Chapter Thirty Two
The train pulled into the station and Lily felt the strange feeling in the pit of her stomach vanish, to be replaced with anticipation. Every summer she spent half of the train journey already missing Hogwarts and her friends had become used to the bereft feeling that they experienced as the Hogwarts Express pulled out of Hogsmeade Station; the other half of the journey was spent ignoring that sadness by talking as much as possible, avoiding the various Filibuster fireworks and hexes which were being flung from carriage to carriage and just generally existing in a state of excitement for the summer ahead.
The four girls hauled their trunks off the train, grabbed their menagerie of animals and leapt onto the platform. Various cries of 'Have a wonderful summer!' were echoing over the noisy crowd and everywhere she looked Lily could see friends grabbing each other for last minute hugs; the prospect of the summer holidays made them all over-affectionate and it was difficult to move more than ten metres without being seized by someone and told that they'd be missed. Lily felt her heart squeeze in happiness and an enormous smile split her face; not even the prospect of dealing with Petunia could extinguish her joy at being home.
"Cassie darling!" she heard Archie and Jasmine cry as they spotted their daughter and made a beeline for her. "Oh it's so wonderful to see you girls!" they beamed as they caught Cassie in iron hugs.
"Can't breathe Mum," she mumbled from under Jasmine's hair and arms.
Alice grabbed each of her friends quickly and squeezed them. "Just seen my Mum and Frank; got to go! I'll see you all sometime over the summer yeah?" She ran off, her trunk trailing behind her and knocking people out of the way. Lily and Mary, after chatting to the Joneses for a couple of minutes and hugging Cassie, headed away from the train to find their parents. Moments later Mary said goodbye to Lily and vanished into the crowd. As she was heading over to where she had spotted her parents standing she heard a voice behind her say, "All alone Evans?"
"Just finding my parents," she replied as she tried to push through the crowd. James grabbed one of the handles on her trunk and took it off her, striding in front of her and easily parting the people they came across. "You really don't have to do that," she said as she half-heartedly tried to tug her trunk back.
"Didn't your mother ever teach you to be grateful when people help you?" he joked as he refused to relinquish it. Lily gave up and settled for walking beside him; her trunk was extremely heavy and she was quite glad he had appeared to help her. As if he knew exactly what she was thinking he continued, "I have to say though Lil; I have no idea what you have in here. Are you taking the whole of the library back with you? This thing is bloody heavy."
"I have a lot of stuff," she replied as they reached her parents and he deposited it at her feet.
"Yeah, I know. I just carried it across the platform," James chuckled before spreading his arms slightly as if he was considering hugging her; without thinking Lily stepped forwards and embraced him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Thanks James. Have a great summer."
His arms settled around her for a moment and he replied, "You too Lily." With that he let go of her, greeted her parents quickly before making his excuses and disappearing to 'Make sure that Sirius doesn't make too much trouble and that he brings home his trunk and not someone else's.'
"Who was that Lily?" her mother asked as they left the station. "He was... nice." Her husband chuckled at her understatement; the boy Lily had brought with her was more than nice, he knew his wife and he knew when she thought someone was handsome; Lily's friend most certainly qualified for that.
"Nobody," Lily replied as John hauled her trunk onto a trolley and they headed out through the barrier to King's Cross and back to the Muggle world, "he's just a boy in my house at school."
"Why haven't you told us about him before?" May asked.
"Because I didn't think it was important." John caught Lily's eye and he raised his heavenwards; she rolled hers in reply and wondered whether he would step in to help her. Probably not, he enjoyed seeing her suffer.
"Why not?" her mother pressed, "I like to know what's happening in my daughter's life. You're away almost all year so I only know what you tell me. And I especially like knowing when it involves tall boys who hug her goodbye."
"Mum!" she moaned. "It's not like that at all! That's James Potter."
"Hang on, isn't that the boy you used to complain about?" John asked curiously, inadvertently joining in with the interrogation. Obviously he wasn't going to help Lily, instead adding fuel to the fire. "Oh is he?" May asked.
"Yes," she muttered, "but we weren't exactly friends as you probably worked out, which is why I figured it wasn't important."
"If you aren't friends why was he hugging you goodbye? Don't think I didn't see him carry your trunk for you. I hope you said thank you."
"Merlin Mum I'm not completely backwards of course I said thank you!" she cried. "Anyway I did try to carry it myself but he wouldn't let me."
May smiled in approval. "Well someone clearly raised her son correctly."
"What changed?" John asked quietly, now trying to stall May before she got too excited.
"We both grew up I guess," Lily replied in an undertone.
"Oh Lily! If I'd known he looked like that I would have told you to stop being so stubborn!" she laughed as they got into the car.
"Thanks Mum," she sighed. "It's great to have your support, as always, for something so far from the truth it's astounding how you got there."
"I'm sorry Lilybud, I'm only teasing. He did seem nice though."
"Yeah... he can be quite charming when he wants to; half the girls in school are in love with him. The other half is in love with Sirius."
"Oh yes I think I remember you telling us about him too," May said as they pulled out into the perpetually slow London traffic, leaving Lily to wish she was confident enough to Apparate with her trunk. "How's he?"
"Improved too," she shrugged, "much better than before. He's actually going out with Cassie now."
"Oh really?" she exclaimed. "Well I hope they're happy." The rest of the car journey passed slowly as Lily was questioned about every aspect of her life at school while they were stuck in traffic; eventually they managed to make their way out of London and the cramped houses were replaced by stingy shrubbery and squat trees; it wasn't until they were quite some distance away from London that the countryside began to emerge and rolling verdant fields which were patched with sunlight replaced the grey of the city. The sky above them was a rich cornflower blue and Lily found herself smiling again; the summer had started and she was determined to make the most of it.
Petunia wasn't around when they arrived home and, as Lily and John took her trunk upstairs – or rather Lily floated her trunk up the stairs and John watched in amazement – she found out that Petunia wouldn't be coming home all summer. She had officially moved out now and was working away in London at a firm which sold drills or some other boring sort of machinery. Lily essentially had the house to herself and, as she collapsed on her bed, she had already begun to relish the opportunity to do whatever she wanted. No longer would Petunia complain about Daia and the owls which came to deliver letters from her friends, no longer would she be threatened with expulsion from Hogwarts for doing underage magic and no longer did she have to hide what she was in her own home. James was right, burning that letter really had helped but Lily had a sneaking suspicion that what had helped more was what he had said to her; that and her happiness at being home banished all of her worries about Petunia and instead filled Lily with enough energy to bound around her house and garden, constantly grinning.
Within days of returning home Lily was being buried under letters from her friends and Daia would spend the whole day prowling round the garden, meowing at the flurries of owls as they flew overhead. At least half the letters from Cassie, Mary and Alice were filled with commands to come and stay with them or menacing hints that they were considering appearing in her garden; all four of them had passed their Apparition tests at the end of the summer term and Cassie in particular was fond of Apparating stupidly short distances.
She had just sat down to have her rather late breakfast when she heard a loud bang and the crash of something falling over; Lily grabbed her toast and, leaving her cereal sitting on the table, ran outside to see Cassie throw her arms open. "Lily!" she cried as she bounded over to her. "I think I broke one of your pots, sorry." They both turned to look behind Cassie where about four large ceramic planters had been shattered; soil had spilt everywhere and the orange trees which they held were leaning drunkenly against each other, on the verge of collapsing.
"Not too much damage then," Lily remarked dryly before waving her wand and repairing the destruction.
"Sorry, I misjudged it slightly. Long distances are much harder to get right," she giggled.
"Remind me how you actually managed to pass your test?"
"Mostly bribery," Cassie shrugged. Lily's eyes creased as a wide grin spread over her face and she hugged her oldest friend. "Come on, I've just started my breakfast," she said as she led her inside.
"Yes I saw that. You had half a slice of toast hanging out of your mouth."
"I know I did. I ran outside because you decided to destroy half my mum's garden just as I sat down to eat."
Cassie just winked at her and sat down at the kitchen table while Lily finished eating. Lily's parents took Cassie's sudden arrival in their stride and the two girls spent the rest of the day chatting in the garden and letting the sun warm their backs. "What are you doing the rest of the holiday then?" Cassie asked.
"I don't know. We're going to Cornwall at the beginning of August," Lily replied, "and this time Petunia's wriggled her way out of it. Mum promised her that last year was the last time she had to come with us and she's made sure that they haven't forgotten it. I think she thinks that if she comes back over here to see us before we go then Mum'll try to drag her away with us so I'm free of her for pretty much the whole summer."
"Are you still coming to stay with me for a few days? I'm seeing Alice and Mary a bit over the summer too and it'd be nice if we could all meet up."
"I don't know Cass. Hopefully I'll come and stay with you but we'll see... I'll owl you nearer the time."
"Cool," she replied. "Well we're going to America at the end of July so I won't be around then but you'll be in Cornwall anyway. We get back about halfway through August so I might see you in Diagon Alley anyway because we'll have to get our school stuff."
"I'm so jealous," Lily moaned. "I'd love to go to America! Instead I get Cornwall."
"Yeah I'm really excited; it's the first time I've been. It should be really fun. The only problem is that Dad wants to go and visit a couple of his cousins and I don't really know any of the people who live over there; Mum and Dad are normally way too busy to spend time away from the Department and visit them, especially now, but they've been promising this for years."
"I bet it'll be amazing," she said. "Okay well I suppose I'll see if I can come and stay with you before school starts and we can go to Diagon Alley together."
"Yeah that sounds great," Cassie grinned.
"Come on girls!" John called from the kitchen. "Lunch is ready!"