Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
They're in: Sixth Year
Recap:
After a few minutes, someone sat across from her and smiled warmly at her. "Hello, Thomas," she said.
"Hi Lily, how's the first few weeks of summer going for you?" he responded. They made small talk while he helped her finish the sundae and after they paid, they walked around the Alley, looking at different things and amusing each other with the weird items.
They were walking toward the bookstore when Lily noticed that James and Sirius were coming out of it.
THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN REWRITTEN (6/06)
Chapter Nine: A Confession Not Meant to be Heard
Lily glared at James as they walked by each other. Ever since Lily and Thomas had become friends, James had distanced himself more and more from Lily. It now seemed as if neither had ever talked to each other.
Why was he being such a jackass? Lily hadn't done anything (to her knowledge) to hurt him or to make him mad. As she glared at him, he just ignored her and kept walking with Sirius to their next destination.
ABC.
James walked out of the bookstore with his best mate and saw Lily and Weasley walking toward it. His light mood dampened when he saw them and Sirius sneaked a sideways glance toward him.
James, as well as Sirius, tensed up slightly and their conversation ceased. Sirius was afraid of what James might say or do, while James was concentrating on ignoring Lily and the painful lurch in his stomach from when he saw the pair. Sirius needn't worry though, he wasn't going to do anything. Nothing at all.
ABC.
After a day of shopping with Thomas, Lily was considerably tired. But she still couldn't keep her mind off of James. She just didn't understand why James was acting the way he was. Surely Lily didn't do anything to him.
She noticed that her mind had been wandering to James all day and more than once she had to stop herself from bumping into something or someone. She also noticed how Thomas had not bothered to forewarn her about what she was going to do.
The next morning, Lily awoke to yells coming from her mother downstairs, "Lily? Lily?"
Groggily, she opened her eyes and rubbed them as the sunlight from the open window hit her face. She rolled off her bed and while pulling on her bathrobe, yelled, "Coming, Mum!"
Stumbling down the stairs half-asleep, she wondered what her mother could possibly want from Lily so early in the morning. "What is it?"
Her mother smiled joyfully and slowly said, "We... are... going... Oh, why don't you guess?"
It was much too early for Lily too be up, let alone guess something. "I don't know."
"Okay, we are going shopping! Oh, it's going to be so much fun!"
Lily groaned inwardly. She hated going shopping. Her mother always suggested the most outrageous outfits for Lily and tried to get her things that would "show off her figure." Her mother had always been the one to exaggerate beauty.
Lily felt as if her mother's love for Petunia was great because she was normal and beautiful, but loved Lily only because she was her daughter and was obliged to.
"Come on! Let's go get new clothes!" Lily cringed at the happiness radiating from her mother. If it made her mother happy, it most definitely would not make Lily happy.
Later, Lily and her mom arrived at the mall. Lily hated this place because not only was every single beautiful girl shopping there, but they all had equally gorgeous boyfriends. Also, Lily felt as if every one of them was staring at her and thinking, Oh gosh, what happened to that girl? Why is she so ugly?
"Doesn't that look lovely?" Lily's mother pointed to a raunchy dress on display.
ABC.
James was sitting on an armchair in his library, tugging at a thread in his shirt. Sirius was sitting Indian-style in front of him, watching him.
I'm so bored, James thought, pulling at the thread and making it longer. Sirius is here. Why aren't we doing anything? We could be playing Quidditch. Or chess. Nah, too boring. We could be pranking someone. We should be doing anything but sitting here: doing nothing. James tugged some more at the thread.
"Pretty soon you're not going to have a shirt if you keep pulling on that," Sirius remarked looking at the now ten centimeters long thread. It used to be only two.
"So?"
Sirius didn't say anything for a moment, but brightened up, "Want to go to a Muggle town? See what kinds of new stuff they have since we last visited them?" Sirius was obviously remembering their trip to a nearby Muggle town in Second Year. They had gone with James's father and promised not to cause mayhem. Mr. Potter should have known better than to trust two twelve-year olds. It ended up being a disaster. Only two words are needed to describe the incident: staple gun.
Lily is Muggle-born. She might live in that Muggle town. Maybe I'll see her. James brightened up a little with that thought, but then he realized that the chances of Lily being in that particular Muggle town was slim to none. "I dunno," James was silent for a moment, "Okay, let's go."
ABC.
"Mum?" Lily called out tentatively, thinking that her mother would be right outside of the dressing room. "Mother?" she called out again. Her mother didn't answer which meant that she was probably browsing the racks, trying to find more raunchy and ugly clothes for Lily to try on.
Sighing, she opened the door to her dressing room and wandered out into the small hall, trying to maneuver herself around the piles of clothes that were heaped everywhere. She opened her mouth to call for her mother again but her mom's voice drifted out of a small room near the exit into the story.
"... Yes, I have two daughters. My Petunia, she's so beautiful! Just like you!" Lily could hear her mother smile through her words.
"Thank you!" the girl seemed to be flattered, "but what about your other daughter?"
Her mother's smile faded and her voice took a solemn note. "I don't talk about her much. She was such an adorable child! I really don't know how she got so ugly," her mother shook her head and continued, "I tried to make her beautiful, I really did..."
Lily had heard enough, she went back to her dressing room and changed back into her normal clothes, unaware that she had tears streaming down her face. She left the store with out telling her mother, she didn't even notice.
She walked to the nearest park and sat on the swings. I always knew she thought I was ugly.. but to hear her say it... A fresh wave of tears engulfed Lily. It was well past dinner time when she arrived home.
A/N: Back to rewriting! I apologize because this chapter is a little shorter than the not rewritten chapter nine, but I do think that it's written better.
Thanks to the readers who had already reviewed this chapter: TeArSoFfAtE, reena-blue, nora, yellow is cool, hillary, LiL AcE ViLLa, Emrisah, and Swishy Willow Wand.
