Luck

Lily was just sitting down to lunch with her parents (Petunia was out shopping with Vernon, thankfully) when she heard a screech from upstairs. "Be right back," she yelled as she swung out the door and sprinted up the stairs.

Mrs Evans sighed and looked at her husband. "Where does that girl get her energy?"

He shook his head in reply. "And where can I get some; that's what I'd like to know."

Lily wasn't listening, but racing through the door of her bedroom to find two owls sitting on her already cluttered desk. "Juju?" she raised her eyebrows. Juliet wasn't the type to bring home stray owls. But the other owl stuck its leg out and Lily recognised it as James'. As she went to retrieve the rolled-up parchment, Lily noticed something that disturbed her very much. Juliet's tail was in bloody tatters and her left wing seemed broken. Lily was amazed that her owl had been able to fly at all. But what did James Potter have to do with all this?

Lily,

Your owl showed up at my house this morning in a right state. What on earth happened to her? I thought I'd send you a note to let you know. I'll try to keep her here as she doesn't seem able to fly too well, but she seems to want to fly off again.

My mum knows a bit about owls – she did Care of Magical Creatures for NEWT or something. She says she'll see what she can do. She's got a friend who works in Eeylops who she says will give her some splints and bandages and stuff, so she'll come and pick your owl up this afternoon if that's okay.

James

Lily looked back at Juliet and James' owl. Juliet was giving her a death glare and the other owl looked inquisitive. She grabbed the nearest bit of parchment to scribble on, realised it was her Potions homework and promptly grabbed a different one.

Dear James,

Thanks a lot. Tell your mum she's a bit of a handful and only to call her Juju, or she'll try to bite her hand off. Any time this afternoon's fine; it's lovely of your mum to do this. Say thank you from me.

I don't know what happened to her, I just sent her to Sirius with a letter. That seems to have gone though, so he must have got it. Maybe she got attacked by another bird or something, I just don't know.

Lily

PS. What's your owl's name? He's lovely. Snowy owls are so beautiful. I've been meaning to ask for a while but I keep forgetting.

As soon as she attached the letter to the beautiful owl's leg, he soared off out the window to wherever James lived. Potter Manor could be anywhere – she had never asked. She added that to the list of questions she meant to ask him.

"Right, Juju. Let's get you in your cage ready for Mrs Potter to come and get you."

Unusually, Juliet didn't bother complaining, just made her way slowly to the cage, not flying as she normally would.

Lily glanced down at the Potions homework she had nearly scribbled on, noticing a large bloodstain, presumably from Juliet, obscuring part of the title and a large chunk of text. Professor Darcy would not be happy. And she couldn't just magic it off either, it being the summer holidays – she would have to wait till she got to Remus' (her parents had given her permission to go and stay that morning) and ask his mum to remove it for her.

Sirius though…he had got her letter. He must have done, or it would still be attached to Juliet's leg. Had he replied? She looked at Juliet and saw no sign of anything having been tied to her leg. Whatever had attacked her couldn't have removed a letter. No human would have done that to an owl, especially one carrying such an unimportant message. And a bird of prey couldn't remove a message without a trace. It was clear to Lily that Sirius had never replied.

She sighed, wondering if she was wasting her time with him. He was a prankster and an aspiring ladies' man, but she could see that underneath all that he had a heart of gold. If only he would let it show more often. He was good looking and he knew it, with his sleek black hair that fell into his deep grey eyes (he swore fervently that it annoyed him, but he never cut it).

Like the other Marauders, and many teenage boys like them, he tended to let his arrogance and self-assuredness hide his true sensitivity. Whenever he was around his friends, Lily just didn't bother with him, but when they were alone together taking walks around the Hogwarts grounds or sitting in an unused classroom, he was so thoughtful and sensitive towards her that Lily didn't mind the way he sometimes behaved.

Remus, Peter and James didn't seem to be the best influence on Sirius, but the four of them were so close and knew each other so well that everyone knew there was no point in thinking about them as separate entities. James was the most outwardly thoughtful of the four, Sirius the loudest, but the two of them together were clearly the masterminds behind a lot of the foursome's pranks. Peter was hard to fathom. He was as amused by all the pranks and taunts as the other three, but was much more afraid of punishments and consequences. This, and his lack of the rugged good looks shared by the other three boys, made him the odd one out.

Remus had always been Lily's favourite of the four, and her best friend since first year. He tended to put a stop to the more potentially harmful pranks, seeing things from the victims' point of view rather than refusing to see past the humour as the others often did.

Lily had been the first to know of his monthly werewolf transformations. Remus hadn't told her himself, of course. He was too scared of people shunning him for who he was. At the time, Lily didn't understand this, but she knew now that Remus had been right to be concerned. She had been naïve enough at the age of eleven to think that maybe some of muggles' prejudiced ways wouldn't be present in the wizarding world, but this illusion was shattered as soon as she came to Hogwarts. Slytherins, naturally, were the main culprits of any abuse Lily faced for being muggle-born, and she had grown used to it. But racism and all sorts of prejudice were present in both the magical and non-magical worlds.

Remus' father had been the one to inform Lily of Remus' 'problem', as he had so delicately put it. On Platform 9¾ before Lily had boarded the train, he had told Lily to be careful, for Remus' sake and her own. Lily didn't know to this day if he had thought Remus would hurt her or if she would hurt him, or whether he was just concerned that Remus needed a friend to support him through the bad times.

That had been the only conversation Lily had ever had with Julian Lupin. He left Remus and Alexandra in Remus' second year, pulling his elder daughter Rachel out of Hogwarts to do so. According to Alexandra, they suspected that she had been enrolled in either Beauxbatons or Durmstrang to continue her magical education, but no one in the family had heard from either of them since then. Remus had coped with it remarkably well, confiding frequently in his friends and acquaintances. He had never been one to keep his problems bottled up, aside from one anyway. The other Marauders knew of Remus' secret, but for how long they had known, how they had found out, or how they had reacted, Lily hadn't a clue.

"Lily! Dinner! Come on, love!" Lily heard her father shout from the kitchen.

"Coming, Dad!" Stopping to quickly check on Juliet who appeared to be asleep in her cage, Lily walked slowly downstairs and sat herself down at the table.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" her mother asked, looking worriedly at Lily's vacant expression.

"Oh yes, I'm fine," she smiled. "Just thinking. Sorry." She looked down at her plate of tuna salad, just how she liked it. "Thanks, Mum. I'm starving!" Mrs Evans grinned and picked up her knife and fork.

"Tuck in then!"

After they had finished eating, Lily suddenly remembered why she had been late in the first place. "Oh, Mum. Juliet's hurt." Seeing the look on her mother's face, Lily quickly added, "It's alright though, James' mum says she can sort her out. She's coming to pick her up this afternoon. That's okay, isn't it?"

Mr Evans frowned. "James? Who's James? I thought you were going out with this Sirius bloke."

"James Potter," his wife said, trying to hide her smile at his reaction, "another of Remus' friends. That's right isn't it, Lily?" Lily nodded. "And she is going out with Sirius, but she's allowed to have boy friends to, isn't she?" It was more of a statement than a question.

"Oh yes, of course." Mr Evans looked slightly embarrassed. "I just meant –"

"It's okay, Dad," Lily grinned. "Anyway, I think Mrs Potter is coming on her own." She knew having strange boys in the house was not her father's idea of fun.

"So let me get this straight." Mr Evans had worked through a lot of the previous summers, so he hadn't met many of Lily's friends and tended to lose track. "You're going to stay at Remus' this summer. He's a boy, and he's friends with James and Sirius."

"And Peter," Lily added.

"And Peter. Chrissy is on holiday, she's a girl and she and Remus are your best friends. Am I right?"

"Yes, Dad."

Mrs Evans butted in at this point. "And James' mother, Mrs Potter, is coming her this afternoon to pick up your injured owl and look after her."

"Yep. Ten points to Gryffindor."

Her father sighed. "Very funny. Practising, are you?"

"Not really, Dad. Prefects can't give or take house points. They can give detentions, but only the teachers and the Head Boy and Girl can deal with house points."

Mr Evans shook his head. "I'll never understand that school of yours."

Lily grinned cheekily. "Neither will I, but that doesn't stop me confusing you."

Mrs Evans was vigorously cleaning the house all afternoon, with Lily's help, as she was always very enthusiastic about meeting anyone magical. She was often heard muttering about whether Professor Dumbledore was in the habit of stopping at pupils' houses for dinner. Lily and Remus found this exceedingly amusing.

Petunia came home at 3.30, but waltzed out again once she heard the news that a witch would be visiting the house, mumbling about picking up her legwarmers from her friend Bethany's house. Both Lily and her mother rolled their eyes at this. Mr Evans was in the garden enjoying the sunshine. His garden was his pride and joy, and he loved to keep it beautiful. He also enjoyed photography and took many pictures of the plants and animals which lived in the garden.

At 4.15, a knock was heard on the Evans' front door.

"Ah," Mrs Evans said delightedly, "that must be Mrs Potter. Answer it will you, Lily? I'll just get your father and take this mucky apron off."

Lily opened the door to a smiling woman with shoulder-length wavy black hair and brown eyes. Like Mrs Lupin, she had pronounced smile and frown lines, revealing the nature of her son's personality. She was wearing dark green robes not dissimilar to Lily's Hogwarts robes (apart from the colour of course: Lily had to wear black).

"Hi, you must be Lily. It's lovely to meet you."

Lily grinned at the woman's friendly manner. "Hello, Mrs Potter. It's so nice of you to have come. Come in, my parents are just –" she looked around, "-- there."

Mr and Mrs Evans stepped into the hallway as Mrs Potter came through the door. "Mrs Potter! Lovely to see you, I'm Heather Evans," Lily's mother shook Mrs Potter's hand, "and this is my husband, Robert."

Mrs Potter smiled again, looking remarkably like James as she did so, Lily thought. "Do call me Louisa. I'm sorry for my appearance," she ran a hand through her hair. "I've come straight from work. Otherwise I would have brought James with me too."

Lily looked at her parents. They, like she, obviously thought there was nothing wrong with Louisa Potter's appearance. A little tousled, maybe, but this smiling woman suited it.

This time, Louisa addressed Lily directly. "I work at the Ministry, you see. A friend there gave me a few pointers on owl care. I must say, my NEWTs were years ago." Lily grinned. She couldn't help liking Mrs Potter.

"Heather, Petunia and Lily, hmm?" she addressed this remark to Robert Evans. "I take it you like gardening?"

He grinned. "I do, as a matter of fact. But it's family tradition, really."

"Yes, my sister is called Violet and my late mother was Daisy. I've been trying to get Lily to call hers Poppy, but for some reason she thinks it's –"

"Tragic, Mum. Totally unoriginal." Lily smiled apologetically at Mrs Potter, who didn't seem the least bit perturbed.

"Where's this owl James told me about then?" Lily gestured up the stairs and Mrs Potter followed her up.

"Lily, dear, we'll be in the garden if you want anything." Lily nodded at her father and continued upwards.

When they reached Lily's bedroom, Louisa immediately spotted Juliet.

"Oh, aren't you a pretty one?" She smiled at Lily. "Juliet, was it?" Lily was about to speak when she added, "Ah yes, James said to call her Juju." Mrs Potter moved forwards and picked Juliet up out of her cage carefully.

"Romeo and Juliet; what will Remus think of next?" Louisa grinned to herself, shaking her head exasperatedly.

"You know about that?" Lily asked, intrigued.

"Oh yes, James told me. I've been teasing Remus about it for years. He doesn't seem to mind though. Anyway, this owl. She's got a broken wing and a lot of feathers have either been ripped out or are way out of place. That's going to make it very difficult for her to fly," Lily nodded, "so she's going to need to rest until her feathers grow back enough to fly again. I'll splint her wing now so she doesn't damage it any more but I'll wait to clean her up until I get home. James can do it, for that matter. Heaven knows, the boy's been doing nothing useful lately."

Lily grinned, liking Mrs Potter more every time she spoke. "Okay then, do you need any help?"

She thought for a moment. "Not really, thanks; it should be fairly simple. I could do with entertaining though. Do tell me about the boys -- are they as obnoxious as Sirius tells me, or is he just winding me up? James would like me to think they're all model students, but I'm not completely stupid."

"Well…" Lily chose her words carefully, "they're not exactly model students, but I wouldn't believe Sirius either." Louisa Potter grinned.

"Like mother like son, I suspect." Lily looked confused, so Louisa elaborated. "James and I: I was quite the prankster in my day, though I've never told him so. All he knows is that I was a Prefect and Head Girl, and in his eyes that means I was a suckup."

Lily grinned, finding none of this hard to believe. She had seen the mischievous glint in Mrs Potter's eyes, reminding her again of James.

"So, I hear you're dating Sirius Black." Lily nodded. "Good luck to you."

"I'll need it," Lily said truthfully.

Mrs Potter must have heard the note of sadness in Lily's voice, because she said, "How's that going? James doesn't tell me about it for some reason."

Lily was too busy thinking to notice the expression on Louisa Potter's face. She looked as if she were trying to tell Lily something.

Please let me know what you think, as I currently have no idea how to write this. I'm just going with it, as I don't know how it seems to anyone else.

Becca