Hi, everyone! I didn't think I'd be publishing anything this week, as (1) I'm still waiting for reviews on the latest chapter of Children Will Play and (2) it's my birthday in three days andI'm trying to get a lot of work done so I can have the weekend free. However, one of my reviewers mentioned, in response to my latest chapter, that they'd like to see more stories about Lily and Petunia Evans' childhoods. This one-shot (or perhaps two-shot would be more accurate) popped into my head the other day. I can't remember why, but it wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it. I was thinking of adding it as a later chapter in Children Will Play, but it's really two seperate (though related) vignettes, so it didn't seem to fit the format. Consider it a 'Missing Moment' of sorts, i suppose. This one is dedicated to dancergirl7, for her support and her suggestion. Special mention goes to reviewers TooManyHobbiesToList and Louey06, who also reviewed my latest Lily & Co. fic.
Anyway, this story focuses on that timeless childhood threat: "I'm running away from home!" Lily and Severus are both fans of this tactic...but for very different reasons.
Is it just me, or does everyone sometimes wish we could return to a simpler time when living in the park or renting an apartment at age 10 was a viable option?
Disclaimer: It's Jo's world; I just live in it.
The Runaways
Lily Evans stormed up the stairs to her bedroom, slamming the door behind her. It crashed shut with a satisfying smash. The loudness of the sound only made her feel marginally better.
Downstairs, she could still hear Petunia's voice—the heated, angry tone piercing all of Lily's defenses. Tears prickled the inside corners of her eyes, escaping and sliding down her cheeks. One managed to wind its way into her mouth, adding salt to the already bitter taste of rankling injustice.
So Petunia didn't want her around, did she? Thought she was an embarrassment? She doesn't mind playing with me at home, thought Lily savagely. She just doesn't want me around her friends.
This last thought sent Lily into another upsurge of temper and she flung herself onto her bed, pummeling her pillow. She was sick of it, sick of Petunia spending time with her around the house, as if they were the best of friends, then going out with her girl friends and making fun of Lily behind her back, putting her down for a cheap laugh.
"It's just a phase, sweetheart," Mr. and Mrs. Evans would say. "All teenagers get embarrassed by their families. It's only normal. I'd imagine Petunia says even more about us…"
But Tuney isn't a teenager, Lily would insist. Not really. She only just turned thirteen a couple of weeks ago.
Besides, this wasn't a new occurrence. It seemed that ten-year-old Lily had been just as much of an embarrassment when she was still nine-year-old Lily. Thirteen-year-old Petunia was just more overt with her disgust than twelve-year-old Petunia had been.
The only difference was, ten-year-old Lily wasn't going to take it anymore.
Impulse told Lily to jump right up and stalk right out the front door in rebellious triumph, but the tiny voice of common sense whispered in her ear that this would never work. Mum and Dad would catch me and send me straight up to bed, she reasoned. Instead, she decided on a more cunning approach. Lily grinned wickedly as she pulled on her pajamas.
*****
"Goodnight, Mum. Goodnight, Dad," she said, sparing Petunia a disdainful look that the latter returned, her eyes piercing daggers into Lily's.
"Going to bed early, dear?" asked her mother, a touch of concern evident in her voice.
"Yeah, I'm pretty tired," Lily replied, embellishing her excuse with a huge fake yawn that just barely concealed her smile at the thought of the suitcase, smuggled from the hall closet, packed with the essentials and stashed under Lily's bed at that very moment.
She kissed her parents goodnight and headed upstairs. After closing the door and flicking off the lights, Lily paused in the middle of her room, listening hard. She certainly didn't want her parents walking in to check on her as she was making her escape. After counting slowly to one hundred, she decided the coast was clear. Pulling on her jacket and trainers and grabbing the suitcase, she tiptoed over to the window. As she boosted the suitcase up on the windowsill, she stopped. Something was missing. Looking back at her room, she turned back and huddled her pillows together under the light summer quilt, molding them into a shape that she thought reasonably resembled a recumbent figure and pulling the blankets up over 'her' head. "There," she breathed. She slung the suitcase over her back on its long strap, sat on the windowsill and swung her legs out.
It was a long way down from this angle. Maybe I should stay after all, she reflected. But the sound of Petunia's taunts and the fire of her own rage boiled up inside Lily again, and she assumed a defiant expression as she swung herself around, gripped the trellis that had been built against the side of the house from the back garden, and slowly climbed toward the ground. As her feet hit solid ground, she only took a second to consider where she was headed before she started running down the street.
As Lily continued along the street, the houses grew steadily more and more shabby looking. Pubs and pawnbrokers dominated the landscape now, in place of the family-style restaurants, groceries and candy shop Lily was accustomed to seeing. A ragged man was asleep in the gutter, his back resting against a large rubbish bin. Lily stepped nervously around him, hurrying on her way.
Her destination was in sight—a dark and depressing-looking street of identical terraced houses where half the streetlamps were burned out. Raucous singing issued from one of the old brick rowhouses; a baby's bloodcurdling wail from another. Lily felt very out of place on this forbidding street, a frightened ten-year-old girl in pajamas, armed with nothing but a suitcase, but she continued determinedly to the house at the very end of the street, picked up some pebbles from a thatch of weeds growing in a nearby vacant lot, and began throwing them lightly at the front window.
The noise they made was louder than she had expected, and she silently prayed that she wouldn't shatter the glass or wake the irascible man who lived here. It was much to her relief when a boy of about her age appeared in the window. He gazed down at her for a second, taking in her bizarre appearance, then immediately turned away from the window.
He emerged from the house minutes later, dressed in an extremely worn pair of jeans, a T-shirt that looked uncomfortably tight, and a flannel work shirt that might have belonged to his father.
Even the near-total darkness could not conceal the look of incredulity on Severus Snape's face as he approached Lily Evans.
"What are you doing here?" he whispered urgently. Lily never headed into this part of town after dark. She had offered to, of course—Lily wasn't afraid of anything, as far as Severus could tell—but he had flatly forbidden it, insisting so vehemently that Lily had agreed just to shut him up.
"Will you run away with me?" asked Lily, her forehead slightly creased where her eyebrows were drawn together in distress.
"What?" asked Severus, looking thoroughly puzzled. "Why?"
"They don't want me there," sniffed Lily. "We'll all be happier if I just go."
"But where will we go?" Severus eyed Lily closely. She was wearing a light jacket over what looked like pajamas and was carrying a single, child-sized suitcase. It didn't look as if this were a well-developed plan.
"We can live in the park," suggested Lily, hit with a sudden inspiration. "And then, after we think it over a bit and make some plans and stuff, we can run away to London and get jobs and rent an apartment."
Severus nodded mutely. He looked as though he could spot several flaws in this plan, but had no desire to say so, especially when Lily was looking so distraught.
The two children walked the silent streets until they arrived at the play park. It was very dark and absolutely deserted; not even a squirrel was in sight. Taking stock of the situation, they reached an unspoken agreement that the best place to spend the night would be under 'their' tree. They walked around to the side of the tree that was facing away from the rest of the park and Lily spread out the blanket she had brought with her. Curled up close for warmth under the blanket, they managed only a few minutes' whispered plans and conversation before they fell asleep.
*****
Mr. Evans was heading downstairs to collect his morning paper, still dressed in only his pajamas and robe, when the doorbell chimed. Perplexed, he headed into the entryway and opened the door to reveal a police officer. He had hold of two sullen-looking children, each by the back of their shirt collar.
"These yours, sir?" he asked, grinning slightly.
"This one is," said Mr. Evans, still in a state of shock as he nodded towards Lily.
"Found 'em camped out in the park, 'round about five-thirty this morning," the policeman explained. "Don't worry, sir," he added, noting the outraged look on Mr. Evans' face, "we deal with runaways all the time. 'Course, most of 'em are a bit older than these two."
"In," said Mr. Evans shortly, pointing the way inside to his daughter, who sheepishly walked inside with not a word, save a timid "Sorry" addressed to her friend. Her father turned back to the policeman.
"I'm so sorry about this—I don't know what happened. What could've possessed them…"
"Like I said, sir, no harm done. Well, if you've got this under control, I'd better figure out who this one belongs to—" He indicated Severus, who paled immediately.
"Number two, Spinner's End," recited Mr. Evans, fixing his daughter's best friend with the same stern look he had sampled on Lily before closing the door and turning to face his wayward child.
"Sit." Lily sat on the sofa.
"Explain."
Lily's bad mood persisted all through her father's lecture, her mother's tears and Petunia's satisfied smirk when it was announced that Lily was punished for the next two weeks. It clung on stubbornly as she undertook the various stages of her punishment: pruning her mother's garden, vacuuming all of the rugs and washing the dishes after each meal. It wasn't until bedtime that her anger and frustration finally lifted.
"Goodnight, sweetheart," whispered her mother, kissing her on the forehead. "We love you," her father added.
Sometimes, running away allows you to finally appreciate that which you never knew you had...until it was gone.
*****
For what must have been the fourth or fifth time that week, a fight had broken out within the walls of number 2, Spinner's End. There were sounds of shouts and shattered glass, and through the tiny front window one could see the shadowy silhouette of a tall man advancing on two smaller figures with a belt clutched in his hand.
"What'd I tell you, Eileen?" he roared. "WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT—"
"Tobias, please!" Eileen pled. "Please, don't…he couldn't help it, no kid can…"
"GODDAMN WIZARDS," Tobias sneered, shoving an endtable out of his way. It crashed against a wall and broke into pieces. "All the same. Think I want to put up with your nonsense, do you, woman? Think you can pull one over on me? I won't have it, Eileen, not in my house!"
"If it's your house, maybe you should try taking care of it for once," snapped a dark-haired boy of ten, his black eyes narrowed in distaste. "Why should Mum have to look after it all? It's not like you're doing anything to help."
Tobias' eyes widened in horrified fury, and Eileen couldn't jump in the way before he backhanded the kid right across the face, sending him staggering back into the wall.
"Don't cheek me, boy, I won't have your disrespect! You'll learn to talk civil or I'll beat the insolence right out of you!" he shouted, raising his hand for a second swing.
A repeated shriek of "Tobias, don't," was drowned out in a woman's long, painful scream as the man took the belt to his cowering wife.
It was another hour and twenty minutes before the neighbors could pry open their dusty windows to the cool, still summer night air once again, without having to hear the offending cries issuing from number two, Spinner's End.
Darkness had really fallen now, and Spinner's End was down to only one functional street lamp. Severus leaned up against the solitary window. The cracked glass felt good against his throbbing cheek. For some reason, it lessened the feeling that his left eye was about to explode. This had to be the third time this week he had somehow gotten in his father's way…
Severus' eyes snapped open. I've got to get out of here, he thought. He'll kill me someday if I don't get away. He leapt to his feet, shoved several of his scant possessions into a bag, threw it over his shoulder and leaned around the doorway. Nothing was moving; the house was completely silent. He crossed to the staircase, silently pleading with whatever God there might be that Tobias didn't wake and thrash him within an inch of his life, and tiptoed downstairs and out the door.
Severus had once estimated that, walking reasonably quickly, he could reach Lily Evans' house in seven minutes. Tonight, however, it took close to ten.
Scouring the garden for the smallest pebbles available and recalling the overly loud pounding they made on the side of a house, Severus took careful aim. The first pebble's clatter produced no effect. The windows of the house remained dark and completely void of people.
The second pebble woke someone. A girl stood in the window, struggling to open it without waking any other members of the family. Severus held his breath, waiting to see which sister he had awoken. If it was Petunia, he might as well head home and prepare to go another round or two with Tobias.
"Sev? What are you doing down there? What's the matter?" called a groggy Lily Evans.
"Could you come down?" he called back, as quietly as he could.
Lily glanced back over her shoulder. In her bed, Petunia grunted in her sleep and muttered something into the pillow. Lily took a deep breath, edged herself out of the window and gingerly climbed down the trellis. When she reached the bottom, she looked around shiftily, as though to check that the moonlit garden really was deserted. After a hurried greeting, she took Severus by the arm and pulled him into the complete darkness under the garden's only tree.
"So what is it?" whispered Lily, her arms crossed in front of her, her face the very picture of confusion.
"Will you run away with me?" asked Severus. The collar of his T-shirt had been roughly torn and there were curious marks around his neck, like shadowy fingers.
"What?" asked Lily, startled. "Why?"
"They don't want me there," murmured Severus in an expressionless voice. "Trust me, it would be better if I just go."
"But where will we go?" Lily cast an appraising eye over her friend, trying to hide her concern. Something was very wrong. He had winced noticeably when she hugged him, and didn't look like he was up to a long walk.
"I don't know," Severus replied. "I didn't think much about where we'd go to stay. I only thought about getting out." Something in his expression darkened just a bit, and for a moment he looked as though he were somewhere far, far away—even though he never left the spot where he was standing, mere inches from Lily's side.
"Sev! Aren't you listening?" The urgency in Lily's voice recalled him from his thoughts.
"What?"
"I said, what happened to you? You look awful."
"Nothing." There was something in his tone that made Lily very skeptical.
"That's an awful lot of nothing to run into. Did you get mugged? Maybe we should call the police."
"Lay off it, Lily—my dad just came home in a bad mood, that's all. I, er, accidentally made the television set explode when he told my mum he was mugged and that's why he didn't bring home his pay today." Severus scowled. "The whole street could probably smell the beer off him. He's an awful liar. I can always tell."
"He hit you?"
"Are we going or not?"
"Yeah, I…this is bad, Sev, you can't go back there. The bus stop would be the best place, I guess…"
The bus stop was several blocks away from Lily's house. The children sat down on a rusted old bench, waiting in absolute silence. When the late night bus finally pulled up, the driver was startled to see the stop empty except for two kids not yet turned eleven.
"Shouldn't you two be home in bed?" he asked kindly, eyes drifting between the girl, who was rummaging in her pockets for bus fare to cover the two of them, and the boy, who looked as though he'd come off worse in a particularly vicious fight. Neither replied.
The children headed about three-quarters of the way down the aisle towards the back of the bus and settled themselves into a pair of seats. They whispered back and forth for a while, but the driver couldn't hear what they were saying. Eventually, the boy took to gazing thoughtfully out the window and the girl fell asleep with her head on his shoulder.
*****
Eileen hurried downstairs and opened the door promptly after the second knock. Tobias was bound to be hung over, and if whoever was knocking on the damned door woke him up…
The officer knocked, waited and took a good look at the pair they had found on the bus when it returned to the depot for the drivers' change of shift. He wondered what could've provoked them to make a run for it. His thoughts, however, were interrupted as the door was opened by a thin, cross-looking woman. Though the morning had become rather warm, she was wearing a long-sleeved sweater over her dress. One of her eyes had been blackened somehow.
"Ma'am?"
"Shh…keep your voice down," she insisted. Her dark eyes fixed on the shabby-looking boy to the police officer's right, who greatly resembled her. "Severus?"
He looked away. So would I, if my fool mother named me 'Severus', thought the policeman.
"This your son, ma'am? These two were found, fast asleep, on a late-night bus. We weren't sure, but we figured they were runaways."
The woman frowned. "What were you thinking?" she hissed at the boy, who raised an eyebrow. The officer's focus drifted between the woman's anxious tone and the various injuries that covered both mother and child.
"You know, ma'am," he interrupted, "kids sometimes run away when they're real upset about something. Is there any, er…trouble at home?"
The woman flushed, her frown deepening. "No," she said, a little too quick to be entirely credible. "Not that it's any of your business, anyway," she added coldly.
"Sorry, ma'am, didn't mean to pry. I'll just be taking this little lady home then. Stay out of trouble, kid," the officer added as he turned away, Lily in tow. Lily looked back to see Severus, now being pulled inside by his mother, giving her an apologetic look.
When the officer dropped her off on her doorstep, stopping to have a quick word with her mother, Lily could've sworn she heard him mutter as he walked away, "Sometimes, I wish I could just let them get away after all…poor kid…"
Sometimes, there is no shame in running away…when to stand and fight would be futile.
Any thoughts--good, bad or indifferent? Just comments? Questions? Please review! I'll be happy to answer any inquiries.
Even if you don;t have questions of deep, profound thoughts, a simple, short comment will do.
Consider it my birthday present.
And if any of my usual readers are out there, please remember to review ch. 9 of CWP so I can post ch. 10 without sacrificing my pride. Even a one-word answer will do. PLEASE!
Yours until next time,
Delilah