The 17 Step Plan To Become Lily Potter

Step Seven: Assist A Criminal

❀ word count: 1646 ❀

The Evans' Home
Summer 1975
Before Fifth Year

Lily was so close - so close - to not speaking a word to James that summer.

It was 11:59pm when her window banged open. Lily hadn't been sleeping - she was probably listening to that damn mixtape again - so she jumped out of her bed and ran to the corner, grabbing the random bat sitting there. She kept it for non-magic self defense. None of her pureblood friends understood, but Lily knew it would come in handy one day, so she kept it around.

So it was that night, just past midnight, that the bat finally came in handy. Just a normal, swelteringly hot night in July of 1974. Her window banged open, someone fell into her room, followed by another, and she jumped to grab her bat. She inched slowly toward the light switch, still holding the bat out in front of her, as the two strangers in her room stood up and turned to her. But before she could reach the light switch, one of them stepped forward with their arms out. Lily screamed and swung the bat, which slammed into the person's ribs. The person fell to the ground groaning as Lily lunged for the light switch.

Once she flipped the lights on, she spun around, ready to attack the next person who tried to approach her, then groaned and dropped the bat, putting her head in her hands instead.

"What... the hell... are you doing here?!" She groaned and kicked the bat back to its corner. "You fucking scared me!"

"Sorry, Lils, that wasn't the intention." Sirius stepped over James, who was still groaning and rolling around on the floor, and hugged Lily. "We just missed you sooo much and we couldn't wait to see you back at school-"

"You need help, don't you?" Lily crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow as Sirius sighed and scratched the back of his neck.

"...Maybe. Don't be mad! We were sure that nobody would be there, we thought we could just sneak in, grab some things, and leave, but-"

"You robbed a place?!" Lily shrieked. Sirius stepped backwards, hands in the air.

"James was gonna leave the money on the counter as we left! Speaking of James," Sirius crouched next to his, close to tears, friend on the floor, "James, you alright?"

"She tried to fucking kill me! Do I look alright?" James wheezed, clutching his side.

"No, not really." Sirius looked back to Lily and smiled his charming smile, which Lily had never, not once, fallen for. "Got a first aid kit anywhere?"

Before Lily could either say yes or throw them both out the window, there was a knock on her door. The three teenagers froze, even James stopped his writhing around and whining.

"Lily, dear, we heard some screaming, are you okay? What's going on?" It was Lily's parents.

"I'm fine, mum and dad, just had a nightmare," Lily called over her shoulder, placing her hand firmly over James' mouth to silence his whimpering, which had started again.

"Are you sure? We heard some banging around too."

"Yeah, I just..." Lily hesitated, thinking of an excuse. "I just fell off my bed. I'm okay, just go back to sleep."

"Okay... goodnight, Lily!"

"Goodnight!" Their steps faded away, and Lily took her hand away from James' mouth, wiping it on her shirt.

"You two are serious inconveniences, you know that, right?" she whispered furiously. Sirius and James both nodded. Sirius didn't even make a Sirius/serious joke. Lily sighed and stood up.