And here is chapter two!
...
James Potter was in his room, dressed in full quidditch robes, and bored out of his mind. He and Sirius had been planning on playing some quidditch, when the rain started. They were all geared up, brooms in hand about to step out the door, when the sky opened up and pissed on their parade. James took one look at the rain, turned around, marched up five flights of stairs to his room, and flopped face down on his bed. That was 40 minutes ago. At some point, after a brief detour to the kitchen, Sirius had joined him, and was now repeatedly throwing a quaffle at James' head. As Sirius raised the quaffle for the 14th time, lining up the perfect shot, James had finally had enough. "I swear to god Padfoot, if you throw that fucking thing at my head one more time, I'm throwing away your doughnuts!"
"You wouldn't dare!"
James glared at his best mate, "Try it and see what happens. and remember, I know where your secret stash is!" Sirius reluctantly dropped the quaffle.
"There's a good doggy," James mumbled condescendingly into his pillow. A moment later… WACK! and with that Sirius was off, James hot on his heels! Twenty rooms, 10 near misses, 3 broken chairs, and several squished doughnuts later, James tackled Sirius in the front hall.
A few minutes later, James was sitting triumphantly on top of his best mate, who, after a weak attempt to free himself, had given up struggling and instead summoned one of the few unsquashed doughnuts to munch on.
Just as James started to reach for Sirius's doughnut, there was a knock at the door. "Who could that be?" Sirius asked through a mouthful of doughnut, slapping James's hand away.
"I dunno' replied James, 'My parents are out of town, Peter is visiting his grandmother, and Remus has his furry little problem in a couple days so he's out buying chocolate." Sirius shrugged, "Just answer it, it could be Lily."
"You're just saying that cause you want me to get up!" Nevertheless, James grabbed his wand and cautiously made his way towards the door. He opened the door, and from the floor Sirius burst out laughing "Ha! I was right! I'm a psychic! I have powers-"
Standing there was Lily Evans, soaking wet, and looking as if she had just tried to tame a wild hippogriff.
"Lily?" James frantically asked her. Sirius's voice trailed off when he caught sight of Lily, he stopped laughing and stood up.
"C….can I come in?" Lily mumbled, looking down at her shoes.
"Yes, of course. Come on in." He moved aside to let her through the door, sharing a worried glance with Sirius over her rain soaked head, before closing it behind her.
"What's wrong? Are you ok?"
At the sound of his voice Lily glanced up, and only then did James noticed the tear tracks, puffy red eyes, and worst of all the bright red handprint on her cheek. Before James had a chance to ask what happened, Sirius blurted out, "Bloody hell Evans, what happened to your face?" He regretted it almost immediately.
Lily tried to answer, but the reality of what had happened was too much and she burst into tears. Without a moment's hesitation, James reached out and pulled her into a hug. She buried her face in James' chest, her hands gripping his robes, and let the tears fall.
After several minutes Lily began to calm down, and her sobs turned into hiccups. James gently released her from his arms, muttered a drying spell, and guided her to the nearest couch, After making sure she was comfortable, he turned to Sirius, "Can you go make some tea?"
"Why can't you just do it?"
"Because I'm staying here, it's not hard just to make some tea." James retorted.
"We have a house elf!"
"No we don't! He's on vacation! Anyways you've made tea many times before, just go!"
"Many times? Like when? Name one time I've made tea"
"I don't need tea, it's fine," Lily said from the couch.
"No, no it's ok, I got it.' sirius said before turning to James, "but just to be clear, I'm doing this for Lilykins, and NOT because you said I have to!" and with that Sirius left for the Kitchen.
James turned back towards Lily, only to find her standing behind him.
"I'm sorry for just showing up like this, I probably should go, I'm sorry to have bothered y-" she made to leave but James grabbed her arm.
"Lily, stop. You are not bothering anyone. You know that you are always welcome here. Please sit down" he said gently. Lily hesitated for a moment before she nodded and returned to the couch. "Do you want to talk about it? You don't have to, but I'm happy to listen."
Lily silently nodded her head and took a deep breath. She told him about the fight with Petunia and how a simple argument had become the biggest fight to go down between them.
She told him about what Petunia had said, how there was no coming back from this fight. She told him about the slap, the vase, and how she was forced to use magic which only made things worse. James had never met Petunia, but from what he'd heard so far, she sounded like someone he would like to curse (of course he didn't say that out loud).
At some point, in her story Sirius had returned, poured them all tea and sat down in an armchair across from James and Lily. He took a flask out of his pocket and poured some firewhiskey into his cup. Lily stared at him for a second before she stuck her cup out. Sirius raised an eyebrow at her, shrugged and poured a little in her cup. When Lily didn't move, he poured a bit more. She mumbled a "Thanks," and took a long drink. when she looked up, she saw both boys staring at her, surprised looks on their faces.
"What?" Lily asked
"Well I guess there is a first time for everything" Sirius said with a shrug.
"This is not the first time I've had a drink." At the sight of their disbelieving faces, she continued
"Just ask Marlene, or any of my dorm mates for that matter, I'm usually the first one drunk at sleepovers." The look of utter bewilderment on their faces made Lily giggle.
"Damn Evans, what else you been hiding?" Sirius said with a grin.
"There is a lot that you don't know about me, Black."
"Care to elaborate?"
James shot Sirius a warning look.
Lily was silent for a moment before she went on. "One of the first times I ever did magic, I was on the swings at the park near my house. I would swing as high as I could, and then I jump off and fly through the air. That's when my accidental magic kicked in and rather than falling and hurting myself, I would slowly float to the ground," she said with a smile on her face.
"Oh, and I used to make flowers bloom in my palm and send them smoothly sailing through the air. Petunia HATED it.' Lily's smile faded, 'She always hated my magic. She would always tell on me and Severus if we did something… 'freakish.' Well not much has changed actually," Lily stated bitterly.
"Wait, you knew snivillus before Hogwarts?" James asked.
"Yeah. Did I not mention that before? When did you think we had met?"
James just shrugged. "I dunno, the train?"
"He saw me playing with the flowers and figured out that I was a witch. He was actually the one who told me all about Hogwarts and magic, and the whole Wizarding World."
James let that sink in for a moment. It all made sense now. He used to wonder what Lily saw in him, why she would even put up with him in the first place. Now he was beginning to understand. Snape was the one who explained who she was, he was her connection to the magical world and her first friend in it.
"Did you know that when I asked him if it mattered that I was muggleborn, he said no? I used to think that he actually didn't care about that! Can you believe how dumb I was?"
"Lily-" James tried to interject.
"But now we all know the truth, to him I'm just another mudbloo-"
"NO!" James and Sirius both yelled, cutting her off.
"What?" Lily asked confused
"Never call yourself that Lily. NEVER! You hear me?" James almost yelled at her. "Promise me. Lily, promise me."
Lily was a little taken aback. "Ok, I promise."
They were all quiet for a minute before Lily spoke again. "It's funny, in this world people hate me because I'm muggleborn, and to them that means I'm not magic enough. And then, there is my sister, who hates me because I have magical blood. Because I'm unnatural; a freak."
"Well if you're a freak, then I guess that makes me and Prongs freaks too." Sirius said gravely. "James, quick get your owl! We must alert the Daily Prophet, 'the world's most handsome man is a freak." And with that Lily could no longer keep it together, and burst out laughing.
"This is no laughing matter,' said James feigning sincerity, 'didn't you hear what he just said? I'm a freak. A Freak! That also means Professor Minni Gal's a freak, and… and Dumbledore's a freak!"
"Well, we all knew that! Have you seen his socks?" Sirius interected. "No', James replied, 'have you?"
"Of course I have! very tall! very lacey!"
"There is an entire world full of us magical freaks," James concluded. Lily smiled at the two boys, no matter how shitty her day was, they could always find a way to make her laugh.
"Well,' Sirius continued, 'even if your sister does hate you,' James shot him a glare, 'we don't! Hell, Prongsie practically worships the ground you walk on. There was one time in fifth year when he couldn't stop talking about how nice your hair smelled. And then there was the time when he talked non-stop about your 'beautiful green eyes.' And then there was the time with the jeans, and how they-"
James cut him off before he finished the sentence "We get the point padfoot!"
"Wait! I want to know. What jeans? What happened?"
James pointed his wand at Sirius, "If you ever want to have children, I suggest you shut up!"
"First my doughnuts, now my nuts, not cool Prongs, not cool!"
Lily laughed so hard she choked on her tea! Sirius went on to tell her many embarrassing stories about James. Several more of Sirius's doughnuts were summoned, just to be squashed by James. The three kept telling stories, only breaking to get some food! Every now and then James would glance at Lily to see if she was mad or upset at a story, but every time she was either laughing or even blushing. Lily forgot all about the fight with her sister. She spent the rest of the night laughing and joking with the two boys.