AN: Hello, fanfiction and Harry Potter fans. I do not own Harry Potter, but feel free to enjoy this or hate it. If you enjoy it, please leave a lovely comment, if you hate it, then leave some constructive criticism, thanks!
Can You Take the Jump?
Chapter 23
'Get up in the mornin', look in the mirror
I'm worn as her toothbrush hangin' in the stand, yeah
My face ain't lookin any younger
Now I can see love's taken her toll on me'
The deep base from She's Gone by Hall and Oates played in the car radio as the entire Evans family drove south to their old family beach house by Old Hunstanton Beach. It'd been years since the family last visited, but the prospect of a small vacation was an exciting event for everyone.
This trip was especially special because Petunia had invited a large group of friends, which forced their parents to allow Lily to bring her friends as well. With the large group heading to a small beach house, their father had rented out a trailer so that there would be enough room for everyone.
Petunia had called her entire group of 20 or so friends to the beach, but thankfully only 5 were able to make it for the weekend. They were carpooling together with one of their parents' cars, following close behind them.
Lily called her Gryffindor friends. With the exception of Alice's parents who forbade her to have an overnight trip with boys in attendance, all were able to attend.
Mr. and Mrs. Evans pushed Hermione to invite a friend as well, despite her objections, so Hermione opted to invite the only other person who wouldn't mind her spending the entire weekend sitting in the cottage reading a book. Severus's invitation to the cottage was more or less accepted on his behalf by his mother. Their relationship was still rocky, but slightly amended when she'd given him a specially made soap to clean himself up after the slime prank at the end of their school year.
"Lily? Hermione?" Mrs. Evans called to the girls, sitting in the back seats.
"Lily and Tuny are sleeping." Hermione explained. "What is it mum?"
"How are Lily's dormmates coming to the cottage again?"
"Mary and Marlene are coming separately from a ride by Marlene's older brother. Lily's other friends are witches, so they're parents are side-along apparating them into Lily's bedroom before noon. We'll have to ensure that everyone's out of the house and playing outside in that time."
"Trying to arrange a get-away sleepover with non-magical and magical folk sure is confusing." Mrs. Evans tutted, worried that something was going to go wrong.
"Relax, Ivy." Mr. Evans produced an easy-going smile. "Hermione says witches and wizards have lived amongst us for centuries. I'm sure they have several tricks up their sleeves."
"Oh, hush Robert. I worry, it's what mothers are supposed to do."
"Then what are fathers supposed to do?"
"Nothing much other than cut the umbilical cord and walk the girls down the aisle on their wedding day." Mrs. Evans joked with her husband.
"I guess I'm only doing 1 out of 2 since none of my babies are getting married, right Hermione?"
Hermione smiled but didn't respond. Her father gasped in mock horror and clutched his chest, feigning hurt.
Mrs. Evans lightly smacked her husband on the shoulder, "Of course our girls are getting married! I need grandbabies! Our girls are all grown up now and don't need their mum anymore. I need grandbabies to cuddle with."
"Well, you're going to have to be satisfied cuddling with your husband because our girls aren't getting married anytime soon."
Hermione watched her parents playfully bicker with one another with soft amusement, it was clear they loved and supported each other. They were a good pair.
"They remind me of Ginny and I." Harry mused watching her parents with the same expression and she was. "We were also a good pair. Soulmates."
"If you believe in that kind of thing." Hermione muttered quietly to herself.
"You don't think you and Ron were soulmates?"
She thought back to her late husband, their memories, both good and bad. "No, we worked really hard for our relationship. We were still a good pair, but we weren't soulmates, not like you and Ginny."
"What are you mumbling about back there?" Mr. Evans asked. He looked at her through the back view mirror.
"Just the song." She told him, she started reciting the actual lyrics to She's Gone.
'Oh I
I better learn how to face it
She's gone, she's gone
I can't believe that she's gone
Oh I
I'd pay the devil to replace her'
…
When everyone arrived, they jumped out of their respective cars, exhausted from the long ride, as well as the people inside it. They were family and friends but being enclosed in a small space with tired people was rarely an enjoyable endeavor, and this trip was no exception.
"I'm going to ask Lyana's parents to allow me to side along when we're going home. I cannot endure another 5 hours of that hell again." Lily groaned as she stretched out her long limbs and basked in the summer sun.
"Cheer up," Hermione encouraged, lifting some of the food that their parents had packed for the weekend to her shoulder. "We're here now, and the longer you moan and groan about the unpleasant drive, the shorter time you'll have to enjoy the beach."
"The beach!" Lily gasped, as if she'd forgotten the entire point of their trip. She ran over the sand dunes to see the large stretch of water that fed in from the North Sea. The tides were yet to become fully high tide, so the waters were quite shallow and safe for the children to play in.
"Lily!" Mrs. Evans shouted, "Come down here and help your sister and father!" Their mother scolded as she herself lifted a sleeping bag out of the trunk.
"Coming mum!" she shouted but couldn't turn her eyes off the sun's glimmer against the water.
"Li—"
Mrs. Evans was about to shout again, but Hermione placed a gentle hand on her mother's arm. "It's fine mom, Tuny's friends' have got the rest."
Their mother tutted her lips together and shook her head. "What am I going to do with that child."
Hermione smiled as she watched her sister bounce on her heels, radiating glee from head to toe, "She's happy mum, leave her be, at least for now. You can ask her to help with dinner later."
Mrs. Evans pouted, "You know you always take your sister's side?"
She shrugged, "It's a twin thing."
"Then who's on my side?"
Mr. Evans appeared from behind her mother and kissed her on the temple. "Oi, what am I? Chopped liver?"
A youthful smile bloomed on her mother's face as she giggled at her father's actions.
"Robert, the kids are watching." Her mother reprimanded, but it was clear that their mother wasn't mad.
"It's our vacation too." He turned his wife around and kissed her right on the lips, causing the bags of food in her arms to fall to the ground. Hermione attempted to catch the bags before they hit the ground but stopped when she saw her mother pretend to be angry with the show of affection, only to give into the kiss.
"Bloody hell!" Petunia shouted covering her eyes dramatically. "Get a room!"
"Language!" Her father scolded half-heartedly, still hovering his lips near his wife's.
Hermione grabbed the bags from the ground. She rushed to turn her sister around and push her into the cottage.
"God, they're worse than us!" Petunia complained, "And we're the kids."
Hermione chuckled, "At least they still love each other. Usually, it's hard to be so in love after so many years of being married."
Her sister frowned, confused. "How would you know?"
"Hush, put those in the kitchen and take your bags to your room. I'll organize the rest."
"I want some fruit popsicles, the ones like mum makes with actual fruits and juice."
Hermione nodded as she lifted the bag that their mother had dropped. "I know, Tuny. I might have not joined the family to the beach house much, but I remember your fruitsicles."
Petunia blinked at her sister's impressive memory.
"What did Hermione like to do at the cottage?" She wondered to herself. However, her mind came up blank. A stab of guilt sat uncomfortably in her chest.
She watched her sister unpack the insane amount of food her mother packed with ease, and immediately start on the fruit pop, like she promised. Her movements were fluid and swift, like she'd practiced it a million times.
"You want berries, right? Looks like mum bought blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries. Do your friends want some too?"
"Uhm," Tuny shook her head, "yeah, I'll ask."
…
Petunia sat on the beach, sunbathing and eating her fruitsicle, but stared at her sister sitting under the shade of an umbrella, reading a thick text. She was always reading about physics, time, quantum theory, and even myths of ancient worlds. She never stopped, like her life depended on knowing the contents of each page of those thick books.
"Your sister's such a nerd."
"What did you just say?"
Petunia turned to scoff at Brian O'Connor. He was just a boy her best friend, Barbara, had a crush on. It was the one and only reason the idiot was at her family's vacation house in the first place. Now he thought he had the audacity to talk about her sister like that?
"She just likes reading, you have a problem with that?"
"Other than the fact that she's fucking boring?"
"My sister is NOT boring. Just because the contents in that book doesn't interest you doesn't mean it's not interesting to her or to others. Perhaps it'd benefit you to open a book once in a while, O'Connor. That way you'll at least have something intelligent to contribute to this conversation, unlike your uninvited, undesired and distasteful comment about my sister."
Petunia swirled around to storm away from this ridiculous boy whose life seemed to only revolve around his blonde locks and hot girls, but was stopped when he grabbed her wrist.
"What did you say to me?" He looked offended.
"You heard me," Tuny spat as she tried to pull her wrist out of his grip. "Now let go."
"No." His grip tightened. "Not until you apologize to me."
"Apologize?! For what?!"
"Is there a problem here?" The two turned around to find Hermione standing there. She wasn't looking at them but staring at his offensive hand around her sister's wrist. "I believe a conversation can occur without grabbing her, don't you?"
O'Connor glanced back and forth between the two sisters, but eventually he let go of Petunia. "Whatever, you're lame anyway." He walked off to schmooze to one of Petunia's friends.
"You should have been able to get out of that grip. Dad taught you."
"Well, I never cared for those classes like you did." Petunia massaged her wrist.
"Why did you invite him again?" Hermione asked.
"It wasn't my idea, Barbs invited him and then cornered me into agreeing. She has a crush on him."
"Oh gods, does she always have such horrible taste?"
Petunia bit her tongue to stop a laugh. "Yes. I think she wants to fix them."
"Well, she's in luck with that one because there's a lot to fix there." Hermione smirked.
Petunia let out the laugh this time, "Come sit in the sun with me."
"Tuny, just because you think the sun can't give you skin cancer, doesn't mean it can't. I'm not going to sunbathe with you."
"Hermione, stop being boring. You're all covered up anyway. Put away your book and come have some fun. We can play beach volleyball."
"I don't—"
"I'm not taking no for an answer." She grabbed Hermione's book out of her hand and placed it down on the chair and dragged her out to the sun.
The two teams were created as the two boys became the team captains and picked which girls would be on their team. Thankfully O'Connor didn't choose Hermione, but their team was at a serious height disadvantage. Some of Petunia's friends couldn't even get the ball over the net.
It was annoying to see that arrogant smirk on O'Connor's face. She wanted to smack the volleyball right into his face.
"Mine!" She called out, lifting the ball into the air.
"MINE!" a new voice appeared out of nowhere. A figure flew into the air, jumping to an incredible height and smacked the ball straight to the floor on the opposing team's court.
"Fuck yeah!"
Hermione's jaw dropped when she saw who her unfamiliar teammate was. "Potter?"
"Nice Prongs!" A shirtless Sirius walked up to his best friend and celebrated. "That was fucking awesome!"
"Oi!" O'Connor shouted. "Who the hell are you?"
"Us?" James threw his arms around Sirius. "We're Lily and Hermione's friends from school. Who the hell are you?"
"What the hell are you both doing here? How did you—who told you—What—" Hermione's shock turned into suspicion. "Mum told you, didn't she?"
"Nope, your sister did." Sirius shook his head, clearly amused by her inability to form a full sentence.
"Lily." Hermione scowled.
"Wrong again." James shook his finger.
She let out a small gasp then whipped her head around to her oldest sister. "Petunia!" She accused. "How did you even get in contact with them!"
"I used Lola," she shrugged, referring to Lily's owl. "In my defense, I only invited Sirius. The other one is a shock to me too."
"Hi, nice to meet you. My name is James Potter." He greeted with a crooked smile that matched his crooked glasses.
"Hi, I'm Petunia."
Hermione watched Petunia's friends giggle and sneak a glance at Sirius and James, especially Sirius. Discouraged by the appearance of a better looking guy, O'Connor's cocky grin slid off his face.
"Does Lily know you're here?" Hermione interrupted the exchange of pleasantries. "Do my parents know you're here?"
"Mum knows I invited Sirius. She was delighted at the news that he was coming." Petunia rolled her eyes. "Why are you being so dramatic. I asked him to come to even out the guys versus the girls."
"Tuny, this is not some university party where you want an even mixture of girls and guys. This is supposed to be our family vacation! We don't even have a place for you guys to sleep!"
"Oh, that's alright." James pointed to a pile of discarded luggage sitting in the sand behind them. "That's ours and we brought a tent."
"Are those brooms?" Someone asked aloud, causing Hermione to immediately jump into action to remove their magical items away from curious muggle eyes. The boys followed her and helped her carry their stuff into the beach house.
"Hey, I heard there was a volleyball—" Lily looked up from her manicure. "James? Sirius?" She dropped the manicure brush on the glass countertop, spilling the product.
"Wha—"
"Apparently our sister invited them." Hermione let out a deep breath of frustration.
"Padfoot, I'm getting a sense that maybe we weren't as welcome as we thought?" James muttered.
"Sirius!" The four of them turned to see Ivy emerge from the other door. Her eyes grew wide at the boy standing in the room. She rushed over to give him a hug and kissed him on the cheek! "I'm so glad you came!"
"Ivy! I'm so glad you extended the invitation to me. I hope it's okay if I brought a friend, this is James."
"James?" Ivy looked at James Potter up and down. "Where have I heard that name before?"
"The first time I visited your house, I came to deliver a letter to Lily from James, remember? This is James."
"Oh!" Mrs. Evans clapped her hands as she remembered. "Oh, you're the boy that has a huge crush on my Lily!"
James blushed crimson from head to toe, while Lily groaned into her hand.
"Oh, Lily. He's very handsome...and fit." Ivy teased, fully knowing exactly what she was doing. "I must say, your school must be filled with good looking people. I mean look at you! Are all magical people as good looking as you both?"
"No," Sirius smirked. "There's a small handful that look like James, but there's no one else like me."
Lily and James rolled their eyes as his vanity, while Hermione bit her tongue before she could mention how Regulus was just a younger version of Sirius.
The Evans matriarch giggled, "Robert! Come in here! We have more guests!"
"More?!" Mr. Evans shouted ask he walked into the room confused. His frown cleared when he saw Sirius standing there. "Oh, Sirius, my boy!"
"Where are we going to get them to sleep?" Ivy started worrying as she looked around the quaint beach house. The trailer is going to be filled with Petunia's friends, but maybe if we move all the boys there and squish some of the girls—"
"No, it's alright Mrs. Evans." James reassured, recovering from his embarrassment. "We brought a tent."
"A tent! Won't it be uncomfortable? What if you get cold?"
"It's a magical tent, mum. They'll be fine. They might have more room than the rest of us." Hermione shook her head, as she started to realize there was no way that the boys were going to leave.
"Oh, that's very handy." She smiled. "Well, I hope you boys like burgers. Mr. Evans will be cooking tonight, and he's made me promise not to lift a finger."
"Can't wait! We love burgers." Sirius smiled. "You sure you guys have enough? We eat a lot."
"Trust me." Mr. Evans reassured. "We have enough to feed a small army. A lack of food will not be a concern."
"Dad, you should get back to the burgers. We wouldn't want them to burn." Hermione pushed her father back to the grill cooking outside.
"Oh, right!" Their father hurried back, leaving the teenagers by themselves.
"I guess, you're staying." Hermione sighed. "Some ground rules. No magic. No magical items. Do not allow Petunia and her friends to go near your tents. No wands. No brooms. No quidditch. And NO HOGWARTS."
"I think it'll be easier if you just tell us what we are allowed to talk about." James whistled at the long list of topics that were forbidden.
"Just remember that magic and all things related to it are not allowed, alright?" Lily explained, wiping the nail polish she spilled. "I'm going to my room to and wait for Lyana to arrive. When's Sev arriving?"
"Snape is coming?!"
"Oh," Lily gave her an apologetic glace before scurrying away to her room.
Hermione narrowed her eyes as she watched her sister run away, leaving her with the two troublesome boys. She didn't know what to do with them.
"Evans, Snape is coming? Why?" Sirius asked, demanding she answer.
"Our families are friends, and Severus is…a friend. We talked after your prank at the end of the year."
It was clear neither of them liked the fact that the Slytherin boy was coming. While they were figuring out how to complain about the news, she looked around to see where she could hide their magical camping equipment until later tonight.
"Oh, and you guys will have to share the tent space with Severus as well."
"WHAT!"
…
Hermione and Severus sat under the parasol reading their book. Actually, they were her books. His mother and Alphard had apparently taken his books out of his little duffle bag, claiming he would have no need of them, but thankfully, Hermione brought and extensive collection. She'd been careful not to bring any magical books, but even her muggle selection was excellent.
Severus was reading a novel call Tower of Glass, recommended by Hermione. Only twenty pages in, he was hooked on the bizarre, yet incredible world of science fiction with robots and androids.
"Do you think it's really possible? To build a tower like the one in the book that will reach space?" He asked, his eyes never lifting from the page.
"Sev, the Americans landed on the moon when we were nine years old and it wasn't with a giant glass tower. But who knows, if anyone was dumb and rich enough as rich as Simeon Krug, maybe?" Hermione shrugged. "Money has a way of making impossible things possible."
"Woah, I wonder how much money it would cost?"
"More than we can probably imagine." Hermione chuckled at his childish question. "It's fiction, Severus. It's not real. Just for entertainment."
"I know," He pouted. "But imagine, going up into the universe, seeing the stars and floating!"
"You do know we can float on earth. You're magical. That's pretty fantastical, no?"
He pouted, "It's not the same though."
The two returned to their books, Hermione reading a novel for her mother's book club. The internalized misogyny and clichés in the book made her eyes roll, but she did like the old spinster's character.
"Oi! Bookworms!" Lyana called out. "Pass the ball!"
The volleyball had rolled towards their feet.
"How can they play for this long? It's been hours." Severus rolled his eyes, ignoring their calls.
"It hasn't been hours, just a little over 1." Hermione reasoned as she got up from her seat and threw the ball back to the group.
"Sev, come on! Join us!" Lily called out. "Pleeeaaassseee?"
Hermione counted internally, then smiled into her pages when Severus stood up at the 7 second mark, grumbling about dumb games and sports. At least he didn't get up immediately this time.
She allowed her eyes to return to the words in front of her, "her busom was so large that he could get lost between the valleys. She was pure and innocent, yet moved she'd done this all before."
"What could the book possibly say that you're making that face?" Sirius laughed as he took Severus's seat.
"Just disgusted by the way men write about women, that's all." Hermione closed the book, not even bothering to memorize the page. She could already predict the ending, and she was less than halfway in.
Sirius turned his head to catch the title. "The Assassin's Greed? What's it about?"
"Basically, a trained killer who ends of saving a kingdom, while screwing every woman along the way."
He picked up the book with interest, "Oh, yes please."
"Give me that!" She snatched the book out of his hands. "It's misogynistic and ridiculous! The description of women in this novel is as if they're complete objects, not to mention the plans to actually save the kingdom is so incredibly dumb that it would pretty much fail immediately if this was real life."
"If you hate it so much, why read it?" He laughed.
"It wasn't my choice. I'm reading it for my mom's book club." She sighed, using the book to cover the rays of sunshine glaring into her eyes.
"So?"
"So, she thought it would be a great idea to join a book club with a monthly membership fee to encourage herself to read more books, only to never read them." Hermione explained. "She booked herself for 3 months in advance."
Sirius laughed. "Oh, Ivy." He shook his head. "The more I learn about your mom, the more entertaining she gets."
"I read her books for her and give her notes so that she can pretend she read them during her book club. Apparently, she's quite 'insightful' and her thoughts and opinions are well regarded."
"Ah, so that's why you're doing it." He quickly caught on. "You like the validation."
"You know what they say, Slytherins don't do anything without some kind of personal benefit." Hermione shrugged, "I've read a lot of books, so I can safely say which ones are good and which ones are rubbish."
"How about you stop reading your rubbish and have some fun." Sirius took the book and placed it on the sand.
"I don't want to play volleyball, Sirius."
"Neither do I." He asked for her hand.
She stared at the offer, then back at her book bag where she was eyeing a very interesting book about the relativity of time, but his pleading face made her relent. "Fine."
He gripped her hand and pulled her up from the seat. True to his word, he walked with her past the others who were still playing a horrendous game of volleyball and near the water.
"I'm not wearing a bathing suit." She stopped.
"You've got a change of clothes, don't you?"
"Well, yes—"
"Then what you're wearing is a bathing suit." He scooped her up off the floor, bridal style, with one big motion. He swung her a few times to gain momentum then threw her, except Hermione didn't get thrown.
Immediately catching onto what trouble Sirius was going to cause, Hermione snaked her arms around him. Once he let go to throw her, she kept her arms linked tightly around him. Her lower body dropped, so she swung her legs around, using her abs to bring them behind him, then kicked him in the back of the knees, causing him to buckle to the floor. She unlinked her arms and used his shoulder as leverage to stand up, then immediately pushed him into the water, face first.
Soaked from head to toe, Sirius emerged from the water, coughing and flailing due to the unexpected counter-attack.
"Evans, what the fuck!" He shouted, wiping the water off his face, trying to blink away the salt water out of his eyes.
"Prongs!" James clutched his stomach and laughed. "You should have seen your face!" He mimicked his friend's expression and body language to a remarkable likeness.
James's exaggerated reaction caused everyone to laugh as well. Sirius's handsome face sputtered with outrage, then he turned to Hermione with narrowed eyes.
For a second, she was worried he would take it personally and be truly upset with her, but the smile and playful fire in his eyes reassured her that he was fine.
"Oh, it's on." He shot out of the water and tackled her by catching her torso, pushing her into the water with his entire body weight. No matter how fit she was, there was no way she would have been able to stop him without magic. She fell into the shallow water with Sirius.
"You!" Hermione gasped. A bubble of laughter burst through her affronted expression. She quickly stood and dipped both hands into the water and started throwing as much water as she could in his direction.
Never the one to go down without a fight, Sirius started splashing her as well. It was an all-out war, which was soon joined by the rest of the group.
"Get the boys!" Marlene cried.
The forced friendliness the group had exhibited while playing volleyball was gone as everyone started laughing and screaming as they splashed water at each other.
"These might help!"
The teenagers turned to see Mr. and Mrs. Evans standing at the edge of the shore holding up small buckets, water guns, and floating toys. Everyone rushed towards them, trying to get ahead and grab the best item.
The people wearing actual bathing suits were able to waddle through the water much faster than Hermione's jean clad outfit.
"Darn," She muttered looking down at her tiny little water gun. "Got anything better for your daughter?"
Hermione looked up to her parents to find them smiling wider than she'd ever seen.
"What?" She asked.
"Nothing!" Mrs. Evans denied, but her smile was still present.
"We'll call you when it's dinner, okay?" Mr. Evans wrapped his arm around his wife and squeezed them. "Why don't we go back to the beach house, my love?"
She watched her parents walk away; her father's strong arms wrapped around her mother. They were whispering to each other's ears, probably about her.
"Hermione, come on!" Lily called to her, fighting off the onslaught of water from James's bucket.
"Coming!"
…
Dinner took place outside around a fireplace with paper plates and plastic cups instead of the small dining table inside. It was a loud affair with James and Sirius commandeering much of the attention to themselves as they re-enacted the day's highlights in Marauder fashion. If Hermione thought Sirius was loud by himself, the boys' energies bounced back and forth, making them louder and more entertaining.
Mrs. Evans laughed and clapped as she leaned against her husband, humoring the boys with her large reactions.
Hermione quietly stood from her seat to clean up her plate of unfinished chicken breast and vegetables, unable to eat the burgers that everyone else had.
She reached into her bag with the Undetectable Extension charm and pulled out her many potions and pills that she would need to take before attempting to sleep tonight.
"Merlin, how many is that?"
She'd expected everyone to stay for James and Sirius's show, but she supposed Severus was never their fan.
"Many." She answered simply. The vials clinked against each other as she lined them up from worst to best tasting on the small dining table. She placed the muggle drugs in front of the vials to take along with her potions.
"If you're going to stay, keep an eye out. I don't want Petunia's muggle friends watching me take my potions and have to answer questions like, 'What's the purple thing you're drinking?'"
She uncorked her first vial.
"Oh gods, what the hell is in that?" Severus plugged his nose, flinching away from the smell.
"When I said I don't want to answer dumb questions from Petunia's friends, I meant answer questions in general, Sev." Hermione rolled her eyes. She grabbed the pills, plopped them into her mouth and washed them down with the potion, not even grimacing at the taste and smell.
"Maybe that's why you eat such terrible tasting food. Your taste buds have died from all those potions you're taking."
"I'll make sure to pass your complaints to Belby next time I see him." Sarcasm dripped from her voice. "No one asked you to follow me here, you know."
"Fine. I'll be quiet." Severus turned back to the glass door that opened to the outside. They could see everyone glowing from the bonfire in the distance. They were singing.
"Are we the weird ones for not wanting to be there?" Severus wondered out loud. "Look at them, laughing, smiling, singing and enjoying themselves."
"Oh, stop." Hermione rolled her eyes at his dramatics. "You would be there too if it weren't for James and Sirius."
The casual manner she mentioned their names caused a small eruption of jealousy within him. He didn't love Hermione like he loved Lily, but the idea that even Hermione could fall for their simple charms like everyone else made Severus angry. What made them so special? What made them so great, those bumbling fools? Even the way the Evans parents looked at them, like they were the best things that happened to their daughters.
"I think Lily is falling..." He let his vulnerability slip, but quickly shut his mouth.
Hermione watched him struggle.
"I read a book for my mum's book club about a man who loves his best friend, only, she doesn't love him back."
Severus knew what she was doing, but he bit the bait nonetheless. "What happens?"
"He get jealous, ruins everything and loses everything. His best friend dies and he's left to mourn her, knowing she hated him till her last breath." She grabbed an apple off the counter and rubbed it clean with her shirt. "Do you know where I think he went wrong? It's not his feelings, because that's not something anyone can control. It's his jealousy that blinded him to the difference between pride and dignity. His pride exuded false arrogance and fragile egotism that repelled everyone, including his best friend. Pride was not a commodity he could afford, but he was foolish."
She placed a hand on his shoulder and squeeze it comfortingly. She remembered her pain and hurt when Ron kissed Lavender or when he oogled the girls from Beauxbaton.
"Don't be stupid with your love, Severus. Ask yourself if you love Lily and the real relationship you guys have built until now or if you love the imagined relationship that you've made up in your endorphin filled mind."
"Lily could fall in love with me."
Hermione nodded. "She could. But my question to you is, would you love her still, if she chooses someone other than you?"
He clenched his jaw.
"If your answer to my question is no, then Severus you don't really love her. You don't really know what love is."
…
The rhythmic crashing of the waves were louds as they strolled down the boardwalk along the shore. The moonlight lit the night sky with its ethereal glow, causing the water to look like moving glitter along its surface.
Lily couldn't sleep.
Insomnia was affliction she was very familiar with, even if she wasn't the one with the affliction. She glanced at her sister who was a perpetual insomniac. Hermione was in her element. The late nights and early mornings were when her sister was truly alive, as if the moonlight gave her energy in a way that sunlight could not.
"Full moon tonight." Lily pointed out.
"Yeah."
She had that sad smile on her face, though for what reason, Lily could never know.
Being Hermione's sister meant that you had to be okay with not know everything about someone, even someone who was supposed to be your twin sister. It bothered her, and she didn't think it will ever not bother her, but Healer Black once told her that Hermione often kept to herself because knowing would hurt us more.
It's the burden she bares for all of us.
Lily had researched about the powers of a Seer from the moment she had access to the books in Hogwarts. She knew Seers didn't see all, just the big stuff, catastrophic stuff, life-ending, world-destroying stuff.
It wasn't the Lily didn't understand her sister's discretion. She did. She really did, yet there was a sisterly bond that she felt they missed out on because of her secrecy. Lily didn't want to know about the big stuff, in fact, she was relieved that she didn't know about the apocalyptic events that would happen in the future. She wouldn't know how to function if she knew. She would hate to live with the anxiety that type of knowledge would bring—crippling her and preventing her from living life at the fullest.
How Hermione lived.
What Lily wanted was the little stuff about Hermione. She wanted her sister to tell her if she had a crush or a venting session where she could release some pent-up anger about her Housemates or the professors or even their own family, yet nothing.
"How do you think the boys are doing, sleeping in that tent together?" Lily asked, breaking the silence. "Aren't you worried that they might kill each other?"
Hermione let out a small laugh, "I hope not, attending 3 funerals consecutively would be a pain."
"You're horrible." Lily laughed at her sister's dark humor. The sisters fell silent again, but this time the silence felt lighter.
"Tell me something." Lily asked. "Anything."
"Anything?" Hermione asked. "Such as?"
"What about you and Sev? He looked pretty upset after you guys disappeared during dinner. Did you fight?"
"No, I don't think fight is the right word to call what happened. We did fight during school. Later in the year." She kicked the sand off her sandals as they walked. "I called him out for being a terrible friend and then I kissed Sirius to piss him off."
Lily stopped, like her brain short circuited from over drive.
"YOU WHAT?!" Her voice echoed in the silent night, not even the sound of the waves could swallow it.
"Shh. You'll wake the neighbours."
"Screw the neighbours! Tell me everything, now."
Lily pulled Hermione to a bench by the boardwalk and eagerly waited with shining eyes. They talked, really talked for the first time since they could remember. Lily comforted, gasped, and giggled at the right moments, which encouraged Hermione to go into more detail than she would normally have gone into.
"You're the mystery girl." Lily was awed at her sister's story.
"What mystery girl?"
"James told me that Sirius came back that night and asked him what constituted as a kiss. We debated the reason behind the question was either the kiss was ambiguous, or the girl was."
"It was the kiss." "It was the girl." They spoke simultaneously.
"How could it be the kiss? You told me there was tongue and everything!"
"How could it be me?" Hermione countered. "The kiss had an ulterior purpose than just kissing."
"How can you be so smart, yet so dumb?" Lily shook her head. "Just connecting lips would have piss Sev off plenty, there was no need to go that deep. And did you, or did you not, continue kissing after Severus left?"
Hermione bit the inside of her cheek but remained silent. Lily smiled with silent victory.
"He came to me stating he wants to be friends."
Lily sighed, exacerbated by her frustrating sister. "In all those cheesy romance novels you read for mom, what is the most common trope? Friends to lovers. You're lying to yourself if that isn't exactly what's happening to you now."
…
IMPORTANT A/N: All the extra prewritten chapters have been uploaded now! I will return to the original uploading schedule of Tuesdays and Thursdays until further notice! Thanks to everyone for tuning in for my story every week!