South

Act II

Scene IV

Number four, Privet Drive was actually a rather normal-looking home. It had a large yard, hedges, a small flowerbed under the front window, and steps leading up to the door.

At least, it had when Lily had last seen it.

It now featured a tall fence which hid the browning lawn and untrimmed hedges. The flowerbed was sprouting weeds and the steps were crumbled around the edges.

"Oh, my..." Lily breathed. Vernon has certainly let a lot of yard work pass him by.

Still, she maneuvered her way up to the door and knocked. There was no reply. She knocked again, louder this time. A woman finally answered, a short plump lady with dull hair and a sallow face.

"Excuse me," Lily began, but the lady was already closing the door.

"No vancancy," she twittered.

"No! Wait!" The door opened a crack. "Er - is Petunia here? Petunia Dursley?"

"Petunia?" The lady didn't smile, only looked vaguely interested. "Missus Evans?"

"Er - yes, that may be her..."

"Moved out," the lady told her. "But I pass on message, OK?" She grinned toothily.

"Oh - no, no." Lily reeled back. Petunia had moved out? The door closed in Lily's face again.

"She moved back in with your mum."

"Elizabeth!" Lily whirled around. "Oh, splendid. Perfectly splendid. I'm being followed around by a nut who thinks she's my guardian angel, my sister has moved out of Surrey without saying so, and one of my friends has disappeared from existence!"

"Well, you asked for it." Elizabeth sat on the crumbling step with a calm demeanor that exactly countered Lily's aggressive and panicked attitude.

Lily frozed. "Asked? Asked for what, pray tell?"

"You said," Elizabeth drawled, "you said you wished you'd never been born.

"So I gave you that. You've never been born. You've no obligations. No responsibilities."

"If I've never been born, then who am I?" Lily asked, a little nastily.

"You have no identity."

"Oh, don't I?" Lily reached into her pocket. "I'll have you know that I have a copy of my marriage license in my wallet - I was going to bring it to divorce court - " she pulled a leather wallet from her pocket and flipped it open.

"It's not there." Elizabeth looked disgruntled.

"It - it should be." Lily huffed. "Damnit. James must've taken it."

"He didn't."

"How do you know?" Lily shot back. "Look, no matter what happened to that, I've still got other forms of ID - "

"There's no driver's license, there's no insurance form. No checkbook with your name on it," Elizabeth told Lily as the latter rifled through her wallet. It was true. Nothing was there.

"Alright, you're crazy!" Lily cried, tossing her wallet to the ground. "You've - you've put a curse on me. Well, I know the counter-curse, alright? The last person I talked to before all this happened was Sirius. I'll go find him."

"Where is he?"

"Grimmauld Place, of course. Come along. I may as well take you to St. Mungo's - or Azkaban - while I'm nearby."

"They wouldn't," Elizabeth said. "They wouldn't see me."

"Donna saw you," replied Lily, unaware as to why she even bothered to argue in the first place.

"Yes, but only because I wanted her to."

"Yes of course." Lily rolled her eyes. "Let's go, then."

And they Apparated.