Waterloo Again
After dinner and washing up, Lily sat down at her desk and summoned the system with a thought. She wanted to see whether the Pindaodao marketplace had any new products suitable for her shop, and she also wanted to unlock the ability to retrieve items remotely from a designated location, so she would not have to make trips to the warehouses every time she needed to restock.
[Pindaodao is very unhappy to be of service. The remote retrieval function has been unlocked.]
Lily could not be bothered to take issue with Pindaodao's contrary attitude, as long as the function worked. She repeatedly tested taking out and putting away goods, only stopping once every warehouse had been filled with ample stock. Reassured, she washed up and turned in early.
Lily got up bright and early the next morning. She and Snape were going to spend the whole day studying formulas in their dedicated Potions workshop next door. Snape did not arrive until the Evans family had finished breakfast and were relaxing. Lily answered the door herself. "Severus, have you had breakfast?"
"I have." Snape did not come in and linger, and Lily did not insist. She gathered her parchment and hefty Potions books, and the two headed to the workshop together.
For the next two weeks, Lily spent almost every day in the workshop with Snape, brewing and fine-tuning all kinds of potions. Petunia grew increasingly dissatisfied. She felt that Snape was monopolizing all her sister's free time, leaving the two sisters no chance even to go over their schoolwork or chat together.
One day, Petunia finally could not hold back. "Lily, you're spending far too much time with Snape," she said, a note of warning in her voice.
"Am I? We haven't done anything except study advanced Potions." Lily did not immediately grasp her sister's concern.
"What I mean is, if you turn down every Gryffindor and spend all your time with a Slytherin instead, other people will easily get the wrong idea and think you have feelings for him. If you don't have romantic feelings for him, you shouldn't give him the wrong impression by spending time alone with him like this."
Only then did Lily understand Petunia's concern. She hurried to explain, "It's nothing like that. Severus and I are just partners and good friends who grew up together."
Petunia stared at her, her expression serious. "Can you promise he sees you the same way?" She did not believe for a moment that Snape saw Lily as just an ordinary friend. The way he looked at Lily was like he was staring at a personal possession that belonged entirely to him. It made Petunia uncomfortable all over and filled her with distaste. He really did have a Slytherin's possessiveness in his bones.
"I can't control what other people think. I can only mind my own behavior. I'll be more careful about boundaries from now on," Lily answered honestly.
Petunia knew Lily would never stop studying Potions with the boy from Spinner's End altogether just because she had said a few words. Even with Lily's outstanding talent for Potions, she would not have spent all day immersed in brewing the way the two of them did. "I hope you mean that." Petunia turned and slammed her bedroom door in a huff, making it clear she was still upset.
Lily looked at the closed door and sighed softly. She went into the kitchen, baked a cake layer, and carried it to the living room table before going upstairs to knock gently on Petunia's door. The door opened a moment later. Petunia said nothing. Clearly, although she was willing to decorate the cake together, she was still angry.
Holding a piping bag of frosting, Lily stole cautious glances at her sister and coaxed her softly. "Petunia, I'll spend less time alone with Severus from now on. Please don't be angry, all right?" Seeing her back down, Petunia softened her tone a little. "I'm only telling you what's on my mind. I just think he's dangerous. Even if he seems well-behaved now, the environment in Slytherin rubs off on people. Sooner or later, he'll become someone you don't recognize."
The sisters cleared the air and made up, and Lily continued to spend much of her time studying formulas with Snape in the Potions workshop next door. Business at Tales of Blossoms remained steady and brisk. With its no-cost production model, its finances were astonishingly secure, and Lily handled even the deliberate attacks and suppression by competitors with ease.
Over the summer holidays, Lily frequently exchanged letters with Mary, Marlene, Dorcas, and Alice, sharing the little details of their daily lives. But the same mundane things came up over and over, and they inevitably grew tedious after a while. Lily kept wanting to find something new and interesting to study. She hit upon the idea of creating her own Wandless Flying Charm. As long as she did not use a wand at any point, the Ministry of Magic's trace would have no way to detect her casting spells in secret, letting her get around the restriction on underage wizards using magic.
She spent countless days and nights repeatedly working through the theory and adjusting the flow of her magic. As the end of the summer holidays drew near, she finally saw some results. It could just barely be considered a partial success.
That day, no one else was around the villa. Petunia had gone out to buy supplies, and Snape was brewing potions alone in the workshop. Lily was the only one on the roof. Standing at the edge of the roof ridge, she softly spoke the incantation she had created: "Lumen Gradus, Floating Light, Treading the Wind."
Tiny, soft, pale-gold lights appeared around her. She floated lightly off the roof and slowly tried taking steps through the air. After practicing dozens of times, she could hover steadily and walk slowly around above the roof.
This was her first self-created spell, and it was an unexpected success. Just as she was smugly about to throw back her head and howl at the sky, her foot slipped again. She swore she would never do anything so stupid in her life. That was her last thought before she passed out.
Elsewhere, Petunia returned from shopping and felt her hair stand on end the moment she opened the front door, as if she had stumbled upon the strangest sight of her life. Her younger sister, who should have been dead for more than a decade, was lying quietly on the living room sofa, looking like a girl of twelve or thirteen.
Harry was locked in the attic at the time. He had not received a single letter from his friends all summer, and Vernon had forbidden him from letting Hedwig out to fly for even a second.
Lily woke in a daze on a soft fabric sofa. When she looked up, she seemed to see Petunia standing before her with her hands on her hips. Her heart tightened. Oh no, Petunia found out I was doing something dangerous again.
Her head was still heavy and throbbing, and she hurried to explain. "Petunia, I really didn't mean to. I just saw a bird's nest on the roof and wanted to get it down. I slipped and fell by accident."
There was no answer for a long while.
"Please don't give me the silent treatment. I really do know I was wrong. We can bake another cake together tomorrow. Just please don't tell Mum and Dad..."
There was still only dead silence. Lily braced herself and managed to raise her head. Petunia's features were unchanged, but she was a full twenty years older. An absurd thought rose in Lily's mind: Could I have fallen off the roof and slept for twenty whole years?
Downstairs, Harry, who was starving and had planned to sneak out and find some leftovers, had just come down from the attic. The first thing he saw was Aunt Petunia standing in the living room. He instinctively wanted to retreat to the attic to avoid a scolding and keep from being told off for no reason.