Lily Evans sat cross-legged on Marie’s bed, stroking her best friend’s hair as she cried. “Shhh, Marie. You’ll pull through. You’re strong.”
She did not want to pull the ‘everything is going to be alright’ trick on her. The truth was that nothing was alright. When your family is ripped apart in less than an hour, the last things you want to hear are those six words. Or at least, that’s how Lily had felt six months ago after her own parents had been killed.
“Lily, they can’t be gone. They j-just c-can’t be. What about R-Rosie?”
“Most likely, Rose will go to an aunt or an uncle and she’ll be perfectly fine,” she comforted.
Marie sat up and wiped her cheeks. She seemed to have stopped crying. “How did you get through this-this pain?”
“I have not a clue. It will never go away, but you shouldn’t dwell on it longer than you have to. The best way to handle it all is to move on,” Lily responded, hugging her best friend.
She sat there as Marie fell asleep, then clambered into her own bed where her own thoughts kept her awake for another hour. It was like reliving that moment when she had received a letter from her sister, telling her that her parents had been killed in a raid. And she remembered that Marie had been there for her during her moments of deepest pain. Back then, crawling into a hole was the option she favored most, trying to get away from it all, to avoid it, the bane of all humans: pain. But Marie had coaxed her out of her hole, and she was going to do the same in return.
Lily Evans rolled over on her back and went to sleep.
“Lily, could you do me a favor?”
“Of course, Marie. What do you need?” Lily replied.
“Can you watch Rose until this meeting between Dumbledore and my aunt is over?”
Lily nodded and took Marie’s three-year-old sister up in her arms. “Hi, Rosie! Do you remember me?”
The little girl screwed up her face trying to recall the name of the person whose arms she currently resided in.
Lily nodded over Rosie’s shoulder and Marie turned around and followed her aunt into Dumbledore’s office. Lily walked in the opposite direction. She stared happily at Rose, who was still trying to think of her name.
“Lily!” the little girl yelled at last.
“That’s right! My name’s Lily!”
“I’m Rose.” The little girl puffed out her chest importantly.
“Well, Rose,” Lily started, putting emphasis on Rose to show that she had learned the little girl’s name correctly, “what would you like to do?”
“Fweeze tag!” she yelled almost instantly.
Lily immediately thought of the Quidditch pitch, which was an open field that no one would mind their presence in. Ten minutes later, Rose and Lily were standing in the middle of the Quidditch pitch. “Who’s going to be It, Rose?”
The little girl thought for about a minute, and then pointed at something-or someone- behind Lily. “Him!”
Lily turned around to find James Potter grinning down at her. Her smile faded and she rolled her eyes. She looked back at Rose again and said in a near-pleading voice, “Him? Are you sure?”
Rosie grinned and started running.
“I guess I’ll take that as a yes. What are we playing?” Potter asked.
“Fweeze tag!” Rosie’s voice was carried from the other side of the Quidditch pitch.
Lily hung her head. “Potter, if you try anything, I swear to God…”
James playfully hit her arm. “You’re frozen!”
Before Lily could open her mouth to protest, James had taken off to catch Rosie. He came back two minutes later carrying her in his arms. Rosie squealed in delight. “He’s going to eat me!”
Lily couldn’t help but smile. “I’ll save you, Rosie!”
Lily ran up to them and started working on releasing James’ hands from Rosie’s legs, which was surprisingly easy. But as James transferred Rose into Lily’s arms, he didn’t let go of Lily’s hand. Lily looked up at him, still smiling, but blushed red as she quickly jerked her hand from his. She had to admit, he was very charming when he wasn’t being a git. He’s going to make a great father someday, Lily thought.
“Spin me!” Rose yelled.
Lily started twirling round and round as Rose laughed until her face turned red. “Rose, I’m going to give you to James before I drop you.” Lily collapsed on the ground from dizziness.
James looked at her, concerned. “You okay?”
Lily nodded and directed her attention to Rosie, who was worming her way out of James’ arms to stand up, walk over and grab her hand. “We’re going to melt!”
Lily threw her head back and laughed. “Why?”
“Because James is a bad guy and we’re on the dark side of the field!”
Lily turned to James and laughed at him. “Rosie, where will we be safe?”
Rose pulled Lily by the hand and led her over behind the hoops on one end of the pitch. “He’ll melt if he comes over here, right?” She panted. Rose was fast for a three-year-old.
Rose nodded her head vigorously and pointed in the direction they had run from. James was lightly jogging toward them.
“Why are you going to melt?” he asked once he reached them.
“Because we were on the boy side of the field and this is the girl side. You have your boyfriends and we have our girlfriends,” Rosie explained.
James screwed up his face in a puzzled look and nodded.
“James, go play with your boyfriends,” Lily said, taking advantage of the situation.
He looked at Lily incredulously. Lily suppressed a grin. He pointedly turned to Rosie. “How come I can’t be a girl?”
“Because you’re going to eat me.”
“Oh,” he said, lifting his head to look at Lily.
She couldn’t let this moment pass her by. “You should go eat your boyfriends instead, James. Right, Rose?”
“Uh-huh!”
Lily started laughing at the look on James’ face when Rose agreed. She put on an angelic smile and sat down next to Rose. James pretended to sulk as he lay down on the ground, fake crying. Lily beamed down at Rosie and whispered in her ear, “I think James is sad. Do you want to go help him?”
Rosie jumped off the ground and ran over to him. Lily followed close behind her. As soon as she was close enough, James grabbed Lily’s ankle and pulled her to the ground. She laughed as she fell. James clambered on top of her and she turned a brilliant shade of red, Rosie giggling in the background. He leaned in to kiss her, beaming.
And she let him.