Disclaimer: All characters that share the names with anyone in the Harry Potter series belong to J.K. Rowling, her publishers, the folks making the movies, and anyone else to whom JKR has sold the rights. Likewise the locations and scenery. I make no claim to any of it, and thank JKR for allowing me to take her ideas out to play with every once in awhile. Any characters/locations/scenery not sharing a name with anyone in the Harry Potter series belong to me. If you would like to use them in one of your fan fics, please ask my permission. Thank you!
Seventeen-year-old Lily Evans smiled as she opened the letter
from James that had arrived this morning with breakfast. As she
read, she found that this letter, like those that she'd received
last summer, was filled with the latest exploit of James and his
three best friends, Sirius, Remus and Peter, who had dubbed
themselves the Marauders. James and Sirius, the ring-leaders of
the group, were easily the two brightest students in their year,
rivaled only, perhaps by Remus and Lily herself. Their talent had
given James and Sirius an arrogant confidence that had led her to
find them insufferably conceited and annoying. Her opinion of
James and his friends had changed, however, and their first date
had been the last Hogsmeade weekend of their sixth year, although
they hadn't told any of their friends until they'd
returned to school that fall.
Unlike his letters of last summer, however, James had included in
this letter news surrounding the activities of Lord Voldemort, a
dark wizard who last month had announced that he had assembled an
army of dark creatures, witches and wizards to destroy the
Ministry of Magic, and purge the wizarding world of all
muggle-borns (like herself), and half-bloods (like James). The
news about Voldemort was not good--2 more disappearances, the
death of 43 muggles that was being blamed on a factory fire, and
the torture of a Ministry of Magic official. Lily shivered
involuntarily as she read this information, not at all happy that
her suspicions about the factory fire had been confirmed.
Following his run-down of Voldemort's activities, James had
written a little about Dumbledore, and his efforts to fight
Voldemort, but explained that he knew very little, and was
allowed to say even less. He had signed the letter "With all
my love, James." Lily's heart skipped with excitement as her
eyes traveled over those words, and she thought back to the first
time, barely a week ago, that James had told her that he loved
her.
They had been standing on the platform by the train that was to
take Lily back to London for Christmas Break. James had been
trying to convince Lily to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas,
thinking she would be safer there. "Now that he's announced
his intentions, Lily, and he's surrounded himself with very
powerful witches and wizards who support him, he'll be even more
bold with his killings," James had said.
"I still can't believe that Alice's grandpa was right all
along. If the ministry had listened to him six years ago when he
started telling people what was happening, he'd never have been
able to get the power--"
"Well the point is that they didn't, did they, Lily?"
James said, a little impatiently. "Nobody listened, and now
we're dealing with the consequences--and the reality. And the
reality is that your parents are muggle-borns, Lily. Even though
you may not be targeted, because you're not much threat to him
yet, one of his followers might decide to kill you off just for
fun. You're vulnerable in London. Please stay at
Hogwarts..." His voice trailed off.
"I know all of this, James," Lily had responded gently,
"But I have to go home. I promised my parents, I can't just
back out on them. They're expecting me!"
James looked disappointed, but didn't push the issue. He grabbed
her arm and looked into her eyes. His eyes, usually care-free and
dancing with mischief, were as serious as Lily had ever seen
them. "Then promise me that you'll be careful, all
right? Swear it, swear it to me right now. I--I love you, Lily. I
couldn't bear it if anything happened to you."
Lily was vaguely aware that James had wanted her to swear that
she'd be careful, but she couldn't just now. She was taken so
off-guard by what James had just said that she would be lucky if
she could even remember her own name at that moment.
"You--you love me?" she repeated, starting at him.
"You...love...me?" she asked again, her voice
shaking.
James nodded. "Since the moment that I saw you watching me
on Platform nine and three-quarters when we were
eleven-years-old," he replied. "You just weren't ready
to hear it until now. Well..." he paused, looking suddenly
uncertain, as if it had just occurred to him that she might not
feel the same way about him. "At least...I thought you were
ready to hear it now..." his voice had trailed off, and the
confidence with which he always carried himself seemed to have
deserted him.
Lily felt a swell of emotion rise up in her chest that she
couldn't explain. "No," she said, still staring at him.
His hand dropped from her arm, and he looked at her, startled.
"No, I was ready to hear it," she added hastily,
realizing that James thought she was telling him she didn't love
him. "I mean, I am ready. I am ready to hear it. I...I love
you, too, James."
A sharp knock at the door drew Lily's thoughts abruptly, and most
unpleasantly, away from James, and back to the present. She
carefully folded up her letter and placed it into her trunk
before yelling "yeah, come in!" The door swung open to
reveal a tall, blond girl with a horsey-face and a neck that was
much longer than a normal person's. "Hi Pet," Lily said
warmly to 15-year-old Petunia. Petunia was Lily's sister,
although you wouldn't be able to tell it by looking at them. In
contrast to the young woman standing in the doorway, Lily had
thick auburn hair, a wide, even smile, and a very normal amount
of neck. The most startling difference between the two women,
however, was their eyes. While Petunia's were an unremarkable
pale blue that hardly anyone would notice, Lily's were a striking
emerald green that most people noticed immediately.
"I just came up here to let you know that dinner's ready.
Mum told me to have you set the table, but I'm sure you can just
conjure up whatever we need," Petunia said bitterly.
Lily chose to ignore Petunia's comment, and instead smiled and
motioned for Petunia to come into the room. Petunia flinched as
though Lily had tried to punch her, and Lily sighed deeply.
"Come on in, Pet, I promise I won't hurt you. I haven't even
got my wand out," Lily added with a small laugh.
Petunia did not laugh. "I'd rather not," she replied,
her eyes narrowed with distrust as she gazed around at the odd
assortment of items laying around Lily's room. In the corner
stood an empty cage that was normally home to Lily's owl,
Romulus. The bookshelves were lined with volumes of books with
tiles like "Ancient charms for Modern Witches" (Alice
had bought that for Lily in their fifth year, when Lily had
decided that she wanted to work for the Charms Department at the
Ministry of Magic after Hogwarts) and "Transfiguration Made
Easy" (James, whose best subject was transfiguration, had
bought that one for Lily in their third year, to tease her about
it being her worst subject). Her trunk stood open by the wall,
and along with an assortment of quills, parchment and robes, a
variety of bottles labeled with odd names like gillyweed, dragon
blood, and armadillo bile were spilling out of the top. Petunia's
gaze lingered on Lily's wand, which was lying harmlessly on the
dresser at the moment, before looking back at her sister with
mistrust in her eyes. "Besides, you'd better get downstairs.
Mum's waiting."
Lily sighed deeply again. There was a time when Petunia would
have jumped at the chance to come into her room and listen to
Lily explain about all of the stuff that she had with her.
Petunia used to spend hours asking Lily about her classes, trying
on her robes, and looking through the books that Lily would check
out from the library and bring home especially for Petunia over
break. Petunia's favorite books had always been those about
magical creatures. She had loved learning about dragons,
hippogriffs, and any other manner of extraordinary creatures. All
of that had changed, of course, the summer of Petunia's 11th
birthday.
When Petunia had been 9-years-old, Lily had received her letter
informing her that she'd been accepted into Hogwarts. Her parents
quickly agreed to the change in schools--they had been planning
on sending Lily to the local public school--but Petunia had been
very distraught at the idea that Lily would be away from home for
such a long period of time. Lily had consoled Petunia (and
herself) by insisting that the separation would only be
temporary, and that Petunia would be joining Lily at Hogwarts in
two short years. Petunia had been so excited about this thought,
that Lily kept quiet her fear that Petunia had never exhibited
the same magical ability that Lily had, and insisted to herself
that Petunia would end up coming to Hogwarts, too. When the
summer of Petunia's eleventh birthday had come and gone without a
sign of a letter, both sisters had been devastated. Lily had
tried to console Petunia, but she hadn't wanted Lily around.
Lily's parents tried to be practical, telling Petunia that she
should have known all along that she didn't have Lily's talent,
and insisting that Smeltings, the private school in which they'd
decided to enroll her, was perfectly suitable for a little girl
without magical ability. "Can't we just consider ourselves
lucky," Elizabeth Evans had asked after one particularly
trying tantrum by Petunia, "that we have even one witch in
the family? Not everybody is that lucky." But of course,
that had only made matters worse.
Lily had gone off to Hogwarts that fall disappointed that Petunia
wasn't with her, and worried about how her sister would do at
Smeltings. She sent Petunia letters every week, and had brought
home twice as many books as usual at Christmas break, hoping to
cheer her up. To Lily's surprise, and considerable dismay,
Petunia had not wanted to look at any of them, even the book
about unicorns, which had always been her favorite magical
creature. Petunia had avoided her for most of the holiday, except
to occasionally remark how happy she was that she wasn't at
Hogwarts, because at least at Smeltings she wasn't in Lily's
shadow.
Lily, hurt beyond measure by her little sister's behavior toward
her, had gone back to school unsure of what to do. She had
eventually decided to stop sending her letters, fearing Petunia
would think that she was only "rubbing it in" if she
did, and to give Petunia some space to work out her
disappointment. Unfortunately, Petunia's disappointment did not
fade, and the following summer, her attitude had been colder than
ever toward Lily. Their relationship had steadily deteriorated as
the years had gone by until, to Lily's constant regret, they were
virtually strangers.
Lily looked at Petunia sadly. "I'd have given up Hogwarts
and everything it's given me if I'd have known this ability was
going to cost me my sister, Pet."
Petunia snorted. "You'd give up James?" she asked,
derisively. "I don't think so." Lily felt a pang of
guilt inside her. If she were truthful, Petunia was right. He was
the only thing that she was not willing to give up for her
sister.
"That's not fair, Pet," Lily said quietly. "I'd
never ask you to give Vernon up for me."
"Oh, I'm not asking you to give up your boyfriend,"
Petunia replied venomously. "You're assuming that I want to
be your friend, Lily. You have this habit of thinking that
everyone is jealous of your wonderful little life..."
"And you have this habit" Lily retorted, her temper
flaring as all of the rage and fear that she had buried inside of
her since Lord Voldemort had announced his presence came bubbling
to the surface. "of assuming that your greatest problem in
the world is that your sister has magical talent and you don't.
You are too self-centered to see that everyone, including you,
are facing much bigger problems in Lord Voldemort!"
"Lord Voldemort?" Petunia shot back, her voice rising.
"Why on earth should I be afraid of him? I'm a muggle,
remember? I'm to unimportant for him to be concerned with!"
"You might tell that to the 43 people who died at
Grunnings," Lily retorted. "Lord Voldemort's followers
were responsible for that--or didn't you know? That's their idea
of fun, Petunia." Lily was breathing hard, anger still
running through her veins.
"You know perfectly well that it was a factory fire that
killed those people," Petunia snapped, "so stop trying
to scare me with that nonsense."
"Nonsense, is it? Have they found the cause of the fire yet,
Pet? Read the autopsy report, those people didn't die of smoke
inhalation. They were tortured and killed because Voldemort's
death eaters were bored."
"That's not true!" Petunia insisted, but her voice
faltered. "You're--you're just trying to scare me. Voldemort
is your problem, not mine. And anyway, if freaks like you didn't
exist," she continued, with sudden inspiration,
"Voldemort wouldn't be anyone's problem!"
Lily looked as though she'd been slapped. "You don't mean
that, Petunia," Lily said, her voice suddenly quiet.
"You can't mean that you wish I didn't exist... I know we've
had our share of problems, but you're still my sister..."
Lily trailed off, unable to believe that Petunia hated her so
much that she wished she didn't have a sister.
"I do mean it, though" Petunia repeated, folding her
arms stubbornly. "Why do you think I haven't had anyone from
school out to the house? Why do you think you haven't met Vernon
yet? Because, Lily I wish you didn't exist. As far as they know,
and as far as I'm concerned, I don't have a sister!" Petunia
spun around and walked out of Lily's room, leaving Lily staring
unbelievingly after her.
