Lily Luna

Lily was woken by clattering sounds outside her window. She got out of bed, disorientated, thinking it was the middle of the night. By the time she had lifted the edge of her curtain and looked out, though, she had realised that it was morning. She could smell bacon.

Teddy was in the garden, dragging his duffle bag with him. She'd just worked out that the noise she'd heard must have been the bag coming down the back step, when there was a sharper noise. It was an Apparition crack and Teddy was gone.

She blinked sleepily and tried to recall Teddy's appearance to see if it held a clue as to what was going on. He had looked flustered and his hair had been messy- which was unusual for Teddy - and his feet bare. He must have been in a dreadful hurry because he could get his hair neat in seconds, she'd always envied that aspect of his metamorphmagus abilities. She stuck a hand in her own messy hair and hit a dried clump of hairspray, so she decided to ignore it.

She pulled on her dressing gown. She could really do with some of that bacon. It had been late by the time she'd left the party at Uncle Seamus', and she was still feeling the effects. She paused on the landing, breakfast calling her name. But maybe James would know where Teddy was going in such a hurry and when he was going to be coming back.

She liked Teddy. He was cool. Her brothers tried to show off to him, too, and acted all mature when he was around. They looked rather stupid doing it, but they weren't quite such annoying pricks then. She only vaguely remembered him from before. The duck faces which he'd made for her then, had always got her laughing so hard that she would have to rush to the loo. It had been a bit weird at first, having a man living in her house who wasn't family. It had made her self-conscious about her breasts and bras and things, even though she knew that he was gay like James and didn't care about her body.

Everyone at school knew about James being gay. She'd found out on the Hogwarts Express on the train journey up to Hogwarts when she'd first started. James had taken her to one side.

"Look, Lily," he had said. He had chewed his lip. "There's something you should know probably."

She had spent all summer extracting every last drop of information from her brothers and cousins. She thought she knew everything she needed to know about the school now. What vital question had she failed to ask and why did he look so worried about it? James never worried about anything. He was a reckless Quidditch player and desultory scholar, who dressed carelessly and approached everyone openly.

"You can't tell Mum and Dad," he had said.

James never cared when he got told off. What on earth had he done? Little eleven year-old Lily had waited anxiously for her fourteen year-old brother to spill his secret. She held her breath and said nothing.

"I've kind of got a boyfriend," he had said very quickly after a long pause. "Please don't tell!"

"A boyfriend?" Lily took a moment. It sank in. "Not a girlfriend?" She and Hugo had been wasting their time teasing him about girls then. "A boy?"

"Yeah." He'd sounded irritated, but she knew that's just what he did when he couldn't wait to find something out. She realised that what he wanted to find out was what she thought about him being gay.

She had shrugged. "Ok," she had said. "Buy me a cauldron cake?"

"Haven't you got any of your own money?" There had been something wary in that question. She knew now that he had wondered whether she was trying to blackmail him. She hadn't been, of course.

"I'll pay, but there's a queue and they're all bigger than me."

James had grinned then. "No worries. I'll pay. You want gingerbeer with it?"

As he had left the carriage she'd asked, "So when do I get to meet this boyfriend of yours?"

He had shrugged, and in the end she never had been introduced to that one (not that she could remember which one that had been) because the relationship hadn't lasted that long.

She didn't understand why James didn't just tell their parents he was gay. Hugo and Rose and Molly and Roxanne and Louis had all had to be sworn to secrecy, too. And Albus, of course. She didn't think their parents would mind. They were cool with Teddy, after all. Dad was cool about practically everything. Maybe not her last Transfiguration result, but most other things.

The door to James' bedroom was open. She could hear swearing and the sounds of things being thrown around in there. That James was not in the mood to answer questions was obvious. She edged round until she could see him. He looked furious. She couldn't see him from the waist down because of the big bag on his bed, but what she could see of him was naked. Ew! He was throwing clothes into the bag. His clothes. She backed away.

Her head was all thick and foggy because she had just woken, but she couldn't remember being told that James was going anywhere. He'd just started his apprenticeship, he couldn't go anywhere now. Maybe it was just for tonight, but that was a lot of clothes.

Breakfast was laid out on the big table in the kitchen, but nobody was eating it. Her dad was sitting on the floor near the fireplace, shaking, with his head in his hands and Mum was squatting down next to him, with a consoling hand on his back. She had been saying something, but she stopped when Lily came into the room. She turned to look at Lily and smiled, like that was meant to make everything look ok, when clearly it wasn't. Lily felt nauseous. Her dad never freaked out about stuff.

"What's going on?" Lily demanded. "What's up with Dad? Where's Teddy gone and why is James packing?"

"James?" her mother asked, looking panicky. "Merlin!" She stood up and pushed past Lily as she raced out of the room.

Lily was left alone with her dad, who was looking all broken and weak and not like himself at all. "Dad?" she asked. He didn't answer. She looked at the bacon and sausage and eggs and toast and the steaming pot of tea all waiting on the table. She didn't feel hungry anymore.