Lily Potter (Harry Potter's Twin)

Chapter 99

At dawn I was awoken by the sound of Fred's gentle snores.  I sat up, looking at the mess of ginger hair next to me. Fred's hair had gotten a little shaggy in recent months, dropping a little below his shoulders. His face was untroubled, peaceful in his sleep. I wish I could know what he was dreaming about that calmed him into this peaceful state. My dreams stay tarnished with fear, rotating from the pain of the cursed necklace to the cold floor of the basement to the bed sheets of St. Mungos. It was a restless night for me, even in the arms of Fred those moments of fear still crept into my subconscious.

I stretched and got up to go to the cottage. If Fleur of Bill were awake, I could discuss the idea of getting married today with them. I pulled back the canvas entrance of the tent to see Bill and Fleur in their outside patio that faced the ocean and drinking out of mugs. They hadn't seen me yet and I was anxious to talk to them, realizing I had never had a one-on-one conversations with either Fleur or Bill.

I brushed the hair from my face and started walking across the sand to their little outside seating area. Bill saw me and turned towards me, raising his mug in acknowledgement.

"Morning Lily," he said, sounding a little lower in tone than usual due to the earliness of the day.

"Good morning," I said, smiling at them, trying to sound chipper.

" 'Ow was eor sleep?" asked Fleur.

I chuckled as I sat down in an open lawn seat. They sat together on the bench, a coffee table with odd maps and papers littered about. Bill absent mindlessly reached to move them out of sight.

"Oh," said Bill, raising his eyebrows ans he stacked the various papers, "so you and Fred didn't get much sleep, huh?" 

I laughed, Fleur hit him on the arm and smiled apologetically at me.

"I mean, I've slept enough for lifetime," I joked, poking my toes into the cold sand.

"True," nodded Bill knowingly, a line forming between his eyebrows as he set the papers face down. "Do you mind explaining the latest Lily Potter mishap in your series of unfortunate events?"

"What would you like to know?" I asked, not knowing what they knew already.

"Vhere vere you?" asked Fleur, suddenly serious.

"The Order understood that you were missing," Bill explained. "Once Lupin told us you weren't with the others at Grimmald Place, we figured you must have gone off solo. Dumbledore had let us know that you had your own mission, separate from the others. After a few days without any contact from you we had figured the worst and assumed you were captured. Fred was leading the search for you these past months, along with finding other prisoners of war and freeing those captured by Snatchers."

"Well, I was in the basement of the Malfoy Manor with Luna and Ollivander. I guess that is where they keep their more 'high profile guests'," I forced a chuckle.

"I thought so," Fleur said, surprisingly. "Zat place es very protected." 

"I know, we couldn't even escape the basement, let alone the Manor. I think we would have been trapped without Dobby."

"What happened, how did you end up there?" asked Bill. I sighed, not wanting to share my failure from his wedding night.

"When the Death Eaters came, Draco Malfoy was among them--"

"Is that the one who was supposed to kill you last year? You and Dumbledore?" Bill asked. I was surprised that he knew that, I thought it was of need to know information Dumbledore gave out sparingly. "Fred had told me after everything happened," Bill explained.