flashbacks - when in largish chunks.
Wish you were here
by Gare de lyon
000
31/12/1974
"It's the end of the world tomorrow, Sev. Did you know?"
She tucked a sloop of dark red hair behind her ear as she turned towards him.
"How'd you figure that?"
She kicked her legs and the rusty swingset grated a little in the silence.
"The Angela Sisters? They told me so. Armageddon rises, and I'm going to hell."
His shoulders stiffened and she knew he'd clenched the wand (he wasn't supposed to use outside of school) in anger.
"It wasn't personal, they told that horrid Vernon boy the exact same thing."
"And you call that impersonal?"
But he said it with a smile on his lips.
The snow lay around about them in drifts as high as her thighs, but they'd got through them to the swings that night. And even though they were a little drenched, it wasn't as though the park was any more chilly than their (state) houses.
She tightened her scarf a little around her neck, and looked at him again, scarfless, jerseyless, (sockless) as he was.
"You cold?"
He grinned and shook his head, putting a finger to his lips as he took a bottle half filled with a rosy-golden liquid from the deep pocket of his trenchcoat.
"Oh, yuck!" She pushed him gently. "Honestly Sev, firewhisky?"
"This is about as warming as it gets," he protested as she snatched it from his hands. "Nothing like a wee tipple on a cold night, Lil. That'll see you shooting sparks…what are you looking for?"
Her eyes were narrowed in concentration, reading the boring side of the label.
"Bloody hell! This stuff has dragons blood in it!"
Taking it back he took a swig and belched happily.
"It does indeed." He said fondly. "Firewhisky. Goblin brewed, this lot. 1224. Good year…wanna try?"
In reply she rolled her eyes. And took the bottle.
It was New Year's Eve. All was well.
31/12/1989
Severus Snape walked through the dark-bright muggle neighbourhood of his childhood. A bottle of firewhisky in his pocket.
The swingset - the whole playground – was long gone now. In it's place there loomed an imposing skyscraper, of which the chrome and steel were a far cry from the flaky sky blue paint that (later,) he'd found in her hair. Even, he noticed, watching two joggers flash past in gaudy spandex, even the roads had changed. Cutting them – him – off from where they once Lived.
"Sev," she'd whispered, eyes glittering like glass. "If I go to hell tomorrow…""Don't sweat it, Lil. Course I'm coming with you."
In the distance, they heard the crackle and shrieks of residual Guy Fawkes fireworks, heard the rowdy off key Auld Lang Synes and the sound of cheering as 74 ceased to be.
She smiled then, and kissed him softly.
"Thanks."
Nothing of them remained here now.
He should have known.
Muggles were transient, always searching to improve, to better; to forget. The old shops were gone (delis for delhis), and even if he'd remembered the faces of his childhood, he doubted he would find them in the well dressed crowd living there now. He turned to leave, and then he found himself laughing.
Just when he'd lost hope…
Sev grins, alone in the lamplight, and raises the bottle to their last trace of history.
"Here's to you, Lil."
The lamppost had been kept, to commemorate the new set of power granted the neighbourhood by the fine folk west of there. He wondered if, when the lamps needed changing, the muggles in question ever stopped to wonder how the words had been carved there, or if anyone ever noticed at all. If they ever wondered how exactly Sev and Lily til the End of The World 1975 had ever managed to…melt(?) the words into the metal: and that high up.
He Wondered if they wondered how long their world had, indeed, lasted.
A smile tucked into the corner of her mouth. Flaky blue paint shards in her hair, along with the melting snowflakes."Wingardium Leviosa."
He didn't wonder for long though. The New Year was fast approaching, and he had a long journey back.
In the melee of sound heralding the 90s into being, few stopped to wonder at the car that backfired in the polished streets.
Wish you were here (with me)000
a/n: whoo, first holiday fic! First HP fic! How exciting. Great way to start my new year
-- for the record, I did write this on new year's eve, in the morning, it's just taken me this long to upload. I lost it for a while, and then was busy. --
Disclaimer: Me no ownApologies for any (unintended) offence.
Please don't rant about what I've manipulated, I can explain mostly everything, and...c'mon, it's fanfiction.
Lotsa docklands hints…hum.
Oh and the end of the world stuff? According to Jehovah's Witness religion, armageddon was due to start on 1/1/1975. And that's what you call ironic.
PINK FLOYD ROCK! If you got the reference…the album was playing while I was writing this, and it's one I tend to associate w the 2 of them anyway.
Cheers for reading
And have a good 2008