Catching A Flower

*Disclaimer*- Messrs. Fuzzbutt and Fantail do not now, nor will they ever, claim to be J.K. Rowling. They own none of the characters or situations presented by Ms. Rowling in any of her brilliantly written books.

Chapter Thirteen- Always

Blur.

That was the past two days.

Blur.

"Lily, are you ready to go?" Emmeline asked Lily.

"What?" Lily asked, slightly startled. She had been lost in her thoughts.

"To the funeral," Emmeline said gently, putting a hand on Lily's shoulder.

"Oh, right," Lily trailed off.

Emmeline sighed. "I'll go get Marlene," she said, briefly squeezing Lily‘s shoulder reassuringly.

Lily nodded, but did not say anything in reply. They were due to leave in five minutes by floo, and each of them was dressed in the fancy black clothes that plague funerals.

"Lily!" someone called.

She turned. It was James. "What are you doing?" she asked, noticing that he, too, was dressed up in black.

"I'm going with you," he said.

"James, you don't have to. You've done enough already." Lily started shaking her head, looking at her shoes. Mum bought me these shoes. She felt her eyes tearing up.

"I know, Lil, but I'm going anyway," James said, determination in his voice.

Lily nodded, not up to arguing. It was at this moment that Emmeline and Marlene appeared.

"Oh, are you going too?" Marlene asked.

James nodded, but he didn't reply. His concern was with Lily.

"We have to go now," Emmeline said.

Lily stepped forward and took some floo-powder. "Number Four, Privet Drive," she said, and she felt the familiar twirling sensation as she was whisked back home. She stepped into the living room, which, thankfully, held no relatives or Muggles.

Emmeline, Marlene, and finally James followed. It was then that Lily realized why no one was in the living room.

She turned and buried her head into James's chest. She didn't want to look at the scorch marks on the walls. They died here. Dad was probably reading the paper and Mum was sitting, enjoying the silence.

James wrapped a comforting arm around Lily and looked around the room. Marlene and Emmeline stared at the walls in disgust. Life was incredibly unfair.

It was Marlene who finally herded them into another room. "Lily, how are we getting to the church?" Marlene asked.

Lily blinked. She hadn't thought about that. "I really don't kn-"

"Lily! Oh, dear, we're so sorry about your loss," said a voice as a woman with very large, very orange hair hugged Lily.

"Aunt Cindy. It's nice to see you again," Lily said. She thought quickly. They needed a ride, and here was her only single relative with a vehicle large enough for four extra passengers. "Could you drive the four of us to the church when the time comes, do you think?" she asked politely, not expecting a yes. Aunt Cindy had never liked Lily all that much.

"Oh, of course, dear," Aunt Cindy replied, spotting James and smiling. "Who's this handsome young man? Your boyfriend?"

"I'm James Potter, just a friend. Nice to meet you," James said, offering a hand.

Cindy took and shook it. "Very polite. I'll see you all in a bit, then," she said, grinning at James. She looked to Lily. "Oh, and Lily, don't fret. In the end, all will be well," she added, not seeming to mean it.

Lily nodded. She'd been doing a lot of nodding that day. Suddenly she thought of something. “Oh, do you happen to know where Petunia is?”

“No, no, she’s where Petunia is, but I don’t know where that is,” Cindy said, walking off.

"That was frightening," Emmeline whispered.

"That was Aunt Cindy," Lily said. "She never liked Dad much, and liked Mum even less. I'm surprised she agreed to drive us, actually." She didn't mention that she thought she'd only said yes because of James.

“By the way she was looking at James, I’m not surprised at all,” Emmeline said with a mischievous grin.

James had the decency to blush.

"When are we leaving?" Marlene asked Lily.

Lily glanced at her watch. "Fifteen minutes from now. We'll go to the church, they'll say some words, we'll go to the burial site, we'll come back here for a bit then go back to school." Lily finally looked up at her friends, all of whom looked at her in understanding. "I can't thank you all enough for coming. It really means a lot," she said quietly.

Emmeline and Marlene pulled her into a hug and James stood by watching and offering a small smile.

"Oh, Lily, of course we're here for you," Marlene said. "That's what friends do."

Emmeline nodded in agreement. "We wouldn't leave you to this alone."

The next fifteen minutes passed slowly. Relative after relative came over to Lily. They seemed to all say the same thing. "I'm sorry for your loss, dear." "It'll get better in time, I'm sorry that they're gone." "Oh, you look just like your mother. I am sorry for your loss." "Oh, darling, you'll be well in time. It gets easier."

When the four finally climbed into Aunt Cindy's car, it was silent. Lily, it was obvious, did not want to talk, and her friends were respecting this.

As the car started out of the drive, however, it was evident that Aunt Cindy had no such respect. "So, James, how is it that you know our Lily?"

Lily almost gagged. Our Lily? Oh, please. The woman only came to family get-togethers for the food. Lily scowled.

"We go to the same school," James replied.

"Oh, do you? What's it like at your school?"

Lily paled considerably. What would he say? He knew nothing about the workings of a Muggle school.

"It's magical," James said with a grin.

Lily gave James an odd look and he shrugged while Aunt Cindy chuckled. "And how did you become friends with our Lily? Was she attracted by your dashingly good looks?"

"Actually, we're both the Heads of the school this year, and it was only through that that we became friends."

"Well, she must have been blind, then," Aunt Cindy chuckled.

"There's more to making a friend than their looks," Emmeline growled, also scowling.

"Of course, dear," Aunt Cindy replied.

The rest of the ride was silent.

Once inside the church, Lily, James, Marlene, and Emmeline found a pew and sat down. James was to Lily's right, and Marlene was to her left. Emmeline sat on Marlene's other side.

Lily stared into space as they waited for the speeches to begin. James put his arm around her shoulders in a friendly gesture of comfort, and she leaned into him gratefully. Emmeline raised an eyebrow at Marlene, who shrugged. Lily seemed content, and that was all that mattered.

Soon the ceremony began. Words were said about Lily's parents by several different people. Lily didn't pay attention to any of them. Her thoughts kept wandering to her childhood. They wandered to hot summer days and cold ice cream cones with Daddy. They wandered to trying out new hairstyles with Mummy. They wandered to receiving an owl, inviting her to Hogwarts, and her parents' proud faces. They wandered and wandered and her tears fell. Tears which she thought would've by now dried out.

The ceremony ended and all exited the church in a procession to the nearby cemetery. Again, words were said, and again, Lily cried. Still, James stood by, with Emmeline and Marlene on her other side.

Each person dropped a flower onto the caskets. All were white roses, except for two. There was one petunia, and one lily.

The ride back to Lily's childhood house was silent, save for the sniffles of Aunt Cindy caused by what Lily was sure were crocodile tears. Crocodile tears which were causing Cindy's huge amount of make-up to run, making her look even more frightening than normal. Lily was not thinking about this, however. She was wondering where her sister was. She hadn't seen Petunia at all that afternoon.

When they got to the house, the first thing Lily decided to do was to look for Petunia. After all, the two had to stick together now. Their mum and dad were gone.

It wasn't long before Lily found Petunia. "Pet!" she called, running over to the girl. She'd grown a bit taller. Her blond hair was pulled back, and her black dress seemed to make her long neck even longer with its low cut. "Pet, I've been looking for you all afternoon," Lily said. "How're you doing?"

Petunia glared at Lily. "How do you expect?" she spat.

Lily let it go. After all, she was grieving. "I'm not doing too well, either," she confessed.

"I'm surprised you even came. I thought you'd be celebrating," Petunia said viciously.

"What?" Lily asked. What is she talking about?

"It's your fault they're dead! You and your... your freakishness! If it hadn't been for you and your kind, Mum and Dad would still be here! How could you? Didn't you love them at all?" Petunia cried.

"Of course I did," said Lily, stunned and crying, yet again. Honestly, how could Petunia speak like this?

"Ha! They could never stop talking about you, you know! It was always, "Perfect Lily this," and, "Perfect Lily that," they were so proud of you! And you went and got them killed!"

"I swear, Pet, I didn't want this to happen. I love Mum and Dad just as much as you do. How can you even think that?"

"Murderer!"

"No, it wasn't like that! I didn't plan their deaths, I didn't kill them! No one wanted this to happen, Petunia, how can you say these things?"

"Leave! I don't want you here anymore! Get out of my house!" Petunia screeched.

And Lily left, running, with tears streaming from her eyes. Her own sister thought that it was her fault that her parents were dead...

James, Emmeline, and Marlene had all watched the scene in disgust.

"How dare you?" Emmeline asked, the anger rather evident in her tone. "It wasn't at all her fault, and you know it! You disgust me!"

"Emmeline," chided Marlene, laying a hand on Emmeline's shoulder, "stop it."

"I will NOT stop it! This... this idiot has never once stopped trying to ruin Lily's life! Every time we're here, she looks at us like we're scum of the earth, and calls us and Lily freaks! This is not right, Marlene!"

"I know," Marlene said, "but you can't just go off on her like this, she's just a Mug-"

"Don't you utter that freakish nonsense in my house!" Petunia screeched. "You may think you're smart and powerful, but I know what you are! You're freaks! All of you! Get out of my house!"

Marlene glared. "Gain a little respect, wench," she said.

"Get out of my house!"

"Oh, go throw yourself off a cliff. But make it a low cliff, so you break a few bones but don't kill yourself. Lily doesn't need to attend another funeral. And she would attend yours, and she'd mourn your loss, which is more than I can say for you if Lily died!"

Emmeline grinned. "Way to go, Marlene," she said proudly.

"Get out of my house!"

"Gladly," Marlene said, she and Emmeline both glaring at the enraged woman. With that, they left.

"Hey, where's James?" Emmeline asked after a moment.

"He probably went to find Lily instead of murdering Petunia. Smart lad, sometimes, eh?"

----------

Lily ran until she reached a nearby park and collapsed on a swing. Petunia probably hated her. Petunia hated her for the deaths of their parents.

Maybe... maybe it was her fault. If she hadn't been at Hogwarts... but the attack, wasn't it random? It was on the entire neighborhood...

"Lily?" a voice interrupted her thoughts. It was James's voice.

She looked up at him. "It's my fault, isn't it James?" she asked, tearfully.

James's expression became angry. Damn that sister of hers. "No," he said forcefully. He took Lily's hand and led her off of the swing and onto a nearby bench. They sat down. "It is not your fault, Lily. Not at all.

"But if I had just told them about the Death Eaters, or let them know to be on the look out they could've-"

"Could've what, Lily? Even if they knew, there was nothing they could've done. Not against the bastards that came. Not against the curses and the magic."

"But if they had just known, they could've found somewhere more safe and-"

"Lily, there isn't anywhere safe! Not any more. It's not your fault they're gone!"

"I should've been here. If I hadn't gone to Hogwarts, I-"

"Would've been dead, too, Lily. Muggles don’t stand a chance against them."

"If Daddy'd been ready with a gun, if I had just told them about the evil-"

"Lily, you didn't know! You didn't know and that's okay because it's not your fault! Don't do this to yourself! They would not want you to blame yourself!"

"I know it's just... God, James, I miss them so much," Lily said, breaking down again.

James pulled her into a hug. "I know, Lil. I know."

----------

"Where could they be?" Emmeline asked.

"Well, where do we know that Lily would go if she was upset?"

"There's a park nearby, right? She always likes to go to those sorts of places. Like she goes to the lake at Hogwarts."

"C'mon, I think I remember where it is," Marlene said.

The two made their way around the neighborhood, finally finding the park, and, thankfully, Lily. Lily, who had apparently already been found by James.

James was holding her as she cried.

"I'm glad she's got him," Marlene said.

Emmeline nodded in agreement. "She's got us, too," she said.

"Always."

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Authors’ Notes: First off, hope you enjoyed!

Secondly, we’d like to apologize on our lack of knowledge on funerals. I’ve been to a few, the most recent of which was only two years ago, but I wasn’t exactly taking notes on the workings of a funeral.

And also, please review?