She Had the Perfect Life

Chapter Three - Second Year Discoveries and Determinations

Part One

"No," said Nicki flatly. "Absolutely not."

"Nicki," pleaded Lily, "it's only for the weekend."

"Exactly."

"Just one night!"

"With three boys across the hall. I think not."

An owl had just arrived from the Potter's bringing an invitation for Lily and Rose to spend the weekend with them, and Sirius. Nicki was immovable.

"Nicki, we're only twelve. Actually, Rose isn't even twelve yet. What could we do?"

"You'd be surprised."

"Nicki! We're just friends," Rose broke in.

"So were Anetka and I," said Nicki stubbornly. Mary, who had been listening, now spoke.

"If I went with them, could we go?"

He turned to study his youngest daughter. She had turned eleven in January. Even though she was small for her age, she was surprisingly strong, having taken karate lessons a few years ago, and she was more protective of Lily and Rose than ever. Nicki had no worries about his middle daughters hitting their teen years at Hogwarts, as long as Mary was there.

"If you went with them..." said Nicki slowly. "I suppose so."

Lily and Rose squealed with joy. Upstairs, Petunia winced and turned the TV up.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Hey," he said quickly. "You need to ask them if they mind Mary coming."

"Oh, they won't," said Lily confidently, but Rose was already writing their response.

The Potters had no problem with it, and it was arranged that the girls would leave early Saturday morning and return Sunday evening by Floo. Nicki remained slightly uneasy, and cautioned all three girls constantly that if they wanted to come back on Saturday night, it was perfectly fine, and no one would think less of them. In fact, if they did, Nicki would take them anywhere they wanted to go within the country the next weekend.

"No," Lily told him. "It's really alright."

Finally Saturday morning arrived, and Lily, Rose, and Mary lined up in front of the fireplace.

"Have a good time," said Anetka cheerfully, presenting Lily the bag of Floo Powder.

"Be careful," said Nicki nervously.

"We will," Rose promised as she followed Lily and her bag into the fire.

"I'll watch, I promise," Mary assured him. "Don't worry." She stepped into the green fire, pulling her duffle bag behind her.

Petunia, who had paused on the staircase to watch, gave a shudder before continuing her way upstairs.

Lily stepped out of the fireplace onto a cool marble floor of a room so large it could be mistaken for a room in Hogwarts.

A chandelier hung from the ceiling, lighting the room along with the giant two-story windows. Everything was sparkling clean. Petunia would love it if there wasn't magic everywhere, Lily reflected. She heard Rose step out behind her.

"Oh, wow."

"Incredible, isn't it?" Lily murmured.

"Definitely," Mary's voice whispered as its owner straightened.

A house-elf appeared at the door across them, gave a small squeak, and raced away. The sisters looked at each other.

"Well," said Lily uncertainly, "I suppose we should just wait here until someone finds us."

"Or until that house-elf gets whoever he was running for," muttered Mary.

As they stood there, nervously brushing ash off each other and trying to not let it land on anything, they continued to admire the richly furnished room. Lily and Rose had noticed that on weekends David and James had always worn nice clothes, but never like this. Scarlet curtains were drawn back at the window, tied with gold tassels. A long sofa curled around the wall covered with quilts and pillows. A cabinet held all sorts of crystal figurines and bowls, which glittered brilliantly in the light. Even the carpet that spread away from the marble was a shining white. It appeared to be several inches thick.

"Try not to touch anything," Rose whispered.

"That's going to be difficult if you're planning to stay here for two days," a voice answered her. The woman it belonged to walked through the doorway. It was Mrs. Potter. She wore sky-blue robes that matched her eyes, and her black hair fell straight down her back. A silver necklace with a large sapphire set in gold hung around her neck. She smiled at them.

"I'm sorry the boys aren't awake to greet you. You see, Sirius arrived last night, and even though I warned them to go to bed before midnight, they insisted on staying up until about four." She laughed. "But you don't have to stand here until they wake up. I'll show you to your rooms." Motioning for the girls to follow her, Mrs. Potter led them through the mansion.

"James said that the two of you" -she looked at Lily and Rose- "would share a room. But when we realized that you were coming also, dearie, we weren't sure if you would like a separate room or not."

"We can all share a room," said Lily quickly. "That's what we do at home."

"Are you sure?" asked Mrs. Potter, turning her bright blue eyes upon her. "I can arrange for you to have rooms next to each other."

Now Mary spoke. "Mrs. Potter-"

"Natalie, please."

"Oh - Natalie, the reason we asked if I could come is because our father was a bit - er, anxious about Lily and Rose staying overnight with three boys. The only way they could come was if I went along. I think part of the deal was that I stay in the same room."

Natalie Potter nodded. "Understandable, Mary dear. You can use one of our larger rooms then." By now they had walked through half a dozen hallways and up quite a few staircases. Suddenly, the twins' mother put a finger to her lips and tiptoed forward, beckoning for the Evans sisters to join her at the threshold of a door. She slowly pushed it open a few inches, and then pointed inside. Curious, the three young witches peered into the room.

The scene inside was comical. Wrappers of all sorts of sweets were strewn across the floor, sofa, and bed, and a jug with an inch of pumpkin juice left was in the middle of the floor. Sirius was the only person on the bed. He lay sideways on it, one hand flung over the side. James - or was it David? - was asleep at the foot of the bed, a catalog of racing brooms across his chest. The other twin was half-on, half-off the couch, the remnants of an Ice Mouse hanging out of his mouth. Suppressing giggles, the girls closed the door and crept away with Natalie. She laughed softly.

"Of course, they're going to clean every bit of that up by themselves."

"Do you think they're going to wake up anytime soon?" Mary asked.

"Maybe in a half hour. Come on, your room's in the next floor up."

The room was gigantic - it was bigger than their common room at Hogwarts. There was a king-size bed, a table, a desk, a sofa, a bookshelf, a cupboard, and a bathroom. A window seat took up nearly half of a wall, and two skylights let direct light shine down. Lily, Rose, and Mary had never been in anything so beautiful before in their entire lives.

After thanking Natalie again and again, they unpacked their clothes and began to explore their quarters. Their hostess had provided a bell for them to ring if they needed anything. A house-elf would come running.

Thus the weekend began. After an hour or so the boys awoke, and, after cleaning up their room under Natalie Potter's supervision, gave the sisters a grand tour of the entire mansion. Sirius knew it as well as James and David did. They showed them the library, greenhouse, indoor Quidditch stadium, and kitchens. In the afternoon the boys taught them all about Quidditch, and then held a miniature game of their own. Rose and Mary proved to be very good at it, the elder as a Chaser and the younger as a Beater. James actually said Rose might make the team when school started and Mary the following year.

James was trying for Seeker, and he soon showed he would be an excellent one. David was a Chaser, and he quickly taught Rose the basics. Sirius played the part of Beater, working alongside Mary, who had by no means forgotten her Potion. She was as distant to him as she could be without being downright rude. He was puzzled by this, and couldn't, try as hard as he could, think of something he had done to put her off.

But, all in all, it was a very enjoyable day, and when the six friends finally sank, exhausted, to the ground, there was a house-elf waiting for them with a tray holding a jug of lemonade and half a dozen glasses. That night they ate supper with Joseph and Natalie Potter. Mr. Potter also insisted the girls address him by their first name.

Afterwards Lily, Rose, and Mary introduced the boys to a Muggle game called Twister, which twisted them all into situations that were quite humorous, including one that involved David over Lily that Nicki would have fainted at if he had seen it, and another that left Mary quite frightened and unnerved. It was a quarter to twelve when the friends finally limped back to their separate floors.

The following morning the six witches and wizards met outside to eat breakfast, followed by defiantly kicking in the face of the no-swimming-one-hour-after-eating rule. Nicki had taught all four of his girls how to swim as soon as they could walk, so it was a bit of fun to see the girls challenging the boys to races and the like.

Hours later they were sitting comfortably on the steps of the shallow end, having burned all the energy a normal twelve-year-old would have and more. Finally Rose broke the silence.

"Why didn't you invite Remus?"

"We did," David quickly replied. "He said something about his mum wanting him home."

"She gets ill a lot, doesn't she?" asked Mary, who had heard about Remus' disappearances from her sisters.

"Yeah, she does," said Sirius slowly. "I saw her at the end of the year when I was dropping off Remus, and she didn't look that bad."

"It's really strange," murmured Rose, dipping her hair back into the water.

Lily kept her silence. She was the only one here who knew the truth. She was the only one in the entire student body who knew the truth. I promised him I wouldn't tell, she reminded herself. Not anyone.

"What do you think, Lily?"

The question snapped her back. "Oh - what?"

James splashed her. "Wake up. You fall asleep in a pool, you'll drown. I asked you what you thought about Remus' visits to his mother."

"What about it?" she responded, trying to act normal.

"It's just - I don't know. Parts of it don't add up."

I told you so, Remus, Lily thought. But in spite of that, she quickly jumped to his defense. "You don't think he lied to you, do you?"

"No," said James hastily. "Of course not. But - I'm not accusing him - doesn't it seem a little strange to you?"

"No." Not anymore. "He has to go home to visit his sick mother once a-" She barely caught herself, but without pause she amended it. "-in a while. What's so strange about that?" Then, fearing she might have sounded a bit rude, Lily added, "I'm not trying to be mean, but really: I don't think it's weird." As James started to reply, she swiftly switched the subject. "David, can your house-elves make pizza?"

He grinned. "Ha, ha, and ha again."

"Wonderful," Lily said, hoisting herself out of the pool and wrapping a towel around her waist. "Can you tell them to make a plain cheese pizza?"

"No, he can't," Sirius countered, jumping out as well. "Because he's going to tell them to make a chicken pizza."

"You're both wrong," James cut in, following his brother, Rose, and Mary up the steps. "David and I own the house-elves, and they're going to make a pepperoni pizza."

"How about a chicken and pepperoni?"

"But what about our cheese?"

"It's called removing them, dear."

"But I thought we weren't allowed to do a Removing Spell during the summer!"

"My son, let me introduce to you an old and wonderful practice. One pinches the offending object between one's index finger and thumb and plucks it away, disposing where convenient. I will demonstrate as soon as Flossie cooks the darned thing. Or perhaps I will use you as the offending object."

"Shut it, James."

Laughter filled the air.

All too soon, the chicken and pepperoni pizza was on its way to digestion and it was time for the female half of the six to depart. They all assembled in their room, the boys trying to help and thus slowing the packing process. But, unfortunately, it was soon finished, and James, David, and Sirius insisted on carrying their luggage downstairs, much to the girls' amusement. It was very ingenious the number of ways they found to delay it, though they had to stop when Sirius accidentally/on purpose let Mary's bag fall down the staircase they had just climbed, and it completely - accidentally hit Rose in the shin. After that Natalie showed up and levitated the bags the rest of the way to the living room. The boys were very disappointed.

So the six friends - and Natalie Potter - said their goodbyes in front of the fireplace.

"It was a lot of fun," James said, tossing powder into the flames. "You have to come again sometime. And next time for a week."

"I think you'll have to convince Nicki first that you're not going to attack us as soon as we're alone," laughed Rose.

David leaned against the wall. "Does he know that for about ten months we slept within fifty feet of each other?"

"I don't think it's quite hit him yet," Lily said, smiling. "Well, goodbye." The last word echoed all around and first Lily, then Rose, and at last Mary stepped into the fireplace, calling out the name Nicki had given their home ever since Mary had been born:

"Little Women."

The rest of the summer went by without a remarkable incident, except for perhaps one.

It was late August and Petunia had just reached her thirteenth birthday. Realizing that it wouldn't be long before her youngest sister was gone to the weird school too, Petunia launched a whole new attack against her. The things she whispered in Mary's ear were nothing new, but simply reinforced. And it still hurt as much as it ever did.

At last the eleven-year-old fled outside and up the tree into their tree house. But Petunia's taunts still rang in her mind.

You're not related to us, and you never will be! Look at Lily and Rose, they're best friends, do you honestly think you're one of them? What are you going to do at your school? The cliques have already been formed; they're not going to accept you...

"Hey."

The single word snapped Mary back. She looked up to see Lily and Rose standing in front of her. To her mortification, she actually felt pricks in her eyes. Mary quickly brushed them away. Lily sighed as she knelt in front of her.

"What did she say this time, Mary?"

"Nothing," she said, staring at the ground. "It doesn't matter." It's all true, anyway, she added bitterly to herself.

"Don't give me that," Lily said quietly, taking Mary's hand. "This isn't different from any other time, but now that she's older she's got more powerful arguments. Now come on, tell us."

The dam burst. Mary, who hitherto had made it a policy not to bother Lily and Rose with Petunia's torments, now poured forth all the injustices and lies that she had begun to believe to be true. Lily and Rose listened without interruption, until finally Mary ended her tirade.

"Of course, you don't believe it, do you?" Rose asked.

"How can't I?" replied Mary miserably. "Everything she says makes sense."

"You're not so stupid, Mary," said Lily, a bit more sharply than she intended.

"It does!" cried Mary. "You two are best friends, and it's more than that, you're practically twins! Practical Magic made you two born within five months of each other. You grew together. I'm - I'm not even related," she finished helplessly.

It's usually the adopted child that feels neglected, Lily thought. But she quickly took up the argument. "Mary," she said softly, looking straight into her brown eyes, "you are closer to me and Rose than Petunia is. It doesn't matter that we're not biologically related, you're as close as - as - any two Practical Magic sisters! Everyone at Hogwarts knows that our younger sister is coming to school in the fall. We've told everyone about you. Mary, I love you as much as I love Rose, and so does she. I don't care whether you're the same blood or not." Seeing the lingering doubts in Mary's eyes, Lily sighed and turned to face the bookshelf. She held open her hand, and the pocketknife lying on top magically flew to her. Turning back to her sisters, she ordered, "Open your left hand. You too," she added, glancing at a surprised Rose.

"Now," Lily continued, opening the knife, "I'm going to make each of you a promise. Mary first, then Rose." They understood what she was going to do with the knife - it was an old Practical Magic vowing tradition. "Mary, when we grow up, and if I get married" -as expected, she had long forgotten her four-year-old potion- "if I ever have a baby girl, you will be the godmother." Practical Magic dictated that every Practical Magic witch who got married has two daughters, but it was understood that their generation was a bit conflicted. Not only that, but ever since Lily had entered Hogwarts she had stopped studying Practical Magic, much to her mother's disappointment.

"My blood," Lily said, cutting a diagonal line across her palm without flinching. A thin, bright line of blood appeared.

"Your blood," she continued, copying the motion across Mary's palm, who also took it without wincing.

"Our blood," the sisters said simultaneously, clasping their hands together. They held it briefly, and then Lily turned to Rose.

"And if I have a son, you can be the godmother." They repeated the ritual with Lily cutting a second line next to her old one.

When it was over, Lily leaned back on her heels and took each of her sisters' hands in her own. "That's the best I can do to convince you I love you equally. Now it's up to you to believe it."