This is for an AU challenge! A Florist!AU, to be precise.
I've left this open. MC? Review and tell me. I was going to make it pure Jily, but I thought the dynamic between Lily and Petunia was more interesting.
So. Please enjoy!
The Flower Girls
"Lily! Petunia!" Mrs Evans called up the stairs, tapping her foot impatiently. "I have a large order of flowers coming in today and I need your help!"
There was a loud thump, and Mrs Evan's eldest, Petunia, yelled down: "YES MUM! WE'RE COMING!"
At the age of nineteen, Petunia should have been well in her way to University at Oxford or Cambridge or even across the pond to Harvard, like Lily was planning. Instead, she had enrolled at the local community college and decided to take a catering course.
Mr and Mrs Evans were slightly disappointed in Petunia, as she was a smart girl underneath her popular, 'whatever-I-don't-care' exterior, but Petunia loved cooking and if she was happy, so were they.
What aggravated then the most, however was Petunia's boyfriend of two long years, Vernon Dursley, the son of the butcher.
Vernon was attractive in a strong, muscular way, but he had a dark side to him, passed down through the male Dursleys for many generations.
Everyone gossiped in the tiny town, and everyone knew of how Mrs Dursley disappeared one night, never to return to her husband or son. Mr Evans had forbidden his girls from even mentioning the fact that Mrs Dursley had left Coleford.
The matter remained undercover.
Petunia was infatuated with Vernon, to the point that even though she came home crying too many times to count, although Lily tried time and time again to help her sister, she still loves him.
Lily Evans, Petunia's younger sister by two years, was pretty (Petunia was as well, all the Evans girls were, although Lily didn't try to hide it), smart and pretty much perfect. Her parents adored her, the boys all wanted to get in her trousers, and Petunia was bitterly jealous of her younger sister.
But there was only one man for Lily Hope Evans.
Mr Evans worked as an accountant for Evans Floral Festivals Ltd., which was run by Mrs Evans, with the addition of only one assistant.
Mrs Evans tapped her foot again, hearing a few more thumps and giggles, before her youngest ran down the stairs, and right into the kitchen.
"Morning Mum, Dad!" She said cheerily, grabbing a piece of toast. "Can I-"
"No, Lily, I need help with the order." Mrs Evans said quickly. "Yes, then you can go and meet James."
Lily grinned at her mother, and then looked towards the stairs when Petunia walked down, at a slightly more sedate pace.
"'Morning." She said curtly, and Lily's face fell almost comically.
"Good morning Petunia, dear." Mrs Evans managed a smile.
"Vernon requested his presence at his home in an hour." Petunia continued, in the same curt tone. "I can't help you with the delivery, Mother."
"Petunia." Mr Evans spoke for the first time, placing The Coleford Bugle to one side, next to his buttered toast. "Dear, you see too much of that boy anyway. You're staying to help your mother and your sister with the delivery."
Petunia bit her lip, and she looked at Lily quickly. "It'll be... Fun?" Lily offered in exchange to the glance. "Come on Tuney, just this once."
"I..." Petunia bit her lip again, and then nodded reluctantly. "I can always go over later."
The parents shared a look that neither Lily nor Petunia got.
oOo
Lily sat on the swings, watching the large blue van painted with flowers swirled up and down its doors. Petunia rolled her eyes next to Lily.
"I don't know how that guy can drive that thing!" She complained, as a boy around Lily's age with shaggy black hair jumped out of the van. "It's obnoxious!"
"You're such a killjoy Tuney." Lily teased lightly. "Sirius likes it."
Sirius Black was the son of two of the towns biggest snobs. Mr Black (or 'Sir Black' as was his proper title) was the author of a series of bestselling books about birds who had been knighted in 1955 for saving the Queen's favourite dog from drowning.
Lady Black had never done a spot of work in her life, whether that be tying her own shoelaces or simply putting on the actual shoes.
They had a son, Regulus, who was a year younger than Lily and would be going to become a lawyer, an expensive, highly-paid lawyer.
Lastly, there was Sirius.
Sirius had, at ten, broken into Sainsbury's at ten at night (simply because he wanted to buy flowers for his sick teacher at school), got two speeding tickets and had been arrested no less than five times.
However, Lily, the goody-two shoes, liked him, and not just because he was James's best friend.
When Mrs Evans had discovered Sirius's track record, she had smiled at the boy, and had shaken her head.
"Try the van for a spin." She said, tossing Sirius the keys to the 'Hippy Van'. "Oh, and next time, steal flowers from us, okay?"
"I still don't get it." Petunia scrunched her nose up. "Oh, and there's Remus. The Wolf Boy."
"Don't call him that!" Lily complained, poking her sister in the stomach.
"Don't do that." Petunia scowled. "I'm fat."
Lily turned quickly, fire in her eyes. "No." She said fiercely. "Tuney, no. Is Vernon saying that to you again?"
Petunia skilfully looked away.
Lily sighed, and turned her attention back towards Sirius and Remus.
Remus was known as 'Wolf Boy' because he saved a wolf from the woods behind Coleford a few years back, and decided to dedicate his life to the creatures. Lily liked him lots too, as he was her study partner at school and knew amazing fables about Werewolves.
Remus and Sirius were two of a larger group. Whereas Petunia and Lily were the 'flower girls' (both due to their names and their family's business), Remus, Sirius, a third boy names Peter and Lily's boyfriend James, made up the Marauders.
"Girls!" Mrs Evans called across the road, hands on her hips. "I need your help!"
Lily sprang up eagerly, Petunia following but with a little more contempt.
Having a family business that was a florists was all well and good, but the smell of liquid plant food stuck to your clothes and on delivery days both Petunia and Lily often found leaves in their clothes, long after Sirius had driven away again.
And Petunia had no intention of taking over from her parents.