Six Little Letters (Part 2)

Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham -Letter Four

'Good morning my darling son, the light of my life, the apple of my eye.' Euphemia Potter called to her son in jest. Euphemia, or Mia as she preferred to go by, sat in the kitchen with a crossword puzzle by her side.

James Potter grinned at her. His mother was a most colourful woman in the morning. His father on the other hand was decidedly not. Fleamont Potter, or Monty as Mrs. Potter had to call him as the idea of saying his full name would reduce her to a fit of giggles, was not a morning person. Monty tore his eyes away from the Daily Prophet to give a nod to his son.

Mia stood and walked over to her son giving him a hug. Not that it wasn't welcome but Mrs. Potter rarely hugged her son in the mornings. This was because James had not yet showered and got dressed.

'Mother?' James asked.

Mia looked down at her son. Monty was also looking at her quizzically. 'What!?' Mia said glaring between the two. 'I can't hug my son now?!'

James and Monty hastily looked away and busied themselves as not to provoke Mrs. Potter and ensure her wrath. James pulled the chair out from the table and sat down. His father, as he did every morning, pulled out the Quidditch section of the newspaper and handed it to him.

Mia Potter was fighting desperately to keep the grin off her face. But it was becoming increasingly difficult. She had to tell herself to wait for the right time. Making her way over to the kitchen stove she opened the oven and pulled out the breakfast she had spent hours earlier preparing. It was true, Mia Potter was no Raymond Blanc but she knew the basics and the pancake recipe seemed simple enough. She was actually quite proud of herself.

She brought the plate of pancakes over to the table and used her wand to levitate the maple syrup, lemon, and sugar. The two boys had yet to look up from their newspapers. Mia stood up strait and cleared her throat.

'Excurse you, darling.' Monty said. His eyes never leaving the newspaper.

Perhaps a different approach would be better, Mia thought. Mia grabbed her wand and flicked it towards the two boys. The newspapers flew out of their hands and landed in a heap on the floor. The two boys where left looking rather silly with their hands still in the air. 'Tada!' Mia spoke excitedly flinging her arms toward the pancakes on the table.

James looked in front of him to see a plate of neatly stacked pancakes. The smell hit his nose and he felt himself become overcome with its heavenly allure. 'Pancakes!' James said with a loopy grin.

'Not just any pancakes, they are homemade.' Mia told them proudly. Of course, they already knew this, Minky their house elf home cooked every meal for them. 'By me.' Mia added.

The fork in Monty's left hand clattered against the plate. Mia only cooked a handful of times a year and her track record wasn't great, the last time she had cooked had been for their anniversary. She may have gotten over her head when she had tried to cook a rather complicated chicken dish, no surprise that the evening had ended in food poisoning. Mr. Potter examined his pancakes, they didn't look under cooked and they did smell delicious.

Mrs. Potter had both of her hands on her hips as she glared at her husband. 'Don't give me that look Monty! They are cooked!' she claimed. 'Geez you poison a guy once!' To prove to her husband that they were indeed safe to eat she sat down in front of her own plate of pancakes and began to eat them. Monty seemed satisfied for the moment and began digging into his own plate.

James had almost finished his pancakes when his mother slid an envelope towards him. 'The reason we are having pancakes this morning is because something very special came in the mail today.' Mia explained.

Monty noticed the letter with the emerald green lettering on it and gave a wide grin, one that made the two of them look more like brothers rather than father and son. James sat there in shock looking at the letter. He had been certain that he would get into Hogwarts, but there had always been a niggling feeling in the back of his mind that maybe he would end up having to go to somewhere like Durmstrang. However, it had all been washed away once his eyes had seen the letter. He was going to Hogwarts. He was going to Hogwarts!

'That's my boy!' Monty said as he reached over and ruffled James's unruly hair. Mia chuckled and bent over to give her son a kiss on the cheek.

'Looks like we will be needing a trip to Diagon Alley!' Mia said clapping her hands together.

'Ah yes!' Monty said. 'And don't think I have forgotten our arrangement James.'

James looked at him puzzled for a moment before his eyes grew wide. 'NO way dad!' James yelled jumping out of his chair as his father laughed. Monty had always promised James since he was a small boy that the day he got his Hogwarts letter he would buy him the best broomstick on the market.

James was ecstatic. The Comet 140 was the best broom around. James had drooled looking at it though the Quidditch shop window. He had read everything he could about it, he used to want the Cleansweep one but the Comet 140 had shown its self to be far superior with its new braking charm and its faster acceleration rate. James thought about the Quidditch teams at Hogwarts, almost all of the best players in the world were captain of their house's Quidditch team and that was going to be him one day.

'The sooner I get to Hogwarts the better.' James exclaimed and he ran upstairs to get dressed and go to Diagon Alley.

xxx

Claremont Square, 12 Grimmauld Place, London

Sirius Black, by nature, was an untidy boy. His hair was long and curly, his shirt was never tucked in and no matter how hard Walburga Black tried, Sirius refused to wear a tie. Oh, how she had tried to teach that boy proper manners. She had gone from one extreme to the next to teach that boy a lesson. But no matter how hard she hit or what spell she threw there was nothing stopping that boy. Thankfully her younger son Regulus had not fallen in his older brother's footsteps.

Sirius walked down from his room that morning and towards the kitchen. House elves were scurrying about preparing for the first meal of the day. Mrs. Black sat at one end on the table and Mr. Black at the other same as always. Regulus however was sitting on Sirius's side of the table. Sirius examined his younger brother, the better son. His hair was, as his mother would say, a respectable length. It had been combed through thoroughly and swept away from his face. He was dressed immaculately. No food down his shirt, no rips from messing around. Not even a crease graced his whole outfit. It saddened Sirius greatly to see his brother like this. It was too late for Sirius, he was the heir to the Black family fortune, many expectations had been put on him. But Regulus, Regulus was free from that. He could do anything he wanted, well maybe not anything, but a damn lot more than Sirius could. It took everything in him not to walk up to Regulus and tussle his hair at least. Make some sort of dent in his appearance.

Regulus looked over to his brother. The tiniest of quirks graced the side of his lips, it was the one thing Sirius absolutely loved about his brother. It was that one act of defiance against his parents. Not that smiling was banned from the Black household, although if you had spent more than a day there you would have thought someone had cursed the family to be eternally mopey. But Regulus never smiled to Sirius in front of his parents. The last time he had, Mrs. Black had been thrown into a fit of rage, cursing that Sirius was trying to make Regulus more like him. In an effort to stop this Mrs. Black had made it nearly impossible for Sirius and Regulus to be in the same room alone. There was always someone watching; Kreacher, the house elf was the worst for this, oh how he would just love to catch them together so he could report back to his beloved Mistress. For this reason, Sirius and Regulus were never close, not as brothers should be anyway.

Sirius watched his brothers face, the small tweak of his lips was barely noticeable. What was noticeable was the plain look of 'I feel so sorry for you' that was practically written across his face. Sirius looked at him quizzically before his eyes drifted to the spot next to him. There lay his breakfast plate as normal. However, instead of a napkin in the middle of his plate, there was a Letter. A letter that had his name in emerald green ink scrawled across it. Never had the feeling of relief wash through him quite so much. He was deliriously happy. He could leave. No longer would the sour faces of his family be there at every turn of the house. He wouldn't have to deal with Kreacher's constant bothering.

Sirius had a grin on his face that stretched from ear to ear. He looked back at his brother who was still giving his a very sombre look. Sirius supposed it was because this meant that he was leaving. But this theory was quelled as soon as he noticed the young girl across from him. She was his age. Her name was Larissa Black, he had met her many times at Black family gatherings. She was stitched on the wall of the Black family tree in the parlour. She was his cousin on his father's side. He knew hardly anything about her, in fact he had never heard her speak.

She looked up and stared into Sirius's eyes. Soulless is how he would describe them. It didn't stop there either. Sirius supposed that from generations of inbreeding it had finally caught up with her. Her eyes had seemed far too big for her head and one was slightly lazy. Every third or fourth breath she took, her chest would jut out a few times and she would make a choking sound. Her lips where plump and full, but upon inspection he could see that she had been gnawing away at them, a very bad habit. Her hair had been scraped back into a bun that had been wrapped in a black velvet ribbon. She sat straight as a pin as she stared at Sirius.

Sirius was completely taken aback as to why she was here. Perhaps she was visiting his mother and he had not been told? But it did not matter. Sirius pulled his eyes away from her and refocused them on the letter. He sat down at the table tearing it open and reading it to himself. He did notice however that Larissa had not stopped looking at him.

'Congratulations Sirius.' Mr. Black spoke. Mr. Black was a man of few words, preferring his wife to do enough talking for the both. On rare occasions he did speak, it was never directed at Sirius. Sirius only nodded in response as he continued to read his letter.

'Sirius' His mother sneered. Sirius ignored her and started to re-read his letter again. 'Sirius Black!' His mother practically screeched. Inwardly Sirius signed and put down the letter.

'You have not greeted your guest.' She simply said.

Sirius frowned at her. She wasn't exactly his guest, he hadn't invited her around. Sirius was still in high spirits from reading his letter that greeted Larissa without fuss.

'Larissa, it's good to see you again. You're looking-.' Sirius was about to say that she looked well but found he couldn't. Looking at her face again he didn't know if she was ill or she always looked like that, Sirius suspected the latter. 'Why are you here?' He decided to go with in the end.

Mrs. Black answered for her. 'Your father and I thought that as you are to start Hogwarts this September, you ought to meet your future wife. You were both matched at infancy.'

Sirius went cold. Now the look on Regulus's face made sense. The was no way. No bloody way he would ever marry her. It wasn't simply because he didn't exactly find her attractive. No, he would never marry her simply because... because she was his cousin. He felt repulsed at the thought. Damn these pureblood families, there was nothing pure about what his parent wanted him to do.

'Never.' Sirius said. Not caring if he hurt Larissa's feeling. 'I will never marry her, mother. You can disown me, you can starve me, but I will never marry her.' Sirius spat.

Sirius looked towards his mother. He expected her to scream bloody murder at him or even whip her wand out and curse him till he conceded. However, she simply sat there smiling at him. Her toothy grin full of malice.

'Don't you worry Sirius, you will marry her. Not now obviously, but once you graduate. Besides you'll have lots of time to get to know each, she will also be attending Hogwarts this year.' His mother spoke in a sickeningly sweet way. The threat was clear, his mother had known how Sirius would react yet Sirius would have to wait and see what his mother could possibly do to make him marry Larissa.

Sirius growled at his mother before grabbing his letter and storming out. He would be spending several years with the girl, it would just be his luck that they were both sorted into Slytherin and knowing that everyone in his family was in Slytherin had made him feel even worse. But the sooner he left, the sooner he could escape his deranged family. The sooner he got to Hogwarts the better.

xxx

Jovie Evans was sat in her kitchen. She contemplated the situation before her. It had been a week and she was still in shock. She thought back to what had happened on that day.

Jovie watched her daughters face as she opened her presents. Lily had turned eleven today. She felt tears prickle at her eyes, she knew it was silly to be upset about such a thing. Only, Petunia was getting older, so much so she didn't really need her mother to help her with her homework or hold her hand when they crossed the street. Lily still let her coddle and be overly protective.

Jovie watched as Lily opened a present from her sister. It was necklace. It was on such a delicate silver chain, Jovie was sure that it could break at any moment. On the end of the necklace there hung a small piece of wood. Inspecting it closer she made out the design. Someone had drawn a pair of flowers, a lily on one side and a petunia on the other.

'I made it in art class.' Petunia said. 'Mrs. Bell drew the design for me, but I cut of the wood and attached it to the chain.' Petunia said proudly.

'Oh Tunie! I love it! Help me put it on.' Lily exclaimed.

It had been a beautiful moment. Lily and Petunia had their differences but there was always love between them. Jovie smiled to herself as she lit the last candle on the cake. She started to sing happy birthday as she walked into the dining room where the rest of the family sat. What happened next would follow Jovie to the grave. A tall man popped into the room. He literally just appeared out of nowhere.

He looked as surprised as everyone else had. His sudden appearance caused Jovie to jump, the cake slipped from her hands and fell to the floor with an almighty splat.

'I do apologise. I meant to apparate to the front door.' The man had said.

What had followed was the most surreal experience of Jovie's life. Her daughter, her baby girl was a...a... witch. She would be going to some special school to learn magic. The whole situation had boggled her mind.

...

Lily sat by the lake looking out. She had not seen Severus since she had gotten her letter. Every day she went down to the lake to meet him, but he never showed. Her parents were understandably shocked when they heard the news. Surprisingly, Lily's father didn't need much convincing to accept magic was real, but then again everyone had witnessed Professor Dumbledore appear out of thin air. They had watched him takeout his wand and fix Lily's ruined birthday cake that had been splattered on the floor.

Lily had loved the way her father had practically turned into a little boy whilst Dumbledore had shown him a few tricks. Even Tunie had been mesmerised by the magic before her.

Tunie. Lily had instinctively pulled the necklace out of her pocket, feeling the wooden pendent between her fingers. She thought back to yesterday morning.

Lily had been surprised that Tunie had been in such high spirits after the visit from Dumbledore. Lily was sure that Tunie would have gone into meltdown. But Petunia continued to smile and be, perhaps, a little out of character with her constant good mood.

Mrs. Evans had called the family to breakfast that morning, the same as she did every morning. They ate, they chatted and they cleared away the empty dishes. Petunia was being extra weird that morning. At any sound, her head would whip to the front door.

'Tunie what is the matter with you?' Mr. Evans asked his daughter.

'I'm expecting something in the mail.' She had replied.

Before Mr. Evans could ask her what she was expecting, Petunia had shot out of her chair and ran to the front door. Lily watched as she flicked through the letters, she discarded all of them onto the floor until she reached a letter that made her stop. A grin spread across her face as she ran back into the kitchen.

'It came! It came!' She yelled bouncing on her feet. Everyone looked at Petunia quizzically. Petunia looked back at them and if it were possible Lily swore her grin got even wider. 'I got my Hogwarts acceptance letter!' She squealed.

Mr. and Mrs. Evans faces dropped as they looked at each other. Lily was filled with confusion. Petunia had got into Hogwarts? Why had Dumbledore not mentioned it? Never the less the news had thrilled Lily. Perhaps now the gap that had formed between them would be fixed.

'Tunie really!? That's amazing!' Lily had said as she joined with Tunie jumping up and down.

Mr. and Mrs. Evans had not, however, joined in celebration. It didn't make any sense. The man, Dumbledore, had told them that students started school at eleven years old. Petunia was about to enter year ten, she was about to take her mock exams.

Petunia had noticed the lack of response from her parents. 'I wrote a letter to Dumbledore.' She told them. When they looked even more confused she went on. 'I told him that there had to be some sort of mistake, I'm a witch too and I deserve to go to Hogwarts. I told him all about my grades and my commendation from the Headmaster. I told him that I was smart so he could just transfer me over to Hogwarts and I'll pick everything up, it can't be that hard.' Tunie had proudly stated.

Mr. Evans watched as his wife had put her hand over her mouth, her eyes sparkled with the beginning of tears. But he knew they were not tears of joy. They were tears of pity. 'Petunia, I think you should read the letter Mr. Dumbledore has sent you.' Mr. Evans said solemnly.

He watched as his daughter smiled and opened her letter.

'Dear Miss Evans. I am sorry to inform you that you do not qualify for a place at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...' Petunia had stopped speaking out loud. Her eyes whizzed across the paper. Her cheeks were filled with embarrassment. Her eyes could not restrain the tears pouring out of them. When she had finished the letter, she released a blood curdling scream. She threw the letter to the floor and stomped on it over and over. No one made a move to stop her.

Eventually, Petunia stopped. The room was deadly silent except for the wailing coming from Petunia. Her mind was racing, it wasn't fair! Lily got everything! EVERYBODY LOVED HER! She never had to try, their parents loved Lily better. The boys at school called her Pain in the arse Petunia. The teachers grew tired of her always knowing the answers. Nothing she ever did was good enough.

Petunia slowly stood up straight and turned to Lily, her chest heaving. 'I never want to see you ever again. You are no longer my sister. You are nothing.' Petunia said in an even voice. Petunia reach out to Lily, for a split-second Lily though Petunia was going to strike her. Instead her fingers clasped around the pendent around Lily's neck. Petunia gave it a sharp tug and let it drop to the floor. Petunia knew her sister wasn't a bad person. She knew Lily worked hard and that it didn't matter how many tantrums she threw, Lily would always, eventually forgive her. But right now, she wanted to hate her sister, she needed to hate her and blame her. Even though Petunia knew it was wrong to blame her sister for something she had no control over. Petunia chose to ignore this. Hate was all she had now.

Not saying another word, she turned around and left the room.

The silence stayed and Mr. and Mrs. Evans and Lily stood like statues, all watching the spot where Petunia had stood.

Lily felt her voice come back to her as she spoke. 'You should go after her. She needs you both to go to her.' Lily said in a quiet voice.

Jovie looked at her daughter. She didn't see a child, she saw a mature woman. Mr. and Mrs. Evans slowly walked toward the doorway where Petunia had stomped off. Mr. Evans looked back at his daughter.

'Lily, we love you so much. Don't ever forget that. We are so proud of you, no matter what happens, or what your sister does. We will always be proud of you.' He finished.

Lily nodded as she watched them walk off. She looked at the ground and picked up the broken necklace and the letter and began to read.

Dear Miss Evans,

I am sorry to inform you that you do not qualify for a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It is not a reflection on you yourself Miss Evans, meeting you last week I have observed that you are indeed a bright young lady. But at Hogwarts we do not offer education to the smartest students in the country, or the most talented students. No amount of money will buy you a place at this school. Hogwarts is a school that teaches young witches and wizards to use and control magic. It is exceeding rare for a muggle (Nonmagical person) to produce the ability to perform magic, but never the less it happens. Your sister was born with this magic, it is not something she achieved with studying.

I hope in time you will come to accept this. I look forward to seeing who you will become in the future Miss Evans, I have no doubt that you will become a very accomplished young woman.

Best wishes,

Albus Dumbledore

Lily re-read the letter once more before finally folding it up and putting it in her pocket.

It had been a long and emotionally draining day. Lily continued to stare out at the lake, she was about to call it for the day when someone cleared their throat behind her. She turned to see Severus. Lily leapt up and hugged him.

Severus was so taken aback by this it took him a few seconds to react.

Lily was happy to see Severus but the tug on her heart from Petunias words still hung over her like a dark cloud. She sat back down on the floor and looked out at the lake and Severus joined.

'Here.' Lily said passing a letter over to Severus.

Severus read the emerald green writing and felt his heart leap. They would both be going to Hogwarts, he knew she would get in. He looked back at her excitingly but was met with Lily's solemn face. He felt anger course through him, he had a pretty good guess as to why she was upset instead of jumping for joy.

'What did she do now?!' Severus asked outraged.

Without saying another word Lily handed him the letter Petunia had received from Dumbledore. She knew it was wrong to take something that wasn't hers. But she needed someone to know about it, to know what she was going through.

He opened his mouth to curse that stupid muggle when he saw Lily's face. A single tear rolled down her cheek. He closed his mouth and thought. She didn't need him to tell her that Petunia was being dramatic or horrid or anything. She knew. Instead Severus reached out his hand and put it on hers, giving it a firm squeeze.

Lily's eyes widened at the sudden contact. He was trying to comfort her, the heaviness on her heart loosened a tiny bit. She looked over to Severus to smile at him but instead was shocked. She hadn't really looked at him properly since he arrived. Looking at his face she saw it. The gash across it was the size of her hand, the cut itself wasn't deep, what made it look horrendous was the patch of black and purple bruises.

'Severus!? What...What happened-.' Lily cut herself off when she looked into Severus's eyes. There was sadness in them for sure, but there was more, a hint of fear perhaps?

Instead of saying anything more she simply tuned over her hand that Severus was holding on to and looked out. They sat there holding hands and looking out to the lake, simply being there for one another.

'The sooner we get to Hogwarts, the better.' Lily whispered.