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Reunion
Disclaimer: Who do I look like, JK Rowling?According to Davina, number 12 Grimmauld Place had undergone some severe renovations over the past few years, and they had only just finished a few days before. The walls had been a musty blue, the carpets moth-eaten and so dirty you couldn't even tell what color they were, and the ceiling chipping constantly, and leaking in the winter. Lily looked around and found this hard to believe. The walls were covered with rich wood paneling, the ceiling was a pleasant cream color, and the burgundy carpet looked so soft that Lily wanted to take her shoes off and run around barefoot in it all day. Lily told Davina so, and Davina laughed.
The two girls stopped in front of a door, which Davina pushed open.
"This," she said to Lily, "is the drawing room."
"Really?" Lily asked, "I didn't think people still had these."
"Well, we do."
"Apparently."
Sunlight was streaming in through the large windows. There were a couple of couches and armchairs grouped around a glass coffee table in the middle of the room. An antique wooden writing desk stood in a corner, and next to it a large glass display case. Lily walked up to the latter and found it empty.
"It used to hold some nasty family heirlooms," Davina said, "cursed artifacts, strangling jewelry, that kind of junk. Sirius' family was a nasty lot."
"They'd have to be," said Lily, "to keep stuff like that in the drawing room." She turned and squinted at the writing desk briefly. Davina sat down in one of the armchairs as Lily examined the rest of the room. After several minutes, Lily turned to leave, but as she did so, she stopped. On the peach-colored wall next to the door was a large black scorch mark. Lily's jaw dropped.
"What did this?" Lily asked Davina, "You know what? Don't answer that. I have a feeling that I don't want to know." Davina laughed bitterly and let the way out of the drawing room. Lily followed her down the corridor, which ended in a red velvet curtain. Davina pulled it aside, revealing another set of stairs. The two climbed these stairs and came upon a small, dim corridor. The corridor was filled with dusty sunlight that was filtering in through a dirty skylight.
There were four doors leading off the corridor; the first, Davina showed Lily, opened into a large bathroom. The second door had a sign taped to it. The sign proclaimed, in large round script decorated with starbursts and well-drawn roses, "Davina's Room". Davina opened the door.
"This is my room," she said to Lily. Lily looked in and for a fleeting moment thought she was under water. The entire room was painted a brilliant turquoise that reflected like sunlight on the bottom of a swimming pool. In a few places were some small groups of tropical fish. There was also a large four-poster bed made up with sheets of the same color. Along one wall were several bookshelves, and on another a desk scattered with pencils. The last wall was covered with papers. Lily went over to these and found them all to be drawings, done in what she recognized as the manga style, which had been popular in the States. In the bottom right-hand corner of each was a decorative signature:
Davina S Rile
"You drew all these?" Lily asked as she scanned the pictures. They were all very good, but she only recognized a few: Stella and a cat, Davina leaning on the edge of a swimming pool, Sirius and a woman with reddish-brown hair and stormy blue eyes, presumably his wife, Lyra.
"Yep," Davina replied. Lily walked down the wall of pictures. The next one she was drawn to no people in it but featured a large black dog and a young tiger. Funny, both animals' eyes looked strangely familiar.
"Come on," said Davina, "You can look at my pictures any old time. Don't you want to see your room?"
"Coming," Lily walked out of the room. Davina closed the door and led her to one right across the hall and pushed it open. Lily stepped in and stared around in wonder.
Two feet up from the floor were painted treetops. The rest of the walls and ceiling were a blue sky. There were a few clouds, making it look like a lovely spring afternoon. The bed was a shelf coming out of the wall, like a loft bed without a metal frame, and underneath it was a white desk and chair, An empty white bookcase stood next to another door, probably a closet. A large bay window with a window seat covered the last wall.
"Wow," Lily whispered.
"You like it?" Davina asked.
"Are you kidding? Of course I like it!" Lily walked across the forest green carpet to the window, slipped off her sandals, and sat down on the window seat. "I'd be mad not to." Suddenly a voice came from downstairs.
"Girls! Dinner!"
Lily slid her sandals back on and crossed to the door. Davina closed it behind them. Stella was also out in the corridor; the three went down to the kitchen together.
The kitchen also had a vaguely old feeling about it; the walls were gray stone, and various pots and pans were hanging from the ceiling. The long wooden table was set for seven. On the opposite wall was a high counter with two women working at it. One of them came over and wrapped Lily in a tight hug.
"Lily, dear, it's so nice to see you," she said. Lily felt as if her ribs were cracking when the woman finally released her, then stood back and looked at her as if Lily was a painting she was admiring.
"I'm Lyra, by the way," she went on. Lyra had reddish-brown hair that was plaited loosely and starting to frizz and stormy blue eyes like Stella's. "Oh, you've grown so much-" and would have gone on if Sirius hadn't walked in.
"Leave the poor girl alone," he said with a barking laugh, "we're all glad to see her. I'm just surprised the jet-lag hasn't caught up with her." Lily smiled nervously.
"Yeah, let up, Grandma," Davina intoned, "She's only just arrived. She'll be here for a month, don't smother her now." Everyone laughed. Davina pulled Lily over to one of the other women at the counter.
"This is my mother. Mum," Davina said, "you remember Lily?"
"Of course. I'm Polaris," the woman said. She was taller than Lyra, built along the same lines as Sirius, with dark hair and bright hazel eyes. She held out her hand, and Lily shook it. Polaris smiled, and then turned back the counter to finish slicing a tomato. Lily and Davina went over to the table and sat beside Stella.
"Stella's parents are away," Davina explained, "they're in Sweden doing some research for a magazine they run. They'll be back tomorrow." The kitchen door opened again, and a fair-haired man walked in. He walked over to the counter, kissed Polaris on the cheek, and then sat down at the table across from Davina.
"Lily," Davina said, "My dad. Dad, Lily." The man laughed.
"Sean Rile," the man said, and held his hand out over the table.
"Lily Potter," Lily answered, and shook it.
"Yes," he said, "yes, of courseÉ" He looked like he was going to say something else, but stopped when Lyra put a large wooden salad bowl down in the middle of the table. She went back over to the counter, and returned with some more dishes, Polaris in her wake. When the table was all set, everyone sat and ate. Lyra was an excellent cook, Lily discovered, and at the end of the meal, everyone was pleasantly satisfied. The table was cleared and everyone made their way up to the drawing room. Everyone lounged pleasantly. Davina ran out and returned quickly with a sketchbook and some pencils and started drawing. Then the topic of conversation turned to the rest of the summer.
"Well," Lyra said to Lily, "Your boxes should be here tomorrow, so we can get you unpacked-"
"Not fully, though," Sirius interjected, "we're going up to the lake on Sunday."
"Right," Lyra continued, "We'll be up at the lake for three weeks, then we'll be back here to get everyone's school things. Professor McGonagall's coming by tomorrow-"
"Professor McGonagall?" Polaris exclaimed, "Couldn't that wait Ôtil after we get back?"
"Not if we're taking Sirius' truck," Lyra said, giving her husband a pointed look, "and it'll take a bit for it to settle."
"Right." The subject changed again, and Lily asked Davina, "What's the lake?"
"We have a house up by a lake," Davina answered, not looking up from her sketch, "we usually go up earlier, but we were waiting for you. It'll be so much fun-we swim, hike, a whole bunch of stuff."
"Cool."
"And," Stella said happily, "we have an entire closet full of microwave popcorn!" Davina sighed.
"Yeah, we do," she said, "That was Stella's idea. I never quite understood it. But then again, it's not really that unusual, is it?" Stella hit Davina playfully on the shoulder.
"Hey!" Davina exclaimed, "You messed me up." She frantically began to erase the offending line.
"Oh! Sorry." Stella picked a photo album up off the coffee table and began flipping through it idly.
"What are you drawing, anyway?" Lily asked, trying to look over Davina's shoulder. Davina leaned forward and covered her paper.
"I'll show you when it's done," she said, and began coloring a large area with a black pencil.
"Alright." Lily sat back on the couch and listened to the hum of conversation flow around her. She had only been there for a few hours, but it already felt like home. Everyone was so warm, and seemed to accept her as part of the family. The funny thing, Lily thought, is that they knew her already. She didn't remember any of them, though they all seemed vaguely familiar, like a bell she thought she was hearing ringing from somewhere very far off. She gazed around the room; Davina was poring over her sketch, pausing only to push a glossy curl out of her face, Lyra and Polaris had joined Stella in looking at photos, and Sirius and Sean were in deep discussion over something that Lily couldn't hear. Her eyelids began to droopÉ
"Lily?" Lily started. She shook her head out and pushed her glasses back into place. Davina had poked her shoulder, and was now standing over her, her sketchbook clutched to her chest and her pencils rubber banded in her other hand.
"Yeah?" Lily asked. She felt exhaustion, probably the jetlag, tugging at the back of her mind, but she ignored it.
"Stella and I are going upstairs to play cards," Davina said, "wanna come?"
"Sure," Lily said. She stood up and stretched, and then followed Davina. Once out in the hall, Lily asked, "that means that you're done with your picture, right?"
"Yeah," Davina answered.
"Can I-"Lily began, but Davina cut her off. "Upstairs."
"Ok." They went up to Davina's room. Davina lay down on the bed, her head and chest hanging over the edge. Lily sat on the floor. A minute later, Stella came in with a deck of uno cards and sat down next to Lily.
"You know how to play" Stella asked Lily, "right?"
"Yeah."
"Good."
"Those are the regular cards, Stella," Davina said, "right?"
"Yeah," Stella said as she began shuffling half the deck.
"Lemme take the other half," Lily said, "It'll go faster." Stella pushed the other half of the deck in Lily's direction. Lily picked it up and began shuffling. Davina got up and put a CD in her boom box; American Idiot.
"You don't mind, do you?" Davina asked as she dangled off her bed again.
"Mind what," Lily asked.
"The music," Davina replied, "American Idiot." Lily laughed.
"No, I don't mind," she said, "most of the Americans I met are idiots anyway." Davina laughed. Lily handed her half of the deck back to Stella, who dealt everyone seven cards. Lily picked up her hand and studied it; it wasn't too bad, she had some of each color. Davina didn't seem to be having the same luck; Lily saw her swear silently when she saw her hand. Stella picked hers up and assumed a bland facial expression.
"Davina, you first," Stella said, reordering the cards in her hand. Davina flipped the top card of the deck over. It was a green six. Davina looked at it, looked at her hand, and put down a red six. Lily put down a red four, and Stella a blue four. That started the game that lasted several hours; Lily, Stella, and Davina talked and joked the entire time. Every so often one of them would come down to one card, but when their next turn came around, they always ended up picking up more cards. Stella was very sneaky; her blank face betrayed absolutely nothing, so Lily and Davina had no idea what she was going to do next. At around 8:30, it looked like a very close game. Davina and Lily each had only one card; Lily had just put down a yellow nine, leaving her with a green seven. Stella, however had four cards. Both Lily and Davina were looking at Stella, who's turn it was. Stella smiled slowly, and then put down all four of her cards.
"Uno out," she said. Lily and Davina looked open-mouthed at the cards; Stella had put down a wild-draw-four and three draw-twos, one yellow, one red, and one green. "That's ten, Davina," Stella said happily. Davina, still in shock, picked up ten cards from the top of the deck. She put down a green two, and Lily put her seven down on top of it.
"Uno out." Davina threw down her hand and crossed her arms over her chest. Stella picked up all the cards, shuffled, and dealt again.
They ended up playing two more games; Lily won the next, and Davina the third, at which point Lyra poked her head into the room and told them it was time for bed, especially Lily. Stella gathered up the cards and went out quickly. Lily felt the exhaustion tug at her mind again, and yawned.
"Before you go, let me show you my picture," Davina said, flipping back through her sketchbook.
"Oh yeah," Lily said sleepily, "sure." Davina handed her the sketchbook, and she looked at the page to seeÉherself. It was quite odd seeing herself drawn as a manga, with the round eyes and face, and her glasses overly large. Her scar was just a thin red line on her forehead.
"I needed a more recent picture of you," Davina said.
"More recent?" Davina took the sketchbook back for a minute and turned to the previous page, and then handed it back to Lily. On that page was a drawing of Lily also, but it was different. The colors were fading slightly, and the technique was a little sloppier, but it had been drawn by Davina, if much younger. The most noticeable difference, Lily saw, was the absence of her scar.
"How old is this?" Lily asked, still looking at the picture in slight awe.
"Six years," Davina said softly.
"I mean it," Lyra's voice wafted up the stairs, "go to bed!" Lily and Davina laughed a little.
"G'night," Lily said as she crossed the room.
"G'night."
Lily walked out of Davina's room and across the hall to her own. It looked a bit different in the dark, Lily thought. And then she noticed that there were stars on the ceiling and walls. She walked over to one of the walls and looked closely at it; the stars seemed to be made of some glow-in-the-dark paint that blended into the walls when the light was on.
Lily walked back into the middle of the room and changed into a t-shirt and cotton pants which she pulled out of her suitcase. Then she climbed the ladder into her bed and lay down, wanting to mull her first day in England over in her head. She never got the chance, though, because her jet lag had finally caught up with her and she was asleep as soon as she hit the pillow.
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