Chapter 11 ~ The Last Letter

A month later people were still talking about the verbal beating Lily had given James and Sirius at lunch.  (Looking Remus in the face to yell at him was not an option).  The two boys pouted about having to hold up their reputation and Lily going and ruining it. Otherwise, the last month had passed rather well, except for the uncomfortable silence that seemed to center around Remus, and Lily's daunting feeling that a month had passed.  Sure enough, Remus had left to go 'visit a relative' and Lily couldn't even bring herself to say goodbye.

Another saddening development was that Gryffindor had lost to Slytherin in the last Quidditch match, much to the disappointment of James. It was widely guessed that the Slytherins had cheated, but Professor Trelawney reminded Gryffindors of the warning she had given them, about the warning of hard times to befall Gryffindor unless sufficient homage was paid to Jupiter.  This merely provoked a widespread loathing of Divination and an outburst of jokes centered on its crazy teacher.

Something else developed over the last month also, Sirius and Cecil. Lily, and anyone else with eyes, she thought vehemently, thought that Sirius liked Evelyn. Evelyn took it remarkably calmly, less so than Lily had anyway. She had insisted Sirius was only afraid of commitment, the big coward. Sirius and Cecil were inseparable, or rather, Cecil sort of clung to him, rendering them inseparable. And Cecil took any free moment away from him to gush about how wonderful he is. Luckily, Lily and Laura had both made the effort to get over their fight, and Lily had a great time just goofing off with Laura and relieving all the stress of sixth-year studies.  Considering that she really did need to do her work, and Evelyn and James were just boring the hell out of her, Lily began to think she needed friends out of her original circle.

It was one breakfast when Lily was mulling over her drab social life when a letter appeared for her. It was a stuffy owl, not nearly as affectionate as her owl (which she had named Apollo). Although he often left for a few days and was sometimes disoriented, Lily loved her owl very much, it reminded her of her family. In fact, her owl had taken off just last night for one of his 'vacations' as she and her friends called it. Only James insisted that something was seriously wrong with her owl, aggravating her to no end by asking about Apollo's symptoms.

Right now, however, the regal-looking owl in front of her caught her attention. Attached to its foot was a letter addressed to her, well to a Ms. Lily Evans, anyway. But nobody called her that, except for maybe McGonagall when she was upset, but those instances were becoming fewer and far between; Lily had finally gotten the hang of Transfiguration. When she opened the letter, she was caught by surprise.

Dear Lily Evans,

After an extensive search we believe we have found an acceptable house at which you will spend your summer. The Delann family is one of the most well respected wizarding families in England, and we know you will enjoy your time there.

On another note, we also promised to inform you of your sister's whereabouts. Your great-aunt Varice has agreed to take her in considering she has no children of her own. If you wish to send a letter to her the Ministry owl will deliver it for you, you will be able to keep in touch with her from there.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Fratilda Atwurst

Head of Department of Underage Relocation

Lily laughed out loud, she still remembered great-aunt Varice from when she had visited Lily's house once. What a fusspot. Lily sighed.  Too much of a witch-hater to take me in as well, I guess, she thought miserably.  Or she might not even know about the magical world at all. 

Against her better judgment, Lily decided to write a letter to Petunia to see how she was doing. She smiled as the owl took off, rustling its feathers at the certain indignity of delivering to a Muggle house.  Lily didn't even know if she was allowed to do that, but it made her feel decent that she had made the effort.

Rereading the letter she received, Lily wondered exactly who the Delann family was. They better not be the kind of people who are obsessed with being a pureblood, Lily thought. Severus Snape, had taken to trying to annoy Lily with taunts of 'mudblood' but Lily honestly didn't care. People who she held in such low respect didn't matter to her that much. She just stared at the letter, and a small sort of shadow fell over it. She turned around to the overly wide smile of Sirius, who was grinning down at her.

"Sirius, up a little early, are you? Never thought you'd voluntarily get down here quickly," she said sharply, though playfully. She had been giving Sirius and James some attitude ever since their little excuse and her incident with Madam Lorquette.

"Yes, well, you know how it is," he said vaguely. He wasn't really making eye contact, looking over her at something. Or someone, she thought. Then, to her surprise, he actually sat down next to her. "So, what's that?" He looked at the letter in her hand.

"Oh, noth-" Sirius had the letter out of her hand before she could finish her sentence. She grabbed for it, but realized her efforts were futile. "You're staying with the Delann family?" he questioned, stressing the name as if it had some weird connotation.

"Yeah, sure."

"As in Robyn Delann?" Sirius talked slowly, like Lily was some tiny child who couldn't comprehend anything.

"How am I supposed to know?"

"You don't know who the Delanns are?" Sirius regarded Lily incredulously, how could she not know the Delanns?

"No, Sirius, I don't." Lily was getting annoyed, couldn't he just get to the point?

"They've been all over the newspaper, hadn't you heard?" Lily recalled something she might have heard about them, something to do with…Voldemort, perhaps? She didn't bring it up, though.

"My, Sirius, you have been following the news too? Do we have a reformation on our hands? Maybe you should go see the nurse, though she would probably do more harm than help." He ignored the implication Lily had brought forth.

"This Fratildy woman had got it right, the Delanns are pretty important people." Lily laughed, I'm sure the Head of the Department of Underage Relocation would love to hear her name pronounced that way.

"Well, for heavens name Sirius, can't you just tell me why?"

"I still can't believe you haven't heard about it, its been filtering all through the school for the past two weeks, I just don't¾"

"Sirius! Get to the point!"

"Mr. Delann, Robyn's dad, is—was—the Minister of Magic. He retired a couple of weeks ago. Dumbledore almost went to replace him; instead they got someone, Fludge or something like that, to replace him. It was a huge issue. The Ministry didn't have a Minister for the last week. It was mayhem, and Mr. Delann just said he had to stop, just like that." Sirius emphasized with a snap of his fingers.

"Wow, I wonder how I missed that, that's, that's HUGE! Dumbledore almost left and I didn't know? Wow!" Lily kind of stared at the letter, how would she react towards these people? It might have been easier if Sirius hadn't told her about them, but that couldn't be fixed now.

"She's sitting over at the Ravenclaw table."

"Thanks for being descriptive, Sirius. Could you possibly tell me where, or what she looks like?" She had no doubt that Sirius knew each and every girl at Hogwarts that was within a two-year radius of him.

"Well, she's a fifth year. Um, sort of skinny, dark brown curly hair, and uh…dark blue eyes. She's probably sitting at the far end of the table, the Ravenclaw prefects always sit down there." He said this all while serving himself breakfast, never once glancing up. If only he applied himself that much to memorizing charms!

"Yeah, thanks." Sirius was fully absorbed with eating his food now, there was no hope of holding conversation.

Lily walked down the aisle between tables, surveying every head at the Ravenclaw table. Red, blonde, blonde, black, brown… the row of people went on. But she had to be downstairs, every seat at Ravenclaw table was filled, which meant everyone was there. But she couldn't find dark brown curly hair anywhere!

Lily, taking some initiative, walked up to the end of the table where Sirius said she'd be sitting. Lily tapped a girl on her shoulder, and she turned around.  When she saw Lily, she smiled widely.

"You're Lily, right? I'm so excited about this summer!"

"You're Robyn?" This girl wasn't exactly how Lily had pictured her. This girl didn't fit the description Sirius had given at all. Maybe his problem is that he does try to apply himself to Charms, she thought wryly. Robyn's hair was dark brown, she'd give him that much, but it was in no way curly, and not in the least way long. She did have dark blue eyes, though. Trust Sirius to remember the insignificant things.

"Yes! I'm so excited to have you stay this summer. Being an only child in my house gets lonely when I go home." She sad this all rather fast, for all that it was only about 8 o' clock in the morning. She turned around and called to her friends, "Everyone, this is Lily. She's staying with me this summer!" They were all very cheerful and said hello, and Lily wondered how they had ever gotten a reputation to be quiet and studious. After the greeted her they returned to their conversation, and Lily found they had actually been debating an old wizarding law. She suddenly saw where their reputation came from.

They were all very nice, and Lily ended up finishing breakfast with them. It was all very refreshing for her to have a new scope of friends, and she started her classes that day with a new vigor.

* * *

Lily was working in Charms that day when Sirius walked up to her. "Hey, Lily. So, I've been talking to Robyn." Lily looked at him a little strangely; Sirius usually didn't just go up to girls to talk with them. He noticed her look, "No, really, just to talk. And I found out something. From my thinking, you live, or, are going to be living about a half-hour away from me."

Lily's eyes practically popped out of her head.

"And I think James and Peter are staying with me this summer, or at least part of it."  This was not good news, she could tell. 

"Not Remus?" She asked instinctively.  She couldn't imagine the three of them without Remus.

Sirius looked nervously around, and whispered out of the corner of his mouth: "Well, we don't have anywhere to keep him when, you know. And he lives too far away just to be going back and forth, I suppose. Anyway, his parents didn't want him to, it's too bad."  

Lily couldn't help but feel bad for him. Poor Remus, all alone while his friends have fun together. He has it really rough.  Sirius went back to his desk, and for the rest of the class Lily was thoroughly depressed. The thought of Remus all alone and having to put up with a whole summer of the other Marauders was giving her a stomachache.  A chilly feeling of isolation began to seep in around her.  It could have been me…

* * *

The calendar that always hung on the wall of Gryffindor common room was missing all afternoon until dinner. All the disorganized students were rushing around asking for when things were scheduled for. If Lily had known taking the calendar up to her room would have caused such a frenzy she never would have done it.

Today was the 28th of February, Lily had about three and a half months until the end of the year, and then three months of summer after that. Looking at the calendar, Lily realized something: the year had passed so quickly. Only seventh year after that, then I'm gone. It was a very sobering thought.

On her way to dinner Lily replaced the calendar in the wall in the common room. After dinner, she was spacing out from her homework, and she noticed the calendar wasn't there.

"Hey, Evelyn, have you seen the calendar?"

"Last I saw, two second years were fighting over it. Don't know why, just a plain calendar." Evelyn buried herself back in her books. Lily tried to do the same.

Suddenly, she heard a faint knock coming from the dormitories. "Evelyn, did you hear that?"

Evelyn looked up again, perturbed. "No, I didn't. You probably didn't either." She considered that, Evelyn must be right. Just hearing things, that's all. She continued to work, but she heard it again, only louder.

"Evelyn, I heard it again!"

"Be quiet, Lily! I need to work." She looked at the other people sitting around her: Cecil, Laura, Sirius, Peter, and James. "We all need to work, including you." Lily turned to protest towards the others.

"Everybody, listen to me. I know I heard something." She looked hopefully at them. Remus, Cecil, and James looked up.

"Is Lily finally going crazy? I knew it would happen, what with her weird habits, crazy talk, and that strange owl, I don't know how—"

"Sirius, you do more good with your mouth shut!" She mentally defended herself, So my owl is a little odd, Apollo never did anything wrong, except for run onto a couple of people, and so he disappears every once in awhile, but that's not anything bad! Lily turned back to her parchment and began writing furiously. When she realized she didn't have anything to write, she stopped. She knew there had been something knocking, but when she didn't hear anything for about another half-hour she scolded herself for acting like an idiot. She just returned to her books.

She actually became absorbed in her work. The little things like Peter's sneezes (he had allergies, the poor guy), and Laura leaving to go the bathroom didn't really affect her at all. She did notice, however, when a loud scream rang out from down the hall.

"Ha!" She jumped up triumphantly, spilling her books. "Who heard that?" They all stood up, but didn't have time to answer, for Laura came tearing in the room, yelling and crying. She was blubbering, and Lily had a hard time not laughing at her. Laura's mascara had just started to run, despite her attempts to wipe it away, and her hair was disheveled (a very orderly, pretty sort of disheveled, though).

Noticing James, Laura ran over to him, swung her arms around him, and cried into his shoulder. James shot a pleading look over to Sirius, who was having less luck than Lily at restraining from laughing.  Cecil, at Sirius' immediate side, gently elbowed him in the ribs in an attempt to stop him.

James was trying to calm Laura down so she would remove herself from him, but she only clung tighter. When he finally asked her what happened she repelled from him like he was covered in slime. James sat down to catch his breath, she had him on a death-grip! Laura turned to Lily, face tinted black, and accused in a screechy voice, "Your owl attacked me. That filthy, wild thing doesn't even know how to deliver letters."

Ignoring the slur on her owl Lily asked her a question: "Where is Apollo?" Laura huffed.

"How would I know, I ran from that silly thing." Lily began a fervent search of the common room. Apollo was finally found on the back of a chair, preening. Lily picked him up so he would stop scratching up the chair. When he was lifted his claws retracted, and something semi-silvery fell from them, and into the crack between the pillows of the chair.

Lily quickly forced her owl off of her, and Apollo fluttered over to perch on a different chair. Lily flung the pillow off the chair, and earned many confused stares from her friends, and the others who happened to be in the common room.

Rooting around in the back of the chair was less vile than she had predicted, the house-elves did a very good job. She felt something rather cold and immediately exclaimed, "Aha!" She continued rummaging behind the cushion while James walked over.

"Lily, what exactly are you doing, may I ask?"

The back of the chair was muffling Lily's voice, so her answer was incomprehensible, but her excited squeak was audible to the whole common room. Her head popped up, "Evelyn, Cecil, LOOK!" Her friends immediately rushed over. Even Laura wanted a look. Lily held a grubby little locket in her hand, nothing special. Though her friends wondered what it was about the small necklace that could have inspired such happiness, they didn't voice their questions.

Lily broke through the crowd of people that had encircled her and went over to her owl. Lily crooned at Apollo talking like he could actually understand. The owl, much to the amazement of James, acted as though it really did understand. He knew there was something wrong with that thing, whatever it was. It did not behave like a normal owl.

Lily's praises could be heard from all over the room. "You're such a smart owl, yes you are. You went to go look for it, and you found it. Oh, and you've been away forever. Do you want to go back to the Owlery?" The owl turned its head back and forth, and James goggled. "No? Well, then, let's go to the kitchen and see if they can make up something special for you? Would you like that, would you?" Then Apollo nipped her fingers and began to flap his wings a little, as if in a sign to go. "I thought so, let's go." And with the eyes of all the people in the common room on her, Lily ventured to the kitchens. In a split-second James went after her.

When Lily noticed James was next to her she beamed him a smile that almost knocked him off his feet. The smile, however, was for he owl. Choruses of her owl's praises were almost all she was capable of. "Isn't he smart, James? Isn't he great?" he answered yes, and attempted several times to break into her reverie. He finally succeeded.

"What exactly did he bring back Lily?" She handed Apollo to him and reached underneath her robes for the necklace that she had already put on. She popped it open, pictures of her mom and dad were inside. She shut it quickly, as if having it open was releasing some of their essence.

"They're the only ones I have left. I didn't bring pictures to Hogwarts." James immediately felt a badly about ruining her happy mood and they walked the rest of the way to the kitchens in silence. Lily placed her request with a house-elf and waited with James. He turned to her.

"Don't you think it's, well, wrong that Apollo actually knew what to look for?" Instead of being angry, she actually took it as a joke. With a laugh she replied: "Don't be stupid, James. Apollo is just smart. He may have some odd habits, but everyone has faults." Apollo bristled, and Lily reassured him with a pat on the back.

"It's not odd Lily, it's abnormal. No owl acts like that!"

"So how do you explain that it found this necklace?" Lily was still in rather good temperament, she treated everything James said as unimportant and utterly ridiculous.

"I can't explain it Lily, that's the problem," James answered, desperate. "Nothing about your owl can be explained, he's just one big mystery. Where does he go? Why does he attack people? Something is just wrong. You're being blinded with your happiness Lily. Just look at him, you'll see something's wrong too!" Something in that last part struck a chord with Lily, she practically hissed at him.

"You know what, James? You just can't be happy for me. You have to try and ruin everything." She stated it as if it were a well-known fact.

"Since when do I ruin everything, Lily. When haven't I tried to help?" Suddenly distraught, and without any sort of real answer she simply ordered him away.

"Just get away, James," she seethed. "Leave me alone. If you can't talk sensibly then don't talk to me at all." James faulted at the ultimatum.  He shrugged his shoulders and walked away.  Apollo squawked loudly and rustled his feathers, glaring intently at James' back.  After James had turned the corner, Lily looked down at Apollo.  "You stupid, stupid owl."