Title: and the spotlight is on you

Pairing: Teddy/Lily

Author: Heather (shoveitsunshine)

For: Dee (save the world and be a hero)

Lily Luna Potter loves dress up.

She's five, it's her birthday and she's surrounded by her family. There's a pile of presents by the window - Rose keeps dancing into them – and a table filled with food by the back door. All of her cousins and spinning round the room, chasing balloons and throwing ice-cream at each other. A typical Weasley-Potter birthday party. She's five years old now (a big girl now) and she's smiling and laughing louder than the others and Rose finally falls over the pile of presents and lands in a red-haired, red-faced heap.

Teddy finds her later on, after all her presents have been opened and all her cousins have gone home. He's sitting on a huge wooden chest, decorated with the prettiest engravings Lily has ever seen. With a hint of a smile on his face, he hands her the tiny gold key and disappears into the kitchen. The wood is dark and smooth, engraved all over with tiny flowers. Lilies. Her favourite. She slips the key into the lock and wiggles it and wiggles it until the lock clicks and she can heave the lid open.

Inside is piles and piles of neatly folded clothes. Not just any clothes though, dress up clothes. There is a pink tutu and wing set for when she wants to be a fairy, there is a bright velvet dress for when she wants to be a princess, green tights for Robin Hood and a fancy wig and hat combination for Captain Hook. She even has a pantomime horse costume.

In that moment, Lily Luna Potter is in her element.

So all year round, she plays dress up. Leaping around the house, wielding her pretend sword or her pretend wand and in between hours of play she writes to Teddy. She sends him long long letters, written in her colouring pencils. She tells him about her brothers and her cousins and her games. She draws pictures for him too. And he writes back, not so long letters about his friends and his lessons and her cousins. Victoire and Dominique and Molly. She reads about Victoire a lot. About their adventures and the fun they have and Lily can't help but feel jealous because Teddy is supposed to be her friend, not Victoire's.

Until it's her birthday again, and Teddy presents her with a new dress up outfit and suddenly all is forgiven.

Every year, she writes to Teddy while he is at school or work or wherever and every birthday he gives her a new dress up outfit. She gets a lion and a Roman soldier and a Greek God and all sorts of other lovely outfits.

And then she turns eleven. And the only thing she gets from Teddy is a birthday card.

She's not going to lie, that one hurts. Because she though that Teddy actually liked her. They were friends, and maybe they could be more. She gets over it though. He won't reply to her letters. It's like he's dropped off the face of the Earth. She doesn't see him until September when she leaves for Hogwarts. When Lily sees that crop of blue hair from the carriage window, her heart leaps. It's Teddy and he's come to see her off.

That feeling of joy lasts all of ten seconds, when she sees that Teddy has his arms wrapped around the new Head Girl. Dominique Weasley. And those big brown eyes fill with tears as she watches Teddy stoop down and kiss her cousin goodbye. She feels replaced and hurt and all sorts of things she shouldn't feel at eleven years old but does anyway.

The Sorting Hat puts her in Slytherin. She's never been happier.

She hears nothing from Teddy in her first year, or her second, or her third, or her fourth. There is no word in her fifth and sixth and the first time they have a real conversation about their lives is when she's seventeen and about to leave Hogwarts for good. He's taller now than the last time she saw him and his hair is a darker shade of blue. More mature, though she would never really say Teddy was mature. His arms are still laced around Dominique's waist and she's still the glorious blonde with the stunning smile and Lily is just as jealous as ever. The fact that Lily herself has most of the male population of Hogwarts falling over themselves seems to escape her notice.

After the ceremony while her family is fawning over Teddy and Dominique, Lily slinks away, she has a bag of clothes and money slung over her shoulder and the key to a London flat in her hand. She heads to Hogsmeade and the train that will take her away from it all. She's sick and she's tired of living in her family's spotlight. From now on, Lily Luna Potter will make her own name.

Her flat is horrible. It is dank and dingy and not at all nice, but she makes it work. With the little money she has, she cleans the place up with new paint and rugs and the tiny rooms look halfway decent for a while. She gets a job waiting tables in a cafe across the street. The owner is this little old lady and she's so sweet, helping Lily with anything she needs.

When she isn't working, Lily goes to auditions. She attends as many open auditions for as many running productions as possible in London. The first part she plays is Sophie in "Mama Mia!" And it feels great to sing and dance and act and live those dreams of dress up for real. When opening night arrives she doesn't even feel the nerves. Until Teddy shows up.

He holds a bouquet of flowers. Not lilies. She hates lilies. And roses. He brings daisies. Her favourites. He hands them over and wipes his hands nervously on his trousers.

"Dom's waiting for me. I should go." He offers as she throws the flowers into a vase of clean water. Her hair is pulled back carefully and her make-up is done to perfection. Just the way she likes it. He stands in the doorway to her dressing room awkwardly.

"Give her my love." It's her cold reply as she pushes him out of the room and shuts the door in his face.

She has never felt more powerful.

That night she shines. She pretends that he isn't there with his hand entwined with hers and surprisingly, it's easy enough to forget about them both for a little while. But then he comes back, night after night after night. For three whole weeks, he attends the evening performance of the musical. Every night he brings daisies and every night she throws him out of her dressing room.

Not tonight.

He steels himself. He brings lilies instead of daisies. She tries to throw him out but he won't let her. They fight and she throws the lilies at him. He just looks at what a moment before was a bouquet, with a lump in his throat. And then he kisses her. It's not sweet and loving like she always imagined it would be. It's hard and pressing and desperate. It's angry and full of both of their hate. Only for a few seconds and then he leaves. She can smell him on her skin after he goes. She doesn't go out that night. She sits in her dressing room and cries herself to sleep right there. A first for Lily.

He doesn't call and he doesn't write. She'd think there was something up with him, but this is Teddy and he has been dropping off the face of the earth at whim since she was eleven. Molly tells her that he and Dominique split up. The little green monster inside her jumps up and down with glee.

A new year, a new flat. Same girl. She gets a letter. A muggle letter two weeks after moving. It's from him. But then she already knew that. Who else would try to find her again?

Happy New Year.
- T.L

She just smiles.

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