The first chapter of plenty.
Your thoughts are worth fifty thousand galleons, remember! (Please forgive me for I am lacking any form of beta reader)
Steam billowed from the wine coloured train, filling Platform 9 and 3/4 with a familiar smell. Students milled excitedly across the cobbled platform, gripping trunks and book bags as they prepared themselves for the long summer ahead. In the late weeks of June 1976, any forthcoming danger was completely unbeknownst to the children of Hogwarts.
Lily Evans stood away from the crowd, leaning against a brick wall. In front of her, she watched as two of her closest friends exchanged warm goodbyes.
"Promise me you'll write!" a small and slender girl with cerulean hair demanded, wrapping her arms around her friend. Ambria Stretton was a sight to behold. At five foot three, her size seemed incomparable to her vibrant personality.
The girl beneath her affectionate embrace let out a groan. "Amby, we'll be seeing you in two weeks. What could possibly happen between now and then?"
"Plenty, Marlene," huffed Ambria, putting her hands on her hips defiantly. "The world is constantly changing."
Marlene McKinnon rolled her eyes for not the first time that morning. Still, despite the disparaging look she shot Lily, she turned back to her smaller friend with a smile. "If anything happens, you'll be the first to know."
"I should think so."
A stranger looking upon the three girls would not have picked them as likely friends. Lily, with her dark red hair and fair skin, was studious and fancied herself quite logical. Marlene, on the other hand, was tall and blonde, and enjoyed living in the moment very much. And finally, the most quirky of the three with her bright blue hair, was Ambria.
The latter looked to Lily with a hopeful smile. "You will come to Brighton, won't you?"
"Of course," the sixteen year old redhead replied. With her sister occupied with her latest boyfriend and her parents taking an extended vacation in the south of France, Lily was rather looking forward to spending some time with her friends. "I'll be there before you know it."
Ambria's face split into a bright smile. "Well, I better be off." She gestured to an older couple, both striking with their willowy height and blonde hair. Of all the things Ambria inherited from her parents, their height was not one of them.
Lily smiled at her friend before giving her a small hug. "See you soon."
And with pixie like spirit, the small Gryffindor waltzed away. Lily watched her for a moment as she left, before turning towards Marlene. Silently, the pair of them began towards the platform exit.
As Lily walked, she paid particular attention to her feet. Not a habit she often indulged in, but in the art of avoiding something - or rather, somebody. By keeping her gaze towards the ground, she would not risk meeting the eye of a dark-haired wizard who, she would imagine, would be quite intent on bidding her (a second attempt at a) farewell.
Two months ago, Lily did not seem to have many problems at all. As a fifth year, she was excelling in her most of her classes - bar Transfiguration, which she had never quite gotten the hang of - and at the time she was passionately preparing herself for her first set of O.W.L exams. Which she surpassed, of course. Two months ago, Lily Evans found herself to be quite content, and certainly not in need of avoiding anybody.
However, as she would soon come to find, things change and, quite often, so do people.
"Chin up, Ginge," Marlene teased in good spirits. "You look like you're about to face a jury, not spend the next two months in glorious, sunny freedom."
Lily looked up at her friend and managed to compose her face into a smile. Well, almost a smile. It was hard for her friends to understand what had happened as, frankly, they did not consider it a loss at all. But Lily did.
Her blonde companion looped her own arm through Lily's. "I, for one, am quite thrilled at the thought of summer. Living in that castle was starting to get us all a bit a glum." She looked sideways to gauge Lily's reaction. "Aren't you at least a little bit excited?"
"I am," Lily replied, her voice sounding much more convincing than the witch felt.
Marlene gave a firm nod, her chin-length blonde curls bouncing. "Good. From now on, I forbid you to be anything less than one hundred percent cheerful. Agreed?"
Lily doubted her own abilities in keeping her end of this agreement, but she nodded nonetheless. With what Lily supposed was a comforting squeeze of her hand, Marlene stepped through the illusion of the brick wall with her friend following not far behind.
(June 22nd 1976)
Every year, summer smelled differently. The summer of 1976, however, smelled strongly of dry grass, Coca-Cola, and violet incense. Lily lay sprawled back on Marlene's dark blue bedsheets as the thumping sound of Mathilda Gorgon filled the room.
At eleven twenty-two in the morning on the third day of their holiday break, the girls found themselves with not much to do. Marlene sat in the crook of her bedroom window, pouring over the Quidditch section of the Daily Prophet, idly chewing on a Liquorice Wand. It wasn't the boring kind of nothing-to-do, Lily supposed. It was sort of nice. But still, it was a far cry from the exciting summer Marlene had suggested previously.
"What do you think of the Middlemore Mandrakes?" Marlene poised, not taking her blue eyes from the paper. "I hardly think they stand a chance in the League this year."
Lily, not as enraptured at the thought of Quidditch as her companion, made a non-committal noise. "Is that the one with the Seeker who looks like he's at least eighty?"
"Yes, which clearly isn't helping their chances."
She stared up at Marlene's bedroom ceiling. It was nice to be away from Hogwarts for a while. Marlene's house was certainly much better than her own - just the thought of being in that house alone with Petunia made her skin prickle gently - but Lily just could not shake the uneasy feeling in her stomach.
Being idle was clearly not doing her well.
As the off-white mouldings of the ceiling began to blur, so did her thoughts.
(Earlier That Week)
"Have you seen Puddington anywhere?" a frazzled Ambria questioned as she frantically ducked to look under the couch. The Gryffindor common room was all but empty, besides Lily and her dormmates. Their trunks were stacked neatly by the portrait hole, patiently waiting to be taken away to the train. They could have left by now, if it hadn't been for Ambria's missing cat.
Marlene tapped her foot rather restlessly. "Have you checked the fireplace? He does have a habit of sleeping in the ashes."
Upon her suggestion, Ambria pushed herself towards said mantle and began to make small, beckoning noises. Puddington, the cat in question, would not respond as he was known to do when he was feeling particularly fickle. He was also known to pick precisely the most inconvenient times to make a disappearance.
Lily looked anxiously at her watch. Fifteen minutes until the train left Hogsmeade station. It wouldn't wait for them, they all knew this, and the carriage ride into the village took at least seven minutes itself. If they didn't leave soon…
"Maybe you could just leave him here for the summer. I'm sure the house elves would do a fine job of keeping him fed," said Marlene.
Ambria withdrew from the fireplace with an appalled expression. Though, it wasn't nearly as effective with pieces of ash clinging to her bright hair. "Marlene. He can't stay here for two whole months! He'd get miserable without me."
On the contrary, Lily thought he might have enjoyed the peace and quiet.
She allowed her gaze across the almost empty common, trying hard not to fixate on the grandfather clock against the wall. However, she could not help herself, and it was with that that she spotted a familiarly bushy tail swinging alongside the pendulum.
"He's in the clock," Lily said, as she began to gather her book bag. "Quickly, grab him and we might make the next lot of carriages."
With a relieved sound, Ambria moved to wrestle - with quite some effort - her long haired tabby from within the grandfather clock. After a few moments of growling (from Puddington) and affectionate, yet ineffective cooing (from his respective owner), the cat was in his carry cage and the girls were stepping out of the portrait hole into the corridor.
Their exit was almost successful, if it hadn't of been for a rather sullen looking figure waiting on the other side.
Severus Snape was certainly the last person Lily wanted to see as she made an attempt to leave for the holidays. She started upon seeing him. He was already clad in his muggle clothes - slightly too big for his slender shape and a sort of mottled shade of grey-green - and his hands writhed together nervously. Upon spotting Lily, his face contorted into a look akin to remorse.
"Lily -" he began, his voice quiet, but he was briskly cut off by a sharp yowl from Puddington's cage. His dark eyes narrowed upon the noise, and Lily took this opportunity to start down the corridor. Her companions exchanged an awkward look, but followed nevertheless.
Snape did too. "Lily, please wait." His voice was weary but hopeful.
"I have nothing to say to you, Severus." Clipped and short, Lily's voice trailed behind her as she refused to look back. Her determined stride faltered as she reached the staircase. It had decided, as the staircases often did, that it would change directions and left her clenching her fists by her side.
Still, resilient (and some would say stubborn) as always, Lily refused to look at the Slytherin. She had no desire to whatsoever, despite his pleas.
"If you would just listen, maybe I could explain myself…" His voice veered off at her evident ignorance. Lily heard him let out a sigh, a sound she was very much accustomed to. Marlene, however, filled the silence.
The blonde pressed her lips together. "Now probably isn't a good time, Snape."
"I wasn't talking to you, McKinnon," the boy replied, venom leeching through his words. His face significantly softened as he looked back towards Lily. "I am sorry. I didn't mean - "
If there was one thing that Lily did not have time for, it was half-hearted excuses. What Snape had said, the word he had used, was something she had never once considered coming from his mouth. In hindsight, it perhaps should not have been such a surprise - no, a downright shock - that someone who affiliated themselves with the likes of his 'friends' would utter such profanity, yet it hurt nonetheless.
She clenched her fists tighter, but kept her gaze away from him. "I have nothing to say to you," she repeated, cutting him off. Her statement was less sharp this time, tired somehow. "Please just… leave me alone."
"I want to apologise. And I - " He cut himself off as he looked between Ambria and Marlene. "If you'd just talk to me alone for a moment, then - "
"What part of 'I have nothing to say to you', don't you quite understand?"
Snape frowned at her. "It was a mistake. I didn't mean to call you it, I swear."
"But you did." The redhead rounded on him now, causing her companions to step back slightly from the pair. "You did call me the absolute worst thing anyone could ever call me, and to think that you think a mere 'I'm sorry' will fix that speaks volumes of your absolute incomprehension of what you have done!"
Somewhat taken aback by her outburst, Snape's face dropped into a look of contempt. "I was angry. Stupid Potter and his army of idiots - "
"Stupid Potter does not control your actions, the last time I checked, Severus," Lily replied vehemently. "This isn't about him. This is about you."
There was a long moment of cool silence. Snape simply stared at Lily and for a moment - a fraction of a moment - his forlorn look and hand-me-down clothes almost caused Lily's face to soften. But it did not, as she caught herself and tensed her jaw.
"Please," he said quietly. "You can't be angry with me. I don't want to spend my summer with you angry just down the road."
Lily took in a breath. "I'm not going home this summer," she said bluntly.
Snape's expression darkened with a mixture of disappointment and betrayal. "You're not?"
"No."
"Then where are you going?"
"That," the Gryffindor said tightly as she turned towards the now returned staircase, "is not your concern."
And with that, she began to descend the staircase, teeth gritted and determined not to look back.
(June 22nd 1976)
It wasn't the sound of Marlene's voice that snapped her from her reverie, but instead the sound of flapping wings. Pippin, an aging barn owl, flew - or rather, fell - through the open window and into the room. With a disgruntled squawk, the bird righted himself before tottering towards her, claw outstretched. Attached was a small roll of parchment.
"Sirius must have written back," Marlene mused, looking up from her newspaper. She took the parchment from her owl and gave him a small affectionate scratch in return. This seemed to be enough because it was only a moment later that he clumsily resumed flight and left.
Despite Lily's own reluctance to befriend the fifth - soon to be sixth - year boys of her house, Marlene and Sirius were very close. Unusual, Lily had always thought, considering it was a rare occurrence to see Black detached from James Potter's hip.
Marlene grinned as she read. "Merlin, sometimes I honestly don't believe the antics they get up to. Listen to this - " Lily did not particularly want to hear the various trouble that the Marauders had gotten themselves into, but she sat politely quiet. It was no secret that she often felt animosity towards them - well, two of them, at least - but her friends had grown tired of her ranting some time ago.
"A shed! They bloody blew up a shed! I don't know how they get away with this sort of thing."
Neither did Lily. In fact, it was the thing that infuriated her the most. Rules were not always necessarily there to be followed, but a person should at least hold at least a sliver of respect for them. The Marauders, it seemed, did not. And it did not affect them either way.
Like, water from a duck's back, life and its consequences seemed to slide over the boys without a care.
Marlene picked bits and pieces from her letter, but did not venture too far into the details. For this, Lily found herself grateful. There was something about the boys that would only make her mood worse.
The tales of Sirius' summer so far seemed to cease fairly quickly, the blonde tucking her letter away with mirth in her eyes. Not very long after - merely moments - she pushed herself rather abruptly from her seat.
Lily blinked at her. "What's gotten into you?"
"C'mon," Marlene gestured to her friend. "It's boring and stuffy and I'm quite jealous of all the fun those silly boys are having. Let's get out of here."
She eyed her tall friend dubiously. "Are you going to get me in trouble?" she teased.
Marlene grinned. "Ginge, I'd positively have a heart attack if you let me get you into trouble."
"Fair enough. I suppose it would be awfully out of character."
"Swot."
(June 28th 1976)
Bloody hell, it was hot.
Even well into the evening as Lily gathered with the McKinnon family for dinner, the sun's wrath still lingered on. It was so stifling that both Lily and Marlene had taken to fanning themselves with napkins, while Marlene's younger brother pleaded for a Cooling Charm.
"Dad, please," ten year old Jacob McKinnon groaned, his sweaty forehead sticking to the table as he hung his head. "We're all dying."
From the look on his face, you could quite easily tell that Johnathan McKinnon was not at all phased by his young son's dramatics. He simply picked up his own napkin and folded it across his lap.
"Eat your carrots," was all he instructed.
The dynamic of the McKinnon family was something that intrigued Lily. There was only the three of them since Marlene's mother had left - a long time ago, before the girls had even met. She had been a simple Muggle woman, and like with many mixed marriages in the Wizarding world, it simply had not worked. Marlene didn't talk about it much, but Lily knew that she hadn't quite moved on from resenting her absence.
"He does have a point, Dad," Marlene huffed, more out of the discomfort from the heat than anything else. "It is sweltering. Even Muggles have air conditioning!"
Mr. McKinnon simply looked over his daughter while idly chewing a carrot. Another thing of intrigue; the McKinnon family all looked shockingly alike. They shared the same fair - but not quite as fair as Lily's - skin, with mouths slightly too wide for the rest of their face, and the same standard blue eyes. Even with Jacob's brown hair standing stark to the blonde of his sister and father, the resemblance was remarkable.
Lily, on the other hand, felt she was barely related to her own family at all.
She felt the heat rising in her face and she couldn't help but agree internally with the complaining siblings. Her sundress was sticking uncomfortably to her back, only encouraging by the rigid wood of the chair pressing against it. She was almost certain that her reddened complexion was only worsened by her hair, which stuck to her skin in sporadic, damp strands.
Marlene tried again. "Look, even Lily is suffocating. She's a guest."
Jacob pulled his head up from the table to nod in agreement. Before Lily could even utter a polite "Oh, it's no bother at all, Mr. McKinnon", the older wizard let out a defeated sigh and pulled out his wand with a flourish.
Within seconds, the room was at a barely temperature.
"Oh thank Merlin!" the siblings exclaimed, quite eerily, at the same time. They mirrored each other as they straightened themselves and resumed their food. Lily, too, was relieved and subtly began to peel the strands of hair from her face.
Johnathan gave his children a slightly stern look. "Magic isn't just about laziness, you know."
"No," Marlene replied, her voice muffled while she chewed on a piece of lamb, "But it is a nice convenience."
On a normal day, Johnathan was much kinder to his children and was certainly much politer in front of company. However, today his emotions seemed highly strung. Lily put it down to the heat.
The wireless radio in the corner of the dining room made a slight buzzing as it changed from a soft Vertician Bloom song into the overexcited voice of a news commentator.
"Summer is certainly searing the streets of England at the moment - a high of 28 degrees this week in Cornwall! Predictors of the forthcoming months say we're in for even more dry spells and that the temperature will be rising. The next seen rain is said to be at least a month away!"
Sinking into their seats, all four occupants of the dining room chairs shared a sigh.
"Seeing as there is little more to say on our weather report, let's move onto the news." The wireless program played a laughable attempt at an ominous jingle, before a man with a deep, serious voice took the microphone. "Following the rumours last week of a dispute in East London, the Minister of Magic appears to be keeping mum with his thoughts on the situation. Little was said as Minister Daxford left his office yesterday, but this only seems to be confirming worries within the community. Jenson Ableworth, reporter of Magical Politics, suggested that - "
"This is boring," Jacob whined. "Can we listen to the Quidditch channel instead?"
Lily, Marlene and Jacob all looked to Mr. McKinnon who had a strange and worrisome look on his face. Upon their gaze, his expression softened and he flicked his wand at the wireless.
"Yes, of course. We've had quite enough of this." And under his breath, "It's all a bunch of fear mongering at this point."
The youngest in the room did not hear this, but Lily and Marlene did. They shared a look.
Marlene then raised an eyebrow at her friend. "Done with dinner?" Her tone betrayed the innocent query, but when Lily looked at her friend's father he seemed rather distracted with his own thoughts. She nodded, and joined her friend in clearing the dinner table.
Upon having the dishes magically washed and put away, the girls retreated to the porch in attempts to enjoy the cool, night air. The heat hadn't dropped very much at all, much to their dismay, but it was quiet on the street and the streetlamps were beginning to flicker on.
Both girls sat on the porch step in silence for a few minutes. Occasionally, a car would pass, reminding Lily of the muggle world. It was quite easy to get caught up in magical life; her childhood was almost a foreign concept. She brought her knees to her chin and simply watched as they drove past.
"That was odd, don't you think?" Marlene said after a short while. Her eyebrows were pulled together with a soft frown. She was chewing her left thumbnail, something she notably did when fixated on troubling thoughts.
Lily studied her for a moment. "What was?"
"You know - my dad. It's not normal for him to be in such a mood."
Lily gave Marlene a reassuring smile. "This summer has certainly gotten all of us in a bit of a rotten state." But Marlene shook her head.
"It's not that." She pulled her thumb from her mouth to inspect her gnawed fingernail, and proceeded to continue in her chewing. "I think it might be work related."
Mr. McKinnon worked for the Invisibility Task Force, a subsection of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. It would be a tiring job, keeping an eye out for suspecting Muggles and making sure secrets stayed, well, secret. But the look on Marlene's face made Lily suspect that his mood was different to that of simple exhaustion.
"I dunno," she continued. "Things have been hectic recently. It's like there's something in the air. Every day there's at least one report of a Muggle witnessing some or other. Yesterday, it took his entire team to obliviate a school bus of children who were convinced they'd seen a woman turn into a crow!"
Lily pressed her lips together. "It does seem to be happening an awful lot."
"Maybe they're just getting smarter." She leant back against the outside wall of her house. "Or maybe we're getting less smart."
A heavy silence fell between when Lily could not bring herself to agree nor disagree. Another car passed, it's rumbling cutting the air and its headlights glaring in the darkening sky. They both let out a sigh, Marlene's softer than her friend's. Lily reached across and gingerly touched her knee.
"We'll be in Brighton soon," she offered. "Ice cream, bicycles down the beach - it'll be fun."
Marlene only murmured, her eyes still focussed on the road.
(July 5th 1976)
The heat in Brighton wasn't quite as stifling as it had been at Marlene's house. Lily supposed it was because of the sea. The wind blew gently in shore, filling the cobbled lanes with a soft, salty smell.
Ambria had not failed in her excited welcome, exclaiming profusely that she was so thrilled that they had arrived as if they had not been promising for weeks that they would. Her blue hair bounced on her shoulders as she bounced through her house.
"Your bedroom is down here," she said, carrying Puddington (who was visibly disgruntled) in her arms. "I hope you don't mind sharing, but I did make an effort to make it comfortable."
Marlene and Lily trailed after her, bags tucked under their arms, as she led them to the end of the house. She pushed open the door to said bedroom, revealing two single beds parallel to one another with matching sea foam sheets. Across from them, against a large bay window, sat a large dresser and mirror covered in dainty candles. It did look comfortable, Lily noted.
Once they had unpacked the beginnings of their bags, Marlene threw herself onto her claimed bed and let out a content sound.
"Was your journey long?" Ambria asked, perched on an armchair.
Lily shrugged. "It was, but the scenery was nice."
"What she means is -" Marlene corrected, arching her back with closed eyes and a grin, "- that the scenery outside was nothing worth noting, but the scenery inside was of another matter."
"Ooh, a boy?"
Marlene's eyes opened and her grin widened. "A fit boy. And he was flirting with Lily."
While Ambria leaned forward in excitement, Lily fought the urge to roll her eyes. It was true, there had been a boy and in an objective sense, he had been fit. But fit in a sort of he-knew-it-very-well kind of way. The sort of boy who often found himself flirting with girls on a train. The sort of boy Lily very much wanted to avoid, even if it was only for an hour or two.
"Did you flirt back?" her friend asked, with a little too much hope in her eyes for Lily's liking.
Marlene snorted. "Of course she didn't."
Ambria let out an all but frustrated sigh. "I'd have flirted back."
"You wouldn't have wanted to, trust me," Lily replied, shrugging her shoulders. "There are better boys to worry about than one who spends way too much time concerning himself with his hair."
"Oh right, like ones who don't wash theirs for a week and are going for that black, greasy tar look?"
It was like Marlene hadn't even heard the words coming out of her mouth. She was preoccupied with flicking through the teen Muggle magazine she had picked up at the train station, but Lily felt her chest jolt a little in discomfort. She was used to the girls disagreeing about her friendship with Sev; she wasn't used to being on their side, though.
Ambria shot a sudden look towards her blonde friend. "Mar." Her voice was sharp with warning, unusually different from her normal soprano.
She looked up, registering both Ambria's tone and what she had just said. Her face contorted. "Sorry."
Lily shrugged. "It's alright."
But it wasn't. Not really. For some reason, since the end of the school year and throughout the first weeks of summer, Lily carried around the thoughts of Severus with a heavy weight. It felt tense in her shoulders, like something she wanted to shrug off but no amount of squirming would ease the burden.
She knew that her friends thought there was more to her friendship than she was admitting. She knew they thought she fancied him. However, while it was something she pondered most days, she had never quite come to a conclusion.
Did she care for Severus? Yes. She couldn't pretend that she still didn't. But it was like trying to tame a crow and pretend it was a canary. No amount of hoping or wishing was going to change the path that she could see he was beginning to follow.
But she couldn't help trying.
"We should go to the fun fair tomorrow night!" Ambria said excitedly, jumping up from her perch. "I could hex for some candy floss."
"Oh, yes, and one of those tubs of caramel popcorn," Marlene agreed. "I reckon I could con some poor sod into winning me a soft toy too."
"It's decided then!"
Both girls looked to Lily expectantly. Blinking slightly, she let out a gentle smile. "Sure. Sounds good to me."
Marlene nodded in return, looking back to her magazine. Ambria, however, crossed the room to sit beside Lily. She took her hand gently in hers and gave her a small look. She was the sensitive one.
"You okay?" she asked softly.
Lily forced another gentle smile. "Perfect," she said, and gave her friend's hand a squeeze.
