“Potter, just leave me alone, okay?! Leave me alone! I don’t know why I put up with your shit, but it sure as hell isn’t going to happen anymore!”

I knew I sounded like an idiot. I knew everyone was watching me yell my head off in the middle of the train corridor. And I knew Potter and Black were enjoying every second of this, what with those stupid smirks on their faces. But I couldn’t focus on that. All I could focus on was trying not to beat them both into bloody pulps.

“I’m sensing you’re a bit upset, Evans?” Potter said, laughing.

“I’ll show you upset, you piece of crap!” I said, red in the face. This just made him laugh even more. I would honestly have traded my mother for a chance to punch the grin off his face. Yes. My mother.

“What are you going to do? Throw your Prefect’s badge at me?”

That was it.

I charged at him. But before I had take more than two steps, something... someone grabbed my shirt from behind and before I even turned around, I knew who it was.

 

“Tami,” I said. “Let me go this instant.”

Tami was my best friend, so you’d think she’d have respected my decision to kick Potter’s arse and maybe even have said “Oh golly Lily, I’ll take Black and you can take Potter, and we can kick their arses together.” You know, bonding time.

But no. Instead she said,

“No, Lily! Leave him alone! He’s not worth it!”

 

Fake friends.

“Yeah Evans,” Black said. They were clutching each other for support now. “We’re definitely not worth it.”

 Tami’s short brown hair framed her angry, flushed face as her glare shot daggers at them.

“Let go, Tami! I’m going… to kill him!” I struggled against her hold, but Tami was surprisingly strong. She quickly pulled me into our recently vacated compartment, and then slammed the door shut so we wouldn’t hear those two stupid Marauders laughing.

I rounded on Tami, my red hair flying.

“What the hell was that for, Tamantha?!”

She raised an eyebrow. “So we’re using full names now, Lillian?”

I glared at her.

“What?” she asked innocently.

“Ugh!” I threw myself into a seat and folded my arms. “Why didn’t you let me go? Those are the same idiots that took all our underwear and hung them on the Whomping Willow, remember?!”

For a second, Tami’s face clouded over with anger, but then she sighed and collapsed into a seat. “Because, Lily… as much as I would have loved you to, you forget, again, that you would have gotten in trouble and you might have lost your chance to make Head Girl,” she said wearily, as if we’d been over this a thousand times. Which, thinking about it, we probably had.

It was clear she was exhausted from this five year war that had raged between the two of us and the two of them. I was too. But can you really call it a war when no one ever wins?

It was silent in the compartment for a few minutes as the anger slowly deflated out of me.

“Thanks, Tami. It’s just… he makes me so angry! I can’t control it. And he always starts it! I don’t understand why he can’t just leave me alone.”

Tami didn’t answer. She probably didn’t understand it either. I sighed and looked out the window. We were just returning home from Hogwarts for the summer before our 6th year. I looked at my reflection and saw exactly why they made fun of me. Who wouldn’t pick on me? I had over-frizzy vibrant red hair, colored braces, huge glasses that hid the real color of my eyes, and seriously pale skin. The only friend I had was Tami, who made me feel like The Ugly Duckling, with her short wavy hair and chocolate brown eyes. I did quite well at school, which only added to my geekiness. Heck, even I would make fun of me.

Oh and don’t get me wrong, Tami was an amazing friend. Sometimes I thought I didn’t deserve her: she was nice to everyone (okay maybe not everyone), was really loyal and was incredibly pretty. We were rather similar... well you know, except for the pretty thing. Even though she’s always on about how pretty I am. Pfft. I should lend her my glasses sometime. Also Tami sort of had some trust issues. She had a really hard time letting people into her life. It took me three years to find out that her dad had left her when she was five, which is probably the reason why she can’t trust people.

Merlin. It’s been a hectic year, what with those stupid Marauders, and I couldn’t wait to get home and sleep. And the best part was that Tami was coming home with me! It was all set: She'd owled her mum and she had said that Tami could stay for half the summer. We'd thought her mum wouldn't let her, really, so that came as a bit of a shock. But seeing as her mum was an Auror, she had a major mission and wasn't going to be home much. Tami's mother had thought it would be better for her to be with friends than home alone all the time.

 

---

We finally arrived home late at night. The traffic was so much you wouldn’t believe. My mum and dad were thrilled to see us. Petunia… not so much. You see, before I knew I was a witch, Tuney and I used to be buddies. Best buddies, in fact. But when I got my Hogwarts letter, she got just a teensy bit jealous and decided to hate me for the rest of her life. At first, it really bothered me that my only sister wanted nothing to do with me. But after a while, it just started to irritate me until I hated her almost as much as she hated me. Aren’t we just a wonderful family?

Despite Petunia’s bitchy attitude, I missed home. After Tami and I stuffed our trunks in my closet, we jumped into my bed and slept together. And no not like that, you freak. Merlin, get your mind out of the gutter.

 

I woke up the next morning to the sound of Petunia’s screechy voice – not something anyone wants to wake up to – shouting, “Wake up, you freak!”

Well good morning to you too, you sweet loving sister, you.

I drowsily opened my eyes and noticed Tami was still fast asleep. Surprise, surprise. She could sleep through an earthquake, that one. Literally. Trust me - I know what I’m talking about.

Petunia was still rapping at my door. I really didn’t feel like standing to open the door, but that knocking was getting really annoying. Then I remembered my wand, which was on the table on the other side of my bed. I propped myself up on my elbows and tried to stretch over Tami to get it, but it wasn’t working. I got on my knees and leaned in a little more... a little too much. I fell onto Tami with an oomph and she woke up.

“Lily, what are you doing?” she asked sleepily.

“Trying to get my wand,” I whispered. “You can go back to sleep.”

“Oh. Well, you’re sort of lying on top of me.”

“Oh. Yeah, right.”

And just as I was about to get off, Petunia chose that moment to walk into my room. She froze and stared at us.

I guess it’s kind of a weird scene to walk into, me lying on top of Tami in bed with my little booty pyjama shorts.

“Morning,” I smiled brightly at Petunia.

She stared for a few moments and hurriedly walked out of the door, without even telling me why she’d woken me up. I grabbed my wand and jumped off Tami. The smell of pancakes was wafting from the kitchen up the stairs to my room, and my stomach rumbled.

“I’m going down for breakfast,” I said. “Wanna join?”

Tami yawned. “I’ll be right down.”

My parents and Petunia were all sitting around the table when I got there, sausages and pancakes already on their plates. They were whispering among themselves and stopped as soon as they saw me.

“Morning,” I yawned and heading for the fridge for some cranberry juice. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing, nothing,” my parents said quickly.

I shrugged and took my seat. Honestly my family is just weird. I dug into the syrupy goodness, raising my head between bites to tell my mother how delicious her pancakes were, only to notice that my family were watching me strangely.

“What?” I asked, my mouth still stuffed with food.

“Nothing!” My mum said laughing in such a fake way that for a moment, I thought she was choking.

I swallowed. “Look mum I’m-”

“It’s completely fine,” my dad interrupted quickly. “We completely understand.”

“Yeah,” Mum nodded. “You’re our daughter and... I’m not saying I’m happy about this but – I can’t believe I’m saying this - we’ll support your... choices no matter what.”

Huh? I had been about to say ‘Look mum, I’m not stupid, I know there’s something wrong.’ So what are they on about?

Petunia was looking at me, disgusted. I was confused. I mean, she usually looks at me with disgust, but this was a different kind of disgust.

“What are you on about?” I asked them. “I’m –“

“It’s okay!” my dad said soothingly. “I heard these days it has something to do with genetics, maybe your great uncle Louis-”

“Yes,” my mum said, nodding, “He was always a strange fellow.”

“The point is you are who you are, no matter your sexual preference-”

I choked on my sausage. “What? You... you think I’m... gay?” I asked incredulously.

My dad glanced at Petunia frantically and said, “What? Haha no! Why –“

“Why would you even say that?” my mum asked, laughing that scary fake laugh again.

“I can’t believe you would think I’m gay!”

“We never said –“

“Honey, no of course not –“

“You look perfectly heterosexual to me –“

“We were just talking about the birds and the bees, nothing more.”

There was silence. I just sat there glaring at Petunia. It was all her fault, the bitch. Can’t a girl just try and cross over her best friend in bed to get her wand anymore?

We all sat there, the clink of the forks and knives on the plates were the only source of noise.

I stood up. “Well, this has been sufficiently awkward,” I said. “I’ll just be going back to my room now.”

I stomped up the stairs, grumbling to myself. See other teenagers get to deal with sneaking out to parties in the middle of the night. I get to deal with my parents questioning me about my sexuality. Honestly, what is wrong with my life?

“I wouldn’t go down if I were you,” I said to Tami as I walked into my room. She was sitting in front of my mirror brushing her hair, which was wet so I figured she had taken a shower.

“Why?” she asked absentmindedly.

“My family is being weird.”

“What else is new?”

I grabbed my pillow and threw it at her head. Only I was allowed to call my family weird. Tami was supposed to lie to me and tell me I come from a very sane family. But no. Merlin, fake friends these days.

Tami laughed. “Geez I’m sorry. You know I’m just kidding, I love your parents (notice how she excluded Petunia). Hey help me with this clip, will you?”

“No.”

She sighed. “Fake friends, fake friends.”

I smirked at her reflection in the mirror and collapsed unto my bed. One day into the summer and things were already taking a turn for the worse.

“So why are you calling your family weird?”

“They think we’re having some kind of lesbian romance thing going on.”

“What?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh... how completely... normal and not weird at all.”

“I know, right?”

---

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<3 Kermit x