Lily woke up gasping her air, she had been having a nightmare about being chased again. This time she was running towards an open window and just as she was going to jump out to get away from her pursuer, a flash of green light burst around her and she sat up suddenly breathing heavily. She was covered in sweat and she felt a overwhelming anxiety, as she realised it was just a dream her breathing slowed and she calmed down.
She walked around the apartment feeling a little bit like she was snooping again but Marlene had made her feel so welcome so Lily helped herself to some coffee and had a shower. Marlene had left her out some clothes to borrow until she was able to get all of her stuff from the house.
Lily waited for the boys to turn up and when there was a knock at the door she felt excited to see James, and Sirius as well surprisingly who she had grown to like over the last couple of days. She opened the door and smiled and faltered a little when she saw James wasn't there.
"Sorry to disappoint Evans, you're stuck with us this morning," Sirius said, he was leaning against the door frame casually and behind him was Fabian Prewitt who smiled and greeted Lily. She smiled at them and tried to hide her disappointment.
"James got a last minute mission to take care of. He's going to be gone for a week or so, he said to say sorry to bail on you but he'll see you when he gets back." Sirius said wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Lily ignored his teasing and nodded.
"What's his mission?" She asked them ushering them in from the hallway. Sirius flung himself on the sofa, obviously familiar with the apartment.
"Top secret Red," He responded. "Even I don't know the full details but it's best you don't know. Dear Fabian offered to accompany us in case any of those pesky death eaters decide to appear and try and tickle charm us to death or whatever they do."
"Nice to see you again Lily." Fabian said smiling at her. She smiled and responded the same.
"Shall we go?" Lily asked as she put her wand up her sleeve, she was getting used to carrying it with her all the time again. They departed and Lily even apparated herself, she concentrated and visualised her beautiful garden and waved her wand around her.
Her landing could have been softer but she was proud of herself for getting all of her body parts to her house safely. Fabian graciously offered her a hand as she had stumbled to her knee on her landing and she gratefully took it and got to her feet. From the back of her house it looked completely fine, but upon closer inspection she saw everything wasn't quite as it seemed.
The structure was intact but she could see every window was smashed to pieces, she walked up the pathway into the back door and saw the door was already broken off the hinges. Sirius entered the house first, wand up and then Lily followed behind him, Fabian bringing up the rear.
She could tell both had a tension in them and she felt nervous entering her own home.
"Do you think someone could be here?" She asked quietly.
"I don't know." Sirius said, his usual jokey manner was hidden and his eyes darted around the house looking for movement. He waved his wand around and whispered a charm to detect any spells that could be in place like booby traps. Once happy they were good to move he waved his hands forward and Lily walked upstairs.
"Stay down here and keep an eye out Prewitt." Sirius said, Lily walked up the stairs and felt strange having Sirius follow her up to her bedroom.
The inside of the house was in disarray. Every drawer was pulled out, every cupboard blown apart. The door to her bedroom was charred and burnt as it it had been blasted with a powerful spell, perhaps in anger after she and James had got away.
She felt her heart hurt as she looked at her possessions, her Mum's things either destroyed or thrown around as if they were worth nothing. She felt a knot in her throat but she didn't want to cry so she swallowed it and took a deep breath before heading into her bedroom.
"How do you want to pack all your stuff up Evans?" Sirius asked kindly, seeing that this was hurting her to see.
"My trunk I guess." She said and he accio'd it upstairs for them to use. She began shrinking her clothes and anything that wasn't too damaged to bring with her. She worked quickly wanting to get this over and done with as soon as possible. Sirius stood guard outside to give her some space. She went into her Mother's old room and grabbed a few things, her jewellery and a few photo albums of happier times.
She finished packing and looked around, the house looked so different to her now, it looked like a memory of something in the past. She had been hiding out in it for so long, that she almost thought of it as a sort of prison now. She'd broken out though, she'd gotten friends, a life, something to live for. She suddenly felt like leaving it wouldn't be so hard anymore.
"I'm ready to go," Lily said and suddenly they heard raised voices downstairs. Her voice caught in her throat and Sirius launched himself down the stairs to see what the commotion was about with Lily on his tail.. As they landed at the bottom of the stairs they realised it wasn't quite the situation they expected.
"Where is she?" A women with dark hair and a pointy face screamed. "Who the hell are you? Get out of my mother's house right now!" The woman was yelling directly into Fabian's face and he held his hands up trying to defuse her anger. A portly man stood behind her looking furious but also a little afraid.
"Petunia!" Lily exclaimed and Sirius stopped in his tracks knowing Lily knew her.
"What the hell is going on Lily?" Petunia screamed still at the top of her lungs. "How dare you bring these people into this house!" She took a breath and glared at her sister furiously.
"Petunia, what are you doing here?" Lily asked trying to keep her voice calm but her older sister always brought out the worst in her.
"What am I doing here? I came over to collect Grandmother's tea set. I've always wanted it and I think it's my right seeing as you got the entire house. But seeing how you've looked after it I see that was a big mistake. This place is disgusting." Petunia said sniffing at the destroyed house which Petunia could see upon entering the building. Her husband grunted in agreement behind her and Sirius squinted his eyes at him in recognition and cocked his head taking him all in. A look that may have looked threatening if you didn't know Sirius.
"Vernon Dursley." He said suddenly out of the blue and Vernon jumped an inch in the air looking at all Sirius tall frame and clocking the wand he held in his hand.
"How do you know my name?" He asked, his voice gruff but shaking a little.
"Don't you dare tell your freak friends about us Lily - do you hear me!" Petunia barked again waving her finger at her sister. "I thought you'd left all of this behind you anyway, and were trying to be normal."
"I-" Lily tried to start but Petunia just interrupted her and continued berating her about the state of the house.
"Do you know what Petunia!" Lily said suddenly shouted, the volume of her voice even shocking her, it certainly shocked Petunia who went quiet suddenly as did Vernon. Lily took a deep breath and continued, "Do you know what… I'm not normal. I'm a WITCH. I've been a witch my whole life. I can't help it, I don't want to help it, I also can't help that you AREN'T a witch." She said and she could see the fire blaze behind her sister's eyes.
"You must be joking - I can't think of anything worse than being a freak like you!" She barked out. Lily almost laughed knowing how much that wasn't true.
"You tell yourself whatever you want Petunia." Lily said, "Take the stuff you want and get out of here." Lily said, she turned to the glass cabinet in the hallway which usually displayed her Grandmother's china set. She almost laughed when she saw it was smashed to bits but instead she raised her wand and waved it over the china, "Reparo" she whispered and the pieces of the china began flying around and piecing back together.
Petunia's eyes bulged out of her head at the sight of the magic and Vernon coughed out a "oh my god" before they turned and ran out of the house. Lily chuckled and finished the spell with a swish of her wand. Fabian looked a bit bewildered by the whole event.
"That's your sister?" He asked her.
"Yeah, sweet Petunia." She said sarcastically getting a chuckle from Sirius.
"I thought Molly was hard work, she's an angel in comparison." Fabian said seriously giving Lily a laugh.
"Yeah sorry about that. I'm finished packing, shall we get out of here?" Lily asked. She looked around the house. It definitely needed more fixing up but that was for another day.
She went and grabbed her trunk and then the three apparated back to her apartment where she thanked them and they left her alone. Sirius said he might see her later and winked making it clear he might pop by and see Marlene later.
Lily settled into her new situation living in Marlene's apartment. Marlene worked most days in St Mungo's so Lily found herself with a lot of free time. She made a call to the newspaper to explain that she had to go away for a while and didn't know when she would return, Gina said she would miss her and said she hoped she was happier wherever she was.
The week continued on and Lily tried to stay busy, when she wasn't hanging out with Marlene she had begun studying her old school books again which had ignited her old love of learning. She spend hours pouring over them, in particular she was reading through her old history books, researching about the Hogwarts founders. The incident with Hurtwell had peaked her curiosity and she had looked into the founders to see if she could find a connection to something that might help the order.
One day she even went to Diagon Alley with Marlene so she could pick up some more books on the history of also picked up an old book written by Hurtwell, it was a history of artifacts and she thought it might be helpful. She felt nervous going to Diagon Alley as she had been in hiding for over a week but Marlene had checked with Sirius and he had said it was fine as long as they stayed together. The trip was uneventful and Lily felt relieved that it seemed she could become a bit more normal and leave the house.
She enjoyed browsing the stores and she remembered all the weird and wonderful things she loved about the world she'd been estranged from. After their shopping trip they went to the Prewitt's bar to have a drinks. Gideon was in the back so Lily sat and chatted to Fabian who she got on well with. Marlene seemed distracted and when Sirius appeared her face darkened, Lily hadn't realised they weren't getting on so she wondered what the problem was. Sirius walked over and greeted Lily and Fabian then asked Marlene to speak privately and she grumbled but agreed and they walked over to the side of the bar out of earshot.
Lily continued to talk to Fabian, he told her about his family and how his sister Molly was married and already had three children, all boys, and how he'd had to babysit them recently.
"They honestly trashed this place, I don't know how she does it." He said laughing. Lily heard raised voices and she saw Marlene laying into Sirius, her face furious and her hands waving around. Sirius looked just as annoyed but looked as though he was trying to diffuse the situation. Lily looked back to Fabian trying to be discreet but she couldn't help but overhear certain words and she heard James' name being mentioned. After a few minutes she saw out of the corner of her eye Sirius storm out and she saw Marlene standing glaring at the exit which Sirius had barreled through.
Lily looked at Fabian who shrugged his shoulders and also looked a bit confused. They tried to pretend like nothing was wrong when she rejoined them and they had another drink before Marlene said she was ready to go so they left to go home. They got back to the apartment and Marlene was really quiet, Lily didn't want to intrude but she could see Marlene was upset about something.
"Are you okay?" Lily asked her and Marlene sat quietly in the lounge.
"Not really," Marlene said leaning her head back and sighing.
"Do you want to talk Lily asked her and Marlene sat up a little bit.
"Sorry about earlier. We shouldn't argue in public like that, it's not like we're a proper couple." Marlene said.
"Do you want to be?" Lily asked wondering if that was what the argument is about.
"No, I honestly like the way things are. I know he's only seeing me so I don't see any point in rocking the boat. The only thing I hate is that if Sirius wants to run off and do something dangerous he never thinks about asking me about it or seeing what I think." Marlene said, the worry on her face evident.
"What is it then? Did he do something?" Lily asked not sure if she was prying too far. Lily saw Marlene take another deep breath and Lily realised she was holding back tears.
"What's happened?" Lily asked sitting down next to Marlene to comfort her.
"You know Sirius is from like a totally toxic pureblood crazy family?" Marlene started and Lily nodded vaguely remembering Severus hanging around with Sirius' younger brother Regulus who was a pretty dark kid back at school. "Well he's found out his brother is wrapped up in this war, like deep in it, and he wants to help him so he's trying to find him. He's decided to go and try and find him and reason with him but it's too dangerous. When Sirius finally left home it wasn't out of choice. He'd just graduated from school and he told his Mum that he was moving in with James and she totally lost it. She hates the Potter's so much. She calls them blood traitors. She hates my family as much, I dread to think what she would do if she found out he was seeing me" She said with disdain in her voice. "When he told her she almost killed him, she actually used the Crucio curse on her own son. He only got away because he managed to apparate away but he barely did that."
"That's so terrible," Lily said feeling like her sister was a saint in comparison to this woman.
"He's an idiot though, he knows what will happen if he goes anywhere near those people." Marlene said. "And not just that he's decided to do it while James is away because he knows James would try and stop him too." She ran her hands over her head and looked deeply concerned.
"I don't know what to say. Sirius is very capable and I'm sure that he'll be okay." Lily said trying to reassure her.
"I hope so, he's an idiot but I really care about him." Marlene said, Lily felt for her friend, these dangerous times were awful for everyone. Seeing Marlene worry about this made Lily wonder if she should be worried about James and whatever he was up to.
