AN: Hello! Ok, i posted the continuation of chapter 5 as a new story called, "Open your Eyes, Love". Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed! I know most of you told me to just post it here, but I think i want to keep this story T! haha, anyway thanks so much for the reviews!! Hope you enjoy this chapter (It is longer! I took your advice!)

Lily felt safe and warm. It seemed almost unusual to her, to feel so content when she knew war and terror continued to rage outside the grounds of the Potter estate. But for now, she didn't care. Time had stopped, and she was tucked safely into James arms, their bare skin pressed together, his lips resting on her hair, and their chests rising and falling in uniform motion. She'd been dozing on and off for the past hour, and no bad dreams had come to her. Only pleasant, beautiful images filling her head.

The door handle turned, the rusty metal squeaking, then Lily heard a thud, and a muffled cry of, "ow," as someone tried to push the door open, not realising it was locked.

James groaned in his sleepy state, his arms tightening around Lily. "Bugger off," he called.

"Why's the door locked?"

Typical, Lily thought. Of course it would be Sirius, coming to check up on his best mate.

"To keep you out," James called back, unwillingly disentangling himself from Lily, planting a soft kiss on her nose, and crawling out of bed. With a small smile on her face, Lily watched him as he dressed, his muscles rippling in the dim light.

"Stop ogling," he said, grinning at her. She grinned back, then closed her eyes, burying further beneath the warm blankets.

"Tell him to go away, then come back to bed," Lily said, stretching her legs out and yawning. She heard the door open.

"Go away or I'll hex you."

Lily chuckled to herself. He really had a way with words that one.

"James, there's a problem."

"What's happened?" James demanded, his voice now frantic and worried. Lily sat up, suddenly very awake, clutching the blankets around her neck.

"No, calm down, it's nothing to do with the war. It's…" Sirius shot Lily a sideways glance and looked distinctly awkward. "It's just…well, you'd better come downstairs."

"I'll be right back up," James said to Lily, and left, closing the door behind him.

Lily scowled at the door. Swinging her legs out of the bed, she grabbed her wand off of the bedside table, pointed it at a discarded shirt on the floor, and skilfully transfigured it into a summery dress – the sort of dress she was definitely feeling in the mood for. Maybe later in the day, she and James could go for a walk around the lake, take a dip in it even, then lay in the sun, kissing until the air turned chilly and the clear sky turned pink, as the sun slid over the horizon.

She slipped the dress over her head, put her wand in the pocket and let herself out of James' room, determined to find out what was so important that Sirius had to pull James away from her so early in the morning. As she descended the grand staircase, she saw Remus leaning against the wall just outside the living room, reading the Daily Prophet and frowning.

"'Morning. How are you feeling?" he asked, looking up as she passed him.

"Alright," she replied with a shrug, then indicated the closed door. "What's going on in there?"

Remus just shrugged and shifted his weight to the other foot. "Nothing important. Why don't you go and get some breakfast…"

"Remus," Lily began dangerously, her green eyes flashing. "What is going on in there?"

"It's nothing, Lils. Honestly. Just…erm…a little problem, but I'm sure James will sort it all out."

"I'm going in."

"That's really not a good idea, Lily!" Remus exclaimed, but it was too late: Lily was already pushing open the door.

Nothing too terrible met her eyes at first. Lily had almost been expecting some sort of horrific monster to jump out at her, but there was nothing like that. The room was filled with early morning sunshine, illuminating the dusty bookshelves and faces of the three people in the room.

James stood by the unlit fireplace, his hands shoved deep in his pockets and a frown etched clearly onto his face. He was biting his lip in the way he always did when he was trying to figure something out. Sirius stood a little behind him, looking as though he was on the verge of saying something. His dark hair had fallen into his eyes, and he pushed it back in irritation, his eyes flicking between James and the third person in the room, who was occupying the large armchair by the fireplace.

She was tall, thin, and extremely pretty, with long blonde hair, a fine nose, turned up daintily at the end, pale flawless skin, and light grey eyes, which were gazing worriedly at James. Her loose fitting robes were a light blue and didn't quite conceal the bulge of her fairly pregnant belly.

No one but Sirius noticed Lily's quiet entrance, but his eyes immediately darkened and a worried crease formed between his brows. Remus had followed Lily inside, and he now rested a gentle hand on her shoulder, as if to calm her.

"Well?" the blonde lady inquired of James, in a soft, slightly foreign accent that Lily couldn't quite pick up from the monosyllabic word.

James just rubbed a hand over his tired face and finally turned to look at her. As he did, he caught a glimpse of Lily and his mouth fell open slightly, a forlorn look in his eyes.

Lily's stomach churned. "James," she said very quietly. "What's going on?"

He cleared his throat and swallowed, then nodded at the blonde woman. "Lily, this is Sally…someone I met when…when I was in Sydney last year."

The colour drained from Lily's face, and she vaguely felt Remus' hand squeeze her shoulder in support. She'd heard about a girl that he'd met in Sydney…a girl who he'd barely known, but had hooked up with in a desperate attempt to forget about Lily and move on. But, that had been a year ago. And James had told her it meant nothing, that she had meant nothing to him. That he loved her, Lily. But this girl…she was, well, she was beautiful, and she looked so right, sitting there beside James. Two tall, beautiful people, arrogance in both their eyes. They looked like they belonged together…and her pregnant tummy did nothing to refute this.

Stop panicking, Lily told herself sternly. Don't jump to conclusions. But her mind was jumping to conclusions. She couldn't help it; that was what she did – automatically assume the worst.

"But…why is she here?"

"I'm here," the young woman named Sally replied softly, in a now obvious Australian accent, "because James needs to take responsibility for his actions."

Lily's eyes travelled down to the pregnant bump, back to Sarah's face, then to James' worried and upset expression. Then her stomach churned again, and, raising a hand to her mouth, Lily turned and left the room at a run, not saying a word to anyone.

---

Sarah and Eleanor found her under a large tree on the sprawling grounds of Godric's Hollow, chewing on a fingernail and gazing up at the peaceful blue sky.

"We come bearing food," Sarah said, plopping herself down besides Lily and pulling her best friend's feet into her lap.

"Chocolate to be more specific," Eleanor said, sitting on Lily's other side, and chucking a large bar of Honeyduke's best into Lily's lap.

"I didn't stay to hear anyone's story," Lily admitted, ripping into the wrapper of the chocolate bar. "I just ran out of the room. I could have jumped to the wrong conclusion."

When neither of her friends replied, Lily took this to mean she hadn't jumped to the wrong conclusion. Angrily, she broke off a large piece of chocolate and shoved it unceremoniously into her mouth.

"What does this mean?" Lily asked around a mouthful of chocolate. "She's going to want him to help raise the baby? Marry him? I mean, what, are they seeing each other? Does she live in England? Is she going to live here? When was the last time they saw each other? I thought it was last summer! I thought it was a one time thing!"

Sarah and Eleanor raised their eyebrows at each other. This was very un-Lily-like. Usually Lily sulked. Or fell into deep depressions and shut out the entire world.

Hysterical anger was not a typical reaction.

"Lily, calm down. We don't know much more than you."

"I slept with him!" Lily wailed. "I decided to be with him, that we're meant to be togther!! Isn't that what everyone keeps telling me?"

"You slept with James?" Sarah asked. "Again, seriously? When? Last night?"

Eleanor glared at Sarah before she started asking how good the sex had been. That would be very un-comforting.

"Why? Why does this have to happen to me? It's karma, isn't it? Karma is biting me in the ass, because I refused to accept the good thing when it was offered. So when I finally got around to accepting the fact that James is the one for me, it's too late. He's going to have a kid with another girl!"

Sarah rubbed Lily's feet soothingly, letting her rant. She needed to. She needed to yell and scream at the world a bit; to let out some of her frustration.

Eleanor raised an eyebrow at Sarah, who just shrugged back and mouthed, it hasn't sunk in. It would in a minute though, and they would either be left dealing with an angsty, screw-the-world,-I'm-going-to-curl-up-in-a-ball-and-die-Lily, or a sobbing mess. Neither girl was too sure which was preferable, either.

"I told myself I shouldn't love anyone. I knew I shouldn't. But I did it anyway. I stopped listening to my head, for once in my life. I knew the consequences, I knew this was going to happen!" Lily seemed to be talking more to herself than Sarah or Eleanor now. She broke off another piece of chocolate and sucked thoughtfully on it. "Love is giving someone the power to break your heart, but trusting them not to. But everyone I ever loved broke my heart. I knew not to do it again. You'd think by now I would have learnt my lesson. The people I love always break my heart."

It appeared that the two friends would have to deal with angsty-Lily. Not much fun. They'd almost prefer a sobbing, hysterical mess. In many ways, it was much easier to deal with.

-

"Should we let her sleep?" Eleanor asked, still sitting on the grass under the large oak, shivering in the now chilly wind.

"I don't know," Sarah sighed, staring up at the sky, which was almost completely covered with heavy grey clouds. "Maybe we should go back inside. It's been almost an hour, maybe she's ready to face him now."

"Someone's coming," Lily muttered, apparently not quite as asleep as her two friends thought. It was true; a tall someone was making his way over to them from the large manor. "Uh, I'm really not ready to face James."

"Well, it's not James," Eleanor said, squinting at the boy who was walking towards them.

"I don't want to talk to Remus either."

"That's not Remus," Sarah said. "He's too tall for Remus."

"It's Sirius!" Eleanor said in surprise. "What on earth could he want?"

Neither friend replied, and each waited, perplexed as Sirius slowly made his way over to them. He stopped a few yards away from the three girls and shoved his hands deep in his jeans pockets. His thin face looked worried and his dark hair fell into his brooding eyes.

"Lily, I really need to talk to you."

"Well, she doesn't want to talk," Sarah spoke for her, her voice icy. "Why don't you run back up to the house, tell Potter to grow a pair, and get him to talk to Lily."

Sirius ignored her. "We should really talk…in private."

"No," Lily replied. "Anything you need to say, you can say in front of them."

"Fine," Sirius consented grumpily, a frown creasing his brow. "I think that you need to get off of your high horse and realise the bloke made a mistake. Why do you have to make everything so bloody hard for him? He didn't ask for this to happen."

"I'm making this hard?" Lily spluttered. "He SLEPT with another girl. I didn't even mention it to him when it happened over the summer but this was recentl-"

"You weren't going out with him," Sirius stated simply, spreading his hands. "He had no obligation towards you. He was just a single bloke giving in to his emotions and you need to cut him some slack. You were ignoring him, Lily. He thought it was completely over between the two of you. Technically, the guy did nothing wrong. So maybe you need to talk to him before you start jumping to conclusions."

Lily didn't know what to say. Besides feeling upset and angry, she now felt a little embarrassed as well. "I'll meet you two at the house in a minute," she muttered quietly.

Sarah and Eleanor left, and Sirius sat himself down, heaving a great sigh as though talking to Lily was painful.

"So," Lily began slowly, feeling distinctly awkward. "She's pregnant."

"And apparently it's James', yeah," Sirius muttered back, picking at the grass.

"Apparently?"

"Well, James believes her. But he's always been too trusting of people."

"I didn't realise they were still in touch," Lily said quietly, pulling her knees up under her chin. "I thought they met once, last summer, and then that was it."

Sirius scratched his nose. "Well, it was a one time thing. James came back here and forgot all about her. He was totally in love with you, and he thought you loved him back." He paused. It sounded so strange to here Sirius, the boy who went through girls as quickly as he went through socks, talk about love. "Then she came back to visit over Christmas. I think James went to see her. But I know nothing happened between them. He showed her around London and probably spent the entire day talking about you. Anyway, she went home, he went back to school, and suddenly he had no girl, seeing as you decided that you wanted nothing to do with him."

"That's not fair, you don't underst-"

"I don't need to understand," Sirius said bitterly as he yanked violently at a dandelion and tore its yellow head off. "You have no idea, do you? No idea what he went through…what I went through! You…you broke him, Lily. So when Sally came back during the Easter holidays, he had every right to sleep with her. And you have no right to be angry with him. Don't Lily, don't leave him again, because I honestly don't think he'd survive it."

Sirius got to his feet and pushed his hair out of his eyes. Digging around in his pocket, he pulled out a handkerchief and gave it to Lily, before heading back up to the house. Lily brushed angrily at the tears sliding down her face, then buried her face into her knees.

When did this happen? When did she become this person? Life would have been so much easier if James had never fallen in love with her. Yes, maybe it would have been easier, but Lily couldn't imagine, didn't want to imagine, a life without James.

It was time to stop. Stop treating James with indifference, stop feeling sorry for herself. She needed to start living again.

AN: Thanks for reading! Please review!