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Chapter 7: Lily's Pensieve Part II
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Lily held onto Adriana as glass crashed as it was thrown and voices rang out through the house. It was the memory of the day her brother and sister-in-law got divorced. Lily clutched her niece tightly, while Adriana tried to cover her ears with her arms. Adriana was crying, not understanding why all the yelling was going on. James was upstairs in his room, trying not to listen to the fight, and Brandon and Michael were at their grandparents' house. Blake left the living room and into the hallway towards the door. Julia shouted to him, "You step out that door, be expecting divorce papers by owl soon!"
Blake shouted back, "I'll look forward to it!"
"You set foot in this house ever again, Blake James Potter, so help me God I'll curse you to all ends of the earth like I would any intruder!"
"If you can ever think of a reason for me to come back, tell me and I'll make sure I never do it!" Blake opened the door and Adriana squirmed to get down. Lily set her on the floor and Adriana ran as fast as her little toddler legs would take her.
"Daddy!" she yelled. Blake turned and scooped his daughter up and hugged her. Adriana cried, "Don't go, Daddy."
"It'll be ok, Adriana. Daddy's just going away for a while. It'll be ok." Lily heard a creak of a stairs and turned and saw her nephew up at the landing. Blake set his daughter down, but she wouldn't let go of him. Blake said to her, "I'll come back some day, sweetie." He kissed her on the forehead and she let him go. Lily came and picked Adriana up again and dried her tears.
"You can't go, Blake. You can't leave your family like this."
"You don't understand Lily…"
"You're right, I don't. I don't understand how a man can just walk out on his family just because of a stupid fight with his wife." Blake didn't say anything, just summoned luggage and started to walk out the door.
"It's complicated, Lily. Things aren't fixed as easily as they were when we were kids."
"Really? You seem like you're taking the easy way out. Leaving."
"Don't judge me, Lils. Your marriage is on the rocks just as much as mine is." Blake opened the door but stopped when he heard his son run down the stairs. Dragging a suitcase behind him down the stairs, James yelled to his dad, "Dad, wait!" Blake ignored him and started to walk out the door. "Dad! Wait!" This time Blake stopped. James said, "I'm coming with you."
"You're staying here, James."
"No, I'm coming with you, I want to go with you."
"You need to be here with your mother. Take care of her."
"Brandon and Michael can do that, I want to go with you."
"Talk to your mother about it."
"Whether she says so or not, I'm coming with you." Blake sighed and finally gave in.
"Fine." A choked sob was heard and everyone turned to see Julia standing in the doorway to the living room, tears rolling down her face. James looked at her and said, "Bye, Mum." Julia had a look of emotional pain on her face as she cried, and watched her son walk out the door following his father. Once the door closed, Adriana squirmed again to get down and ran to the door and started crying again.
"Daddy! No!" A tear fell down Lily' cheek. She wiped it away and picked up her niece again and tried to comfort her, but nothing worked.
"I can't believe he left," Lily said to her sister-in-law.
"Which one?"
"Both of them."
"I knew James would go with him. There's no way I could've stopped him. He's just like his dad. And now, I'll never see him again."
"You might someday, you never know."
"I hope so." Julia went up the stairs and Lily heard the door click shut upstairs.
The memory started to change, and while it did, Isabelle said, "That's why Adriana ran to Blake when she saw him. She recognized the connection of being the same person, and she remembered that her dad said he'd come back some day. When she saw Blake, she ran to him because she thought her dad had come back." Understanding fell over Lily's face.
"That makes sense. I hadn't thought about that." When the new memory came to focus, Lily's expression hardened and Isabelle tried to figure out what it was. It was the day where everything between Will and Lily started to go downhill. The day she lost their third child, a son.
"Will, it's not that big of deal, people get fired all the time."
"Yeah, but those people never have a wife, two children and one more on the way."
"We'll figure something out. If it comes to last resorts, we can borrow money."
"Who has money that we could borrow?"
"My parents?"
"I'm not borrowing money from your father."
"Why won't you?"
"I have more pride than that."
"What's wrong with borrowing money from my dad?"
"Never mind. Hopefully it won't come to that." Will walked away from his wife and she followed. He stopped at the top of the stairs when Lily said,
"Why won't you do it? Oh, I know. It's a pride thing, isn't it? You feel inferior."
"I don't feel inferior to anybody," Will said defensively.
"Good, because you know you aren't."
"I know that, Lily."
"Well, I can work, I can go back to my job. My boss said anytime I want to go back to work, they'd be happy to have me back."
"You don't need to do that, Lily."
"Well, it'd just be a temporary thing, since you're out of a job, and we need some source of income…"
"I said no! Damnit, why don't you listen? I just said I don't want you going back to work!"
"Well, let's here some of your brilliant ideas, then!"
"I don't know yet, but I don't want you going to work!"
"Why?"
"Because you shouldn't have to, I should be the one who goes and makes money." Lily's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. She said coldly,
"Excuse me? You're the one who is supposed to make the money in this family? What are you living in the fifties? Will, you don't have a job. I have the opportunity to get mine back and make money for us, just let me go back to it. I miss it."
"What do you miss so much about chasing Death Eaters down?"
"Just being involved and making a difference. I miss…working alongside my parents and my brother, working with Julia. I haven't seen her in ages, Will. I want to go back. Now that there's a need for it, I want to go back." Will sighed and yelled,
"Damnit, I told you I don't want you going back to work!" Lily glared at him.
"Do you understand me Lily?" Lily opened her mouth to speak but decided against it. She nodded.
"Good."
He was about to walk away, but Lily said, "But…" Will's temper exploded.
"No buts! I said no!" He took a few steps closer to Lily, and in fear she stepped back a few steps.
"I said no! You're not going back! For once in your life, stop talking and listen to me!" Will took a swing at Lily and she leaned back to avoid his hand. Will grabbed her by her arm and held on tight.
"Tell me you're going to listen to me and not go back! ANSWER ME!" Lily remained silent, but she did fix a glare on her husband.
"Do you really think force is going to get me to agree with you? I'm not afraid of you, Will."
"Then agree with me! Listen to me for once!"
"No." Will pushed her and let go her arms sent her tumbling down the stairs. She screamed as she fell, and Will stood at the top of the stairs, watching her fall. Lily landed on the landing unconscious. The next memory was when Lily was in the hospital. She was just waking up and the first person she saw was her mother sitting in a chair reading a book. She blinked a little bit and said groggily,
"Mum?" Hermione's head snapped up and she shut the book. She stood up and sat on the bed next to her daughter.
Lily tried to sit up, but Hermione said, "Lily, just…stay still."
"What happened?"
"You fell down the stairs. Will said it was an accident. You were standing too close and took a step back and fell." Hermione handed her daughter her glasses, and Lily slipped them on.
"I did?" Hermione nodded gravely.
"Mmm hmm." Lily was about to ask why, but then the memory came to mind.
"How long have I been here and been out?"
"A few hours."
"Where's Will?"
"He's in the waiting room with your dad. He's been very worried about you."
"That's surprising when it was his fault that I fell in the first place."
"He told us it was an accident."
"Course he would. He pushed me. He wouldn't have told you and Dad the truth."
"What happened?" Lily told her all about the fight, the pointless fight that had landed her in the hospital. Hermione was about to say something but her daughter interrupted her. "Where are Bree and Belle?"
"They're with Jules and Blake."
"How long am I going to be here?"
"I don't know. It was nasty fall. You have lots of bumps and bruises."
"I hope I'm not here too much longer, there's stuff in the baby room I want to finish sometime this week, and I…what?" Lily said, seeing the sad look on her mother's face.
"Mum, what is it?" Hermione sighed sadly.
"Lily, there isn't going to be a baby."
"What? Why?"
"It's gone." Tears forming, Lily said desperately, "Why?"
"Sweetie, you fell down the stairs. The baby's gone." Lily's face crumpled in agony and she heaved a huge sob. Tears rolling down her face, she put a hand over her mouth. Hermione pulled her up and hugged her as she cried. After a little while, Lily said, still crying,
"Do they know what it was, a boy or a girl?"
"It was a boy." Lily closed her eyes; two more tears sliding down her cheeks. She sat there crying in her mother's arms for what seemed like hours. Once Lily stopped crying, Will came to see her. The first thing he did when he saw his wife was rush over and give her a kiss and a hug. He said as he was holding her,
"I'm…so sorry, Lily." Lily didn't answer him, just gave him a cold look.
"I'm sorry."
"Sorry doesn't even begin to fix what you did."
"It was an accident, Lily. Don't you remember?"
"Accident or not, our baby is dead, Will."
"Hey, there can be other children." The memory changed again and it was a few years later, Lily was again pregnant, and was moving around her kitchen, putting dishes away while her mother was helping cook for Bree and Belle's birthday party. Lily stood on her tiptoes to reach the top shelf to put a bowl away, but her belly was in the way. She muttered,
"Damnit." Hermione stopped stirring and came over to help.
"Here, you stir, I'll put the dishes away." They traded places and all of a sudden, Lily stopped stirring and stood still, and placed a hand over her stomach. Worry spread over her face, and she said,
"Mum?"
"What is it, Lils?" Hermione turned to face her daughter.
"Something's wrong."
"What's the matter?"
"He's not kicking. Isn't a baby supposed to always do that?" Worry spread over Hermione's face, and she shut the stove off and rushed her daughter to the hospital, where the healer told Lily that she had lost another baby. Later that evening, Will and Lily were sitting in the hospital room and Will said,
"Well, we can always try again, I mean, we can still…"
"No, Will," Lily said quietly.
"What?"
"I can't do this anymore."
"Can't do what anymore?"
"Can't lose another child again. Two times is too many. I can't take it anymore."
"Well, who's to say it'll be another miscarriage?"
"Who's to say it won't? I can't lose another one, Will. I just can't." The memory slowly changed, and Isabelle saw that Lily knew which one was coming next. She was sitting in the Leaky Cauldron on a cold snowy day, sitting with one of her husband's friends from work, Caleb Davis. Lily sighed.
"Caleb, what did want to talk to me about, I'm on a tight schedule, I have to get my errands done, pick up the girls and head home. What's this all about?"
"I feel like I should let you know what's been going on."
"What has?"
"With Will."
"What about him?" Caleb said slowly,
"Lily, I want you to know first that I know we don't know each other that well, but I want to you to know that I'd never lie to you."
"Just get to the point, Caleb."
"Will's having an affair." Lily's jaw dropped slightly.
"With a woman that's about twenty or so, it's been going on for almost six months." Lily said in shock,
"How do you know about this?"
"He brags about at work. Then one day about two months ago, she came into work, and told him she was pregnant. With his baby." Lily took a deep breath and sat up straight, putting a hand to her mouth. She looked away, trying to take this all in. Her husband was cheating on her. With a woman almost half her age. And she was pregnant with his baby.
"I'm sorry to have to tell you this. Maybe I shouldn't have."
"No. Thank you for telling me. It's probably better this way. I've got to get going."
"If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask." Lily smiled weakly and nodded.
"I have to go." Lily got up and left, going out into the snow. She walked past store buildings and glanced over at her reflection in a window. She stopped and stood in front of it, and took off her hood, letting her hair flow around her in the chilling December wind. The snow clung to her ebony locks and she analyzed her reflection. Her usually vibrant green eyes looked as though the life had been sucked from them. The snow in her hair made her look like she had aged thirty years. Laugh lines were beginning to form from years of happy times and laughter. Crow's feet were barely visible under her eyeliner. She sighed. No wonder he left her. She was thirty-five years old, she wasn't the teenager she used to be. Oh how she missed those days. She was the top of her class in school, but missed the Head Girl opportunity because of her mischief she had caused with her brother and best friend. Underneath all the facial imperfections, she could still see that seventeen year old looking back at her; back to the time before fate's never ending cycle took its toll on her. As she looked back, most of her adult life was nothing but tough times, at the moment she couldn't think of any happy times. She turned from the window and headed home.
Present Lily said to Isabelle as the memories faded away, "Can I give you some advice, Lily?"
"What?"
"Don't stay with Will. He's nothing like I thought he'd be. He's turned away from everything and everyone. In fact, he and his dad have disowned each other."
"Just like Blake and Dad?" Lily nodded.
They came out of the pensieve and Lily said, "Will's turned everything into something that's against him. His mind is corrupted. He's nothing like he was when he was seventeen. Don't think that you have to get married right away, keep your options open. The only thing good that I got out of him were my daughters. He's not a good husband." Isabelle was about to answer, when someone knocked on the door. Lily and Isabelle look at each other in confusion and Lily looked at her watch and said,
"Who would come at this hour?" Isabelle shrugged and followed Lily to go answer it. When Lily opened the door, her jaw dropped.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
A/n: HEE HEEE HEE!! Oh my gosh, that was an AWESOME cliffhanger!!!! Please review if you want to find out who it is and why he or she is here. This chunk will only be a two chapter one…review soon!
TTYL,
Husker-fan-2006
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