AN: You can really tell that my life is full of excitement and I'm not one of those people that spends all their time writing fanfic can't you? LOL...I'm just taking a well-deserved break from the big bad world...so yeah...next up Minerva...I think...you see I wrote one for her then realised it didn't fit the prompt, but I didn't want to give it up so I'm just trying to fit the prompt in...

So, apparently it takes like, 32.576826843891223 seconds to write a review :P. Well, I was close enough.

Enjoy!

Full Well Grown

(The Holly and the Ivy,

Now both are Full Well Grown)-well, "The Lily and the Petunia...)

Prompt: Photograph

Lily was bored.
She had already written to James today, and to Sirius, and to Remus, although the last two hadn't been sent, as she only had one owl.

Perhaps coming home for Christmas was a mistake. Her parents, of course, were as doting as ever, but her sister, also home, was cruel and cold towards her.

She began digging through old boxes, things she hadn't looked at since she went to school, nearly seven years ago now. Old cards she had made, and old pictures she had drawn, old bandanas and caps, old dolls, old hairclips and hair bands, and at the very bottom, an old photograph.

She stared at it, at her ten year old self and her thirteen year old sister. They were sitting on the swings, where they always used to play. Lily looked at the little girl she had been. She was small, but not skinny, her red hair was wind-blown and a little frizzy, and even out of the photograph her green eyes looked back, like a mirror. Beside her sat Petunia, fully formed for her age, with dark hair cut into a fringe and Labrador eyes looking out. She was smiling at whoever was taking the photo, Lily did not remember who.

"Lily," her father called.

She stood up and went down stairs, photograph in hand.

"Look what I found," she said handing it to her mother and sitting down to the Christmas Eve meal of baked trout (her mother loved fish.)

"Isn't that sweet?" her mother said. "Look Henry,"

Henry smiled. "I remember taking this."

"Oh, so it was you who took it then?" Lily asked. "I didn't know."

Petunia came into the kitchen, looking haughty. Her father smiled.

"Look what Lily found." he tossed it to her. Petunia spared the photo one glance before setting it face down on the kitchen counter. Lily saw her parents exchange glances over the table. She sighed and began to eat.

She was focused on her food when there was a tap on the window. And another.

She looked up. "It's Quicksilver!" she said, rushing over and unlatching the window. Her owl nearly fell into the sink. "Poor thing, it's been flying all day."

"Get it away from me!" shrieked Petunia.

"Shush, Petunia, it's just an owl." said her mother.

"It's unnatural, that's what it is." snapped Petunia.

"It's from James!" said Lily, unable to stop smiling.

Seeing that the arrival of the bird was upsetting her elder daughter, Sarah Evans said "Lily, please, leave the letter until after dinner. Can the owl wait outside?"

"Sure, he'll be fine. I'll let you in in a minute sweetie."

"Who's James?" her father asked, unable to stop himself.

Lily blushed deeply. "He's, well, he's, we...I..."

"Ah," said Sarah. "Lily's in love." Then, as affectionate mothers do, she burst into tears.

"How horrible," said Petunia. "In love with a-a freak? How utterly revolting!"

"He's not a freak, he's sweet and loving and caring and brave and handsome."

"Besides, I thought you were in love with that Snape creature."

"No! And he's not a creature Petunia! He's a person."

"But you've gone off him haven't you?" Petunia sneered. "Or perhaps, it's the other way round."

Lily felt tears prick to her eyes. "Petunia I don't talk about you that way."

"Yes you do, to all your little freak friends."

Petunia's expression was the bitterest Lily had ever seen. "You didn't look at that photo did you? You were beautiful Tuney, dammit, you were gorgeous! You were always the person I wanted to be when I grew up. Always!"

"Not when you went to that home for the incurably insane you didn't."

"No, because you were horrible and bitter and nasty to me. Petunia, our lives have changed so much! We're grown-up now, and we're worse off than we were in that picture! We've lost each other somewhere along the line! I've lost my sister, my best friend! Do you think that if I had the chance I wouldn't go back to when that picture was taken and refuse to go to Hogwarts? Do you not think that I would give up James, and the others, Sirius, Remus and Peter, and Mary, and Gryffindor, and being Head Girl, and magic and everything else, just to have you back? Back to the way things were."

Petunia looked at her sister with utter contempt and said "No, you wouldn't." her words dripping with hatred.

Then she picked up her car keys off the worktop and her coat off the chair.

"Merry Christmas, Mum, Dad," and she left.

Please excuse the awful grammar in that last speech by Lily...but I'm sure you put commas before your "ands" when you're screaming at your sister too...

And now, I command you to review!!!