Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Well I mean. I own a copy of the books. Not the series or anything. That belongs to J.K. Rowling.
"James? What exactly are you doing?"
It was the first day back at school after Christmas break and Remus Lupin was quite confused to walk in the room he shared with his best friends, only to find one of them sitting on his bed drinking apple juice out of a shot glass.
"My life is a lie." James replied, staring dramatically into the distance. "I don't know what's real any more, Moony, I don't know who I am."
Remus snuck a glance at the wall James was staring at. Yep still blank. James just appeared to be insane. Remus sighed and gave into the insanity. "What happened?" he asked warily. "Why are you drinking apple juice from a shot glass?" If Remus was being completely honest, he wasn't sure he wanted to know.
"This isn't apple juice."
"Prongs, it's apple juice. I can see the carton right beside you. You need to stop lying to yourself."
"My life entire life is a lie." Great. They were back on this again.
"Why is that James?" Remus asked, mentally rolling his eyes.
"Lily."
Remus eyes widened. Lily was supposed to visit James over the holidays. It was all he had talked about the week before the break. If she hadn't shown up….
"Did she not show up?"
"No she showed up alright."
"So why are you drinking apple juice shots!" Remus was quickly getting frustrated with the not answers he was getting.
"Because my life is a-"
"I got that funnily enough. Why is your life a lie exactly?"
"Lily showed up exactly on schedule. She drove" James' face grew sour, "by herself."
Remus furrowed his brow. "So you're upset because she can drive and you can't?"
"Well I am now!" James poured another apple juice shot.
"So why are you so upset?"
"She showed me her drivers license." James took a breath and started again. "She showed me her drivers license, that piece of paper muggles have to say you can drive, and I saw-" James took another apple juice shot. Remus rolled his eyes. "Moony, I saw her name."
Remus stared. "Does she have a weird middle name or something? Because I don't see how that warrants apple juice in shot glasses."
"Her middle name isn't the problem here, Moony, her middle name is lovely it's Marie. The problem is her first name!"
"Lily?" Remus was becoming more confused by the second.
"Lily is a nickname!" James eventually wailed.
"So what's her full name then? Lillian? Lilianna? Lilith? I still don't see why that makes your life a lie."
"Remus, so innocent."
"Are you ever going to tell me her full name?"
"It could destroy your life."
Remus stared at him. "For some reason, I highly doubt that."
Silence filled the room.
"Elizabeth."
"What?"
"Lily is short for Elizabeth."
Remus said nothing for several minutes. "Do you have any more of that apple juice?"
AN: So I recently found out that Lily can be short for Elizabeth… and then this happened. What did you think? Love it? Hate it? Have no particularly strong feelings for it?