Four To The End (prev Shifting Lines) - Book One (Marauder Era)

Chapter Eighty-One - An Afternoon With Lily

"You look really pretty," he said, not sure if he should say that or cute.

But Lily beamed. "Thank you! I figure there's probably some magic way to make these but I prefer the Muggle way."

"I prefer food when it's done the Muggle way," Remus admitted.

"I miss my mother's home cooked meals!" Lily fell back onto the grass, her hair everywhere, the flowers still on her.

Remus lay down next to her. "Me too. Thank Merlin Mum sends me some cookies or something every week, otherwise I think I'd go crazy." He said that sentence without really thinking it through and felt Lily flinching next to him when he said 'crazy'. That word still clung to him. He knew plenty of people still referred to him as Loopy, whispered that he was crazy. It wasn't something that had gone away.

"What do you look forward to the most, going home?" she asked. "And the least?"

His first thought was Gwyllgi--something he'd never in a million years admit to anyone. Then he felt guilty that his first thought had been his stuffed animal. "Seeing my parents again," he said even though that wasn't entirely true. It sounded like the right thing to say. "I miss them."

"Me too. But besides that. I mean..." She rolled over, propping her chin up on one hand as she gazed down into his face. The sun was shining off her hair and with the flowers he thought she looked like some sort of spring goddess. "Besides my family I really look forward to having a TV again."

"Yeah they're pretty nifty," Remus mused. "We have an old one but we don't really use it much. We mostly listen to radio programs."

"I love TV. I miss it. I have so much to catch up on! I've missed all of Dr. Who's new season except one episode during the Easter holidays but it was a finale of the serial anyway so I don't think that counts, though it was neat to see the Master again. You know, I think Jon Pertwee's Doctor looks a lot like a wizard. I bet he'd fit right in." Remus nodded, only barely following what she was saying. She plucked some grass and let it drift out of her fingers, some if it onto his face. "You have no idea what I'm talking about do you?"

He grinned up. "Nope."

"I'll show you sometime. You can come visit, and I'll show you Dr. Who."

Visit, again. "Sounds like a great idea," he said, having zero intentions of following through. He wished he could. He wished that he could go visit Lily's house, meet her parents (maybe meet the awful-sounding Petunia?), watch TV with her. Wished he could go visit all his friends (maybe not Sirius's house, course he never extended an invitation to anyone anyway so). "I bet they study TV in Muggle Studies."

Lily giggled. "I'll take the class, just to watch programs again! It'd be weird to hear about Muggles from a magical viewpoint though." She folded her arms, resting her head down against them, her face just inches from him. He could smell the lemon candy she had eaten earlier still on her breath. "I wonder if any Muggleborns actually take the class. I think a Muggleborn should teach it. Or at least someone who's lived as a Muggle for a while. Think that's the sort of person they got?"

"Probably not," he replied. He took one of the blades of grass still tickling his face and held it up against the sky. "Did Snape ever come round to your house?"

"A couple times. Not often. He used to say he didn't feel right coming over when I couldn't come to his house... I believed him at the time but..." She gave a sigh. "Now I wonder if it's the Muggle part of it that made him not want to come over."

That sounds rather likely, he thought, keeping that to himself.

"You never said what you're least looking forward to, about summer," she pointed out.