Author's Note: Finally, a new chapter! (After an annoyingly long break because of a very long and scary professional exam). Thank you so much to anyone who's support this story so far – it is unbelievably appreciated. I have very few obligations in the coming weeks, so I'm hoping to write a good deal more and also catch up with all of your lovely stories :)

OooooOooooOooooOooooO

When Charles II died in February of 1685, the throne fell to his younger brother, the Duke of York, who soon ruled as James II of England. Unlike his brother, who was staunchly Protestant, James II had converted to Catholicism years before he ascended to the throne. This would prove trying for his deeply Anglican nation, and would ultimately be the cause of most of the political strife over the course of his three-year reign. While on the throne, James II repeatedly tried to increase the Catholic influence on the country, with the eventual goal of securing religious toleration for all Catholics—

Lily's essay-writing was interrupted by shrill shrieks from the next room. She sighed, trying to get back into her writing zone. Her favourite time of any assignment was the point at which she could officially stop researching and begin writing. But Petunia's melodrama was making that difficult. Lily stared longingly at the desk drawer she knew housed her wand. A simple silencing charm would go a long way at a time like this, she mused wistfully. Then she sighed and returned to the task at hand.

However, although there were very strong anti-Catholic sentiments at the time, a careful analysis will reveal that James's faith was not solely responsible for his downfall; it was the overzealous nature of his pursuit of equality – namely his attempts to undermine and override established English law –

"Lily!" Petunia shrieked, pushing her way into Lily's room.

"Yes?" she asked, without looking up. Tensions between the two sisters had been at an all-time high this summer. Petunia, having recently acquired a boyfriend, seemed to feel as though she had outgrown her annoying little sister. However, in her excitement over the new relationship, Petunia had conveniently forgotten to inform her boyfriend that she had a sister at all – a fact that Lily quickly discovered upon returning home. The fighting had only escalated from that point.

"What is the meaning of this?" Petunia continued to screech. Lily could see in her peripheral vision that her sister was frantically waving her hand around, but she refused to look up from her typewriter.

"The meaning of what, Tuney?" Lily asked blandly. She continued to write her essay as her sister wailed in order to give off the impression that she was very busy and important.

combined with his increasing militarization that caused him to rapidly send letter—

Wait, what? Letter? "For the love of Merlin!" Lily cried, turning to face her for the first time in the conversation. She knew referencing Merlin in any way shape or form was a sure-fire way to rile up her sister, but she just couldn't help it. "Look what you made me do!"

"What? I made your essay topic unspeakably boring?" Petunia asked with a sneer.

"Your incessant screaming made me write the wrong word." I chose the boring topic all on my own, thank you very much.

"Oh boo-hoo," Tuney mocked.

"Now I have to re-write the whole paper," Lily complained. Boy did she want to open that desk drawer now.

"You're only one paragraph in."

Lily groaned in exasperation. "The amount doesn't matter!" she cried childishly. Something about her sister always seemed to bring out the worst, most juvenile aspect of her personality.

"Well I'm glad I finally have your attention," Petunia continued. "Because this," she hissed viciously. "Isn't. Funny."

"I don't. Know what. You're talking about." Mimicking Petunia's intonation and cadence probably wasn't going to get her very far, but Lily was beyond caring.

"This letter," Petunia cried, throwing the parchment in Lily's direction. "Like I just told you."

Oh. So that was why Lily typed 'letter' in her essay. With a passive aggressive glare in Tuney's direction, she picked up the piece of paper and began to read. She couldn't contain the smile that spread over her face as her eyes scanned familiar penmanship:

Dear Petunia,

Hi! My name is Mary. I'm one of the many rad people who have been acting as Lily's pen-pals this summer. Your sister happened to mention that you haven't been too happy with all the back-and-froth writing, which got me thinking: how would I feel if I were a muggle and MY younger sister was the one getting all these sweet letters? Of course, I'm not a muggle and I don't have any siblings. But I imagine that I would feel excluded. To that end, I figured I would write you directly. I've obviously never met you, so when you write back, feel free to tell me about your hopes and dreams, biggest fears, current hobbies... you know, that sort of thing. If you're not sure how to send a letter back with Zeus (the owl), don't worry! I'll just keep writing you every couple of days and it can be a one-sided-pen-pal-sort-of-situation. I think my mate Marlene wants to write you too.

I'll write you again soon!

Xoxo, Mary

"You're wrong," Lily said, turning to face her sister. "This is extremely funny." She could have sworn she saw actual steam start to appear around her face.

"You told your little freak friend to send a bloody owl to my room," Petunia snapped. "I tried to ignore it, but it was going to peck right through my window. And then when I finally opened the screen, it bit me."

"Probably because you ignored him first," Lily pointed out. She was enjoying the whole affair tremendously.

"I probably have rabies now!" Petunia carried on.

"You do not," Lily replied with the biggest roll her eyes could muster.

"I probably have to go to the hospital and get a bunch of needles," she carried on as though Lily weren't even present.

"Oh, I get it," Lily interrupted with falsified interest. "You don't actually think you have rabies. You just wish you did so that you could go get treated and mum and dad might actually pay you some attention."

Petunia froze for a second. Then she stomped her foot in exasperation. "At least I'm not an attention-seeking whore like you," she screamed. "I swear you're going to milk that to your grave."

"That seems uncalled for," Lily observed coolly. "You remember that I didn't actually want this, right?" she asked, raising her arm vaguely in her sister's direction.

In so doing, Lily was gesturing the other major source of strife the two sisters had been facing. A few weeks after coming home, Lily and Petunia had set out to bike to their nearest community centre to swim on a particularly hot day. Petunia had seemed hell-bent on abandoning Lily and reaching the pool first – or perhaps just proving that she was more fit. Lily tried desperately to keep up, but when she biked off the curb, her front tire became lodged in a storm sewer and she went over her handlebars. Truthfully, Lily wasn't someone who handled pain very well and she began crying out at once. She begged Petunia to take her home so that she could go seek attention from a magical healer, but her sister conveniently seemed not to hear her and started calling out for help instead. Pretty soon, the entire Cokeworth community had assembled to marvel at Lily's injuries. Someone called an ambulance and Lily was forced (mainly at Tuney's behest) to receive muggle medical care. She had fractured the main bone in her right arm, as well as her wrist, which meant that she returned home in an incredibly frustrated cast that started at her thumb and went over her elbow. Unfortunately for Petunia, her plan completely backfired, as the Evans parents felt extremely sorry for their youngest daughter. They bought Lily a typewriter so she could still complete her assignments and tended to scold Petunia whenever the two of them were fighting. This had taken Petunia's resentment to new levels.

"Whatever," Petunia said dismissively. "Just write your freak friend back and tell her to leave me bloody well alone."

"Why would I do that?" Lily asked sweetly.

"Because you told her to in the first place and I can't have owls swooping into my room in broad daylight and biting me."

"I didn't, actually. And the owls won't bite if you're nice to them." Lily leaned back in her chair and tried her very best to look unperturbed.

"Stop tormenting me," Petunia snapped. "Mum and dad might take your side every time now, but that doesn't make you right."

"I'm not tormenting you," Lily said reasonably. "My friends are just trying to be nice." They were quite obviously trying to get a rise out of Petunia for Lily's amusement, but she could pretend their motives were more altruistic.

"I doubt they're even your friends," Petunia said venomously. "I've never seen you with anyone."

"Now you're just being mean," Lily told her sister truthfully. "Can you leave my room so I can restart my essay?"

"Not until you write your 'friends'," she said with air-quotes. Then she crossed her arms. If she weren't being so cruel, Lily might have been more amused by her appearance. She was wearing a knee-length blue dress and a tasteful beige cardigan. Her long, dark brown hair was pulled back into low ponytail that hung down in a straight line. She was wearing ballet flats – despite being indoors in her own house – and the pair of pearl earrings she received for Christmas two years ago. In sum, she was the epitome of 'normal.' Say what you will about Tuney, she at least takes her own advice.

"Even if I wanted to – which I don't, for the record – I can't. I don't own an owl because my overly-sensitive sister won't let me."

Petunia groaned and comically stomped her foot. "Fine," she huffed. "I have to go get ready anyway. Vernon's coming over."

Lily raised her eyebrows in her sister's direction. "Aren't you already ready? What on earth are you possibly going to change?" Petunia faltered, clearly unsure of how to respond. Unfortunately, Lily decided to push her one step further. "You need to pick a different brown cardigan? Or maybe you need to straighten your hair. I think I see a faint wiggle."

"Well excuse me for being modest," she huffed, clearly hurt. "You better change before Vernon comes over too. You look like such a slag."

Lily couldn't object, really – she did look like a slag. They were in the middle of a heat wave and, combined with the heat from her cast, Lily was close to expiring. As a result, she was currently wearing a tiny pair of shorts a tank top she had realistically outgrown a year ago. "It's a million degrees," she complained bitterly. "Besides, maybe I want to look like a slag when Vernon comes around. Maybe I want to woo him away from you."

"That's not funny."

"You're not funny."

Petunia groaned in desperation and stormed out of Lily's room. Finally. Lily leaned back in her chair and ran her left hand through her particularly messy hair. She spied her copy of Pride and Prejudice that was sitting on her desk and spent several minutes idly wondering why the Bennet sisters didn't spend more time plotting sororicide. After a while, when she was still too annoyed to get back to work, Lily decided she would take an angry-bath. Of course, like so many other activities, baths had become far less relaxing since her accident. Lily had to cover her right arm with a rubbish bag, carefully step into the tub, hold her arm up and out of the water, and clumsily shave with her left hand. It was a delicate dance she had performed a dozen of times by now.

After washing her hair by using the faucet as a make-shift shower, Lily emerged, mildly less frustrated than before. She changed into a loose sundress that was marginally less revealing and started combing her hair. Ever since Lily was little, she had always loved the first few seconds after a shower when she could pretend she had been born with dark, auburn-coloured straight hair. Against her better judgement, when she was envisioning this gorgeous and suave woman, she couldn't help but imagine what James would think if he met her. Enough of that. As soon as she finished with her comb, she could already see the front pieces starting to wave and spiral. With a sigh, she left her room: it was time for a snack.

At the top of the stairs, she could hear her mum and Petunia talking in hushed voices. Tuney was clearly upset and Lily distinctly heard her muttering about an owl. Of course you would run to mum, Lily thought to herself as she made her way downstairs.

"Lily," her mum greeted. "Did you tell your friends to send an owl to Petunia's bedroom?" What a normal greeting.

"No," Lily replied blandly. She reached for a package of cookies. "Also, Tuney just called me a slag." Two can play at that game.

"Petunia!" Iris Evans cried. "Did you really?"

"She made fun of me first," Tuney whined petulantly.

"That's no excuse," their mother scolded. "You should never call anyone that – let alone your sister!" Internally, Lily celebrated her tremendous victory – though externally, she tried to look as though she were very hurt by Tuney's comments. It was a tad difficult, as she was also eating several cookies. "And Lily," her mum called, turning around. "Don't think I don't see you there with those cookies. You're going to spoil your dinner."

"Mum," Lily complained. "I'm alone for nine months of the year and manage my food all by myself."

"Yes, and that's all the more reason I should keep you from stuffing your face while you're under this roof." Lily groaned and returned the cookie in her to its previous package.

"You should see her room," Tuney chirped, unhelpfully. "She has heaps of candy those people sent her."

"Is that true?"

Lily groaned again. "Thanks so much for bringing that up, Tuney."

Petunia crossed her arms and smirked. "I'm just worried about you. You're going to get early-onset diabetes."

"Oh thank you for your concern," Lily snapped. "Can we get back to the part where you stormed into my room, ruined my paper, told me I didn't have any friends, and called me a slag?" She wasn't particularly bothered by any of these things so much as her sister's general presence and attitude, but those were harder to enumerate.

"How about the part where I was a victim of you and your friends' silly little practical joke that you refuse to fix?" Petunia shouted.

"Girls, settle down!" their mother scolded. "And Tuney you really have to be gentler with Lily."

"Of course. She's so very fragile, as we all know."

"Can you give it a rest?" Lily snapped. Summer was never her favourite time of year, but this one seemed to be particularly trying. She was doubting her ability to make it to September 1st at all.

"Petunia, you're not leaving!" Iris cried, with a stern point of the finger at her retreating figure. Her daughter sighed and took a few steps back into the kitchen. "I can't believe I have to say this, but you can't make fun of Lily for having a broken arm." Thank you! Finally, some common sense in this house. "You two are giving me an aneurysm," she muttered, emulating her husband. "We're all going to go into the living room and sit down and talk this out." Lily just about shrivelled inside. This inevitably meant a three-hour affair with yelling, crying, and fake heart-to-hearts, only to have the fighting resume the next day. At that moment, the doorbell rang. "Don't go anywhere," Iris said to both her daughters as she went to go answer it.

"This better be quick," Petunia complained under her breath. "Vernon will be here in a half hour."

"Oh, maybe he can join in on the fun. Now that he knows I exist, it's only fitting that he sit in on an epic fight or two."

"You always make everything so dramatic," Tuney hissed. "It's not all about you. I hadn't mentioned you yet because it wasn't relevant."

"It wasn't relevant?" Lily asked sharply, though she tried to keep her voice down. "You led him to believe you were an only child!"

"I basically am nine months of the year. It's not my fault if I forget about you periodically."

Lily didn't know if that comment was worse if it were true or made up. She opened her mouth to respond, but promptly shut it. Petunia looked as though she were going to continue, so Lily held up a finger to show that she was listening to the conversation at the door.

"I said we're here to see Lily?" a male voiced asked. "She does live here, doesn't she?" he asked with a nervous chuckle. Lily would recognize that voice anywhere. And she would bet all her money that his hand was ruffling his hair as he asked that question.

"Oh no," Lily whispered to no one in particular.

OooooOooooOooooOooooO

"Well isn't this cozy," Petunia chirped, beaming.

Lily, her sister, her mother, James, and Sirius were all crowded together in the Evans' sitting room; they were quite the uncomfortable bunch. For her part, Lily was sitting in her mother's antique ladies chair, looking anything but. She didn't really know what to do with her plaster-clad arm, so she grabbed a nearby pillow and plopped it in her lap as a support. She greatly regretted her choice of attire and was desperately pressing her thighs together in the hopes that James and Sirius weren't seeing more than they had bargained for. She could feel her hair dripping down the front of her dress leaving a large water mark on each side. Meanwhile, James and Sirius (who, if possible, looked even taller than the last time she saw them) were sitting on the couch with impeccable posture, though they were occasionally staring in amazement at various muggle appliances. Thinking back, Lily had never seen the pair of them more unnerved – not even Professor McGonagall could produce such a response. It was a shame her mother would never know what a gesture of respect she was receiving. Sitting beside the two boys was Petunia, who rather resembled a child on Christmas day. Finally, Lily's mother sat opposite all of four teenagers in a chair she had pulled in from the dining room.

"Yes," her mum agreed sternly. Her lips were pressed together into a firm line. "Where did you say you knew Lily from, again?" she asked her male visitors.

"From school," Sirius informed her simply. To her sister, Sirius probably looked quite at ease, but to Lily, he looked very tense. She was willing to bet that a mid-afternoon interrogation session with Petunia and Iris Evans wasn't what the boys had had in mind when they set out on this expedition.

"And what school would that be again?" Iris asked with an awkward cough. It hadn't even occurred to Lily that her mum wouldn't realize that they were wizards.

"Hogwarts?" James asked, more than answered.

"I see. Lily never mentioned anything about any boys she was friends with at Hogwarts," her mum said as she glared at one teenager after the next.

"Well, to be fair, I've never mentioned any friends at all," Lily joked hastily at her own expense. Unsurprisingly, it fell flat. Self-consciously, she began tugging at the front pieces of her hair, aware that as the water was leaving them, they were beginning to kink every which way. Past experience led her to know with certainty that she wouldn't be able to straighten her hair through sheer force of will alone, yet, sitting across from James, she couldn't help but try.

"Because you don't have any," Petunia commented matter-of-factly. Then she raised her eyebrows, an idea clearly occurring to her. "Are you Mary and Marlene?" she asked James and Sirius, who looked quite taken aback. "Did you send an owl to my room?" she continued.

"Er, no," James told her. Could this conversation get any weirder?

"How did you two meet Lily?" Iris asked, regaining control of the room.

"We're all in the same house," James told her, looking happy to hear a question he could actually answer.

"And what year are you two in?" she questioned suspiciously.

Lily froze, knowing the answer would not go over well. She stared at the pair of them meaningfully as she pointed her finger down at the ground, desperately trying to send a signal. James met her eyes and answered: "fifth year." Unfortunately, Sirius blindly answered 'sixth year' at the same time.

"You're not in the same year?" Petunia questioned. She obviously sensed a lie and her face started displaying what Lily could only describe as a cat-ate-the-canary expression.

"No, we are," James backpedaled with a faint and uncharacteristic blush. "We just finished fifth year," he explained.

"So, we'll be starting sixth year," Sirius finished, catching on. Lily exhaled in relief.

"How did you all meet?" Iris asked.

"Breakfast?" James volunteered. She looked less than impressed.

"And why are you here now?" Not a bad question, Lily granted. It was one she wanted to know herself. Lily started to sweep her hair back into a pony tail but abandoned the effort when she remembered for the millionth time that she wouldn't be able to bring her right hand up to help.

"We're friends," James said meekly, running a hand through his hair. "We thought it would be fun to visit."

"Plus you stopped writing us back," Sirius pointed out. "Had to make sure you were still alive and all."

"I told you I broke my arm," Lily reminded them, surprised at their confusion. "And that I wouldn't write back for a while."

"Well yes, but that was weeks ago," Sirius objected. Lily sighed and brought her left hand up to her face. "Anyways, Evans, we missed you," he finished with a smile.

"I assume you're addressing me," Iris told him with slits for eyes.

"Er..."

"Is anyone thirsty?" Lily squeaked as she started to stand up. "I'm going to go get some water." Anywhere in the world would be better than this sitting room.

"Sit down," Iris ordered. Lily retreated to the back of her seat. "Tuney, go and get your sister a glass of water."

"Why?" Petunia barked.

"Her arm's broken," her mum sighed. Petunia groaned, but complied. "So, what is going on here? How is it I'm only just learning of your existence now?"

"I didn't think to mention it," Lily answered awkwardly, trying to save James and Sirius. She swept her hair back again, increasingly frustrated with its inability to behave.

"Well, how come you've never visited before?"

"Er..." Sirius stammered.

"It wasn't as easy to travel," James jumped in. "But we can apparate now."

"Apparate?" she questioned.

"Oh, it's a kind of... magical travel," James struggled to explain.

"It's like teleporting," Lily volunteered.

"Teleporting?" Iris barked. "Don't lie to me."

"I'm not!" she insisted.

"There are a lot of unbelievable things about your world, Lily, but I can very well tell when people are trying to dupe me."

Before Lily could try to defend her case any further, there was a loud pop, causing everyone to jump. James had apparated from the couch to the other end of the room. Petunia screamed and dropped the glass of water she had retrieved for Lily. "What the fuck!" she exclaimed.

"Tuney!" Iris cried at her language. However, Iris herself looked like she had just seen a ghost.

"Why would you do that?" Lily hissed in James' direction.

"I thought it would be easier to demonstrate," he said defensively. He started ruffling his hair again.

Putting aside the stupidity of that comment, Lily had another objection. "What about the trace?" she asked quietly.

"I'm sevent—" James started to answer, but cut himself off when he realized what he was saying. Fortunately, Petunia and her mother were arguing amongst themselves, and didn't seem to have heard.

"Yes, but I'm not," Lily whispered back. James stared at her blankly. "I'm the only witch in this house. They assume that I'm responsible for any magic performed here." It was sometimes hard to believe how little these boys knew about what it was like for muggle-born students.

"Really?" he asked, astounded. Lily nodded. "Well, I don't think apparating counts."

"Do you know that?"

"No."

"Enough!" Iris cried at her older daughter, capturing their attention. Petunia returned to the kitchen with her arms raised defiantly. "Lily," she said, clearly trying to reign in her emotions. "Why am I just finding out that you can do this now?"

"Well, I can't," Lily explained quickly.

"Why not?"

Because I'm not old enough. Lily tried to keep that thought to herself. "It's quite difficult," she stammered. "You have to take a test and everything. Plus you physically can't apparate at Hogwarts, so..." she trailed off, realizing that she was probably offering one too many reasons. She pushed the front pieces of her hair behind her ears. Before the conversation could go any further, there was a knock on the door. Lily's mother sighed and went to answer it.

"Mum!" Petunia hissed frantically, causing Iris to freeze in place. "That's going to be Vernon."

"Shouldn't I go let him in?" her mother asked, justifiably confused.

"Please don't bring him into this," she pleaded, waving her hand around the room ambiguously.

"Into what, Tuney?" Lily asked, playing dumb. She could easily deduce that her sister wanted to keep Vernon from meeting James and Sirius.

"Please," Tuney repeated simply, desperation written all over her face.

"We can just go," Sirius suggested optimistically.

"I'm not kicking my guests out," Iris told both of them – as well as herself. Lily was amused that the boys had seemingly transitioned from her prisoners to her guests in the blink of an eye, but kept her mouth shut.

"We're fine to go," James chirped in.

"Oh, I don't know," Lily said loudly. She slowly reclined in her chair and stretched her arms out behind her like she was assuming a throne. Of course, the illusion was probably broken by her massive plaster cast, but Lily wasn't about to let that get her down. She had quickly surmised that she now had a tactical advantage. "They came all the way to see me," she reminded her sister, revelling in each word. "They've hardly had a chance to visit."

Vernon chose that moment to knock on the door again, clearly growing impatient. Iris started stirring. "Mum, don't," Tuney warned.

Iris sighed. "Eric," she called out to Lily's father.

There was a pause. "What?" he called from upstairs.

"The door!"

"What?"

Iris sighed and moved to the bottom of the stairs so she could shout at a closer distance.

"Lily, please," Petunia sighed, covering her face. "I'll lay off you. I'll do anything."

"Well, well, well," Lily said slowly. "Oh how the tides have turned."

Iris returned to the sitting room and Lily could hear the unmistakable sounds of her father and Vernon making perfunctory small talk. Her mother shifted about uncomfortably. "Lily, do you suppose you and your friends might..." she trailed off. "Go have fun somewhere else?"

Lily froze, shocked that her mother, the queen of manners and poise, had dared to evict her own daughter. She opened her mouth to object, but then she caught a glimpse of Petunia and she changed her mind. "Okay," Lily agreed. She watched relief flood her sister's face. "How long will Vernon be here?"

"He's staying for supper," her mum replied. Her eyes were desperately searching her daughter's, begging for forgiveness.

"Okay," Lily repeated with a small sigh. Without another word, Lily walked to the Evans' backdoor, James and Sirius in toe. The three of them went out to the backyard and wrapped around into their driveway. Then Lily paused, unsure of where to go.

"Well that was strange," Sirius said conversationally. "Do you greet all your guests that way?"

"Oh yes," Lily replied as she tried to flick her hair to her back with a swish of her head. "It's a muggle thing," she joked.

"No doubt," Sirius agreed. "So, to address one of many elephants in the street – what is on your arm?"

"It's a cast," Lily told him blandly.

"Why is it... on you?"

"I broke my arm," she told him slowly, as though she were talking to a small child. Given that she had already explained the matter in writing, she wasn't sure why it was still a topic of conversation.

"And?"

"And I went to a muggle hospital, so they gave me a cast."

"So you just wear that... forever?" James cut in. He sounded positively horrified.

"What? No. Bones heal themselves." What is Muggle Studies even good for?

"Really?" James asked, astounded. He turned to look at Sirius, who appeared equally dumbfounded.

"That can't be true," Sirius maintained.

"It is."

"I don't know think so."

"So, just to be clear: You're suggesting that every time a muggle breaks their leg, it just becomes useless forever? Half our society wouldn't be able to walk," she observed reasonably. I deserve a prize for my impeccable patience.

"Why do I feel like she's tricking us?" Sirius asked James.

"I get the same feeling," James agreed. "Why is there writing all over it?"

"Oh, that actually is a muggle thing," Lily explained. "People just... sign casts. I don't really know why, honestly."

"So these are your friends?" Sirius asked as he started moving her arm every which way.

"Not really," Lily explained. "They're the other students in my English class." It had been quite the novelty when she turned up the first day after her accident, and she didn't much care for the extra attention.

"You take a class... on English?" Sirius asked incredulously.

"Oi. Just forget everything. It's not worth it with you two."

"So how long are you supposed to wear that for?" James asked Lily, returning to the subject at hand.

"Another month," she groaned emphatically. She was rounding up.

"Geez," Sirius commented. "Just imagine, mate, this could have been you if Lily hadn't intervened."

"True," James agreed, though he looked a tad uncomfortable. "Is it as horrible as it looks?"

"Er," Lily murmured, not sure how to answer. "I mean, it's very hot. And quite itchy. But it's not painful or anything."

"I think we owe it to her to make it better," James said, turning to Sirius. His best friend agreed whole-heartedly.

"I don't know what you're going on about," Lily said, cutting them off. "But the bone will heal itself. And you boys look like you're scheming," she carried on. "And that's never a good thing."

"Evans, we're not scheming," Sirius told her. "We're rescuing you. You're very welcome."

"Oh thanks, I feel much safer now," Lily said dryly.

"We haven't rescued you yet," he chastised. "Please hold all applause till the end."

"Pidg, have you apparated before?" James asked. Of all the strange things to happen today, Lily was perhaps most struck by hearing the casual use of 'pigeon' after such a prolonged absence. She had to file that one away for later reflection.

"Of course not. When would I have possibly done that?"

"Fair. Well, there's a first time for everything," he beamed in her direction.

"I literally can't,' she reminded them.

"We'll side-along you," Sirius supplied with an effortless grin. Lily's heart started beating very quickly as her body buzzed with nervous energy.

"Isn't that dangerous?" she questioned.

"Don't you trust me?" Sirius shot back.

"Not particularly," she told him, shaking her head.

"I guess James will have to side-along you then," he told her with a wink.

James held out his hand for Lily to take. She eyed it suspiciously. "Tell me what to expect."

"You just grab James tightly, and he'll take care of the rest."

"I've heard it's quite uncomfortable," Lily observed, not dignifying Sirius' innuendo with a response.

"It is," James told her. "It will feel terrible, but only for a moment. You do have to grab tightly, though, since you don't know how to apparate yourself."

"Er..." Lily stammered inelegantly. "I've obviously only got the one hand," she pointed out. "Maybe we should just... not do this?"

"It'll be fine," James shrugged. He reached out and put an arm around her back and then spun her in so they were hugging. Lily tried her best to act as though this were an everyday occurrence. Even though she had her left arm wrapped around him, she was aware that her body was several inches away from his torso and much too stiff. "Relax," he told her, applying some pressure to the back of her body.

"I'm going to get your shirt wet," Lily mumbled awkwardly as she turned her head to the side and touched her ear to his chest. In her humble opinion, she thought the two of them seemed to click perfectly into place, with her head easily finding an opening just below his collar bone that felt as though it were made for her.

"Ready?" James asked excitedly. He evidently paid no mind to Lily's trifling objection.

"Not really," she answered truthfully.

"One..." he started counting. Lily capitalized on the opportunity to hug his body close and cherished the smell she was treated to as she inhaled. "Two..." Before he made it to three, Lily felt a magical force pry her body away from her driveway, and indeed from the residential Cokeworth street altogether.

'Uncomfortable,' turned out to be an aggressively terrible understatement. Lily felt as though her entire body was being stretched and forced through a tube the size of a galleon. Every inch of her body shrieked in pain and Lily could have sworn her eyeballs ruptured or popped out. There was just one thing anchoring her to place or time: the unmistakable scent of the boy whose arms were wrapped around her. She gripped him even more tightly and prayed to gods she didn't believe in to let her arrive in one piece.

After an eternity – or possibly half a second – she heard the pop of their arrival. Slowly, she felt some of the pain float away. "Alright, Evans?" she heard Sirius ask just as James started to loosen his grip. She felt herself sway back and forth.

"Whoa," James said, gripping her tightly again. He awkwardly lowered the pair of them down until she was sitting in the ground. Automatically, she began patting different parts of her body. "What are you doing?" he asked, amused.

Making sure I'm not eviscerated, she answered in her head. After a few more seconds, Lily attempted to open her eyes, but immediately regretted the decision; the entire world started spinning and she promptly began retching. A pair of hands pulled her half-dry hair out of her face. You can add 'mortified' to my list of feelings for the day.

Lily finished vomiting and rolled on to her back, wiping her mouth. She looked around until she found James and stared at him, immensely disapproving. "You alright?" he asked meekly.

Obviously not. "What happened to 'three'?" she asked softly – but forcefully.

"Three!" James declared happily. He reached down and put an arm behind her back to help her sit up. "You survived – congratulations!"

"Congratulations on side-alonging someone!" Sirius told James with a pat on the back.

"Was that your first side-along?" Lily hissed, furious.

OooooOooooOooooOooooO

"Oh," Lily huffed as she took in her surroundings. "I don't really know what I was expecting," she admitted, "but this just looks like a regular hospital." After the pomp and circumstance of entering St. Mungo's – which included sneaking into a deserted department store – she had imagined she would be amazed, rather like she was the first time she entered platform 9¾.

"Sorry to disappoint," Sirius told her.

"Excuse me," James asked of the man sitting at the information booth. "My friend here has an injury. Where do we take her?"

"What kind of injury would that be?" the man inquired. He had a thick red beard and an even thicker Scottish accent.

"Er," James murmured. Lily assumed he was taking a second to decipher the man's speech, just as she was. "She has a broken arm."

"Aye, but what kind of injury?" the man repeated with extra emphasis.

"I'm sorry?" James asked weakly.

"Well artifact-based injuries are on this floor. If she was injured by a magical creature, that'll be the first floor. I'll have to send her to the third floor if someone slipped her a potion that broke her arm. Whereas if she really just has a bad case of spattergroit, well, that will be second floor."

Three heads turned to look at Lily. "I fell off a bike," she offered uselessly.

The man at the desk seemed thoroughly confused. "Is that some sort of artifact?"

"Sure," Sirius answered on behalf of the group. "This floor, right?" The man nodded and pointed over his shoulder.

"What a peculiar place," Lily reflected as the three of them made their way.

Peculiarly still was Lily's position a few minutes later. All three of them were crowded onto a single stretcher that would have been small even for her alone. There was a curtain drawn around them, trying its very best to contain the tangled mess of adolescent limbs. It reminded Lily very much of when she and Petunia would make forts out of blankets as kids.

"What would you do without us, Evans," Sirius remarked rhetorically.

"I was doing just fine," she felt compelled to remind them. "Another month and I'd be good as new," she said, raising her arm.

"And what a month!" he agreed

"In fact, I would have been fine right now, too. I don't see why you had to tell the nurse I would be too confused without you."

"So, what are we doing after this?" James asked, changing the subject.

"Don't look at me," Lily scolded. "I wasn't consulted on any aspect of this up until now, so I certainly don't have any bright ideas."

"No," he fired back. "But you did lose us access to the venue we had originally selected."

"Oh shit," Lily said under her breath. She immediately began replaying their entire conversation from earlier, wondering if she had overstepped by agreeing to leave.

"Evans, he's just teasing!" Sirius exclaimed when he saw her face. "Don't be even remotely sorry. We were thrilled to leave."

"It did not seem like a barrel of laughs," Lily agreed dryly.

"Also pads is failing to mention that we weren't planning on staying," James continued.

"Oh?"

"Well..." a hand went up to his hair. "The originalplan was to bring you back with us and go flying."

Lily's heart leapt into her throat with exhilaration. She wanted dearly to go, though she also desperately desired to look calm and unexcited. Given how terrible she knew she would be if she ever hopped on a broomstick again, she would prefer to play the part of the unwilling participant. "Is that why you were so keen on bringing me here to fix my arm?" she asked, rather than address his proposition directly.

James laughed agreeable. "It may have been a large part," he admitted. "The thing is, though... the whole plan really hinged on side-alonging you to my place before you knew how terrible it would feel. Now that you've already done that and lost all your breakfast, well..."

He has a point. She started to tell him as much, but was interrupted. "Hello there," came a cheery voice as a figure struggled to emerge from behind the curtains. "My name is Karthika and I'm a healer-in-training! I'll do your initial assessment and my preceptor will observe any– James?" The girl interrupted her own pre-rehearsed speech once she had a good view of the three of them.

"Hey Karthika," James replied with a smile. "It's been ages!" Is there anyone he doesn't know? Lily asked herself with a small internal sigh.

The girl chuckled. "Well, healer school keeps us plenty busy. What did you do to land you here?"

"Oh, it's not me," James informed her. He threw an arm around Lily, causing Karthika to realize that there were other people on the stretcher. "Lily here has a broken arm."

"Oh," the girl commented. "And that's an artifact-based accident?"

"Not really," he admitted. "We took a random guess at where to go."

"So, what happened?" Karthika asked Lily directly.

"I fell off my bike," she answered lamely. This hospital was starting to make her feel guilty for having such an ordinary ailment.

"Oh, so you just need me to fix the bone?" She sounded positively surprised. Lily nodded. "Well I can do that no problem!" Karthika told her, beaming. "I don't even need a supervisor for that one." Then she reached out without asking and grabbed her left arm.

"Oh, er," Lily tried to interrupt.

"It's the other arm," Sirius informed the girl as though it were a trivial detail.

"Wh- what's on it?"

"It's a cast," Lily told her with a big sigh. In retrospect, she shouldn't have been so surprised, but the general aesthetic of the hospital had given her false hope that they might possess basic medical competency.

Karthika tapped it with her pointer finger suspiciously. "And what is it? Where did it come from?"

"A muggle hospital."

The girl frowned. "I think I'm going to have to go talk to my supervisor after all." She turned and left.

"So much trouble, Evans," Sirius sighed.

"Perhaps we should have just waited for the bone to heal after all," James agreed. "It might have been faster than this song and dance."

"Is there a reason this hospital doesn't seem at all set up to deal with a simple broken bone?" she inquired. "This would have taken two seconds at Hogwarts."

The two boys gave a deep laugh, but James cut himself off when he saw Lily's face. "Sorry," he apologized curtly. "It's just that every parent knows how to fix a broken bone. Going to St. Mungo's would be the overreaction of the century."

"Oh," Lily said simply, feeling at once jealous and a little embarrassed.

Lily's injury quickly became the talk of the artifact floor. Not only was there significant debate about what spell to use on bones that were already partially healed, but nobody quite knew what to do with her cast either. One healer nearly fainted when Lily informed them that the muggle doctors would use a power saw to remove it. When they finally did remove the cast, Lily was briefly terrified that (as her entire English class had warned her) the hair on her arm would have turned dark and gnarly – but she seemed to be in the clear.

When they were finally released, the three of them made their way up to the top floor, where they were able to buy some overpriced sandwiches (James' treat, despite profuse objections). Lily half-listened to the boys, while the remainder of her attention was fixated on her arm. She kept stretching, flexing, and turning it every which way – and periodically scratched it to high heaven to make up for lost time. "Evans," Sirius had finally called out. "You can have some alone time with your hand after we part ways for the night." Lily blushed furiously but forced her attention back to the, admittedly very interesting, boys before her. Once she was finished eating, she went back to the counter and purchased a bottle of pumpkin juice.

"So, where to, Prongs?" Sirius asked when they were back on the street.

"I don't know that I can bear making Pidg apparate twice more," he said sadly.

"Ah, so no flying?" Lily asked as indifferently as she could muster. She still had a glimmer of hope that they would change their minds.

"Not today," he pointed out. "But it's a good excuse to come back and visit again." Lily could feel her heart roll over in her chest. She gave him a faint nod in agreement.

"Want me to side-along you this time?" Sirius offered with an outstretched hand.

"Well now I know enough to ask – have you ever side-alonged someone before?"

"Not once." He gave her a shit-eating grin.

"James it is, then," Lily sighed, moving in his direction. Based on how terrible she felt last time, she might have actually preferred someone other than the boy she was in love with, but she'd try to make the best out of the hand she was dealt.

With a loud pop they returned to the Evans' driveway. Lily immediately lost her sandwich, making her very thankful for the bottle of pumpkin juice she had tucked under her arm for the journey.

OooooOooooOooooOooooO

"So really," Sirius complained after several minutes of them sitting on the floor in the driveway. "What are we going to do now? We can't go inside and we can't apparate. Is this just our life now?"

"How do muggles get around, Pidg?" James asked. Then he gasped before Lily had a chance to tackle his ridiculous question. "Do you have a car? Can we go driving?"

"Oh," Lily responded with a slight frown. "My family has a car, but I can't drive."

"Why not? That sounds like the best part of being muggle-born."

"I don't have a license – I'm too young," she said softly. She truly resented any time she was in a situation where she had to utter those words.

"How old do you have to be?" he asked, clearly fascinated.

"Seventeen," she said wistfully. Like everything.

"So how do you get around?"

Lily laughed. She couldn't believe how little these boys knew about muggles, but she found it occasionally endearing. "Biking, mostly."

"Oh yeah," Sirius cut in. "What is that, exactly?"

Lily gaped. "You let me run my mouth about biking all day and you had no idea what I was talking about?" No one answered her. "It's a," she tried, "thing with wheels..." It was shockingly difficult to explain. "Oh, forget it," she surrendered. "I'll just show you." She disappeared into the garage to retrieve her bicycle. Lily's parents didn't give her many gifts outside her birthday and Christmas, but they had surprised her after she finished third year by taking her to the store to choose a more adult bike, since she had outgrown Tuney's hand-me-down. She picked a gorgeous mint-green one that still caused her to swoon to this day.

"Whoa," Sirius said, standing up, as she returned with the bike.

"How does it work?" James asked.

"Where do you sit?" Sirius joined in.

"It looks impossible to balance," James pointed out.

Lily chuckled. "Calm yourselves!" she ordered. "This is a bike," she said, rolling it back and forth. "This is the seat, where you... sit, obviously. These are the handlebars, which steer. And these things," she said, kicking a pedal with her foot, "are how you make it move."

There was a pause. "Can you show us?" Sirius asked with bright, wide eyes.

"Err..." Lily trailed off. "Sure, I guess."

"I don't think that's a good idea," James said somewhat forcefully.

"Why not?" Lily asked, drawing a complete blank.

"Well, it's dangerous, isn't it?" Lily started giggling, which soon turned to uproarious laughter. "What's so funny?"

"You two!" she exclaimed through laughter. "You play a full-contact sport on broomsticks fifty feet in the air," she observed, still chuckling. "You turn into other animals and hang out with a literal werewolf once a month," she continued. "You teleport all over the country! Yet here you are, afraid of a bike."

James crossed his arms. "I'm just pointing out that the last time you were on one of these, you broke your arm."

"Lord, that wasn't the last time I was on a bike," she told him with a big smile. It hadn't been the easiest way to get to class the past two weeks, but she had made it work.

"You were riding that thing with your cast on?" he asked, incredulous.

"Absolutely!" she exclaimed happily. She positively revelled in the feeling of these boys thinking she was some sort of confident daredevil.

"Then show us," Sirius prompted.

"Alright," Lily said with a laugh. "Now know that I'm not the best biker or anything," she hedged. "Or even necessarily a good biker. I just... know how to bike..." She decided to cut herself off before she became even more self-deprecating and just demonstrate. Mindful of her skirt, she positioned herself accordingly and moved the pedals into an ideal position. She felt very self-conscious as she kicked off and tried to get moving on their narrow, bumpy driveway. The bike immediately veered to the right and Lily ended up overcorrecting and weaving back and forth before she levelled off. At first, she was slightly ashamed for giving such a poor demonstration, but the more she wobbled back and forth, the more the boys had gasped and cried in terror. By the time she biked back down the driveway, the way they were looking at her made her feel as though this new reputation of being a daredevil was now permanently enshrined.

"Can we try?" James asked timidly. He looked at once excited and bewildered.

Lily hemmed and hawed for a few moments, weighing her options. "Okay," she said finally. She passed her bike over to James. "Don't get on it yet," she warned. Over several trips to the garage, she returned with two additional bicycles and three helmets.

"Do you have unlimited bikes in there?" Sirius questioned.

"Sadly, no," she told him with a chuckle. "James has my bike, I have Tuney's, and you have my dad's." And I assume there was tacit consent to borrow them when they kicked me out of my house. She handed the other two a helmet, which they looked at suspiciously. She put hers on to demonstrate. "It's a style thing," she lied. "You never look like a real cyclist without one." They complied and followed suit.

"Are we just going to bike here, like you?" James asked.

"Oh, no, I had the best idea," she said happily. "There's a beautiful pond right around the corner. Much more hospitable than the driveway."

The three of them walked their bikes out of the driveway and watched as their world slowly expanded from a narrow alley to the entirety of her residential street. They walked several paces away from the Evans' residence and, seeing as there was very little traffic around suppertime on a Sunday, sat centrally in the road. Both boys looked at her with wide, expectant eyes. Vicariously, Lily felt as though she were seven years old again.

Lily balanced Tuney's bike on its kickstand and turned to see if they needed any help. Sirius had yet to move, but James was straddling Lily's bike and holding the handlebars, just as he had seen her do.

"I can't," James said, but trailed off. He seemed to be searching for words. "I can't feel anything," he told her. "There's no connection. It doesn't respond to me."

"It's not magical," she said, stating the obvious. James looked positively frightened at the lack of feedback he was getting from the bike; Lily could only assume his first time with a broomstick was a very different (and very intuitive) experience.

"So, what do I do first?" he asked, looking at her with blank eyes.

"Maybe just try picking your feet up off the ground to get a sense of the balance?" she suggested. Lily couldn't exactly remember the process for learning as a child, but it she knew it involved a tricycle and training wheels, neither of which were at her disposal. James inched his feet off the ground, but the bike promptly tilted toward Lily. He cried out and put his feet down. Then he turned to look at her with terrified eyes.

"How do you balance?" he asked her frantically.

"Hey, it's okay," she reassured. "It's hard at first, but it's easier once you get some speed." She put a hand on his seat and a hand on the handlebars, trying her very best to emulate what her father had done years earlier. "I can try and help," she told him.

Behind her, she heard Sirius grumble, "I'll just teach myself."

Lily chuckled. "I'm sure you'll be fine!" she shouted without turning to look.

The pair of them continued to work on balancing while stationary for a few minutes, until he seemed less afraid. Lily privately enjoyed the rare opportunity where she was the one who was more knowledgeable, and more skilled, than her far more senior companion. She also cherished the opportunity to see James so far from his comfort zone. Indeed, it almost seemed impossible to reconcile the image she had of him at school – the star chaser who could get any girl of his dreams – with the scared boy seated on a girl's bike before her. She reluctantly admitted that one contributing factor might be that his gorgeous head of hair was tucked into a bright purple helmet. "Ready to try moving a bit?" Lily asked with a big smile.

"Er..." James stalled. He craned his neck to look at Sirius. Then he cursed. "How are you moving around?" he asked accusatorily.

"I don't know mate," he called back. "It seems to have a mind of its own." Indeed, Sirius was swerving wildly all over the road – but he was actually biking.

"Looking good," Lily said encouragingly. "You'll get there."

"I guess that means I have to try," James said in obvious resignation.

Lily chuckled. "We'll aim small," she reassured. "Just use your feet to kick off a little bit. But don't worry about the pedals." They started moving down the street, one foot at a time.

"So, how's school going?" James asked after several minutes. Stress still covered all of his features and Lily surmised that he was asking as a distraction.

"Actually quite nice," Lily answered truthfully. The question did unfortunately remind her of all the work she had left untouched at home. "I have a bit more say over what courses I take now, which is nice. And it's not like I'd have a lot to do otherwise. So, it's a good excuse to sit in my room and ignore my sister."

"What are you taking?"

"English, Latin, Maths, Early Modern English history," Lily rhymed off.

"That sounds like a lot."

"It's not too bad. Some of it's quite interesting. And the Latin's pretty helpful for magic too, you know."

"What a cheery outlook. That's what I love about you." Lily almost couldn't believe the cavalier nature of the comment. If only you would say that in a slightly different context... "So, what do you really do in English?" he asked, still trying to make small talk.

"You read famous books," she said simply.

"Like what?"

"Right now I'm reading Pride and Prejudice." She was sure that would mean nothing to him.

"Which is?" he asked, proving her right.

She smiled. "It's a love story," she answered. "I feel like you're balancing a bit more now," she told him, pivoting the conversation. "Should I let you try on your own?" Her back was begging her to go find a new activity.

"No," he begged at once. "Please stay."

"Alright, alright. But there's no reason you have to bike if you don't want to," she reminded him.

"No," he insisted again. "That's no fun. I have to at least be able to say that I've biked."

Lily chuckled again. "Okay, well... I'm here."

"So, what happens in this book?" James inquired. He didn't seem as off-put as she would have expected.

"Oh, it's really about classism," she explained. "It's from the nineteenth century."

"And?"

Lily laughed. "And what? They're an unlikely match from different classes who don't like each other at first. But it's a love story," she reminded him. "So, you know, they fall in love."

"Well, isn't that nice," James said in a put-on, intentionally agreeable tone. Yes, it is, she replied to herself. It was a wonderful exercise in escapism where Lily could daydream about being scooped up by the man of her dreams and taken away to a grand property to start a new life. She did recognize, of course, that it was a feminist piece of literature, and she was duly ashamed of these dreams – but she had them nonetheless.

"Okay," she said, changing figurative gears. "Your next task is to try and get your feet on the pedals while you're moving." James attempted to do as instructed, but the bicycle wiggled back and forth, threatening to fall. Lily tried her best to steady it, though she wasn't truthfully sure if she was helping or hurting. James threw his feet down again and reached out to hold her shoulder. Their helmets clinked together and she could hear his rapid breathing. Her heart was probably pounding away as well. "It's okay," she told him. "You're fine – I've got you."

"I have no idea how you learned to do this," James told her in amazement.

"Once you get the hang of it, it's really quite easy," she told him. He stared at her in obvious disbelief. "Besides, I don't really understand how you learned to fly a broomstick. In the air. Like a bird."

It was James' turn to chuckle. "The broom does half the work," he told her. "But this bike thing seems to have an entirely separate agenda that involves me being thrown to the ground. No wonder you broke your arm!"

Lily sighed. "Who would've guessed that I'd be teaching you to bike before you'd teach me to fly?"

James pouted. "I'm such a terrible friend," he complained. "I swear, I started out the day thinking there would be flying lessons involved!"

"Lily!" Sirius interrupted. He was biking back in their direction. "How do I stop?" he asked her as he passed by. He had to turn the bike around again in order to stay within earshot.

"Your brakes are the little metal bar on either side of the handlebars," Lily called out. "You have to pull them towar—." Before Lily could utter her warning to use the brakes slowly, she was interrupted by the vision of Sirius crashing spectacularly when he brought himself to an abrupt stop. She couldn't help but laugh uproariously as she watched him throw her a thumbs-up to signal that he was okay. "I think maybe we'll just walk to the pond," she said to her sad collection of failed cyclists.

OooooOooooOooooOooooO

Lily lay completely flat on the ground and stared up at the sky. The sun was setting in the most picturesque of ways, giving the entire clearing around the pond a beautiful pink tint. The slowly departing sun also meant that the tremendous heat of the day was finally breaking. Lily hadn't come to this particular spot since before she started to Hogwarts, but it was exactly as she remembered – a perfect time capsule of a less tumultuous time.

The three teenagers had already explored several fun topics, from Hogwarts, to the other Marauders, to long explanations of Lily's family dynamics. She had even regaled them with tales of Vernon and his extraordinary ordinariness. At present, Lily was enjoying a moment of silence. When she had flopped down, she had spread her arms out wide, as though she were making a snow angel in the grass. The other boys had mimicked her and she was a few inches shy of touching their hands on either side. She almost felt as though there were an invisible energy – or, she supposed, magic – connecting the three to each other and stretching out for infinity. Of course, she would never say that out loud, but she did privately revel in the feeling of connection and belonging.

"Do you wish you weren't muggleborn?" Sirius asked out of nowhere.

"Don't ask her that," James chided immediately. All of them continued looking up at the sky.

"So, we've reached the point in the night where we're tackling life's great questions, eh?" Lily joked casually. "We can turn to death next," she suggested.

"Don't answer him," James instructed. "There's nothing wrong with being muggleborn. It shouldn't even be a topic of conversation," he insisted.

"I think we both know that," she observed reasonably. Lily was becoming so accustomed to being treated horribly everywhere she went it was positively cute to see him all bothered about it. Taking care to grab the edge of her dress, she rolled over on to her stomach so that she could look them in the eyes. "And it's not the first time we've discussed this."

"It's not?" James asked, astounded.

"It's not even the second," Sirius pointed out. "And it probably won't be the last. But it definitely won't be the best."

"Because I'm here?" James questioned with a sigh.

"Sure," Sirius agreed. "But, also, Evans' scintillating solution isn't here." Lily smiled to show her appreciation.

"I've never even had scintillating solution," James complained, needlessly loudly. "Where was I for all of this?"

Lily wasn't going to answer. Sirius had no such tact. "You were off gallivanting with a certain ex-girlfriend." James grumbled and rolled away, onto his side.

Lily shook some grass of her hands so she could use them to prop up her head. She turned her eyes to Sirius. "Do I wish I wasn't muggleborn like... do I wish my family was magical or that I had been born into a different family?"

"I don't know," Sirius said with a shrug. "Either. Both."

"Well, at this point, I'm quite attached to my family. And even though I might have also been happy if I had just... always been with a different family, I'm not going to just wish them away." Sirius nodded to show this was fair. What didn't need to be said was that she could have been born into a family like his. "But I've always wished that my pre-existing family could have been magical. Or at least Tuney..."

"I'm alright with her not being at our school," Sirius said with an intentionally indifferent shrug.

"Oh, you're so kind!" Lily replied, batting her eyelashes. "Anyways, it's a right shame, because I used to think being muggleborn was far superior."

"What?" James interrupt, rolling around.

"Didn't expect that?" Lily asked with a chuckle. He shook his head. "I used to think it was like my superpower. That I lived this double life and knew so much about both worlds. And muggle school... I mean, I do it because my parents make me, yes, but I do actually like studying muggle school too. You magic folk can be so thick sometimes," she joked.

"You don't feel that way anymore?"

"Loaded question," Lily said as she gathered her thoughts. "I still like diversifying my knowledge. And I value muggle school even more now because... well, you know." Lily felt uncomfortable and was probably blushing.

"I don't. Why?"

There was a long pause. Lily couldn't bring herself to voice some of her innermost concerns in what was previously a casual setting. She almost wished she did have some scintillating solution in order to force her hand. "It's her backup," Sirius said, when it became clear that Lily wasn't going to speak for herself.

"Backup?" James clearly was not following.

"For work. A career," Sirius continued.

"What?" James barked again. "You can't give up on magic."

"I'm not giving up on anything," Lily replied indignantly. "That's why we called it a backup." No one said anything for a moment. "Anyway, it's just a thought. I'm only going into fifth year, so... it's still very nascent."

"Sorry," James said curtly. Then he sighed. "Blimey, that's a lot to be thinking about when you're only in fifth year. I think I thought exclusively about quidditch."

"Sounds about right," Sirius agreed. Lily doubted that very much, but kept her mouth shut.

Lily turned back over and studied the pond in front of her. The last ray of sunshine was disappearing behind the oak tree that Lily had climbed with Petunia on her 12th birthday. A few stars were already visible in the early nighttime sky and the others would join imminently. Lily knew that she would need to head back home soon, now that supper was surely finished and the mosquitos were poised to descend, but she put off ending the night for one more minute. Chaotic and ridiculous as it was, this day had also been, to put it simply, perfect. She couldn't remember the last time anyone had come over the Evans' home specifically to see Lily (had it ever happened?), let alone surprise her and take her on a small adventure. Moreover, James seemed to be returning to her, and while she doubted she would ever get a full explanation as to what had transpired, her desire to know – which had previously been burning in intensity – had faded to a mere flicker. Amidst all the other sources of stress in her life, if she could simply move on and have a nice year with the boys beside her, she reckoned she would be happy. She took a last breath, enjoying her moment of stillness. After months of stress and angst, of conflict and conflicting emotions, it felt indescribably good to just be.

OooooOooooOooooOooooO

"Lily," someone whispered, causing her to jump. Lily had stayed up late working on her essay, but had finally surrendered to exhaustion in the early hours of the night. She had just turned off the lights and slipped into bed. Blinking rapidly, she looked to her doorway and could faintly make out a figure.

"Tuney?" she asked, making an educated guess. Her sister made a sound of agreement. Lily got up and turned her lamp back on. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I was up using the lav and I saw your light on," Petunia replied. It wasn't really an answer.

"You okay?" Lily asked weakly. "Did you have a nightmare or something?" When Lily had returned home, Vernon was still over, so she had promptly excused herself to her room. She hadn't spoken with Tuney since, so she wasn't entirely sure where they stood.

Petunia shook her head and sat down in Lily's desk chair. "I wanted to come thank you." Lily was never going to have guessed that one.

"For... leaving?" Lily guessed.

Petunia nodded. "I'm sorry I asked." She seemed quite uncomfortable. "But think about my position. There's no way it wouldn't have come out... imagine telling your boyfriend that your sister and her friends are magicians."

Lily tensed up, ready to argue. Shockingly, even though 'magician' should theoretically be preferable to 'freak,' it tended to upset her even more. She was about to whisper as much to Tuney, but, given the hour, decided to hold her tongue. Then she was overcome with an insight so patently obvious, she almost felt like an imbecile. She conducted a bit of mental translation and extrapolation and decided to rephrase her statement. Imagine telling your boyfriend that your sister is a witch, Petunia should have said. And that you're not. Lily inhaled shakily as she nodded. "I wouldn't tell him either," she agreed. Petunia looked almost as surprised as she was.

"Good, glad we agree," she said curtly after a few seconds. Lily waited patiently for the interaction to end and for her to go back to bed. "So, who were those boys, really?" she asked eventually.

"They really were my friends," Lily told her. "I've never talked about them because I didn't think it would go over well. But we've been friends for about two years."

"And you're not more than friends?" she asked in a cagey sort of way.

"No. Why?" And which one are you talking about?

"And nobody wants to be more than friends?"

Lily was growing tired of offering up personal information for nothing in return. "Do you know something I don't?"

"Of course not," she said stiffly. "Unless there's something worth knowing."

Lily sighed. "Goodnight Tuney," she said tactlessly. "I'm glad I didn't ruin your date."

"Right back at you," Petunia said softly over her shoulder as she left. It was so soft that Lily wondered if she hadn't made it up.

Now wide awake, Lily tossed and turned for some time trying to decipher Petunia's meaning and, of course, replaying the events of the day. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw James sitting on her family couch, holding her tightly as they were about to apparate, and looking at her through terror while standing over a stationary bicycle. She could still call to mind the scent of his shirt, which seemed to smell like cologne from a previous day. Lily was certainly far from understanding her relationship with James, but she knew she couldn't wait to see him again.