The Next Great Adventure (A Marauders Fan Fic)

Chapter Thirty One

Chapter Thirty One

A stupid grin barely left James’ face for the rest of the year; he shared every class with Lily and now he was able to smile at her if she turned round and caught his eye, could talk to her if he saw her in the corridors or common room and he relished the chance to scribble notes to her. He had no idea when Lily had stopped hating him but he enjoyed talking to her and learning about her; he enjoyed being her friend.

This all changed one morning though as they sat at breakfast; the usual army of owls flew in, depositing various shaped packages and smaller letters on their owners’ tables; Cassie’s owl Marsali landed on her shoulder and eyed the older, and also the stupider, owls disapprovingly as they dropped letters in breakfasts before flying away. Lily had barely looked up at the post except to drop the standard five Knuts into the pouch of the owl which was delivering her copy of The Daily Prophet.

“Aren’t you going to read your letter Lil?” Cassie asked, startling Lily who looked away from her breakfast long enough to realise that there was an enormous tawny owl standing in front of her, patiently waiting for her to notice it.

“Bloody hell I hadn’t noticed that!” she exclaimed as the owl let out a single hoot and stuck its leg out. Lily detached her letter deftly, turning it over and eyeing it with confusion. “It looks like my mum’s handwriting but she doesn’t know how to send letters by owl post.”

“What’s that?” Alice asked, jabbing her spoon at the stamp on the envelope.

“Oh, it’s a stamp. It’s how we show that we’ve paid to send our post in the Muggle world… Hang on, that means she must’ve tried to send it by our post… There must be wizards working in the Post Office…” Lily tore open the envelope, her eyes scanning it eagerly; she hardly ever received post from her parents when she was at school. Suddenly her face flushed and then all the colour drained out of it and she folded it back up again wordlessly.

“What did it say?” Cassie asked tentatively.

“Nothing interesting. Petunia’s finally confirmed the existence of the mystery boyfriend.”

That day not a single smile graced Lily’s face as she wandered through the corridors; she didn’t laugh when Sirius created one of the largest explosions seen in wizarding history and her eyes barely brightened when James bewitched a doodle of a lily to dance on a scrap piece of parchment and gave it to her in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Her friends could only guess at what it was that made her so unhappy and James had no idea; Lily didn’t appear at lunch and so, when James sat down at the Gryffindor table, he found himself in the middle of an open discussion about Lily.

“No don’t be stupid Al,” Mary was saying, “it’s obviously to do with the letter she got this morning. There’s no way it can’t be.”

“And what was in the letter,” Cassie added, “news about Petunia. What do we know about Petunia?”

“That she’s spiteful and malicious,” Alice agreed. “I don’t know it’s just that Lily’s been dealing with Petunia for years now and I’m not saying it will ever get easier but she must be prepared for it by now; I just feel like there must be something else as well.”

“I reckon if Petunia’s got a boyfriend then the letter was probably from her and she was gloating; Lily’s mum is desperate for them to make up so she definitely would have encouraged Petunia to write to Lily.” Cassie finished speaking and speared another piece of broccoli and chewed it as Alice said, “I suppose she wouldn’t pass up a chance to rub something like this in her face, especially if she can do it without May seeing.”

“Which means that that letter was most likely filled with hundreds of snide remarks and nearly as much vitriol and hatred as Lily occasionally gets from Slytherins,” Mary muttered.