Disclaimer: HP is not mine. This story is for fun, not profit.

A/N: Much thanks to Jenn for the beta work and the encouragement.

A/N2: This chapter is a little different. I never inteded this to be an actual part of the fic, but decided it was needed to secure Ginny's trust. Without this, Ginny would have eventually trusted Lily, but it would have taken years. The entire thing was a backstory in my head to answer the question: If Ginny is like James and Harry is like Lily, what happened in Lily's life to make her like that? It was also to give an answer to another question (not one terribly important to the story, but to me) as to why Petunia is the way she is. After this chapter, posting may slow down to every couple of weeks to a month as I am still working on the last couple of chapters.

Chapter 5

9 June 1993

Ginny seemed to sense that Lily was readying herself to speak about something difficult, because the young girl simply sat quietly, tugging a few blades of grass out absentmindedly. It wasn't something easy for Lily to share with anyone. James, of course, knew quite a bit about Lily's childhood, and she suspected Sirius and Remus had picked up a little over the years. Alice and Mary had known some too, but the two people who really knew about life in the Evans' family were the two people Lily had once been the closest to in the world.

Of course, she hadn't spoken to either Tuney or Sev for years before her death, and she suspected neither of them remembered their childhoods with much happiness.

"I am a lot like Harry," Lily started quietly. Ginny was riveted to her every word. "In some respects. In others, well, my life was nothing like his has been. I grew up knowing my parents loved me and my sister, but our family wasn't like yours, Ginny. The Burrow is crazy and hectic and full of surprises. Ours was too, except my sister and I didn't know from one day to the next if we'd get a full meal that day or if it'd be bits and pieces we had to scrounge up from the pantry. We never starved, understand, but, to our parents, making sure we were well fed wasn't their first thoughts of the day. I'd bet it wasn't even in their top ten." She laughed mirthlessly, but stopped at Ginny's look of horror.

"You don't know how blessed you are, dear." She paused to collect her thoughts again, trying to remember that dingy little house on Baker Street in some town she never knew the name of, and then that rambling, falling down house on Evans Lane, just two blocks from Spinner's End. Lily fought to recall those two years spent in three different flats in Paris and that she could speak Italian fluently because of the four years "studying the classics" in Italy. These weren't memories she like to dwell on.

"Your parents discovered what they loved to do and have done it. Perhaps it means you don't have new things often, but your parents are happy and they've passed that happiness on to their children. Of course, there is the fact that your parents are very sensible people. Mine were not." She went on to describe how her father was always looking for ways to "get rich quick," or the "next big thing," or "trying to find himself." What it really meant was that he was always getting fired or quitting jobs. There were times, even now, that Lily wondered what exactly her father had done to make money, but felt she probably didn't want to know.

Their mother would work occasionally, but was more interested in gossip and celebrities than anything else and was a "homemaker," as ridiculous as that title was for someone who never cleaned, barely kept track of her daughters and couldn't cook. It was lucky that Petunia was so responsible and Lily so self-reliant.

Their parents did care very much for Petunia and Lily, but, unlike the Weasleys, it wasn't a family first sort of care. The girls came to rely solely on each other, though they still vied for their parents' attention.

Then it happened. "We had moved to Evans Lane because Dad said it was lucky. 'A street named after us! That's where we'll make our fortune!' he'd said. The house was huge and Dad had it in his mind that he was going to renovate." She rolled her eyes. "Honestly, I'm not sure if he even knew what end of a hammer to use!"

Ginny giggled, but then stopped, horror-struck. "It's alright, dear." Lily smiled at her. "My family is quite ridiculous. I laugh about them myself.

"Anyway, there was also a theatre nearby, and Mum fancied herself an actress at that time. She was always dressing up and flouncing out. She did get a few parts, nothing big, mind you, but to hear her tell it, she was the star of the show. It was only a matter of time until she was discovered, she thought. One day she took Tuney and I there, and suddenly I was being thrust into the spotlight. The theatre owner thought I was beautiful and decided I would be perfect as Little Orphan Annie." Lily threw her head back and laughed at the absurdity.

"The only problem is that I hate being the centre of attention. You think Harry gets his flying skills from his father? No way – I'm much better than James!" Ginny was rolling on the ground now; she was laughing so hard. "In fact, your uncle Gideon tried to get me to play Seeker my third year, but I couldn't stand the thought of all those eyes on me!"

Lily shook her head. "That's when Mum got the idea that she'd get her fame by turning me into a child celebrity. I refused, of course, but Tuney didn't mind letting Mum fuss over her. While my sister was getting dressed up and trotted out to any audition Mum could find, I was making a good friend."

Ginny smiled encouragingly. Lily tried to hide the evil little smirk on her face – she was about to shock the poor girl and she was looking forward to it.

"It turned out there was a wizard my age living a couple of streets away. His home life wasn't good. I never asked him how bad it was, but it was very obvious that his father wasn't a kind man. I didn't know I was a witch when we met. He was the one who told me what I was and all about the Wizarding world. Petunia didn't like him. Even then, she struggled with anything that wasn't neat and orderly and didn't fit in her view of normal. I feel sorry for her. All of the upheaval we lived through, the many different places we moved to at a moment's notice, it turned her into someone who needed as much control of a situation as possible. I'm that way too, to some extent. But she was off with Mum a lot of the time, so I was free to play with Severus."

The look on Ginny's face was perfect. Shock and horror mingled. "Severus? As in Snape? Surely there can't be two people with that horrid name!"

"Oh yes, even evil dungeon dwelling bats were once little children." Ginny's face hadn't changed. "It was about that time, also, that I started to realize that everyone wanted something from me. Dad wanted me to cook, since I was the best at the time. Mum was constantly trying to get me to go to auditions with her and Tuney. The other kids at school wanted me to help them with their homework and my sister wanted me to stand up to our parents for her. I clung to Sev because he didn't seem to want anything from me, but friendship.

"When Professor McGonagall came to meet with my parents and they found out I was a witch, it got worse. They wanted me to fix things, constantly. The Trace was a blessing. My mum wanted me to make her famous, my dad wanted me to make him rich and my sister, well, she wanted me to come back and quit all of the magic nonsense. All she heard about while I was at school was how wonderful I was, that I would fix all of their problems once I was of age. When Mum died during my fifth year, my sister asked me to bring her back. It was the only thing she ever asked me to do with magic. Dad died two years later, but by then, my sister had met Vernon and decided that she didn't need magic to fix anything."

Ginny sat quietly for awhile, looking rather thoughtful. "It didn't change when you got to Hogwarts, did it? People wanting something from you?"

"No. Perhaps I have a skewed way of looking at things, but it seemed like that, at the time at least. Sev and I were friends, even though we were in different houses, up until the end of our fifth year. The Marauders bullied him a lot, and most of the time I didn't interfere because he didn't want me to. After our O.W.L.'s one day, James took it too far and I defended Severus. In retaliation, Sev called me a Mudblood."

Ginny gasped.

"It wasn't the name that bothered me as much as you'd think. I wore that name like a badge of honour and was known to throw back some equally nasty insults at the purebloods. Besides, I was good at hexes and really good at using charms in, er, creative ways."

She smirked at Ginny, and the girl gave a wicked grin back.

"Sev had been leading people to believe that we were a couple." She stopped at seeing the look of absolute horror on Ginny's face. "Oh stop. Looks aren't everything, and remember, Sev was my good friend. We were both very good at potions and skilled in spellwork. I wouldn't have been upset if he had asked me. Though, to be honest, I never knew he thought of me that way until that year. I saw him more like a brother, but not so much that I would have been against dating. What made me angry is that he felt I had no say. He was going to "tame" me. All of my attributes: beauty, magical talent, intelligence were spread out and examined among his Death Eater friends like I was a mare for breeding. That, I wouldn't tolerate. Then, he called me a Mudblood. He wanted me to be subservient and a little wife. That wasn't me and I ended our friendship.

"James started to mature the following year. He proved that his views on women were much more progressive. He didn't want a bit of fluff; he wanted a partner." Lily knew her smile was sappy. "And that's when I fell in love with him."

The two red-heads sat quietly for a long while after Lily fell silent. Ginny seemed to be thinking deeply about Lily's life, and Lily was lost in her memories. Finally, Ginny spoke.

"My family is always trying to keep things from me because I'm the youngest. They're always trying to protect me. I thought you were something I had dreamt up and it made me angry that the Lady in my head wouldn't tell me anything. Then I threw Ron into the garden wall..." She trailed off, shuddering. "Tom," she whispered. "Told me things. Anything I asked, he answered. Now, I know he lied to me, but then, I was just happy someone thought I was worthy to be a part of something. He wasn't leaving me out. I should have trusted you."

That was as close to an apology as Lily expected from Ginny and, honestly, it was more of one than Lily would have given if things had been reversed.