Chapter 3: Vernon Dursley and Remus Lupin
Lily Evans sat on her bed, depressed. It had only been a week of summer break, and she was already deeply missing Hogwarts. Lily always hated the summer after the first year that she was at Hogwarts. She hated living at her house; it was very boring for her if none of her friends were over there. Her summers would be much more enjoyable if only she wasn't the only witch in the family, she hated being muggle-born. She missed the magical world so much, she would almost be happy to see James Potter. Lily did love her parents a lot, and she did always miss them during school, but seeing her parents wasn't worth getting stuck sharing a room with her older sister Petunia. Petunia was three years older than Lily, she had short blond wavy hair, she had very pointy features, and an unnaturally long neck. When Lily was younger she idolized Petunia, but as she got older she realized how rude, stuck up and nosy her sister was.
Petunia was having her new boyfriend Vernon Dursley come over that day. The previous day Petunia had lectured Lily to act normal for about an hour. As Lily did not want to be in Petunia and Vernon's company for very long she just stayed in her room and watched T.V. and wrote her two best friends, Claire Young and Mariah Jennings about how annoying her sister was. Claire had long wavy blonde hair, big brown eyes, a very small nose, and she was very skinny. Claire did not get the best grades in school, she could if she really tried but she was always too busy flirting with boys. Mariah had shoulder length choppy black hair, bright blue eyes, and was not skinny, but definitely not fat. Personality wise she was the complete opposite of Claire, she got very good grades and was very concerned about her schoolwork, and she was very shy around boys. Even though the three girls could be very different at times, they were the best of friends.
When Lily's mother, Julia called her down for dinner, Lily groaned and slowly made her way downstairs and into the dining room. Lily saw an enormous boy with a very bushy mustache for someone only nineteen years old sitting in the chair next to Petunia that Lily would usually sit at when her family would at together. Lily sat down in the fold up chair her parents had added to the table so it could seat five. Her parents had made spaghetti for dinner, and Vernon was already getting seconds, and Petunia had barley touched hers. Vernon glared at Lily as she dished herself some spaghetti she assumed that Petunia had told him that she was a horrible and very weird girl. Petunia always told her friends this before they would come over, so they would know that Petunia was nothing like Lily. Petunia's worst fear had always been to be abnormal.
In between bites Vernon would occasionally throw out comments like, "Not to be rude, but Lily your hair is an awful shade of red, you might want to dye it," or, "Mrs. Evans, that blouse is not very complimenting on you, you might want to get something a higher neckline." Along with these insults however he would also throw in compliments to his girlfriend (which would usually insult her parents too) like, "I don't know how Petunia got so beautiful, you two must have been attractive when you were younger, I just hope she always looks like this!"
Lily's parents did not like Vernon very much, but they were very polite to him all the same. Julia and Robert Evans had always been very big on having good manners, so even when someone else had terrible manners they would not comment, keeping their manners was very important to them.
After dinner Lily retreated back to her room. When she got back her owl Einstein was already back with responses from Claire and Mariah. Both of their letters were very sympathetic, and they both said they wanted to get together with her soon. Lily wrote them each one more letter, they were both identical other than who they were addressed to:
I just had dinner with Vernon; he was horrible and kept insulting my looks when he looks like a walrus! Anyways we need to get together. I'd invite you over but it would be extremely boring, please tell me when I can come over to your house or something, or maybe we can go shopping. Anyways I hope your summer has been better than mine so far!
Love,
Lily
She tied both letter to Einstein and he flew off with the letters instantly.
Lily then turned her T.V. back on and continued to watch while she waited for Einstein to return. Lily did not like T.V. very much, but it was her only form of entertainment when she was at home. Deciding that none of the shows on was remotely interesting she ended up watching some beauty pageant. When the winner had been announced Lily heard a tapping on her window. Einstein had returned with Claire and Mariah's replies.
Lily walked over to her window and let Einstein in. She untied the two letters and read Claire's first:
Lily,
I'm sorry to hear about how horrible Vernon was, he sounds like a downright dog! Mariah is coming over Wednesday next week; you can come over then if you like. My boyfriend is coming over too, you can meet him, well you already know him, but you can find out who he is! He is said he is going to ask two of his friends to come, but he wouldn't tell me who they were. I hope you can come, send me a letter as soon as possible!
Claire
Lily set down Claire's letter, wishing she didn't have to wait until next week until she saw Claire. Lily then read the letter from Mariah:
Lily,
I'm sorry that your summer has been terrible so far, I would invite you over, but I don't think you want to come, my brother Brett just turned seventeen and he is enchanting everything in sight, including people! But if you don't mind I'd love to go shopping at noon (my dad can take us), and maybe stay the night tomorrow (I need to get away from Brett). Send me your answer as soon as possible!
Sincerely,
Mariah
Lily was very happy after reading the letter from Mariah, she was so glad that she would be seeing one of her friends tomorrow, she knew her mom would let her stay the night. Before she responded Lily went downstairs and into the living room to ask her parents.
Julia and Robert Evans were sitting squashed together on the couch with a Vernon taking up a very large amount of space on the couch, and Petunia was sitting on Vernon's large lap.
"Hey mum, do you think my I can go shopping with my friend Mariah tomorrow, her parents will bring us. And can she spend the night?' Lily asked.
"Of course honey, is that all?" Julia said.
"And I wanted to know if I could go over to my other friend Claire's house Wednesday next week?" Lily asked.
"Yes, we aren't doing anything then so of course you can," Julia answered.
"But mum, I don't want her friend to come over! I should have a say in this, I mean she'd be sleeping in my room too, and I don't need anymore freaks in my room, just having Lily in there is hard enough!" Petunia complained.
"Be nice to your sister Petunia, and you know that you had friends spend the night in there plenty of times when Lily didn't want them in there, it's only fair dear," Mrs. Evans said.
Lily went back up into her room and wrote letters to both Claire and Mariah and watched T.V. until 11:30 she set her alarm clock for ten, she didn't want to sleep in too late and then she went to bed.
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Lily woke up at ten to her alarm clock and got up. She got dressed and went downstairs. She was happy to see that her mom was making bacon and eggs for breakfast, which was Lily's favorite.
Lily sat next to her sister on the couch who was watching some soap opera, and waited for breakfast to be ready.
Lily had to endure about fifteen minutes of the soap opera before breakfast was finally ready. Lily didn't know when she got so hungry, she was starved. She gobbled down her bacon and eggs and even got seconds, usually Lily got full without eating very much at all. But while she was in the middle of her seconds Petunia ruined her meal, "Vernon's coming over again tonight, I hope none of you mind."
"I do!" Lily exclaimed, "That bastard wouldn't stop insulting us! "
"You know he was being polite, he wasn't being rude! He was just stating the truth," Petunia shot back.
"Well I'm sorry but I have to agree with Lily on this one," Mr. Evans said, "but I will let him come over, I'd hate to be rude and tell him he can't come when Lily has a friend over. I will show manners, even if he doesn't."
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At exactly 12:00 the doorbell rang. Lily jumped up and answered it. Mariah and her dad were standing in the doorway, "Hi lily!" Mariah said excitedly. Mariah had a very little bag in her hand that was about the size of her palm. Mariah always brought that bag to Hogwarts; it would hold an infinite amount of objects. She held up her bag and said, "Can I put this in your room?"
Lily led Mariah to her room. Petunia was sitting on her bed, talking on the phone to her boyfriend. "Is she a little…crazy, who does she think she's talking to," Mariah whispered.
"I'll explain later," Lily whispered back, she didn't want to explain how a phone worked in whispers.
Mariah and Lily left the room after Mariah set her little bag on Lily's bed. Lily came back downstairs and her parents were sitting on the couch with Mariah's father, deep in conversation. When Mr. Jennings noticed the girls had come downstairs he said, "Well it looks like I should go drop these girls off, what time do you want me to pick you up and bring you back here?"
"Three O'clock sounds good," said Mariah.
"Three O'clock it is then," her father answered and they all walked out of the door.
"I didn't know you guys had a car," Lily said as they were getting inside Mr. Jennings's car.
"Oh well my wife decided that it would be a good idea to get a car a few years ago," he answered.
Mr. Jennings drove them to an archway leading to Hogsmeade and drove off.
Before they went shopping the girls went to the Shrieking Shack. The Shrieking Shack was a very beat up shack, that you would occasionally hear howling and growling when you walked by. It was said to be haunted. The truth about the Shrieking Shack had to do with Remus Lupin, but of course Lily and Mariah knew nothing about this. Every full moon during the school year, before he would turn into a werewolf, Remus would be snuck into the Shrieking Shack from a secret passageway underneath a tree. The tree was the whomping willow, the tree would swing at people if they came too close, unless they pressed a certain knot on the tree that would make it freeze, allowing Remus to slip inside.
"You know what's weird about it?" Mariah asked Lily.
"What that it's haunted?" Lily answered.
"The Shrieking Shack wasn't built until our first year at Hogwarts, I wonder why they built it," Mariah said, wondering what the secret about the Shrieking Shack.
"I don't know," Lily said, "Come on, let's go shopping.
By the time it was 2:30 the girls went to many stores and had their pockets full of different candies and magical items. They both agreed that they had shopped for long enough they decided to some butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks, a very popular pub in Hogsmeade. After they finished their butterbeer it was 2:50 and they made their way to the archway to wait for Mr. Jennings.
The girls sat on the curb talking while they waited. Mr. Jennings showed up right on time and the girls got in the car and Mr. Jennings drove Lily and Mariah to the Evans household. When they reached Lily's house Mariah gave her dad a hug and the two girls walked into the house together.
Mariah let out a startle scream when they walked inside; Petunia was on top of Vernon, making out violently. Petunia let out a much longer, angry scream, and Lily pretended to puke.
"GET OUT YOU FREAKS, HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF PRIVACY!" Petunia screamed at the top of her lungs.
"Well if you want privacy while you make out, don't do it in the living room," Lily said calmly.
"Where am I supposed to go, you never knock or anything when you come in my room!" Petunia said angrily.
"You are such a retard Petunia, it is my room too, go in the bathroom or something if you really feel you need to make out with Vernon. Although I don't have any idea why you would want to make out with a walrus," Lily said, glaring at Vernon.
"At least I don't look like my head is on fire," Vernon said very rudely.
Lily rolled her eyes at that, "Come on, I thought you could do better than that, you see I like my hair, so I don't care if you don't."
"Yeah well I don't think anyone other than you in the whole world would like your hair!" Vernon spat back after thinking about what to say (which took him about fifteen seconds).
"I like her hair; I think it's really pretty!" Mariah said, standing up for her friend.
At that the Lily and Mariah left, feeling they had definitely won the argument. Lily and Mariah sat on Lily's bed and talked about how horrible they each had it at come.
"You see how horrible they both are," Lily said annoyed at her sister and her boyfriend.
"Its not as bad as getting all of your hair cursed off," Mariah said feeling her head, "I had to wait until my parents got home so they could fix it!"
"At least you could fix it, once when I was about five or something my sister cut off most of my hair. I had to wait months for it to grow back, not hours for my parents to go home," Lily said, knowing that her hair experience was much worse.
"Yeah well when I was out shopping with my dad and my brother my brother did the jelly legs curse on me and left me, it took my dad three hours to find me. It may not have been that long, but having jelly legs for three hours is not any fun," Mariah complained about her brother.
The conversation went on like this for a very long time. When they went downstairs they continued it until they sat down at the table. Vernon and Petunia were already sitting at the table with cheeseburgers on their plates. Once again almost all of Vernon's meal was gone, and Petunia hadn't even touched hers.
Dinner did not go well; it was just as bad as dinner was the previous night. Vernon spitting out insults (along with his food), Lily's parents trying to be polite, the only difference was that Lily had company.
As soon as they had finished dinner Lily and Mariah hurried off to Lily's room. The girls sat in her room and talked some more for a while until they got tired.
In the morning Mariah had to leave at eight in the morning and Lily was left with only the company of Einstein, her parents and her sister (and later in the day Vernon).
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Every night Vernon would come over, and sometimes Vernon would even sleep in the living room, Lily was very happy when Wednesday came and she got to leave.
Lily's dad drove her to Claire's house at 11:00. When Lily arrived she saw Claire sitting outside with her cat Pinksypoo, apparently Mariah or Claire's boyfriend hadn't arrived yet.
Claire looked up and smiled when she saw Lily get out of the car, carrying a duffle bag. After Lily put her bag in Claire's room the girls went back outside.
Pinksypoo jumped on Lily's lap and started purring. Lily told Claire all about how terrible it was for her at home with her sister and Vernon.
Pretty soon Mariah turned up at Claire's house using the floo network. Mariah put her small bag in Claire's room and joined the other two girls and started talking about how horrible her summer had been.
Around noon the girls heard Claire's front door opening. Lily turned around and out come James Potter saying loudly, "Let's see who Remus's girlfriend-!" James stopped when he saw Lily sitting there, looking shocked and appalled. "Lily!"
"James!" Lily said, sounding very angry, unlike James who sounded happily surprised.
"I see you are happy to see me," James said, wishing the girl he liked so much didn't hate him.
"I'm so sorry if I would have known Remus would bring him I wouldn't have told him he could bring friends," Claire said apologetically, feeling bad for Lily, even though she didn't have any problems with James.
"Well what did you expect, their best friends!" Lily said, upset at how stupid her friend could be at times.
At that moment Sirius Black and Remus walked in the room, "Which one is she Remus? I know it can't be Lily," Sirius asked.
"Claire," said Remus simply as he sat down next to Claire as James sat next to Lily and attempted to put his arm around her.
"How did you manage to pull that off, she usually goes for attractive guys," Sirius said.
"Oh ha ha ha Sirius," Remus said.
"I think Remus is quite attractive," Claire said, giving Remus a peck on the cheek.
Lily then went inside to get something to drink, she didn't want to sit there next to James, and to her disgust James got up and followed.
When they had both entered the kitchen Lily glared at James, "What do you want?"
"I just wanted to see what my lovely Lily was doing," James said.
"Shut up and stop acting like you like me. I know that you just like pulling your little pranks on me and whatnot, and I'm sick of it! Will you please just act a little more mature and stop being such a jackass," Lily said angrily.
"Whoa, Lily, calm down! You know you like to pull plenty of pranks on us," James said defensively, "And Lily; you know I think you're dead sexy."
"Well you know what, you need to set your aims on someone else then James," Lily said, as she poured herself some lemonade and went back outside.
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James stayed in the kitchen, wondering why Lily hated him so much, he would pull pranks on her, and then she would do it right back most of the time. James did truly like Lily, a lot. Everyone in Hogwarts knew it, but Lily just seemed to think it was a long lasting joke, and he wanted to change that. James wanted Lily to truly know that he did really like her.
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When Lily joined the others outside Sirius Claire was laughing hysterically, Remus looked a little guilty, and Mariah was looking angry wiping slime her butt. Lily had and idea of what might be going on, "What the hell did you make her sit on Sirius?"
"He put a slug on the curb when she got up," Remus said.
"How do you know it didn't just crawl there when she stood up," Sirius said in what he thought was an innocent voice.
"Because it's you Sirius, and plus slugs don't crawl very fast," Lily said.
"And I saw you put it there," Remus said.
When Claire had finally stopped laughing she said, "You can borrow some of my pants." Then she started laughing all over again, and at that point James had come back outside again.
"What the hell happened here?" James said, confused.
"Sirius put a slug where Mariah was sitting when she stood up, and she sat on it," Lily said plainly.
"That's a really good one Sirius, but why didn't you wait until I got back!" James said, congratulating his best friend.
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Around 7:00 that night the six of them went on a walk around Claire's neighborhood. Remus and Claire walked off to the side of the others talking to each other quietly. Lily and Mariah tried to keep their distance from James and Sirius by walking far in front of them. And James and Sirius lagged behind everyone else.
They all had their separate conversations for a while until James had a just brilliant idea of how to liven up the walk a little bit. James snuck up behind and Sirius snuck up behind Remus, trying to be as silent as they could. When they had both gotten close enough both James pinched Lily's butt and Sirius did the same to Remus. Lily screamed and slapped James in the face, and Remus looked confused and then started cracking up.
"James! Can't you just leave me alone for once," Lily screamed at James. Lily looked around and saw a furniculi growing out of a witch's front yard. Furniculi was a long leafy magical plant. When furniculi juice touches human skin the person will break out in boils. Lily went and grabbed the furniculi, careful not to get any of the juice on her skin; she ran over and squeezed as a bunch of juice into James's shirt.
Slowly boils began to form on James's back and he screamed at Lily, "Bitch!"
"Don't call me a bitch for that, you deserve it after all the things you've ever done to me," Lily said.
James then grabbed another furniculi, and ran off chasing Lily. Lily was running as fast as she could but James did get her arm with some of the juice. Just like James's back had, Lily's arm slowly broke out in boil. After chasing Lily for about five or six minutes James finally gave up and decided getting Lily's arm with the furniculi juice was enough for him.
"Why don't you guys ever just leave each other alone?" Claire asked, annoyed of all of James and Lily's fights.
"Well it's not my fault James insists on doing all this stuff to me," Lily said angrily.
"I can't help but pull pranks on Lily, it's so much fun. And if I didn't pull pranks on her, I would never get to talk to this gorgeous girl," James said.
"Well mate, maybe she'd actually like you if you didn't, but I have to admit it is fun to annoy dear Lily," Sirius said.
The six of them started walking back to Claire's house so Lily and James could have Mrs. Young get rid of their boils. Lily walked as far away from James as she could, but James kept walking up to her and trying to put his arm around her, or jump on her back. Lily would just scream and slap him again.
When they got back to Claire's house Mrs. Young got rid of the boils on James's back and Lily's arm with a few quick flips of her wand. "You kids seriously need to be more careful when you are messing around; I don't want anybody getting hurt!"
"Yeah Siriusly," Sirius said. Everyone but Mrs. Young understood this joke (Sirius liked to use it all the time).
"See, now your friend here cares," Mrs. Young said.
At 9:00 Remus, James and Sirius left and Lily and Mariah spent the rest of the night at Claire's house. Claire felt terrible about Remus's choice of what friends he would bring with him, she apologized to Lily over and over about it.