The Next Great Adventure (A Marauders Fan Fic)

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

Lily giggled as she read Cassie's letter and kicked her feet in the air, savouring the feeling of flying through the air. She desperately wanted to jump off like she had used to but now that she was being taught to control her magic she knew the Ministry would be on her faster than she could say ‘Azkaban’ and she didn't really want to end up in prison.

Since she had returned from school, Petunia had been worse than ever and Lily had taken to escaping the house and her sister's constant sniping by fleeing to the playground; unfortunately on one of the first days back she found herself sitting on a swing in the nearest one; this happened to be the very same playground which she and Snape had spent so many balmy summers together so, as she sat there, her heart was heavy and she wondered what she would have been doing had they still been friends. She was quick to remind herself, however, that it wasn’t Snape she missed but the innocent boy he had once been and now that she could be honest with herself she knew that he hadn’t been the same person for a very long time.

She had swiftly swapped to somewhere different though because as she sat there, having ventured there for the first time all summer, she had been accosted by him as he came running towards her, begging her to reconsider and to make friends with him again. The second time she had gone there she had seen him loitering behind a tree not far from where she sat so, wordlessly, she had left. Besides the lingering feeling of irritation at him for what he had said Lily had principles and she would be damned if she didn’t stick to them; she refused to be friends with someone who meddled in the Dark Arts and laughed at the misfortune of others, no matter how long they had been friends. Sometimes at night, when her mind turned their friendship over and over again, examining it as objectively as possible, she admitted to herself that he had always been unpleasant. The signs had been there from the beginning, from the unnerving way he had watched her to when the branch hit Petunia, from when he convinced her that reading Petunia’s private things was a good idea to the way he had laughed as the Slytherins tormented children in the corridors… Snape had always been unpleasant and Lily found herself wondering why she hadn’t ceased to be his friend sooner. When she felt particularly honest with herself, when she peered into the deepest depths of her soul, she reconciled herself with the fact that it had been because she was scared: scared that people would hate her for being a Muggle, scared that she wouldn’t fit in, that she wouldn’t know anything about life at Hogwarts or as a witch… And afterwards, when she had found her friends and settled in, found herself among the top students and well liked… that was when she had felt too bad for the pale boy who was constantly picked on to stop being his friend; he had needed someone in his life to show him a tiny bit of kindness and that was what came naturally to Lily.

Not wanting to risk it again she had decided against returning and it had taken a day of wandering round before she had found an acceptable substitute a further ten minutes’ walk in the other direction.

Now she sat swinging gently in the breeze as she read her friend's letter. Cassie’s parents were up to their usual antics and it took her mind off Petunia's harsh criticisms and endless foul tempered complaints. “Nobody cares what you did at that stupid school,” she would say whenever her parents asked her how lessons were going. Whenever Lily opened her mouth Petunia would roll her eyes and no matter how many times their parents told her to behave herself she continued to slip in snide remarks and unpleasant gestures. It didn't help that Petunia had managed to get a job in a firm near London and, despite her unpleasantness, their parents were proud of her and her determination to get ahead.

Lily wondered absentmindedly whether Cassie was enjoying herself and whether Petunia would be over for dinner; she seemed to be ‘heading out’ constantly and it was a mixed blessing when Petunia decided she had better things to do than eat with her family. The day before Lily had overheard their mother wondering aloud whether Petunia had ‘some nice fellow out in London’ although Lily, sad as it made her, couldn’t help but think Petunia was just making excuses to get away from her and to seem more successful than she was. Still, Lily supposed, if she did find someone she would be happy for her – no matter how mean she was to her, Petunia would always be her sister and that wasn’t something that you could forget that easily. Lily wanted to be happy for her anyway; she still wasn’t even sure why Petunia was so unkind. What with that and Petunia’s final exams she had been either holed up in her room or out of the house for most of the summer.