InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "George is my friend."

After Remus's news regarding Florrie, catching up with her friend gained a new level of urgency for Lily. Friday had been a little busy though, what with work and the ridiculous spectacle of the CLAMS fundraiser. That had hardly been the place to have a serious conversation, but there'd been enough privacy in the ladies' bathroom (where they'd adjourned at one point to get a breather from the more severe oddities of society) to touch base, and make arrangements for a more serious catch up the following day.

Thankfully it was a nice day, so here Lily was, sitting on a picnic rug in a little patch of greenery-and-play-equipment tucked into a charming little corner of Leicester, with a tray of take-away coffee and Harry propped up on his stomach and gnawing thoroughly on a teething ring.

Florrie had arranged for the day off after the party, which was nice when she could do it, hoping for a catch-up like this. She so rarely got to see Lily these days, especially not with all the trouble, and was hoping that the end of things might let them get together more often. She had dressed Muggle for the occasion, in leggings and a tunic and low boots and her favourite jacket that passed for expansive leather. She waved at Lily as she entered the park and jogged across the grass to join her and Harry.

"Survive the night? And did you need pain potions in the morning for the aftereffects?" The wine had flowed freely, and it had been very good wine. Florrie hadn't nursed a hangover because she'd drunk in moderation but many had not. She reckoned Lily hadn't gone even partway over the eight because of Harry, but the lads ...

"We just about survived," Lily replied, shifting over to clear a patch of rug for Florrie. "God but I miss the days of sleeping in. Even if the reason is pretty cute." Said reason had left off chewing to goggle at "Auntie Florrie" with enormous green eyes. Harry's grin only had two teeth so far, but compensated for it with an abundance of drool. "Here." Lily stretched for the coffees, passing over the one not already marked on the lid with her lipstick. "How'd you pull up? And Merc?"

"I think Merc didn't know what to do with that quill holder," Florrie answered after she'd had a long sip of coffee. "But he's making the best of it anyhow. And you know I always have potions ready for myself and to send home with Merc. I mostly needed mine for all the pointed glares, of course."

"If this is going to become a regular thing," Lily mused, "we could make you a badge. Chill out, I'm his sister. Picked out in diamantes for a bit of evening sparkle." She was laughing by the final words.

Florrie was giggling too, because the idea was hilarious, though she honestly preferred that Merc come away from these things with the sense that groupies were terrible and he didn't want any more from them than he was already getting. "I don't know. I think he liked the look of that French girl whichever that was of the Prewetts had with her. Maybe I'll get lucky and not have to go at all next time."

"That would be lucky," Lily agreed, and sighed heavily. "Can I get off as well please? If I never have to deal with Malfoy or his ilk ever again, that would be absolutely fine with me. I'm sure it could have been worse, but I feel like I did absolutely nothing useful last night." Harry shook his teething ring, and Lily smiled at him. "Your mummy's probably in the social pages right now looking like she doesn't think Lucius Malfoy is a smarmy twerp."

"Your mummy is very good at lying for a cause," Florrie told Harry.

Harry grinned gummily at Florrie, and Lily laughed. "And other surprises of adulthood. Though, speaking of which--" Lies and surprises both; Lily cut Florrie a direct look and a slightly apologetic smile. She'd love to just enjoy the time in the sun with her friend--there was too little of all of that recently--but there were things that needed to be covered before Harry lost his good humour. "I hear you are now aware of the extent of Remus's--situation."

Ah, she should have been expecting this. "You know I can't talk about patients like that, even with mutual friends. Sometimes especially with mutual friends," Florrie reminded Lily, for all that she was sure Lily knew. It wouldn't hurt to have Lily report back the correct answer. It was nice to have it confirmed that Lily knew, though, because it confirmed Florrie's own sense that Remus was taking proper precautions, or he wouldn't have been allowed around Harry. "Sorry, but just because the circumstances of his care are what they are doesn't change my obligations."

"Good," Lily said, easily and happily, and without any trace of surprise. She knew healers--worked around them all day--but more importantly, she knew Florrie. "I just wanted you to know that he has help. And you do too, if it's ever needed." That was all entirely serious, though Lily got a wry tilt to her head as she added, "Including for dealing with the boys. They can be very protective." She'd experienced it first-hand.

"Oh, I have no doubt. Well, you keep James in hand, and I'll just hex Sirius if he gets too far out of line. The problem with Sirius is that you think he's going to be all talk and no action, and then he does something terrible."

Florrie had been thinking a lot about events in their fifth year since all this had come out, and some of them took a terrible cast now that she understood there'd been a werewolf among them all this time. Florrie wasn't afraid of Remus, more like for him, but the puzzle of had happened with Severus Snape now snapped into focus with this piece in hand. But Florrie didn't want to talk to Lily about that, not when they were in a relatively good mood.

"I'm more worried about Remus, and how he's handling things." Florrie stopped her game of got-your-nose with Harry to ask, "Do you think he knows about or would be interested in the Belby trials?"

"Knows about, not interested in," Lily summarised. "Doesn't really fit with keeping a low profile. I've been tinkering with ways of perhaps making something similar but more accessible and affordable." Affordable mattered; James and Sirius would pool their fortunes to aid their friend, Lily knew that. She also knew that Remus would hate it. "But so far, unsurprisingly, nothing both effective and stable. What's fascinating is that importation of African Lamium is so limited mostly because you can just substitute plain old nettles in every instance except this one and if I could just establish why, I'd be halfway towards--" She stopped, and gave a little laugh. "Sorry, I'll skip the nerding out."

Florrie waved her hand in Lily's direction dismissively; Harry's eyes tried to follow it. "I've met Belby. You're not a patch on him for nerding out. But anyroad if you want a mediwizardry assistant, obviously I'm in. Just something that relieved symptoms would help a lot."

"Yeah," Lily said with a sigh. Taking even a little of that grey pinch from Remus's face would be amazing. He deserved so much better, so much more than he had, but giving him just a little more ease would be something. "Well, I do what I can, but it's not like I have--" She waved a hand. "A whole lab and assistants and all that. Or even more time than a few hours here and there to spare for it." Which made her feel a little terrible; Remus was her friend. But so were the others in the Order who needed--or at least, had needed--her assistance in other ways.

"But we're mostly done, right? I mean we'll need to press our cause in the media and the Wizengamot, but you and I will have more time, barring Harry's needs, right?" Florrie was frowning because for all that she'd thought there was hope, Remus, and James at the gala, and now Lily were all acting like nothing was changing. "There won't be any more fighting?"

"I really hope not," Lily said, with tired vehemence. The past few years had each felt a lifetime long, stretched taut by fear; she couldn't imagine how the older Order members must feel. And yet... "I don't trust them to go quietly," she admitted. "Or to give up, not really." Maybe that was just Sirius's influence on her.

"I don't expect them to give up their plotting and planning. They were doing that when your dance partner's father was levering out Nobby Leach when we were children," Florrie reminded Lily, whom she was sure knew this history for all that Lily hadn't lived it. "I'd just rather we fought them in the Ministry than in the streets. Less blood that way even if it's a harder road." Which might not sound so good to Lily, so she reached for Lily's hand, dodging Harry's attempt to grasp at her as she did so, to emphasise, "We'll get there. And with you and everybody else in one piece, too."

Lily clasped Florrie's hand, and knew she was right. And it wasn't that she wanted to fight; she'd prefer to avoid it altogether any chance they could. But...

Well, she still remembered the first time she'd crossed the Great Hall at Hogwarts to try to speak to Severus at the Slytherin table, and the looks she'd been given by the students sitting around him. They didn't even like him, or at least that's what he'd told her earlier, furious and secretive, but they'd liked her a whole lot less, it seemed. That had been the first time she'd been called a mudblood. She'd been at Hogwarts all of a month.

And it stung, more than a little, to go through all of this and just... go back to that. Go back to that and be grateful it isn't hexes in the dark.

Lily sighed, and pulled up a smile--for Florrie, for Harry, for herself. "You're right, of course." And if they got to the bottom of this horcrux business, stamped out any chance of this not being the end of it all, she'd be even more right.

"I know it's terrible, and--it's not as personal to me, even though we still don't know who killed my Da and whoever it is got away with it, even if they died--but I don't want to think they all died for nothing. So we go about it differently. And, you know, if we can unmask some of them who were, or tie them strongly enough to You Know Who, we can sink their filthy rhetoric. There was a time when they wouldn't even have had me at something hosted by OWLS and I've only got one Muggle grandparent." And for all that Florrie had been raised in large part among the MacFusty clan, that single grandparent counted for more to those people than her raising by good wizards and witches.

"I really hope this is what progress looks like," Lily said. "I want more of it. I want... I want justice, for all of it, somehow. I want a society that is just." Her smile tilted. "And I'd like to not be fighting for it for the rest of our lives, but I suppose there are worse things we could be doing with the time. Certainly far worse people I could be spending it with."

Florrie grinned at Lily, but it was rueful. "I don't know that we can get real justice, Lily, not really. But if we do well, things will be better for Harry and his friends. And that means something." She found one of Harry's toys that he'd dropped by where she was sitting and offered it to Harry, who took it with a giggle.

"That will be worth it," Lily agreed, beaming as she watched Harry attack his toy with gums and enthusiasm. For this--for her friends and her family--it was all worth it.