Chapter 10: Christmas Break
Lily sat in her bed at home, using a flashlight to look through the charms books that she had brought home over break,
hoping for better luck than she'd had last time. She was running out of ancient charm books in the library. If they
didn't find something in the books they'd all taken home over break, Lily was going to have to summon the
courage to ask Professor Flitwick for a note to investigate the Restricted Section. She already planned to tell him
that she needed access to the Restricted Section to do an independent study on language charms, but she wasn't sure
she could lie well enough to convince him. She'd considered having Alice or Amelia get the note, but the fact of
the matter was that neither was advanced enough in Charms to convince Flitwick that they were doing an independent
study. She was flipping to the next spell when a sliver of light slid across the floor of her room. Lily glanced up and
saw Petunia standing in the doorway. She smiled broadly. "Hi, Pet!" she greeted her, as she always did.
"Aren't you supposed to be in bed right now?"
Petunia smiled. "Aren't you?" she asked. Lily laughed.
"All right, you don't tell mum and dad, and I won't," Lily answered, patting a spot beside her on the bed. Petunia came scampering in and jumped up on Lily's bed.
"What are you reading," she asked, peering around the book, trying to see.
"Shhhh," Lily said, holding a finger up to her lips. "Keep quiet or mum and dad'll hear, and then we'll really be in for it. I'm reading a charm book."
Petunia looked disappointed. "I was hoping it was one on unicorns." Lily smiled. She had brought home a few books that she had thought would interest Petunia. Pet had spent several hours reading them, but kept re-reading the one about magical animals. The unicorn, in particular was her favorite, though Lily supposed that wasn't suprising. If given the choice between a unicorn and an Acromantula, most little girls would go for the unicorn. Lily rifled around in her bag, and pulled out the copy of "Magical Animals that Don't Bite, Suck, or Throw Fire", and handed it to Petunia, who snuggled under the covers next to Lily and began to read.
The next morning, Lily awoke to Petunia snoring softly beside her. She smiled as she noticed the book of magical animals laying on top of Petunia's chest. Her own book was laying on the floor, where it had presumably fallen when she'd nodded off to sleep. She got up and stretched then headed to the bathroom for a bath, taking care to make as little noise as possible. When she returned to her room, she opened the door and stifled a laugh. Petunia was standing on a chair in front of the mirror. She had put on a set of Lily's robes and one of her hats. The robes were easily 3 or 4 inches too long on her, she had rolled up the sleeves to keep them from covering her hands, and the hat sat so low on her forehead that you could barely see her eyes. Petunia was holding a branch in her hand, flicking it, and muttering things like "abracadabra". When Petunia held up the branch and shouted "Bippity boppity boo!" Lily could not contain her laughter. When Lily laughed, Petunia turned quickly, lost her balance, and fell, head first toward the corner of the dresser. Lily gasped and lunged toward Petunia, knowing it would be too late to catch her, but something slowed her down and backed her away from the dresser. She landed softly on the carpet, unhurt. Before she'd begun at Hogwarts, something like that would have surprised Lily, but now she barely thought twice about it as she rushed over to make sure that Petunia was truly okay. Petunia brushed her away, laughing, her face a little flushed. "I just wanted to see what it was like," she said, embarrassed.
"I don't mind," Lily assured her, "just maybe next time, keep your feet on the ground!"
Petunia smiled. "Will you teach me some real spells?" she asked. Lily hesitated. Petunia didn't have a real wand, and as long as she used a branch and not her own wand, she wouldn't be breaking the rule about no magic at home.
"Tell you what," she said, "go get dressed, and let's eat breakfast. Then we'll go outside, and practice!"
"All right!" Petunia said enthusiastically, bolting out in the hall and toward her own room. As Lily watched her, she felt another unbidden swell of sympathy for Andromeda. There was probably a time when she and Bellatrix and Narcissa had been this close as well. It must have been very difficult for her to break ties with them because of her sisters' hatred toward an entire group of people for being born what their families were not. "I'll never have to worry about that, though," Lily said, comforting herself. "I'll always have Petunia, no matter what." She finished getting ready and went downstairs to meet Petunia for breakfast.
After breakfast, Lily began showing Petunia some of the more elementary spells that she had learned at school. After
awhile, a friend of Lily's from grade school, Vicki Tonks, came by the house, and the three girls got into a
snowball fight. Lily invited Vicki in for lunch, and the girls scarfed down sandwiches that Elizabeth had prepared, and
then ran back outside again to continue the snow ball fight. Several more hours passed before the voice of Elizabeth
Evans came floating across the lawn.
"Girls!" she called. "It's time to get in here and get washed up for dinner. Nanny and Pop are going to be over!" Lily threw the snowball that she had been making and hit Petunia square in the back of the head, before waving goodbye to Vicki and running inside. Elizabeth Evans smiled as Lily and Petunia came racing into the kitchen.
"Change into some dry clothes, and get washed up, both of you!" she said, stirring milk into a pot on the stove. "Nanny and Pops will be here for our Christmas Eve feast soon!"
"Race you?" Lily asked Petunia. Petunia nodded, and Lily counted off, "On three. One, two-,"
Petunia took off, and Lily ran after her, shouting "No fair!" They raced up the stairs, Harry calling after them, "No running in the house!" Lily and Petunia both reached the upstairs landing at the same time, laughing, but out of breath.
"I would have beat you if you'd waited until three," Lily panted.
Petunia grinned. "Then where's the incentive for me to wait until three?" she asked. They both burst into laughter. After they'd caught their breath, Petunia said, "Come on, we'd better get ready. Mum'll have a fit if we don't get down there soon."
As Lily changed into dry clothes, she heard the voices of her mum's parents, Kathryn and Roland Mason, downstairs. She quickly washed her hands and face, and ran downstairs. "Lily!" a deep voice shouted, and the next thing she knew, she was engulfed in a huge hug by her grandfather. She hugged him back, and then he stood back and looked at her. "So you're learning to be a good little witch, now? Huh? We couldn't be prouder!" His eyes shone with pride as he smiled at her.
"Thanks," she said, grinning. "I wish I could show you some of what I've learned, but I'm not allowed to do magic outside of school."
Kathryn looked disappointed. "Well, I'm sure you're studying hard, aren't you? You've always been such a good student!" she said, now hugging Lily. "Not getting into any trouble, I trust?"
Lily felt a pang of guilt as she thought about the detention she'd received from Potions, and the adventure that had followed. She tried her best not to look guilty. "No," she said, shaking her head. "No trouble."
Kathryn looked at her critically for a moment, and then smiled broadly. "That's my girl. I knew we wouldn't have to worry about you!" At that moment, Petunia arrived in the living room. "Not like Petunia, here!" Kathryn said, now hugging Petunia. "If she were off at Hogwarts, she'd be the center of trouble, like she is at her school!"
Petunia blushed. "I don't go looking for trouble!" she said, but her innocent look reminded Lily a little too much of James Potter for Lily to believe her.
"Petunia!" Lily exclaimed, now looking sternly at her sister. "Have you been getting into trouble at school this year?"
Petunia's face turned even redder, "No!" she protested, but she didn't look at Lily as she said it.
"She hasn't told you?" a new voice said. Lily looked up and saw her mum smiling at Petunia. "She's even had detention a few times. Right little delinquent, she's been. Twice now she's gotten into trouble for playing pranks during class, and on the playground, she got into trouble for starting a fight-,"
"He said magic wasn't real!" Petunia protested.
Lily wasn't sure what appalled her more, the fact that Petunia didn't appear to be taking school seriously, or the fact that her sister had told someone about magic. "You need to take your studies seriously, Pet," she said.
"I'm going to Hogwarts in two years, anyway," Petunia replied, her eyes sparkling. "I won't need to know who invaded Paris when I get there."
Lily couldn't help but smile at the look on Petunia's face. "All right then, you're also not supposed to be telling everyone what I'm studying!" she admonished her.
At this, Petunia looked petulant. "I wasn't. I was just playing witch, and Tommy Jones came over and told me magic wasn't real, and he took my wand-the one I had carved from a branch on the tree outside. He wouldn't give it back to me, so I punched him."
Lily tried hard not to laugh, imagining the look on little Tommy Jones's face. Tommy had always bullied her sister, and she couldn't help but be proud that Petunia had fought back. She noticed her grandpa was also chuckling. "Did you give him a black eye?" Roland asked, grinning.
Harry's voice interrupted this time. "I hardly thought you'd be encouraging that behavior, Dad!" he said disapprovingly.
"Sorry, Harry," Roland said, but the twinkle in his eye told Lily otherwise. "But a girl's got to learn how to defend herself!" He put up his fists and started jabbing playfully at Petunia, who began dancing around him, fists up as well.
"And with that, I think I'll announce that dinner's ready," Elizabeth said, laughing. "If you two care to stop boxing and join us that is," she added, as Roland and Petunia continued to box around the room.
Dinner that evening was very relaxing, and by the time Lily had stuffed herself full of all of her favorite home-cooked foods, she was feeling sleepy and content. She said goodnight to her parents and grandparents, and went upstairs with Petunia, the feeling of anxiety that had been with her for so long blissfully absent. She fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow, and for the first time since the dream about the quidditch match, she didn't wake up in a panic, wondering what it was she'd forgotten.
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Lily awoke early the next morning, as was her habit, and crept downstairs, trying not to wake anyone up. When she
arrived in the living room she was surprised to see her family already sitting around the tree, sipping coffee and hot
chocolate, and chatting quietly. When she entered the room, they all looked up and greeted her. Petunia let out a
squeal. "You said that we could open presents as soon as Lily got up, right mum? We can open presents
now?"
Elizabeth laughed. "All right then, who's playing Santa Claus?" She picked up the Santa Claus hat that was sitting on the table. It was tradition in Lily's family for whomever was passing out the presents to wear a Santa Claus hat while they did so.
Petunia raised her hand enthusiastically. "I will!" She grabbed the hat and settled it on her head. Combined with her nightshirt and jingle bell slippers, she looked more like one of Santa's elves than like Santa Claus, and as Lily giggled at the thought, she felt again the familiar nagging sensation in the back of her mind. The feeling disappeared as Petunia handed out presents and Lily began the age-old tradition of shaking the boxes to figure out what's inside. After all of the presents were handed out, they took turns opening their presents, one at a time. Lily's grandparents had give her a beautiful photo album with pictures of her family in, and room to add more of her friends from Hogwarts; Petunia had given her a watch; and her parents had given her a planner to use to keep track of homework. As Petunia was opening her last present from their parents (a journal), Harry slipped out of the room. When he returned, he was carrying a large box that was hooting intermittently. Lily looked at her parents, awe-struck.
"Well, go on dear, open it!" Elizabeth said, smiling at Lily.
Lily ripped off the wrapping paper, tore open the box, and found a cage containing a beautiful white owl with brown stripes. It was hooting happily as Harry helped her lift the cage out of the box.
"It's a North American barred owl," Harry said, looking at Lily. "Mrs. Figg said it'd make a very good post owl, so she ordered one from a wizarding owlery. We had it imported special."
Lily was so excited that she felt like she might cry. "Thank you guys!" she said, throwing herself at her mum and dad and hugging them fiercely.
They laughed. "Well, it wasn't entirely unselfish," Elizabeth admitted. "We figured we might get a few more letters from you if you didn't have to borrow your friends' owls all the time!"
Lily laughed, feeling a little guilty. She hadn't written as often as she'd planned to, but then, she hadn't expected to be so busy. She nodded. "I will," she said emphatically, grinning at the bird, who hooted at her.
"So," Roland asked, "What are you going to name it?"
"Romulus," Lily said, saying the first name that popped into her head. "Do you like that name, Romulus?" Romulus hooted as if to indicate his assent. The family laughed. "It's settled, then," she said, grinning.