Lily Evans gazed out the window of the bedroom that she called home for the first eleven years of her life. Of course, she hadn't considered this house to be her real home for almost six years now. She watched as people she used to know so well walked down the street, watching as her neighbors nodded and exchanged pleasantries with each other. Growing up, she had felt like she fit in here. She received the classic pats on the head from her mom and dad's friends next door, and she played hopscotch and laughed with a neighborhood girl before she moved away. She even had a crush on the boy who lived in the yellow house across the street. The Evans family was always close to the Sommer family when she was growing up. Mrs. Sommer was a friend of her mother's, and Petunia was friends with the elder daughter, Lisa, and Lily was always pining after Jeffery, the youngest son. She smiled as she thought about her childhood crush. She could remember a time when she used to look out of the same window she was standing at now, just hoping to get a glimpse of Jeff playing outside of his house with his friends. Everything was different now that she spent most of her time at a school miles and miles away, immersed in a whole different world. In fact, she hadn't thought about Jeff or her crush on him in years. She fingered the cross that laid on a chain around her neck, thinking about how much her life had changed since she had found out that she was a witch.
There was evidence of this change visible all around her room. Her room, which was last painted when she was nine, was a pale pink. Her lace comforter was well-loved, and her lamp on her small nightstand was adorned with the image of a mermaid. Amongst this bubble gum-looking room, however, were scattered potion ingredients, textbooks, and chocolate frog wrappers. At the foot of her bed was a trunk that held all of her robes and other school supplies, and in the corner was an empty cage where her owl, Bert, usually rested. Now, though, he was off delivering replies to a few of her friends.
As she turned from the window, her gaze fell on the Bible underneath her bed. She shook her head, still wondering how she got lucky enough that her parents didn't throw her out of the house when her letter came. Religion was such a prime factor in their lives that, when she reflected on it now, it was shocking that they accepted her magic and didn't condemn her for it. In fact, they saw her magical abilities as a manifestation of a gift from God, and for that she was eternally grateful. The book, though, stared at her from its slightly dusty spot underneath the bed that was barely hers anymore. She grew up poring over every single solitary word printed in that book, hearing sermons on it every Sunday morning. She even listened to her parents and her sister discuss the Holy word over dinner every night. Somehow, all of that seemed like a different lifetime, almost like it happened to a different girl.
"Lily, Petunia!" her mother called out from downstairs. "Dinner is ready!"
Lily sighed and pushed her Bible further under the bed and out of sight. It wasn't that she didn't believe anymore, because she truly did, and she felt like she always would. She was just having trouble reconciling the lessons she was taught growing up with what she had experienced in real life, and with what she had been taught since she started attending Hogwarts. In fact, she couldn't even recall if anyone she knew at Hogwarts was religious in the same way she was.
As she shook herself out of her thoughts and walked out of the room, she bumped into a rather large figure coming out of the door across the hall. Stumbling backward, she focused in on the beefy face of the man who ran into her, and the too-skinny woman shuffling out behind him. One might have thought Lily was the larger one, considering the way Vernon's widened eyes and they way he backed into his much smaller fiance. No words were exchanged between Lily and the pair, but a severe glance from her sister and a petrified look from Vernon gave Lily a clear indication that just because her parents saw her abilities as a gift from God, it didn't mean that her sister and her God-fearing boyfriend felt the same way. In fact, she thought she saw Petunia clutch her own cross around her neck a little bit tighter, and Vernon clutch Petunia as they turned their noses up at her and headed downstairs. She shook her head and trailed after them, hoping that dinner went off with as little interaction with them as possible, but something told her it wouldn't be that simple.
Her suspicions were confirmed when the only seat open by the time she forced herself to go downstairs was next to her future brother-in-law. Her mother would be crushed if she knew how terribly her two daughters were getting along, so Lily did her best to smile and fake her way through the dinner conversation, most of which centered on her sister's upcoming nuptials. Lily knew, however, that the dinner was doomed when she and Vernon reached for the salt at the same time and almost touched hands. He jumped so hard his massive thighs hit the bottom of the table, knocking over everyone's glass in the process. Her father, a tall and imposing man with kind eyes, peered at her over the top of his glasses, and Lily could only look sheepishly at him and go back to eating her food, which was still less salty than she would've liked it. She should have known that her father, at least, would see through all of the unspoken tension at the dinner table. He always had an uncanny knack for seeing through what his daughters were covering up, even when they were young and it was just one of them had broken a vase or gotten into cookies before dinner.
Vernon kept looking over at Lily's hands as if any movement they made was lethal. He was aware of every twitch, every bite she took; he looked as if the devil himself had been seated at the dinner table next to him. Petunia, on the other hand, was completely unaware of her sister, her father, and even her fiance. At the present moment, as well as most moments, she was utterly focused on herself. "So, Mom, I've been thinking about the seating chart, because I simply cannot seat some of the family on your side next to Vernon's family, they would just embarrass me."
"Well, honey, I know you don't get along well with some of your cousins, but I'm sure they won't embarrass you. Everyone will be focused on you and not on any odd comments some of the guests make." Her mother placated.
"I guess that's true, I mean my dress is pretty stunning. So you're sure that cousin Carrie and cousin Sue aren't coming to the bridal shower tomorrow? I can take them at the wedding, but not at the shower when there isn't going to be many people to buffer." Petunia said, still a little ruffled.
Lily smiled as she looked down at her plate, as her mother continued. "Yes, my love, I am sure they aren't coming. You'll have a wonderful shower tomorrow."
"Well, good. Oh! And did I tell you I've finally settled on orange for the wedding color? I think it'll be just perfect for the venue. Just think of the orange flowers, the orange tablecloths, orange bridesmaid dresses…" Petunia rambled, constantly spewing out wedding plans to her ever-listening and doting mother.
"Are you sure you want orange, Petunia?" Their mother gently interrupted, setting her fork down and resting her hands in her lap to show her elder daughter she had the full attention she craved. "Don't you think that orange will clash with your sister's hair color?"
Lily, who was staring down at her plate, froze with wide eyes. Her mother looked around, not even knowing that the two sisters hadn't even imagined Lily involved with the wedding at all. Lily knew that only bad things could come out of her mother's well-meaning question, and she dared not even look at her sister. If she had, she would've seen Petunia's cheeks turning as red as the hair that fell across Lily's face, and her sister's mouth contorting and sputtering as she tried to find the words that would hurt Lily the most without getting her into trouble with their parents.
"Mother," Petunia finally managed to gasp out, her fiance turning a shade of purple beside her. "Whatever makes you think Lily will be in my wedding?"
"Well, I just assumed she would be, honey." Her mother said, chuckling a bit incredulously. "I mean, I didn't think it was a stretch to say that your own sister would be in your wedding. I think she and the rest of the bridesmaids might look better in green or even a dark blue, maybe?" She had gone back to eating, largely oblivious to the tension in the room.
Although it seemed impossible, Petunia's color darkened as she tried to find any words that would get her mother off her back and her sister out of her wedding party, "I- Well I mean yes, she's my sister… but I just don't think… Well what I mean to say is-"
"Why, I was under the impression she wouldn't be invited!" Vernon finally spat out, who was slowly turning back to his regular, pink skin color.
There was a beat, and then Lily's parents looked at each other with confusion. "I beg your pardon? What on earth do you mean by that?" Lily's father asked, looking across the table at his future son-in-law.
"Vernon, my dear, were you thinking that she would be at school still during the wedding date?" Lily's mother asked, her green eyes sparkling as she tried to be optimistic about Vernon's intentions.
"Well, no." Vernon said, becoming haughty at being misunderstood. "I meant that she wouldn't be allowed in the church." He looked around, encountered the silence he was met with, and continued. "Well I mean, what with her being what she is, I think it would be improper for her to be at such a holy even. Petunia should not have to go into the most important day of her life with such a dark stain in the church, let alone in the wedding party. I mean, what would the priest do if he found out that we had allowed, even encouraged, this sort of abomination to come to such a holy place of worship? It just wouldn't be right, I'm telling you."
The only sound audible after the conclusion of his speech was his own heavy breathing, unused to this sort of exertion and fervor in himself. Then, there was the clatter of Lily's father's fork hitting his plate. Lily quickly excused herself, almost running upstairs. She wanted to get out of there before the inevitable, hour-long argument started. She shut the door to her room, put a pillow on top of her head, and started to hum. She couldn't stand to hear her sister talk about her like she was some sort of freak; she should be used to it by now, but one never really got used to her past confidante and best friend speaking about her with such venom. Even with her pillow pressed hard against her cheek, she could still hear the high pitched frequencies of her sister's frenzied arguments, followed by her father's low, soothing voice and her mother's melodic pleadings. Then, there were no sounds but her own heartbeat in her ears. After some time, she felt the slamming of the front door beneath her room, indicating that Vernon had left for the night. Next, there was the vibrations of Petunia ascending the stairs and the door to her room closing with a sense of finality and separation.
Lily closed her eyes before she could cry. She thought about the time she spent with her sister when they were children. She thought about the time they would spend lying on the grass next to Petunia and gazing up at the sky, feeling the warmth of her sister's presence and the sunlight. She slowly opened her eyes to the darkness before rolling over in her bed and turning again to the window. The moon, which was gleaming through the curtains, made the days of playing with her sister and basking in her warmth seem as far away as the dusty Bible underneath her bed.