A/N: thanks to all my reviewers! in this chapter you'll get a little more information of Lily's past and finally James will get what he deserves...

Disclaimer: still own nothing...

Chapter six: a graveyard walk

Lily took steady breathes, her ponytail swinging from side to side as she jogged on the sidewalk. Her loosened shirt was tied in a knot below her chest and the cold air was cooling her bare stomach and back.

Her body was sweating and her legs were getting tired, but she didn't stop.

The feeling of frustration and hurt were still fresh in her mind and heart, as it was yesterday morning.

'Lily sat at the back of the row in the church, and watched the couple that was getting married. The bride was tall and slim with a blond hair that was tied up in an elegant hairdo.

The groom that was slightly shorter then the bride and chubbier, gave an impression of (Lily tried to find the right words, without sounding insulting) a whale in a tuxedo.

Despite everything that happened between them, Lily still loved her sister very much, and was proud of her at the moment.

She continued to observe the ceremony half-heartily, her mind focused only on her sister.

She knew she wasn't supposed to be here, but Lily couldn't let the chance of seeing her sister again, after all those years, to pass away.

She just needed to know if Petunia still thought that she…

Well, she sighted, today we will find out about that answer, without Petunia knowing that she's there.

Lily closed her eyes tightly when she felt her eyes starting to sting again.

"Dam'n it!" she thought and ran faster, trying to conceal her tears.

'The party was full of people and Lily didn't have any trouble to blend in the with crowd. She looked sideways at her sister, close enough to hear what she was saying and far enough, from Petunia to recognize her.

"Petunia! Lovely wedding." called an old plump lady cheerfully.

Petunia smiled warmly at her. "Thank you, Mrs. Dorris."

She turned to her husband and her friends that surrounded them. "I would like you to meet Mrs. Dorris; she's an old friend of the family. Used to take care of me, when my parents were not home."

"Yes," agreed Mrs. Dorris. "Of you and your little sister."

Lily tensed and watched as Petunia paled suddenly.

"You two used to do such problems," Mrs. Dorris chuckled, not noticing Petunia's reaction. "Of course you were the quieter type, while little Lily was the complete opposite; running around and making troubles like a hurricane. But what a voice she had! It felt like the world stopped spinning when she sang… Quite a talent she was… where is she, by the way? I haven't seen her for many years…"

Lily held her breath, her attention focused only on Petunia who was shaking with rage, and waited for her response.

"I have no idea of what you're talking about," said Petunia coldly. "I have no sister and never had a sister."

Lily felt like someone poured a bucket of ice cold water on her body and her eyes gleamed with hurt.

"My family died when my house suddenly was set on fire. I was an only child in our family."

This time Lily was the one that was shaking violently.

She got the answer that she was looking for.

"Excuse me; are you a friend or a relative of the couple?" Someone asked her nearby. Lily turned to the questioner with an expressionless face.

"No," she answered, trying to keep her voice steady. "I'm nobody. Absolutely nobody."'

Lily bit her bottom lip to prevent herself from screaming- she will deal with the pain later. Her run became faster until she almost wasn't able to breathe properly.

She closed her eyes tightly trying to forget Petunia's words, when her foot was caught in something.

She yelled in surprise when she fell to the hard ground, and the air knocked out of her. She rolled a few times on the road before stopping on her back, her glasses lying broken a few feet from her. After the first shock, she felt her elbows and knees starting to sting with pain.

And then she heard it. A distant laughter.

"Nice fall, Evans!" and the voices burst in laughter again.

Lily lay motionless on the ground, even though from the inside she was burning from anger and hate.

Those idiots! Why did they have to pick on her today? She was near to an emotional breakdown since yesterday, and the last thing she needed now, was to get pranked by those arrogant, selfish brats!

Well, if they want to play with her… She has no problem to cooperate…

After a few moments, the laughter died away when the boys realized that the girl wasn't getting up from the ground.

Sirius and James exchanged slightly anxious looks.

"You think she's still alive?" asked Sirius.

"Don't know. But we can't just leave her like this. Come'n" James jumped over the fence and in two paces, kneeled beside Lily's body.

He put his fingers gently on her cheek and moved her head slightly.

"Evans, can you hear me?"

To his relief, her eyelashes fluttered and opened slightly. Her eyes closed immediately, and an expression of pain spread on her face.

"My head hurts," she whispered. "What happened?"

"You fell," he answered quickly. "It was an accident."

An accident, right… and it's probably only a coincident that there was an invisible rope on the road…

Lily let out a painful sigh and slowly got up on her elbows.

"Black, can you give me a glass of water please?" she asked in a small voice.

Sirius nodded and run towards the house leaving James alone with Lily.

James looked at her when she sat up, another painful expression crossing her face.

She looked at her scratched knees and elbows that were bleeding, but she didn't pay too much attention to them. Her target was kneeling next to her, and she will give him a little memento from her that she should have given him years ago.

"Potter, can you please help me to get up on my feet?"

James hesitated for a second before helping her up. He steadied her by holding her shoulders, and she opened her eyes looking straight at him.

"Thank you," she said weakly. "Would you mind to remove your glasses?"

James did what she asked him to, with a confused expression on his face. "What for?"

"For this!" her voice became suddenly louder, and the next thing he felt was a sharp pain where Lily's fist clashed with his nose and broke it.

He stumbled backwards, his feet tripped on the invisible rope and he fell to the ground.

"Hey Evans! Here's your-" Sirius stopped in his tracks and looked at the scene before him. "Water."

"Thank you," Lily said, she took a sip from the glass of water and the rest poured on Sirius' head.

Muttering "jerks" she picked up her glasses and Disaparated.

Lily walked towards the kitchen, examining her bruised elbows.

"Whoa Lils! What happened?" asked Jamie with worry, noticing the scratches on her hands and legs and the blood on her knees and elbows.

"I fell." she answered curtly, and messed his hair to show that everything was alright.

"I'm off to play quidditch with James and Sirius, can you tell that to mum?" asked Charley getting up from the table.

Lily nodded and patted his back, "No problem."

Charley held his broom on his shoulder and looked at Lily with an anxiously. "You ok, Lily?"

"Yes, don't worry," she smiled. "It's only a few scratches; I'll live."

Charley nodded, even though he wasn't seemed convinced of her answer.

"Derek is coming with me, so we probably going to return in the evening.".

"Have fun," she said, but after a second thought she turned around. "Charley?"

"Yes?" he stopped and looked at her.

"Do me a favor, ok?" she looked down at her elbows and knees. "Hit Potter's and Black's head with a bludger several times, will you?"

Four boys were up in the air, trying to snatch the red Quaffle and score some points in the opposite goal.

"Still hurts?" asked Sirius with amusement, seeing his best friend rubbing his nose for the fifth time.

James glared at him and said gruffly, "No, my mum fixed it for me in a second. I just still can't believe that she hit me!"

"Who hit you?" asked Derek curiously.

"Evans," answered Sirius. "She punched James and broke his nose."

Derek looked at James with sympathy. "She has some nasty punches."

"I know," said James, scowling. "Since when did she learned how to punch?"

"She learned boxing and karate since she was six." answered Derek casually.

Sirius and James looked at him with surprise. "She did?"

"Sure. She even demonstrated her tactics for me." he answered with a half a smile, putting one hand unconsciously on his stomach.

"But she is usually a calm person. You must have made her very angry if she punched you. What did you do?"

Sirius and James exchanged wide smiles. "We found out that she likes to run in these hours, so we put an invisible rope on the ground and she tripped."

"I give her fall 8 out of 10." laughed Sirius.

"Remember how she rolled on the road?" James smirked. "Ouch!" he yelled when he was hit forcefully on his head by a Quaffle.

"Oh sorry!" called Charley. "Did it hurt?"

James rubbed his head and waved his hand in the air meaning, "It's all right"

Derek flew towards Charley and gave him a knowing look.

"What?" asked Charley innocently.

"You should learn how to aim." commented Derek dryly.

"I know," Charley let a disappointed sigh. "I was aiming for his stomach, but his head got on the way."

Lily put on her jacket and put her wand in her back pocket.

"Going out?"

Lily looked up to see Derek standing in front of her.

"I'm going for a walk, I feel like I'm drowning or something. Tell everybody to not wait up for me." she smiled at him and opened the door.

She heard Derek sigh and felt his hand on her shoulder, "Flower, why you're not telling me what happened? You've been in this mood since yesterday afternoon."

"In what mood?" she asked looking at him sideways.

"You know what I'm talking about," he looked at her seriously. "Even the kids noticed that something is wrong when you didn't say a thing or even joined when they started a food fight. Charley even thought that it was Potter's fault, after he heard what he did to you, and hit the guy with the Quaffle."

Lily smiled slightly at this and muttered, "Send him my thanks."

"I'm serious flower."

Lily sighed and turned around. "Look, it's just a little depression and nothing else."

"A little depression won't make you punch somebody because of a stupid prank. The only times that you do attack, is when you're defending yourself, when a guy is trying to pass the line with you or when you want me to shut up."

Lily chuckled at this and shrugged. "Well, you get annoying sometimes."

"Flower…"

Lily sighted again. "Listen, it's nothing to worry about, I was just stupid enough to make a mistake and I need to go and relax and think about it all over. I promise you-" she put her hand in his. "That when I figure everything out, I'll tell you everything you want to know, alright?"

Derek nodded and gave her a quick hug before she closed the door behind her.

James sat on the window sill, and looked outside to the starless night. A cool breeze ruffled his already messy hair and he took a deep breath pulling it out slowly.

Nights like this he always enjoyed, it gave him some time to think about everything without any interruption.

He observed the empty and silent road in front of him, when he heard soft footsteps.

When he looked he saw a girl walking in the middle of the road, her hands in her pockets and she observing the sky with the same interest that he showed a few minutes ago.

When she walked near the street light, he recognized her. It was… Evans.

She wore long tight jeans, a black long sleeve shirt and a black jacket. Her hair wasn't in a ponytail, but lay loosely on her back, getting almost to her waist.

It still surprised him to see her wearing normal clothes and not those baggy clothes that were five times bigger then her size.

What was she doing here at this time of hour, walking alone?

After she passed his house, he jumped quickly to the ground and without a second thought started to follow her.

It seemed that she was in deep thoughts and from time to time he could hear her letting soft sighs escape her mouth.

He followed her for about ten minutes, still keeping his distance so she won't find him out.

Lily continued to walk, ignoring the person that followed her. She can deal with him tomorrow. Tonight, she needed to relax in the only place she thought she can.

In the nearest house, different lights were coming from it and a loud music, apparently there was a party inside.

"Hey, Lily!"

Lily turned around and saw a boy leaning on the balcony with a bottle of beer in his hand.

"Bred!" she smiled and walked closer. "I see you've got a wild party going on."

Bred looked inside for a second and shrugged. "Something like that. You want to come in and join us?"

Lily looked hesitant for a moment. "Err...no. No offence or anything, but I want to be alone tonight."

"You ok?" he asked in concern.

"Yeah, fine," she smiled. "Just one of those nights, you know."

"Hmm," he took a swig of the bottle and looked up to the sky. "No stars, I see what you mean."

"So how things going between you and Rachel?" although she wasn't planning on staying in one place for long, she didn't mind to have a small conversation with one of her friends. After all, she had the whole night in front of her.

"We broke up. I'm dating Jill now."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Nah. It's ok," he looked closer at her and frowned slightly. "Are you sure you don't want to come in? You seem like you could use some company."

"I'm cool," she shrugged. "Just one of my moods. Thanks for the offer though."

"Lily!" called a cheerful voice from inside, coming out of the house, slightly unstable.

"Hi Janet." smiled Lily.

"So you've decided to join the party, after all?"

Lily let a small chuckle. "Sorry Janet, not tonight."

"Oh," Janet looked very disappointed. "So where are you going?"

"Thought to have a long walk, relax a bit."

"So you've finally taking on my advice, huh?" asked Janet smugly.

"What? To get laid?" laughed Lily. "No, I think I'll pass."

"If your problem is with whom, I can give you a long list of guys that would do it with pleasure- some of them are even taken." said Janet with a wink.

James watched from his place of hiding, the conversation between Lily and those two people, who seemed to be in their early twenties.

He was quite surprised that they even talked to Lily, better yet, Lily talking to them casually, like they were old friends.

He kept noticing the difference between her behavior in school compared to how she acted in this place.

It was like watching a complete different person, and it highly confused him.

It seems that here, the people actually liked Lily and enjoyed her presence while at school it no one could stand her.

He saw her laughing and chatting comfortably with the boy and the girl, and he just realized how little he knew about her.

"It's really a shame that you're not joining the party," he saw the girl sigh. "I could use some intelligent conversation with someone. You can't believe how annoying it is, when your partner is staring at your chest the whole time."

"Well, you really do have a nice chest." the man with beer muttered and then winced when the girl hit him around the head. Lily put her hand on her mouth to hide her laughter.

"Easy, woman!" Bred said and moved a little from Janet. "It was just a compliment!"

"Compliment my ass! Why aren't you hitting on Lily instead?"

"Hey!" called Lily, sending a glare towards Janet.

"Are you nuts? I don't want to lose my teeth- or any other member of my body as well."

Lily gave him a sheepish smile, even though her eyes showed how pleased she was from his answer.

"Speaking of which-" Janet turned to look at Lily. "I heard that Frank is back in town."

James saw Lily groan and putting her head in her hands.

"Let me guess, he still holds a grudge against me, right?"

"I don't think that the fact that you broke his jaw helped him to forget you," commented Bred with a smile.

"Well, if he kept his hands to himself…"

"I know what you mean," Janet sighted again. "It's just impossible to find a guy who won't send his arms-" she hit Bred's hand that crept around her waist. "On your body"

"So tell me," she started, after giving Bred a dirty look. "Is it true that you broke the new neighbor's nose?"

Lily rolled slightly her eyes and muttered to herself, "How fast the rumors fly around this neighborhood."

James froze when he heard that, and cursed under his breath. Now Evans will start boasting and laughing on him for sure.

"What do you think?" he heard her ask dryly.

"So it's true, then?" asked Janet in a delighted voice.

"What's true?"

"That you broke that guy's nose."

"What guy?"

"The neighbor."

"Which one?"

"Lily!" said Janet angrily.

"What?" asked Lily innocently.

"Answer already!"

Lily looked at her confusedly. "What was the question again?"

"Drop it," laughed Bred. "You know she doesn't like to give details each time she kicked somebody's ass. You don't want to talk about it, right?" he asked Lily.

Lily sent him a grateful smile and raised her eyebrows, "Talk about what?"

Janet gave a desperate sigh and leaned on the wall. "Fine, I won't ask. But I'm doing it only because I know that tomorrow is the big night for you and for the rest of us."

"So you're coming?" asked Lily with interest.

"Of course we're coming! We want to collect our prizes, don't we?"

Lily rubbed her forehead and spoke slowly as if she was afraid of the answer, "Don't tell me that you gambled too."

"Sure we did," smirked Bred. "Those twins took 50 from each and every one of us who was interested. It's the only thing that people around here are talking about."

"Oh, brother." sighed Lily. One glance at her watch told her to better hurry up.

"Listen guys, I need to go. Catch you later?"

"Sure, I'll invite you to join us for a drink in two days to celebrate your victory." smiled Janet.

"You don't know what will happen tomorrow. Anyway, sorry to leave but there is an idiot who's been following me for the last three streets, and its better that I'll shake him off."

"I would have told you to be careful, but knowing you I'll say that I pity the person who'll try to mess with you." smiled Bred.

Lily chuckled softly at this and waved towards them. "Bye" she said and ran away.

Lily tightened the jacket to her body when she felt the cold air on her bare skin. She continued walking, half blind without the moon light and took steady breathes, clutching her wand tighter in her hand and trying to make as less sound as possible.

The graveyard was, of course, deserted in such time at night and she preferred it that way.

In this place the dead don't ask questions.

Lily stopped in front of two tombstones and set on the ground.

"Hi mom, hi dad." she smiled slightly and put the two lilies that she conjured from the air, on the ground in front of her.

"Long time no see, like Derek always says. But I just felt the need to come here and talk to you, you know?"

She was quite for a moment before continuing.

"I saw Petunia yesterday," she lay back on her back, in a vertical positions in front of the graves and stretched her legs in front of her.

"You should have seen her mum! She looked very pretty in that wedding dress," she smiled, and put her hands behind her head. "And I bet you would have been proud of her even if you disliked Vernon Dursley, dad."

She sighted and closed her eyes. "I frankly didn't find anything special about him, but it's Petunia's choice after all," she opened her eyes, a sad smile appearing on her features. "I watched the whole ceremony. Petunia, of course, didn't know about it and I doubt that she would have recognized me through this-" she held a strand of black hair. "Disguise."

She took a slow breath and shrugged one shoulder. "I really didn't know why I went...no." she corrected herself. "I knew exactly why I went. It was only because of that stupid hope of mine, that she changed her mind about me." she closed her eyes, a painful expression spreading on her face. "It was stupid, I know. To think after the last encounter between us when I was twelve, that she actually forgiven me it's just-" she let a helpless sigh. "But I couldn't help it. When I received her letter last year, and even after I read it I just felt... I thought… just maybe she didn't mean all those horrible things that she told me last time."

She observed the sky thoughtfully. "Not to come to her wedding," she let a dry laugh "It's easier to convince the twins to drop the idea of raising a dragon! After all those years that I didn't hear a sound of her and suddenly to discover that she's here… she actually thought that I won't come to see her?"

"But then," she continued, her smile fading slowly. "When I saw her face, when Mrs. Dorris mentioned me, I just knew that she didn't forgive me, that she still thinks that it's my whole fault for your- you know." she glanced at her parents grave and then stared at the sky again.

"I still remember what she told me in my second year, and it hurt back then, a lot," she put her hand on her heart. "Still does. But, " her mouth twitched slightly, and she bit her bottom lip to not start sobbing. "When I heard her telling to those people that she didn't have any sister… I won't deny that it broke me to pieces. I still love her. She is my sister- from my point of view, anyway."

She let a slow breath and wiped the tears from her eyes. "After that I just left. I looked for an answer and I found it. I've been in this depression since then, quite scared the guys because of it."

She smiled a half smile when she remembered everyone's questions. "Charley thought it was because of Potter so he hit Potter's head with the Quaffle- I consider to buy him a flying car to his birthday because of that... Erica and Richard were in the same opinion with the twins that it's because of Angela. So the twins blown her bed into pieces in three in the morning, and Ouch-that dear elf- cooked and put every special spices that Angela was allergic to them," she chuckled softly. "What a mess it was in dinner."

She shook her head slightly, stretching her arms in front of her. "But I can't tell anyone about this, because they'll get angry- with a good reason of course- but still…"

She sighed, put her hands on her stomach and looked at the tombstones with a happier smile. "Did I mention that I'm Head Girl? I found that out even before the letters have arrived. Mrs. P told me."

She turned on her side, so she was now facing the white tombstones. "You remember about Helen Potter, right? She and her husband are the main Aurors that are working on my case. They still looking for him." Her face darkened for a second but then she smiled again. "I like them very much, they are really nice people but their son!" she let an irritated sound, "That pompous jerk! Imagine me working with him for a whole year, not to mention that I need to share a dorm with him. When I first met Mr. Potter he told me to look for his son and befriend with him, because he trusted that his son will take care of me if I'll be in trouble. Right," she gave a short snort. "He took care of humiliating me, that's for sure." She shook her head again and rolled her eyes, "I hate talking about him, he's the guy that tries every time, to turn my life into hell."

She lay back to the ground and rubbed her eyes tiredly, "I hope you're ready for a long talk because I've got a lot to tell you. You can't even imagine what is going on tomorrow…"

A/N: please REVIEW and tell me what you think :)