#diffindo para

She’d passed all of her exams. She and James had parted on... exciting terms. She didn’t even have to worry about Sirius this summer, because he’d be safe and sound (as safe and sound as Sirius ever was, it was all relative) at James house. She was going to visit them both in July. Things should’ve been good. Except she didn’t feel good. Her hands were rubbed raw with how she’d been wringing them. Her mother was in the hospital, and she didn’t know which one, or how to get there, and Tuney... Tuney had sent a cab. 

She’d waited on the platform, just past the barrier on the muggle side, searching out her sister and it had taken her an embarrassingly long time to notice the old cabby with her name on a piece of paper. Tuney was supposed to pick her up, that’s what they’d decided, Lily had even gone into Hogsmeade on a school night specifically to call Tuney when she’d heard their mother was sick, because Tuney despised owls, and she didn’t show up. 

It wasn’t a big deal, really. Lily wasn’t the priority right now, obviously. Her dad was with her mom, where he should be, and heck, maybe Petunia was there too. What if mom’s gotten worse?? She’d had such high hopes for this summer. The hols had been kind of nice, with Tuney’s excitement over her new boyfriend Vernon keeping things civil. This summer was going to be the summer they got passed all their petty squabbles. She just knew it. And now... this. 

They pulled up to the kerb, and Lily scrambled to find muggle money at the bottom of her trunk. She always kept a small reserve, but after a year it was shoved way at the bottom. The cabby eyed her robes and broom, her—shit— wand, and she blushed and coughed, pulling out the coin purse. “Acting school. Method stuff, you know, ha,” she said awkwardly, kicking the corner so the lid fell shut. “Here you go, keep the change, ta!” And she grabbed her trunk (glad she had conjured a pair of wheels for it before leaving Hogwarts), and broom and headed inside. 

“Tuney? Is mom home yet? Is anybody home?” She stood in the foyer, wringing her hands again, wondering how to figure out which hospital her mom was at. Maybe Tuney left a note? She’d have to go through the phone book and call all of the A&E departments listed...