Easter Break

At Lily's Home

"Petunia, please let me owl Lily. I need to reply, she might think something is wrong!" Jeremy complained.

"Look runt, I have said this a thousand times, Lily can worry all she wants about you, but I will have none of that abnormally under this house. Mum and Dad might have allowed it, but I certainly will not!" Petunia was tired of having this argument with Jeremy, they had it practically every night after dinner.

"If she thinks something is wrong, won't she come home and settle it with you?" Jeremy had just thought of this, and had never used it in an argument before. It certainly seemed to get Petunia thinking.

"I suppose. Then again, she can't use magic outside of that school of hers until she graduates. I don't know what she could do." Petunia snapped back.

"I'm sure she has friends. [I]Guy[/I] friends that would be glad to pay you a visit." Jeremy knew he was touching a nerve. Petunia had never been comfortable around any guys expect ones she was friends with.

"Lily? Have friends, you have got to be kidding me." Petunia tried to sound like she wasn't worried, but she was. She knew that Lily would probably have friends, and she had heard her talking to her friend Riley about James.

"I can hear that worry in your voice. So [I]now[/I] can I owl Lily?" Jeremy tried again.

Petunia had to do some fast thinking. Lily would be coming home for Easter, she knew that. Would she bring along some friends? She certainly hadn't heard of any friends coming with her. What if she invited some over for the summer? "I suppose, but hurry. I want it delivered tonight before too many people could see an owl flying."

"Thank you!" Jeremy rushed off up the stairs to owl Lily right away.

[I]Lily,

I know I haven't owled you in a while. I had to beg Petunia, although I'm sure you had already come to that conclusion. You probably think that Chad and Jared would help, but honestly I haven't seen much of them lately. I'm not sure at all if they come home half the nights after they go out after dinner. Anyway, you're coming for Easter Break, right? I think you are, pretty sure you said you were. I can't wait for you to come. I know Petunia is afraid you will bring home some of your guy friends. Are you? Or will you wait for summer? I would love to meet them, but don't care when.

Oh yea, some new people moved in across the street. I think they were Jessie and Kelsie. Not sure their last name. They look about my age, but I'm not sure I want to get to know them. Girls aren't really my thing.

Well, I'll see you on Monday if you come!

Jeremy[/I]

Jeremy read over his letter, thought it sounded good. He attached it to the owl and sent it on his way. He hoped he would get a reply before Monday. Hopefully even tomorrow.

Hogwarts

On Saturday morning when the morning post came, Lily was surprised to see Jeremy's owl. She didn't think she would be hearing from him until she went home. The owl landed, and she took the letter from its leg. The owl just sat next to her plate, so she figured it knew Jeremy wanted a reply soon. She read over the letter quickly. When she finished, she asked people for parchment and a quill. Finally she got one of each and replied:

[I]Jeremy,

I thought it had to do with Petunia. I will deal with her when I get home. I will also have to check on Jared and Chad. They never hung out this much together, unless they are not together when they leave, but I suspect they are. Yes, I am coming for Easter Break, should be home Monday night. I'm sorry, but I will probably not be bringing any friends, although the thought of what Petunia would do is funny. Perhaps I'll have a couple of them come over the summer.

Some new kids moved in, that sounds cool. Do you think they are twins? I know girls aren't your thing, but you should get to know them anyway. They could come in handy as friends.

Love,

Lily[/I]

Lily sent off the letter with the owl, and finished her breakfast.

Spring Break

When Lily arrived home Monday night she breathed in the refreshing fresh air. The train ride had been long and boring, since there was no one really there that she was comfortable having long conversations with. She walked in the front door of her house and smelled Spaghetti boiling on the stove. She set down her bags and looked around. It seemed to be the same as Christmas, only less decorated, and more clean and bright. Lily figured Petunia had been hard at work cleaning everyday. Either that or she had Jeremy do it all. Lily would find out soon enough and deal with it.

"Lily! You are finally here! It took ages for you to arrive today." Jeremy came running to Lily and gave her a bear hug.

"It is nice to see you too Jeremy. Where is everyone?" Lily returned the hug then started to pick up her bags again.

As Lily walked towards the stairs to take the bags to her room, Jeremy started explaining that Petunia was in the kitchen cooking, Jared and Chad were in their separate rooms, supposedly napping, and he had just been playing on the computer. When Lily reached her room and had set down her bags, she asked, "Who has been doing the cleaning?"

"Oh, Petunia has whenever she has time. She is usually working now, seems that we are going to have to start paying the bills or something like that." Jeremy still had a smile on his face and didn't seem to understand the power of this statement.

"Bills? Why would we have to pay bills? Shouldn't the Will or the Government or something like that take care of it?" Lily started to get worried.

"I don't know. Petunia just keeps going on about how much there is to pay for, and that Mum and Dad should have worked harder. I usually try not to ask too many questions and stay out of her way though, so I don't know many details." Jeremy lost his smile and looked Lily in the eyes. "Is there something wrong?"

"I don't know yet. I'm going to go talk to Petunia, you just stay out of our way until dinner." Lily didn't wait for Jeremy to answer, she ran down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Petunia, what is up with you having to pay the bills?" Lily asked.

It took around five minutes for Petunia to reply, "What bills? I don't recall ever telling you that we had bills to pay." She said in an undertone.

"Well, Jeremy has heard you complaining about it, and I want an explanation!" Lily demanded.

"Why should I give you one of those? You don't live here, you are at your precious school with no worries." Petunia spoke with such ice in her voice Lily had to take a couple deep breaths to keep her cool.

"Look, I may be going to school away from home, but I still live here, and still need to be involved in what is going on. Now tell me what bills you have to pay." Lily said in her calmest voice she could muster.

"Just food, and electric and water." Petunia stated, still with the ice in her voice.

"And why is the money not coming from the Will or the Government?" Lily still was saying in her calm voice.

"Because, the lawyers will not look over the Will until I pay them." Petunia's voice calmed down a bit, but Lily could still hear the bitterness.

"Well, I will just have to have a talk with them..." Lily started before Petunia interrupted.

"Don't you think I have tried to talk to them? Don't you think I call them once a day if not more? I have tried everything; we're just going to have to wait until I get the money!" Petunia's voice was rising. Lily was sure Jeremy would hear something, and Jared and Chad if they were home.

"Quiet down! I will pay the lawyers to go over the Will; you just worry about buying food." Lily said in a voice just above a whisper.

"We don't need charity from you." Petunia's voice lowered.

"It's not charity when it is coming from your sister. I'm just trying to help." Lily's anger was rising, and she was doing everything she could to keep it lowered.

"You are NOT my sister!"

"I am too! Now, whether you like it or not, I will call the lawyer tomorrow and get the Will worked out. You can do whatever you originally had planned. Now finish dinner and I'm going to go talk to Jared and Chad." Lily left without a word and went back upstairs.

"Lily." Jeremy whispered.

"Yes?"

"Are we poor? Are we going to be homeless?" Jeremy looked so scared.

"Oh no. Of course not. I will take care of it. You just keep having fun and don't worry about money." Lily hugged Jeremy. "Now I'm going to go talk to your brothers." Jeremy nodded and Lily continued on her way.

Lily reached Chad's room first and knocked. She heard the muffled reply of "come in" and entered.

"Chad, come with me. Jared, you and me are all going to have a talk." Lily commanded. Chad reluctantly got off his bed and followed Lily. They reached Jared's room and Lily knocked. After getting the okay, she walked in and sat on his bed, Chad followed.

"Ok you two. Start explaining yourselves." Lily said.

"Explain what?" Asked Jared suspiciously.

"About where you two go every night, and why you don't always come home." Lily rolled her eyes, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh, that. We don't get in trouble or anything like that, if that is what you are thinking." Chad replied. He seemed to be reluctant to reveal too much.

"I'm not sure what to think. I know that Petunia seems to be scaring Jeremy out of his mind, and you two are never home to help him out."

"And what would we do?" Jared asked.

"Petunia is older then us and our legal guardian, it's not like we can just start telling her to back-off" Chad replied.

"You never seemed to care to talk back to mum and dad. Why should Petunia be different?" Lily asked, trying to understand.

The two boys just looked to the floor, not sure that they should say anything. Lily could tell they were hiding something.

"Well?" Lily was getting impatient, but also seemed to be calming down. She could tell there was something happening that none of them wanted to talk about, not even Jeremy. Then it occurred to Lily. "What has she done?" Her voice started to shake a bit.

"She hasn't done anything in a while. We've started to stay out of her way. We leave so that it won't happen. It always seems to happen at night." Jared was still looking at the floor, his voice quiet.

"What is it exactly she did? Is she still doing it to Jeremy? Why don't you take him with you two?" Lily's voice was full of concern.

"We can't take him. If we take him then Petunia will come after all of us, then Jeremy would be in even more danger." This time Chad answered, the same way Jared had.

"Tell me what she did!" Lily was getting impatient.

"She....she...Petunia...she gets really angry. She hits us." Chad's voice was barely audible.

"She what?!?" Lily was too angry to think. She knew she wouldn't be able to do anything by herself. She needed James, James or Sirius or even Remus, maybe Peter. She didn't really know his family or him for that matter. But one of the other's would help.

"You two stay right here. Don't come down for dinner. Don't sneak out, just stay there. Jeremy will be coming in shortly. Whatever you hear, you stay [I]in this room[/I]." The two boys nodded and Lily left. She found Jeremy and told him to go to Jared's room, they would explain what to do. She then went to her room and took out parchment and a quill.

[I]James,

As I'm sure you know some weird things have been going on in my house, I don't know if you saw anything through the mirror that I gave you, but if you haven't tell me, if you have, look into it tomorrow at dinner time, and I will start talking, even though you can't talk back. I await your return owl no later then tomorrow before dinner.

Lily[/I]

Lily re-read what she wrote and decided it sounded good. She sent it off with her owl, and went back to the boys room.

"I'm taking you three to dinner tonight. Get up and let's go." Lily said. "Oh, did you two tell Jeremy everything?"

"Yes, Lily." Jared replied.

"Okay good, now let's get going."

"What about Petunia?" Jeremy asked.

"She can stay here and do whatever she pleases. We are going to have fun!" With that the four went downstairs and out the door.

Hogwarts

In the Gryffindor Common Room and owl flew in for James. It took him a minute to read it, because he was having a very interesting conversation with a first year Gryffindor. He was asking about Lily and pranks that James had pulled in the past. James got the impression he had a crush on Lily, and was going to be an upcoming prankster, but more like Remus. Do some, but nothing too extreme. His name was Bill Weasley.

When James did get to the letter he gasped and ran straight upstairs to the mirror. It took a minute for the mirror to find Lily, but when it did he saw her dining with her brothers. Or, he assumed that was who they were; he had never actually seen them. He knew they weren't in any immediate danger, but he wanted to know what had happened to make her want to talk to him so bad. He couldn't tell by the conversation the four were having, they were talking about soccer or something like that. James was glad Petunia wasn't with them, and decided he would check up on Lily later.

That night before James went to bed he wrote Lily telling her he didn't see anything, but would still be ready at dinner time to hear her talk. Lily received the owl just an hour before dinner, and was looking forward to being able to tell James; even if he couldn't talk back.

James went up to the dormitory at 6:00 and activated the mirror. He only had to wait a couple of seconds before Lily started to talk. She was in her bedroom sitting on her bed and just went straight to the story, without saying hi or anything.

"James, Petunia has been having some anger troubles. She seems to hit my brother's when she is exceptionally mad, usually after dinner time. That is why Jared and Chad leave all the time, they say it helps her, so they must be the ones to make her mad. Jeremy also told me she is afraid that I am going to have one of my guy friends come home with me. So, I was wondering if over summer if you and Sirius, and Remus, and Peter would come over sometimes to keep her inline. Owl me when you know your answer, or wait for me to get back to school. Keep checking the mirror regularly, and I'll owl you if something important happens. Bye."

James put the mirror away and laid back. He couldn't believe what had been happening to Lily's brothers. He was glad that Jeremy would be coming to Hogwarts next year, it would give him more safety, and Jared and Chad seemed to be able to take care of themselves.

For the remainder of Spring Break Lily tried to keep the boys out of the house. She was as nice as possible to Petunia, and tried not to get aggravated with her. What were worse for Lily were all the comments Petunia would mutter remarks about how certain people should not be allowed in public and these certain people always seemed to have one same characteristic, they were known as freaks to Petunia.

Finally Lily arrived back at Hogwarts, worried about what might happen to her brother's, but she felt better knowing she had allowed Jeremy to have fun, and not worry about what Petunia would do. She used James mirror to check up on them regularly and was pleased to see it was Petunia leaving every night, and not Jared and Chad.

Exams came and went for the sixth years, and they all passed with Sirius Black, Lily Evans, and James Potter at the top of their classes. When the train ride home came, Lily was sad to have to say good-bye. James promised to visit soon, and that he would owl her whenever he could. Lily cried when she got off the train, and awaited for the next school year to start.