The Rise And Fall Of The Stag And The Doe

White Christmas

"All alright," Lily said pulling her father's van up in front of Dorcas's a simple one story house with several blow up Santa Claus's out in the front yard. "Is this it?"

"Yeah, I still can't believe your dad let you drive me." Dorcas breathed buttoning her golden coat up and snatching her luggage from the seat behind her.

Lily grinned, "Well even he admitted it wouldn't make much sense for me to take the test when I'm not legally a muggle anymore."

"True story." Dorcas paused for a beat before hugging Lily tightly, "I'll see you January 3rd."

"Have a nice time with your grandma, and don't get into too much trouble!" Lily shouted as Dorcas hopped out of the car.

Dorcas leaned back into the car with a dubious expression on her olive face. "Lily, we are in Suburbia, all of my grandma's neighbors are in their fifties with grown children….I will probably take up knitting…or some shit like that."

"Knitting isn't that bad." Lily said defensively.

"Well as a knitter you would think that." Dorcas sighed, "I'll see you Lil. Happy Christmas."

Lily smiled, "Happy Christmas Dora."

Waiting patiently for Dorcas to get into the house, Lily mentally prepared herself for the dinner to come. Thankfully most of their extended family was coming for dinner so Lily would try to make herself as small as possible to not draw attention to herself. It was never easy having her family over, they always asked the same questions and over the years they grew more and more annoyed with her answers. She kept reminded herself that it was only one night, and she could put up with her family's crap for a night.

It wasn't that bad after all. Lily just tended to focus on the worst possibility of any given situation and she was a bit overdramatic, but she knew that about herself. She liked to think that if she made the situation the absolute worst then it could only get better from there, and if not then she was already prepared for whatever came her way. As she drove home, she tried to picture what Marlene and Dorcas would do in her situation. Marlene would say nothing and just leave if it got too bad. Dorcas on the other hand would confront everyone and strut out from the wreckage like a complete bad ass. Though she'd like to believe she was patient and strong like Marlene or blunt and resilent like Dorcas, Lily knew better. She was a coward hiding in a Gryffindor sweater and though she was sick of it, there didn't really seem to be a way out of it. If she stood up for herself Petunia would make her look like an arse and turn herself into a helpless victim. Also her father would be disappointed in her if she fought with Petunia with their family there. Sometimes Lily thought that her dad put unrealistic expectations on her. Why was it okay for Petunia to belittle and bully her at every opportunity, but whenever Lily said a word her father gave her a look? What if it really wasn't beneath Lily to fight back?

Easing her breathing, Lily's knuckles became red from her grip on the steering wheel. The snow had piled up over the past two weeks making driving nearly unbearable, but Lily preferred driving in snow. If she was ever late she could blame the weather and she didn't have to rush to get to wherever she was going. It was times like these that Lily liked to reexamine her life and try to figure out what areas of her life needed improvement and find practical ways to improve them. Lately though her life seemed to be at this point where all of the problems in her life stemmed from things that weren't easily fixed.

1) Her love life was none existent and actually quite pathetic.

Sure Potter hit on her, but at this point she wished he wouldn't. Now that she knew him a bit better she actually wanted him to be happy, Lily just knew she would never be the person to make that happen. So honestly he was just wasting his efforts.