Letters From A Stranger || James and Lily ||

Peonies

Disclaimer : Forget Harry Potter, I don't even own the chocolates in my fridge.

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Chapter 6

It had been three days since Lily came back to Hogwarts and her life had quickly fallen into the school routine.

She pulled on her school robes and walked down to the great hall for breakfast. She looked around the hall for her friends.

Daisy was sitting with her best friend Amelia at the Hufflepuff table. The Hufflepuff students were too friendly to complain about it. Alice was with Frank and (Lily cursed her fate) Marlene and Mary were sitting with the Marauders. She slowly walked towards the table and sat down next to Peter who moved up the bench to make space for her.

Remus smiled at her and Lily smiled back. James nodded with a quick 'Good morning'. She returned the greeting.

"Ah, Evans!" Sirius said, "You look beautiful today."

"Your flirting techniques are not going to work on me, Black." Lily said sweetly.
James snorted, Remus laughed silently into his glass of orange juice and Peter bit back a grin.

"Uh-oh. Now I have to go back to flirting with McKinnon." he said.
Marlene banged her head on the table repeatedly (which reminded Lily of a house elf) and Mary patted her back sympathetically.

After breakfast, Lily went back to the common room to collect her books and quills for the day's classes. She was standing in front of the portrait hole when she heard a small girl (who looked like a first year) call her.

"Are you Lily Evans?" the girl asked, slightly out of breath. Lily nodded.

The girl held out a bouquet of peonies. "For you."

Lily took the bouquet from her and before she could ask who had sent it, the girl was gone. She looked at the flowers. Attached to the ribbon that held the flowers together was a note.
In long, spiky handwriting, written on it was a single word : Sorry. Lily sighed.

The first thought that came to Lily's mind was the meaning of peonies in Victorian flower language : shame and bashful. Also peonies were her favorite. There was only one person other than her family and Marlene who knew it. She turned around and saw the same person.

"Lily." he pleaded, "Please listen to me."

Lily kept her face expressionless.

"You can't blame me." Severus said, "It's all Potter's fault."

"What has he got to do with what you said?" Lily asked, narrowing her eyes. She had no intention of defending what Potter did but she also knew that Severus couldn't dump all the blame on Potter and get away with what he said.

"I wouldn't have said that if he hadn't attacked me. I wasn't thinking, Lily."

"When people don't think much, they tend to speak the truth." Lily said, coldly.

Severus stood in front of her, speechless, staring down at his shoes.

"Did you send me these?" she asked, gesturing to the flowers.

He looked at the flowers and frowned.
"No." he said and Lily saw he was genuinely confused and knew he wasn't lying.

Without another word, she walked into the common room.

Rest of Lily's day passed uneventfully.

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The next day, Lily tried to get up from her bed and fell straight back. Her hands and legs felt weak and her head felt heavy.