Chapter 24 - Life Goes On
Three mornings later, Lily sat down on the sand and just looked over the ocean, towards the horizon, remembering all of the good times that were spent sitting on this beach, laughing, playing, joking, and talking. And remembering how much her father loved the ocean.
Ever since she could remember, she had always been puzzled on why he was always so captivated by this particular element. Even though she represented the ocean, the sea, and everything that was water, even though her power was drawn from this element, she could never figure out why he found the ocean so alluring.
Until now that is.
Looking at it, seeing it rise and fall, made her realize, no matter what, after battles are fought, after lovers are separated, and after deaths, the world still goes on, the earth still beats its ever energetic rhythm. Everything is still moving. The world doesn't stop just because you lose something.
Her father would have saw, and appreciated the significance of that. He would have lived by that single rule; No matter what happens in your life, the world still turns and breathes. It still lives.
Lily slowly raised herself from the sand and walked towards the surf. She stopped walking when the water raised to her knees, and raised her arms and readied to jump in.
"No, Lily!" Sirius yelled upon seeing her in the water.
"Lily! No! Don't!" James and Kayla screamed as they all began to sprint down the beach towards her, which wasn't easy considering they were running on lose sand.
Lily turned around with a confused expression towards her friends and then laughed with realization. 'They think that I'm going to kill myself,' she thought to herself.
The trio sloshed into the water, braving the force of the tide and stood before her panting and trying to look at her dangerously at the same time.
"I'm not going to kill myself you idiots!" she said with a smile towards them. Lily turned away from them and looked out over the ocean, and then turned back with a smile on her face. "Come swim with me," she said with a grin and turned back around once again. She looked over her shoulder to see James, Sirius, and Kayla look at her blankly.
Lily smiled to herself and dove under the incoming wave. She surfaced a yard or two away from them and yelled out, "Come on you wussies!" That of course got their attention, and they soon followed her example, and dove underwater towards her.
The rest of the morning was spent for the first time since any of them found out about the death of Mr. Nicolas Evans having fun, acting like children, and splashing and making noise in the water. Truth to say, they were having the time of their lives dunking each other, racing each other, and had even more fun when they bribed, and tricked Remus and Aria to come and join the fun in the water.
"Lily Nicole Evans! If I didn't know better, I'd say that the Cammy in you has broken out once again!" Lily's mother yelled out in amusement.
Lily stopped in the act of dunking Sirius and looked at her mother in astonishment. Her mother sounded happy! Just then though, Sirius decided not to waste the opportunity and dunked Lily. She came back up sputtering, glared at Sirius and splashed him before turning back to her mom.
Lily quickly thought of a reply - of course, it had to be cheeky! "But Mum, I just wanna be her for one day," she yelled back with a grin. Lily and Camilla would always pretend when she was still alive that they were the other twin, so Lily would be Cammy, and Cammy would be Lily. It drove their parents nuts!
Lily got the answer she wanted for that, a smile. "Come in, the water's great! I'll race ya!" she yelled out again. She looked down and muttered to herself. "And maybe this time I'll actually win."
The next time that she looked up though, her mother was gone! Lily looked everywhere, to her left, to the right, she scanned the beach, the walkway up to the house, and she wasn't anywhere. Lily lowered her eyes from the top of the walkway and looked in front of her, and screamed in surprise. Her mom was treading water right in front of her.
Lily slapped a hand on her heart in an attempt to get it beating again. "Don't DO that!" she yelled breathlessly. She heard six chuckles, and turned around to glare at her friends, then her mom. She then grinned. "Same distance as always, and same marker?" she asked her mother.
Lily's mom had been on a swim team from when she saw 12 till she was 26, and she had always done the last leg, and Lily had been trying to beat her for the longest time. She would come in a second later, but never before her.
Alexandra grinned at her daughter and in the chirpiest tone she could manage said, "Yep!" she then turned to James and smiled at him. "James, darling, would you mind judging who wins?" she asked.
James face looked stricken. "Oh, no. No, no, no, no. No way are you getting me into this. Last time I had to decide the winner, I got my head practically bitten off! No! Pick Sirius, he's used to getting abused by females!" he cried out.
"Yay!" Sirius said. "I'll do it, Alley Walley!" he said in a singsong voice to Alexandra.
"Good. Now, will you start us?" she asked as she and Lily lined up. Sirius nodded and counted. "Uh. 1! What- oh, 2! Lets see, the next number is 3!" he yelled, and then the two women were off. No one could tell who was in the lead from where they were treading water, but they had a feeling that it was Alexandra. Lets just call it a hunch.
They doubled back, and they could see that they were right. Alexandra came in close to a millisecond before Lily did. It was actually funny, Lily was treading water, breathing deeply, glaring at her mother, while Alexandra was doing much the same, except she was grinning.
"How . . . Do . . . You . . . Do that?!" Lily panted out.
"Years and years . . . of practice my love." She said, only slightly winded from the extrusion.
Lily continued to glare at her mother, then cried out, "One of these days I am going to beat you Alexandra Marie Evans!" Her mother gave her a chuckle, leaned over to give her a peck on the forehead, and said, "I'm going in to eat. I came out to tell you guys that lunch is in the garden if you're hungry."
"Food!" the three boys yelled in unison before they started to race for the shore.
The four girls rolled their eyes and settled for a slower pace to the shore. "Oh, Hurry up!" was the muffled cry from the beach as the girls swam.
Lily chuckled to herself and decided that she was going to let James be the first to get lunch and lengthened her strokes as much as she could, having just finished about a mile worth of racing.
Lily surfaced in the shallow water, and waded her way up towards the beach, her jean pants heavy with water, slowing her down more than she bargained that they would. She looped her arm through James's and steered him towards the stairs.
"You know," she said as they walked. "Jeans can get really heavy when they're soaked." Lily looked at James and tilted her head. "It makes you feel as if you just gained a hundred and fifty pounds within two seconds," she said with a nod of her head.
James raised his eyebrows and looked down at her. "You're weird, and you come up with some of the craziest things that I've ever heard. And that's saying something seeing as I have shared a dorm room with Sirius for six years and have had been in the same room as him more times than God himself can count," he said. "And that is why I love ya," he added with a smile when he saw her eyes begin to narrow. It didn't help.
"Don't think that you're going to get away with that Mr. Potter. To believe that anyone can come up with weirder comments than Sirius is unthinkable!" she said in a huff as they neared the table that was set up in a clearing in the gardens.
"No, don't say anything, just stuff your face with food." She told him with a wave of her hand when he opened his mouth to say something in his defense. He must have decided that he was better off keeping his mouth shut because he closed his mouth, smiled at Lily, kissed her quickly on the cheek, pulled out her chair for her, then pushed her in, and then sat down next to her and began to pile food a mile high on his plate.
Lily's nose scrunched up in disgust at the mixtures of food that he had on his plate, in her opinion, peas, broccoli and Linguini with red sauce on it. She shook her head and took some of the Linguini and red sauce and put it on her plate and started to eat.
~*~*~*~*~*
Later that night, Lily sat in her room on the window seat, looking out the window at the star filled sky. She heard her door click open and glanced over to see Kayla, Aria, James, Remus and Sirius filling in around the door. She smiled and beckoned them in.
James decided to sit in the chair across from her, while Kayla decided to make Lily lift her feet so that she could sit on the window seat too, and Sirius took the twin to James' chair and sat across from Kayla. Remus decided to sit on the floor, while Aria sat down on the floor and leaned against the window seat.
They ended up staying up into the small hours of the morning, talking and laughing about old memories, at Sirius, and just enjoying each others company for the first time in what has been months.
The last thought that went through Lily's head as she drifted off to sleep was that this was the most that she had laughed in the past week, and she missed it.
~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: I hope that this changed the mood a little for you guys! I tried my hardest to do so. And since I've already been asked this, the last conversation - the one after they get out of the water - was just something that I put in to fill the space. It doesn't have any significance to this story.
Oh, and I just thought that I'd let you know that I'm not stopping this chapter until the end of 7th year.
Thank you for all of the lovely reviews.
Mistress del Mare
Three mornings later, Lily sat down on the sand and just looked over the ocean, towards the horizon, remembering all of the good times that were spent sitting on this beach, laughing, playing, joking, and talking. And remembering how much her father loved the ocean.
Ever since she could remember, she had always been puzzled on why he was always so captivated by this particular element. Even though she represented the ocean, the sea, and everything that was water, even though her power was drawn from this element, she could never figure out why he found the ocean so alluring.
Until now that is.
Looking at it, seeing it rise and fall, made her realize, no matter what, after battles are fought, after lovers are separated, and after deaths, the world still goes on, the earth still beats its ever energetic rhythm. Everything is still moving. The world doesn't stop just because you lose something.
Her father would have saw, and appreciated the significance of that. He would have lived by that single rule; No matter what happens in your life, the world still turns and breathes. It still lives.
Lily slowly raised herself from the sand and walked towards the surf. She stopped walking when the water raised to her knees, and raised her arms and readied to jump in.
"No, Lily!" Sirius yelled upon seeing her in the water.
"Lily! No! Don't!" James and Kayla screamed as they all began to sprint down the beach towards her, which wasn't easy considering they were running on lose sand.
Lily turned around with a confused expression towards her friends and then laughed with realization. 'They think that I'm going to kill myself,' she thought to herself.
The trio sloshed into the water, braving the force of the tide and stood before her panting and trying to look at her dangerously at the same time.
"I'm not going to kill myself you idiots!" she said with a smile towards them. Lily turned away from them and looked out over the ocean, and then turned back with a smile on her face. "Come swim with me," she said with a grin and turned back around once again. She looked over her shoulder to see James, Sirius, and Kayla look at her blankly.
Lily smiled to herself and dove under the incoming wave. She surfaced a yard or two away from them and yelled out, "Come on you wussies!" That of course got their attention, and they soon followed her example, and dove underwater towards her.
The rest of the morning was spent for the first time since any of them found out about the death of Mr. Nicolas Evans having fun, acting like children, and splashing and making noise in the water. Truth to say, they were having the time of their lives dunking each other, racing each other, and had even more fun when they bribed, and tricked Remus and Aria to come and join the fun in the water.
"Lily Nicole Evans! If I didn't know better, I'd say that the Cammy in you has broken out once again!" Lily's mother yelled out in amusement.
Lily stopped in the act of dunking Sirius and looked at her mother in astonishment. Her mother sounded happy! Just then though, Sirius decided not to waste the opportunity and dunked Lily. She came back up sputtering, glared at Sirius and splashed him before turning back to her mom.
Lily quickly thought of a reply - of course, it had to be cheeky! "But Mum, I just wanna be her for one day," she yelled back with a grin. Lily and Camilla would always pretend when she was still alive that they were the other twin, so Lily would be Cammy, and Cammy would be Lily. It drove their parents nuts!
Lily got the answer she wanted for that, a smile. "Come in, the water's great! I'll race ya!" she yelled out again. She looked down and muttered to herself. "And maybe this time I'll actually win."
The next time that she looked up though, her mother was gone! Lily looked everywhere, to her left, to the right, she scanned the beach, the walkway up to the house, and she wasn't anywhere. Lily lowered her eyes from the top of the walkway and looked in front of her, and screamed in surprise. Her mom was treading water right in front of her.
Lily slapped a hand on her heart in an attempt to get it beating again. "Don't DO that!" she yelled breathlessly. She heard six chuckles, and turned around to glare at her friends, then her mom. She then grinned. "Same distance as always, and same marker?" she asked her mother.
Lily's mom had been on a swim team from when she saw 12 till she was 26, and she had always done the last leg, and Lily had been trying to beat her for the longest time. She would come in a second later, but never before her.
Alexandra grinned at her daughter and in the chirpiest tone she could manage said, "Yep!" she then turned to James and smiled at him. "James, darling, would you mind judging who wins?" she asked.
James face looked stricken. "Oh, no. No, no, no, no. No way are you getting me into this. Last time I had to decide the winner, I got my head practically bitten off! No! Pick Sirius, he's used to getting abused by females!" he cried out.
"Yay!" Sirius said. "I'll do it, Alley Walley!" he said in a singsong voice to Alexandra.
"Good. Now, will you start us?" she asked as she and Lily lined up. Sirius nodded and counted. "Uh. 1! What- oh, 2! Lets see, the next number is 3!" he yelled, and then the two women were off. No one could tell who was in the lead from where they were treading water, but they had a feeling that it was Alexandra. Lets just call it a hunch.
They doubled back, and they could see that they were right. Alexandra came in close to a millisecond before Lily did. It was actually funny, Lily was treading water, breathing deeply, glaring at her mother, while Alexandra was doing much the same, except she was grinning.
"How . . . Do . . . You . . . Do that?!" Lily panted out.
"Years and years . . . of practice my love." She said, only slightly winded from the extrusion.
Lily continued to glare at her mother, then cried out, "One of these days I am going to beat you Alexandra Marie Evans!" Her mother gave her a chuckle, leaned over to give her a peck on the forehead, and said, "I'm going in to eat. I came out to tell you guys that lunch is in the garden if you're hungry."
"Food!" the three boys yelled in unison before they started to race for the shore.
The four girls rolled their eyes and settled for a slower pace to the shore. "Oh, Hurry up!" was the muffled cry from the beach as the girls swam.
Lily chuckled to herself and decided that she was going to let James be the first to get lunch and lengthened her strokes as much as she could, having just finished about a mile worth of racing.
Lily surfaced in the shallow water, and waded her way up towards the beach, her jean pants heavy with water, slowing her down more than she bargained that they would. She looped her arm through James's and steered him towards the stairs.
"You know," she said as they walked. "Jeans can get really heavy when they're soaked." Lily looked at James and tilted her head. "It makes you feel as if you just gained a hundred and fifty pounds within two seconds," she said with a nod of her head.
James raised his eyebrows and looked down at her. "You're weird, and you come up with some of the craziest things that I've ever heard. And that's saying something seeing as I have shared a dorm room with Sirius for six years and have had been in the same room as him more times than God himself can count," he said. "And that is why I love ya," he added with a smile when he saw her eyes begin to narrow. It didn't help.
"Don't think that you're going to get away with that Mr. Potter. To believe that anyone can come up with weirder comments than Sirius is unthinkable!" she said in a huff as they neared the table that was set up in a clearing in the gardens.
"No, don't say anything, just stuff your face with food." She told him with a wave of her hand when he opened his mouth to say something in his defense. He must have decided that he was better off keeping his mouth shut because he closed his mouth, smiled at Lily, kissed her quickly on the cheek, pulled out her chair for her, then pushed her in, and then sat down next to her and began to pile food a mile high on his plate.
Lily's nose scrunched up in disgust at the mixtures of food that he had on his plate, in her opinion, peas, broccoli and Linguini with red sauce on it. She shook her head and took some of the Linguini and red sauce and put it on her plate and started to eat.
~*~*~*~*~*
Later that night, Lily sat in her room on the window seat, looking out the window at the star filled sky. She heard her door click open and glanced over to see Kayla, Aria, James, Remus and Sirius filling in around the door. She smiled and beckoned them in.
James decided to sit in the chair across from her, while Kayla decided to make Lily lift her feet so that she could sit on the window seat too, and Sirius took the twin to James' chair and sat across from Kayla. Remus decided to sit on the floor, while Aria sat down on the floor and leaned against the window seat.
They ended up staying up into the small hours of the morning, talking and laughing about old memories, at Sirius, and just enjoying each others company for the first time in what has been months.
The last thought that went through Lily's head as she drifted off to sleep was that this was the most that she had laughed in the past week, and she missed it.
~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: I hope that this changed the mood a little for you guys! I tried my hardest to do so. And since I've already been asked this, the last conversation - the one after they get out of the water - was just something that I put in to fill the space. It doesn't have any significance to this story.
Oh, and I just thought that I'd let you know that I'm not stopping this chapter until the end of 7th year.
Thank you for all of the lovely reviews.
Mistress del Mare