Chapter Fifty Two
“You have a letter from Petunia,” Lily said as she shut the door behind her and threw the small stack of post onto the table. “The rest just look like bills.”
May slit the envelope open and read it, her breakfast forgotten. “She’s fine,” she said eventually, when she reached the end. “She says Vernon thought the funeral was… nice. What are you going to do today?” she asked, changing the subject quickly.
“Cassie’s coming sometime today,” Lily said with a frown as she watched her mother. “And I finished packing last night so I suppose we’ll just move everything over this afternoon…”
“Oh I forgot that it was today,” May replied. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay another day?”
“I can’t Mum,” she said, “we need to go. I need to get ready for the course; it’s only next week and I have to sort all of my stuff out.” That very second they heard someone rap on the door and Lily ran to answer it, desperate to escape the cloud which hung over her mother. “Cassie,” she said, “how are you?”
“Good, good what about you?”
“I’m… alright. Summer hasn’t exactly been easy…”
“I know, I know,” she said, seizing Lily in a hug. “But let’s not think about that now; now is time for the future.”
“You’re so insensitive,” Lily moaned as she trailed after Cassie, “and actually so helpful to have around.”
Lily’s room was barely a room anymore; instead it was piled high with boxes full of various things. With one wave of her wand Cassie shrank all of the boxes and put them in an enormous bag that she had brought with her; Lily, generally used to the wonders of magic raised her hands in a silent prayer of thanks to whoever had gifted her with it. It had to be the easiest time anyone had moved house ever. “Cassie my friend, I often tell you otherwise but you are a genius.”
Cassie handed the bag to Lily with a smirk and chuckled. “You’re not going to like the next bit though.”
“Why not?”
“Well…” Cassie grinned and Lily’s stomach sank. Whatever it was, her friend only had that look on her face when she was about to tell Lily something that she knew the redhead would hate. And it was always something that she would enjoy watching Lily hate. “Your house is a Muggle house so it isn’t connected to the Floo Network,” she began, “and we probably shouldn’t Apparate because you might forget something from the boxes and leave half your stuff behind… So I brought an extra broom for you.”
“You didn’t!” Lily groaned. “We have to fly to London? You know I hate flying!”
“Exactly,” Cassie smirked. “I told you that you wouldn’t like it but it’s the only way.”
Lily dug one shoulder into Cassie’s side and pouted. “You’re the worst.”
“Hey I’m helping you move aren’t I? And I’m putting up with for the foreseeable future. I thought I’d finally gotten rid of you but no, I’m the one that has to sacrifice myself and live with you. Don’t know how Mary and Alice wriggled out of it,” she grumbled.
“We’re off Mum,” Lily said, sticking her head round the doorway of the kitchen and shooting her a smile.
“Stay there Lily,” she replied as she stood up and moved to embrace her. “Be good okay? Stay safe. I don’t like the idea of you two living in London all by yourselves.”
“Don’t worry May, we’ll be fine,” Cassie said. “Loads of people we know are moving to London and Sirius and James will constantly be hanging around. Mary and Alice are pretty nearby too.”
“Good, that’s what I like to hear.” May gave them one last smile and Lily swore she saw the glint of tears in her eyes. “Well er… we’ll be off then; we have a long way to go,” she said quickly before all but running out of the door.
“Stay in touch Lily!” her mother called as they hurried down the path.
“You’re terrible,” Cassie whispered as Lily waved at her and nodded, before turning onto the street.
“I just don’t like saying goodbye,” she murmured as she watched Cassie. Her friend had stopped and, after checking that the road was empty, she pulled two tiny broomsticks out of her pocket. With a flick of her wand they returned to their original size and, handing one to Lily, she smiled blithely at her friend’s glare before mounting her broom. “You’re the absolute worst,” Lily said as she mounted her broom and hovered above the ground. Cassie grinned at her and shrugged. “Yep.” She shot off into the sky and Lily, gripping the broom tightly, followed her.
They stayed high in the sky, letting the people below think that they were nothing more than birds. After a few minutes Lily began to shiver and so, reaching cautiously for her wand and constantly aware of how easy it would be to drop it, she cast a heat-protection spell before shoving it back in her coat pocket. She was unable to ignore the houses far beneath her and looking forward only showed her the immense size of the sky as it stretched out around them. Her hands hurt from how tightly she was clutching the handle of her broom, the low-lying clouds that they skimmed left drops of moisture all over her clothes and the wind was whipping her face. ‘I will never understand why James and Cassie play Quidditch,’ she thought to herself. ‘It’s exciting to watch but the way they play it…’
Eventually Lily’s mind wandered and she stopped watching the towns pass below, terrified by how unlikely it seemed for a broom to hold her up. Suddenly she was drawn back out of her thoughts by a distant shout from Cassie. “We’re nearly there Lily!” she cried as she angled her broom towards the ground and began to descend.
Lily’s stomach dropped as she did the same and she realised how quickly they’d been travelling. Cassie only accelerated as she raced towards the ground and Lily, trying to keep up with her, found herself travelling faster than she’d ever intended. It reminded her of the feeling she had used to get when her parents would take them out on roller coasters and her entire body would drop on a fall, apart from her stomach. This time, however, she couldn’t shut her eyes - even though they were streaming, the wind blowing tears into her hair - because she needed to see where Cassie was going. Ahead of her she heard her friend cheer and suddenly, wiping her eyes with one sleeve, Lily saw that they had nearly reached the trees. Pulling her broom up sharply she stopped, hovering above the canopies for a moment before following Cassie as she wound between their trunks. “Wait Cass,” she shouted, “we’re not in London.”
Cassie span round, an enormous grin on her face, and shook her head. “Nah I thought London was a bit far so we’re going to take the Floo Network from my house. My grandparents’ house, I mean.”
“If I was closer to you I would hug you. And then maybe elbow you.” Cassie smirked and said, “Well it wasn’t just for you. It’s quite hard to land a broom in London in the middle of the day without any Muggles seeing so I thought that this would probably be safer.”
Lily rolled her eyes at her and they emerged from the trees, flying slowly across the garden and up to the house.
“Oh there you are girls!” her grandmother called. “Hello Lily! Do either of you want anything to eat before you leave?”
“I think we’re alright thanks Gran,” Cassie said as they leapt off their brooms and headed inside. “We should probably just get going; Lily needs to unpack all of her stuff once we get there and it’s already the afternoon…”
“Right, of course.” She hurried them through to the sitting room and grabbed the Floo powder from the mantelpiece.
Cassie went first, pinching some powder from the pot and moving towards the fireplace. “Flat 4A, 15 New Street,” she said as she threw the Floo powder into the grate. The flames roared green and she vanished, leaving Lily to follow her.
“I hope she’s gone to the right place,” her grandmother said as she peered after her, “she didn’t specify very well.”
“I’m sure she’ll be fine.” Lily clutched some Floo powder tightly in her hand, worried that she might spill it on the rug, and she clambered into the fireplace. The backpack which contained all of her things brushed the back wall and she hoped that nothing too bad would happen to it; the Floo Network was often an unhelpfully violent way to travel.
“Do tell Cassie to owl us and let us know how London is,” she said as Lily nodded and repeated Cassie’s words. She too vanished and the sitting room of the house was replaced by the floor of hundreds of other rooms which flickered into sight for a moment before vanishing again. She had forgotten how ill it made her feel and when she finally stumbled face-first onto a worn carpet she lay there for a moment with her eyes shut as she clutched her stomach. “Well er… welcome to our new home,” a voice above her exclaimed before its hand tugged her upright.
“That carpet is disgusting. We need to change it as soon as possible.”
Hi everyone, sorry for the painfully long wait! My summer is well under way now but I only got back to my laptop about four days ago! Hopefully I'll be able to update more regularly now but apologies in advance if I don't manage it! I really need to update The Bounty Hunter because I haven't updated in a month and a half so there's that too..!