remember and forget ✿ marauder's era

one|a summer of suffering

Whatever he was doing, she didn't care. It wasn't her business any more whether the boy from Spinner's end was doing his potions homework, and she didn't care one way or another whether he mastered the freezing charm that he had been struggling with before... well, before the end of term.

Technically, they didn't need to do any work. Having sat her OWLs, she and the rest of the new sixth years were not yet officially NEWT students and so couldn't really study, not knowing what subjects their grades would allow them to take. Still, it would have been a shock to everyone if Lily Evans, (reluctant) slug club member and rare Gryffindor favourite of the potions teacher, Professor Slughorn, had achieved anything less than an outstanding mark, and the usually cautious Lily allowed herself to buy several advanced potions textbooks that had been recommended to her by a winking Slughorn, chuckling through a slurp of wine at the end of term party. "You might find these interesting for some summer studying, and they would no doubt help if you were to take the NEWT." She didn't like to assume, the books had been expensive, and asking her parents for the money had been difficult, she knew they were saving up to buy her a birthday present, though she told them not to. The basic course books were costly enough and more so when you added in potions ingredients, robes to replace the irretrievably stained ones she had needed to wear on the train home thanks to a hilarious, or, depending on who you asked, idiotic, prank courtesy of her fellow Gryffindors. As it turned out, large quantities of Bowtruckle pus had gone missing while the feast was taking place and Professor Sprout occupied with honey glazed ham, and had turned up over the heads of the first years as they were approaching the train doors to go home. The first years had been hysterical, shrieking with laughter at the bleaching effect the liquid had, giving the impression that the platform of the train station had been the scene of a terrible accident, and was suddenly inhabited by a hundred ghosts. Lily had been shepherding the excitable children into carriages and had been splashed, drawing the deep red out of her hair and freckles from her skin until her colouring was like that of her sister, Petunia, although they could never have been mistaken for one another. Her robes were unsalvageable, so new ones were needed.

Petunia would complain about the expense, but she always did. Lily got more than she did apparently and Petunia hated that their father couldn't always afford to give them both everything they wanted. Lily didn't feel like she was favoured with money, she only stayed at home over Christmas, and summer, and Petunia seemed to have a new wardrobe of dresses every time Lily saw her, she didn't think she cared whether Petunia got more, she wasn't resentful in the same way that her sister was.

In any case, it was the need for new books, to tide her over until the NEWT results and book lists of required reading came in, that led to the first time since the end of term that she had seen Severus, on a trip to Diagon Alley, and to visit the wizarding world that she so missed during the long summer months.

She had asked for some money, and after a trip to Gringott's wizarding bank, she had started down the busy street, passing witches and wizards who were all struggling under the weight of their numerous bags. She had met up with a few of her Hogwarts school friends in Diagon Alley, and they had planned to spend a lazy day in the bookshop, joke shop and more than a little time in Ernest Fortescue's ice cream shop, where the owner's sons served ice creams; the elder charming and flirtatious with every girl who passed by, and the younger brother rarely raising his eyes from a large book, titled 'The Witch Burnings of the Middle Ages in Europe'. Lily had begged them to find a seat in the shade, her pale skin already reddening across the bridge of her nose, and, after the obligatory laugh at her expense, they complied.

She fell down into the chair and tried to resist the temptation to press her face into the strawberry ice cream that was floated across to their table from the counter. She looked across the table to where Jacqueline was comparing the shade of dress robes she had bought to Karen's, ensuring that they were not too similar. The two girls were Gryffindors, like Lily, and were awaiting OWL results, like her. Their feelings about this were markedly different. Jacqueline was completely unfazed, where Karen had begged Lily to send her letters on colourful paper, in bright envelopes so that she could tell from afar that it wasn't a Hogwarts letter. This seemed excessive, but to save herself from an argument, Lily had complied; it had given her a chance to use an expensive correspondence kit that Jac had given her. Jacqueline was from a wizarding family, pure-blooded, though not intolerant of others, but her father put a great deal of pressure on his children to succeed, to be assets to the family name. Almost as a reaction to this, Jac had a determined kind of apathy, where she refused to care about school, grades or her future.