The latch

This time, on the way back, Lily and Sev didn't take time walking by the river. When they arrived, at almost twelve, Petunia was having breakfast in the kitchen and they greeted her as they passed by the door.

She, without saying hello to them, snapped to Lily, "One of those dirty birds has arrived with a letter for you," holding out the envelope. "It has been waiting for I don't know what and I had to slap it out."

As I'll have to do with Malfoy's letter, Sev thought.

"It's Cecile's!" Lily exclaimed. "From Hogwarts! I'm sure Remus has also written to us." And to his sister, "Thank you, Tuney, for picking it up." And to Sev, "This afternoon we also have to buy food for the owls." And to Petunia, "We're going to my room to study, we hardly have left anymore time."

Sev had remained silent, carefully studying the sneer Petunia was giving them. When they went up to her bedroom and Lily closed the door, he said to her, "It is better that we dedicate ourselves to studying today, she is going to watch us."

"Let her do what she wants! She will not find out anything, we have the latch. Besides, for the little time we have left, it's not worth it to get down to homework." She already was closing the latch and clinging to his neck to kiss him.

Well, it's her family, she'll know how to handle them. And these kisses are so sweet, in the Princess's Haven…

She took off his sweater and was already beginning to unbutton his shirt. He grabbed her wrist. "No, Lily. I think that she is going to try to enter. It is better that we are dressed to open for her if she knocks on the door."

She made a disappointed face. "Jo, Sev… we only have until Thursday. Then my parents will be home…"

"Who is the security specialist?" Now he was the authoritarian. "If they catch us, maybe we don't even have that, they could forbid me from coming. Let's see what happens today, and tomorrow we'll see."

So they settled for taking off their sweaters and lying on the bed dressed, they kissed the little space of skin that was visible and caressed each other intensely over their clothes.

When they were horniest they heard the door handle. "¿Have you seen?" Sev whispered. "If she knocks, buy time," while he got up and buttoned his shirt. Lily snorted and did the same.

The handle moved more and more insistently, and soon they heard the rapping of knuckles. "Lily! Aren't you going to help me make lunch?" Petunia yelled from the other side.

Excuses, she knows full well that it's already done, Lily thought. They were putting on their sweaters. "It is done! We have to warm it up at one!"

"And what are you doing locked up?" her sister asked.

They looked at each other and began to arrange the bedspread. "We are studying, I already told you!" Lily replied.

"You don't have to lock yourselves up to study! You didn't do it yesterday!"

"Because the parents were there and we knew you wouldn't bother us!"

Sev was already sitting at the desk, with an open book and scrolls on the table. He told her, "Open the door, but don't let her in unless she gets violent."

Lily opened, her sister was looking at her with hate and suspicion. "Do you think I suck my finger?" Petunia asked. "I know you weren't studying. Look what to mess with the greasy one, weren't there less disgusting freaks? I had already been expecting it for years, one for the other."

Sev, who had his back to her, endured the downpour without turning around and trying not to laugh.

"Look, dear sister," Lily replied with deep contempt. "What Sev and I do is none of your business, that's why Dad has put the latch. If you feel so bad, get knotted. And I'm not going to open you up when you bother us, so get used to it."

Take that! That's my lioness, Sev thought.

And she closed the door in her face, relatching it. They still heard her, "You're not going to get away with it! I plan to tell on you! I didn't have enough with one monster at home, now I have to put up with two!"

Sev muttered, still holding back a laugh, "Shhh… don't answer her. You've already made it perfect."

"Yeah... But you were right, she's going to tell my parents."

"Well… we'll have to wait for their reaction. You opened it in time for her to see that we were dressed and I was sitting at the desk. She doesn't have much to tell, really, and she has given us the perfect alibi for not opening her up again. Now to see what happens when she tells on us, because you can be sure that she will. What time does your Dad get home from work?"

"Ugh… coming by bus, not before seven o'clock," Lily replied.

"Perfect. We have to be back before she can meet him alone. So we'll have to leave Diagon around six."

"Yeah…"

"Don't take me home, we'll come here," he continued. And instead of going upstairs to study, we'll stay in the living room until dinner time. I have to strengthen ties with your parents, and also, of course, avoid her being left alone with them."

"Yeah, but Mum will start making dinner and lunch for tomorrow."

"Sure. So you'll help your Mum cook and I'll stay with your Dad."

"Aha…"

"Then I'll leave like yesterday and you'll keep watching," Sev added. "She will surely wait for you to go to bed."

"Yeah. She always goes to bed later than me unless she's sulking and shutting herself away."

"Okay. Then you're going to have to play the spy. Go to bed early, not too early, don't arise suspicions. You can make the excuse that today we hardly had time to do anything or that you have to answer to Cecile. Come up here and close the door, let them hear it, but come back down. I don't think she'll bother to close the door to the living room, so you hide there and listen to what they say. It's going to be easy for you, because your sister is anything but discreet and she's not going to speak in whispers, rather I think she's going to get upset. If you hear someone get up, go to the kitchen, which is next door, for a glass of water, so we can find out about your parents' reaction. By the way, it's important, does your Mum know about Poppy's potion?"

"Yes of course," Lily replied. "When I became a woman, she told me about it and I told her."

"Brilliant. That is usually what worries parents of teenage daughters the most."

"Sure."

"And since they already know that there's no problem in that regard, I don't think they'll be against us meeting even if they believe your sister," he went on. "Quite the contrary, I think they are going to be happy by how they are treating me. After all, we are already enough old, we have months left until we are seventeen. If we didn't have the problems we have at school, I would show my face and tell them."

"Really, Sev?"

"Yeah. In fact, I think I'm going to tell Mum. She already knows all the calico and at least that way I would give her joy. Do you think it's okay?"

"I think it's great," she answered.

"Okay, then all right. Shall we read Cecile's letter? Well, you read it first, in case there are girly secrets."

"Okay, and I'll tell you."

Lily opened the envelope. There was a single letter from both Cecile and Remus. They told them that they were delighted to have so much free time together, that they were taking walks in the Forest and Remus was showing her all his favorite corners of his forays.

"That wolf…" Sev said.

And at night they get Disillusioned on the couch in the Common Room and thanks to Sev's potions they spent hours…

"Ugh… we're going to have to buy more ingredients," he sighed, "and conjure a Fidelius for them."

"But… then they would already know that we also have one."

"Lily, Remus has known it for a long time…" And Sev told her how he had deduced the existence of the map.

"Wow… Sev. That's why they've never caught us and they've spent the entire school year without catching you."

"Well, yes, your friend the little wolf is the one who is sacrificing the most." And Lauren, Sev thought.

And your ally reading snakes, Lily thought. "We have to relieve him of that weight."

"I don't know, Lily. It would be forcing him to reveal something that he still does not want to tell us, with the map in his hands is the safest way for you, and incidentally, he also protects me from the other unpresentables. I think that not only you and I appear in it, but everyone."

"All the students of the school?"

"Yes, and the teachers, and Filch at night…"

"Of course, that's why the two of us have never been caught," she said.

"That, don't tell him anything for now, maybe he still feels he's betraying the others if he tells us. I think it must have taken them years to make it, it's very difficult, the truth is that they are also very talented wizards. They have made a map and have become Animagi on their own."

"Buah, Sev… I would never have expected it from you, flattering your harassers."

"It has nothing to do one thing with the other, one can be talented and a bad person at the same time," he said. "And I think that the wolf will soon stop hanging around with them. Hasn't Cecile changed her History OWL to Transfiguration?"

"Yeah."

"It's obvious, isn't it? She wants to become an Animagus."

"Of course!" Lily exclaimed.

"My story and Remus' seem more and more similar to me. Both without friends when we were little, we arrived at Hogwarts and joined our yearmates. He had more luck at it than me, but I had you, so we held out for a few years. The turning point was the Shrieking Shack, we started fighting and he turned against his friends. He took refuge in you and I in the hope that you would love me, and you responded to both perfectly. To him giving him confidence and acceptance and making things easier for him with Cecile, and to me… what am I going to tell you? So we are both, thanks to you, Lily, radically changing our lives at the same time. Thanks to love we are leaving bad companies."

"Wow, Sev… Really? Have I been that important?"

"Of course, and you will continue to be, for me you are the light that has always guided me. If I had lost you, I would have ended very badly. The night you chased me into the dungeons you saved me from the abyss."

Lily hugged him, crying with emotion. "I will never let anything happen to you. If we have to leave school, we will do it together."

Sev didn't answer. Still two years… "Let's continue with the letter, soon we will have to heat lunch."

They also told them that the bad thing was that that week there was a full moon on Wednesday and Remus was going to have a bad couple of days. They were very glad that they could be together and calm at home.

"Yes, very calm," he said. "Strategizing all the time."

"Yeah… we don't even get rid of it at home."

They were asked to respond with the school owl that they had sent to them. They had done it so late because they wrote it together in the Common Room at late night and didn't want to wake them up too early.

"And my idiot sister has thrown it out in a bad way and without feeding it," Lily complained.

"Well, don't worry, we'll answer them tomorrow morning and we'll send Puck to them. The full moon is Wednesday, it will still arrive in time for them to read it together. Let's make that salad, come on."

"Give me another kiss…"

"Of course…"

They went down to the kitchen, Petunia was missing. They started to make the salad and Lily was surprised that Sev was so good at cooking. "I've been doing it since I was little, I always helped Mum, and when she started working I made the meals," he explained. "Basically, it is like brewing potions, ingredients, amounts, mixtures, fire, time…"

"And do you also use arithmantic intuition for that?"

"No…" he laughed. "Plain intuition, like with you," he kissed her.

At one o'clock they put the roast beef in the oven and Sev was interested in how it worked and also in the gas cooker, Lily explained it to him. Petunia still didn't come down.

"Maybe we're lucky and she doesn't show up for lunch, she stays locked up until we leave," Sev said. "In that case, tell your Mum what happened, and otherwise, we'll tell her in the car. That way we show her that we have nothing to hide."

"How clever you are, Sev…"

"I'm learning from you."

The table was set for four, and Violet arrived to find everything set up. "Thank you very much, sons."

Sons!

"And Tuney?" her Mum asked.

"Locked in her room," answered Lily. "She got angry."

"Yeah…" serious and understanding. "What happened?"

Lily told her what had happened since they had arrived home, including the owl thing and the subsequent scene, not sparing Petunia's accusations or the insults she had dedicated to Sev. He did not participate in the conversation, he dedicated himself to dressing the salad, taking the roast beef out of the oven and carrying everything to the table.

Violet told him, "You don't know how sorry I am, Sev, I feel awful…"

"Don't worry, Violet, at this point, all that slips away from me," Sev said.

"You shouldn't have opened the door for her, Lily, that's why we put the latch. She already knew full well that lunch was done."

"I know, Mum, but she started yelling at us through the door," Lily replied.

"Next time, don't pay any attention to her, do your thing," the older woman continued. "In the end, she didn't let you study in peace for the little time you had left. I'm going to call her to lunch but I'm not going to insist, We just need her to stay mad and yell at you again."

As Violet went upstairs to call Petunia, Lily and Sev gave each other knowing glances and smiles on both sides of the table, while he sliced the roast beef into perfectly identical slices.

When Violet returned, she already had her plate served. "Thank you, Sev."

"Thank you for inviting me to lunch."

Violet sighed. "Nothing, she hasn't even answered me, I don't know what to do with her. She has gotten used to being alone with us and when Lily comes she disrespects her continuously, I don't understand whom she's alike. She has everything she wants and the house to herself almost all year but that's not enough for her, she always wants to be the center of attention. And it's been like that since Lily started magic. Did she already treat you like this when you met, Sev?"

They were both amazed over the fact that Violet was badmouthing her daughter in front of them. To the direct question, he was sincere, "Yes, from the beginning, but by then I faced her and defended myself. Now it doesn't matter to me."

"That explains why you don't want to come here often, and your attitude now shows that despite being three years younger, you are much more mature," Lily's Mum said. "I think trying to make it up to her for not being a witch like Lily we spoiled her."

They both thought so.

"Don't stop coming home because of this, Sev," Violet continued. "Tonight I'll talk to Peter and we'll put her in her place."

"Thank you, Violet, but it's not necessary, I don't want to create a conflict for you," Sev replied. "Talk about it if you want, and if I suppose a problem, tell me and in peace."

"No no. You're not the problem, she still annoys Lily even if you're not here. At Christmas we already had to cut her off the same night she arrived, after the hardship she had had telling us about the problems you both had and talking to your Mum."

Ugh… so Lily had a hell of a time that night.And I remember that I took the berry when she was still on the Express and I didn't find out anything, she didn't tell me. He looked at her sadly and she answered him with a sad smile.

"Sure, Sev," Lily intervened. "If you don't come back, she's still going to think that she got away with it and she's going to get even more unbearable."

"You've hit the nail on the head, daughter, we have to calm her down once and for all," Violet said. "And if she doesn't like it she can hold it, go out with her friends or lock herself in her room, nobody's going to bother her. For the short time we have you at home, I'm not going to allow her to make it bitter."

When they finished eating they cleared the table. Sev thought, I'm going to wash the dishes, I feel like looking out the window while I do it.

But Violet said, "Thanks, Sev, but leave it, let's not waste time. You don't know how long it might take you to find the books and you still have to go change the money at Gringotts. Let Tuney do it if she feels like it, because she also barely helps me at home, when she's on holidays doesn't even make lunch, I have to leave it ready at night for the next day."

She has spoken in the second plural, maybe she won't come with us to the alley, Sev thought. He dried his hands on a cloth and left the kitchen. They put on their coats.

"Do you have the money, daughter?" her mother asked.

"Yes Mum."

"Change everything you have left. If you need more Muggle money we'll give it to you."

"Well, Mum, please, if this will last us a whole year," Lily said.

"You don't know that, trust me, books are expensive. If after buying them you have a lot left over, you can change it again."

Lily has a lot of money and she has talked about us changing it, she is not coming, Sev thought. We will have to return something to them, I think it will be enough with what I have from the Guard and Lauren for books and ingredients. I'm a little embarrassed, on top of that I'm putting on Peter's coat.

They went out to get the car and Lily said, "Ride in front, Sev, surely you've never been co-pilot."

Well no, but maybe it scares me. "No, Lily, you go."

She was already opening the back door. "Come on, try it, I'm sure you'll like it."

Well, I like it. The sensation of speed, the wide vision, but above all... the caresses that she is giving me on the neck, while I try to maintain a coherent conversation with her Mum, who is concentrating on driving...