For Written Spark's The Crayola Colors Challenge
Colors: Apricot, Manatee and Wisteria
Seven
Seven, seven, seven…
The number echoed in my head like a continues pattern. That was how many years I had been here, counting this one. Now, the last few days before graduation were passing like sand through fingers.
The sun poked out of the pale gray sky shyly. The light illuminated the ground. Only some reached under the shadow of the tree where I happened to be sitting. A faint sun touched my skin lightly.
My eyes drifted back to the sky. It was such a gray; I couldn't decide if it was light or dark. It wasn't a light or bright color, it was gray. But it was… unusual. There was a color to describe such a color. I knew it well, and it was just on the tip of my tongue.
"Manatee," I whispered as it fell into place.
Yes, I would never forget that color. I remembered it from when I went to the aquarium when I was six. It was the first time I was truly conscious of using magic, it was the first time Petunia called me freak, and it was the first time I met Severus. I remember the day well, too well for comfort…
"I want to see the manatees!" I exclaimed loudly.
"Manatees are stupid," Vernon Dursely (Petunia's friend. I was aloud to bring a friend too, but no one was willing to go) retorted.
Yet when we reached the tank with the majestic dark gray creatures floating in it, Vernon's face lit up. He ran and pushed his chubby face to the glass. Petunia shouldered me aside to gawk at the manatees too. Sometimes, people acted like I didn't exist.
"Can I get something at the gift shop?" I pleaded to my mum.
"I… I guess," she sighed at last.
I smiled as we walked away from the manatees. At this time, Vernon had declared that manatees were awesome.
We reached the gift shop, and I knew exactly what I wanted. I wanted a manatee stuffed animal. There was one sitting right underneath the shelf of penguins. It was the last one, and I dove for it.
Unfortunatly, Vernon reached it first. He grabbed the manatee, and waved it high above my head. I jumped to reach it, but it was too high.
Then, he laughed at me. He laughed like he pitied me. Petunia laughed too. She also mouthed the word freak. That made me mad.
I felt it buzzing through me, but I couldn't control it. In a flash, the penguins all fell from the shelf and landed on Vernon like they were attacking them. I plucked the manatee from his hand. Then I laughed. Mum wasn't laughing, though.
"Oh, dear!" exclaimed a cashier. "I'm so sorry, ma'am! Must've been an earthquake or something!"
"Earthquake?" my mum scoffed. She got into an argument with the cashier, but I didn't hear it, because a boy tapped me on the shoulder.
"Hello," he greeted me shyly. He was a pale boy with stringy black hair.
"Hi," I replied. "I'm Lily."
"I'm Severus," he answered. "Are you a -?"
He mouthed something I couldn't understand. I suspect he said witch, but when I didn't reply, he simply smiled and turned away.
"Oh, Evans! Are you awake?"
My thoughts were jeered by a painstakingly familiar voice. It was another thing I had bared with for seven years; James Potter.
"Would it kill you to say Lily every once and a while?" I demanded, a little harsher than I meant to. James was only half bad.
"Probably, Lily," James responded. Then, he made mock choking noises. While clenching his throat he said: "Thanks a lot, Evans." He pretended to collapse unconscious.
He lay there, basking in the sun. He wasn't as shadowed by the tree as I had been, but we could be in equal light, and he would still look better. The sun kissed his neck and dribbled down in faint patches to reflect on his legs. His skin was tanned like it had been sanded. Instead of the normal complexion, it was a dark apricot shade. I couldn't be more jealous.
The silence wore on. It was peaceful, though. James hadn't stirred since he had 'died'. He was very handsome, just laying there. His eyes weren't open, but I knew if they had been, they would be glinting with mischief, waiting for me to crack. Finally, I did.
I burst out into giggles. "James! You have the oddest sense of humor I have ever seen."
James cracked one eye to stare at me. "You can't seen humor."
"You know what I mean," I retorted.
I pulled out my wand and shifted it from hand to hand. Finally, I twisted smoke in an exquisite curl. When the light purple smoke cleared, a purple flower remained. It was a wisteria color; the softest shade of purple.
I let it twirl in mid air, before it dropped. James caught it, and threaded it behind my ear. He took a step back and bit his lip.
"Hmm… you know, purple doesn't really go with red," he announced after a second. He took out his own wand and tapped it. "There! Now it's an orange-and-black tiger lily."
The way he said my name… combining it with the name of the flower…The sound of his voice had annoyed me for seven years, but maybe I could forget those. Those seven years meant little to me, what mattered was now.
I sat next to James as the scarlet sun sunk into the ocean of gray, cherishing the seven years that had passed.