Lily tried her best to get on with Vernon Dursely, as she hoped her sister would with James, but failed catastrophically as no matter what she did, it was clear he hated her. Of course he never said the words out loud (probably because it would be an incredibly rude thing to do in front of your girlfriend's family) but his attitude made it obvious. For example, when her mother asked Lily about school – and Lily tried to be vague about what she was studying because she would live the rest of her life without telling this man any more about herself than he needed to know i.e that she was Petunia's sister – Vernon looked at Petunia and the pair shared a sly smile and they seemed to be trying to supress a laugh. Then the interrogation started.

"So what school are you at, Lily?" He asked.

"St. Helen's high." I answered, an answer I had learned at a young age when I had to tell my friends from primary why I wouldn't be joining them at either the local comprehensive school or the grammar.

"And you're doing A-levels, yes?" I nodded.

"Chemistry, history, biology, and English." She had always just chosen four random subjects because she was fairly sure saying she studied potions, charms, transfiguration, etc. would be the same as admitting she was a witch.

After every question, Vernon looked as though he as trying to supress a laugh – it was as if he knew she was lying through her teeth. But there was no way he could know, Petunia wouldn't have told him, surely.

"As much fun as hearing about your non-freak life is, why don't you just admit the truth? Vernon already knows so stop trying to pretend you aren't the little freak we all know you are."

There was a long moment of silence around the table as we all stared at my sister who had told a man I had never met my secret. She had essentially broken the law just to make Lily feel even worse than she did.

"Excuse me." Lily said quietly before leaving the room. She needed to talk to someone about this – about what she should do. Whilst she would prefer to talk to James, correspondence through letters was not as quick as face-to-face talking with someone and there was only one non-muggle that she knew around her that she could talk to.

Severus' house was dark and foreboding. Although it sat in between two perfectly ordinary looking houses, it looked very different and it would come to no surprise to anyone that Severus was a wizard who practised dark magic. Lily touched the cold silver knocker on the door in the shape of a snake. A shiver of fear went through her, Lily and Severus' relationship was hardly amicable at the moment – although she was confident that it would be better away from the influence of his death-eater friends.

Lily could hear the shouts coming from inside the house as someone made their way to the door. She prayed for Severus. As she had married a muggle, Severus' mother – Eileen – had nothing really against muggles and muggle-borns such as herself but this didn't stop Lily being terrified of the couple who never seemed to be able to stop fighting. Eventually, the door opened and a pale boy with contrastingly black hair (which made him look even paler) stood in front of her. His eyes lit up when he saw her and immediately shut the front door so as to lessen the shouts that had gotten considerably louder.

"I need to talk to you." Lily told him. Her voice wasn't filled with the anger that it had been the last time she had spoken to him but it still had none of the love that had been there when the pair had been children.

"Are you ok Lil?" He asked as they walked away from the house and along the river into the cover of the trees.

"Petunia has a new boyfriend. And pretty much the only thing he knows about me is that I'm a witch."

"You told him?" There was a mix of anger and fear in his voice. "You've been told so many times not to tell anyone who doesn't need to know – it's against the statue of secrecy!" He hissed.

"I didn't tell him!" She shouted. "I may be a mudblood but I'm not an idiot, believe it or not!" She said in a quieter voice.

"Don't call yourself that Lily, and I know you're not an idiot. And why do you care, you can't get in trouble for something your sister did and now he knows that you're better than him too"

"I'm proud of who I am, Sev. The witch and the muggle. But Petunia decided she wanted more people on her side – more people on the anti-freak side, therefore he doesn't exactly see me as better than him, but worse like Petunia does."

"This is why we should keep ourselves separate from them." He said under his breath but Lily heard him.

"You know, if you and Petunia spent a little more time together you'd realise just how much you have in common. You both think I'm a freak." She shouted. "I'm fed up of me trying to connect with you, trying to be my friend and then you just insulting me. This time I'm done. I give up with you Severus Snape." She stormed off, heading back home. He could hear Severus shouting after her but she meant it. She glanced down at her arm and saw the light scar that still existed there and wondered why she had ever thought to trust him. As hard as it might be with a few hundred miles between them, James would be a much better confidant and friend.

The door slammed behind her as she walked straight upstairs and into the warmth of her bedroom. It was only now that she realised how cold she had been outside in the middle of December with nothing more than a jumper and jeans. Why hadn't she thought to take a cot? Lily soon realised the exact reason why the wizarding world had kept fireplaces instead of central heating: nothing beats coming in from the freezing cold to warming up beside a roaring fire.

James' owl was napping on the windowsill, having dropped off his short and sweet letter pretty much just saying that he was safe and couldn't wait to hear from her. He had also apologized for it being so short but how much can happen in a couple of hours. She laughed at that and then wrote her reply.

Funny you should ask that James.

So much has happened since I saw you less than twelve hours ago that I barely know where to start. I came home to my sister's boyfriend sat in my living room, soon discovered that he didn't like me and then realised it was because Petunia had told him I was a freak; she had told him that I was a witch. I spoke to Severus (even though I know you don't like him) and now I have realised that he isn't going to change and we will never be friends again. I miss you so much and I can't wait to see you either.

All my love,

Lily x

Lily folded the note and wrote his name on the front before giving the owl a few owl nuts that she had had James give her for him and then the letter. She watched the owl fly away into the almost pitch-black sky and hoped he would return soon with something from James.

Lily yawned and crawled into bed, covering herself with her gold and scarlet scarf that reminded her of Hogwarts; of James, her friends and her life where she was truly accepted by everyone.

I'm sorry it's late! I enjoyed writing this chapter and hope you enjoyed reading it. Please review! – Chescaannie x