evans, lily rose
The story of Lily Rose Evans, told in eighteen drabbles, one for every year of her life.
I.
January 31, 1960. Three thirty-seven in the afternoon. He has been pacing for the last four hours while his daughter looks up from her playthings every few minutes to watch her father. He casts a glance at her before continuing his pacing. He’s worried about her. He’s worried about his wife in there because he’s supposed to stay out here with their eldest instead of being beside her. Their eldest at any time now, anyway.
He hears a door open behind him. He turns to see one of the nurses there, beaming at him. “Mr. Evans, your daughter’s been born.”
II.
“It’s your birthday. Do you know that? That means you’re growing up, Lilybean. That means you’re getting bigger and soon you can do all sorts of new things. They’re going to give you a party and you’re going to get loads of presents and be the center of attention. It’s going to be your day! Birthdays are always fun. But you’re growing up and someday you’ll be like Mummy and me!”
Petunia picks up her sister like her mother showed her, being sure to support her head carefully, and kisses her forehead. “Happy birthday, Lilybean.” Little Lily doesn’t even wake.
III.
“Look, Tuney! I’m a princess!”
Lily spins around, her sparkling pink skirt flying out around her. She has a pair of navy shorts and a striped shirt on underneath and laughs when she almost falls over from being dizzy. Lily looks over her array of dress up clothing and picks up a bubble wand, spinning around with it. She laughs again. “Now I’m magic!”
Petunia teases her by pushing her crown down over her eyes. “Of course you are, Lilybean.”
Lily spins again, falling back onto the grass and crying over her bruised elbow until her sister kisses it better.
IV.
“See how I did it, Lily? Try it like that.”
Lily adapts a look of concentration as she presses down on her crayon, trying to copy the letter her mother wrote. It comes out shaky but distinguishable. Her wobbly ‘Lily’ is written across the page, declaring that the picture of her house, mother, father, sister, and herself is hers.
“Mummy, look! It says Lily, see? Lily!” She points to the letters, trying to remember what they stood for. “That’s an L, Mummy. My name starts with it. See?”
“It does!” her mother answers, pretending to look surprised at the discovery.
V.
“Come on, Tuney! We’ll be late!”
“Lily, we don’t need to be there for another quarter of an hour. We’ll be okay.”
“But, Tuney!”
“Don’t worry, Lily. I’ve never been late. We’ll be fine, I promise.”
Lily thinks this over and accepts it. Petunia’s never wrong. She’s her big sister and big sisters are supposed to be right. That’s their job. “Tuney?”
“What, Lily?”
“What if no one likes me? Can I come to your class?”
Petunia stops and turns around, kneeling down to meet her sister at eye level. “Of course they’ll like you, Lilybean. How could they not?”
VI.
She’s been trying to memorize her line for a few weeks now. She wants to make sure it’s perfect so that her Daddy will be proud and Mummy will clap and Petunia will tell everyone about how clever she is. Normally she would have help, but she wants it to be a surprise.
It’s finally the day and she goes in front of everyone like she’s supposed to.
“And onto you a Savior is born!”
Lily looks over the crowd and sees her sister giving her a thumbs up. Lily says her line proudly, smiling. “He is Christ the Lord!”
VII.
“I’ll race you, Tuney!” Lily declares, preparing herself for the run.
Petunia is at least a foot taller than her, but she agrees to the challenge.
“Loser gets sodas!” Lily adds, stretching out her legs like she saw the guy on the telly do.
Petunia laughs. “Ready? Set. Go!”
The two set off and Petunia’s longer legs could easily win it, but she slows down to let her sister pass. “You beat me again, Lily!” she says, a tone of teasing Lily won’t catch in her voice.
“I want Cherry Coke,” Lily answers with a smile, grabbing her sister’s hand.
VIII.
“Tuney, higher!”
“Lily, you’re going to fall and hurt yourself!”
“Higher!” Lily tries to pump her legs, but she can’t seem to get the swing to go any higher off the ground. Petunia doesn’t make a move to push her. Lily already makes her nervous. She’s just a little girl. She could get hurt and…
“I’m going to jump!” her younger sister exclaims happily.
Petunia’s eyes widen and she responds immediately. “No, Lily!”
But she already has and lands safely on her feet. She should be hurt and crying from a jump that high.
“How?”
She laughs and tries again.
IX.
“You’re a witch.”
She thinks over the words again, considering them in every way she can. She hopes that the witches Severus talks about are more like the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella. She’s nice and likes to help people. Witch isn’t a very nice word, though. That’s what they call all the mean people in movies.
Witches can use magic, though, and magic is fun and pretty. So they can’t be that bad, can they?
And Lily likes being nice and helping people. So she would be a good witch, wouldn’t she?
She decides to ask Severus in the morning.
X.
“The demenwhats, Sev?”
“The dementors. They guard Azkaban. That’s the wizard prison. And they’re pretty nasty. At least, that’s what my Mum says. My Dad didn’t go to Hogwarts. He’s a muggle.”
“Like Tuney?”
“Yeah. They just can’t use magic.”
Lily thinks about this for a minute or so. “That’s kind of mean. Why not? I bet Tuney would like Hogwarts. When we go, I’m going to bring her something. That way she knows I miss her while I’m gone.”
Severus nods. He doesn’t really understand how anyone could not like Hogwarts. It’s away from home. It’s better than home.
XI.
It’s the day before she leaves and she’s sure that she’s forgotten something. Great. She’s going to forget something important and not have it and she’s going to be stuck at Hogwarts or miss the train and be left at the station until her parents think the year is over and come to pick her up again. She goes through her trunk again. She can’t forget anything.
“Bedtime, Lily!” her father calls from downstairs.
Something is going to go wrong. No one is going to like her; they’ll tell her that she’s not really a witch. She wants to cry.
XII.
“Don’t worry,” she assures him again, smiling over at him before scribbling something else down on her essay. “What did you say about bezoars again?”
Severus looks at her, hoping that he can believe her. He doesn’t want to worry about their friendship. They’re going to be best friends forever. She promised. “They cure almost anything if swallowed,” he answered, turning a page in the book they were sharing.
Lily tucked a few strands of red hair behind her ear, glancing at the book’s page again. “Let’s do charms after this. When I was at the lake with Riley today…”
XIII.
“And then I said…”
“What time is it?” The placement of the sun in the sky is worrying her.
“Lily, I was in the middle of my story about what happened while you were gone today!”
“What time is it?” she demands again, a worried look crossing her face.
Riley sighs and digs through her bag to find an old watch. “Six… eleven. Why?” She looks up at her friend again. They were on their way to dinner.
“Shoot!” With that, Lily darts in the other direction. How could she forget about her meeting with Sev by the lake again?
XIV.
“Hey, Evans!”
She didn’t turn around.
“Evans!” he calls again, actually picking up his pace to reach her. The two girls are just walking down the corridor and she makes no move to purposely speed up. Maybe she just didn’t hear him, he tells himself, ruffling his hair.
“Evans,” he says again, falling into step beside her.
Lily turns to him as if he had interrupted something important. “What, Potter?”
The girl behind her suppresses laughter.
“Want to go to Hogsmeade with me?” James asks, running a hand through his hair.
She didn’t even give the question a thought. “No.”
XV.
Lily is silent, staring at the fire. Riley is concerned. The train leaves tomorrow. She hopes it leaves behind the bad memories of this year. Lily is stronger than she’ll give herself credit for. It’s been one hell of a year for her.
“Lily? We should get some sleep before the ride home tomorrow.” They do have to get up early in the morning.
Her friend nods vaguely, turning to look over the common room.
“Lily?”
Her friend looks over at her. “You don’t think I’m a mudblood, do you, Rye?”
Riley smiles. “’Course not. I’m your best friend, remember?”
XVI.
She laughs, covering her mouth as if it’s wrong, and her eyes sparkle.
He smiles, leaning back in his seat with his arms crossed behind his head.
Remus finishes his story, and Riley is laughing harder than Lily beside him. Lily starts one about the three of them and some clouds or something and they all laugh again, remembering back to fourth year.
Riley elbows her in the side teasingly, and she blushes slightly before teasing her back.
He hears whispering, accusations of fancies and sometime, they glance up at him.
“Oh, hush,” James hears Lily say. “We’re just friends.”
XVII.
She sits down, waiting for the Head Boy to come along. She knows that she got here a little early. She’s always been afraid of missing the train and thus missing the year.
Finally someone comes up into the compartment, mumbling the password that means he got the letter. It’s probably Remus, she decides and stands as if to congratulate him.
James Potter is the last person she expects to see walk through the door.
She doesn’t speak for a minute, but feels like she should take back the words when she does. “You’d better give Remus his badge back.”
XVIII.
“We did it!” she says.
Everyone seems to be smiling or laughing. Riley hugs her again. “Yeah, Lily. We’re graduated!”
Before Lily can answer, someone grabs her wrist and turns her around, pressing their mouth to hers. She laughs at first before answering him with a kiss.
“Hey!” they hear her friend say behind them, her hands on hips.
“Sorry,” Lily answers, smiling and pulling away, hand in James’. “Just excited, I guess.” Spots of pink are at her cheeks now.
James moves his hand to her shoulder, hugging her to his side. “Just have the world to face now.”