So Far Away

A/N: I know this chapter may be a little.eh, so-so. But, first chapters are not my forte. I actually have the whole plot and everything in my head.so I'm hoping it won't take TOO long to post the next chapter. I'm looking at a new chapter every 1-2 weeks until school's over. Then I should post more often. But enough of my babbling.on with the story! Oh, by the way. Review when you're done reading! Pretty please with sugar and everything you like on top!

Notice: If anyone would like to Britpick or Beta this fic, please e-mail me at [email protected]

~ So Far Away

~ By InAMatchbox

~ Chapter One

Lily sighed as she took another sip of her coffee. She was sitting in the Leaky Cauldron again, on a Friday night. You'd think that a smart, decent-looking witch 17 years of age and fresh out of Hogwarts would be somewhere more interesting, but for Lily, this was the norm.

Lily had all but given up on having an interesting life. She still had a little sliver of hope in her, but that was probably because she was still young. That hope would disappear soon enough, if her father had his way. He'd like her to spend the rest of her life married to some Muggle in a mansion with more money than she could ever spend in thirty lifetimes. Perfect happiness, according to her father.

Lily took a last sip of her coffee and set the mug down on the counter along with some money. She got up and walked out of the Leaky Cauldron into the Muggle world.

She sighed, and pulled a large coat around her, covering her wizard's robes. She didn't feel like explaining her outfit to some curious Muggle.

It was drizzling. Lily walked to her flat, not too far away from where she was. She liked to stay close to the wizarding world, even if she wasn't supposed to be in it. She never informed her father that her flat was so close to Diagon Alley, though. He wouldn't like that very much, no doubt.

She turned her key in the lock and pushed the door open. As she hung up her coat, she waved her wand and muttered a simple lighting spell to illuminate her home. She could have easily turned on the switch to the lights, but it felt good to do magic, so she did as much as possible when she could.

The phone began to ring. Lily trudged over to it and picked up the receiver.

"Lily," a deep voice said by way of greeting.

"Father," Lily said, cursing inwardly at herself for picking up the phone. Had she let it ring, her father would have thought she was still working and not called again until tomorrow.

"You're home early," he said.

"Yes."

"That's good. Wouldn't want you walking home when it's so dark and wet. It's unsafe. I don't want you getting hurt, after all."

Lily scowled. She knew he didn't mean a word of that.

"You've heard about the madman on the loose, then? He was seen not too far away from London just yesterday."

"Father," Lily interrupted. "Say what you want to say. I have things to do."

"I see," he said. "Well, I was just calling to check up on you. See how you're doing. Make sure you're still doing your half of the bargain."

Lily scowled again. God, she hated that man. "I'm still doing my half, Father. I trust you are doing yours?"

"Yes. She is not harmed in any way."

"Good. I'm going to assume that this conversation is over, then."

"If you want it to be."

"I do," said Lily, shortly. "Good bye, Father." She hung up.

Lily flung herself onto the couch. She turned the television on with a flick of her wand and began to watch a game show. She tried to focus on the show, and not on her father, but it was too tiring. She fell asleep.

~~~~~

James Potter stretched as he got up. He yawned loudly and looked over at his clock, which read: "Get up, you lazy bum. It's nearly the afternoon!"

He smiled contentedly. Almost the afternoon, and he was just getting up. That was the beauty of living on your own. Part of it, anyways.

James changed into some clothes and went out to the kitchen. Sirius was there, eating lunch.

"Nice to finally see you up and about, old boy," Sirius said, not looking up from the newspaper he was reading.

James went up behind him o see what he was reading. The headline said: "Quidditch Player, Helen Finch, Poses for PlayWizard Today. Audience Allowed!"

"Nice to see you're keeping up with the times," James said, helping himself to some of Sirius' toast.

"Well, you never know when stuff like that could be important," Sirius said, taking his toast back from James, who was about to eat it.

"Right," James said, fixing himself something for breakfast. "So when did you get up?"

"About five minutes before you did."

"You going to that thing today?

"What thing?"

"You know, Sirius. The important one."

"Oh yeah. Someone's getting married or something, right?"

"It's a funeral, Sirius," James said, raising his eyebrows at his friend.

"Oh. Who died?"

"Way to sound disappointed, Padfoot," James said. "You're supposed to be depressed when some one dies."

Sirius shrugged. "Well, how can I be properly depressed when I don't even know who died?"

"Gretchen Lynch. Died in her sleep."

"Lynch...Lynch..." Sirius muttered, racking his brain for the name. "Oh!" he said, apparently remembering. "The old lady with the grandson!"

"Way to be specific," James said. "She had a grandson who went to Hogwarts with us. Played Quidditch for Hufflepuff. Very good, too, if I remember correctly."

"Exactly," Sirius said. "Didn't I just say that?"

"Yeah," said James, shaking his head sadly at his friend. "Of course."

~~~~~

Lily rubbed her temples as she entered the bookstore, late again. She had another headache. Most likely from worrying about what her father was up to now.

Sue was already behind the counter. Lily had to remind herself to thank her for coving for her again. Lily took her place behind the counter of Flourish and Blotts and got ready for another fun-filled day of selling books.

"You alright?" Sue asked her as Lily feigned a smile at a customer and magically put her books into a bag. "You don't look so good."

Lily waved her hand dismissively. "I'm fine. Just tired."

Sue raised her eyebrows a bit but didn't inquire any further. "Did you hear about the incident the other night?" she asked.

Lily pretended to look interested. "No. What happened?"

"Mundungus Fletcher was at it again. He charmed some poor Muggle woman's fellytone to try to bite her ear off," Sue said knowledgably. Lily didn't bother to correct her mistake. "Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office took care of it, though. Memory charmed her. Mundungus Fletcher has to do community service or something of the like. They don't go too hard on him; he's valuable to the Ministry. Plus, Dumbledore likes him."

"Mundungus Fletcher was Head Boy in his day, wasn't he?" Lily asked.

"Yes, I think so. Before we were there, of course," Sue said. "That would explain why Dumbledore likes him."

Lily nodded. "Plus Mundungus Fletcher did some sort of favor for Dumbledore a few years back. I think they're friends."

"Well, they're both mental," Sue said. "Not to take anything away from Dumbledore's genius or whatever."

"Birds of a feather," Lily said. "Can I help you, sir?"

An old man was at the counter holding a copy of Transfiguration Today. "Yes," he said, placing it on the counter.

"11 knuts, sir," Lily said. The man placed some coins on the counter and Lily put them the money slot. Change came out without Lily doing anything, and she handed it to him with his Transfiguration Today. "Thank you for shopping at Flourish and Blotts." Lily highly doubted he heard the last bit, for he left quickly. She highly doubted anyone paid attention to it, actually. But it was store policy to say it, and she wanted to keep her job.

A dozen or so customers later, it was lunch break. Lily had packed a sandwich and some pumpkin juice for herself and was planning on going outside to eat it.

Lily exited Flourish and Blotts and entered the cool outdoors. It was early spring and it was an unusually nice day. A cool breeze moved some stray pieces of her long, red hair around as Lily walked towards a bench under a tree on the side of the brick road.

Lily ate her sandwich silently, watching people go by. The crowds in Diagon Alley were getting less and less each day with all the Voldemort attacks. The Daily Prophet quoted the Ministry insisted that everything was under control and Voldemort and his followers would be caught soon enough, but Lily doubted this. Still, she saw the attacks as no reason to stop going to public places.

Her sandwich finished, Lily decided to head back to the store. There was no reason to sit around any more; she'd just become bored out of her mind.

~~~~~

"Remind me why we're here, James," Sirius whispered as some old guy droned on about Gretchen Lynch's merits.

"We're paying our respects to our extremely distant acquaintance's grandmother," James whispered back.

"But it's boring," Sirius whined.

"I know. You think I enjoy sitting and listening to this crap?" James whispered. "But we can't just leave. It's disrespectful. Or something."

"Since when have you cared about being respectful, James?"

"Since..." James consulted his watch. "3:19 PM today. Now shut up."

Sirius sighed and leaned back in his chair. This was going to be a long afternoon.

~~~~~

Two hours later, James and Sirius left the church, barely able to stop themselves from running out. James almost had to hold Sirius back.

"Thank God that's over," Sirius said. "We still meeting Remus and Peter tonight?"

"Yeah. The Three Broomsticks. 7:00. We don't have anything to do tomorrow, right?"

"Nope."

"Good. I have a feeling I'm going to have a bad hangover."

"Well, we are going to a pub. We're old enough to have stronger stuff than Butterbeer. Plus, I haven't gotten drunk in almost two weeks. I'm past due."

"Exactly what I thought you'd say, Padfoot," James said.

~~~~~

Lily got home that night extremely tired. She didn't know why, work wasn't hard. It was never hard, it was just boring. Still, Lily was planning on going to sleep earlier than usual tonight.

Lily clumsily put on pajama pants a big T-Shirt reading: "Puddlemere United Quidditch" on the front and "You Game?" on the back.

She went into the kitchen to get a glass of water when the phone rang. Lily was almost positive it was her father, and she still picked it up.

"Lily," her father said.

"Father," Lily said sleepily. "Hurry up and say what you have to say, I want to go to sleep."

"Very well then," he said.

Her father then said something completely unexpected.

Lily fainted.