Alright Evans?

Chapter Nine

"Come on James" Lily coaxed him out of his seat as he stumbled out of the car. Sirius jumped out and held up James' other side.

"Will you be alright for a minute?" Sirius asked moving James's arm slowly to his side.

"I can walk" James spluttered standing up straight as Sirius ran to unlock the door for them. James snaked his arm hesitantly, around Lily's waist as they walked the short distance into the house.

Lily stood for a minute, deciding where was the best place to take James, she quickly decided, and started on her way upstairs towards his bedroom. Sirius had disappeared somewhere within the manor.

"Bit keen aren't we Lils?" James' humour had returned, but it wasn't his normal humour, the day had taken it out of him.

"You wish, Potter" Lily smiled weakly, as she set him down on the bed so he was sat in front of her. His eyes were still glistening with tears but she was somehow sure that the worst was over. He took both of her hands in his as Sirius walked in with a tray full of drinks, alcoholic of course, rightly so. He set himself down next to James with the tray to his other side.

"I'll leave you two to it then" she smiled at them both in turn, getting up from her crouched position in front of James.

"Stay?" James pleaded. Lily looked down at him, the tears were streaming again.

"I don't want to intrude" she whispered.

"You won't be and it'll be nice for you to find out about my dad" he smiled sheepishly.

Lily took her hands out of James' and walked around the bed to the spot that was free so that they were sat in a triangle. Sirius then moved the 3 glasses of Fire Whiskey into the middle.

"Hey James" James' head snapped up so his eyes were level with Sirius' "Remember that time when we tried to prank your dad when I came over for Christmas 2 years ago, we hung that bucket of frog spawn at the top of the living room door but instead it ended up all over you" James's lips tweaked up as Sirius laughed.

"That was your fault, Padfoot" he shouted pushing his arm, causing Sirius to fall back onto the bed, his laugh was contagious and suddenly all three of them were laughing uncontrollably .

"How did it happen to get all over you?" Lily asked after she'd managed to fight off her laughter.

"Well" James' smile was back to it's original place and it made both Lily and Sirius smile even wider. "I wasn't that sneaky back in those days. So there was a long rope going from the top of the stairs to on top of the living room door, which obviously, my father saw, and being the mischievous old git he was, he played my own prank against me. I walked through the other door, from the kitchen, thinking I was smart, totally oblivious to the fact he'd changed the bucket so that it was on top of the other door" Sirius fell into fits of laughter for a second time. The reminiscing continued, with Sirius and James bouncing off one anothers memories for at least half an hour, perking up both of them drastically.

"Your dad seemed like a complete legend" Lily beamed at James

"He was" he replied with an equally enthusiastic smile.

"Right!, enough with the soppy talk, I'm going to go fetch up a couple of bottles of the voda and we're gonna get some shots going"

"VODKA" Lily shouted after him.

"Thank you" James's voice was timid.

"For what?"

"For today, for staying even after everything I've done" Lily moved closer to him.