Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter Universe!
After Sirius left for the hospital, both Lily and Alice watched their sons playing together, more intently focused on the two toddlers radiating happiness and care-free attitudes than ever before.
"Merlin, we are pathetic," commented Alice dryly ten minutes later. She glanced at Lily, whose gaze was trained unwaveringly on Harry and then got to her feet. This caught her friends' attention; "Where are you off to so purposefully?" she asked, her amazement at the sudden change in demeanour evident.
"Well that would be telling, wouldn't it?" replied Alice with a mysterious smile. The fact was she'd had a brainwave, though she highly doubted Lily would like the idea if she revealed it to her. "Will you be okay watching the boys on your own?" she asked instead, trying to maintain a casual tone.
"Okay," Lily agreed slowly, managing to keep the suspicion in her voice minimal. Satisfied with her reaction, Alice bent down and kissed Neville's forehead and then walked out the door with a cheery wave.
Once her friend had gone, Lily attempted to resume her mindless observing of the two playing boys, but the atmosphere in the house had changed too much for even this simple action to be the same.
Since sitting in one place proved to be agonizingly difficult, Lily found herself pacing before long. During that time the idea to pop by St. Mungo's crossed her mind more than once, but she always wrote it off as insane. While she definitely felt more at ease when Sirius was around, she couldn't possibly ask him to come home now. Jessica was also her friend and she would definitely go to pieces if left alone under the circumstances.
Unable as she was to reach a decision about how to combat the rapid loss of her sanity, the restless pacing continued, alongside a raging mental debate with herself. She highly doubted if she could carry both her son and Neville when taking the Floo network to the hospital, on the other hand leaving them alone was out of the question.
Suddenly she had an idea, marvelling at the fact that she hadn't thought of him sooner, Lily extracted her Order coin from her pocket and sent Remus a quick message. Then she made the mistake of resuming her pacing, which resulted in a collision when he arrived suddenly, five minutes later.
"Sorry," she mumbled, her cheeks turning as red as her hair. He shook his head and helped her to her feet with a comforting smile; "That's fine Lil, I'm more worried about why you felt the need to be pacing all this time in the first place," he replied.
"These past few days have given me a whole new understanding of why Padfoot hates this place so much," she explained fervently. "I feel like I'm about to lose my mind every time I come here. It was alright while Allie was around, but she left suddenly a while back and left me alone with the boys."
"Do you want to go to St. Mungo's?" he suggested. It was a wild guess, but for some reason, her eager expression didn't surprise him in the least.
"Are you a Legilimens, Moony?" she asked teasingly, the hint of a twinkle back in her eyes for the first time since Halloween.
"I'm not a Legilimens, I just know you very well," he said. "What's wrong Lily?" he added, because her smile faded suddenly.
"What about Jessie?" she queried, looking troubled. Remus met her gaze, the confusion visible in his eyes; "What about her?"
"The whole point of Sirius going to the hospital was to try and comfort her," Lily clarified. "How do you think she'll take it if we show up without warning?"
"You've got a point there," he agreed "though I personally feel it might be helpful for Padfoot to have us there, even if Jess doesn't like it at first. After all, he's also only human and I'm willing to bet neither of them has gotten much sleep, if any."
"That's true," she was forced to admit. "So, shall we go then?"
"Sure, whenever you're ready." If the situation had not been so sombre, he would have found the speed at which she scooped Harry up and charged out the door very amusing, as it was, he wordlessly followed suit with Neville in his arms.
When Remus and Lily reached the hospital, they lingered in the reception area, wondering where best to go next. Late as it was, the area was already dark and eerily silent, but just as Remus was about to suggest that they go look for a familiar face, they heard footsteps and a wand light penetrated the darkness.
"Tom! What are you-?" Lily started to say, when she realized that the light was being provided by none other than the elderly bartender, but trailed off in shock when the old man flicked his wand at the torches lining the walls, bathing the room in light. Standing behind him was a girl who seemed inexplicably familiar. Lily tuned out of Remus' conversation with Tom as she struggled to remember where she had seen the girl before.
"Remember this, love?" asked Lily, gazing fondly at the photograph in her hand. James looked up at her briefly and mumbled distractedly; "Oh yeah, that was nice." Lily stared at him suspiciously, there was no way he could have even seen the picture properly from the distance he was at, especially taking his lousy eyesight and the fact that he was surrounded by a mountain of packing cases into consideration.
Dropping the picture of her first intentional kiss with James back into the box at her feet, Lily picked her way through the maze of packing cases, eventually managing to find a clear space near her husband. Careful not to topple any of the cartons, she crouched beside him and peered over his shoulder.
He was holding a framed picture of his family. Lily recognized him and Sirius standing right at the front, pulling silly faces. Just behind them stood his parents, they were holding hands and smiling at the camera. As she watched the photograph move, Harold Potter suddenly turned and pushed an unfamiliar teenage girl into the front, beside the clowning boys.
"Who's that James?" she asked, brow furrowed in confusion. He started, as if he had been too lost in his own memories to notice her beside him and replied hoarsely; "Elizabeth Louise Potter, my younger sister."
"Lily? I would really appreciate it if you would stop staring at me." The very fact that Elizabeth, whom she had never actually met, knew her name stunned Lily out of her reverie. She blushed and mumbled an awkward apology, before asking in wonder; "How do you know my name, Elizabeth?"
Elizabeth shuddered; "Please, call me Liz or Lizzie. Only my grandparents ever called me Elizabeth. As to how I know your name, that's because you were all that my brother ever talked about when I used to ask him to tell me stories about Hogwarts. James really loved you, you know?"
"I know," was all that Lily could say before the lump in her throat became too large for her to speak. The tears began seeping out from under her closed eyelids before she could stop them and she only vaguely registered Remus snap accusingly at Tom; "You haven't told Liz about the attack yet?"
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