It was an overcast windy day is the middle of January, and Lilly Potter was sitting on a park bench, as the first few drops of rain splattered down on her bare head. Her once radiant hair was dull and lifeless; her eyes had lost their youthful sparkle. She didn't register the cold seeping through her thin coat, or the grey rain matting the fur of her hood. She had the far-away look of one caught up in a distant memory.
She was remembering a picnic on a warm June day, sitting beneath the leafy trees, the cool breeze playing with her shoulder-length auburn hair. She could feel the warm sun on her face, and the sunglasses perched precariously on her nose. And, lounging on the blanket, looking adoringly up at her was the centre of her world, James Potter.
James Potter.
It all starts and ends with James Potter.
Where are you?
And
I'm so sorry
I cannot sleep
I cannot dream tonight
I need
somebody and always
This 6 string's darkness
Comes creeping on
so haunting every time
And as I stared I counted
The webs from
all the spiders
Catching things and eating their insides
Like
indecision to call you
And hear your voice of treason
Will you
come home
And stop this pain tonight?
Stop this pain tonight
Sighing, Lilly clutched her sodden coat tightly to herself, and trudged slowly back to her small apartment. Once standing inside her hallway, she listlessly removed her coat and shoes, and walked through to her bedroom. She pulled the drab curtains, and curled into a ball under her thick quilt.
However, her peace was soon interrupted as the telephone rang loud and abrasively in her ear. With a muffled groan she groped around on her bedside table, and clumsily picked up the receiver.
"Lilly?" The sickly sweet tones of her employer woke Lilly out of her reverie.
"There is a very important ministry party happening tonight. Can I trust you to be there?" Patronising as ever, Lilly thought.
"Oh I'm really not sure, I have to…" In truth she didn't have to do anything, but anything was better than one of the drastly work parties she was continually forced to attend.
"Good, you will arrive at 8.00, oh and Lilly dear, be sure to at least make a small amount of effort, ok?" And with that, she promptly hung up.
This sudden and unwelcome news left Lilly in a state of shock. With only 45 minutes until she had to be there, she inspected the contents of her wardrobe, and proceeded to sort through the piles of laundry that she never got round to. These days, Lilly rarely did any housework, and struggled to turn up for work. Much unlike her former enthusiastic self.
She could barely be bothered to spend the time preparing for tonight's excuse of a party, but she knew the comments she would receive from Amy if she didn't, and she really couldn't face the embarrassment. The old Lilly would have been more then a match for girls like her, but that was before James Potter ripped her heart out, and left it for the entire world to see.
So after a few spells, Lilly was ready, the magic enchanting her hair to shine, and her porcelain skin to glow. The forest green of her formfitting muggle dress brought out her once bewitching eyes, and, if only on the surface, she looked like the old Lilly.
She waited outside the party for a good ten minutes before she managed to pluck up the courage to walk in, and her nerve almost failed her, and it took all her self resolve not to turn and run.
She walked quietly into the large room full of people in bright clothes, all of them chattering loudly. She was immediately pounced on by a bubblegum blonde, with an annoyingly sweet voice. It could only be one person.
"Oh darling! How nice of you to turn up, and your dress!" Her eyes swept up and down the muggle creation, and Lilly noticed too late, that most of the witches and wizards here were dressed in formal wizards robes. She decided not to care, after all, she hadn't cared for the past three months, since her life had come crashing down around her.
Yet here she was, at one of the very events she despised so much.
Lost in thought she wandered over to the long trestle table that held copious amounts of food for all the important people here. Not looking where she was walking, she bumped into something that was solid.
"Oh, sorry…" She muttered looking down at the floor.
"Well that's quite all right. Lilly?"
Hearing her name, she looked up into the startlingly blue eyes, the very same that had captured her heart.
For a moment she stood there, shocked to her very core, and before the tears could come, she fled out the room, unnoticed, except for the owner of the blue eyes, James Potter.