Giving Up

Lily Evans was in her room, packing her school things into her trunk for the last time. She was just about to start her seventh and final year at Hogwarts.

She remembered how proud her parents were when they found out she was Head Girl; she herself was ecstatic, but one look from Petunia put a damper on the rest of the holiday. She knew what Petunia thought of her, she had made it quite clear when she got her letter when she was eleven.

The doorbell rang as the Evans family were enjoying their Sunday Lunch; Richard Evans left out a disgruntled moan before standing up to see who had interrupted family time. Lily strained her ears to hear the low murmurs coming from the front door. She didn't have to wait for long as her father walked back into the kitchen, confusion etched across his face.

"Everyone into the living room, we have a visitor."

Lily took one look at the 'visitor' and grinned; Severus told her this would happen. The visitor was a stern looking woman, she wore long green robes and her hair was in a tight bun.

"Hello, my name is Professor Minerva McGonagall; I'm sorry for the intrusion but I'm here to talk to you about your daughter Lily." Lily felt the eyes of her family fall on her heavily; realisation dawned on Petunia, she had eavesdropped on enough of Lily and Severus' conversations to know exactly what this woman wanted to talk about and Lily could tell that she wanted nothing more than to storm out of the room.

"Ha ... Has Lily done something wrong?" Her mother asked hesitantly, she was quite intimidated by the strange woman.

"Not at all, I am actually here to offer her a place at my school; a school that would have other children with same… abilities as your daughter." This got her parents attention.

"Abilities?"

McGonagall smiled and turned to Lily handing her a letter, "Hogwarts is a school of magic, Lily would be joining those of her own age and would be taught how to control and expand her magic as from what I here she is very efficient with the magic she has…"

Lily sighed as she closed her trunk and took a quick glance around her room, the lavender walls almost completely bare except for the Gryffindor banner hung above her bed. She silently went over to her desk which was now cleared of all scraps of parchment, which her mother was keen to point out, was a first. Underneath the mound of old letters and Honeydukes wrappers inside the desk drawer, was a photo album. She took it out and started to glance over its delicate pages. There were pictures of herself and Petunia laughing at the camera with the amount happiness only children could muster. Pictures of the two of them hugging, playing together on the swings in the playground by their house, doing everything together; as close as could be – as it should be. But, as she went further into the album, the photos of the two of them lessened. Wizard photos of her friends from Hogwarts laughing and waving up at her took their place. In the odd photo of the two sisters, the smiles were forced and it looked as if it pained them to just stand next to each other.

Lily sighed, she had tried for a good part of six years to try make things right between herself and Petunia. She would try to talk to her every day when she was at home but she was ignored. When she was at school, she wrote as often as she could but she never got a reply. Every time Petunia pushed her away, she felt frustrated and hurt; but she pushed those feelings aside and tried again. She endured every hateful comment, every uttered 'freak' that had her up in her room crying her heart out, wondering how her sister could hate her so much. Petunia wouldn't even look at her since she was about fourteen. She refused to speak to her directly, unless of course, it was to start a shouting match which would shake the whole house.

When they were in company, they would try to keep things civil but even that was starting to crumble. She shuddered as she remembered the disastrous dinner party at their neighbours' house; the sisters were at each other's throats and their mother was in tears.

Worst of all however, was when Petunia would bring her fiancée over, and both of them would talk at the top of their voices, how freakish she was and how the family was better without her. It was those type comments that pushed her over the edge, and made her slap Petunia in blind frustration. She regretted it straight away and would spend the rest of her time at home following her sister around in tears trying to apologise, but it never made a difference.

Lily loved her sister, she really did. When she was younger she would do anything for her. But now, she had had enough. She couldn't take another spiteful comment, another disgusted glance. She would love her sister until the day she died but she was sick of trying to make things right, for it to just blow up in her face again and again.

…

At half past ten, the Evans family arrived at Kings Cross Station and walked to the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Lily hugged her mother and father goodbye tearfully before turning to her older sister. Petunia was standing little way away from the family looking anywhere but at her, trying to pretend that she didn't know her. Lily forced back the tears as frustration and a sense of finality swept through her. This was it. It was over, there was no more pretending that she could fix the relationship between herself and her sister; but she tried not to dwell on it. When it came to Petunia, Lily just didn't have the strength anymore.