Disclaimer: none of the characters belong to me, I'm just the puppeteer.

A/N: The shoebox is based on this shoebox I found and 'what can be done vs. what should be done' has come from my science book, ethics section :) This inspiration came to me when I was revising for my science, and all started off as doodles from the simple poems - you'll see in the second chapter what I mean.

Chapter One: A Photograph

Harry was sitting quietly on his bed, reading when Aunt Petunia barged in and threw him a duct taped shoe box roughly in his direction.

"Here – since you are leaving in a few days, you should have some old rubbish I found whilst clearing out the loft - a box of blasted love notes that I forgot to burn." Her voice took on a softer note, "They were your mother's. So… do whatever you want with them."

Harry stared. Petunia seemed oddly jittery, as if she had been debating doing this for a while.

"So take them, then!" Petunia commanded, sounding like there was a particularly acidic lemon in her mouth.

Harry quickly grabbed them off the floor and shoved them under his bed.

"Thanks," he grudgingly relayed.

She stormed out and slammed the door.

Harry dived under the bed, reaching for the shoe box.

He tore off the duct tape… The masking tape… The string… Finally, when his wand had slit through the superglue, the lid came off.

Harry stared.

Inside was an assortment of memorabilia ranging from ancient-looking dummies and baby socks to stacks of letters and photographs.

He was immobilised – he didn't know where to start. Suddenly, he upended the box on the bed and grabbed at what was closest: a black-and-white Muggle photograph. A small Lily, sporting a toothy grin was stood opposite a muddy miserable looking girl. They were both huddled inside a church around a baby.

He turned over the photograph.

Lily - 8, Archibald - 6 months, and Petunia - 9. 1967.

It was the day of cousin Archibald's christening. Lily had never been so bored in her life. And she hadn't even left Surrey for the epic journey to Somerset yet.

Lily was dressed in a prim frilly pinafore, her hair neatly combed into a plait. She was outside her mother's room, sat on a divan viewing the scene playing before her with a bored expression on her face.

"Ow! You're pulling!" Petunia screeched.

"The knots must come out, Pet. You know, Lily's hair was never this knotty was it? "

Petunia, on the other hand, was dressed in a pair of dungarees. Some pruning secateurs were half hanging out of her dungaree pocket at the front and she was sporting some scuffed old jelly shoes that she wore for gardening.

Lily smirked, and folded her arms.

"Why are there leaves in your hair, Pet? You haven't been outside, rolling in the mud like a swine now, have you? You know I thought I told you do leave the garden alone! It's Sunday and you shouldn't work then," her mother said crassly.

Lily snickered.

Petunia looked up at her mother in horror, and then in fury at her sister. She grabbed the hairbrush out of her mother's manicured clutches and threw it at Lily.

Smack.

"Ow! That was my h-h-head!"

Soon both girls were bawling.

Half an hour later, Lily and Petunia were bundled into the car, still sniffling. They were each looking out their windows, feeling stung.

"I never liked Archibald much anyway," Lily choked, breaking the silence.

Four long hours later, a smug looking Lily and a muddy, at-the-end-of-her-tether looking Petunia were huddled around what looked like a very red plucked chicken in a huge frilly pink dress.

"Smile nicely for the camera, girlies!"

FLASH.

Lily sniffled. She was 18, and was leaving Surrey the next day to marry James.

She wasn't sure where it all went wrong. She supposed her sister was always jealous at the attention she got for being more obedient, more studious and the ability to do the impossible.

She had been continually inviting her sister to the ceremony for a solid month - ever since she had planned the date. The registry office had been fully booked up for the next six months but luckily someone had dropped out. There had been a huge rush to tie the knot before somebody's loved one died in the raging war against Lord Voldemort. Since Lily and James were members of the Order of the Phoenix their death rates had risen considerably.

She had begged - pleaded - with Lily, even, for her to even be present at the wedding (let alone bridesmaid - she couldn't offer head bridesmaid as that position was already taken by her best friend, Yasmin).

All of her arguments - that she was sorry, family set the foundations in marriages, that her marriage would fail out of bad luck from not having all her family present, that if she died tomorrow she wouldn't even care, that if she died tomorrow she would regret not going for the rest of her miserable life - had met deaf ears and a stony facade.

In the end Petunia got bored and left the house to meet up with her boyfriend.

So that explained why Lily had just finished sobbing and had dug out some old photo albums from the '60s.

Lily started sniffling again. There she was - before she got her letter playing happily with her big sister in the paddling pool.

Another photo showed her as a toddler on holiday in Cornwall. They were both sandy and were huddled around a huge sandcastle (sporting shells) with a moat. Her big sister's arms were around her and she was planting a kiss in her filthy hair.

Where had that doting sister gone? She was now so cold and hateful because of her 'abnormality'.

She flicked through the album, watching steadily as her whole family aged.

Finally, she got to the last photo. It was black-and-white and showed Lily and her sister next to her cousin Archibald, on his christening day. Archie was wearing a hideous formal frilly thing – and was rather red in the face.

Her sister looked dreadfully upset, unlike Lily herself. She was grinning up at the photographer and looked considerably cleaner than her older sister.

Lily felt that the photographer had captured Pet's personality well. So she slid it out of the album.

A/N: Well, I hope you liked it! Not sure if you noticed, but I've even stolen Archie - except that JKR had said that Lily had no magical family. Oh well.

Pokes head out of a rabbit hole sniffing for reviews.