Disclaimer: See the first one if you really are interested.
A/N: Thanks for all the reviews! Just one thing: It was not a cliff hanger, and what happened in the bathroom you have to decide. I don't know.
Oh, and this is the last chapter! *dances around with glee, singing 'I've finished a story, I've finished a story'* I won't write a sequel, I think – although if everybody beg me to (I doubt it) I'll consider it. The truth is that I neither have the time nor the ideas (not yet) for a sequel. So there!
You make me sick
Chapter five: Christmas
"Bye, Lily," Molly waved. Lily waved back, and turned to go out of platform 9 3/4. She went right into James' arms.
"Hi, dummy," she smiled.
"Hi, flower," he smiled back.
"Where were you on the train?"
"I just had to finish some stuff with the others." She raised an eyebrow. 'Stuff with the others' meant 'pranks with Sirius, Remus and Peter'. But she didn't comment it: James was a prankster, after all. He had to do his hobby once in a while. "Promise to write me, okay?"
"You too," she said and kissed him.
"Be careful," James warned. "Voldemort is gaining power, you know."
"It's hard to think about," Lily said, hugging him. "I mean, at school it's like he never even lived, and now when I'm going to the muggle world..."
"I know," James said, holding her tight. "Don't make it ruin your holiday, though."
"I won't need Voldemort for that," Lily said ruefully as they went through the barrier together. "Petunia's doing a great job by herself."
James laughed and kissed her. "See you after Christmas, Petal."
"Yeah," she smiled up at him and went over to her waiting parents.
"Tiger!" her father grinned and lifted her up in a big, rib crushing bear hug.
"Dad," she said, "I've gotta breathe too, you know." He let her down. "Mum," Lily smiled and hugged her mother.
"Hi, honey," her mother smiled back. "How have you been?"
"Okay," Lily shrugged.
"Who was that boy you were talking to?" she asked curiously, a twinkle in her eye.
"Oh, that was just James," Lily said as indifferent as she could. "A boy at school."
"Awfully messy hair," her mother noted. "Seems like you get along, though."
"Mum."
"She's just teasing you, Lily," her father grinned. Lily grumbled a bit.
"Looks like Petunia didn't bother to come this time either," she said. Her mother and father exchanged a worried glance.
"Look, honey," her mother began.
"It's okay," Lily interrupted. "It's not like it matters or something."
"Come on, Tiger," her father tried to light up the mood. "It's Christmas."
"Yeah," Lily smiled up at him. They went into the car and drove home.
***
"Lily, there's something you should know," her mother said when they were nearly home.
"What?" Lily asked.
"Petunia's engaged now," her father said.
"Oh." Who the hell would want to marry Petunia?!
"He's going to visit us on Christmas Eve," her mother said. "Now, we know that you and Petunia isn't on the best of terms-"
Lily snorted sarcastically.
"-but, please try to be nice to him, okay?" Her mother looked at her.
"Okay," Lily said.
"Good." Her parents looked relieved. "Now, we didn't find it safe yet to tell him about the magic world, so you've just been to a boarding school, okay?"
"Great," Lily muttered, but nodded.
***
"Petunia!" Lily's mother called. "We're home!"
No response.
"Petunia!" her father called.
Still no response.
"Forget it, dad," Lily said. "She's not coming down. I'll just go up and unpack now if that's okay."
"Okay, Tiger," her father smiled sadly. Her mother sighed.
"I'll start on dinner," she said resigned and went into the kitchen. Lily dragged her trunk up the stairs and into her room. She dropped it down and flung herself onto her bed. She looked up at the ceiling and smiled.
She remembered last summer when working with her Astronomy homework (note down the movement of the stars for one month): The weather was cloudy, so she couldn't see the stars at night. Having nothing else to do and only five weeks left of the summer holiday, she persuaded her parents to let her paint her ceiling into a copy of the night sky. After seeking permission from the Ministry (after all, it was magic use) she had bewitched the stars and planets to go in their paths, just like the original night sky. Petunia, of course, had a fit when she saw it. She had been in Lily's room for some unknown reason – Lily suspected she had been sneaking around in her (Lily's) stuff, but didn't say it out loud because her mother would get mad. Petunia yelling at her had been quite enough, thank you.
Lily sighed and started to take all the Christmas presents to her friends out from her trunk. Four little bags from Honeydukes: Sugar quills for Marybelle, Every Flavour Beans for Kathy, Chocolate Frogs for Pennie and Chess Caramels for Syn. Nicki would get some stuff from Zonko's and a guideline over all the things from Zonko's (she had started hanging around with Sirius – she was going to need it). Molly and Laura had been a problem, but Lily had found a book about fairies (Laura loved fairies) and an Italian cookbook (Molly was – even then – obsessed with cooking).
She rather liked the gift for Remus. Although he was almost as mischievous as James and Sirius, she didn't feel like giving him something from Zonko's. Instead, she would give him a magical Goosebumps book. Sirius had been easy: She had just got him a gift certificate from Zonko's.
She had had no idea what to give James. She couldn't just give him something from Honeydukes or Zonko's, not a book either: that was for friends, not your boyfriend. Funny... Lily thought. Three months ago I would rather go out with Snape than date James... In the end, she had asked Molly for help. "You have to balance it," Molly had said. "Not too 'friend'-like, but not too affectionate, either. You can't just give him a big, red, fluffy heart pillow, but you can't just give him...plain socks, either. You've gotta find a go-between."
"Socks with hearts on them? He would sure like that."
"It was just an example."
In the end, she had found a chessboard and chessmen of black and white glass. She had tried to knit a pair of socks with a pattern of Snitches, but they came out with too small feet and too wide ankles, and the Snitches were more quadratic than round. She solved the problem by using the socks as wrapping for the chessboard.
"Dinner!" her mother called from downstairs. Lily got up with a little sigh. She hoped Petunia wouldn't be particularly nasty – but she doubted it.
She was right, of course.
***
The next couple of days was a living hell. Their parents had to work, so most of the day Lily and Petunia was home alone. When their parents were there, Petunia would just act icy towards Lily. When they were not there, it was Lily's-a-freak time. Although Petunia spent most of her time with her 'darling Vernon', there were plenty of times where she was at home, watching soap operas. She then refused to let Lily into the living room, and stood guard every time Lily went downstairs. When Lily would go to or from the kitchen, comments like 'Do you have a boyfriend? Hah! Didn't think so.' and 'My Vernon gives me gifts every time we go out.' would drift through the door. Lily ignored her.
But one time, just one day before Christmas, Petunia cracked.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded, blocking Lily's way out of the kitchen.
"I live here," Lily said impatiently.
"You're not my sister!" Petunia yelled. "I hate you! Get out!"
"Get a grip," Lily said and shoved her way past Petunia and up the stairs.
"Hey! I'm not finished! Get down here!"
"Make up your mind," Lily said, turning towards Petunia again.
"You don't belong here, you know that?" Petunia's voice was filled with venom. "You're a freak. Not my sister. A freak. That's what you are. I'm never going to talk to you again."
"Good," Lily said and went up the stairs. She wanted to slam the door to her room shut, but that would just satisfy Petunia. Instead, she hit her pillow again and again. Why does she have to be such a jerk? she thought. It's not like I did anything to her...besides being here. Lily rolled over on her bed and looked up at the ceiling. Tomorrow's Christmas Eve. Hurray. The mysterious fianceé makes his entrance. He must be desperate to be engaged to Petunia. Yuk.
***
"Lily, could you set the table?"
"Why can't Petunia do it? Oh, right, she's getting ready. How could I forget? She's been doing it for three hours already."
"Be nice," her mother frowned, handing Lily the dishes.
"It's true, mum. And it's just Christmas dinner, not a Grand Ball."
"Lily." Her mother's voice stopped her. Lily turned towards her again. "Please be nice when Vernon arrives, okay?"
Lily smiled reassuringly. "Of course, mum." I'm not like my sister.
Just then, the door bell rang.
"I'll take it!" Petunia yelled from the stairs. She ran down the stairs, stopped in front of the all figure mirror in the corridor to check her hair one last time, and opened the door. Lily hurried into the living room, not wanting to see Petunia's mask of make up kiss Vernon. How can she live with so much make up? Lily wondered. The layer's an inch thick!
From the corridor, she heard her mother and father greet Vernon. "Hello, Vernon. You arrived just in time for dinner."
"Good," a gruffy voice said. "I'm hungry." Petunia laughed a braindead little laugh that made Lily want to gag.
"Let's go in," her father said.
"This is Lily, Petunia's sister," her mother introduced them. "Lily, Vernon. Vernon, Lily."
"Hi," Lily said and shook Vernon's hand.
"Hi." He rubbed his hands. "So. Let's start to eat, eh?"
***
Lily's first thought/impression of Vernon Dursley was: He's fat. The second one was: No wonder: he eats as much as a horse. When she reached How many chins does he have? and Where is his neck? they had all started talking about pleasant things like drills, the weather, drills, when Vernon and Petunia would get married (due in half a year), drills, Vernon's house, and drills. Vernon was (obviously) obsessed with drills. He was second manager in a drill company, and expected to take it over when the present manager finally became too old, which would probably be soon (Vernon talked about this with very much enthusiasm).
All the time, Petunia was clinging to Vernon like a leech, practically drooling. Lily found it very disgusting, although Vernon didn't seem to mind: rather the opposite. Finally it was time to open the presents. Petunia was at least satisfied with the Beauty Box Lily had given her, and her parents loved the books she had given them: her father got 'Quidditch through times' (he had been very interested when she had mentioned it) and her mother got 'Herblore'.
From Molly and Laura she got a huge book about charms, and Remus had given her a CD with dance music (she loved that one too). From Sirius came a bag full of assorted chocolates (she made a mental note not to try any of them before she had looked for jinxes). Nicki had given her some hair stuff (hairbands and so on), but the other girls had given her stuff from Honeydukes or Zonko's. She didn't really mind – that was what she had given them, after all.
She opened her present from her parents, and smiled at the green sweater. No matter how old I'll be, they'll always give me clothes. Not that I mind, of course. She smiled and hugged them thanks. Petunia only gave her one pound (undoubtfully originally from her parents), and they only said a short thanks to each other.
Then it was only one package left. It was small, with black and silver wrapping paper. The wrapping paper revealed a little box in a deep blue colour. Lily smiled a little, and opened the box. She gasped.
Inside was a small silver heart, a little bigger than her thumb nail, hanging on a fine silver chain. It had a lily engraved on the front side, and when she turned it, she saw tiny words engraved on it: Lily and James. She smiled again, and took it around her neck. Behind her, Petunia gasped.
"Who's that from?" she asked.
"A friend," Lily said shortly – she didn't want to tell Petunia about James. Then she would have a fit. She tucked the necklace into her pocket. Petunia glared at her.
"So," she said, her voice filled with hateful malice. "You've got a friend, have you?" Lily didn't say anything: she didn't have to either. "How come you've never told me, eh? I'm your sister."
"Oh? You sure change your mind often," Lily said coolly. Petunia advanced on Lily, but their mother's voice stopped her.
"Stop it, Petunia. Lily, could you take the garbage bags to the container?"
"Yes," Lily said and went into the kitchen to get the garbage. It was a feeble excuse to get her out of the way, but she didn't want to be there right now, just as much as her mother didn't want her to. As she took on her winter coat – it was late, and cold – Vernon came out of the living room, taking on his coat as well.
"Your mother asked me to help you," he said.
"Sure," Lily shrugged.
They went out into the biting cold. Lily buried herself down in the warm neck of her coat, walking with the garbage bags down the street. The one drawback about their house was that the street they lived in had a common garbage container. And of course, it had to be at the exact opposite end of the street from their house. Therefore, Lily had to go 500 metres – just to throw their garbage. Not that she minded now – she was happy to get away a little.
They walked in silence, neither wanting to speak. But as they got to the container, Vernon cleared his throat.
"So, how long has you and Petunia been...er..." he faltered.
"When did we fall out, you mean?" Lily threw the bags into the container. "I don't know. Five years ago, perhaps." That's when I got my letter from Hogwarts.
"Oh. So, er, why do you hate each other?"
"Ask Petunia," Lily said shortly. "It's her fault."
"Now, listen here," Vernon came to Petunia's defence. "Petunia's a very nice girl, you know. Sensible."
Lily snorted. "As if. You've been given the 'Hi-I'm-a-cute-little-girl' personality. You don't know half of it." She knew she probably shouldn't talk about Petunia that way with Vernon – he was Petunia's fianceé, after all – but she didn't give a damn.
"And you do?" Vernon said in a low, dangerous voice. (Ok, he tried to sound dangerous.)
"Hey, I'm her sister. I've known her for sixteen years. And you have known her for, what? Two years?"
"Three. You know, Petunia has never mentioned you."
"Wouldn't surprise me," Lily said. "She hates me, after all." Why do I speak about this with this...stranger?
"And you don't hate her?" Vernon asked. He sounded a lot like an interrogator.
"Why do you ask?" Lily countered.
"I have to know some stuff here before we – Petunia and I – wed."
"Right. Well, I've learned to hate her as well. But not the way she hates me. Satisfied?"
"No... I wondered, what is th- what the hell is that?!" Vernon pointed towards Lily's house. Over it was green smoke, formed into a scull with a snake slithering through.
"Oh, no," Lily whispered. "Please don't let them be..." She started to run towards her house, as it started to erupt in flames.
As she reached the house, Petunia ran out of it, coughing.
"Where is mum and dad?" Lily asked. Petunia sobbed.
"They're...inside there..." she collapsed onto the lawn. Lily ran into the house, holding her collar over her mouth and nose.
She found them in the living room. They lay on the floor, expressions of shock on their faces. There was no evidence of blood, Lily didn't have to check to know that they were dead.
Voldemort. Avada Kedavra. She sobbed, and ran out of the house again, just as the flames caused the doorway to the living room to fall in. She felt her knees collapse, and sat down on the lawn beside Petunia, who were being comforted by Vernon.
How could he get there so fast? she thought as silent tears trickled down her cheeks. I was only gone a minute. Why did he have to kill them? Realisation struck her. If I didn't go out with the garbage, I would be dead too. It was me he came for. They were just a bonus. Oh, god. Petunia must feel horrible.
Lily turned towards her sister. "Are you okay?" she asked. Petunia looked up from Vernon's shoulder.
"Don't you dare ask me if I'm okay! This was all your fault! If it weren't for you, they would still live!" She broke into tears again and Vernon hugged her protectively.
"There, there," he said in his gruff voice, trying to sound soothing. "She won't hurt you."
Lily felt a pang of anger and guilt. Petunia acted like it was Lily who had killed them! But then, she was right...sort of... Lily buried her head in her hands and cried.
***
"Is there anything we can do for you?" the witch from the Ministry asked. Lily shook her head. She and Petunia had retold the entire evening to the witch, and had only finished two o'clock in the morning. Lily had slept on one of the couches in the witch's office, but Petunia had preferred going with Vernon to his house.
The witch looked at Lily. "Are you sure?" she asked.
"Yeah," Lily said tired. "I'm fine."
The witch nodded and pursed her lips a little. "Do you have a place to live?" Lily gave a start. She had forgot that her house had burned down. She shook her head. The only people who cared about me was my parents. Petunia has made it quite clear she won't allow me to live with her and Vernon, not that I want to...I don't want to live with someone who doesn't care about me. She rummaged through her pockets, looking for some money so she at least could live in the Leaking Cauldron in Diagon Alley 'till school started again. What was that? She took out the silver necklace, and looked at the little heart with a faint smile. Maybe I have somewhere to live after all.