Chapter 35: On Our Own
We got off the train late that night, and walked to Diagon Alley. We made the decision to stay at the Leaky Cauldron for a few days until we could find a place to stay, since we were no longer going to stay at my house. We arrived late, but the Inn keeper was very kind to us. He was aware of our situation, and even offered us free rooms for a week. We were not only incredibly grateful, but incredibly tired. My head barely touched the pillow before I was fast asleep.
The week passed by quickly. We were constantly searching for reasonably priced flats for the five of us, and Addi when she graduated. When we weren't busy, I grieved for my mother, but there was hardly any time to think about it. Without much thought, I sold our house to an elderly gentleman, who had been a ministry official and a good friend of my father's. I brought in a tidy profit, but I'd need it over the summer until I began working.
"I found two flats we can afford," Lily announced one day upon returning from Muggle London. None of us objected, so we gathered our things and headed off to our new home.
"This is the building," said Lily, after she had led us into a tiny side street. She motioned to a large, rather rundown, grimy, cement, white building, several stories high, with lots of windows and rows of tiny balconies.
"Now, they're not the greatest," Lily cautioned as we headed through the double doors at the front of the building.
"Who'd have thought?" muttered James under his breath as we entered the lobby, which was nothing more than a tiny white room with ratty orange carpet and paint chipping from the walls. There was a hallway to the first floor flats and stairs to the upper floors.
"We're on the third floor." Lily led us up two flights of stairs on the creaking staircase. We headed down a narrow hallway, until we came to the end of it. There were two flats, one to the left and one to the right. Lily pulled the keys from her pocket and unlocked the one to the left.
"No one has lived in these for a while," she informed us, turning the knob and opening the door. We were blinded by a cloud of dust that escaped from the flat. I coughed. When the dust cleared, we took our first glance at the place we'd call home. The flat was a dreadful sight. The wooden floors were creaky and uneven, the walls were covered in peeling, pale green paint, and the ceiling was so low that Sirius' head nearly touched it. The kitchen was nothing more than three bright orange, rusting metal cabinets, a tiny sink, a stove, and a refrigerator that I was sure must have been at least twice as old as any of us. Out a bit from the kitchen, a large light covered in dust and cobwebs hung crookedly from the ceiling; underneath was a place for a kitchen table. The living room was nothing more than an extension on the kitchen; a small area, perhaps big enough for a sofa and a muggle TV. From here, a narrow hallway led to a tiny, rundown bathroom, a single hall closet, and two identical bedrooms which appeared to be barely big enough for two beds each.
"Lil, er—we couldn't afford anything better?" asked James, frowning at the state of the bathroom.
"We're saving a lot of money this way," Lily insisted. "This place might not look the best, but it has got a lot of potential. We'll get started first thing tomorrow with getting some furniture and fixing it up. We'll work on the other flat too; it's just the same as this one."
"Whatever you say, Lils," agreed James doubtfully.
"Where are we going to sleep?" whined Peter when it got to be time for bed.
"We're going to have to sleep on the floor," said Lily, receiving four audible moans. "Come on. It'll only be for tonight," she argued. "This will be a great place to live after we fix it up."
After much grumbling, we all fell asleep on the floor of the living room and kitchen. I awoke the next morning to a great deal of back pain.
"Ouch," I moaned, rolling over.
"Your back hurt too?" Lily asked.
"Yeah," I replied. She and James were both awake already, Sirius was still snoring loudly, and Peter was no where in sight.
"He said he needed to go see his parents this morning," explained James.
"I'm convinced he just wanted to get out of helping," added Lily.
"Somehow that wouldn't surprise me," I said.
"I'm going to get out of helping too soon, if I don't see some food," said Sirius sleepily.
"We haven't got any food here," said Lily.
"Or anyone who can cook for that matter," added James.
"We need Addi," said Sirius sleepily. "She can cook."
"You know what?" said Lily cheerfully. "Why don't we go over to one of those nice little cafes and have some breakfast. And then we can do some shopping for the things we need." She stood up, making an effort to leave. Sirius, James and I sat on the ground staring at her as if she were crazy.
"It should be illegal to be that cheery in the morning," moaned Sirius.
"Come on guys," said Lily, grabbing her trunk handle and heading towards the bathroom.
"Don't worry. It'll take her an hour to get ready anyway," said James, laughing as Lily picked up a shoe and threw it in his direction, so that it barely hit his forehead.
"You throw like a girl!" Sirius grinned sleepily. Lily rolled her eyes in disgust.
"Be ready when I come back," she called, leaving the room. The three of us drifted back to sleep. Nearly an hour later, Lily returned, dressed in different clothes, her hair neatly braided.
"I thought I told you guys to get ready!" she said, observing the three of us who were still sprawled out on the floor.
"Ready," said James, jumping to his feet.
"Same here," I added. "Come on, Sirius!" I grabbed his ponytail and pulled.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Moony!" shouted Sirius. "Don't ever do that again!"
"Okay," I said grinning. Sirius stood up as slowly as possible, humored that we were all frustrated with him.
"Are we ready?" said Lily, sounding exasperated.
"Yeah," replied James. We headed out. About a block down the street we found a cafe serving breakfast. We ate. And in Sirius' case, ate and ate and ate.
"Seriously, Sirius, if you don't stop eating like that, we'll be out of money in a week! None of our jobs start until fall!" said Lily.
"Yeah, but Prongs is rich," said Sirius.
"Hardly, but in that case I'd like to keep it that way," said James.
"Why don't we go over to that grocery store and do some shopping?" said Lily, when we were finished eating.
"Yay! Food!" shouted Sirius, taking off back to the flat. We decided to do our grocery shopping in Diagon Alley, since we knew the prices would be cheaper.
"And he just ate three meals," said Lily, shaking her head and tossing her hands up in exasperation as we got up to follow him. We entered the large grocery store.
"Wow, this is really similar to muggle stores," said Lily, looking around at the aisles of food. Sirius had grabbed a cart and was riding it up and aisle, waving his wand and various things on the shelves and filling the cart. Lily sighed.
"That looks like fun," said James thoughtfully.
"No you don't!" said Lily. "You three have got to grow up someday!"
"Yeah, someday," said James, glancing at me and grabbing a cart. I followed, and we took off up the aisle.
"James Ryan Potter!" shouted Lily from behind us. We ignored her and rode all throughout the store, piling the carts up with everything from spinach to ice cream.
"Checkout time," announced James, when both of our carts were piled high, and Sirius was on his third. We spotted Lily still on aisle three picking out canned vegetables.
"Oy! Lil!" called James. "Don't worry about it! We've got everything taken care of!" Lily shook her head and moaned audibly, but joined us.
"Everything's all right, Lil," said James, putting his arm around her. "Trust me."
"That's not safe," said Sirius.
"Guess who's carrying the groceries home," said James.
"Hmm," I said. "Well that's difficult. It's not me. And it's not Lily. So it must be Sirius!"
"Are you serious?" said Lily, joining in on the joke.
"Hey!" said Sirius, waving his wand to gather up the bags. The total came to 97 galleons.
"Ninety-seven galleons!" exclaimed Lily. "From now on, I do the grocery shopping." James paid the bill without complaining. We arrived back at the flat a few minutes later. We found Peter sitting outside the door to the flat, nearly asleep.
"Hi Peter!" I called.
"'Bout time you showed up," he greeted us.
"Come on in, Wormtail," said James, opening the door.
"Didn't I give you a key?" Lily asked.
"Yeah, but I guess I lost it," said Peter sheepishly.
"You're so irresponsible!" Lily groaned.
"What do you expect? He's Peter," said Sirius. Peter muttered something that I didn't hear, and we entered the flat.
"Lunch time!" said Sirius happily.
"You just ate enough for five people at that cafe an hour ago!" said Lily.
"I live for food," said Sirius, shrugging. Lily frowned. "I'm sorry Lil," said Sirius honestly. "I'm just really glad to finally be free."
"Free from what?" I asked.
"Everything," said Sirius. "Just free to do what I want when I want without anyone telling me otherwise. There isn't a better feeling in the world."
"Okay," said Lily, raising her eyebrows.
"Ugh, living with girls," Sirius told me. "It requires too many apologies, and then when you do apologize, they just act like you're crazy anyway. What's the point?"
"No you don't, Sirius," Lily scolded. "Don't get Remus into your little ways. He's the only one of the four of you that knows how to act normal."
"Ha! That's funny. Because Remus is not normal!" Peter laughed hysterically. No one else joined him. I frowned. James and Sirius gave him threatening looks.
"What? It's a joke," said Peter, stepping backward.
"Don't you ever say that about Remus, you little rat!" shouted Sirius, taking off after Peter, who had gone dashing for the hall. James followed them. I remained in the kitchen with Lily. She shook her head and sighed.
"Are you alright, Remus?" she asked.
"I'm fine," I said. "I'm sure Peter didn't mean anything by it."
"I don't know," said Lily. "There's something about him that I really don't like. But James likes him. He says he trusts him. But you know, I worry about James. It seems he'll trust anyone sometimes. He can be too forgiving, you know?"
"Yeah," I said. It was true.
"I just don't think Peter is very trustworthy. Do you ever get the feeling he's hiding something?" Lily asked. I didn't know what to say, but before I could answer, we heard a loud thump from back the hall.
"Well, we'd better go see what they're up to now," said Lily, heading towards the sound. I followed. We found James and Sirius standing outside of the hall closet, laughing hysterically. We could hear Peter's muffled screams inside the closet.
"Help! Help! Let me out! It's dark in here!" Peter wailed. "I'm sorry, just please, let me out!"
"Okay," said James.
"No!" all three of us said.
"What? He apologized," said James.
"Prongs, you're just too nice sometimes," said Sirius.
"Okay then," said James. "Hey Peter! Suffer!" He shouted through the door.
"No James! Prongs! I thought you were my friend! Don't leave me here!" Peter wailed. James once again glanced at the door.
"No James!" said Sirius. "Let him there. He deserves it!" Sirius lowered his voice. "And the most pathetic part of all is he has his wand." We all laughed.
"So let's let him in there and see how long it takes for him to come out," said Lily.
"Whoa! Et tu Lily?" said Sirius.
"I didn't know you read Shakespeare!" said Lily, laughing. James and I shrugged. I guessed it must be a muggle thing. We decided to go back to the kitchen, because Peter's screaming was giving us all headaches. We began working on fixing up the flat. James and I were using our wands to take nails out of the boards covering the windows. Sirius was cleaning floors, and Lily was "interior decorating". We'd been working for about two hours when suddenly Peter emerged from the hall.
"Find your way out, Pete?" said Sirius.
"Hmph," said Peter crossing his arms.
"Don't just stand there," I said to him cheerfully. "We could use some help."
"Hey Wormtail," said Sirius. "Can I borrow your wand?" Peter handed it to him. "Oh, by the way, the bathroom needs cleaned," said Sirius.
"But, you took my wand!" said Peter.
"Won't kill you to do it like a muggle," said Sirius. "Unfortunately," he added as Peter stomped off.
"That's not very nice, Padfoot," said James. "Peter is our friend, remember. He's not Snape." Sirius ignored him.
"It's stifling in here," moaned Sirius later in the afternoon when it had grown warmer. He was right. I yanked at the collar of my shirt. Peter, who was dressed in a jumper wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead.
"What are you doing dressing like that in June?" asked James. "Why don't you take that jumper off. You'd be cooler."
"No, no, I'm fine," insisted Peter.
"Suit yourself," said James, getting to work on removing boards from windows. I felt a little bad for Peter after the things we'd done to him, even though I knew I shouldn't. I gave him his wand, which Sirius had asked me to hold.
"Come on, Wormtail," I said. "I'll help you with the bathroom." Peter said nothing, but let me lead the way to the bathroom. It was hideously dirty. At that moment, I was very thankful to have magic. We got there and I waited for Peter to get started. He looked at me.
"Go ahead," he said coldly. I sighed.
"Peter, I don't know what is with you lately," I said, cleaning the sink. "I've never done anything but been your friend."
"But not the same way you're friends with James and Sirius," said Peter, frowning.
"That's not true!" I objected, feeling guilty because I knew it was. Peter made a move to grab his wand from his pocket.
"Ouch!" he said suddenly, clutching his forearm.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing," said Peter. "I just bumped my arm against the wall." I raised my eyebrows. I hadn't seen him hit the wall. "Ah! It really hurts. I think I'll go see my mum. She'll know how to fix it. I'll be back later." And with that he Apparated away. I groaned.
"What a way to get out of work," I muttered. "And I was feeling sorry for the rat." I shook my head and continued cleaning. Several minutes later, I finished the bathroom, and emerged into the hallway, where I found James and Sirius trying to hang a picture Lily had assigned to them.
"Hey Moony," said James. "Where's Wormtail?"
"He left," I said, rolling my eyes.
"What do you mean?" said James. "We didn't see him leave and we've been right here."
"He pretended to hurt his arm, and then he said he needed to go get his mum to fix it and he Apparated away," I said.
"What do you mean he Apparated?" demanded Sirius. "He can't Apparate yet! We're all going to get our licenses in two days!"
"Well, he just did," I said. "He's been acting awfully strange lately. He seems to think we're not as good of friends with him as we are with each other." James sighed.
"I can't stand his jealousy. He complains about us not being good friends and then he leaves instead of helping. Honestly!" Just then, Lily returned.
"Well guys, I think we're all finished," she said. I surveyed our work on the flat. The kitchen was now looking charming, with deep red walls, and new oak cabinets that had replaced the old orange ones. We had placed my old kitchen table under the cleaned and polished hanging light. The living room floor was covered with an oriental rug Lily's mum had given us, and now contained a brown leather sofa; an unwanted item of Peter's family, a tiny red maroon armchair, and a small stand with a television. We had placed various lamps around the room to brighten its darkness, and thoroughly scrubbed the large windows. The bathroom had cleaned up reasonably, with a lot of work, and was now at least usable. The bedrooms were each painted gold, trimmed with red borders (we still favored our old house colors), and each contained two beds and two dressers (we had collected up our old ones from our houses). All in all, the flat had cleaned up nicely, as Lily had insisted it would, and all of us were satisfied with our work, and exhausted.
"What do you say to dinner now, Sirius?" Lily asked.
"Food!" shouted Sirius excitedly, running for the kitchen. We ate a late dinner, then went to bed. We each beds that night. Sirius and James shared a room, and Peter and I were supposed to share the other, although Peter never returned that night. Lily slept on the couch in the living room, because we hadn't fixed up the girls' flat yet.
The next day we attended my mother's funeral, which I won't describe in any great detail. I was, of course, very shocked and upset about the sudden death of my mother. I did feel guilty, however, that with everything going on, I'd barely had time to grieve the loss. Her death seemed to be a part of my life that had ended and been replaced by a new start on my own. However, at the funeral that day, I broke down into tears. Reality hit me at once and I knew that things would never again be the same as before. Too many things had changed. Luckily everyone was able to keep me from feeling too depressed. If there was anything I had learned about life at eighteen, it was that no matter what, it goes on.
After the funeral, James, Lily and Sirius accompanied me to my house, where I did some last minute sorting through old things before the new owner moved in. Peter was off somewhere again, which was nothing unusual. I collected up the things from the house that I wanted, and left the rest behind. The next day we got our Apparating Licenses. All of us passed, and we talked to Peter, who had already gotten his, which explained how he'd Apparated from the bathroom.