(There is no place like home)
Lily Evans was a believer.
For her, there was no such a thing as coincidence. They were just miraculous ideas created for the mankind for them to feel like they had any say in the universe or life itself. In her conception, everything was about Destiny and the things that it had to offer.
Lily Evans believed that everything happened for a reason, and even though she couldn't understand the why, that's how things worked out. That was a masterly fact, as the Sun rising on the east and dying on the west, and that after the day comes the night.
She was, in fact, a hopeless romantic. The type who believes in love stories with happy endings and stuff, but she didn't believed that any of that made her naive. On the contrary, she were plenty conscious that Destiny could be a bitch, and felt as anger about this as any other person would feel.
Even so, Lily could not understand why someone who lived in the same world as she did, and saw all the things the she saw could be less than a believer, because every September first, ever since the year of nineteen seventy-one, it felt pretty obvious for her that every person in the world who existed, lived what they lived and struggled what they struggled, only went through that because of a series of certain predeterminated factors.
Every year, from June to September, she went to bed scared of waking in the next day only to find out that the last years of her life were only a dream, created by her very imaginative mind. And then, every year, after her father left her in the train that departed from the Platform 9 , in King's Cross, London with tears in their eyes and a tight hug, Lily could breath relieved because all of her beliefs were confirmed and materialized.
Her life wasn't a fantasy, delirium, dream, or any other thing that would mean that it wasn't real. And there she was once more, in the express, on her way to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
There were remnants of the hot and suffocating summer, even though the season were in it's end and in a few weeks the typical golden autumn scenario would take place. Therefore, the train were warm and suffocating on account of the sun rays, whose entered trough the dusty windows.
There were excited whooping all over the place, and now and then, she yelled at a younger student while walking trough the corridors, fulfilling her job as a prefect.
"... I can't say I'm sad about this, honestly" her companion was saying,understatedly "You know that I never been a skilled Potions-maker, so, it wasn't shocking at all."
Remus Lupin was, as Lily, a sixth grader from Gryffindor. Fisically, he was very tall and skinny, with a hair whose the color were something between a really light tone of brown and an shade of abnormally dark blonde, which made really hard to categorize it. And he had scars. Lots of them. All over his face and arms, and nobody (well, almost nobody) knew where they came from. They didn't let Lily forget that, yeah, Destiny could be a real cold blooded, heartless bitch sometimes.
Now, psichologically, Remus were definitely one of Lily's favorite people in the world. He was probably the most kind human being to ever walk on Earth, with his peaceful aura and irradiating serenity. He was also responsible, intelligent and really funny to be around – like the older brother everyone would like to have. Like the sun in a cold day: warm and cozy.
"I could have helped you, if you have asked" she answered, sincerely "For real, Remus.
His answer was a sideways smile."
"I know you could. But really, James did the best he could. I just ain't naturally skilled as you guys."
"Perhaps I could have been a better teacher than Potter..." Lily commented in a friscky tone that made him laugh."
"Don't you ever let him catch you doubting his teaching skills" they laughed together, and then Remus shrugged. "I'm cool, I promise. Honestly, the dungeons make me claustrophobic, and Peter didn't had the necessary grades either."
Lily raised and eyebrow, surprised. Even if Peter Pettigrew weren't as brilliant as his friends, she didn't expected him to fail in any of his OWL's subjects. Not even some as difficult as Potions.
"So what's it gonna be? Potter, Black and me?" she questioned.
"Roslyn's gonna quit?" Lily waved positively with her head, Remus didn't seemed surprised. "Sirius too. But I bet that will be some other Gryffindors students taking the class."
Lily was just opening her mouth to say that she wasn't really sure about that, but she was interrupted for an arm being recklessly thrown around her shoulders that made her jump on her feet for being surprised.
What wasn't a surprised, on the other hand, was seeing who was the owner of the arm, as reckless as his act which separated her from her chatting partner.
If Remus Lupin was the Sun on a cold day, the new participant of the scene was like a suffocating summer day, such as the one they were experiencing in the moment. With his dark clothes and rock star attitude, Sirius Black was as remarkable as 40C.
"You know...Wewere really asking ourselves where our responsible kids could be." he said.
Lily almost laughed at the meticulous use of the plural in every pronouns in the phrase said for Black, almost like he wanted to make pretty explicit how much himself wouldn't mind their absence. His deliberated apathy were comically interested.
Remus, with all of his cleverness didn't seemed to notice this as easily as his college, though.
"Some of us really care about their duties, Sirius." he answered.
"If I accomplish my duties at some point, people will expect me to accomplish 'em all the time." Sirius replied, a skewed smile on his face. "And I don't want to live under other people expectations."
Lily breathed heavily and nod her head, less in a disapproval way and more in a frustrated disbelief.
"We are all aware of your apathy when it comes to other people opinions, Black." she grinned, rolling her eyes. Sirius hated when she did that. "Now, where in the hell are the other Gryffindor people in this train?"
"Max is with us" Lily brethed heavily, but internally this time. Everything she asked Roslyn in all those years was to stay away and don't share compartment with the Marauders during the return to school. "But James is with Skye."
She could have cheered, but she thought that it would be offensive and innapropriate, mainly if she considered her new beginning of school year resolution.
"And how is he?" Lily didn't understood Remus's concern about Potter's physical integrity or feelings, but him and Sirius exchanged meaningful glances at each other, and for a second the girl felt like a outsider.
"The same as when we left his house."
"I though you were going to France with your parents, Remus..." Lily knew she was being inquisitive, but she couldn't stop questioning herself, confused.
"I've been with the Potter's in the last few weeks" it was lovely how everyone included Sirius when the name "Potter" came on. "There were... Unforeseen."
Asking what kind of unforeseen would be too much, even for her, therefore, Lily only nodded and smiled.
"I knew you wouldn't be able to live without your soulmates for that long, anyways." she had a playful tone on her voice, and both Sirius and Remus gave her a little smile, yet they looked down and seemed deliberately decided not to look at each other.
After a few more seconds of walking and a quick change of subject, Sirius obligated Remus and Lily to enter in one of the cabinets that they were passing by, even under their reluctance. There were only two people in there, and the quiet conversation that they were having ceased in the minute that the door was shut.
Lily smiled with excitement when she saw her best friend after two entire months, and Roslyn's face enlighted in obvious reciprocity. A series of circumstances kept Lily and Roslyn apart on that summer, and that turned Lily's days longer than usual.
Obviously, they exchanged letters at least twice a week to keep each other updated on the fresh ongoings of their vacations, but it wasn't the same.
Roslyn's arms hold her tight and took two entire minutes before letting Lily go away, and they both had the biggest smiles when they faced each other.
Roslyn Max was the only child from a couple of important and influent wizards who worked in the Ministry of Magic, and that was part of the reason why they were kept apart for those two months. Her parents didn't believed that it would be wise letting their only child walking around with all the things that were happening in the wizarding world. Even though that made Lily sad, she felt forced to agree with them.
"Its feels so good to be back" Roslyn said, with a huge grin on her face "I swear that my parents got me really scared this year. My dad spent an entire month letting riddles about the possibility of me not coming back, and that he was concerned about Hogwart's security"
She snapped a lock of her very curly hair off of her face and breathed heavily. Roslyn had really dark brown eyes and the most attractive lips Lily ever laid her eyes on. And pretty, light freckles sprinkled her little nose and high cheeks, even though she had a brown skin, enclousuring the most gorgeous and unexpected match of characteristics possible.
"Even your parents are forced to admit that we don't have anything to be afraid when we are in Hogwarts" Remus commented, taking sitting on the leather couch beside the other cabinet occupant, Peter Pettigrew.
"Well... Can anyone be sure at anything, right now?" Peter obviously wasn't expecting a real answer, because any of his friends could actually say anything about that. The third Marauder were small than the others and a little chubby, with lighter hair than Remus which made him look like there were dust all over his head replacing the actual hair.
He also used to make Lily have this weir, inexplicable maternal instinct. Maybe because Pettigrew always seemed the most inoffensive of them all (even Remus), or maybe because he was such an unusual combination for James Potter and Sirius Black's friendship circle. The only thing that Lily knew for sure was that Pettigrew made her want to make him hot cocoa and built a blanket casket to protect him from all the evilness of the exterior world.
"Cut that off" Sirius answered his friend, doesn't looking at all as concerned as the other three "We have already discussed this. We have Dumbledore!"
He pronounced the headmaster's name with a certain reverence. As if he was some kind of hero sent to earth with only purpose of protect everyone: as a Messiah. Pettigrew didn't seemed convinced.
"Who guarantees that Dumbledore has any power against him?"
There was no need of specifying who he was talking about. In fact, the bare use of the pronoun made every occupant of the cabinet shiver from head to toe and look at each other with worried expressions on their faces: he had been the first one to really touch the main subject of the conversation from the very beginning, but that none of them had the nerve of really mentioning.
The first time that Lily had heard about that certain wizard, she was something between thirteen and fourteen years old, and he had become more and more present in everyone's life. Ever since before entering Hogwarts, Lily knew that there were wizards and witches who believes they were Superior to those who, such as Lily, have born among the muggles. Who believes they were the only ones who really deserved and owned magic.
But the simple idea of imagining that someone could reach the point of Lord Voldemort... That made something boil from Lily's head to toe, if it was fear or anger, she couldn't explain.
"Well..." Lily hesitated for a while and breathed heavily, her friends stared at her, waiting. "He isDumbledore.We all know he is one of... Heisbiggest wizard of our time".
Alright them all seemed convinced, or at least a little bit cherished for Lily's words, she didn't knew if that made her feel relieved at all. Even knowing that Dumbledore had defeated the biggest dark wizard of all times and that he was the most intelligent person she had known, everything that was happening around her, made Lily feel unsafe.
It was just too difficult to take out of her head all the horrible news she had read back at home that summer. All the dissaperings, the attacks at the muggles... The deaths. Even if the warm weather still felt suffocating in the cabinet, Lily shivered, breathing upset.
"... And my father came home late almost every night" Roslyn was saying, looking like she caught the boys attention for what she was talking about, even if Lily hadn't listened to any word she said before that.
"Did he told you something that we didn't read at the journals?"
Roslyn nodded negatively to Remus's question, and they all imitated Lily, giving long, heavy breaths of worrying.
"James's parents..." Sirius began, and them all looked at him with expectations "Well, they said that the muggles are starting to notice too. That there is something wrong."
All eyes turned to Lily again, waiting for a final word. The girl moved on her seat and played with her bracelet, thinking.
"Well... The news are chaotic. Series of accidents with unexplainable deaths, but they just aren't able to connect the dots between the cases, you know" she licked her lips "My dad is a cop, and he is really concerned. He didn't wanted me or Tuney to leave our home alone and.."
"Well, it was expected, wasn't it?" Remus remarked, to what everyone agreed "I mean, we wouldn't be able to keep them away of this forever".
"The Ministry tried" Roslyn pointed out, shrugging.
"The muggles aren't dumb" Sirius answered, the ghost of a sad smile in his face.
"Does he know what's going on?" Peter intercepted her, curious, to what Lily glanced at him, confused "You father. Does he know what's happening in...Ourworld?"
The girl breathed. Again. She would never get used to this, the fact that her friends and family were apart of each other because of that fragile line across her two lifes. Howshewas apart of her family because of that line.
"Superficially. I didn't wanted him to get worried for no reason so, and plus, there is nothing that he can do about this, after all..."
She didn't needed to complete her sentence for them to understand.
After all, he's just a muggle.And if many Aurors, highly trained by the Ministry of Magic weren't able to stop Voldemort... How could he?
A couple of minutes passed by and none of them said a word. Perhaps they were too busy with their own thoughts, or too scared to say anything out loud. Lily analysed with attention everyone in that cabinet and felt her chest heavy – those were some of the people she most cared about in the world. If anything happened to any of them because of that one who self-called Lord, she didn't knew if she could handle the pain.
She knew, better than anyone, how the pain could consume you when it was too strong.
They all jumped on their seats when the cabinet door opened with a loud noise, and a little boy from Ravenclaw looked around with brown eyes, searching for someone through the space.
"They sent me here to talk to some Evans girl" he were probably a second grader, or a really petit tird grader. "Is any of you Evans?"
He was staring at Roslyn and Lily.
"I am" she answered, confused. The boy only thrown her a smashed piece of old parchment and went out without any second glance, like he probably had something better to do than worry about a Gryffindor girl' mail.
Lily held the paper right in her hands and felt something cold in her chest when she recognized the small, cautious handwriting on the paper. The message was short and quick: "Meet me at the prefects cabinet at 5pm."
"I can go with you, ymif you want too" Roslyn said under her breath, over Lily's shoulder. The boys seemed to have found some superficially interesting subject to talk about while politely ignoring them. She probably recognized the handwriting as easily as Lily herself.
The redheaded denied and pointed at the note serious. They both breathed heavily.
"Come alone",it said.