Memory in a Photograph

Memory in a Photograph

"Home, sweet home!" Those had been the first words in James Potter's mouth them moment he opened the door with a beaming Lily in his arms. The glowing face of the new Mrs. Potter vanished, though, the moment she caught sight of the lovely nest that awaited the young couple after their honeymoon. Piles and piles of boxes, each with its respective layer of dust, scattered all over the place.

And so it had begun, the life of a married woman who had the misfortune to elope with the worst household-spells caster in all Wizarding Britain. A couple of table legs gone, a brand new china dish set broken, and at least a dozen blasted boxes were enough to convince James that twelve N.E.W.T.s wouldn't impress his wife as it did everybody else when he was incapable of folding his robes without setting them on fire.

Two weeks later, however, Lily had managed to make the place habitable on her own. The boxes still waiting to be opened were stored in the attic, but she decided she'd rather deal with those the next day. She felt like taking a nap, but when she got to her bedroom she almost tripped with one of the boxes on the floor. Exasperated, she picked it up. It said "Lily's Stuff" on one of the sides. Her anger melting in the act, she opened it to reveal some old notebooks.

Yes, notebooks. Lily smiled fondly when she remembered why she kept those. They were her diaries from before she found out about Hogwarts. Sitting down, she took a purple one that was lying on top. Several Muggle photographs where glued to the cover. Most of them showed her best Muggle friends, Nancy and Karla. The one in the center, though, showed a handsome boy with blue eyes and brown curls. Lily sighed as she remembered. His name was Matt, and he was Nancy's next-door neighbor. He had been her last Muggle love, and he never knew that she was not studying abroad (well, not exactly).

James entered the room at that moment, so Lily put her diary back into the box. It wouldn't do for James to realize that the reason he'd been turned down so many times until her fifth year had not been his fat-head. His luck changed when Matt left town to go to Cambridge, though. Lily smiled amusedly as she remembered, and she turned to look at her husband.

He shuffled on a bookshelf before finding what he wanted and leaving without a word. Lily had no idea what James was up to, but she really hoped it was nothing too dangerous. Having an Auror for a husband tended to kindle her already sensitive nerves, especially those days, with You-Know-Who and the wild rumors about him...

Sighing to clear her head of those uncomfortable thoughts, she went back to her diary. She took it out again, and a old Muggle photograph came out of it. It was quite old and wrinkled, but she wouldn't throw it away if her life depended on it. The picture showed her parents behind a comfy armchair. Sitting on it, with their arms around the other were two little girls. One had vivid red hair and green eyes, while the other had brown hair and eyes like her father's. Lily's smile faded a bit as she looked at one of the last pictures she kept of the times were her older sister, Petunia, still loved her. Tears started to well-up in her pretty face when she took out from the box a birthday card. She wasn't one to keep that kind of thing, but she couldn't find the heart to get rid of that one. It had been made by a child's clumsy hand, no doubt, but she didn't care. The words written on top were readable enough and they went deep into her heart in a way no writing could. It said, "For the prettiest and loveliest sister in the world". Petunia had given it to her on her eleventh birthday, her worst ever unless she counted her sixteenth when James decided to organize a surprise party for her on the common room. He thought it would be funny to bring salamanders for the fire and they burnt half the place, landing them all in detention.

The memories of that day flooded Lily's mind as tears did her eyes. It had been such an awful day, and it changed her life forever. Sometimes Lily wondered whether she should trade her magical self for having her sister back.

"Wake up, Lily! Happy birthday!"

Lily woke up with a start and a groan. Had she been a little less sleepy she might have seen her sister running to throw herself on top of her. Too late, though. She felt the air being forced out of her lungs with the weight of Petunia.

"Tuney!" she said in a constricted voice. "Tuney!"

"Petunia, let her breathe," came Mr. Evans' voice from somewhere to Lily's left. "Come on."

He removed Petunia from the bed and their mother helped Lily up. "Breakfast is served. Hurry now, before it gets cold downstairs."

Yawning, Lily got up and dressed with the help of her sister, who had just brought her a new dress they had purchased for the special day. It was purple with a yellow bow on the back.

"You look very nice, Lily," Petunia said. "Let's go down. Mum made pancakes!"

A broad smile appeared on her childish face. Pancakes with milk were her favorite breakfast ever. And so was Tuney's. The two girls went down the spiral staircase hand in hand into the bigger room that was Petunia's. Then they went down the main stairs to the living room and into the kitchen where a small pile of presents awaited the birthday girl.

"Do you want breakfast or will you open the presents first?" asked Mrs. Evans.

"Presents!" Lily exclaimed, jumping.

"Done," said Mr. Evans. "This blue one is from Nancy and her family."

Lily smiled and took the box from her father. Nancy was on holiday, having a nice swim probably, in the Mediterranean beaches of France. She carefully tore the paper and drowned a small shriek of excitement. It was the doll she had always wanted since it had come out on the TV.

"Oh! That's nice," Petunia said. "You'll have someone to go out with Nathan now!" Nathan was the latest man doll she had gotten, but there was no doll to go out with him.

"This one next!" Mrs. Evans said, taking a red box from the top of the pile. "This one comes from Karla, dear. Open it!"

Lily knew what it was, so she didn't waste time and tore the box apart. Inside, she found a book. If there was something Lily loved was to read. The cover read Little Women, by Louis May Alcott. She smiled even broader, wondering what Karla might be doing at her aunt's in Devon.

"This one now!" Petunia chipped in. "This is from me. I bought it with my pocket money!"

Lily hugged her sister and took the golden package from her. Inside, carefully wrapped was a lovely golden beret.

"It will go great with your hair," she added, blushing a bit.

"Thanks, Tuney!" Lily said happily. "It's beautiful." Beneath the beret she found a lovely birthday card. "You're the best sister anyone could have!"

"I know," Petunia said rather smugly. Mr. and Mrs. Evans snorted and hugged their daughters.

"And this one," Mrs. Evans said, pulling up a large box from underneath the table, "is from Mum and Dad. Happy birthday, darling." She kissed her daughter soundly on the cheek and left her to tear the red paper from a brand new house for her dolls. Even Petunia joined in her excited squeals.

"Thanks, Mum! Thanks, thanks!"

It took a few minutes to convince both girls to stay put for breakfast before they could go and play. While they hurriedly ate their pancakes, Mr. Evans took the doll house upstairs to Petunia's bedroom. Lily almost choked on her food as she swallowed the last of it and ran after her sister upstairs. While Petunia started to put all their doll furniture inside the house, Lily started to get out their dolls and comb their hairs for the special occasion.

"We have someone new today," she was telling her dolls. "And Nathan will finally get a girlfriend!"

She started to throw them all towards their seats on the "garden", and they all fell exactly on their chairs. Lily almost swore they had bent their legs on their own.

"How do you do that?" Petunia asked. "You're always doing funny things," she added.

"I know... It's weird, but anyway, we must dress Nathan especially for the occasion."

To her surprise, the tiny suit was already beside her at the reach of her hand. "That's strange... I don't remember getting it out," Lily said.

"Never mind that. Just get Nathan here so he can meet... what's her name?"

"Let's call her Julia."

"Julia it is then."

"Sit down, Nathan," she told the boy doll as she put him on the last chair. "There's someone very especial you must meet."

The encounter between Nathan and Julia had been a complete success. They had fallen for each other immediately according to Lily. They spent the whole afternoon taking the out to dates (to the pool, to the park, to Julia's house), and they would have spent the whole afternoon at it if it weren't for a sudden knock on the door.

"Who could that be?" Petunia wondered as she served dinner to their dolls.

They heard hushed voices talking in the living room downstairs. Their mother appeared to be a bit tense, but then Mr. Evans let out a warm laugh. Next thing they knew, Mrs. Evans was calling them down, sounding a bit uncertain but happy.

Lily remembered her first impression upon setting eyes on a much younger Professor Flitwick. Petunia had actually gripped her arm protectively. The next few hours were history. He had told her about the magic within her, explained everything about Hogwarts and given her the letter of admission, signed by a certain Minerva McGonagall.

That night, Petunia had gone to bed rather silently, and a few days went by quite calmly, until their visit to Diagon Alley and the purchase of her wand. Then it had all gone downhill.

"Tuney? Where are you going?"

"To my bedroom."

"Cool! Let's go and play with Nathan and--"

"I'm not in the mood," she snapped.

This took Lily aback. "Why not?" she asked while chasing after her sister. "You said--"

"I don't care for what I said!" she replied, almost shouting. And she turned her back on Lily. She arched an eyebrow at her sister, but she knew it probably was her usual moodiness after going into a crowded street. Petunia hated big masses of people. Thinking that she probably could do with a joke, she raised her newly acquired wand and thought about ticking her neck by magic.

Bad idea.

Whatever came out of the wand hit her neck alright, but there was a puff of smoke and next time Lily knew, Petunia's neck was swelling and swelling, until she resembled a rather humanoid kind of giraffe. She started to scream, and their parents joined her as soon as they reached their room.

Minutes later, wizards from the Ministry of Magic had reversed the swelling, though not entirely. They were amazed at the power of her innocent spell, which had caused Petunia's neck to remain a bit larger than normal despite all the wizards' attempts to reduce it to its original size. Mr. and Mrs. Evans were relieved when they told them their daughter would not go under punishment because she was too young to understand the dangers of magic. And they were even more relieved when they told them that Lily would be able to fix her sister's neck as soon as she reached that level of her magical education at Hogwarts. Probabilities were higher with her because it had been her own spellwork.

But that had never been possible, Lily recalled sadly, tears falling on the photograph in her hand. Petunia had not let her near her neck (or any other part of her body) with her wand in years to come. She left town in her third year and never returned. They hadn't seen each other since. In her sadness and the subsequent tantrum, Lily had managed to break in pieces their lovely doll house after Petunia had left without even saying good-bye to her. Mr. Evans had tried to fix it, but it was beyond repair, as was the relationship between his daughters.

"Lily?"

She jumped as she heard James's voice behind her. She hadn't realized she was sniffing loudly, and he had come to investigate the source of her crying.

"Anything wrong?"

He put an arm around and cuddled her. It was then that he saw the picture in her hand, and he understood. She cried on his shoulder for a few minutes while he stroked her hair consolingly. When she calmed down a bit he replaced the photograph inside the notebook and sent the box hovering to the attic. He kissed her forehead and hugged her tightly.

That night, Lily sneaked to the attic, but she couldn't find the box. James had vanished it. A new tear fell from her eye as she realized that not only her memories where gone. So was that life she had known before Hogwarts. The question remained in her head, though. Would she be better off without it and with Tuney back?

As James snored downstairs she smiled weakly. She had her answer.