The Next Great Adventure (A Marauders Fan Fic)

Chapter Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty Two

Lily wrapped herself up in her Gryffindor scarf and gazed outside at the snow which drifted lazily through the air. Steeling herself for the cold Lily wrenched open the door and stepped out into the street, her breath already beginning to rise in wispy puffs of white. She hunched down into her coat and hurried down the street desperately. She had to get away from Petunia before she started to insult her; for some reason her sister couldn’t even put aside her ‘abnormality’ on Christmas. Their parents had tried and tried to fix the feud between their daughters but to no avail and this Christmas was proving particularly bad. Petunia had, a few months before Lily had returned from school, revealed to their parents that she had a boyfriend, a man called Vernon who worked at the company she was with; her sister had not, however, deemed it necessary for him to meet Lily, despite the fact that he had met John and May.

“I don’t see why he should though,” Petunia had muttered, “it’s not like we’re going to be seeing much of her in the future. And, of course, Vernon hates anything out of the ordinary.” These final few words were punctuated with a pointed look at some of the pictures that were scattered about the kitchen, pictures which moved. “I don’t see why you can’t just put them away,” she had complained frequently, “they not normal.”

Luckily for Petunia Lily agreed with her, though not for the same reason. Although she never ceased sending the pictures home she had mentioned once, seeing one particularly pretty one of her and her friends sitting by the Black Lake and waving merrily which her parents had framed, that they ought to make them a little more subtle. “Only, you could get in serious trouble with the Ministry if any Muggles see them and realise,” she explained. “It could break the International Statute of Secrecy.” Both John and May looked at her blankly and Lily flushed, forgetting that they didn’t have the same knowledge that she did; they knew a fair amount but not everything. There were several stringent restrictions placed on what Muggle parents of magical children could and couldn’t know. Still, they took them down and put them away in one particular photo album which they hid in their room, leaving the only traces of magic in their house to be Lily’s school supplies and newspapers when she came back for the holidays.

Petunia had moved out and was barely at home anymore, a blessing for Lily since she was finally free of her constant cold looks and muttered insults, but it had been insisted upon that the four of them spend Christmas together. Lily could take it no longer; all through lunch Petunia had made snide remarks, just subtle enough for their parents not to notice – or maybe they had given up – and she hadn’t given Lily a present because, apparently ‘she had everything she needed, didn’t she?’

The fuming redhead stomped down the icy lane, lashing out occasionally at rogue stones that lay by her feet and wishing that her birthday would come sooner so that she could blast something to smithereens with her wand. She was so caught up in her own world that she didn’t hear her name being called until the person calling it grabbed her arm. “Get off me!” she shouted.

Severus took a step back. “I-I’m sorry.”

Lily shook his hand off her arm and stuck her hands in her pockets, hunching down into her scarf. “What do you want?”

He looked alarmed. “I just wanted to talk to you.”

“You’ve had years of talking to me Severus. I thought you’d realised that we’re through.”

“Well I know but- I just- I wanted- I thought you might… forgive me.”

Lily scoffed. “I doubt it very much. I’ve forgiven you for far too much over the past few years. It’s time to move on with your life. You got what you wanted; you don’t have to choose between me and your precious Death Eater friends.”