The Next Great Adventure (A Marauders Fan Fic)

Chapter Fifty One

“Merlin Petunia if you don’t stop this I swear I will curse you into next year!” she spat, brandishing her wand at her sister, who nearly fell on the floor in terror.

“No no no! Keep it away from me! Oh my god I knew that school was a bad idea! I knew it was going to turn you into even more of a freak than you were before! I can’t believe Mum and Dad let you go there! I can’t believe they were proud of you for that!” She turned and fled down the stairs and Lily, knowing that her relationship with Petunia really was irreparable, packed in a silent fury before dragging her suitcase outside and Disapparating.

“Lily!” Cassie cheered as she threw the door open. “What are you doing here? I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow…”

“Petunia,” Lily sighed by way of explanation, and Cassie seized her in a vicelike embrace.

“It’s really nice to have you with me,” she said. “I’ve been really… well it hasn’t been the same without… you know? Gran and Grandpa are great but… they’re not the same either.”

“Hey hey, come here Cass,” she said as she squeezed her tightly. “It’ll be alright.” After a minute they let go of each other and Cassie grinned at her friend. “So… Petunia eh?”

“Don’t get me started… She just came to stay because of the wedding… I couldn’t handle two hours with her before I left. She threw a hissy fit because I was listening to the Quidditch match.” Lily shook her head and Cassie laughed.

“Honestly Lil your sister is a piece of work. But now we have four days to put her out of our mind. I’ll owl Alice and Mary and see whether they’re free one day.”

Their days passed quickly and they lazed around, reading and eating or chatting; Lily couldn’t tan - instead she just developed more freckles - but it didn’t stop her from trying when the sun came out from behind the ever-present English clouds.

“Lil?” Cassie said as she sipped her drink. “What are you going to do in September?”

“Start a Healing course hopefully,” she replied. “Thought I’d told you that.”

“No I know I just meant… where are you going to live?”

“I hadn’t really thought about it,” she admitted. “We haven’t got our results yet so I don’t know whether I’ll actually be allowed onto the course.”

“Well if you get on - which you will because you’ve never yet not been the best at anything - and I get on - a much less likely event - then we’ll both be in London and I was just thinking… well I can’t handle living by myself, not after seven years of a six girl dorm, and well…” Cassie trailed off and Lily smiled at her.

“You think we should live together?”

“Yeah, it’d be fun.”

“Course it would. Yeah I think that’s a great plan.” They grinned at each other and giggled. “God I can’t believe we actually have to start thinking about getting houses… I feel old!”

“Girls!” Cassie’s grandmother shouted, poking her head out of the kitchen window. “Lunch is ready!” In moments the two of them had jumped up and hurried inside.

When Lily appeared on her mother’s doorstep nearly a week after she had left, she was seized in a violent hug. “Where have you been Lily? I was so worried about you!”

“Relax Mum I was with Cassie,” she mumbled. “I left a day early because of Petunia.”

“And it didn’t cross your mind at all to let me know where you were? You could have been anywhere! A lot of people are disappearing at the moment Lily; between you and your father and Petunia’s wedding and the hospital…”

“I sent you an owl though,” she protested weakly.

“After three days! Anyway it’s fine, you’re alive; we’ll talk about this later. Come inside; you need to get ready to leave. When’s James arriving?”

“I’m sure he’ll be here soon Mum,” she said as she dragged her suitcase back upstairs. Hanging in her wardrobe was the scarlet dress she had found one holiday  while she was wandering around Cokeworth and she slipped it on quickly.

The only thing which made any of the painful day better was James, who joined her in at laughing at the many pompous members of Vernon’s family, and the various boring people Petunia had chosen as her friends. Eventually, however, after he overheard Vernon’s snide remarks about him being ‘an amateur magician’ he dragged Lily aside and begged her to leave with him.

“I shouldn’t be surprised really,” Lily said as they materialised outside her house. “I always swing between hoping that she’ll improve and knowing that she won’t. How many times have I told myself - or even you - that this is the final straw and then gone back later to deluding myself that ‘maybe this time she’ll see that I’m still her sister’?”

“Hey, it’s not your fault that you don’t want to accept what’s happened between you and your sister,” he replied soothingly.

“I’m an utter idiot James,” she sighed. “You wouldn’t have done it… I mean, look what Sirius did. I’ve put myself through so much just to prove that apparently Petunia is still as vindictive as she was when we were younger. Okay, no more; next time I do anything like this you have to remind me of every single thing that has happened. Actually no, I swear, right now, that I will give Petunia what she wants; she can pretend she doesn’t have a sister for all I care, I’m never going to talk to her again.”

Hi everyone, sorry about the enormous wait... My exams are finally over and I am able to write again.. sort of. I have a pretty busy summer lined up so if I don't get any done this week then I won't be able to update until the middle of July because I'm going on holiday (and although I'd love to take my laptop with me I'm not sure it's the best possible idea although I will try to write some on paper or my phone or something)

So yeah, hope you enjoy this. And if you want to experience the true horror of Petunia's wedding and haven't already, then it's in Dwelling on Dreams in more detail :)

As per usual please vote/comment/etc. :)