Lily had always wondered why muggle psychiatrists did word associations until she recovered from a day dream in Defense against the Dark Arts class one day around mid- November. She was finding it hard to concentrate, and when the teacher had casually dropped the word, 'Vanilla', she was gone from the classroom and back to the age of ten or so. Her aunts library clear in her mind, trying to ignore the fact that years later it would only consist of spider webs and dust…
Lily sat in her usual comfy chair reading; the scent of vanilla so strong it was nearly visible hovering over her. It always smelled of vanilla in the library, and Lily had simply assumed that the candles were hidden behind the piles of books. She was reading The Little Prince. She had read it more than once, and each time her aunt assured her that she did understand it to the fullest. 'Look beyond the words,' she always said. It was one of the many things her aunt said that kept her lying awake past her bedtime thinking about.
Her aunt was short and a little plump, and always smelled of lavender. She loved to cook and clean, and Lily thought she was the smartest person in the world. Her hair had a hint of red in it, just like Lily's, and when lily wasn't at her own house, she was at her aunts.
Her aunt entered the room with the usual, 'Whadder you doin'?' and, as routine, Lily responded with, 'Nothing of any consequence,' and sat down her book.
"Auntie?" Asked Lily, "Why do I call you auntie if you're really not my auntie?"
"Because I might as well be, don't you think? Close enough to be family… What part are you at? For the umpteenth time?" replied her aunt, referring to the book.
"The part where his home planet is so small that all her has to do is walk to the other side of it to see the sun rise and set…"
Auntie had just picked up a cup of tea from next to the dormant book. 'Oh! Maybe I just didn't se it th-'
"You know!" exclaimed her aunt rather loudly, "The first time someone sees a sun set- it's unbelievably beautiful. The seventh time, one might wonder who else is watching the same sun setting as they are." She poured Lily some tea. "The twelfth time… one is much too busy wondering what happened to their shopping list to even notice that the sun is leaving the sky."
"We take it for granted, you mean?"
"No you silly girl!" cried her aunt kiddingly. "The sun is nothing to take for granted! Just because it looks pretty every morning and night- it wont help us in the long run! Those shopping lists are much more important!" She said with a hint of sarcasm and a smile on her face. "Little Johnny wont live if we forget to buy his favorite cereal!" she wagged her finger jokingly and she had used her 'old lady voice', which made Lily laugh.
"Has mum, um… called?" lily always found it odd that her aunt didn't have a phone. In mentioning this one day, her aunt had said, 'So people don't bug me!' and it was never brought up again.
"Petunia's being dropped off Tomorrow, and then I'm walking both of you back home later in the day. And you mum says, 'hi'." As this was said her aunt sat up, kissed Lily on the forehead, said, 'I love you' and then went on about her business elsewhere in the house…
People getting up to leave the last class of the day resulted in the end of lily's memory of her aunt. She made her way up to the common room to drop off her things before dinner. The boys made a big deal of her walking up the stairs and proceeded in applauding her when she successfully skipped the correct step just before it changed.
JAMES POV:
Lily had set her books she was carrying on the nearest table on the common room with a sigh of relief.
"You don't have to carry all those books around. First of all, you don't need half of those, second, I have more room in my bag than you do, I can carry them." Offered James.
"Ahhh, how sweet!" said Sirius. " Would you carry my books too, Prongsie? I'll let you hold my hand!"
Lily smiled, " Thanks Potter, but I think I can handle it. I'm tough."
"Yeah, Potter! What were you thinking! To even mention touching Lily's books!" Cried Remus.
"Oh, so that's how it is?" He questioned. "If that's the case, I'll just take back that book I gave you then!"
"Oh! There's a threat!" interrupted Sirius. "Only nitwits read that book, anyway!"
James knew Sirius was only playing tough, and his thoughts were confirmed a couple minutes later, when James swore he heard him mutter, 'Hold up… I've read this book…' with a puzzled look on his face.
"What if I didn't care if you took the book?" Lily replied.
"What if I did take it back, and then what if I didn't talk to you for another two months?"
"What if I didn't care?"
"What if I didn't care either?"
"What if I stopped lending you my transfiguration notes then? What if, gasp, you had to write them yourself!"
"Oh! I got one!" Said Remus, "What if, gasp, the hokey pokey really is what its all about!" …
LILY POV:
That night Lily lay awake, thinking of another experience with her aunt…
"IT'S JUST A STATE OF MIND!" Called her aunt from the other room. "Think of it this way. The kitchen needs to be cleaned, there's no getting around that. So if we are just in the right, positive state of mind, then it wont be so bad!"
Lily couldn't think of anything she wanted to do less.
"Run into the broom closet down the hall, and get me the dust pan wont you? The one down the hall!" she asked.
Lily went down the hall and turned the corner. She opened the door. Instead of finding the dustpan, or any other cleaning utensils, she found her aunt, sister, father and mother, dead, lying on the floor. And soon, Lily was down on the floor with them. Crying, screaming. How could that be? How?
Her aunt came running, asking what was wrong at first. She froze. Slammed the closet door. Took up Lily in her arms. "Don't worry!" she said. "Don't worry. It's not real."
It all happened so fast. She had seen them all dead. The next second she was in her aunts arms, and then with a snapping sound, she was back home. Her mother did the same- told her it wasn't real- but Lily had seen it. It was very real. Her mother was yelling at her aunt to leave...
In the next few days, Lily had stayed in her room. Her parents did their best to tell her that she had just been seeing things; Lily didn't know what to believe.
And she didn't know that she would never see her aunt again...