The Past and Present
- "I know I don't have to remind you," he said. "I just keep feeling like I have to remind myself for some reason." -
When Rachael awoke the next morning she discovered that Lily was still sleeping soundly in her bed. Taking a glance at the clock, she saw that it was nearly eleven. Figures… Lily’s always been a late sleeper when she could be. Rachael raised herself out of bed, took some clothes out of her trunk, and went to take a shower. She knew a shower would help her wake up, as she hadn’t gotten to sleep until five in the morning. There were visions of the funeral still fresh in her head and refusing to go away until sunrise, when she was finally able to rest easy. As she took her shower, she found herself vaguely annoyed at Mr. Evans for bringing the subject up, despite the fact that she knew she shouldn’t be mad with him. She couldn’t help it. She just hoped no one would bring it up again.
Once she was done with her shower and brushing her teeth, she packed up her old clothes in her trunk and took a seat on her cot, waiting for Lily to wake up. Thinking back on the funeral, which had only been the October before, she realised that she didn’t really remember much from it, except that one part. She found it odd, though. She was sure she would remember everything from then, but perhaps her mind had chosen to block it out. It was strange that she remembered the next day so clearly. Sirius had asked her to go to Hogsmeade with him and how they had run into the last person they wanted to see. She couldn’t even believe they had seen her. She was the last person they expected to come across.
She and Sirius were standing in front of the post office, after mailing a letter to Sirius’s parents, as he was required to do every time he visited Hogsmeade. He didn’t really understand why they made him do this. It was probably to make sure that he was not in a coma or dead. The two were now debating on whether to go to Zonko’s or to the Three Broomsticks. Sirius couldn’t decide on either and Rachael was indifferent to both choices, so she left him to battle it out. He was saying to himself how it was pretty cold out and he could definitely go for a butterbeer. On the other hand, he hadn’t been in Zonko’s for ages and he needed to restock on Dungbombs.
Rachael was about to tell Sirius that he could go to Zonko’s first, spend a little while there, and then go to the Three Broomsticks and he would be happy, but something across the street caught her eye. What she saw made her immediately forgot about what she was going to tell him. Across the street, at the corner, was a middle-aged wizard, who looked as if he worked for the Ministry. He was closely guarding a pale woman who appeared as if she hadn’t seen daylight for years. The woman looked remarkably like Rachael, her eyes especially. They were green ones, just like hers. How could it be? She didn’t want to stick around long enough to find out how it was possible. She quickly grabbed Sirius’s wrist and tried pulling him down the street, but it was too late.
“Come on, Mrs. Lupin,” said the Ministry wizard, leading Rachael’s mother across the street. “Say hullo.”
Sirius looked at the man, confused for a mere second, before he realised who the man was with.
“Let’s go,” he said to Rachael, who was only too eager to comply. They didn’t get the chance though, as the wizard headed them off as they tried to make a break for it.
“Rachael Lupin,” said the wizard, looking down at her with a kind face sensing her nervousness and desire to run. “I am Mr. Charlie Gibbins. I work with the Ministry of Magic and have been in charge of your mother’s case. As you can obviously tell, she has been let off house arrest.”
“So I see,” Rachael muttered bitterly, wanting desperately for the man to go away. “Um… is there any particular reason you’re telling me this?”
“We think it would be a good idea for you and your mother to make amends and forget the past.”
Rachael raised an eyebrow at the man. Forget the past? How could she forget the torture her mother put her through when she was younger? This Ministry wizard was in over his head if he thought he could make her forgive her mother.
“Look I’ve got to be somewhere soon, so I think I should just “” She made to leave but the man stopped her.
“Nonsense, I think you should just talk to your mother for a minute,” he said in his most persuasive voice.
“Listen,” Sirius said suddenly. “She said she has to be somewhere and you can see that she doesn’t want anything to do with this woman after what she did to her.”
Mr. Gibbins laughed and placed a hand on Mrs. Lupin’s shoulder. “I assure you, Mrs. Lupin is harmless.”
“Oh, yes,” said Rachael, her voice becoming a little hysterical. “She’s completely harmless! She only beat me when I was twelve… Yes, she’s completely harmless.”
“It was anger issues that have been solved. Two years of imprisonment in her house have made her see the errors of her ways.”
“Actually, Mr. Gibbins, I think those anger issues have come back,” said Mrs. Lupin, speaking for the first time. The three looked down at her and saw she was glaring at her daughter with a look of the utmost hatred. Rachael took a few cautious steps backwards, though her eyes never left her mother. “I really don’t understand why you brought me here. As you can see, my daughter is just as much of a delinquent as she was three years ago.”
“I’m not a delinquent! I never was! I never will be! What don’t you understand about that? How thick is your skull?”
Mr. Gibbins clearly saw that something bad was going to happen, so he decided to step in. The only problem was that he made the situation worse. “Well, I can see that you two need to talk this over amongst yourselves,” he said, quickly edging towards the door of the building behind him. “I’ll be back soon.” And before anyone could even react he bolted through the door.
For a minute, all the two did was glare at each other, neither one of them saying anything. After another moment, Mrs. Lupin boldly chanced speaking.
“I see you haven’t changed much since the last time I saw you,” she appraised. “You don’t look as beat up, however.”
“Yeah, well, that’s because no one, other than you, has decided to beat the living daylights out of me,” Rachael snarled. “I know you’re disappointed that I don’t have the bruises anymore. I know you would’ve LOVED to see them.”
“Yes, I would have,” Mrs. Lupin agreed, nodding her head vigorously. “I love to see the fruits of my labour.” Rachael flinched slightly upon hearing this. How could a mother say that to her daughter? How could someone even think to say that they wanted to see their child in pain? It was one of the many things Rachael couldn’t even bear to fathom about her mother. She wanted nothing more than to walk away at that very moment. Just as she was about to, her mother quickly struck her across the face. Smiling as she admired her handiwork, she said, “Maybe now I can see them.”
Rachael didn’t even say anything; she didn’t want to give her mother the satisfaction of seeing her pain. Instead, she merely turned on her heels and walked up the street, without looking back. Sirius, on the other hand, did not follow her. He chose to stay and give Mrs. Lupin a piece of his mind.
“You remember me, don’t you?” he asked pleasantly, though with a hint of resentment in his voice.
She studied him for a moment. Sirius had grown quite a bit since the last time she’d seen him. When she finally recognised him, a look of comprehension appeared on her face.
“You’re that Sirius boy, aren’t you?” she said, undoubtedly surprised. “Yes I do remember you. Are you going to tell me off again?”
“No, I’m not,” he replied, shaking his head. “I’m just going to tell you that you have a daughter who’s in mourning for her dead father, your husband by the way, and the way you’re treating her is only making it worse. Now, I’m going to go and find her because I actually care about her.” Sirius made to leave, but quickly stopped himself. “Oh, I forgot, go to hell please. Goodbye.”
Rachael stood farther up the street, listening as Sirius told Mrs. Lupin off, even though he claimed he wasn’t. Rubbing the side of her stinging face, she waited for him to catch up with her. She did not dare to go back near her mother. She couldn’t believe the woman. Not for her own life could she understand what she did that made her mother hate her, and then to slap her right when she got off house arrest? Did she enjoy being locked up for years without any escape?
“I forgot how much I despised that woman,” Sirius muttered angrily, as he joined Rachael in front of an old rotting fence.
She nodded absently. She hadn’t forgotten how much she loathed her mother, but she did hate her just the same. The two decided it would be best if they forgot what had just taken place and set out for Zonko’s.
“You okay?” Sirius asked as the anger in his voice dissipated.
“Yeah, I’m fine… as always,” Rachael answered, trying to keep her voice light.
“Well hopefully that’s the last we’ll be seeing of your mother today…”
And it was the last that they had seen from her that day, and from every day on. She was glad about that too. She had actually been narrow minded enough to think her mother might see the error of her ways and say sorry. How could I have been so stupid? The day only grew stranger as it wore on. However, the strangeness was more to her liking than a meeting with her mother. She and Remus had returned to the castle to find an empty common room.
Rachael sat on the couch, draping her legs over the arm so that her head rested in the middle. Remus did the same on the other side. They had just returned from the hearing of their father’s will. They were somewhat surprised to find an empty common room. They figured, however, that since it wasn’t that late, maybe the Gryffindors were taking advantage of the remainder of their time in Hogsmeade. They did expect to see Sirius, Lily, James and Peter at the very least, but they were nowhere in the common room.
Rachael sighed and stared up at the ceiling. “Well… Dad’s left us quite a bit,” she said lazily, not caring in the least how much inheritance she was getting.
“Yeah,” Remus agreed. “A good amount of galleons… Not that we really need it right now. We’ve got enough at Gringott’s.” He moved his hand to scratch the side of his neck, but decided against it. “You know, I really hate this,” he spat.
“Same here,” Rachael muttered. “But what can we do about it?”
“Nothing… But why us? That’s what I want to know. Why us?”
“What d’you mean? Why we have to have a lunatic for a mother and then our father goes and dies on us?”
“Exactly! What did we ever do to deserve this? Having a mother who’s been touched in the head so many times she’s got a dent in it.”
Rachael smiled slightly. “There’s one way to put it. Look, can’t we just forget about it for now? You know Dad wouldn’t want us doing this to ourselves.”
Remus sighed and shook his head. “Yeah, you’re right. So… how was Hogsmeade?”
Rachael hesitated before answering, not sure if she wanted Remus to know who they had run into. In the end, she just said she had fun.
“Good,” Remus answered, sounding pleased.
“You know, I found it a little strange that Sirius just wanted me to go with him. He loves going there with you guys, so you can stock up on all of your prank stuff. He had to drag me through Zonko’s, instead.”
Remus said nothing to this comment, which only made her feel as though he knew something she didn’t. Curious, she questioned him about it. Remus said nothing again. He wasn’t really sure how to say what he knew, and besides, he found pleasure in hearing his sister nag him. Eventually, he caved in and decided to answer her question.
“Well, you know Sirius really cares about you,” he said vaguely.
Rachael rolled her eyes. He couldn’t have been more obvious if he tried. She had known that ever since they became friends.
“Obviously,” she snarled. “We’re best friends, why wouldn’t he?”
“No, I mean really cares about you.”
“Like brother and sister, you mean?”
Remus rolled his eyes. “Okay, Rachael, you’re not this naïve. You’ve said best friend and sister. What else is there?”
Rachael thought for a minute, not quite sure what her brother was referring to. Her eyes widened slightly. She knew what he was talking about. Sitting up, she turned and looked over her brother.
“You’re kidding, right?” she asked.
Remus smiled and shook his head. “He told me himself.”
“Okay this is weird…I’ve always thought of Sirius as my best friend, third to you and Lily. How long ago did he tell you this?”
Remus looked up considerately for a mere moment before sitting up and turning to her.
“Oh, I’ve known for a long time,” he replied, putting a particular emphasis on the word long. “And if you want my advice, I’d say you should go and talk to him.”
Rachael nodded, sliding off the couch and glancing around the common room. She knew she would have to go and find him. The trouble was that she didn’t know where he was. Her first place to look was the boys’ dormitory. When she reached the top of the steps she peered through the doorway and found him sitting on his bed, reading a book. He didn’t look up when she came into the room.
She stood in the entryway, feeling slightly awkward, as she had hardly ever been in the boys’ dormitory. The most she had ever been in there was to check her brother’s calendar or to retrieve an item one of the boys had borrowed from her. Looking around and realising Sirius was far too immersed in the book to look up, she took the liberty of knocking on the door. He snapped the book closed on his finger and looked over, smiling when he saw whom it was.
“Look who it is,” he mumbled, placing his bookmark in the book and setting it down on the foot of his bed. “How’s it going?” he asked, hopping off his bed and walking towards her.
She shrugged.
“Okay, I guess,” she replied halfheartedly. Truthfully, she was still confused about what her brother had just told her and of course there was her father…
He nodded and walked around the room as if looking for something.
“You need anything?” he asked from over his shoulder.
“Remus was just telling me something kind of interesting,” she said quickly, taking the plunge before she chickened out.
He nodded, stooping down next to his nightstand and opening the drawer. He shuffled through the various items inside, before shutting it and turning to face her. “What was it?”
“About why you went to Hogsmeade with just me.”
Unless her eyes were cheating her, Rachael could have sworn she saw Sirius’s face turn slightly red. When he spoke his voice was a little strained. “Oh… and what did Remus say?”
“Well… because… you really… care about me… more than a friend, as he put it.”
“Well… you’re my friend, I do care about you. I guess Remus is right.”
“He said he heard it from you, so wouldn’t he be right?”
“Not unless he purposely heard wrong.”
Rachael shook her head slightly and raised her eyebrow. “So, Remus is lying?” she questioned.
Sirius shook his head quickly before she misunderstood him more than she did. “No,” he said, still shaking his head. “No, he’s not lying at all. What he said is true. Really true.”
Rachael looked at him. She wasn’t quite sure what to say after that. “You know, we’ve been best friends since first year, this is kind of awkward.”
Sirius ran a hand through his hair and laughed a little. “You’re telling me.” He sighed and folded his arms across his chest. “Look, I don’t know why Remus brought this up now of all times… I’m not trying to take advantage of you or anything because you’re still upset about your dad. I’m just letting you know that I’m always here for you.”
“I know you are. You don’t have to remind me.”
Sirius stood up from his spot at the nightstand and walked over to her. “I know I don’t have to remind you,” he said. “I just keep feeling like I have to remind myself for some reason.”
He wavered for a minute, thinking to himself that it was now or never. Using every gut and nerve he had, he put his arm around her waist and his hand under her chin. He slowly pulled her close to him, kissing her gently on the lips. Shocked though she was, Rachael didn’t object. She seemed to be blissfully unaware of anything else, until she found herself embarrassed to hear a round of cheers coming from the doorway. She and Sirius broke apart and turned to see James, Remus and Peter’s heads sticking into the room, all three of them cheering Sirius on.
“Go Sirius!” James said, clapping his hands until Peter hit him over the head.
Sirius looked over at them and raised his eyebrow pointedly. It took James a few minutes to process what his friend was telling him and, in result, Remus and Peter had to drag him back down to the common room. Sirius listened as their footsteps quickly died away and turned back to Rachael, whose face was now a dangerous shade of red.
“They’re crazy, aren’t they?” he asked. She nodded wholeheartedly. He shook his head as he thought about their ovation, but ended up shaking the thought right out of his mind. Taking a deep breath, he ran a hand through her hair and whispered (so as to not make the three return),
“I love you.”
Rachael looked around, finding her eyes slightly out of focus and wistful as she dwelled on this memory. She shook her head and realised that she was alone in the room. Lily had apparently gone upstairs, as she didn’t hear the shower running. She slowly got out off her bed and took a glance out the window to see a freshly fallen layer of snow. That was good. The two of them would have something to do that day rather than just staying in the house.
Yawning and rubbing her head, Rachael ascended the stairs and entered the kitchen to see a fully dressed Lily eating lunch. Mrs. Evans was busy reading the newspaper, while Mr. Evans and Petunia were nowhere to be seen.
“Good morning,” said a pleasant Lily upon noticing her friend.
Rachael smiled drowsily and took a seat at the table.
“Morning,” she replied.
Lily swallowed her bite of sandwich and leaned back in her chair for a second before saying, “I saw you were up before, but you looked like you might nod off again, so I left you.”
“Nah, you should’ve woke me up. I was having a bad… daydream I guess you can call it.”
“What about?”
“Nothing… just stuff.” Rachael jerked her head slightly towards Mrs. Evans and Lily immediately got the message. This was one subject she didn’t want to bring up in front of her mother. Rachael twiddled with her thumbs, thinking about something she wanted to do for a while, and now she had the chance. She wasn’t very far from the orphanage and she had a strange desire to go visit Ms. Marshall and Becky. That is, if Becky was still there and they hadn’t gotten rid of Ms. Marshall. The first few weeks after she’d left the orphanage, she wrote to Becky and promised she would visit. She just never got around to it.
The only problem was that she wasn’t able to ask Mrs. Evans if she could go without getting questions she couldn’t answer in return. So, she turned to Lily instead. “Lily?” she asked quietly.
“Yeah?”
“Do you think we could go somewhere this week? You know, somewhere I haven’t been in a long time…”
Lily looked at her friend, confused for a minute before realising what she was alluding to and nodded in response. She would be able to take her friend to the orphanage on Thursday at the latest, but for today - “Come on, I know what we can do.”
“I can’t believe you never went sledding before!” Lily shouted as she dragged her friend up a snowy hillside.
Rachael panted and glared up at her friend, getting somewhat annoyed at Lily’s disbelief. It did seem very possible to her for a person to have never gone sledding. “Yeah, well, I never got around to it! Give me a break,” she defended, feeling her headache come back as she climbed the last few feet to the top.
Lily didn’t say anything; however, she just shook her head and dropped the sled down in the snow. “Now, even though you’ve never been sledding, tell me you at least know what to do?”
“Of course I do, I’m not an idiot.”
“Then you go first.”
Rachael backed up and quickly shook her head. She did not feel like going down a steep hill on nothing more than a long piece of wood.
“No, that’s all right, you go first,” she offered, moving over to the log behind her. “I’ll watch.”
“You sure? Well, okay, then.”
Rachael rested on the log while Lily jumped down on the sled and went down the hill alarmingly fast, going straight towards a grove of trees. Rachael made to stand up, in case she needed to go pull Lily away from them, but Lily stopped the sled in time and dragged it back up for another ride. Lily was quite a sight to watch. Every time she went down the hill she would emit a high-pitched shriek of delight, which she masked as a shriek of terror just to scare her friend. It did work the first couple of times she did it, but it lost its affect after the tenth time.
Rachael wished she could join Lily in her fun, but her headache was preventing her from doing much else except sitting on a log and watching. Even though she was having fun, she felt a little bored. She chose to go on the next ride when Lily offered it to her. But Lily was taking her time getting up the hill and it looked like she would be waiting some time before she got her chance. Shivering slightly as the winds increased, Rachael sat down on the log and watched lazily as snow began drifting towards the earth. She was actually glad Lily had suggested going sledding for the day; it helped her take her mind off things that had plagued her thoughts the night before.
She laughed when she saw Lily’s head begin to emerge from the bottom of the hill, only to vanish quickly as the sled slid back down the hill. She heard Lily’s surprised cry and went over to see if she was okay. Lily was all right, though she was covered in a mound of snow and was cursing under her breath.
“It’s cold!” she cried when she spotted her friend.
“It’s snow. What do you expect?”
Lily shook her head and carefully pulled the sled back up the hill and handed it over to Rachael. “Now, you remember what to do?” Lily asked, suddenly adopting the voice of a drill sergeant. “You slowly lean over the front and gently let yourself go. Now, if you think you’re going to crash into the tree you “”
“Lily! I know what to do.”
Rachael leaned forward on the sled and let herself go down the snowy slope, feeling the excitement as the snow whipped across her face as she caught more and more speed. As she sped down the hill, she realised she was stupid for declining the offer to go first. This was how she wanted to spend the rest of her winter days, speeding down a hill and able to forget all of her troubles. She could let the billowing wind wipe them all away as she got closer and closer to the grove of trees.
However, as soon as she spotted the trees her headache came back in full force, taking her completely by surprise. Closing her eyes and holding her hand up to her head for a minute to try and suppress the pain, she wasn’t able to stop the sled in time and the bow of the sled hit the tree trunk with full force and sent her smacking up against it. Sparks shooting in her eyes, she was knocked unconscious the very second her forehead hit the tree trunk. She fell backwards, half her body on the sled, the other half in the snow, not moving an inch.
The second Lily saw Rachael lose control of the sled, she burst out laughing. She thought the entire act was a joke, as Rachael had cut her explanation of stopping short. She continued laughing, until she saw the sled bang against the tree. Then her laughter turned to a gasp when she saw Rachael fall backwards and stay in that position. She ran down the hill and dropped down next to the unconscious form of her friend and gently shook her in hopes that she would wake up. On Rachael’s forehead was a large cut from the bark and it was slowly beginning to seep blood and a large bruise surrounded the cut and her nose was bleeding a bit.
Shaking her even more, she said, “Come on, this isn’t funny! Wake up!”
But Rachael didn’t respond to the movement. Her head merely lolled from side to side and she stayed unresponsive while Lily looked around for help. The area of the park they were in was one that was rarely visited and she doubted a person would walk by for a good half hour. By then she wasn’t sure if Rachael would still be okay. Squinting into the clearing, she saw the faint outline of a portly figure that was taking a stroll around the edge of the trees. Squinting harder, she was able to recognise the figure as Vernon Dursley’s (Petunia’s boyfriend) sister, Marge.
“Just my luck,” she whispered bitterly. If Marge was the only person left on Earth Lily still wouldn’t chance leaving her best friend with her. But there was no one else around. She had no other choice. “Marge!” she called out. The figure of Marge stopped and looked around for the source of the voice. She looked through the trees and saw Lily waving at her. “I need help! Please!”
Marge hesitated for a moment before reluctantly approaching Lily with a questioning look.
“What do you want?” she snarled.
“She hit her head on the tree,” Lily explained, gesturing down to Rachael. “I need to get to my house to call an ambulance and I can’t leave her here by herself. Just watch her until I get back. Please?”
“Fine, but hurry! I’ve got places to be.”
Lily didn’t waste any time getting from the park to her house. Sprinting faster than she had ever sprinted before, Lily ran through the front door of her house in a matter of three minutes and saw her mum and dad in the kitchen. Her mum looked up, bewildered when she saw Lily out of breath and an intensely worried look in her eyes.
“Lily?” she asked, utterly perplexed. “What’s wrong?”
“Rachael… we were sledding… she hit a tree! She’s not moving and we need an ambulance!”
Mrs. Evans stood up and went for the phone straightaway, while Mr. Evans asked his daughter who she had left her with.
“Marge is with her,” Lily answered quickly, wanting her mum to hurry up on the phone.
Mr. Evans gave his daughter a sceptical look and led Lily out of the front door, grabbing his coat and hat in the process. “She would’ve been better off by herself.”
The ambulance ride was a quick one, as there was no traffic at all with the growing weather conditions. Even if there had been traffic the ambulance was able to manoeuver its way through. The Evans followed close by in their station wagon, all of them nervous and anxious about what damage had been inflicted upon Rachael. The doctors didn’t think it was anything too serious, from what they could see from running some tests in the ambulance. They just needed to make sure they were right.
The ambulance skidded to a halt in the Emergency Room entrance, while the Evans pulled their car into the main parking lot and went to the waiting room as instructed. Mr. Evans went over to the front desk while Lily and Mrs. Evans took a seat behind an aquarium full of tropical fish. Lily sunk back in her seat, looking around the waiting room apprehensively. She hoped the doctors were right when they said no serious damage had been caused. From watching Rachael crash into the tree, it looked as though severe harm could have been imposed.
She waited patiently for her dad to finish filling out some papers the receptionist had given him. She waited even more patiently for the doctors to come out. Her dad did wander over eventually, looking a bit disconcerted, however, when he sat down next to his wife. Lily looked at him curiously, wondering what was making him look like that. As if reading his daughter’s mind, Mr. Evans merely said,
“I’m just worried. What if her mother takes this the wrong way and says we weren’t responsible with her daughter?”
Lily shook her head slowly, hating herself for doing it, but knowing that if anyone would understand this, it would be her parents. Mr. Evans nodded at Lily, signaling for her to explain.
“Her mum would be happy if she found out Rachael got hurt.” Mr. and Mrs. Evans exchanged perplexed glances. The both of them were thinking the same thing - why would her mother be happy? What parent could possibly be elated at the news of their child being injured and in the hospital? “Her mum doesn’t like her very much,” Lily explained. “She blamed Rachael for an accident she and her brother were in when they were eight and she disowned her. She’s taken her anger out on her at least once. If you told her that she was in the hospital, she would think you two are gods or something.”
Mr. and Mrs. Evans were shocked upon hearing this. How could a mother disown her child and take her anger out on her, as well? It was unreal to them. They were two people who had always tried to be kind to their children. This news quickly eliminated Mrs. Evans plan of calling Mrs. Lupin in Romania (where they now strongly doubted she was) and telling her what had happened. Lily would probably be right and she would most likely congratulate them. The very thought sickened the both of them.
An hour later, after several tests and x-rays, the doors to the emergency room opened and Rachael came out, quickly followed by one of the doctors from the ambulance. Rachael had been supplied with an icepack and was holding it against her forehead, all the while closing her eyes in pain. The doctor led her over to where the Evans were sitting and moved a stack of magazines over so she could sit down.
“She seems to be alright,” the doctor said, a tone of relief evident in his voice. “She will be experiencing some strong headaches for the next few days, but nothing too serious. And she will have to come back for another checkup to see if she’s recovered. Other than that, she can leave whenever you’re ready to go.”
“Thank you, sir,” said Mrs. Evans as the doctor retreated back through the emergency room doors. Lily got up from her seat and went to sit down next to Rachael, wanting to tell her what she had told her parents an hour before. But she never got the chance, as her parents had taken the job right out of her hands.
“Rachael,” said Mr. Evans unhurriedly and cautiously. “Lily told us something while you were in the emergency room.” Rachael nodded her head to let him know she was listening and he could continue. “We were planning on informing your mother about this… But, from what Lily told us, it seems like that would do no good.”
Rachael raised an eyebrow at her friend. She told them? “She told you what my mum did to me?” she asked quietly. “That she disowned me?”
“Yes,” replied Mrs. Evans. “But, if you don’t mind us asking, what did you do?”
“It’s nothing I’m at liberty to tell. It’s my brother’s business, not mine.”
“Well,” disrupted Lily, wanting this conversation to end before they got into it any further. “How are you feeling?”
“Okay, just a really bad headache.”
“Well, when we get home you can take a nap. It’ll make your head feel better,” Mrs. Evans offered. “Now, let’s leave. Hospitals aren’t the best of places to be.”
Mrs. Evans idea of taking a nap did have a positive effect on the searing pains in Rachael’s head. Her head still throbbed, but a mite less than it had at the hospital. The moment she walked to the front door, she hurried to the basement and fell right to sleep on her cot. Lily, on the other hand, stayed awake to think the day over. She wondered if she had done the right thing by telling her parents what she had told them. She wasn’t in any position to disclose that information. But what else could she have done? Her dad was frightened that Mrs. Lupin would take legal action if she found out what happened. Lily needed to tell him there wasn’t anything to worry about, and she needed to back that up with a reason.
She had talked it over with her mother once she was sure Rachael was asleep. Mrs. Evans agreed with her. She thought that they needed to know what was going on. They were getting a little suspicious, since Rachael was so distant when she explained where her mother was. If she hadn’t told them, they would have kept wondering and would have gotten nowhere. She knew that Rachael might be upset about it for a little, but, in the end, she would thank her friend for telling. There were only so many people who could know, and now they were two of them.
So, Lily didn’t feel too guilty anymore. Though she still didn’t feel completely innocent, especially after she told her mum where Rachael wanted to visit. Rachael wanted to visit the orphanage she had lived in, which was why she didn’t ask Mrs. and Mr. Evans. Mrs. Evans agreed to visit the orphanage the next day when Rachael was feeling a little better. Although, she did have a little trouble comprehending as to why she would want to visit there again.
“Did you ever have one of those dreams where things keep repeating themselves?” Lily and Mrs. Evans looked around and saw Rachael coming into the kitchen. They both nodded at her question. “I kept dreaming that I was crashing into a tree… made me feel better though.”
Lily laughed and gestured to a seat at the table, which Rachael gratefully took. Lily took a seat beside her and said, “Tomorrow you can visit the orphanage if you want. My mum said it was alright.”
“Okay… yeah, I’ll go tomorrow.” She laughed slightly and added, “It’ll probably scare the daylights out of Ms. Marshall to see me though.”