After the holidays. Lily and James wouldn't speak to each other, and this was worrying all of their friends. To make matters worse, Emily still hadn't come back from her holiday break. She was supposed to return back to her house the day before school started back, but she never showed up at Hogwarts.
Two days after school started back, the girls were in their Charms class when they heard the door open. Everyone looked to see a very tired and sad looking Professor McGonagall enter the room. She kept her hand on the door handle, and started to speak, looking towards Flitwick the whole time.
"Excuse me for interrupting, but may I borrow Lily Evans, Skye Taylor, and Ariel McKenzie for the rest of class?"
Flitwick understood her face, and nodded.
"Y-yes, of course, Minerva."
The girls looked confusedly at each other as they gathered their things and headed for the door. Professor McGonagall kept her head down as she led the girls to Dumbledore's office, where only the worst was expected.
Ariel looked up to the professor as they walked down the hall and came to the gargoyle in front of the staircase that led upstairs.
"Professor? Where's Eh-Emily?" Ariel stuttered on her words. She was quite scared of why she was being taken with her friends to Dumbledore's office. The professor had not answered her question, but left them alone with the headmaster.
"Hello girls. I have some very grave news for you," Dumbledore started.
"Is she okay? Where's Emily? What's happened?" Ariel was on the verge of tears. She looked so scared, so panicked.
"I'm sorry to say that your friend is no longer with us. Voldemort paid her a little visit over the holidays. I am so sorry, girls. You have the permission to miss school for the next week, but we all expect to see your happy faces a week from today-"
Lily, who was having a hard enough time as it was, ran for her life before Dumbledore could finish. Skye stayed with Ariel to comfort her. Of course, Skye was very upset, but she had to be the strong one. She cried, but refused to let anyone but Ariel and Lily see her cry.
Lily was a muggle-born, just like Emily was. She ran to the lake, and sat behind the beech tree to the right, away from prying eyes. She couldn't help but think that her family could possibly be in very grave danger. Voldemort could kill her family just like he did Emily's. She bawled into her hands and knees, barely breathing straight.
Little did she know, the one person that could help her was on his way down to comfort her. Lily let her tears fall silently and slowly down her cheeks while she tried to catch her breath. She looked out to the horizon. She saw the sun starting to set. It was so peaceful. She let her tears fall to the ground, sanctifying in the memory of her dear friend. She heard footsteps behind the tree, and hid even more behind the tree. She heard the footsteps stop, and then felt a hand on her shoulder from a person sitting beside her. She turned, to see James.
Even when she was crying, with red, puffy eyes and flushed cheeks, she was unbelievably beautiful. James looked at Lily, and a pain shot through his heart as he watched her cry. She turned into him, and rested on his chest. He pulled her closer and wrapped his strong arms around his Lily. He rocked her back and forth, comforting her. He needn't have said anything, this was enough for Lily. She finally calmed down, but didn't get up from James for a while. She stood up, embarrassed. She couldn't look at him, not here, not now, not after everything that happened. James took her to the common room, arms around her shoulders, and let Skye take her to the Girls' Dormitory.
James knew it was best to leave her alone now. Lily still was affected deeply by what happened during Christmas break, and had made it very clear. She didn't want to remember that he held her, she just wanted to forget everything of that past year. Unfortunately, Lily couldn't forget anything, and had a long summer of heart ache and confusion ahead of her.