After bidding goodbye to her parents outside the Leaky Cauldron, Lily made her way out the back to the entrance to Diagon Ally. It was strange, she thought to herself, how different things were at home. Oddly enough, she felt more like a visitor there. She had been away for too long for her to ever go back and live there as if it were her home. And while she loved her parents, and yes, in a way even her sister, she felt distanced from them in a way. She had long since left feelings of homesickness behind, being at Hogwarts for the majority of the year, but now she had friends she loved it was as if she had already started to carve a new life for herself, one that her family featured in little. How could they? If she were to tell them of her powers they couldn't understand, and at best would just worry about her.
As she walked along the street towards the arranged meeting place she tried to put a finger on what it was she was trying to express. For she felt that being the Huntress affected her in ways she was rarely willing to recognise. When she looked inside her heart it was Saffron and James she found, not her mother and father. She wasn't sure what that meant, because she loved them all differently, but the closest way she could express it was in the form of a picture. As if all the people she had know, and even those she didn't formed circles around her. And in the middle she held Saffron on her right and James on her left, beyond them lay more and more circles of people, going on forever.
Something about all this made her feel guilty, as if she was doing something wrong. But there was nothing she could do about it now, the rest of the world was blurring into an indistinguishable whole as other things came into sharper focus.
"Lily!"
She looked up to see Eliza walking down the street with a boy she didn't recognise. He was looking around him as if he couldn't believe his eyes, visibly starting when a harassed looking goblin walked passed him in the direction of Gringotts.
"Hi, Eliza," Lily said, smiling and walking the few steps to meet them, "how are the holidays going?"
"Great, thanks," Eliza replied, she nodded to the boy beside her. "This is my boyfriend, Mike Taylor. Mike, this is Lily, a friend of mine from school."
He grinned at her, "Don't mind me, I'm not used to any of this, I'm a…a…muddle?" He looked at Eliza who had burst into laughter.
"A muggle!" she corrected, a huge grin on her face, he shrugged looking only a little embarrassed. Turning to Lily she added, "Mike lives along the road from me, we keep in contact during term, but of course now I don't have to go back to Hogwarts."
"It's so much fun getting letters by owl," Mike said, "almost worth putting up with you on its own," he teased.
"Hey!" Eliza protested, "What do you mean 'putting up with'? If you don't watch it I'll turn you into a slug!"
"Try it," he retorted, grinning widely, "I'll just slime all over you!"
Lily laughed and spotted Saffron over Eliza's shoulder. "Well, I've got to go, but you two have a great summer. And keep in touch."
"You too."
"Nice to meet you."
She let them, grinning to herself as she heard them carrying on their 'argument'.
"Hey, Lily," Saffron said, hugging her in greeting, "how've you been?"
"Good thanks," she replied, "where's James?"
Saffron laughed, "And here was me thinking you wanted to come on holiday with me, when all you really wanted was to get into my brother's pants!"
Lily blushed furiously, "I didn't…I don't…I…I…"
Saffron just laughed again, a twinkle in her eyes as she pointed out her brother coming out of a shop with Sirius. "Oi! James!" she yelled, "Come and say hello to your girlfriend!"
James walked over, grinning at Saffron, "You're a mad thing." Turning to Lily he took one look at her flushed face and turned back to Saffron, "Alright, what did you say?"
"Who? Me? Nothing, nothing at all," she replied, looking the very picture of innocence. It was only when she caught Sirius's eye that she smirked.
"Saffron," James warned.
"It was nothing, really," Lily interrupted, suddenly realising that she did not want James to make Saffron repeat what she had said.
James eyed Saffron suspiciously as she put on her best angel face, "Right then, if everyone's ready then I suggest we do something rather than standing here like lemons."
"I suggest buying me a present!" Sirius grinned as he leant against the wall behind them, "Because you know it's only-"
"-51 days till your birthday," chimed Saffron and James, both rolling their eyes. Lily laughed and grinned at Sirius who shrugged, his eyes twinkling and a roguish grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"Of course my birthday's before yours," Saffron said.
"By one day," put in Sirius.
"I'm still older," she retorted.
"Well I'm older than the lot of you, and I say stop bickering and let's move on," James interrupted, "Anyone fancy an ice cream?" Without waiting for a reply he took Lily's hand and they both headed towards Florian Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. Moments later they were joined by Saffron and Sirius.
It was late afternoon by the time the four flooed back to the Potter residence. Sirius laughed as he stepped out of the fireplace and turned to finish the conversation he'd started with Saffron at the other end. The second she appeared he continued as if there hadn't been a pause,
"And so he was sat on the bench, waiting for us to meet him, all covered in dust from crawling through that tunnel we'd discovered not far back, when this woman walks over to him and drops a handful of coins into the empty paper cup that happened to be sitting next to him. She thought he was a tramp!"
Saffron burst out laughing, "I can't imagine Remus was thrilled about being mistaken for a tramp."
He grinned, "Well I was thrilled to hear about it-"
"And you're always thrilled to retell that story as often as possible," said James dryly, dusting the light covering of soot off his arms. He turned to Saffron and Lily appeared in the grate behind him, "Honestly I can't believe you haven't heard that story at least once before, Saff."
"Heard what story?" Lily asked curiously.
Sirius beamed at her as James rolled his eyes, "I guess we'll leave you to it then," he said to Sirius picking up Lily's bags, "it's alright," he said as Saffron made to help him, "It will probably be quite entertaining to stay and listen to Sirius tell the story again, I've never heard it told the same twice, and I've heard it enough, believe me!"
Midway through Sirius's energetic retelling James popped his head around the doorway, a wicked gleam in his eyes, "Once you're done Mum's just finished making tomato soup in the kitchen if anyone wants some. In fact it's a bit like a soup kitchen in there one might say," he smirked, "in fact you might even go so far as to say it was a brothel."
"What?" exclaimed Saffron.
Sirius coloured, "You great prat, you said you'd never mention that!"
James grinned evilly.
"What's going on?" Lily asked, frowning in confusion.
"Our innocent little Sirius-" Saffron snorted, interrupting James explanation. He grinned at her.
"James," Sirius growled threateningly.
"It's too late my friend," James laughed, ducking as Sirius lunged at him. In between dodging Sirius he called out, "Poor little Sirius here was, until recently, under the illusion that a brothel was just another name for a soup kitchen."
"JAMES!" Sirius roared, tackling him to the ground as the girls split into peals of laughter.
In between sporadic bursts of laughter as Sirius tickled him furiously James shouted out, "The best bit was when he was telling us how he was going to do voluntary work experience in a brothel and he wasn't even bothered about the fact that he wasn't going to get paid for it yet!"
"And then-" he continuted, barely able to get the words out, "- then he said to us that if we were free we should drop by and see him at work!"
Sirius made a noise halfway between embarrassment and outrage and flopped back onto the floor covering his face with his hands. Taking compassion on him Lily crouched down next to him.
"It's not so bad, Sirius," she said consolingly, struggling to get control over her features as she grinned at him.
Suddenly he looked up, eyes bright, "Don't suppose you and Saffron would fancy coming to work at my soup kitchen if I were to set one up?"
"Hey!" James protested, abruptly ending his laugher, "That's my girlfriend you're talking about…and my sister!"
"Alright, so you get service for free," Sirius grinned back, "But anyone else you bring with you has to pay."
As James opened his mouth to answer their mum popped her head round the door, "Soup anyone?" She stared as the four took one look at each other and dissolved into hysterics, shaking her head as she walked away down the corridor.
They spent the remainder of the day out in the garden, just relaxing and enjoying their time with one another. There were still a few days before they actually set off and James and Saffron sat with the brochures fanned out on the low table in front of them, pointing out where they would be staying to Sirius and Lily.
"It's a gorgeous place!" Saffron gushed, gesturing enthusiastically at the picture of a small white villa, set atop a hill that overlooked an astonishingly blue sea, glittering in brilliant sunshine. "There's a pool behind those trees there-"
The picture shifted obligingly to reveal a large pool, complete with miniature waterfall. The paved area around it was enclosed by lush greenery, fat green leaves spread like umbrellas over the sun loungers sat sedately by the poolside.
"Mum and Dad are on the other side of the house," James added, leaning over to point to the left wing of the villa as the picture panned out to show the whole plot. "The section in the middle is just a huge reception area really, lots of cushioned chairs and a tiny fountain. We're on the right, our own bathrooms and everything!"
"Thank heavens we don't have to share with those two!" Saffron said with a sly grin, "Can you imagine the state it would be in?"
Lily grinned as the boys started to protest. Thankfully Mr Potter came out to fetch them all for dinner before violence broke out.
After a deeply satisfying meal the four of them climbed the staircase to their rooms, stifling yawns.
"See you in the morning you two," Sirius said with a half hearted wave in their general direction, "I'm beat."
"Night," James kissed Lily on the cheek and smiled at Saffron before following Sirius into his room.
Lily and Saffron carried on down the corridor until they reached her room, tumbling quickly into bed.
A/N: Alright it's a little shorter than normal, but there's a good reason for that. There's a certain… event that's about to happen and I would have to cut the chapter off at a place that might be considered a cliffy, and I know how much you guys hate that. So, for once, I've been good and stopped it short of that. Of course feel free to tell me if my assumptions were wrong and you'd rather be left with a cliffhanger ending to this chapter that wouldn't be updated for 3weeks as I'm going on holiday.
Those of you who have read 'The White Fire', did you spot the cameos? Mr and Mrs Taylor to-be, hehe. For people who have no idea what I'm taking about basically Eliza and her boyfriend have a daughter called Lou who's in another of my fics.
Oh yeah, the stories about the soup kitchen and the tramp were not invented, both of them are courtesy of my sister's friends. So yes, there was in fact someone who thought a brothel was just another name for a soup kitchen, and another someone who was sat at a bus stop when a passer-by stopped to give him money thinking he was a tramp. Hehe. Actually if you've got any funny stories like that I'd love to hear them, and who knows, maybe I'll write them in.
Red-Emerald- Saffron's fine, she was just tired. I'm sure you would be too if you'd had your shoulder dislocated etc ;)
Moon dreams- It's totally intention that the Huntress reminds you of Artemis, those stories were my inspiration for this fic
Oh yeah, someone said that I portrayed the first years as babies and they would never think of calling themselves Paddy at 11, but I have to disagree seeing as I know someone called Paddy who's now 20. Maybe it's a British thing, I don't know.
Well, hope you're all having fantastic summers, I'm off for 3 weeks to sunny Malaysia.