Lily had only been home a week and she already missed hogwarts. She missed the castle with all of its twisting, moving staircases and the way you could always see the sky in the great hall. She missed turning a corner and seeing james standing there with that stupid grin on his face.

All she did at home was read and clean and cook. It was nice, but lily liked to keep busy. Keep challenged. Lately more than ever. With the war growing larger around her she just tried to forget there was a target on her back. Leaving the house made her nervous and afraid. She never went anywhere by herself. Especially after what happened with lucius. That wasn't the first time something like that had happened, it was just the most recent.

That was one reason she was such close friends with remus. He understood where she was coming from. He tried to hide his "condition" as best he could, but some people still found out. Even if they didn't know exactly what was happening with him, the fact that he was quiet and covered in scars from head to toe made him a victim enough.

He had never actually told lily, but he knew that she knew. She had figured it out by third year. She had her suspicions first and second, but she didn't want to jump to conclusions. Lily was honestly just amazed how well he handled it. She didn't think she could live like that once a month and still live a somewhat normal life, happy with friends.

"Lily?" her mother knocked on her door

"Yeah?"

Her mother opened the door, putting in an earing.

"Well, don't you look fancy." lily observed. Her mother did indeed look nice. She was wearing a casual dress with her hair pulled back. Considering her usual attire of just jeans a t-shirt and her hair down this was unusual.

"What's the occasion?"

"Well, that's what i came up here to tell you," she finished putting in her other earring and brushed back a stray piece of hair "your father and i are going out tonight. I know you cook pretty much every night so i left you some money on the counter to order in. you'll probably be asleep by the time we get back so i just wanted to say goodnight now." she walked over and gave lily a loud kiss on the forehead.

"Well you kids have fun and don't do anything i wouldn't do." she gave her mother a hug

"No promises." her mother winked at her as she shut the door.

Lily read her book for a few more minutes before sliding off her bed and walking out of her room. She didn't know what she was planning to do but quidditch through the ages suddenly wasn't as interesting the fourth time through. Lily was a big quidditch fan. She knew all the rules, all the famous teams. She could never quite keep up with all the individual players but she at least knew what seekers played for what teams. People always assumed she wasn't a quidditch fan, for whatever reason, but she was never late for a match at hogwarts and she definitely yelled herself hoarse with the rest of them.

It was a massive kick in the arse whenever slytherin won, especially because it inspired them to act even worse than usual. They were even more confident in their poor treatment of pretty much every other house. Not all slytherins were horrible, but most of them lived up to the stereotype.

Lily wandered down to the kitchen in search of the money her mother had left. It was only seven o'clock and she wasn't really hungry yet, but she was bored. She opened the drawer by the fridge where they kept the takeout menus and fanned them out. She hated chinese and she wasn't in the mood for indian food. Guess that left good ol' pizza. She walked over to the dull yellow phone hung on the wall and picked up the receiver. She didn't even need to look at the menu, she knew the number by heart. Her mother always made her call it in.

"Hello, pizza palace, what can we get you?" the person on the other line greeted her

"Hi, can i get one medium pepperoni with extra cheese?"

"Delivery?"

"Yes please."

"What's your address?"

"Is jacob working today?" she asked

"Yes." whoever was on the other line sounded slightly confused as to what that had to do with her address.

"Can you just have him deliver it to lily evans? He knows my address"

"Sure. it'll be about twenty minutes."

"Okay, thanks." lily hung the phone up on the wall with the always satisfying clack. Jacob was the delivery boy that always showed up. The pizza palace wasn't exactly the biggest chain and they only had three or four delivery boys anyway. For the last couple years it was pretty much always jacob that brought the pizza. He knew their address like lily knew the phone number.

Lily ran back upstairs and grabbed her book, quickly returning downstairs to sit on the couch and wait for her pizza. She opened the book and just kind of stared at it, not actually comprehending what she read.

After what must have been ten minutes she threw the book down in frustration, not caring enough to actually continue reading. Instead she turned around so she was sitting sideways on the couch and stared at the pictures on the mantle of the fireplace.

There was the usual christmas card picture of the whole family sitting on the front steps of their house wearing ghastly sweaters. It had been taken when both lily and tuney- petunia- were only four and six. Lily's hair had been curly back then instead of wavy and it stuck up every which way. Her mother had tried to tame it but it was no use. Petunia's hair, however, hung blonde and neat in cute pigtails tied off with bows. Petunia and lily were hugging, wide smiles on both their faces. Back when they had been inseparable.

Next to it was an easter picture, taken years later when lily and petunia were nine and eleven. Lily's hair had calmed since the last picture was taken, and petunia's was exactly the same. In this picture however, the girls stood further apart. Lily's smile remained the same but petunia's was smaller and slightly forced. That was the year lily's magic had demanded her attention. That was the year Petunia had started to grow jealous.

There was another picture from a family vacation to the beach, taken only last year. Lily and petunia stood separated by both their parents. Petunia had refused to stand next to her. Lily's smile was small, she had been afraid being out in public with the war building around her, she just hadn't told her parents. She didn't want them to worry. They still had no idea. Petunia had no smile in the picture, except her reason was only that she was still jealous of her sister who got all the attention.

The doorbell interrupted lily's depressing thoughts and she hurriedly slid off the couch and ran to grab the money off the counter before she went to open the door. She smiled genuinely

"Hey, jacob! Good to see you."

"Oi, Lily! Good to see you too! It's been forever!"

"Yeah it has been," she agreed, handing him the money "how have you been?"

"Oh good, the usual. How's that boarding school of yours?" he handed her the pizza.

"It's school, you know. How's debby?" debby was jacob's girlfriend. They had been going out ever since lily had known jacob.

"Well… we broke up… last month."

"Oh, that sucks! You guys have been together forever. Why did you guys break up? If you don't mind me asking." she added, afraid she had been too insensitive

"It just didn't work out. There was… somebody else."

"For her or for you?" lily didn't want to pry but she was curious

"For me." he answered quietly

"Oh. who? Anyone i know?" he took a pause

"Yeah, actually…"

"Well," she prompted "who is it?"

"...you." lily was caught off guard.

"Me?" she must have heard wrong

"Yeah… i know it's crazy but i've had a crush on you forever, lil," lil? "Why do you think i'm always the one delivering your pizza?"

"Oh. well, i'm sorry you feel that way." i'm sorry you feel that way? Why did she say that?

"What, you got a boyfriend or something?" he asked in what must have been an attempt at lightheartedness

"Yeah, actually."

"Well, i can't say i'm surprised."

"You can't?"

"Yeah," he looked down, his face red "i'm surprised you didn't have one sooner. I mean, look at you." lily's face also turned red

"Listen, jacob-"

"I should go." he cut her off "i have more pizzas to deliver."

"Okay, jacob." she tried to give him a smile but he looked so sad. She closed the door and walked into the kitchen, setting her pizza down on the counter. That was something she didn't see coming. All she wanted was pizza and instead she got a confession of love. Bloody hell.