Theme 38: Abandoned
Rating: K
That Fuzzy Place
"….Yeah sounds like fun!" Lily called one last time waving to her friends as they vanished with their parents. She swallowed that lump that had been in her throat since that morning.
She shook her head and blinked hard, she'd figure this out, she was a smart girl, and she'd get to the leaky cauldron somehow…
Since that spring break, Lily hadn't heard any word from her 'family' her sister was really was all she had left. Petunia didn't particularly approve of Lily's life style. Now the confused red head was a bit worried about her sister's last words. ' You can rot at that school all summer for all I care' they were now starting to churn sourly in her gut.
Lily was very much alone and abandoned in the wizarding world. She bit her lip looking at the last few stragglers, maybe….she could stay at the platform? Or convince the driver of the train to take her back to school? Dumbledore surely wouldn't mind, and she wouldn't hurt anyone…she'd just stay in the library!
No, she knew that wouldn't work. She rubbed her arm nervously and picked up the handle of her trunk, prepared to somehow find her way back to the muggle entrance of the Leaky Cauldron…it's just last time she entered that way she was eleven and it was so long ago…
Taking a deep breath she marched off in the direction of the portal wall. She was not going to cry; no she was going to set her jaw and-
" Lily?" she turned quickly, thanking someone up above in her head. Just a few more secure minutes with a classmate was all she needed really, then she'd be ready to get on her journey…really.
Who confronted her was not who she particularly wanted to see. Lily really didn't want them to know about her situation…
" Oh, Potter. Did you need something?" she asked nervously. She played over her words, trying to detect if she'd given anything away in that tiny sentence.
" No, but you might," he smiled leaning on a nearby pillar. She found herself wondering if he was incapable of supporting himself, considering he was always leaning on things, walls, furniture, people…
" –You see," great, she'd missed what he'd been saying.
" Sorry what? My mind wandered for a second…" she admitted tiredly, frowning at him. He grinned broader, if that was possible for a Potter.
" I was saying, I've already nicked home and wanted to see if there were still any slugs around worth talking to. It's just my luck you're still here," he smiled charmingly. She now noticed his robes were not the standard black of all year, but a mossy brown that matched his eyes disturbingly well. He'd already gone home…he obviously had modes of transport…Lily's heart's pumping actions started pumping a bit faster. Maybe, just maybe he could show her to the Leaky Cauldron.
" Oh, yeah…" she trailed off, her mind still reeling at her one ray of light shining from none other then James Potter's brilliant smile. Now all she had to do was maybe flirt with him a bit and get what she wanted…yes…that was her new plan. She'd call it…plan flirt-with-Potter-to-get–to-the-leaky-cauldron (plan FWPTGTTLC for short).
" –Lily," bugger she'd gone off to that place in her head again.
" Sorry I'm a bit distracted today, I've missed what you said again," she looked up and quickly smiled bashfully, hoping he'd get all flustered and offer her a portkey or something. Instead, he just looked curiously intrigued at her for a moment.
" I said…why are you still here anyways?" he slowly enunciated for her. She laughed nervously again. On the inside, she was wishing to kick him in the shins for treating her like such a dunce.
" Oh, you know…muggles…never on time," she exaggerated a shrug and Potter blinked hugely, looking a bit like a turtle as he did it.
" Right…muggles…" he frowned and scuffed his shoe against the pavement. No! She couldn't have him losing interest now! She quickly grabbed his arm and smiled widely. When he looked back at her, she was not expecting the terrified gaze he newly sported.
" Lily?" he whispered looking rather scared indeed. Lily began to wonder if maybe a werewolf, or a dementor, or a vampire was behind her. Or maybe it was something even more terrible! She began to run over her emergency-procedures-list-for-when-faced-with-a-large-beastie, in her head. " Lily, what's going on?" James' words finally cut off one of her thoughts and her eyes trained back onto his.
" Nothing! Everything's smashing!" she grinned, wilting on the inside, everything's smashing?
" Lily you're acting like a nutter. Either tell me what's wrong…or who are you, and what've you done with Lily?" he said very seriously before gripping her shoulders securely. As her mind should have gone into panic, that Potter, her one true loathsome foe was finding out her secret, it instead strayed. She found his hands oddly warm through her sleeves and she tried to remember a time before if he was that warm, was she making him warm? Was he sweaty too? Was it a good sweaty or a gross sweaty? Would he smell? Would her robes smell?
" –rifting off!" he shook her gently and she gulped looking back into his now very concerned eyes.
" Oh, right sorry, did it again," she mumbled ashamed of herself. She tried to look somewhere other then his face but he was just so…right there. At least he didn't have bad breath or anything…she began to wonder if he'd brushed his teeth on the train-
" WHAT'S GOING ON?" he shouted startling her from that fuzzy place her brain seemed to be so fond of slipping off too. She frowned.
" Nothing, nothing's going on!" she hissed back looking around…but they were the only ones left. Her stomach gave a lurch and she felt a bit shakier as she looked back at him fearfully.
" Why are you still here then? Your parents should be here, do you need me to get my parents to floo them or something?" he asked and Lily crumpled at hearing him say 'your parents'. She shook her head, finally having it sink in.
They were gone, her only family was gone, it was just her now, and she didn't know how to be by herself yet, she wasn't ready yet! She barely noticed she was babbling all this tearily to James.
" You mean…" he was very pale now as he realized what she was blubbering about.
" DEAD!" she shrieked collapsing into his now very comforting arms. She just wanted to curl up there for the rest of the summer and forget about everything.
" Oh…Lily…" he murmured into her hair. He gathered her trunk and looped something about her neck. She frowned in a daze suddenly, but before she could think her hand was wrapped tightly around a pendant of some sort and she was soaring through the air.
She landed with a solid thunk beside her trunk and stumbled into Potter's warm body. He embraced her quickly.
" It's okay," he whispered to her as she curiously peered over his shoulder taking in the warm, comforting foyer of some family residence.
" MUM? I brought a girl! Hope you don't mind! She's staying for the summer!" Lily felt very faint as she stared at her nemesis turned hero and contemplated a summer, with the Potters.