"What?"
"Dad's about to leave for work, and I don't know how to stop him!"
Lily swung her feet out of bed. "How ready is he?"
Petunia shrugged. "He doesn't have socks or shoes on yet, but he told me to get him a thermos of black coffee. He said his head was ready to explode."
Lily didn't bother to put on her bathrobe. She simply ran down the stairs into the kitchen, took a quick look at the phone numbers posted on the refrigerator, and dialed her father's boss' number.
"Mr. Grant's office?"
"Yes, this is Mr. Evans' daughter. Will you please inform Mr. Grant that Mr. Evans is sick and will not be arriving today?"
"I will tell him. Thank you and have a nice day!"
Lily hung up. "I'm gonna need that!" Shaking herself, she rushed to the medicine cabinet, running her fingers over the different bottles, finally landing on one labeled Sleeping Pills. Shaking all of the pills out of the aspirin bottle, she dumped the sleeping pills into the aspirin bottle and took it along with the thermos of coffee to her father, first making sure the coffee was decaffeinated.
"Dad?"
He was fixing his tie in front of the mirror, but at the sound of her voice he turned. "Hi, hon. Is that coffee?"
She nodded. "It is. Petunia told me you have a headache?"
"Not just a headache. Feels like someone was crushing my skull in a hydraulic press."
Lily shivered, but pulled out the aspirin bottle. "Dad, try this. It might help."
She dropped the pill into the coffee, stirred it a bit, and handed it to her father, who immediately gulped down half of the thermos.
"Thanks, hon. Oh, man–dear, would you tell Grant I'll be a bit late? I've got to take a short nap–"
Lily nodded. "Of course. You rest. Love you, Dad." Giving him a light kiss on his forehead, she left the room, closing the door softly.
Outside, she met Petunia.
"He's asleep? How–"
"Sleeping pill. Don't ask. I'm getting ready, and you ask Vernon's parents if they can take us to London. Tell them the whole darn story–I don't care, only please manage to keep quiet that we're going to Gringotts."
"Sure–but what should I tell them?"
"Anything. I've got a bank account there is fine. Just call them!"
"All right." Petunia vanished down the stairs and picked up the receiver while Lily pulled her hair into a somewhat sloppy braided bun and slipped into a pair of jeans and her blue blouse. The burns she had received that summer were fading, and there were only a few pale pink spots where the black skin had been, Lily was pleased to note.
Petunia came back up just as Lily was pushing her feet into a pair of tennis shoes. "His mum's taking us. She has to go to London anyway, so it's fine with her."
Lily nodded. "When's she picking us up?"
"Ten minutes. I'll go get ready." She went down the hall to her room, and Lily busied herself by locating her Gringotts key, her wand, and the bit of money she had left over from that summer, along with her bag. Then, hurriedly, she rummaged her father's briefcase for his keys. They left the house, locking it firmly, just as Mrs. Dursley pulled up in their driveway. Petunia chattered with her while Lily sat in the back seat, already exhausted, knowing the worst was yet to come.
Mrs. Dursley set them off in front of the bank that was on the other side of the record shop that bordered the Leaky Cauldron, and they had to go inside and wait there till she pulled away. Then, dodging through the rotating door, they slipped inside the Leaky Cauldron.
Making it through unnoticed, they reached the alley. Lily pulled her wand out and tapped the bricks, and immediately, they moved aside, forming an archway large enough for the both of them to pass through.
Ignoring the odd looks she was getting from some of the grownups (no kids their age were home at this time of year; they were all at school), they made their way into Gringotts, where, after a wild cart ride, Lily emerged with fifty Galleons. Petunia had declined the ride.
Pulling her sister along with her, Lily marched down to a free goblin, asking him to exchange her money for Muggle currency. He asked no questions, simply handed it out to her, and, relieved, Lily and Petunia walked outside into the bright sunlight.
As they were moving towards the exit leading to the Leaky Cauldron, Lily knew she must have jumped even farther than Petunia did when someone laid a hand on her shoulder.
"You're Vanessa and Eva's friend, aren't you? What're you doing here?"
Lily spun around and recognized someone she knew; Mr. and Mrs. Doylen. They were looking at her with polite puzzlement, and they were even more startled when her eyes dilated in a sort of fear, she rapidly turned and dragged her companion out of Diagon Alley with her. Lily didn't stop till they were outside the Leaky Cauldron, and only then did she allow herself to breathe normally and let her fingers go of Petunia's arm. Petunia rubbed the spot where Lily's fingernails had dug in, and she frowned at the nailmarks.
"What'd you do that for?"
Lily pulled Petunia to a nearby bus stop. "They're my friend's parents, and I was scared that I'd have to explain to them what we were doing here. I didn't want to start bawling in the middle of Diagon Alley."
"Oh. Where're we going now?"
"Supermarket nearest home. Come on!" The next bus came fifteen minutes later, and they were a block away from the closest store to their house in another fifteen. Lily handed her sister a list of things they needed that she'd made while on the bus, and, forty-five minutes later, they were standing at the cash register with a few loaves of bread, milk, eggs, butter, orange juice, some different cuts of meat, a large assortment of fruits and vegetables, coffee, flour, sugar, bags of rice, some pasta and quite a few cans of tomato paste, soup, and other things. It cost Lily half of her withdrawn money, but she was satisfied with the result as she crammed the refrigerator, freezer, and pantry full of their purchases that had close to broke both of their backs when they were carrying them home. But neither of them complained as they replaced sheets on beds, took down curtains and shook out rugs, washed and folded six large loads of laundry, ironing three out of the six, and mopped and vacuumed floors and carpets. When their father woke up, they had done a thorough house-cleaning, besides putting lunch on the table. When he woke up and drifted downstairs, he was greeted with an, "Afternoon, Daddy!" and a bowl of some sort of stew along with creamed corn and a choice of orange juice or milk. He hadn't the strength to ask where this all came from, simply accepted it. This scared Lily, for he was behaving like a three-year-old, taking everything for granted, and it frightened her to think she might have the responsibility of the household descend on her tiny shoulders.
The Ministry sent an owl a week later, and they visited to check up on them in two weeks. Lily was proud to tell them that everything was going smoothly; she had seen her father off to work three days after she came home, he was coming home by six, smelled just like the coffee that she knew the employees had in a coffeemaker down in the basement, and to top that off, the house was clean, the refrigerator and pantry stocked with food from her father's last paycheck, Petunia and she had the time to attend the neighborhood school, and she and her sister were getting along perfectly.
It surprised her to see the regularity with which the household was running since she came home, but she had no idea that it was all due to her. She simply thought that everything was going nicely because her father had given up drinking, and she certainly didn't think that she was filling her mother's place. The truth was that her father had missed her mother so much, and now that there was someone so like his dead wife running the household, it seemed as if she wasn't dead at all. And Lily didn't know this, but Petunia was shuddering to think of what was going to happen when Lily returned to Hogwarts.
Three weeks had passed, and Lily had informed the Ministry of Magic that she intended to return home at the end of a month. They were sending a car driven by a Ministry official to drive her there, so there would be no transportation problem.
There were hardly any problems; the only ones there were was how to inform people at school of the reason of her absence. And that one she didn't consider; she simply thought that it was none of their business. If they cared to pester her about it, they would be warned by what happened to James, and hopefully they would leave her alone.
Eva had sent her several owls, asking her what was going on. Lily hadn't bothered to answer or even open them; she hadn't had much free time. But as the letters grew more frequent, one morning, she slit the latest two open.
It wasn't really anything that she hadn't expected; it simply asked her why she had left, why she hadn't answered any letters, and what was wrong. She also told Lily that if anything was terribly wrong, she could count on Eva and Eva's family, along with anyone at Hogwarts. A postscript informed her that Serena was being very moody and James wasn't paying as much attention to her as he had been; she just thought Lily would like to know that. There were several letters of the same sort from Severus, and she sent him a laconic answer she'd composed during first period Literature at the public school.
Thanks a bunch for bothering about me, but I'm fine, and so is everyone else here. There's nothing wrong; and I'll be coming back to Hogwarts on Sunday. See you then.
–Lily
P.S.–You can show this around; I don't care. I'd send another to Eva, but I only have one owl. The other one is strictly for messages to the Ministry.
She felt a bit relieved when she saw Alisande disappear into the clouds with Lily's letter clamped in her beak, and was pleased to think that she wouldn't be bombarded with letters any more. And, a week later, on Sunday morning, when the Ministry official pulled up outside her house at six in the morning, she was ready to leave. Lily had arranged with Mrs. Dursley that she would check up on her family from time to time, and she was coming home for Christmas and Easter vacations.
The trip took almost forever; in reality it was fifteen hours before they pulled up at the Hogsmeade train station, where Hagrid was waiting for her. He took her trunk and bag, so they got to Hogwarts relatively quickly. He took her to Dumbledore's office, and after she had checked in and confirmed that she and her family were all right, she fell into her four-poster at ten o'clock.
Lily woke up next morning exhausted; not surprising, after all, she had spent fifteen hours in a cramped car. Still, she thankfully appreciated the warm shower that refreshed her nicely, and she blessed the house-elves for having washed all of her clothing that had been badly wrinkled after being shut in her trunk. So she was able to slip into her mother's Youth Actor's T-shirt and the jazz pants without feeling that she had put on clothes that had had a cliff dropped upon them and formed permanent wrinkles. Touching her shirt briefly and remembering reading over scripts with her mother, she tied both of her braids with a bit of wide black ribbon, put on the old tap shoes she hadn't paid much attention to lately, and over all that the Hogwarts robes. Ready, though still tired, she walked downstairs to the common room.
Lily wasn't very hungry, even though she'd had nothing for twenty-four hours, so she didn't go downstairs for breakfast. This allowed her to avoid being attacked by her friends, whom she had pretty much avoided for the last month. She simply curled up in an armchair and dozed off, only waking up when someone tugged at her sleeve.
"Lily! You're back! Snape said you would be today, but of course we didn't believe him, and we've missed you so much!"
It was Eva. She hugged her friend tightly, and, after releasing her hold and allowing Lily to breathe, she went on with her news.
"And Slytherin stampeded Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff in the last Quidditch matches, so all we've got to do now is to beat Hufflepuff to be in the final running, and–oh, it's so good to see you!" She hugged Lily again, who was trying to repress a smile.
"And Serena's been a regular git lately, but we all know why that was. And practically all the Gryffindor team failed this Transfig exam McGonagall popped on us because you weren't there to help them study, and everyone's been asking about you, especially Abigail and Sirius and Remus and Peter, and you haven't answered me at all lately! I must've sent you tons of letters, but you never sent anything back, and you've got to tell me all that's been going on! Mum and Dad said they saw you in Diagon–"
The bell to go to classes interrupted Eva, and Lily jumped up and grabbed her bag. "Eva, I promise I'll tell you what I can tonight, but now my teacher's gonna kill me if I don't get to Ancient Runes!"
Eva nodded. "Fine. I've got to go, too, but, oh, Lily–"
Lily got to Study of Ancient Runes just as the bell rang, so she didn't have to answer many questions. Her seat next to Sirius was still empty, and she slid into it, smiling quickly at her friend.
Their lesson that day was a bit harder. They were given a short paragraph of an unknown language (that looked suspiciously like Quenya) to translate and rewrite in English, but with the letters of that language.
Lily finished just as the bell rang, and she immediately dashed off to Potions, where she was bombarded by notes from Sirius, Remus, Peter, and the Slytherins. This class was ideal for passing notes, as Professor Cauldwell never opened his eyes, but it was bad for talking. Professor Cauldwell had some sort of built-in magical radar for people even mouthing words. The only answers Lily gave were to Sirius and Severus: I'll tell you later, and to everyone else; C'est pas tes oignons.
The only other different things about her classes was that tiny Professor Flitwick, the Charms professor, gave her a tiny grin and that Professor Trelawney kept looking at her with eyes even more bug-like, larger, and more mournful than ever. It was ignorable at first, but after a quarter hour, it became positively annoying.
By the time dinner came around, Lily was famished, and she dug into the sweet potatoes, steak-and-kidney pie, and leek soup with an appetite that made Eva stare. But then again, as Lily pointed out, Eva had had lunch, dinner, breakfast, and lunch. Lily hadn't; she had spent the lunch hour in Professor Dumbledore's office explaining the events of the last month. She had the very strong feeling, however, that he was a bit amazed at what she had told him; what she didn't know was that the amazement was at the amount of things she, a thirteen-year-old, had accomplished.
When dinner was over, Lily went to her old dormitory, along with Eva, Vanessa, Amanda, and Abigail, and explained to them that her father had come close to losing his mind with grief over his dead wife, and that she had had to help out at home. Not a word about his drinking.
The next week passed in a blur; the only things that stood out were Serena, Inc. and Sheila & Co., who had joined together in making Lily out to be a sort of pathetic Cinderella type of person, and ordering her to carry their books in the hallway. Lily could have replied smartly, but she had the funny idea that they weren't really worth whatever kicks she wanted to give them, so she ignored them. She was also coming in for a fair share of taunts about the tap shoes, but when Lily responded with, "They're really good for kicking people with. At least–I think they are–would you mind if I tested them on you?”, the comments ceased.
The next Quidditch match came and went, and Serena and Sheila kept growing nastier and nastier. If Lily had cared enough about their jibes to ask someone why they were doing that, she either would have gotten a disbelieving look or a long explanation. This long explanation came, unasked for and a bit unwelcome for both the reciever and speaker, from Sirius.
"You mean you haven't noticed? Isn't there such a thing as a woman's intution or something like that? Smart as you are, I'd think you'd have noticed."
"Noticed what?"
"Just watch James when he's unaware of it. Anytime–Potions, Charms, Divination, Anatomy, Astronomy I think you have with him, Herbology I know you do, Transfiguration, and History of Magic–in any of those classes! Or lunch; I don't care; dinner or breakfast would work just as well!"
"Why?"
"Lily, dear, there's such a thing as non-comprehension and stupidity."
"And my case would be…?"
"Stupidity."
"Gee, thanks."
"But, Lily, you should have seen James when you were gone. He hardly paid any attention to Serena, hardly any attention to the Quidditch–"
"I heard my name?"
Sirius whirled around. "Oh, hi, James…I was just mentioning…mentioning…"
Lily saved him. "Mentioning to me how incredibly stupid I am. Good night!" She climbed over the back of the sofa, leaving the two boys there, one a bit puzzled, the other starting after her.
"Lily, I didn't mean it that way! Lily–"
James pulled Sirius back. "What were you really telling her?"
Sirius pulled his face into a half-grin. "I'll take a leaf outta Lily's book. Good night!" With that, he had vanished up the dormitory stairway, leaving James feeling incredibly glad that he'd butted in when he did.
The next morning, Remus had vanished. The official explanation was that he had been attacked in the hallway by a few enraged Slytherins; the real one was that he was vacationing at a charming resort located in Hogsmeade; name: The Shrieking Shack; entrance: passageway underneath an enraged tree; companions: fictional ghosts and self. Lily was relieved to hear that everyone was forbidden to go near it now–someone named Davey Gudgeon had nearly lost an eye trying to touch the trunk, so now the passageway should be safer than it had been.
Lily was sending regular owls to Petunia with instructions: don't let Dad leave the house without eating breakfast, don't let him leave a mess around the house, make him do something other than just watch TV, be sure and call him several times when you get home from school, make him come home at a reasonable hour or there'll be punishments like no coffee in the mornings, put his paycheck in the bank yourself, and, for Pete's sake, make sure he doesn't smell like a drunk! She was also sending her father regular letters along with those to Petunia, mostly saying things like "I love you, Dad; don't forget me before I come home at Christmas!" So, in a sense, Lily was still running the household, but from far away.
