Life

Life

Rude Pixie

She ran up the wide steps to the huge French doors that led into the magnificent house. One of the boxes she was carrying leaned precariously as she adjusted her parcels in order to reach the doorbell.

That accomplished, she nervously shifted from one foot to the other while she waited until the door was opened by an uncomfortable looking youth in an impeccable tuxedo.

"Sirius?!" she gaped, "What the bloody hell did she do to you?"

"Mom put me to work as the butler after I transfigured the birthday cake into a goat and it destroyed the kitchen." he said with a devilish twinkle in his eye.

"Amazing your mother even puts up with you as a butler." she said rolling her eyes heavenward.

"I know," Sirius said in a voice that matched her own expression exactly, "Remus has been trying to convince her for hours to lower me to chimney sweep. And to think I was only trying to show her what I've been learning at Hogwarts these past six years. Most mothers would have been proud."

"To have you ruin your own birthday party?"

"Why not? I can ruin Remus's and yours at the same time."

"Oh yes Sirius!" she gasped fakely, "We'll all be so proud of you once you successfully put the world in the downward spiral of chaos."

"And don't think it won't happen soon. So Lily darling, what can I do for you?"

"Well if you don't want to graduate to chimney sweep in about three seconds you could always do your job and let me in."

"And if I don't?"

"I do have your very expensive, very something-you-always-wanted present in my hands," she bribed.

Sirius's eyes lit up but he didn't move out of the way. Instead he folded his arms and barred her way even more menacingly.

"Lily dear! How are you luv?"

Startled, Sirius jumped out of the way and whirled around to face his tiny, gray haired mother. Simone Black glared at her son before turning back to Lily. "Why you must be simply exhausted. Here, let Sirius take your parcels and he'll drop them off in his room for the time being."

A loud crash from the general kitchen area interrupted her before she could go on with more instructions.

"Damn Lucy," she muttered, "Now Sirius, you behave!" she added rushing away.

Lily dropped her bags on the grand foyer floor and turned back to hug Sirius. "Hello again Mr. Black. And happy birthday."

"Can I have a clue to what my present is?' he whined in her ear.

Laughing she pushed him away and took off her shoes.

"Woah Lils. What in gods name is that?" he cried staring at her outfit.

"It's my work uniform," she sighed, "I just started working at that roller restaurant on the Avenue. It's horrible isn't it?"

"N-no. I mean it's very um ... revealing?"

"How very observant of you," she said, rolling her eyes. "Is there anywhere I can change?"

"Why would you want to change? With you here we won't even need to hire the *ahem* entertainment."

"Well I'll need to be wearing my birthday suit won't I? It is a birthday party after all."

"Ri-i-i-ght. Your birthday suit." He drew the words out slowly raising an eyebrow in question. Lily giggled when he stared to wiggle it in a rhythm of some sort. "Come on, my rooms up here." He picked up her bags and she followed him upstairs.

The top of the stairs opened into a loft style hallway which allowed one to look over the living and dining rooms. The walls were covered in pictures, some which looked as if they could have dated back a century at least. Scattered among those were a few very recent ones. Sirius was there of course, and James. Remus and Peter were in a few too. And there was the one taken of the lot of them four years before . . . .

She stopped abruptly. Stopped as if she'd been slapped as she stared at the moving photo. Sirius and James were staring devilishly at Peter as they snuck up behind him, wand tips sparking. Oblivious to all this, Peter was smiling shyly and waving. Remus was looking up from a book and grinning, moving to join into the plot. Tiny Leighta Jeiy ran throughout the scene while Celeste Kaledyn was held up easily in the arms of Tristan Litai. Drew Ridley sat calmly under a huge oak tree regarding the scene through half closed eyes with a small smirk. Aerys Vonne sat on one of the lower branches and looked as though she was happily shouting encouragement to Laine Davidge whose wand was swishing down, pointed at James and Sirius.

And there she was. Lily Evans. In the center of it all looking directly into the camera with her tongue stuck out, legs dangling from her perch on the shoulders of Julian Desormeaux, who had his head tilted up towards her, grinning his permanent boyish smile. The second years at Hogwarts.

Hardly breathing, she reached a shaking hand to touch the picture. So realistic, so alive he was. Red hair that matched her own rusty color, bright blue eyes that laughed at her, almost as if they were mocking her for being there when he wasn't.

"Lily?. . . Lils? . . . Lee? You okay? Oh god, I told mom to take that picture away ages ago." Unexpectedly, Sirius had come up beside her. She snatched her hand away, startled by his voice and his hand on her shoulder. Startled by the tears that had formed in her eyes and were spilling over, tracing silver trails down her cheeks. It's not supposed to be like this, she thought wretchedly, No one's supposed to be comforting me. No one should have to be comforting me, because Julian should be here. Should be. But he's not.

"Oh, Lee. You gotta stop doing this to yourself. It's not your fault. Nothing is. Come here. He pulled her into a long, tight squeeze, holding her together, she thought, as if she might fall apart again right there. Which wasn't that far from the truth.

They stood there, and she sobbed onto the shoulder of that perfect black tuxedo, releasing yet another round of anger and despair and gut wrenching guilt, as Sirius rocked her back and forth, soothing her.

In the middle of it all, the doorbell rang again. Sirius let off a string of swears, and made a few inappropriate gestured at the door. She smiled sadly, but her face was too tight and watery to allow much other movement.

"Come on," he led her slowly to the room and sat down with her on the bed, "I'll get that, and then I'll get you some water. You just sit here and wait okay?"

He was feeling awkward about all this she realized when he left the room. It was completely understandable, she felt as weird about it as he did.

Another wave of sadness overcame her and she threw herself down on one of his pillows and cried again.

"Damn," she heard the soft whisper behind her and turned, expecting Sirius.

Vibrant green eyes met startling blue as she faced James Potter in one of the worst scenarios even she could imagine.

Gaining a little false composure, she turned back into the pillow and muttered viciously, "Get out Potter."

"No." He bit back, "I want to know what's going on with you."

"Get out of here Potter, and leave me the hell alone."

"Repeating yourself won't help," he stated calmly sitting down beside her.

She turned and glared at him, fully aware of the redness of her face and the horrid puffiness around her eyes. He smiled at her, a silent taunt. "So, what's new with you Lee?"

"Nothing."

"What are you doing round here these days."

"What do you think?"

"Well, I'd say bawling your eyes out, but you'd probably find some excuse to prove me wrong."

"Why can't you just leave me alone," she hissed.

He shrugged and lay down next to her on the huge king sized bed.

"Ack!" she cried jumping up, "Go away! Stop being here! Leave me alone."

"Tell me what's wrong first."

"No."

"Fine." He sunk back down on Sirius's bed and closed his eyes.

Lily's temper flared. She'd never hated anyone, not even James himself as much as she did now. What the hell did he think he was doing? What right did he think he had to waltz in here and demand an explanation from her? Who did he think he was? She really want to hurt him. Throttling him sounded good. But she wouldn't. She had to keep a grip on her sanity for at least another three days with Potter here.

Looking around the overly large room, she spotted the bathroom. Maybe she could change out of the damned uniform first and when she was done he'd be bored and gone.

Picking up the bag containing her clothes, she stomped over to the other room

"**!"

Suddenly, the bathroom door slammed shut right in front of her.

"**!"

She knew without trying that the door in front of her was now locked. Whirling around she faced James Potter who was twirling a wand lazily between his fingers. Her wand.

Before she could move, he'd repeated the spell on the door leading to the hall.

She could only stare at him. He must have been taken by temporary insanity, locking them both in the same room when she had been ready to kill him only seconds before. Now she just wanted to roast him over an open fire to torture him, and demand an explanation for this.

"What," she bit out with as much contempt as she could, "are you doing?"

"Just having a bit of fun Lee. Thought that we could have a bit of a bonding session. Do all the hip girly stuff. Like . . . paint each others toenails, discuss the latest underwear fads. I dunno Lee. What do you girls do?"

"One of the greatest mysteries known to mankind, and you expect me to tell you?"

"Sure. Why not."

"Maybe because only seconds ago, I had a very satisfactory image of you rotting in hell flash across my mind, and I think I'd like to make it a reality."

"Ooo, Lily's getting quite nasty now."

She wiped away the tears that were still on her face and smiled almost pleasantly. "Screw off."

"With pleasure. Care to join me?"

"Not particularly." She sighed." Could you just leave me alone to get changed? Please? Grant me that one small request."

"Into what?"

"My birthday suit." She sneered.

"Interesting. I never thought of prudy Evans as a stripper. Very interesting."

"Die," she muttered.

"Pardon?"

"Die."

"Sorry. I don't think I can do that on command. It's very bad for my health."

"Should I care?"

Hurt flashed across his face. Lily's anger diminished for a second, then built up even stronger. He's faking, she thought cruelly. Always faking.

James stood and walked around the bed to stand in front of her, still idly twirling her wand. "Well, I can't make you care I guess. But I pose a question to you. Why don't you care?"

She stared steadily at him. "That should be obvious enough Potter. Because you've just pissed me off beyond all comprehension on my part. And probably on yours as well seeing as you have no idea what you've gotten yourself into. Maybe another time I would have - or will - care about your well being. But not now."

"Fair enough. Now another question. Do the tears have anything to do with . . . Julian?" he said the last word with a subtle smirk, scorning the name.

And then she slapped him. Hard. The impact made him stagger before he regained his balance and stood to face her. She could clearly see the bright red mark her hand had made. He looked at her with such an odd look that she turned and faced the bedroom door with her back to the bed.

"I - I'm sorry Lily. Really I'm sorry."

Surprised, she only squeezed her eyes shut to keep more tears from dripping onto the floor.

"Look. I know. I know how much Julian meant to you. And I know it can't be easy to get over what happened. But you have to listen to me. To everyone. It wasn't your fault. You have to believe that." His voice was a plea now. A very quiet plea, but she ignored it.

"He died because of me."

"No he didn't -"

"Yes he did! He jumped infront of me. He took that curse that was meant for me. If it wasn't my fault then I don't know anything."

"And here I was thinking you were smart Evans. How interesting it is to be proven wrong so many times in one day."

"All right then, fine." She bit out, "What do you think happened. Prove to me it wasn't my fault.

"Because it was his choice. All of it. He choose to jump in front of you. He also chose to put us all in danger. He brought us all to that lake and summoned that dragon just for the hell of it. I mean what the hell was he thinking doing that?"

"You always hated him didn't you? Just because he was a Slytherin, and you've always had it in for them since you met Snape. You didn't ever care about who he was as a person. Only as a title that you hated."

"Lily - "

"Look James. Please don't burden me with your feeble apologies now. I just can't care."

"But I did care about Julian! Ever since you introduced us I cared. I knew he was your cousin and I wanted to care for him because I cared about you . . . "

Trailing off, he looked down at the bed even as she tried to meet his eyes. Sniffling she looked away, heat rising on her face for some unknown reason, and anger rising for an even more unfathomable reason. She turned away again.

"Oh please. You think you can just walk right in here and lock the doors and - "

She was cut off as he grabbed her and spun her around to face him. She could see the fear on his face as he took a breath and kissed her. Kissed her with such fervor she felt her lips would bruise. What the hell . . . ? she thought as it continued. Is this Potter? Wait. What am I thinking? It can't possibly be James. This is just some odd freak I am locked in a bedroom with who can really kiss quite well. How very interesting . . .

Their lips parted and they both gasped for air in the few seconds before he leaned in again. The force of this combined with being caught off balance pushed her backward onto the bed. She reached up and grabbed the back of his neck, causing him to fall on top of her.

All right then, she thought, now I am in a very odd position with the odd snogging freak. What's a girl to do?

The problem was solved as something crashed near the general area of the door. Jerking her head away from James she viewed Sirius before her lying on the floor in a dead faint.

She laughed then. Laughed as she hadn't in a long time. James rolled off her and started to laugh to.

She didn't know how long they were like that, all she knew was that she couldn't stop even when her sides ached and she was gasping for breath.

When the final wave finally passed she could see that Sirius was looking at them from the floor in such a way that she knew the faint had been faked. She almost giggled a bit again, but her mouth was too sore.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the world as I know it has officially come to an end." Sirius stated, exasperated.

She looked from him to James and smiled. "My God. Nothing is ever going to be the same here."

"Guess not. James answered as he pulled her to her feet.

And that was how life was passed on one interesting day.

*'*'*'*'*'*'*