Disclaimer: I forgot to do this before, but hey, it's my first fan fiction so hopefully Jo won't mind too much. Yeah, I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters.
3.
When she opened the third file, it was with a definite aim in mind. There was one particular letter she wanted to find.
13th October
Dear Mum,
Thanks so much for your advice about Alice. I did what you said and apologised to her went and explained to Frank that I'd only been joking; he was so relieved. He'd probably been imagining her as some kind of "scarlet woman" as Alice put it. Anyway, I haven't told Alice (Frank made me promise) but he asked me to help him ask her out! Alice is going to be so excited; she's liked him for ages. It was so hard not just burst out and tell her, so I had to come straight away and write to you about it. I couldn't tell Marlene because she's terrible at keeping secrets; she just giggles and looks pointedly at people until they drag it out of her. I told him to give her roses and ask her face to face, because that's exactly how we planned together that he should ask her out (before we even knew he liked her). I didn't tell him that though; he would probably think that was a bit creepy!
Talking of people asking other people out, Potter seems to think it's funny to ask me out about twice a week; he's been doing it since the beginning of the year. He obviously doesn't mean it, because he never looks disappointed when I say no. Anyway, I wouldn't go out with him even if he did, the idiot. One day I swear I'm going to murder him. When he's not asking me out he's pranking me, or hexing random people in the corridor who offend him by committing some atrocious crime like accidently stepping on his toe.
Hopefully he'll lose interest soon anyway. Oh, and don't mention this to dad will you? I don't want him getting too overprotective again. I'd like to have the pleasure of killing Potter myself (evil laugh).
Alice thinks Remus might have asked me out if he wasn't worried about Potter decapitating him. I don't think so though; Remus is really sweet, and I have no idea how he ended up friends with Potter and Black and that kid Pettigrew who they've started hanging out with, but really we're just friends. There's something funny about him, though. He literally seems to be ill about once a month. Sev's got this crazy theory that he's a werewolf, or something like that; I think that he (Sev) is going slightly bonkers.
While we're on the subject of Sev, I wanted to dicuss something with you. I haven't really talked about it before because it's never really bothered me, but recently that's started to change. In the magical world there's this discrimination against muggle borns (witches and wizards with non-magical parents, like me). It's not many people, but a few Slytherins think that if you are a "pure blood" that makes you better than muggle borns. And there's this awful nickname, "mudblood", for muggle borns. It's a kind of insult really, and very offensive, a bit like "nigger", only worse I think. I've been called a mudblood a few times, but only by stupid Slytherins, like that creep Malfoy in seventh year. But recently I've noticed that Sev has started hanging out with that crowd, the ones who smoke behind the greenhouses and go around insulting people's parentage. And it's starting to rub off on him. Twice now, I've heard him calling someone a mudblood; once it was a prefect, telling him to sort out his robes (they did look a mess), and the other was a little first year who obviously hadn't the first clue what it meant. He apologised to me afterwards, when he realised it was offensive to me, but he wouldn't apologise to them.
I've tried talking to him about it, but he always changes the subject. I'm really worried, Mum; what if he starts thinking about me like that? He's my best friend, but Avery and Mulciber and that lot are starting to make him into a different person.
I don't really know what to about it. Please give me some advice Mum!
Looking forward to your next letter,
Love,
Lily
Found it!
She should probably cut out the bit about Severus at the bottom; that would probably be a bit insensitive, considering how that boy turned out. It was quite a long letter, anyway. Faintly, she underlined everything from "Alice thinks Remus..." to "...give me some advice Mum!" She must remember to tell Alice.
She thought about when she received that letter. She always loved it when Lily wrote to her with problems. Petunia had never wanted to talk to her about anything. She tried to be fair; Petunia had been 2 years older than Lily, and well into her moody teenage years. Also, she and Petunia had much more chance to get annoyed with each other, since they lived together, than she and Lily. But that didn't change the fact that whenever Petunia pushed her mother away Mrs Evans felt terribly hurt, and could often only find solace in Lily's letters.
I've had a couple of people comment on the length- this chapter's a bit longer than the first two. I hope it's okay. I'm not going to say "review or I won't update" or anything like that, but I really would like to hear what you think of it. Even if it's just "Hey, I like your story", just so I know I'm not boring you.