I'm so incredibly sorry it's taken me so long to update! I've had so much going on lately that I simply haven't had the time for writing this! I hope you can all find it in your hearts to forgive me, or at least that you will all enjoy this chapter…
Chapter 16
Scarlet Eyes
"So, you feel like telling me why you ran away?" Vernon asked again.
Petunia took a deep breath, deciding that since he was being so nice to her, she might as well tell him. "I ran away because…umm…" and then she changed her mind. This boy didn't need to know the personal details of her life-he wouldn't understand. "I ran away because my parents wouldn't let me go out with all my friends."
Vernon smiled, and took her arm, leading her back the way she had come. "Well, I'm sure your parents are worrying, we should get you back."
Petunia sighed. "I suppose. But why couldn't I stay here with you?"
Vernon stopped and looked her up and down, then glanced back at his friends, who were eyeing him suspiciously. "Well, alright. But only for a little while."
*
Lily shielded her eyes as the morning light sifted through her window. She hadn't gotten much sleep that night, worrying about Petunia. But it was her fault anyway. Why should everyone have to be worrying so much about her when it was her choice to leave? And it wasn't as if she had never done it before-this just happened to be the first time her parents had known about it.
She glanced at her watch. She would have to leave for Kings' Cross in a few hours. And her parents were distraught. Petunia definitely picked the most perfectly inconvenient time to run away.
Lily walked cautiously down the stairs, approaching her mother, who looked up at her with tear-stained eyes. "I know what you're thinking, Lily-darling, but we simply can't take you to the train station. Not with your sister missing."
Everything that Lily had wanted to say caught in her throat. "That's it? But I can't get back!" she shouted, quickly losing coherent thought. "Petunia's always doing this! All she wants is you attention, and she'll do anything to get it!"
Her mother rose quietly. "Well then maybe it's about time we started showing her some affection." She moved quickly out of the room, and then turned back to look at her daughter. "All of us."
When her mother had left the room, Lily collapsed on the floor, unable to control what she was feeling. It was unfair. Petunia was being selfish, and was, as usual, not thinking of anyone but herself. But somehow Lily would just have to get back to Hogwarts. To her home.
*
James looked at his watch with a feigned look of shock on his face as his best friend sauntered over to him. "What's this? Is Sirius Black actually early?" he laughed.
Sirius chuckled. "What are you on about? You were here first!"
"Yea, well, I didn't want to risk being late," James shrugged.
Sirius laughed. "Nothing like that for me… my mum just shoved me out of the house a bit early this morning. I'm thinking she couldn't wait to get rid of me!"
The two boys laughed heartily, not knowing that they were not as alone on the platform as they may have thought…
*
Petunia was happier than she had been in months. Being with Vernon and his gang had been an adventure, and she was sorry when it was over. But as the sun began to rise, Vernon had insisted that he take her home. She was a bit young to have stayed out all night, after all.
Saying goodbye to Vernon at the front path, Petunia snuck around to the side of her house and hoisted herself into the tree outside her window, as she had done so many times before, and climbed into her bedroom. This was good. She wasn't home too late in the morning, so her parents wouldn't even have noticed she was gone. In fact, it was just about time for her to be getting up.
Petunia pulled out a pair of pajamas, and put them on, ruffling her hair a bit. She walked down the stairs slowly, rubbing her eyes so that she would look like she had just gotten out of bed. She had done this so many times before it was almost second nature.
Her mother was sitting at the kitchen table with her back to her and her head resting on her arms, so Petunia sat down across from her, and said with a large yawn, "Good morning, Mother."
Her mother's face jolted up, and Petunia gasped as she saw her mother's puffy red eyes. She had been crying.
So she had known that Petunia had been missing.
She had noticed.
*
After some short hugs and goodbyes between Petunia and Lily, Lily had been whisked off to the train station, and luckily made it just on time for the train, finding her friends in an otherwise empty compartment. As each girl told the others of her holiday, Lily felt herself feeling uneasy, as if someone was watching her. But they were alone, so it was just a silly feeling caused by a sleepless night.
Wasn't it?
Still, the feeling wouldn't go away. There was someone watching her. She just knew it. She did a quick glance around the compartment, barely hearing Emmeline's descriptions of how beautiful Paris was this time of year, but she couldn't see anything suspicious.
She was looking out the window, watching a few flakes of snow drift lazily toward the floor, and wondered distantly why it was taking so long for the train to get going when she saw him.
There was a man standing on the platform. He looked young, but old at the same time. He couldn't have been more than 30, and yet he had the look of someone who had seen more than most people his age. And he was looking at her.
He had strange, sunken, almost scarlet-looking eyes, staring right through her. And he looked happy. The breath was practically sucked from Lily's lungs as this man's eyes bored through her. He didn't look like the sort of man who could be trusted, and Lily simply stared wide-eyed out the window at him.
But suddenly he looked away.
And he got onto the train.
***
Well, that's all for now! I'll really try to get the next chapter out faster…. but I can't promise anything….sorry!
Anyway, I'd really like to know what you all thought of this chapter… so leave a review! I do promise that if I get a lot, I will definitely find it in me to get the next chapter out fast!!
Thanks for reading, sorry again for the delay!
-->