"Lily, Petunia, there's a boy at the door!" My incredibly embarrassing mother yelled up. She was doing her chirpy voice that said everything was fine for when guests around which I found kind of sad. Our dad had died, she was allowed to be upset, I didn't see why she had to pretend. Petunia rushed down to the landing and scowled at me as I lurked in my doorway. I was glad that she was leaving in a few days, she'd been awful before but since the funeral she'd really decided to torment me. I'd have about a week of Petunia free life before she returned and this time, she brought the wonderful Vernon with her. My holiday was going great.

"That's very nice, Mum, but I wouldn't classify Vernon as a boy..." I challenged.

"You're right, Lily, he's not a boy," She looked away haughtily, her nose slightly in the air, "He's a man."

"I was going to say whale with a moustache but sure, he's a man." I adopted a patronising tone that I knew got under her skin. Thanks to her and James I was the queen of comebacks now. She scowled for a second, her mouth opening and closing like a goldfish as she tried to figure out what to say.

"Shut up, Lily, it's not Vernon." She snapped finally, ignoring my triumphant grin and eyebrow raise. I was a competitive person anyway but beating Petunia had a certain appeal to it. I slowly crept onto the landing next to her to peer over at our guest.

"Hey Lily." I heard a voice call as I peered over the landing to see James waving up at me.

"Lily, who is this lovely young man?" My mother asked, smiling knowingly at me. I blushed a deep, beetroot colour as I slunk past Petunia down the stairs.

"...A friend." Both she and James raised an eyebrow at me and I went even redder, "What's up?"

"James seems like a very lovely young man." My oh so embarrassing mother said.

"That's nice, Mum." I said, silentely pleading with her to go away. Luckily she got the hint and with a last knowing smile at me walked away.

"James, what are you doing here?" I asked keeping my voice down as I could see Petunia lurking on the balcony, pretending that she wasn't eavesdropping. She had been even more annoying since the funeral, picking fights with me more than ever. My mum said it was because of the grief but I was sad too and I didn't act like a bitch about it.

"I wanted to ask what you were doing this holiday?"

The idea of the holidays brought back the familiar weight of sadness in my stomach. I hadn't much planned except for the walking holiday with my Dad but that was off. Mum seemed to enjoy staying in the house and Petunia didn't seem to want to go anywhere other than here and Vernon the human whale's swimming pool.

"Literally nothing. I haven't left the house except to go to the shops in almost a week. I was going to go away to the mountains but that's been cancelled for obvious reasons." I said, feigning a light-hearted smile.

"It's fine if you want to stay here and I would completely understand if you did. You know to be around your sister and mum," He glanced up at Petunia who scowled at us for no reason.

"I'm sure as hell not here for Petunia." I whispered.

"Anyway, I was wondering if you'd want to come and stay at mine for a bit. Not just us obviously, I was sort of thinking we could invite everyone if they wanted to come too. Sirius is already at mine and Remus and Peter are coming in a few days but you could come early if you wanted. We have a pool and I just thought it would be fun. I get it if you'd rather stay here." He said, his voice hopeful.

"That sounds really nice, I don't know if my mum would let me..." I said although I could already feel the excitement bubbling up inside of me. James Potter had a pool?!

"Also, I know that it won't be a week long trek but maybe if you wanted to walk a bit, I could walk with you?" He said carefully, "I thought it would be sort of a walk to honour Mr Evans..."

"Oliver, he would have wanted to you to call him by his first name..." I heard my mum's voice behind me. I whipped around to see her standing in the doorway, smiling a little sadly, "I wasn't eavesdropping, Lily, don't look at me like that, I was just walking past and I heard well.... he hated being called Mr Evans. He liked being called Oliver."

I was slightly annoyed at her for edging into the conversation but James didn't see to mind, instead smiling kindly at her.

"I thought it would be nice if me and Lily walked in honour of Oliver Evans. I wouldn't want to take her away from you at all this holiday but it would be lovely if she could come and stay with me for a bit." He said, "There would be other people too but it wouldn't be complete without her." He added hastily.

"I think that sounds lovely. Ollie, never would have wanted us to sit around in this house all day, he was an outdoors man. You know, in the holidays he used to take me out on hikes with him. I hated walking but I loved seeing how happy he was in nature. One time he carried me on his back up a hill, he said the power of love made him do it." She said, sounding distant. I was worried she was going to upset again but she suddenly came back to the present again, "Sorry, I'm going on again about it. Where are my manners anyway? Would you like some tea or coffee, you must have travelled a while."

"No, not far really. We only live about an hour or so away." He said, following my mum into the kitchen. I scurried after them, a thought suddenly occurring to me.

"Wait, James how did you have my address?" I asked.

"You gave it to me so I could owl you?" He laughed slightly, "You don't hate me anymore remember?"

"Oh right." I said laughing. I'd refused to let him owl me for years, threatening to keep his own owl as my own if he did.

"Lily, you should go and pack, I don't know when you're planning to leave but it's always best to be prepared. James will be fine down here." She said.

"As soon as you're willing to let her go." James said in annoyingly charming voice that had won over my mother. She usually wouldn't let me go off with a random boy for an unspecified amount of time but she was surprisingly relaxed about it.

"If you're sure... " I backed out off the room slowly.

"If it's alright, I'd love to hear more about Oliver, Lily has told me a few things over the years and I'd love to hear more..." I heard James saying as I left the room. My mothers face broke into a beaming smile, she loved to talk and my dad was her favourite topic.

I dashed up the stairs, suddenly unsure of what to pack. If I was going to Marlene's or someone like that, I'd just pack a bunch of old t shirts and a couple of pairs of jeans but I actually cared about my appearance this time. Most of the time, I just wore my Hogwarts uniform but that wasn't an option right now. Of course I wore normal clothes in Hogsmeade but this was a whole week. I couldn't just wear the same cute outfit and hope he wouldn't notice.

I hated to have to do this but I did have one person who had an admittedly good fashion sense in the household. I crossed over to enemy territory and knocked on Petunia's door. She looked annoyed to see me instantly.

"Yes? If you're here to show me some dancing teapot or cup with legs, I don't care. Show it to mum, freak." She said sharply, clearly expecting an insult of some kind as I could see her preparing.

"Put your claws away, Petunia, I'm not here for a fight this time. I need your help... with clothes."

Her pale green eyes lit up suddenly and I hadn't seen her look so happy to see me in a while. When she actually smiled, you could actually see that she was my sister. Sure our eyes were both kind of similar although hers were paler but her permanent frown had seemed to age her face.

"Yes, Lily..." She breathed excitedly, "I knew the day would come when you wanted to stop looking like this - " she waved her hand at me derogatively as if I was an old odd sock, " - and starting looking more like this. " She waved her hands over herself, holding her head high as if she was the best courgette at a vegetable competition.

"Tuney, you're wrong a lot but you've never been THIS wrong." I smirked at her as she scowled at me. She did a hair flick as she scoffed and began to close her door, "Wait, wait, Tuney, I'm sorry. I do need your help and maybe you're a little bit right this time."

"Urgh, fine, I'll help but only because I want to make you over so badly." She said striding ahead of me into my room as I ran after her. She turned around dramatically, "Okay, how long are you staying for and what sort of look are you going for to impress your boyfriend downstairs?"

"He's not my boyfriend..." She raised an eyebrow at me, "He's almost but we're not official or anything, I just don't want to date him until I don't feel like such an emotional mess. I'm fine today but you saw me yesterday, I got sad reading the newspaper."

"That's fair enough..." She said as she casually browsed through my clothes, occasionally pulling something out and tossing it onto my bed, "But you didn't answer my questions, what look and what duration?"

"Umm... a nice look, sort of pretty but effortless - "

"So basically me?" She cut in.

I deliberately ignored her, " - and duration no clue."

"So you've basically given me nothing to work with at all, thanks Lil." She said, "I'll make do though. Okay so you can only wear jeans once and make sure they're the nice high waisted flared ones I handed down to you. They make your waist look really slim and pair it with..." She pulled out a polo neck sweater that I avoided due to it's clingy nature, "this. This is cute. Okay, we have outfit number one."

"Can't I re-wear it?"

"No." She said firmly, "Remember checks are your friend so lets bring two checked skirts... oh you don't have two... you can borrow one of mine, maybe the red one? No... the green and black one..."

I'd never seen her look so excited about anything in my life since I'd let her do my makeup for me for out cousin's wedding last year. She ruthlessly culled through my shirts, occasionally darting back from to her room when she felt that my clothes were lacking.

"There we go, perfect..." She purred after what seemed like ages of packing outfits, "Ten complete outfits and I also brought several neutral shirts and a couple of flowery skirts just in case it's longer than ten days. If you don't know what to pair them with, call me, I'm only a phone call away but keep in mind, I'm on the phone to Vernon most nights from 7 until 8 at night so don't call then."

"Thanks, Tuney." I said simply yet it was the most sincere thing I'd said to her in a while.

"You're going to look lovely in them, Lily." She said smiling slightly, "Your boyfriend is very handsome by the way. You two look good together... in a beauty and the beast way." Her voice turned to the same mocking nature that it always had, our brief truce from hostility over.

"Just like you and Vernon." I said smiling sweetly.

"That's a bit harsh to call Vernon a beast even for you." She said pursing her lips.

"Sure, VERNON's the beast." I teased.

"I'll miss you, Lily." She said, her face suddenly solemn, "I should be used to it by now, you're always leaving me behind for better things."

I wanted to say something but she slammed the door quickly behind her and I heard her footsteps as she ran back to the landing. I missed her too, it felt like I hadn't had a sister since the day I'd found out I was a witch.