A Reason in Madness

"There is always some madness in love. But there is also some reason in madness."

Chapter Four: You Are My Sunshine

Lily hummed as she brushed her dark red hair the next morning in front of a vanity in her room. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she tucked some lose strands of hair behind her ears and walked down to the common room, once again humming. Just as she reached the portrait hole, a voice emerged from near the fire. "That's a really sad song, you know."

Lily looked to find the owner of the voice, for she knew to whom it belonged. James Potter. "What do you mean?" she asked once she spotted him sitting in the armchair nearest the fireplace.

"I suppose you've never heard the whole song, then. Most people haven't," James replied, looking at her with an odd sort of child-like innocence.

"But, I thought it was a muggle song..."

"Well, that's what you get for thinking, mon fleur. And, please! Everyone's heard You Are My Sunshine." He stood, and walked towards her.

Due to her recent mood swings directed towards James, she didn't take the "that's what you get for thinking" comment offensively, as she normally would have. She couldn't, really. Especially not after he added the "mon fleur" to it. Whatever that meant. It sounded nice in any case. "So, what's the whole song? Please," she paused for a second, allowing a grin to slide onto her face, "demonstrate."

He smiled back and said, "I don't sing." With that, he made his way over to the boys' staircase. As he began to climb the stairs, he added, "Au revoir pour maintenant, ma chére."

Lily shook her head and headed to the Great Hall and an early breakfast.

*~¤~*

There weren't many students in the Great Hall when Lily sat down at the Gryffindor table and put a small portion of scrambled eggs and bacon and a piece of toast on her plate (she wasn't much of a breakfast-eater). After all, it was Sunday, so most people were still sleeping.

Suddenly, a solitary owl swooped down from the fairly sunny ceiling and headed towards her. Dropping a folded piece of parchment on her plate, the snowy owl snagged a piece of her bacon and flew off. Just as Lily was unfolding the parchment Keida rushed up to her and said, "Do you know have many issues you have!? I woke up this morning at some God-forsaken hour and saw that you weren't in bed! Thinking that for someone to be up and about at that time in the morning, on a day when we didn't have school, there was obviously something going on. So, I hurried to get ready and come down here, to find you eating!?"

Lily sighed and rolled her eyes before saying, "First, I slept in my dorm last night, Ké. So, even if I was still asleep, I wouldn't be in the bed next to yours."

"Oh. What's second?" Keida asked, more calmly.

"Huh? Oh. Uh...I don't remember..."

"'Kay. What's that?" Lily's friend pointed to the parchment she was still holding.

"I dunno. Oh, yeah! And second: yeah, eating. It's something most people do daily," Lily said, tucking the parchment into a pocket.

Keida said, exasperated, "Once again, you have issues.:

"I know."

*~¤~*

A few hours later, Lily, having nothing better to do, was reading a muggle novel, The Princess Bride, when she remembered the unread note/letter/who-knows-what from that morning. After taking it from an inside pocket of her robes and unfolding it, she read:

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine

You make me happy when skies are gray

You'll never know, dear, how much I love you

Please don't take my sunshine away

The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping

I dreamed I held you in my arms

When I awoke, dear, I was mistaken

And I hung my head and cried

I'll always love you and make you happy

If you will only say the same

But if you leave me to love another

You'll regret it all someday

You told me once, dear, you really loved me

And no one else could come between

But now you've left me and love another

You have shattered all my dreams