Drabble Request Thread; for Cuban Sombrero Gal; Lily Evans, dancing in the rain, no James or Sev (I almost managed that)
Grace
Pitter. Patter.
Pitter. Patter.
The rain keeps falling on Lily's umbrella. It's monotonous.
Pitter, Patter.
Frustrated, Lily closes the Muggle contraption ("why not just do an Impervious Charm? Honestly, Lily, you're weird sometimes"), and shakes her head so that red wisps of hair escape her braid, float, and are quickly weighted down by heavy water droplets.
Around her, endless expanses of green, wet land blur in front of her eyes. She blinks, and pretends the salty moisture on her cheeks is only rain.
Suddenly furious with herself, Lily savagely whacks the umbrella against her leg. A moment later, her eyes are watering in pain.
Deliberately, testing herself, she takes two quick steps back, arching through her toes and balancing on the balls of her feet.
It hurts.
She does a fast pas de chat and then a slow pirouette using the umbrella for balance.
Before turning eleven, finding out she was a witch, before Hogwarts, Lily took ballet lessons. Every Tuesday after school. If it weren't for Hogwarts, she'd be en pointe by now.
It's another thing she had to give up. Some days, she wonders if magic was worth it.
Frowning, she twirls the umbrella around her wrist and does a petit jeté over a puddle in the road.
If only, she thinks wistfully, everything weren't so completely wrecked with Sev—
"Lily, what are you doing out here?" Alice runs down the muddy road from her family's mansion and grabs her friend and roommate's arm. Lily is soaking wet. "You'll catch your death!"
"Better that than let it catch me." Lily hugs herself, umbrella hooked into her belt loop, wet hair plastered to her head.
"Come on, Lily," Alice rolls her eyes. "You have to think of the future."
Lily smiles bitterly. "Carpe diem."
"Seize the day—" Alice translates.
"—'cause tomorrow you might be dead," Lily adds with a macabre grin.
"Ooh, speaking of, our O.W.L. results came," Alice says cheerfully.
"Far out," Lily murmurs sardonically. She follows Alice back up the road toward the mansion, unfurling her umbrella again.
Leaving the Muggle world hurt. But being a witch has its compensations, Lily thinks, considering her O.W.L. scores. She smirks.
Pitter. Patter.