Chapter 23
Letters
Lily went into her bedroom and imediatly copied a letter and adressed it to Caroline,
knowing she would be the only one who could help. It wasn't until she finished the letter that she
realized she had no owl.
Caroline,
What Am I going to do? My sister is giving me the freeze out because her boyfriend is
hitting on me. He is such a creep, and my parents love him, I think he's the son of a family
friend or something. Anyway, he's got them eating out of the aplm of his fat hand and
there is nothing I can do. he kept moving in on me and Petunia blames me!!! Anyway, I
don't think I can survive here much longer, please help me! How are things with Ben
going? Do your parents approve?
Lily sighed, shoving the letter into a dresser drawer. She crawled into her bed and fell
asleep.
Lily knocked on the door to her house, holding a large potted plant in her arms.
Petunia, but no, it was not Petunia, it looked like Petunia, except older. She was taller,
bonier, and had a longer neck if possible. Lily kissed the older version of her sister on the
cheek, giving her the plant. Petunia did not respond to the kisses, she merely turned and
walked down the hallway. Also in the front hall stood Vernon, he was also older. Rather
than getting thinner, as Petunia had done, he had grown in weight and could now be
classified as fat, not just beefy. he was round and red faced, having less that half the
amount of neck of a normal person, making him and Petunia, complete opposites, look
ridiculous side by side. Lily sat down in the living room on the sofa, across from Vernon
and Petunia. There was a baby cradle in the corner, in it was a little baby boy. He had a
round face and the makings of a Vernon esc physique. He was going to be ugly when he
was older, just like his father, but Lily did not say this, she merely smiled and commented
on how big he was getting and how fast children grow. The baby started to cry and
Petunia picked him up, carrying him into the kitchen to find a bottle. The moment that
she left Vernon moved onto the seat next to her. He lifted her hair into his hands and
began smelling it agian, whispering in her ear, "you know you want it, Petunia never has
to know."
Lily woke up and turned on her bedside light. She heard a faint tapping sound eminating
from the glass windows, muffled by the curtains. She drew back the blinds and lifted the latch to
let in a Hogwarts owl. She opened the envelope, adressed in a writing she had never seen
before. Curious as to who the letter was from, she read.
Dearest Lily,
I am very sorry to confront you like this, it is wrong of me I know. I have respected
your feelings and given you space for several weeks now, and I have not said anything to
you regarding our kiss, being sensitive to yours and James's feelings. I cannot, however,
stand this any longer. I too have liked you for several years, and it has been torture to see
you single, finally, and yet, for desencies sake, not be able to do anything about it. I
appologize again for telling you like this, but I was wondering if there was any hope for
me.
Sincerly,
Remus Lupin
That was nice of him, how sweet to write her and tell her how he felt. And he had been very
considerate towards her feelings. But could she date him? Wouldn't it be akward with James?
And did she really feel that way about him? I mean, it had been a nice kiss, and he was really
cute, but there just wasn't anything there, the kiss had only been nice because she hadn't been
expecting it. She liked him, but more in a friendly way than romantically, he was too much like
herself to date. No. It was sweet of him, but she could not date him. What was she supposed to
say to him? That she didn't like him? Because she did like him, she just didn't like him enough to
date him. That wasn't it either though, it wasn't that she didn't like him enough, it was more that
she didn't like him in the right way. But what could she tell him? Should she date him and then
break it off? That would be equaly mean. Possibly even more mean.
Lily sighed, picking up the owl and attaching her letter for Caroline to the foot. She decided
not to deal with her Remus problem just yet. Why were all of these things suddenly happening to
her this year? She had never had guys chasing her non stop before. She had been with Severus
and that was final, as soon as she had broken up with him it had become a soap opera of kissing
and confused emotions. She could pin it all down to the day she had started dating James Potter.
That had obviously been a huge mistake, a mistake she did not intend to replicate. Her clock
told her that it was 4:24 AM, she had plenty of time for more sleep until she needed to get up.
This vacation obviously was not going to be good for anything except catching up on sleep and
homework.
When Lily woke up again, she could not remember what she had dreamt. She had
remembered that her parents, Petunia, Veron, and James had all been in it. There had been a
fight of some kind. She massaged her temple, trying to remember who had been fighting. She sat
up and all the blood rushed from her head, creating an even larger headache. Lily swung her feet
out of bed and went to take a shower. This, it turned out, was not going to happen, for Petunia
already occupied the bathroom. Lily returned to her own room to start her homework. She had
just finished disiphering an ancient runic tablet, she did not have the original tablet that would
have been imposible, but the writing had been recreated in her text.
She pulled out her planner and went down the list. No more ancient runes, no herbolgy had
been asigned, potions was to write and essay on the properties and uses of the invinsibility draft
including ways it had been used effectivley and ineffectivley in the past. Lily pulled out a blank
piece of parchement and began writing. She opened the book to read more about past misuses
of the invinsibility draft. Apparently a man who had always been overlooked and shunted by the
town had taken it and destroyed the village and everything in it, all people knew were from the
few tablets that had not been destroyed due to the man being crushed under a building her had
knocked over. That was sad, the invinsibility draft wore off after a while, so what had happened
to this man was he knocked over the building, it fell on top of him, and the potion must have
worn off sometime during the process or shortly afterwards. Lily finished writing about this man,
Wimbledon Riddle, and noticed that the shower had stopped.
She stopped writing her essay and went back to the bathroom. She took a long shower,
letting the scalding water purge her of all the dirt and bad thoughts of the preceding day. At least,
that was how she liked to think of it. She knew that it did not literally purge her of all her
mistakes and sins, but at least it felt good and made her clean. She stepped out of the shower,
wrapping the towel around her and putting on her bathrobe overtop. She entered her room and
sat down on her bed. A moment later, she screamed, She was not the only person on her bed.