Scary Beautiful by Eve
An hour later, Lily was no where to be found.
Sirius grabbed hold of Jazz's waist as she lunged for James. "I TOLD YOU TO WATCH HER!"
James wasn't in the mood to deal with her. "Right, like you could have done so much better."
"Is this really helping?" Sirius snapped. "All that really matters right now is finding her. Remember, the Death Eaters attacked under Voldemort's orders. She's in danger."
James, Remus, and Jazz nodded in agreement.
Sirius let go of Jazz carefully. She looked calmer. Before Sirius could get out of the way though, she had slapped the hell out of him.
"What was that for?!" Sirius yelled.
Jazz glared at him. "Well you wouldn't let me hit James..."
Remus didn't smile. "Jazz, you know her the best. Where would she go on Christmas?"
Jazz bit her lip. "To be honest I'm not sure. She's always with her family on Christmas."
Remus closed his eyes. "You're her best friend."
Sirius shook his head. "Her best girl friend maybe. But you're forgetting one person."
They all looked at James.
He nodded. "I think I know where she is."
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Lily walked in the Great Hall. Was it strange that she didn't feel different? It was like nothing had ever happened. She even smiled when she saw Nicki.
"Hey Lily!" Nicki said, surprised. "I thought you went home for the holidays."
Lily smiled. "No. Change of plans."
"Come sit!"
Lily slid into the seat beside her. "So what have you been up to?"
Nicki shrugged. "Nothing really. I've just been talking to James and Allie."
Lily felt a surge of regret hearing James' name. "Oh. Letters?"
"Yeah," Nicki said. "It looks like James found some other girl."
Lily felt her stomach clench. "Really."
Nicki laughed. "Yeah. Allie told me. He had to, right? He didn't just dump her for no reason."
Lily closed her eyes. I should have never trusted him.
Nicki stared at her. "Lily? Is everything okay?"
No, no, no.
"Hey, look! James is here!"
She watched him search the Great Hall with his eyes and finally stop to rest on her. "Lily!" he called, jogging over to her.
She stood up quickly and walked away.
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Lils. The dog had found her out by the iced over lake.
Lily rolled her eyes. "You people really don't get the concept of wanting to be alone, do you?"
Snuffles shrugged. I'm a dog, remember?
Lily sniffed a little. "Yeah, I remember."
James is waiting on you back at the castle.
"He'll be waiting for a long time then," Lily said harshly.
So what does he know?
Lily jumped in surprise. "What?"
The dog looked at her patiently. He must have found out something. That's why you left his house. That's why you're so scared.
To her horror, her eyes with welling up with tears. "If you don't mind, I'd rather only James know what happened."
Snuffles smiled. You really do love him, huh?
Lily smiled through her tears. "I'm crazy about him. But he doesn't feel the same way."
The dog nudged her. Why would you say that?
Lily snorted. "Because it's true."
No it's not. But you need to talk to him. You'll feel better.
Lily stood up. "Yeah, maybe."
She scratched the dogs ears. "Thanks for the talk... Sirius."
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It was close to midnight, but James was still awake, still waiting. Lily and Sirius were still out and James was becoming freakishly paranoid. What if she ran off again?
He heard the portrait open and jumped up. "Lily!"
She and Sirius were together. Lily was actually smiling. Suddenly James felt his heart wrench in two. How could Lily be able to talk to Sirius and not him? James cared about her more than anything in the whole world. He'd give up magic if she could be okay again. He had been worried out of his mind and there she was strolling through the door with his best friend.
"James," Lily said, looking surprised. "You waited up?"
"Yeah," James said, through his clenched teeth. "I was worried."
"No need to be, mate," Sirius said cheerfully. "She's fine."
"I see that," James said.
Sirius frowned. "Is everything okay?"
James couldn't even look at Lily. "I guess it is thanks to you."
Lily couldn't figure out what was wrong with James. She had been dying to come back and talk to him about what happened. With Sirius' encouragement she had decided to talk to him. But he was looking at her with a very odd expression.
"I guess you two had a good time," James said, an edge of anger in his voice.
"James," Lily said cautiously. "Can we talk?"
"Why?" James snapped. "You have Sirius here."
"Oh man," Sirius laughed. "It's not like that! See what happened was-"
"Save it!" James growled. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a small box. "Merry Christmas," he said, slamming the gift down on the table.
________________________________________________________________________________
Jazz stood shivering outside a door in the middle of a quiet neighborhood. Soon she would be going back to take care of Lily but she wanted to deal with this little problem first.
"I know you're in there," she said, ringing the doorbell 6 times.
Finally she heard the door being unlocked and the person opened it very slowly.
Jazz smiled. "Remember me, Petunia?"
"Yes," Petunia said, like she'd rather not. "Come in, I guess."
Jazz did and Petunia shut the door behind her. She looked around the small house. It was nice in an affordable kind of way.
"So you keep a picture of the girl you never want to talk to again in your living room?" Jazz asked, gesturing to the one on the wall.
Petunia kept her eyes down. "She's still my sister."
Jazz nodded. "Okay."
Petunia looked very nervous and Jazz couldn't blame her. "Did Lily tell you what happened? Is that why you're here?"
Jazz shook her head. "Only James really knows what you said, but when you stormed out you were wearing your emotions a little too loudly for me to ignore."
"Great so you can read minds then," Petunia said, annoyed.
"No, but I'm good at figuring out how people are feeling. Especially if they look me in the eye which is something you're avoiding," Jazz said calmly.
Petunia rolled her eyes. "I can't deal with Lily. Magic kills, I mean those people didn't have guns, they had wands!"
"There's good and bad in everyone," Jazz said. "Magic doesn't make you evil."
Petunia finally met her eyes and Jazz understood. "You think magic is going to kill your sister."
"Wow, you weren't lying," Petunia said, nervous again.
Jazz reached out for Petunia's hand. "Nothing is going to happen to Lily. She's got a whole castle of people ready to protect her, and a guy that would do anything to save her. Lily has friends who care. I'm more worried about you though. This house is left open for attacks. Lily is great at Charms. She could protect it."
"No magic," Petunia said quietly.
"I'm not talking about just magic," Jazz said. "You need Lily right now. She's all you have."
The door opened behind them and Jazz jumped up, pointing her wand towards the door.
"Stop!" Petunia hissed.
"What's that?" the rather ugly man said, ignoring the fact that Jazz could speak, addressing himself only to Petunia.
"A wand," Jazz snapped. "Who are you?"
"Vernon Dursley. I actually live here," he said rudely. "Now who the bloody hell are you?"
"Jasmine Noelle Taylors," she said lowering her wand.
Petunia took a deep breath. "You're right. Lily has protection. I wanted something too. Vernon is going to be my husband. I don't need her help."
Jazz felt sudden rage take over her body. "YOU'RE HER SISTER! YOU CAN'T ABANDON HER!"
"SHE NEVER NEEDED ME!" Petunia screamed. "SHE'S GOT THE WHOLE BLOODY CASTLE, RIGHT?! GET OUT!"
Jazz wanted to jinx Petunia into a slug, but she didn't. "There will come a day that you regret doing this," she said dangerously. "You will regret it."