PART I LILY
Lily doesn't let herself get her hopes up when she's told that McGongall wants to see her in her office. Doesn't let herself think, even for a second, about what it might mean. About why she's being summoned. Even after McGonagall tells her, after she leaves Lily alone, kneeling in front of the fireplace, she doesn't quite let herself believe it. That she's actually going to get to see her mum. Now. Today. Here. Doesn't believe it until the moment her face appears in the flames.
"Mum!" Lily nearly reaches into the fire. "Oh my God, Mum, hi, hello, can you hear me?" she laughs a little, instantly feeling some of the tension she's been carrying around for the pass few weeks lessen just at the sight of her mum's face.
She's okay,
Lily tells herself.
Look at her, she's okay.
"Hi, Lily? Darling? Goodness," her mum laughs too. "I'll never get used to this."
"No," Lily agrees, "me neither." She really wishes she could hug her. Her mum gives the best hugs. "Where are you?" Lily asks instead.
"Um...neighbours house, a few blocks down," she gives Lily a cheeky smile, lowering her voice. "Turns out they're magic too."
Lily smiles back. "Imagine that."
"Ministry came by, asked them if they'd let me use their fireplace—I don't know what the Wizards call it—"
"The Floo mum, it's the Floo. Well, the Floo Network."
Her mother arches her brow. "The Flu? Really? Sounds like an illness."
"Yeah, actually, you're right. I never thought about it."
"Well, anyway, I've kicked the poor people out of their living room so I suppose we should keep this short. What's going on darling? Why did you need to speak with me so badly?"
Suddenly Lily feels incredibly silly. How exactly is she meant to explain that she's done all this just because of a feeling in her gut that something wasn't...right?
"I just—" she starts then stops, sighing as she crosses her legs and sits more comfortably on the stone floor. "I was worried I guess."
Which is when she sees it.
The tension in the corner of her mum's eyes.
"Worried?" she asks, her voice ticking up. "About what?"
Lily's stomach starts to squirm, the same unease she felt reading her mum's letters coming back.
"Mum?" she asks. "What is it? What's going on?" She has no idea what could be wrong. She just knows something is. Something her mother doesn't want her to know. That she thinks she needs protecting from.
"Did something happen to Petunia?"
"No, no, of course not!" her mother gives a bit of a breathless laugh, eyes not quite meeting Lily's. "She's fine, we're both fine."
But Lily only shakes her head. She is an expert in her mother's "fines." She's heard this one before. Heard it a hundred times when she stood next to her mum as people asked her how she was after he father's death. Listened to her tell everyone who came by to drop off casseroles and flowers in the months that followed that she was "fine."
"Please," she says, not willing to play this game. "Don't do this, just tell me what's wrong yeah? I can't bear being the last one to find out again."
She can see her mother's struggle even through the fire. See her trying and failing to keep the polite smile on her face.
