Lily looked up into James's disbelieving face.
"What are you doing in here?" he asked rather rudely.
"I needed a place to sit and think," she said coldly. "Obviously, you did, too. Well, if you have nothing more to say to me, then I think I'll be going. We have a meeting with Professor Dumbledore tonight at 8:00. I'll see you then." She stood up from the couch she was sitting on, turned on her heels, and stormed out of the room.She didn't realize where her feet were taking her. She was running; her black school robes were billowing behind her as she ran through the empty halls. Her hair was streaming behind her. She ran out the big oak front doors and down to the lake.
The chilly September air whipped her hair around her face as she sat by the edge of the lake. The grounds around her were filled with sounds; birds calling back and forth, the wind through the leaves of the trees of the Forbidden Forest, and the occasional ripple of the water as the fish or a tentacle of the Giant Squid trailed lazily across the water. Lily took a deep breath through her nose, letting the fresh, clean smell of the grass soothe her.
The truth was that Lily Evans was upset. Lily was upset that her sister no longer talked to her. She was upset that she had gotten a lower grade on her Transfiguration homework than she expected. She was upset that she hadn't accepted James's request for her to go out with him. She was upset that she even fancied him in the first place.
In fact, Lily was so upset that she didn't notice the person sitting beside her until he spoke. "Lily?" he asked softly.
Lily was still deep in thought and did not answer him.
"Lily," he said, a little louder this time, "why are you crying?"
Lily turned to face him and realized that she was, in fact, crying. She wiped away her tears with the back of her hands and turned away from the wizard next to her. "Sirius," she said, her voice cracking a bit, "just leave me alone, please."
"Oh, come on, Lily," he said, sighing as she turned away from him. "I just want to talk."
"Fine," Lily said tensely, "if I must, I must."
"Listen, Lily, I know you don't trust me at all," Sirius said quietly. "But Shayna told me that you had issues with your sister since you started school here, and since the rise of MoldyShorts"—Lily laughed at the nickname Sirius had given Voldemort—"she hasn't talked to you."
Lily nodded, not really angry with Shayna, because she had enough on her plate at the moment without being angry, and also because Shayna usually was smart enough to tell whether you could trust a person or not. "We—we used to act like best friends before I got my letter," Lily said, mopping up her tears with the sleeve of her robes.
"So I've heard," Sirius said. "Well, I thought you might like someone to talk to about your problems with your sister, and since I've had a number of family problems myself."
"Well," she said reluctantly, "you tell me your problems first."
"Do you have time?" Sirius asked playfully, causing Lily to giggle again in spite of herself.
"Yes, Sirius, I suppose I do. After all, it's a chilly Saturday morning, there's another two hours before lunch, and even then we could still talk. Yes, Sirius, I have plenty of time."
Sirius was shocked at her sense of humor, which was very much like his own. "Well," Sirius said, "my family is a long line of pureblood witches and wizards…the 'Noble and Most Ancient House of Black', as the family tree tapestry so proudly states." He scoffed. "Anyway, my mother, father, brother, and most of my relatives—other than Uncle Alphard, who left me a decent amount of gold when he died—have a disease which I like to call 'pureblood mania'. They believe that the only people who learn magic should be purebloods. When MoldyShorts first came out into the open, they thought he had the right idea about things. They would've joined him, too, if it weren't for the killings he was prepared to do to 'clean the world of mudbloods'.
"I was different from them. I didn't believe in 'pureblood mania'. I couldn't care less if your parents were Muggles or wizards or…or…or toads! Okay, maybe if your parents were toads I'd be a bit worried. When my parents found out that I was sorted into Gryffindor instead of Slytherin like the rest of the family, I was treated differently. I was the mistake in the family, the 'oops'. And when I made friends with Prongs, Moony, and Wormtail—that is, James, Remus, and Peter…but you probably know their nicknames by now anyway—I broke the single unspoken rule my family had: no interacting with 'blood traitors'. Stupid rule, really.
"Anyways, last summer I decided I had enough. I left. I ran away."
"Where'd you go?" Lily whispered, her eyes wide with horror at the pure evil of the family that Sirius belonged to.
"Prongs' parents took me in. I guess you could say I'm their adopted son now. Mrs. Potter is the closest thing I've ever had to a mother. My own mother counts in blood only. I left on my flying motorcycle, which is very cool, by the way. And that's my story," he finished somewhat lamely.
"Wow," Lily breathed. "I never knew!" Before she could think about what she was doing, she wrapped her arms around him in a hug.
"Don't let James see you doing that," Sirius said seriously, then laughed at the expression on her face. "Hey, Lily, I was just kidding."
"Oh," Lily said, blushing slightly. "I knew that."
At that moment Sirius's stomach decided to rumble loudly. "Well," he said, patting it and laughing, "that's the signal for lunch!"
Sirius stood up and brushed the grass off of him, and reached out a hand to help Lily up, though Lily didn't accept it. "Race you there!" Lily screamed, and she ran as fast as she could to the doors, Sirius following behind her. She threw open the door to find a very angry James Potter staring at her and Sirius.
"Sirius," he asked through clenched teeth, "can I speak with you, please?"
A/N: I got a review today that said something about Lily's actions being confusing, or not understandable…that will be explained in a later chapter called Q and A, its about 6 chapters after this one… anyway, I decided to leave you with a slight cliffhanger, though it isn't REALLY one…Thanks for reviewing, I really appreciate it and it makes me really happy! Oh, I like to be happy :) So make me happy, and click the little button to the left if you have any suggestions, comments, or if you found a mistake. Thanks!