A/N: WARNING - I am told that this story is a tear jerker. A death-fic.

A Death in the Family

By Eleanor Farrell

Lily had always hated hospitals. She always tried to avoid going when she injured herself. She was perfectly happy patching herself up and with her being a witch that was easily done. However, this wasn't one of her typical injuries, this time she was travelling to the hospital to see her father. He was in hospital for an operation and had to stay there a couple of nights for observation. He had phoned her up every night since he had been there. It just didn't seem real.

Tears streamed down Lily's face leaving trails of mascara as she went through the conversation that she had had with her mother before jumping in the car. Her mother had had a phone call, in the early morning, from the hospital asking her to come to the hospital quick as her father had taken a turn for the worse and might not make it. Her chest tightened at the thought of her dad not making it. Her mother reached across from where she was sitting and squeezed Lily's hand, tears pouring down her face too. She was seated between Lily and Petunia and was holding both of their hands tightly. She couldn't bear to think about her husband not making it. She had asked her parents to drive them to the hospital as she was too upset to drive.

Lily's grandparents kept silent through the somber mood within the car. Every once in a while, a sob would interrupt the silence. The journey would take about two hours. Lily kept trying to reassure herself, telling herself it will be alright and that he will be fine. She kept saying that she'd give up being a witch if it meant that he would survive. More tears of despair fell down her face, she took a deep shaky breath to try to calm herself down. Her Grandmother announced that they were coming up to the hospital now. Lily felt sick; she wanted the car journey to go on forever. She didn't want to face the truth that her dad could possibly be dying.

As the car stopped in the hospital car park, Lily got out to find her own mother crying harder in her mother's embrace (Lily's Grandmother, Brenda). Her Aunt Donna and her other Grandmother had followed them to the hospital after hearing the news. Lily also noticed that her sister was crying harder, she was a little puzzled until her Grandmother, June, came up to her and explained that her dad had passed away. "It's terrible!" June cried. Time just stopped. Lily couldn't believe it; she didn't want to believe it. June gathered Lily in her arms as she cried her heart out for the father she had just lost. She kept murmuring "dad" over and over again, as if it would bring him back. June handed her a tissue, she accepted it but didn't say thank you. A thousand things were running through her mind at the moment.

Lily's family walked towards the hospital entrance, all of them looking distressed. Lily noticed that a lot of people were staring at their tear stricken faces, she didn't care though. She was holding June's hand tightly as they both bawled their eyes out for a lost family member. Lily noticed that Petunia was clinging to her mum, they too were sobbing and behind them were her other grandparents (her mother's parents) and Donna, they weren't crying but they looked deeply disturbed. They made their way to the entrance, Lily didn't want to go in, she didn't want to make it all seem real. She wished she could just wake up from this living nightmare she was having but no such luck, a dream wouldn't hurt this much. They walked towards the ward where her father was situated. The feeling in her stomach worsened, it was like the feeling you got when you became nervous or panicked. The next few moments were a blur for her. She vaguely recalled that a nurse on the ward asked "Is everything alright?" and her mother retorted with "Does everything look alright?!" That led Brenda to scold her daughter, something about she was "only trying to be helpful". They were all led to the nurse's office and were told to wait.

In the nurse's room, more thoughts went through Lily's head. One of the first thoughts that she had was He died alone. another thought was I hope it wasn't painful followed by How did he die? She also thought that she was never going to see her father again, never see him laugh, never have him tease her again and never hear him sing in the shower or play chess with her again. She breathed in shakily as she tried to gain control of her emotions. After a while some man came into the room, she didn't catch his profession, she didn't really care. He offered his condolences and explained briefly that her father had had a heart attack within the night. That got Lily's mother angry, she demanded to know why they weren't informed earlier and why had they been given false hope. Lily tuned out of the conversation at that point and stared into space. Her father was a good man; he had never done anything mean or horrible to a soul. He used to buy homeless people sandwiches because he hated people to go without. He had once seen a woman a bit upset in a shop because she didn't have enough money to buy an item that she wanted so he put the extra money towards it. Why did the good die young and the bad people in the world live a long life? Brenda's stern voice brought Lily out of her thoughts. Brenda was apparently telling Lily's mother off for cursing at the doctor. Lily noticed her mother was rather angry at him. After a while he left the room, announcing that they could all go and see her father in a few moments. Lily panicked, she didn't really want to see her father's corpse, she wanted to remember him alive and lively. Lily's Aunt Donna was persuading her to come and see him and that it would be the last time that she would ever see him. Lily finally gave in and agreed to see him.

Before her family was taken to see her father, Lily was taken out by her grandmother to get some air by a nearby window. Lily took big gulps of the air and blew out softly. She heard Brenda telling her to be strong. She kept repeating the words, Lily started to feel patronized. She could cry if she wanted to! She just wished that people would leave her alone for a while and give her space. Eventually, it was time to go and see her dad. As she walked towards his room her stomach was in knots. She took a deep breath and stepped into the room. The moment she did, she wished she hadn't. She saw her father saw covered up on the bed lifeless, his face pale. She couldn't look. She turned to leave but she was caught in Donna's embrace. More tears streamed down her face, over Donna's shoulder she saw Petunia reach out to touch her father's face, she drew her hand back quick as the skin was cold to the touch. Petunia was drawn into her mother's arms. Lily quickly turned loose from her Aunt and hurried out of the room, trying to rid herself of the image of her dead father's body.

After everybody had finished in her father's room, they all headed out to the car park. Lily got in the car without a word; she just wanted to go home and curl up in bed to cry. She also wanted to talk to somebody but not a family member. She didn't really want any sympathy; she just wanted to talk and maybe have a shoulder to cry on. On the way home, the only sound was Petunia's CD playing and the occasional sob. As Lily listened to the lyrics to the songs she became even more upset, each song she could relate to her life and it was getting her down She didn't want to turn it off though, the silence would be worse. She cried on and off in the car; it was a relief when she saw her street. She slowly walked out to her house; her grief-stricken family followed her.

"Are you okay?" Lily's mother asked her, she gave her a look. "Yeah, stupid question really." She gave Lily a tear filled smile.

"I'm going to go out," Lily announced. "I need to talk to somebody." Her mother gave her a small nod.

"Yeah." Lily wasn't sure who she wanted to talk to. If she talked to one of her three best friends, they all would come alone; she didn't want to be swarmed at the moment. She thought for a while and it came to her with a quick decision; she was going to talk to James Potter.

After sending James a letter via owl mail, they had agreed to meet up outside a café in town. Lily was starting to think this was a bad idea and she tried to gain her composure. She spotted James across the street and made her way towards him. He spotted her and started to walk her way, his facial expression concerned.

"Lily, hey." His tone was soft. "Your letter sounded urgent, what's wrong?" He seemed genuinely worried for her. Lily's eyes teared over as she explained about her dad. James' face fell and his eyes also teared up seeing Lily that way. He wrapped his arms around her and rubbed her back and stroked her hair as she cried into his jumper. He didn't offer any words of comfort and Lily was pleased of that, him just holding her was all the comfort she needed. Lily suddenly decided that James wasn't a bad guy and considered going to Hogsmeade with him next time he asked. As James hugged her as she explained everything that had happened that day.

"…And I came here because I needed to talk to someone." She finished.

"Any time you need to talk, I'm always here for you, Lily, always." Lily gave him a small smile and he gathered her in another hug and kissed her forehead. Lily gave into his embrace and sighed. She wasn't okay now but things would get better.

A/N: My own dad died a month ago, this story is in memory of him. R.I.P. Dad - died 5th November 2009. I'll never forget you. Thank you JessTheGeek for beta-ing for me. :)