Before the Boy Who Lived
A/N: Look at that, I updated again already! I'm improving. Lol. Enjoy the faster updates while you can, because I'm going to be really busy again soon. I'll try to update a lot before then, so we'll see how that goes. Read on.
Dedications: Thanks to Sweettarts and HarryPotterFreak4Lyf for being my only reviewers for the last chapter. Hope you like the update!
Disclaimer: Don't own it. Wish I did, but I don't.
Chapter 29: Those Nights
"I remember when
We used to laugh about nothing at all
It was better than going mad
From trying to solve all the problems we're going through
Forget 'em all
Cause on those nights we would stand and never fall
Together we faced it all
Remember when we'd
Stayed up late in the dark all night
In a dark room lit by the TV light
Through all those hard times in my life
Those nights kept me alive
We'd listen to the radio play all night
Didn't want to go home to another fight
Through all those hard times in my life
Those nights kept me alive."
(Those Nights, Skillet)
After we collected Adara, Dad agreed to let us roam around Diagon Alley for a bit, catching up and popping in and out of the many stores to see everything the crowded street had to offer. We saw a few of our classmates from Hogwarts, and extended a friendly greeting, and Dad even let us get some more ice cream. Yum.
In any case, by the time we finally left the Leaky Cauldron it was late afternoon, and by the end of the long car ride home, the sun was all ready beginning to set in the sky, painting the sky a brilliant blend of pinks, oranges and yellows.
"Brilliant!" Adara chimed, pressing her nose against the car window as we drove past the lake, which was currently shimmering luminously in the sunlight of early twilight, "Can we go swimming?"
"If you want," I confirmed, grinning, "You can borrow one of my swim suits."
"Awesome. Hey what's that?"
"A cinema," I explained with laughter in my voice. It was like showing Dad around Diagon Alley all over again, only this time, I was trying to explain the inner workings of the Muggle world to someone who had lived underneath Diagon Alley nearly all her life.
Needless to say, once I told her what a cinema actually was, Adara was exceedingly eager to visit one. "Can we go see a…what was it you said it was…a movie? Can we see one tomorrow, Lily?" Adara asked in a childishly hyper voice.
"Can we, Dad?" I inquired, shooting the best puppy dog look I could muster in Dad's direction.
He caught my eye and sighed theatrically. "Well, I suppose…if you must."
"Yay!" Adara and I squealed at the same time, sending us each into a fit of laughs. Through my tears of laughter, I believe I caught a glimpse of Dad shaking his head and muttering to himself, "Teenage girls…" Humph.
Sooner than not, the car was pulling around the corner and up the driveway to the house, making me smile fondly. Home sweet home. Adara's jaw positively hit the ground when she looked up and saw the house sitting before us. "You live here?" she asked in an awed tone when she finally found her voice, "Merlin, Lily you've got your own mansion!"
Dad chuckled to himself as he stretched and got out of the car. "You should have seen our old house," he commented to Adara, who I'm not sure was listening because she was still staring at our house in shock, "If this is a mansion that was a castle."
"It's not much," I added, quoting Adara from earlier that day, "but its home."
She shot me a look and I grinned cheekily at her. Dad stretched a bit more and opened the backdoor of the car so that the pair of us could get out. "I'm going to head on in, girls," he notified us, "I should probably make sure Petunia and Laney haven't killed each other yet. Then I think I'll get dinner started. Spaghetti ok with you, Adara?"
"Oh…um, yeah," she replied in a dazed manner, shaking her head a bit, "That sounds great, Mr. Evans!"
"All righty then," he replied with a nod, "Lily, you'll help Adara with her things and show her to the guest room, right, love?"
"Yes to the first, no to the second."
Adara and Dad both raised their eyebrows at me at the exact same time. Spooky.
"No to the second because she's sleeping in my room with me, remember, Dad?" I reminded him.
He rolled his eyes and began walking toward the house. "Whatever floats your boat, Lily," he called over his shoulder before walking through the door. I could almost hear the grin in his voice.
"Well then," Adara started after a moment of silence, "are we going to go in anytime soon or are you trying to tactfully tell me that you generally sleep in your Dad's car?"
Smiling wryly, I retorted, "Of course, your majesty, how foolish of me! Let me keep you waiting no longer; I will show you to your suite!"
With an attempt at regalality, Adara played along by saying, "Finally! Honestly, there's no such thing as good help these days. Now fetch my bags right away and take them to my room, Jeeves."
"Don't push it."
Sticking her tongue out in response, Adara clambered over me and darted out of the car, spinning around a few times before falling over on my lawn. Wow. I chuckled to myself under my breath at my friend's randomness and slipped out of the car, swinging the door shut behind me. As I slowly made my way around to the back of the car to get Adara's trunk, Adara sighed painfully. I ignored her. She did it again.
When I ignored her for the second time, she moaned impatiently, "Lileeeeee! Must you take so long? Do you enjoy torturing me?"
"What happens if I say yes?" I joked.
Adara moaned and covered her eyes with her arm, still lying on her back in the grass. Then she decided that the best strategy would be to periodically moan, "Lileeeeee…" over and over again. She was right. It did make me go faster, if only to stop her moaning.
"C'mon," I insisted, pulling her trunk behind me as I walked over to her and held a hand down to her to help her up, "Gosh, Adara, why do you have to keep me waiting for so long?"
She chortled and followed me inside the house. I put her trunk down by the door and took a seat on the bottom step, a bit tired from walking all day. Adara moved around the foyer in amazement, examining every little thing very carefully, as if it would break if she even breathed on it. "Would you like a tour?" I invited politely.
"Definitely," she answered with enthusiasm.
"Well, our first stop is the living room," I began as we walked into the next room, gesturing around at its pale yellow walls, the furniture, the numerous bookcases, and anything else that happened to be lying around.
"What's that?" Adara asked inquisitively.
"Oh that?" I replied in conversational tone, "That's just the telly."
I flipped it on and Adara jumped about a foot in the air, as if she expected it to explode. As it came to life and pictures began flickering across the screen, apparently that of a sitcom of some sort, Adara bravely stepped closer to it, leaning down to examine it more closely.
"You mean you have little people living in there?" she asked, completely clueless, "isn't that, you know…illegal, or something?" I fought the urge to laugh, knowing that she had honestly never seen one before and that it was a perfectly valid question.
"No, not exactly. You see," I explained simply, "It's like those movies I was telling you about earlier. You can even watch movies on the telly, if you want to. It's sort of like a bunch of photographs playing in a sequence, and they tell a story."
"Ah," Adara offered, tapping the screen experimentally "Sounds absolutely brilliant."
I grinned at her curiosity. "It is. You're taking Muggle Studies this year, right?"
"I wasn't planning on it…"
"Well you are now," I said firmly, "I won't always be around to tell you about Muggle stuff. Besides, it'll be fun, I'm taking it too."
"Whatever you say," she said in a cheerfully accepting way, straightening up, "Let's have a look at the rest of the house."
So, I guided her around the house, pausing rather often to explain what something was and how it worked. We decided along the way to drop her trunk off in my room, which Adara apparently liked a lot, judging by the number and pitch of the incoherent squeals she let out upon seeing it. Finally, we ended up in the kitchen, where Dad was idly standing by the stove, cooking dinner, and a very irritated Laney sat at the table, swinging her legs and muttering darkly, about what I suspected to be Petunia under her breath.
"Hullo girls," Dad greeted as he stirred the spaghetti sauce that he was attempting to cook based on an old family recipe, "What have you been up to?"
"Hey, Dad," I replied, taking a seat at the table, Adara sitting down next to me, "I was just giving Adara a tour of the house."
"You're house is wonderful, Mr. Evans," Adara complimented brightly, making Dad beam.
"Thanks, Adara. We do try, don't we girls?"
All he got in response was an annoyed grunt from Laney and a distracted, "Whatever you say Dad" from me, causing him to roll his eyes and return his focus to dinner, which was probably for the best. Things didn't turn out to well when Dad didn't pay attention to what he was cooking. Shudder.
After a moment of comfortable silence, Adara knocked me in the shoulder and gestured at Laney, who seemed to be plotting something rather ominous, and asked, "Who's the munchkin?"
Laney looked up, looking offended. "I'm not short!" she tittered, despite the fact that she clearly was. Very much so.
Adara grinned pleasantly. "Of course you're not. You know, you remind me of my little sisters. Feisty, and all that."
"Oh…well, thank you, I guess," Laney continued unsurely, looking a bit more relaxed as she twirled a strand of dark brown hair absentmindedly around her finger and studied Adara. I decided it would be best to introduce them.
"Sorry Dar, I didn't realize you hadn't had the pleasure of meeting my cousin," I started, sending a wink at Laney, "This is Laney, she's my cousin, but if you really want to get down to it, she's more like my little sister."
Laney beamed proudly at that comment, and Adara looked her over a bit, her amethyst eyes dancing with amusement. "What's up, Laney?" she greeted, turning to me and mentioning casually, "I can see the resemblance."
"Laney," I added, "this is Adara, she's my best friend from Hogwarts."
"Oh!" exclaimed Laney, getting excited at once, her whole face lighting up festively, "Does this mean you're a witch too?"
"It sure does," Adara answered. She looked around overdramatically, leaning in closer to Laney and whispering, "Can you keep a secret?"
"I think so," Laney whispered back, the emerald eyes that so closely resembled mine wide as saucers in anticipation of a new secret.
"Not only am I a witch, I'm a gypsy!" Adara declared with a theatrical flair, making me chuckle a bit. She had left out the bit that she was half-vampire, but that was probably for the best—Laney was probably still to young to understand. She'd only get frightened.
"Really?" my cousin inquired, looking fascinated, "A real gypsy?"
"Uh huh," she confirmed with a nod, "But it's a secret, so you can't tell anybody."
Laney nodded vigorously. "I won't."
"Pinky swear?" Adara prolonged playfully.
"Pinky swear!" Laney giggled.
I just sat there, watching the whole exchange, grinning like an idiot. It was just nice to see that two girls who were like sisters to me were getting along so well. But these Hallmark moments never last forever, and this particular moment was shattered when my unfortunately real sister came stomping down the stairs and into the kitchen, causing Laney and I to adopt matching scowls.
"Who's that?" Petunia asked rudely, taking in Adara's second hand, patched clothes and exotic appearance. Adara scowled and Petunia just looked down her nose at her as if she was part of an inferior species.
Trying to keep my temper in check for Dad's sake, who hated it when we fought; I replied through gritted teeth, "Her name's Adara, she's a friend of mine. From school."
Petunia's face grew stormy and she distributed a fierce glare evenly between Dad, Adara, and me. After a moment she turned to Dad and shouted shrilly, "More freaks! What, these two aren't enough for you? I can't believe you! How can you do this to me? You're ruining my life!"
Then with a disgusted sigh, Petunia spun around and stomped right back up the stairs and into her room, slamming the door as hard as she could behind her. Dad winced. Laney and I glared. Adara leaned back in her chair, putting her arms behind her head and offered with a smirk, "So that was Petunia."
Her comment broke me out of my angry trance and I grinned sheepishly, realizing that I had indeed complained about my sister to my friends quite a lot. "That was Petunia," I confirmed with a slight nod.
Thankfully, Petunia decided not to grace us with her presence during dinner. I wasn't sure I could handle anymore insults from her without getting into a screaming match. Not the best way to behave in the midst of company.
"That has got to be the best dinner I've had in ages, Mr. E!" Adara proclaimed as we were finishing our desert of creamy bowls of orange sherbet.
"Thank you, Adara," Dad emphasized as he got up to clear the table, "it's nice to know that somebody appreciates my good cooking."
As he turned his back on us to put the bowls and silverware in the sink, Laney and I made faces and wild gestures at Dad, trying to illustrate how bad his cooking could really be. Adara bit her lip, trying to hold back laughter.
"I saw that!" Dad exclaimed making Laney jump in surprise and my jaw hit the floor, simultaneously causing Adara to begin laughing uncontrollably at our anguish.
"I swear, he has eyes in the back of his head," I muttered to my friend and my cousin as we strolled up the stairs to my room a moment later, Adara still wiping tears of mirth from her eyes.
"I heard that!" Dad's voice called from the kitchen.
I smacked a hand to my forehead before shouting back to his amusement, "And an extra set of ears, as well!"
Later that night, Adara and I were lying around my room in our pajamas, listening to the radio, sharing secrets, and pigging out on junk food in true sleepover fashion.
"Oh, I love this song!" I exclaimed as 'Can't Buy Me Love' began drifting out of my radio's speakers.
Adara jumped up and extended a hand in my direction. "May I have this dance, milady?"
Having trouble keeping a straight face, I replied, "Of course," jumping to my feet and doing a crazy dance we had made up on the spot which ended in the pair of us collapsing in a fit of giggles on my bed.
"Oh, this is the most fun I've ever had," Adara declared suddenly, clutching a fluffy pillow against her chest.
"Me too," I agreed decidedly.
"You know…" Adara began hesitantly, "I've never really done anything like this before."
I propped myself up on my arm and looked over at Adara with wide eyes. "What do you mean? That you've never had a sleepover before?" My eyes grew wider as a very faint blush tinged Adara's cheeks and she confirmed my suspicions.
With a squeal, I threw my arms around a very bewildered Adara in a tight hug and exclaimed, "Oh, your very first sleepover! This is marvelous!"
"Uh, I'm glad you're happy for me and all Lillers," Adara began in a strangled voice, "But it would be greatly appreciated if you'd give me a bit of oxygen."
Laughing, I disentangled myself from her and let her breathe. Half a second later, I looked out the window and gasped loudly, making Adara jump and look around in surprise. "What?!" she yelped.
"It's tomorrow!"
Adara rolled her eyes at me, muttering, "Okay, now you're going to get it," before fiercely attacking me with a pillow. With a squeak, I grabbed a pillow of my own and hit her back, and thus began a pillow fight fit for the history books.
The next morning, Adara and I were planning on sleeping in a bit. Not too much to ask for, right? Just catching up on our sleep a bit, and then we would go down to the lake, and maybe drop by the cinema, or whatever else we felt like doing. Laney, on the other hand, had other plans.
"Wakey, wakey sleepy heads!" she bellowed as she jumped on top of me, knocking the air from my lungs.
Adara groaned and rolled onto her stomach, mumbling something along the lines of, "No, eat Lily, she tastes better…" before burying her face in her pillow and continuing on with her resolute snoring. How pleasant.
"Laney!" I hissed, clutching my aching ribs with one hand and shoving my cousin off my bed with the other, "Are you crazy? What time is it?"
She grinned innocently. "Not too early…"
I narrowed my eyes at her, prodding, "Meaning?"
"Eight-thirty."
"Get out!" I moaned, dropping my head onto my pillow and pulling my covers up over my head. Laney sighed as if in terrible pain.
"Come on Lily I want to go to the lake—"
"So go!" I whined in an attempt to get her to leave the room so I could go back to sleep.
"—BUT Uncle Chris says I can't go unless you go with me."
"Then I guess you're not going, because I wouldn't get out of this bed right now if you paid me two million dollars."
"So it comes to this, does it?" she asked in exasperation.
"That it does…" I trailed off, my eyes slowly fluttering shut as I yawned.
Suddenly the room was filled to the brim with early morning sunlight, making Adara and I grumble and moan in protest. Laney giggled. "It's nice to know you like to laugh at our pain, Munchkin," Adara sighed conversationally, propping herself up on one arm.
I didn't even have to pull my head out from under my covers to know that Laney was rolling her eyes at us. I heard her retreating footsteps as she replied, "Just get up. I'll be waiting in the living room."
The door snapped shut with a click and Adara and I groaned in unison, completely exhausted. "I suppose we have to get up then?" Adara's voice proposed from the floor next to my bed.
I snorted. "No! Laney can wait a little bit longer…"
"I like the way you think, Lillers," Adara agreed contentedly.
As it was, we wouldn't have been able to get any more sleep no matter how hard we tried—some early birds who had already gotten to the lake had a radio blaring as loud as it would go the very moment we closed our eyes. So, grudgingly, after getting changed into bathing suits and grabbing a quick bowl of cereal for breakfast, Adara and I trudged blearily down to the lake with an irritatingly enthusiastic Laney leading the way.
"Well, aren't you guys gonna swim?" Laney asked curiously as Adara and I laid our towels on the grass and collapsed on them, closing our eyes with matching sighs of tiredness.
"I think I'm gonna work on my tan…" I mumbled, covering my eyes with my arm and hoping to fall asleep for at least a few moments.
Laney laughed, making one last jab at me by teasing, "You mean your sun burn? The day you tan is the day pigs fly."
With that, Laney laughed and ran off to join some friends she had spotted on the other side of the lake, leaving Adara and me to our rest. Finally. Sigh. Perhaps now I can get some sle—
ARGH!
Just at that moment, a rather large barn owl decided it would be a good idea to land on my face, squawking loudly. "Is it too much to ask to just want to get five minutes of sleep?!" I shrieked, sitting bolt upright and causing the owl to fall into my lap and look up at me in terror. The few people that were at the lake, including Adara and Laney, shot me bewildered looks, apparently concerned for my sanity.
Sighing, I looked down at the bird in my lap and raised an eyebrow, looking for a bit of sympathy. It stared up at me with wide amber eyes and hooted softly before shoving its leg in my direction. There was a crumpled piece of parchment tied to its leg.
Grumbling to myself and plotting to kill whoever had decided to send me this inconvenient letter and make me look like a crazy person this early in the morning, I slowly untied the parchment from its leg. Upon removing the letter, the owl hurriedly flew off without a second look in my direction.
Pulling a stray feather from my hair, I unraveled the parchment and my eyes began to dart across the page, barely noticing the photograph that had fallen out of it and into my lap.
Evans—
How's your summer been? Dreaming about yours truly? SIRIUS! Go away! I'm trying to write to Evans! I can see that, and what a darling letter it is. (Makes kissing noises)Oh come on! Did you really have to write that? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Err…sorry about that, Evans. He's gone now. I think. The git hasn't given me a moment's peace since he arrived. Anyway…I, well, that's to say we, you know, Peter, Sirius, and me thought we should write to let you know how the research was coming along. We're really doing brilliantly! I sent you a picture, so you can see. Sirius has gotten the closest, so far—damn straight!—SIRIUS! Just messing with you mate. Hey Evans! Would you just stop! Okay, okay fine! I can see when I'm not wanted…
So…yeah. Thanks for the help you've been giving us; I don't think we could have even gotten this far without you. Maybe with a little more help we can really get the hang of it. Oh, and that was the other thing…you're welcome to come to my house, if you want…Sirius and Peter are here, and we could all work on the research some more, or something. Aww, how cute! SIRIUS!
—Potter and Black!
"What in the name of Merlin is that?"
Adara's incredulous exclamation broke me out of my slightly confused thoughts, and I looked up to see her holding the photograph Potter must have been talking about in her hands, her eyes wide in shock. "Oh my God, is that Black?"
Hurriedly, I snatched the photograph out of her hands, partly because I didn't want her to know that I was involved in helping the Marauders illegally become Animagi, and partly because I was rather curious to see it for myself. The second I saw it, I burst out laughing.
Something massive and covered in black fur that I knew to be Sirius Black was grinning proudly and waving while a stricken looking Peter was sporting a long, worm-like tail and occasionally glancing bashfully up at me. Tears of mirth were beginning to role down my cheeks when suddenly James burst into the picture wobbling around unsteadily due to the added weight of the magnificent antlers protruding from his unruly black hair, causing me to laugh even harder, if that was possible.
After seeing my reaction, Adara leaned over to get another look at the picture and we both began to cackle hysterically as James crashed into Sirius, causing a domino effect that ended with all the boys in a tangled heap, still waving at us, albeit a bit more wearily. It was so funny that we didn't even notice the strange looks we were getting from the other lake-goers around us.
"What do you think they could have possibly been doing?" Adara asked, breathless from laughing. I shrugged, smiling at the picture. It was brilliant! They were really doing it…now if only they would tell me why they were doing it.
"Lily? Adara?"
Adara and I looked up at the sound of our names, smiling in surprise as we saw who it was. "Remus!" we exclaimed together.
"What are you doing here?" I asked after giving him a quick, friendly hug. I have to admit that I was curious as to why Remus Lupin would be hanging out in a Muggle town.
Remus took a seat on the grass next to us and ran a hand through his hair as he replied, "I'm visiting my aunt. I dunno if I ever told you before, but my mum's a Muggleborn, and my aunt, who's just a Muggle, lives on the other side of the woods there. Aunt Susie and Mum are pretty close and they haven't seen each other in a while, so, we decided to drop by for a visit. Then my cousins woke me up at the crack of dawn and dragged me down here."
Adara laughed, nodding her head toward Laney and added, "We're in pretty much the same boat."
"Seriously!" I exclaimed, "All we wanted to do was get a little bit of sleep—Adara's staying at my house until school starts, by the way, I live just up that hill there—but no, we weren't allowed to. Laney yanks us out of bed so she can go swimming, and then just when I'm about to fall asleep right here, Potter's owl decides to use my face as a landing strip!"
Adara laughed at the memory of it and I scowled. Remus was clearly trying not to laugh as he raised an eyebrow and asked, "You mean James' owl?"
"Who else?" I asked tiredly, falling back against the grass and putting my arms behind my head.
Remus grinned. "What did he want?"
"He sent us this picture," Adara supplied for me, picking up the photograph from where it had fallen between us, "Isn't it hilarious?"
Looking at the picture interestedly, Remus began to laugh. "And just what is Sirius supposed to be?"
"Bigfoot wouldn't happen to be his idol, would he? Is he perchance, relateted to any yeties or Abominable Sonowmen?" Adara guessed with a smirk.
I rolled my eyes and pointed out, "Don't you just love James' antlers?"
The three of us began laughing again as we watched James, Sirius and Peter crash into each other and end up in a tangled heap on the ground once more. "How'd they manage that, do you think?" Remus pondered to himself.
Thinking quickly, I shrugged and answered, "Probably a prank gone awry."
Remus smiled fondly at the photo. "Probably," he agreed.
"Ooh la, la, what's this?" Adara exclaimed, noticing the actual letter for the first time and snatching it from my grasp. My eyes widened and I dived at her, making to seize the letter. She held it above my head tauntingly.
"C'mon, Dar, give that back!" I pleaded, making desperate swipes at the letter.
She laughed as she caught a glance at the letter, teasing, "Oh, what have we here? 'You can come to my house, if you want.' Hmmm, seems a bit suspicious to me, does it not, Remus, my lad?"
Smirking a bit, Remus replied gravely, "Oh yes, very suspicious indeed."
I blushed crimson and grabbed the letter from her before she could read anymore, and she and Remus just laughed at my expense. I didn't want them to read anything about the "research", because a) Potter and Black had told me multiple times that Remus, for some reason, was not to know about it until we had finished, b) Adara would never let me live it down that I helped the Marauders do something against the rules, and c) It was illegal! They couldn't know I was doing something illegal!
Thankfully, the pair took my blush of guilt as a blush of embarrassment over the idea that James had invited me to his house, which I could handle. Smiling kindly, Remus said, "Really though, Lily, you should go. I'm sure James and Sirius wouldn't mind if Adara went too—I'm going over next week. We could all go together."
"No thank you!" Adara and I replied together with similar tones of finality.
Remus just laughed and shook his head. "Oh, they'll be simply heartbroken when I tell them," he teased.
After that, Remus convinced Adara and me to actually get in the water, seeing as we were at a lake. Sigh. Something tells me that the cosmos really did not want me to be getting any sleep.
A/N: Hey everybody. I probably could have gotten this up last night and I'm sorry I didn't, but I had just gotten home from seeing…Wicked!! And oh my God, it was so good: D (By the way the sleepover scene was influenced by one like it in Wicked, if anyone cares or sort of recognizes it. Couldn't resist.) Anyway, I've already started the next chapter and with any luck I should be able to get it up in a few days. I'm thinking of a word that starts with an 'r'…and it ends with an 'eview.' Wink. Humor me, will you? Till next time…
Shannon
