Until We Came
By: Naeginnie6
A Re-Written Version
Chapter One:
Lily Evans sighed as she looked out of her window. She had fallen asleep. Again. "That's the third time today, Petunia."
Her sister Petunia grumbled and awoke from her sleep, wiping away some loose spittle from the corners of her mouth. "Huh?" she said groggily.
"I said, 'That's the third time today, Petunia'. Weren't you listening?"
"No." came the short, flat reply. "Third time of what?" Petunia asked in annoyance.
"That I've fallen asleep." Lily waved a hand in a sweeping way at the passing landscape that was whizzing by the car. "I mean look at it, Pet. What do you see?" Lily's green eyes bored in to Petunia's grayish ones.
Petunia looked out the window, listening to her younger sister. As long as she had to bear this whole stupid trip, she may as well bear it along with her sister. "Erm…" she said as she stared out the window. "Dirt?"
"No. Well, yes, actually. But… flat. You see flatness. Don't you Petunia? There has not been one single hill since we left the Brook. Not one, not one whatsoever."
Petunia looked out the window and sighed. "No… we left the hills a long way back, Lily. We left many things. The hills, my friends, Jimmy, our home, our life, our school, our teachers, our relatives, that old trunk Mum loved so much, the-"
Suddenly, the small metallic green car came to a screeching halt on the abandoned road. "WHAT?" The intent face of Maryanne Evans peered at her daughters from behind the drivers' seat. "WE LEFT THE TRUNK? THE ONE THAT MY GREAT-GRANDMOTHER GAVE TO US?" She let out a holler of frustration.
Slowly the car turned around in the middle of the road. They started speeding away in the opposite direction of where they were supposed to be going.
"Mum, what are you doing?" Petunia and Lily both asked at the same time.
"I'm going to get that trunk," she spat.
"But Mum," Petunia reasoned, "we've already been traveling for four hours. If we stop now, we won't get there till past midnight! I mean, it's 4:45 already, if we go back, we're loosing four hours, plus we'll have to strop for dinner, and we still have four more hours to go anyways!"
The car slowly came to a stop. "I suppose you're right…" Maryanne said slowly.
"Yeah Mum!" Lily piped up. "Just go back and get it tomorrow."
"Alright." Maryanne decided. "But if it's not there you two will be skinned alive."
With that, the small Evans car sped down the abandoned strip of highway once more.
~*¤*~
When the Evanses pulled into the driveway of their new Victorian house, Lily gasped. "It's beautiful!" she cried lovingly.
"Well, I don't like it one bit," Petunia scowled, though her eyes said different. Lily figured she was just sour about moving away from all her friends.
It was true; Lily did have a lot of regrets about moving. For one, she was miles and miles away from her best friend Christine. But, she thought with a wry smile, that's much too much formal! Chrissy was the best friend she had ever had, and she figured, that she ever would have. Lily was very popular at her old school, St. Margot's. She had a lot of friends, but she wasn't rude or snotty. She really loved it back there. But, then again, on the other hand you've got starting over on a new slate. Nobody knew about her here; she could tell them anything, such as she tames tigers, and they'd take it for granted that it was true. Of course she didn't tame tigers, but… it would be rather interesting to see what people thought about that.
She picked up one of the few boxes they had, and blew a strand of red hair away from her pale face. She idly started carrying it towards the house, humming songs to herself, and picking out her room. She decided the room at the very top. Almost the attic. Only, this was larger than the normal attic. And, since it was an old house, it had two secret passageways that she had found while searching around. One, a spiral staircase hidden behind what looked to be a dusty closet door, led to the kitchen. Another, this time concealed by a wall (actually, it was a door that blended in to look like the wall) led to a balcony that would otherwise be accessible. It overlooked the back yard, and wrapped around to the side of the house, which looked into the neighbors' yard.
She decided it was time to get the other boxes, then she would eat, and explore around her room a little more. She ventured downstairs, to find three chairs pushed against the back wall, and her mother and Petunia were trying to push the heavy glass-and-wood table to the wall also.
"Er… do you guys want any help?" Lily asked uncertainly, eyeing her tomato-faced relatives with a questioning eye.
"Yes, dear, thanks." Her Mother panted against the side of the table. "Petunia, d'you think you and Lily could try and move it a few more centimeters? I need Advil…" Maryanne Evans let out a pitiful moan and headed towards a room full of boxes marked "MEDICINES".
"Ok, Pet, how have you been moving this thing?" Lily asked, hands on her hips, surveying the room with quirk, darting eyes.
Petunia sighed. "By pushing it." Her eyes showed a mixture of frustration and anger.
"Ok, I'll try and help…" Lily sighed as she looked at her thin arms.
The two sisters leaned their backs against the table and pushed as hard as they could. Occasional grunts and moans emitted from them, but otherwise, all their breath was trying to be saved-- who knows how long they'd be doing this!
Finally, Lily stood up. "Eurgh! This stupid table!!" She gave it a kick and it went sailing across the room.
Both girls gawked at the table.
"Did that just happen?" Petunia asked unbelievingly.
"What?" Maryanne asked, walking through the door.
"Lily… she just… got frustrated at the table, so she kicked it and-" Maryanne shot a Look at Lily as she cowered behind Petunia, blushing slightly, "- it just… SAILED across the room! Not only slided, but SAILED!"
"Lily? Is this true?" Maryanne asked.
"Well… yes. I don't know how it happened though!"
"Hmm…" Maryanne looked down at her child, now babbling away excuses, and decided she was being truthful. "Let's just eat on the floor, girls."
~*¤*~
After a quick dinner of ham-and-cheese sandwiches, Lily went up to her room to explore, just like she had said. She opened a box of sweaters and sweatshirts and through a load of overspilling Styrofoam crunchies, pulled out a green fleece one that matched her eyes.
She thought about what'd be like living here. 'I'll go out on the balcony thing. The stars will be shining and shimmering in the dark black sheet that is night. The moon light reflecting off of the pond will shine on me. The boy next door will come out, and see me, eyes brought out by the color of my sweatshirt, and immediately fall in love. I'll like him too, but play hard to get. Eventually…' she mentally shook herself. What a day-dream. It's late, but… ha. No boy next door, I'll bet.
She ventured out onto the balcony. There was still a faint breeze, enough to make her shiver slightly. She looked over to the house next door. It too was a large white Victorian house, with the same balcony loking things. There was also a person on the adjacent balcony.
A boy person.
Lily perked up. It wasn't that she was boy-crazy, but enough that she'd take that extra minute or two to just look at them. And after all, she was new! She needed company.
The boy looked over and spotted her. "Hey you!" Lily pointed to herself.
"Me?"
"Yes, you! Come here!"
"I can't… I have to be at my house. My mum wouldn't let me."
"Oh," he said sadly. "Okay then."
"Oh…" Lily hated to see people sad. "Well, I suppose you could… come over here. Just keep it down! My mum doesn't need to know about this!!"
The boy smiled and nodded and disappeared into thin air, it seemed. She looked over a found that he was, in fact, sliding down a pole that led out of his balcony. She had to laugh. He seemed like such a likeable person.
He started to run over to the house that Lily was now inhabiting. He jumped up and clung to the wall. Oh, wait, no. It was a trellis, and growing up the side was ivy.
The boy finally got to the top, and was breathing slightly hrader.
"Hi," he said. "I'm Potter. James Potter."
Lily giggled a bit. "Evans. Lily Evans," she said, imitating his smooth style.
He laughed. "You just moved here, correct?"
"Yeah. So far it's ok, but we've only been here a few hours."
"Oh. Well, did you want to move here?" James asked.
"No, not really. We lived in Cheshire before. But, my dad kinda… he hit my mum. So, we moved. As fast as we could. I still like my dad, but… I can't forgive him. I just can't."
"Oh. I'm sorry." The boy said awkwardly.
"Oh, it's ok, really," Lily said.
"Well…" they both said at the same time. "Oh," they said again. Then they laughed.
"I probably should go. Maybe would you like to have dinner tomorrow?" James asked.
"Sure! I'd love to."
"Only one thing… there's a lot off weird stuff at my house. And you'll want to dress up, if you can, 'cuz my parents have this 'proper breeding' thing… I dunno. Well, I'll pick you up at your door around 6:00. Is that ok for you?" James asked.
"Yeah, that's fine! I'm looking forward to it." Lily said honestly.
"Great! One more thing…" James said. "Does the words 'Hogwarts' mean anything to you?"
Lily laughed. "No, that isn't a word, James!"
James looked a little down-cast.
"I was just kidding you know," Lily said comfortingly.
"Oh, yeah. I know, it's not that. It's just… Well, never mind"
~*¤*~
A/N: So, what do you think? Better? Worse? Too short or too long? PLEASE Review!!