A/N: Ha! I have made it to chapter two of a fic. I am on a roll. But, of course, vacation is a'callin' and I'm headin' out for a week so the next post won't be for a little bit. (Don't worry folks. I do intend on having a chapter three:D)

Disclaimer: As usual: the characters are not mine. The spell is from the books and I received assistance from hp-lexicon (which is the most glorious site, although I'm sure you've already been there if you're a HP fan).

NOSTALGIA

There was dirt. It was all over the floor. And the likely suspects were the tainted boots near the back door (they tended to track things more than most boots, although they were Mum's favorites).

Lily grabbed a hand towel, rinsed it, and paused. How tedious: cleaning! Why get on your hands and knees to scrub when you could simply flick your wand? The possibilities were endless!

Her wand was in her coat, in her bedroom, on the other side of the house. Of course, to magically scrub, she'd need her wand. Lily sighed. Perhaps being at home without her wand was important. Perhaps living for a few months without magic allowed her to respect and appreciate all the goods that magic could do.

Lily decided to get on her hands and knees and scrub.

"Oh, sorry dearest!"

Ms. Evans came in, newly showered and clean. She immediately bent down to help.

"Mum. Really. It's fine."

Ms. Evans wasn't quite sure if she should believe her daughter but did and headed towards the kitchen. "You should shower soon too. Petty's getting here in an hour." She stopped and didn't mention that her father was not home, although his absence was obvious.

Lily sang while she was in the shower; usually Beatles songs but lately Emmeline had introduced her to a new wizarding band – the Cosmos – and their songs were constantly running through her head. She rinsed her hair and remembered that Amos had owled earlier. Not that she related showering to Amos. It was just a thought that crossed her mind while she was showering…

Her mother had asked to meet him and Lily wasn't sure how she felt about bringing him home. She hadn't ever introduced a boyfriend to her family before and Amos seemed so mature and sophisticated – why these were negative points, she hadn't decided, although it probably had to do with the fact that he was getting his own apartment soon and had dropped none-too-subtle hints about her moving in with him. Lily turned of the water and just stood in the shower for a moment; what would it be like to live with Amos? He wasn't a slob or anything, in fact he could be a little too obsessive. And he liked to party after Quidditch games, meaning long nights. Not to mention sharing his bed. It wasn't an awful thought, but they had only been dating for five months. Who moved in after five months? Merlin's beard she was still in school! She couldn't move in with a man!

"Lily?" There was a knock on the door. "Are you alright in there? You're talking to yourself again…"

Lily sighed and wrapped herself in a towel. "Yes, just…thinking I guess."

She dried and put on shorts and a shirt, then was told by her mother that she should dress up a little because Petty had 'good news.' Lily quickly retorted that when Lily announced her exceptional marks her mother wasn't wearing a sodding evening gown. Ms. Evans just rolled her eyes. "Please. We haven't seen her in a while." Lily remained cold; Ms. Evans gave her puppy dog eyes. "And you don't have to wear an evening gown! Just something that doesn't have a hole in it and preferably covers your thighs."

So Lily changed and met her mother at the table, set for four, where they distributed the fancy dinner glasses. Naturally Petty chose this precise time to arrive, which made Ms. Evans slightly anxious about not being ready.

"Mum, it's just Petunia!" Lily reasoned as she answered the door. Then again maybe she should have reason to feel under prepared. Petunia was at the doorstep, dressed in a new beige skirt and pink blouse, glowing as though she had the biggest secret.

"Oh, hi Petty!" Lily stammered, wondering what the hell happened to her sister and wanting the insanity to end.

"Oh, darling!" Petunia wrapped Lily in a hug and Lily was engulfed by some expensive smelling perfume. Lily coughed.

As Lily brought Petunia and her many traveling bags into the house, she made a desperate face at her mother who plainly ignored her. "Pet, oh don't you look," Ms. Evans ran her eyes over Petunia again, "fabulous!"

Petunia beamed even more so, if that was possible. She flung herself to the table where she began gushing about the smooth train ride over and the nicest woman who sat beside her… All of this giddiness made Lily want to vomit. In the middle of a quick paced story about where she got her shoes, Petunia stopped and examined the room. "Where's Daddy?"

"Still at work." Ms. Evans chipped and handed her some soup, "We'll start without him."

Petty and Lily shared the briefest glance, but it was enough for Lily to know that her real sister was somewhere under all those frills.

"Anyway," Petunia picked up her tone, although she seemed less enthusiastic now, "after I saw them in the window, I told Vernon that they would be perfect for Thursday's luncheon and he just…"

"Vernon?" Her mother asked with a raised eyebrow.

Petunia blushed. "Yes, the one I've been seeing…"

"The one you forgot to mention until today?" Lily smiled at her sister, although there was a waspish undertone in her voice.

"I wish Daddy would hurry home!" Petunia whined and tapped the table excitedly.

"Why?" Lily inquired nosily, "What's so important about Daddy anyway?"

Petunia got quiet again and Ms. Evans looked worried. "Please stop, Lily. Could you pass the casserole?"

Lily reached for the tin, "What are the magic words?" she hassled.

"Please will you pass the casserole?"

"Nope!" Lily sang, "It's locomotor casserole." The casserole rose and flew gracefully over to Ms. Evans, who grabbed it and served herself. She clapped impressively. "When did you learn how to do that, Lils?"

Lily smiled. "Well, I've known for a while, but I just turned of age so-"

Petunia, who was clenching her napkin now, rose out of her seat. "I'M GETTING MARRIED!"

There was silence. Lily gaped, open-mouthed at her sister while her mother adopted a more sophisticated approached: grinning.

"Petty that's… wonderful!" Ms. Evans crooned through her teeth, though Lily could see that her mother's eyes were slightly fearful. "Is it Vernon?"

Petunia nodded ecstatically.

"Petty!" Ms. Evans jumped up to go hug Petunia and, seeing that Lily was frozen in her seat, secretly motioned for her daughter to as well.

Lily got out of her seat and walked over to her family. She tried her hardest to put on a smile but she felt her lips slide into a grimace instead. Vernon, she thought, what an awful name.

Before she had time to fully congratulate her sister, Petunia and Ms. Evans were both crying and holding on to each other for dear life. Lily broke out of the grasp and felt her stomach give way; was she missing something? Why wasn't she happier for her sister? Well, they did look like idiots, prancing around and crying over a stupid engagement.

But Lily definitely felt like she was missing something, some sort of cool wedding-giddiness that she had never gotten the chance to experience. She wasn't jealous per say, just left out.

When her father came home he took the news a little differently; asking questions about Vernon and his job and where he lived and his past, etc. Petunia laughed it off as though Mr. Evans' prime concern was his little darling's safety, but Lily saw the look her mother gave her father when Petunia was indulging in her cake; it wasn't pretty.

Before Lily went to bed she considered floo-ing Amos to tell him the news, to "share her thoughts," but it all seemed too grown up; like they were playing house and she had to pretend to spill her emotions to him all the time. She decided against it. This protective feeling towards her sister and, this, – was it jealousy? – whatever it was, she had to keep it to herself.

She fell asleep with her sister snoring in the twin bed next to her and Lily, in the moments before she dreamt, she had the comforting sensation that she was ten again; that her sister was not engaged to a man nobody knew anything about, that she did not have a boyfriend who wanted her to move in with her and she did not have parents who were fighting quietly all the time.

A/N: Okay, question… is this really M? I really only set it for M because of the smoking, etc, and possibly drinking, although none of it will be explicit. And my computer will only allow my curse word variety of the relatively tame-four letter friend category, so not many worries word-wise. If it ever is explicit in the future I will post a warning at the top of the page. So basically, I'm questioning if this is actually M so far. Please give me your opinion…