Chapter 3

When Lily woke up the next morning, she felt disoriented and she panicked. She'd had a dream of being attacked in the playground and woke up thinking that it was still going on. She screamed when arms came around her. "Let me go! Don't hurt me!" She thrashed around until she heard a soothing voice. It was a woman's voice but unlike the one in her dream it wasn't frightening, it was soft and gentle.

"Hush now; it was only a dream, honey. You don't have to be scared you're safe." Melony had heard Lily start whimpering and thrashing around. She felt so bad for the little girl. She'd seen the panic on Lily's face when she'd wrapped Lily in her arms. Now the little girl was just laying there in her arms. She stroked Lily's hair and murmured soothing words. She pulled back and saw that Lily was a bit confused as to who she was. Melony smiled and kissed Lily on the top of her head.

"I don't want to be rude but who are you?" Lily looked at the redheaded woman. The woman had hazel eyes and they were full of concern. Lily was calmed down and confused. Lily saw the woman smile.

"My name is Melony. I'm Harold's wife." Melony saw Lily's eyes widen and saw the blush that spread across the girl's face. "Harold talked to me after you fell asleep yesterday. He told me you asked him if you could stay with his family. I understand that you don't think your sister is going to want to take care of you or Rose. If that's still the case then we'd love for both of you to stay at our house when you're able to." Melony smiled tenderly at Lily and brushed a stray curl behind Lily's ear. She saw tears well up in the emerald eyes and be forced back. She could also tell that Lily's face was covered in freckles now that the blush was gone. Lily would grow up to be beautiful. She could also see how tiny Lily was.

"You mean it?" Lily asked. When Melony nodded, Lily's face broke out in a smile. She jumped up and hugged Melony. "Thank you! Thank you so, so much!" Lily pulled away with a smile. She wiped the few tears that had escaped when the door to the room opened again.

James walked in talking over some of the candy he got. "Mom, I got some candy and-," James stopped talking and blushed when he realized that the girl who had been sleeping a little while ago was up and watching him. He swallowed the candy and blushed a deeper red.

Lily giggled when she saw that James was blushing at her. "I'm Lily." She waved slightly from her bed. She was guessing at who this boy was. She figured since he'd called Melony mom he was James.

James shuffled his feet a little. "I'm James. Are you the one my dad got away from the deatheaters?" James watched as Lily nodded her head. "Wicked!" James walked over and hopped onto the opposite end of where Lily and his mom were sitting. "Hey do you know how to play chess?"

"Mhmm, what's your favorite color?" Lily asked. She figured if she was going to live with James she might as well get to know him better.

"Gold and blue, what's yours?"

"Silver and blue." Lily smiled brightly when she realized they had one favorite color that was the same. "What do you like to do for fun?"

"Play pranks, play exploding snap, and I guess read." James looked a little sheepish when he mentioned reading as something he liked to do for fun. Then he looked at Lily and saw how happy she was.

"I love reading. I've never really played a prank on anyone. I like to run around and play different games. What's exploding snap?" Lily turned confused eyes to James. She guessed that this was a game that only wizards play. She gave a mental shrug and waited for James to explain.

"It's a card game. You have to build a card house and not let it fall. You also can't be the last player to put a card on top."

"Alright well maybe when we take Lily home tomorrow you can show her how to play. Then when Rose comes out of her coma you can teach her." Melony saw that the smile on Lily's face dimmed when she mentioned Rose. She had a feeling that Lily was blaming herself for Rose's coma.

James noticed that Lily's smile wasn't as big as it was before his mom made that comment about Rose and said something that both shocked and made his mom proud of him, "Don't worry Lily, Rose is gonna wake up soon. It's not your fault that she got hurt either, it's those deatheaters fault." James looked at Lily with concerned eyes. He saw Lily give him a small smile. He wasn't expecting it when she launched herself at him and held on tight. It took him a minute to realize that she was hugging him. He hugged her back and rubbed her back like his mom did when he cried over his dead dog.

Melony watched them with teary eyes. She saw that James had already resigned himself to keeping Lily happy. She wiped the few tears that had gone down her cheeks before either child could see. She smiled happily. "Lily, are you hungry?" Lily nodded and to show that she was telling the truth her stomach growled loudly. "Well then, I'll go get you something to eat. What would you like?"

"Uhmm… whatever you pick will be okay." Lily smiled a little bit.

"Alright then, you two be good while I'm gone."

James waited until his mom was out of the room. "Lily can I ask you a question?"

"You just did." Lily pointed out and smirked. James just stuck his tongue at her. "Yes you may."

"What's it like to be a muggle?"

"I don't think I can exactly explain it. It would be like me asking you what's it like to be magic." Lily shrugged.

"I can answer that quite easily though." Lily gaped at him, her mouth falling open. James smirked when he saw Lily's face. "Awesome is the answer to that question."

Lily laughed and stuck her tongue at James. She quieted when he started talking again. "So….do you and Rose really want to live with us?"

"We don't really have any place to go right now and your dad was nice to me. My other sister, Petunia, doesn't like either one of us. My parents are more than likely dead and I just don't know what in the world to do." Lily shrugged and sighed. "I couldn't think of anything other than to help Rose at the time. She's lost two sets of parents now. My mom and dad adopted her into the family a long time ago." Lily looked at James shyly. "James…do you mind having me and Rose as sisters?"

"Not really. I've always wanted someone my age to play with. I think having sisters would be nice."

"Thanks, James. You'll be the best big brother ever. Your birthday is two weeks ahead of mine. Rose's birthday is on the same day as mine. You only have to remember one day. James you're not gonna leave me alone are you?"

"I'm never gonna leave you or Rose alone. You'll always have me to protect you." James opened his arms and Lily flew into them to give him a hug. James hugged Lily back. He held onto her and stroked her hair. Then to lighten up the moment he tried to make a joke. "You and Rose must be a handful together."

Lily pulled back with a look of confusion on her face. "Why would you think that?"

"Cause she's as pretty as you and you two must make a lovely bouquet." It was a lame joke but Lily thought it was sweet of James to say that.

"That was lame but thanks anyway." Lily chuckled and gave James a kiss on the cheek.

James blushed and hurried to defend his joke. "It wasn't lame!" Lily raised an eyebrow. "Okay so maybe it was lame, but you still laughed a little."

"Yes I did. I also said thanks for making me laugh too." Lily smile at him. "Now do you have any games we can play while you're here?"

James thought about it for a while and remembered that his mom said that if he wanted something to do she could conjure it up for him. "Not yet but my mom can get one when she comes back."

"Awesome." Lily leaned her head against James' shoulder and stayed in a comfortable silence.

"Alright, Lily I got some scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon. I got enough for two since James hasn't eaten yet either." Melony gave each of them a fork then placed the tray between them. "Eat up!"Lily and James each started eating on one side of the plate. There seemed to be about six eggs, six pieces of toast, and five pieces of bacon.
While the two of them were busy eating, Harold Potter walked in. He'd gotten permission from Lily and Rose's sister to take them into his home. He wasn't going to adopt them but he was going to be their legal guardian. He was smiling when he saw his son and Lily eating together. He heard Melony laugh when James tried to sneak the last piece of bacon past Lily but she swatted his hand, picked it up, and broke it neatly into two. She handed him half and smile at him. James smiled back then finished eating. Harold decided to make himself known. "You two better slow down or you're going to choke." James' head whipped around and grinned at his father. Lily gave a small smile and waved. Harold noticed that Lily had a spark in her eye that hadn't been there when he'd met her. "Are you feeling okay, Lily?" Concern filled his voice as he looked her over just to be sure.

"Yes, sir, I'm feeling a lot better than yesterday, even with the nasty potions I had to take." Lily gave a fake shudder and made a face to show her dislike of the potions. She smiled when they all laughed.

James suddenly remembered what he was supposed to ask his mom for. "Hey mom, do you think you could get the chess board?"

"I sure can. Make sure you tell Lily how to play." Melony warned her son.

"Okay." James set up the board and made sure Lily understood how to play. "You got the rules?" Lily nodded then James smirked and said, "Prepare to be defeated by the master!" Lily raised an eyebrow at him then started playing. The match was tough. After Lily got over the fact that the chess pieces were destroying each other, she began winning. She checkmated James fifteen minutes later.

"Rematch!" James' shout could be heard throughout the hall that they were on, which was thankfully not the critical ward. James was stunned that Lily had beaten him on her first try. He wanted to try again to make sure that she hadn't cheated in some way. No one had noticed that at James' shout that Rose's hand had twitched.

"Nuh-uh, I won fair and square and you know it. You're just a sore loser." Lily said and did a small victory wiggle on her bed. She looked at James and smiled. "Now it's my turn to choose-," Lily was cut off by moaning coming from across the room. Everyone in the room turned their heads towards the other bed in the room. Rose was tossing and turning and was close to screaming. Lily jumped off her bed and ran to Rose. "Rose! Rose calm down. It's just a dream, sis." Lily stroked Rose's hair like she did
when Rose used to have nightmares.

Then Healer Marie rushed into the room and strode up to Lily, who was now sobbing, and Rose. She checked Rose's vitals and made sure that nothing was wrong with her. She picked up Lily and brought her to her own bed where James was still sitting stunned. He broke out of it when Lily was back on the bed and immediately pulled her to him. While Lily was sobbing into James' shirt, Healer Marie checked Lily's vitals as fast as she'd checked Rose's. She turned to Harold and Melony and reassured them that it had just been a nightmare that had made Rose start screaming. She walked out the room but turned back and gave them a small smile.

Harold and Melony were still in a state of shock. Everything had happened so fast and they'd had no idea as to what exactly had happened. They looked down at Lily and James and they snapped out of the shock with tender looks on their faces. James was still holding the sobbing Lily and stroking her hair. They had hoped he would make friends with Lily since Rose was in a coma but they hadn't expected the sibling relationship to start off that quickly. Melony walked over to the two children and wrapped both in a motherly hug. She picked them up and set them in her lap. She stroked both of their heads and murmured soothing words into their ears. A few tears ran down her face but were quickly wiped away. Harold quickly came up to all of them and pulled his wife and children into a group hug. They stayed like that for a while. If anyone had seen them in that moment they would have seen a family. None of them realized just how much one day had affected their lives.

Melony set the now sleeping Lily and James down on the bed and pulled up the bunched blankets from the chess game earlier. She kissed each of their foreheads. She sighed contentedly as Lily snuggled closer to James than she already was. Lily was already looking to James like a brother. What were they going to do if the sister said no? Lily would be more heartbroken then she already was, and her poor James wouldn't know what to do. She turned to Harold and saw him looking down at the two children how she imagined she had. "Harold what are we going to do if their sister won't let us take them in?"

"Hush now, Mel." Harold Potter wrapped his wife in his arms. "That's what I was doing today. It's my day off you know. I went to talk to Petunia Evans. I told her that I was the one who had saved her sisters and that I was wondering if she would let us be their guardians. She said she didn't want to take care of them and that she would be more than happy to put them in our care. They're not going anywhere, Mel." Harold grinned at her and kissed her. "We've got to have a room ready for her when we get out of here. She's also going to need some clothes."

Melony thought for a second then came up with a plan. "Harold when they wake up and we check her out, you go ahead and check James out and I'll take Lily shopping for clothes and things she'll need. You and James are going to take the green guest room and make everything blues and silvers. Those would be her two favorite colors. Then when Lily and I get home we're going to surprise her with the room." Melony nodded as she rethought over this plan.

"Alright then, I guess we have a plan."

Lily woke up first and saw that she was lying on James' arm and that James had his head on top of hers. She was still tired so she snuggled back into James, but just as she got comfortable James felt her wiggling and woke up.

"Lily, are you awake?" James' voice was slurred with sleep.

"Mhmm…I'm still tired though so g'night." Lily started to yawn to prove her point.

"Well if we don't get up now we never will." James tried to sit up but found that Lily still had a grip on his arm and was refusing to wake up. "Come on Lily. My arm's asleep." James whined.

"Well I'm still tired and you stole my pillow." Lily huffed and held on like a vice to James' arm. She held a laugh back so she wouldn't give away that she was just having fun.

"Alright Lily, I'll give you your pillow back if you give me my arm back." James compromised.

"Pillow first!" Lily smirked at the plan she had.

"Okay, okay, jeez." James took the pillow out from under his head and handed it to Lily.
Lily waited for the perfect moment then snatched the pillow and placed it right on top of James' arm. She snuggled back in then looked and James and smirked playfully. She giggled when she saw his shocked face.

James saw her smirk and heard the giggle then scowled. "That was very sneaky of you Lilykins."

"Don't call me Lilykins!" Lily had never liked being called that by anyone.

"Give my arm back."

"Fine." Lily picked her head and pillow up off James' arm then laid back down trying to get comfortable enough to fall back asleep but she couldn't. "Now you see! I can't get comfortable." Lily pouted.

"Well then I guess that means you need to get up." Melony Potter had been watching the whole interaction and had quietly shaken Harold from his nap to watch. She smiled when both children looked her way and smiled. "We have some good news Lily. Harold and I are going to take you to our house later today. We're going to check you out soon and then you're going to come with us or me at least. You and I are going to go shopping while James and Harold fix up a room for you at home." Melony saw Lily's eyes light up.

"What about Rose?" Lily looked at the peacefully sleeping Rose.

"It's alright honey. St. Mungo's is the best place for her to be right now. She'll be better before we know it."

"Okay." Lily decided to change the subject. "What are we going to go shopping for Mrs. Potter?"

"Call me Aunt Mel, Lily. We are going to go shopping for clothes and other things you need."

"Cool! I love shopping!" Lily was bouncing up and down on the bed.
Melony smiled and said, "Okay then, I guess we should get moving." She smiled at Harold when James and Lily started chatting. She knew it was going to work out great between the five of them.