Chapter 6: Not All Families Are Perfect.
Everything was spinning. Lily could feel her stomach tumble and she was starting to get dizzy. She couldn't exactly see anything as it was too bright and she could feel the ash hitting her face. Then with an almighty thud, the spinning stopped and Lily could feel herself being thrust forward towards a deep red carpet, at a great force.
"Ow…"Lily muttered as she picked herself off the floor. She coughed as she felt she had inhaled twice her bodyweight in ash. Ravis screeched from inside her cage. Lily let her out and she flashed an angry glare at her and flew to sit on a perch.
"Sorry Ravis, it was the only way." Lily apologised and coughed.
"Whoa! Lily, are you ok?" said a concerned voice from somewhere in front of her. She looked up and saw James staring at her with concern, shock, and some amusement.
"Peachy," Lily managed to say and started to cough more. It was then she noticed she was absolutely covered in ash, from head to toe, and that her hair was now a matted grey instead of its normal flaming red curls. When she finally stopped coughing, she exploded.
"THAT IS THE CRAPPIEST WAY OF TRAVELLING! WHOEVER INVENTED THAT SHOULD BE HANGED! WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? TRAVELLING THROUGH A BLOODY FIRE! ASTHMATICS SHOULD SUE HIM…OR HER…WHOEVER MADE THIS STUPID FLOO POWDER!" Lily yelled, to no one in particular. She then looked at James who was shaking in silent laughter.
"JAMES! STOP THAT! I'VE HAD THE WORST DAY IN MY LIFE!" Lily now yelled at him.
"I'm sorry, but…that's just the funniest thing I've heard in ages," James managed to say through his laughter.
"James? What's all this yelling about?" came a female voice. Lily turned to the doorway and there stood a tall young woman. She was definitely James' mother. You could just tell because her warm brown eyes were identical to that of James. Her hair was long and a rich shade of dark brown, but more sleek than that of James' wild mop. She smiled at him but a startled expression followed as she took in the sight of Lily.
"Err…mum, I'd like you to meet Lily Evan's, a friend of mines from school. I'm just going to go tell Sirius and Remus that you've arrived." James managed to say without laughing, though it looked very difficult. He then walked off. James' mother motioned for Lily to have a seat, to which Lily was much obliged.
"Hello Lily, James has said that you'd be coming. It's nice to meet you." She said warmly, accepting her even though she was in such a state.
"Yeah…um…nice to meet you too, Mrs Potter." Lily replied trying to be as polite as possible, even though she felt like shit. Lily notices a sad expression cross over James' mother for a brief second, but it soon faded. She smiled at her.
"You don't need to be so formal Lily! Just call me Nancy. I can see you had quite a journey!" she smiled as Lily started to shift about a little uncomfortably.
"Yeah, it was my first Floo journey," Lily muttered.
"Oh I thought so from all you're yelling!" Nancy commented and chuckled as Lily blushed.
"Well, it's the truth! It's just so stupid that way of travelling!" Lily said defending what she thought.
"To be honest with you, I agree with you. When I first travelled with Floo, I pretty much ranted on about how bad it was afterwards!" Nancy replied. Lily smiled, James' mother was nice.
"So Lily, this is quite a small cottage and we don't have many rooms. And this is the first time James has brought a female friend to stay, so, I was wondering if you would be uncomfortable sharing a room with three boys?" Nancy asked uncertainly. Lily nearly blushed but she hid it well, but the ash did seem to hide it.
"I don't mind, Sirius, Remus and James are like brothers to me," Lily said. Nancy smiled at her in a very thankful way.
"LILY!!!!" came a loud voice from the doorway. The next thing Lily knew was that she was rolling on the floor with a grinning Sirius.
"Get off me Sirius!" Lily screeched and kicked him off.
"Honestly Lily! Is that how you treat your brother-like friends?" Sirius grinned.
"Shut up!" Lily snapped and hit him upside the head. Remus and James laughed at their antics. Nancy smiled at them. Lily was most definitely a tomboy, so she'd fit in just fine here.
"Why don't you four go clean up, and I'll get dinner ready," Nancy said.
"Alright mum." James said. The three boys helped Lily with her luggage and they headed towards what must have been James room.
As James opened the room, Lily looked around in awe. The room was a dark blue and silver and it was littered with posters of Quidditch teams. There was a hanging mobile by the window with moons stars and planets and it had one side of James' room was totally devised to keep all his prank utensils in. Four hammocks were side by side. And the room was really messy, but what would you have expected with three 11-year-old boys sharing a room? This was Lily's haven.
"God this room is perfect! James…I am jealous," Lily announced.
"You should be." James said proudly with a grin.
They helped Lily unpack and Sirius was intrigued by Lily's guitar, he'd never actually seen a muggle instrument before. It was now horribly out of tune since Lily travelled with Floo Powder, but Remus pointed out that Nancy could probably tune it magically.
Lily washed up and put on her favourite baggy trousers and green top. She tied up her red curls in a loose ponytail and headed towards the dining room. The cottage was small, but very homey and Lily liked how it had warm dark colours rather than the bright colours she had to put up with back at her home. Lily sat herself beside Remus and Nancy brought in the last dish for them. Lily vaguely wondered if Mr Potter would be joining them but kept her mouth shut. The meals prepared were similar to those in Hogwarts but they were homemade. It was nice.
"Alright, I'm going to sound really stupid, but where exactly are we?" Lily asked. Her home was in Dorset, and she didn't exactly know where Godric's Hollow was. The snowfall was a lot heavier outside so Lily was thinking she was up north somewhere.
"We're in Scotland actually, in a small area known as Abriachan. Not too far off Inverness." Nancy replied.
"It's cool up here. Because the muggles all around here are old and when they see me and James around with magic stuff, they think it's just their imaginations." Sirius commented.
"People here are really superstitious though. It turns out most of them are true. My mums been accused of being a witch, so has Sirius' for that matter. Also, when people annoy us me and Sirius set the kelpies off." James said with a slight smirk.
"Which you really shouldn't do, gets us into ever more trouble!" Nancy said in a scolding tone.
"Where about do you live Sirius?" Lily asked.
"Not too far off, just on the other side of the woods." Sirius said pointing out a small house on the other side.
"What about you Remus?" Lily asked.
"I live a little south of here, just pass the lake," Remus stated.
"I'm the odd one out, again. I live in Dorset, all the way south in England." Lily muttered.
"Aye, but yer one of us now, Lily. A Northerner." Sirius said in his best Scottish accent.
After dinner they all headed towards James' room and played a few games. Betting too. As always, Remus won all rounds of chess, although James did come close to beating him. Sirius and Lily were on a heated round of Exploding Snap. And when Sirius won, Lily was convinced he cheated. This lead to a 'friendly' brawl. After James and Remus held the arguing pair back, they decided to play Gob Stones. James and Remus sat between Lily and Sirius, because any slight snicker Sirius made would ensure him with a black eye if they weren't separated.
Soon enough, the night took it's toll on the four friends and they set off to sleep. Lily lay on her hammock, but just couldn't sleep. She liked the hammock, it was very comfortable, but her conscious kept her awake. Her guilty conscious. James seemed to have a perfect relationship with his mother, and he was probably the same with his father. But what was she like? She had left her own home in a raged anger, but was it really just her parents and sister's fault? Lily sighed…anger management classes may actually do her some good. But her parents had asked her to not be herself, they wanted her to put on a façade and act like a prissy perfect girl. They just didn't want her to be herself. Lily frowned and rolled over in her hammock and falling off it. Lily winced as she had landed a little obtusely and her wrist was very sore now. Hands helped Lily up and she stood facing James.
"It takes a while to get used to a hammock," James stated, smiling a little at her.
"Right, remind me to not toss and turn on a hammock," she smiled, brushing away some of the curls in her face.
"A tapping on the window caused them both to turn and Lily saw her black owl outside. She opened the window and let her in. Her owl had a pissed off expression on it's face, clearly still not happy with her since the Floo Powder incident. Lily thanked her took the letter.
Lily,
Where are you? Please dear, come back home. We're all really worried. Your mother passed out when you left and it took me quite a while to acknowledge what happened. Your mother was going to send a police search for you, but we knew that you'd probably gone somewhere safe, seeing as your owl flew back to us. Please come home dear. We miss you terribly.
Love Dad.
James read the letter over her shoulder and looked at Lily with a confused expression.
"You didn't ask if you could come here?" James asked her questionably. Lily shook her head guiltily and looked up at James with a sad expression. She put away the letter.
"Why?" James asked again.
"I needed to get away from them." Lily answered straight. "That week at my house was a living hell. Especially since the truth spilled out."
James took her hand and they headed towards the kitchen. He started to make her a hot chocolate drink as her eyes were turning empty and cold with the thoughts of her family.
"They're not happy with me James. They never have been. To cut a long story short, they told me that if I didn't change, if I didn't change my personality or character, they would disown me." Lily said. James stared at her in shock as he handed her some hot chocolate with whipped cream.
"I'm sure it can't be that bad," James finally managed to say.
"It is James. Do you know who they want me to be more like? Petunia…my bitchy little sister! Apparently she's obedient and well behaved and doesn't have a single flaw to her. She's just so perfect. My dad basically said my behaviour is crap and that they wouldn't tolerate me if I continued being who I am. And just now, that letter, all it said was they wanted me to come home, no apology whatsoever." Lily said angrily. Lily drained her cup of the hot chocolate very quickly.
"Well Lily. I have to admit, your behaviour isn't always perfect." James started. She glared at him.
"Oh and yours is?" she asked sarcastically.
"No. I'll admit that too. But listen Lily, I'm siding with you on this. Don't change your personality, in my eyes; it's one of the greatest around. You're funny, witty and I'm sure you have quite a lot of intelligence behind that skull of yours." James said encouragingly, smiling at her. He grinned as he saw her blushing.
"Thanks James." She managed to utter.
"Any time Lil." He replied.
"James, I was wondering, um…where's your dad?" Lily asked. James's expression changed for a second, but he sighed. It was only fair he told her, she had revealed something about her family after all. James took a seat beside her on a kitchen stool.
"Well, as you can probably see, my mum is younger than most mum's around. My mum had me when she was quite young. I think she was 19. Well, after I was born, my mum had decided to tell my dad, but he had already married. So, he now pays child support and visits when he can. He'll be coming this Christmas, for a day or two. I don't actually expect him to come around a lot, since he now has a family of his own. I've never met my step-family, but I'm sure they're nice enough." James said. Lily's eyes widened. James was mature about the subject, even though he did seem immature at school.
"Whoa…dammit! I feel really stupid now! I called your mum 'Mrs Potter.'" Lily muttered.
"That's ok…Miss Potter, Mrs Potter, it's an easy mistake. She prefers being called Nancy anyway. But Sirius has dubbed her – Nance." James smiled. He then yawned tiredly. "I don't know about you, but I'm tired." James said sleepily.
They both headed to their respective hammocks and fell asleep. Lily woke up early the next morning to write a letter to her own father.
Dad,
I'm sorry about running off like that. I was just really angry and annoyed that day. All because of dearest Petty, poisoning my mind with garbage. Anyways, don't worry about me. I'm staying at a friend's house from school. Everyone's being nice to me and I feel happy. I actually promised my friend that I'd visit him on the train while we were coming home, and I can't break a promise. So I'll stay here until school starts. Ask Mum not to worry, I'm fine here. I'll see you whenever. Merry Christmas!
Lily.
Lily looked at her letter, and frowned a little. She set her quill on the paper again.
Love Lily.
***
A/N: Hey all! I thought this chapter would be sweet. After all the confrontations in the last chapter, I had to make this one sweet. And there are some slight hints of L/J! At the nice young age of 11. But nothing too serious will happen soon. ::hears you all moan about the lack of romance to come in the next chapters:: Bwahahahaha! I'm evil I know, but when the romance comes, it will smack you right in the face. Oh! And the more serious drama will come when the romance comes too! Aren't you all excited? ^_^ Anyways…I'm contemplating on making the next chapter a nice fluffy Christmas one or move them all back into Hogwarts. You decide! Tell me in your reviews? Ok? Or, if you don't want to review…e-mail me with your decision! ^_^