Author's Note: Bit short, but there's quite a bit packed in here.
When then they arrived at the house Lily immediately fled up the stairs, tears still streaming. Remus loosened his tie and went into the backyard as instructed by Mopsy. There he found his three friends playing a game of sort.
"Moony, you're alive!" Sirius shouted. The other two remained silent seeing his face. "What's the matter?"
"It's Lily...Her parents…" He looked up to the clear blue sky. "He murdered them."
"Who?" Peter questioned.
"Do you have to ask?" Sirius questioned with a cruel edge to his voice.
"Someone should speak with her." James got to his feet.
"No, I don't think…" Remus shook his head. "Your parents should be the one to do it."
"No," James said and got to his feet, dusting off his worn jeans.
"James this isn't joke! Lily isn't some conquest, she is a decent human being that deserves some peace!" Remus shouted. All of his friends looked up at him, shocked that he would lose control. "James, I…"
"You're right," he said, a sad smile playing at his lips. "But she needs someone now." With that he went inside the house. He couldn't believe that his friend had finally stood up to him and he was a little ticked off, there was that bet with Sirius and now he owed him a three galloons. However, he knew that Lily needed a friend and if that was all he could be for her, he would take it.
The door to her room was shut. With one last deep breath he knocked on the painted wood. "Go away Remus," Lily replied.
"It's James."
"The door's locked, leave."
"I can unlock it I have a wand."
There was hefty sigh and footsteps before the door was swung open. Lily's hair was now loose around her shoulders, her eyes rimmed with red and she had a tearstained face. "Charles confiscated your wand," she hissed. "Can't you take a hint? I just want to be alone!"
"Evans...Lily, please…"
"I want to go home," she said. "Tell your mother that. I don't want to be here anymore, I don't want any part of this world!" Lily screeched.
James reached out only to have his hands slapped away. Lily marched out of the room, down the hallway and he grabbed at her. She screamed again, this time she bit him. When he grabbed once more his grip was tighter and she struggled. Soon enough she was pulled into his arms. The young witch thrashed around, but was already exhausted before she began the fight with James.
"Why can't you just leave me?"
"I care for you," he whispered.
"You're a brute and a bully and I hate you!"
James didn't listen, just pulled her into the room and walked her towards the bed. "Could we talk, please?"
Tired she collapsed on the bed, chest heaving with sobs. "Hasn't your mother taught you to be a gentleman?"
"Lily…"
"Forget about any sort of a relationship with me, I want a person who won't manhandle me." She curled up on the bed, by now the sobbing subsided.
"I apologize, but Remus told me about your parents." James pulled a chair next to the bed and sat down. "He told me not to come up here. To stop joking around and give you some peace."
"He said that?" Lily asked, propped herself up to a half-sitting, half-leaning position.
"He's right, I've been an arrogant toerag, but I think you need a friend."
"You're not my friend," Lily said and he winced. "What? Potter...James I am grateful for all your family has done but I barely know you."
"Well, I could start telling you my life story, but I don't think that's going to make you feel any better." James managed a forced laugh at that. The pair sat in silence for sometime, James with his elbows resting on his knees. Lily crossed her knees, half leaning on her pillows.
"Let me guess you're not going to leave until I tell you."
James just nodded.
"I don't have the energy to fight with you." Sitting up all the way, pulling on her dress to cover her knees, she began. "My parents… they had an open casket at the funeral." Lily waited to see if he would understand, but he didn't pick up on the subtleties. "They were supposed to have died in a house fire, but they didn't have a single mark on them." James still had a blank expression on his face. "The Dark Mark was cast at their house, they were murdered James."
"Lily…"
"They were muggles. My mum was nurse, my dad an accountant. The two of them were no threat to a wizard. If I had never gone to Hogwarts they would be alive. It's my fault!" Lily cried out, burying her head in her hands.
"You can't give up." James reached over and tugged her hands away from her face. "For some reason he thinks you are a threat."
"Why? I'm a muggleborn that hasn't even finished schooling. And if he does think I'm a threat why didn't he just kill me?"
"Don't sell yourself short, Lily. We have no idea what he knows. Maybe he has a seer and your in a prophecy, or one of the seventh year death eaters talked about you. As for your parents, we can't possibly comprehend what he was thinking. Perhaps, he doesn't want to kill you because he thinks he can use you."
Lily looked at him, a perplexed expression across her face. A powerful wizard with an intense hatred for all things muggle wouldn't think a second before killing her, would he?
"I've seen what you can do. Quite frankly it terrifies me that one person could be so gifted-"
"I've had to work for every last one of my grades. My first year I spent more time in the library than in my dorm room," Lily told him pulling her legs to her chest. "You pull decent grades without even opening a book." At that point James face broke into a smile. "What?"
"We study at night, Remus makes us. Threatens to tell professors about our pranks, he never will but Sirius doesn't realize that." James laughed. "Sirius hardly ever sleeps and Remus is an insomniac."
While he spoke, Lily watched him. Never before had she seen the actual James Potter. He was always trying to this handsome, confident man. He acted like he cared about nothing, but while he talked about his friends there was something in his hazel eyes that pulled at Lily.
"James, this question is...not exactly being asked at the right time, but why me?" She looked him over and his expression went blank again. She was about to clarify when he looked at her.
"Because I don't many other girls that are as strong willed as you. Eventually they would give in or hex me into the next century, but you don't. You laugh it off and act like nothing happened. And I'm not very good with failure."
It was a few hours later when Agatha Potter came home. Remus, Sirius and Peter said that James went upstairs and after quite a bit of yelling all was quiet. With a sigh she went upstairs, calling for her son that promised her husband he would leave that poor girl alone.
However, when she came up the stairs, she found a sight she never thought she would see: her son working bent over a book. Down the hall Lily's door was shut. "What are you doing?"
"Her parents were murdered," he replied calmly, flipping through the book. "It wasn't a warning to muggleborns, it was a warning to her."
"James…"
"She blames herself. Told me that she wanted to go home, that she wanted to give up magic because it was what killed her parents."
"Death is a hard thing to deal with." Agatha walked over to her son pressing a kiss to the side of his head, running her fingers. "You're very fortunate to not have to experience it." Her grandparents were dead, but they had died long before James was even born.
"Mum, what's the matter?" James saw tears in his mother's eyes that were threatening to fall. He had seen her glistening eyes before, she would tear up at most everything, but it was rare for tears to actually fall.
"I think we're going to have to get used to even more death," she whispered, dropping her hands and going in for a full out hug. "I've probably said too much, but…We're on the brink of war James." Agatha looked at the book her son was reading, it was about prophecies and seers. She quirked an eyebrow, wondering about her son's sudden interest in divinations.
"Would it be possible to see the Department of Mysteries?"
"What for?"
"I already told you about Lily's parents. If he killed them he must see her as a threat."
"James, he's escalating." Agatha pulled away from her son. "A half-blooded wizard's muggle parent was killed this morning. I go to work every day with his father." Now James' mother was really crying. James knew how to handle Lily, or at least he thought he knew how to handle her, but he had never seen his mother cry.
"Mum…" James stopped himself as she dried her tears and took a step back.
"I told Lily she can't give up hope because she or someone like her will be the key to stopping him. I only hope that's true."
Lily came downstairs to find Mrs. Potter with paperwork spread around the dining room table. She walked over and sat down as a plate appeared and didn't say a word. Agatha Potter looked worse for the wear, like she hadn't slept last night. Her hair was pinned back and was wearing jeans and a blouse. "Working from home today?"
"I didn't feel like going into the office," she explained.
"I heard James talking to Remus last night…" She chased the last bit of egg around her plate. "Could I go to the funeral with you?"
Agatha dropped her pen and stared at the young girl. "Did you know the Reeves?"
"I could tell you who the boy is, but not much more," Lily admitted. "One thing I know is that he's going to need someone that understands what I'm going through. Even though Sirius got me drunk, I felt better after I talked with him."
Agatha just gave the girl a smile and got to her feet to embrace her in a warm hug.
"Besides you got me that beautiful dress and it's another chance to wear it."
"You could tell?" Agatha questioned as she pulled away.
"It was a lovely dress, too lovely to be a hand-me-down and I was taught to tell when things were charmed or transfigured," she explained.
"Of course you could, and I would love to have someone to accompany me."
"What about Mr. Potter...er, Charles."
"He's leaving tonight and will be gone for a week. He's being called away to a Department of Defense meeting in Bulgaria. The ministries are gathering to decide what to do next about the situation." Agatha patted her hand and Lily only smiled in response.