Beneath the shade of an oak tree Lily sobbed quietly to herself. The sound lost in the whistling of the wind through the trees. She swiped at her eyes as the sound of autumn leaves crunching under foot came closer to her hiding spot.
“Come on, Padfoot.” Potter whined, causing Lily to roll her still wet eyes. “You know I totally won that bet.”
“In your dreams mate. I won fair and square. Tell him Moony.”
“There was nothing fair about your lil bet. But Sirius did win. This time.”
Potter’s groan was drowned out by Sirius’ triumphant cheer.
“That’s not fair. Remus is the most biased judge ever.”
“You did steal his chocolate stash, Prongs.” Peter pointed out.
Lily curled in on herself even tighter than before, as the boys drew closer.
“Not you too, Wormy!” Potter whined.
“Well that settles it. The verdict is in and..... I won!”
The boys chuckled at Potter’s defeated groan.
“Well you know the rules Prongs pay up or-” Remus halted mid-sentence. “Maybe we should take a different route to the lake, guys.”
“Good thinking, Moony.” Sirius interrupted.
“Yeah sure I’ll catch you up.” Potter said.
“Don’t think you can get out of this Prongs.” Said Sirius.
“James are you sur-” Remus was interrupted by Potter’s reassurances.
“Yeah yeah yeah. In a bit.”
The rest of the boys’ voices drifted into the background hum of the courtyard. But the crunch of leaves had yet to cease. Bloody Potter, Lily thought to herself as she hid her face behind a curtain of auburn hair. She practically blended in with the autumn leaves.
There’s another shuffle of leaves being kicked up and then silence, and Lily dares to hope for a second that for once Potter hadn’t given in to his stubborn nature. That for once he’d break the new routine they’d settled into and she could pretend nothing had changed.
“Who was it?” James asked softly in a whisper that carried on the wind.
“You’ve got mascara down your cheek, Lils.”
She scrubbed furiously at her face.
“So it was Petunia. Do you wanna talk about it?”
She cursed silently under her breath at his damn perceptiveness.
“What would it matter? It wouldn’t change anything.”
“But it might the burden a little easier to bear.”
She scoffed shaking her hair out of her face to glare at him.
“When did you get so wise?”
He shrugged in false nonchalance, his arrogance having not diminished in the years she’d known him.
“I’ve always been wise you just didn’t notice.”
She scoffed again, turning away from him to stare at distant golden trees. Her mind wandered to a particular head of golden hair and suddenly the tears she’d brushed aside threatened to fall again. And without her permission the words began to flow like a confession.
“Tuney’s getting married next summer. She wanted to make it clear that a freak like me wasn’t welcome.” Her gaze falls to her hands her lap, that suddenly seem to be the most fascinating thing in the world, as her hair conveniently hides the fresh tear. “What did I do wrong? How-” She’s cut off by her own sob. “How could she just turn her back on me? We’re sisters.”
James pulled her gently into his embrace. The weight of his head on her’s grounding her as did the gentle rubbing of her arm.
She refused to acknowledge to switch from Potter to James. The switch too familiar.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I wish I knew the answer to that.”
So there she sat in the embrace of a boy she’d convinced herself she hated beneath an old oak tree, the golden leaves of autumn falling all around them.
