“Oh come on, Lils. It couldn’t have been that bad.”
“It was though, Sammie. I feel awful, and I don’t even know why.”
It was around midnight. The party had ended at about ten o’clock. Alice, SamLin, Katie, and Emily had stumbled in their rooms at about eleven, though. Lily could hear their footsteps and squeals. They were all elated and it made Lily feel left out. SamLin was the only one who remembered her friend and came to visit and talk.
SamLin’s golden hair was in two messy braids and she was dressed in silk pajamas. Lily just wore her flannel PJ’s and floppy slippers.
“So, what happened?” her friend inquired.
Lily flopped onto her bed, just lying their and looking completely miserable. “I don’t know. His mother thought we were dating...”
“Really?”
“Truly. Then he got all mad at me when I went ballistic at him and he tried to...well...I don’t exactly know what.”
“What do you think?” SamLin’s eyes were big.
“I personally think he was about to kiss me to get back at me,” Lily said, a little shaken. Now that she thought of it, though, she almost cursed herself for pulling away. And she hated herself for thinking that.
SamLin seated herself next to Lily. She held both of her friend’s arms and stared her levelly in the eye. “You can’t defy your own feelings, Lily.”
Lily tried to shrug her friend’s warning off, but a new feeling was plaguing her. To get rid of it, she folded her arms against her chest and said, “You’re the one to talk, Sammie. I’ve seen how you’re acting around Sirius. When you finally get a date with him, though, he’s head over heels and you’re so shy toward him. He likes you. Enormously. Why don’t you grasp that concept?”
SamLin blushed and looked at the floorboards. “The concept is grasped. I just want to go slow. Get him to fall in love with me instead. And it’s nice, you know, pretending his charm has no effect on me whatsoever.” She had a wry smile on. Suddenly she looked worried. “Yet you think he likes me...?”
“SamLin. He danced and held you half of the night, and the rest of it was spent staring at you. Trust your single friend here for once.”
SamLin grinned. “Oh, alright, Lils.”
Lily grabbed a pillow and smacked her. SamLin squealed and found another pillow to hit her with. Pretty soon, feathers and fluff were flying everywhere.
The two girlfriends sat down on the bed, exhausted. “I’m going to bed,” SamLin declared headed out of the room. “’Night.”
“’Night,” Lily said in a near whisper. She sat on her bed, refusing to contemplate about what had happened. She felt tired, but not enough to go to sleep.
Gliding like a silent ghost, Lily slipped down the stairwell unnoticed. Many party decorations were still up downstairs, but all the lights and candles were out. Yet a full moon lit up the entire room. Lily sat down on one of the fancy couches and stared up at it.
*
“Fun night, Prongs?” Sirius asked playfully.
“Not really,” James replied bitterly. He felt exhausted, tired, and dirty. “I just hope Moony’s okay.”
“Not that!”
“Then what?”
“Yeah, what?” Peter asked with more or equal confusion to James’.
Sirius shook his shaggy head sadly. “This is sad. I meant the bloody party!”
“Oh,” James said. He shrugged. “No comment.”
“‘No comment’ means yes,” Sirius pointed out.
“Nope.”
“Yes.”
“No.
“Yes!”
“Nu-uh.”
“Yes!”
“No!”
“Y--”
“Jeez, Padfoot! No need to get into a fight,” James cut in furiously.
“You started it,” Peter commented. James hit him.
“So, anyway Padfoot, it doesn’t. Not in this case. The night was too horrible to say no.”
Sirius shrugged nonchalantly. “I had a great night. I got to dance with the prettiest girl.”
“How come you don’t go after Bennett? Why Anderson?” James asked.
“Because Bennett...I don’t know. She just seems so...plain. SamLin has this...aura around her.”
“Aura?” Peter asked inquisitively.
“You wouldn’t know what it means, anyway,” Sirius explained. “So, how was your night, Pete?”
“Okay, I guess. I didn’t get to dance with anyone, though.”
James and Sirius weren’t that surprised, but rather than talk about it, they moved on to the next subject.
“Hey, James? Did you notice my dear cousin practically swooning over you? Her and Lily? I sense a catfight!” Sirius announced.
James tried to think. He did remember while he was dancing with Lily now that Bella was giving her the evil eye. Then when Lily left, Bellatrix virtually pounced on him to get him to dance with her. James shuddered.
“I’d rather not think about that right now.”
“Then think about something else, Prongs.”
“I’ll be happy to oblige, my Pouncing Padfoot.”
“But no names.”
*
“Bye, Ems!”
“I’ll miss you, Allie!”
SamLin, Lily, and Katie waved their other friends goodbye. Alice and Emily stood in the fireplace, looking sad at the thought of leaving but waved as cheerfully as they could.
“See you in Diagon Alley, you guys!” Emily yelled just as Alice released the Floo powder from her hand and the two were engulfed in flames.
“Oh, guys. I don’t want to leave. You’re so lucky, Katie; I can’t believe Remus invited you to stay with him the entire summer. And Sammie, you have a good time at Sirius’ house,” Lily said, looking a little blue.
“You won’t miss us, Lils. You’ll be okay,” SamLin offered, just to cheer her friend up. She embraced her.
“Its okay, Lily. It’s just a ‘just friends’ invitation. I’m not going to have any fun with a bunch of boys, right?” Katie said teasingly.
“No, you won’t,” a deep voice said behind the trio. They all turned around, seeing a smirking Remus Lupin and the rest of the boys. “Oh, and bye, Lily.”
“Hope to see you again, Lily,” Willard said.
“I’ll miss you too, Lily, but I have SamLin to keep me company,” Sirius joked.
“If you see Emily before me, Lily, say hi,” Amos told her.
“Bye, I guess,” Peter mumbled. SamLin giggled with Katie. Lily would’ve laughed too, but she was feeling a bit depressed.
“Goodbye, Evans. See you again next year,” James said. He was looking at her, but his hazel eyes seemed to go right through her.
“Bye, everyone!” Lily cried. She stepped into the sitting room fireplace, released some Floo powder from her hand, and was gone and back at home.
*
Dear SamLin,
How are you? Is being with Sirius torture? Just let me know and I’ll come beat the guy up for you. Just call me your best friend and we’re even.
Life here isn’t looking pretty good. I mean, I love hanging out with Petunia and all, but it’s not the same as being with you guys. My family tries to understand the magical world, but I know it will never make sense to them. I think even Petunia senses some distance growing between us. She now is basically being a stalker and following me everywhere, which means I do all my homework and letter-writing under the covers at midnight. But I put up with it, hoping that she’ll get the message that I’m still her sister and friend.
Much muggle despair,
Lily
She signed her letter with a flourish and quickly looked it over for misspellings and sloppiness. She was such a neat freak.
Lily tossed the covers back and got up from her bed. In a cage perched her Barn owl, Evangeline. She quietly roused the owl and got two nips in return “ one mad and one affectionate. Lily attached her letter to SamLin to Evangeline’s leg and opened the window, letting in a whoosh of cold breeze. Letting Eva rest on her arms, Lily brought her to the window and released her. As she watched the owl fly away, she couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy. It would be nice to fly around with no restraints.
She sighed and flopped back onto her bed. Lily pulled the covers up to her chin even with the now warm air tickling her face and causing sweat to break out on her forehead. She lay there, trying to sleep, but instead lay wide awake throughout the hot, stuffy night.
The hours passed by quickly and yet slowly. As soon as she found herself drifting off to sleep, there was a knock. Lily groaned, but got up quickly and opened it.
Just as she expected, her sister was there, already showered and dressed. Petunia Evans’ blonde and wet curls resembled to Lily’s, except their color. Her sister’s blue eyes were attractive, but Lily’s were the jewel of the family. Petunia also had horse-like teeth and a skinny neck that was good for craning to the right position for spying on people over fences.
“Breakfast is ready, Lily! Come on down! Daddy’s made pancakes and sausages.”
Lily forced a smile, but the effect was probably ruined because of her messy bed head. “I’ll be down in a minute. Just have to take a quick shower and get dressed, ‘Tunia.” Petunia nodded and flounced down the stairs.
Just as she promised, Lily showered and got dressed into something reasonable for Sunday breakfast. She found her whole family already at the table when she found her way into the kitchen. Peter Evans, her father, had the newspaper out. Her mother, Elizabeth Evans, was smiling at her and sipping at her orange juice. Petunia was arranging the floral arrangement “ lilies and petunias “ even though it already looked perfect. Lily noticed that not a piece of food was touched as she sat down. It made Lily feel happy and also guilty.
“What were you doing again, Lily?” her mother inquired as she placed some pancakes on her own plate.
“I was at a ball, mum with my friends,” Lily said dutifully, trying not to go into any details and praying her mum wouldn’t either. Petunia scowled at the mention of friends.
“Did you dance with anyone?”
Darn. “Uh...yeah.”
Her father looked up. “‘Yes,’ Lily. Proper grammar is everything.” Or it was to her father.
“Who?” Sometimes, her mother completely forgot about tact when asking Lily questions about boys.
“Just a...friend. A friend named James Potter,” Lily answered, hoping the questions would stop.
Mrs. Evans looked like she didn’t believe her daughter’s fib, but looked shocked. Her father looked surprised and nervous. Petunia also looked surprised.
“What’s he like?” Petunia asked nosily.
“He has messy jet-black hair and hazel eyes.” Dreamy hazel eyes. Why had she said all of that? And her mouth didn’t stop there. “He’s really nice, but sometimes can act like a jerk. But mostly nice.”
“I “ well, I...um...” Her mother looked like she couldn’t found the right sentence starter.
“We’re having your cousin over,” her father said, but Lily didn’t think it was something he planned to talk about right now. It seemed as if he was covering up for mom. “For dinner. Do any of you remember him?”
Petunia shook her head and Lily shrugged. Suddenly, she remembered something. “Isn’t that the one who came over for Thanksgiving?”
“Yes, Lily. Good memory,” her father complimented and went back to the paper.
The rest of breakfast continued somewhat normally. The normal chatter was drowned out by a silence of wondering. Once Lily and Petunia were done with their breakfast, they both got up and pushed in their chairs. Lily was going to head upstairs to her room and check whether Eva was back yet or not, but Petunia grabbed her arm and led her outside. The sun was still pale against the light blue sky, but it was still a nice summer’s day.
“Who was Daddy talking about?” Petunia asked.
Lily started walking. Petunia followed her strides. “His name is Vernon. Vernon Dursley. He’s the dreaded cousin.”
Petunia gasped. “The one practically strutting around our house at Thanksgiving?”
Lily nodded. “That’s the one.”
“But mum and daddy didn’t like him...!”
“They don’t. But I think this visit is more than just ‘let’s-have-the-worst-cousin-in-the-world-over’ dinner.” Lily stopped walking to think more about this theory.
Petunia laughed. “But what do you think it is?”
Lily shrugged. “We’ll have to wait and see.”
Is it Pride or Prejudice? by Stormbringer
Chapter Notes: (From here on out, the plot is mostly going to resemble Jane Austen's. They'll be some twists of mine, but it is mostly going to be like the real Pride and Prejudice. Just warning...) Our little Lily is once again confused by the actions of her arch nemesis.