Chapter 10:
The end of Lily's second year passed faster than anyone could say Quidditch. Before she knew it she was on the train back hoe with her friends. As always she was staring out the window as her friends gossiped. She thought about her year.
Overall it had been a pretty good year. She enjoyed her days with her friends, the girls and Sev. And James Potter and his friends had not been that bad. They left her alone for the most part. It was Sev that they bothered more than Lily.
"Lily!" Alice squealed poking her in the side to make her jump.
"What!" she yelled. She took a few deep breaths calming down. Her friends giggled at her reaction.
"What electives are you going to take next year?" Hestia asked.
"Hmm." Lily said furrowing her eyebrows. "I dunno yet. Mum and dad said that they'd help me pick some when I get home. I really want to take Divination and Ancient Runes. But I don't know what else."
Marlene smiled wide, "I was going to take those two too!"
Lily grinned. "Brilliant!"
The train pulled to a screeching halt as they arrived in King's Cross Station.
Lily and her friends jumped up and ran to get their luggage.
Lily threw open the compartment door and ran right into James Potter.
"Argh!" Lily yelled as she fell to the floor.
"Alright, Evans?" he asked grinning.
Lily frowned.
He extended an arm out to help Lily up. Reluctantly she grabbed his hand and let him pull her up.
"Er – Thanks Potter." she said quietly.
"Anytime Evans. But next time, you don't need to run into me to get my attention. A simple "Hullo James." would do just fine."
Lily rolled her eyes.
"Potter, the last thing I want is your attention."
He clutched at his heart and said dramatically "Oh, your words wound me."
Lily couldn't help but smile a little.
"Have a good summer Potter." she said as she walked away laughing.
"You too Evans!" he called after her.
Lily was grinning as she bounded off to get her trunk.
A dark haired boy came up to her as she pulled her trunk out of the compartment.
"Why were you being so nice to Potter?" he said frowning as he said the name.
Lily laughed, "Calm down Sev, I just told him to have a nice summer."
"But why?" he asked desperately.
"Because I ran into him and felt bad!" Lily said exasperatedly. "Don't worry, I don't suddenly love him or anything!"
She gave Sev a quick hug as she went off to find her parents.
She never noticed the sigh of relief that her best friend let out, and the goofy grin left on his face as she hugged him and called out a goodbye over her shoulder. She never noticed the look of disgust James Potter and Severus Snape exchanged when they met each other's eyes.
She was only looking at her parents, Mark and Jenna. Who were waiting by their small car.
"Lily darling! How was the ride?" Mark asked her as he pulled her into a huge hug.
"Not bad, I accidentally ran into James Potter and I fell over." she said laughing. "Sev thinks it's a big deal. But it isn't."
Jenna and Mark exchanged a knowing look.
"Sev just doesn't like Potter. He doesn't want me anywhere near him. And I don't like Potter either, I just wished him a good summer! Is that such a big deal?"
Jenna chuckled. "No it isn't sweetie. Come on, let's go home."
Lily babbled on in the car about all the usual things. Her grades. All the professors. Her friends. Sev. James Potter and his friends. And everything else she could possibly think of.
When they got home, Mark grabbed her trunk out of the back seat and Lily ran inside.
"Oh it's so nice to be home!" she declared to no one in particular as she spun around in her kitchen.
Petunia peered around the corner.
"So you've decided to come home now, have you?" she sneered.
Lily frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well, you didn't come home for Christmas. So why should you come home for the summer?"
Lily heard the hurt in Petunia's voice.
"I thought you didn't want me home for Christmas. You never even wrote back to me Tuney. I wrote every week. Every single week. I kept asking, begging you to reply. You never did. So don't you dare blame this on me Petunia." Lily choked out as tears began to roll down her cheeks.
Lily ran up to her room and collapsed onto her bed. She sobbed heavily. How dare Petunia blame all this on her! She was the one who treated Lily horribly. This summer was supposed to be their time together and so that they could make up. But not anymore.
This summer was going to be horrible.
Petunia stood there stunned as Lily fled up to her room.
She knew that Lily had written every week. But she had stopped reading her magical letters. She had tried to get rid of the magic filled life of her sister. She had thought by shutting it out. That perhaps Lily would come back to her. But she was wrong. It only made them further apart. A tear rolled down Petunia's cheek as she realized what she had done.
This summer was going to be horrible.
Jenna and Mark walked into their house.
"Why is it so quiet?" Mark asked.
"You don't think they've had a row already?" Jenna said biting her lip.
Mark shut his eyes tight.
"I'm afraid they did."
Jenna sighed audibly. "I was really hoping that they could go back to being best friends this summer."
Mark nodded, "It's not good for them to be fighting all the time."
"Definitely not."
Mark sighed and picked up Lily's trunk. "Might as well bring it up to her."
Jenna nodded and turned around to the kitchen where she began making dinner.
Mark knocked softly on Lily's door, "Lily? Are you in there?"
He heard a few sniffles and a very weak, "Yes."
"Can I come in?" he asked softly.
"Ok." he heard.
His heart shattered as he opened the door up. Lily was sitting on the edge of the bed with tears pouring down her face.
She looked up at him desperately.
"What's wrong darling?" he asked sitting down next to her.
"P-Petunia. S-She blames me for everything!" Lily wailed.
"Come on now Lily. It isn't your fault. She feels left out and jealous. She misses you so much Lily."
She frowned, "Then why does she never write back? And why does she call me a freak?"
"I don't know Lily. That's only a question that Petunia can answer. Come one, mum's making dinner. Let's go eat."
Lily half smiled. "Ok."
She followed her dad back downstairs to the dinner table where her mum and Petunia were already sitting down and waiting.
They ate in a stony silence. Jenna and Mark made small talk around the table as Petunia and Lily ate in complete silence, occasionally sending a mean glare in the other one's direction.
As soon as everyone was finished both girls rushed upstairs and slammed their doors behind them.
Jenna sighed. "This is going to be a long summer."
And she was right. Two weeks into the summer, and things hadn't gotten any better.
Lily and her parents were sitting at the kitchen table.
They had been talking about the electives Lily was going to take for days now.
"I really want to take Divination and Ancient Runes." she told her dad for the hundredth-time.
"I know darling, but I think you should take Care of Magical Creatures and Arithmancy."
"But why?" Lily asked.
"Well Care of Magical Creatures could come in handy if you ever come across some creature. And Arithmancy sounds fascinating."
Jenna sighed, "Mark, you should let her take what she wants to take."
"But Jen – don't tell me that you wouldn't feel safer if she was taking a class about all those creatures."
Jenna frowned. "Well that is true."
Lily rolled her eyes. "Can I just take Divination, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy?"
"That's going to be a lot of work Lily." Mark said trying to reason with her.
"I can do it!" Lily said defensively.
"We know you can sweetheart. Yes, you can take those three."
Lily beamed. "Brilliant."
It was the only way that everyone would get to be happy. Jenna and Mark were happy she was learning about the creatures and Lily got to take the classes she wanted to. Everyone was happy. Except one person that had been completely forgotten about within the past few days.
"So are you done picking out your freaky classes yet?" Petunia sneered.
"Petunia!" Jenna snapped. "Do not say things like that!"
Neither girl heard her.
"Well I don't know about freaky, but my classes. Yes I just finished." Lily answered defensively.
"Well if it has anything to do with that freak school, then they are freaky classes."
"Don't say that about my school!"
"It's for freaks Lily! Magic loving freaks!"
"You're just jealous that I can do magic and you're normal and boring!"
Petunia looked as if she'd been slapped across the face. "Why would I be jealous of a freak?" she screeched.
"I'm not a freak Petunia! I'm a witch!"
"You said it yourself, a witch. That's weird! And messed up! You're such a freak Lily!"
Lily felt as if she'd been slapped. "I may be a freak! But I'm happy! I have friends who love me and accept me for who I am! I don't need you Petunia!"
Petunia's stomach dropped. "Don't be foolish. You'll come crying back to me Lily. Your friends will all leave you. Why would they be your friend?"
"They're like me too! And believe it or not I have four best friends! I don't need you Petunia! I'll never need you again. I just want you to leave me alone!"
"Believe me I want you out of my life just as much! It was a great Christmas without you there!"
"I was happy not to be there! I had the best Christmas of my life!"
Petunia frowned, she had hoped that Lily had a horrible Christmas. But she had said it herself, the best Christmas of her life. "What happened to you Lily? Christmas used to be our time together! That was our special time!"
"What happened to me? I stopped feeling welcome at my own home! From you! You did this to yourself. If you had just been supportive and written back every once in a while, maybe I would have come home! But no! You ignored me and were horrible to me! I don't even know who you are anymore! What happened to my big sister? She's certainly not you! I don't even know who you are!"
Petunia was silent. "And what happened to you? You said you'd never leave me! You're a liar. You said we'd always be best friends!"
"We could have been! But you decided you were too good for me!"
"This is not my fault!" Petunia screeched.
"Yes it is!" Lily yelled. "I tried to make amends. I tried to stay in touch. But I'm done with all that now! I'm done with you Petunia!"
Lily turned on her heel and marched out of the house.
"I'm going to Sev's!" she called over her shoulder. "He actually likes me! And I like him too!"
Petunia ran up to her room.
Jenna and Mark looked at each other.
"Should we – ?" Jenna asked.
"No, they need to calm down first." Mark said.
Petunia collapsed on her bed and pounded her pillow. She was mad and upset. She took it out on her pillow. How dare she say those things? Was she really that awful? And it wasn't completely her fault! Lily left her! But the words couldn't get out of her mind, she kept hearing Lily's voice saying, I don't need you. I'm done with you. Was it really possible she hurt her sister that much?
Lily ran down the street to the swings. Sev was sitting on one of the swings, pushing himself back and forth. The second he saw her he got up and ran to her.
"Lily?" he asked when he saw the tears running down her face. "What happened?"
She ran into his arms and started sobbing.
He sat her down and let her pour everything out to him.
A/N: Hello everyone! I have a special request for you all! Well two actually! 1) Review! 2) Send a congrats! To Arabella Lily Potter who won her singing competition out of 700 other people! She is fantastic! Please send her a pm or review this story with congrats! I'll pass them along to her! Also go read her stories! She's brilliant!