The Marauders: Glory Days

First Year-Letters for Petunia

Girls Dormatories: Gryffindor
September 21st, 1971

Lily
It had been a couple weeks since the school year started. Every week I sent Petunia a letter. I wrote to her about how I was.
I got no response from her.
I tried to convince myself that she was just busy or that the owls scared her so she didn't read the letters. That was it, the owls scared her. She wasn't used to magic, of course the owls scared her.
I missed home. I missed my parents and my sister. I finally understood what people meant when they talked about home sickness. Everything was so different here, everything was too magical. It was too different.
Every time I touched my wand or  saw something magical I heard Petunia's voice in my head.
'Don't do that, people will know you're a freak!'
'Lily, stop it, this isn't natural!'
'Lily! Stop being weird!'
She was trying to protect me, I'm sure. She just didn't understand magic. She really was a good sister. She just worried about me having magical abilities as what people would think.
The first Quidditch game was today, but I didn't feel like going. I was too homesick to go to a magic sports game. Petunia would have hated it anyway.
It's not that I was lonely, I had made a couple of friends.
My dorm mates, Marlene, Dorcas, and Mary. They had become my best friends, aside from Severus, of course.
Mary was sweet and quiet, but she was very nice. Marlene was the opposite, she was loud and confident. She was really cool, I kind of wished I could be more like her. Dorcas was sweet, not necessarily shy, but she was very calm.
I wasn't lonely, but I missed my family. Petunia obviously didn't like letters being sent by owls, but I didn't know how else to contact her.
"Hey Lils," Marlene said as she walked into the dorm.
"Hey," I said.
Marlene flopped onto her four-poster bed that she had decorated with fake thorn vines. She looked over to me and gave me a skeptical look.
"What's wrong?" Marlene asked.
"I'm just a bit homesick, you know?" I said
"Petunia still not responding to your letters?" She asked.
"She doesn't like magic, I think the owls scare her," I explained.
"Then why don't you visit them?" Marlene suggested.
"Like, go home?" I asked.
"Why not?" She shrugged.
"Because we don't have a car, and we can't skip class, we haven't given them a heads up," I listed.
"We could go this weekend," Marlene said.
"And you would be coming, why?" I asked.
"Because I need a vacation and you don't know how to use floo powder," Marlene said.
I thought about it. My parents wouldn't mind me bringing a friend home, they were worried that Severus would be my only friend. They thought he was a nice boy, but they said I needed to make more friends.
"Alright," I said. "Just try to be appropriate, okay?"
"What do you mean?" Marlene laughed. "I'm always appropriate."
We cracked up laughing and I fell back onto my bed.
"Mamas gonna love you," I said.
"She is?" Marlene asked.
"She loves everybody," I added. "But she'll especially love you."
"Cool," Marlene said.
"We should probably go ask Dumbledor for permission to leave campus," I said as I sat up.
"No way, we can't ask him, he hates when first years leave campus, he'll say no," Marlene said.
"Then...we're going to sneak out?!" I yelled.
"Shhh!" Marlene hissed as she pushed herself off of her bed. "Merlin's beard Lily, I don't think the slytherin heard you."
"We can't sneak out, we'll be expelled," I said, a lot quieter this time.
"Not if we don't get caught," Marlene.
"And how will we not get caught?" I asked. "We don't have a plan, or an excuse for not being here!"
"We'll get Dorcas to cover for us, she and Mary can tell people that we're sick and very contagious," Marlene explained. "Trust me, Lils, if you aren't stupid than you don't get caught."
Sneaking out was wrong. I knew that. Of course, I knew that sneaking out was wrong. I knew how much trouble we could get into.
But I missed my family. I missed my sister. I needed to know that she didn't hate me.
"Okay," I took a deep breath. "Alright, we'll go tomorrow, so that people can think we caught it overnight or something."
"What fake illness should we have?" Marlene said almost excitedly.
"Marlene, I don't like lying," I said as I crossed my arms.
"Well, we need symptoms," Marlene said. "We need to be convincing Lils, but not too convincing, or else they'll send us to Madam Promfrey."
"Marlene, I don't like this," I said.
"Lily, it's not a big deal, we aren't committing a crime," she comforted. "It's normal teenage things."
"We're eleven," I deadpanned.
"So? We're starting early!" She said excitedly.
"Marlene, I feel dirty," I said. "I don't wanna lie to the professors."
"Okay, okay," Marlene said, then she paused for a minute as if she were plotting something.
"I'm still willing to do it," I said. "I just don't like that I am."
"I doubt the professors will even realize that we're missing," Marlene said. "Professor McGonagall is always tired on the weekends and none of the other professors check up on us."
"Alright, so...we won't have to lie?" I asked.
"We might have to, but probably not," Marlene said. "If they ask us where we were we can just tell them we were sick, that we both had a cold or something."
"Alright," I nodded. "That's not...too big of a lie?"
"It isn't?" Marlene asked
"Kids get sick all the time, especially when they're with a bunch of other kids," Lily said. "Germs spread fast, and we've only just come to Hogwarts, and we're being introduced to a lot of germs, so of course some kids are going to get sick."
"Yeah, sure," Marlene said.

The rest of the day I was anxiously waiting. Marlene and I planned to sneak out early in the morning. Still, I kept feeling guilty about this whole thing. All I was doing was visiting family, but sneaking out felt like I was doing something illegal.
I could hear Petunia's voice in my head telling me not to be a baby. She was always the braver one, she would have been put into Gryffindor with me if she was a witch.
If she was a witch then maybe she wouldn't hate magic so much. I wondered if there was a way to turn her into a witch. I shut that thought down right away and scolded myself for thinking it. Petunia already didn't like magic, turning her into a witch would be cruel.
Dorcas and Mary walked into the dorm and smiled at us. Marlene and I shared a look, then she turned to smile at Dorcas.
"Could you do us a huge favor?" Marlene asked.
"What do you need?" Dorcas asked.
"Lily and I are visiting her parents, if anybody asks about where we are, tell them we're both sick," Marlene explained.
"I don't know, couldn't we get in trouble?" Mary asked.
"Please Mary?" I begged. "I just want to see my sister, I miss her, she's not responding to my letters or anything."
Dorcas had a hesitant look on her face. She glanced in between me and Marlene.
"If the professors find out, then we'll all be in trouble," Dorcas said.
"Please Dorcas?" Marlene pleaded, Dorcas's eyes softened and she started to smile a bit.
"Alright, fine," she said. "I can't say no to you. Your eyes are too pretty and that's not fair."
Marlene's smile dropped and a bright red blush spread across her cheeks. She watched as Dorcas walked over to her bed and picked out a book to read.
"Marlene, are you okay?" Mary asked. "You're all red."
Dorcas immediately looked up at her with concern. Marlene opened her mouth as if to say something, but then looked over to me for help.
"Marlene is sick," I said. "Uh...that's why she's coming with me. Because it's a muggle sickness and I've got the medicine at my house."
"Yeah," Marlene nodded. "It...it clouds your mind and stuff."
"And makes your face red?" Mary asked.
"You should lie down then," Dorcas said. "Especially if you're going to be traveling by floo powder tomorrow."
"Yes!" Marlene yelled as she rushed over to her bed. Lying down, good idea, thanks Dorcas."
The curtains of Marlene's bed closes faster than a quidditch player on a broomstick. That was a saying that I had heard while at Hogwarts. I had been trying to sound less like a muggle born and more like I belonged here. Severus had been helping me.
"Marlene must be really sick," Mary said.
"Yeah," I nodded
'Sick with love'  I thought.
I tried not to giggle, but I was excited for my friend. She has her first crush! Out of all of us I thought that Mary would be the first one to start crushing on people.
I looked over at Dorcas, who was glancing over at Marlene's bed with a worried expression. I wanted to mind my own business, but it was hard to. Mama said that my roommates would be my best friends, She was right. My friends had crushes on each other already.
'I'm gonna be the best wing woman ever' I thought to myself.