Lily "Bun in the Oven" Potter (unyielding) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2008-09-11 10:19:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! [1979-09] september, ! npc, lily potter (née evans), marlene lupin (née mckinnon) |
Who: Lily Potter and Petunia Dursley (w/ a cameo Marlene)
Where: A restaurant in Surrey
What: Two sisters try to get along.
Status/Rating: Complete Narrative, PG
Lily spent a good ten minutes checking the area with Marlene, trying to determine if there was any cause for alarm. Everything seemed normal, perfectly normal and Surrey-ish. She couldn't detect anything that would give her reason to be afraid. "Go on," she said to Marlene. "I'll just meet you outside, later." Lily couldn't wait outside forever. She was to meet Petunia. To talk. Lily assumed that Vernon didn't know his wife was meeting her. He hated Lily even more than she hated him, which was saying something. There she was. Arrayed in dark pink, her nails long and perfect and her handbag was some expensive brand Lily could only slightly recollect. Petunia came walking towards her, especially fast until she grew closer, when her steps slowed. Sure, Lily had made fun of her long neck and they hadn't always gotten along. Lily knew everyone saw her as the beautiful of the two and maybe it was true -- but Lily still wanted to remember her sister from before, long, long long before, when there wasn't magic. "You came." Petunia stood in front of Lily, clutching the bag tighter, and staring at her as though she half expected a ghost to jump out and shout 'Boo!' from behind Lily. "I said I would," said Lily. And she had --- and been nice enough to not use owl post. She hated the delay of regular post, but she tried to be sensitive to her sister's feelings when possible. "You look very nice, Tu--Petunia." "Thank you," her sister said, her face lighting up. She reached out to run a hand centimeters above her overly hair-sprayed hair. "Isn't the purse lovely? A gift from Vernon." "Yes, beautiful." "Why don't we sit down?" Petunia said, gesturing to the nearest table. Lily was only too glad to comply, and held onto the old bag she'd had for years. She loved it, even with it's faint smell of boiled nettles. "I got you something," said Lily. "From Greece." "You went to Greece?" said Petunia, her eyebrows going all the way up her forehead. "When?" "This past weekend. It was my anniversary." "Oh. Yes." Petunia's brows lowered and she looked down, straightening the silverware. "And so you went to Greece? But your anniversary was two weeks ago." Lily thought she could see a trace of jealousy in Petunia's voice, but she decided not to mind it. "We were going to go somewhere the weekend before, but James's mother was hurt." Her lips went tight at the mention of it. "We didn't want to leave her until we were sure she'd be alright." Petunia's head whipped up. She stared at Lily for a moment before speaking, although she didn't even open up her mouth until she was sure that no one around them were listening. "Did one of -- your kind hurt her? Like our--" she stopped talking and went back to examining the silverware for a moment. "Yes," said Lily. There was no reason to deny it. "It was someone who is happy about the way that we live." She didn't expect that Petunia would listen to discussions about the magical world long enough for Lily to fully explain the war. "But she's fine now, we don't need to worry." A waitress came and that ended the discussion of the magical world for the time being. They ordered their tea and Lily brought out the small, pearl brooch that she had bought for her sister. Petunia stared at it, surprised, and then tucked it away in her purse. Lily assumed she was trying to figure out how she could wear it and keep their meeting a secret from Vernon. The conversation was terse, unhappy, and unproductive for the most part. Petunia didn't want to talk about James, Lily didn't want to talk about Vernon, and since they still could not talk about their parents, it was hard to find something for the conversation to settle comfortably on. Their new families made them who they were, and both of them thought that the other's family was the greatest blemish on the face of the earth. Mum would fix things, Lily thought. Once they had had their tea, they both were quiet for a few minutes, before Petunia spoke again. "Listen, Lily," she said. "Those people who hurt Mum and Dad-- the one's who hurt--," she paused, her face still wrinkling in disgust, "his mother -- do you think they're going to try to hurt you?" Lily was so surprised at this moment of care that she stared blankly at her sister for a full three seconds. "Well, yes, Petunia. If they had the chance, they would. But I'm very careful, and James is doing all that he can to keep me from being hurt." "Is it those dementy--" "No. Those aren't the ones." She assumed Petunia had heard about them when she and Sev would talk about the Wizarding world, or when James had made himself a guest to the Evans home back when Lily hated him. "What about Vernon and I?" "You're very safe, I'm sure. I was careful about where I met you so that no one might see. I never tell anyone where you live. Nobody has any reason to hurt you." Besides, she added to herself mentally, Everyone thinks we hate each other. "You should leave this world," said Petunia, her brows lowering. "Stop being a freak for one moment, Lily, and just leave it. Take your husband if you have to, but you need to leave it all. You both don't have any real education but I'm sure you could manage a job somewhere, maybe Vernon would let him make drills, I could--" "I'm not leaving, Tuney. I'm not." Lily stood, frustrated. "It's who I am." "Not so loudly," said Petunia. To Lily, she was obviously more worried about who was looking at them instead of the look on Lily's face. "I'm sorry," said Lily, but she wasn't sorry at all. "I think you need to understand that. You've never understood it but you really ought to, Petunia." She gathered her things, not even looking at her sister's face. "Lily, look at where your world got Mum and--" "Don't talk to me about them." "But it's true. Your people--" Lily stood up straighter, looked Petunia straight in the eye. "Not my people," she said. "Not my people." "Those freaks. You're all freaks." There were tears in Petunia's eyes now, and her face screwed up remarkably unattractively. Lily looked away. "I'm not a freak. You can think that all you want, for the rest of your life if you want to, but you are wrong." She glared at her sister. "Dursley." "Potter," spat Petunia. The girls moved, striding toward the exit in two very different paths. |