Summary: Ahh...I'm too lazy to even copy and paste now. But...okay. Lily is a contestant in the Miss Europe pageant, but she begins to fall for James Potter, who is the host, and this relationship is definitely against the rules of the contest. Along the way, more and more get revealed about Lily, and James, but more Lily. Her mother, who is most unwelcome in her life, comes to see her because as a surprise, the Miss Europe pageant invited all the contestants family to stay with them.

By the way, I do not own any Harry Potter characters. They belong to our most loved J.K. Rowling, though the series is almost over! ( I guess good series aren't dragged out for too long...

--

"Fine! Hm…I wonder what the surprise is. Bella?" Carly latched onto the trainer's arm and fluttered her long, pretty eyelashes. "Please?"

Bella huffed. "Oh dear god, not you too! For the last time, I'm not sayin' nothin' about anything! Oh well, we're here; you'll find out soon enough anyways."

Lily and Carly gasped as they saw the dining hall. What had once been plain was now elaborate. They actually lighted the chandeliers instead of the regular lamps, giving it and ethereal glow. The tables were neatly set up and chairs orderly aligned. They had added flowers to each table.

James Potter was on the podium again. "Welcome girls, and congratulations on making it this far! As you know, they next day of the pageant will be in three days. There, you will answer a few questions and tell your viewers about yourself. The following day, I'm sad to say, twenty-five of you will go home. But enough about that!" He gestured to the seats. "Sit!"

"This is our surprise? I'm really quite unimpressed Bella," Lily said boringly. Bella hushed her as James continued talking.

"Now, we all know that there is a surprise today that the pageant has in store for all of you. Allow me to lift this curtain." He did so with ease and out poured many parents and guardians. "We have cordially invited your parents and guardians with us to stay with us for the rest of the pageant. Dinner will be served shortly. Enjoy!"

While the rest of the girls were moving and crying, laughing, and hugging their parents, Lily stayed rooted to her seat. He couldn't mean that they invited…

"Lillian?"

Mother.

----

"Mother," she greeted stiffly as she felt delicate arms, so much like hers, wrap around her delicate waist. The elaborate dining room that they were in suddenly felt cold, and pressuring, as if a giant hand were pushing down on her. Her mother's pale blue eyes shone up at her emerald green ones.

"Lillian," another voice greeted.

Lily turned to look at the source of the voice, although she already knew who it was subconsciously. The man gave her a large smile, fake, plastic. She felt the cold hands that tugged at her heart disappear, and fire take its place. How dare he come…how dare he show his face…

The man's smile faltered at the sight of Lily's unmoving face. He glanced uncertainly at her mother. She gave him a reassuring nod and moved closer to him. Lily didn't move at all.

"Well, what a fine young woman you've turned out to be Lily. Your mother's really proud of y—" he began as if he had this phrase memorized.

"It's Lillian," she said, and turned to both of them. "To both of you."

Her mother glanced at her nervously. "Now, don't be like this now, Lily. Both of us have come to wish you good luck and to say that we'll know you'll you fine. We're both really prou—"

"Don't talk as if he were my father!" She whispered sharply, furiously. "He will never be my father!"

They both quailed a little at the sharp cutting edge of her words. Her mother tried to put a hand on her arm, but Lily shrugged it off.

"Lillian," her mother whispered almost desperately. "Can't you just forgive us? Forgive me? Why can't we all just be a big happy family, like we used to be? Don't I at least deserve that chance?"

Lily looked sharply at her, her red hair flouncing like flamed under chandelier light. "There was never a we. He was never a part of our family. I don't need to forgive you because you don't deserve that chance. You threw that chance away when you decided to throw your family away," she said bitingly. "You are not my mother."

Tears welled up in her mother's eyes, and Lily suddenly couldn't look away. Those eyes that told her a million times that she loved her, the eyes that said I'm sorry, those eyes that looked at her when she discovered them on the bed…shameful. Regretful.

"Lily," her mother pleaded, whispering the name that she hadn't used in many years. "Please…if you just let me explain…"

"There's nothing to explain!" she cried out furiously, attracting the room's attention. There were titters and whispers running around, but she didn't care. They were all bimbos, sluts, the lot of them. "You," she said looking her mother in the eye, "and you," she said looking at her mother's boss, "stay away from me. Go create your own big happy family because I don't want to be a part of anything that involves your dreams. Your dreams, after all, destroyed mine."

She turned to leave, but her mother latched on to her hand tightly. Lily looked at her mother, almost apologetically. "I hope you got that promotion that you wanted…" Her mother gasped and drew in a breath shakily. "Because that promotion cost us everything…" Lily pried her mother's hand off and returned it to her side. "Goodbye, mother. Have a good life." And she stalked out of the room, leaving those haunting blue eyes behind her.

--

The next morning, Lily arose to a gloomy day. It was extremely cloudy, good to fit her mood. She stared at her reflection in the mirror dispassionately. Her eyes were red and blotchy, from crying the unwilling tears that she cried. Her cheeks were starting to grow little bumps, as they always did when she was distressed or anxious. Her hair was dreadful, in lumps and sticking to her forehead quite inelegantly. All in all, not Miss Europe material.

She sighed as she started to get to work. No one could be able to see her distress. As she was just putting on the lotion to help her skin, a knock came at her door, followed by a hesitant voice.

"Lily? Uh…Lily? Are you there? Well, I know you are but it's okay if you don't want to come out. I mean, last night was awful—and gross—and awful, but I just wanted to come see how you were doing. You know, because there's no way that you could be feeling like yourself after all that crap that you had to go through—I mean, well…Lily, dammit, I know you can hear me. Just open the stupid door so I can stop standing here stuttering at it! Lily! Come on—" The door flung open to a distressed Carly. She shrieked in surprise as she stumbled into the room.

"Er…good morning Carly." Lily looked at her uncertain figure standing there and grinned in an exhausted manner. "Well, are you going to sit? I don't believe I've ever needed to invite you to sit down."

Carly suddenly burst into undignified tears. Lily looked at her, startled, and in disbelief. "You bloody, stupid, arse!" Carly sobbed, flinging herself on the bed. "I was so worried, but no, you don't care. I wanted you to meet my family, but then I realized that it wasn't such a good idea since your mom and that awful guy came and then everything got messed up, and you made a scene, and there were rumors flying around that you packed up and went on home!" she cried hysterically. "I was looking for you the whole night, and I even went to ask Mr. Potter if you checked out and he said no and I said I couldn't find you and he looked really worried too and—oh! It was awful! Where were you anyways? I was worried that you might do something stupid to hurt yourself and wahhhh…!"

"You and…James…were looking for me all night?" Lily bit her lip. "Oh Carly, I'm sorry. I just…needed some space, to think, you know? Last night just brought up a bunch of unwanted memories and I—well, I just needed to sort them all out before I came back. I'm—I'm sorry if I made you worry. I didn't think—"

"If! If you made me worried! You insensitive bitch!" she howled, and Lily whacked her with a pillow, cracking a grin.

"Alright, alright, mistake on my part, though I don't know why I'm apologizing. I didn't do anything wrong. Darn it, Carly, you always make me feel guilty for something that I did perfectly right." Lily sighed wearily. "But it's alright now. My mother…did…did she, you know…go home…with him?"

"Yes, I saw her boarding a bus this morning. She was actually talking to Mr. Potter, but yes, she did—"

Lily looked up so fast that she cricked her neck. "James? What does James have to do with all this?"

Carly looked at her strangely. "Well, he is the host, as I've reminded you many many times already. He does have certain obligations to fulfill, and well…why do you care anyways? Oh!" Carly looked at her with an understanding light. "I see…" She grinned slyly. "James is obviously a very important person to you—"

"We're just friends!" Lily protested.

"And obviously what he does with you parents is very important to you…"

"I don't care about their business. And they are not my parents—"

"So, does that mean you—"

"No! Finish that question and I'll punch you," Lily shrieked as she grabbed a pillow and whacked her again.

"Hey, that's not very nice." Carly threw another pillow in retaliation.

Lily just laughed lightly and whacked her over the head.

"Not my hair! Okay, that's it, Miss London, you are totally getting the pillow fight of the century! AHHHHHH!" She screamed as she launched her pillows, and the girls, with their laughter, lightened the halls with their delightful pastime.

--

"Miss London, I presume?" A smooth voice interrupted Lily in her thoughts and snapped her out of her reverie. The afternoon was quite nice, very cloudy, yes, but still quite nice. It wasn't like those unbearably hot days with the sun scorching your back, though it might rain soon. Lily always enjoyed winter better than summer. When it's cold, you can always add more layers on yourself, but when it's hot, you can't take off a certain layer of clothing, even if you do feel like walking down the street naked. Sometimes, it's just that hot. But today, very soothing. A nice, light breeze with nice, fresh air. She had been on the balcony of one of the hallways because she felt that it was too stiffling inside.

"Yes?" She turned around, but immediately wished she didn't because she was met with the face of Lucius Malfoy. She stiffened slightly, feeling his gaze rake over her. "May I help you?"

"Yes…I was quite…delighted with your performance a yesterday," he breathed down her neck, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand. "It was very nice," he said deliberately, in the same way. Lily shivered voluntarily, though it had nothing to do with the weather.

"Uh…thank you, thank you very much. It's very nice to hear comments on my performance," she said, annoyed to hear that she sounded a little breathless. Lucius Malfoy…that face, that name, all of it screamed power. Oh sure, his steel silver eyes, night be alluring if you looked at it a certain way, and oh sure, his presence did make you feel quite insignificant, and sure, even his shadow captured everyone's attention, and yes, he did have quite a lot of contacts (important ones), and of course, he was quite rich, but, Lily reached for some comfort, there's no reason to be intimidated by him.

"I feel that you have quite the potential to reach your goal of Miss Europe, more than many of the other contestants, yes?" He grabbed her hand delicately and placed a feathery light kiss on top of it. She shivered again, with a feeling of foreboding that she felt very strongly.

"Your too kind, Mr. Malfoy." Lily stepped back a little, but it did not help her feelings of foreboding at all.

"Not at all. You're quite modest, Miss London," he said with a smirk. "In fact, I would…" he stepped closer to her, "be delighted to know you better." He drew in a breath.

"Uh…thank you, Mr. Malfoy. But perhaps, as a judge, you would like to spend time with some of the other contestants first before myself. You see, the other contestants are quite wonderful," she paused, "and would love to get to know the judges as well."

Lucius Malfoy stepped back. "Of course," he said smoothly, regaining his posture. "I always like to get to know my contestants very, very well before the end judging process. Good afternoon, Miss London."

"Good afternoon Mr. Malfoy," she said softly, as he walked away, her heart beating fast with panic, or was it something else? All she knew was, it would be in her best interest if she never saw him again.

--

The air was cool and damp outside. Lily's fiery red hair flew around her face, dancing in circles, making it look more like a bush of fire than ever. She brushed it irritably out of her face. No one was outside today. Pity. Rainy days always make her feel happier, for some strange reason. Ever since she was little, she always loved going out in the rain, and although she never started "singing in the rain", she did do a lot of "dancing in the rain".

It just seemed to wash all her other thoughts away. All she concentrated on was catching droplets of water with her tongue. It wasn't the most hygienic thing to do, as her mother always reminded her, but it was something to do. The days seemed all the same to her. Just endless time ticking away, faster and faster as you went along in life. Screw all that about life being the next adventure, Lily thought spitefully, they're lying. She was scared of dying.

Of death.

Yet she chose to want to become an auror. Why? Simply because she didn't believe in running away. There's no escaping death…so what's the point in running away? She would rather die doing something she believed in, young and full of life, than let it waste away, ticking in that agonizing way. Actually, that was wrong. She wasn't really scared of death. She was more afraid of…what it took to die. She was scared of the process of dying. Of withering away in sickness.

Some old people die in their sleep, but it's not really death by old age. It's more like, the older you get the more diseases you're prone to have. So, in reality, you really die of disease, and no disease is without pain. Failure of body systems to work means your lungs fail. Which basically means you suffocate to death. Like drowning. She didn't really understand herself. She was afraid of withering away like an old crone, but she was also scared of not having the full chance of blooming. To live life to the fullest. But death doesn't care about that. It can come to anyone, at anytime. She learned that lesson through her dad.

She shivered involuntarily and sighed. Of all the things she had to think about, death just had to pop up into her head. Why did her mother have to come? Worse, why did she have to come with him? Why did she have to look at her so brokenly and full of remorse and regret, yet not being able to change anything about it? If death could swoop down at anytime, especially with Lord What's-his-face in power, didn't she want to die without regrets? Her mother, her dear old mother…

She shivered as cold drops of rain trickled down her body. Her clothes flattened themselves on her, pressing close to her. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. Lily sneezed twice in succession. That was another thing about her. She very rarely sneezed once, always twice or three times. Her eyes flew open when she felt something heavy land on her shoulders. It was a jacket.

"Alright there Evans?"

She turned around, blinking the raindrops off her eyelashes, although she already knew whom it was.

"I'm alright Potter, quite alright," she said softly, almost shyly, looking up at his face through her thick, dark lashes. It just occurred to her then that Potter was really tall. A very elegant figure, and a very nice back, she thought slyly.

"Good then," he said equally softly. He drew his breath out slowly, and then looked up at the rain that was falling from what seemed to be an infinity away. "Good."

Looking up at his handsome, rugged figure, Lily heart felt at peace even though she knew it shouldn't be. Standing there with him by her side, Lily felt as if time had stopped ticking... just for the two of them.

--

Okay, okay, before you start getting the knives out and stabbing poor little me, I really must get my apology out. I know, I know, I suckkkkk… I haven't updated in like a year and to some faithful readers, thank you very much for sending me reviews anyways, but hey! I'm back. But I'll probably put my other story on hold because more people seem to like this one, and I only have time for one of them ( sorry.

Answer to my question:

Element Fire:

Aries (March 21st-April 19th)

Leo (July 23rd-August 22nd)

Sagittarius (November 23rd-December 21st)

Element Water:

Scorpio (October 24th-November 22nd)

Pisces (February 20th-March 20th)

Cancer (June 21st-July 22nd)

Element Earth:

Capricorn (December 22nd-January 19th)

Virgo (August 23rd-September 22nd)

Taurus (April 20th-May 20th)

Element Air:

Aquarius (January 20th-February 19th)

Gemini (May 21st-June 20th)

Libra (September 23rd-October 23rd)

Those who are non-compatible:

Fire & Water (no duh…)

Earth & Air

Sooooo….how was summer for all of you? I went to several different places actually. And it's quite nice. I just hate how I get homework in the summer. You would the think that (no really?) teachers just wanna torture us the whole year round…(