Sirius' P.O.V.

The red door seemed to be staring at me. Driving my brain to thrum in my head, making it seem like I should be the one in this mental hospital. It should have been me, honestly. I should never have let Lily get kidnapped. If only James' and I hadn't gotten in a fight, and then made it awkward between us, I could have been there to stop it. But now Lily believed that James was the bad guy, and that couldn't work. They were suppose to get married next month. James was literally going insane not seeing her, so I had to convince her that she was wrong, that the Death Eaters had lied, and that James was actually the good guy.

Before I could convince myself against it, I took a deep breath and opened the door. Lily was lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling where she had drawings posted. She spoke from the bed. "I wondered when you'd come to see me. Come lay with me."

I walked to the bed, laying down next to her and she grasped my hand with hers. "I've missed you." she said. "You were always my favorite friend, don't tell Remus that of course, he was in here just the other day. Told me all about the upcoming Quiddich match that's suppose to be important. But all I wanted to talk about was life. You know I haven't seen the sun in over five months? Isn't that incredibly sad. I'm getting better you know, I'm trying to listen to the Healers. Convince myself that they're right, I did get kidnapped and all that bad stuff happened, but I'm safe now, and you guys are all safe too, no ones going to hurt me, and all of you are real. But part of me can't shake the feeling that I'm in some new kind of torture, where I get to see all of my friends one last time, before something horrible happens. I don't know. What do you think? You've been very quiet. I've said too much I suppose. I made the twinkle go out." she lapsed into silence, and I turned to look at her.

"What's the twinkle?" I asked her, and she grinned innocently.

"Your eyes. They twinkle most of the time. I noticed that in third year. They twinkle when you're doing something mischievous, when your happy, and when your laughing. But it's gone. It's because I've made you sad. I'm sorry. What did I do?" she asked, and my heart almost broke looking at her. Like a child.

"Don't be sorry, you shouldn't apologize. Here, it will come back, I'll tell a joke. Would you like that?" I asked, wanting to make her happy.

"Yes Sirius! Oh yes I would!" she said and squeezed my hand.

"Ok, here we go. What would you say if you were sitting next to the devil and he sneezed?" I asked her, and she scrunched her nose before realizing the joke.

She laughed and I smiled with her. "I get it! Because you wouldn't say god bless you to the devil. That's funny Sirius! But the twinkles still gone." she answered, and frowned.

"I'm sorry. I'm just sad. You shouldn't be in here, you should be planning your wedding." I paused, waiting to see her reaction, but her expression remained the same. "You see, your mind has tricked you Lily. It's tricked you into thinking that James was torturing you all those times. But really, it was polyjuice potion. You know how real that seems, polyjuice potion. Remember when Slughorn taught us about it? You already knew what it was, and had already made it yourself in second year, to see if it actually worked. And you remember who you pretended to be? James, because he had tied your shoelaces together and you were mad, so you pretended to be him and made him dance around the Great Hall crazily and sing to McGonagall at the top of his lungs that he loved her." I laughed remembering and she smiled, which seemed like a good sign.

"He got detention for two weeks because of that you know." I said, and tapped her nose gently.

"That's when James was nice, before he met Voldemort." she said and smiled, tucking her head into my chest.

"No Lily. That's where your wrong, you see, James never met Voldemort before he fell in love with you. He's actually loved you since the moment he met you. Voldemort made someone pretend to be him to scare you. To make you be hopeless, so he could manipulate you easier. James loves you Lily. He's been here the whole time, he never wanted you to get kidnapped, to get tortured. He's been going insane at home, because Dumbledore won't let him see you. It was all a game Lily. James, the real one, is at your house, in Godric's Hollow. He's been there the whole time, missing you." I finished, and watched as she slowly turned away from me and looked up at the ceiling. I looked at the drawings for the first time, and realized they were all James face. Over and over again.

"I keep dreaming about him you know. The times before I knew he was evil. How he told me he loved me, and he just wanted to hold me, and be with me forever. How he wanted to have kids, a girl and a boy." she said wistfully, gazing at the pictures of him.

"But Lily, those things he said were real. He does love you, he does want to hold you, and have kids with you. And be with you forever. He loves you Lily. Not Voldemort and his beliefs. All he's ever wanted was to be with you." I said, urging her to believe me.

"I-I I don't know. Sirius, that makes sort of sense, but I don't know if I can believe it. There's just too much proof. James made it all make sense when he kept torturing me. Everything made sense. The timing was perfect. He had all the right reasons to hate me. Information only James' would know. It's the only thing that makes sense. How could a random Death Eater know all those things about us?" She questioned me, her green eyes glowing like orbs.

"I don't know Lily. But they're going to pay for it. I promise."

Emma's P.O.V.

I had left Lily's hospital room for the second time this week a few hours ago. She was getting so much better it was unbelievable. The first month had been the worst, not knowing when she was going to pop into her 'glassy' phase or not. Which was so incredibly sad, because we knew now that glassy was actually the real Lily shining through. But it was so much better. The glassy phase became all time Lily, she no longer pretended to be sane. But Dumbledore said this was better because they could retrieve Lily from the glass, without damaging her more.

None of us knew what she had gone through, but it must have been terrible. To put yourself into a fake reality to escape from the real one must have pushed Lily to her limit. Her body was completely healed, once she had allowed the healers to touch her, the physical wounds were much better. It was just her mind now, which the Healers said would have to heal on it's own. Which is why Sirius was going to visit her. He was so much like James that the Healers had been worried she would panic when she saw the similarities. But she was so much better that Sirius would get to see her today, and maybe try to convince her that James was never a death eater. If she reacted ok to Sirius, her last visitor would finally get to see her, Petunia.

It had been slightly awkward at first, having Petunia stay with Sirius and I. But she lived hours away, and refused to travel by Floo. We offered an extra room in my house and she finally relented, after calling her husband, lying, saying that her 'business' was running long, but not to worry. She mostly kept to herself, going to sleep at a relatively early time, and getting up ridiculously early in the morning, but she didn't snore, or keep the bathroom messy, so I was fine with it.

Sirius, I knew, was probably entering the door now, looking at how different Lily looked, less alive, like a living corpse. He would be shocked to see her, to hear her. I feel bad, honestly. Sirius is such a happy person, isn't meant to live in a world with this much destruction. He'd come home with the twinkle gone from his eye, which was horrible, because I hated to see him upset.

I walked through the doors of my house to see a surprising sight. Petunia was sitting at the kitchen table, sobbing her eyes out. Deep, racking shudders ran through her body as she sat.

"Petunia?" I questioned quietly and she looked up suddenly at me.

'I'm sorry." she squeaked quickly. "I'll clean the table, I promise, I just-" but she burst into another fresh round of tears.

"What's wrong?" I asked, sitting down next to her.

"You know I didn't use to hate Lily? Before I realized she was-well like you. We use to be friends. Best friends." she said with a shudder.

"Why do you hate her? She didn't choose this you know. You can't help what you're born with." I questioned gently.

"Because it's not fair. She always had everything. She was always the prettiest, the ones boys looked at all through middle school, until she left that is. Always the smartest, the one my parents loved more. The funniest. The sweetest. Everything I couldn't be. And then she gets to be a witch! To have life be so easy because of magic! Everything at your fingertips. And then she gets to be with James! How is that fair? I get stuck with Vernon, the fattest, walrus of a man that doesn't even appreciate me." she rumbled off coherently and I sat there, not quite sure what to say.

"Well, does Lily know you feel this way?" I asked.

"No, no one does. I don't even know why I'm telling you. You're a witch too." she replied, glaring at me. "I'm alone here. You and that shaggy haired man are together, obviously, and are clearly in love. And I'm sitting here, sobbing my eyes out every day because I'll never have anything like that."

"Well, first of all, we're not in love." I said, a hint of humor in my voice.

"Well you might not love him, but he loves you. It's completely obvious. He's completely obsessed with you. I'm not sure why you don't feel the same. You're not going to find someone else like him." she said, and I started, surprised at how she seemed to be reading the same thoughts I'd been trying to get through my head all week.

"I'm not sure about that, but I do care about him. But why are you still crying?" I asked, hoping I wasn't being too pushy.

"Because I miss her! And I shouldn't and it's stupid, but I do."

"It's not stupid. She's your sister."

"She's a freak."

"But she's still you're sister." I said gently. I stood up after that. "I'll let you think about that. And petunia, I am sorry."

"So am I."

Petunia's P.O.V.

Dumbledore had told me I was the last test, before James could see Lily. I would be the last person to visit her, the last new face before she got to see her true love. It was so unfair. We lost our parents, so she gets James and I get Vernon, just because I told him I could cook. I settled, which I know you shouldn't do, but I knew no one else would be with me. I wasn't that unattractive. I mean sure, my neck was abnormally long, and I had a horseish face, but that didn't mean I was ugly. Lily got all the looks. The lovely red locks, the perfect curves. I got stuck with a twig shape, greasy blond hair, and it sucks.

I'd always been jealous of Lily, before I even knew what being envious meant. She just always had it all, the easier life. And I wanted it. Desperately. The only reason I was still here was because Dumbledore had been so kind to me when I asked if I could go to Hogwarts too.

But as I walked down the hallway towards Lily's door, I didn't know what to think. Would she know me? Would she care? But my thoughts stopped abruptly as I got to the red door, and pushed it open.

She was drawing at a desk in the back of the room and I was shocked to see how much weight she had lost. How her hair was lanky and falling out, how her skin seemed to just hang off of her.

"Lily?" I asked gently and she turned around, stood up and walked towards me slowly.

"Tuney!" she cried and gave me a hug quickly, before letting go and sitting down on her bed. "Sorry, I know you hate hugs." she cleared her throat. "Uh, Petunia, it's nice to see you."

Other than her appearance, she seemed almost normal, sane. She didn't look "glassy" like the others had described her. She was cool, calm, and collected, like always.

"I have to talk to you Lily." I said, and pulled up the desk chair by her bed.

"Is it about James? Because Sirius spent half my day yesterday talking and talking about how it was all a trick. But that's not something you can just erase out of your memory." her eyes got slightly wide as she was remembering. "The things he did to me, no one should ever have to go through, and yet I did."

"Well it's about James, and Vernon, and" I paused, sucking in a deep breath. "And mom and dad."

I looked at her, expecting a respond but she said nothing. "Sirius is right. James never did anything to you. Ever. He still loves you, and wants to see you terribly bad, but Dumbledore won't let him. Lils, he loves you."

She was crying silently now, the tears cascading down her face into her messy hair. "B-but, if that's true, how do I know when I do see him, that I'll just forget everything you've all told me and think I'm back there? You guys have finally convinced me this isn't more of the kidnapping, but I don't want to ever think about those things again."

"Lily, you can't just block them, because they will find a way out, and then you would never understand why you keep reliving them. You can't forget everything. B-but there's something Dumbledore wanted me to give you." I pulled my purse off of my shoulder and took out an envelope. "It's addressed to you. Do you want me to open it?"

She nodded, and I opened the envelope quickly.

Lily,

Jo's funeral is next weekend. If you're out of the hospital by then, I would

Like you to join us in remembering her. She would have wanted you there

And I know her parents want to meet you.

Best of Luck,

Dean.

Tears had started again, falling down her face. "I have to be out by then. I have to go." She took the letter from me and re-read it. "I miss her so much. She was my only friend in there."

"I'm sorry Lily. There's something else I want to talk to you about. I, I don't blame you for mum and dad's death. I thought I did, but I realized that you couldn't have done anything to stop it. You can't help what you're born with, and I get that. So I'm sorry. And, and I want you to come to the wedding. All of your friends can come. It's in three weeks. So please, think about it. And remember, James can be trusted. The James waiting for you at your house is real. He's real, and he loves you. The memory you have of him in that place isn't. That's not real. You have to believe me." I said, and grabbed her hand and took the envelope from it.

"I- I don't know what to think. You need to leave. I need to think okay?" she responded and I nodded, standing up to leave.

"Just remember Lily. Ok? Don't forget what I said. Any of it." And then I was gone, the last image I saw of her was a haunted face, a face getting ready to walk up to the gallows, a face that had seen a lifetime of horror and yet somehow, impossibly still innocent.

A/N: Happy Easter everyone! I hope you're enjoying the holiday with your family and friends. I know this chapter was kind of boring, but I'm already working on the next and it's going to be super intense. Please review, you'll make my Easter even better!