After The War (Romione & Hinny fan fiction)

The Girl Who Never Forgets

To all readers, beacuse you never give up looking for good things in a world that isn't always kind.

"Don't you remember?"
People asked it lightly, as if it didn't really matter. As if forgetting happens. They think that until someone forgets about them, that's when they realize that maybe remembering is important, after all.

But Lily Potter was no ordinary girl.

People knew that. They whispered about it behind her back. They wrote about it in the newspapers. As if she wasn't there, hearing their terrible attempts at keeping their voices low as they talked about it. As if she wouldn't remember about it.
As if one day, when she got older, Lily would forget about the things she heard them whisper. Like there's some way she will ever forget.

Lily bit her lower lip, trying to suppress the scowl that rose in her throat every time they asked her the Question.
What they didn't seem to understand was that Lily always remembered.
Since the day she first used accidental magic when she was six months old, Lily Luna Potter remembered it all. Well, not really all of it, but everything that impressed her.
It wasn't normal for a nine-year-old girl to remember so much of her childhood, according to many people in the news.
She'd even overheard her parents talking about it in hushed tones over a copy of the Daily Prophet in the kitchen once or twice. They didn't understand why - or how for that matter - their daughter was different. Lily could still hear the worry in their voices as they talked about it.

But it didn't matter now, Lily thought as she stuffed her anorak into her backpack and zipped it close.

Ready.

She hoped everyone was still asleep or she'd get caught.
She heard the ping of the vials slamming together in her rucksack as she put it on her shoulders. She closed the door carefully behind her as she slipped out of the room, careful not to make it click. The stairway was still wrapped in the shadows of the night. She made her way downstairs carefully, skipping the two creaking steps and going past her brother's bedroom, giving a furtive look at his door to see the little hearts she'd drawn the day before on the sign that hung from the door were still there, bright pink and red hearts circling the word 'James's room'.
Victory!
She smiled to herself. He hadn't been able to erase them, then.
She walked down the last flight of stairs and slipped soundlessly in the kitchen, careful not to knock anything over in the dark. One small mistake and her plan would evaporate like water in the sun. It wasn't her first time sneaking out, of course, but she'd never been caught before and she most certainly couldn't afford that now.
Saying Mom would go mad if she found out Lily had seaked out would be an understatement.
She grabbed a packet of woodlice her mom used for potions and put it in her backpack with the rest of the things she would need. Finally she put on her shoes and walked out from the back door.
The soft breeze of chilly air outside marked the last hours of the very last summer night.
She quickened her step and hurried towards the wood. The path was narrow and swayed through the trees all the way up the hill near the Potters' house.
Lily couldn't help thinking these woods are magic. She remembered coming in there for the first time on an exploration with her brothers. Since then the woods had been Lily's favourite place. A hiding spot. A place where she could go when she was angry, frustrated, tired of hearing her brothers argue or when she needed a break.
A place where she could escape reality and pretend everything was fine.

Not that everything was fine in the woods.

There were murders and scandals, quarrels and fights just like out of those trees, if you paid enough attention to notice.
Oh, yes. Because the forest talked, in its own way. Its inhabitants were the ones that talked the most. All one has to do is listen.
The animal world was just as complicated as the human, though Lily knew perfectly well that humans were slowly destroying both.