Life Is a Precious Thing
- They turned to see Lily's eyes were half open and she looked as though she was about to drop off, and maybe this time for good. -
The next few weeks of school were rather uneventful. Professors Snape and Westley continued the Dueling Clubs every Monday, as they promised, but Professor Snape was no longer in charge of the meetings. Professor Westley brought the events of the first meeting to the Headmaster, who wasn’t pleased at all. He would not take the meetings away from Snape, but he demoted him to assistant and promoted Westley head of the meetings. Harry, Ron and Hermione continued going to the meetings, but Lily stopped going after the second, realising that she really wasn’t in any condition to practise dueling.
It was starting again. She would feel fine for a few days, and then the illness that had been plaguing her would come back full force. It had definitely come back full force this time, making her incapable of doing much else besides going to class and even then the teachers didn’t think she should be there. She spent one night in the Hospital Wing, under the watchful eye of Madam Pomfrey. The night she spent there wasn’t a pleasant night, as she had been forced to drink three terrible tasting potions. The potions only kept her up the entire night, for some peculiar reason. She spent the night staring blankly at the ceiling, stirring only when she heard the sounds of the nurse coming into the room to check on her. When this happened she would quickly shut her eyes and pretend that she had been sleeping.
She was let out the next morning, but thought she would have been better off staying an extra night, as she still didn’t feel well. But she made the best of things and went through her classes as normal as possible. Though she did do considerably bad in Potions, which was usually one of her better subjects, and she lost ten points from Gryffindor. No one blamed her though; they knew Snape was milking the situation for all it was worth. She improved in all of her other classes and earned fifteen points for Gryffindor in Herbology, making up for the ten she lost.
In Transfiguration, she found that all of her energy was spent and she had a horrific time trying to transfigure the desk into a dog. At first nothing happened, then her wand began to shot out brown sparks, and finally the desk toppled over onto another student’s foot. The student was sent to the Hospital Wing and Lily lost five points for Gryffindor for not paying attention to what she was doing. Lily grimaced at her professor and took a seat after realising she wasn’t going to transfigure the desk if her life depended on it. Planting her face in her arms, she tried to block out the sounds of the class around her.
Jacob, who was a few tables away, was having more difficulties than anyone, even Lily. He wanted to ask her for help, since she was the only one who would be able to do this on a regular basis, but knew he couldn’t for two reasons. One reason was that she couldn’t even do it and the other reason was because he wasn’t supposed to talk to her. At first he didn’t know if he could do it, he had wanted to talk to her many times but restrained himself from doing so. At the Dueling Club, when Pansy attacked her off guard, he had to do everything to keep himself from jumping up there and hexing her into oblivion. However, as time wore on, he found that he was able to keep his distance from her and now was the first time he had been tempted to talk to her. Sighing in defeat, he yet again tried to transfigure the desk.
The bell rang, signaling the end of classes for the day, and the majority of the class ran out of the room. Lily was about to leave with her friends, when Professor McGonagall called her over. She stood at the desk, waiting for her teacher to speak with her.
“Sit, Miss Black,” Professor McGonagall said at long last. Lily gratefully took the seat, as she found that she was becoming tired just standing upright. Professor McGonagall took the seat across from her and waited for a moment, mulling over what she wanted to say to her pupil.
“I’ve been observing you over the past few weeks,” she finally said, watching Lily carefully through her spectacles. “Your grades have been dropping, you know.”
“I know,” Lily muttered. She was fully aware of the fact that her once remarkable grades were falling. She needed her grades to remain at the level they had been if she was to succeed in taking her N.E.W.T. Examinations.
“I’ve been discussing this with the Headmaster and he thinks that, if the need arises, you can postpone taking your examinations. He doesn’t think there is a need to penalize you for something you have no control over. You have already proved that you want to do well just by showing up for class when you know you should be in the Hospital Wing.”
Lily could hardly believe her ears; she had been expecting the professor to tell her that she would have to take seventh year over or something to that effect. She definitely did not expect to have her examinations postponed. She made a mental note to thank the Headmaster next time she saw him.
“Wow, thank you,” Lily stuttered.
“You’re very welcome. Mind you, you will have to study hard as your grades now are -”
“Bad.”
“Well, it is not your fault that you are unable to concentrate. I think that’s all for now.”
“Okay… thank you, Professor.”
Lily exited the room feeling a little disconcerted. She knew she had bad grades, but she also knew that if this had been at any other time the professors would not have allowed this. They pitied her and that was the only reason her exams would be postponed. She didn’t like this sort of pity; she would rather just sit the exams and, if she failed, she would be able to take them over. She couldn’t deny that she appreciated this, but it made her feel worse knowing that her illness was the only thing keeping her from sitting the exams like the rest of the students.
Lily looked at her watch; it was exactly one week until the next full moon, meaning she would have to take the Wolfsbane Potion soon. The thought reminded her that she had to go down to the dungeons and get it from Snape, or at least check to see when it would be ready. So, instead of heading down to the Great Hall like she intended to, she went down to the Potions classroom. Entering the classroom unnoticed, she heard Snape muttering to himself. Curious as to what he was saying, she moved further into the room, still unnoticed. He was currently adding the finishing touches to the Wolfsbane Potion, but he added something that didn’t belong. She didn’t know what it was, but she had never seen it put into this potion before. That was when it all began to add up… she had been right all along.
“You’ve been tampering with the potion!” she shouted out, not bothering to restrain herself.
Professor Snape looked up from the goblet he had finished filling and smiled serenely, as though he wasn’t the least bit deterred by her accusation.
“I don’t understand you, Black,” he said in an innocent voice. “This just helps to make the potion more effective. Do you honestly think I would tamper with a student’s well being?”
“Yes, I would. After all, I’m Sirius’s daughter and you hated him just as much as James.”
Snape laughed and shook his head. “The minds of adolescents are quite amusing in general, but I find yours to be extremely entertaining.”
“I’ll tell Dumbledore,” Lily threatened, choosing to ignore Snape’s comment. “Really, I will.”
She edged towards the door, but, being that she was too far into the classroom, Snape was able to stop her.
“Not so fast there, Black,” he hissed. “You’ve forgotten to take your potion.”
“There’s no way I’m drinking that, you can’t-”
Before she could even finish her sentence, Snape had poured the contents into her mouth. She spat most of it out, but the amount that she had swallowed would do enough damage; she didn’t need to wait to find that out. She looked at the professor in disbelief; he had actually been poisoning her. She was right all along and yet no one would believe her. She had half a mind to run to Dumbledore at that very moment, but Snape stopped her, clearly sensing what she was thinking.
“The Headmaster would never believe you; he trusts me far too much to listen to a student like you,” he snarled. “And if you do tell him, well… I have an entire cauldron full of this potion, just in case you want more.”
Lily didn’t say anything to this; she merely left the room, her head spinning like mad. She caught her friends exiting the Great Hall and hurried to catch up with them so she could fill them in on what had just taken place. The three of them had no trouble at all believing what she told them, even Hermione who regarded teachers as gods. She had been suspicious of Snape from the very beginning. They wanted to go see the Headmaster about this, but Lily was afraid to. Snape had been very serious about his threat, and drinking an entire cauldron of this potion was enough to kill her.
It had been Snape all along. What would her dad have done if he found this out? He would have killed Snape. He wouldn’t have even used his wand to kill him because it would have been quick and painless; he would want it to be long and excruciating. He would use his bare hands and not care if he got sent back to Azkaban for it, at least Snape would be dead. Lily also had mind to believe that her uncle would overact as well, though he might not want to murder the man. But her mother… what would she do? She had been saying it was Snape, ever since Lily had the seizure. Rachael would strangle him if she found out. She had been close to wringing his neck when she first accused him; she would only succeed in it if she found out her accusations were correct.
If Snape warned her against telling the Headmaster, surely she couldn’t tell her mother, who would run to Professor Dumbledore upon hearing this. What did it matter, anyway? She was just going to die anyway; she might as well make it quick, shouldn’t she?
Lily roamed the streets of Hogsmeade, glancing at all of the stores in hopes of finding the one she was looking for. She had spent the entire day figuring out how to make Mr. Lawrence see reason, a goal that she had long neglected. She had learnt from Terry Boot the name of the shop that Jacob’s father owned - Magical Stationary, an ordinary title, but straightforward. She had it all figured out, she would go in there pretending to look for a journal, which she had no problem doing, as she had always wanted one. She would then casually bring the subject up of Jacob when she ran into Mr. Lawrence. She found the shop, at long last, and cautiously entered, browsing for a journal.
She spotted a blue leather-bound book on one of the shelves and took it off, scanning through the blank pages. She decided that this was the one she wanted and picked a new quill out along with it. She turned to see the cashier at the back of the shop and immediately knew this was Jacob’s father, as they bore a striking resemblance to each other. She went up to the register and placed the book and the quill on the counter, feeling incredibly uncomfortable as she did so.
“Good afternoon,” Mr. Lawrence said cheerfully.
“Good afternoon,” she replied in her most pleasant voice.
“A journal, aye?” he said slowly, picking it up and turning it in his hand as though he was searching for something wrong with it. “I can personalize this, if you like,” he offered.
“Oh yes… that’d be great.”
He smiled and gave his wand a difficult wave, uttering the spell word as he did so.
“Name?” he asked.
Lily smiled inwardly; this might be easier than she thought.
“Lily Black,” she said quickly.
Mr. Lawrence nodded and did not seem fazed by her name at all. She watched as her name appeared on the cover of the book in swirling green letters and above her name appeared the phrase: This is the property of Lily Black. As a matter of fact, it was only after she paid and was about to leave, that he connected the dots.
“Lily Black?” he repeated, comprehension dawning on his face. “You’re that girl my son likes.”
“Jacob?” Lily asked uneasily, hastily picking the journal and the quill up so she could hurry out if the need arose.
“Yes. Would you mind telling me how much communication you’ve been having with him? Because I specifically warned him-”
“None!” Lily interrupted swiftly. “I haven’t talked to him in ages.”
“Good. I see he took my advice and broke it off with you before he got himself in trouble.”
Lily had half a mind to tell this man off, but she knew that this wasn’t the best idea if she wanted to get permission to see Jacob again.
“Actually, I was the-” she began, but shook her head, seeing this as a lost cause. “Yeah… yeah, he broke things off with me. Thank you for personalizing this for me. Bye.”
She dashed out of the store and ran all the way back home; night was falling and the moon was rising. She hurried up the walkway and saw her mother waiting on the front porch.
“How’d it go?” she asked.
“It went… He thinks it was Jacob who decided to end things,” Lily answered miserably. “I’m gonna go in the shed now.”
She walked dejectedly over to the shed and didn’t even ask Rachael to chain her up. She did it herself and sat patiently waiting for the full moon to rise and for the pain to come. This, however, confused Rachael. Lily had never done that herself; she would usually put up a small resistance or none at all. This was even worse than hearing her argue against it. She shrugged the thought off and went inside, knowing that Lily didn’t want her to stay outside all night like she usually did.
The next morning, when Rachael went to the shed, she felt the familiar sensation she felt in January. Only this time it was much worse. Lily’s face was completely devoid of blood, but her entire middle was soaked in it. Rachael pulled Lily’s cloak off and saw her shirt was torn in various places. She found that there were lethal looking wounds where the tears were. Rachael grabbed Lily’s wrist and felt for a pulse; there was a very faint one that was getting fainter as every second passed. Rachael knew she needed to perform CPR, but she didn’t know how. Lily was going to die!
“Help!” she yelled to the sky. “Somebody help!”
Either by chance or for a reason, Mr. Lawrence was walking up the path and noticed the desperate mother. He hurried over and knelt down beside her.
“What happened?” he asked anxiously.
“Werewolf transformation… needs CPR… I don’t know how…” Rachael stammered, looking helplessly at Lily.
“I know how. My wife’s a Muggle and taught me.” He immediately began to administer CPR and, after a few tries, Lily sputtered out a few coughs, but remained unconscious.
“I need to take her to St. Mungo’s,” Rachael said to herself, grabbing Lily’s wrist and concentrating on her destination. She felt the uncomfortable sensation of Apparating and found herself in the waiting room of St. Mungo’s Wizard Hospital with Mr. Lawrence beside her. Rachael didn’t even bother to ask why he was there; she ran over to the receptionist and asked for Mr. Griemer. Almost instantly, Griemer dashed into the room and took Lily to the nearest hospital room. Rachael wasn’t allowed to go in, but, just by standing outside, she knew it was bad. Lily had woken up and was yelling in pain. Rachael cringed listening to this; she wanted nothing more than to run in there and help her daughter, but she couldn’t.
Mr. Griemer came into the hallway and turned to Rachael.
“Maybe you should leave for a few minutes,” he suggested. “She knows you’re out here and that’s only making things worse.”
“O-okay… I’ll go owl my mother, I guess,” said Rachael dejectedly. She turned and walked down the hallway, looking back numerous times only to see that Griemer had reentered the room and was doing all he could for Lily. When Rachael returned she could still hear Lily’s cries of pain, and she saw that Mr. Lawrence was still there. Rachael didn’t know why this man bothered staying, so she decided to make him introduce himself.
“I’m sorry, I never caught your name,” she said, doing her best to block Lily out for the moment.
“Oh err… Mr. Lawrence,” he replied uneasily, as he knew very well the name of the woman he was talking to. He had not walked down that path by accident; he was going to apologise to Lily for his rudeness in the stationery shop. Rachael reached out to shake his hand, but stopped when she remembered the name.
“Lawrence?” she repeated slowly. “Jacob’s father?” He nodded. “You’re the father of the boy my daughter fancies.”
“Yes, I am,” he said nervously. “But she said Jacob broke it off with them.”
Rachael blinked in a confused manner; that wasn’t what Lily told her. She couldn’t have been lying; Rachael knew she was telling the truth by the tone in her voice.
“That wasn’t what she told me,” she argued. “She told me that she broke it off with him because she didn’t want you two to get into an argument. And don’t even accuse her of lying, because, even though I haven’t known her long, I know when my daughter lies.”
Before Mr. Lawrence could reply, Mr. Griemer came out into the hallway and told Rachael she was allowed to see her daughter. Rachael entered the room cautiously; afraid of what she might see. What she did was Lily lying in bed with her eyes half open and an exhausted look on her face. She took the seat beside the bed and looked down at her daughter.
“Mum,” Lily whispered, sounding as though each word she spoke was costing her a terrible price. Rachael leaned forward to indicate that she was listening. “It was Snape… I caught him tampering with the potion.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?” Rachael asked loudly, causing Lily to flinch. She didn’t mean to yell, but the fact that her daughter knew who was behind this and didn’t say anything made her mad. She could have prevented this if Lily had just come forward.
“I was scared. He threatened to give me the entire cauldron full if I told.”
“But why did you drink it in the first place?”
“Because he shoved it down my throat. I spit most out, but ended up swallowing some.” Lily closed her eyes and cried in pain.
“Lily…”
“Mum… please… tell Dumbledore… tell him Snape did it.” Lily rolled onto her side and shut her eyes, looking as though that would lessen the pain that was coursing through her.
Rachael backed away from the bed and hurried to the hallway to find her mother waiting for her.
“Rachael how is she?” she asked urgently.
“I don’t know… but she knows what’s wrong with her,” Rachael answered hastily, not wanting to waste any time. “I have to owl Dumbledore, excuse me.”
With that, Rachael ran, with all her might, down the hospital corridor. Mrs. Lupin looked into the room and watched her granddaughter intently. She didn’t want anything bad to happen to this girl. She hardly even knew her; she didn’t even know she existed until the previous year. She couldn’t die now and not just because of that… because Lily was too young. She had barely seen anything of what the Wizarding World had to offer.
Lily cried out in pain once again and Mr. Griemer hurried into the room to tend to her. Mrs. Lupin turned away from the door, but what she heard was worse than what she could see. The things Lily was crying out when she was able to… she said she wanted to die. She was saying that death would be better than the pain she was in. Mr. Griemer was doing his best to keep her calm, but it didn’t seem good enough as she only cried louder. Where is Rachael? Mrs. Lupin thought furiously, looking around the hallway in hopes that her daughter would pop up. The man who had been there before, Mr. Lawrence she believed his name was, had left with the excuse that he had something very important to discuss with his son. He hadn’t left in time to not hear Lily begging for death, and that looked like it shook him quite a bit.
Just as Mr. Griemer was coming out of the ward, looking very grim indeed, Rachael was hurrying along the corridor. She stopped just short of knocking her mother over. Muttering a quick apology, the two turned to the Healer.
“We’ve managed to calm her down,” he said, though his tone did not make them feel relieved. “But… we don’t think she’ll make it through the night. What little of the potion she actually drank seemed to be enough to cause fatal internal problems. It’s as though she’s having a heart attack or something of the sort.” He took a deep breath and glanced back into the room. “I’m very sorry… really, I am.” He took off down the hallway, only after informing them that he would be back in ten minutes’ time.
Rachael poked her head inside the room and saw Lily lying flat on her back, her eyes squinted in pain. She gestured for her mother to follow her and Rachael conjured up a chair for her, while she took that one that was originally there.
“What were you sending Dumbledore a letter about?” Mrs. Lupin inquired.
“Lily said Snape did it,” Rachael answered, watching her daughter anxiously. “I just hope Dumbledore knows an antidote… or he can get one out of Snape.”
“A professor at her school did this?” asked Mrs. Lupin disbelievingly. “Why?”
“Probably because of whom Lily’s father is. Snape and Sirius hated each other, and Snape is just low enough to mess with her potion. After all, he tried following Remus to the Whomping Willow in our sixth year; I wouldn’t put this past him.”
Mrs. Lupin leaned back in her chair and processed what her daughter had just told her. This man, Snape his name was, actually tampered with a student’s Wolfsbane Potion? He actually had the nerve to do it under the eye of Albus Dumbledore. This was unheard of to her; she always knew Dumbledore trusted Snape, but even Professor Dumbledore could be too trusting. She glanced over at Rachael, who was pushing some stray hairs off Lily’s sweaty forehead. She knew what this was doing to Rachael. Her daughter didn’t deserve this; she had already lost so many people in her lifetime. She didn’t need to lose her daughter after only getting her back. She was abandoned at eight by her own mother (who turned red upon thinking of this). Her father died when she was fifteen, then Lily and James were murdered. She thought her husband had betrayed them, when it actually was Peter Pettigrew. Then Sirius died two years ago, and Remus the year before. Lily was the only thing she had left in her life.
True she had her mother, but Mrs. Lupin wasn’t there when a mother was supposed to be. She hadn’t attended Gregory Lupin’s funeral. She didn’t go to Rachael’s wedding; she wasn’t present at the birth of her granddaughter. She had missed out on every important event of her daughter’s life and the worst part was that it was her own doing. Looking down at Lily, it looked as if she had died right then and there without them knowing it. When Lily snored lightly, Mrs. Lupin was reassured that she was alive, for the time being.
She didn’t know how long they sat there, waiting for Lily to either wake up or take her last breath. Checking her watch, she saw it was nearing seven in the evening. Mr. Griemer had reappeared in ten minutes, like he promised, and continued to check on Lily, commenting on her condition every so often, saying how there really was not much else they could do. They were just going to have to wait the rest of the night out and see what would happen in the morning. Mr. Griemer, who had come into the room at seven, spent a good fifteen minutes looking Lily over, checking her pulse and everything else, just to make sure she was still with them. He left the room once he was done, knowing he had to give Rachael and Mrs. Lupin time with her.
Soon a small, strained, pain filled voice, caught their attention. They turned to see Lily’s eyes were half open and she looked as though she was about to drop off, maybe for good this time.
“Did you owl Dumbledore?” she asked, a hint of hopefulness evident in her voice.
“I did,” Rachael answered quietly. “He’s going to try and find an antidote for this.”
Lily nodded slowly, and noticed Mrs. Lupin sitting beside Rachael.
“Hi, Grandma,” she said, hoping her voice sounded cheerful.
“Hullo, Lily,” Mrs. Lupin replied, trying to keep her voice light.
“Mum… I heard what Griemer told you… that I won’t make it through the night… I think he’s right.”
“No… Lily, don’t talk like that,” begged Rachael.
“I’m not just talking like this… I don’t know how much longer I’m going to last. It’s getting harder and harder just to talk to you.”
“Lily, you’re going to make it, just believe that you will.”
“Believing’s not going to help… the pain’s just too much. It feels like its going to be at any time… maybe even right-” But Lily never got to finish her sentence. Her voice withered away, her eyes began to droop and her head lolled to the side.
Rachael’s eyes widened… it could not be. Lily had just been talking to them! And now… now… she did not want to believe it. She was just talking to them!
“Lily,” she breathed, grabbing Lily’s hand and shaking it furiously. “Wake up!” she cried, shaking her hand even harder in hopes that it would wake her up. “Please!”
“Rachael…” said Mrs. Lupin softly, though not keeping the sadness out of her voice as she gazed upon Lily’s limp body.
“No… Lily, wake up! Wake up!”
“She can’t hear you, Rachael.”
“She has to hear me! She can’t die… she can’t!”
“Rachael… I think it’s too late.”
“No! It’s not too late! It’s not too late.”
Even as she sobbed and wrung Lily’s hands, she knew it was too late. Lily had passed beyond their reach. Rachael sunk back in her chair and buried her face in her hands, while Mrs. Lupin put a comforting arm around her shoulders.
There were voices coming from outside of the room, and Rachael recognised both of them “ Mr. Griemer and Professor Dumbledore. Dumbledore probably had the antidote he had promised, but it was too late. The door to the ward opened and Professor Dumbledore strode forward, uncorking the bottle he was holding. He knelt forward and tilted Lily’s head back so her mouth would open. He poured the liquid into her mouth, ignoring the fact that Rachael was telling him that he had come too late. Once the bottle was empty, he stepped backwards and waited.
To the surprise of everyone, except Dumbledore that is, Lily’s mouth shut on its own accord and swallowed the potion. Lily began choking on it, so Dumbledore helped her sit up.
“Professor,” said Rachael slowly, a look of amazement in her eyes. “How… how is this-?”
“It takes a while for the body to fully shut down,” Professor Dumbledore explained, stepping backwards and pocketing the bottle. “A bit of Muggle science that comes in handy. Once I received your owl, I immediately found Severus and gave him some Veritaserum, therefore forcing him to give me the instructions to make the antidote.”
“Oh, thank you, Professor Dumbledore,” Rachael cried, this time in happiness.
“It’s my pleasure. You will be happy to know that Severus Snape has been fired. I believe Mr. Potter was right all along; I should never have trusted him.”
“I imagine James would have told you the same thing.”
“Yes, he would have. Now, I have to go back to the castle, good night.” And he was gone with a crack. Mr. Griemer asked Rachael and Mrs. Lupin to leave the room for only a few minutes so he could check on Lily one last time. The two exited the room and waited in the hallway.
“Rachael, you’re crying again,” Mrs. Lupin pointed out, as Rachael had burst into a fresh batch of tears.
“I know I am,” Rachael said. “I just can’t believe it… she’s going to be alright! For the first time in months… she’s going to be okay.”
Lily didn’t wake up until late the next morning, and, at that time, she was not in any mood to talk. She spent the rest of the day dozing in and out of sleep, not taking any food when it was offered to her. Rachael and Mrs. Lupin waited patiently for Lily to come around and talk to them; they knew she needed some time to collect herself. They could only imagine how terrified she felt before she fell into the nearly lethal sleep. Though there was the nagging thought in the back of each of their minds that told them repeatedly that maybe, just maybe, that was what Lily wanted. Rachael now knew of Lily begging the Healers to let her die, but she probably did not mean it. She was in so much pain that it drove her to say things she never would mean.
Around noon, two days after she received the antidote, Lily was found to be returning to her normal self… the way she was before January. Rachael was sleeping in her usual chair, Mrs. Lupin had returned home at her daughter’s request. Lily was sitting up in bed, having managed to scrounge up a copy of the Daily Prophet from one of the Healers. She was reading the headline, which described Professor Snape’s expulsion from the school. She could hardly contain her grin as she read. Filthy git got what he deserved, she thought viciously as she read his comment about doing this under his own accord and not being ashamed about it. Turning the pages rather loudly, Rachael jerked awake and was surprised to see her daughter reading.
“Good morning,” said Lily lazily, looking for an article of interest, and finding none.
“Morning,” said Rachael. “How are you?”
“Fine… the cuts on my stomach still aren’t healed yet, but Griemer said they should be by tomorrow and I should be able to go back to Hogwarts by the end of the week. And I don’t have to take the N.E.W.T.s until August, according to McGonagall.”
“Really,” Rachael said, surprised by Lily’s brisk and lighthearted answers… this was most unlike her. “I wanted to talk to you about something actually.”
“Sure.” Lily folded up the paper and focused her attention on her mother.
“When you told me Snape frightened you into keeping this information a secret, I didn’t know what to say. But I do now… You should never let someone scare you into doing or not doing something, especially when your life or someone else’s is in danger. Do you understand me?”
“Loud and clear.”
The next day they received the biggest shock in the Daily Prophet. With the two of them being at St. Mungo’s for all that time, they had completely forgotten everything that was going on around them. The shock they received was definitely one that they couldn’t believe; they thought it would never happen. There was a large picture of Harry Potter on the front page and the headline blaring above him:
Harry had fulfiled the prophecy made by Professor Trelawney many years ago and Lord Voldemort was dead at long last. All around the country there were celebrations going on and one going on in the hospital as they were reading the paper. The Healers were running up and down the hallways yelling at the top of their lungs, “YOU-KNOW-WHO IS DEAD!” They hardly needed to yell it out, as everyone in the world knew. Harry had come through for them at last… he had completed what he set out to do. The Wizarding World was safe once more.
Lily stood out on the grounds by the lake, skipping stones in the lake and enjoying the sunset displayed before her. She couldn’t remember the last time she had just spent her time lazing about, not agonizing over anything. She watched as the Giant Squid’s tentacle surfaced and flung the rock back at her, causing her to duck to avoid being hit. She laughed at this and threw it back in the water. Leaning against the birch tree behind her, she mulled over everything that had taken place in the past few days. It had only been three days since she returned from the hospital and the N.E.W.T Examinations were well under way, but she was exempt from them until she took them in August.
She only needed to spend the week in the hospital until the wounds on her stomach healed, leaving nasty looking scars in their place. Madam Pomfrey was making her take potions daily to reduce the appearance of the scars; they tasted horrible but it was a small price to pay. Drinking potions was nothing compared to nearly dying. When she shut her eyes, it felt like a weight was being lifted from her, but she could vaguely hear her mother’s cries. She wanted to say that she was going to be okay, that the pain was gone, but she couldn’t. When she felt the warm liquid rush into her mouth, she suddenly felt herself swallowing it and the life coming back to her. She couldn’t wake up, however much she wanted to, so she allowed herself to stay in the peaceful lull.
Then there was discovering that Lord Voldemort had finally been defeated. This was the news that elated her; no one had to worry anymore. No one had to look over their shoulder, or take security measures to ensure their family’s safety. All of the Death Eaters had been rounded up and sent to Azkaban where they would really be in high-security cells. All around the castle, students could be seen being much friendlier to each other and the students who had been taken out of school returned, even if it was just to take their exams. Students who had been nervous wrecks were now fully confident, even Neville Longbottom found that he could pass his exams.
She picked up another rock and threw her arm back to toss it, but someone caught her by the wrist as she did so. Turning around, she was surprised to see Jacob Lawrence standing behind her.
“Hi,” she said, surprised but not unhappy.
“Hey,” he said, lowering her arm, but not letting go. “My dad told me what happened to you.”
“How did he know?”
“He had to give you CPR. He told me he was coming to your house to apologise for being rude to you in his shop. He went to St. Mungo’s and, when he heard you weren’t going to make it through the night, he came to tell me.” He took the stone and skipped it in the water, and took Lily’s hand once again. “Why’d you go to his shop?”
“Because I didn’t like not talking to you and it wasn’t in your best interests to break it off and it wasn’t in mine either,” Lily replied, looking out across the lake and watching the sunset as it cast a pink glow over the grounds. “I acted on impulse, I guess. I didn’t want you and your father to be mad with each other, seeing as how I had just gotten over a fight I had with my mum. What made your dad come around anyway?”
“I didn’t tell you he did.”
“You mean he didn’t?”
“No, he did. It was when he heard you might die; he thought that if you did make it through the night than it was a shame that he ever used your name against you. He listened to everything. He figured you weren’t a bad person… and neither was your father.”
Lily smiled at this… that was all she wanted after all.
“How are the exams?” Lily asked conversationally.
“Oh, they’re going well. I mean all I want to do is get into the Ministry… it’s not like I need top grades for that or anything,” he answered sarcastically.
“All I want to do is teach… how hard can that be?”
“You’d make a good teacher; you’re a lot like Professor Lupin.”
“It would make sense; he’s my uncle after all. And I’d like to be as good a teacher as he was… It’d be nice.”
“You would be good; the students would love you.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair with his free hand. “I hate to get back on this subject, but I have to let this out. I was really scared… I thought I’d never see you again.”
“I was scared about that too, if any thoughts crossed my mind that was probably one of them.” Jacob opened his mouth to speak, but Lily stopped him, a smile lingering on her lips. “Please don’t say anything cheesy.”
“But a situation like this calls for it,” he whined in a mocking fashion. “And seriously I have to… I really didn’t think I could live without you.”
“And that was as cheesy as you can get… ‘I can’t live without you?’ You need new lines, you-”
“Oh, just shut up and kiss me.”
He pulled Lily closer to him and kissed her like he had never kissed her before. When they broke apart he could see that Lily was smiling… but for two reasons. One was because she obviously liked what had just happened but the other…
“Merlin, that line was worse than the other one!” she shouted playfully.
“Oh come on,” he said exasperatedly. “Let’s get back up to the castle.”
And, with that, the two made their way back up to the castle and for the first time in a long time Lily felt that everything was going to be alright. She didn’t have to worry anymore.
The Hogwarts Express screeched to a halt and, for a while, neither Harry, Ron, Hermione nor Lily wanted to get off. If they got off then it would really mean they were not going back… not as students, at least. Their seven years of living in that castle had come to an end. They were never going to go back on this train on September first and wait for the new school year. But, looking around in defeat, the four gathered up their trunks and owl cages and slowly made their way out onto the platform. They waited silently for the signal that it was safe to go through the barrier. When they received the signal, they hesitated until they were forced through. Coming out on the other side, they saw their parents waiting for them, though they were not in any hurry to meet them. They had to say their goodbyes while they still could.
Harry turned to his three friends.
“This is it then?” he said quietly.
“This is it,” Hermione confirmed. “We’re finished.”
“Finished,” Ron repeated, gazing longingly at the entrance to Platform Nine and Three Quarters.
“No more,” said Lily, also looking at the platform entrance.
“I guess we should say goodbye now?” Harry suggested, wanting to get it over with before it got too upsetting.
“But it’s not really goodbye,” Lily said suddenly, causing the other three to look at her. “Not really… it’s goodbye to our schooldays at Hogwarts, not to our friendship.”
“And who knows? One of us might end up working here one day,” said Hermione hopefully. “This is more of a ‘see you in a week’. Remember we planned on visiting Hogsmeade after the full moon?” she added looking at Lily.
“And that would be a week from now,” she said nodding. “See you then.”
“Yeah, we’ll see you guys soon,” said Ron.
“Real soon,” added Harry.
With a hug to each of her friends, Lily went to join her mother, who was waiting patiently with Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence. Lily looked behind her to see Jacob approaching them, but he was taking his time, as he was talking to Terry Boot and Anthony Goldstein as he did so.
“How was school?” Rachael asked, giving her daughter a hug.
“Good,” Lily replied. “I talked to Professor McGonagall about teaching at the school and she said in two years I could possibly teach Charms if I wanted to.”
Rachael smiled at that; Lily would make a good professor. Though she probably would rather teach Transfiguration, she knew better than to think that Professor McGonagall would be retiring any time soon.
“You’re going to Hogsmeade with Harry, Ron and Hermione next week, right?”
“Of course, after seven years of living with them, I can hardly be away from them for a week,” she said with a laugh.
“We’ll be leaving soon. We’re just waiting for Jacob to come,” said Mr. Lawrence, glancing over at his son.
“Oh yeah, you’re coming over for dinner,” said Lily, having momentarily forgotten.
Mrs. Lawrence nodded from beside her husband. Lily realised that this was the first time she ever met Mrs. Lawrence. It was only right to be polite and shake her hand, as she was the first parent who gave Jacob consent to see her. Jacob finally broke away from his friends and joined up with his parents. Once Jacob had greeted his parents, Rachael glanced at her watch and then the clock on the platform barrier behind them.
“Well, I suppose we should be heading back to our place,” she said.
“How are we getting there?” Lily asked, knowing that Mrs. Lawrence was a Muggle and could not Apparate like her husband, son or the Blacks. Luckily, they had the answer to that question when they ended up riding Ministry cars back to Rachael’s house. They all got into the car and drove away from Platform Nine and Three Quarters for the last time…