Unofficial Portkey Archive

A/N: Here's chapter one of The Reasons to Live, enjoy!

Life Without Him

"Mum! I can't find it!" Lily Potter yelled down the stairs in a panic. Hermione Potter sighed, just like she had the whole morning of Lily not being able to find her things.

"What is it this time, Lily?" She yelled back as she started climbing the stairs. Lily, her hair disheveled and her cheeks red from exhaustion, walked out into the hallway and said,

"Hogwarts, a History." Hermione smiled slightly at her, but it didn't go to her eyes. She walked into the messy room, clothes strewn about and what looked like everything in her closet emptied out. She reached behind the dresser and produced the fat book, dropping it with a plop onto Lily's bed.

"There." Lily smiled her thanks and said,

"Mum? Er…could you help me pack?" She looked up at her mother, her almond shaped eyes wide and pleading. Hermione sighed and said, in a defeated tone,

"I suppose so, Lil, but you won't have my help at Hogwarts, you know." Lily nodded happily and sat down on her bed, behind her trunk, eyes wide as her mother magicked things to fly in until everything she needed was in.

"Anything else you want in there, Lily?" The 10-year-old girl bit her lip and nodded, pointing to the picture on her bedside table. Hermione breathed in and out quickly and walked over to the picture, picking it up and looking at it lovingly. It was of her and Harry, on their wedding day at the age of 18. They were standing under the awning they got married with, their arms around each other. They would just smile and joke around lovingly in it.

At this point the Hermione picture was smiling out into the distance when Harry picture kissed her mischievously on the cheek. She looked at him in mock madness and then pulled her to him for a sound kiss. Then they looked into each other's eyes, smiling lovingly. Hermione smiled slightly as a tear fell silently down her cheek. She shook herself quickly and brushed the tear away, walking briskly to the trunk and placing it face down on the pile of robes. She pursed her lips and tried and failed to smile at Lily.

"Well, there you go Lil, all packed and ready to start school tomorrow. I'll go make lunch." She walked quickly out the door and into her room, closing the door firmly and falling against it, sobbing quietly.

*************

Lily shut her door after seeing her mother go into her own room, and, hearing her sob quietly, sat down on her bed. She took the picture that her mother had set down in the trunk and looked at it smiling as her parents waved happily at her. She set it down lovingly, face-up, and took another picture from a drawer in her bedside table.

This picture was her second favorite, it was of her father, leaning up against the wall of their living room, the day her parents moved in. Paint cans littered the floor and his clothes were full of paint specks. He was smiling happily and when Lily looked at it he waved energetically at her. She smiled slightly and said, as she talked to this picture often,

"I'm going to Hogwarts tomorrow, Dad! I'm starting school! I really hope to make it in to Gryffindor and maybe even make the house quidditch team just like you did in your first year. I want to be a seeker just like you! I'm scared how mom's going to be without me though, Dad. It's like I'm the only thing she's living for, and if I leave there'll be nothing else. I promised to owl her at least once a week, though!" She smiled sadly, realizing how much she wanted a real father, instead of just a picture. She kissed the picture Harry on the cheek and whispered "Wish me luck." Lily placed the picture next to her favorite in the trunk.

She heard her mother walk downstairs and into the kitchen so she walked down into the living room and yelled,

"Could I go over to the Weasley's for a bit, Mum? Please?" Hermione walked into the living room and said,

"I suppose so, Lily. But be back in half an hour." And as she walked back into the kitchen she yelled, "And speak clearly!" Lily grabbed a pinch of floo powder from the pot over the fireplace and stepped in, throwing it down and yelling,

"The Burrow!" She felt that familiar rushing feeling and spun around and around, smiling all the way. She loved this way of traveling. She landed smoothly in the burrow fireplace and Luna Weasley, Ron's wife, smiled from her spot on the couch and said,

"Hello, Lily. The twins are up in their room. I assume that's why you came over?" Lily nodded and walked up the stairs to Maggie and Matt Weasley's room, Ron and Luna's children. Ron and Luna had moved in with Arthur and Molly when they got married, and had three children, Maggie and Matt, the twins, and 5-year-old Tammy, who barreled out of her room as Lily passed it and ran straight into her.

"Ily!" she yelled happily as she flung her arms around Lily's legs. Tammy looked like a miniature Luna, blond and round-faced, and very energetic. Lily bent down and gently pried Tammy's arms from around her legs, saying,

"Well hullo there, Tam-Bam. How are you today?" Tammy giggled at her nickname and said,

"I'm good. I wish you, Maggie and Matt didn't have to leave tomorrow, though." She stuck her bottom lip out in a pout and Lily smiled and hugged her, saying,

"We'll be back, don't worry. And in a few years you'll be going to Hogwarts with us!" Tammy smiled at that and ran down the stairs, yelling back,

"See ya later, Ily!" Lily laughed as the energetic girl ran down the stairs and continued up to Maggie and Matt's room. When she walked into the big room they shared, the twins were in an argument, both red-faced (and eared) to match their flaming hair. Maggie, who looked just like a miniature Ginny, was stomping her foot down and yelling,

"You TOOK it! I know you did! You thought it'd be funny, so you TOOK it!" Matt, a miniature Ron, was sitting on his bed opening and closing his mouth as if he wanted to say something, and then finally stood up and yelled,

"I did not! I swear, I saw it lying on your bed this morning! But I didn't TOUCH it!" Lily `ahemed' loudly and they both glared at her. She raised an eyebrow and put out her hands in a `don't attack me' expression, saying,

"What's lost, Mag?" Maggie gritted her teeth and said,

"My quidditch book. It's not lost though. Matt took it!" Matt gaped at her and yelled,

"Why would I take it if I have one of my OWN?!" Maggie sat down on the bed forcefully and said,

"I don't KNOW! Maybe you lost yours and decided to take mine!" I walked over to the cabinet between their two beds and picked up a pile of clothes, producing under it a quidditch book that, in the inside cover, said Maggie Weasley. I turned around as they glared at each other and handed it to her, saying,

"Here, Maggie. It was on the cabinet." She opened and closed her mouth and then said, quietly,

"That's not where I left it…" Matt said a quick `whoops' and then said,

"I thought it was mine, Mag, and then when I realized it was yours I set it down on the cabinet. Sorry I forgot to tell you." Maggie looked angry at him for a second and then mumbled, with Lily raising her eyebrows at her,

"Sorry I thought you took it." They both smiled at each other slightly. Their fights were quite common. Lily smiled at them both and sat down next to Maggie, saying,

"So how excited are you guys for Hogwarts?" They both burst out talking at the same time, Maggie saying something about how she couldn't wait to learn all sorts of charms and Matt saying something about going to see the quidditch games and wishing he could try out for the house team. Maggie finished before Matt and he finished with something along the lines of `a keeper just like Dad'.

Lily laughed at their excitement and said,

"I can only stay for another 20 minutes. So who's up for a game of wizards chess?" Matt yelled,

"Me!" and dropped his upper half of body off the bed, reaching under it and producing his set. Lily moved on his bed and set up the pieces while Maggie settled on the floor on the side of the bed saying,

"I play winner!"

A/N: Well there's the first chapter. Next will be leaving for Hogwarts and stuff. And then in chapter three: whatever happened to Harry? Is he really dead? PLZ REVIEW!!!

-Emily

Document created with wvWare/wvWare version 1.0.0

-->