thirty-three - helpless

She looks gorgeous, but the scowl - well, if he's honest, he'd prefer her to be smiling.

Lily gives him a look that plainly says I am going to kill someone.

Petunia clasps Vernon's chubby fingers with her bony ones as he signals to the waiter with his other hand. When Lily is giving her order, he pauses and watches her, and she glances up at him only to see he has stopped.

"Lily Evans," he says, pointing his pen at her, and she bites her lip.

"Mark Johnson," she says, with a slightly rising inflection, and he nods with a chuckle.

He finishes taking their order and walks away, grinning at her, and James nudges her knee under the table with his.

"We went to school together," she explains, amused at James' reaction and picking up her wine glass. "I didn't know he worked here."

Petunia bristles and seems to restrain herself from saying something, but can't quite stop herself completely. "Well, if you hadn't been swanning about in Scotland..."

"Swanning about?" repeats Lily, swallowing her drink. "We weren't swanning about. I went to high school just like you did, Petunia. I'm sorry that mine was a better standard than Cokeworth Comprehensive." She bites her lip, then, because although she wants to rile her sister, they're getting dangerously close to Petunia's failed 11+ which they both know was something of a blessing - the Evanses would have struggled to put her through grammar school.

"A better standard?" hisses Petunia. "You turn toadstools into teacups and the best transport you can afford is a broomstick. Vernon has a car."

"Yes, it's a corker, actually." He turns to James and surveys him disdainfully. "I presume you know what a car is?"

James raises an eyebrow. "Yes, thanks," he says shortly. "You drove us here in it tonight."

"Oh, yes. You'll have noticed, of course, the repositioned controls and improved suspension make it a joy to drive. Very reliable; very expensive."

"It does sound a bit like my broom, actually. It's a Nimbus 1001. Advanced handling, great turning speed and acceleration. That cost a bit of gold, too."

The waiter arrives with the food and places down the plates, offering them condiments. Once Vernon has picked up his knife and fork and dug it into his steak, he asks, through a mouthful of food, "Gold?"

"Wizards use a different currency, Vernon," explains Lily. "Instead of pounds and pence we have Knuts -"

"And bolts?" mutters Petunia, focussing on her salad and stabbing a slice of tomato.

Lily continues as if her sister hasn't spoken, although she's getting tired of it. This whole evening has been an awkward disaster. "- Sickles, and Galleons. They're the gold ones."

"So," Vernon says, catching on rather quickly, and pointing his food-laden fork at the man next to him, "you must have lots of it, then? These Galleys - you said your - you know what - cost a lot of gold."

The black haired boy glances at his girlfriend and she rolls her eyes, shaking her head. James can tell she's annoyed and he's annoyed, too, at Petunia's lack of respect for both her sister and her sister's world - and it's James' world, too.

"Yes, I suppose I must have lots of it."

Lily's head snaps up and he raises her eyebrows at him: don't.

James takes a sip of water. "It's all in our vault at Gringott's, of course - that's our bank, it's guarded by goblins -"

"Goblins?" repeats Vernon. His eyes, which had steadily been getting wider, narrow suspiciously. "Goblins? Are you lying to me, boy?"

James looks him directly in the eye. "Are you calling me a liar?"

Sharply: "James."

"Yes, I am," says Vernon.

James wipes his mouth on his napkin and puts it down beside him on the bench of the booth, and Petunia, clattering her knife and fork together on her plate, thinks she catches sight of -

"Don't you dare point that thing at my husband!" she says shrilly. "Honestly, you people! You come in here talking nonsense about brooms and gold and have the - the audacity to - PUT THAT AWAY!"

James spreads his hands in innocence. "It's just my knife," he says, and Lily puts her head in her hands.

"A you know what not enough now, is it? You need a knife as well? Petunia, come on, darling. I'm not putting you in danger near this maniac! Lily, you should rethink who you spend your time with, I don't know what your father would be thinking -"

Lily raises her head, tears welling but not falling. She sniffs. "Petunia, I could say the same to you," she says.

Something flits across the older sister's face for a moment before it's replaced with pursed lips. "Goodbye," she says, grabbing her handbag.

When they've gone, James scoots round to Lily's side of the booth and puts an arm around her.

"Don't."

"Lil, I'm sorry."

"You never think, do you? You knew how important this was to me. You're just as bad as you always were, James. They hate anything out of the ordinary and you just had to rub it in their faces that we're different and -"

"We are, Lily! We are different to them, but that doesn't mean we have to be ashamed! If anything, I'm glad I'm not like Vernon bloody Dursley! Can you imagine what -"

"Yes!" Lily exhales. She glances around at the other diners, chucks some notes on the table and pulls James from the restaurant. Once they're outside in the car park, she whirls on him, furious.

"Yes, I can imagine, James, because this is me! This is where I grew up, this is what I know! I'm Muggle-born! It's bad enough that we don't have Hogwarts to go back to, and now you're cutting every link I have with my home! Thanks for that, James, really."

"Wait, Lily, what are you saying? You are -" He stops for a moment, squeezing his thumb and forefinger into his eyes behind his glasses. Dread pulses through his veins. "- you are coming back, aren't you? We said we'd fight - we were fighting together, you can't back out now."

Lily stares at him for a long time.

"Why not? They don't want me! I'm a - I'm Muggle-born, James, in a Pureblood world. Your lot don't want me."

James narrows his eyes at her, heart thumping in his chest. He knows, somehow, before the words spill from his mouth, that he will regret saying this, but he's helpless to watch as they come crashing over his lips.

"Well, they don't want you here, either, do they?"

Lily trips backwards, breath catching in her throat. She blinks.

"Shit. I didn't mean that. Lil -"

"No," she says, and her emotionless tone scares him. "No, you're right. No-one wants me."

She turns from him and Apparates away, and all that's left is the smell of her perfume, his I want you left floating in the summer breeze.