Chapter Fifty One
“What is she doing here?” Petunia asked as Lily opened the door, the fake smile she had plastered on her face falling off it immediately.
“She lives here Petunia,” their mother sighed from behind her.
“Petunia,” Lily said frostily. “I’d forgotten you were coming today.” She spun on her heel and stalked upstairs, desperate to slam the door in her sister’s face. Petunia’s shrill voice ricocheted through the house behind her, already prattling on about her various bridesmaids and their dresses. It was only when her bedroom door slammed shut behind her that silence once again reigned and she was able to turn her radio up to drown out her thoughts as she packed.
“Now we go to our Quidditch correspondent Percival Cooper for the update on the match between Italy and Scotland,” the announcer said as Lily rifled through her drawers searching for her socks. Flicking her wand at the dial she turned the volume up and emerged, flourishing them triumphantly.
“Well it’s very exciting out here,” a different man said. “It’s the fifth hour of this match and both teams seem very well matched; I’d be hard pressed to tell you which one is going to win and I’m sure there’s a lot of money riding on either outcome. Currently the score stands at 50-80 to Italy and I must say, their Keeper Luciano Rossi has been doing fantastically; honestly, he’s performed some of the best saves I’ve seen in this entire competition. Their Chasers - Paolo Paone, Giulia Baligi and Silvia Monti for those of you who haven’t been following the Italian team - have been perfectly co-ordinated and in the past hour alone they’ve scored four goals. There was also one Scottish goal from Chaser Fergus McLeod as well as a caution to the Scots for a Bludger which appeared to be aimed at the referee, although they swear it wasn’t. Their Beater, Angus Carter, seemed to be protesting the referee’s support of a previous Italian goal but he swears it was a mishit due to a fly buzzing about his head. There is still, however, no sign of the Snitch and it’s not for lack of trying. Tierney Macmillan, the Scottish Seeker, very nearly caught it in the two hundred and forty seventh minute of the match but she was stopped by a well-aimed Bludger; Samuele Beppe is still sitting above the other players and searching for it but, as of yet, he has done nothing except race Macmillan for the Snitch when she spotted it. It’s a tough match this one and the teams have been battling it out endlessly, up and down the pitch, as the Quaffle changes hands; it barely seems to make it further than five metres before the other team will seize it and it’s made for an intense and riveting day out here, with fans going absolutely mad.”
As the radio began playing the latest musical hit, Lily turned the volume up even more. She had heard the song before, Jessica had insisted on playing it almost every day in the Gryffindor common room, and although she had protested at first eventually she had grown to enjoy it. Now it made her think of her friends, of their halcyon days spent in the sun and her classes; she had been so happy there and, as was always the case, hadn’t realised it until it was gone.
Suddenly her door slammed open and Lily jumped, dropping the pile of clothes that she had in her arms. “Turn that thing down!” Petunia screeched. “I’m trying to talk to Laura and I don’t want you blasting that… that nonsense throughout the whole house! I can hear it in the kitchen!”
“In case you haven’t noticed Petunia,” she hissed, “I live here. In fact, technically, I live here more than you do now that you have that house in London with your wonderful fiancé.”
“You leave Vernon out of this. Neither of us want anything to do with your kind! Just… keep the radio down!”
“I’ll do whatever I want!” Lily said, grabbing her wand and jabbing it at the radio. Petunia screamed and cowered by the door. “Keep that thing away from me! Put it away!”
“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. :)