Wow, that was cool. I've never had so many encouraging reviews! Anyway, sorry for the delay, I normally would have updated earlier, but my high school basketball team has been undefeated, which has never happened in the existence of me, my friend got sick, I had tests, and I went to this play that my friend was in. for those of you who don't already know, Shakespeare is very funny, but he's also a very big pervert. The last line of "taming of the shrew" is "come, let us go to bed", and yes, it was meant to be what you think I mean. But, that's probably not very important to you guys, so here are the review replies.
KTSweep08: uh huh, sure you knew that that was going to happen. Right.
WritingsOfATeenageDramaQueen: aww, poor you, homework sucks.
apotterlover: thank you. Like most fics, it gets better as it gets longer.
Elizia: thank you! Sure I'll help you. When I published the first chapter of hidden lives, I forgot how to add a new story, which is different from updating, so it took me forever to figure out. You probably already found help, but if you still need it, then let me know in your review, and I'll email you.
Zaliee: I think it's safe enough to say that everyone's glad that she didn't adopt him off; I know that I am!
Runaway Spirit: sorry about the author's notes, it's a habit that I'm trying to break. I guess it's because I love to talk, and since I can't actually talk on the computer, I use author's notes to use my voice. You see, I talk WAY too much for my own good, just ask my teachers!
Serlene: thank you! I was going to end this chapter differently, but I thought that this fit really well.
Lala: aww, shucks, you didn't need to say that, not that I'm not glad that you did! I'm glad that you like my fic. I like your fic; I like your pen name!
Shang Warrior Phoenix: THANK YOU! Someone who understands that grammar isn't everything.
Aelotia: thank you I like your pen name. It's very mystic! Does it mean something?
Hidden Lives
Those who care can be found
Lily had hardly managed to get much without going over her budget (she could hardly pay the rent for her apartment, most times). All she managed to get was a portable crib and a stroller, along with all of the other necessities that are required for a baby (diapers, bottles, ect, you get the point). She had finally gotten all of the stuff arranged in her apartment so that she could move (her apartment was tiny) when Joanna stopped by to see Harry.
A year later
Lily was still living in her itty bitty apartment with a growing baby. Having Harry had kept her from crying at night, and it kept her from thinking of James, but it had still left the emptiness. Harry was getting bigger, and not to long ago, he had learned and had taken to tearing the apartment to pieces. So, now, Lily was working a full time job to support them both, which was getting exhausting, because she had to bring him to work with her, not having enough money to hire a baby sitter. She was still living in her apartment that she could barely afford to pay for. She still had the same job, which she loved, but she still would see James from time to time, so she'd have to hide Harry whenever he came around. The only problem was, now that Harry had use of his legs, he would not always be where Lily had left him. They had had several close calls where Harry almost ran straight in to James had one of Lily's friends not turned the corner at the last minute and picked him up before he could be seen.
Life for Lily was now becoming a nightmare. It was the busy as could be, and, with Harry walking, he should get anywhere in the ministry while Lily's back was turned. Whenever this happened, of course, Lily would have to chase after him, which would draw her away from her work. In the end, she'd get less work done because she'd been hunting Harry down, so she'd get less on pay day. It was a cycle, more or less.
One particularly tiring day, Lily was sleeping at her desk when she someone shook her awake. She looked up to see James staring down at her. "Lily, Joanna needs you to have…"
Startled, she started to look for Harry, to hide him, so that James wouldn't see him, but he wasn't in his office. She began tearing apart her office in search while James continued to talk, but Harry wasn't there. She ran out of her office, looking down the halls, not noticing that James was yelling after her, but Harry was nowhere within the Aurors' offices. She ran through the floor, opening doors, turning over tables, running into people's offices that she didn't even know, but he wasn't anywhere she looked. Finally, after checking numerous floors, she reached the lobby, where she finally saw the small mass of black hair through the large amounts of people who were trying to get home. She ran after him, and just barely had his hand in hers when Lily ran into a man carrying a huge stack of loose parchments, knocking them to the floor.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying attention… I was trying to catch up with my son and…" she stuttered. She looked up to see the man she had crashed into holding Harry in his arms, trying to get him to calm down. The man, she recognized, was Arthur Weasley. "Oh, that's quite alright, this is the worst time, when they've just learned to walk, you can never turn your back on them or they run away at first chance." He said, smiling.
'Well, you'd certainly know,' she thought to herself. From what she had heard, Mr. Weasley had 6 children, twins included. "Yes, it's been worse then ever lately. I can't work because I have to follow Harry everywhere, and I can't follow Harry everywhere because I have to work! I almost never have any time to do anything but run after him. Even at home; he gets away, which is almost scary, because it's almost impossible to get around my apartment, much less run away."
"You do look exhausted. Can't he at least stay home with someone some days?" Mr. Weasley asked.
"Oh, I'd be singing the halleluiah chorus if I could, but I'm the only one who can take care of him at home, and I can't afford to hire a babysitter, so nope. No one to watch him but me." Lily told him. She, of course, didn't want anymore people glaring at her the way most did when they saw her walking by with Harry alone, so she left out the part with James dumping her.
"Oh, that must be hard. Lily, isn't it? Lily Evans?" he questioned. Lily nodded. "Lily, I'm sure that must be hard, taking care of Harry by yourself. Would you come over for dinner with my family? You look like you could use it."
Lily looked at Mr. Weasley as though he had just told her that the world was coming to an end; jaw dropped and everything. Had she just been invited to dinner? To not have to grab Harry, drag him home, feed the both of them, then spend the last 3 hours of the day trying to get him to calm down and sleep through the night was almost as good as knowing that she would, somehow, be back together with James one day.
"Well, I don't want to impose or anything…" she started to say, but Mr. Weasley shooed it off. "Oh, nonsense, we always have room for guests; you wouldn't be imposing! Please, I'm sure that you could use the break, and my family would be happy to actually know someone that wasn't a sibling, so I'm sure they won't mind. I must warn you, though, the twins tend to be a bit loud, so do beware." He said, turning to one of the fireplaces where people were flooing home to their homes.
Mr. Weasley walked into one of the fireplaces, said "the burrow", and disappeared in the flames. Lily muttered "the burrow" and was covered in flames.
At the burrow
Mrs. Weasley had welcomed Lily and Harry with warmth that Lily knew could only come from mothers who know what they're doing; one thing that Lily greatly admired, as she knew nothing in that category.
The first thing Lily noticed upon entry at the Weasley's was that she fit in very well. Every single one of the Wealsey children had hair so red that it could stick out like a sore thumb in a crowd. Also, they all seemed to know how to yell well enough that people in Japan probably heard as they roughhoused. Lily used to be a very loud person, but being unhealthily tired tended to keep her quiet.
"Mum, Fred's trying to cut off Charlie's head with his scissors, and I told him to stop, but George tackled me!" Said one of the children, running onto the kitchen.
"It's not my fault that Percy's being a tattle-tale; I was just trying to give Charlie a surprise haircut. Besides, it didn't work." Said Fred, supposedly. One of the other children, Charlie, Lily thought, came in to the room with odd chunks of hair sticking out and parts missing.
"I didn't want a haircut, thank you very much! And, your stupid scissors did too work, look at my head!" Charlie pointed at his head.
"Oh, come on, Charlie! It's not that bad, Fred's hand just slipped because a certain someone distracted him. Look at the bright side, it'll grow back eventually!" said another child. Lily thought it was rather amusing to watch them fight; it reminded of something she had once done to her sister, Petunia, when she was little, but it had a bowl of bright orange jello instead of scissors. Orange jello showed up much brighter in Petunia's blonde hair, brighter then Lily had expected.
"Fred, stop trying to give people haircuts or I'll take away the scissors! George, stop tackling people when you disagree with something. Percy, you don't always need to come to me for every little problem. Charlie, well, watch your back when you feel people pulling on your hair." Mrs. Weasley screamed out so that the feuding would stop.
It was only then that any of the children even noticed that Lily was watching the entire thing. George, she thought, walked up to her and poked her, as if to see if she really existed. "Who are you?" he asked, looking up at Lily. Lily thought for a minute.
"I am a salesperson trying to get your family to buy chainsaws. Who are you?" Lily asked, jokingly.
The little boy obviously didn't get the joke, but a mischievous look spread across his face, anyway. "I'm George Weasley. What's a chain saw? Would it help shave someone's head?" he asked, nodding in his brothers' direction.
"Yes, it would help give someone a buzz cut, but it'd probably cut their head off at the same time. Might I suggest trying to suck it off with a vacuum?" Lily questioned, jokingly. She had learned from dating James that she was a sucker for pranksters.
George thought for a moment. "Well, that depends. What a vacuum?" he asked. Lily laughed.
"You should probably wait and let your brothers' hair grow back before you do anything else with it." George shook his head.
"I just want to keep Percy occupied. Do you think that a vacuum could suck him up entirely?" he asked. Lily laughed again.
"I'm afraid not. I think that your brothers a bit too big to fit." She told him. George turned around and walked up to Percy.
"Ha ha, you're fat!" he yelled before running away, Percy chasing after him. Lily smiled.
"Mrs. Wealsey, would you like me to help with dinner?"
"Oh, of course dear. Why don't you set Harry down with Ron in the living room? Ron's the little one."
Lily walked into the room where Percy was still chasing George for calling him fat, and Charlie was chasing Fred, who, as well, was running after the taller of them all with his scissors, obviously ready to give another one of his brothers a bad hair day.
The only one in the room that wasn't running from or for someone was a baby, about Harry's age, watching his brothers running and crashing into things. She sat Harry down nest to him and went back to the kitchen to help Mrs. Weasley.
Through dinner, Lily, who was sitting next to Bill, the tall one, watched as they would argue all through dinner. Fred or George would say something insulting to Percy, who would then call for his mother, only to be replied by Charlie, who would suggest that maybe Percy just ignore them. Percy, though, would say something about not being able to ignore someone who is so loud, but, by then, Bill would get in on the conversation and tell Percy to stop being such a tight-wad and that Fred and George should shut up. There would be a silence between all of them until one of the twins came up with something else to say. In Lily's opinion, it was a never ending cycle.
The only one seemed to be quiet at all was Ron, the baby, who didn't seem to be able to talk yet. He and Harry seemed to be getting along quite well, though, even if nothing could be said.
After dinner, Fred and George had gotten Lily to talk about the pranks she could remember James and Sirius pulling when she was in school to see if it would work on their brothers. Sadly, none of them worked, but the twins were fun to watch anyway.
Lily was about to thank Mrs. Weasley before taking Harry home, but Mrs. Weasley pulled her back into the kitchen. "Arthur told me that you've been having a hard time bringing Harry to work with you everyday, since he has just learned to walk. Mind my asking, how come you can't leave him at home with someone else?" Lily had only just met Mrs. Weasley, and she never talked about what had happened with James, but she felt that it was building up, and she'd rather trust Mrs. Weasley with something like that then someone who knew less on the topic of comforting someone in need, so she told her.
Lily sighed. "well, I would leave him at home, but my boyfriend, Harry's father, left before I even knew about Harry, so I can't leave him with James." She said, looking down to the ground. Anyone who she had told that didn't know Lily very well looked down on Lily after she told them, but Mrs. Weasley just smiled and patted Lily's back.
"I figured something like that. It must be difficult having to chase after Harry everywhere, you can leave him here you need to. You'd get more work done if you left him here during the day, have dinner, and then take him home. Do you think that might make it make work easier?" she implied.
Lily could feel half of the weight lifting off of her shoulders. "You mean, you'd keep him feed the both of us, and keep him while I'm at work, for free?" Lily must have looked pretty desperate, because Mrs. Weasley laughed.
"Well, yes. It seems that you have a problem taking him to work, hiding him from, James? Yes, hiding him from James, and getting work done at the same time, but if you didn't have to take care of Harry during the work day, it would take care of two of those problems."
"Oh, Mrs. Weasley, I don't know, I mean, you already have to take care of your own children, I don't want to burden you…" Mrs. Wealsey interrupted. "Oh, nonsense, he won't be a burden at all! He already fits right in with Ron, and he'll get to know the others when he's older. So, would you like to leave him here?"
Well, what would you say if you were offered some time to your self if you hadn't in a year? Lily said yes, of course, but Mrs. Weasley still had to correct her, to call her Molly.
The situation worked out quite well. Harry got to make his first friends, and Lily got more work done. Getting more work done meant more money went in the account that Lily was preparing to buy a house. The apartment had always been small, but it had lately been getting unbearable.
It had been almost a year since Lily had met the Weasley family, and they had already grown as close as family to her, including Ginny, the youngest and most recent addition to the Weasley's. Harry had gotten to go to a place that he enjoyed every day, and Lily knew that he was safe.
Harry was talking fluently, and he had past his second birthday.
Lily had finally saved enough money to buy a house for Harry and herself. They had needed to move out of the apartment before they could move into the house, so Lily's bed was recently being replaced by the couch inside the burrow.
Lily had fallen asleep to the dripping faucet and was sleeping soundly when she woke to someone tapping her arm lightly. She rolled over to see Harry smiling up at her. "Mummy, can I ask you something?"
Lily smiled. "You already did, but go ahead." Harry crawled onto the couch next to her. "Mum, why does Ron have a dad and I don't?"
Lily sighed. "I knew this was coming." The truth was, she wasn't sure how to tell him. She knew it would come, but so soon? Lily had thought about that since the day she brought Harry home. She didn't know when or how, but she knew that she had to tell Harry the truth someday.
"You do." She said, plainly. Harry looked up at her, confused.
"I do? How come I don't know him? Does he know me?" Harry asked, quickly.
"We got into a fight before you were born and he left. No, you don't know him, and no, he doesn't know you." Harry thought about this for a minute.
"Why did you get into a fight?" Harry asked again. Lily shrugged. "I don't know, we just did." Harry frowned, and was silent for a minute.
"Will I ever get to see him? Do you think that I'll like him, or that he'll like me?" Harry questioned, curiously.
Lily started to stroke Harry's head. "I don't know, but it'd be nice if you did get to meet him some day. I think that he'd love you very much, and vice versa." Harry looked away from Lily for a minute before he spoke again.
"Does he love you?"
This almost brought tears to her eyes. She knew that she loved James; she knew that she always would, and she knew that James used to tell her the same, but that was then, and this was now. After all, he was the one that caused the break up, that had separated them both. James could have easily left Lily behind, moved on, forgotten all about her, leaving Lily nothing but a memory. He might not even remember the love they once had. Enough time had gone by; he might already be married to someone else and have a family of his own, one that he knew about, that is.
Lily heaved a big sigh. "I don't know, Harry. I just don't know." Harry nodded.
"What's his name?" Harry asked. Lily almost had to stutter saying his name.
"His name is James Potter."
Ok, you guys are probably thinking 'well, did that take you long enough?' but I've been SO busy. I really need to update on "the joys of discoveries", so you might not hear from this fic for about a week or two, but I'm still trying!
Julia :)