A/N: Chapter 12 is dedicated to Dona-- Siriusly, you all owe her a huge thanks-- without her constant nagging, this chapter wouldn't even be out for you all to read today!
PS-- Either I'm running out of creative chapter titles or I just couldn't think of a good one for this story- either way, I apologize for the craptastic title. :/
Chapter 12: Return of the Po-go Stick
Lily grinned as she watched Maggie stumble into the kitchen the following morning, taking the seat next to Lily and across from Petunia and her uncle Jeff.
"Good morning, my dear-- aren't we looking wide eyed and bushy tailed?" Lily greeted cheerfully to which she merely received a growl.
"And what, may I ask has put you in such a divine mood this morning?" Lily teased, a smile playing on her lips.
"Oh, stuff it, Lils-- it's one o'clock in the morning back home." Maggie grumbled.
"Should have gone to sleep when I told you to yesterday…" Lily replied in a sing-song voice.
"I wasn't tired!" Maggie exclaimed.
"Maggie, it was three am and you were playing Solitaire!"
"Only because you wouldn't play Go-Fish with me anymore!" Maggie shot back. "Besides, my internal clock is set eight hours behind!-- that means it was only four in the afternoon Pacific Standard Time-- I hate jetlag! Why do we need stupid time zones anyway?" Maggie grumbled as she set her head on the tabletop not so gently.
Lily patted Maggie's head gently, still smiling and Maggie lifted her head from the table, to drop it onto Lily's shoulder instead, using it as a makeshift pillow, her eyes drooping closed.
Jeff Evans peered over at the pair from the top of his newspaper.
"No sleeping, Maggie-- if you want to get used to the time difference, it's best to stay up and go about business as usual."
Maggie effectively ignored her uncle's advice and instead responded with an incoherent noise before further burrowing her head into Lily's shoulder, trying desperately to block out the offending sunlight streaming through the window. Lily noticed however, that she perked up slightly when Laurie placed a cup of coffee before her along with a breakfast plate.
"Feeling better?" Lily asked after Maggie's first few sips of coffee.
"Much." Maggie replied simply, grinning into the warm mug between her hands.
Suddenly, Petunia emitted a high pitched screech, causing Lily to look up from her breakfast and Maggie to suddenly look quite awake indeed.
The sound of a plate breaking into a million pieces as it came into contact with the floor was heard amidst Petunia's screams and Lily's attention was briefly averted to her mother who had dropped to butter dish in surprise.
"Get it away! GET IT AWAY!!!" Petunia said, bolting from her chair and running around the kitchen like a madwoman.
It was then that Lily noticed the rolled up news paper atop her sister's plate of scrambled eggs and a quick look to the space just above Petunia's head confirmed Lily's suspicions.
There, following Petunia around with it's leg outstretched to reveal a small leather pouch was a large brown barn owl.
"Get it away! Get it away! GET IT AWAY!" Petunia hollered, still dancing around the kitchen.
"Hold on, stop screaming, Petunia. It's just an owl" Lily said, rolling her eyes as she stood up, pulling a few strange looking coins out of her pocket as she did so. She beckoned the owl and it came almost immediately, abandoning the pursuit of Petunia who took the opportunity to dive under the kitchen table.
The owl landed swiftly on Lily's outstretched arm and Lily deposited the coins into the owl's leather pouch, and with that, the owl spread its wings and took off through the open window once more.
Lily turned and taking in Maggie's curious expression, shrugged her shoulders.
"Daily Prophet owl-- just pay him for your newspaper and he takes off." explained Lily.
Petunia poked her head from under the table cautiously.
"I think it's safe for you to come out now, love." Jeff said, kindly to his oldest daughter while offering a hand to help her up.
"It's gone?" Petunia asked fearfully. She turned to look at everyone in the kitchen in turn, as if needing more reassurance that the owl had indeed left, before crawling out from under the table and dusting off her knees.
"What?" She asked pointedly, noticing that Maggie was holding a hand to her mouth and trying desperately not to laugh.
"It's just…erm…." Maggie began, her voice quivering slightly. "You've got…well, I believe you've got an owl dropping on y-your…." She finally said, pointing at the left side of Petunia's head.
Petunia's eyes grew roughly to the size of saucers as she hastily grabbed a large serving spoon from the table and positioned it, using the spoon as a makeshift mirror, and sure enough, there to the upper left of her ear was a runny white substance, already trickling down toward her shoulder. For the second time that morning a shriek escaped Petunia's lips, this time however, more out of rage than fear.
"This is all your fault, Lily-- I HATE MAGIC!!!" she screamed before bounding up the stairs, all the while crying about how many times she'd have to wash her hair for it to be decontaminated.
Lily caught Maggie's eyes and as soon as they heard the loud distinct slamming of the upstairs bathroom door, launched into pails of laughter.
Laurie gave them each a pointed look that subsided their laughter slightly before starting up the stairs, muttering something about going to help Petunia wash her hair out.
Maggie and Lily stopped laughing almost immediately at Laurie's look but Jeff could tell they were suppressing the urge to laugh again as Lily's shoulders were shaking slightly and Maggie had taken to placing her hand over her mouth again.
"It's not nice to laugh at your sister Lily, or in your case, Maggie, your cousin."
"But Da-ad." Lily said, adding an extra syllable to the word 'dad' "We're not laughing at her, really…" she trailed off.
"Yeah, uncle J-- what she means is," Maggie began, picking up where Lily left off, "Petty just gets so worked up over the teensiest little things-- it's hard not to laugh at that, and we're not purposefully making fun of her…"
Jeff paused as if considering what they just said before speaking again.
"Alright, I understand what you're both trying to explain but bear in mind that Petunia's rather stressed at the moment-- she's getting married next week, you know and she's got a lot on her plate--"
Lily rolled her eyes. Petunia had a lot on her plate? Puh-lease! Mrs. Dursley was taking care of EVERYTHING! Heck, all Petunia essentially had to do was show up at the bloody ceremony and look pretty if she really wanted to…
"So…" Jeff continued, giving Lily a pointed look of his own. "Would both of you please just back off slightly-- I'm not saying you can't have fun, Lily and Maggie, just….try not to induce much more stress on Petunia, yeah?"
"Okay, Dad." Lily said, raising both her palms as if in surrender.
"Yeah, uncle Jeff, for you, we'll stay out of Petunia's way."
"Thank you, girls, that really means a lot to me." Jeff grinned warmly before gulping down the last of his tea and standing from the table.
"Working again today?" Lily asked, not able to hide all the disappointment in her voice.
"Sorry, 'fraid so-- but not for the whole day, I'll be back early." Jeff promised, looking slightly guilty at having to go to work. He had not, as in summers past been able to spend very much time with Lily this holiday. "But I'm sure you won't miss me too terribly what with Maggie here to entertain you." Jeff said, kissing the top of Lily's head.
Lily grinned at the statement.
"Don't worry, uncle Jeff, I'll keep her company!" Maggie piped in.
Jeff grinned and placed a kiss atop her head as well before picking up his briefcase and heading toward the door.
"See you girls later tonight!"
The front door shut softly behind Jeff and Maggie immediately turned in her seat to face her cousin.
"So what've we got planned for today?"
Lily reached over and grabbed the Daily Prophet from where it sat on Petunia's untouched plate, making a slight face at the fact that one of the corners was soggy from sitting atop hot eggs for so long.
"Why don't you finish breakfast first-- I've a feeling you're going to need all the energy you can get." Lily said smoothing out the Daily Prophet on the table before her.
"Yes, ma'am" Maggie said, giving a mock salute before proceeding to butter her toast.
Maggie was just about to take a bite before the paper Lily had spread out caught her eye.
"Holy crow!" Maggie said, dropping the toast on the table as she stared at the moving photographs in awe. "Do all pictures do that?"
"Do what?" Lily asked absentmindedly as she read the headline news.
"Well, move." Maggie asked.
"Oh, yeah, yeah they do." Lily said smiling and remembering that once upon a time she'd been just as awe struck by details of the magical world such as this. "It just has to do with the way you develop them." Lily explained.
"Neat…" Maggie breathed, her eyes trailing over the front page. "What's that thing, though?"
Lily trailed her eyes over to the spot where Maggie's finger lay, pointing at a black and white figure of an illuminated skull and snake, looming over an otherwise sleepy looking town-- the picture alone sent a horrible sinking feeling right to her stomach.. A trail of fog floated lazily over the image etched in the sky but it shown brightly through the offending cloud and although it wasn't visible from the photograph, Lily could almost picture the bright acid green glow the skull was almost certainly colored.
"It's um, well, it's called the dark mark." Lily said in an almost whisper.
"Is it…bad?" Maggie asked, looking at Lily's serious expression.
"Very. When it appears in the sky like that, it means he's killed."
"He?"
"Voldemort." Lily elaborated, feeling the need to explain-- to make Maggie understand.
"He's a dark wizard who's on the rise here in Europe-- he's been on the rise for a few years actually."
"And he-- he just kills people? Just like that? Whenever he damn well feels like it?" Maggie asked, looking positively outraged at the thought.
Lily nodded. "Mostly muggle born people or those who refuse to join him-- but he doesn't kill all of them, from what I hear, you've gotta be pretty special to be murdered by Voldemort's wand." Lily said bitterly.
"But, I…don't understand…what's he got against, well, people like you and me? And if he doesn't kill everyone who does?"
"He just thinks pure blooded wizards, like him are the superior race-- pretty crazy, huh?"
"Obviously this Voldemort fellow didn't learn anything from the Holocaust." Maggie said.
Lily couldn't help but smile at Maggie's feeble attempt to lighten the mood. She nodded slightly. "Problem is, he's not the only person who thinks that way-- there are quite a few pure blooded wizards who think Voldemort's got the right idea-- his followers, are called Death Eaters and they're the ones who usually do the muggle raids."
"B-but you've all got magic! Surely your side-- the good side can stop them somehow." Maggie said, looking quite flustered.
"Catching death eaters isn't the problem- they've caught a few before but it doesn't do much when Voldemort can just go out and get more so until he's stopped, there's nothing much we can do and according to the Daily Prophet, the Ministry's doing everything they can, but well…" Lily trailed off.
"Well what?" Maggie prompted.
"Well, I guess…maybe he's just…I dunno, too powerful for them-- for the way the Minister's going about trying to stop him, at least."
"So that's it then? And you all just wait and see when the next attack is?" Maggie said.
Lily nodded. "And I guess, just hope that soon, someone'll come along who will be able to stop him because obviously the dunderheads at the Ministry aren't going to do it-- always too preoccupied with sending Death Eaters to Azkaban Prison…look, this conversation's getting a bit depressing-- we didn't fly you all the way from the west coast of the United States to damper your mood-- let's talk about something else." Lily offered.
Maggie could tell Lily didn't want to talk about it anymore, and she didn't quite blame her, and though she still had a million more questions, instead, she grinned and changed the subject.
"So what's on the agenda today?"
"Dunno, you tell me-- you're the one who's visiting." Lily smiled.
"Good point." Maggie said, "Well…we could just hang out here-- my dad sent me a package with a new video tape just before I left to come here and I haven't had the chance to watch it yet."
"Oh?" Lily replied curiously.
Maggie nodded. "Dad's taken to sending me packages lately--- I guess he feels bad about forgetting to call every week like he promised and only coming to visit once a year-- now he's trying to buy my affection."
Lily remembered vaguely at the age of eight, learning of Aunt Rose and Uncle Rob's divorce and asking her mum what the word 'divorce' meant. Maggie never talked much about her dad, just in passing in moments like these as it was always a bit of a sore subject.
"Alright, a movie morning sounds good." Lily agreed. "But if we're going to do this, we should do it right." she finished seriously.
"Good point." Maggie grinned. "You get the popcorn, I'll get the drinks and the movie."
"Deal!" Lily said, bolting from the table toward the stove as Maggie did the same, thought heading upstairs instead.
The popcorn took a while to make as Lily had to cook it on the stove, but finally, she managed to pop a decently sized bowl of golden popcorn.
"Finally!" Maggie exclaimed as Lily grabbed the bowl along with a few napkins.
"Hey! Not my fault. Besides, you got the easy job." Lily pointed out.
"You're right-- I did." Maggie smiled, stealing some popcorn away from the bowl.
The girls walked toward the living room, Lily leading the way, thought just as they past the front door, the were stopped in their tracks by a rather loud sound coming from outside.
"What was that?" Maggie asked, brow furrowed.
"Dunno, something outside…" Lily paused, looking at the door almost curiously. "come on, let's go." Lily said, finally motioning for them to proceed toward the living room. She was stopped again, however when the same almost strangled scream was heard again.
"Maybe we should check it out." Lily said, finally. "It could be one of the neighborhood kids."
Maggie nodded in agreement, setting the popcorn down on the hall table while Lily's left hand went to grab the door knob, her right hovering just over where her wand handle was sticking out of her jean pocket, just in case. Who knew what they'd find out there, especially with what they'd just read in the paper.
Opening the door, she cautiously stepped onto the porch, Maggie following close behind. She surveyed the neighborhood slowly, looking for anything that could be deemed abnormal and then, she heard it again, the same scream, only this time, accompanied by an almost squeaking noise and Lily turned in the direction of the noise reflexively. Her somewhat nervous expression however, quickly changed to that of amusement as she took in the sight of one, Sirius Black hopping around on the pogo stick Larry had given James earlier in the summer and suddenly, the squeaking sound she had heard before didn't sound as menacing when paired with the child's toy.
"So you're the one who was screaming?" Maggie accused, good naturedly.
"WEEEE!!!!" Sirius whooped, going particularly high in the air. He turned his head at the sound of Maggie's voice. "LILY! MAGGIE! WAHOO! THIS THING IS SO AWESOME! YIPPEE!!!!"
James who had previously been observing Sirius from the patch of sidewalk just in front of his house, turned at Sirius' acknowledgement of Lily and flashed a lopsided grin before making his way toward them.
"Hi." Lily smiled, as James approached.
"He's been at that thing for an hour now-- won't let it go." James said, jerking his thumb in Sirius' direction.
"I don't blame him-- looks like fun. Gosh! I haven't been on a pogo stick since I was ten or so." Maggie said, though still watching as Sirius pogo-ed up and down.
"You're telling me," James grinned. "but now he won't even let me have a go-- and it's my pogo stick!"
Lily laughed at James who was looking positively ridiculous as he pouted.
"Well, at least it was only Sirius-- Maggie and I heard someone screaming and we thought…" Lily paused, trailing off her sentence. "Well, we thought it might have been something else-- one of the younger kids in trouble or something."
As if on cue, Sirius let out another whoop of glee.
James laughed. "I can see how that noise could have been startling-- must remember to put a silencing charm on him next time."
Maggie's head snapped toward James at his last comment.
"A silencing charm?" she asked. "you mean you can make it so people can't talk? Oh man! What I wouldn't give to be able to use one of those on that stupid Tiffany Waters back home."
James looked a bit puzzled at Maggie's excitement over a simple silencing charm that was arguably common knowledge.
"She's a muggle, remember?" Lily reminded, though Maggie ignored her comment.
"Can you really do one though? A silencing charm, I mean?" She asked.
"Sure," James grinned lopsidedly. "It's just a simple spell-- want to see?"
"Yes!" Maggie exclaimed excitedly, just as Lily responded with a flat "No." of her own.
"James." Lily said, just as he was pulling out his wand.
"Come on, Lily," He said, flashing her a mischievous grin, though stopping in the midst of pulling out his mahogany wand. "No one's around-- besides, it'll be fun pulling a little prank on Sirius." James reasoned.
Lily crossed her arms trying to stand her ground
"Yeah, come on, Lily, please? I've never seen real magic before." Maggie pleaded.
Lily looked at her cousin and then back to James.
"Please??" James said, flashing her another grin.
Lily rolled her eyes and huffed before breaking down. "Alright, fine."
"Wicked." James grinned, pulling out his wand and making a show of aiming it at Sirius.
"But!" Lily added, tugging James' wand hand down so it was now pointing at the sidewalk rather than at Sirius' moving form. "If we get caught, James Potter…"
"If we get caught, which we won't, but in the event that we do, I will take full responsibility."
Lily grinned, satisfied. "Fire away, then, oh great one." She said, releasing his arm.
James pointed his wand inconspicuously at Sirius and muttered the spell under his breath, A barely visible grayish light shot out of the tip of his wand and hit Sirius near the base of this throat.
Sirius was in mid whoop when his voice was suddenly completely shut off. He opened his mouth trying to make a sound-- any sound-- but failed miserably.
"So, so, awesome!" Maggie exclaimed as she watched the effects of James' handy spell work on Sirius.
Lily watched as Sirius opened his mouth, yet again attempting to speak while still jumping up and down on the pogo stick and joined James in laughing.
"Oh dear, that is priceless!" Lily gasped.
James smiled. "A nice old fashioned silencing charm is always a good laugh even if it is a bit primitive by Marauder prank standards."
Lily turned back to the still muted Sirius who just now had seemingly realized James had had something to do with his inability to speak. Her suspicions were confirmed as she watched Sirius mouth a word that by the way Lily had seen his lips move undoubtedly would have come out as 'James' if he had had the ability to talk.
"Uh oh." Lily giggled. " I think we've been discovered."
James looked over just in time to see Sirius bouncing over toward them.
Lily saw it before any of the others did--- the large crack in the sidewalk that Sirius was pogo-ing right toward and two things happened almost simultaneously.
"Sirius! Watch out for the--" Lily screamed just as Sirius landed with the tip of the pogo stick on the uneven piece of sidewalk, causing him to go flying off the pogo stick and land with a loud THUNK! into the bushes on Lily's lawn.
Maggie and James gasped and the three of them ran over to where Sirius had landed.
"Oh! Sorry, Sirius! I tried to warn you…" Lily exclaimed as James held out a hand to pull Sirius out of the bushes which he gratefully took.
"That was quite a fall--- alright, Padfoot?" James asked worriedly.
"Yeah, nothing broken?" Maggie asked.
Sirius looked at the three expectant faces before him awaiting a response and he pointed to his mouth.
"Oh!" James cried in realization. "Right, sorry, I forgot." he muttered the counter spell with a wave of his wand.
"Thanks." Sirius replied. "I think so." he moved gingerly. "And I don't think there's anything broken, only I think I landed on something wet in there,"
He added, trying to examine the back of his forearm.
"That's not water-- looks like you got a pretty nasty gash." Maggie observed, watching as the blood trickled down his arm.
"Wow," Sirius examined the gash thoughtfully. "didn't think I fell that hard."
James watched the expression on the girl's faces-- they were obviously surprised that Sirius wasn't in more pain but James knew it was only because he'd had much worse injuries-- they both had experienced much worse injuries.
"Well," Lily said, being the first to take action. "lets go inside and get that cleaned up, shall we?" She led the others back into her house and waited for all of them to enter before shutting the door.
"I'll get the band-aids and the hydrogen peroxide," Maggie offered. "Are they still in the medicine cabinet, Lily?"
"Oh, no need." Lily replied.
She pulled out her wand and with an almost lazy swish over Sirius' injured arm, the cut sealed, now looking as if it had been obtained weeks ago, rather than a few minutes ago.
"Or maybe not…" Maggie breathed as she admired her cousin's spell work.
"Hey, thanks!" Sirius said gratefully. "We've got to remember that one, Prongs."
"That's pretty advanced." James said, giving Lily and adoringly impressed expression. "Where'd you learn to do that?"
"Last summer." Lily explained pocketing her wand. "I took one of those independent study courses on healing-- thought it might come in handy someday."
"You're amazing, you know that?" James breathed adoringly.
"Um, thanks." Lily smiled, fighting a blush as she met his eyes.
Lily averted her gaze to Maggie and Sirius before her eyes had a chance to lock onto James.
"So now what?" Lily asked. "Obviously no more playing with the pogo stick for Sirius--"
"I resent that." Sirius interjected.
"We could all watch that movie you and I were going to see before we went outside, Lily." Maggie offered.
"A movie?" James replied eagerly, remembering the last time he'd watched one with Lily. "Are we going to the theater again? Can we get some more of those fizzy drinks?"
"She means watch one on the television." Lily explained. "Surely you at least remember what a television is from muggle studies, James."
James grinned at her sheepishly and Lily rolled her eyes good-naturedly, leading them to the living room where she showed James the VCR and explained how it worked,. It was with this that Lily fetched the bowl of popcorn she'd made earlier along with an assortment of drinks, that they introduced Sirius to the magic of the muggle cinema.
The finale credits rolled up on the screen-- similar to the ones that had appeared at the very beginning and once again, the action packed sounding musical score blared through the speakers.
Sirius and James had long since traded their positions on the couches for spots on the floor instead, their noses all but pressed to the television screen, despite Lily's constant reminder that it would cause them to go blind one day if they kept sitting that close.
"That was bloody brilliant!" Sirius exclaimed, finally pulling himself to sit cross legged.
"Are you sure there's no magic involved though? I mean, all those scenes with the explosions and the space ships!"
"Nope, nothing," Maggie said. "Except good ole fashion movie magic."
"So you do use some sort of magic then!"
"No, it's…what she means by 'movie magic' is more like the special effects that go into the movie, not using actual magic like the kind we do with wands." Lily clarified.
"Well, that Lucas fellow then, maybe he's a wizard-- I mean how else could you think up something like all that," Sirius gestured toward the screen. "Or someone like that Darth Vader fellow- he's like the flipping Voldemort of 'Star Wars'!"
"I'm with you on that one, mate." James said, chuckling slightly before becoming serious. "Did you hear? About the attacks?" he asked, more to Lily than the other two.
Lily nodded. "Around Putney, yeah?"
James nodded. "Second one this week." he said gravely.
"Second?" Lily asked.
"First one was last week near Bristol-- you didn't hear?"
Lily shook her head. "I just took out a subscription to the Daily Prophet-- first issue came today."
"Well, it wasn't as bad-- the Aurors got there before they had a chance to…you know…" James trailed off. "but they had to alter quite a few memories."
"Wow, that's horrible." Lily said, her face turning somber.
"Sorry, kids, I couldn't help over hearing." Jeff Evans said from the doorway as he set down his briefcase. "Both of those attacks were headline news in the London Times as well."
"That's not too surprising-- both Bristol and Putney are predominantly muggle areas." Sirius said.
Jeff nodded, "But the news said the explosion in Putney late last night was due to a gas leakage at the local power plant."
"They would say that," Lily said. "How else are you going to explain an explosion that big was caused by magic?"
"Jeff? Is that you?" came Laurie Evans' voice.
"In the living room with the kids, Laur!" Jeff called over his shoulder.
"Oh, good!" Laurie said, seeing that both Maggie and Lily were there. "You're all here."
"The kids were just telling me that those attacks-- you know the ones that happened in Bristol and Putney? They're wizard attacks." Jeff said.
"What?" Laurie said, sounding distressed. "But who would do such a thing?"
"It's another Voldemort attack, mum." Lily explained.
"Voldemort? Hang on-- I know that name-- wasn't he the one your head master wrote home about?"
Lily nodded, remembering the letter Professor Dumbledore had sent out specifically to all the muggle parents explaining the goings on in the wizarding world when Voldemort's attacks had become more frequent.
"Were you going to say something, dear? Before we got you sidetracked?" Jeff asked.
"Hmm?" Laurie replied, lost in thought. "Oh yes. Actually, I came in to tell you we've got to go up to Nottingham for the night on Friday."
"Why?" Jeff asked curiously.
"Wedding plans and such, but while we're down there, the Dursley's want us all to go over and visit Vernon's grandparents-- they own a lovely bed and breakfast down there, apparently."
Lily made a face of distaste. "Oh no, there is no way you're dragging me to a Dursley family reunion."
"Oh come now, Lily don't be so dramatic. The Dursleys- well, they aren't that bad." Laurie said.
"But they don't like me, mum." Lily said.
"Oh, come now, why wouldn't they like you, Lily dear?" Laurie said. "And even if that were the case, which it isn't, you needn't have to worry about coming along because we aren't taking you or Maggie with us."
"You aren't?" Lily said, perking up considerably.
Laurie shook her head. "You've been so cooperative with all this wedding business I figured you'd deserve a break."
Lily squealed with delight. "Oh, thank you, mum!" Lily said, hugging her mother quickly. "So we're staying here until you get back on Saturday? Alone? Brilliant!"
"Gee, Lily, don't go and miss us too much while we're gone." Jeff said sardonically.
"Don't get too excited, girls," Laurie said, noting the awfully pleased expressions on both Lily and Maggie's faces. "I didn't exactly say you were staying alone while we were gone, nor that you'd be staying here."
"What?" Lily said, her face falling slightly.
"Oh come now, Lily-- what with both those attacks happening in such small towns? And then finding out that they were caused by wizards and not just your average psychos? Do you honestly think we'd let you stay home alone?" Laurie asked.
"But mum! We'd be completely safe-- nothing ever happens here."
"Lily, do you realize how close Putney is to London? It's no more than forty minutes away-- just like we are."
"Yeah, mum, but Putney's clear in the opposite direction."
"Lily, just drop it-- neither you nor Maggie are staying here alone-- your father and I would feel much better knowing you weren't by yourselves, it's done."
"Fine." Lily said, a bit disappointed. "Who are we staying with? The Barretts? Oh, please don't say we're staying with Aunt Beatrice, you know I can't stand her cats!-- they've got it in for me, I swear."
Laurie chuckled at her daughter's statement-- heck, even Sirius, James, and Maggie had to laugh at the fact that Lily was positively serious about her aunt's cats having something against her.
"No, and no," Laurie said, denying both of Lily's suggestions. "but really, dear those cats are the sweetest creatures--"
"Ha!" Lily laughed bitterly. "You say that now, mum-- just wait until the day they start hissing at you."
"Well, don't worry, you won't be staying with Aunt Beatrice-- she's out of town until the wedding anyway."
"But then, who are we staying with?" Lily pondered. Aside from Aunt Beatrice, they didn't have any closer relatives.
"Actually, you'll be staying just next door." Laurie said, almost as if trying to see how her words would weigh on Lily.
Both James and Sirius perked up at Laurie's words.
"Next door?" Lily echoed.
"Yes, with the Potters." Laurie elaborated. "I already talked it over with Moira and David-- they said they'd be happy to have you for the night."
Laurie left soon after that, Jeff hot on her heels, in pursuit of the train schedule with intentions of booking tickets to Nottingham for Friday, but not before reminding Lily and Maggie to pull out the extra sleeping bags from the attic.
"So I guess we're sleeping over on Friday." Lily said conversationally to James as they headed toward the attic to pull out the sleeping bags. "Should be fun, right?"
Interesting James thought, might have been a better word to describe what Friday night might be like.
"Yeah," James said instead, grinning. "should be loads of fun."
A/N: Another filler chapter and this is a very strange place to stop the chapter but at the same time, I can't think of a better place to end it off. Sorry about the delay on this-- I wanted to have it out earlier but I couldn't bring myself to write out this chapter, firstly because I found myself positively bombarded with mini plot bunnies for the up and coming WEDDING CHAPTER ((yes, it's coming up very soon- I expect in about three chapters actually)) and then of course, with the larger plot bunny that turned into my newest story, "Are We Really Just Pretending?" Thank you so much for everyone who reviewed that by the way-- now that I've updated chapter 12 I'll start working on chapter two of that. J
Thank you to all of you as always for being so patient with my slow updates and as always, don't forget to review!
Love you guys!