Here comes a new story for you all to read!
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
The day was smiling. The sun shone and gave warmth to everyone outside. Lily was having a picnic in the park with her father and her mother. They were sitting beside a lake and the ducks and swans swam around peacefully. Her parents were enjoying a glass of red wine and talked happily with each other. The smiles on their faces showed that they still loved each other, even after all those years together.
Lily herself was drawing whatever she could see. She had just finished drawing the swans and now she was on the look for something new to draw. On a bench nearby there was an old man sitting. He didn't do anything. He just sat there. Lily looked at his wrinkles and his long beard. It was easy to see the man was old.
Fifteen minutes later the drawing was finished. Lily was quite pleased with the outcome. The eight year old girl got her parents attention and asked them if she could give the drawing to the old man. Her parents looked at it, warm smiles still on their faces, and said yes, she could give the drawing to the man.
With light feet Lily half jumped over to the old man, her steps more uneasy as she approached him.
"Excuse me?" The man looked at her through his spectacles. His eyes were friendly.
"Yes, what may I help you with?" The man asked.
Lily held out her drawing to him. "This is a drawing of you. I want you to have it," she said. The man took the drawing, said "thank you, Lily", and then he walked away.
It is strange how memories suddenly come out from their hidden place at the strangest of times. Lily was sitting in the library studying for a test when this memory appeared. She was quite stressed out and really hadn't time to think of the past. It was weird how her mind suddenly didn't want to listen to her.
Looking back at the memory she couldn't help but think it was one of her most happy ones. It being one of her most happy ones had nothing to do with the fact that Petunia hadn't been with them there that day, it had to do with the feeling she had whenever she thought of it. It was a calm memory and she cherished it very much.
She was about to start reading again when she hear a familiar voice. "What are you thinking about now, flower?"
Without even thinking about it Lily closed the book and put her things into her bag. It had become a habit by now. Whenever she heard Potters voice she would automatically clean whatever she was doing and go as fast as she could to the girls' dorm to continue her work there. The reason she didn't sit in her dorm all the time was that she didn't really like to work there. And it would be boring to say that the place you spent the most of your school days was your dorm, wouldn't it?
Ignoring the person with the voice was also something she had started to without thinking. Thought it wasn't always too easy as the voice never stopped to speak when it first started. One time Potter had actually had a monologue with her for an hour before she said one word: "bye", but she usually couldn't keep on ignoring him for that long.
"Dumbledore," she said simply. It had been a few months into first year she had recognized their headmaster. She had been in his office because of Potter, naturally, and had seen the drawing hanging on the wall in front of his desk.
"I like to look at that drawing from time to time, you see." The headmaster told her. "It reminds me of that day in the park."
Lily had looked closely on the headmaster then. He had more wrinkles than he had at their first meeting. "You looked like a lonely granddad" Lily said in the manner children speak their sudden thoughts.
"Did I now?" The headmaster asked, more to himself than to Lily. But she nodded her head before walking closer to the drawing.
"I can draw a lot better now, you know," she praised herself. "Maybe I should draw you again sometime!"
At this the headmaster had smiled and told her that that would be a good idea, but he wanted her to do it sometime later as he had things to do at the time.
As she walked out of the library Potter followed her like a stray dog. She hardly even noticed as she was almost too used to it. "I still haven't drawn that drawing," she mumbled to herself.
"What was that, Evans?" Potter asked.
Still walking Lily told him that she had promised the headmaster to draw him before she graduated.
"You can draw me whenever you like, flower. I wouldn't mind you take a closer look at me," Potter requested and winked. Lily knew he wouldn't mind, but she on the other hand? It wasn't even an option. She chose to ignore his words.
"Flower, could you please come here for a minute?" Her father's voice echoed in her mind.
"What is it daddy?" Lily was by her father's side in a matter of seconds. She could hear from his voice that there was something she would find interesting that he was about to show her.
"Here," he said, holding a camera in front of him, "look into this hole." Through the camera lens a new world opened up for Lily. It was the same world she was used to, but it looked a bit different. "Try to take a picture, flower." And she did. The twenty-four pictures she could take were taken the next hour. After her father had gone to the shop and the pictures were ready they all saw that the angles of the pictures were off and she hadn't been able to get all of the motives into the picture, but they were Lily's pictures. No one could take that away from her.
The last few years Lily hadn't been taking many pictures. But she still enjoyed taking them when she first got around doing it.
"Flower?"
Lily jumped at the sound. She had been so engrossed in her memory that she had forgotten Potter who was still walking beside her, along with the fact that she was walking. Hearing a different person than her father say her nick-name caught her off guard. She knew she should be used to the fact that Potter used her father's old nick-name for her by now, but still she forgot about it from time to time.
"Flower?" Potter asked again.
"What?"
"Why do you ignore me so much?" Potter asked quietly. This quietness surprised Lily as he usually never lowered his voice. She stopped and looked at him.
"Give me one reason not to ignore you Potter. You're nothing more than in my way all the time!" Lily couldn't help it. She got angry with him.
"I want you get to know me Evans!"
"Why should I ever want to get to know you?" She asked angrily. Why she should get to know him was beyond her.
"All I ask for is a chance, Evans, but you never seem to get it!"
"I don't see what there is to get! You're in my way all the time, why don't you understand that I want to be alone!" With that she ran away from him. If he didn't want to leave her alone, then she would leave him.
Lily ran to the Astronomy tower. She knew it was too early for the couples to come there yet so she was sure she would have the tower all by herself. Inside she found she had right, she was the only one there.
It was strange how well she knew some of Potters habits. She knew that if she ran away from him he usually wouldn't follow her. It felt as if it was an unsaid rule between them. If Lily is running, don't chase her. This was a rule she didn't complain about. Whenever they had had a fight she wanted to be alone, and it was great that he didn't follow her at those times. She didn't want to be more upset than she already was.
Panting she stopped in the Astronomy tower. She had been screaming at Potter again. He was such a git! Giving love potion to all of the first years to chase after her was not what she thought about as a fun day in school. Potter and his friends seemed to think differently.
She sat down on the stone floor. It was a bit cold, but at the moment she couldn't care less. She had been running through half of the castle to get rid of the first years. As a thirteen year old girl, eleven year olds weren't the perfect age to date. She was so angry!
After about ten minutes she heard slow steps coming her way. Not expecting anyone to come she looked up to see who the intruder was. She had calmed down a bit, but that didn't help her as the person causing her anger was the one who was now stepping into the room.
"I'm sorry, Evans. I didn't think they would be so stupid," Potter said. He didn't look at her and he seemed rather unsecure where he stood. "When they all captured you and started to show off I got rather scared to tell the truth."
And he had looked scared, but not only that. When he had entered the room the first years kept her in he had looked furious. Whether it was with him, or the first years she hadn't been able to tell, but there was no mistake that he had been beyond angry.
"I don't know why I did it to tell you the truth. I thought it'd be fun to see what those little bastards would be able to do… now I wish I hadn't." It wasn't hard to tell that he truly regretted his actions. It was the first time Lily had ever seen him so full of regret. She couldn't remember a time where he had regretted anything at all. "From today on I will never let any other boy even lay his eyes on you. Trust me." With that he had walked away, leaving her more confused than she had ever been before.
What a memory to remember. It had been three years and Lily could still see the look he had had in his eyes. It didn't help the matters that he had indeed not let any boy near her, except his friends whom he seemed to trust wouldn't lay a finger on her, at least not in that way.
She took the book she had been studying out of her bag and continued her reading from earlier on. The tower was quiet, so she might as well study. At least until she wouldn't be able to ignore the cold stone floor any longer.
When she started to hear distant steps she packed her bag. She had been in the Astronomy tower for some time and the steps told her that soon there would be a couple entering. To her surprise there wasn't a couple entering; Potter was standing in the doorway. He looked full of regret, and he didn't even notice her as he entered.
Lily watched him walk over to one of the windows and sign heavily. She was already standing and ready to go, but she found she didn't want to interrupt him so she sat quietly back down, still looking at him. He was mostly quiet, but from time to time she saw him doing angry movements. As the time went by the movements came fewer and fewer, in the end he sat down beneath the window. He still didn't see her.
Potter was staring blankly in front of him. This confused Lily a bit, she didn't know if it was her reaction or something else that made him become this way, but what she knew was that her legs had fallen asleep and that she truly needed to move soon.
In the end she wasn't able to sit still and she stood up. Potter instantly searched for the sound and he found her at once.
"Evans," he said shocked. "How long have you been here?" Lily saw his eyes glanced around the room but when he didn't find anything his eyes went back on her.
"I'm sorry, what? Oh, I didn't see you there. I'll go now." Lily dismissed herself. She didn't want Potter to know that she had been there all along, so she pretended she'd just arrived and that it was him that hadn't noticed her as she entered. As she made her way out her legs almost bucked beneath her and gave her away.
"Then why, may I ask, do your legs not listen to you?" Potter asked. He had stood up and was walking towards her. His legs must have fallen asleep as well as he stumbled his way towards her. "You've been here for quite some time, haven't you?"
Lily looked down on the stone floor and at that moment she was glad that he couldn't feel how cold her butt was. "Well, what can I say? I like the floor?" Lily asked.
"You amaze me, Lily." Potter said before he walked out of the tower. When he was out the door Lily fell right down on the cold floor again. Due to the fact that her blood circulation wasn't completely back, but more to the fact that he hadn't done anything!
"Lily, give me your head!"
"Wha-"
"Come here," a couple of strong hands dragged Lily, "now, stand on this spot." The pair of hands took a hold on her head and pushed it down towards the cauldron. "Don't worry, this won't kill you!"
The next thing Lily knew was the spinning sensation she felt before her feet landed on the ground in a hallway. Before her stood a girl with fiery red hair, she as a head shorter than Lily herself. The girl was facing towards a boy with raven hair which stood out at the most random angles; he too was a head shorter than Lily.
"Potter, stop bothering me!" The little girl screamed. Lily jumped at the sound. She hadn't imagined the little girl to be so full of a temper. Nether had she expected the girl had such a loud voice, the girl seemed so tiny!
"Only if you say "yes" to my question!"
"Never!" The little girl stormed off, looking more frustrated than what Lily thought possible.
Lily then saw a younger version of herself pass right through herself and disappeared at the end of the hallway.
"Flower!" A hand took a hold on her arm and dragged her towards its owner. "Please…" pleading eyes struggled to catch a hold on hers, "…I need to talk to you."
The other students headed for their class, therefore they were left alone. "What now, Potter. What could possibly be so important that you had to stop me?" Potter looked down on his feet, an unusual act by him. Most days he carried along his self-confidence, which was about the size of the Gryffindor tower. How he managed to drag this tower around with him, Lily had never understood, but now he seemed to have left it somewhere, though it was hard to believe that he could forget his tower –the size and all put into consideration.
It took a few more minutes before he raised his head. He looked at her with big eyes, as if he hadn't expected her to still stand there.
"I, I … I was just wondering… how it went with the drawing, the one of the headmaster I mean." He looked down on his feet again.
A young boy was standing in front of her. He was probably just a second year by the looks of it. "Miss Prefect? Could you please read my letter?" Before she managed to do anything else he took her hand and placed a letter there. Then he ran away towards his house.
The letter was crumpled as if he had been holding on it for too long and the paper had been shaped after his hand. Lily looked at it more closely and it surprised her how large his hand must have been. She opened the letter and started to read:
'Dear Miss Prefect,
I have to tell you something I've been thinking about for a while…'
"…How is it going?" Potters voice interrupter her thoughts.
"Oh, sorry I… The headmaster hasn't got time yet."
"I see. My offer still stand you know!" Then he ran away, just like the second year had done the previous year. Though this time it hadn't been a young boy giving her a letter with a confession where the last line was: 'Sorry, it was a Dare!' This time it had been Potter, with his tail between his legs.
"Guess who!" A pair of hand was in front of her eyes in a second.
"Potter?" Lily teased her friend.
"He he, funny that one, would you rather it be him than me?" The girly voice asked.
"No, Mary, I don't think I would." The girl took her hands away from Lily's eyes, stepped in front of her and smiled.
"I could go get him you know, I don't think he would mind." Not bothering to answer Lily let her friend walk her to the empty classroom they had started to use. Inside there was a pensive. They had used it once before, but how they even got it was a mystery for Lily. It was Mary who had arranged the whole thing, and now there was no turning back.
"Last time you didn't do very well Lily. Today you have to concentrate on Potter, ok?"
Mary, Lily's friend had had this sort of plan. She had forced Lily to agree on the plan before she even knew what it was about. What Mary was trying to do, was to get Lily to understand that Potter actually loved her. Since she had seen it a lot of times before herself, she now wanted Lily to look on the boys' reactions after she had turned her back on him and started go walk away. Mary had noticed that the look changed quite a lot as Lily turned her back to him and that he was too good of an actor to show his real feeling every time Lily said no to him in front of her.
Lily walked in front of the pensive and felt her head being pushed into it.
"Evans! I love you!" Lily saw herself standing with her back turned towards the boy. If her memory didn't play tricks with her she was certain that this memory, her friends', was the first time Potter had claimed his love for her. Signing she looked at Potter. Mary would know if she hadn't done as she was told.
His look surprised her. He almost seemed hurt, but also more desperate than she had ever seen. Taking in the people standing around them Lily found that neither of them seemed to think of it as anything special, and still it was completely new to her. Despite what she would usually do, Lily stepped in front of the memory of Potter, taking in his looks clearer and closer than any time before.
She had to bow a little down to be level headed with him. As she looked into his eyes she saw that he was close to tears and they swam with emotions.
"I love you… Lily." The old Lily jumped at the sound. She hadn't expected him to talk again. But her old self didn't seem as surprised when she walked over to them and slapped him while angry tears ran down her face.
"Don't Potter, don't fool yourself to think that you love me one bit." Then memory Lily walked away, shivering from her anger.
Lily waited for the spinning sensation as she thought the memory was finished but when it didn't come she turned towards Potter again. The boy was looking at the spot memory Lily had been standing not so long ago. The tears she had seen there earlier were running freely down his face, but the expression he was wearing she wasn't able to understand. His face was completely blank. Then the spinning sensation came.
"Now, what do you think?" Mary asked eagerly.
"I don't know Mary, he didn't show any expressions so what am I to think?"
"He didn't?" Mary asked confused. She then put her head into the pensive to see the memory. "Oh, I had forgotten about that. Sorry Lily, I will show you a better one tomorrow."
That was chapter one of the together three chapters in this story. I hope you liked this first chapter!
Prongs
