Chapter 5:

Lily sat alone at the bar, not touching the glass of wine next to her. Around her, the music swirled noisily, as intoxicated couples drank themselves silly and literally morphed into one another on the dance floor. James, her fiancé, was no exception.

She wondered dully why her parents had sent her here. That too, with James? Didn't they know that she and him had broken up years ago? Years ago! They had been together only for about five months, that too when they were seventeen! She was twenty-one now. She hadn't even completed Auror training! How could she just drop all of it to get married?! She didn't want to get married. Least of all to James Potter.

She looked around at the dancing people on the dance floor. Vulgar girls dressed in indecent clothing grinded with overly-ecstatic guys. James was with at least three, and none of them were her.

Although she had no remorse. She had vowed never to go on that dance floor. She had more self-respect than that. She was of a better breeding. A better family. She had at least some shame in her.

Alcohol was poison. Grinding meant children…Lily repeated this phrase over and over in her head. God, she was bored.

« ¿ • ? »

"Mother! I must protest at your extremely undignified behaviour!" Petunia had stated angrily.

Prethil Evans looked up at Petunia. "Come clear now, Petunia, what would you be referring to?"

"What more than this unjust treatment directed toward Lily?" Petunia retorted.

Lily froze, the earring dangling in her hands.

"Unjust treatment? I see no unjust treatment here, Petunia. Merely Lily adorning herself with jewellery. I see no unjust treatment in that," Prethil replied.

"Why should Lily be putting on jewellery?!" Petunia demanded. "Where would she be going that would be worthy enough of her presence?"

"Somewhere with her fiancé," her mother said. "And mind your tongue, Petunia. You are crossing your limits."

"Why shouldn't I cross my limits, Mother? You and Father crossed your limits in a stranger's home, the day you started harbouring thoughts of an alliance between Lily and that viper, James Potter!"

"Why? What is wrong to think of Lily and James' marriage?" Prethil replied coldly.

"Just the fact that Lily is being used as a pawn, rather than a daughter. Your daughter I may add."

"Then as my daughter, I have her best interests at hand, Petunia, something you cannot fathom."

Petunia laughed harshly. "I do not wish to fathom this madness in which you sell your daughter off to someone she does not approve of, added to someone who will turn her life into hell."

"Petunia!"

"Do not deny it!" Petunia said coldly. "There is no love between Lily and James anymore. Their relationship was broken years ago, when they still were in school. Your false illusions of a union with the Potters bring nothing but grief into Lily's life, to force her to spend life with a man she just shy of hates."

Prethil looked at Petunia furiously. "Petunia. Another word from your mouth will break off your marriage. Now silence yourself and take notes to ensure that in the future, you will not meddle in matters you do not understand!"

Petunia gave her a withering glance. "I tremble, Mother. But one day, you yourself will shed tears when your youngest daughter comes to your door, and speaks of all her troubles. Then, you yourself will demand the annulment of her marriage. Lily has foreseen it."

Speaking so, Petunia turned on her heel and marched out.

« ¿ • ? »

Lily felt grateful to Petunia for everything. Petunia could speak her mind clearly. A born rebel. Lily had always been obedient. She was indebted to Petunia for everything; for being her voice when she couldn't speak.

Petunia was wonderful. Anyone else would have taken advantage of her sensitive, obedient nature. Not Petunia. Rather than treating her like dirt, Petunia had always supported her, held her hand, been by her side through thick and thin. Petunia was her mentor. Her role model.

And most of all, she was her best friend.

And Lily was grateful to a fault for that.

At times, Lily wished things could be the way they were before the Evans and the Potters had started business together. She remembered back, when she was five and Petunia was seven, they were living in a homely cottage just off the Scotland border. It was a lovely, secluded, green place where birds and forest animals lived, and everything was just so peaceful…the little pond in the backyard where ducks flopped about, and the cobblestone walkway, and the forest greenery looming up in the background. It had been perfect. Life had been beautiful, the way fairy tales were beautiful. Every day, Lily and Petunia would run into the woods and make daisy chains and pretend they were princesses and take a paddle in the brisk, cool lake that flowed off in little streams from their own pond in the backyard.

The Potters had lived in conditions slightly more grand. The castle-like manor had loomed up, situated at the other end of the forest, a mere half hour's walk from the Evans' residence. Lily, James and Petunia had been inseparable, best friends forever, especially between Lily and James, there had been that special bond.

What happened to that bond? Lily wasn't sure. It had evaporated, just as the ties between her and her parents had evaporated as they sent her to Hogwarts and Petunia to another boarding school in Surrey, and they had started a business, a meek office that had somehow expanded into a vast, nation-wide empire. As the Evans' raked in their fortune, the gentle, happy family had split into a group of four people who did not understand one another – well, two groups that did not understand, or care to understand about the other. Namely Petunia and Lily to Tyler and Prethil.

Lily closed her eyes. She couldn't think about this anymore, it made her heart ache. She yearned for a simple life unadorned with this borrowed splendour. And so she lived away from home, in a little house shared with her best friend from Hogwarts, Haro Jalali. The only remorse Lily felt toward living away from home was leaving Petunia. But Petunia too had decided to move in with another friend, Yvonne Feldspar, a friend she had met at school.

Lily jolted back to reality. She found herself staring at the glass of red wine glittering in front of her. She narrowed her eyes at it.

"I hate you," she whispered to it, loathfully.

Desperate she must have been, if she had started talking to wine glasses; one might have suggested that she was drunk in her own boredom, for someone slid into the seat beside her. Lily paid the fellow no heed.

"Hey baby," came the fellow's slurred voice from beside her.

Lily ignored him, and concentrated on smoothing out imaginary wrinkles in the flowing dress she was wearing.

"Wanna dance? I know you wannit," the bloke said again. Lily felt her blood go hot with anger.

"I do not want anything from anyone in this hellhouse, least of all you. Kindly remove your presence from my sight, you are tainting my aura," Lily said, in a tone that displayed her higher upbringing.

"Hey cummon, it'll be just you and me, on the dance floor. Whaddya say?" the guy said. He leant closer to her. Lily stiffened. "No one's been able to resist me – yet."

CRACK!

In a split second, all went still in the night club as everyone watched the infuriated redhead whirl on the drunk man.

"GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF OF ME!" Lily yelled as she grabbed the glass of wine and smashed it over his head.

There was an awed silence, in which James rushed up to Lily, fury in his face.

"What the hell did you do that for?" he demanded coldly.

Lily didn't reply, she was too angry.

"I don't believe this Evans, everywhere you go, you make a scene. Can't you even learn to have fun for just one night?"

SMACK!

James staggered backward, as Lily raised her hand threateningly again.

"I can't believe I just did that," Lily said. "But I'm past caring, Potter. I hope you realize that while you were out there with your innumerable sluts, all drunk no doubt, I was over here, and the bloke was thoroughly disturbing me…leave it. There's no explaining to you people. I wouldn't be surprised if all my words went in one ear and out the other. That's how thick you are, Potter."

"You're so paranoid, it makes me sick, Evans," James said.

"And you're so shameless it makes me sick! At least one of us has to remain respectable. I don't give a damn about whatever you think or not, because quite frankly, I hope you'll burn in hell. Now get your fat ass out of my way," Lily said.

James looked a bit stunned. "Where are you going?"

Lily smirked. "As if you would care. Go on, dance a bit more. You needn't worry for my safety – a chicken has more conviction than you do, Potter."

She swung out of her chair. In three seconds flat, she had left the nightclub, and begun walking away alone, in the rainy, cold night.

« ¿ • ? »

Disclaimer: I wonder what would happen if I owned it.