Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer

The summer holidays meant the students of Hogwarts were released from its hallowed halls and out into a world full of sunshine, the seaside, and a blissful feeling of freedom that only comes from a two month respite from classes, teachers, and exams. However, for Lily Evans, the summer holidays simply represented a reacquaintance with the devil, or as she was more commonly known, Petunia Evans. And this summer was particularly worse, due to the severed (no pun intended) nature of her friendship with a certain slimy greaseball who lived across the street from her.

Thus, Lily was faced with a slight conundrum; she could not leave her house without being ambushed by her former friend Severus Snape trying to apologise for calling her a "filthy mudblood", and she was similarly unable to leave her bedroom without being accosted by her sister and a barrage of choice insults, pertaining to her hair, magical abilities or her general countenance. Lily was unable to spend any time with Alice, as she was holidaying with her family in Greece. She couldn't very well visit Marlene, as she was staying with James Potter and Sirius Black at Potter Manor while her parents were touring Italy. Lily's parents were also forcing her to sit through torturous family dinners with Petunia's wet mop of a boyfriend, Vernon Dursley. So you see, Lily was in quite a bind, and there was really nothing she could do about it.

James Potter was faced with a similar and yet completely opposite situation. He could not stay in his house without being suffocated by Sirius and Marlene attempting to cheer him up from the catastrophe on the third-last day of school, or being disgusted by their incessant flirting with one another. He spent most of his time on or above the Potter quidditch pitch his great-great-great grandfather had built on the property centuries earlier, hoping to cultivate generations of the famed Potter quidditch prowess.

He used the training to distract himself from the gnawing feeling of reproach that burrowed deep into his stomach, settling there for the summer and refusing to budge until he acknowledged it and made amends with a certain red-headed witch.

Unlike Lily's parents, Fleamont and Euphemia Potter had immediately noticed when their son had emerged from the clouds of smoke billowing around the Hogwarts Express, looking decidedly more dejected than usual, unable to keep up with Sirius' wild energy like he usually could. As the holidays wore on, and they noticed their son becoming more and more removed from his friends, retreating into himself, lost in his thoughts for most hours of the day, they decided to do something about it.

"You talk to him!"

"No you do it, you're his father!" came the whispered hisses from outside James' bedroom door one evening. Of course, they were never quiet enough to prevent James from hearing them, although he did feel a small warming glow in his chest it reminded him of how his parents behaved like two young teenagers in love, even after all these years.

"Why don't both of you come and talk to me?" James called, a grin in his voice. His parents pushed open the door, sheepish smiles on their faces as they slunk into the room and settled themselves on James' bed.

"We're just a little bit worried about you, son." Fleamont begun, turning to Euphemia to take over having contributed his piece. Euphemia turned her eyes skyward, before continuing "You just don't seem yourself lately James, that's all. We were wondering if there's anything you would like to offload onto us, or anything we might be able to help with?"

James couldn't help but smile at his parents' sweetness. Growing up, being an only child had never fazed James, as his parents were his best friends and family all rolled into one. He wanted for nought, and would share every detail of his life with his parents, however small. They were the first to know when any of James' teeth had begun to wobble, when he saw a cloud that rather looked like a panda, when he created yet another meaningless jingle.

But how could he share this with them? How could he admit that he HAD been an arrogant toerag, the words playing over and over in his head since Lily had hurled them at him. How could he face them, knowing they would only respond with love and understanding when he knew he should have done better, should have diffused the situation before it went too far?

Fleamont and Euphemia waited, silently observing their son's changing face as they could tell he was caught up in some kind of internal conflict.

Finally, James spoke.

"I've done something really awful." Came his voice, uncharacteristically timid under the gaze of his own judgement.

"Haven't we all?" laughed Fleamont, silenced by a single look from Euphemia warning him to be serious. "Tell us what's happened, James. A problem shared is a problem halved."

Shakily, James began to unfold the story of what had happened on that god-awful last day of term. Of course, they had heard of Lily Evans before; she featured just enough in James' stories of school for them to become suspicious, and then Sirius had told them all about James' partiality towards her, but so far they hadn't been able to tell if she reciprocated. They recognised Lily as a sensible girl, if a little harsh in voicing her opinions, and grew sad at hearing she had been treated in such a manner by someone she called a friend.

The shame they heard in James' voice as he reproached himself "I shouldn't have provoked him, I shouldn't have let Sirius talk to him, I shouldn't have caught him in the levicorpus, I should have put him down sooner", his fists clenching and unclenching, indicative of the raging turmoil inside James' mind.

Placing a comforting hand on her son's knee, Euphemia offered some motherly advice and soothing tones, suggesting he have a chat to Lily, apologise, and try to forge a friendship, Merlin knows she'd be needing someone right now.

"I don't think she would want to talk to me Mum. She barely talks to me as it is, but after this, I doubt she'll even glance in my direction before we've left Hogwarts…" James' defeatist tone simply broke Fleamont's heart.

Marlene was beginning to grow frustrated with Lily. After the third owl had returned with her letter still in its talons, she had simply assumed Lily wanted to be alone. However, they were now six weeks into the summer holidays, and Lily had still not contacted any of her friends; no letters, no calls, no in-person appearances, nothing. They all knew Lily was wildly independent, they all knew she was stubborn, they all knew she was intelligent, and fierce and all of the other things that made her Lily. But Marlene also knew Lily shouldn't have to face this all by herself.

"Having your closest friend betray you in such a public way must have been at least mildly humiliating, even if he is a slimy scumbag of a person" Sirius had mentioned to Marlene during the first week of holidays, as they were paddling in the lake which sat on the North side of the Potter estate.

"Mmm" Marlene murmured in agreement, still mulling over everything that had happened. As much as she felt for Lily, she really did, she couldn't help the tiny little thought that kept popping up in her mind whenever she thought of the situation; "I told you so."

And she knew that was harsh, but sometimes to get Lily to wise up she needed a little bit of tough love. But, to a certain extent Marlene couldn't help but blame it all on herself a teensy bit. If only she and Alice had given Lily that tough love a little earlier then none of this would have happened. But then again, Lily was as stubborn as a mule, and there was very little that could change her mind when she put it to something.

Four weeks later, and the same train of thought was still endlessly chugging around Marlene's mind. She didn't know what else she could do, bar abducting Lily in the middle of the night. She pitched this idea to Sirius, but he chimed in with a helpful "Oh that sounds great, I'm sure James would LOVE to see Lily in her nightclothes!", which had earned him a smack across the head.

At a loss for how to dig her beautiful, fierce best friend out of the hole she seemed to be disappearing into, Marlene decided there was only one thing she could do; go to Lily's house herself and hope that she didn't slam the door in her face.

Sirius, of course, begged to come, but Marlene knew that if Lily even caught a glimpse of that shiny black hair that she would slam the door in her face as soon as you could say "Merlin's Pants".

They made the executive decision not to tell James the plan, unsure of his reaction and not wanting to upset their clearly devastated friend any further.

Two hours later, the doorbell sounded at the Evans' house. Not wanting to leave her little cocoon of sanctuary, Lily glanced up for a second, before returning to the book in her lap. Muggle books were terrific for distracting the mind, she thought, content with continuing the charade of ignorance for the remaining two weeks of the summer holidays.

The doorbell, however, had other ideas. It was ringing incessantly. Finally remembering her parents were in town, looking for some champagne flutes to gift to Petunia for her birthday, and Petunia was, as always, with Vernon, though this time they were at his house, probably making polite small talk with his absolute whale of a mother, Lily emerged from the nest of books she had buried herself in and stomped down the stairs to the front door.

Before she'd even touched the door handle, Lily was in a foul mood. Cross at being forced to fold the corner of the page of her book because she couldn't find her bookmark, annoyed at the person on the other side of the door for perpetuating such an irritating noise for no apparent reason, and grumpy because she had stayed up until two in the morning the night before in order to finish another Agatha Christie novel. And this was all on top of the obvious; her lingering fury at Severus Snape, James Potter, Sirius Black and the entirety of Hogwarts in general.

Lily flung open the door, beginning to exclaim a "WHAT do you want?!" before realising the blonde girl in front of her, was indeed her now-promoted best friend, Marlene McKinnon.

The two girls had met on the train platform as tiny little eleven-year-olds; Lily filled with wonder at the bustling atmosphere and the way she could simply FEEL the magic in the air, as opposed to Marlene who had told Lily to "Shut your mouth, it not really anything special". Marlene had gained a little tact over the years, but she was still as blunt as ever, choosing to begin her speech before Lily could utter another syllable.

"LOOK, I know you're hurting about Snape. We all feel awful about what happened. But, Lily, as much as you want to see the best in everyone, it's not always there. You KNOW Alice and I never liked Snape, but every time we mentioned it you always assured us that "He's not that bad" and "He's really quite sweet if you get to know him". I hope now you know better. Now I'm not looking for a fight, I just came to let you know that I want my friend back; nobody likes mopey Lily, and that James has simply torn himself up these last few weeks looking for a way to apologise to you. He's devastated, Lily. Please give him a chance to say his piece, and then he'll be out of your hair forever. Sirius, too. Of course I'm sorry as well, and I only wish I had come sooner. Please say we can be friends again and put this whole thing behind us?"

After at first attempting to protest, but having difficulty getting a word in edgeways, Lily simply listened. A rollercoaster of emotions touched her heart but she didn't let them show in her face as Marlene spoke. When Marlene mentioned how shattered James seemed to be, Lily attempted to roll her eyes, but instead felt a miniscule tug at her heartstrings. As Marlene finished, Lily, exhausted from the anger which had been festering inside her for six weeks, simply pulled her into an embrace, which was returned in equal measure by her blonde friend.

"Welcome back, Lils." Marlene whispered in her ear, just as Lily's parents were coming through the garden gate.

"Oh Marlene!" Mrs Evans cried, her husband trailing behind her, carrying the heavy box of champagne flutes they had decided on 'together'. "How have you been? It's been a while since we've seen you!"

"I'm fine Mrs Evans! I've just popped over to see how our Lils is doing." Marlene replied.

Lily's parents had known that Lily had not been her usual self these holidays, but they didn't want to push their daughter for information when she was so clearly disinclined to tell them. They realised quite quickly that the horrible Snape boy wasn't around as often, which they were secretly glad about, but they were concerned that they hadn't seen any of Lily's other friends either. So they simply left her to her books, hoping she would be fine by the time the school year rolled around again. Marlene's concern simply confirmed their own suspicions about their worries, but it was wonderful to see Lily smiling again after so long.

"I was just about to invite Lily to join us for dinner tomorrow night- is that alright with you?" Marlene smiled sweetly at the Evans', knowing Lily couldn't very well refuse with her parents a few feet away without explaining the entire situation.

"Oh I'm sure Lily would love that!" Mr Evans' booming voice replied, smiling down at his darling daughter.

Lily began to decline "I'm sure I've got some reading to do before school-"

"School doesn't start for another two weeks Lily," came Mrs Evans' sweet voice, "Don't be silly, go and have dinner with your friends."

Marlene grinned at Lily, and Lily glared playfully back. She was not prepared to face Potter and Black, let alone with Potter's parents in the same room, for who knows how many hours over what was bound to be a humiliatingly awkward meal.

"Fine, I'll go" Lily was forced to reply. Marlene clapped her hands together, very pleased with the outcome of her visit, and practically skipped down the garden path towards the gate.

"See you tomorrow Lils! Someone will pick you up at six o'clock!" She called over her shoulder as she rounded the corner.

"Wait, what do you mean someone?!" Lily cried after her. But she was gone, having hailed the Knight Bus, which spirited her away as quickly as she had come.

Lily sighed. It was going to be a long day.