AN: J.K. Rowling owns the Potter universe
Lily stormed to her room, trying to stem her angry tears. Christmas had been horrible this year. Not only was Severus too busy to call or visit or meet her in the park these holidays, Petunia had taken it upon herself to make Lily's life miserable. Lily touched her cheek gingerly. Petunia had crossed all limits! Not only had she ignored Lily on Christmas, fawning over her walrus of a boyfriend. She slapped Lily for embarrassing her in front of Vernon by calling her 'Tuney'. Vernon or Vermin, according to Petunia was a proper man, with proper mannerisms. He didn't believe in silly nicknames, Lily should have been careful. Lily plopped down on her bed, finally dissolving to tears. There was a sudden tap on her window.
Lily cursed, willing the intruder to go away, but the tapping continued. "Go away" she muttered looking at the window and noticed a tawny owl she hadn't seen before. Rolling her eyes, Lily got out of bed and opened the window. The owl dropped a tiny box and a letter on her bed and perched itself on her dresser near Athena's (Lily's owl) cage. Lily offered the bird some owl treat and water and stroked its head gently. "Well, Athena is out delivering gifts to friends. I am sorry I am such a surly company today. Anyway, you can rest here for a while." The owl hooted softly before ducking its head under a wing and sleeping.
Lily walked to her bed and pulled the box on her lap. She gasped at the beautiful gift. It was a silver chain with a Lily pendant of moonstone set in silver. She gingerly touched the pendant before putting it on. She looked at the letter; it was addressed to her and sealed in purpled wax shaped as the letter M. Lily smiled for the first time since she got home. A letter from a marauder, she hoped Prongs had written to her finally.
Dear Lily,
Merry Christmas! I hope you like your present. It isn't much, but when I saw it I knew it belonged to you. Forgive me for eavesdropping but I was passing by your compartment on the train when I overheard you talk about a certain letter that you weren't supposed to receive. I am sorry for what it said. It's not fair of me to write to you and burden you with my worries without shouldering the burden of your fears. A one sided relationship is a lonely relationship because I can keep sending letters to you but how will you ever respond back? Maybe that is one the many reasons why I never posted a letter to you.
I need you to understand that the letter was never meant to reach you, it's just s stroke of luck that it did. I know your brilliant, curious mind wants to know me. I maybe wrong and you might not wish to know me at all, after all we all pretend in front of others. I am a master at keeping up pretences, maybe you are one too. We all have our secrets. You can ignore this letter if you are not curious at all. But if you are curious please forget the last letter. It was not supposed to reach you. I would never force my friendship on you. I write this now to ask you forget the whole incidence.
I apologise again for burdening you with my problems. I assure you that you will never receive another letter from me. It is not quite right to keep up this correspondence, because I will always keep my identity secret but you don't have a secret identity. It won't be a relationship of equals.
I know the reasons sound lame. But I assure you, if you knew who I really am, you would probably not wish to talk to me or see my face ever again. I don't think I will be able to deal with your hatred.
Merry Christmas once again!
Goodbye.
Yours forever
Prongs
Lily frowned, she agreed the reasons were lame but was awed by Prongs' sense of fairness. Maybe he was a Hufflepuff; Lily understood that he had to keep his identity secret and thus could not correspond regularly with her. She appreciated his efforts. Without really thinking, Lily got to her desk and pulled a parchment to herself. After being satisfied with her letter, she picked up a Lily from the bouquet on her desk and stuck it with the letter before rolling it up. She smiled fondly at the bouquet, Severus had gifted this to her on her last birthday, the Lilies were all magically conjured and charmed with an everlasting charm. This he said was how he saw Lily, always charming and alive. Turning to her dresser, she prodded the owl awake. The tawny bird hooted indignantly. "Look, I am sorry, but I need you to take this letter back. Not now, you can rest for a bit, I will leave the window open. You can fly off later" The tawny bird gave Lily a withering look before sticking its leg out. Lily smiled slightly at the bird before sitting by her window. Looking down Lily spied Severus' frame as he made his way to her home. She waved at him and then ran down the stairs, picking his present from the table before heading out.
Severus was waiting for Lily on the porch. Dressed in a long black coat and trousers, his hair tied back, he almost looked aristocratic, not the way Black did but then, not all of them could look that good. Severus smiled at Lily before offering his hand to her. They walked silently, arms linked, looking at the twinkling Christmas lights on all the houses on the way to their park. Even the park was decorated with lights; Lily sank on a bench with Severus next to her. She turned to look at him, he looked fine. No bruise marks this time, he looked almost happy before he frowned as he studied her face. Pushing her hair out of her face, he cupped her cheek and ran his gloved thumb on the now purple bruise on her cheek; Petunia's Christmas gift. Lily winced in pain. Severus withdrew his hand immediately.
"Lily?" He asked, his calm voice laced with deep anger, "Who did this to you?"
"It's nothing Sev, really. I am fine." She replied in a false cheery voice, "Let's exchange our presents, shall we?"
"But Lily! Wh-"
"Can't we drop it Sev?" She looked at him pleadingly, "Please? I don't want to talk about it."
Severus' eyes hardened, "Petunia." He spat the name out angrily.
"She is still my sister, Severus." He snorted.
"Severus." Lily said warningly "Let this go. I am done with her. This is the last time she did what she could to me. She would receive a good bat bogey hex if she does it again."
Severus closed his eyes. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he nodded. He passed Lily her present nudging her shoulder to open it. Lily opened the thin box to find a silver charm bracelet in it. It had a Lily flower; she beamed at him and pulled him a tight hug. "It's beautiful." She whispered in his ear before breaking apart. Severus beamed at her, "I am glad you like it. It's charmed. It will add more charms as soon as you wear it, representing everything that is dear to you. Do you want me to put it on for you?" Lily pushed her left wrist forward to Severus.
As soon as the bracelet touched her wrist, silver mist covered the bracelet, clearing up a few minutes later. Lily gasped at the number of charms added. There was a muffin which represented her mother who worked as a baker. There was a car representing her father who was a cars salesman. There was a book, a cauldron and a wand; she knew they stood for her love for books, magic and potions. There was a quaffle and a beater's bat representing Alice and Marlene. To Lily and Severus' dismay, there was one shaped like a Petunia. Followed by a high heeled shoe that Lily swore was for Mary. The one that Lily liked the most was of a swing, she knew this was Severus', they laughed softly at the symbolism. Curiously enough, there were two charms that made no sense to her. One was the shape of a coin, with dents on its surface and the other was the shape of antlers. Lily looked at Severus who looked just as confused. He touched the coin and frowned, before looking away.
Lily knew Severus was angry, but she didn't know why. "Sev?" He didn't reply. She touched his shoulder, "Sev? What is it? Do you know what the coin charm means?"
"You mean you don't know what it means?" he scoffed "Why do you care about him so much?" He asked angrily.
"Who do I care about so much?"
"Lupin!" He hissed, his eyes blazing with hatred.
"You think this charm represents Remus? Why would he be a corroded coin?" Lily wondered aloud
"It's not a corroded coin." Severus said with a cruel look on his face "It's the full moon. I told you he is a werewolf, why do you care about a half breed like him?"
Lily's eyes blazed with anger. Ever since Severus had started hinting that Remus might be a werewolf Lily had started suspecting it too. She didn't want to believe it. She had seen how sick, pale and beaten up Remus looked after his return from hospital wing. She pitied him for all the pain he went through. Last month, she had checked the lunar charts, it was enough to confirm Severus' suspicion, but she had decided to keep Remus' secret. Remus deserved a good life; he was not a monster.
"They say he is sick, Severus." She said in a deadly voice "And it's not nice to look at werewolves as something less than human. They are victims of a curse. Show some compassion! And Remus is like the brother I always wanted but never had. I love him as much as I love you. Get over it."
Severus looked at her indignantly, "Victim? Werewolves are monsters, Lily. They are more animal than human. Why do you think they are banned from mingling with civil society?
"Oh please, Severus! You almost sound like Petunia when she starts off with her freak business and how wizards should be separated from muggles because they are unfit for civil society. It's the same prejudice and its one step away from saying muggleborns are lesser than purebloods and thus unfit to carry proper wizarding pride. Voldemort is actually selling that kind of bull crap and killing people for it."
Severus flinched at the mention of Voldemort's name but said nothing as Lily continued. "I mean really, standing for one kind of prejudice and oppression is supporting all of them. You told me that being a muggleborn won't make a difference at Hogwarts and yet, I have to face being scorned as a "mudblood" at least ten times a day not to mention, hear whispers of a war brewing in the horizon because Voldemort won't stop spewing his ideas of wizards dominating the world."
Severus flinched again, "Will you stop taking the Dark Lord's name?" he hissed at Lily.
"Why should I? It's not like not taking his name guarantees safety. He would still attack me if he wants to. I am not afraid of his stupid name." Lily huffed, crossing her arms across her chest. They sat in angry silence, after a while Severus turned to look at her. She was beautiful, especially in the soft yellow light from the nearby trees, she looked radiant. Thick red hair, flowing down to her shoulders in beautiful waves. Pale skin and freckles standing out against her black jacket, emerald green eyes, looking straight ahead, ablaze with a dull fire. He sighed "Look, I am sorry. I shouldn't have been so unkind to you. I really can't control who you care about. I am just worried about you. What if you get too close to a werewolf and get bitten or worse mauled and killed? I am just worried about you. Can we not fight anymore, please Princess Lily?"
Lily smiled despite herself at the use of her childhood nickname. As eight year olds, Severus and Lily would play a game where Princess Lily and Prince Severus would go on adventures to slay dragons and save people. She looked at him and sighed "Yeah, okay. No fighting." Severus grinned at her before casually slinging his arm around her shoulder, "So, brave Princess. Where is my Christmas present?" Lily laughed before shoving a package in his hands.
The wrappings gave way to a hand knit midnight blue jumper and grey scarf. "It's not much." Lily said blushing "But this year I wanted to give something personal to you. I made these without magic."
"Lily" Severus breathed "You shouldn't have."
"I wanted to put in the effort, to show I care about you." She smiled softly.
"How long did it take you?"
"I started in June." Lily said blushing again, tucking her hair behind her year, "I wasn't very good at it initially so I had to do it again. Not to mention, they are hardly letting us breathe this year. I just finished it two days ago. I hope you like it."
"Lily, I love it. Thank you." Lily looked into Severus' eyes; they were blazing with some emotion she couldn't really understand. She looked away blushing. Severus tucked her hair behind her ear and gently caressed the bruise. "Lily" his voice was tortured "What happened? Why did she do this? Please Lils, talk to me." Lily brushed away the tears threatening to spill down her eyes. She turned to smile at Severus.
"She slapped me because I embarrassed her. I am not supposed to call her Tuney in front of her whale of a boyfriend."
"Are you going to tell your parents about it?"
"No." Her chin jutted out stubbornly.
"But Lily, she can't do this to you, if your parents knew, they would put an end to it."
"Sev, I can't keep running to an authority figure for all of my problems. I will have to learn to deal with them on my own. Also, if I do tell mom and dad, what would that achieve? It won't change her heart or make her realize that she hurt me. She did this on purpose, not out anger but out of spite and jealousy. She knew what she was doing. That won't change. She hasn't forgiven me for being a witch. And its okay, she doesn't matter. I can't let her get to me."
Severus nodded. "So, did you get any other satisfactory gifts this Christmas?" he asked cheekily.
Lily grinned, "Yup. All my gifts were satisfactory including this." She pulled the chain out from beneath her jumper and showed it to Severus.
"It's beautiful" He said, examining the locket, "It's so much like you. Pure, pristine and delicate to look at but stronger than one could have imagined. Your parents got this for you?"
Lily shook her head with an excited twinkle in her eyes. "No. Prongs did." Severus frowned "Do you know him?"
"No, but he writes letters to me and never posts them. I accidentally came across one in an abandoned corridor on the last day of the term. Well, I guess he overheard me talking about it on the train with the girls. He sent me a letter today telling me that he won't ever correspond with me and I shouldn't have received the letter in the first place. The gift came with the letter."
Severus frowned before relaxing, "Why didn't he want you to receive his letters?"
"Because it would be an unequal relationship where he knows who I am but I know nothing about him. Also, while he can send me letters, I can't write back, in case the owl delivers the post to him in front of me, giving away his identity. But it's okay. I wrote back to him. Remember that lose brick on our fountain?" Severus nodded.
"I told him I will leave my replies there and he can pick them up whenever. It balances out the equation too. I am trusting him without knowing his identity and he has to trust me to not go looking for him." Lily grinned pleased with herself. Severus' frown deepened "Would you like to know who he is?"
Lily grinned at him, "Of course yes!"
"What if he is someone loathsome or unworthy? Like Potter."
Lily snorted, "Please. Potter doesn't even understand the meaning of being fair to people. Prongs has an acute sense of fairness. Probably he is Hufflepuff. It's brilliant; I mean who would ever doubt a Hufflepuff?"
"I don't like this."
"You don't have to."
"What if he hurts you?"
"I would come running to you and demand your shoulder to cry on." She answered cheekily.
"Will I be allowed to say 'I told you so.'?"
"No."
"Come on, you are not being fair with me."
"Okay fine. You can say that, but just once. You say it again and I will hex you."
"Fine. Before you go meeting him, will you warn me at least?"
"Of course I will inform you. In case I go missing or am found dead, you would know who is to be blamed."
"Ah. Don't worry; I will get you justice."
"Thanks Sev. I knew I could trust you." Lily said with a straight face before she caught Severus' eye and they burst out laughing.
AN: Next up James' POV. Please do read and review. Happy reading.
