started to creep up on Harry like a taunting shadow. He was so embarrassed that he had just opened up like that, almost to a complete stranger! Attempting to hide his rapidly growing red face, Harry looked towards the houses across the street on the other side of Privet Drive, but not really seeing them.

"I can't imagine anything harder than losing a loved one." Tabitha's hesitant, emotional words flowed into his ears. They were so filled with pain and guilt, Harry swore they could have been his own. "You blame yourself, don't you, Harry? We always do." Tabitha spoke knowingly.

Harry turned slowly to face her. "We?" He asked, to take the attention away from himself for the moment.

Tabitha nodded. "We." She affirmed. Harry waited patiently for her to continue. After a few more moments of silence, Tabitha spoke again. "I had a family once. A family, a real, genuine family. My husband was as close to perfect as a man could get, and my son was the same." Tabitha paused, and, to Harry's amazement, smiled at him. "He'd be at around your age right now."

Harry contemplated on prodding for more information, but after a couple of seconds, won his mental battle. "What happened to him?" He questioned her softly.

Tabitha's smile vanished. "A little while after my husband died, he…was taken."

o-o

Lily hated lying to Harry more than anything, but she realized that it was necessary. Besides, the story she made up wasn't that far from the truth. But she couldn't and didn't want to elaborate on the details of this piece of fiction, and hoped Harry would take her silences as a hint.

"I'm…so sorry." Harry said heavily, as if he shared her pain. He didn't seem to have anything else to say to comfort her, so Lily decided to carry on.

"It was the most horrible period of my life. Well, you can imagine. I went off food, didn't speak for weeks, and became fitfully ill." Lily spoke all of this truthfully. "What was worse was that I didn't have any friends or family around me to help the grieving process." Harry nodded along with this, obviously thinking of his separation from Ron and Hermione during the summer. "I'm going to tell you this, because I think you can handle it. I thought about...ending it. Just stopping living. It would be so easy! I wouldn't have to feel the hurt anymore; I could just stop feeling, feeling everything that was painful and wrong. I believe that was the very worst time in my life. I had hit rock bottom."

"So what did you do?" Harry asked her inquiringly.

Lily gave him a small smile. "One day, years after it happened, when I woke up from another night of fitful sleep, I got out of bed and made a cup of tea, like I always did. When I finished it, I went to clean the mug in the kitchen sink. Now, when I leaned over the sink to turn on the faucet, I caught a glance of a framed picture sitting on the window ledge, of my son, from when he was a baby.

"It was like this wave had just crashed over me. All the memories of my time with my husband and son came rushing back. My husband was gone, I had acknowledged that. But my son- he was still out there! They had never found his kidnapper! He could have been a mile away, or a hundred miles away, but I still had a chance! There was that tiny, miniscule, little bitty chance that he was alive, out there, somewhere, waiting for me.

"And just like that, in those couple of seconds, I had found a reason to go on. It wasn't much; I knew that my hopes of returning to the family I had once had were long gone. But I could still have my son, as long as I kept hoping, and searching. That was the reason I didn't end my life, because I still had a chance! As long as I kept searching, kept hoping for my son, there was a possibility that I could be happy again!"

By the time Lily had finished her speech, Harry had tears running freely down his face. His entire focus had been on her story, and once again Lily felt guilt for upsetting him by lying to him. But then again,ninety-eight percentof it had been true.

Harry wiped his eyes on his sleeve, and swallowed. "Do you think you'll ever find him?" He asked her sadly.

Looking down at Harry's wet face, Lily felt another rush of emotion course through her body. The boy was so real, so obviously human, so alive! It was exactly and everything more thanwhat she had hoped for.

"Maybe, Harry. Maybe."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Um, enough angst? Well that was, as we say at Harry Potter/Space Camp, "One small step for chapter updates, one big step for Harry-Lily bonding!" Yes, I know, bad joke. Rub it in, why don't ya?

It's 2:15 AM, and I am falling asleep, even with all that coffee I drank earlier. Ah well. Oh, I need to think of a trivia question, don't I? Ok!

Trivia Question: Reaallly, reaaallly easy one, guys- give me the real quote that I parodied five lines up, and who said it. This is so easy, I could cry. But I won't. I'll just sleep.

Night night! (Yawns)

LaRohaZeta