'L' for Lily! (thatgingergirl) wrote in throwingstones, @ 2010-01-27 23:43:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! complete, [january 1979], alice longbottom, lily potter |
Who: Lily and Alice
When: 27 January, evening
Where: Casa Fralice
What: Lily stays for some extra training with Alice, they eat Chinese food, and have awkward conversation
Rating: A for Alice and her Language.
Status: Complete!
The ground came up fast, but after hitting it countless times tonight Lily was prepared. This time she pulled her knees up, turning herself into a ball, and when she hit the ground she rolled and slid onto her side - pointing her wand and sending the eyeburn hex Emmeline had been teaching followed by a swift silent blasting hex. Using the distractions they were sure to cause, Lily pushed herself to her feet and erected a shield charm, pushing the pain of a broken ankle and a possible dislocated shoulder out of her mind in order to keep it while she braced for Alice's return attack. It felt good to train with Alice again. True this session felt more intense, more violent, and Lily had had a moment of panic at one point when she'd spit up blood and worried about her lung only to realise that she'd bit her tongue in a fall. There was a deep gash along the side of her head and her already red hair was matted with still free flowing blood since every time she fell she aggravated the injury and head wounds had that annoying habit of bleeding an absurd amount. In the beginning she'd attempted to heal herself in the brief moments when Alice was distracted, but she learned quickly that shield charms in between did more to keep her uninjured than whatever feeble Healing charms she could manage in between. And so, covered in dirt, sweat and blood, her bones broken and sprained and out of joint, Lily held her shield charm and waited for the next blow. They'd been at it for an hour, maybe more, and Alice had to say, she was pretty proud of Lily. Sure, she made her fair share of mistakes, but she was much better than the last time they'd trained, and she'd lasted. Given the recent history of battles Alice and Frank and everyone had been it, she wondered if resilience actually mattered more than certain defence skills. Hell, she was sure one of the reasons her husband wasn't dead was that he was too fucking stubborn to just give up and pass out. But that wasn't always a good thing. That same resilience and stubbornness was the reason he went after Crazy Bitch Lestrange time and time again. But she supposed everything had two sides. So Lily had lasted, Alice was impressed. And sure, the girl looked beat up to all hell, but it wasn't anything that would demand Mungo's, and she could go home and boast that she'd dueled Alice for over and hour and made it home Mungo's free. And Alice hadn't even gone easy on her. She probably should have, to be honest, but Alice had spent every night since Frank landed his arse back in the hospital and promptly asked her to leave blasting shit on her own; it was about time she had a partner. And besides, Lily sort of deserved a bit of a rough time after last week's mishaps. The poor girl looked like she was about to die though, and to be quite fair, Alice had a fair share of bruises and cuts, but it was nothing compared to Lily. She sidestepped quickly to avoid the girl's hexes, and then looked at her for a moment. She'd suffered enough. "Right, let's call it for tonight. Are you hungry?" Not quite believing that Alice was ending the duel, Lily kept her shield charm up a moment longer, watching the other woman dubiously as she lowered her wand and declared it time to eat. Eventually though her adrenalin subsided and Alice's words registered and Lily's wand lowered and broke the shield. Without the rush of adrenalin to keep her going and push through her injuries her body started to scream in pain and it took a herculean effort not to allow her eyes to roll back in her head. "Yeah, what did you order?" she asked, knowing enough about the Longbottom's by now to know that if Alice was on her own she was ordering Chinese food. Though what dishes exactly she wasn't sure. Pointing her wand at her ankle, shoulder, head, and other various battered and bruised areas Lily began casting Healing charms. Bones began to fuse together, muscles repaired, skin knitted itself up. Eventually the pain slowly began to subside enough for her to begin limping towards Alice and the house. Healing was not Alice's thing, so she left Lily to it and watched the girl as she healed herself. Once she got bored though, she headed back inside, knowing Lily would follow her. "Egg drop soup, Moo Shoo Pork, Moo Goo Gai Pan, Fried Rice, and some Egg Rolls." Yes, Alice ordered Chinese and yes, she ordered a lot of it. But she wasn't sleeping, so she was usually picking at it until the early hours in the morning anyway. In the kitchen, Alice went straight to her potions cabinet and filtered through vials before tossing one to Lily. "And a light pain potion for you. Good work today. You lasted a good length of time." She put the kettle on and finally stopped to quickly heal her own injuries. Cuts and bruises were easy, she was used to healing those from day one of training. "Your silent spells still need some work, but your resilience is building. It's a very good thing." Lily grinned, catching the vial and downing it gratefully. "Moo shoo pork and an egg roll," she declared, moving to the sink and washing her hands thoroughly of the grime that had accumulated during the battle. When Alice complimented her she couldn't help but flush, her shoulders straightening in pride as she attempted not to look like she'd just won an Order of Merlin, instead ducking her head and busying herself with drying her hands on a tea towel. "Do you think I'll do alright Saturday then? I'd rather not spend the entirety of my birthday laid up in bed trying to heal," she pointed out, folding the towel and moving towards the table to sit - finally sit. "Not that I'm asking anyone to go easy on me, I don't want that at all. I'm just wondering if you think I'll be able to be on my feet at the end of the day." "I don't think Caradoc will go harder on you than I just did. But you never really know with him." Alice shrugged, pulling down her shirt and then her trouser leg before grabbing some plates from the cupboard. She laid out the takeaway boxes while she talked, smelling them to make sure they'd delivered the right things. "And there won't just be you there. It'll be Dorcas, Marlene, James, and you, so no one will be completely focused on you the whole time. Which will be good for you too. You'll learn to work in teams and how to look out for each other. I also don't think it'll go all day. I can't see it going more than a few hours. We do have lives outside of training." She smirked and emptied a bit from each box onto her plate and passed them onto Lily for her to choose. "I'd tell you to grab Potter and Black and work on your silent spells before Saturday, because that's your biggest weakness." She pointed at Lily with her chopsticks fully of pork. "Especially when there is noise going on around you. It's hard but you can't get distracted." Selecting a bit from a few different cartons and shoveling some pork and vegetables into her mouth, Lily nodded, chewing furiously before swallowing, her stomach ravenous after the duel. "At least I can manage to cast them somewhat effectively now," she pointed out in between mouthfuls. "I was complete rubbish at them a few months ago. So if I keep going at this pace I should be able to land some rather decent hits with them soon." Taking a bite of her egg roll, Lily glanced down at her fast diminishing food, thinking about the lesson coming up and everyone involved. It really was an excellent punishment. And she almost wished Remus and Sirius had been caught so they could be forced to be involved too. They all needed this sort of training. She didn't want to think of any of them caught unprepared. "I'm glad James decided to join us," was all she said on that though. She wasn't going to bring up the other boys' involvement now. "If he's going into the Hitwizard program it'll be good for him." Alice quirked a brow as she stuffed a piece of chicken in her mouth. "He asked to join." She actually hadn't thought he'd been involved in the plan. Something about James's dad being dead told Alice he wasn't up for much scheming, but if he wanted to punish himself by choice, well that was fine too. "Is he actually going to do it? Join the hitwizards, I mean." "He told me," Lily said, taking a moment to dab at her mouth with a napkin before attacking her soup. "And yes, I think he might. Well, I hope he will at least. Emmeline's been an amazing influence on him about it. And I think he really needs some structure like it right now. Especially now," she added, dipping her spoon into the hot broth and swallowing, letting the liquid warm her up through her fingers. "Besides. We just think they might be after him, because of me. No one actually knows for sure he's Order. So he can actually go out and get a real job and not have to stay in hiding forever," she pointed out, trying very hard to keep her tone even. Alice nodded her head in agreement to pretty much everything Lily was saying, except for the obviously bitter bit about being in hiding forever. Still, she didn't show it on her face. Instead, she chewed her vegetables and thought for a moment. "Things will be better when you're in the safe house." She finally said, choosing not to berate her for going a bit stir crazy. "And maybe, after some time passes, we can get you a job in a muggle shop, or something." She took another bite of her egg roll and kept going, mouth just a bit full. "And if not, then we'll keep you busy with projects. You can work on occlumency and perfect some tracking charms, or even make listening devices. I know it sucks being cooped up, but better cooped up than dead, Lily." Either she had eaten enough to satiate her appetite, or the talk about her being in hiding killed her appetite, since as she tried to drink another spoonful of soup she found she couldn't even get it past her lips and let it fall back to the bowl. "He's old. Maybe he'll contract some random Magical disease and die and then we won't have to worry about him," she said hopefully, knowing how hideously optimistic and naive it sounded as the words came out of her mouth. Pushing her plate and bowl to the side, she got up and and brought the dishes over to the sink. Even if she didn't live here anymore, the instinctual daily habits still overcame her as she turned the tap to wait for the hot water. "Do you think I'll ever end up being any good at it? I mean, it's taken me this long just to get silencing spells. And I wasn't very effective at blocking Caradoc last time." When Lily went to wash her dishes, Alice was not about to complain or even protest. Still, she'd cleared her plate and decided instead to jump up on the counter and keep eating out of the takeaway container instead. "It takes a lot of work. I'm still not that good at it. But I've been reading up, I can give you a few books. These things take time because they're complicated, but the only way you get better is by studying and practising." "Things aren't always going to come easy, which sucks, but at least it gives you a goal to work towards. I bet you'll be better the next time Caradoc goes in your head than you were the last time he did, and that's without even practising. If you read up and work on it, you'll improve. And as for your silent spells, they take a bit too. The best thing you can do is strike Sirius and James unexpectedly. Just...don't blast them around the house. I think Maureen would get pissed." Scrubbing each of her dishes meticulously, Lily took Alice's own empty ones and began those as well, watching the other woman as she talked and ate and nodding along with her. "Books would be brilliant, yes. I always feel like I can do a spell better once I understand the theory behind it solidly. So anything you have on it would be amazing." Turning the tap off, she picked up the tea towel she'd used earlier and began drying, making sure she captured each water droplet in every crevice. Sighing, she glanced around the still familiar kitchen. "I miss living here," she confessed, talking more to herself than Alice. "It's nice getting to live with James, but it isn't the same." By this time, Alice was just playing with the chopsticks in the takeaway box, not actually eating, but Lily's words made her smile. "I miss you too." She confessed and then added with a smile, "And not just for your insane cleaning." Alice placed the carton on the counter finally and looked at Lily, scrubbing each dish like a crazy person. "Especially this week. It's so weird with the house being empty except for me." "It's not insane, it's meticulous," Lily clarified, but even she couldn't help the slight twitch of her lips at the declaration. It had always been so normal in her house to clean like this. Her mother had been pristine, always trying to please her husband. Lily's father. And he'd been abnormally neat and organised, turning household chores and making the bed into competitions between his daughters. Whichever bed was the neatest, whoevers dish was the cleanest, closet the most organised. By the time Lily had gone off to Hogwarts cleaning was something she did for fun. And then after he had died... Her smile faltered for just a second as she finished drying the dishes and she turned to put them away, able to find where everything went in the Longbototm house with her eyes closed. "When does Frank come home?" she asked, changing the subject instead. "Soon hopefully. It's been ages since he's been back, hasn't it?" "Tomorrow." Alice nodded her head. It had been ages, hadn't it? Fuck, it had to have practically been two weeks now. Shit That was way too long to be in the hospital. "I haven't seen him since Sunday though." Which was weird too. She'd been oddly okay with Frank asking her for space, but it had been three days now. She was pretty sure she'd never been this bad about alone time. "Tomorrow? Really? Did you need help setting anything up? I mean, will he be on bedrest or is he completely alright? Because I don't mind staying for a bit if you need me," she offered. Perhaps a touch anxiously. It was that need to be useful and have a purpose swelling up, combinded with really missing being able to putter around the cottage. At Caradoc's she could clean and organise, there was no shortage to what the boys messed up, but it just wasn't the same. And Maureen, while very sweet and accomodating, was not Alice. And now Alice was finally talking to her again - well as much as Alice talked to anyone, really - and she didn't quite want to leave yet and have that fear of everything reverting back to the awkwardness it had been. "I--I don't know." Alice blinked a bit, surprised by the answer that came out of her mouth. She didn't know how Frank was going to be, or if he needed bedrest. Fuck, she'd hardly spoken to him. Ugh, she was pretty much the worst wife ever sometimes. "I'm sure he'll be fine." She shrugged it off like she was shrugging off everything lately and just sighed. "But come on, you've cleaned up enough in here. I've got some occlumency books in the living room we can look at together." |